A/N Hey everyone, I am BACK! It's been a few months and man oh man have I had my hands full working my regular job plus a temporary 3 month job along with preparing for the baby with my wife. As much as I've been thinking about this story during all that time I was forced to put it at the bottom of my priorities and I'm pretty sure everyone can understand why. But things seem to be under control now as we're getting close to the due date, and I was able to get back to writing the story over the last several days. This new chapter is done and ready to turn the heat back up. I hope I haven't made you all too mad waiting to see what will happen with Danny and Ember, so let's get to the action. Love you all and happy to be back, please remember to leave a REVIEW after reading.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ember looked into the eyes of her boyfriend in complete horror and sadness. His usual bright green eyes now blood red, and not an ounce of love for her in them. Just evil with the desire to cause pain and destruction, all of it directed at her right now.
"Danny, please don't do this, fight it," said Ember pleading, backing away just a bit from him. "It's me, Ember, your girlfriend who loves you more than anything."
Danny heard her words but they all just bounced off of him, none of that stuff meaning anything to him anymore. The effects that the guitar had put on him had completely wiped any feelings of love and compassion from his mind. To him the girl in front of him was not the love of his life, it was an intruder of this mansion that needed to be dealt with so that she never came back. In addition, the guitar had also amplified his powers to make him even stronger, just like it had done to the ghost animals. Unfortunately for Ember, Danny wouldn't be acting on animal instincts but rather his natural combat instincts, only without holding back.
"You mean nothing to me Ember, it's my job to destroy you, so either fight back or just float there and let me vaporize you," said Danny raising his hand to fire an ecto ray, much bigger and stronger than any he'd ever fired before.
As the green beam was launched from his open palm Ember almost didn't even react to it, too stunned that this was happening. But just in time she snapped out of her daze and quickly lunged her body to the side, avoiding the giant beam by inches. Since Danny missed, this ended up blasting a huge crater in the concrete wall, but there was still plenty of room to spare in it. It seemed Plasmius had built this basement lab with destruction in mind as the walls were super durable and thick, able to take the blast without anything collapsing.
Ember was determined to keep herself from having to fight Danny at all, Plasmius was who she wanted and she wasn't about to let him force her to fight her boyfriend. Turning towards the ceiling, she would just faze out of the lab and back up into the house. Going intangible she went straight up, but once her body was about halfway through the ceiling she suddenly hit her head hard on something that felt like solid steel, forcing her back down to find a smirking Danny looking right at her. Not taking time to wonder what just happened, she instead flew wide around Danny heading for the lab door instead, but stopped right in place once she saw that there was a green force field blocking it, and that's when she realized what just happened.
"A ghost shield, I'm trapped in here," Ember whispered to herself in horror before looking back at Danny, who seemed to somehow know about the ghost shield. "Plasmius must have told him about it while they were waiting for us to get here. I'll bet he activated it on that remote as soon as he flew out of here, damn it."
There wasn't any avoiding it, she was going to have to fight Danny because she couldn't run. Ember looked at the giant indent in the wall Danny had made and realized how much more powerful Danny had gotten from the guitar, knowing now that this fight was going to be immensely more difficult from any she's ever had. Her goal was going to have to be avoiding a fight with Danny as much as possible while attempting to snap him out of his destructive mindset, all while avoiding blasts that seem like they could vaporize her.
"Danny, don't do this, I know you can fight it," said Ember trying to get closer to him and make him see reason. She may know how her guitar normally works, but since she didn't know what Plasmius had done to it specifically she couldn't know the full effect of everything that had happened to Danny.
Danny moved forward and threw a punch at Ember's face, but he missed as she dodged and maneuvered herself behind him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist to try to hold him in place so he couldn't swing at her.
"Why would I want to fight this when I'm suddenly more powerful than ever?" said Danny with a smirk while glancing over his shoulder. "That's something you certainly can't say yourself."
Before she could react, Danny grabbed Ember's hands that were clutching him and pulled them apart easily, showing how much stronger he was. Twisting his body to the side he spun Ember off of him and back to his front like a rag doll. Ember braced her body as Danny yanked her, slamming her into the ground hard. Looking up into his eyes as she rolled away and got back up. She tried to show through her own how much she loved him and didn't want to fight, but it was no use.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha, as if those baby doll eyes could ever make me want to stop this," said Danny as he swung an uppercut at Ember's chin, connecting and sending her flying up against the ceiling hard.
