Nicktoons Unite!
Chapter 3: Parks and Castles
It wasn't long until Danny, Jimmy, Timmy and Spongebob arrived at their destination. A swirling portal was open in front of them. Once the kids were through, the portal led them to a metal room filled with unusual machinery and devices, looking almost like Jimmy's lab.
Danny landed on the ground and released the genius and the bucktooth boy. Spongebob slid down the teen's back and jumped to the floor.
Jimmy observed his surroundings. "Fascinating," he awed, "did you make these yourself, Danny?"
Danny shrugged shyly. "Heh, heh, no. My parents are the inventors of all of these gadgets and ghost hunting equipment, not me."
"Your parents? Ain't they the folks that Plasmious is holding hostage?" asked Timmy, "We should've busted them out while we had the chance."
"We couldn't and still can't," explained Danny, "Vlad has his portal machines to fuel him with ghost energy. If we tried to fight him, we'd get our butts kicked."
Jimmy looked at the gadgets lying around. "Hmm, if I did some research on this ghost fighting equipment, we could figure out how to defeat Plasmious."
Timmy shook his head. "Ah, c'mon Jim, heroes don't just sit around all day studyin'!
"You're right!" agreed Spongebob, throwing his fist into the air, "Heroes go out and save the world!"
Danny chuckled. "Well, okay. Guess that means we'll fight Vlad! His mansion shouldn't be too far away; c'mon!"
The teen led the three up the stairs and into a living room. "Is this where you live, Danny?" asked Timmy, looking around.
"Yep," the ghost teen replied, "it's a miracle that my parents hadn't detected my powers yet."
Jimmy raised an eyebrow. "Your parents don't know you have ghost powers?"
Danny led them to the door. "Yeah, you know, they being ghost hunters and all..." As he talked, the teen opened it.
Outside, the kids walked down a few steps and scanned the area. Danny's home was right next to the street. Apartments of all sizes lined the road for blocks and planted trees swayed in the breeze. Timmy turned to look up at the teen's house; it had all the makings of a normal home except for the enormous observation building on the roof.
The bucktooth kid then noticed the sign hanging on one of the building's side. 'FentonWorks', Timmy read, "What's that?"
"It's something my parents do in the spare time." Danny explained, still scanning the road. "And by 'spare time', I mean 'all the time'.
"Danny! I'm so glad you're here!"
"You mean we're glad you're here!"
The four spun around to see two kids of Danny's age running up to them. One was a girl in dark clothing, black boots and purple eyes; the other was a boy with dark skin wearing a red beret, yellow shirt and green pants.
Danny's eyes lit up when he saw them. "Sam! Tucker! Are you guys okay?"
Sam got right up to the ghost teen's face. "Where have you been?!" she scolded in anger, "Tuck and I have been searching for you for hours!"
"I'm sorry," Danny apologized, "something's come up and me, Jimmy, Timmy and Spongebob need to stop it."
"Huh?" Sam and Tucker asked. Danny pointed at the three kids.
Tucker blinked. "You're working with a kid with a big head, a squirt with beaver teeth and a loofah?"
"Yes," Danny answered, "they may not look like it, but we were able to escape from Walker and his goons when we worked as a team."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Uh, hello, I thought you, me and Tucker were a team. And how did you get caught by Walker?"
Danny sighed. "Look, here's what happened..." The teen explained why he was gone, what was happening and what they did up to this point.
When Danny was finished, Sam said, "Lemme get this straight; Jimmy, the genius, brought you guys together so you can save your respective worlds from the Evil Syndicate?"
"And Vlad is holding your parents hostage and sent you to the ghost prison?" finished Tucker.
Danny nodded. "Yeah, that's-"
Spongebob tugged at the ghost hero's suit. "Uh, Danny..." He then pointed down the street.
Following the sponge's gaze, the grouped gasped as a mob of people staggered towards them, their eyes glowing a ghostly green.
Jimmy stepped forward and took out his Tornado Blaster. "I'll take care of this..." he growled.
"Wait!" Danny said, placing a hand on the gun. "Those aren't ghosts; they're people who've been possessed by ghosts."
"So, what do we do?" asked Timmy.
Danny strides to one of the possessed humans. His hand began to glow and with a swift jab, the ghost teen punched the guy's belly and a ghost flew out from behind. Stunned, the ghoul tried to escape but a beam of energy trapped it and sucked it into a metal thermos.
Sam placed a cap over the device and said, "One down..." she looked at the mob. "...a thousand to go."
The mob soon surrounded the kids. Timmy quickly whispered to his fairy friends, "I wish you guys were ghost extracting equipment!"
Wanda lifted her wand and said, "You don't need to tell us twice!"
