A/N Oh boy oh boy I am finally back again after the biggest moment of my life. My wife and I have welcomed my beautiful daughter Nora into the world and our lives have been completely consumed around caring for and loving her. I can't believe I'm actually a father now and my whole life will never be the same. It has made finding time to write this story incredibly difficult, but thankfully I've finally been able to finish and post this newest chapter. Thank you everyone for your patience and I hope you love it. This chapter has one of the biggest twists of the whole story and I hope you all enjoy it. As always if you enjoy it and have any feedback please let me know with a REVIEW!
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Danny and Ember were flying at each other like missiles, each with their own mission to accomplish and willing to do whatever it took to complete it. They reached each other in midair and locked their fists once again to try and push the other back. Danny wasn't able to push Ember back so easily this time as she had now matched him in strength. She kept her thoughts focused on her happy memories with Danny and how much he meant to her, something she had never done before when fighting. She regularly just let her rage and fury take over, but this was something completely different. It was unlike any feeling she'd ever had before and it felt incredible as she traded blows with her boyfriend. She'd connect a punch with his face, he'd respond with a kick to her chest. She shot a pink ecto ray towards him, he'd dodge and return fire right back. She'd launch another fury of flames with her hair, he'd produce another duplicate to take the blow while he slipped to her side. Blow after blow was traded as both ghosts kept getting slammed against the equipment and concrete walls that they couldn't faze through thanks to the ghost shield keeping them trapped.
"I can do this all day Baby Pop, however long it takes to snap you out of it," said Ember raising her fists up again after Danny crashed into a table and shattered several glass bottles all over. This was the most she'd ever fought without her guitar, turns out she's pretty damn good even without it.
"I've got plenty of reserves too hothead, love won't be saving the day this time," said Danny floating back up.
"I beg to differ. In the past I would have agreed with you, but now I know that loving and fighting for you is the greatest power source I've ever had," said Ember launching herself at him yet again, keeping her thoughts focused on how much she loved him and why she was having to fight him against her will.
'Damn it, I've got to find a way to lower those shields so I can get us both out of here and find Plasmius,' thought Ember as her fist connected with Danny's again.
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Plasmius kept hovering in midair with his arms crossed while looking down at the rest of Danny's friends, all of whom were watching Danny and Ember's all out brawl in the lab, horror all over their faces. Every time either of them landed a blow all four of them would flinch and wince. Thankfully both ghosts seemed to be hanging in there, especially after seeing Ember raise her power to new levels. But this was something that they needed to figure out how to put an end to and fast before one of them was done in beyond repair.
"Damn it, isn't there anything we can do at all?" asked Jazz hopefully looking at all the others. "I mean if they're ghosts why doesn't Ember just faze through the walls out of there.
Kitty looked over her shoulder towards Plasmius behind them who was just observing, still not concerned about anything and just enjoying the show.
"I'll bet there's some kind of ghost shield or what not that's keeping them in there," Kitty suggested. "He said they're somewhere beneath us, let me do a little investigating."
As she finished talking Kitty suddenly went intangible and fazed through the fireplace, assuming that it would be the entrance to wherever this secret lab of his was. Once through she did indeed find the passage and quickly started flying as fast as she could down it.
Plasmius watched her faze out of the room through the fireplace and though he wasn't concerned, he didn't want to just let her go and interfere while Danny and Ember were fighting. He turned to fly after her but before he could faze through the fireplace he stopped in his path as a bazooka blast from Jazz just barely missed him.
"Don't even think about it you sicko," shouted Jazz before aiming and firing again.
"Curses, you insolent kids are such a pain," said Plasmius as he directed his two duplicates to attack again. He tried to go after Kitty again but Jazz kept firing, so instead he turned his attention towards her, giving Kitty the clear path she needed to investigate downstairs.
"Ember, are you there?" shouted Kitty as she raced down the stairway.
When she got to the bottom of the stairs she saw the doorway up ahead but it did indeed have what looked like a green ghost shield covering it. As she approached it she tried touching it, and found she couldn't penetrate it. But she could also actually now see Danny and Ember inside fighting. The doorway blocked most of her vision but she could still partially see them trading blow after blow.
"EMBER," shouted Kitty as loud as she could between punches.
Both ghosts heard the shout and suddenly stopped in surprise, looking towards the source of the scream and seeing Kitty in the doorway.
"Kitty," said Ember in shock but also joy, smiling for a moment.
Danny took advantage of the momentary distraction to fire an ecto ray at her, but Ember's instincts saw it coming as she dodged and launched another wave of fire at Danny. Danny was able to dodge the flames but he did so in a way Ember had anticipated, launching herself right at him to slug him hard in the jaw to send him flying back against the wall. While Danny was momentarily subdued and regaining his bearings, Ember shot over to Kitty by the door.
"Kitty, I'm so glad to see you, but I don't have time to explain what's going on," said Ember, complete urgency in her voice. "Plasmius trapped us in here and has a remote on him that controls this shield. You have to find him and destroy it so this shield will drop and I can get out of here."
Kitty's eyes shot open hearing what she needed to do, and knowing right where she needed to go to do it. Looking behind her she realized that for whatever reason Plasmius hadn't followed her.