Ember groaned roughly as she smacked against the ceiling, feeling her chin that was now extremely sore. Danny had never punched that hard the night they met before they were together, just how strong had he gotten through this?
"Danny, please, I don't want to fight you, I love you," said Ember pleading, refusing to give in and return combat. "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me and I won't lose you like this."
Danny charged up towards the ceiling quickly, readying another punch and ignoring her pleas.
"Well I definitely don't love you, so looks like you're on a one way street," said Danny while bringing his fist forward, but Ember managed to dodge it and caused him to punch the solid concrete. If not for his ghostly enhanced strength he would have shattered every bone in his hand as a result. In fact he actually left a small crack in the ceiling where his fist connected.
Danny turned to swing again two more times, but misses both as Ember dodges. Her natural combat instincts start to kick in, and even though she doesn't want to, after dodging the second punch she throws one herself at Danny. It connected with the side of his face and sent him spinning through the air, crashing into a hanging lamp.
"Ugh, ouch," said Danny rubbing his face but also smiling as he looks back at Ember. "So it seems you are willing to fight, excellent because I prefer it that way," said Danny while he lets his fists glow.
Ember had instant regret on hitting Danny, but right now she doesn't know what else to do other than try to defend herself. As aggressive as he's being and not having her guitar to reverse the spell, she is completely clueless at the moment. All she can do is fight back and hopefully think of a way to snap him out of it as things progress.
"No matter what it takes Baby Pop, I'll get you back. If that means fighting you for the time being then so be it, I know you'll forgive me when it's all over," said Ember quietly to herself as she reluctantly launches herself at her boyfriend.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Everyone on the rescue crew was exploring their own section of the mansion but kept coming up empty. Considering the size of the estate you'd think that more than just one man lived here, not counting whatever minions he had that they hadn't run into yet. Despite everyone searching in different parts of the house, they were all thinking the same thing simultaneously while searching.
"Wow this guy is really overcompensating for his sad pathetic life," they all thought out loud to themselves.
While everyone was searching, they weren't exactly being careful with how they treated stuff. When Jazz poked her head into what turned out to the be the master bedroom she blasted the bazooka at a giant portrait of Vlad's face. Kitty fazed into the kitchen and pretended to look in all the cabinets for Danny. When she didn't find him she 'accidentally' knocked all the dishes out. While Sam was running through a hall she made sure to keep her gauntlet covered fists extended to knock over every statue like a bowling pin. And Tucker, while also not finding any trace of Danny, keeps telling the baby tiger ghost to stay close and stop getting distracted.
"Hey come on now, we need to keep moving," said Tucker as he tried to pull the cub off the curtains that were now clawed up like crazy. "Nice work on redecorating though, maybe there's a few other things we can slash up, preferably Plasmius himself."
Running out of the room they were in, the cub follows happily while Tucker headed down the hall. As they keep running they end up finding Sam who is coming at them from the other direction, still knocking over anything she passes.
"Hey, any luck?" asks Tucker as they stop in front of each other.
"No, haven't found anything, and I really wish we were either Kitty or Ember right now so we could cover ground quicker," said Sam looking in every direction. "But I'm still making good use of the time, left a pile of broken statues behind me which is now just a hallway of shattered marble."
Tucker looked over her shoulder at all the shattered white rubble that was all over the floor down the hallway, smirking. Looking at the statue still standing right beside them, he raised his rod and swung it, knocking that one down as well.
"You're right, feels pretty good, Stripes here also tore up some curtains in one of the rooms back there," said Tucker gesturing in the direction he came from.
Sam looked at Tucker a little confused and worried, then down at the cub.
"Stripes, wait you actually named her?" asked Sam raising one eyebrow. "I thought you just said that in the heat of the moment back in the foyer. Are you actually thinking of keeping her?"
Tucker looked down at the cub, who smiled back happily and walked up to him, rubbing against his leg like a common house cat. This made Tucker smile at the cuteness, not expecting any of this but also not sure he didn't enjoy it.
