Season 1 Episode 20
Control Freaks
"The Freakiest Show on Earth!"
It was a peaceful, quiet night at Amity Park. Inside the 24K Jewelry Store, which was closed for the night, all of its expensive and precious jewelry began to glow and float through their glass boxes. They hovered into the air all by themselves
Dani Phantom phased her head through the window and witnessed this mysterious heist with a perplexed look on her face. "Huh, and I thought the merchandises flying off the shelves was just an expression." She said to herself.
Dani phased completely into the store and turned solid when she fired her ecto beams at the floating jewels as she revealed four ghosts that she has never seen before. A man ghost with black mullet hair in a red suit named Elastico, a muscular hulk-like ghost named Ghoulia, a midget dwarf woman, and finally, a hooded man wearing a red cloak named Landu.
Dani stared at them, looking a little surprised. "Whoa! Who are you guys?!" Instead of answering, the dwarf ghost only jumped up and grabbed onto Dani's head while she began to pull on her bangs. She screamed and strained a little until she covered her eyes. "Hey! I'm not a hat person! Especially if the hat is a dwarf!"
Dani managed to get the midget ghost off when she sharply threw her across the store and she crashed into a glass box, accidentally setting off the alarms. The ghost girl then tried to fly away, but she ended up slamming into the muscular ghost as she growled at her menacingly.
"Okay, all things considered, maybe the tiny hat guy was better." She said nervously.
Ghoulia only grabbed onto her and threw her across the store while she screamed. Elastico elongated and stretched his body with two columns into a catapult when he flinged the ghost girl towards the floor while she tumbled a little. Dani then looked up at Landu, who removed his hood and revealed his body that was completely filled with tattoos. The ghost remained silent, even when his tattoos sprang to life and attacked Dani. She shouted in surprise as she tried to bat them away and stumbled backwards a little.
Dani then concentrated as she began to gather her energy and she began to glow green while she jumped into the air and crouched before her energy circled around her and exploded into bright light, knocking the tattoos away from her. The tattoos ended up flying right into all four of the freaky ghosts when they got knocked down onto the floor.
Dani powered down her repulsion field when she straighten out and looked down at the new ghosts. "You know, it's ghosts like you that give ghosts like me a bad name!" She said to them.
They suddenly heard sirens coming from outside and Dani realized that the police have arrived from the alarm she accidentally set off. The cloaked man ghost gathered up his tattoos back onto his body and hooded up again before he phased through the ceiling, along with the rest of his freaky friends as they dropped all of their stolen jewels on top of Dani.
A duo of policewomen kicked open the door with clubs in their hands when they saw Dani with the jewels all over her, thinking that she was the thief. "Freeze, Inviso-Belle!" One of them ordered.
"Well, though it's hard to come up with a worse name than that." Dani said mostly to herself before she phased through the floor while she left the jewels behind.
The policewomen duo walked up to where they saw her escape from. "Hey, wanna take this stuff and blame it on the ghost kid?" The other policewoman asked her partner excitedly.
Her partner frowned as she sighed in annoyance with her fists on her hips. "You're under arrest." She said sarcastically.
She looked down in disappointment. "Awwwwww…"
Theme Song:
(She's a phantom)
(Dani Phantom, Phantom, Phantom)
Young Dani Fenton, she was just fourteen
When her parents built a very strange machine
Designed to view a world unseen
(She's gonna catch 'em all, cause she's Dani Phantom)
When it didn't work, her folks, they just quit
Then Dani took a look inside of it
There was a great, big flash, and everything changed
Her molecules got all rearranged
(Phantom, Phantom)
When she first woke up, she realized she had snow white hair, and glowing green eyes
She could walk through walls, disappear, and fly
She was much more unique than the other gals
And it was then that she knew what she had to do
She had to stop all the ghost that were coming through
She's there to fight, for me and you!
(She's gonna catch 'em all, cause she's Dani Phantom)
(She's gonna catch 'em all, cause she's Dani Phantom)
(She's gonna catch 'em all, cause she's Dani Phantom)
The next morning at the Manson household, Sam Manson was sleeping like a log on his bed in his gothic, dark room, made with candles, posters with goth bands and monster movies, Halloween-related decorations, and other dark teen stuff. He was wearing a black T-shirt with a spider web insignia and black shorts for pajamas. Ever since he went into the 'individuality phase', he has transformed his room into more of a bat cave, but for his view, he had a good reason why became a goth. That very morning was a good example.
"Good morning, son!" His father, Patrick Manson, said cheerfully when he and his wife, Jessica Manson, opened the curtain slightly. Sam woke up and cringed from the dawning light shining right in his eyes. "And how do we greet the brand new day?"
"With a smile on your face and an attitude of gratitude!" Jessica replied before they both opened the curtains wider to let even more sunlight into the bedroom.
Sam glared at his parents even more in annoyance as he turned away and wrapped his pillow around his head. "I'm a creature of the night, doomed to a family of morning people!" Sam grumbled under his breath.
Patrick sat next to his son on his bed. "Samuel, son, I thought maybe we'd try to mix it up a little with the wardrobe today." He said kindly before he held up a white, buttoned shirt under an orange vest and beige pants. Sam's eyes went wide at the sight of the colorful garments.
"Nothing says 'Hey, world! Look at me!' like positive looks." Jessica said happily.
Sam sat up and smiled rebelliously at his parents. "Okay, but I need to add just one little touch." He said casually as he dug through his pillow.
He pulled out a spray paint can before he sprayed the garment black, surprising his father. The goth boy then took out a pair of scissors and snipped the pants into torn shorts while he ignored his father's surprised face.