"Wow that bastard must be really cocky if he didn't even follow me down here to stop me from finding this out. Assuming of course the others aren't keeping him occupied," said Kitty frowning. "Don't worry girl, you just keep your man busy, we'll go take care of the fruit loop, as the others keep calling him, and get you out of here."
Right as Kitty was about to turn and fly back, Danny had fired an ecto ray at Ember from across the room. Ember heard it with just enough time to dodge and resume trading blows with him.
"Please hurry Kitty, I don't want to keep fighting Danny like this," said Ember sincerely as she turned back to Danny to catch his fists in mid punch.
Kitty nodded and turned away to fly back to the others, fazing out of the fireplace to see them all once again engaged in combat with Plasmius and two of his duplicates.
"Everyone, Plasmius has a remote on him that controls a ghost shield and it's keeping them trapped in that lab downstairs," shouted Kitty to the group. "Get and destroy the remote."
Plasmius was now sneering at Kitty as he felt the remote that was currently in his pocket. No way was he about to let any of them get their hands on it and ruin everything.
"Give it your best shot you insolent pests, you'll have this remote over my dead body," said Plasmius angrily as his two duplicates fired down at them.
Everyone on the ground rolled to the side to dodge the blasts.
"Well you're already halfway there so we can certainly help you get the other half of the way there," said Sam glaring up at him with fire in her eyes.
Jazz quickly looked around at all their surroundings and used that genius brain of hers to put a plan together, taking in the surroundings with a smile.
"Everyone, I have a plan," said Jazz to all of them, starting to whisper everything to them while firing her bazooka to keep Plasmius occupied and from hearing.
As she finished explaining everything they all smiled and nodded at each other, silently agreeing it was a solid plan.
"Sounds good to me, let's do it," said Tucker smiling and looking down at Stripes. "I'm hoping you understood all of that girl, let's give this fruit loop a cat fight he's not soon to forget."
Stripes gave a little purr towards Tucker before looking up at the three Plasmius figures with a growl, showing her teeth.
"Kitty, you're up," said Jazz as she stopped firing and stepped a bit back, pulling out the Fenton Peeler to activate it.
Kitty floated up just a bit and brought her hand back to her lips.
"Muah, muah, muah, muah," Kitty made several kissing motions and blew them right towards Plasmius. She kept up the attack to keep them occupied and distracted. Plasmius kept producing more clones for each kiss to keep himself from getting hit.
"Seriously still trying this, that attack is useless you poser biker girl," said Plasmius in his usual overconfident voice while his duplicates harmlessly shielded him.
"We know, that's why all of that is just a distraction," said Jazz with her own smirk.
Plasmius heard her words and opened his eyes to look down at them. But the team had already launched into action, Kitty lowering herself to take hold of Sam's gauntlet covered fists, throwing her into the air so she was about level with Plasmius. Spreading her hands as wide as she could she slapped them together at full force to create a huge shockwave almost point blank range to Plasmius.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," shouted Plasmius as his hands quickly reached up to cover his ears.
The group below already had their ears covered and a little more distance to lessen the effects. As Kitty caught Sam, Jazz took aim with the Fenton Peeler and fired right at the now subdued halfa. She scored a direct hit, making his skin peel away while he screamed in agony and was unable to shield himself. As Plasmius tried to brace himself, his ghost form was weakening quickly as he was falling lower to the ground. Tucker nodded over to Stripes who quickly ran behind Plasmius to leap up into the air, exposing her claws and sinking them deep into his back. Plasmius screamed in severe pain again once the tiger made contact, shrieking so loud it echoed throughout the whole study. Falling all the way to the ground with Stripes on his back, he landed right in front of Tucker, who had his rod wound up and ready to strike. Stripes leapt off Plasmius and over to Tucker, who swung the rod with all his might to smack Plasmius like a sledgehammer. He was sent hard into the fireplace and down for the count. Suffering too much damage, Plasmius was unable to hold his ghost form and changed back into Vlad Masters. While he was still down and very slowly trying to sit back up Kitty and Jazz ran towards him.
"Jazz get the remote, I've got him," shouted Kitty quickly as she tackled Vlad back down, holding him by his wrists and pinning him to the ground.
Jazz didn't waste any time reaching right for his pockets, checking each one and quickly finding what she wanted.
"I've got it," said Jazz pulling it out with a smile and hitting the button to deactivate the ghost shield. She looked back over to Sam. "Do your thing Sam."
Jazz tossed the remote over to Sam, who caught it in her gauntlet and used every ounce of strength she could summon to crush it within her palm. When she opened her hand and looked at it, there was nothing but tiny pieces of metal that were on the verge of being dust.
"That's it, the shield should be down so Ember can get out of the lab," said Sam and she, Tucker, and Stripes all walked over to Vlad looking very vengeful in the eyes.
"I'll go, keep the fruit loop company for a few moments," said Kitty as she let him go and fazed back into the basement.
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Ember and Danny were both floating in midair close to the ceiling after another round of trading blows together. Both were starting to really feel the effects of the hits they were respectively taking but neither was willing to give in. Danny was determined to do what he was being controlled to do and destroy Ember, while Ember was determined to get back the boy she loved. This was one crazy day, and neither of them had noticed yet that the ghost shield by the door had dropped.
