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Literature Text
Mona and Clockwork found no trouble entering Fenton Works, as the front door was not locked and the automatic ghost defences were apparently not turned on.
"Looks like someone turned off the security system," Clockwork remarked. "Handy for us."
"Maybe Danny did it," Mona suggested. "Dark Danny, I mean."
"Perhaps he did," Clockwork said levelly. "Let's take a look around, shall we?"
All of a sudden, a piercing scream caught their attention.
"Uh-oh," Mona remarked. "That can't be good."
"It came from the basement," said Clockwork. "Let's go."
They rushed through the kitchen and down the metal stairs to find a disturbing scene taking place in the basement. In his ghost form, Danny was hovering in the middle of the room with green vapour rising from his outstretched hands. There were several large holes in the computer consoles, and a frightened figure was cowering in one corner, a look of horror and dismay on its face. Mona recognised Danny's victim.
"Jazz!" she exclaimed in alarm.
"I told you to leave me alone, Mona!" Danny snarled, as he swung around in midair. "Go back to your own world right now, or you'll be sorry!"
"I'm not going anywhere, Danny," Mona growled, as her vampire features emerged. "What do you think you're doing? Why are you attacking Jazz?"
"Yeah, why are you attacking me, Danny?" Jazz piped up. "I thought you'd be pleased to see me!"
"I've had it up to here with you, Jazz," Danny sneered. "You think you can just waltz back in here and prance around impressing Mom and Dad with more amusing anecdotes from your precious Ivy League psychology degree, diverting all their attention away from me!"
"Danny, stop it," Jazz wailed. "This isn't like you! What's going on?"
"Nothing good," Mona said grimly, as lightning started to flicker at her fingertips. "Listen, Danny, I need to have a serious talk with you, so unless you change back to your human form right now, I'm going to have to…"
"You think you can take me on, Mona the Vampire!" Danny laughed derisively. "Foolish girl, I am now more powerful than you could ever imagine! Oppose me if you must, but I shall destroy…"
To everyone's surprise, Danny's declamation was cut short as a stream of light blue energy erupted seemingly from nowhere and hit him in the chest. His roars of protestation were soon silenced as he disappeared completely.
"What the hell was that?" Jazz boggled. "It looked like he was sucked into a Fenton Thermos, but…"
"So he was," announced Clockwork, as he faded into view, a Fenton Thermos clasped in one hand. "I made myself invisible as soon as we entered the room - if Dark Danny sees me here, he'll know we're on to him."
"Wow, good work, Clockwork," Mona approved. "Is that the Fenton Thermos he escaped from in the first place?"
"Yes," said Clockwork. "I brought it with me to recapture him… and now, it seems, I have."
"Well yeah, but…" Mona started to object.
"Wait a minute!" Jazz intervened. "Can one of you please tell me what's going on around here? Right now!"
Patiently and succinctly, Mona explained the situation to Jazz, who sank to the floor and rubbed her temples as she attempted to digest the worrying new information.
"I knew that couldn't really be Danny," she said, "I just knew it!"
"What I don't understand is, why was Dark Danny attacking you?" Mona mused. "That's not going to do anything to spoil Danny's relationship with Sam… not directly, anyway."
"Perhaps it is more than Danny's love life that the dark one is attempting to destroy," said Clockwork. "Perhaps it is his entire life… and the lives of his family with it. It is very tempting just to keep the contents of this Fenton Thermos as they are and take it back to my realm - that would solve the problem of Danny Fenton's life being ruined, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, mainly because he wouldn't have a life anymore," Mona pointed out.
"You can't leave him in there," Jazz said firmly. "You may have captured Dark Danny, but you've also captured my brother, and we need to save him!"
"Whatever else happens, it's really important that Danny Fenton is allowed to come through this experience and carry on living his life," Mona agreed. "It's important for so many reasons, Clockwork - if you really are the Master of Time, you should know that!"
"You are right, Mona the Vampire," Clockwork nodded. "Despite what I said earlier, I am grateful for your help and advice - I would have caused a lot of harm to the universe if I had thoughtlessly left Danny Fenton trapped in this Thermos for all time."
"You're going to release him, then?" Jazz pressed.
"Yes," Clockwork replied. "The question is, what will happen after I do?"
"We need to force Dark Danny to leave the real Danny's body so that we can carry on with our original plan of explaining everything to him," said Mona. "We can then explain the situation to Sam, and work out how to get rid of Dark Danny - hopefully we'll still have the element of surprise."
"We should be able to retain that advantage, as long as Dark Danny doesn't see me," said Clockwork. "I can become invisible again and open the Thermos to release Danny, but then how can we force Dark Danny out of him?"
"I'll do it," Mona proposed. "I'll fight him."
"Are you sure you'll be able to cope, Mona?" Jazz asked worriedly. "Even when he isn't possessed by an evil version of himself, Danny's really powerful nowadays!"
"So am I," Mona said grimly. "If I subject Danny to enough punishment, will Dark Danny run out of energy and vacate the body?"
"Yes," said Clockwork. "That should work. If you find the task too much, Mona, I could step in to help you, although this would alert Dark Danny to my presence."
"Just leave it to me," Mona insisted. "I can handle this. You'd better give me the Thermos, Clockwork - I'll pretend I put him in there myself. Make yourself invisible again - we mustn't let Dark Danny know you're here."
"Very well," Clockwork agreed.
"Will you be able to suck Dark Danny into the Thermos when he comes out of Danny's body?" asked Jazz.
"I doubt it," said Clockwork. "He'll doubtless be invisible, just as he has been whilst phasing in and out of Danny so far."
"Jazz, you should get out of here," Mona suggested. "This could get messy."
"Which is exactly why I'm staying," Jazz said forcefully, grabbing a nearby ray gun with the word 'Fenton' printed on the side. "You can't take him on without some sort of backup."
"Okay, thanks," Mona nodded. "Let's do it."
Danny snarled ferally as he faced Mona across the basement. He caught sight of the Fenton Thermos in her right hand.
"Where did you get that thing from?" he demanded suspiciously.
"I took it when I was here earlier, just in case I ran into any supernatural nasties that needed putting on ice," Mona replied. "And I did - you! There's something seriously wrong with you, Danny, and we need to work out what it is."
"And how do you intend to do that?" Danny sneered.
"I was hoping we could talk," Mona said, although of course this was not her true intention.
"No more talk!" Danny spat. "There's nothing left to talk about, Mona. This is who I am now - it's who I always have been, deep down! And now I'm going to show you…"
Danny stopped speaking as a round of Mona's lightning hit him in the chest. He flew across the basement, but stopped himself in midair and started floating towards Mona at quite a rate.
"You're right, Danny - this isn't the time for talk," Mona grinned at him. "It's true what they say - sometimes actions speak louder than words."
Mona deflected a powerful charge of green ectoplasmic energy with another round of lightning. Almost immediately, Danny followed up with two blasts of blue ice energy from his eyes. Mona had not been expecting this, and hastily threw up a wall of fire in front of her. There came a loud sizzling, accompanied by copious amounts of steam.
"Your powers are strong, Mona the Vampire," Danny admitted, "but you cannot defeat me - I am Danny Phantom!"
Mona resisted the urge to contradict this assertion for fear of ruining the master plan, although she was not sure that the statement was really untrue, despite the fact that it was at least vastly mitigated. Danny held up his right palm and threw out a flash of blinding green light, which forced Mona to cover her eyes and blink away the disorientating effects. She quickly recovered her sight to find Danny still hovering in front of her, seemingly doing nothing further to attack. She readied another round of lightning.
"Mona, watch out!" Jazz yelled. "There's a clone…"
Mona felt herself pushed forward with great force as two strong palms slammed into her back. She crashed into the wall of the laboratory, but quickly turned around to see what was going on. Two Danny Phantoms were advancing on her at speed, both with green energy dancing at their fingertips and blue ice energy crackling behind their eyes. Acting quickly, Mona disappeared.
"Just let me know when you're ready to give up, Mona!" both Dannys cackled in unison. "You know you don't have a chance to… oof!"
Mona had popped in behind the two Dannys and slammed their heads together with all her might. The two bodies fused back together, but before Mona could press home her advantage, Danny opened his mouth and emitted his ghostly wail.
"Christ!" Mona winced, sinking to her knees and covering her ears. "I'd forgotten about that…"
Remembering the last time she had been exposed to the eerie, energy-sapping sound, Mona slipped back into her human form. As she had anticipated, her human ears were less sensitive to the supernatural noise. She used the few seconds of respite this gave her to crawl over to Jazz and snatch up the ray gun, which she had dropped when the ghostly wail began. Wasting no time, Mona aimed the weapon at Danny and pulled the trigger. The ghostly wail ceased at once, and Danny crashed against the wall. He was still conscious but obviously disorientated; Mona took her chance. She pulled herself to her feet, unleashing her vampire side once more as she did so, and dashed over to Danny's prostrate form. She held out her hands and encased him in a powerful lightning field.
"Aaaaarrrrrgh!" Danny screamed loudly, as he writhed and flailed in agony. "Nooooooooooooo!"
"Come on, you bastard!" Mona hissed under her breath. "Get out of there!"
Mona could feel the powerful lightning assault draining her energy. She knew that such an attack would already have killed a normal human, but she was in no doubt that a half-ghost possessed by another ghost would not suffer any lasting effects from her onslaught. She watched Danny panting and sweating, but fought the urge to lessen the intensity of her attack. Finally, Danny slipped back into his human form. Mona immediately cut off her lightning stream, whereupon a small beam of blue light shot out of Danny's forehead and disappeared through the ceiling.
"That must've been Dark Danny!" Jazz exclaimed.
"I couldn't catch him," Clockwork reported, as he became visible once more. "He wasn't invisible but he was too fast for me."
"We'll deal with him… later," Mona breathed heavily, clutching the wall for support. "Let's deal with Danny… and Sam… first."
