Just so you know, I wrote this entire story JUST to write the end of this chapter - the climax (and cliffy) of the story.

Warning: this chapter contains death and destruction, and a bit of language.

Enjoy reading.

Powerless
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria

Chapter 6: The Five of Cups

I didn't wait an hour. I didn't even wait five minutes.

If he hadn't hung up on me or if he would have given me a phone I actually knew how to work, he could have had his answer within seconds. As it was, all he had to do was wait for me to figure out how to call him back on his stupid cell phone.

"Screw you."

Two simple words before energy flared around my hand and I disintegrated the phone. It really wouldn't work to have him be able to call me back.

Vlad snarled into his phone, listening to the crackle as the connection vanished. "He'll see the light. He will be mine."

He twisted around and stormed back to his office, glaring at anybody who got in his way. "You!" he snapped at the young tarot ghost sitting in his office. Her gleaming red eyes looked up into his. " Attack Amity Park, destroy everything. Bring me Daniel Phantom. Alive."

Tarot grinned and vanished.

Vlad dropped into his chair and pressed the button on his desk. "Is phase five going?"

"Yes, sir, Mr. Masters," a male voice crackled back. "We sent them the information you wanted."

"Excellent." Vlad smiled. "Daniel thinks he has a lot on his plate now, just wait. Soon he'll come running to me and begging me to help him solve this mess."

Deep in the Ghost Zone, Ember crouched down next to a few ghosts, her hands bandaged and held carefully up off the ground. "You find 'em?"

"I found them," a short ghost whispered. "Skulker's got the three humans in a cage on his island. Really fortified, lots of painful looking weapons, a couple traps, and he's got most of his captures chained out around the cage as some kind of alarm system. Not to mention the fact that he's got a veritable army stationed on the island too. Looks like Walker threw his lot in with Plasmius and Skulker."

"So?" she breathed, looking around to each of the ghosts that had joined her. "What do we do?"

A reddish ghost tipped its head to the side. "Is Phantom really fighting that Ancient for us?"

"Last I knew," Ember answered with a shrug.

The ghosts all looked at each other. Promises and vows weren't exactly legal and binding in the Ghost Zone. None of them had to do anything. Ghosts are a little too selfish and self-centered to do something just because it would be the right thing to do.

Almost as one, they peered over the rocky edge and glanced down at Skulker's island.

Attacking that would be a painful and not fun experience.

Tarot swirled into existence at the edge of Amity Park. For a few moments, she just hovered, gazing into town with her expressionless eyes.

She closed her eyes, her whole body relaxed. Then, suddenly, her eyes popped open and seemed to glow with a strange gray light. Her dirty dreadlocks wiped around in a bizarre ghostly breeze that had sprung up around her. The temperature for nearly a half-mile on either side of her plummeted towards freezing; every fragile thing within a quarter-mile radius suddenly exploding with the force of her power. Pure emanations of power rose from her body as a gray mist that swirled around her head and pooled at her feel. Within seconds, the mist had grown so thick you could no longer tell that she had no feet.

And then she started to walk. Trees and light posts bent over backwards as she past, apparently wanting to get away from her. Rocks, benches, cars, and anything else that wasn't bolted to the ground rose a few feet into the air as she walked.

A police officer was standing next to his car, his gun out, pointing it bravely at the apparition. "Stop!" he called, his voice cracking in fear. The gray ghost raised one hand and flicked it negligently off towards the cop. A force that rivaled powerful tornadoes and hurricanes swept past her. Within seconds, nearly an entire city block had been leveled to the ground. She didn't even bother to look at it. Her attention, and her goal, was elsewhere.

She focused her eyes on a target nearly two miles off – Casper High. "The Fool," she whispered, a small smile crossing her face. She picked up the pace, leaving footsteps of ice behind her.

I really didn't know what I was doing anymore. After leaving the remains of Vlad's phone at the park, I had wandered invisibly through town long enough to realize that I was, in fact, hungry. It was lunch time back at Casper High.

