Chapter 51

Danny barely got all the people out of the apartment building before the entire thing blew up.

"Ha ha!" Vlad exclaimed as he flew out of the building. "The more times I use the stone, the more powerful it gets!"

"Look!" Someone screamed, pointing at him. Danny turned around and gulped, placing himself between the people and Vlad.

"Fire!" The police chief commanded the other officers.

They all opened fire at Vlad from behind their vehicles. He simply put his hand up and created a shield in front of him. Each bullet bounced right off the shield. When they had ceased fire to reload, he swiped his hand from left to right, sending a blast of ecto-energy at one of the police cars. As the police leapt to the sides, Danny quickly sprang into action, swooping to catch the police car. He caught it just before it crushed two of the policemen.

They breathed out sighs of relief before running the other way when Vlad approached. He took Danny by the throat. "Tsk tsk. I told you not to get in my way."

"Vlad – please," Danny struggled to say as he attempted to pull his hands off. "Get rid of the stone. Do you really want to see the world burn?"

"And rise it back up under my name, and be the ultimate supreme ruler of Earth and the Ghost Zone? Why yes, Daniel, I do. And your mother will be right by my side, cheering me on."

"My mom's made it very clear what she feels for you: nothing."

His grip tightened around Danny's neck, before Danny kicked him in the crotch and flipped over, out of Vlad's hands.

"Ohhhh!" Vlad yelped, reaching down. He looked around at the crowd of people. After getting over a moment of embarrassment, he scowled at Danny. "This is far from over, young badger," he seethed before shooting up into the sky.

The crowd cheered as Danny flew back down. He could tell by the damage the stone was exponentially increasing in power – but not only that, so was Vlad. It wouldn't be long before he might take out an entire block or the entire city or…

"I won't let him," he whispered to himself.

"You have to let us help, Danny!" Jazz urged him.

They were all in Danny's room, discussing what they would do about Vlad.

"I didn't ask any of you to be a part of this," Danny told them.

"But we are," Sam said. "Face it, Danny. You're going to have to let us help, one way or another."

"Yeah, dude. No way are you doing this without us!" Tucker added.

"I appreciate it, you guys. But it's too dangerous."

"It's dangerous for you too!" Jazz shrieked. "I saw you almost die." She fought back tears as she shook her head. "Forgive me if I don't want to go along with your whole 'I-have-to-be-the-hero' crud. It's not brave. It's stupid."

"You almost died?" Tucker asked. "I mean, other than the first time?"

Danny grimaced. "I mean…"

"Yep. We had to go to these polar bears to save him!"

"Polar bears?" Sam crossed her arms.

"Yetis. They're yetis," Danny clarified.

"Yetis?!" Tucker exclaimed.

Jazz moaned. "I don't care what they are! They said if we hadn't come in time –"

"But we did."

"And if we have to go back there because you get yourself hurt again…"

"I'm gonna be fine."

"But the stone can hurt your ghost half…I mean, it's worse for your ghost half. It literally destroys ecto-energy."

"Wait. How do you know about that?" Danny snapped.

"Frostbite and I talked. He's worried about you too."

"Here we are arguing while I should be out defeating Vlad," Danny said, plopping down on his bed.

There was a quick knock on the door.

"Yep?"

Their mom opened the door. "Hi sweeties. I have snacks and also your dad wanted me to tell you he's almost finished working on that ecto-suit you were talking to him about!"

Danny shrugged. "He said he can't finish working on it until he gets all the parts in."

"Well, that might not be entirely true," Maddie said.

He perked up, as did Jazz and his friends.

She chuckled at their enthusiasm. "Come on," she nodded for them to follow.

When they entered the lab, they were amazed. The suit was huge – taller than Jack by at least two feet. It was silver with green accents, including a large F with a green ghost-like insignia on the chest. On the top of the suit was a clear dome.

"Whoa," they all said.

"I'll go get the cookies out the oven!" Maddie said, cheerily.

"Pretty cool, huh? I feel like I'm back to my old self!" Jack said, admiring his work.

"You've outdone yourself, Dad," Danny said with a big smile. "Mom was saying you might be able to finish without all the parts?"

"Yeah…but, well, I don't know," he responded, hesitantly, as he looked at the floor.

"What would you need?"

"We've discussed it, but it's a bit unethical, I'm afraid."

"Unethical?" Jazz questioned.

He looked over at her. "The suit needs ecto-energy to power it."

"Where do you get ecto-energy?" Sam asked the question they all dreaded.

"We would need to capture several ghosts and essentially rip it out of them. We have these ecto-gauntlets. We haven't tested them yet."

Danny gulped.

"Wait, didn't you talk about ripping ghosts apart molecule by molecule?" Jazz pointed out. "Where exactly is the line between ethical and unethical?"

He looked over at Sam and Tucker. "Can we have a minute?"

They both nodded and walked back up the stairs.

He turned from his kids and sighed. "The truth is, ever since that ghost boy saved my life, I've been questioning everything I know. I believe we've overlooked some things about ghosts. Ripping the ecto-energy out of the ghosts would end them – permanently. There'd be no going back," he said, shaking his head. "And I don't think I can live with that. I, myself, was at death's door recently. Nearly became a ghost myself…I guess it put things into perspective."

Danny's eyes were wide. His father had changed his mind about ghosts because of him?

"Oh, and don't tell your mother," he said, turning around.

"There's no other way to power the suit?" Danny asked.

"Just ecto-energy. It'll take a month to ship here, like I said."

Danny sighed, dejectedly.

"Wait," Jazz said.

They turned to her.

"Well…what if – hypothetically – a ghost used the suit?"

"What?!" Jack shouted.

"Just hypothetical," she said, putting up her hands.

"I – I never gave it a thought. But I'm not sure just one ghost could power the suit."

Jazz and Danny exchanged nervous looks.

Jack shrugged. "It doesn't matter anyway. Once I get that ecto-energy in, it'll be ready to go! Phantom won't stand a chance."

"But I thought you said you changed your mind about ghosts after he saved you," Jazz pointed out.

He shrugged. "On some things, yes. But I still believe he's a menace. Look what he's doing to our town! He needs to be captured – and it's gonna be me that brings him to justice!"

Jazz glanced at Danny while he just shrugged. After all, he had encouraged his dad to make the suit to fight him.