A/N Welcome back everyone for another exciting week of the story. Last week was one hell of a cliffhanger where the entire ghost zone learned about Danny and Ember being together, and none of them were happy about it except for Kitty. Looks like it's time to see what will happen to the ghostly couple through all this. I had a VERY hard time writing this chapter and I just really hope everyone loves it so I know all the migraines I suffered this week were worth it, lol. So without further ado, enjoy the newest chapter, it's a LONG one, and please as always after finishing leave a REVIEW!
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Danny was slowly waking himself up after one of the best nights of sleep he'd ever had in his life. The whole time he had a pleasant smile on his face, and the source of it was resting on his chest with her arm draped over his shoulder. As he slowly opened his eyes and took notice of Ember still sleeping against his chest, he put his own arm lightly around her shoulder, holding her against him and placing a soft kiss on her forehead. They were still fully clothed, but last night events got a little more handsy than they had from any of their prior make out sessions. Ember's hair had raged so much that it looked like the whole realm was lit up by a blue lamp. Thankfully for both of them her hair, despite being fire, only burned stuff if she actively wanted it too. Otherwise it felt so smooth to touch and Danny loved running his hand through it when they were kissing.
Ember was also on the verge of waking up and felt so peaceful with her head on her boyfriend's chest. She felt herself slightly rising and falling with each breathe he took, one thing she didn't actually do anymore as a full ghost. But that was hardly anything that was going to keep them from being together and happy. She felt Danny place the soft kiss on her forehead and it made her smile happily, thinking it was the most amazing feeling in the world to wake up in the arms of the boy she had fallen in love with. She couldn't wait to tell him out loud very soon.
As Danny now had his eyes fully open he just looked lovingly at Ember still laying across his chest, gently starting to run his fingertips up and down her back, which brought a pleasant moan out of Ember's lips. Danny felt like he could stay in this position forever, and if he had the ability to he probably would. But for now he just wanted to savor these last couple nights they'd had together because odds are he wouldn't get this opportunity again for a long time. The only reason he'd been able to get this one was because his parents still thought he was in Alabama. Suddenly the chaos of that trip all felt worth it because of where he was now, laying on a couch alone with his amazingly beautiful girlfriend snuggled against him. But as Danny's thoughts fixated on Ember, how beautiful she was, and the position they were in, he felt something happening to him that all males feel when they get excited, especially right after waking up. His face froze up as he realized it was happening and tried to will himself to calm down, because Ember's leg also just so happened to be draped across his body, and there was no way she wouldn't feel what was happening.
Sure enough, she did feel it, and once she realized what was happening she lifted her head and smirked right into her boyfriend's face.
"Well Mr. Phantom, I guess you're awake now, and it would seem two parts of you are waking up," said Ember playfully mocking him.
Danny took a big gulp, not really sure how to play this cool as he had absolutely zero experience with this situation. Ember being so crazy beautiful and laying against him was definitely not helping.
"Um, eh he, yeah I guess I slept pretty good, how about you?" asked Danny, shivering like crazy from nervousness. Ember had to hold herself back from laughing at how cute he looked.
"Oh I slept amazingly, mmmmmm, I could definitely get used to the way this feels," said Ember stretching a bit, also wanting to see how crazy she could drive Danny. "Although, I'm not quite ready to get up yet, so I think I'll just stay right here for a bit, on top of you."
As she slowly spoke, Ember used her arms to adjust her position, rolling herself to lay flat on top of Danny's body. Their faces were only an inch apart and Danny's breathing was quickly getting louder and shorter. His hormones were so outgunned it was like a caterpillar trying to fight a bird.
Ember let him struggle trying to find his words for a few moments before she decided it was enough. She wanted to get back to the good stuff. Giving Danny one more smirk, she closed the slight gap between their faces and kissed him passionately, one hand sliding around his neck, the other rubbing his arm. Danny quickly responded to the kiss and matched Ember, his own arms both going around her body and hugging her against him. The promise of another intense and steamy make out session was about to start. But unfortunately for them the universe had other plans, and it was about to come bursting through the realm door.
BANG*
Both Danny and Ember almost jumped out of their skin as they heard the door crash open, practically breaking off as Kitty flew in with a look of panic on her face.
"Ember, you have to...wow," said Kitty now completely shocked. She had been so laser focused on getting to Ember to warn her about what was coming her way, she had not braced herself at all for the possibility that she was about to burst in on her and Danny getting pretty heated together.
"KITTY, GET OUT NOW," shouted Ember angrily, furious that she had to stop kissing Danny because she was feeling so incredible and wanted to take it further.
"Didn't we tell you that we'd end your afterlife if you ever burst in on us again?" said Danny equally upset. If it was literally any other ghost he and Ember would blast them with a double full powered ecto ray. Kitty was lucky that they both actually liked her...usually.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but this is an emergency of the highest level," said Kitty, peeking outside the realm door before closing it.
"What in the name of all that exists is so urgent that it meant you had to ruin the mood," said Ember sitting up and moving off Danny's chest, straightening out her crop top.
"Someone is broadcasting your relationship to the entire ghost zone," said Kitty in a desperate tone. As she spoke all the color in both Danny and Ember's faces were instantly drained. They looked like they'd just been turned to statues.
"WHAT, HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?" said Danny in a gasp, jumping to his feet like someone had stuck him with a needle.
"I don't know, but there's a machine of some kind floating all over the ghost zone showing images of the two of you together, and everyone is seeing it," said Kitty with wild hand gestures.