"Well, I don't know, maybe I am," said Tucker as he knelt down to scratch the cub under her chin, which she enjoyed while closing her eyes.
"Tucker you can't be serious, how do you ever expect to be able to keep a ghost tiger cub as a pet?" said Sam in shock, looking back and forth between Tucker and Stripes. "I'm pretty sure your parents will have something to say about that, and not to mention what it just tried to do to us minutes ago."
Tucker leaned down and picked up Stripes with a smile, letting her nuzzle against his cheek, clearly enjoying the affection.
"Come on Sam look at her, sure she was a mutated monster back there but how can you not love this face, she's adorable," said Tucker with a playful smile as he strokes Stripes on the back, making her purr.
Sam was trying to process everything that was happening in front of her, it was way too crazy. There were so many thoughts going through her mind right now on this but then she suddenly remembered that there was something much more important they needed to be doing at the moment.
"Okay this is off the charts weird, even for me, but you need to play with your new friend later, we still have to find Danny and Ember," said Sam quickly, urgency returning to her voice. "Come on, this way."
As Tucker gave Stripes one more affectionate scratch and loving smile into her face, he rubbed his nose against the tiger's playfully before putting her down. Sam resisted the urge to say everything she was thinking and instead just turned to hurry back down the adjacent hallway they just met at, Tucker and Stripes right behind her.
Two floors up Jazz was rushing to the staircase, having come up empty on the top floor after going through the master bedroom and the eight guest bedrooms, each of them the size of a small apartment.
"Good grief, if Vlad wasn't such a evil nutcase I'd probably want to study his mind. But taking my brother crosses a line that can't be forgiven," said Jazz to herself as she slid down the railing to move faster.
As she ran past a decorative table she noticed a picture in a frame on it, stopping to get a better look. Once she realized what it was she almost vomited. It was a picture of Vlad and her mother together back in college, except it was altered. Jazz recognized the picture as the one her dad had shown her before the reunion months ago, except it had been altered so that her dad wasn't in it, and instead photoshopped to have Maddie leaning into Vlad as if they were in a relationship. At the bottom of the picture their names were next to their respective bodies, except it said 'Maddie Masters' instead of Fenton.
"Uhhhhhh, no no and hell no," said Jazz grabbing the picture and throwing it up as high as she could. Quickly pulling the bazooka around she aimed and fired, blasting the picture to dust in a loud bang. "I'm going to need to have my own therapy for that one."
Putting the bazooka back over her shoulder she started jogging down the hallway again, looking for any sign of Plasmius or anything that could indicate where Danny might be. Suddenly while running she gasped when out of nowhere Kitty fazed up through the ground in front of her. Jazz stumbled while trying to stop herself and fell right through her, grabbing a large potted plant to stop herself from falling face first into the ground. Kitty turned to look at Jazz once she stopped herself from falling.
"I heard a blast from down below, thought it might have been Plasmius so I rushed right up. Did you just see him?" asked Kitty looking around but not seeing anything, just a big of dust and debris in the air from the picture Jazz had just blasted.
"No I definitely did not, saw something that might be even worse and will possibly require shock therapy," said Jazz getting her composure back and facing Kitty. "On another note, please do not scare me like that again. I almost jumped out of my skin when you suddenly appeared."
Kitty gave a small frown at Jazz's words, thinking she should show a little more appreciating for her coming to help her so fast.
"Hey now, if you ask me you should be grateful I can come to you so quickly," said Kitty a bit defensively. "I was a whole floor beneath you but got here in seconds. If it had been one of your human friends that wouldn't have been the case. Sorry I scared you but I thought there was trouble."
Jazz still had some issues with Kitty from their history together and this was the first time they'd been alone together during all this chaos. Bad timing and definitely not the best time to get into those issues.
"Well excuse me but I'm still very new to all this ghost stuff, so it'll probably take me some time to get the hang of it all," said Jazz narrowing her eyes a bit. She was also thinking about how she wasn't exactly comfortable working with a ghost that once tried to overtake her body but she put those thoughts aside for now. "Come on, let's keep moving. Hopefully Ember has found Danny by now."