"I know you'll forgive me for this when it's all over Danny, just know that I'm doing all this because I love you," said Ember keeping her fists raised.
Danny also had his fists raised but dismissed her words just like he'd been doing since this all began.
"You're so naïve to think that your words are having any effect on me, I'm going to destroy you one way or another," said Danny as he launched himself forward again to throw another punch.
Ember dodged the punch and aimed a flying kick towards Danny's head, but he caught it and used her momentum to throw her across the room. Ember fired a pink ecto ray at Danny once she regained her composure in midair. Danny dodged it while chasing her, and once Ember's feet hit the wall she propelled herself off of it to charge right at Danny. Both of them had fists raised and were aiming right for each other's face. They were so laser focused on their target that they both ended up connecting at exactly the same time, bone shattering punches that had both ghosts howling in pain as they fell to the floor clutching their cheeks. As Ember got to one knee she looked at Danny who was glaring at her from his stomach.
"Gotta admit Baby Pop, if the circumstances were different this could be one hell of a friendly sparring match to find out which of us is stronger," said Ember rubbing her cheek. She was giving this fight everything she had and Danny seemed to be doing the same, yet their strength and power seemed to be pretty even despite both of them getting a power boost in different ways.
All of a sudden out of nowhere, Kitty had flown into the lab and was hovering over both of them in the middle of the lab.
"Kitty, how did you get in here?" said Ember in disbelief, but then she looked towards the door and saw that the ghost shield was gone, beaming brightly. "The shield is down, yes. Sorry Danny but looks like this is over, I've got some business to settle upstairs."
With that Ember found her second wind and flew like a bullet right for the door, heading up the stairs and having every intension of permanently disfiguring Plasmius's face.
"GET BACK HERE," shouted Danny, who also pursued her before Kitty could try to stop him.
Ember didn't look back as Danny pursued her, she was way too determined to find and pound on Plasmius without mercy. Fazing out of the fireplace she looked around and then noticed the others standing over Vlad in his human form, her eyes as fired up as her hair while she glared at him.
"You're going to suffer so much pain you'll wish you had never been born," shouted Ember as she charged towards him. Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Stripes all stepped away to give her a clear path.
Vlad looked up and saw the furious diva charging right at him and looked terrified, too stunned to think of transforming back into this ghost form. With her fist raised Ember was about to punch his nose out the back of his head, but that's when Danny fazed out of the basement himself and went straight for Ember. He punched her with his own added momentum to send her flying up into the ceiling.
"You and I aren't done no hit wonder," said Danny glaring up at her, Vlad now smirking again while the others looked on in shock.
"Danny, please snap out of it, we're here to help you," shouted Sam trying to step closer to him, but he was too high in the air. Danny barely turned his head to look at her.
"All of you stay out of this, right now the pop princess and I have a score to settle," shouted Danny as he flew straight up towards Ember.
Ember pushed herself off the ceiling and looked down, not at Danny but at Vlad down below and still wanting to get to him now that she could. With a smirk Vlad transformed back into Vlad Plasmius so he could flee the scene while Danny kept at it. But Ember wasn't about to let him get away.
"Get back here you bastard," shouted Ember down to the ground as she flew right at Danny.
Using his heightened focus on her to her advantage, Ember faked a punch at Danny as he swung one at her and instead maneuvered herself around him and flew straight for Plasmius once again. Seeing her coming and still wanting to flee, Plasmius flew off to the side towards the lock box that he set Ember's guitar in. Now that the shield was down from the remote being destroyed he couldn't just leave it there for Ember to reclaim it. Quickly fazing his arm into the box he pulled the guitar out, shocking Ember even more once she saw it.
"Give me my guitar right now," she shouted as Plasmius now fazed out of the room, Ember in hot pursuit and even more determined now that she saw her weapon.
Plasmius looked behind him as he went through wall after wall, seeing Ember match his every move and unable to lose her. Ember also glanced back and saw that Danny was there as well following her. It was a three way chase through the mansion and neither ghost was able to lose the one behind them. Plasmius fired a few ecto beams behind him as he flew down the long hallway he was in, but Ember was able to dodge each one, causing more damage to his beloved mansion. But at this point he didn't care anymore, the craziness of the situation combined with the adrenaline had him completely disregarding collateral damage. Besides he could just build a new mansion when this was all over anyway so who cared? He turned again and flew through the kitchen, Ember firing her own ecto ray after him but he fazed through the fridge before it could catch him, blowing it up. Ember glanced back quickly and still saw Danny back there as she fazed out of the kitchen and through the large dining hall. Plasmius turned upward to the ceiling right past the chandelier, Ember's instincts suddenly having an idea.
"Sorry Baby Pop, but this road is now closed," she whispered to herself as she fired at the chain holding the chandelier up right before flying under it.
The chain had several links blown out of it as she flew towards the spot Plasmius had just gone through, falling straight down and crashing right into Danny once he flew into the dining hall before he could see it coming.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh, ouch," said Danny grunting as he crashed to the ground in agony, rubbing his temple where the chandelier had made contact. He looked up but Ember was already gone and now he didn't know which way to go to find her. "Damn it."