The pink-haired fairy transformed into a large vacuum cleaner and Cosmo poofed into Timmy's hands as the extension tube. He pressed the button and the device sprang to life.
The bucktooth shouted to the others, "Lead that mob to me; I'll handle the rest!"
The others nodded and charged at the mob. Danny hovered above the group and flung several plasma balls at them. Although the energy balls didn't directly hit any of the possessed humans, it pushed them into the path of Timmy's device. Timmy aimed at the group. A huge rush of wind sucked through the tube, causing some of the people to brace themselves. Suddenly, several ghosts were pulled out of the people and extracted into the vacuum chamber.
Jimmy used his Tornado Blaster to push more of the mob into the path of machine and Spongebob dumped some of his soap liquid onto the ground, causing the possessed to slip and slide towards Timmy.
One by one, the people were freed from the possessing ghosts. Soon, the mob was liberated from their ghastly captors. They stood in a daze, oblivious of what was happening around them.
Timmy lowered his weapon. "Is that all of them?" he asked.
"I think so." replied Danny, landing on the ground.
Jimmy watched the crowd. "Looks like they're about to come to; we'd better get going."
"Right," Danny said, "Vlad's mansion up ahead. There's a shortcut through the cemetery; this way." The teen began running up the sidewalk with Sam, Tucker and the three boys trailing him.
Spongebob gulped. "Did you say, c-cemetery? As in, the place were d-dead people are?" he asked nervously.
"Ah, don't worry, Spongebob," said Timmy, "we caught all the ghosts back there..." He then turned to Danny. "...right?"
The ghost teen replied, "Of course we did, except the ones at the cemetery."
Spongebob let out a yelp and Danny chuckled. "I'm kiddin', dude, we'll be okay."
Soon the group reached the entrance to the cemetery. The iron gates were swung opened. As Danny led the group through the graveyard, Spongebob nervously looked around; there were tombstones of all shapes and sizes standing ominously throughout the plot.
The sponge drew closer to the ghost teen, as did Timmy and Jimmy. Sam and Tucker also joined in. Danny stared at the entourage and sighed, "Really, guys?" he asked dully.
"Really." Spongebob answered quickly, "This place gives me the creeps."
Timmy said, "Dude, its a cemetery. All cemeteries are creepy."
"Not the one in Bikini Bottom; it has multicolored streetlamps that light the entire area with rainbows."
Danny pointed up ahead. "Look!" The group stared at where the teen was pointing at and gasped; a large, medieval castle glowered on top of a hill with a winding path leading to it.
"Vlad must've got tired of Caspar High." Tucker deducted.
"Okay, guys, here's the plan." Danny explained. "We bust into his mansion and destroy the ghost portals. That way Vlad won't be stealing any more ghost energy."
Jimmy added, "We better be careful, though; Vlad might have some of his goons patrolling the grounds, so keep your guard up, everyone."
Sam stated, "You guys go on ahead; Tucker and I will cover you."
"Yeah." agreed Tucker, but then said, "We will?"
Danny looked at them with a concerned face. "You sure you can handle them? If something happened to you when I'm not around..."
Sam placed a hand on the ghost boy's shoulder. "Don't worry," she said, "we've been through stuff like this alot; we'll be fine."
Danny stared into her eyes. "Okay, just be careful." Suddenly the goth gave Danny a big hug.
"The only one who needs to be careful is you." she smirked.
As she hugged him, Danny felt a warm, fuzzy feeling grow in his belly. When the two broke apart, he realized his face was warm, too. Looking at Sam, she too was blushing, and the two of them smiled at one another. Behind the teens, Spongebob got a silly, happy smile on his face, Jimmy raised an eyebrow and Timmy opened his mouth and stuck his tongue out, making a gagging sound.
Tucker interrupted the two teens and said, "We'd better get going, Sam."
The goth snapped out of her trance. "Uh, right. Let's go." she stammered. Sam and Tucker quickly trotted back through the shortcut and disappeared.
Danny stood there, perplexed. What was that strange feeling he had moments ago? He turned to the others and saw their faces.
Spongebob was the first to break the silence. "Oh Danny," he beamed, "I didn't know you have a crush on Sam."
"I don't!" The teen retorted.
Timmy smirked, "Then why are you turning red?"
"And," Jimmy added with a sly smile, "why is your heart rate going up?"
Danny just glared at the kids. "We can talk about this later; right now we got a world to save."
As he headed towards the haunted castle with the others in tow, Timmy began singing, 'Danny and Sammy, sittin' in a-OW!" The irked teen shot a small ecto ray at the bucktooth's chest. As Timmy rubbed his sore front, Danny growled, "Shut it," and continued walking.