Chapter 2: Return of the Froot Loop
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of its characters.
Danny gripped the edges of the podium, willing himself not to jump the gun and change. Not yet, anyway. "Plasmius. Back from space, I see. For three years in a vacuum, you look good. How did you get here?"
"Did you forget, Daniel, that like you I'm half-ghost and can easily pass through the pathetic Fenton Ghost shield?" smirked Plasmius.
Danny rolled his eyes. "How could I? It's not like I didn't spend an entire year with you throwing that in my face every chance you got. I meant, how did you get back from the outer limits? Though it seems like your brain stayed behind."
"Childish insults," snorted Plasmius. "I see you're still attached to them."
Danny growled under his breath but did not rise to the bait.
"As for getting back from space," Plasmius continued, "I could have come back anytime I wanted. I chose to come back today to make certain your humiliation is complete."
"What are you talking about?" Danny demanded.
Plasmius smiled and clicked his fingers. Several cameras attached to floating jet packs rose from concealment among the crowd, all the lenses pointing at Danny.
"These are feeding directly to national news networks. Now, if you reveal your secret, everyone in the world will know the truth…what are you laughing at?"
Danny sighed and shook his head with a pitying smile. "Vlad, you are seriously behind the times. I've been "out" as Danny Phantom since just after the Disasteroid. It was my choice—nobody forced me. Which leaves me free to do…this!"
So speaking, he somersaulted over the podium and into the air, making the full change from Danny Fenton in graduation robes to Danny Phantom in his signature black and white hazmat suit on the way. The tassel managed a final whack on the nose, and he knocked over the podium on the way over—his too-long legs again—but that was the least of his worries. He made sure his eyes were glowing a brilliant green as he looked at Plasmius, a clear challenge.
"Bring it on, Froot Loop!"
For answer, Plasmius sent a red ghost ray beam at him. Danny easily blocked it with a green shield of plasmic energy and bounced the beam right back. He blinked. Three years ago, a direct shot from Plasmius like that would knocked him back in the air a few feet, even if he deflected it cleanly. Now, he'd only felt pressure against his shield. Enough to know it had been a solid hit, but no more.
Back and forth they traded shots, Danny flipping and dodging with an ease that clearly surprised Vlad. Danny wondered why. Had his former arch-rival really expected he had spent the last three years sitting around doing nothing? It wasn't as if Vlad Plasmius had been the only ghost Danny Phantom had ever tangled with, and the others hadn't gone away with Plasmius leaving the scene. Some of them made fighting with his father's old college friend feel like a day at the park.
Still, Vlad had always been stronger than Danny simply by virtue of having greater control over his powers and less scruples about how he used them. The lack of scruples was still there; Danny had throw up barriers to keep Plasmius' misses from hitting humans down below multiple times. As for control—that remained to be seen, but Danny was thus far keeping up with everything Plasmius flung at him.
"What have you been doing with your time, Vlad?" Danny asked as they traded blasts of energy. "Snoozing? Enjoying the vast, empty view? Drawing ectoplasmic smiley faces on the dark side of the moon?"
"Planning, dear boy. Did you think they were a coincidence?" He nodded at Skulker, Spectra, and Ember, who were the only ghosts left of the six the Fentons had originally been fighting.
"You brought them from the Ghost Zone to get my family out of the way?" Danny allowed himself a small snort. "Wait until I tell Jazz that old Uncle Vlad almost made her miss my speech! I wouldn't want to be in your place when I turn her loose on you. She'll either splice you with the Fenton Peeler or forcibly tie you to her psych couch. You'll never be the same again after she's done, either way."
"Jasmine will be the least of my worries once I dispose of you," Plasmius sneered. "And it wasn't hard to persuade a few of your perennial foes to aid me in humiliating you in the most public way possible. They jumped at the chance to have you out of the way permanently."
"You really think you're going to beat me, Vlad? So far things haven't quite gone the way you planned. After all, you thought you'd be fighting helpless Danny Fenton, not Danny Phantom. And I haven't gone down yet."
Vlad looked worried for a second, then his smug grin returned. "Do you think you can defeat me, Danny Phantom? Unless I miss my guess, you're very much unprepared to face down your arch-rival again. If you were, you'd have tried to put me in one of those ridiculous thermos things already."
He did have a point, Danny thought grouchily. He didn't have a Fenton Thermos on him. Things could only continue with a stalemate, unless Plasmius was the one to end it. And Danny didn't plan on that happening.
What did he have that Vlad didn't? His Ghostly Wail, but that was a last resort. Since his voice had fully changed to an adult's the Wail at its maximum power tended to destroy everything in its path indiscriminately. He could split into multiple copies of himself, but his largest reliable number was two. Vlad could do at least four and possibly more.
There was always his Ice Beam…
Dodging another ray from his rival, Danny flew straight at Plasmius. Vlad turned and fled, but was hampered by the height of the Ghost Shield dome. Both of them could only go so far in ghost form, and unfortunately Plasmius wasn't stupid enough to change himself back into a human at least a hundred feet in the air. Danny took advantage of Plasmius' momentary indecision of where to go next and grabbed his foe by the ankle. Then he summoned his freezing powers to turn Plasmius into a helpless popsicle trapped in a block of ice. He let go as the block started to fall.