With a sneer on his face Danny randomly took off again towards the ceiling, but ended up going into a completely different room that Ember had gone into after Plasmius. A bit up ahead of her, Plasmius was still rushing away and trying to lose her by zig zagging through all the walls. He tried to bring the guitar around to charge it up for an attack, but Ember was keeping too close for him to do so as it would mean dividing his focus.
"Ugh, you insolent pest, you're proving to be just as much as a nuisance as your boyfriend," shouted Plasmius over his shoulder as he sped back towards the entrance hall.
Ember kept her eyes narrowed as she refused to let him get out of her sight.
"Thanks for the compliment cheese head, I consider anything that puts me in the same category as Danny to be flattering," said Ember smirking as she tried to fire an ecto ray at him with the larger hallway providing an opening, but missed. "He told me about your lonely and pathetic life so it's not like you'll ever have anything like we do, or his parents do."
Ember put emphasis on the last part of that to taunt Plasmius, knowing how obsessed he was with Maddie thanks to Danny sharing so much with her.
"Oh worry not about that little Ember, for Maddie will come around soon enough once I'm done with all of you here, and I actually have you to thank for that," said Plasmius smirking over his shoulder and patting the guitar so she sees it.
Ember's eyes went wide as she pieced together what he meant. She'd used mind control with her guitar enough times to know what he was planning to do with it.
"You sick bastard, there's no way I'm going to let you use my guitar to do such a thing," shouted Ember angrily as she fired again, unfortunately missing once more.
Plasmius flew into the large foyer of the entrance hall where the group had battled the beast ghosts, stopping to flip around and face Ember with the open space. Ember stopped on the opposite side and glared at him, her hair raging and her fists charged up.
"Nothing will stop me from achieving my destiny," said Plasmius smiling at Ember, raising his fist and preparing to strum the guitar. "Once I dispose of everyone here Maddie will be mine just like she always should have been. And I'll take care of that miserable oaf Jack Fenton, finally getting revenge for stealing the woman I love."
Ember didn't have a loving family growing up when she was alive, and for the longest time after she became a ghost she resented anyone that was happy because she never got to be. But now she had Danny and knew how much he loved his family, and how much his family loved him. She'd die again before she let anyone take that away from him.
"Not happening you pale psycho," said Ember as she charged forward, not caring she was about to get blasted by her own guitar.
Plasmius smirked and began to bring his hand down to strike, ready to give the rock princess a one way ticket to painsville.
*BLAST
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," shouted Plasmius in agony as something hit him from behind and stunned him. Looking over his shoulder he saw that it was all of Danny's friends running from the hallway that lead to his study. He'd just been shot in the back by Jazz's bazooka.
"You creep, if you ever come anywhere near my parents you'll be more than sorry," shouted Jazz glaring, everyone else nodding and posing for more combat with their weapons.
"You despicable brat, I'm going to...oh butter biscuits," said Plasmius as he realized too late that Ember was still charging at him and he'd gotten distracted. Looking over his shoulder there she was, tackling him in midair and fazing both of them through several walls of the mansion.
Ember didn't have any idea where she was taking him, but she had him now and was not going to let him get away. Making them both solid after what must have been eight walls, she flew towards the ground and slammed him hard into it. The impact made Plasmius lose the guitar and it bounced into the corner of the room out of both of their reach. Ember punched him in the face as hard as she could before he could regain his composure, letting her rage fuel her actions.
"I'm gonna finish what I started in Alabama," said Ember furiously as she punched again. "Your face is going to be so disfigured you'll wish you were headless."
Plasmius took a few punches and they had so much force behind them that if he weren't half ghost they'd have killed him. But he wasn't about to just roll over and let Ember pound on him without giving her something back. Summoning all his will he forced himself to tolerate the pain in his face and reached up to catch her next punch, flipping her onto her back to pin her down.
"Don't go thinking it'll be that easy for you little girl, even after everything that's happened I'm still more than strong enough to take you down," said Plasmius as he aimed his own punch towards her gut, making a clean hit.
As she groaned from the hard hit Ember tilted her head up a bit to use her hair, blasting flames at Plasmius to get him off of her so she could recover. Clutching her gut as she stood back up, she looked at Plasmius who suddenly shot ecto rays at her from both of his hands. She barely dodged in time by jumping back, but Plasmius had produced two duplicates of himself that were flanking her while he recovered the guitar from the corner. One flew a kick right against her face, the other floated back as she was launched at him and gave her a good uppercut against her chin. This sent Ember up towards the ceiling where the real Plasmius was floating. Winding the guitar up like a large club, he swung it down like a hammer, slamming it against Ember's back.
With a loud scream of pain Ember went crashing back down to the floor, the hardwood cracking beneath her. She was losing her increased strength from before thanks to her careless rage overtaking her loving thoughts for Danny, and it was starting to show along with the damage she'd already taken in the lab. Rolling to the side as one of the duplicates charged at her, she fired her pink vortex ability from both of her wrists at it, but since it was just a duplicate it harmlessly disappeared. Things were starting to get pretty bad for her again as she tried to hold her own against the older halfa.
