RACE AGAINST TIME PART 2
As the group continued their journey to the waterfall, the effect of the venom continued to work its way through Danny's system. Sam seemed to notice that his breathing seemed to be getting heavier and he was starting to sweat a lot.
"Danny, there's no shame in taking it a bit easier. I'm sure Nocturne wouldn't mind giving you a lift." Sam suggested.
"Actually my back is kind of killing me right now and…." Nocturne began to say, but then stopped when Sam turned around and gave him a look. He then smiled nervously and said, "But if I just stretch quickly, I'm sure I'll be right as rain to carry you the whole way buddy."
"I don't need to be carried." Danny said and then continued to make his way over the branches.
Ember then passed Sam and said with a smirk, "Unlike some people we know."
Sam knew she was talking about her and was about to retort, but quickly took a deep breath and continued on.
Danny swung across on a vine and then landed on the ground in front of them and stopped. Sam asked her husband as she stood next to him, "Danny, are you alright?"
Nocturne emerged out and noticed Danny wasn't moving a lot and began to get worried, "Oh no! Paralysis..."
He then shouted extremely loudly, causing Danny and Sam to cringe, "PHANTOM! STAY AWAY FROM THE LIGHT!"
Danny gave Nocturne a frown and then pointed ahead of them and simply said, "Chasm."
They all looked and saw it was indeed a large chasm before them. Sam then asked, "I know you guys can fly, but Tucker and I can't. So, any ideas on how we're going to get across that?"
Danny tried looking between the chasm and the other side, but suddenly his vision began to blur. He shook his head and tried to clear his sight.
He then said as he changed into his ghost form, "I'll fly across ahead first and swing a vine to you and Tucker."
Sam, Tucker, and even Nocturne knew that Danny's strength wasn't normal at the moment, but before any of them could protest, Danny ran off edge and began to fly across the chasm heading for the vines ahead.
"See? Phantom is fine. A full picture of health." Ember said, still believing there was nothing to worry about.
As Danny flew closer to the vines on the other side, his vision began to blur once again and then suddenly he felt lightheaded. Suddenly without warning, he began to fall from the air and they all watched as he disappeared into the trees below.
"DANNY! / PHANTOM!" They all shouted with fear.
Danny yelped in pain as he landed hard and broke on tree branches. He quickly tried to slow himself down by grabbing the nearest vine, but he eventually landed hard on the ground and he changed back into his human form.
He panted hard and coughed as he weakly sat up from the ground. He suddenly heard the sound of growling and out of the shadows were a bunch of jackals, hungrily surrounding the intruder who dared to invade their territory.
"Sounds like wild jackals." Nocturne said and they all began to head down to go and help Danny.
Danny crouched down and began to growl to try and get the animals to back off, but his vision began to worsen. As one leapt to attack him from behind, Danny quickly grabbed one of the broken branches from the ground and whacked the jackal away.
As Nocturne was about to follow behind, he slipped over on some of the larger rocks and began to slide down the chasm.
"LOOK OUT BELOW!" Nocturne screamed.
Tucker looked behind him and saw the large ghost coming straight for him and before he could say anything to the others, Nocturne crashed into him, Ember and Sam and caused them all to land right on top of his stomach as they continued to slide down.
They fell off the small ledge and crashed landed on the ground. They quickly dusted themselves off and continued to make their way to Danny.
Meanwhile, the fight between the jackals and Danny wasn't going well. Danny's strength was continued to fail him and he was sweating and panting more. He took the fight to the trees and tried to jumping across to another branch to avoid getting bit by the powerful jaws of the wild animal, but he was even finding jumping and climbing up the branches difficult.
A jackal charged right at him, Danny barely managed to keep it back with the branch, the jackal snarled and saliva fell from its mouth as it continued to try and snap its teeth at the halfa.
"Hey jackal! Here's a new song I'd like to call…..GET AWAY FROM MY FRIEND!" Ember shouted as she flew up near them and strummed a chord on her guitar, sending a powerful musical energy blast from it and knocking the jackal away from Danny.