Both Danny and Ember looked at each other in a panic, not knowing what to say or do. This was the worst case scenario for both of them. The whole ghost zone now knew about them, which would now make Ember just as hated and as much of a target as Danny. How were they going to stop this?
"How long do you think we have?" said Ember as she got up from the couch to grab her guitar, strapping it on good so she'd be ready to fight at a moment's notice.
"I'm not sure, probably not long, I flew here as fast as I could once I saw it, but everyone is probably not too far behind...
BANG*
For the second time in less than five minutes, the door to Ember's realm burst open and in flew an army of angry ghosts along with a bunch of smoke, and none of them looked like they were here for morning coffee and gossip. The smoke was providing a short and temporary cover to the room, and Ember was thinking fast.
"Kitty, quick, hide before they see you already here," said Ember pushing Kitty off to the side behind a bunch of clutter that had scattered all over the floor in the blast.
"Ember McLain, you dare to betray the ghost zone by fraternizing with that whelp of a ghost child," said Skulker, who was at the front of the group and now aiming the ecto launcher from his suit right at Ember.
All the other ghosts followed suit and were now charging up their own ecto rays and pointing them right at the rock and roll ghost, who was too stunned to move at how many ghosts were here. Danny however wasn't about to let his girlfriend face them alone.
"Get away from her, all of you," said Danny quickly rushing in front of Ember, bracing himself to fight and defend her. None of the other ghosts had been expecting to see him here, and now that they saw him they all looked extra excited.
"Well well well, looks like we just got a two for one deal," said Technus grinning big. "I, Technus, master of all things electrical, will finally have my revenge on the ghost child for making me look like a fool."
Skulker heard Technus's words and shot him a frown, pushing into his side roughly.
"I don't think so you overgrown battery, I have sworn to mount the whelp's pelt on my wall, and that is exactly where he will end up," said Skulker fiercely.
None of the ghosts however seemed to want to let any of the others be the one that got to take down Danny.
"Never, he ruined my eternal beauty, I shall make him my permanent day spa by feeding off his misery forever once we destroy his traitor of a girlfriend," said Spectra.
All the ghosts were starting to get in each other's face and argue back and forth, none of them budging on their desire punish Danny for whatever he did to them respectively in the past. Both Danny and Ember were now both confused and watching all the ghosts argue.
"Um, is there actually going to be a fight in all of this?" Danny whispered to Ember out the side of his mouth.
"Oh there's going to be a fight alright, and it'll be us making every single one of them begging us not to crush their afterlives," said Ember turning the knob on her guitar to her wide spread attack. "Get ready Baby Pop, I'm gonna need you to assist me on this one."
Danny smiled and nodded to Ember, charging up both of his fists as strong as he possibly could. Smiling back at her boyfriend, Ember brought her hand down with all her might and strummed her guitar, sending a huge swirl of ecto energy right at the army of unfriendly ghosts. Right before it could get to them, Danny fired an ecto ray from both of his hands which fused with the swirl. This increased the power of the attack tenfold and suddenly had all the ghosts looking at the oncoming attack, none of them knowing what to do. They didn't have time to try to do anything anyway as a huge explosion erupted and all of them were blasted away like a giant stick of dynamite had gone off. The realm was now a complete mess from the blast.
Ember wasn't going to waste any time by giving all the ghosts a chance to recover and come right back at them.
"Let's get out of here Danny, hold on to me," said Ember as she put her arms around Danny's neck, giving him a reassuring look before she started to make a whirlwind appear around them. Danny's hands went around her waist as they both looked over towards Kitty, a look of thanks on both of their faces. But before Ember could finish her teleportation she noticed something on her table behind her. Quickly separating from Danny she grabbed her most treasured item and a piece of paper.
"Holding onto that as long as you can I see," said Danny smiling as Ember put the purple rose behind her ear. It was quite wilted and would be fully dead pretty soon, but Ember was still keeping it as long as she possibly could before that happened.
"Of course, this is the sweetest thing I've ever gotten, I'm not getting rid of it until all the petals fall off," said Ember winking as she put the folded paper in her pocket before wrapping her hands back around Danny's neck.
"What was that paper?" asked Danny curiously, not noticing it earlier before the chaos started.
"Something very special for you that will all be revealed in due time Baby Pop, but right now we need to get out of here," said Ember as she started whipping up a whirlwind again.
Kitty watched the two disappear and was thankful that they had managed to get away. Now they'd be able to figure out a plan to get through all of this. In the meantime she needed to blend in with the rest of the ghosts so nobody would suspect she had warned them. Scanning the ghosts that were scattered all over, she spotted Johnny among them slowly snapping out of their daze from the blast. Quickly rolling herself on the ground to make it look like she'd also been blasted, she flew out to her boyfriend and pretended she'd just arrived separately. Johnny wasn't exactly a scholar so fooling him shouldn't be all that difficult.
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Danny's bedroom had been empty for the last couple days ever since he'd left to go to Huntsville, so there wasn't really any reason for any of the Fenton family to be in it right now. But Maddie had still been missing her precious little boy and was eager for him to get home later that night. She was currently just standing in the open doorway looking at the empty bed that hadn't been slept on in two nights, longer than she'd ever been apart from her son.
"No complaining later when I give you the biggest motherly hug Danny, because it's my right as your mother to smother you with love," said Maddie while looking at a picture of Danny she'd taken off the wall just outside his room.
