Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Anything else I reference.
Chapter Eight: Freaks Come Out at Night (Edited)
"Welcome one and all." Freakshow began as he stood on his small podium. There was smoke filling the circus ring coming from the small smoke machine underneath him. "Whether you have come to be amazed, see the bizarre and impossible, or to be terrified out of your skull do not be worried. All outcomes are possible. This is Circus Gothica and when the lights go down that is when the freaks come out."
He suspected Freakshow to be a member of Nibiru's cult. That meant he could be his best lead into Otto with the way his house is defended. He wanted to know what he gave him and any hints on what Otto is scheming right now.
In Danny's opinion the pale skinned ringmaster gave all people with red eyes a bad name. He would like nothing more than to charge right at him but as long as he had that orb on his staff that allowed him to control ghosts, he would have to be careful.
Not to mention all the innocent people around here looking at the show. All it would take was one stray ecto-blast and scores of people could get hurt.
"Let's start this night off with our Flexible Frightwig." Freakshow said and out of the smoke came Frightwig.
He would admit that she was an attractive ghost. Pale blue skin, long red hair in a black bodysuit with separated sleeves that were black and yellow alternating down.
"You may be wondering what this young woman's skills are well sit bat and watch my soon to be astounded audience." Freakshow said and Goliath came bringing forth a spinning board with what looked like Emma on it.
Thumbskull brought a table filled with sharp knives.
Looks like Freakshow had taken some of the people that came to the circus as a hostage. Emma from what he remembered from before she went off to college was the serious type and would never take part in something like this.
Kitty maybe but Emma no way in hell.
There was a very good chance that right now she was being overshadowed by Lydia given that he had yet to see her. His duplicates memories had just gotten to him, and he had seen that some of her tattoo ghosts had been watching people visiting this circus.
The reason was probably nothing good.
"This is not something the lot of you should try at home." Freakshow said with a smile before waving his wand/staff at the direction of the wheel.
Given the signal Goliath began to spin the wheel faster and faster. Danny again doubted that Emma was actually capable of free will because at the speed she was spinning she would have thrown up right over the crowd.
"Emma came back from college?" Sam asked.
She had met Emma a few times given that Kitty was also in drama club.
"I saw her earlier with Noah and her sister." Danny told her.
Freakshow placed a hoop on the floor a few feet from the tables with the knives.
"College sure has changed Emma. I did not think that she would be brave enough to try this. I can't believe I did not hear of this." Paulina said possibly annoyed that she was not aware of all the information at school whether it was gossip, rumor, or fact.
"I did not think she would be into this kind of place." Sam said.
"Probably because she is not in control." Danny said.
"You think something suspicious is happening?" Sam asked.
"As sure as the Action Man was a sadistic asshole." Danny said.
Frightwig did not move an inch, but her hair extended to reach and grabbed the knives. Each knife was held by a tendril of hair, and it was clear that she was taking aim. This was clearly going nowhere well.
It was time for him to intervene. This performance could not go past the opening act.
"I am going to have to ruin these people's night. Sam, I need cover probably a dark fog. Then I need the two of you to help people evacuate and try to find ..." Danny trailed off because at that moment he felt his duplicate dispel and had to groan in annoyance.
"What is the matter?" Paulina asked.
"It looks like Emma is not the only person that Freakshow has decided to take." Danny said remembering the last thing his duplicate learned before it evaporated to give him the knowledge.
"Who else does he have?" Paulina asked.
"It looks like he is having his assistant use her power to control our teachers and classmates." Danny said watching as Frightwig's hair tendril launched forward as it was about to release the knife. "Sam I really need the spell now.".
"I can do better than fog. What is your plan?" Sam asked.
"Use the darkness to catch Freakshow off guard then hit him with something hard enough to have him unconscious and then release the rest of the ghosts. Interrogate him for what he knows. Then send him off to prison where he never bothers him again." Danny explained.
It was best to take him out first. The staff in his hand was the biggest threat to him.
"Alright. good enough for me." Sam said.
"Danny you can use this." Paulina said handing him a mask from her bag.
"Thanks." Danny said as he prepared to deal with this situation.
He had been in such a rush to save his fellow classmates that he had forgotten he did not have a costume to hide his identity.
"Hsinav Thgil." Sam chanted causing the tent to darken until people would not be able to see the hand in front of their face. "I do not know how long this spell will last so you should move fast."
"It just has to last long enough." Danny said with understanding.
"AAAhhh." Cries of fear and confusion rang out in the darkness as people dealt with the fact that they were blinder than bats.
Danny did not have that problem and could see where everyone was and so while the others were dealing with this situation, he charged right at Freakshow. It should have been finished quickly but it seems that Goliath had a problem with letting him have his easy victory.
The green brute came in with a strong punch that sent Danny skidding back.
"Master in trouble. Need backup." Goliath growled causing the others to try and come forward, but their steps were more hesitant and confused.
It was weird because if they were ghosts, they should have been able to see perfectly fine in the dark.
"You lot aren't ghosts." Danny said looking at them.
That changed the situation. It seems this version of Freakshow had expanded his circus beyond simple ghosts.
The forced darkness around the camp lifted and eventually the remaining people in the circus tent could see what was happening.
"Flee for your lives!" Paulina shouted causing the crowd to finally flee and leave the tent.
A duplicate would join up with them keeping his cover. Another would take the image of Vlad and try to keep the peace. This way he could focus on the fight.
"You have made a huge mistake. No one interrupts my show!" Freakshow shouted as the orb on his staff began to glow red and swirl ominously.
