Chapter 25:
Wren POV-
James ran by me, and I was happy to see that someone had informed him of how he was allowed to participate in this war.
"Wren!" he exclaimed, "Where have you been? What are you doing here? You need to be in the shelter!"
"Yeah, right," I scoffed.
"No, I'm serious! It's too dangerous for you out here!" he insisted, trying to drag me. I ripped my hand away.
"No offense James, but I'm perfectly fine and I'm not going anywhere," I stood my ground.
"But your dad will flip if he finds out that you're in the war!" James exclaimed.
"No, he won't, actually. He knows, he said I could do this," I replied, crossing my arms.
He looked at me desperately.
"Please don't do this!" he begged.
"Why?" I asked, honestly curious as to why he was soo insistent that I stay out of the fight.
"Because…because…" he bit his lip, "Because I care about you! I like you, okay? I know I've never had the guts to say it before, but…I really, really, really like you, Wren, and I don't want to see you get hurt!"
I smiled.
"I like you too," I told him, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze, "But there is no way in hell I am going to hide in that shelter like a coward while the rest of my family and the rest of our city in the future are fighting for their lives."
James stared at me, like he still wished that I would change my mind, when, all of a sudden, he kissed me. It was just a short, sweet kiss on my lips, but it was enough to take me by surprise.
"Fine," he said finally, but there was a smile on his face, "But don't die, okay?"
"I won't," I agreed. Now, nearly everyone was in the shelter, and James and I pushed the extremely heavy doors closed, keeping the students and faculty safely inside.
Suddenly the school began to shake. James and I shared a look, and, taking his hand, the two of us raced up the stairs and out of the school.
In the center of the city, where no more people stood on the streets, with the exception of: me, James, my moms, my dads, my brother, younger Tucker, Sasha, younger Dash, Jazz, Carrie, and Dani, and my grandparents.
It wasn't much of an army, only fifteen people, but it would have to be enough.
The earth thundered again, rippling beneath our feet, and I pulled the weapons off of the belt around my waist, noticing that everyone else was doing the same. Suddenly, a giant portal opened over our heads and ghost soldiers came pouring out. My heart sank. Now I know how the Avengers must have felt when the portal opened over New York City and the alien army flooded in.
But we didn't have a team of superheroes or an agency with access to nuclear weapons, it was just us: three halfas, two halfas who had no idea how to use their powers, two football players armed only with pistols, two grandparents with bazookas, two tech geeks with complicated weaponry, two know-it-alls in Fenton Peeler suits, and two strong-willed-dark haired women armed with guns and wrist rays.
Out of the portal came the deranged psychopaths themselves: both the Vlad from the past and the Vlad from the future.
"Well, well, well," the older Vlad Plasmius, who had embezzled his costume more with his power and who had more white in his black-colored hair, "It seems you have all come here to die."
We said nothing, but the whirring of weapons was loud as fifteen guns were pointed at them.
They laughed cruelly in unison.
"I must say Daniel," the younger Vlad sneered, "I don't like your odds. Fifteen against three hundred, I thought you would have at least given us a challenge."
My mom fired a shot, which whizzed past Vlad's ear, barely nicking the skin.
Then, all hell broke loose.
Shots were fired from our fifteen in all directions, hitting the regenerating ghost army. When one would disintegrate, two more would form in its place. Our only hope of defeating them would be if the search party in the future can take down the ghost at the center of those duplications. I ran slightly towards the cluster of humans and halfas hoping to take down some of the ghosts that had surrounded my brother.
No sooner had I done that then James, who I had left alone, became surrounded. One of the ghosts shot a ghost ray at his back, a cheap shot, if you ask me, and James fell to his knees.
"NOO!" I yelled, running in front of him, blocking the shot aimed for James's head that would have made him fall from his knees into a puddle of blood on the ground, dead. I felt it, it hurt, but nearly as much as it should have.
Suddenly a bright light surrounded me.
I looked down, my mom was right; I had needed the hazmat suit, because now, instead of wearing the black-on-white suit, it was white-on-black. I had successfully changed into my ghost form, with snow white hair and green eyes to boot.