Vlad was now, probably pissed and would be sending Tarot to destroy Amity Park – a fate I would not be able to prevent. Skulker was going to kill my friends and my sister and there was no way I could get to the Ghost Zone in time to save them. Their fate rested in the hands of a psychopathic, irresponsible ghost singer that I wasn't totally sure that, in the end, wasn't really working for Vlad anyways. I couldn't just give myself up to Vlad… not even to save them. I knew what would happen if I turned evil. That was a fate worse than anything that fruit-loop could concoct. I felt like I was waiting for a time bomb to go off or for the world to end.

And, sadly, I was a little too old to sit in a corner and cry for my mom. I wanted to though. The idea was very temping.

In the end, my hunger and my confusion brought me to the only place in town where they combine knowledge and food: Casper High School. I slumped through the doors, and grabbed my hat and sunglasses out of my locker before turning visible and heading for the cafeteria to get something to eat. "My last meal," I chuckled softly.

I had my food in front of me, alone at one of the small tables, when what I was doing finally hit me. "Why am I here?" I stared around the bustling cafeteria in wonder. "I could have gone home," I stabbed at one of the slimy carrots with my spork, "I could have warned the police," another angry stab, "or, at the very least, I could be trying to do something."

I popped the over-cooked carrots into my mouth, not bothering to get up. "Or had my last meal someplace that serves edible foot." Going someplace and doing something sounded like an excellent idea, if only I could figure out something to do that would actually be helpful.

For the first time, I wondered if Lancer really was as smart as he claimed. Maybe I could tell him this whole thing and he could figure it out for me.

"You talkin' to yourself, Fen-turd?"

A shadow fell over my tray. "Hi Dash," I muttered. "Can you leave me alone today? I'm not really in the mood…"

"Do I look like I care?" he hissed, dragging me out of the booth. He gave a start of surprise when he saw my black outfit with a very familiar logo on it. "Why are you dressing like Phantom? You're just a loser geek."

I laughed, pushing his hands off of me. "Yeah, the end of the world is here, I have no idea what to even start doing anymore, everyone I care for is about to die, and all you care about torturing me and asking me what I'm wearing? That's really shallow… even for you." I brushed past him, trying to sit back down. "Now, can I go back to my last meal of… whatever this is?"

"Stop being such a freak," he snapped.

I paused, looking him straight in the eyes – not something I did very often. Around us, the temperature dropped suddenly and a few of the lights over our heads snapped and fizzled. "I'm. Not. In. The. Mood."

Dash backed off with one last, "Freak," sent in my direction. I slumped back into my seat, rubbing my temples with my fingers. I needed to do something. It was killing me to just sit here and do nothing…

A gasp went though the cafeteria and all the noise suddenly dropped away. I glanced at the doors out of the corner of my eye and saw five people dressed in white making their way across the cafeteria. I pushed my tray a little bit away from me and dropped my head into my arms. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that the government jerk-sicles were here for me.

Probably on Vlad's orders.

"They're coming to take me away, haha, they're coming to take me away," I mumbled darkly into my arms. "Vlad gets lots of credit for this one – I think he's thrown every single one of his idiotic plots together into one big huge mess. And he's totally right when he thinks that I can't handle them all on my own."

The white-suited men's feet clicked loudly against the floor as they approached through the silence, weaving their way past tables filled with staring, apprehensive teenagers. A few of the teachers had stood up, walking towards them, but hanging back when the men showed their government ID cards.

I didn't bother to lift my head. I could hear them well enough to know that they had stopped right by my table, just like I had figured they would.

"Daniel Fenton?" came a harsh voice. I didn't look up or acknowledge the men standing around my table.

Amity Park was going to be destroyed, my friends were going to die, my parents knew my secret, I was stuck in some weird half-ghost state, Vlad was probably picking out a wedding ring for my mom, and the government showed up to take me away. I really didn't think it could get any worse.

After a few seconds of silence from me, the voice continued, "Or should we call you Danny Phantom?"