After Sam got himself changed and ready for school, the Manson family all went into the kitchen for breakfast together. Patrick read his daily morning newspaper and Sam ate his waffles. Patrick and Ian (who was Patrick's father and Sam's grandfather) watched some morning TV as Ian ate his weenie on a barbeque fork.
"Up next, is your teenage son moody? Surely, is his outlook on life blacker than a bat?" A man asked on TV.
Sam glanced at his parents, who gave him critical and disapproving looks. They clearly not pleased by how their teenage son turned out. Sam did have a good reason for wanting to become a goth, since his parents were mostly the main reason why he went into that phase: they were rich and they were mostly perfectionists when it came to teenagers who like to rebel against their parents. When he was a kid, his parents always tried to force him into wearing bright colored clothes and were always trying to make him more formal-like, and 'perfect'.
His parents were rich like Sam once said (that they inherited from his great-grandmother, Izza), and only his best friends knew about it. He has clearly tried to tell his parents that he hated their latest fashions, but they wouldn't listen to him, so he decided to rebel against his parents' desires and became a goth, much to their disprovement. Jessica and Patrick began to watch TV like the one they were watching right now, so they could try to get their son out of his rebellion phase.
"Take an act of interests in your child. Know who his friends are, and learn to recognize a bad influence when it walks through your door." The man on the TV continued with a stern look.
Right on cue, Dani Fenton, one of Sam's best friends, barged into the house and into the kitchen with a CD in her hand. "Hey, Sam! I got that morbid antisocial youth CD you wanted." She said.
Jessica and Patrick both glared at Dani disapprovingly. They even greatly disliked Sam's friendship with her, not just because she was a bad influence to Sam in their minds, but also because she was a Fenton, a family of ghost hunters who they saw were a couple of freaks with jumpsuits.
Dani stared at Sam's parents, confused by their glares. "What? Have you heard My Parents Reek? That cut rocks." She said with a small chuckle, but that only made them glare at her even more.
The TV then switched to a red swirl as a pale woman dressed like a dark ringmistress appeared on screen with a mysterious smile. She had pale, chalky-white skin, mullet-style hair that was gray on her scalp and black on her short hair, and red eyes. She wore red lipstick and black eyeliner, had yellow teeth, and had an abnormally long pointed nose. She wore a ringmistress attire consisting of a red dress under a black vest with three red buttons and a neck collar bow tie, and black boots with red buckles. She also wore a long dark gray jacket with a red stripe near the bottom trim of the jacket and her accessories include a small black bowler hat with a red stripe, a triangular red earring on her right ear, and black gloves.
"I am Freakshow, ringmistress of the Circus Gothica: where your nightmares come alive!" She said dramatically through the television as multiple images appeared. "Circus Gothica, where the clowns never smile! Circus Gothica, come and get your free cards, with real freaks! Circus Gothica, coming to Amity Park! Crossover to the dark side."
"Crossover to the dark side…" Dani repeated eerily when she felt herself getting into a trace. Her eyes began to glow red while she stared at the glowing crystal ball staff in the ringmistress' hand.
Patrick immediately turned off the TV. "Now there's some evil mind pollution we won't be seeing anytime soon, son." He said sternly to his only son.
"But we already bought our tickets!" Sam protested while Dani just stood there next to him, motionless and in a trance. Both of his parents gave him suspicious looks, which made him sigh in annoyance. "We'll be fine, it's just harmless entertainment. Right, Dani?"
"Crossover to the dark side…" Dani repeated in a dark trance-like voice.
Sam rolled his eyes like she was just playing around. "Hilarious. Can we leave now, or do you want to stay and corrupt my grandpa?" He dragged his absent-minded friend out of his house along with him.
"Crossover to the dark side…" Ian said sinisterly like Dani did, which only made his son and daughter-in-law stare down at him strangely with wide eyes. Ian noticed their surprised faces and then rolled his eyes. "I'm just kidding, lighten up!"
Outside Sam's home, he closed his door behind before he walked up to Dani, who was still standing there motionlessly in a trance. "Would you quit messing with my parents? That's my job."
Dani blinked her eyes and woke up from her trance when she made a look of confusion. "Huh? What? Ah, sorry, Sam." She said before she rubbed her forehead. "Must've gotten a little spacy there, I was up pretty late last night."
"Just watch what you say around them, they already think I'm on the road to troubled teenhood." He began to walk away, but not in the direction where school was.
"Where are you going? School's this way."
"The Circus Gothica train pulled into town last night! I'm cutting first period to watch the opening ceremony at the train station."
Dani frowned at her rebellious friend. "Sam…"
Sam held up his hands reassuringly. "Take it easy, Tina's got first period free. She's covering for me."
Meanwhile, at Tina's place, she has dressed herself as Sam. He asked her to pose as himself at school while he skipped his first period class to see the Circus Gothica opening.
"This is so wrong." She said to herself while she stared at her reflection, until she held up a twenty dollar bill Sam gave her earlier. "But you make it right."
Back with Dani and Sam, Sam then took off down the sidewalk to the grand opening of the circus, leaving Dani by herself.
"Don't blame me if you get caught!" Dani called after him before her ghost sense went off before the same midget ghost from the other night zipped right underneath her with a bag full of cash, surprising her a little. "And speaking of getting caught…" She glanced up as the same freak ghosts from last night flew away with bags of cash and the dwarf ghost caught up with them. "I'm going ghost!"
Dani hopped over on a trash can, ran on top of a truck and jumped to the air while she transformed to her ghost form. She flew after the ghost crooks, and a police car pursued them as its sirens wailed. "Opening a new bank account? Don't forget your toaster!" She retorted as she fired an ecto-beam at the midget ghost.
