Balshumet: Right so firstly I promise I'm not dead mostly. Life has gotten interesting. School started again, senior year!, I got myself a little part time job in my local mall, and I picked up another art craft, sketching. The good news is, you folks get a new chapter. The bad news is, NaNoWriMo is starting tomorrow, so between that and the last third of the semester coming up, I'll likely going to be busy as all get out. I'm not going to promise another chapter in another week as usual. I will promise to not leave the story again this long, and that I will never abandon the tale.
Firstly, this chapter has been completely giving me H-E-double hockey stick. I'm relatively good at action, but having to choreograph one of the scenes that originally made me want to write this tale has been harder than I thought. It's all in there, and everything wants to be completely perfect before it comes out of my head. Worse there's like 4 things happening at once at all times so, it's hard to capture the essence of the chaos and mania of this HUGE battle, but I think this first part captures it well. That's mostly the reason for the delay combined with not knowing how and where to cut this so that it didn't turn into a 5+ headed hydra of literary crazy.
Either way I hope you enjoy it, and now for the disclaimer!:
Yes even on All Hallow's Eve I do not own Danny Phantom. Though I would love to see both the rumors of a fourth season or a movie put to rest. Come on Hartman, even the Boondocks is getting a fourth season! Uh...right so I no own, Hartman, Viacom, Nick, and a whole bunch of other people do, so don't sue me!
And now without further ado, or another month of delay, I present the chapter! Cya at the bottom!
Battle Royale: Part One
In the irony that has become my life, saying that time stood still would be icing on the cake, but it wouldn't be a lie. For the first time since I entered this wacky universe, I really got how much everything is fucked up. And you know what the crazy part is? The crazy part is it took seeing my Dad ordering my death via the Guys in White reject squadron to do it. Personally, my original bet was on seeing Vlad married to my mom, but hey, sometimes life is full of surprises…like the troops shooting at me for instance…
The reaction after that single command was immediate. The troops settled on the ground around Vlad's ghost shield began opening a volley of blasts, hoping to either cut off their escape, or more favorably, destroy the shield all together. The loud booms in the background picked up in speed and volume as the GSU Air Ships hastened to drop off their cargo of men and vehicles. The jets circling over-head in a holding pattern joined their brethren strafing the outside of the shield with a combination of bullets and missiles. All of the GSU went into full attack mode.
Vlad quirked his lips in annoyance at the ecto-weapons currently nipping at his now near red colored shield, before turning away from the troops in front of him and back towards his family. "Alright, I need you all to listen up, I don't have time to repeat this again," he yelled over the din of the explosions of battle. "Jasmine, I need you to load up the Hover with everything it can carry, you know what's most important, just get it done quickly." He paused to make sure she'd understood before moving on. "Danny, I need you to take the twins and Lizzie over to the RV. Se-"
"What! Wait, why am I on baby-sitting duty? I can totally-"
"Snicker-doodles Danny, don't you dare back sass me right now! Do exactly what I say, no questions." The eldest halfa stared him down until he was sure he would listen. "Now, you get them over to the RV, set up the shield, full power, don't turn any other systems on, and then wait for a break in the fighting. When you can jump out of the RV without being bombed by jets, head over to the Hover and give your sister some help." Vlad flicked his eyes down to the youngest members of the group. "You three," he pointed down when he realized the explosions were growing louder. That shield won't hold much longer..."Don't leave the RV for any reason. Do you understand me?" He waited a moment longer to watch them nod, before turning to his wife.
"You want me to take the ground troops or the air platforms this time?" She asked, her eyes shining with apprehension for the upcoming battle.
A loud shattering sound echoed throughout the valley as the outer shield broke under the relentless assault of the jets circling above the valley floor. The squadron waiting above the one that just broke the shield dive-bombed for the group's position, hungry for blood.
"I'll leave that decision in your capable hands Love." Vlad tossed a look to his eldest son, "come on Daniel, let's see if we can't remind these underlings why you shouldn't mess with us."
"Very much agreed." Daniel announced; a smirk already firmly planted on his lips. He passed a glance in Danny's direction before turning his back ready to transform. Why did he call Jasmine your sister?
With that the group split in separate directions, determination set on their faces.
"Can't you run any faster?" Nate complained from his position a few feet in front of Danny, racing towards the RV.
"Hey! I'm the one making the ghost shield, and carry Lizzie. The least you can do is not whine at me." Danny panted while stopping behind a crate for cover. Another blast from the surrounding troops slammed into his shield, earning a grunt.
"Yeah well, the sooner we get to the RV-"
"The sooner you can stop working so hard." Nick finished his brother's sentence was a slight glare. He peered over the top of their current hiding place, judging the distance to the RV. They were within a 200 yard sprint, but interspersed between them and the RV was an advancing line of troops. Not good. "Hey so Danny, you have ghost powers right?" He couldn't hide the nervousness in his voice.
"Well I don't know Nick, why don't we ask the ghost shield he's making." Nate responded with a roll of his eyes.
"Shut up!" Nick snipped back. "What I'm asking is, you can transform right? Cause I don't see any other way around that," he paused to point out the now 50 feet closer line of soldiers, "group of GSU dorks."
"Well yeah," Danny screamed over an especially loud boom in the background, "but that's not going to help much. The only reason they haven't just rushed our position is because they can't get a good read on my energy."
"No way dumb butt. The reason they haven't rushed our position is because they don't know how strong you are. They already know-"
"-Where we are. That's why they are shooting over here." Nick finished before rolling his eyes in concert with his brother.
"Duh." They both announced before a large blast from a bigger ecto-gun cracked Danny's shield.
Lizzie gripped Danny's shirt harder and shouted to be heard over another explosion. "Stop fighting! It's not helping at all." She jumped when another large crack appeared on the shield. "Can't you make it stronger?" She asked, a slight tremor of fear wavering her voice.
Danny leaned over the top of the crate and sighted the troops heading for their position. "Yeah in a sec. I think I know how to get through those troops." Danny narrowed his eyes at the weak point in the line advancing towards them. They had to avoid an obstacle soon, which meant breaking ranks, after that, he'd be able to throw an attack or two, and make a hole big enough for them to run through with much less resistance. He held Elizabeth a little closer and stood on the balls of his feet. "Ok everyone get ready to run." He announced, slipping one hand out from under the youngest Master.
"What are ya' going to do?" Nate asked before moving around behind him. He winced as another crack showed up on the shield, Danny obviously focused on something else.
The time traveling teen bounced up from his position behind the crate, firing several small blasts into the ranks of the GSU grunts. To his satisfaction, the troops parted just like he wanted. He waited a few more microseconds before turning to the boys behind him. "Come one run!" He leapt the crate and rushed ahead, charging the shield anew as he made for the line of currently disorganized ghost hunters.
Before the taken aback group of hunters could react, the shielded group ran through the large hole in their ranks. "Fire damn it!" The commander of the group demanded, raising his own weapon to send a few shots the hybrids' way. His shots bounced off the bright green shield without even a crack showing up. He hissed into his communicator, "This is Agent O. I'm on the rear of the valley attacking a group of hybrids; I need back up out here!" He turned his sights back on the retreating group of kids, dropping his radio in his haste. He never heard the responses from the rest of the commanding officers, screaming for back up of their own.
Danny could hear his heart whooshing in his ears louder than the discordant booms of the unloading troops and the jets bombing every ghost signature or shield they saw. He groaned when another blast hit his shield, realizing the troops behind them had finally reorganized. That's going to make this much harder. He mentally groused. "Nick…how do we know…that the RV…will even be…in one piece?" He panted out from in front of the other boys.
