(random head-keyboard collision)
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"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the dark Phantom sneered.
The shell-shocked Plasmius straightened himself up. Formally, he flew up to the clearly evil ghost, unexpecting. "Yes, hello there," he greeted, gaining the semi-amused attention of alternate future figure. "I am Vlad Plasmius. How would you feel about making a deal?"
To say that Plasmius was taken aback when the ghost laughed in his face was the understatement of the century. This plan had never failed him before! Ghosts got on their knees before him!
…Well, most ghosts.
What Plasmius did not know was that this ghost in particular had twice the ability in that field. So, naturally, the reply was, "A deal? With you? I think not. I have more power than you could ever dream of!" He grabbed the billionaire's neck. "Would you like a demonstration?"
Unthinking, Danny charged at the monster. Even Plasmius didn't deserve that kind of fate. Sadly, he didn't even have time to be stunned when he was abruptly slammed against a shield and then caught in the other hand of the creature.
"Nice try, Danny," Dan Phantom said with a smirk. "It won't work, though. I know all your tactics."
Glaring, Danny forced ice to encompass his worst enemy's hand. The ice was just as quickly melted.
"Come now. You can do better than that, can't you? I could have sworn this fight was much more interesting last time," Dark Danny mocked.
"Hey, let him go!" a girlish voice screamed. A ghost ray that could barely be registered as annoying to the elder Phantom pointed out its direction. What he saw made him want to laugh.
"A girl Phantom?" The manic laughter broke free of his throat. "How cute."
This short distraction gave both Danny and Vlad enough time to break free of the death grip he had on them, the latter deciding this was something better left to Danny and vanishing without anyone's notice. Dan's grin turned to a scowl upon realizing their escape, but then shifted back into a look that Danny definitely didn't like. "You know, this would be much more fun if the stakes were raised a bit." In one fluid motion, he separated himself into two, the copy swooping down at Abby and holding her tight. A glowing hand was pressed close to her head. It would be the ghost equal of putting a gun to someone's temple. Threatening either way.
As much as Abby hated playing damsel in distress, she really didn't have much choice right now. Abruptly, from behind him, Dan heard, "But if you even hurt her, I'll kill you."
And there were suddenly two Phantoms with ecto-blasts aimed at their heads.
Dan felt unthreatened, though. Smirking at the new addition, he twisted his neck around, much to the horror of Shadow, who was making the threats. "And why would that be? What does she mean to you?"
Shadow fired. The ghost was knocked away a few feet, but simply laughed. "I knew you didn't have it in you to kill someone." His look became grim within a millisecond and he reached his hand toward his duplicate and Abby. "Unfortunately, I do."
The energy was charging, ready to deliver the final blow, but there was a last-minute distraction.
"Hey, Danny! We got the ecto-morpher!"
That had to be the absolute worst timing for Sam and Tucker to show up.
"Oh, look," Dan sneered at Danny. "It looks like your friends have decided to join the party." It wasn't long before they were in the same position as Abby, although Sam was holding onto some little metal contraption. "And do you know what the best part of this is?" He paused, savoring the anxiety and fear radiating from his younger self. "I don't have to let you live."
Danny growled. "What do you want?"
"Nothing," the full-ghost answered nonchalantly. "Just a good fight. And revenge, of course." He punctuated this sentence with a swipe of his hand, creating sharp streaks of ecto-energy that sliced through the air and caught Danny, throttling him backward.
Shadow decided that now would be a good time to get his butt in gear. He fired up a ghost zapper and sent it toward the dark Phantom. He easily dodged and laughed. "Nice try, kid, but---" And here's where the rebound interrupted him. Dan barely made it out of the way and put up a shield upon realizing that the surging red X wouldn't give up. The attack hit the shield, making Dan think he'd won. He didn't expect the attack to take over the entirety of his defense and still manage to zap him. As soon as he recovered, which did not take as long as everyone hoped, he smirked. "Looks like you've got a few tricks up your sleeve. May I ask who you are?"
"Doesn't matter," Danny responded, hurdling an icy ecto-blast at the evil being. Dan let it slip through a hold in his chest, not realizing that the blast would stop and detonate inside him. Clutching his chest, he glared venomously at the two. Danny quickly turned his attention to Shadow, ordering him, "Get out of here! This isn't your fight."
"Maybe not, but it is now," the future ghost boy argued, charging to land a hit on Dan before coming up next to Danny.
"Fine," Danny agreed, "but while I fight him, I need you to try to free the others."
Reluctantly, the boy did as he was told and fell into invisibility, speeding toward the group of hostages. He zapped the Dan holding Abby at close range, making it vanish instantly and allowing Abby to drop forward onto the grass. Before he could rejoice, he was slammed with a powerful ghost ray. He looked up to see it was from one of the two remaining Dans. The twins were now both on the ground, Abby not having gained her footing yet. The ghost that fired re-lighted his hand and the both of them held the natural weapons painfully close to Sam and Tucker's heads.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," he mocked. "Looks like they might have to die, now." Another Dan appeared, holding Shadow and Abby back.
"No!" the siblings screamed in unison.
The larger ghosts got ready to let loose the attacks, vicious fanged smirks showing. Sam and Tucker prepared themselves for impact, the former tightly clutching the little metal machine in her arms, where a little green gauge filled up and beeped. The blasts were fired…
And backfired.