The midget ghost dropped her bag of cash when she got blasted. However, it crashed onto the windshield of the police car, which made it drive off the road and crash into a fire hydrant, setting the water off. "Curse you, ghost kid!" The policeman exclaimed angrily from his window as he glared up at Dani.
Dani made a look of annoyance that everyone still saw her as public ghost enemy number one. "Great, more fans."
The ghost freaks flew across town while Dani continued to fly after them again before they phased through the Circus Gothica billboard with Freakshow and her staff. Dani stopped in front of the board and gasped at the sight of the ringmistress' staff, and she suddenly felt like she was being put under a trace again, but she quickly shook it off and became serious again. She had no idea why that kept on happening to her ever since she watched that Circus Gothica commercial at Sam's house, but she didn't have time to figure it out when she phased through the billboard.
Dani looked around the other side of the board, but she found out that all of the ghosts have disappeared without a trance. She also found herself at the grand opening ceremony of Circus Gothica with a train and a giant black tent with skull designs, and saw hundreds of teen goths arriving at opening day.
She frowned in annoyance while she placed her hands on her hips. "Terrific. The crooks got away, I'm late for school, and...I've never seen this many goths out in broad daylight." She said to herself before the goths pulled out dark umbrellas to hide themselves from the sunlight.
"Well, look who decided to slum it with the troubled teens." Sam said from below, catching her attention. She saw her friend who had his arms crossed while he stared up at his friend.
Dani landed next to him with her hands on her hips again. "I'm not in trouble."
They suddenly heard police sirens wailing in the distance when they perked up in alarm. Sam smirked at his ghost friend knowing. "Oh yeah, you're an upstanding citizen. Need to hide from the law?"
"No." Dani quickly turned invisible and flew behind a couple of boxes and changed back into her human form. She and Sam both whistled innocently while they leaned on the boxes, just as the policemen ran right past them.
"Come back here, Inviso-Belle!" One of them exclaimed.
Once they were out of sight, Dani and Sam smiled at each other. Dani then decided to hang out just a while longer since she was already late for school.
The two of them went up to the crowd surrounding the train car before the platform opened up. Freakshow herself emerged from the shadows with a wide grin on her face and her crystal ball staff in her hand. "Welcome, fellow outcasts! I am Freakshow, your ringmistress of ceremonies! Are you ready to smile, relax, and forget all your troubles at the diversions of the circus?" She asked as she leaned back with her staff.
"NO!" The goth crowd shouted.
"Then you've come to the right place! Be prepared to be disturbed and appalled by a small sample of the bizarre and abnormal world of Circus Gothica!"
A tightrope suddenly shot out of the train above Freakshow and attached itself to a pole. The audience gasped at the sight of a tightrope walker crawling across the rope with his hands and legs bent in wrong ways, a large woman in a black leotard on a unicycle while she juggled a few skulls, another man came out in a spinning wheel with spikes, and finally a tall man in a skull costume walked across the aisle.
Dani suddenly gasped when her eyes caught the crystal ball on Freakshow's staff again. She was put into another trance and stood there motionlessly, but Sam didn't seem to notice his friend's sudden change of behavior since he was too busy admiring the grand opening.
"This is the greatest moment ever! Nothing could ruin this for me!" Sam said with excitement, but unfortunately for him, he spoke too soon.
"Parents of Amity Park! We urge you to stop this morbid assault on the morals of our children!" Patrick Manson shouted through his megaphone with Jessica next to him. Behind them were several other parents, all of whom were not into the idea of Circus Gothica being in their town. All of the goth teens booed at their parents in response.
Sam groaned in annoyance that his parents always tried to change goths as their daily job, probably because of their own son. "Oh, why can't they have job like regular parents?"
"Don't let the rantings of the closed-minded norms beat you down, show them your true colors! And when I say colors, I mean all black! Make them see you for who you are!" Freakshow said as she raised her staff up even higher.
"Make them see us for who we are…" Dani repeated in a trance-like tone, until her eyes turned red. She smiled brightly while she waved her arms to catch everyone's attentions. "Hey, everybody! Over here! We're Dani Fenton and Sam Manson! We both cut school and we're proud of it!"
The goths all cheered loudly at her rebellious speech. One of them came up to her and spray-painted her shirt black while she stood there and smiled proudly with her hands on her hips. "You're one of us now." He said.
"Sam?" Patrick asked through his megaphone, looking as surprised as his wife that their son and his friend have both ditched school together.
Sam facepalmed himself in frustration, now that he and Dani were both now officially in trouble.
Sam and Dani were both dragged back to Casper High where Sam's and Dani's parents, Jackie and Matt Fenton, were all present in the principal's office. The two friends awaited their punishment for cutting school to watch a gothic circus opening.
"Some may call this little act of rebellion a cry for attention, but I call it a cry for detention." Ishiyama said to the parents.
"Nice job, Dani. Maybe I should've cried 'Hey, it's Invisio-Belle!'" Sam muttered sarcastically to his friend while he glared at her before his arms crossed.
"I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me back there! I just blacked out when I looked at that Freakshow woman, and then I wake up with my shirt all sprayed black!" Dani said defensively as she pulled on the collar of her black shirt with her finger and it snapped back onto her skin. "Frankly, I don't even know what's been going on with me!"
"Bad judgement, that's what! When will you think before you act?!" Her mother, Jackie, snapped to her daughter as she held out her arm. However, a small blaster sprang out and sprayed green goo all over Patrick and Jessica.
They glared at the ghost hunting couple. "Obviously, the apple doesn't fall far from the overbearing orange jumpsuited tree!" Patrick said as he narrowed his eyes in distain.