It was that glow that caused him to jump in the air and quickly fire two ecto-blasts at him from each of his hands. Goliath was able to stop one but the other was able to throw Freakshow to the ground in surprise. The moment Freakshow dropped to the ground he let go of the staff.
"Let's just get rid of this." Danny said using telekinesis to toss the staff into the sky so that a duplicate could take it far away.
"The lot of you crush him!" Freakshow shouted to his henchman.
"You might want to think this over." Danny said looking at the people that are glaring at him.
Looks like he would have to fight them after all.
"Goliath help me find my staff." Freakshow ordered.
"Goliath obey master." Goliath growled as he flew away with Freakshow.
"Come back here." Danny said as he charged at the retreating ringleader.
He was so focused on Freakshow that he ignored the other ghost around him. Being knocked out of the sky by a flying kick a possessed Asian woman was a quick reminder that he had to keep a clear view of the situation.
Danny landed on the ground and had to take a step back to avoid Emma's following punch. Looks like the ghost overshadowing Emma had decided to take part in this fight.
'Just great." Danny thought as he lifted Emma's arm up and slammed his open palm into her face.
"You are in for a world of hurt kid." Thumbskull growled at him as he raced forward at him.
He was a big man probably over six feet, with pale green skin and instead of hair he had a fingernail on his head.
"I doubt you have the skill." Danny taunted using his powers to create a huge flash of light.
"AHHH." Thumbskull yelled gripping his face.
"Your name really suits you even if I doubt you were smart enough to come up with the pun or appreciate the humor of it." Danny said with a smile before tripping the man and sending him to the floor.
That certainly added insult to the injury.
"You should just stay down." Danny said looking at the crook.
"Die." Thumbskull growled charging right at him like a bull to a matador.
Danny just took a strong stance and let the charging human come right at him. The moment Thumbskull got in range he turned intangible and let him fly right through him and crash into an empty booth. He then fired an ice-ray that would keep him stuck there for a few hours.
"He needs to spend less time working out and more time opening books." Danny said with a sigh as he looked at Emma still being overshadowed by Lydia. "Now let the girl go."
Emma just glared at him and raised her fists in response.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but she is going to regain control." Danny said as his hand began to glow with ecto-energy as he walked towards her.
A good enough blast should knock out Emma and allow him to remove the ghost possessing her. There were other options like having Sam cast a spell to remove Lydia but that would take time and the longer he waited the further Freakshow got.
"You should be more worried about what is going to happen to you." Frightwig threatened as she walked up to them with Acid Breath besides her.
"Whether it is one vs one, one vs two, or one vs three the lot of you will not win." Danny said as he looked at Acid Breath and Goliath.
Danny was about to blast her when he noticed that her eyes were darting to the left. Danny turned to see what she was looking at and had to create a barrier as something incredibly fast came running at him. It turned out to be the masked man in the blue suit.
"Hit him harder Charlie." Frightwig said.
Danny watched as the force of the punches started increasing and could see his shield beginning to crack.
This might be a bit more difficult than he thought.
'I am going to need one of you to chase Freakshow.' Danny thought to the duplicates that were still around the park.
'Alright.' A duplicate responded becoming visible in front of him.
Danny flew off after Freakshow.
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"Stop running." Danny said firing an ecto-blast at Goliath.
The ghost dodged a few of them which caused Freakshow to start flapping in the air and slip out of one of Goliath's arms.
"Damned child! Leave me alone." Freakshow said as he regained his balance and Goliath's other hand.
"You tried to kidnap the hurt the people of my town. More importantly you have the answers to my questions. There is no way that I am letting you go." Danny said.
"You will never catch me kid. I don't know what you want but you are not going to get it out of me." Freakshow said as Goliath flew them over a Ferris wheel.
"We shall see about that." Danny said pouring more energy into his ecto-blast.
The blast sent Goliath crashing to the ground and created a crater from the impact.
"You are not escaping me." Danny said fully prepared to freeze the crater over.
He could phase Freakshow out and without Goliath to protect him than he would properly question the man. He had seen that while they were falling that Goliath had shifted his body so that when they fell, he was the one that took the majority of the pain from the crash.
Before he could even do that though he felt two hands wrap around his body and try to restrict his movements.
"Good work minion." Freakshow said as Elastica bound his hands and feet.
"You are going to pay for all that you did to me. You ruined my show, assaulted my minions, and cost me a lot of business. You will be regret that for the rest of eternity. I will enjoy making you my newest slave." Freakshow said lifting up his staff.
"Hahaha. You should have been a clown in your circus instead of ringmaster." Danny said as he could not help but chuckle hearing that.
"What is so funny?" Freakshow asked insulted that someone was laughing at him.
"I am sorry, but I just find it so funny that the lot of you still underestimate me so much." Danny said before other duplicates arrived blasting the other ghosts with all the power they had at their disposal to incapacitate them.
"Now let us deal with this." Danny said walking up to Freakshow his hand outstretching.
"What do you want?" Freakshow asked horror clear in his eyes. "Why have you come after me?"
"You know a certain person that I am hunting down. So, I want you to tell me what you know about him." Danny said with a smile on his face as he looked down on the terrified man.
"Why would I ever help you?" Freakshow asked.
"Because right now I am asking nicely. You should hope that I just don't take what I want." Danny said with a smile as he placed his hand on the man's head.
"You can't be both good cop and bad cop." Freakshow said.
"That shows just how little you know about me." Danny said gripping the man's hair and forcing his head to look upwards.