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When Ember had grabbed Plasmius and fazed him out of the foyer, she'd done it so fast that the rescue party was unable to follow or even react. Everyone was looking in different directions trying to decide which way to go, but nobody had a clear idea of which direction was the best choice. On top of that little shakes could be felt from the floor due to all the chaos going on throughout the house as it echoed through the walls. Stripes even seemed like she was a little scared from all the minor shakes the ground was doing from all the crashes, curling up close to Tuckers legs.
"Don't worry little girl, everything is going to be okay," said Tucker reaching down to pet the little tiger cub behind the ears.
"I don't get how that tiger of yours seems to have such a split personality," said Sam raising her eyebrow while looking down at Stripes who was now purring from Tucker's hand. "A moment ago it didn't seem to have any trouble attacking Plasmius, now she seems scared of some simple vibrations."
"That's not exactly what we need to worry about right now everyone, we need to find Danny, Ember, and Plasmius," said Jazz still looking at their different options to go. "Should we maybe split up again to cover more ground?"
"I don't think we should, there's so much chaos and power flying through this house I don't think any of us would be safe if we were caught alone right now," said Tucker standing back up straight.
"As fast as all the noise seems to be moving I think we just need to pick a hallway and hope for some luck," said Kitty hovering back off the ground and ready to take off.
Jazz secured her bazooka over her shoulder so she'd be able to run easier while nodding quickly, so eager to do whatever was necessary to get her brother back. With all the craziness she still hadn't even been able to have that awkward conversation yet about how she even knew about his whole double life. It was going to be even weirder after all this ended and they could all breathe easy again...hopefully.
"Alright then let's just move and go that...," Jazz started to say before she stopped in her tracks and words because suddenly a big surprise was flying really fast through the wall.
Out of nowhere Danny suddenly fazed through one of the walls and into the foyer in midair, looking around angrily for Ember. He was sneering so deeply since he lost her in the dining room and hadn't been able to find her since, and just like everyone else the noises were moving too fast for him to pinpoint where Ember and Plasmius were.
"Damn it where the hell is she?" Danny said out loud to himself looking in every direction before he realized everyone else that was there. He locked eyes with all of them as if they were strangers passing each other on the sidewalk. "Hey, tell me, did any of you see where Ember went? I lost her and need to find her so I can destroy her?"
Everyone's mouths dropped in shock as Danny looked at them as if he didn't know any of them. Sam stepped forward slowly to try to plead with her best friend.
"Danny, it's us, don't you recognize us? We came to rescue you?" said Sam softly spreading her arms as if she expected Danny to fly to and embrace her.
Danny just narrowed his eyes and brushed off her words.
"Of course I recognize you Sam, but I don't need rescuing, I'm more powerful than ever now and the only thing I care about is vanquishing that hotheaded diva. Nothing else matters right now," said Danny aggressively. He was about to take off again through the walls and resume his search. But before he could he felt something sting his rear end. "Ahhhhhhh."
Looking over his shoulder he saw that Kitty had her hand raised and had shot an ecto ray at him, frowning angrily.
"Danny we all care about you very much and are going to help you, but there's no way I'm about to let you go off and destroy my best friend and the one you love," said Kitty rising up to his level.
Everyone else was a little hesitant and hadn't expected Kitty to blast Danny, wondering what they should do. Danny however was now frowning angrily at Kitty.
"Ugh, you too? That insufferable diva kept going on about how she loves me too. All of you need to get this through your heads, I don't love Ember," shouted Danny roughly. "The only thing I'm going to do to Ember is end her miserable afterlife once and for all."
Danny was about to fly away again when Kitty once again blasted him to keep his attention. Danny turned to look at her once more even angrier now.
"Sam, Tucker, Jazz, I know you don't want to do this, but we need to keep Danny here and occupied so Ember can take care of Plasmius without any interference," said Kitty quickly looking at all of them.
Everyone looked at each other and though they didn't like it one bit, they agreed with Kitty, they couldn't let Danny get away. Even if it meant getting a little rough they'd need to keep him occupied. With a very reluctant nod to each other, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz all stepped forward and raised their weapons.
"I'm sorry about this buddy, but I know you'll forgive us when this is all over," said Tucker raising his rod with Stripes right beside him.
"Danny, not too long ago I would have welcomed you wanting to destroy Ember, but I can't let you do that," said Sam raising her fists.
"This isn't how I wanted to tell you that I know about your secret life little brother, but I'm ready to do whatever is necessary to get you back," said Jazz raising the bazooka. "We've got a lot to talk about when this is all over."
Danny looked at each of them in turn, not even reacting out of the ordinary that Jazz was present among the group.
"I don't care what any of you say or do, nothing is going to stop me from finding and finishing Ember. So if going though all of you is what has to happen then so be it," said Danny clenching his fists. "Thanks to a nice little power boost I've finally mastered a new trick."
With a sinister smirk on his face, Danny focused his mind again like he did down in the lab, and shocked everyone as he created a perfect duplicate of himself right by his side. Everyone's eyes shot wide open as they saw the second Danny appear. They'd seen the duplicate on the monitor when they were back in the study but hadn't realized how easily Danny could not produce them. Their problems had just doubled.