Despite missing her boy she did hope that he was having a great time. Their phone call last night sure indicated he was having an amazing time. It even sounded like there was a girl with him that was also enjoying the sights. It was reassuring that Danny was getting along with the other people there that shared his interests. Maybe letting him go on a NASA weekend trip wasn't the worst thing, after all she was going to have to learn to let go eventually. Slowly closing the door to his room, she hung the picture back on the wall. And it wasn't a moment too soon because as soon as she did a whirlwind of flames started to appear in the middle of the bedroom, making Danny and Ember appear out of thin air.
Danny was a little surprised to find himself back in his bedroom all of a sudden. The whole thing back at Ember's realm had happened so fast he hadn't been able to really think about where they would go. It was also his first time teleporting with her so it was quite an unusual feeling.
"Wow, never thought I'd enter my bedroom like that before," said Danny as he and Ember let go of each other, Ember bending over to lean on the bed.
"Yeah, I didn't have much time to think and just brought us to the first place I thought of, also I wanted to teleport as short a distance as possible so I wouldn't lose too much energy," said Ember while holding herself up with one arm on the bed.
"Are you okay, was this too far?" asked Danny, remembering what Ember had told him about her teleporting powers in the past.
"Yeah, I'm okay, just a little dizzy," said Ember waving it all off. "It'll pass pretty fast since I was fresh back there and hadn't used up any energy yet."
"Well either way we should still move on, probably not a good idea to stay here, odds are all those ghosts will be coming through the portal soon trying to find us," said Danny as he put a comforting hand on Ember's back.
"Yeah, definitely, we need to find a place to lay low while we think of a plan, and also figure out what we're going to do to whoever blabbed about us being together," said Ember in fury, wanting to rip the head off of whoever did it.
"Here, let me carry you for a bit so you can get your bearings back," said Danny as he picked her up bridal style. Making sure her guitar was secure he fazed through the wall and flew into the morning sky. Ember wasn't expecting it but certainly wasn't complaining, subconsciously getting a little thought of this being something they could do again in the future under different circumstances. Suddenly a vision of Danny in black and her in white was flashing through her mind.
'Wow, could that maybe actually happen someday?' Ember thought in her mind while smiling to herself, too distracted from the pleasant thought to push it away.
Ember instinctively put her arms back around Danny's neck while he carried her, both of them trying to think of what to do and where to go.
"Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I have a good idea of who it was that spread the news of us, and if I know him as well as I think I do, he'll be here somewhere in Amity Park right now," said Danny frowning.
"Who are you talking about?" asked Ember, eagerly wanting to hear so she'd know who was about to get pulverized beyond recognition.
"Well there's only four people that knew about us prior to an hour ago, one of them is Kitty, two of them are my best friends, or at least one still is, and the fourth, well you very recently beat his face like a punching bag," said Danny looking into Ember's eyes with anger, not at her of course.
Ember was realizing what he was saying and suddenly felt way more furious than she ever had at Sam. Sure the hippie was a bitch that kept trying to interfere with her relationship, but this is something even she wouldn't do because she wouldn't want to hurt Danny. She didn't think it was possible, but she now hated that cheese loving ghost even more so than the hippie.
"Let's find that bastard and finish what you made me stop back in Alabama, I'll make him regret that he was ever born," said Ember with fire in her eyes.
"As much as I really do want to let you do that, first we need to come up with a plan on how to deal with all the ghosts that want our heads. They'll probably be here within the next..."
*ALARM ALARM ALARM ALARM
"...right now," finished Danny as he stopped in midair and looked back towards Fenton Works.
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Fenton Works was blaring a huge alarm that was as loud as a tornado warning. Only in this town it had another meaning, a ghost invasion. Inside the house Jack and Maddie were rushing to the lab to see what was causing the alarm to go off. As they pulled up their radar, both of their mouths dropped like a stone. It showed a giant swarm of ghosts was heading right for the portal and would be flying through in mere moments.
"Jack, we're about to be overrun with ghosts, let's give them a warm welcome," said Maddie grabbing her ghost staff, spinning it around and posing for combat. Jack was staring at his wife and it was quite a sight.
"Man that's hott, I love ya Maddie baby," said Jack giving his wife a hug from behind, not even bothering to prepare for the incoming threat.
"Um, Jack, I love you too but I think we need to focus on..." said Maddie before she was cut off by an ear splitting cackle of about a thousand ghosts.
"AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA," came the cry of what seemed like an endless line of ectoplasmic activity, all of them shooting through the portal like a rocket.
"Find that traitor Ember McLain and the ghost boy, show no mercy," called out a metal looking ghost with green fire for hair. Seeing the two humans in the basement where they just came through, the ghost smiles maliciously. "Well hello there, I've always got time for target practice.
Raising his wrist, the ghost fired a large net of some kind right at Jack and Maddie. Since they were both so close it slapped them both together and against the wall, pinning them in a ecto web and unable to move.
"Jack, sweetie, you're sleeping in the Fenton stockades tonight," said Maddie with a frown.
"Um, he he, don't worry Maddie, I'll get us out of this, and then we can finish our Fenton flap jacks before we fight the ghosts," said Jack with a shaky chuckle, earning yet another glare from his wife.
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Danny and Ember were landing on a roof when they looked back at Fenton Works, seeing so many ghosts flying out and into the sky it seemed like a firework show was going on.
"Ah crud, we gotta find a place to hide and quick, they'll be all over the city within a few minutes," said Danny as he picked Ember back up and flew them down into an alley.
"Well we can't fight a whole army of ghosts by ourselves and there's too many to separate them one by one, not without some more help," said Ember, looking into the sky and seeing plenty of ghosts quickly flying over them.
Danny was also looking up and seeing all the ghosts that were most likely hunting them. He knew he was possibly about to set off a bomb, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And this definitely qualified.