Jackie looked offended when she glared at him with her hands on her hips. "You gotta problem with jumpsuits?!"
"Jackie, let me handle this." Matt said gently until he glared angrily at the Mansons, just as offended as his wife was. "You gotta problem with jumpsuits?!"
"Samuel, I forbid you from seeing this girl, or any more of your troubled friends." Patrick told his son crossly as he and his wife stood there with their hands on their sides.
"My friends are perfectly normal!" Sam protested with a shrug.
However, Ms. Lancer entered the office with Tina (who was still disguised as Sam) and she had a look of embarrassment. Apparently, Lancer was clearly not fooled by Tina's little trick when she brought her into the principal's office.
"This is so wrong!" Ishiyama exclaimed as he facepalmed himself at the sight of Tina.
Meanwhile, inside the empty tent of Circus Gothica, Freakshow walked into the center stage. "Slaves, center ring!" She commanded as she raised her staff up high.
All of the performers from the opening ceremony gathered to the ring while they began to remove their disguises. The tall skull man was apparently the midget ghost, the large muscular leotard woman was Ghoulia, the tightrope crawler was Elastico, and the man on the spiky wheel was Landu. They were all the same ghost freaks that have been robbing jewelry stores and making the heists the whole time before they stood before Freakshow.
"For generations, my family has controlled ghosts with this." Freakshow said as she admired her crystal ball on her staff, which secretly had the power to control ghosts whoever looked into its eye, which explained why Dani has been acting strangely every time she glanced at the ringmistress. "Untold power, and all they could think to do was to entertain the masses. Whereas, I have found a much more profitable job for you, minions." Ghoulia hovered up to her with a chest of all the stolen goods, revealing that Freakshow was the true mastermind behind the ghost robberies. "And once our newest member of our cast joins us, this entire town will be mine for the taking!"
Freakshow glanced down at her crystal ball as it showed a picture of Dani Phantom. She not only planned on stealing every profitable good in Amity Park, but she also wanted to take control of this ghost girl she has been hearing so much about. Freakshow apparently has heard that Dani was one of the only half-ghosts in existence and she wished to use her incredible power as her own little toy. With Dani under her control, Freakshow believed that she would be unstoppable.
Back at Casper High, Dani, Tina, and Sam all sat in the library for detention while they watched their out of shape teacher and vice principal, Lancer, clipping her fingernails right in front of their faces. Sam stared down at his Circus Gothica ticket in anger, since not only did his parents forbid him to go, but he was also restricted Dani from ever seeing Sam with a restraining order since she was a 'bad influence' in the Mansons minds.
Sam groaned in frustration at his ticket. "I wanted to experience something horrific and unimaginable, but this wasn't what I had in mind!" He exclaimed, referring to Lancer clipping her fingernails right in front of them with her nails flying all over their table. Apparently, she didn't seem to care that her students were grossed out.
"We can always go to the circus tomorrow, that is assuming we're not grounded and your parents allowing me within two hundred feet from you." Dani said while she narrowed her eyes at the last statement.
"Guess we'll have to settle for the live webcast for opening night." Tina said as she pulled out her PDA.
Freakshow appeared on her screen with her mysterious crystal ball staff. "Creatures of the night, unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica!" She announced on screen as she held out her staff closer while she smiled wickedly.
"Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica…" Dani muttered when she got placed under his trance again. She immediately stood up from her seat and walked towards the exit, hypnotized, much to her friends' confusions.
Lancer quickly blocked the door, which made her stop her tracks as she stared at the teacher blankly. "And just where do you think you're going, Ms. Fenton?" She demanded while she frowned sternly at her least favorite student.
Dani eyes glowed red when she smiled at her teacher evilly. Without warning, she suddenly phased into her body and overshadowed her. "Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica." She said through through Ms. Lancer eerily in a trance-like voice.
She made her walk into a supply closet and close the door behind her. Dani then phased out of the closet, in her ghost form, and locked her teacher inside with a key. "Casket of Amontillado! Let me out! LET-ME-OUT!"
Sam and Tina both walked up to their hypnotized friend, who only glanced at them with a blank grin. "Dani, what are you doing? We're in too much trouble as it is!" Sam said as he frowned up at her.
"No such thing as too much trouble. Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica." Dani said sinisterly with a grin before she phased through the ceiling, leaving her friends behind.
Her friends were both a little surprised and somewhat concerned by her sudden creepy attitude. "That doesn't sound like a good sign. We better follow her." Tina said to Sam.
Sam then gasped when he glanced down at his ticket. "Oh no! That would mean skipping detention and going to the circus!" He said with fake excitement. He noticed that his techno-geek friend was staring at him strangely, which made him frown at her. "Hello! Irony!" He grabbed onto Tina's wrist and dragged her out of the library while she yelped in surprise.
That evening at the Circus Gothica tent, Freakshow stood at the center ring under the spotlight with hundreds of goth teens watching her. "Please welcome a performer that puts the death in death defying acts, the Gothic Grim Witch herself!" She announced as she gestured towards the top of the tent.
The goths saw a female performer wearing a black cloak like a grim reaper who hid her face with a hood while she held a scythe in her hands. They all gasped when she walked onto the tightrope, and they even noticed that there was no net to catch her. They anxiously watched her until she jumped onto her scythe and balanced on top of it with only one hand, with incredible ease. The audience cheered and roared at her performance.
Outside the show, Sam and Tina have both splitted up while Sam checked the 'casts only' room. He looked around to find his friend who has been acting strangely ever since she saw that open-live Circus Gothic video back at detention.