"Danny?" Jazz cooed, as she crawled across the floor and knelt next to Danny's prostrate form. "Danny, can you hear me?"
Danny's eyes fluttered open, and he stared around in confusion.
"Jazz… what's going on?" he mumbled weakly. "M-Mona? Clockwork? Jesus."
He passed out. Jazz frowned determinedly, and rose to her feet.
"We need to take him upstairs and get some hot, sweet tea into him," she announced. "Mona, can you carry him to the lounge and put him on the couch?"
"I reckon so," Mona nodded, as she resumed her human form, "but I'll definitely need a sit-down myself after that."
"Great, we'll all have a powwow," Jazz nodded. "But before we do, I'm going to activate the ghost shield, to make sure that evil impostor can't get back in here!"
Once Danny had regained consciousness and drunk his tea, Clockwork explained the situation to him. Brimful of distress about his unwitting ill treatment of Sam, Danny immediately ran to the phone and invited Sam to join him at Fenton Works for a long overdue explanation and apology. She soon arrived, with Tucker in tow, and Danny brought them both up to speed. Sam seemed very relieved to hear the explanation.
"I just knew you couldn't really be yourself," she beamed, as she snuggled up to Danny as closely as she could. "You'd never say all those mean things to me if you weren't overshadowed, would you?"
"Never," Danny agreed fervently. "I love you, Sam, and the last thing I'd want to do is hurt or upset you in any way."
Sam smiled goofily and leaned in for a kiss. Soon she and Danny were smooching on the sofa. Mona smiled and nodded in approval.
"What I don't understand is," Tucker suddenly announced, "how could you, Clockwork, have let Dark Danny escape in the first place? That's just sloppiness, plain and simple!"
"The Fenton Thermos was stolen from me," Clockwork said dryly. "Rest assured that I shall be transferring it to a more secure location - an entirely new plane of existence outside space and time, in fact - once the dark one is back inside."
"But who stole it?" Tucker pressed.
"Yeah, I'd like to know that too," Mona remembered.
"That information won't help us to defeat Dark Danny, will it?" Fang pointed out. "Perhaps we should concentrate on that first."
"Still, I suppose you all deserve an explanation," Clockwork sighed. "The creature that stole the Fenton Thermos was a mummy. As soon as I discovered that it was gone, I used my Mirror of Time to discern its location. I saw a strange mummy creature opening the Thermos and unleashing Dark Danny here in Amity Park. The creature seemed satisfied with its work - it laughed evilly for a while, before flying back through the Ghost Zone to some kind of pyramid tomb, where it magically became covered in bandages and a hooded red cloak before retreating into a sarcophagus."
"You saw all this in the Mirror of Time, did you?" asked Danny.
"Yes," said Clockwork. "And then I left for Amity Park to recapture the dark one, which is what we should all be concentrating on now."
"That mummy creature sounds like Mumm-Ra," Mona mused. "I haven't seen him for ages - I thought he'd decided to stop messing about with the space-time continuum and concentrate on getting hold of the Eye of Thundera, a goal that Merlin told me he'll never achieve anyway because the Eye will never come to life to serve evil."
"Mumm-Ra," Danny mused. "Isn't he the evil mummy that first introduced us, Mona? He appeared at Casper High and told me you were evil and I had to destroy you."
"Oh yes, so he did!" Mona recalled. "Maybe this is some kind of revenge mission - you didn't do what he wanted, Danny, so now he's trying to ruin your life!"
"I don't think we should worry about Mumm-Ra at the moment," Fang opined. "You can deal with him later, Mona. For now, what are we going to do about Dark Danny?
"I've been thinking about that," Jazz announced, "and I've decided that what we need to do is wait until Danny's possessed again and then use the soul shredders to rip Dark Danny out of him. Clockwork can trap him in the Thermos and then… well, everything will be back to normal."
"That's a good plan, Jazz," Mona approved.
"Not if you're the one who's being ripped apart by the soul shredders!" Danny exclaimed.
"You'll be okay, Danny," Sam assured him. "Who's going to wear the gloves? I don't mind volunteering… I'd like to do it, really."
"It'd better be me," Mona said grimly. "Dark Danny is very powerful - he could easily destroy a normal human if he was able to channel his energy through those gloves, but I'm not a normal human, so I'll do it."
"I shall become invisible again, and be ready to suck the dark one back into the Fenton Thermos as soon as he is ripped clear," Clockwork proposed. "He won't get past me a second time."
"That means we'll have to wait for Dark Danny to possess Danny again," Tucker deduced, "so we'll have to drop the ghost shield to let him in."
"I'll get it," said Jazz, slipping from the room.
"How will we know when Dark Danny comes back?" wondered Fang. "Maybe you've scared him off for good, Mona, or at least made him more cautious."
"I doubt it," Mona frowned. "Still, even if he does think twice about coming back, we've got the perfect bait here with us - Sam!"
"Me?" Sam queried.
"Dark Danny knows that damaging Danny's relationship with you is the most effective way of ruining his life," Mona was certain. "If you stick around here and spend some quality time with Danny, Dark Danny will think it's too good an opportunity to miss!"
"That seems to be a reasonable theory," Clockwork agreed.
"Okay, Danny, let's spend some quality time together," Sam smiled.
"Fine by me," Danny grinned.
"Remember, as soon as he starts being mean to you, Sam, you holler and I'll come in with the soul shredders," Mona proposed. "I'll rip Dark Danny out, Clockwork will recapture him, and bish-bash-bosh we're done!"
"Hmm," said Fang, "I doubt it'll turn out to be quite so easy as that."
Danny and Sam sat down on the edge of Danny's bed. Danny was still trying to think of something appropriate to say when Sam flung her arms around him and kissed him on the forehead.
"I'm so glad it wasn't really you!" she gushed. "You've no idea how bad it felt to hear you say those things, Danny… and to have you acting so rough with me. Deep down I knew you wouldn't do those things to me - I knew there had to be something wrong."
"I'm sorry, Sam," Danny replied. "I didn't know what I was doing and I don't remember doing any of it, but I'm still sorry. The last thing I'd ever want to do is hurt you. You're the most important person in the world to me. I could never've done this without you."
"Done what?" Sam asked shyly.
"Anything - everything I've done since getting my ghost powers," Danny elaborated. "Whatever I am - whatever Danny Phantom is - it's all thanks to you."
Sam was beaming from ear to ear by this point, and tears were pricking her eyes. Overcome with emotion, she started kissing Danny, who returned the action with gusto. After several seconds had passed, she felt that he was trying to push her down onto the bed.
"Danny…" she queried, breaking the kiss. "Are you… okay?"
"I'm fine," Danny smiled at her. "Was I being too rough?"
"No," Sam beamed up at him. "No, everything's fine."
Sam lay back on the bed and started to relax a bit. Danny kissed her neck; she did not object. After a little while, he started moving down a little. Sam smiled and closed her eyes.
"Does this mean you're finally gonna put out for me?" Danny's sneering tones suddenly met her ears.
"Wh-what?" Sam asked worriedly, snapping her eyes open.
"It's about time," Danny laughed derisively, pinning Sam's arms to the bed with a very strong grip. "At last I'll be able to really enjoy spending some time with you! Just lie back and relax, Sam - this won't hurt… much!"
"You're not Danny!" Sam yelled, struggling against her companion's iron grip. "Mona, get in here right now! Mona? MONA!"
The door burst open and Mona entered the room, vampire visage unleashed and snarling ferally. She was wearing a pair of metal gloves with long, sharp fingers. Wasting no time, she ran up to Danny and plunged the appendages into his back.
"Get off her, you evil scum!" Mona roared deeply. "Playtime's over!"
Mona wrenched her right hand away from Danny and threw the ghost that had been possessing him across the room. She withdrew her left hand from Danny's back, leaving no discernable sign that the lethal weapon had been in there - Danny was disorientated, but completely unharmed.
"S-Sam?" he queried. "What's going on?"
"Mona did it!" Sam reported. "She ripped Dark Danny right out of you!"
"Oh, good," Danny reacted numbly.
"It's not over yet," Mona said grimly, as she faced the floating apparition that she had torn from Danny's body. "You possessed the proper version of yourself once too often, pal! You'd better surrender right now, or you'll be sorry!"
Despite her unwavering tone, Mona was taken aback by the enormous size of Dark Danny, as well as the weird blue-green colour of his skin. He didn't look much like the real Danny at all, Mona decided, nor did he sound much like the real Danny, as she soon discovered.
"I have no intention of surrendering," Dark Danny said in his own harsh, sneering tones. "I set out to ruin the life of my goody-goody former self - first his relationship with his girlfriend, then his family, then his dream of becoming an astronaut…"
"Oh, have you been accepted into the Space Program, Danny?" Mona could not help but ask.
"Yeah, I'm heading off for Florida in September," Danny beamed.
"And I'm going with him," Sam added, "to study ecology."
"Not anymore, you're not!" Dark Danny roared. "I shall destroy you, Danny Fenton, and none shall stand in my way… not even you, Mona the Vampire!"
With that, Dark Danny unleashed a blast of purple energy at Mona, who hastily threw up a defensive shield.
"Quick, Danny!" Sam encouraged her companion. "Use your powers to help Mona beat Dark Danny!"
"You don't need to tell me twice," Danny nodded. "I'm going ghost!"
Danny transformed into his ghostly state and quickly threw a blast of green energy at his dark self. Taking advantage of her opponent's confusion, Mona rushed forward and (without quite realising what she was doing) thrust the pointed fingers of the metal gloves into Dark Danny. Straining with all her might, she ripped something out of him and threw it across the room. And immediately she began to wonder whether she had made a foolish mistake.
"What the hell just happened?" Danny boggled, as he stared at the exact duplicate of his ghostly form that Mona's actions had somehow created. "It's me… but it can't be me!"