There it was, it just got worse. My head clunked all the way down to the tabletop as a gasp of surprise went around the gathering teenagers that probably could have been heard in China. "Should've knocked on wood."

I lifted my head off the table and stared at the five men standing before me. None of them had weapons out in their hands. They must not think I'm that dangerous. I reached up and slowly pulled off my sunglasses, looking at them with eyes that were a startling, inhuman green. A few of the officers' hands moved towards their guns. "What do you want?" My voice sounded almost as tired as my mind felt.

The five Guys in White stared at me for the longest time. "So…" Talker, a tall blonde man with blue eyes, hesitated, "you don't deny the charge?"

I blinked up at him. "What charge? All you've said is my name."

"You are the ghost known as Inviso-Bill?"

"Call me that again and you'll get to experience the rush of free-fall from three miles up." I muttered, no anger making its way into my voice. It was a statement of fact rather than a threat. "It's Phantom."

"Fine. So, you do not deny the fact that you are the ghost known as Danny Phantom?"

I half-smiled at him. "No." With my whole head spinning with all the problems that had been thrown at me all at once, this suddenly felt like something I could handle. These ghost hunting losers were the least of my worries.

Silence fell over the cafeteria again. Even though there were over a hundred people crammed into the cafeteria, I could easily hear the buzzing of the overhead lights. "What do you want?" I asked after nearly a minute of silence.

"Um…" Talker glanced over the muscular man next him.

They were expecting me to deny it and now I had them off balance. I knew from experience that this was either a very good thing or a very bad thing. People that were off balance tended to be trigger-happy and easy to startle, but they were also really bad at thinking things through before they acted.

Muscles saved the day for the Guys in White. "We have a couple of questions for you," he said simply.

I shrugged, interrupting before they could ask me to leave the cafeteria with them. I gestured towards the empty table. "Okay. Have a seat."

More startled blinks, more glances at each other. Not only was I not denying being the ghost they'd been hunting, I wasn't putting up any sort of fight what-so-ever. I wondered if I was feeling like Vlad did every time he caught me completely flat-footed. That thought rated very highly on the 'creepy' list.

As I waited for them to decide whether or not to join me at the table, I turned back to my lunch. With everything that had been going on, my brain felt like it was shutting down. I didn't want to think about all the things that were waiting for me outside those school doors. My mind – in its current state – wasn't willing to comprehend much more than what I was eating for lunch. It was something slimy and chewy and covered in a reddish sauce. It was either spaghetti or some odd form of road kill. Maybe even snails.

I was surprised when the Guys in White actually grabbed chairs and sat down at my table. I had to struggle to control my reflexive smile – they all sat so perfect, backs straight, arms at their sides, trying their best not to let their precious white uniforms touch the filthy table or chairs.

"First," Talker spoke again, "I need to ask you what you did to Danny Fenton."

Whatever question I had been expecting, that wasn't it. I looked up at them in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"We figure you may have killed Danny Fenton a few years ago and took his place. We want to know how."

"Bzzz!" I made a buzzer noise before answering. "I have never killed anybody. Sorry to disappoint you."

Talker nodded. "Our next theory is that you are overshadowing him. Why?"

"Bzzz! Strike two. I don't overshadow 'Danny Fenton.' I tried it once about a year ago and it left me with a migraine for a week." I took a bite of my spaghetti and shuddered. This mystery lunch might kill me before anything else got a chance That would've been an interesting wrinkle to throw into Vlad's extremely complex plan. "Next."

"The last plausible theory is that Danny Fenton never existed – you've been playing him all along. Made the Fentons think that you were their son."

"Bzzz! Strike three. You're out." I twirled the end of my fork around in my lunch as I answered. "I am Danny Fenton." I glanced up at the cafeteria. All eyes were on me. I'd never seen Casper High be so quiet for so long before.

Another of the men spoke up – the guy with the weird sunglasses. "Then would you mind explaining it to us? The short version?"

I shrugged. "Lab accident. Ectoplasm bonded to my molecules. Gave me ghost powers." That was the really short version.