"Um, Ember, I know how you feel about Sam right now and I absolutely do not blame you, and I totally side with you on the whole thing, but I think we're gonna need her help along with Tucker to get through this," said Danny cautiously.
Ember quickly looked into her boyfriend's eyes and sure enough was not happy.
"Are you kidding me right now?" said Ember clenching her fists. "After everything that hippie tried to do to break us apart, there's no way I'd ever want her help, and I'm pretty sure I'm the last person she'd ever help right now, unless it was to get me away from you."
Danny took a deep breathe, trying to make her see reason. He wasn't exactly thrilled with the thought of asking Sam for help right now either, but he didn't see any other option. They needed more fighters and those were in short supply.
"I totally get it and I don't really want to do it myself, but look at this, we can't do this just the two of us, we're gonna need her help," said Danny pleading.
Ember glared at him, not wanting to let it happen. After everything that had gone down over the last couple days, asking that bitch for help should be the absolute last thing she'd ever consider. Dying again actually seemed like a more welcoming option. But another look up into the sky where all the ghosts were spreading out was not looking too appealing. Ember hated to admit it, REALLY hated it, but Danny was unfortunately right, they were going to need help.
"If she so much as looks at me foul, I'll dye her hair pink in her sleep," said Ember roughly, not happy with Danny right now.
"Fair enough, and I won't stop you," said Danny as he hugged her, though for the first time ever she didn't hug back. She was too upset right now.
"Let's just get a move on before someone finds us here," said Ember, not wanting to be carried anymore.
She and Danny both started flying out of the alley in the direction of Tucker's house, but as soon as they exited the alley Danny was tackled by a pitch black ghost and slammed into the ground. It was Spectra in her ghost form rather than her human disguise.
"Spectra, oh great, as if I wasn't miserable enough the last time you showed your hideous face," said Danny trying to push the spook off of him. "Where's your assistant and his portable petting zoo?"
"He's off somewhere else searching for you, which is fine by me because I want you all to myself. Make no mistake honey, I fully intend to reap you of all your misery until I look as young and beautiful as a true goddess," said Spectra smirking. "But for now I'll settle for taking care of your traitor girlfriend."
Spectra looked over at Ember who was glaring right back.
"Get off of him, the only girl allowed to put their hands all over him is me," said Ember strumming her guitar and sending an ecto fist right at Spectra.
But Spectra was more than ready to absorb the attack. Gripping Danny by his suit she picked him up and held him in front of her, making him take the blast before he could react and counter. Taking the fist right in the gut he ended up getting blasted away and into the side of the building, leaving the two girls alone.
"DANNY," said Ember in a gasp, watching her boyfriend crash into the building and put her hand to her mouth. While she was distracted Spectra took advantage.
"Oh, looks like your little boy toy is occupied, meaning us girls can have a little chat one on one," said Spectra smirking. "How about we start by burning that flower of yours that I'm guessing he gave you."
Spectra launched herself at Ember who only just now looked back from where Danny had hit the building. She was reacting too slow to stop Spectra as she went to turn the knob on her guitar and strum it again, hesitating after what she just did.
"LEAVE HER ALONE," came the scream of another voice, making both girls look to the side where it had come from. It was Kitty, and she was flying right at Spectra with her foot aiming a flying kick right at the dark ghost's face. Making a clean hard hit, Spectra was sent flying back and slammed against the wall even harder than Danny had.
"Kitty, how, I..." said Ember, still in shock from what she just did to Danny.
"It's okay girlfriend, I'm here and I won't let you fight this alone, right Johnny," said Kitty glaring at her boyfriend up in the air who looked very nervous right now on his motorcycle.
"Um, yeah, you got it baby," said Johnny slowly, not exactly happy with what was going on. As soon as they came through the portal together, Kitty had pulled Johnny aside and told him about how she knew that Danny and Ember were together. Also how they weren't going to hunt them, they were going to find and help them. And if Johnny had a problem with that he'd get a kiss from Kitty, but not the kind he loves, the kind that makes him vanish.
Spectra was getting her balance back as she now noticed that Kitty was the one that had kicked her.
"Oh great, so apparently there are numerous traitors to the ghost zone, well fine by me," said Spectra as she fired an ecto ray at Kitty.
"Shadow, attack," said Johnny commanding his minion, which flew up from the ground and right at Kitty, pulling her out of the way of the blast before going at Spectra. Wrapping itself around her like a rope, the Shadow flew up and held the fake therapist in place for an easy target. Ember, getting her composure back now that her best friend had showed up to help her, smiled and set her guitar for a direct blast.
"This'll teach you to put your hands on another woman's man," said Ember strumming her guitar again, blasting Spectra directly. Since the Shadow had her completely subdued, she couldn't defend herself and took the full blast in her favorite part of her body, her face. The Shadow let her go upon being blasted and she started flying through the air, clearing the buildings and landing well out of sight.
Meanwhile Danny was rubbing his head after hitting the side of the building.
"Oh man, I forgot what it felt like to get hit by one of those fists since Ember and I don't fight each other anymore," said Danny quietly to himself.
Looking down at the ground he saw a large number of civilians trying to run away from all the chaos. Plenty were looking and pointing either at Ember and the others fighting with Spectra, or right at Danny above them. None of them seemed to know exactly what was going on and there was all kinds of random babble among the crowd about how these ghosts were nothing but trouble and needed to be exterminated
"Seriously, with all the times I've helped the people of this town there are still those that think I'm the bad guy?" said Danny to himself in amazement.