"There. That should—uh-oh."
Plasmius had simply burst the ice using another beam.
"That's an old trick," Vlad sneered. "I've been waiting for you to use that predictable standby. And after three years in space, cold hardly affects me."
Danny bit his lip. There was a major advantage, gone. "Now what, genius?" he muttered to himself.
"No clever quips?" enquired Plasmius sweetly. "Run dry, perhaps?"
That made Danny mad. "Maybe I don't need them to beat you," he snarled. He began firing volley after volley of beams. Caught up in dodging, Plasmius didn't even react until Danny was close enough to grab him by the shirtfront. They were eye to eye, and of an equal height. Danny raised a fist.
"You won't," Plasmius said confidently.
Danny's eyes sparked green, and cold. "You don't know me at all anymore, Vlad." His fist connected with Plasmius' jaw. In addition to his ghostly power, Danny's physical strength had increased a lot over the past three years thanks to workout sessions with human nemesis-turned-fan Dash. The force of the punch sent Plasmius crashing hard into the Ghost Shield. On his way down, Danny seized his rival again and sent him shooting towards the field below, where he landed in a tangle of arms and legs and folding chairs.
"I've learned you have to get physical sometimes, even with ghosts." He paused. "Boy, that came out sounding wrong. Never mind."
"Danny!" A shout from below made him turn. Sam stood there, still in her cap and gown but fully accessorized for ghost fighting with Specter Deflector on her waist and a ray gun in one hand. She heaved something up at him. Danny grinned. He didn't even have to get a good look at the whirling object to know what it was. Of course he could count on his girlfriend—and best friend—to come through in the clutch.
Danny caught the Fenton Thermos easily. He and Sam had had a lot of practice over the years with this throw, and at angles harder than this. Immediately he turned the Thermos on the still-dazed Plasmius and fired. He'd never actually gotten Plasmius inside one before, though he knew his rival was susceptible to them in ghost form because he, Danny, had spent his fair share of time inside them due to various accidents over the years.
The football stadium was suddenly blessedly quiet. Danny swooped down to join Sam on the ground.
"Where did you—" he started.
"You don't want to know," Sam said with an exaggerated shudder.
Danny eyed the Thermos. "Gross. So on the did-not-need-to-know list. I meant, where did you and Tucker go?"
"To help Jazz and your parents, of course. We figured you had things handled here, but we agreed we'd come back in here if it looked like you needed help. I forgot you didn't have a Thermos; you usually do. And for your information, Mr. Sensitive, I was just messing with you." She laughed. "I had the Thermos on my waist under my gown, along with the Specter Deflector. This being our graduation, something had to happen." She glanced at the Thermos, eyebrows up. "Didn't think it'd be him, though. I was figuring on Skulker again. Did he say anything?"
"About why he showed up now, after three full years of MIA? Apparently, just to humiliate me at my moment of triumph, or something like that. He claims he could have come back from space after the Disasteroid anytime. Not sure I buy it, but no sense in worrying." He gave the Thermos a satisfied shake. "Another one for the Ghost Zone."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Sam. "This is your arch-rival we're talking about, here."
"Yeah, I know, but Sam…it's different. Somehow. He's not…he hasn't gotten any better than he was three years ago. But I've changed. Instead of him being way above me in power and experience—we were almost equals up there. At least as far as amount of power. He always just used to overwhelm me because I didn't really know what I was doing, and there was nothing I could do about it. This time, it wasn't easy, but it was possible. I've never put him in a Thermos before."
Sam nodded, but she looked worried. "But Danny, this is Vlad Plasmius, practically back from the grave. He might have underestimated you this time because he hasn't seen you for three years, but next time? I wouldn't be too sure."
"Remember how long he's carried a torch for my mom, while completely ignoring the fact that she's not interested? He's not exactly quick on the uptake."
"True." Sam smiled, and shrugged. "I guess you're right. What else can we do with him?"
"Besides give him to my parents to experiment on? Or tear apart molecule by molecule for almost destroying the world and trying for years to destroy their marriage?"
Both shuddered at the thought, and laughed. "I forgot they know about that now," Sam said. "You're right. Things will be different this time around if Vlad's going to be making a nuisance of himself again. Not only are you stronger, but you're not hiding from your parents that you're Danny Phantom. They also know Vlad's evil. You'll have them on your side, plus me and Tucker and Jazz of course."
"I wish there were something else to do besides relegate him to the Ghost Zone like he was any other ghost, but there's not. We could try to put him on trial, or something, but there's no prison that can hold him in the human realm or the Ghost Zone. Not while he's hybrid human-ghost like me."
"Can't we just keep him in here?" Sam asked, tapping the Thermos.
"No, I asked my parents about that once. Apparently the structural integrity runs down after a few years, or something like that, if the ghost is really strong. Mom explained, but she used so much technical language I didn't get it all. I'm pretty sure that's what she meant, though."