"The shields on all the vehicles went up automatically when the outer shield fell." Nick replied.
"Yeah, it'd take nothing less than a nuclear bomb to break through those things with none of the other systems online." Nate added, much less out of breath than Danny.
"If those shields are so good, then how come the outer shield fell?" Danny asked stopped behind one final crate he was using for cover. He shifted the squirming girl in his arms into another much less tiring position while he waited for an answer and the perfect opportunity to run the last few feet.
"It was spread over a much larger area, and it has more than one function! Besides what's that matter now?" Nate huffed back, sparing a glance behind them to the troops catching up.
"I was just wondering, what made these shields so different, because if they were the same, I'd take my chances with my own." Danny took a deep breath and prepared to just sprint through the lines of men guarding the RV when a loud crackling sound resonated throughout the valley. It was followed by a thunderous boom near instantaneously, sounding much more like actual thunder than any of the previous explosions in the valley. He swiveled his head left and right, looking for the source of the noise before something tugged on the back of his hoodie.
"Don't worry about that one, that's from our side," Nick explained with another tug. "Come on; let's get out of here while they're distracted." He pointed ahead of the crate to the men running towards the middle of the valley, to the apparent source of the last boom.
The oldest member of group waited another few seconds, to make sure the men had cleared out enough to be safe for them to run. Without another moment's hesitation, Danny bounded over the top of the crate making a beeline for the RV doors. A few half-hearted shots bounced off his shield before they made it to the edge of the dome being maintained by the RV.
Nick and Nate ran straight through the shielding, happily rushing ahead of Danny, before reaching up for the door to the RV.
"Uh hey guys?" Danny asked nervously to get their attention.
The twins' attention returned to the outside of the shield, where Danny was sending them a look that was a combination of confusion and worry. "What're ya' still doing out there?" Nate mumbled mostly to himself, walking back to the inner edge of the shield. He reached his hand through once before returning it back inside. He frowned at the predicament as his twin got the door to the RV open.
"It's the shielding technology Nate. Dad installed DNA recognition into it, so the GSU dorks can't get through remember?" Nick rushed up the few stairs to the driver's seat of the RV. "Now get in here and help me turn it off for a few seconds so he can get inside. I don't remember which panel it is…"
Danny set Lizzie down and pressed her through the shield. "Don't worry about that. Listen, just get in there and set the shield to 100% or something. I need to go help Jazz out and you all are safe inside the shield already, so I'm gone." Just then another thunder-crack rang through the air, only this time the ground shook as well; he leaned against the shield for balance and glanced back towards the main battle taking place in the middle of the valley. He shifted back around to scream, face nearly flat against the shield, "And what the hell is that?"
Nate leaned out the still open RV door, as his younger sister bounded up the steps. "That is the sound of our Dad kicking butt." Another crack and earth shaking boom rattled the area. "I sure hope those GSU dorks packed another pair of undies, because they're going to need them." He said with a playful grin plastered firmly over his face. He screamed something lost in the sounds of battle back inside to his siblings before looking back at Danny. "Hey, I thought you said you were leaving? Get going already!"
Great. I'm getting bossed around by ten year olds. Danny turned and nearly lost his footing as another earthshaking boom went through the valley floor. He glared lightly in the fight's general direction before starting off in the direction he thought the Hover had been. You think Vlad would hold back on the…whatever it is he's doing.
At the center of the chaos Vlad and his eldest son were giving the world's finest ghost hunters a run for their money. He'd already destroyed a few air platforms they'd tried to set up, and while Daniel was busy dealing with the pesky jets still bombing the area, the faster boy had volunteered, Vlad was blasting the levitating engines out from under the remaining platforms. The sooner I get these destroyed the better.
The platforms were a launch pad for the GSU's small single person hover vehicles. And while a single one wasn't anything to worry about, each platform could hold nearly 100 of them, and the GSU had brought ten platforms to the battle. They made for an annoying piece of machinery, and could overwhelm with sheer numbers. Worse, both the platforms and the flyers they carried, among other supplies, had been ghost proofed. While that didn't make them indestructible, it meant it took a lot more fire power to destroy any one Levitator or platform than it should from the construction materials; at the very least with spectral energy creating the destructive power.
The result had Vlad using one of his most powerful attacks, not wanting to waste time or extra energy; he'd thrown a few well placed bright red lightning bolts into the platforms in the position to take several of them out with their failure.
The plan had moderate success, with one of the floating platforms already fallen, and another failing at that very moment. Unfortunately, the GSU had moved all of the remaining power in their shields to protect the remaining engines from further attacks. The shields were strong enough to blunt some of the damage away, and made it necessary to use more than one shot to take out a single engine. At the moment, they'd stabilized the third one from falling, and were launching their smaller single person crafts off of its bow.
Vlad cursed under his breath as the first wave of flyers made for his position. He didn't have time for this nonsense. The group of craft zoomed towards his location before a large chunk of flying metal slammed into their formation. It took out half of the machines before ramming into the earth, straight into a contingent of troops on the ground, crushing several of the men beneath it. He looked over towards the area where the metal chunk had started from with interest. "What took you so long?" He questioned blasé in the face of the mounting chaos beneath him.
"Hey, next time you can take the baker's dozen of fighter jets and I'll throw energy attacks at the stationary targets." Daniel flew to a stop next to his father, surveying the damage his last attack had done. For the last few minutes, he'd been out-maneuvering the pilots of the GSU's Air Division. While they might have been the best fighter pilots in the country, nothing beat having the natural sense of flight that came with being able to do it yourself. They also had a much less responsive and larger system to work with, so he'd made quick work of the first three planes without breaking a sweat.
The next ten had come with more difficulty. The pilots suddenly woke up and remembered they could coordinate their attacks, and had done so. Using one group to try and pin in down or herd him towards another group firing at him with bullets.
Not like that helped them all that much. Daniel noted smugly. He'd been able to pit them against one another, using their weapons to take out other planes, or just plain ran the jets into each other. Finally, with only two or three planes left, they had begun to retreat until more reinforcements arrived from the still disemboweling Air Ships. The hybrid had grabbed the closest plane and ripped a wing off, watching the now broken plane crash into the ground below. With a good piece of metal to work with, he'd tossed it back towards the main part of the battle, hoping to take out some more troops with it. The plan worked beautifully, the re-purposed wing crashing into the first wave of Levitators like a freight train, before coming to a rest on top of some of the GSU's ground troops.
"Yes how about that? I'll scare off a bunch of incompetent GSU pilots and you can try and get past their level nine shields." Vlad raised one of his own as a group of missiles from the platform closed in on his position. They exploded against the dark pink dome, not even making a dent, clouding the immediate area in near black choking smoke.
"Whatever. What do you say I take the ground troops and you blast some more easy targets?" Daniel offered setting his sights on a group of men trying to reinforce the troops already headed towards his mother. Without waiting for a response, he dove out of the smoke cloud and fired a few green blasts at the troops below.
"I thought you wanted the easy targets this time Daniel?" Vlad teased at his retreating form before taking stock of the situation around him. He looked behind him towards the edge of the fight where the RV was sitting. Good the kids are safely inside and Danny is running over to help Jasmine. Though God knows why he hasn't transformed yet. The smoke was clearing, and he needed to move now if he still wanted to use surprise to his advantage. He shot straight out of the remaining smoke headed for the advancing group of Levitators, wanting to cut them off before they reached any further into the valley.