"I wonder if I've done the right thing," Mona fretted. "This version of Danny Phantom isn't really like you, Danny - look at his eyes!"
Danny and Sam saw that Mona was right - the new Danny wore an expression of madness and hysteria, as though he were on the verge of a mental breakdown.
"They're dead!" the traumatised Danny suddenly wailed. "They're all dead!"
"Of course!" Sam declared. "Danny, don't you remember how Dark Danny was formed? He was your ghost half mixed with Vlad's ghost half - Mona must've ripped out this traumatised version of Danny Phantom… he thinks his friends and family have been blown up at Nasty Burger!"
"Oh my God, they're dead," Danny's distraught double wept. "They're all dead… what am I gonna do now?"
"Get rid of it!" Danny baulked. "I don't like it - someone suck it into a Thermos!"
At that moment, Clockwork materialised through the bedroom door. Without wasting a second, he levelled his Fenton Thermos at the traumatised version of Danny Phantom. Danny breathed again as the disturbing apparition was incarcerated inside the Thermos.
"Sorry I didn't get here earlier," Clockwork said sheepishly. "How ironic for the Master of Time to be late, wouldn't you say? Still, now that I've got what's left of the dark one trapped in this Thermos…"
"But you haven't!" Mona cut in urgently. "You can't have! I ripped Dark Danny in two, but the traumatised Danny Phantom was only one half of Dark Danny, wasn't he?"
"Right, I see what you're saying, Mona," Sam nodded. "The question is, where's the other half?"
"What other half?" Danny queried.
By way of reply, a horribly familiar spectre materialised in the middle of the room. Danny's mouth dropped open in horror.
"Plasmius!" he boggled.
"Not really, you foolish boy," the evil half of Dark Danny replied. "I am the Vlad Plasmius that was ripped out of Vlad Masters to join with your ghost half."
"It couldn't be the real Vlad," Sam reasoned. "He's lost in space somewhere… he's probably dead by now, one way or another."
"I'm getting really confused here," Mona confessed. "I remember Vlad Plasmius, but… isn't he a half-ghost too?"
"Not this version of him," Sam explained. "This is the ghost half that made Danny's ghost half evil in the alternate timeline."
"Vlad was never exactly a regular human being, but without what little humanity he had there to temper his ghost half, he must be mega-evil now!" Danny reasoned. "He has to be destroyed!"
"I'm afraid not, dear boy," Vlad sneered. "As Dark Danny I set out to destroy you, and now - as Vlad Plasmius - I shall continue my work!"
Danny threw up a vast protective field as Vlad's purple energy blasts filled the room.
"This creature is out of control," Clockwork stated. "It is pure evil. As Danny so astutely says, it has to be destroyed."
"Do you think we can do that?" Danny asked. "The three of us, I mean, if we combine our powers?"
"Hang on," said Mona. "I think I've worked out how we can destroy him. If he really is pure evil - with no humanity left whatsoever - we should be able to destroy him with love!"
"With love?" Sam queried.
"Trust me," Mona nodded, "it's always worked before."
"What exactly are you suggesting, Mona?" Danny asked uncertainly.
"Danny, if you and Sam kiss while Clockwork and I blast him with lightning, that should destroy him!" Mona proposed.
"A canny suggestion, Mona," Clockwork remarked. "But for your idea to work, it would have to be the kiss of true love."
"It would be!" Mona insisted. "I know it would! Wouldn't it, guys?"
"True love," Danny agreed, gawking goofily at Sam.
"Forever," Sam gushed.
"Then cut off your shield, Danny, and get on with it!" Mona proposed.
Danny cancelled his power shield and started kissing Sam for all he was worth. This seemed to disturb Vlad, who cut off his energy stream. Immediately he was hit by a powerful round of lightning from Mona and a strong blast of ectoplasmic energy from Clockwork. Their foe writhed and snarled in anger and pain.
"No!" Vlad yelled hysterically. "You can't do this to me! I won't let you!"
Danny and Sam continued to kiss, Mona and Clockwork continued to fire their energy beams, and Vlad continued to writhe and scream. Attracted by the cacophony, Tucker and Jazz rushed into the room.
"What's going on in here?" Jazz demanded.
"It's Vlad Plasmius!" Tucker shrilled in alarm.
"Of course!" Jazz exclaimed. "Mona must have ripped Dark Danny in half, creating a traumatised version of Danny Phantom - which is probably in Clockwork's Thermos now - and a totally evil version of Vlad Plasmius!"
"How can you be sure that's what happened?" Tucker asked sceptically.
"It's the only explanation," Jazz said firmly. "And now they're trying to destroy the totally evil Vlad with love - that's why Danny and Sam are kissing!"
"Yeah, sure it is!" Tucker laughed disbelievingly.
"It's true, Tucker!" Jazz insisted. "Love can destroy evil - everyone knows that!"
"Hmm, is that right?" Tucker grinned, as an impetuous urge seized him. "I guess we'd better do our part, then, hadn't we?"
Jazz was taken completely by surprise as Tucker grabbed her and started kissing her.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, pulling away slightly.
"Saving the universe!" Tucker replied.
"But this is all so sudden!" Jazz objected. "We can't just… oh, screw it, why not?"
Jazz grabbed Tucker's cheeks and started snogging his face off. A few seconds later, a tremendous purple explosion filled the room as the last trace of Vlad Plasmius exploded into nothingness, leaving behind nothing but a piercing wail that quickly faded out of existence.
Tucker tapped away furiously at one of the computer consoles in the Fentons' basement.
"Here's the unique ecto-frequency of the mummy creature that stole the Thermos," Tucker announced. "I pulled it out of the mess of readings from all the ectoplasmic entities that've held that particular Thermos - Danny, Clockwork, Mona… impressive, huh?"
"Very impressive," Mona agreed. "But how does it help us find Mumm-Ra?"
"I'm getting to that," Tucker said shortly, still tapping away furiously. "The mummy used a Ghost Portal to enter the Ghost Zone - I'm using the Fenton Computer to match the ecto-frequency of the mummy…"
"Mumm-Ra," Mona reminded him.
"Yeah, Mumm-Ra," Tucker agreed, "to the portal he used, then we can feed the co-ordinates into the Spectre Speeder and it'll take you right there!"
"To his pyramid?" Mona asked.
"To the portal he used to escape from his pyramid, yeah," Tucker nodded. "Presumably it'll still be on the other side."
"Impressive work, Tucker," Jazz beamed.
"Thanks," Tucker replied, blushing furiously.
"I still don't completely understand what happened to Dark Danny," said Fang, who was busy washing his underside on the floor. "That completely evil version of Vlad Plasmius we destroyed…"
"You're just about the only one of us who didn't actually help to destroy him, Fang," Mona pointed out facetiously.
"You could never've done it without my valuable advice," Fang opined. "Anyway, the point is, that wasn't the whole of Dark Danny, was it? That was just the evil half of him… so where's the rest?"
"Inside my Fenton Thermos," Clockwork supplied, "and there it will stay for all time - it may not be as dangerous as the dark one at full power, but it could still cause untold damage to the space-time continuum."
"I hope you guard it better than you did the last one," Sam said pointedly.
"Even the Master of Time can make a mistake," Clockwork frowned, "but only once, I assure you."
"I hate that loopy version of myself," Danny shuddered. "It reminds me of what I could so easily have become… what I could so easily have lost!"
"But, crucially, you didn't," Clockwork pointed out. "With your power, Danny Phantom, you could so easily have become a great many things, but thanks to the choices you have made, you have become the right one."
"You can say that again," Sam beamed, squeezing Danny tightly.
"I thought you were going to start doing a Dumbledore impression there," Mona said to Clockwork. "You know, it is our choices that make us what we are rather than our abilities…"
"I wasn't planning on saying that," Clockwork admitted, "but it is true nonetheless."
"Ah, that's got it!" Tucker declared triumphantly. "Now all I have to do is feed this data into the Spectre Speeder."
"I'll help you," Jazz offered.
"Okay," Tucker grinned.
"If we're going to pay a visit to Mumm-Ra, there's something we should take with us," Mona decided. "Something very important. Danny, could you help me find one?"
"Sure," Danny agreed. "One what?"
A short time later, Mona and Danny stood before the enormous bubbling cauldron in front of Mumm-Ra's sarcophagus.
"I haven't been here for so long," Mona breathed in awe. "I'd almost forgotten…"
"Where is he, then?" Danny queried. "It's quieter than the grave in here… especially if we're talking about a grave in Amity Park."
"Oh, he'll show himself soon enough," Mona predicted. "He won't be able to resist an audience with you and me, Danny."
"But where is he?" Danny pressed. "I don't see anything here… well, nothing alive."
"Ah," Mona nodded, "that ought to do it."
As Mona had predicted, the pyramid tomb suddenly became charged with tangible energy. The eyes on the four stone totems around the cauldron glowed red, and steam began to issue from the sarcophagus as the eyes in the skull that enclosed the casket glowed blue.
"As long as evil exists," a deep, chilling voice rumbled through the pyramid, "Mumm-Ra lives!"
Mona watched with an expression of resigned detachment as the lid of the coffin ground open and Mumm-Ra stepped out onto the stone walkway. Mona remembered all too well the chilling sight of the cloaked figure as it shuffled towards the cauldron, bandages and red cloak flapping around its undead body.
"Oh yeah, I remember you now," Danny nodded in recognition. "But I wish I didn't."
"Hey there, Mumm-Ra," Mona said casually. "It's been… ooh, too long, hasn't it? But I didn't expect ever to speak to you under these circumstances again - I got the distinct impression we were under a kind of indefinite ceasefire, you and I."
"My quarrel was not with you, Mona the Vampire," Mumm-Ra seethed. "I had no idea you would take it upon yourself to intervene in this affair."
"You know how important Danny is to the wellbeing of the universe," Mona pointed out. "How could I not intervene?"