"What are you doing here?" Freakshow asked from behind Sam. He jumped a little in surprise when he immediately turned to the ringmistress, who was staring at the goth boy with somewhat suspicion.
Sam then smiled at the sight of his gothic idol. "Whoa, Freakshow! This is so cool!" He said with his excitement rising, until he tried to stay focused at the task in hand. "Focus, Sam! Um…" He cleared his throat and glanced back up at the ringmistress. "I'm looking for a friend of mine who's been...acting kind of weird."
"Oh, that narrows it down to...everyone in this tent!" Freakshow laughed at her own joke, until the Gothic Grim Witch entered the room, making the ringmistress frown at her. "What are you doing, you dolt? Get back out there and do your encore!"
The Grim Witch removed her hood, revealing to be Dani in her ghost form. Her eyes were back to their normal green as she stared at her gothic friend. "Sam? What happened?" She asked in confusion.
Freakshow was a little surprised by this, like the girl was actually resisting her mind control. "What's that? Is that free will? Obey me, minion!" She held out her staff again as she placed Dani under its power again.
Sam witnessed this in surprised confusion. Now he knew why Dani has been acting weird every time she stared at Freakshow's crystal ball staff: the ringmistress was controlling his best friend as her own personal slave. "What? You're controlling her?!" He exclaimed as his anger began to rise.
Freakshow only smiled at him, until she turned to Dani. "Get him."
Sam's anger immediately turned to fear when he screamed out loud as Dani, under Freakshow's command, swung her scythe at him and blacked him out. The next thing Sam knew was that he was blindfolded, on top of something narrow, and he seemed to keep losing his balance.
"Please welcome a brand new victu-um, talent to the highwire, in his first and final performance." Freakshow announced on the center stage.
Dani sliced Sam's blindfold off his eyes with her scythe. The goth boy glanced down and found himself hundreds of feet in the air on a tightrope (with no safety net) as he yelped and tried to keep his balance. The gothic audience cheered, thinking that it actually was an act.
Tina ran into the stage and found her friend on the tightrope, with no net to catch him if he ever lost his balance. "Sam?" She said with wide eyes.
Sam glanced back at Dani, who was still being hypnotized while she grinned at her friend evilly. "Dani, listen to me, you don't want to do this! You're being controlled!" He tried to reason with her.
However, she only laughed evilly when she sliced the tightrope with her scythe and Sam immediately plummeted towards the ground as he screamed. Dani's eyes suddenly changed back to their original green and noticed that her friend was in danger. She quickly swooped down and caught her friend before he slammed onto the ground. The audience cheered when they still thought that it was all part of the act.
Dani gently settled him on the ground before she held onto her face again. "Dani, don't scare me like that!" Sam said to her with worry.
However, Dani opened her eyes, back to their hypnotized red. "How should I scare you?" She asked him solemnly to his face until she stepped aside as Freakshow approached the meddling goth boy with a frown.
"Consider that a warning, boy." She said threateningly before she walked away with Dani by her side.
Tina rushed up to Sam, looking very shaken up. "Jeex, Sam, you nearly gave me a heart attack! Can we take time off from your Gothapalooza and actually look for Dani?" She asked rhetorically.
"That was Dani, under the hood! Freakshow's controlling her with some kind of crystal ball!" Sam explained before they both ran out of the tent. "Come on!"
As they ran outside of the tent, they were stopped by Sam's parents and several other protesting parents who were against the circus. "Samuel, shouldn't you be in detention?" Patrick asked sternly to his son.
"Um…" Sam shrugged nervously. "Lancer let us out?"
Meanwhile, unknown to everyone but the trio, Ms. Lancer was still in Casper High, trapped in the supply closet while she desperately yelled for any help. "LET ME OUT!" She exclaimed desperately.
Back at the circus…
"Are we late for the protest?" Matt asked before they turned and found him and Jackie who were wearing goggles and holding ghost weapons.
"I brought the Fenton Riot gear!" Jackie said as she pulled out one of her ghost bazookas, but she accidentally blasted at the Manson's protest signs.
Patrick narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Jessica, who shrugged in confusion. "What? I didn't invite them." She said to her husband.
Jackie turned her attention to Tina and Sam and noticed that Dani was missing. "Hey, isn't Dani supposed to be with you?"
Patrick suddenly slid in front of her and showed her the restraining order he placed on Jackie's 'bad influential' daughter. "Not according to this restraining order, she's not." He said politely, yet very grudgingly.
"Well, she's not here and she's not at school...so where is she?" Matt wondered out loud while he rubbed his chin in confusion.
To answer his question, Dani, who was still being hypnotized, was currently robbing the Amity Park Museum while she helped out the four ghost freaks with all of the fortunes. She wore an expensive crown and a priceless amulet around her neck.
"Ecto butts in gear!" Dani said before she fired mini ecto-beams at her 'partner's' butts, making them yelp and fly away with all the goodies. "This party is just getting started!" She flew after the ghosts, until she cocked an eyebrow when she noticed three police cars pursuing them and then she smiled amusingly. "Oh, please." She fired her ecto beams at the cars, making them spin out of control.
In the news on TV, they began to explain the current unfortunate events that were currently happening in Amity Park. "In the wake of parental protests, Circus Gothica ringmistress, Freakshow, had this challenge to her critics." The newsman, Terrance Snow, announced.
"I invite you to attend a free performance of parents, police, and concerned authority figures. See the show, and see for yourselves that we're harmless entertainment." Freakshow said reassuringly on the news and to all of the parents who were outside her train.