Astounded, the best friends realized they were now in the clear. Even the twins and the last Dan clone were shocked. Luckily, Abby snapped out of it first and sent a large wave of green energy to obliterate their captor.
"The ecto-morpher!" Sam remembered. "Danny said it used a ghost's energy and fired it back at them!"
A crash sounded, interrupting their relief. As it turned out, Danny was now on top of a broken tree, which gave the assumption that his body was what broke it in the first place and that the crashing sound was the result of that.
"Abby, stay here and protect Sam and Tucker," Shadow ordered.
"No way!" she argued. "What makes you think you can tell me what to do?"
"Just do it!" he shouted, charging off toward the battle.
"No!" she shot back, following him.
"This isn't safe for you!" the male twin growled, getting fed up with his sister.
"I can take care of myself," she spat back.
Their distraction made it extremely easy for Dan to make his move. Abby was shot out of the sky.
"Abby!" Shadow screamed, watching as she fell. He glared at the evil ghost in front of him. "Alright, you asked for this." Focusing, he let his life energy rise to the surface for the second time that day. He cringed as it built around him, burning and consuming, his eyes scrunching in pain momentarily, before he whispered, "For Abby." He snapped open his full-red eyes and let the energy explode forward.
The shield Dan put up didn't even stand a chance.
Screaming, the malevolent ghost was thrown to the ground, writhing as the power devoured him. Shadow could barely see this as he collapsed to his hands and knees, panting and feeling sick to his stomach. He could feel the ectoplasm gathering around him. His ectoplasm. It had never been so bad before.
Dan Phantom rose at last, looking much like he did after Danny had first used the ghostly wail on him, except now he had horrible burns on his skin. One in particular stretched down the side of his face. The creature stomped toward the fallen half-ghost, hatred radiating from him. Suddenly, Abby ran in front of Shadow.
"What?" the elder ghost snapped. "Do you think that you can win against me? Even in this condition, I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back."
She held her ground, hands alight with green energy. Dan sucked in a huge breath, preparing for the ghostly wail that would get rid of them.
But Danny beat him to it.
The powerful sound waves sent Dan tumbling through the air and into a tree, much like the position the younger had been in earlier. Danny walked up to him dramatically, taking out the Fenton Thermos.
"I think your time is up," he said, activating the device. Dan could barely scream as he was sucked in.
"Danny!" Sam and Tucker shouted happily, tackling their best friend in a group hug.
The original Phantom smiled at them. "Glad to see you guys are okay." Speaking of which; he looked over at the two "clones." The dark one that didn't appear anything like a Phantom didn't look too good. Again, Danny was reminded of Danielle.
Sam voiced his thoughts. "He must be like Danielle. Should we go help them?"
"There's not much we could do for them," Danny stated sadly. "I should probably thank them, though."
Sam stopped him from stepping forward, watching as Abby kneeled down next to the melting ghost. "Hold on. Just give them a minute first."
In their section of the field, Abby wasn't sure what to do. This was Shadow, but there was so much ectoplasm…
"Thanks," she said. It was the best she could come up with.
He sucked in a deep breath. "No problem." The green liquid finally started to reform into his body. He pushed himself into a sitting position. "Just go find Jake. Clockwork will get you guys out of here."
"But what about you?"
He looked up at her, chuckling slightly. "I never thought I'd see the day that you were worried about me." Carefully, he replied, "I'll be fine. Just you see. You'll be back to being annoyed at me by tomorrow."
She stood up, about to leave, when Danny, Sam, and Tucker approached.
"Hey," Danny called. "I wanted to thank you guys."
"It's fine," Abby assured.
"Is he going to be okay?" Danny wondered, motioning to the ghost boy who was currently on the ground with his head tilted back and eyes closed.
"Yeah, he's persistent," Abby assured in a voice that was both positive and irritated at the same time. The irritation was for his past displays of that persistence. "Anyway, we'll be going now."
"We should probably be going, too," Sam answered.
"Alright," Danny agreed, grabbing his friends around the waist. "Bye." The threesome took off into the sky, leaving the two future half-ghosts alone.
Abby sighed and looked back down from staring at the trio's departure. She smiled when she noticed that Shadow was nowhere to be found. "Figures. Even exhausted, he manages to slip away without me noticing."
She was interrupted from her musings when Jake appeared at the door of the building, albeit, leaning slightly on the doorframe for support, but she ignored that. He waved weakly and she returned it, running to catch up with him.
"Come on," she said, "I think it's time to go home."
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One chapter left.
I actually wasn't too thoroughly annoyed with this chapter. Although, the fighting scene really annoyed me because I had to make it last so long. But I did let Abby show a little sympathy for once. She is human, after all.
Guess what I found? The notebook I used to plan Adventures After a Mistake with. It was like a blast from the past. I'd almost forgotten just how many different ideas I'd had for this fic. And titles. Some of them, I can see why I didn't use them. Others, I was like, "Why the heck didn't I do that instead?" I think the main reason was that I couldn't really turn it into a multi-episode format as easily. Most of them have similar aspects to this, though. What else surprised me was the amount of pre-sketches I did of the characters and the list of names I came up with. Weirdness. Anyway, I was considering putting them down somewhere in some sort of mini-fic thing, but I wasn't sure, so I'll let you guys decide. I'll stick a poll up on my profile.
And that's all.