"Doesn't matter to me what they think, all that matters is that I get your pelt whelp," said Skulker who had suddenly appeared and was aiming his launcher right at Danny. Catching Danny with his guard down he was suddenly blasted by numerous little rockets, blowing a huge chunk of the building out of the wall, brick flying everywhere. Thankfully all the civilians down below were able to get away before any of them got hit.
"AHHHHHHH," screamed Danny as he was shot into the building. Standing back up slowly he charged back out to confront Skulker, punching him in the face and sending him flipping backwards in the air. He quickly recovered and retracted his rocket launcher into his suit.
"First I'll take care of you, always my number one prey, then I'll take care of your traitor girlfriend," said Skulker grinning. "At least you'll still be together when I hang both your pelts on my wall.
"Not even in your dreams you overgrown tin can," said Danny as he and Skulker charged at each other.
The two ghosts both traded blows with each other back and forth as they fought. Danny landing a punch, Skulker landing a kick. Danny shooting an ecto ray, Skulker launching more missiles . Danny tried to fly low and get Skulker's legs, but he was able to dodge by floating up and shooting one of his ecto nets, trapping Danny inside. Before he was able to faze out of it Skulker started shaking it around like a lasso, throwing Danny out of it himself and straight to the ground, landing with a hard smack.
"Ugh, this is not going so well right now," said Danny to himself in a groan. Peeking over to his side he saw Ember had just blasted Spectra with her guitar while Johnny's Shadow was keeping her held in place.
"And it's about to get a lot worse whelp," said Skulker as his ecto blaster emerged from his forearm, firing a powerful blast right at Danny.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," screamed Danny in agony as he took the blast for several seconds before it stopped. Unable to hold his transformation due to all the damage, he forcibly transformed back into his human form, now completely defenseless.
"Ah yes, the perfect prey, defeated and ready to be skinned," said Skulker while drawing his ecto blade from his wrist and charging straight at Danny.
Danny was seeing his life flash before his eyes, unable to move as he watched the glowing green blade coming to claim his life. Ember, no longer occupied with Spectra, looked over and saw what was about to happen, her eyes shooting open to their widest size.
"DANNY, NO," shouted Ember as she instinctively charged right at Skulker to try to stop him. But she wasn't going to make it, Skulker was too close.
"The hunt ends here ghost child, say good...AHHHHHHHH," Skulker cried in surprise as he was suddenly encased in a solid block of ice.
Danny, Ember, and everyone else that was present suddenly froze where they were and wondered what the hell just happened? Who froze Skulker? Looking up everyone's mouth almost dropped at who they saw.
"You will not hurt my frieeeeeeend," called Klemper while pointing at Skulker as he flew down at him, landing right on top of the frozen hunter.
"Klemper, what are you doing?" said Danny pushing himself to a sitting position. Klemper just looked back at Danny and smiled.
"Phantom said he would be my friend for one day, Skulker is not going to take that away from me," said Klemper smiling at Danny before frowning at Skulker, who was looking through the ice in shock at the pajama wearing ghost that usually just annoyed everyone.
Danny and Ember were too stunned to move for a few moments. Shaking her head Ember snapped herself out of it and rushed quickly to Danny, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him to his feet. She thought she was about to lose him and couldn't stop herself from kissing him deeply on the spot. Danny returned the kiss and hugged her back, but only for a moment as their problems were far from over.
"I guess you weren't kidding when you told me about how Klemper helped you find my realm that day, who would have thought making a deal with him could lead to this of all things," said Ember looking over at Klemper, who was wagging his finger in front of Skulker's face and telling him how Phantom was his friend.
"Yeah, at the time I thought I was making a deal that would in some way get me killed, but turns out it did the exact opposite," said Danny, unable to stop himself from smiling lightly at Klemper. "I think I'll owe him a week of friendship now, and I'm okay with that honestly."
"DANNY!" came the voices of Sam and Tucker as they both drove around the corner on their motor scooters. Ember and Sam naturally frowned at each other when they stopped in front of her and Danny, both wearing the wrist rays that they had apparently kept from when they attacked Ember's realm.
"Um, seems me missed a weird party, but that's not important, are you okay?" said Tucker taking a quick look at Klemper ,Skulker, Kitty, and Johnny all in turn while the last two were moving towards the group. "We heard all the firepower and destruction and figured you were in the center of it."
"Yeah we're both okay, for now at least," said Danny taking Ember's hand, hoping the whole drama with Sam wouldn't come up right now, he had much bigger things to worry about.
"Now do you see what being in a relationship with her has brought you, nothing but more trouble," said Sam angrily while gesturing towards Ember. Well so much for that hope.
"I just blasted Spectra without holding back, I'm more than happy to do the same to you despite having bigger fish to fry," said Ember frowning and charging up an ecto ray.
Danny however had other thoughts on what to do and say. Putting his hand on Ember's shoulder he silently asked her to power her fist down with a look before facing Sam.
"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW SAM," shouted Danny loudly, his face turning to a scowl as he looked at Sam. "All this crazy shit is going on right now and you still want to lecture me about who I'm in a relationship with even though I'm happier than I've ever been in my life. Enough, I'm not taking it anymore. I'm with Ember, I love her, and in case you hadn't noticed, there's a huge ghost invasion going on right now to try to destroy us. So either stay and help us out, or just go, because I'm not listening to this crap anymore, it's so far beyond a broken record.