Jazz started running back down the hall which was leading back towards the foyer, Kitty flying right beside her and peeking into any rooms they passed. As they both came out of the hallway they found themselves back in the giant entrance hall they all started at just as Sam, Tucker, and Stripes were emerging from the opposite side.
"Hey, any sign of them?" asked Jazz to the others.
"No, not a trace of Danny, Plasmius, Ember, anyone really," said Sam shaking her head.
"Well we're covered pretty much everything upstairs and here on the main floor, but none of us went that way yet," said Tucker pointing to the right towards a separate wide passageway that seemed to go downstairs.
Sam punched her gauntlet hands together again and narrowed her eyes, so eager to find Plasmius and punch his head off at this point.
"Well then let's get going, if it's the only place we haven't checked yet it's our best bet right now," said Sam, taking off before anyone else could say anything.
Jazz, Tucker, and Kitty all looked at each other nodding before taking off after her, Stripes bringing up the rear still behind Tucker.
"Hey there little one, I don't know if you can understand me but when we find your old master we're going to need your help taking him down," said Tucker looking back over his shoulder. "So feel free to use those claws of yours as soon as we see him."
Jazz and Kitty both looked over their shoulders at him as he spoke.
"Tucker while I will absolutely welcome any help we can get, I find it very bizarre how you suddenly seem to be talking to that ghost as if she's your pet," said Jazz raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah lover boy, most guys get a puppy when they want to impress the girls. This seems pretty extreme, you're no Scarface," said Kitty looking down at the tiger, taking in how happy she looked to be running with Tucker.
Tucker just brushed off their comments as he smiles at Stripes. Maybe it did seem a bit extreme but he was already growing pretty attached to the little cub, and Stripes didn't seem like she wanted to leave Tucker's side anyway.
"Well I happen to like this little girl, and I think we'll get along just great. We can share all kinds of meat together," said Tucker happily.
Jazz was looking down at Stripes too and about to comment on that when everyone suddenly heard Sam up ahead stop, gesturing for them to be quiet. As all four of them quickly stopped moving and became silent they could hear something up ahead. And it sounded like laughter, a very narcissistic laughter.
"This is my new favorite show, I should be recording it and later sell it to Pay Per View," came the cheerful voice of Plasmius in a room up ahead.
All four members of the rescue party looked at each other and silently nodded in understanding that they all needed to keep quiet. Moving forward they all stopped just outside a large opening into Plasmius's study, Sam carefully peeking around the corner to see what was there. And once she saw what it was she clenched her fists together tightly and almost sprinted right into the room. Plasmius was sitting at a desk against the wall watching what appeared to be security monitors. Sam couldn't see what was on them from where she was but if it was something that had Plasmius all giddy it probably wasn't anything good.
"He's watching something on a monitor, but I can't see what it is," whispered Sam as she pulled her head back.
Everyone looked at each other again and whispered to each other on what they should do.
"Let me get a closer look," said Kitty floating into the air and going invisible, fazing through the wall and into the study.
The rest of the rescue party crouched down to all peek around the corner together, hoping Kitty would be able to get a good look at whatever Plasmius was watching. Thankfully Danny's ghost sense wasn't one of the powers he and Plasmius shared since he didn't seem aware that Kitty was slowly floating up behind him and invisible. Staying a few feet back and also a bit to the side, Kitty peeked over his shoulder and what she was on the screen almost made her shriek. There were several cameras being displayed on the large screen, and a couple of them were showing Danny mercilessly attacking Ember wherever they were. Kitty's eyes shot wide open as she watched Danny land a hard punch on the side of Ember's face, sending her flying into the wall with a crash. Snapping her head out of her stunned expression, Kitty floated back towards the others to tell them what she just saw.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Down below in the lab Danny and Ember were still locked in a rough brawl, trading blows with each other, Ember hating every second of it and still trying to get through to Danny and not having any success. Reaching up, both ghosts locked hands and tried to push the other back, Danny wearing a very sinister grin while Ember struggled against his enhanced strength.
"Uhhhhhhhhhh, Danny, Baby Pop, I'm begging you to please stop this and remember that we love each other," said Ember emotionally as she struggled to hold Danny back in midair.