"Of all times for you to finally master that technique why did it have to be when you're fighting against us? That's just not fair," said Tucker with a groan.
"Well if it's just a duplicate then we don't have to hold back on it," said Kitty as she raised her fists, everyone else posing for combat as well.
"Since none of you are any concern to me I think I'll just let my doppelganger take the lead on this one," said Danny as he crossed his arms and let his duplicate charge forward to attack. While watching he also made sure to focus his hearing for any signs of where Ember might be, the crashing and shaking having stopped for the time being.
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Ember looked all around her as three separate Plasmius' were all closing in on her. The only reason she still knew which one was the real one was because he was holding her guitar, mocking her with her own weapon as he landed on the ground in front of her. She tried to fire another pink vortex at him as she got up to her knees, but each of the duplicates grabbed one of her arms and pulled her up.
"Let's keep those hands to ourselves now why don't we," said Plasmius smirking. "Well, your hands at least, it is my house so I get to make the rules."
"Yeah well you may have the biggest house I've ever seen, but that just shows how sad and pathetic you really are," said Ember frowning angrily at Plasmius. "Only someone that needs to drastically overcompensate for their loneliness and insecurities would have a house this big when they live alone."
Plasmius had been through a lot this morning, and wasn't in the mood to let his life be insulted right now. Normally he'd just brush it off and laugh, but these kids have given him too much agony for him to do that this time. He was ready to end this whole affair once and for all.
"You keep a good hold on her, and you go find Daniel and bring him here," said Plasmius to each of his duplicates. One of them proceeded to let go of Ember and faze out of the room while the other took a strong grip of both her wrists now to hold them behind her back.
Ember gritted her teeth together as she tried to shake free, unable to just faze out of the duplicates grip. As she stopped shaking she prepared to let her hair flare up again to blast him off, but Plasmius anticipated this maneuver and lunged forward to punch her in the gut hard.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFF," moaned Ember in pain as she fell limp in the duplicates arms, having taken too many hits to keep herself upright at this point.
"No more games princess, I'm ending this here and now," said Plasmius getting close to her face. "But as much as I'd enjoy finishing you myself, it'll be so much sweeter to watch your boyfriend do it. So just sit tight for a few moments until he gets here."
Ember weakly raised her head to look into the evil smirk of Plasmius as he pulled himself away, sickened by how terrible he could be and the inhumane way he was going to have her finished.
"You really are the lowest form of scum," said Ember as tears were threatening to fall from her eyes. "For someone to take so much pleasure in another being destroyed by the one she loves is despicable. You are truly irredeemable."
Plasmius only seemed to enjoy her words as he smiled proudly, listening to Ember rant on how much she loved Danny and how evil she found him to be.
"I don't care what you do or how this ends, I still love Danny more than anything and know that somewhere in there he still loves me," said Ember proudly. "No matter what you do you'll never truly destroy what we have together. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me and I will always love him. It's not like you can say anyone will ever feel that way about you. Even if you did succeed in taking Danny's mom it will still be fake happiness. You're pathetic."
Plasmius just kept smirking and allowed Ember to rant, wishing he was recording all of this so he could rewatch it later.
"Get it all out while you can my dear, for your so called love should be here any moment to show you how much he truly loves you."
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Danny at that moment was still floating off to the side while watching his duplicate attack his friends, sister, and Stripes. Since it was five on one but the one was so much more powerful it was a pretty even fight. The duplicate would fire ecto rays at whoever he could while the others would use their respective weapons on him. The duplicate had blasted several holes into the ground from firing, not caring about how much damage he was doing since it wasn't his house and he just wanted to get this over with so real Danny could go find Ember. But while he was mostly focusing on the humans and Kitty, he failed to notice that Stripes had snuck around behind him and was leaping right at his back just like she'd done to Plasmius.
*Meow
Leaping high into the air with her claws exposed, Stipes landed right against the duplicate's back and sunk them deep into the fake ecto skin.
"OWWWWWWWWWWWWW," howled the duplicate as his whole body arched in pain.
Quickly taking advantage of the opening, Kitty flew up and raised her fists while the duplicate was subdued. Bringing them down like a hammer she slammed the duplicate to the ground where he crashed hard, letting Stripes jump off and land next to Tucker's feet for another scratch under the chin. Sam rolled over to the duplicate and used her gauntlets to grab him by both of his arms, lifting him up high into the air for a clear shot. Finally Jazz raised and aimed her bazooka, firing a large blast right at him and making a clear hit. The duplicate then disintegrated on the spot in a cloud of dust leaving nothing in it's place. Once it was gone everyone turned to look back to the real Danny.
"Please Danny, snap out of it and listen to us, this isn't you," said Tucker trying to reason with his best friend. But Danny still wasn't listening or showing any interest in their words.
"It is me Tucker, and nothing is going to stop me from destroying Ember once I find her," said Danny with his arms crossed. "You all fought well, but I think just one round isn't enough, so let's go again why don't we."
Danny was about to produce another duplicate to fight them again, but right before he could the duplicate of Plasmius suddenly fazed into the foyer beside him.
