Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of the characters. Danny Phantom is the sole property of Butch Hartman, Nickelodeon and Paramount global.


Growing Pains

Chapter 17: Phantom Vs Ember

Previously

"So, there you are!..."A familiar voice was heard.

"Ember!" Danny said, as the rockstar ghost appeared before him.

"Now, time to-..."Ember suddenly stopped talking as the ghostly man glared at her.

"Ember, whatever it is, why don't you make make like your songs and drop off the chart?!…"Danny pointed behind with a thumb, his aerially exhausted from today's antics.

However, he noticed his quip received no retort as the ghostly diva stared with a dropped jaw

"Ember?…"Danny said, but she remained silent for some reason.

That was rare for her.

Curious, he flew up and waved a hand in front of her face before snapping his fingers.

"Hello? Ember? You there?…"He asked, but there was no response.

No, all she did was stay silent as she finally saw Danny as an adult for the first time ever.


Present Time

Across town

The Groovy Gang and The Extreme Ghost breakers were still looking for the handsome ghost man.

"Any sign of him yet?..."Andy asked.

"No, but he has to be here somewhere..."Fran said, looking frantic as they searched.

They weren't the only ones looking, as the Extreme Ghost Breakers were searching too.

"He's gotta be here someplace or left some kind of trail behind. I can't let him get away from me..."Brenner said, double checking the readings on the ghost radar attached to her dirt bike.

"Don't you mean us?..."Sullivan asked.

"I know what I said..."Brenner said, glaring at him.

"Priorities, Dude..."Sullivan said, while his partner glared at him.

"I'm a GIRL,you idiot..."Brenner said, annoyed.

Fran and Andy, on the other hand, were trying to think up a new strategy. Starting by making a U-turn, and parking to try and get a better signal with their tracking devices.

Still, they didn't pick anything up yet and they were getting discouraged.

"Man, too bad George isn't here, he's always the trap master and great at tracking too, but he hasn't been the same since Betty dumped him..." Andy said, remembering how two of their old members quit.

"Riiight, and it had, like, nothing to do with Betty being allergic to cats..." Fran said, still looking at the picture of the new ghost. "Still gotta find Target Ghost Hunk..."She said, determined to find him.

"I still say that Nice Butt is a better name..." Andy said, but was ignored.

"I told you, that just sounds perverted. Anyway, maybe we should retrace of steps. See if Ghost Hunk flew back around..."Fran said, annoyed.

"I'll shift the van in reverse and turn us around..."Andy said, while Scaredety Cat got spooked by a pigeon and jumped onto Fran.

"AHHH! Not again! Why can't we just sell this stupid thing to a zoo or something, man?!..."Fran complained, feeling the claws pinning deep into her.

Andy frowned.

"Like, Scaredy Cat is part of our crew, Frannie. Besides, don't forget the countless times he's helped us out with his gnarly wild side whenever there was something that we couldn't handle on our own..."Andy said, refusing to budge on it.

He pulled out some Kitty Crunch and Scaredy Cat calmed down, retracted his claws and jumped off Fran and ate the treat eagerly.

Fran hissed and glared at the cat.

"One of these days..."She muttered, before reminded herself that Scaredy Cat is an endangered species and an extreme rarity at that.

The red haired woman then remembered that she is a animal right activist, so she took a deep breath and let it go.

Thankfully the redhead has had a lot of practice applying first aid on herself for big cat scratches and puncture wounds, so that no permanent scars are left behind. After all, it wouldn't do good for her to meet the hunk with scars all over.

Meanwhile, the EGB were dangerously riding their bikes through the city, and they weren't paying attention, but for different reasons.

"Do you see those tights? Dang~" Brenner said as she looked at the screen, showing the new ghost with a backside view.

"Dude, I'm trying to drive here!..." Sullivan said, for once trying to focus on the road rather than driving recklessly. "I mean, what's the big deal? You seen one guy in tights, you seen them all, dude..."He said, annoyed.

His partner ignored being called dude for the sake of looking at pics of the ghost guy.

When the duo turned to the cross section, the colorful van of the Groovy Gang almost ran into them. The three vehicles swerved to avoid a collision, stopping right next to an appliance store.

"Like, dudes! Watch where you're driving!..." Fran said as he, Andy, and the scared and endangered tiger, exited the van.

"Watch where you're going, dude!..." Brenner said, mad that she had to stop looking at the ghost hunk's face, especially his backside.