"Still the same Mona," Mumm-Ra chuckled in amusement. "Never knows when to leave the affairs of others well alone."
"Look who's talking!" Mona scoffed. "I don't understand why you wanted to ruin Danny's life in the first place!"
"Yeah, what have you got against me?" Danny added.
"You reneged on our bargain, boy!" Mumm-Ra snarled. "You did not destroy Mona the Vampire! Of course, for many years I have had neither the time nor the inclination to punish you for this offence, but when I learned of the existence of Dark Danny… well, that was just too good an opportunity for revenge to pass up!"
"Yeah? Well you'll wish you had once we're through with you, pal!" Danny declared challengingly.
"You seek to destroy Mumm-Ra!" the evil mummy sneered. "Foolish creatures, it cannot be done! Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-Ra, the Ever Living!"
As the transformation took place, Danny slipped into his ghostly form, but Mona decided to retain her human face. She reached behind her back and plucked a small item from her waistband. As soon as Mumm-Ra's Ever Living body had finished forming, Mona held up the object in front of his face.
"Argh!" Mumm-Ra cried in alarm, shielding his face with a massive forearm. "No! Take it away!"
"Oh, so that's what you wanted Jazz's mirror for," Danny remarked.
"Yup," Mona beamed, keeping the reflective artefact trained on Mumm-Ra. "Look, Mumm-Ra, I really don't want to fight you - I've done it so many times before and I've had enough of it! And I'm sure you don't want to fight me - or Danny - so why don't you just agree to leave us both alone from now on? Then we can get out of your hair!"
"Why should I agree to your terms?" Mumm-Ra snarled. "You have both entered my tomb and challenged me with impunity, and so you have renewed our enmity! What could you possibly say to quell the burning fire of my wrath?"
"Well, how would you like it if I decided to go back in time and mess around with your life, like you did to Danny, huh? Why don't you just concentrate on getting hold of the Eye of Thundera, like you're supposed to?" Mona persisted, lowering the mirror. "Come on, Mumm-Ra - why waste your time with me, and force me to waste my time with you? Just leave me alone, leave Danny alone, leave the cosmic couples alone and stay on your own plane of existence - is that really too much to ask?"
Mumm-Ra's roars of anger and frustration filled the pyramid. The undead creature shrank back down into its bandaged state, and began to retreat towards its sarcophagus.
"I shall accept your terms, Mona the Vampire," Mumm-Ra's voice echoed throughout the tomb, "but I shall not forget your actions or your words here today. Somewhere, someday, somehow… we will have a reckoning!"
The lid of the stone coffin slid shut, and the tomb became empty and still once again. Mona turned to Danny with a confident smile on her face.
"That little victory to us, I think," she grinned.
"Yeah, but for how long?" Danny wondered. "You heard what he said, Mona - he really wants to get even with you somehow!"
"Well," Mona shrugged, "I guess that's just one more thing to look forward to."
Mona and Fang stepped out of the old wardrobe in the attic and crept back downstairs to Mona's bed. Mona glanced at the date on her illuminated alarm clock to see that no time had passed, just as the Oracle had promised - it was still the same night. It did not take long for Mona to fall asleep again. In the instant before she dropped off, she saw a vision of the Shrinkle-filled table in the Hall of Fate; taking pride of place at the front of the array was a perfectly formed Shrinkle of Danny and Sam, kissing contentedly under a tree.
The next morning, Fang awoke to the unusual yet unmistakable sound of someone chopping wood nearby. Intensely curious, he jumped off Mona's bed and set forth onto the landing, where he realised that the destructive noise was coming from the attic. Fang padded up the stairs to find Mona attacking her old wardrobe with a large axe. She had already chopped up most of it - there was a bountiful pile of splintered planks at her feet.
"What are you doing, Mona?" Fang asked calmly.
"Oh, hi Fang," Mona beamed, lowering her axe and wiping her sweaty brow. "I suppose you could say I'm tying up a loose end."
"Didn't you enjoy our little trip to Amity Park, then?"
"Meh, it was okay… I guess it was quite exciting in places. But I've been thinking about this all night, Fang, and I've realised that I really don't want this Ghost Portal hanging around in the attic - and look, it's gone now! It was connected to the structure of the wardrobe, if you remember, so now that I've chopped it up…"
"Yes, but what if the Oracle wants you to use the portal again sometime?" Fang pointed out. "You won't be able to get to Amity Park again… ever!"
"Well, if the Oracle does ever have another Danny Phantom related mission for me, it'll just have to provide me with another way of reaching him, won't it?" Mona reasoned. "Besides, we don't want Mumm-Ra suddenly bursting through here, do we? Apparently he has access to the Ghost Zone now, and he's promised me a showdown, so…"
"Yes, I suppose that makes sense, at least," Fang agreed. "What are you going to do with all this splintered wood?"
"Take it down to the green wheelie bin," Mona proposed. "Then I'll have some breakfast - I'll certainly need some after all this manual labour - and then I'll go and see Lily."
"Then I guess it's just another ordinary day," Fang remarked.
"Yup," Mona agreed. "Nothing extraordinary about today, Fang… I hope not, anyway!"
Lily showed Mona an e-mail she had received from George.
"He says there's some kind of problem with his Mini, so he and Dottie will be arriving a day late," Lily explained, as Mona read through the brief message. "But at least they've arranged to pick up Lawrence and Tara from the station and come straight here to see us - it's gonna be some reunion!"
"Do you think it's car trouble?" Mona queried, as she reread the e-mail. "Sounds to me like George doesn't feel up to the long drive and wants to wait another day - maybe he's hurt himself or something."
"Oh yeah, I guess he does kinda imply that," Lily agreed, reading over Mona's shoulder. "Oh well, it's a shame we won't see them tomorrow, but I guess we can amuse ourselves until the day after."
"Yes, I'm sure we can," Mona grinned.
"What shall we do this morning?" Lily wondered.
"Would you like to make some Shrinkles with me?" Mona suggested.
"Great idea," Lily beamed.
Just before noon the day after next, George's Mini drove into the cul-de-sac and parked outside Mona's house. Mona and Lily ran to welcome the vehicle's four occupants, as George, Dottie, Lawrence and Tara piled out onto the pavement. Mona was immediately struck by how tired and drawn they all looked. Lily had obviously noticed too.
"Christ, what the hell happened to you guys?" she asked brazenly.
"Let's not talk about that now," George said wearily. "I don't know about anyone else, but I need to sit down and have some Sunny Delight."
"Yeah, me too," Tara agreed.
"For at least a week," Lawrence added earnestly.
Mona was alarmed by her friends' appearance. The fact that they all looked so drained and weather-beaten was worrying enough, but there were even more alarming signs of trauma. Lawrence was sporting a recently healed cut right across his face, from top right to bottom left, while George's left arm was in a large plaster cast. Dottie, meanwhile, was hugging herself and visibly shaking, as well as casting furtive glances from side to side at regular intervals. Tara was the only one who appeared vaguely normal, but even she looked more spaced out than she was usually.
"I've got Sunny Delight and mince pies waiting inside," Mona announced. "It's so great to see you all again… and we've obviously got a lot to talk about!"
"You'll have to tell us what you've been getting up to," Lily added, as they headed towards Mona's front door.
"There's nothing to say, really," Lawrence said numbly.
"But what about your face?" Lily boggled.
"Oh yeah, that," Lawrence droned. "Don't worry about that… it will fade in a few weeks, the doctor says - there won't be any permanent scarring."
"In the meantime, it gives you a wonderfully rugged look," Tara half-smiled.
"And then there's George's arm!" Lily persisted.
"There's nothing wrong with it," said George, wincing in pain as he flexed his fingers as much as the cast would allow. "I just had a little accident - nothing to get worked up about."
"Are you sure you should've driven with that thing on, George?" asked Mona.
"Probably not," George shrugged. "It wasn't easy… but we wanted to get home!"
Brimful of curiosity and concern, Mona ushered her friends inside. She reached out and laid a hand on Dottie's arm, as she still seemed to be somewhat disorientated. Much to Mona's alarm, Dottie flinched visibly at the touch of her hand.
"What's wrong, Dottie?" Mona asked worriedly.
"Oh, nothing really," Dottie replied unconvincingly. "Don't worry about me, Mona - I'm fine."
"You're clearly not," Mona disagreed. "None of you are!"
"We're all fine," Dottie persisted. "And we're all glad to be back… just give me one of those mince pies, Mona, and I'll be my old self again. I'm so looking forward to Christmas. I've brought you a brilliant present, you know - something you really need!"
"Oh yeah?" Mona laughed. "What's that, a portable ghost trap?"
"No," Dottie laughed, "it's a new pair of pyjamas - big pyjamas, Mona! When I had that Skype conversation with Lily last week, I saw you wandering around in the background and I was struck by how badly those bat pyjamas fit you - you were straining and falling out all over the place!"
"Well, that's definitely something I really need," Mona smiled, slipping an arm around her cousin's shoulders. "Thanks, Dottie."
"Looks like someone turned off the security system," Clockwork remarked. "Handy for us."
"Maybe Danny did it," Mona suggested. "Dark Danny, I mean."
"Perhaps he did," Clockwork said levelly. "Let's take a look around, shall we?"
All of a sudden, a piercing scream caught their attention.
"Uh-oh," Mona remarked. "That can't be good."
"It came from the basement," said Clockwork. "Let's go."
They rushed through the kitchen and down the metal stairs to find a disturbing scene taking place in the basement. In his ghost form, Danny was hovering in the middle of the room with green vapour rising from his outstretched hands. There were several large holes in the computer consoles, and a frightened figure was cowering in one corner, a look of horror and dismay on its face. Mona recognised Danny's victim.
"Jazz!" she exclaimed in alarm.
"I told you to leave me alone, Mona!" Danny snarled, as he swung around in midair. "Go back to your own world right now, or you'll be sorry!"