"Ah there you are Daniel, I'm going to need you to come with me," said the duplicate Plasmius as if he was a butler of some kind. "Ember has been contained and is awaiting your arrival to finish the job."
Danny suddenly smiled really big at these words, looking back to everyone else who now look worried hearing what was being said.
"It's been fun, but gotta go," said Danny before anyone else could say anything, flying away with the duplicate and fazing through the wall.
"No no no no no, Ember," shouted Kitty in a panic as she lunged forward. "Come on, we have to follow them and stop this."
Everyone else didn't waste another second as they started running for the closest hallway to the spot where Danny had just fazed through. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were all getting really tired from all this running and fighting but they were powering through on pure adrenaline and will power to save Danny.
"I can't remember the last time I did this much running," said Tucker deeply as he hustled down the hall with the others.
"Probably a good thing since you eat all that Nasty Burger garbage," said Sam looking over at him. "You're long overdue to get some exercise and burn off all that grease."
"Hey, don't hate on the beautiful gourmet delicacy that is Nasty Burger," said Tucker frowning back at her.
Jazz gave them both a look of her own that silently said 'shut up this isn't the time' as they all tried to find where Danny had just flown off to, hoping they'd find him before anything bad happened to Ember.
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Plasmius was still smirking at Ember with her guitar around his neck, clearly mocking her with it as he ran his hand over it's body.
"Really is quite ironic and poetic that your most prized possession will be the thing that causes your downfall in the next few minutes," said Plasmius as he grinned wickedly at her.
Ember still struggled to get free but wasn't having any luck due to all the damage she'd taken from multiple fights throughout the morning. She was simply too worn down right now and too distracted to focus her thoughts again to increase her power.
"Even if you get rid of me you crazed fruit loop, somehow someway Danny will still break free and stop you from getting what you want," said Ember fiercely. "Low life scum like you never wins, he'll stop you in the end."
Being the cocky prick he was, Plasmius couldn't resist smirking again and letting her know exactly what he was planning to do as soon as Danny put an end to her.
"Actually my dear, you won't have to worry about Daniel trying to move on from you because he's going to be joining you," said Plasmius as he started a cliché villain monologue. "You see, Daniel's powers seem to have increased more than I anticipated they would when I used the guitar on him, and I can't have that. So I'll just have to put an end to him right away once he finishes you off."
Ember's eyes shot open again in horror at this declaration. It was bad enough knowing that Danny was on his way to finish her right now, but knowing that Plasmius would destroy him seconds after was infinitely worse.
"No, no I won't let you do this, Danny," Ember called desperately to the air as she tried to squirm free again.
"Oh yes my dear, Daniel will take care of you, I'll take care of Daniel, and then I'll claim Maddie as my queen like she should be while replacing Daniel with the clone I created down in my lab," said Plasmius proudly, then realizing Ember's shocked reaction to the clone claim. "Oh that's right you don't know about that yet, well long story short I've cloned Daniel with his DNA that I've gathered to make a much more obedient and improved son once Maddie is mine."
Ember looked downright horrified hearing all of this and was about to start shouting again, but right at that moment Danny and the duplicate fazed into the room, Danny with a very satisfied grin on his face. The duplicate with him fused back with the real Plasmius, who was stepping back and readying the guitar to blast Danny after he completed his job.
"Danny, please listen to me, you can't do this, he's going to mmmmmmmmmmmm," Ember couldn't get her full sentence out for Plasmius had just shot an ecto gag at her mouth to silence her.
"Much better, couldn't stand any more of that unbearable love talk," said Danny smirking while Plasmius also smirked at him from behind. "Maybe this will make it clear once and for all that I do not love you Ember, I hate you."
Danny raised both of his fists and started to charge them up as much as he could, both of his hands glowing so bright it was almost blinding. The duplicate holding Ember also grinned as real Plasmius winked at it. Ember knew she only had seconds left and was going crazy in her mind.
'No no no, Danny please stop, I love you. Don't do this, he's going to destroy you. I won't let him. Get back, get back.'
Plasmius had his arm raised high, ready to strum the guitar the second Danny destroyed Ember, a huge grin on his face as he thought about how he was about to achieve ultimate victory.
"Well it's been fun Ember, but looks like your show is over and there isn't going to be an encore," said Danny as he prepared to fire.
Ember looked right into Danny's bright red eyes, missing his gorgeous green ones as a tear fell from her face.
"No, I won't let him finish you Danny. Get back, get back."
"GET BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!"
Ember's gag suddenly vaporized off her mouth and her voice filled the whole room with an ear splitting scream. Everyone suddenly reached up to grab their ears as they winced in pain from the devastating noise. Ember didn't know what she was doing or how she was doing it, but she realized that somehow her voice was emitting a powerful wail and it was pushing both Danny and Plasmius back. The duplicate had let go of her to grab it's own ears before vanishing on the spot, leaving just the three of them now.
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," shouted Ember as loud as she could, making the whole room shake so much that walls were cracking.
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Sam, Tucker, Jazz, Kitty, and Stripes were all still hustling down the hallway and checking every door they came across as fast as they could trying to find Danny and Ember, but still hadn't located them since they left the foyer.