Meanwhile, Daniel was hovering invisible over the group of men currently continuing to his mother's position.
She was, as usual, single-handedly holding off a contingent of soldiers, but that was likely to change if the rest of the men heading towards her position got there.
Daniel frowned at the number of men rushing to her position, and decided to get a little creative. He hadn't tried to use these powers on someone in months, and it hadn't gone so well that last time, but at the very least it would delay the arrival of the newer GSU grunts. He closed his eyes and concentrated on sending his energy into the space around him. He would have to drop invisibility in a few more seconds, so he made use of the extra time to center his thoughts. The buzz of the humid summer air faded as the much larger signatures of the men below him took over. He mentally reached out for the warm thrum he felt coming from them, opting for the much more tired group of men already fighting his mother. Daniel took a deep breath and grabbed at the person shaped coalescence of water in his mind…
She'd been giving their opponent as much hell as she could when she felt something ice cold wrap around her body. She knew instinctively from years in the GSU that it was spectral energy; she just didn't know where it was coming from. The oldest hybrid was engaged with the Levitators, the mysterious one they had tracked this far hadn't even showed up, and 2nd Priority had disappeared from the battle after scaring the first wave of fighter jets back to base. Moreover, the energy felt like it was coming from inside her. But that's impossible. She concluded, and tried to lift her gun to shake off the energy around her, only to find she couldn't. Now panicking, she struggled to move her legs, shake her arms, to do anything but stand frozen stiff -when did I stopped moving-; to no avail. She shot a glance to the men next to her, her eyes the only thing she did have control over, and found him surrounded by a deep red aura. He was just as frozen in place as her, and from the look in his eyes, he had no idea what was going on either. Her mind went numb with fear as her limbs began moving of their own accord, hoisting her gun back into a shooting position from hanging limply at her side. To her dismay, the rest of her squad members did the same, falling into a single file line behind an outcropping of crates, backs turned to their original target. She had just enough time to pray her shots would miss, before everything went to hell.
The approaching group of fighters settled onto their haunches as a sudden volley of bright green fire halted their advance. "What the hell?" The commanding officer growled as another quick set of shots was fired towards their position. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were our own weapons firing at us. He looked towards his three o'clock where the Plasmius creature was tearing through their air support, before facing forward again. "Agent Q I need you to radio for more air support, I need some eyes over the back of that section of debris. I want to know what's firing at us!" He screamed as several of his men were taken out by well placed shots. Abruptly, the firing stopped and a group of GSU soldiers rushed his position. He grimaced when they weren't deterred by weapons' fire, and ordered his remaining officers to shot to kill. If that red light is any indication they're as good as dead anyway.
The last few minutes had been terrifying. Despite having no control over her actions, she'd fired into her own reinforcements and watched as several of her men were gunned down for refusing to follow orders. Worse, she had no sense of pain, so the injuries she was taking didn't even slow her, or the other controlled GSU soldiers down. She finally reached the edge of the incoming line, and pinned the other commander below her. She had her blaster point directly at his skull, finger twitching over the trigger. It was taking everything she had to resist pulling it. She knew the man below her; they ate lunch together every day. She could hear his officers screaming for her to drop her weapon. If only they knew how much strength it took not to shot him…
"Sorry Kate, I'll send your stuff to Jim when we get back." He lifted his bazooka to her chest and squeezed the trigger, blasting a hole clean through to the other side. He shifted her corpse off of his body, and sent a fierce glare to the creature that had all but killed a good friend of his. "You're dead you piece of spectral shit!" He raised his weapon, flicked it to full power, and sent a large green blast Daniel's way.
Daniel had just enough time to register the power behind the attack before it closed on his position. He closed his eyes and teleported a few feet away, the blast had been close enough to singe him despite missing by a few feet. That was close… "Well someone looks a little upset."
"Shut up you-"
"-Though if I were you," Daniel interrupted, "I'd be more concerned with my original target." Daniel watched as the commanding officer's face scrunched into a confused frown before a hail of ecto-weapon blasts zipped into his group of men. He smirked as his mother dove back into the fight, easily routing the surprised and distracted GSU men, taking several more out before they could even re-group. "You're welcome!" He screamed down at her when he saw her wave, before shooting off to take care of the new jets flying towards the valley from right over the edge of the mountains. And I was going to give Jasmine some help too. I hope that kid knows what he's doing…
By this time Jasmine was almost finished loading up the Hercules Hover with the needed supplies. She wasn't sure how they were going to get it out of the valley, someone would have to fly it, and with all the jets around that wasn't advisable, but she trusted her father to figure it out. The majority of the GSU men had been occupied with chasing down either her parents or Daniel, considering they'd been making the most "noise", but a few had come her way when they realized what she was up to. The red head was currently fighting off a new team of men, the other group having fallen to her sharp shooting and the shield around the Hover. This group, however, was proving more difficult to fight, and worse, there was another one coming up behind them. All in all, although she was nearly done with her task, she could use a little backup herself. Jasmine groaned as another one of her weapons signaled the batteries were running low. The majority of the replacements or chargers were already packed away, and she needed some guns to defend herself. "Come on Danny, the least you can do to make up for all of this is show up when I need you." She didn't blame the kid for not being so forthcoming with all of the details of his life. Despite the fact the GSU was the biggest threat to either of their lives, her family had in short order pointed enough weapons at him to give any sane person pause about sharing intimate life details. Like why you're a half ghost or how you know who our parents are. She grimaced as she slid the last charged battery into place. Any time now…She thought firing a few volley shots over the top of crates she wasn't planning on packing up. To her surprise, a much larger shot was fired in between both groups, shocking the GSU out of returning fire. "Took long enough!" She exclaimed as Danny settled in next to her.
"Yeah, you're welcome." He answered looking around behind him at the stuff scattered around the Hover. "How much more of that stuff do you need to pack?" He wanted to avoid fighting as much as possible, mostly because everyone around him was acting like this was a war zone, shooting to kill, tossing grenades, and everything betwixt. He risked a glance over the edge of the crates, and quickly ducked down when several large green blasts headed his way. He didn't mind fighting; he spent most of his day at home stuffing ghosts into the Fenton Thermos, but the way everyone else was fighting had him worried. I'm not killing anyone. He determined. If he was honest, that seemed to be the only way to fight back against the GSU at the moment.
"Just two more crates, but they are back over the line where the soldiers have entrenched themselves. I need you to force them back so I can get those crates and we can get out of here." She explained while firing two more shots over his shoulder.
"Hey! Watch where you aim that thing." Danny complained while rubbing at the warm spot in between his neck and shoulder where the energy had zipped though. He passed one more glance over the crates, to gauge the closeness of the GSU line, before turning back around to Jasmine. He caught her eye and counted back from ten on his hands, mouthing off each number as he went.
Three…a blast took out the top half of the crate.
Two…Danny turned to block any other incoming attacks, shielding Jasmine with his body.
One…Jasmine turned and ran for the safety of another set of boxes, the one they'd been standing behind of had been completely destroyed.