"I'm not going anywhere, Danny," Mona growled, as her vampire features emerged. "What do you think you're doing? Why are you attacking Jazz?"
"Yeah, why are you attacking me, Danny?" Jazz piped up. "I thought you'd be pleased to see me!"
"I've had it up to here with you, Jazz," Danny sneered. "You think you can just waltz back in here and prance around impressing Mom and Dad with more amusing anecdotes from your precious Ivy League psychology degree, diverting all their attention away from me!"
"Danny, stop it," Jazz wailed. "This isn't like you! What's going on?"
"Nothing good," Mona said grimly, as lightning started to flicker at her fingertips. "Listen, Danny, I need to have a serious talk with you, so unless you change back to your human form right now, I'm going to have to…"
"You think you can take me on, Mona the Vampire!" Danny laughed derisively. "Foolish girl, I am now more powerful than you could ever imagine! Oppose me if you must, but I shall destroy…"
To everyone's surprise, Danny's declamation was cut short as a stream of light blue energy erupted seemingly from nowhere and hit him in the chest. His roars of protestation were soon silenced as he disappeared completely.
"What the hell was that?" Jazz boggled. "It looked like he was sucked into a Fenton Thermos, but…"
"So he was," announced Clockwork, as he faded into view, a Fenton Thermos clasped in one hand. "I made myself invisible as soon as we entered the room - if Dark Danny sees me here, he'll know we're on to him."
"Wow, good work, Clockwork," Mona approved. "Is that the Fenton Thermos he escaped from in the first place?"
"Yes," said Clockwork. "I brought it with me to recapture him… and now, it seems, I have."
"Well yeah, but…" Mona started to object.
"Wait a minute!" Jazz intervened. "Can one of you please tell me what's going on around here? Right now!"
Patiently and succinctly, Mona explained the situation to Jazz, who sank to the floor and rubbed her temples as she attempted to digest the worrying new information.
"I knew that couldn't really be Danny," she said, "I just knew it!"
"What I don't understand is, why was Dark Danny attacking you?" Mona mused. "That's not going to do anything to spoil Danny's relationship with Sam… not directly, anyway."
"Perhaps it is more than Danny's love life that the dark one is attempting to destroy," said Clockwork. "Perhaps it is his entire life… and the lives of his family with it. It is very tempting just to keep the contents of this Fenton Thermos as they are and take it back to my realm - that would solve the problem of Danny Fenton's life being ruined, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, mainly because he wouldn't have a life anymore," Mona pointed out.
"You can't leave him in there," Jazz said firmly. "You may have captured Dark Danny, but you've also captured my brother, and we need to save him!"
"Whatever else happens, it's really important that Danny Fenton is allowed to come through this experience and carry on living his life," Mona agreed. "It's important for so many reasons, Clockwork - if you really are the Master of Time, you should know that!"
"You are right, Mona the Vampire," Clockwork nodded. "Despite what I said earlier, I am grateful for your help and advice - I would have caused a lot of harm to the universe if I had thoughtlessly left Danny Fenton trapped in this Thermos for all time."
"You're going to release him, then?" Jazz pressed.
"Yes," Clockwork replied. "The question is, what will happen after I do?"
"We need to force Dark Danny to leave the real Danny's body so that we can carry on with our original plan of explaining everything to him," said Mona. "We can then explain the situation to Sam, and work out how to get rid of Dark Danny - hopefully we'll still have the element of surprise."
"We should be able to retain that advantage, as long as Dark Danny doesn't see me," said Clockwork. "I can become invisible again and open the Thermos to release Danny, but then how can we force Dark Danny out of him?"
"I'll do it," Mona proposed. "I'll fight him."
"Are you sure you'll be able to cope, Mona?" Jazz asked worriedly. "Even when he isn't possessed by an evil version of himself, Danny's really powerful nowadays!"
"So am I," Mona said grimly. "If I subject Danny to enough punishment, will Dark Danny run out of energy and vacate the body?"
"Yes," said Clockwork. "That should work. If you find the task too much, Mona, I could step in to help you, although this would alert Dark Danny to my presence."
"Just leave it to me," Mona insisted. "I can handle this. You'd better give me the Thermos, Clockwork - I'll pretend I put him in there myself. Make yourself invisible again - we mustn't let Dark Danny know you're here."
"Very well," Clockwork agreed.
"Will you be able to suck Dark Danny into the Thermos when he comes out of Danny's body?" asked Jazz.
"I doubt it," said Clockwork. "He'll doubtless be invisible, just as he has been whilst phasing in and out of Danny so far."
"Jazz, you should get out of here," Mona suggested. "This could get messy."
"Which is exactly why I'm staying," Jazz said forcefully, grabbing a nearby ray gun with the word 'Fenton' printed on the side. "You can't take him on without some sort of backup."
"Okay, thanks," Mona nodded. "Let's do it."
Danny snarled ferally as he faced Mona across the basement. He caught sight of the Fenton Thermos in her right hand.
"Where did you get that thing from?" he demanded suspiciously.
"I took it when I was here earlier, just in case I ran into any supernatural nasties that needed putting on ice," Mona replied. "And I did - you! There's something seriously wrong with you, Danny, and we need to work out what it is."
"And how do you intend to do that?" Danny sneered.
"I was hoping we could talk," Mona said, although of course this was not her true intention.
"No more talk!" Danny spat. "There's nothing left to talk about, Mona. This is who I am now - it's who I always have been, deep down! And now I'm going to show you…"
Danny stopped speaking as a round of Mona's lightning hit him in the chest. He flew across the basement, but stopped himself in midair and started floating towards Mona at quite a rate.
"You're right, Danny - this isn't the time for talk," Mona grinned at him. "It's true what they say - sometimes actions speak louder than words."
Mona deflected a powerful charge of green ectoplasmic energy with another round of lightning. Almost immediately, Danny followed up with two blasts of blue ice energy from his eyes. Mona had not been expecting this, and hastily threw up a wall of fire in front of her. There came a loud sizzling, accompanied by copious amounts of steam.
"Your powers are strong, Mona the Vampire," Danny admitted, "but you cannot defeat me - I am Danny Phantom!"
Mona resisted the urge to contradict this assertion for fear of ruining the master plan, although she was not sure that the statement was really untrue, despite the fact that it was at least vastly mitigated. Danny held up his right palm and threw out a flash of blinding green light, which forced Mona to cover her eyes and blink away the disorientating effects. She quickly recovered her sight to find Danny still hovering in front of her, seemingly doing nothing further to attack. She readied another round of lightning.
"Mona, watch out!" Jazz yelled. "There's a clone…"
Mona felt herself pushed forward with great force as two strong palms slammed into her back. She crashed into the wall of the laboratory, but quickly turned around to see what was going on. Two Danny Phantoms were advancing on her at speed, both with green energy dancing at their fingertips and blue ice energy crackling behind their eyes. Acting quickly, Mona disappeared.
"Just let me know when you're ready to give up, Mona!" both Dannys cackled in unison. "You know you don't have a chance to… oof!"
Mona had popped in behind the two Dannys and slammed their heads together with all her might. The two bodies fused back together, but before Mona could press home her advantage, Danny opened his mouth and emitted his ghostly wail.
"Christ!" Mona winced, sinking to her knees and covering her ears. "I'd forgotten about that…"
Remembering the last time she had been exposed to the eerie, energy-sapping sound, Mona slipped back into her human form. As she had anticipated, her human ears were less sensitive to the supernatural noise. She used the few seconds of respite this gave her to crawl over to Jazz and snatch up the ray gun, which she had dropped when the ghostly wail began. Wasting no time, Mona aimed the weapon at Danny and pulled the trigger. The ghostly wail ceased at once, and Danny crashed against the wall. He was still conscious but obviously disorientated; Mona took her chance. She pulled herself to her feet, unleashing her vampire side once more as she did so, and dashed over to Danny's prostrate form. She held out her hands and encased him in a powerful lightning field.
"Aaaaarrrrrgh!" Danny screamed loudly, as he writhed and flailed in agony. "Nooooooooooooo!"
"Come on, you bastard!" Mona hissed under her breath. "Get out of there!"
Mona could feel the powerful lightning assault draining her energy. She knew that such an attack would already have killed a normal human, but she was in no doubt that a half-ghost possessed by another ghost would not suffer any lasting effects from her onslaught. She watched Danny panting and sweating, but fought the urge to lessen the intensity of her attack. Finally, Danny slipped back into his human form. Mona immediately cut off her lightning stream, whereupon a small beam of blue light shot out of Danny's forehead and disappeared through the ceiling.
"That must've been Dark Danny!" Jazz exclaimed.
"I couldn't catch him," Clockwork reported, as he became visible once more. "He wasn't invisible but he was too fast for me."
"We'll deal with him… later," Mona breathed heavily, clutching the wall for support. "Let's deal with Danny… and Sam… first."
"Danny?" Jazz cooed, as she crawled across the floor and knelt next to Danny's prostrate form. "Danny, can you hear me?"
Danny's eyes fluttered open, and he stared around in confusion.
"Jazz… what's going on?" he mumbled weakly. "M-Mona? Clockwork? Jesus."
He passed out. Jazz frowned determinedly, and rose to her feet.
"We need to take him upstairs and get some hot, sweet tea into him," she announced. "Mona, can you carry him to the lounge and put him on the couch?"
"I reckon so," Mona nodded, as she resumed her human form, "but I'll definitely need a sit-down myself after that."
"Great, we'll all have a powwow," Jazz nodded. "But before we do, I'm going to activate the ghost shield, to make sure that evil impostor can't get back in here!"
Once Danny had regained consciousness and drunk his tea, Clockwork explained the situation to him. Brimful of distress about his unwitting ill treatment of Sam, Danny immediately ran to the phone and invited Sam to join him at Fenton Works for a long overdue explanation and apology. She soon arrived, with Tucker in tow, and Danny brought them both up to speed. Sam seemed very relieved to hear the explanation.