"Damn it, not in here either, let's keep...," said Jazz but her sentence was cut short as a very loud scream was heard throughout the entire area.
Everyone suddenly reached up to grab their ears and fell to their knees, all of their faces wincing as it felt like their eardrums were about to burst.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh, what the hell is that ghostly wail?" said Sam with her eyes pinched shut as she squirmed around wishing it would stop.
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Ember kept wailing, trying to focus on Plasmius and not Danny, but since she had no idea how she was doing this it was difficult to control it as both of them were wearing scrunched up faces and rolling on the floor in agony. She kept it up as long as she could before her voice gave out and she fell silent again, falling to her own knees and feeling very dizzy. As she reached up to grab her head both Danny and Vlad were forced to transform back to their human selves while their ears were ringing, Plasmius also having dropped the guitar in the process.
"Well, that was certainly new, didn't know I could do that," said Ember lightly to herself as she rubbed her head, her flaming hair pretty extinguished after using so much of her energy. Opening her eyes back up she saw Danny back in his human form twisting in agony. "Danny."
She rushed forward to his side and fell back to her knees beside him, taking his hand and silently pleading for him to be okay.
"Ugh, my head is about to split open," said Danny softly as he yanked his hand away from Ember.
Ember had hoped that maybe that wail had somehow snapped Danny out of the brainwashing, but it seems it hadn't. Whatever Plasmius had done to her guitar was apparently very strong and difficult to break. As she glared over at him she suddenly realized for the first time her guitar was on the floor and she could now get it back. Vlad slowly opened his eyes back up to see the guitar, but didn't react quick enough to stop Ember as she quickly lunged over and grabbed it, strapping it back around her shoulder where it belongs.
"I'll be taking this back if you don't mind," said Ember roughly as she ran her hand over the body delicately. She'd fix the color later, for now she was just happy to have her most treasured possession back.
"Grrrrrrr, you really are a pest, but whatever you just did clearly weakened you, and Daniel is still under the influence to destroy you," said Vlad slowly while trying to stand back up, feeling very dizzy himself.
Ember looked over her shoulder and saw that Danny was slowly getting up too and glaring at her once more, seemingly ready to take another shot at destroying her. She couldn't believe that he still wasn't snapped out of it.
'Unbelievable, I can't believe he's still under mind control, it's just not fair. What do I have to do, destroy my guitar to snap him out...'
Ember's thoughts slammed on the brakes as she processed what was going through her head. Danny was put under his current influence by her guitar, and it didn't seem like anything she tried was capable of snapping him out of it. She glanced down at her favorite thing now back in her arms where it belonged. What if she destroyed the guitar, would that do it? Was she really willing to sacrifice her most treasured possession and her weapon to save the boy she loved? It took her all of one second to decide the answer to that.
"Absolutely I am, I love you Danny and I'll sacrifice everything to get you back to normal," Ember said quietly to herself, taking the guitar off her shoulders. She closed her eyes and once again tried to focus her thoughts on how much Danny meant to her and all the happy memories they'd shared together over these last few months. As she focused her hair started to flame up again, raising her power.
"What are you doing?" said Plasmius in a panic as he watched Ember raise the guitar high over her head.
"I'm getting my boyfriend back, and once I do we're going to really mess your face up together," said Ember glaring at him. "THIS IS FOR DANNY."
Plasmius reached towards her but it was all in vain as Ember slammed the guitar with all her might into the ground, shattering it into several pieces. Danny had started to move towards her still in his human form, but seeing her shatter her guitar made him stop in his tracks, their eyes locking together in the moment. Had it worked? Was Danny back to normal? Ember was silently pleading in her head for it to have worked. After all the shit she'd been through that morning she deserved to get her Danny back.
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A/N Wow this has been quite a crazy ride. I have been wanting to continue writing this story basically every single day, but it has proven to be incredibly difficult with everything going on. My job, my wife, my newborn daughter (6 weeks old at the time of this chapter posting), everything that needs to be done around the house, so much other stuff. It's made finding time to write practically an impossible task. But I FINALLY have been able to finish this chapter and it's a big sigh of relief for a little while. Hopefully I'll be able to do the next one sooner, but no promises, lol. Anyway I finally got to reveal one of my biggest twists of the whole story that I've been planning for a long time, giving Ember the ghostly wail power rather than Danny. It's a bit of a gamble to do it and I hope all of you will enjoy this little twist. I thought it made a lot of sense to do so since Ember is actually the rock star singer, so she has a very strong voice and in my mind it might make even more sense for her to have a power like that rather than Danny. Plus in her debut episode there was even the comment at the beginning of the episode "what on Earth is that ghostly wail?" But now Ember also no longer has her guitar, she loves Danny so much she was willing to destroy it in an attempt to snap him out of his mind control. But did it actually work and is he free now? I know it's cruel to do cliffhangers like this but would you enjoy it so much if I were to just tell you? Anyway love you all, as always I really appreciate the support and patience while I navigate my personal life along with trying to finish this story. I'll see you all next chapter whenever that is, in the meantime please let me know what you thought with a REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!