Danny just laughed as he kept pushing, his brainwashed mind enjoying her struggle.
"Sorry princess but you're preaching to the choir, I don't love you and never will again, you're wasting your time trying to talk to me," said Danny as Ember's back was approaching the wall.
Ember glanced over her shoulder and saw the wall fast approaching. A million thoughts were going through her mind as this was all happening. She tried to use some of them to regain that power she achieved when she attacked Skulker at his lair, but this was a different situation and she was finding it hard to concentrate. One thing though that was for sure, she needed to flip the table and not let Danny pin her back against the wall to get more leverage on her.
"Danny I know you're still in there and you're just going to have to forgive me for this later," said Ember, shutting off her emotions and letting her fighting instincts take over. Intentionally falling backwards she used Danny's momentum to make him fall forward. Letting go of his hands she used both of her legs to kick Danny over her back to that he ended up slamming into the wall instead, crashing hard against his back.
"Ouch, definitely felt that one," said Danny floating upside down for a moment flat against the wall.
Ember narrowed her eyes, letting her instincts stay in control rather than her emotions, but still reminding herself that somewhere in that brainwashed power boosted ghost was the boy she loved. Charging forward she grabbed Danny by his suit right on the blue flame logo on his chest, pinning him against the wall upside down and making herself at eye level with him.
"They say fight for the ones you love, so if that's what it takes so be it," said Ember fiercely as she punched Danny hard right in his gut.
"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," groaned Danny as he took the hard punch and had the wind knocked out of him momentarily.
"I'm gonna punch some sense into you one way or another Baby Pop, you will come back to me when this is all over," said Ember winding up for another punch while Danny tried to get his bearings back.
Ember swung her fist as hard as she could again, making Danny groan again from the contact. Again in his gut, once on his chest, a hard side swipe to his face. Ember thought she might be getting through since Danny wasn't fighting back, but that was all short lived as she aimed another punch which he caught in midair with an open palm. Looking back into his eyes again she realized he was again sporting a very sinister grin on his face.
"Very impressive Ember, I actually felt all of that even though I've been powered up, but it's still not enough," said Danny as he clenched his whole hand around her fist and started to squeeze. "And now that I'm so much more powerful, I think I can finally pull off a little trick I've been trying to do for months."
Ember tried to pull her fist out of Danny's grip but he was holding it so tight it might as well have been made of solid steel, for she couldn't get it to budge. While tightly holding Ember's fist he closed his eyes and started to concentrate, really focusing his mind on what he wanted.
"Come on come on," Danny whispered to himself. And then seconds later Ember's troubles doubled, for Danny had just produced a perfect duplicate of himself right behind her.
Ember heard the little popping sound behind her and looked over her shoulder, suddenly seeing a second Danny that looked just as evil as the one in front of her.
"No, get off of me, don't touch me," screamed Ember as the duplicate Danny grabbed her from behind in a bear hug, holding her securely while real Danny flipped himself right-side up again to float right in front of her.
"Thank you Plasmius, feels good to finally be able to create duplicates rather than having two heads," said Danny leaning close to Ember's face and changed to a mocking tone. "Ahhhh cheer up sweetie, now there's twice as many of me for you to love, I thought you'd enjoy that."
Ember tried to pull herself free from the duplicates tight bear hug but it was no use, he was just as strong as the real Danny. She tried going intangible to get loose but the duplicate just went intangible with her. While closing her eyes and trying to shake free Ember suddenly felt possibly the biggest pain of her entire existence right in her gut. Real Danny had just swung his fist right into the center of her stomach and practically punched right through her ecto skin.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh," groaned Ember in agony as her body went completely limp in the duplicate's arms. Since she was a ghost and didn't actually breathe she wasn't coughing like a human would, but it still hurt like absolute hell and felt like she could throw up if there was anything in her stomach. Raising her head slowly she looked into the eyes of the boy she loves, her fighting instincts fading with the pain and wondering if this was about to be the end for her. After all the suffering she went through to find love, it was about to be taken away from her in possibly the cruelest way possible.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Plasmius watched his monitors in both excitement and a little bit of shock, amazed that Danny suddenly seemed to have mastered the duplicate technique that he knew he hadn't been able to do before this.