"I just knew you couldn't really be yourself," she beamed, as she snuggled up to Danny as closely as she could. "You'd never say all those mean things to me if you weren't overshadowed, would you?"
"Never," Danny agreed fervently. "I love you, Sam, and the last thing I'd want to do is hurt or upset you in any way."
Sam smiled goofily and leaned in for a kiss. Soon she and Danny were smooching on the sofa. Mona smiled and nodded in approval.
"What I don't understand is," Tucker suddenly announced, "how could you, Clockwork, have let Dark Danny escape in the first place? That's just sloppiness, plain and simple!"
"The Fenton Thermos was stolen from me," Clockwork said dryly. "Rest assured that I shall be transferring it to a more secure location - an entirely new plane of existence outside space and time, in fact - once the dark one is back inside."
"But who stole it?" Tucker pressed.
"Yeah, I'd like to know that too," Mona remembered.
"That information won't help us to defeat Dark Danny, will it?" Fang pointed out. "Perhaps we should concentrate on that first."
"Still, I suppose you all deserve an explanation," Clockwork sighed. "The creature that stole the Fenton Thermos was a mummy. As soon as I discovered that it was gone, I used my Mirror of Time to discern its location. I saw a strange mummy creature opening the Thermos and unleashing Dark Danny here in Amity Park. The creature seemed satisfied with its work - it laughed evilly for a while, before flying back through the Ghost Zone to some kind of pyramid tomb, where it magically became covered in bandages and a hooded red cloak before retreating into a sarcophagus."
"You saw all this in the Mirror of Time, did you?" asked Danny.
"Yes," said Clockwork. "And then I left for Amity Park to recapture the dark one, which is what we should all be concentrating on now."
"That mummy creature sounds like Mumm-Ra," Mona mused. "I haven't seen him for ages - I thought he'd decided to stop messing about with the space-time continuum and concentrate on getting hold of the Eye of Thundera, a goal that Merlin told me he'll never achieve anyway because the Eye will never come to life to serve evil."
"Mumm-Ra," Danny mused. "Isn't he the evil mummy that first introduced us, Mona? He appeared at Casper High and told me you were evil and I had to destroy you."
"Oh yes, so he did!" Mona recalled. "Maybe this is some kind of revenge mission - you didn't do what he wanted, Danny, so now he's trying to ruin your life!"
"I don't think we should worry about Mumm-Ra at the moment," Fang opined. "You can deal with him later, Mona. For now, what are we going to do about Dark Danny?
"I've been thinking about that," Jazz announced, "and I've decided that what we need to do is wait until Danny's possessed again and then use the soul shredders to rip Dark Danny out of him. Clockwork can trap him in the Thermos and then… well, everything will be back to normal."
"That's a good plan, Jazz," Mona approved.
"Not if you're the one who's being ripped apart by the soul shredders!" Danny exclaimed.
"You'll be okay, Danny," Sam assured him. "Who's going to wear the gloves? I don't mind volunteering… I'd like to do it, really."
"It'd better be me," Mona said grimly. "Dark Danny is very powerful - he could easily destroy a normal human if he was able to channel his energy through those gloves, but I'm not a normal human, so I'll do it."
"I shall become invisible again, and be ready to suck the dark one back into the Fenton Thermos as soon as he is ripped clear," Clockwork proposed. "He won't get past me a second time."
"That means we'll have to wait for Dark Danny to possess Danny again," Tucker deduced, "so we'll have to drop the ghost shield to let him in."
"I'll get it," said Jazz, slipping from the room.
"How will we know when Dark Danny comes back?" wondered Fang. "Maybe you've scared him off for good, Mona, or at least made him more cautious."
"I doubt it," Mona frowned. "Still, even if he does think twice about coming back, we've got the perfect bait here with us - Sam!"
"Me?" Sam queried.
"Dark Danny knows that damaging Danny's relationship with you is the most effective way of ruining his life," Mona was certain. "If you stick around here and spend some quality time with Danny, Dark Danny will think it's too good an opportunity to miss!"
"That seems to be a reasonable theory," Clockwork agreed.
"Okay, Danny, let's spend some quality time together," Sam smiled.
"Fine by me," Danny grinned.
"Remember, as soon as he starts being mean to you, Sam, you holler and I'll come in with the soul shredders," Mona proposed. "I'll rip Dark Danny out, Clockwork will recapture him, and bish-bash-bosh we're done!"
"Hmm," said Fang, "I doubt it'll turn out to be quite so easy as that."
Danny and Sam sat down on the edge of Danny's bed. Danny was still trying to think of something appropriate to say when Sam flung her arms around him and kissed him on the forehead.
"I'm so glad it wasn't really you!" she gushed. "You've no idea how bad it felt to hear you say those things, Danny… and to have you acting so rough with me. Deep down I knew you wouldn't do those things to me - I knew there had to be something wrong."
"I'm sorry, Sam," Danny replied. "I didn't know what I was doing and I don't remember doing any of it, but I'm still sorry. The last thing I'd ever want to do is hurt you. You're the most important person in the world to me. I could never've done this without you."
"Done what?" Sam asked shyly.
"Anything - everything I've done since getting my ghost powers," Danny elaborated. "Whatever I am - whatever Danny Phantom is - it's all thanks to you."
Sam was beaming from ear to ear by this point, and tears were pricking her eyes. Overcome with emotion, she started kissing Danny, who returned the action with gusto. After several seconds had passed, she felt that he was trying to push her down onto the bed.
"Danny…" she queried, breaking the kiss. "Are you… okay?"
"I'm fine," Danny smiled at her. "Was I being too rough?"
"No," Sam beamed up at him. "No, everything's fine."
Sam lay back on the bed and started to relax a bit. Danny kissed her neck; she did not object. After a little while, he started moving down a little. Sam smiled and closed her eyes.
"Does this mean you're finally gonna put out for me?" Danny's sneering tones suddenly met her ears.
"Wh-what?" Sam asked worriedly, snapping her eyes open.
"It's about time," Danny laughed derisively, pinning Sam's arms to the bed with a very strong grip. "At last I'll be able to really enjoy spending some time with you! Just lie back and relax, Sam - this won't hurt… much!"
"You're not Danny!" Sam yelled, struggling against her companion's iron grip. "Mona, get in here right now! Mona? MONA!"
The door burst open and Mona entered the room, vampire visage unleashed and snarling ferally. She was wearing a pair of metal gloves with long, sharp fingers. Wasting no time, she ran up to Danny and plunged the appendages into his back.
"Get off her, you evil scum!" Mona roared deeply. "Playtime's over!"
Mona wrenched her right hand away from Danny and threw the ghost that had been possessing him across the room. She withdrew her left hand from Danny's back, leaving no discernable sign that the lethal weapon had been in there - Danny was disorientated, but completely unharmed.
"S-Sam?" he queried. "What's going on?"
"Mona did it!" Sam reported. "She ripped Dark Danny right out of you!"
"Oh, good," Danny reacted numbly.
"It's not over yet," Mona said grimly, as she faced the floating apparition that she had torn from Danny's body. "You possessed the proper version of yourself once too often, pal! You'd better surrender right now, or you'll be sorry!"
Despite her unwavering tone, Mona was taken aback by the enormous size of Dark Danny, as well as the weird blue-green colour of his skin. He didn't look much like the real Danny at all, Mona decided, nor did he sound much like the real Danny, as she soon discovered.
"I have no intention of surrendering," Dark Danny said in his own harsh, sneering tones. "I set out to ruin the life of my goody-goody former self - first his relationship with his girlfriend, then his family, then his dream of becoming an astronaut…"
"Oh, have you been accepted into the Space Program, Danny?" Mona could not help but ask.
"Yeah, I'm heading off for Florida in September," Danny beamed.
"And I'm going with him," Sam added, "to study ecology."
"Not anymore, you're not!" Dark Danny roared. "I shall destroy you, Danny Fenton, and none shall stand in my way… not even you, Mona the Vampire!"
With that, Dark Danny unleashed a blast of purple energy at Mona, who hastily threw up a defensive shield.
"Quick, Danny!" Sam encouraged her companion. "Use your powers to help Mona beat Dark Danny!"
"You don't need to tell me twice," Danny nodded. "I'm going ghost!"
Danny transformed into his ghostly state and quickly threw a blast of green energy at his dark self. Taking advantage of her opponent's confusion, Mona rushed forward and (without quite realising what she was doing) thrust the pointed fingers of the metal gloves into Dark Danny. Straining with all her might, she ripped something out of him and threw it across the room. And immediately she began to wonder whether she had made a foolish mistake.
"What the hell just happened?" Danny boggled, as he stared at the exact duplicate of his ghostly form that Mona's actions had somehow created. "It's me… but it can't be me!"
"I wonder if I've done the right thing," Mona fretted. "This version of Danny Phantom isn't really like you, Danny - look at his eyes!"
Danny and Sam saw that Mona was right - the new Danny wore an expression of madness and hysteria, as though he were on the verge of a mental breakdown.
"They're dead!" the traumatised Danny suddenly wailed. "They're all dead!"
"Of course!" Sam declared. "Danny, don't you remember how Dark Danny was formed? He was your ghost half mixed with Vlad's ghost half - Mona must've ripped out this traumatised version of Danny Phantom… he thinks his friends and family have been blown up at Nasty Burger!"
"Oh my God, they're dead," Danny's distraught double wept. "They're all dead… what am I gonna do now?"
"Get rid of it!" Danny baulked. "I don't like it - someone suck it into a Thermos!"
At that moment, Clockwork materialised through the bedroom door. Without wasting a second, he levelled his Fenton Thermos at the traumatised version of Danny Phantom. Danny breathed again as the disturbing apparition was incarcerated inside the Thermos.