I smirked to myself, feeling the newfound energy rip through my body. My hands glowed green, and, working with that, I blasted the ghosts surrounding James away from him.
On the other side of the street, I noticed more ghosts fly out to replace the ones I had just destroyed, but it didn't matter right this second. I knelt down to look at James.
"Are you okay?" I asked him.
"Yeah…" he told me, sucking in a sharp breath through his teeth, "How did you do that?"
"Family secret. I told you I wasn't going to die," I smirked, but, honestly, I was still really concerned for him. The green mass of ectoplasm on his back had begun to grow red beneath it, as his blood began to absorb into his stained t-shirt, "Are you sure you're alright?" I asked him.
He gritted his teeth, rising to a standing position. Then, he gave me a confident smile.
"I'm fine. Now go Phantom Girl, they need you out there," he told me, raising his pistol once again and landing three spot-on shots on three approaching ghosts who dissolved into a shower of green goop.
With a nod and a grin, I flew off.
Then I was floating in the air, at a more level and fair playing ground now that I could see eye-to-eye with the ghosts without having them look down on me, and shooting each one.
"Nice shot," I heard a voice beside me. I turned to see my dad, "Proud of you, sweetie."
"You can be proud later!" Dani exclaimed, "Kind of fighting for our lives here!"
"Right, sorry!" I exclaimed, firing several more ghost rays at the other ghosts that swooped in on me.
Below me, my brother was fighting, still human, and still on the ground.
I must say, there was a little satisfaction in that, after all, he is my older brother. So the fact that I was able to use my powers before him is sustaining.
I must have been relishing in the fact that I was better than Jackson just a little too long, because I was blind-sided, literally, I was plowed into by the younger Vlad, who then grabbed my costume, hoisting me up in the air with ease. For a moment, everyone stopped, now this was a hostage situation.
I kicked and twisted and thrashed but to no avail, the grip of his hand around the back of my neck remained secure.
"It seems that I now have the upper-hand," Vlad announced, amused by his oh-so-clever word play.
Jackson glowered…no wait…he glowed!
"You seem to have forgotten one thing," he growled below us, "The only one who can pick on my sister is me!" In that instant, Jackson fired a blinding ghost ray at Vlad, while, at the same time, transforming into his ghost half in a bright white light. The ghost ray hit its mark, Vlad, and, he dropped me.
Smirking, my brother floated up next to me.
"Thanks," I whispered, rubbing my neck where the fabric of my collar had cut into my skin.
"No problem," he smiled at me, "Now let's finish this."
Now, five halfas surrounded the two Vlad's, all looking at him, murderously.
They laughed in unison.
"You all seem to forget, you're still outnumbered," and a circle of ghosts circled around or circle around the Vlads.
On the ground, the armed humans pointed their weapons at the ghosts surrounding us.
Suddenly, the ghosts around us, exploded. Popping in a bright fireworks display of green ectoplasm raining down. I grinned to myself, they had done it, the search party had taken down the ghost controlling all the others, which meant, that we were two ghosts away from winning this war.
Both of the Vlad's looked a little stunned, suddenly, we had the upper-hand.
"Goodbye, Fruitloops," my dad smirked, sucking them both into a thermos.
It was over.
We had won.
We cheered! I embraced my brother my dad, the younger version of my dad, and the younger version of my Aunt Danielle before dropping to the ground and hugging all of the humans on the ground.
"We did it!" James exclaimed, picking me up and spinning me around, when he put me on the ground, I kissed him, more deeply and more passionately than our last kiss.
Someone cleared their throat behind us, although it didn't take a genius to figure out who that was.
Not one, but two angry Phantom fathers.
"Don't kiss my daughter," they said in unison.
"Danny shut up," both of my moms said in unison, kissing their respective Dannys in celebration.
Wow, probably only one, maybe two more chapters, I can't believe I am this close to being done with this story. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed that chapter, and, Happy Fourth of July to all of those Americans reading this, I hope you all have a great Independence Day!