"Oh wow, I might have raised Daniel's powers a bit too much, I'll have to be careful when this is over and I take care of him so I can replace him with his clone," Plasmius softly said to himself while watching the duplicate Danny hold Ember while actual Danny punched her hard in the stomach.
Meanwhile Kitty had floated back over to the rescue party and told them what she had seen on the monitors.
"So Danny is fighting with Ember right now and based on what I saw on the monitors it's in a lab underneath the mansion just like Danny's house, except the lab looked much bigger than the one at Fenton Works," whispered Kitty to everyone.
Everyone had shocked looks on their faces hearing that Danny was fighting Ember so aggressively.
"That fruit loop must have done something to him if he's actually trying to take her down, we need to figure out what and fix it fast," said Tucker glancing back towards the opening of the study.
"I'm game, I vote for punching his head right off his shoulders," said Sam standing back up straight and ready to charge in.
"No wait, we have the element of surprise, we can possibly catch him while he's not expecting it," said Jazz putting a hand on her shoulder to hold her back. "Everyone get your weapons ready and we'll sneak up behind him while he's distracted."
Everyone nodded and lined up together, Sam taking the lead still as she prepared to peek around the corner again. Looking over her shoulder she nodded once more and stepped towards the corner. But before she could enter the study she got a big surprise that almost made her hair turn white. An ecto blast suddenly fired right at the entrance and blasted something against the wall. It was Stripes. Tucker's eyes shot open in horror as he realized that none of them had noticed Stripes had wandered off and gone into the study on her own.
"Stripes," says Tucker in a gasp while rushing to the side of his new friend, leaning down to cradle the little tiger cub in his arms.
Everyone now rushed around the corner and into the study to see what exactly had just happened and stopped in their tracks when they saw a second Plasmius floating in the middle of the room.
"Oh hello everyone, did you really think I wasn't aware of where you've all been this whole time?" said the real Plasmius looking over towards them from his desk. "While I've been enjoying my new favorite show my trusty duplicate here has been keeping an eye on all of you. But now that you're all here I guess I should be a gracious host and entertain you."
Standing up from his desk Plasmius pulled Ember's guitar off his shoulder and set it in a lock box off to the side, activating a ghost shield around it as well. Everyone's eyes shot open when they saw it, Kitty hadn't been able to see it when she snuck a look at the monitors since his body had been blocking it.
"What the hell did you do to Ember's guitar you creep?" demanded Kitty clenching her fists and stepping forward. Plasmius just smirked and floated back to the center of the room.
"Just made some minor improvements, also a much better paint job, the whole blue and purple thing was a bit ugly if you ask me," said Plasmius in a mocking tone. "It worked really well on Daniel, too bad once he's finished with Ember I won't have any reason to keep him around anymore."
Upon hearing this both Sam and Jazz had pure fury in their eyes. Sam was ready to charge right at him and Jazz was ready to abandon her whole calm and collected personality as an aspiring psychiatrist.
"That must be what he used to turn Danny against Ember," said Kitty pointing at the lockbox, but not knowing what she could do about it since nobody present knew how it worked or could even get to it.
"I can't believe I once thought of you as an uncle, you're a madman," said Jazz narrowing her eyes and pointing her bazooka right at Plasmius.
Tucker walked in holding Stripes in his arms securely, also looking furious and ready to get down to business.
"Enough talk, Danny and Ember are in trouble and getting through this overinflated ego maniac is the way to save them, so stop talking and start fighting," said Sam charging forward for the real Plasmius.
Plasmius just smirked with his hands behind his back and split himself into another duplicate, making it now 3 vs 4. Sam's punch missed the new duplicate completely as it lazily twisted it's body away from her with a smirk.
"Tick tock tick tock, if you want to have any chance at saving Daniel and his beloved princess you'll have to do a lot better than that," said the duplicate as it raised his hand to fire and ecto ray right at Sam. Raising her gauntlets she used them to shield herself as she was blasted back, able to take the hit but still feeling it as she landed on her back.
"Ugh, okay gotta be smarter than that, he's much better than those beasts were," said Sam to herself as she got back up.