"Sorry I didn't get here earlier," Clockwork said sheepishly. "How ironic for the Master of Time to be late, wouldn't you say? Still, now that I've got what's left of the dark one trapped in this Thermos…"
"But you haven't!" Mona cut in urgently. "You can't have! I ripped Dark Danny in two, but the traumatised Danny Phantom was only one half of Dark Danny, wasn't he?"
"Right, I see what you're saying, Mona," Sam nodded. "The question is, where's the other half?"
"What other half?" Danny queried.
By way of reply, a horribly familiar spectre materialised in the middle of the room. Danny's mouth dropped open in horror.
"Plasmius!" he boggled.
"Not really, you foolish boy," the evil half of Dark Danny replied. "I am the Vlad Plasmius that was ripped out of Vlad Masters to join with your ghost half."
"It couldn't be the real Vlad," Sam reasoned. "He's lost in space somewhere… he's probably dead by now, one way or another."
"I'm getting really confused here," Mona confessed. "I remember Vlad Plasmius, but… isn't he a half-ghost too?"
"Not this version of him," Sam explained. "This is the ghost half that made Danny's ghost half evil in the alternate timeline."
"Vlad was never exactly a regular human being, but without what little humanity he had there to temper his ghost half, he must be mega-evil now!" Danny reasoned. "He has to be destroyed!"
"I'm afraid not, dear boy," Vlad sneered. "As Dark Danny I set out to destroy you, and now - as Vlad Plasmius - I shall continue my work!"
Danny threw up a vast protective field as Vlad's purple energy blasts filled the room.
"This creature is out of control," Clockwork stated. "It is pure evil. As Danny so astutely says, it has to be destroyed."
"Do you think we can do that?" Danny asked. "The three of us, I mean, if we combine our powers?"
"Hang on," said Mona. "I think I've worked out how we can destroy him. If he really is pure evil - with no humanity left whatsoever - we should be able to destroy him with love!"
"With love?" Sam queried.
"Trust me," Mona nodded, "it's always worked before."
"What exactly are you suggesting, Mona?" Danny asked uncertainly.
"Danny, if you and Sam kiss while Clockwork and I blast him with lightning, that should destroy him!" Mona proposed.
"A canny suggestion, Mona," Clockwork remarked. "But for your idea to work, it would have to be the kiss of true love."
"It would be!" Mona insisted. "I know it would! Wouldn't it, guys?"
"True love," Danny agreed, gawking goofily at Sam.
"Forever," Sam gushed.
"Then cut off your shield, Danny, and get on with it!" Mona proposed.
Danny cancelled his power shield and started kissing Sam for all he was worth. This seemed to disturb Vlad, who cut off his energy stream. Immediately he was hit by a powerful round of lightning from Mona and a strong blast of ectoplasmic energy from Clockwork. Their foe writhed and snarled in anger and pain.
"No!" Vlad yelled hysterically. "You can't do this to me! I won't let you!"
Danny and Sam continued to kiss, Mona and Clockwork continued to fire their energy beams, and Vlad continued to writhe and scream. Attracted by the cacophony, Tucker and Jazz rushed into the room.
"What's going on in here?" Jazz demanded.
"It's Vlad Plasmius!" Tucker shrilled in alarm.
"Of course!" Jazz exclaimed. "Mona must have ripped Dark Danny in half, creating a traumatised version of Danny Phantom - which is probably in Clockwork's Thermos now - and a totally evil version of Vlad Plasmius!"
"How can you be sure that's what happened?" Tucker asked sceptically.
"It's the only explanation," Jazz said firmly. "And now they're trying to destroy the totally evil Vlad with love - that's why Danny and Sam are kissing!"
"Yeah, sure it is!" Tucker laughed disbelievingly.
"It's true, Tucker!" Jazz insisted. "Love can destroy evil - everyone knows that!"
"Hmm, is that right?" Tucker grinned, as an impetuous urge seized him. "I guess we'd better do our part, then, hadn't we?"
Jazz was taken completely by surprise as Tucker grabbed her and started kissing her.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, pulling away slightly.
"Saving the universe!" Tucker replied.
"But this is all so sudden!" Jazz objected. "We can't just… oh, screw it, why not?"
Jazz grabbed Tucker's cheeks and started snogging his face off. A few seconds later, a tremendous purple explosion filled the room as the last trace of Vlad Plasmius exploded into nothingness, leaving behind nothing but a piercing wail that quickly faded out of existence.
Tucker tapped away furiously at one of the computer consoles in the Fentons' basement.
"Here's the unique ecto-frequency of the mummy creature that stole the Thermos," Tucker announced. "I pulled it out of the mess of readings from all the ectoplasmic entities that've held that particular Thermos - Danny, Clockwork, Mona… impressive, huh?"
"Very impressive," Mona agreed. "But how does it help us find Mumm-Ra?"
"I'm getting to that," Tucker said shortly, still tapping away furiously. "The mummy used a Ghost Portal to enter the Ghost Zone - I'm using the Fenton Computer to match the ecto-frequency of the mummy…"
"Mumm-Ra," Mona reminded him.
"Yeah, Mumm-Ra," Tucker agreed, "to the portal he used, then we can feed the co-ordinates into the Spectre Speeder and it'll take you right there!"
"To his pyramid?" Mona asked.
"To the portal he used to escape from his pyramid, yeah," Tucker nodded. "Presumably it'll still be on the other side."
"Impressive work, Tucker," Jazz beamed.
"Thanks," Tucker replied, blushing furiously.
"I still don't completely understand what happened to Dark Danny," said Fang, who was busy washing his underside on the floor. "That completely evil version of Vlad Plasmius we destroyed…"
"You're just about the only one of us who didn't actually help to destroy him, Fang," Mona pointed out facetiously.
"You could never've done it without my valuable advice," Fang opined. "Anyway, the point is, that wasn't the whole of Dark Danny, was it? That was just the evil half of him… so where's the rest?"
"Inside my Fenton Thermos," Clockwork supplied, "and there it will stay for all time - it may not be as dangerous as the dark one at full power, but it could still cause untold damage to the space-time continuum."
"I hope you guard it better than you did the last one," Sam said pointedly.
"Even the Master of Time can make a mistake," Clockwork frowned, "but only once, I assure you."
"I hate that loopy version of myself," Danny shuddered. "It reminds me of what I could so easily have become… what I could so easily have lost!"
"But, crucially, you didn't," Clockwork pointed out. "With your power, Danny Phantom, you could so easily have become a great many things, but thanks to the choices you have made, you have become the right one."
"You can say that again," Sam beamed, squeezing Danny tightly.
"I thought you were going to start doing a Dumbledore impression there," Mona said to Clockwork. "You know, it is our choices that make us what we are rather than our abilities…"
"I wasn't planning on saying that," Clockwork admitted, "but it is true nonetheless."
"Ah, that's got it!" Tucker declared triumphantly. "Now all I have to do is feed this data into the Spectre Speeder."
"I'll help you," Jazz offered.
"Okay," Tucker grinned.
"If we're going to pay a visit to Mumm-Ra, there's something we should take with us," Mona decided. "Something very important. Danny, could you help me find one?"
"Sure," Danny agreed. "One what?"
A short time later, Mona and Danny stood before the enormous bubbling cauldron in front of Mumm-Ra's sarcophagus.
"I haven't been here for so long," Mona breathed in awe. "I'd almost forgotten…"
"Where is he, then?" Danny queried. "It's quieter than the grave in here… especially if we're talking about a grave in Amity Park."
"Oh, he'll show himself soon enough," Mona predicted. "He won't be able to resist an audience with you and me, Danny."
"But where is he?" Danny pressed. "I don't see anything here… well, nothing alive."
"Ah," Mona nodded, "that ought to do it."
As Mona had predicted, the pyramid tomb suddenly became charged with tangible energy. The eyes on the four stone totems around the cauldron glowed red, and steam began to issue from the sarcophagus as the eyes in the skull that enclosed the casket glowed blue.
"As long as evil exists," a deep, chilling voice rumbled through the pyramid, "Mumm-Ra lives!"
Mona watched with an expression of resigned detachment as the lid of the coffin ground open and Mumm-Ra stepped out onto the stone walkway. Mona remembered all too well the chilling sight of the cloaked figure as it shuffled towards the cauldron, bandages and red cloak flapping around its undead body.
"Oh yeah, I remember you now," Danny nodded in recognition. "But I wish I didn't."
"Hey there, Mumm-Ra," Mona said casually. "It's been… ooh, too long, hasn't it? But I didn't expect ever to speak to you under these circumstances again - I got the distinct impression we were under a kind of indefinite ceasefire, you and I."
"My quarrel was not with you, Mona the Vampire," Mumm-Ra seethed. "I had no idea you would take it upon yourself to intervene in this affair."
"You know how important Danny is to the wellbeing of the universe," Mona pointed out. "How could I not intervene?"
"Still the same Mona," Mumm-Ra chuckled in amusement. "Never knows when to leave the affairs of others well alone."
"Look who's talking!" Mona scoffed. "I don't understand why you wanted to ruin Danny's life in the first place!"
"Yeah, what have you got against me?" Danny added.
"You reneged on our bargain, boy!" Mumm-Ra snarled. "You did not destroy Mona the Vampire! Of course, for many years I have had neither the time nor the inclination to punish you for this offence, but when I learned of the existence of Dark Danny… well, that was just too good an opportunity for revenge to pass up!"
"Yeah? Well you'll wish you had once we're through with you, pal!" Danny declared challengingly.
"You seek to destroy Mumm-Ra!" the evil mummy sneered. "Foolish creatures, it cannot be done! Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-Ra, the Ever Living!"
As the transformation took place, Danny slipped into his ghostly form, but Mona decided to retain her human face. She reached behind her back and plucked a small item from her waistband. As soon as Mumm-Ra's Ever Living body had finished forming, Mona held up the object in front of his face.
