OOM: Phantom Planet

[ami_imperfect]

It's a pissed off female halfa that steps through the Milliways entrance to Amity Park.

Her world is in danger. Her city is in danger (although, technically, she lives in Milliways). Her friends are in danger. Her family is in danger. Danny is being an idiot, and is in danger.

And they think she's going to stay behind in Milliways while all of this is going on?

Obviously, they don't know Dani Phantom too well, do they?

Comments

[fryertuck]

The sensors track the Disasteroid, screaming through the atmosphere toward the North Pole...

"Now!"

[amity_npc]

Gritting his teeth in concentration, Danny phases out, still pushing his power into the transmitter.

[ami_imperfect]

Somewhere below Dani and beside Enzo, Dani follows suit and goes intangible.

And mentally crosses her fingers.

[a1enzo]

Enzo still doesn't have a whole lot of practice with ghost powers, nor complete control, but this job doesn't require finesse. He joins the others on their new vibrational frequency, forcing the tower to do the same with brute force and bull-headed determination.

He's a Matrix. They're good at that.

[amity_npc]

As the ghosts all transfer their intangibility into the tower, the apparatus at its base amplifies the signal and sends it out through the cables which criss-cross the globe, representing the hardest three days' work in the history of humanity. Each cable carries and diffuses enough power to phase out a substantial portion of the planet and, bit by bit, the whole thing takes up the new frequency: crust, mantle, and core; plants, animals, fungi, and protists; and more than six billion humans and all their effects.

The farthest point on the Earth joins the rest just as the asteroid hits.

Except, of course, that it doesn't hit, but courses straight through at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Even at that speed, it takes a few minutes to pass through, and this is not an easy job. The ghosts growl through clenched teeth; a few of them scream.

"Where's the asteroid?" Danny shouts into the mic... and, with what can only be called cosmic timing, the country-sized chunk of superdense rock emerges from the Earth's surface right beneath him, passing straight through the tower on its way back to space.

[ami_imperfect]

Dani could make a pithy remark right now...if she weren't too busy trying to stay intangible and keep pressing onto the tower.

[passthefudge]

Jack and Maddie embrace, too ecstatic and relieved even to cheer.

[ilovebearbert]

Purely on impulse, Jazz reaches out and pulls Sam into a hug. The Goth girl blinks, then not only accepts but returns the embrace.

They did it. He did it.

[fryertuck]

Tucker doesn't hug anyone. He just sinks back into his chair and sighs with relief.

There will be time for hugs later. There will be all the time in the world, now.

[amity_npc]

The ghosts hold the intangibility until the asteroid is a second moon in the distance. Then they relax, and the Earth snaps back to normal. They break away from the tower to hover and take a breather, and Danny, grinning from ear to ear, comes in for a landing.

[a1enzo]

Enzo turns to Dani, feeling sweaty and light-headed and utterly elated.

"We. We did it."

They got her world back. Safe, sound, and Vlad-free.

[ami_imperfect]

"We sure did."

Dani's grin is stretching from ear to ear. The implications of being "Vlad-free" will probably hit her later; right now she's just reveling in the moment.

[bringnewjokes]

Well, revel fast Dani because here comes...well, pretty much everybody.

There's a sudden swarm of people exiting the observation tower, and all of them are heading for Danny. In the lead are Sam, Jazz and Tucker.

Sam reaches Danny first and throws her arms around him. Then Jazz hugs both of them.

[fryertuck]

When Tucker joins the group glomp, it's a bit too much, and the four topple into the snow.

[bringnewjokes]

"Awesome!" cheers Sam.

[ilovebearbert]

"Nice job, little brother!" Jazz chimes in. "Or should I say, hero!"

[amity_npc]

Danny smiles at them, but he doesn't get a chance to reply, because it's hard to bond when Skulker is looming over you with several thousand ghosts close behind him. It's a little distracting.

The ghost-boy gets to his feet. "I don't know what to say, other than thanks, Skulker. To all of you."

[amity_npc]

Skulker returns this gesture of goodwill by seizing Danny by his spandexed front. He doesn't lift him off his feet, though, which for him counts as restraint.

"Don't get too mushy on us, ghost-child. Remember, I'll never stop hunting you. And now that you've saved your world, you're a much more valuable prize."

He grins maliciously and releases his would-be quarry.

[ami_imperfect]

"Won't be so easy now that he'll have a partner watching his back," Dani snipes back, shooting visual daggers at Skulker.

[amity_npc]

Danny smiles at Dani, and even at Skulker, since, all things considered, that was very probably a compliment. Skulker, still grinning, launches himself into the air and returns to the Ghost Zone with the rest of the spectral horde. The portal closes behind them.

[passthefudge]

It's hardly a reprieve, though, as his two oldest foes bear down on him. So much for basking in the glory.

"Nice job, Danny," says his father with biting sarcasm, glaring at Amity Park's most notorious ghost. "Or should we say, Danny?" And the glare transforms into the kind of smile you give a child who has been naughty, but so amusingly that you can't really be angry.

[amity_npc]

"What?" Oh, crud, do they... he wasn't planning for this... well, he was, but... "Uh..."

Maybe he can bluff it. "Sorry, citizens," he says in his most heroic voice, the one with all the misplaced stresses, "but I have no idea what you're talking about..." He throws in some dramatic gestures for good measure.

[notjustcookies]

Maddie reaches out and puts her hand on his as he makes one of those dramatic gestures, gently pushing it downward.

"Isn't there something you want to tell us?" She's smiling, but her tone of voice is rather pointed.

[amity_npc]

Danny freezes like a deer in the headlights.

Bluff check: failed.

[ilovebearbert]

Jazz gives her brother her most comforting "big sister" smile.

"It's okay, Danny. They know."