"Ma'am, the mysterious hybrid has just appeared on our radar!" Jillian heard squawk out of her radio. She halted her groups advance with a hand over her shoulder and pressed a button on the radio integrated into her lapel. "Where is it?" She demanded harshly into the hi-tech walkie talkie. "It appeared over in the northern quadrant, next to where the troops were engaging Jasmine Fenton." The second in command mulled over the information for a few moments longer before turning to motion her men towards the mystery hybrid's position. They needed to capture him most of all. While the other hybrids were on record, at the very least they knew how they came to exist, that one's appearance was more than a slight crimp in their knowledge base. Jillian turned to follow her men over to the area when a voice caught her attention above the din of the battle. Interesting…I'm sure my men can handle the girl while I worry about her mother.
The former ghost hunter was making progress against her section of the GSU troops. She'd already taken out several of their Levitators, and a few dozen troops on her own. Unfortunately, it looked like they'd come prepared for Armageddon this time, so no matter how many troops she knocked down, it seemed like five more showed up to replace them. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her retractable Bo-staff, medium sized ecto-gun balanced in her left hand. Luckily enough, she shot with her off-hand almost as well as with her dominant hand. She popped three approaching GSU soldiers in the chest before depressing the button to extend her favorite melee weapon. Come to momma boys. Maddie slung her gun onto her hip before griping the staff in both hands, ready to whip it around into a few skulls. To her surprise, her opponents had stopped advancing, eyeing her with a wary expression on their faces. She took the reprieve to spy her husband and eldest son. Vlad's keeping the majority of the Levitators at bay and Daniel is fighting off another squadron of jets. I hope Jasmine's almost done. She settled into her stance and eyed the still stalled GSU drones. Suddenly, the reason for their hesitation became clear. "Oh, so what happened to last time has gotten around has it? Well don't worry; I'll be gentler this time." She leaned off of her heels and onto the balls of her feet, ready to spring at the first person who twitched wrong. Someone to her left wriggled, shifting to reach for another weapon, so she took a step in that direction and swung…
He hadn't meant to set off the virtual martial arts bomb in their midst, but all it took was one twitch and they were as good as bruised in any case. He'd reached for a knock out grenade, hoping to end the fight before it started, only to have it inadvertently begin.
She'd knocked out two of the people standing around her before they could even raise their guns. To even the odds, she'd planted her staff into the earth and catapulted herself over the top of the circle, being surrounded would make the fight much harder. A few of the fighters had woken up and fired a shot or two in her direction in the air, but she'd already nearly landed by then. She landed on one leg, and pivoted, settled her other leg into the ground right when her weapon made contact for full effect. She heard a satisfying crack, as the soldier's firing arm was taken out, and moved into a defensive stance. Everyone had recovered from her first strike by then, and turned to fire at her. The shots bounced off of her reinforced ecto-steel staff as she twirled it to make a shield against the blasts. Maddie dove forward during a slight break in the firing pattern and caught one closest GSU member under the chin. She turned and used the other end to smash the person closest to him in the gut, before twisting to catch a final person across the back of the neck, knocking her out instantly.
Six down, six more to go. She thought determination reading in her every feature. The mother of five was back on the defensive, easily deflecting the blasts off her weapon, sending several back to the men who were firing. Opting to use their weapons' fire against them further, she concentrated on reflecting the blasts back towards their targets. Four blasts zipped back to their sources, and she was left with only the commanding officer and one of his underlings. The brazen girl rushed at Maddie, baton from her belt raised to counter her staff. The former hunter effortless parried and disarmed the soldier in one move before catching the back of her skull behind her ear with the other end of her weapon. Her opponent crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap while she faced off against the commander. At the last second she sensed a blast headed for her back. She twisted out of the way and the shot slammed into the officer's chest instead of hitting her. She continued through the motion, drawing her gun off of her opposite hip, pressing it to full power, using the heavy staff to balance her shift in motion.
"Maddie." A cold calm voice rang through the sounds of battle. The world around her had faded away ages ago to her. Almost as soon as she'd seen the other woman fighting the rest of the world no longer mattered. She held her weapon solidly pointed at the chest of her opponent, willing the woman to so much as blink so she could fire.
"Jillian. How long has it been?" She inquired gun pointed directly over the other woman's heart, staff still balanced in her right hand.
"Too long Madeline, too long."
Nate and Nick watched with a grin on their faces while the GSU surrounding the RV tried to break through the shield, this time with a rocket launcher. The projectile bounced off of the shield; detonating only a few tenths of a second after that. The grunts outside tried to send several grenades at the shield at once. This only earned a loss of more ammunition and a set of rolled eyes from the twins.
"You'd think they'd stop trying by now, and go reinforce somewhere else where they can actually make a difference." Nick noted pressing his face against the glass to distort it into a funny taunting face.
"Yeah maybe, or maybe these are all of the rejects that are too stupid to be of any use anywhere else." Nate watched in muted humor as another rocket was sent into the shield. It also deflected off the shield and exploded; he passed a glance to the power panel for the shield. Still 100%. This is so boring.
Nick pulled his face away from the glass long enough to say, "Whatever, I just wish everyone else would hurry up. I'm sick of sitting around doing nothing. Hey, doesn't this thing have cameras?" He moved away from the glass as another grenade hit and walked over to another set of panels at the front of the RV.
"Yeah? But so what?" Nate asked while joining his brother in the front seat. The front of the RV looked a lot more like high tech monitoring station and less like a car.
"Because then we can send out the cameras, and see how close everyone else is to getting their butts back over here." Nick depressed a few buttons on the largest control panel, in no particular order, trying to get the set of mobile cameras to release. He was only rewarded with the windshield wipers turning on, followed by the headlights, and then the weapon's system coming online.
"Wait stop!" His brother screamed when the weapons highlighted on the main display screen in front of him. He scrunched up his face in concentration trying to pick out what he wanted. He thought the cameras might be in this section of the computer.
Nick caught onto the other boy's antics, but instead selected a pair of large missiles. "How about these?" he offered while pressing down on the touch screen.
Rocket Launchers activated. A computerized voice said from the console in front of them before two medium sized rockets shot from the top of the RV. The projectiles flew through the shield and directly into the midst of the surrounding GSU. The flying bombs had the designed effect, quickly blasting and throwing earth out of the way of their detonation. GSU soldiers dove left and right out of the blast zone.
"Oops. I didn't think the screens were that sensitive."
"Whatever. Let's find those cameras before those GSU dorks recover." Nate responded hitting another set of commands into the control panel. The weapons section shut down and was replaced by the communications section. That was swiftly followed by the espionage section, filled with hacker's codes and eavesdropping technology, as the boys clicked through the RV's systems.
"Wouldn't the mobill cameras be with the spy stuff?" Lizzie offered from the mid-section of the RV.
"Hey great idea!" the twins enthusiastically answered before switching back over to the "spy" section to look for the mentioned equipment. In a flash, they had zeroed in on the flying recorders.
They popped out of the top of the RV, floating for a second as the video processors came online, before racing off onto the rest of the battlefield.
"You think four of those things will be enough?"
Nate frowned over his brother's question before answering, "Yeah why wouldn't it be?"
"What if some of them blow up?" Lizzie suggested.
The twins shared a look before watching the cameras fly off towards the platforms at the other end of the valley. They started broadcasting their findings back to the RV's display system. The intensity of the fighting wiped any worry of destroyed property from the kids' minds.
"Yeah whatever, just as long as they last long enough to show us what's going on I don't care…Hey look! There's mom." Nate pointed to the screen, where the second of four cameras had pinpointed one of the main fights.