Looking in front of her she saw that Tucker had drawn his rod again and was engaged with the other duplicate along with Stripes, who was staying right beside him and attempting to scratch at the duplicate's legs. Clearly this tiger had developed a good bond with Tucker in a very short time as she seemed to be trying to stay between Tucker and the duplicate to protect him.
"Stripes, I don't know how much of this you can understand, but go for his eyes like you did against the bear," said Tucker swinging his rod over Stripe's head towards the duplicates.
"That is quite possibly the most pathetic excuse for a minion ever," said the duplicate looking down at Stripes. "I made that tiger an overpowered beast and it still failed so miserably. And now as a tiny little cub it's teamed up with you, this is embarrassing."
Tucker felt rage building in him from that insult, looking down at Stripes with affection to silently say it wasn't true.
"Don't you talk about my new friend that way, Stripes is adorable and way better than you'll ever be," said Tucker yanking the rod our of the duplicate's hand and quickly swinging it up towards his chin, connecting cleanly to catch the duplicate by surprise.
After flying through the air and hitting the bookcase, the duplicate rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes at Tucker and Stripes.
"Okay, playtime is over, let's get serious now," he said charging right back at them.
Off to the side Jazz was trying to blast the second duplicate with her bazooka, but all her shots kept missing the elusive ghost and hitting all over the walls. She wasn't exactly worried about collateral damage so she just kept firing.
Kitty was engaged in combat with the real Plasmius and was showing she meant business as well. She was really fired up with everything this man had done to her best friend and Danny, and was eager to take it all out on him.
"You heartless monster, what you did to my best friend and Danny is unforgivable, and here I thought Johnny had his priorities misplaced," said Kitty through gritted teeth and aiming a punch at Plasmius's face. But she wasn't the experienced fighter like her opponent, or Ember and Danny, so he blocked it pretty easily.
"You're even weaker than little Daniel which is saying something since he's still so young," said Plasmius while opening his palm and shooting her with an ecto ray against the wall.
"Grrrrrrrr," growled Kitty floating back up. "Take this you man, MUAH."
Kitty blew a big kiss right towards Plasmius to make him disappear. Though Plasmius wasn't aware of what that kiss would do to him, he was smart enough to know not to try to block or touch something he wasn't familiar with. Right before it was able to hit him, he produced another duplicate to take the hit for him. The duplicate shook for a moment and then vanished on the spot, causing Plasmius to raise his eyebrow in intrigue.
"Well well well, that's a handy trick, I take it that kiss of yours could make me disappear to who knows where," said Plasmius smirking back at Kitty. "You'll have to do a lot better than that if you want to hit me with that move."
"Muah, muah, muah," Kitty puckered up and blew three more kisses at Plasmius, but he was more than prepared for each of them and produced a duplicate for each to harmlessly take the hit for him.
Looking around the room Plasmius took note of how his other duplicates were doing. Tucker and Stripes were struggling by themselves, Jazz still couldn't land a hit as her duplicate kept closing in on her, and Sam was now charging right at him.
"Hope you've got a good neurologist on your payroll fruit loop, cause you're about to have one hell of a concussion," shouted Sam as she swung her right arm with the gauntlet right for his head again.
But Plasmius was again more than prepared as he used his ghost like abilities to twist his body away from the blow, making Sam miss by quite a bit. It was pretty clear the older halfa was not taking this seriously and didn't view anyone present as a threat.
"Don't any of you see that I'm far more powerful than all of you combined, it's hopeless for any of you to win," said Plasmius raising himself higher into the air to look down on them and then over to his monitors. "Meanwhile you're friends are downstairs locked in a lovers quarrel and by the looks of things Daniel will be putting an end to his loving girlfriend fairly soon."
Everyone stopped fighting to rush over to look at the screen, the duplicates not bothering to stop them as they all floated up with the real Plasmius.
"Danny, Ember," said all four of them simultaneously as they saw both Danny's overwhelming Ember.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ember was struggling to break free from the duplicate's grip while actual Danny had just punched her hard in the stomach, having he moaning in pain as a result. Danny seemed like he'd had enough playtime and was ready to put an end to this once and for all.
"Say farewell pop princess, you're time in the spotlight is over," said Danny aggressively as he placed his open palm right in front of her face, charging up a huge ecto ray again.