Sam was completely shocked, not expecting Danny to get so defensive. She expected him to be resistant to her words, but to full on snap at her like that is something she hadn't even considered. Despite their current uneasy situation she didn't actually want anything bad to happen to him, she still cared about him a lot. But why couldn't he have feelings for her rather than Ember, like when he was under the love spell? It just wasn't fair that a ghost diva like Ember was the one that he would fall so hard for after everything they'd been through together. She just couldn't bring herself to be okay with it, she felt too strongly about Danny.
"I'm not going anywhere Danny, I'm always here to fight by your side and help you," said Sam stepping slightly forward and putting her hand over her heart. Ember didn't like the way she sounded and stepped a bit forward herself.
"I don't like that you're here or even want you here, but I'll tolerate it until we get out of this," said Ember making her position clear. "Just remember which of us is actually his girlfriend and to keep your hands to yourself."
"Make no mistake hothead, I'm here to help Danny, not you," said Sam glaring, Ember returning it. Danny rolled his eyes and felt another migraine coming on, something he already had enough of this morning.
"Okay clearly this is not going to work so we're going to divide and conquer," said Danny frowning at Sam, so disappointed in her attitude. "Sam you go with Kitty, and Tucker you go with Johnny and his Shadow."
"Um, hey now punk, when did I ever agree to be apart of helping you? Quite frankly I'm not opposed at all to that ghost army destroying you," said Johnny as his shadow crossed it's arms and growled in agreement.
*SMACK
"How about you do as you're told otherwise Ember and I will take every part of your bike and shove it where the sun don't shine one piece at a time," said Kitty as she smacked the back of his head, Ember grinning happily, liking very much how that sounded.
"Um, well, I guess I can get onboard with lending a helping hand a little bit," said Johnny in a suddenly more cheerful tone. It was hard to tell which part of the threat he was worried about, his bike being disassembled or getting the most painful prostate exam ever.
Tucker and Sam both walked towards their assigned partners, Sam quite reluctantly and slowly but not refusing. She looked at Danny over her shoulder one more time with a hopeful face, but he just kept holding Ember's hand and gave a look of disappointment.
"Okay goth, even though I'm still pissed at how you attacked us at Ember's realm, I'm willing to forget all that right now to help our friends, so let's get going," said Kitty as she took Sam's arm and flew them both into the sky.
Tucker watched Kitty and Sam fly away and couldn't help but appreciate Kitty again.
"Wow that Kitty sure is something, you're a lucky guy Johnny," said Tucker giving Johnny a bro grin.
Johnny didn't like the thought that this geek was eyeing his girl, or that he was calling him lucky when he was here against his will and being blackmailed into it. Giving his Shadow a mental command, the spook quickly slipped behind Tucker and reached into the back of his pants. With a huge yank, Tucker's underwear was pulled up so high he could practically taste it, giving him the biggest wedgie he'd ever received in his life.
"Just get on the bike dude," said Johnny in a tone that was clearly annoyed. Tucker very awkwardly walked over to the bike and hopped on the back, hesitantly grabbing Johnny around the waist to hold himself in place. Johnny also looked quite uncomfortable with it as they flew into the sky in the opposite direction of Sam and Kitty.
"I probably should have blasted Johnny for that, but it's kinda hard to blame him," said Danny watching the two fly away. "Tucker doesn't always think before he speaks."
"Yeah it's pretty amazing the stuff that comes out of his mouth, I imagine that's not the first time he's gotten one of those," said Ember smirking.
"Oh no, not by a long shot," said Danny as he remembered several instances where Dash had done something very similar, though he didn't pull the underwear nearly as high as the Shadow did. "Anyway, we better get moving, we need to find Plasmius and figure out how we're going to stop all this."
Transforming back into his ghost form, Danny and Ember floated up into the air to try to scan the area, checking out where most of the ghosts were gathering in their pursuit of them. While scanning they heard a lot of blasting coming from a few blocks away where a large group of ghosts seemed to be flying. A call over a megaphone quickly explained why.
"People of Amity Park, this is the Fentons, a safe zone is being established at our house for all humans to be shielded from ghosts," came the voice of Maddie over the loudspeaker while Jack drove and fired the RV weapons. "If you can hear this message, make your way to Fenton Works where our daughter will be activating our ghost shield to keep all ecto signatures out."
Hearing the announcement on the family radio back at Fenton Works, Jazz took the signal and hit the button activating the ghost shield. Now activated, an antennae appeared from the top of Fenton Works and started to emit a green forcefield into the air. It started off only covering Fenton Works, but as soon as Jazz pulled the lever to increase it's range, it started expanding. As it grew and grew, ghosts within range were pushed away while humans harmlessly passed right through it into the safe zone. It expanded for a full mile in every direction of Fenton Works, leaving plenty of safe space for the civilians of Amity Park.
"Well that takes care of the problem of innocent people getting caught in the crossfire, so let's get going and figure out a plan," said Danny as he and Ember both started flying through the city, staying low to the rooftops to avoid being seen by any passing ghosts that were taking more notice of the Fenton RV now.
Danny and Ember both flew for a few blocks while staying hidden behind billboards, water towers, and anywhere else they could find cover while trying to get away from the area that all the ghosts were still around. As they carefully moved further and further away it seemed like they'd be able to get to the edge of the hot zone and pick off ghosts one by one from the outside, making their way back to the center.
But once they were just getting to the edge they received a surprise in the form of a pink ecto ray being fired at them from the nearby rooftop. Looking in the direction that it came from Danny and Ember see the exact figure they were hoping to find, Vlad Plasmius, wearing a cocky grin on his face. Both of them were now wearing an angry frown on their own face as they charged together at the adult halfa.
"You're gonna pay for telling the whole ghost zone about our relationship Plasmius, and I'm thinking it should be as a plasma donor," said Danny while glaring.