Maddie shifted to the left, settling her feet and centering herself for the battle ahead. In that instant, the fight had begun. She continued the motion, sliding to the left to avoid the ecto-weapon fire heading her direction. The green blast soared past her where her shoulder had been as she returned fire, to keep her opponent on their toes. She knew from experience Jillian was too fast and smart to be pinned with energy attacks, even from close range, but it did give the other woman something else to break her concentration, and for that she was grateful. Jill was one of the few people Maddie had ever fought that was actually a challenge, and with nearly a half an hour of intense fighting under her belt already, she needed the extra edge the distracting fire provided.
Jill cart wheeled to the right, out of the range of the coming bright green blasts before reaching back and taking out another weapon. The second in command knew that while her adversary was a good shot, though not an ace unlike herself, she preferred melee combat against human opponents. Worse, she was one of the best at it; so her greatest chance came in making her keep her distance and using her superior shooting skills to her advantage. Better than that, she had back-up all around her, so all she had to do was hem her into another group of GSU and the fight would be over. However, that's easier said than done. Jillian concluded as another of her well-aimed shots deflected off of Maddie's staff. The other woman had taken to blocking her shots with one hand and shooting her own with the other. Damn it…It was time for a change of tactics.
The former ghost hunter narrowed her eyes and charged her opponent's position, wanting to close some of the distance that had developed between them. Space only served to give Jill an advantage since it made using her Bo-staff for anything but blocking impossible. Her feet bite into the dirt, and she deflected several shots as she charged. She quickly cut the length of space between them in half. Dodging around another fiery green shot she couldn't deflect, Maddie slid into a fighting stance that would more easily take advantage of her greater melee skills. Her eyes narrowed when she caught her opponent raise her other hand to fire and chose to block the burning hot blast with her own gun, sacrificing it to avoid giving up ground. She swirled her staff around her body to give it a good amount of force, and slammed it into Jillian's arm, knocking her un-raised weapon clean out of her hand.
Cursing and bring her unharmed arm to bare, Jillian fired a series of shots on the run, already twisting away and to the right to avoid being hit by the staff a second time. She watched Maddie hiss as a shot grazed her shoulder at close range and another barely missed her left thigh. Her opponent rolled and bounced back into a defensive stance, ready to avoid anymore coming ecto-weapons fire. The blonde woman steadied herself for the rest of the fight, watching her foe closely as she took stock of her injuries. Some small bruises and burns from close calls. But the main problem is that hit to the arm, I think she may have fractured my forearm with that one, but I know for sure my wrist is broken. Jill frowned as the new information flitted across her mind. A fractured forearm was no big deal, she could set and stabilize it in a few minutes if given the reprieve during battle, but a broken wrist would take that entire side out of commission when it came to weapons wielding. It wasn't like she was in poor shape there, she could shoot equally well with both hands, but she'd rather have two guns to point at Maddie than one. She passed a glanced around the space immediately around her; the area where they were fighting was conspicuously empty. A look to the sky answered her question why, when she spotted both of the oldest hybrids giving the troops closest to them hell. Looks like 2nd Priority finished with those jets again, my time is almost up. Her troops would need reinforcement and her guidance soon, she didn't have time to waste on this fight for much longer. Why isn't she attacking? Jill wondered before bringing up her remaining gun to restart their clash.
Maddie for her part had taken the few seconds pause to take mental stock of her family's positions. Vlad, fighting off the last of the Levitators, and he's knocked down another Platform. Daniel's giving him some help with the ground troops. From the sound of it the twins and Lizzie are safe inside the RV. So that leaves Jasmine…Her thoughts trailed off as her wrist began to ache and throb. She hadn't taken the shot directly, but having the gun wrenched out of her hand like that still hurt. Despite that, it was likely only a bad sprain, and she needed to focus if she was going to keep the other woman so tied up that she couldn't help the other GSU fight. She took a deep breath when she saw Jillian raise her gun; it would be harder to use her staff with a stiff and sore wrist, but she'd manage. She blocked the first shot, and the fight resumed.
The GSU officer backed away from Maddie's approaching form, running backwards nearly as fast as she could forward, to preserve the space needed to keep her weapon's fire effective. She decided to move the fight closer to the rest of her men; so she spun on her heel and raced towards the rest of the soldiers, opting to show her opponent her back to make up for it in speed. Jill heard the other woman scream something from over her shoulder and dropped to the side with just enough time to avoid the blast. It sailed uselessly to her left, not even singing her clothing. She stopped and refaced Maddie, having gained a nearly fifty yards with her short sprint. Still, it wasn't close enough to draw the attention of her subordinates or to really close in on the other fight, so she was on her own. Ok, you want hand to hand combat honey? You got it. Jill decided before rushing the other woman's position full speed.
Startled by the abrupt change in tactics, Maddie skidded to a stop as Jill closed the last of the space between them. She had just enough time to plant her feet before a solid punch was sent her way. She blocked it with the middle of her staff and pressed her advantage, moving the staff to the other side of her arm and pushing it away, hoping to throw the other woman off balance. To no avail, as Jillian only moved with the parry, grasped a hold of the staff, and brought one of her legs up for a body shoot against her. Thrown off balance she had no way of blocking the attack. To compensate, she rolled with the kick, reducing some of the effect by following the motion.
The two of them, still conjoined by their hold on the staff, rolled to the right landing back on their feet, staff still in hand. They fought over control briefly before it landed level between them both around chest level.
Jill glared over the top of staff and into the auburn haired woman's eyes. "Give it up sweetie; I've got five years of youth and ten years of expert training on you." She hissed as the weapon was twisted from her grasp, arms crossing uncomfortably, when Maddie flipped to the left still holding the staff. The ghost hunter settled back into an offensive stance and prepared to charge her again. I have to get that staff out of her hands. The GSU officer raced forward once again, only this time she stopped on a dime, avoiding the other woman's attack. She ducked underneath it, crossing into the space between her body and the staff, and destroying her weapon's defensive capabilities. She placed as much force as she could behind her next attack, bringing her elbow across into the now open space, and heading directly for Maddie's head. She nearly screamed in frustration as the woman before her dropped back; falling down onto her back as the blow meant for her temple sailed cleanly through the air. Jill grunted as her opponent's feet planted against her unguarded stomach, leaving her breathless, and tossing her a few feet away onto her back.
Maddie continued through the motion, flipping back onto her feet, using her hands to help back hand spring back into a standing position. She's barely landed before she was taking off fleet footed for the last place she'd seen the other woman land, trying to press her advantage to the fullest. She landed on top of the still prone woman, pressing the staff into her neck as she struggled with her on the ground. "Dear, if you've been trained by the GSU for ten years it might explain a few things, though certainly not the crows' feet, and you were calling me old. Come on hun, are these digs really necessary? Or maybe you're just still upset about Amity four years ago."
"Shut it Madeline. You know as well as I do that this," Jill paused to press her palms against the staff with more gusto, forcing the other woman back into a sitting position over her, "is all your fault." She grit her teeth and planted her feet into the earth, forcing Maddie off of her. "If only you realized what you had, then none of this would be necessary." The second in command rolled to the left, listening to the whistle of the staff as it stung the dirt where she had just been laying. The next attack came quickly, and the one after that with even more speed. Oh she's pissed now. She realized with glee.
"This is not my fault. I'm not responsible for how Jack chooses to take things, nor am I responsible for his obsession with killing every ghost he comes across." Maddie whipped the staff around once more, one handed, as she reached for another weapon, this time an ecto-gun. She openly glared into the space her opponent left in the wake of her expert dodging. If only she would stand still long enough to land a hit, she'd show her what she really thought about her baseless assertions. "Besides, I'd say your dislike of me is more personal. What's the matter honey? He still not biting after all these years?" She asked aiming the small ecto-gun at Jill's constantly moving form.