Ember stared right at his glowing hand, then into his eyes, silently pleading with him to see reason and that this isn't really him. But the spell controlling Danny was just too strong and reasoning with him wasn't in the cards.
'So this is it, this is how it all ends for me? After everything I've gone through, everything I've fought through in both my life and afterlife to find love, this is how it ends?' Ember thinks in her head as tears run down her face. She didn't give in when Sam was about to throat chop her months ago in her realm and all seemed over, but this was far different and worse. This could not possibly be more cruel, about to die for the second time and in a way that's infinitely worse than the first time, at the hands of the boy she loved. 'I can't believe this is happening. Danny, I know this isn't really you, I still love you.'
Ember's thoughts started to flash before her mind of all the amazing times she and Danny had shared over the last few months. From seeing him discovering her stuff at the house she died in. Their moment in the cemetery back in Skery City. The note he left at her realm with the purple rose. Their first kiss on top of the music store. Their first date. Fighting Plasmius side by side together in Alabama and prevailing. Making it through a citywide ghost invasion and stopping a ghost destroying bomb. Their amazing Christmas date in the ghost zone. The most magical New Years ever. Lastly Danny's birthday just last night before Skulker interfered. So many happy and amazing memories. It felt like she had all the time in the world to reflect on all these memories, but all that had passed were a few measly seconds as they filled her up with emotions and happiness.
"Wh...what's happening, how are you doing that?" demanded Danny who had for some reason stopped charging his ecto ray, now just staring at her in confusion.
Ember opened her eyes and looked confused herself for a moment while looking back at him before she looked down at herself. She realized she had a strong blue glow around her and her hair had started to spiral out of control. The duplicate was still holding her from behind, but all of a sudden it felt like his grip had loosened, or she just wasn't feeling as constricted anymore by his hold on her. She was also realizing that her body didn't seem to be bothered by the huge punch she just took to the stomach anymore. Not knowing exactly how it was happening or why, Ember wasn't questioning it as she was finding new energy to fight back. She tensed herself up and attempted to pull her arms out of the duplicate's grip.
"Hands off you cheap imitation, only my real boyfriend is allowed to put his hands all over me," said Ember roughly, feeling recharged now as she is able to break the duplicate's grip. "How about we turn the heat up a little bit to eleven."
Ember quickly flipped herself around and nodded her head forward, using her hair to blast a roaring inferno at the duplicate that engulfed him in a wave of blue flames. By the time she let it drop the duplicate was nowhere to be seen. She'd completely incinerated him. She then turned back to Danny looking much more serious now.
"Danny, I was about ready to give up, but like I said before, nothing will stop me from setting you free and getting you back into my arms," said Ember as she again thought of all the happy memories she had with him, realizing now that they were fueling her power somehow just like they had back at Skulker's lair. But this time they felt even stronger as her hair raged out of control, putting a scorch mark into the concrete ceiling.
"Fine, so you're a little stronger now, but that won't stop me from putting an end to you and this foolish rescue mission of yours," said Danny posing for more combat.
Both ghosts glared at each other, Ember reluctantly, not happy that she was going to have to get really rough with her man. They both launched themselves at each other ready to engage in combat once again, and neither of them were pulling their punches. Ember was going to get Danny back even if she had to punch the ghost right out of him.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A/N Damn I feel so excited that I've been able to get back to writing this story, I missed it so much. The time away did do me some good in that regard by letting my writing juices recharge, I remember feeling pretty burnt out when I had to step away months ago, but now I feel fantastic. This has turned into another of my chapters where I drastically underestimated how much content I was going to have to write because the bullet points I have in my story map can sometimes be very deceiving on how much content will be necessary. So as a result this is going to be the third part of the story that is split into two parts, and I think I found a good stopping point in the middle. I want to make it clear that I will not be committing myself to a writing schedule and specific posting time like I was in the past. With my life where it is right now it's just too unpredictable to do so. I will be continuing to write as much as I can because I really want to finish, but chapter updates could be pretty random the rest of the way. I hope you all loved this new addition after I was away for so long, please show your love by sharing it with friends and remember to tell me what you thought with a REVIEW! Love you all and I'll see you next time.