However, they almost crashed by a store that had televisions on the display window. And coincidentally, it was showing a news report about the infamous ghost man that unwittingly stole half the town's heart by now.

"In breaking news, the new ghost hero, who has yet to reveal his name, has been spotted, and he looks good in tights..." Tiffany said, drooling as she looked at the clip, rewinding the clip, sometimes using slow motion to get a better look as Lance Thunder looked annoyed at her.

The amateur ghost hunters saw the news report, 3 of them were drooling while one of them looked annoyed.

"Hey, looks like the ghost man's reach news worthy fame. That's pretty ridiculous, dudes..."Sullivan said, as he saw special news report on a nearby news television which showed the latest footage of the new ghost man.

"Looks like we might be getting some more competition sooner or later if this ghost gets anymore famous...that's gonna be kind of a bummer, but a competition does being out the most extreme stunts out of the combatants. So I'm all game, dudes!..."He said, while the girls and Andy kept drooling over the image, like they were under a spell.

Sullivan just rolled his eyes at this, as they all pretty much lost in their own daydreams of the ghost man.

"Like...wow...he's so groovy..."Fran said in a dreamy way, wanting to see that handsome Phantom again.

"I'll say. Totally one Hot Knockout. I bet his muscles could even bunch press a couple trucks or even a dozen monster trucks..."Brenner said, drooling before sending the red haired woman a competitive look.

"Just remember, he's mine!..."Brenner said, hands on her hips.

"You mean that he's mine!..."Fran yelled at her.

"I think that you both mean mine!..."Andy said, arms crossed.

In that moment all three ghost hunters had a stare down with one another. Almost like an old western standoff from the movies.

Sullivan frowned.

"Aren't we suppose to be hunting that guy down? He's still a ghost!..."Sullivan said, being the rational one much to his own surprise.

He was ignored, as the other ghost hunters went back to searching for the white haired ghost man...but not for the reasons that they initially came to Amity Park for.

Sullivan sighed and simply hoped that he'd at least get some extreme excitement from this ghost hunt, not to mention paid for this ghost's eventual capture.

"This had better be worth canceling our invite to join that totally extreme reality TV show..."He muttered, as he followed his teammate and the other ghost hunters to track down the now infamous ghost man.


Elsewhere

Danny and Ember had just crossed paths and the ghostly diva finally saw the rumored ghostly hunk for the first time.

Ember's brain had shut down, moving on basic instinct as she floated silently over, circling the ghost boy. Her eyes were as wide as saucers as a new shade of red came to her cheeks.

Danny blinked in calm frustration, already having a feeling what was going on.

"You too, huh?..."Danny said.

Ember said nothing as her study of the ghost boy's new physique continued. She reached out and began moving the boy like an artist's figure.

"Wow..."She said, as she felt how heavy and hard the ghost boy's body feels right now.

His newly developed adult body felt as hard as stone marble, yet still soft to the touch to the ghost pop diva. Her hands kept roaming over the hazmat, the fabric feeling good against his adult body.

Danny felt his face get warm a moment for he recalled who this was.

"Uh...Ember..."Danny said, while the ghost diva seemed bewitched by his new physique.

"Oh wow!~..."Ember could not stop the grin forming on her face.

"This is...these are real..."She said, as if she was in awe.

The ghost man was weirded out and felt awkward about this.

"Yes, my arms are bigger, now could you please stop rubbing them like I'm some sort of human shaped genie lamp?..."Danny said, weirded out.

He did not know why Ember's reaction felt different, blushing redder than a tomato as the ghostly diva continued to rub her hands all over his body.

"Wow...Kitty and the others were not exaggerating at all. I knew he was kinda cute in a dorky way before but this is...wow. I can't wait to see for myself what Babypop had in-store with that rocking new body of his..." Ember thought to herself, as she bit a little of her lower lip.

She kept seeing with her eyes and hands, before she suddenly said something unexpected.

"Pound me!..."She said, unable to help herself.

"Excuse me?!..."Danny asked, flying back in shock over what she just said.

"I mean, show me what you got…"Ember clarified, as she readied her guitar.

"Then next time, lead with that!…"Danny shouted back with glowing hands.

Truth be told, he was concerned about fighting his ghostly foe. Skulker may have taken seconds to defeat, but he was a small guy in a mech-suit. Tearing off mechanical limbs was one thing, but a feeling of dread came at possibly tearing off more human-like appendages.