"Oh and I have you to blame for it, if that's what I was actually after. Congratulations, between your own children and my commanding officer it seems you have a knack for creating monsters." She cheered internally as the other woman's face flushed darker with anger and defensive pride. "Oh but don't take my word for it, sweetheart, just take a look around you. Most mothers would be terrified and disgusted by the thought they gave birth to something non-human but apparently, just like with Jack, you relish the idea of making something so perverted. I mean honestly, I don't know what's more disturbing. The fact you left a good man for a heartless twisted inhuman monster, or the fact you weren't satisfied until the man you left was just like him." Jill screamed as a well aimed blast caught her along her already injured forearm.
"Shut the hell up." Maddie closed in on her injured quarry, ready to end this fight right then. There was one thing she couldn't stand, and that was anyone talking about her family. Just as the gun whined and whirled, ready to blast a hole clear through her opponent's skull, the air began to buzz. She gasped as the space around her filled up with energy she could recognize in her sleep. There was a subtle red hue in the air wrapped around what she realized was the humidity in the atmosphere around her. Maddie snapped her head around to where she heard a large rush of water coming from. Daniel! She only took her attention off of her opponent for a moment, but that's all it took…
Jillian rushed the other woman standing over her the instant she took her focus off of her. She reached up and grabbed the gun pointed at her, and began struggling with her for it, trying to at least throw the older woman off balance. She succeeded in firing off a few shots in the fight over the weapon before she noticed what had distracted Maddie so effectively herself. There was a veritable twister of water headed for the last of their floating platforms! The red tinged water moved like a natural water spout, building as it went; adding water to its size from seemingly nowhere. Jill refocused her attention on her opponent only to find her more interested in the sky near the quickly growing twisting wall of water. What are you looking for? The ghost hunter wondered as she wrenched the gun away from Maddie's body. Jillian watched as the older woman withdrew another of her weapons and pointed it up towards her. Too slow…She was about to fire, when at the last moment; she spotted what Maddie had been searching for. Is that what you were so concerned about? She realized with a piece of wicked intent coiling in her belly. She'd take care of him after his mother.
The two of them stood stock still in a reoccurrence of the Mexican stand-off from before, with each of them now more interested in the water raging now only a few hundred yards away than each other.
Jill waited for the woman in front of her to shift her attention back towards the teenaged ghost floating not too far off, before she made her move. She fired a blast that forced Maddie to block with her staff and retreat as well. "Boys, that's 2nd Priority making that attack, shot him out of the sky!" She barely had enough time to send that command through her communications link before she was tackled to the ground. And from the look in the mother's eyes, she'd just made a command she'd be paying for in blood.
Across the valley, Jasmine had just loaded the first of the last two needed crates into the Hover. Unfortunately, her back up was having trouble fighting off the GSU grunts at the moment. It wasn't as if he wasn't strong enough to make a dent, it just seemed to her that Danny was holding back for some reason. It's like he actually cares what happens to these bastards. You would think being shot at and nearly killed three times in two days would convince him to stop pulling his punches. Jasmine ducked behind another set of boxes, just feet from her final goal. She just needed to move forward a just a little more, and for once it looked like luck was on her side; Danny had forced the soldiers back a just enough to make sneaking to the last box possible. Let's just hope he can keep them up there. She catapulted over the top of the boxes; her landing blending effortlessly into a hard sprint. The red haired girl wrapped her hands around the outside of the crate and hoisted it up preparing to race with it back to the Hover when something caught her eye and her ears.
The same twisting wall of water that had caught Maddie and Jill's attention had now grown to twice its original size. The roar it was creating was audible over even the loud blasts and explosions of the raging battle around the valley floor. Several groups of GSU men had stopped to gaze at it in a combination of awe and fear as the water barreled towards the last of the floating platforms and the rest of their backup.
Jasmine managed to put the ghost hunter's distraction to good use; running right past the stock still officers and back towards the Hover; already having discerned the origin of the impressive sight. I hope you know what you're doing little brother. She saddled up to the door of the Hercules beetle shaped flying tank and hopped inside to set the last of the crates inside when she heard something rather large slam into the outside of the shield.
"You almost done in there?" A frantic voice shouted from the other side.
"That's the last of it! I just need to signal that I'm done, and you can escort me back to the RV." Jasmine stuck her head back out of the door to answer before doing a last check of the inside of the vehicle to be absolutely sure she had everything she needed. With a decisive nod, she stepped out of the Hover and turned to shout for Danny to take her back…only to spot Daniel being shot out of the sky. "NO!" Without even thinking about it; she dove back inside the flying contraption for a weapon.
"What?" Danny questioned pressing himself back against the shield. His lack of ability to pass through them was beginning to wear on his nerves.
The eldest Masters' sibling stopped in her tracks and turned back around to the still open Hover door. "Danny! Those GSU bastards just hit Daniel with a huge blast. I can't get to him as quickly as you can. I need you to go over there and give him some back up."
"But what about you? There are agents everywhere!" Danny sent another medium sized ecto-blast into the charging line of GSU men, trying to wave them off a few moments more.
"I'll be safe behind the shield. I'll wait until you get back with my brother, now go already!" Jasmine huffed and pointed back towards the forested area of the valley where she'd seen her brother land.
Danny was about to argue otherwise when several more large ecto-weapons blasts bounced off the shield effortlessly. "Alright! But I'm coming back here right after that…" He conceded with a frown; heading as fast as he could fly towards Daniel's likely crash site.
Wow my head hurts. I mean, I'm sure it didn't hurt this much a few minutes ago, when I…when I was…um…what was I doing actually? Daniel wondered holding his still whirling head in one hand while pushing himself into a sitting position with the other. A moderate sized boom snapped him out of his dazed revere as he remembered the battle at hand. The teenaged hybrid hissed as he forced himself into standing. His middle felt like it was on fire. Bruised, badly, but nothing that'll kill me. My head is scraped up pretty bad, but no fractures…and I'm just about out of energy. Great. By the time Daniel finished taking stock of his internal injuries and reopened his eyes he found himself encircled by at least 15 GSU soldiers. No I'm wrong, it's fantastic. "So, I'm guessing you're not here to play field medic?"
"2nd Priority ecto-entity Daniel Masters, you are under arrest by order of the Government Spectral Unit Field Branch. You have the right to submit quietly and to avoid most pain and discomfort." The acting ranking commander declared with a self indulgent smile planted firmly on his lips.
"Might I suggest instead, you all taking a stroll through Hades? I hear it's wonderful this tim-" the rest of his sentence was cut short by jumping to the right of the first of a flurry of blasts. The ghost powered teen tried to rush through the line of men and into the bushes directly on the other side. To no avail, the three men immediately in his path shouldered together and were able to withstand even his ghost strength enhanced attempt to tackle through them. Before he knew it, they'd thrown him back onto the center of the circle where he was forced to erect a hasty green toned shield. Oh this is not good…Daniel panted under the strain of keeping the shield up against the constant weapons' fire.
Suddenly, one of the low ranked underpaid grunts got an idea. He lobbed a grenade from his belt towards the ghost hybrid in the middle of their group. "Fire in the hole!" he cried as he and his comrades dove out of the way of the resulting explosion and for cover. The grenade had been primarily designed to harm ghosts, but a small amount of the raw blow back from the blast was still dangerous to humans.