Sunglasses pulled out a device from a pocket and scanned me, watching the screen and muttering to himself.

"What other questions do you have?"

"Why are you haunting Amity Park and refusing to return to the ghost zone?" Talker leaned forwards over the table, staring at me.

"You've seen too many detective movies. I don't fall for the 'bad cop' routine." The man flushed slightly and sat back into his chair. "A few reasons, actually. One: have you ever seen the ghost zone? It's creepy and spooky. Two: Amity Park is my home, and I see no real reason to leave. It needs protecting from the meaner ghosts out there and I can usually do that. And three: I'm not a ghost."

"You're not?" Sunglasses asked. He passed the device he had been fiddling with to his muscular partner, who glanced at it before staring at me, his face draining of most of its color.

"Half-ghost. Half-human." I picked at my lunch and sighed. I wasn't hungry any more. Sitting here and answering questions from the idiots in white was wasting all the time I had to try to figure out what I should be doing. I never should have come here.

"And if we nicely asked you to leave Amity Park?" Muscles smiled at me.

"I don't suppose I'd want to leave, no." I finally got a good look at the device that was being handed around. It was an ecto-reader of some kind. "Are we done?" I grabbed my tray and glanced at the man sitting next to my, blocking my way out. The man didn't move.

"You're going to have to come with us."

The man was not going to move out of my way. Fortunately, when you're a powerful ghost-human hybrid with no secrets to keep, nothing to lose, and the end of the world hanging over your head, there are other ways of getting out of a confining space. I phased myself through the chair and stood up, walking over towards the garbage can.

I was about half-way there when I heard the whine of an ecto-gun. "Stay where you are, Inviso-Bill!"

I glanced over my shoulder, my eyes flaring at that idiotic name, two more lights popping and fizzling overhead. Muscles paled and took a step backwards. "I mean, Phantom. You are coming with us."

"You're in a school," I muttered darkly, ignoring them and walking the rest of the way to the garbage can, "put the guns away." Every head was swiveling to follow my path through the cafeteria.

The five men stared at each other for a moment. "You need to come with us. We need to do some tests…"

"Listen," I said simply, turning to face them, "death, doom, and destruction are on their way towards Amity Park as we speak in the form of the most powerful ghost to ever have existed. I don't have an ice cube's chance in Hell of beating her if she decides she actually wants to fight. On top of that, my friends have been captured and are probably being tortured as we speak, I've lost whatever ability I used to have to be part of the normal human race," I yanked my hat off my head and my white bangs fell into my eyes, "My fruit-loop of an arch enemy is laughing his head off right now because he's managed to make me and you dance to his little strings while he sits on his lofty throne in some far-away state, and a good portion of Amity Park probably won't exist by the time the sun sets." I took a deep breath, trying to stop myself from ranting to these idiots. "So I'm sorry, but I don't have time to go with you."

"If that's true," Sunglasses said softly, "what the Hell are you doing in a high school cafeteria?"

"I don't know," I whispered, running a hand through my hair. "I just don't know what to do."

Mr. Lancer burst into the cafeteria, his eyes wild as he searched the room. His gaze fell on the Guys in White for a moment, then on me, then scanned the room. "Attention students," he gasped, "There's an incredibly powerful ghost heading this way. We're in full paranormal lockdown. Please quickly, quietly, head to your designated safe zones."

The cafeteria was paralyzed as Lancer cut through them towards us. "GO!" Lancer bellowed, grabbing a few students and propelling them towards the door. The rest of the students got the hint, quickly starting to file out of the cafeteria. "You," Lancer said as he reached our small group, snagging one of the Guys in White by his sleeve. "You five are going to protect these students, hear me? Spread out and do whatever you're supposed to do. And you." He turned to me, that strange look back on his face.

"She's attacking already?" I asked softly, dropping all the 'does he or doesn't he know' pretenses.

He nodded. "The news report I received said she got here a few minutes ago." His face looked pained. "It also said she's leveled so much of the town that the death toll is probably in the hundreds already."