Even if it was a ghost and an enemy in question here.

Still, Danny tried to hold back as much as he can, but the power he unleashed still came out bigger than he wanted it to be.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to make it that big!..."He said, as he stopped his attack, unaware of the innuendo he said that got Ember going.

"Okay, since you're literally asking for it, I should warn you I'm a lot stronger. Don't ask me how, but it's like everything times like a million... granted, I'm terrible at math, but you get the idea..."He explained.

"Just do it!..." Ember insisted.

With reluctance, Danny fired from his finger. He tried to fire a small finger ghost ray, but it came out more like giant blast of raw ecto energy. The impact sent Ember back by 40 feet.

"Oof!..." She went, hitting a wall.

"Sorry! Wait... why am I apologizing to her?..." He asks out loud, but Ember miraculously recovered.

She didn't even seem angry. In fact, she seemed excited right now.

"My turn!..." Ember went before coming in and hitting him with her guitar like a baseball bat.

Hitting the wall, Danny gritted his teeth and fired again.

The ghost rocker still managed to dodge the incoming attack by listening to her baser instincts, but this didn't fear or dread to fill the one hit wonder. If anything, all that just got her even more excited and she decided to try something else.

Something that got her ecto-blood pumping and her hair was even glowing into a brighter shade of neon blue than usual, as her excitement began to spike.

"Hey, hot shot! See if you can dodge this?..."Ember said as she cranked her guitar to eleven.

"I can do more than that!..."Danny said, as he tried to fired at her.

But to his surprise, Ember moved fast, grabbed him by the collar and planted a kiss on the lips.

"WHAT THE HECK?!..."Danny thought as he pushed her off, and making extra sure not to use too much force to hurt her.

"What the heck was that for?!..."Danny yelled, as he angrily rubbed his lips.

Ember was briefly taken back by the kiss, before blushing and smirking.

"Was that to mock me or because you actually do like the way I look in this body?..."Danny asked, still rubbing his lips.

"A little of column A and more from column B..."Ember admitted with a playful shrug.

"What?..."Danny asked, surprised to hear this.

"I always did admit in secret that your teen self was actually kinda cute in a scrawny way...but not enough for me to not beat up for getting in my way..."Ember said, as she aimed her guitar.

"Wait? What?!..."Danny asked, surprised to hear this.

The ghostly diva ignored that outburst and kept eyeing him with interest, very much liking what she sees as she even licked her lips a bit.

"This turned out to be so much better than what Kitty told me about..."She thought, pleased with what she saw.

"Who knew you'd fill that costume nicely... though I'm curious what those buttons on your arm are for..."She said, as she pointed at them.

"I actually have no idea..." Danny admitted, having not considered pressing them.

"Whatever, not important. Still, if I knew this is what you'd look like once puberty was done, I might have put the love spell to make you fall for me that one time..."Ember said, before getting an idea.

"And I just might do that now..."She said, as her hand was about to reach for the dial on her guitar.

"SO NOT HAPPENING!..."Danny yelled, as he fired a super charged ecto blast at Ember, hitting her square on.

"AH!..."Ember yelped, but quickly recovered.

"Aw, trying to play hard to get now...you're just making this so much more fun for me, Babypop!..."Ember said, as she readied her guitar.

"I'll show you playing hard!..."Danny shouted, as he used his enhanced powers to create a more condensed ghost ray.

It was extra potent and faster, hitting the ghostly diva straight on and the extra oomph hurt her a lot.

"AAARRRGGGGGGHHH!..."Ember yelled, as they continued to fight.

"Hard enough for you or do you want me to go harder?..."Danny quipped before he paused. "Okay, that sounded better in my head…"He said, looking embarrassed.

"Sounded like you're growing up faster than you thought..."Ember quipped.

"Shut up!..."Danny yelled, momentarily distracted from Ember trying to use her guitar as a blunt weapon.

Once again, she swung her guitar to attack him. In response, Danny raised an arm to block said instrument.

Hissing slightly in pain, Danny pushed it back before swinging his other arm, missing Ember as she swung her leg to kick him off the ground.

She was about to pin him when he split in two, both sides rolling in the opposite direction. Before Ember knew it, the two Phantoms split again, now becoming 10.
Ember was both impressed and baffled.

"You use to really suck at that. How many can you actually do now?..." She asked in genuine curiosity.

"I... have no idea..." All of the Phantoms said in unison before reforming into one.