The last of Daniel's strength gave out under the assault of the ectoranium laced explosive and his shield fell with a loud crack like the shattering of a dozen mirrors. His head spun with renewed vigor as the exertion only exasperated what was likely a bad concussion. Hs formerly pain glazed eyes hardened diamond sharp; turning icy at the sight of the barrel of the gun pointing right at his forehead.
"I gave you an opportunity to come quietly ghost. Now, according to every procedure, I'm authorized to use any force necessary to subdue you. And, well, you are the second most dangerous ghost in existence." The acting commander hissed out with a sadistic grin, as deadly as the weapon he welded, on his face. "I'm thinking I should take out your legs first. You know," he paused to laugh, "in case it tries to run again." He addressed the rest of the sentence to the men around him. He pointed the gun down towards his newest target, the ecto-entity's right leg. "Now, let's see if your blood really is green like the rest of your-" A pained cry cut off the rest of his sentence as he was tossed half a dozen feet from in front of the hybrid and some of his men.
Before anyone could react, someone flew down into the center of the circle, and another much brighter green ecto-shield went up around Daniel. "Looks like you could use some help." Danny suggested hand out in a perfect mirror of the other hybrid a few hours ago.
"Wow. Anyone ever tell you that you have perfect timing?" Daniel pondered with a grunt as he struggled his way to his feet with Danny's help. He leaned over trying to catch his breath, hands placed firmly on his knees. The sound of his tired pants was so loud he almost missed the other boy's question. "I'm fine. I've just been fighting too much today. I mean I think I killed about 20 jets, a couple dozen ground troops. I even took out a tank earlier back at the mansion. I'm bushed!" He paused to catch his breath and center his thoughts. I need to summon up enough energy to fight a little while longer. Then I can collapse for at least a week or something. The weakened fighter heard Danny's voice again above the ringing in his ears. "I'll be fine just give me a minute or so to make some more energy and we can get back to kicking these losers back to Mordor. Cool?" Daniel transformed and ignored the jag of pain shooting through his chest. He didn't really listen to the other hybrid's reply having turned his focus to the process of temporarily increasing his core's energy production.
Danny for his part concentrated on maintaining the shield against the barrage of attacks the soldiers were now lobbing at it. He had a lot more energy than his other worldly twin, however, so the task was much easier than it had been for him. Still, the GSU members seemed to be signaling for back-up and with another group of nearly a dozen soldiers having just arrived Danny wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. "Hey I hate to break your concentration or something, but how much longer is this going to take?" I've been asking that a lot lately… Another dozen shots slammed into his shield before the halfa had even finished his sentence forcing him to refocus his attention to holding up the shield.
"Just another few minutes…I'm more drained than I thought." Daniel distractedly answered. "Just make the radius of the shield smaller." He concluded simply before working on gathering the last of his energy up for the rest of the battle.
"Oh yeah sure; I'll just do that while two dozen Guys in White rejects continue to throw bombs and shots at us. Yeah that's no problem at all." Danny replied with the tone of someone rolling their eyes.
"God and my family calls me sarcastic. Ok wise guy I'm finished." Daniel took one more deep breath before opening his eyes and preparing to fly off at top speed. He glanced over the tree tops and spotted a bright red flare glowing off towards the main part of the battle. "Hey," he elbowed the other boy in the ribs to get his attention. "That flare is from Jasmine. It means the Hover's ready, so that's where we're headed after we lose these guys. So on the count of three drop the shield and get over there as fast as you can."
"You know, I've been taking orders from people like my age or younger all day, and I can honestly say I'm getting sick of it." Danny chanced a moment to act childish and lighten the mood by sticking out his tongue at the other hybrid inside the shield.
"Yeah, well Rule Three remember? In case of a battle, I'm in charge. So get used to it." Daniel tossed back. He passed a look over his shoulder at Danny and started counting down until he caught sight of a large missile headed for their position. "Never mind! Just go now!" he ordered surging as fast as he could away from his last position.
Danny quickly followed suit, zooming away in close to the opposite direction even faster to avoid being turned into spectral slag. He looked back just as the missile rammed into the earth several hundred yards away from his current position, searing the ground and his retreating form with the heat. Woah that was close! Good thing he spotted that bomb before we got turned into burnt up pancakes. "Hey Daniel!" He called into the settling air around the blast zone.
"Over here," he responded with a small blue flare to cut through the still kicked up dust. He surveyed the events of the rest of the battle with a critical eye. The twins and Lizzie are still inside the RV messing around with things. Well as long as they don't get out it'll be fine. Jasmine is surround inside the Hover, but the shield is stable, no need to rush off there right at the moment. Mom is…is that Jillian Castle? Oh I'm definitely leaving that alone. And Dad finished off all but one of the platforms, but it looks like the first round of tanks are just about through the edge of the forest leading to the valley floor. We need to leave.
"So, how about we go rescue Jazz from being stuck inside that shield?" Danny asked while settling next to his pensive looking doppelganger. When that didn't seem to get his attention, he floated in front of him. "Hey dude, are you still in there?" the time traveling teen crossed his arms in frustration.
"Yes I hear you; give me a second. I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to get Jasmine back to the RV safely. Oh and she abhors being called 'Jazz' so don't do it around her."
"Oh yes your majesty." Danny rolled his eyes and continued, "Dude why don't we just swoop in, grab her, and fly her back to the RV? That's simple-"
"-And probably going to get her killed." Daniel interrupted. "As soon as we fly over there, every GSU fighter wannabe is going to fire at us, and if you thought it was hard before, it'll be impossible after that." He frowned and looked directly at the other ghost powered teen, "so unless you'd like to offer yourself up as bait-"
"Is that all? No problem, so let's get over there!" At the surprised and skeptical look he was receiving from the other boy he explained further. "Dude I'm one of the fastest most agile ghosts I know. Trust me; if they can hit me then I deserve it. Now let's go!" Not wanting to waste another moment, Danny shot towards the Hover's position like a piece of black streaked lightening.
Daniel sighed and charged after him, hoping to cut him off before he did anything especially stupid or dangerous. And considering this entire situation is his fault to begin with, I likely have no idea the depths he can sink to. He caught up with Danny just as the top of the Hover's shield came into view. The fact the other teen was still floating around the outside of the shield, dodging weapons' fire, surprised him until he remembered the shield technology's newest feature. Daniel stopped next to the other ghost powered teen above the very top of the dome. "Hey you keep them busy while I go grab Jasmine. I mean, since you volunteered to be the bait and everything, I'm sure you don't mind holding the fort." With that said he dove inside the shield and landed in front of the opening to the Hercules Hover. "So need a lift?"
"Thanks, but I'm more concerned with how Dad is going to-Dad!" Jasmine cut herself off as a large pink blast threw the line of advancing GSU men back over 100 feet. She bounded out of the craft and to the edge of the shield, trying to get a better look.
"Saw your flare, and figured it was about time I made an appearance. Is everything ready to go?" He said through the energy wall of the shield, eyes warily searching the area for any sign of enemy combatants.
Jasmine smiled and thumbed over her shoulder in the direction of the open hovercraft. "Yeah we just need to move it. I'm not sure how that's going to happen though, with all of the jets and soldiers everywhere." She leaned around his floating form when she saw a bright green flash go off. Oh, well at least he's being useful. I'd expect him to be completely freaked out by now. Where did he learn to fight? She wondered before refocusing on her father drifting through the shield and landing on one side of the Hover.