"TAKE THIS YOU SLOBBERING MUTTS!" Sam shouted as she pushed over a pile of several large boulders.
The jackals ran away, frightened of the falling rocks. Nocturne then burst out of the bushes with Tucker and chased away the remaining jackals.
"GET AWAY!" Tucker shouted as the last of the jackals ran away.
Danny weakly climbed down and smiled at his friends, but then groaned as he weakly fell to his knees.
"Come on buddy, time to get up." Ember encouraged, but nothing she said changed anything and Danny fully collapsed unconscious in Sam's arms.
Ember's smile dropped as she started to finally realise that the spider bite was truly affecting her friend.
"Oh my gosh…..I didn't want to believe it….but now…..this spider bite is really a bad thing isn't it?" Ember asked fearfully.
Tucker nodded and then checked Danny's pulse. It was there but it was weak. He said to the others, "We haven't got much time. If we don't get the flower soon, then I fear we will be too late."
Danny shivered and groaned in pain as Nocturne carried the halfa in his arms. Ember flew Tucker and Sam up the side until they reached the top.
Sam pushed back the bushes and finally, they had reached the waterfall. Sam asked her technological friend, "The flower should be up there right Tuck?"
"Yes, but I think this is as far as Danny should go. Nocturne and I can will stay with Danny and look after him while I also get the formula ready for the flower." Tucker answered as Nocturne laid Danny down on the soft grassy ground.
"I'll be back with that flower soon." Sam said to Danny as he weakly opened his eyes.
Ember scoffed, "Yeah right! By the time you get back, Phantom here will have died of old age. I'll go and get the flower."
"Go….together." Danny said weakly before closing his eyes once again.
Ember growled and groaned, but knew she couldn't argue with her friend, especially since he was running out of time.
Sam kissed Danny on the cheek and whispered, "Be strong love."
Ember merely floated up the side of the rocky walls, while she allowed Sam to climb up slowly. She then said sarcastically, "Hey what's the hold up? I thought we were in a hurry."
"You know….you could help me instead of just leaving me to climb?" Sam suggested as she struggled to climb up.
Ember stifled a groan and just when Sam was about to slip off, Ember grabbed her by the arm and began to fly her up the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, Danny groaned in pain. His shirt was soaked with his sweat. Nocturne said to his friend, "Phantom, hang in there buddy."
Danny opened his eyes and suddenly Nocturne's appearance began to change into the snake that attacked them before. Danny held up his arms and shouted, "Get back! Back!"
"Tucker! I think he's starting to have those hallucinations you were talking about." Nocturne said to Tucker.
Tucker walked up to Danny and said to him calmly, "Hang in there dude. Help is coming soon."
Danny's eyes widened in fear as Tucker changed into Vlad Plasmius. He then shouted as he tried to make a run for it, "NO PLASMIUS! GET AWAY!"
Danny was about to run off the edge of the cliff, but Nocturne quickly caught him and laid him back down as the halfa fell unconscious once again.
Tucker looked up at the waterfall and said, "Sam, Ember….you better hurry."
Sam and Ember finally reached the top of the waterfall, but found there was no sign of the Nightshade flower anywhere.
"Where the heck are all the flowers?" Ember asked.
"There's…there's none here!" Sam said.
"No flowers! No roots! No time to look anywhere else! PHANTOM IS GONNA DIE!" Ember screamed, now really scared for Danny's life.
Sam then looked and saw the dark purple flower on a small rock on the side of the flowing waterfall and said, "There it is and I know just how to get it."
She walked over and grabbed a vine, tied it around her waist, and handed the other end to Ember as she explained, "Now you hold onto the vine, I'm going to swim through the falls, drop over, grab the flower and then you pull me back up and fly me down to the others."