"Anyway... on to this!..." Danny said before he tackled into Ember.

With an excited grin, Ember kneed him in the groin, causing him to groan loudly in pain. This causes him to walk back and kneel over as he fought off the tears.

"Well, not like you were planning on using those until you get here the old fashioned way..." Ember quipped.

"Hilarious..." Danny muttered sarcastically, as he got to his knees.

"Aww... I didn't think you'd fall for me..." Ember said with a mocking smile before something unexpected happened.

Danny raised his hand, intending to blast her, when a shopping cart came from behind, hitting her and causing her to fall.

"Likewise..." Danny said with a small smile before noticing the cart was still hovering, along with other pieces of metal like a tire iron and a wrench.

"Wait a minute..." He said before motioning his hand to make them hover up and down before causing them to cling together, recognizing what might be happening.

"Do I have magnetic powers? I get magnetic powers when I get this age?! Awesome!..."He cheered.

Ember noticed he was now standing up straight, seemingly okay despite her dirty tactics.

"Huh... you heal up fast..." Ember said.

"Not as fast as you, apparently..." Danny said as he lowered his arm, letting the metal fall.

"Yeah…"Ember mumbled, as she bit her lip with a hiss. "I think I need to recharge for a quick minute before the next round, Babypop…or should I call you a mansicle?…"She said playfully, eying him once more.

"I don't like that, so why don't we end things early, and skip the quip play and get straight to the climax?…"Danny said, as he blinked. "Again... that sounded better in my head…"He said, feeling awkward.

"Mmm... you won't hear any complaints from me..." Ember winked back, which Danny did his best to ignore, despite the blush on his face.

"You know what I really meant! You're making it very easy to forget I'm supposed to hate you..."He said, glaring at her.

He lunged forward, hands surging with energy. However, he had forgotten about his power increase from all the talk. By the time he stopped, the ghost boy and pop star were already half a mile away with the latter moan.

Ember was looking around, amazed how far they went, but the real surprise was how her arms felt like they were in a vice grip.

Danny's new muscles were not for show.

"Oh...wow…"Ember said lowly, eyeing the ghost boy's face and being so close to his body.

"Are you here to fight or is there something I need to know?…"Danny said, pausing his ferocity.

"I like guys with muscle, and who know how to use them, sue me!…"Ember quipped, phasing out of his grip as she went for another kiss.

Danny was once again caught off guard, as Ember locked lips with him. She even wet the extra mile and began frenching him, while she still has the chance and enjoyed it to the fullest, while her flaming blue hair started to heat up even more now.

The ghost man angrily pushed her off, and made sure that they were at least 6 feet apart from each other.

"Will you cut that out!?..."Danny yelled, with smudged lavender lipstick on his lips that he angrily tried to wipe off, looking flushed and upset.

"Than why did it take you longer to stop me the second time?..."Ember said, winking at him.

Danny didn't answer, even after he wiped the violet lipstick stain with his mouth and arm, but the red blush on his face was plain to see especially to see... especially to Ember as she smirked confidently at him.

"One, we're suppose to be enemies. And two, if someone catches you kissing me, they might get the wrong idea and arrest me!..."He yelled, knowing how bad this might look from an outsiders perspective.

"Hey, I might have been sixteen when I became a ghost, but I've been around since the seventies. Not to mention, ghosts have different standards with this kind of stuff. I mean, as long as you're not like Youngblood, almost anything is okay. So the way I see it, we aren't doing anything remotely wrong here...aside from some property damage, but that's hardly stopped us before..."Ember said, like it was obvious.

"Kitty mentioned something like that too..."Danny said, darting his eyes away.

A part of him was wondering if any of that is actually true or not.

"Yeah, it's weird but sometimes convenient...Besides, I am a villain...what do I care about breaking laws?..."Ember asked.

"Yeah, well I care!..."Danny yelled at her.

"Good to know..." Ember said before she traced his symbol with her gloved hand.

"Uh... so... you're really attracted to me like this?..." Danny asked, growing more nervous and trying to ignore what she's doing.

"Enough that... I might just make you my king when I take over the world and stuff. Still... I gotta prep for when I make my next concert..." Ember said.

"You know I'll stop you..." Danny pointed out, as Ember stopped tracing his symbol with her finger.

"Then it's a date..." She said with a wink.

"Not exactly what I'd call a date, especially if you plan to cause trouble..."Danny said, frowning.