"Daniel and I are going to teleport it. Now the shield is going to disappear with it, so be ready to defend yourself when that happens. Also, Danny," he paused and raised his volume to get the other halfa's attention. "I shouldn't have to tell you this, but defend Jasmine. We'll only be otherwise occupied for a few minutes, but plenty can happen in that time." Vlad ended his warning by placing his hands on the Hover. "Ready Daniel?"
"As I'll ever be." He replied while watching his sister step out of the protection of the energy shield, gun in hand. Be careful. He thought before placing his palms against the cool smooth metal and concentrating…
You know, I'm beginning to think offering to be the distraction/bait/ghost hunter sacrifice wasn't the best of ideas. In fact, I'm not sure what possessed me to volunteer to be the living ecto-weapons' fire "pin" cushion. Danny dodged another in the increasing volley of GSU green colored blasts. It was getting harder for even him to avoid the shots, but stopping and erecting even a small shield would only make himself a bigger and more easily fatigued target. He glanced down to where his sister was fighting through the horde of men with expert marksman like shots. Oh yeah definitely bizarro world. He concluded after getting a chance to see her much improved aim in action. He risked another fleeting look away from the battle at hand to the pair working behind him. Ok their energy is all around the flying metal bug thing, so they should be done in a minute or two. Not so bad…
Just then the Hover, ghost hybrids and all, dissipated into a puff of red smoke. The shield disappeared only tenths of a second afterwards, leaving Danny and Jasmine alone in wake of the Hover's departure.
Danny took his mind off the battle for only a second, distracted by the teleportation, but it only took that much for him to miss a shot heading straight for Jasmine on the ground. The sound of her pained and surprised cry was what got his attention. "Jazz! Hold on I'm coming." He shot down towards her like a rocket, stopping just in front of her and creating an ecto-shield large enough for them both. "Hey are you alright?" the younger halfa asked gritting his teeth against the rapid patter of the attacks against his shield.
"I'll be fine." The other girl hissed back at him through her pain. "Just give me a sec to wrap this up and I'll be back to the blasting action." She tore through a strip of fabric on the ruined sleeve of her injured arm, making a quick tourniquet. Other than a slight tremor from the pain, her arm was otherwise still useable. Good. She concluded before setting the second ecto-gun back onto her injured side and standing up behind Danny. The red haired girl began to take stock of new situation when a ripple went through her system. They were about to be completely surrounded, and worse, she couldn't really shoot as well on her right side now.
"Hey Jazz do me a favor." Danny stated while lowering his arms and taking a deep breath.
"Sure thing if you don't call me Jazz ever again." She replied with a slight scowl in her tone.
"Stand behind me, and cover your ears." He planted his feet and deepened his stance, he didn't really have the room to go anywhere else, and this attack had a habit of throwing him backwards if he didn't really brace himself. Danny took one final deep lung filling breath, closed his eyes, and…
If she had been thinking of keeping her arms up in favor of defending herself when Danny's shield dropped, that thought left her mind immediately after his attack started. Even behind him, where the sound was at its least powerful, it was overwhelming. Jasmine dropped to her knees behind him; trying to bury her ears in a combination of her hair and hands to block out even more of the sound. It was so loud she couldn't even think. She opened her eyes and was suddenly glad to be on the ground already, since the whole of it looked to be waving back and forth in time with the bright green waves of piercing howling sound pouring form Danny's mouth. Just when she thought she could stand another second, he stopped and bent over panting with his hands on his knees. Her ears were still ringing, but even so the silence was palatable. "What was that?" She shrieked at him, still nearly deaf from the attack.
"Ouch! My ears still work you know?" Danny complained while rubbing the one that had been closest to her auditory assault. "You like it? I call it my Ghostly Wail. That thing will demolish anything." He stood back up and surveyed the damage. Well the first few rows are definitely down for the count; their equipment too. The closest troops to use look too shell shocked to do much but lay there for the next couple minutes and the ones across the valley will take a good while to get to us, which is perfect because we are heading to the RV.
Jasmine flit her eyes over the prone men and women of the GSU with a small smirk. "Well it certainly packs one hell of a punch, but I don't suppose you can do that more than once or in the air can you?" She sighed when he shook his head, and noticed the much dimmer glow around his ghost form. "Well let's get-"
"Macaroons! What in the world did you two do? We were only gone a minute or so…" Vlad trailed off as he took in the destruction of the area around the two teens.
"Wasn't me. Danny did this sound attack thing, and it was like a ghost powered freight train. It just knocked them out." Jasmine shrugged her shoulders and clipped her gun back onto her belt.
"Oh yeah, it's like my trump card; it's destructive, could cause a bunch of collateral damage, but it never fails to get rid of whatever I'm fighting. Hey wait," Danny scrunched up his face as he eyed another very Vlad looking ghost a little farther off. "How long have you had a duplicate over there fighting?"
"Since I started trying to teleport the Hover with Daniel. I needed to keep-" the rest of Vlad's sentence was lost in the slew of spectral grenades carpeting the area and bouncing off his hastily created shield.
"So there's the real you Plasmius. I'd wondered what hole you'd slithered off into." A deep voice mocked from a vantage a little above the protected group.
"What's the matter?" Vlad asked as his recently destroyed duplicate dissolved back into his system, bringing its memories along with it. "Feeling a little neglected Jack?" He asked sending a tone of mock concern back.
Jack sent out a low whistle and shifted on the Levitator to get a better shot at the creature below. "Oh little ole' me? Why ever would I feel lonely when you have the family you stole from me? I-could you all hold on a moment, I'm trying to fix these G-bombs onto your spectral energy signatures, and you just keep moving around. Naughty little ghosts. How am I supposed to kill you if you don't stand still?" The Head Commander finished his ramble with some more fiddling on his supersized weapon. "Ah right there it goes, now where was I?" He questioned rhetorically as he took aim in the general direction of the group below him. "Oh that's right I was explaining how I'm not lonely, because I'm not you see, I'm actually just furious, you know for the life destroying and all, but I'm not lonely; I have all my soldiers to keep me company." Jack flicked a button on the top of the weapon to take off the safety.
"You kids head back to the RV; I'll take care of Jack." Vlad ordered while waving them back towards the defended vehicle's position.
"But father, I can help-" Daniel barely finished the sentiment before staggering to the left when he tried to take a step forward.
"You're exhausted. You can help me by staying out of this and getting your butt back to safety. Thanks for your help with the Hover earlier, but I've got this one on my own." He sent a light glare in the kids' direction when they looked ready to protest, and an especially large one in the more rebellious Danny's direction. "And don't tell me you're not tired either Danny, that last attack wiped you out. Just…do as I ask alright?" He didn't wait to hear their replies but instead rushed up towards his opponent, wanting to cut off the next attack before it was even fired. To his luck, he made it in the nick of time...
Balshumet: And CUT! Well that was a whirlwind, and the best fight is yet to come, and the miraculous escape! I'd like to take this time to thank everyone for being so patient with me and my lack-o-updates. I'd also like to say that I'm probably not going to update this again for at least two weeks, BUT to make up for that, I'll send my Beloved readers a bone, and finish that chapter. So that will get an update this month, even if this story doesn't. I won't be this completely inactive again. And who knows, I might be inspired to do TWO chapters for that one(since the next chapter after this one, my head apparently likes much more...stupid cuteness attracted plot bunnies...) That's all for this update thanks for reading everyone, and as always my lovelies R&R.