"What can I do?" I whispered to myself. I could go face this ghost, but all I was going to do was throw my life away. I couldn't beat her. She probably wouldn't even notice that I was there.

"You head to your designated safe zone," Lancer said, his eyes glinting as he glared down at me. "And don't even think about leaving this school, Daniel."

"I can't just hide!" I stared around the emptying lunch room, looking anywhere but my teacher. "I need to do something. I can help."

"You're sixteen." His hand came down to touch my shoulder. "And you've done enough. Now get to somewhere safe."

No. I couldn't just sit by and listen to people die when I didn't even try. Maybe I couldn't do anything to stop her, maybe she wouldn't even know I was there, but at least I needed to try. No more people were going to die because I refused to do something. Anything.

I was the ghost-hero of Amity Park. Either famous or infamous around the world for what I did every day. Vlad and his stupid plans weren't going to stop me from trying to protect my town and what was left of my family. If I had to die today, so be it.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lancer," I whispered. I turned invisible and floated up towards the ceiling, phasing through the roof and racing off to face my fate.

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz glanced at each other from the safety of their cage. All around them, spectral creatures were snarling and biting at each other, pulling at their chains. Guards patrolled the edges, leering at their human prisoners.

"You know, we're the ghosts here," Jazz said softly, "we could just get up and walk through the cage."

"Into that?" Tucker replied darkly, gesturing at the large, salivating spider-like ghost that had wriggled off of its chain and was trying to desperately get at them through the cage. "I'd rather stay in here until Danny comes to rescue us."

"Yeah, he'll be here any minute," Sam said with a small smile. "Danny's got to come rescue us."

The three teenagers huddled a little closer together and waited for rescue that wasn't coming.

In the distance, Skulker touched down onto his island and paced towards his captives. The order had finally come through. The humans weren't needed anymore.

The tall one was just the perfect size for a throw rug.

A large, gaudily painted and tricked-out RV pulled up to the front of the school. It had barely managed to stop before Maddie and Jack Fenton jumped out of the front seats and dashed up the stairs to the school.

Jack pulled up short, grabbing his wife's arm and pointing up into the sky at a receding figure.

"DANNY!" Maddie screamed. "Don't, please don't, please come back." She yanked her arm out of her husband's grasp and raced back to the RV. "Don't go fight that thing, please Danny, it's too strong," she prayed as she slid the car out of park.

The Fenton Family Assault Vehicle peeled away from the school and headed towards the destruction on the other end of town.

A radio crackled to life deep in the Amity Park.

"This is Lance Thunder with an update on the ghost situation. The gray ghost, who appeared on the edge of town about ten minutes ago, is heading straight for the center of town, leaving a trail of destruction behind her. Early reports say that the entire southern part of Amity Park has been razed to the ground and that hundreds of people may already be dead."

"Authorities are calling for an evacuation. Please follow the planned evacuation routes. Although this station is evacuating, we will keep you posted on the situation. Again – Authorities are calling for a complete evacuation of Amity Park. Please follow… wait! Was that Danny Phantom?"

Silence filled the airwaves.

"The authorities are classifying this ghost as a level 9.8 – much stronger than the ghost king that tried to take over Amity Park about a year ago."

The radio crackled slightly.

"To be honest folks… Phantom doesn't stand much of a chance. Wish him luck. He's our only hope."

Then the radio and the house that it had been sitting in were destroyed by a negligent wave of a gray ghost that was slowly pacing towards the center of town.

To be continued…

Thanks to my wonderful reviewers of chapter five: Nylah, AvatarKatara38, Werewolf of Suburbia, Erin, TexasDreamer01, Sasia93, Oats-FFCC27, Wishes for Wings, dizappearingirl, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, Lockblade, Tunderstorm101, MutantLover09, Tevagirl 16, hanyou-halfa, southernstarshadow, FreakLevel27, and Silver Shadowbreeze. THANKS!

Reviews get a preview of chapter seven: The Seven of Wands.

-Cori