"Oh."
"Hey, thanks for coming through with the Thermos, though."
"No problem." Sam reached up to put an arm around his broad shoulders and led him towards the Ghost Shield. "I still can't believe you didn't bring one of your own."
"I guess I was sort of hoping the Ghost Shield would do its job. I was really trying for the "ghost-free" thing." Danny shifted back to Danny Fenton before reaching the Shield, and walked through it.
"I guess I can't blame you." Sam said. "And who'd have expected the only other half-human, half-ghost in the world who hates you to show up?" She glanced around, eyebrows going up as she realized something. "Speaking of half-human half-ghosts that don't hate you, where's Dani? I can't believe I didn't think of her until now."
"The problem with "Cousin" Danielle is I have no idea how to get hold of her reliably. I sent a letter to the last city I know she was in inviting her to my graduation, but for all I know she could be long gone by now. She'll show up when she's ready to save us all from mortal peril again."
"Probably. The hero complex runs deep in the DNA," Sam teased. Danny grunted but did not comment further. The last time Danielle had shown up, a year previously, it was with computer discs of files detailing all the experimenting Vlad had done in order to create her. She'd felt Danny had a right to know. Now that he knew exactly what had been done with his DNA in order to create a stable female clone, the whole thing made Danny decidedly uncomfortable. He might refer to Danielle Phantom as his "cousin," and in a way, she was, but since she had been brought to life from his DNA she was also, in a very twisted sense, his sort-of daughter. The idea of having a daughter who to all appearances was only a few years younger than him was extremely weird. Sam, who had also read the files, along with Tucker and Jazz, dealt with her own feelings about it by teasing him occasionally. Jazz had counseled Danny to let her do it.
"Danny!" Maddie came running up as they approached the Family Assault Vehicle. She crushed her son in a hug. "Hon, are you all right?"
"Yeah, Mom, fine." Danny wriggled free. "I even got Plasmius in a Thermos, for once."
"Hmph." Maddie tapped the Thermos hard with her knuckles. Danny winced, knowing from experience how much that would reverberate inside. "That's for trying to steal me from Jack, and wrecking our son's graduation!"
"Wrecked is right," Mr. Lancer said, coming up to them. "Catch-22, we weren't ready for a ghost assault inside the Ghost Shield."
They all turned to look. Inside the Shield looked like the battle zone it had been. Chairs and stage were all wrecked and smoking.
"Sorry," Danny apologized.
"It's not like the Ghost Shield failed," Jazz pointed out practically. She was still encased in the full-body armor of the Fenton Peeler but had removed the helmet. "We just happened to get attacked by the one evil ghost in the world who can pass through it."
"Thank you, Jasmine, I'm well aware," Lancer replied, his voice weary. "I don't blame your brother for this. We took all the precautions we could under the circumstances, and in the end, no one was hurt. It just means we have to plan and hold graduation again."
Danny groaned. "Can't you just mail us our diplomas and pretend we had all the pomp and circumstance?"
"The pomp and circumstance are important, Daniel. There hasn't been a class at Casper High that didn't have a graduation ceremony. And don't you want to give your speech to someone besides me?" He smiled, a knowing look in his small eyes.
Danny clenched his fists, but knew he was beaten. He applauded Lancer for the man's underhandedness. Jazz would never forgive him if he deliberately avoided letting her hear the speech. Particularly since she'd almost missed it once already.
"I guess not," he muttered.
Jazz and Maddie beamed at him. Danny heaved a sigh. "Let's go dump Plasmius in the Ghost Zone."
"We'll have to figure out a way to keep him from interrupting Graduation Take Two," Jazz pointed out.
"You'll have a few days," Lancer informed them as the Fentons, Sam and Tucker piled into the Assault Vehicle. "It will take some time to clean this mess up and get the football field presentable again." He slammed the RV door and waved at them as they pulled away.
The whole party was silent on the way home, except for Jack who was blabbering about his prowess at ghost fighting and speculating about what was for lunch. The rest ignored him, thinking their own thoughts about Plasmius and the ruined graduation.
Once at the Fenton home, they all trooped downstairs to send Vlad and the other captured ghosts to the Ghost Zone. It would likely take them all a few days to find another portal to get back into the human realm.
"With luck, that should do it," Maddie said with satisfaction when all the ghosts had been extracted from the various Thermoses and ejected unceremoniously into the Ghost Zone. "Now, who's hungry?"
"Me! Me!" her husband exclaimed, jumping up and down. They went upstairs, Jack practically skipping at the thought of a meal. Jazz, Tucker and Sam remained, looking at Danny, who was looking at the inactive Fenton Portal to the Ghost Zone.
"You OK, bro?" Tucker asked after a minute.
"He's not going to stay gone." It was a statement, not a question.
All three full humans exchanged glances. "Probably not," Sam and Jazz agreed simultaneously.
"But there's no good worrying about it until it happens," Jazz added wisely. "Come on, I'm starving. Ghost fighting all morning has made me hungry."