"And apparently getting your face tenderized last time wasn't enough for you, so I'm more than willing to go for a second serving," said Ember as she charged right at Plasmius, aiming a punch right at his face. But once she got to him and swung, she didn't make contact. Instead Plasmius just grinned and vanished on the spot once her fist touched it.
"Actually this time I'm much better prepared now that I've seen how you fight," came the voice of another Plasmius from the side in the rooftop shadows. Turns out the first one was a duplicate, and now the real one was firing two ecto rays at the teenagers who were caught off guard.
"AHHHHH," cried both Danny and Ember as they were blasted back, hitting the rooftop hard and clutching their heads.
"I must say Daniel, I am quite surprised that you would actually be in a relationship with a ghost like this, quite astounding," said Plasmius grinning. "Perhaps you're more like me than you care to admit, after all we both seem to be attracted to strong women."
Danny had very mixed feelings about that statement. On the one hand he agreed completely that Ember was very strong and powerful, one of the many things he loved about her. On the other hand, Plasmius was clearly talking about his mother, and that was a creepy thought that made him want to gag at because no doubt he was thinking some very sick thoughts about her.
"You're right about one of those things fruit loop, Ember is strong, strong enough to turn you into gooey cheese like she did back in Alabama," said Danny as he and Ember stood together as one, ready to fight side by side.
"And my Baby Pop is just as strong and the most amazing boy in the world, something I'm pretty no woman will ever say about you," said Ember glaring, really wanting to punch this egotistical lonely man again.
"And we have one thing you'll never have, love and support for one another, you know, like my mom and dad do for each other," said Danny smirking, always enjoying the opportunity to remind his arch enemy that his dad was the one that got the love of his life while Plasmius was miserable about it.
"Well that will all be corrected in due time, after all karma always comes back to get you eventually, and your father will get his for what he did to me," said Plasmius while posing for combat. "In the meantime I'm more than happy to deal with you, the second biggest mistake of his life. But first we need to even the numbers."
As he finished speaking, another Plasmius appeared right beside him, making it two on two. Before anyone could charge at each other Danny took Ember's hand and kissed her cheek, earning a smile from his girlfriend.
"No matter what happens, I love you," said Danny as they both turned to face their enemy, charging right at both figures.
Ember and Danny each took a Plasmius, but both seemed to be equally as powerful. Honestly they couldn't really tell which was real and which was the duplicate. Danny would aim a kick for the head but it was caught in midair, only for him to be tossed aside to the ground. He fired an ecto ray that was blocked with an ecto shield while Plasmius pretended to yawn. Aiming his own ecto ray right at Danny's feet, it made contact and tripped him up, letting Plasmius charge forward and land a clean punch on Danny which sent him flying backwards and onto the ground. Ember meanwhile strummed her guitar and sent a line of pink energy circles at her Plasmius, but they were all dodged as he fazed down into the building, reappearing right in front of Ember and giving her a hard uppercut. Getting back up she charged at Plasmius with her guitar being held as a baseball bat. Swinging it with all her might at his head, she unfortunately missed as Plasmius ducked underneath it. Losing her balance from the hard swing, Plasmius grabbed her leg and threw her as well right at Danny, crashing on top of him. Quickly helping each other to their feet, they ghostly couple readied themselves for another attempt, but the whole thing so far was going very poorly for the two of them.
"We need to try a different approach, attack as one rather than separate," Danny whispered lightly to Ember who nodded in agreement.
Charging back in, the two ghosts made it seem like they were again going for separate targets. But right at the last second Ember shifted directions. While Danny threw a punch toward his Plasmius, it was blocked but left him wide open. Ducking underneath Danny's arm, Ember swung her fist hard into Plasmius' gut, sending his upper body down in a groan as he suddenly let go of Danny to clutch his chest. Now wide open Danny put his open palm right in front of Plasmius' face and fired while smirking, sending him backwards and crashing hard against the rooftop AC unit. While that Plasmius was clutching his chest, the other came at Ember from behind and attempted to grab her. Quickly turning around she blocked the lunge with her guitar, dropping her guitar pick on purpose for Danny to catch in midair. Putting Ember's guitar lessons to good use, he strummed the pick against the strings while Ember switched the knob with her free hand. An ecto fist was fired from the guitar and struck the second Plasmius at point blank range, sending him flying back as well and crashing on the ground, rubbing his face.
"Ugh, very well played you two, you do make quite a good team," said Plasmius as the two figures lined back up side by side. "Unfortunately for you it's all pointless, as is this whole fight. If you had any kind of real intellect you would see that this is all just a ruse."
"What do you mean this is all a ruse, we're here and we're kicking your butt," said Danny now confused. What was the bitter old man playing at?
"My dear sweet Daniel, my plan was never to defeat you here, just to keep you both in one place long enough for the party to arrive," said Plasmius smirking as the duplicate fused back with him, leaving just the real one. Taking a look in both directions, he smirked even bigger before turning back to the teens. "And it seems that time has now arrived.
Danny and Ember stood close together as they deciphered what Plasmius was saying, suddenly catching on and hearing a lot of laughing all from below. While they were fighting, all the other ghosts in the city were closing in on them, and had now arrived. Out of what seemed like nowhere, a swarm of ghosts started flying up from every direction, surrounding them. At least one hundred ghosts had formed a circle around the ghostly couple and were grinning maliciously at the pair. Danny and Ember looked both ways, seeing unfriendly faces in all directions. Plenty of random ghosts that neither of them were familiar with, and others they both knew that looked eager to take them both down.