"In other news, police got a break in the recent rash of mysterious burglaries as security cam footage revealed the ghostly culprits." In the security camera footage, Dani phased out of the steel safe door while Elastico, Ghoulia, the midget ghost, and Landu all followed her. Dani then smiled evilly at the camera while she destroyed it with a ghost beam. "And finally, have you seen this out of shape teacher?" The news then showed a picture of Ms. Lancer. "She was last sighted in the Casper High School library-"
Sam switched off his bedroom TV with his remote while he sat on his bed. He then video chatted with Tina, both of them concerned that their friend was being used as a mindless minion for an evil ringmistress. "Sam, did you catch the news? We gotta do something to save Dani!" Tina said worriedly through his laptop.
"How ironic is it that I'm stuck under house arrest while my parents go to a free Circus Gothica show?" Sam asked his techno-geek friend in annoyance.
"Only slightly less ironic than the fact that they were right about it being evil?"
Sam made a look of determination since he was not going to let his best friend mindlessly fly around stealing valuable goods for an evil ringmistress anymore. He told Tina to meet him at the circus before he threw down a rope ladder out of his window and climbed down to ground level.
He was about to run off, until he found his grandfather, Ian, in front of him. "And just where do you think you're going, bubbleh?" Ian asked his grandson kindly.
"You don't understand, Grandpa! My friend is in trouble and if I don't do something right away…" He began.
"You know, I had quite the wild streak when I was your age." Ian pulled out a scrapbook with a picture of him back in the old days on a scooter.
Sam stared at the photo before he glanced at his grandfather oddly. "Why are you showing me this?"
"Who knows? Maybe I'm old and babbling, and I never tried to force my children into what I want them to be. One of them couldn't understand my choice, so he tried to shape his own child into what he wants him to be. Being the perfect child, even if it means limiting your own life while you should sneak off to help one of your own friends and while...I'm lost in my memories." He then smiled warmly at his grandson again.
Sam began to smile warmly as well. He and his grandfather have had a strong relationship, because Ian was the only one in his family who accepted him for who he was. Like what Ian just said, Jessica and Patrick tried to shape their own son into their own vision and tried to make him look perfect, so he was never as close to his folks as he was with his only grandparent.
"Thanks, Grandpa Ian." Sam said as he gave him a hug before he ran off to help his friend.
After Sam left, Ian pulled his jacket off, revealing a black T-shirt with a purple oval that Sam normally wore and placed a black wig in a similar hairstyle as his. "This is so wrong, but I dig it." He said with a grin.
At the Circus Gothica tent, all of the adult and authority figures gathered into the tent while they awaited the performances, so that Freakshow could prove to them that her circus was just harmless entertainment like she promised.
Patrick wrote some stuff on his notepad. "I'm keeping a detailed list of anything I find objectionable, immortal, or obnoxious." He said until from next to him and his wife, Jackie spilled some popcorn and soda all over them. She wore a soda hat and pigged out a bucket of popcorn.
The Mansons both glared at her in disgust and annoyance. "She on the list?" Jessica asked her husband.
"Right now, she is the list!"
Right outside the tent, Sam walked and looked around the train area for any signs of Dani or Freakshow. He suddenly found a bat shaped shadow and gasped before he quickly slid underneath the train, but only found Tina's boots approaching him. "Sam?" She asked.
"Tina?" Sam asked as he peeked out.
Tina bent down and showed a bat hat on top of her beanie. "Hey, Sam. Is this a great Circus Gothica hat or what?" Sam climbed out from under the train and glared at her in annoyance as he swiped the hat off of her beanie. "...I'll take that as an 'or what'."
Sam and Tina then both climbed to the roof of the caboose before Sam opened a hatch door and they hopped inside. Sam managed to land on his feet while his techno-geek friend landed on her stomach with a grunt. He looked around and saw all of the stolen goods Freakshow has forced all of the ghosts and Dani to steal all for herself. Sam remembered one time that Dani told him that not all ghosts were evil, so he probably thought that the ghost freaks that have been robbing banks were only just being mind controlled and had no idea what they were doing. But the only thing he was more focused on right now was saving Dani and setting her free.
Sam suddenly spotted Freakshow's crystal ball staff just standing there on a pile of money, unguarded. "There's the crystal ball! Let's grab it and-" Sam said until he and Tina were both suddenly blasted out of the caboose by a couple of green ecto-beams.
They gasped when they saw a hypnotized Dani smiling with her fists letting off green vapor and Freakshow walking out with her staff in her hand. The train's whistle blew as it revived forward with the mind-controlled ghost heroine.
Sam and Tina both tried to chase after the train. "Dani, no!" Sam exclaimed.
"Yes, yes, please scream. Shame that anyone who might help you is...busy enjoying my 'free show'." Freakshow said to the teens before she laughed.
Back inside the circus tent, Landu phased through the top while the adults stared up at him in awe and shock as they gasped. He removed his hood as he grinned and made his tattoos emerge from his body when they came to life. They began to attack the audience, making them all scream in terror as chaos ensured.
"GHOSTS!" Jackie and Matt both shouted in unison as they both pulled on their masks and goggles.
Patrick and Jessica both ran up to the exit to escape the madness. However, when Jessica uncovered the curtains, it was blocked by thick bricks, proving to them that Freakshow has been lying to them, and was distracting them so she could escape with all her stolen goods without any interferences.
"We're trapped!" Jessica exclaimed to her husband.
"Okay...that's objectionable, immoral, and obnoxious." Patrick muttered as he wrote on his notepad with a frown somewhat absent-mindedly.
Back outside the circus, Tina and Sam managed to climb to the top of a railroad as the train moved from underneath them with Freakshow, Dani, and all of the stolen goods.
"We have to jump!" Sam exclaimed with determination.