"You know that's a very good plan, but there's just one problem with it…..YOU! I have seen you swing with Danny and I know one thing….is that you can't pull this off." Ember said, not having confidence in Sam at all.
Finally, Sam had enough and so she shouted right in Ember's face, "That's it! The high road ends here! Listen to me right now you ghost guitar-playing rocker, you can like me or dislike me but I couldn't care less about that right now, but unless we get that flower, Danny is going to die! Now for once close your mouth and hold that vine!"
Ember stood there in shock for a moment and was about to say something back, but then stopped and thought about it for a moment. There was really no time to argue and Sam had made a point. She just nodded at the goth girl and held onto the vine tightly as Sam dove into the water and began swimming toward the end of the waterfall.
Sam then jumped over the edge and aimed for the flower, but she completely missed. She then called out to Ember, "I MISSED IT! PULL ME BACK UP AND I'LL TRY AGAIN!"
Ember began to pull her up, both of them unaware that the vine began to fray. Tucker and Nocturne heard Sam's shouts and looked up to watch her once again jump off the waterfall and try and get the flower.
Sam almost had the flower, but missed it by one inch. She then called out, "ONE MORE TIME EMBER! I THINK I CAN GET IT THIS TIME!"
Ember began pulling Sam back up while commenting, "She's gutsy. Stupid but gutsy, I'll admit that."
The vine frayed and was breaking more as she continued to pull her back up. Sam once again leapt off the waterfall and this time, managed to get the flower. She called out, "I GOT IT EMBER!"
However as Ember began to pull the vine back, it completely snapped in half. Sam screamed as she felt herself falling, but managed to grab onto the small rock. Ember saw the other end of the vine about to go overt the waterfall and she immediately jumped into the water.
"Got it!" Ember said as she grabbed the vine.
She then felt herself being pulled by the current towards the edge and screamed as she fell down. She crashed into Sam and they both began to fall, but the vine got caught on the rock and they both were hanging on the rock.
"Sam I'm sorry! The vine snapped! I didn't let go!" Ember tried to explain.
"I know Ember." Sam said, smiling slightly at Ember.
"So what do we do now?" Ember asked.
Sam looked up the rock and then got an idea. She then asked Ember, "Can you climb up the vine to the rock without letting go? After that, then you can just fly us down to the others."
Ember nodded, agreeing with the plan. She climbed up the vine and then stood on the small rock. She then gathered all her strength and lifted Sam up with the vine, flying back down towards the bottom.
She gently lowered Sam down to the ground and then landed herself down. The two women hugged each other as Sam said, "We did it!"
"I knew we could!" Ember cheered and they headed to the others.
"We got the flower Tucker!" Sam shouted as they made it and she handed the flower to Tucker.
Sam sat beside Danny as Tucker got to work immediately. Using a mortar and pestle, he crushed the root of the flower until it was a fine paste. He then added it to the beaker that was boiling over a flame. He lifted the purple liquid and poured it into another beaker, turning the liquid inside that green, before a small explosion went off right in his face.
He then walked over and handed the beaker to Sam as he said, "I'm sure that I didn't mess it up and it won't make things worse."
Not wanting to waste any more time, Sam poured the liquid into Danny's mouth. The halfa swallowed the liquid and coughed a little. They waited for a few moments and then Danny finally woke up and smiled at them all.
They all sighed in relief and cheered. Ember then said with a smile, "Welcome back to the land of the living buddy."
Danny smiled at his best friend and hugged both her and his wife in his arms, happy to be alive and happy to see that finally Ember and Sam were getting along.
The next day, Ember and Nocturne smiled as they watched Sam and Danny swing and surf together above them.
"You know Ember, I'd say Sam is truly the one for Phantom." Nocturne said.
Ember smiled and admitted, "Yeah, she's okay for a human."
She then frowned and added, "But she still swings like a two day year old chimp. It's embarrassing and I mean….."
Nocturne chuckled, knowing that Ember didn't mean what she was saying and was glad that everything worked out alright in the end.
THE END