"Like I said, I don't care about breaking any laws..."Ember said, shrugging with indifference.

"Well, you should be! What if you had done what you just did to me to some creep instead, what would happen then?!..."Danny yelled at her.

"Psst. Like I'm that dumb or desperate enough to do that with some random creep..." Ember talked back, like she was getting a lecture from an authority figure.

But then softened her expression as she slowly walks up to Danny.

"Besides, I only go this far with just anyone, only with someone I actually have an interest in. Someone like you, Babypop..." She said, before winking and setting herself on fire with her blue flames from her hair.

"Don't worry, Babypop. You'll see me again real soon..."She said, before blowing him a kiss.

Before Danny knew it, Ember had disappeared in flames, promising to be back. Once she was gone, the ghost man was still processing everything that has just happened to him.

"Even Ember's into me like this...and unlike the others, she has access to love spells. Not good..."Danny said, even more desperate to return to his real age now.

He didn't want to remain in his current body anymore and risk running into and being ambushed by Ember again...who'd might get luckier and move on from first base, if she wanted.

His body shivered, a mix of conflicting and dangerous emotions that were not to be investigated. There was no explanation worth looking into, but this grin of thought was too distracting.

He did not even notice Ember's leftover guitar sparking with energy. The instrument pieces rattled and quaked till they colored behind the ghost boy's back.

Danny screamed, hissing as a hand went to his side.

"Since when does that happen?…"The ghost boy complained.


A few moments later

The ghostly hero managed to find a private empty room to morph back into his human form, not noticing the bruise that he had on his lower back til he tried moving.

"Was Ember actually telling the truth back there? Or was she just trying to get into my head or even lower guard to use her love spell on me? Questions for later..."He said, shaking his head.

The ghost man then decided to focus on finding Helena to get his young back, but he was still worried about what Ember did to him.

"Something tells me Ember can do more than mess with my heart—I mean, mind!..."He said, shaking his head.

His back arched as he leaned forward, seething through his teeth as the colored patch of pain ached tremendously. His body was older, stronger, and tougher, but it seemed to hit its limit.

"Man, now I feel old. Darn it..."He grumbled, as he started cracked his neck, hoping to relieve some stress.

Once the ghost man finally manages to cool off and calm himself down, he flew off to reunite with his sister and friends.

"Danny, there you are. Are you alright?…"Came a voice, and to the ghost boy's relief it was Sam.

Jazz and Tucker were behind her, seeing how exhausted and paranoid Danny looked as he looked around the area, keeping his eyes open for any female passerby.

No telling what would happen if a random woman appeared. He had enough for one day.

"Hey…"Danny waved one free hand.

"What the heck happened? You were suppose to wait for Helena at the modeling auditions but then some fight broke out with the models that the cops had to break up. We snuck inside but didn't see you anywhere..."Sam complained.

"Sorry...but...I had to bail out of there..."Danny said, before hissing in pain, which the others noticed.

"Are you alright?…"Sam asked again, walking over to the leaning ghost boy/man.

"I'm fine—ouch! I just got a nasty surprise from Ember…"He said.

"Ember?!..."Jazz exclaimed.

"Oh man, what did you do this time?!..."Tucker asked, assuming she was here for trouble.

"I don't wanna talk about it. Period..."Danny said, before hissing over the pain from his glowing wound.

Jazz walked towards him, looking at the spot as she checked his injuries.

"Oh man, it looks like it hurts..."Jazz said in a concerned voice.

"You have no idea…" Danny said he turned back to human, leaning on his sister.

"Come on, I'll take you to my place since it's close by. At least there, we won't be flooded with women clawing at you…"Sam said.

"I hope so. I've had enough of that for one lifetime..."Danny muttered.

"I wish that I had that problem..."Tucker muttered.

"Oh, I'm sure you will, but it'll involve fry pans and bats..."Jazz said sarcastically, as they left to Sam's house, a safe place for Danny to rest.

However, they had no way of knowing that "safe" probably isn't going to be the best way to describe that place once they get there.

-To be continued-

Next time on Growing Pains

Parental Supervision


A/N: Special thanks to NeoMark, The White Titan, Jay The Average Fanboy and BeConfuzzled Writer for helping with this chapter. You guys rock :)


REPLIES to my loyal and totally awesome reviewer:

Boris Yeltsin: Thank you:)


:) I hope you enjoyed this! Remember to read and review :)