"Are you crazy? I can't jump!" Tina shouted, staring down at the fast-moving train underneath them.
"And I can't abandon Dani!" The two friends held hands before they prepared to jump. They screamed when they finally leaped off the track, until they both landed on the roof by their feet, but tumbled onto their stomachs. "Plus, I'll never hear the end of it if my parents learn that they're right about her being evil."
Back inside the tent, the entire audience continued to scream in fear as the tattoos continued to attack them, until Jackie and Matt both slid onto the center stage.
"Stand back, everybody!" Jackie exclaimed to everyone.
Small blasters and guns sprang out of their jumpsuits from their knees, elbows, chests, hood ears, and belts. They began to spin around and fired several beams at the tattoos dead on until they finally managed to blast at Landu, sending him flying away as well with a yelp.
Matt then jumped in front of Jessica and Patrick and went to their faces. "I'll ask you once again...YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH JUMPSUITS?!" He exclaimed angrily while the Manson parents, who recoiled and trembled from his outburst. The Mansons both held up their hands nervously, silently admitting that jumpsuits could be quite handy after all.
Back on the Circus Gothica train, Sam and Tina ran across the roof cars of the train, jumping over gaps while they tried to find which car had Dani inside. Inside a cart, Freakshow was shuffling through her stolen bundle of cash while her ghost minions and Dani stood guard. However, they heard footsteps coming from above them when they glanced up at the ceiling before they all narrowed their eyes suspiciously.
"What are you waiting for? GO!" Freakshow commanded as she held out her mind-control staff.
The ghosts phased through the car and outside to the roof right in front of Sam and Tina, making them freeze their tracks. Dani phased behind them before they turned around and gasped at their hypnotized friend as she grinned.
"Dani, it's us! Sam and Tina! Your best friends, remember?!" Sam reasoned as he tried to reach into his friend.
There was a few minutes of silence between everyone while Sam and Tina stared at their friend with anticipation and desperation, until Dani finally blinked her eyes as they returned to their normal green. She stared at her friends in confusion.
"Tina? Sam? I...I…" She asked as she tried to fight for control. Sam and Tina began to smile that their friend was beginning to come back to her senses. "I…" Unfortunately, she got controlled once again when her eyes became red as she smiled. "...am a ghost! I have no friends!"
"Don't waste your breath, children." Freakshow said as she climbed from a gap while she held up her staff to regain control of Dani. Sam and Tina both turned to her and gasped with wide eyes. "She's under my control now."
Back at the Circus Gothica tent, Jessica and Patrick walked up to the Fenton couple with looks of gratitude, despite their big rivalry and hatred towards them. "We owe you Fentons a debt of gratitude, and an apology!" Jessica said with a bright smile.
"Save it for the big sales, Jessica! We need to bust out of this tent!" Jackie exclaimed as she glanced at the tent that was covered with brick walls.
"Leave it to us!"
"If there's one thing we Mansons know how to do: it's with an angry mob of parents into a frenzy!" Patrick said confidently as he gestured to all of the adults on the stage.
The adults all began to pull to the walls of the tent and managed to burst out of the brick walls and curtains while they shouted in a frenzy. They began to chase after the circus train that was currently trying to escape town with their goods.
Jackie and Matt stopped beside the Fenton Ghost RV that parked next to them. "Saddle up the Fenton RV! We'll hit those spooks out at the pass!" Jackie said to her husband.
Back on top of the moving train, Sam and Tina looked ahead in fear at Freakshow's mind-controlled ghost army with their own best friend being one of them.
"Don't just stand there, finish them!" Freakshow commanded Dani as her eyes glowed red.
Tina then noticed a metal roof heading right toward them, giving her an idea. "Maybe you should try holding that thing up a little higher." She suggested casually. Fortunately, Freakshow listened to her, but her staff got knocked out of her hand by the roof as it flew into the air. Tina quickly jumped up and tried to grab it, but narrowly missed it while it landed in Dani's hand instead. She grinned widely as she landed back on the roof. "Way to go, girl! Now give me five!"
Tina held her hand up to Dani, but since she was still hypnotized, she fired an ecto beam instead. She sent her straight to Ghoulia as she restrained her with her arm.
"Very good, my dear drone. Now give my staff. Come on." Freakshow said before she kissed her lips like she was some kind of dog.
However, although she was still controlled, Dani began to hesitate about what to do with the staff, not really knowing what to think about since she was still being controlled, but not by Freakshow anymore.
Sam ran in front of the evil ringmistress. "Fight it, Dani! She's not holding the crystal ball anymore, you are!" He said as he tried to reach into her once again.
Freakshow grabbed him and roughly shoved him away, almost making him lose his balance by the edge of the train. "Silence!" She shouted before she turned back to the hypnotized ghost girl. "Obey me, ghost. Give me my staff. Come on." She kissed her lips again and gestured with her fingers.
Dani began to sweat a little in pressure, still not knowing what to do.
"I saw you up on that highwire, you were fighting her the whole time! Fight her now, Dani! You're not just a ghost, FIGHT HER!" Sam exclaimed, even more determined to free her.
Dani slapped her palm onto her forehead from her forming headache. "QUIET! All of you! I need to think…" She strained with frustration.
"Stop him!" Freakshow ordered as she pointed at Sam. "NOW!"
Just then, the train rode across a bridge over a canyon, hundreds of feet deep.
"Well, it's the crystal ball or your friend, Dani! Your choice!" Sam said before Elastico and the midget ghost walked to him while he moved backwards away from them. Unfortunately, he walked backwards too much when he reached the edge of the train and lost his balance. "I DIDN'T MEAN THAT TO BE SO LITERAL! AHHHHHHHHH!" Sam began to plummet towards the bottom of the canyon and screamed to the top of his lungs as he fell towards his doom.