"Argh!" Mumm-Ra cried in alarm, shielding his face with a massive forearm. "No! Take it away!"
"Oh, so that's what you wanted Jazz's mirror for," Danny remarked.
"Yup," Mona beamed, keeping the reflective artefact trained on Mumm-Ra. "Look, Mumm-Ra, I really don't want to fight you - I've done it so many times before and I've had enough of it! And I'm sure you don't want to fight me - or Danny - so why don't you just agree to leave us both alone from now on? Then we can get out of your hair!"
"Why should I agree to your terms?" Mumm-Ra snarled. "You have both entered my tomb and challenged me with impunity, and so you have renewed our enmity! What could you possibly say to quell the burning fire of my wrath?"
"Well, how would you like it if I decided to go back in time and mess around with your life, like you did to Danny, huh? Why don't you just concentrate on getting hold of the Eye of Thundera, like you're supposed to?" Mona persisted, lowering the mirror. "Come on, Mumm-Ra - why waste your time with me, and force me to waste my time with you? Just leave me alone, leave Danny alone, leave the cosmic couples alone and stay on your own plane of existence - is that really too much to ask?"
Mumm-Ra's roars of anger and frustration filled the pyramid. The undead creature shrank back down into its bandaged state, and began to retreat towards its sarcophagus.
"I shall accept your terms, Mona the Vampire," Mumm-Ra's voice echoed throughout the tomb, "but I shall not forget your actions or your words here today. Somewhere, someday, somehow… we will have a reckoning!"
The lid of the stone coffin slid shut, and the tomb became empty and still once again. Mona turned to Danny with a confident smile on her face.
"That little victory to us, I think," she grinned.
"Yeah, but for how long?" Danny wondered. "You heard what he said, Mona - he really wants to get even with you somehow!"
"Well," Mona shrugged, "I guess that's just one more thing to look forward to."
Mona and Fang stepped out of the old wardrobe in the attic and crept back downstairs to Mona's bed. Mona glanced at the date on her illuminated alarm clock to see that no time had passed, just as the Oracle had promised - it was still the same night. It did not take long for Mona to fall asleep again. In the instant before she dropped off, she saw a vision of the Shrinkle-filled table in the Hall of Fate; taking pride of place at the front of the array was a perfectly formed Shrinkle of Danny and Sam, kissing contentedly under a tree.
The next morning, Fang awoke to the unusual yet unmistakable sound of someone chopping wood nearby. Intensely curious, he jumped off Mona's bed and set forth onto the landing, where he realised that the destructive noise was coming from the attic. Fang padded up the stairs to find Mona attacking her old wardrobe with a large axe. She had already chopped up most of it - there was a bountiful pile of splintered planks at her feet.
"What are you doing, Mona?" Fang asked calmly.
"Oh, hi Fang," Mona beamed, lowering her axe and wiping her sweaty brow. "I suppose you could say I'm tying up a loose end."
"Didn't you enjoy our little trip to Amity Park, then?"
"Meh, it was okay… I guess it was quite exciting in places. But I've been thinking about this all night, Fang, and I've realised that I really don't want this Ghost Portal hanging around in the attic - and look, it's gone now! It was connected to the structure of the wardrobe, if you remember, so now that I've chopped it up…"
"Yes, but what if the Oracle wants you to use the portal again sometime?" Fang pointed out. "You won't be able to get to Amity Park again… ever!"
"Well, if the Oracle does ever have another Danny Phantom related mission for me, it'll just have to provide me with another way of reaching him, won't it?" Mona reasoned. "Besides, we don't want Mumm-Ra suddenly bursting through here, do we? Apparently he has access to the Ghost Zone now, and he's promised me a showdown, so…"
"Yes, I suppose that makes sense, at least," Fang agreed. "What are you going to do with all this splintered wood?"
"Take it down to the green wheelie bin," Mona proposed. "Then I'll have some breakfast - I'll certainly need some after all this manual labour - and then I'll go and see Lily."
"Then I guess it's just another ordinary day," Fang remarked.
"Yup," Mona agreed. "Nothing extraordinary about today, Fang… I hope not, anyway!"
Lily showed Mona an e-mail she had received from George.
"He says there's some kind of problem with his Mini, so he and Dottie will be arriving a day late," Lily explained, as Mona read through the brief message. "But at least they've arranged to pick up Lawrence and Tara from the station and come straight here to see us - it's gonna be some reunion!"
"Do you think it's car trouble?" Mona queried, as she reread the e-mail. "Sounds to me like George doesn't feel up to the long drive and wants to wait another day - maybe he's hurt himself or something."
"Oh yeah, I guess he does kinda imply that," Lily agreed, reading over Mona's shoulder. "Oh well, it's a shame we won't see them tomorrow, but I guess we can amuse ourselves until the day after."
"Yes, I'm sure we can," Mona grinned.
"What shall we do this morning?" Lily wondered.
"Would you like to make some Shrinkles with me?" Mona suggested.
"Great idea," Lily beamed.
Just before noon the day after next, George's Mini drove into the cul-de-sac and parked outside Mona's house. Mona and Lily ran to welcome the vehicle's four occupants, as George, Dottie, Lawrence and Tara piled out onto the pavement. Mona was immediately struck by how tired and drawn they all looked. Lily had obviously noticed too.
"Christ, what the hell happened to you guys?" she asked brazenly.
"Let's not talk about that now," George said wearily. "I don't know about anyone else, but I need to sit down and have some Sunny Delight."
"Yeah, me too," Tara agreed.
"For at least a week," Lawrence added earnestly.
Mona was alarmed by her friends' appearance. The fact that they all looked so drained and weather-beaten was worrying enough, but there were even more alarming signs of trauma. Lawrence was sporting a recently healed cut right across his face, from top right to bottom left, while George's left arm was in a large plaster cast. Dottie, meanwhile, was hugging herself and visibly shaking, as well as casting furtive glances from side to side at regular intervals. Tara was the only one who appeared vaguely normal, but even she looked more spaced out than she was usually.
"I've got Sunny Delight and mince pies waiting inside," Mona announced. "It's so great to see you all again… and we've obviously got a lot to talk about!"
"You'll have to tell us what you've been getting up to," Lily added, as they headed towards Mona's front door.
"There's nothing to say, really," Lawrence said numbly.
"But what about your face?" Lily boggled.
"Oh yeah, that," Lawrence droned. "Don't worry about that… it will fade in a few weeks, the doctor says - there won't be any permanent scarring."
"In the meantime, it gives you a wonderfully rugged look," Tara half-smiled.
"And then there's George's arm!" Lily persisted.
"There's nothing wrong with it," said George, wincing in pain as he flexed his fingers as much as the cast would allow. "I just had a little accident - nothing to get worked up about."
"Are you sure you should've driven with that thing on, George?" asked Mona.
"Probably not," George shrugged. "It wasn't easy… but we wanted to get home!"
Brimful of curiosity and concern, Mona ushered her friends inside. She reached out and laid a hand on Dottie's arm, as she still seemed to be somewhat disorientated. Much to Mona's alarm, Dottie flinched visibly at the touch of her hand.
"What's wrong, Dottie?" Mona asked worriedly.
"Oh, nothing really," Dottie replied unconvincingly. "Don't worry about me, Mona - I'm fine."
"You're clearly not," Mona disagreed. "None of you are!"
"We're all fine," Dottie persisted. "And we're all glad to be back… just give me one of those mince pies, Mona, and I'll be my old self again. I'm so looking forward to Christmas. I've brought you a brilliant present, you know - something you really need!"
"Oh yeah?" Mona laughed. "What's that, a portable ghost trap?"
"No," Dottie laughed, "it's a new pair of pyjamas - big pyjamas, Mona! When I had that Skype conversation with Lily last week, I saw you wandering around in the background and I was struck by how badly those bat pyjamas fit you - you were straining and falling out all over the place!"
"Well, that's definitely something I really need," Mona smiled, slipping an arm around her cousin's shoulders. "Thanks, Dottie."
![[REQ] Cartman without his hat](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/50df4267-5a98-4324-aa1a-e7f4a0c4e37c/ddx2kbt-31d7b230-f6ce-4204-8e4f-158d25352836.png/v1/crop/w_184,h_184,x_0,y_0,scl_0.092,q_70,strp/_req__cartman_without_his_hat_by_saveraedae_ddx2kbt-92s-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MjAwMCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzUwZGY0MjY3LTVhOTgtNDMyNC1hYTFhLWU3ZjRhMGM0ZTM3Y1wvZGR4MmtidC0zMWQ3YjIzMC1mNmNlLTQyMDQtOGU0Zi0xNThkMjUzNTI4MzYucG5nIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTIwMDAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.uNfXkQ_rGKZIkYNtc0H68yV8ofr7WS_lNW5tNQI3G2U)
![[REQ] Cartman without his hat](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/50df4267-5a98-4324-aa1a-e7f4a0c4e37c/ddx2kbt-31d7b230-f6ce-4204-8e4f-158d25352836.png/v1/crop/w_92,h_92,x_0,y_0,scl_0.046,q_70,strp/_req__cartman_without_his_hat_by_saveraedae_ddx2kbt-92s.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MjAwMCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzUwZGY0MjY3LTVhOTgtNDMyNC1hYTFhLWU3ZjRhMGM0ZTM3Y1wvZGR4MmtidC0zMWQ3YjIzMC1mNmNlLTQyMDQtOGU0Zi0xNThkMjUzNTI4MzYucG5nIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTIwMDAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.uNfXkQ_rGKZIkYNtc0H68yV8ofr7WS_lNW5tNQI3G2U)
Part 2 of 2.
This story is loosely based on the cartoon series Mona the Vampire.
This fic was written in October 2010.
This story is loosely based on the cartoon series Mona the Vampire.
This fic was written in October 2010.
© 2010 - 2024 TheEyeShield
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