"A full ghost being in a relationship with a half ghost, that's against the rules, basically all the rules, especially when that half ghost is public enemy number one," said Walker who was near the front of the pack and holding up his book in his hand.
"You dared to make a wish that made me assist you in starting this unnatural relationship child," said Desiree dramatically, clutching both of her fists while staring at Ember.
"I say once we finish here, I, Technus, will use Ember's electric guitar to further enhance my power over all things mechanical," said Technus while eyeing the guitar around Ember's neck eagerly.
Danny and Ember were standing back to back, looking for something to do. They were completely surrounded. Both of them reached a hand back to hold the others, wondering where Tucker, Sam, Kitty, and Johnny were.
"If you're wondering why your friends aren't here, there's more than enough ghosts to keep them occupied while we deal with the likes of you two," said Walker stepping forward, opening his book and flipping through the pages. "Now then, Ms. McLain, for your numerous violations of ghost zone rules, which is too long to read, you will be spending the next ten thousand years of your afterlife in my prison. As for the ghost child, now that we know he can just walk out of my prison in his human form, we'll have to settle for another punishment. And I do recall telling you last time I enjoy the part of the job where I get to be the executioner."
Danny and Ember were suddenly quite worried, one of them was about to be destroyed, the other would spend ten millennia in prison suffering through who knows what kind of torture. Their only hope was to try to go intangible and flee by fazing straight down into the building.
But Desiree seemed to read their mind as she quickly shot her arms towards the couple, trapping them underneath her now giant claws and rendering their fazing powers useless. Danny had experience with this once before when he first fought Desiree and it wasn't a fond memory. But that's when Danny remembered Desiree's one giant weakness.
"Desiree, I wish for you to mmmmmmmmmm," Danny started to say before he was gagged by one of Walker's guards, who fired his ecto baton right at Danny's mouth, rendering him unable to speak. Ember was struggling roughly trying to break free, not willing to give up.
"Ms. McLain, if you try to do that too, you'll be forced to watch as we slowly and painfully destroy your boyfriend, so I advise you to stay silent," said Walker, looking seriously at Ember as he approached her, taking the rose from behind her ear. "And real world contraband isn't permitted in my prison, so I'll go ahead and take this."
Walker held the rose in front of Ember's face before he did something that crushed Ember's spirit. He mashed the rose into his palm and grinded it into dust, brushing his hands together to wipe the residue off of himself. Ember's eyes couldn't take this anymore and tears were flowing out of them like they were waterfalls. She was overwhelmed, she was trapped, she couldn't get free, she'd had her most precious gift taken from her, and she was about to lose the one she loved. Tears continued to form in her eyes and run down her face. Was this it, is this really how she was going to lose everything she ever wanted after suffering for so long to finally get it? Decades of loneliness as both a human and a ghost, finally finding happiness with the boy of her dreams, and less than a month later having it all ripped away from her in the most painful way possible.
"Danny, Danny look at me," said Ember through a sob, wanting to see her boyfriend as long as she could before she lost him, trying to wiggle her hand enough to get a hold of Danny's.
As their eyes met each other, Danny's also starting to tear up. Ember could see the look of concern in his eyes, and she felt so touched by it. He wasn't even worried about himself being destroyed, he was just concerned for whatever was going to happen to her in all of this. He truly did love her and it warmed her whole body. She couldn't let it all end without him knowing how much he meant to her. At the very least he needed to know that he was the one and only boy she'd ever loved. It'll be her last gift to him before they were ripped apart from each other.
"Danny, Baby Pop, you are the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, and no matter what I don't regret any of this. The time we've been together has been better than my entire life and afterlife combined. Just know this, I..."
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Jack and Maddie had recently lost the ghosts they were shooting at. The ones that they hadn't blasted to bits had flown off in pursuit of something that they couldn't see over the buildings. But that was okay because it was giving them the opening to prepare their secret weapon.
"Are you sure that this'll work the way we designed it? We haven't been able to run a full proper test yet," said Jack as he watched his wife push some buttons on a rocket.
"No doubt about it Jack, we've been working on this ever since that whole incident where the ghost boy took the mayor hostage at city hall," said Maddie smiling at her husband. "We promised we'd never let another thing like that happen again, and if that many ghosts ever attacked the city again, they'd be in for a big surprise.
As Maddie pushed a few more buttons on the rocket to program it, she and Jack lifted it to the top of the RV and secured it into it's launcher.
"Once we launch this outside the ghost shield, every ghost within a thousand foot radius will be nothing but a pile of green mud," said Maddie grinning proudly. She and Jack were about to rid the whole town of their ghost problems.
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A/N I gotta say, writing this chapter was an absolute mind crusher and like I did earlier in the story, I considered splitting it into two parts with the stopping point being right when Skulker was charging at Danny for the final blow. But in the end I decided to leave it as one chapter this time rather than dragging it out two weeks. This story is not getting easier, in fact every chapter seems to get more and more difficult despite having the story already completely mapped out. I have my bullet points for each chapter, but then when I actually go to write it and have to come up with all the actual details my mind really struggles. I wrote I think five or six different versions of this chapter with different scenarios happening before I ended up going with the way I did, I just really hope everyone loved it and I picked the best version. I know I'm leaving you all with another big cliffhanger, and hopefully everyone will be okay waiting another week to see how it all turns out, lol. Despite the difficulty I still LOVE this story and am quite proud of it, all your love and support makes it worth every last bit of it. So how about showing some more love and support by hitting that review button below this and telling me what you thought of this newest chapter. Until next week, I love you all, and please REVIEW!