"SAM! NO!" Tina cried out loud.
"Sam?" Dani asked while she cocked an eyebrow, until her eyes went wide when she realized that her friend was in danger. "SAM!"
She immediately flew off the train and dove down as she released the crystal ball staff and reached out her hands to catch her friend. While Sam continued to scream, Dani managed to catch him when she hugged his chest and flew him back up to the train as he passed out on her arms. The staff plummeted towards the bottom of the canyon where its crystal ball shattered on impact with the rocky ground.
Dani's eyes returned to their normal green when the power of the crystal ball lost its grip on her. She then glanced at Sam, who was just beginning to wake up. "Dani, are you okay?" He asked her.
"I think so, it was all a blur." Dani admitted before she glanced back at her goth friend. "I did some bad stuff, didn't I?"
Sam smiled gratefully that his best friend was back to normal. "Nothing you can't fix." Dani flew back to the roof of the train in front of Freakshow and her goons as she settled Sam down gently.
Tina also smiled that her friend was finally freed. "Good, now maybe you can convince tiny here to let go of me." She said as she glanced up at Ghoulia, just before her eyes turned blue.
Elastico's and the midget ghost's eyes changed as well when they all broke free from Freakshow's mind control and her crystal ball staff's spell wore off on them. "What? Huh? Where are we?" Elastico asked in confusion as he looked down at himself.
"Are we free? Finally free?!" The midget ghost asked with a hopeful smile.
"Only one way to find out…" Dani said with a smirk as she eyeballed at the ringmistress thief.
Freakshow glanced at the ghost girl and her ex-goons nervously, until they all grabbed onto her and phased her into the train car while Tina and Sam watched.
Inside the car, Freakshow was trembling as she turned solid, until she looked up fearfully at Dani, who smirked at her. Her ex-minions all glared at her for controlling them for so long, and they were not exactly pleased that she has been using them like her own personal butlers in robberies.
"Okay, uh, when I called you, uh, 'minions', it was really a term of endearment, like 'I love my minions'." Freakshow said nervously.
"You wanted a big hall, try this one on for size!" Dani said before she fired an ecto beam at Freakshow's stolen goods above her.
They collapsed right on top of her while she grunted in surprise. "OHH! Oh, that quite smarted."
Outside, the train braked to a halt when it got surrounded by police cars and angry adults before Dani turned to all of the freed ghosts. "So, what do you say we stick around and explain to the cops we were being controlled by an evil ringmistress?" The ghosts only remained silent and phased right out of the train and flew away to avoid getting in trouble again, which made Dani slouch with a knowing look. "You know, I had a feeling that would be their answer." And then she followed their example.
The police kicked open the train door as everyone glared inside. They saw Freakshow herself with all of the stolen goods that have been robbed by ghosts the past day, revealing that the ringmistress has been the true thieving mastermind behind all of the crimes. She smiled at the authorities and adults weakly and innocently.
Later on, the policemen placed Freakshow under arrest for her masterminding crimes when they shoved her into the back of a police car, where they would drive her to jail and charge her under custody for her crimes. They even managed to recover all of the stolen goods from her train so they could place them back into their proper banks and stores.
Dani (who was back in her human form), Sam, and Tina all smiled at another job well done while Jackie, Matt, Jessica, and Patrick all smiled at the trio. "Nice work, kids. You caught that weird goth-punk thief right-handed!" Jackie said with a smile while the trio smiled at each other.
"I'm just happy you're all safe!" Patrick said.
"More than safe, they're heroes!" Jessica exclaimed happily.
"We're so proud of you…" Matt said.
Later, at the Manson's library…
"BUT YOU'RE ALL STILL GROUNDED!" The parents exclaimed angrily as they all watched their kids study their books.
Although they were truly happy they have managed to catch the thief, the adults were still angry that their children cut school, skipped detention, and even snuck out of their homes without permission. Dani, Sam, and Tina all frowned down at their books since they were totally not expecting to still be in trouble after a long night of saving Dani from becoming a slave to an evil human ringmistress.
"Grounded, shmounded!" Ian exclaimed as he scootered next to Sam. "This is cruel and unusual punishment!"
As another one of Sam's punishments, he was forced to wear the garments, consisting the buttoned white long-sleeve undershirt with a bright orange vest, and beige pants that his parents asked him to wear earlier, which he wasn't too happy about. However, he did it partly under his own will.
"I know, but it was the only way I could convince them to lift their restraining order on Dani." He said dully.
"At least Freakshow's in custody and all the stolen goods were returned." Dani admitted, and she was even deeply relieved that she was no longer being mind-controlled by the ringmistress.
And of course, thanks to Freakshow, her reputation as public ghost enemy number one has increased after people and the media witnessed her robbing banks while she was being controlled. Despite that, she was still determined to show everyone that she was a heroine someday.
"So, why do I feel like we're forgetting something?" Tina asked in wonder as she looked up at the ceiling in thought.
Back at the Casper High library, Ms. Lancer was still locked inside the supply closet when Dani was mind-controlled. She continued to knocked her fist on the door to get anyone's attention.
"Waiting for Godot, is anybody out there?!" Lancer cried desperately until she turned around in defeat. "This is so wrong!" And then she wetted her eyes on her hands.
A janitor opened the door and slid her water bucket inside with her mop sticking out. "See you Monday." She said unemotionally before she locked up the door again. Lancer immediately pulled on the knob and then pounded her fist against the door again, trying to get the janitor's attention, but she apparently knew that she was probably going to be stuck in there all weekend.
