Danny Phantom: Villains
Ember

"Dear girl," said the shadowed figure. "You have been briefed on your mission by my associates, I trust."

Ember nodded. "They told me what you want, Plasmius. Why you need me to get it, or why you can't build your own, I don't know. But if you can bring back my popularity, I'll do anything."

"Do well, apprentice, and you will have popularity beyond your wildest dreams."

"Now you're talking," Ember said, turning intangible and flying off.

And then Plasmius' face twisted into a wicked grin. Another, larger figure hovered up behind him, and spoke in a deep voice.

"Why are you going around telling everyone they're your apprentice? It doesn't make any sense, and you're going to get busted sooner or later."

"My dear Skulker," Plasmius said. "If you ever want to rest young Daniel's pelt at the foot of your bed, you will learn TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT."

Skulker glared at him and shook his head. "What exactly are you up to this time, anyway?"

"Oh," said Plasmius, "You'll see. Eventually."

Danny, Tucker, and Sam walked together later that evening, leaving the Internet café and heading to their respective homes.

"Well," Sam said, "It's probably just a coincidence. It's not like you have the biggest rogue's gallery, Danny. Two in the same week trying to take something from you isn't that surprising."

Tucker frowned. "The biggest what?"

"You read graphic novels and don't know what a rogue's gallery is?" Danny asked, slightly incredulous.

Tucker blinked. "Well, no…"

Sam shook her head. "Danny's assortment of crazy, evil, and crazily evil villains."

"Them, and the Box Ghost," Danny added, considering that Box Ghost wasn't really evil, or insane.

"Wait," Tucker said, "Danny, are you saying you think there is some evil plot going involving both Spectra and Technus? But they have like nothing in common."

Danny sighed. "It's just a hunch for now. All I know is my dad grounded me for 'losing' the Fenton Bazooka."

"Oooh…" Sam said with a cringe. "What did you tell him?"

"That I dropped it into the Fenton Portal and couldn't find it with the Spectre Speeder."

"Ouch. I bet that went over well," Tucker said. The trio had by this point reached Fenton Works, and Sam and Tucker were preparing to go their separate ways, when Sam cringed.

"Ugh," she said, "What is that noise?"

Tucker's eyes widened. "It sounds like… disco…"

"Oh great," Danny said. "It's coming from inside my own house. Which means my parents are probably relieving their teenage years. Again."

"Yeah," Tucker said. "Well, good luck with that!"

Sam turned and waved her goodbye as well. "Yeah, later dude. I have to go home and fill my earlobes with some death metal to get that blasted beat out of my head."

Sam and Tucker left, leaving Danny to face the horrible audio assault inside. Danny felt like the volume increased ten fold the moment he opened the door, and cringed when he saw his parents dressed in disco outfits dancing—badly—to the music. Which seemed to be coming from a jukebox in the corner that Danny had never seen before.

"Hey, hey!" he shouted. "What's going on?"

"Oh, hi there Danny," his mother said cheerfully. "They had this nice old jukebox on sale at Perfect Purchase today, and your father and I just couldn't resist. It has our favorite high school songs on it."

Jack suddenly hurled himself forward, knocking Maddie out of the way. "Come on, son! Dance to the beat! Do the hustle!" Jack proceeded to do some crazy dance that looked like a combination of the Macarena and a poorly practiced moonwalk.

It was enough to cause Danny to wretch on the inside. "Dad, I was born in the 90s, and even I know that isn't the right way to 'do the Hustle'."

"Oh, be a party-pooper like you sister," Jack complained. "See if we care. We're going out to the RetroDanceClub for some fun. Be good kids."

Danny buried his face in his palm and headed upstairs to his room. Surprisingly enough, he found Jazz inside, using his computer, looking up files on ghosts. Specifically, on Ember McLean.

"What are you doing in my room?" Danny asked.

Jazz ignored him and continued reading.

"Hello, Jazz?"

"One minute," Jazz said. "You know, you really need to be more thorough with your files. And would it kill you to use spellcheck?"

"Sorry. Look, I could probably help you better if you told me what you were looking for. And then, you know, got out of my room."

"Something is fishy," Jazz said, "About that jukebox down stairs."

"You think Ember is behind it? Isn't that a bit old-school for her."

"Do you even know when Ember died?"

Danny frowned. "I'm not sure if she's the ghost of a person or some sort of manifestation. What does it matter?"

Jazz looked back at him. "It just seems unlikely to me that our parents would randomly spend $1000 on something not ghost-related. If they wanted to listen to disco that bad, they could have just downloaded the MP3s."

"Aren't you the one who keeps lecturing me on why I should buy the disc."

"I gave up on that when you were twelve, Danny. But that's besides the point. They are acting weird—even for our parents."

"Well, I guess…" Danny started. "Still, a little bit of weirdness with our folks is hardly a good reason to be suspicious."

Suddenly, Danny's cell phone rang. "Hello?" he answered it.

"Danny," said the voice on the other line, Tucker's. "Something really weird is going on with my parents. They were jamming to the Temptations on some new Jukebox they bought today, and suddenly up and vanished when I stepped out of the room for a moment. The left a note saying they were going to a mock Temptations concert at the concert hall."

Danny glanced at Jazz, the look on her face making it clear she'd heard the conversation from where she was sitting.

"Just a coincidence," Danny said. "It has to…

Suddenly, the house phone rang, and Jazz picked it up.

"Jasmine Fenton speaking," she said. "Oh hey, Sam. Oh, no, that doesn't surprise me. Your parents can afford stuff like that, right? Oh, a jukebox you say?"

Jazz glared pointedly at Danny.

"Uh-huh," Jazz said then. "You think Ember has something to do with it and you want to talk to Danny. I'm repeating your words because Danny is right here but can't hear your end. Yes, yes, I know. Believe it or not, Tucker's parents and ours are acting the same way. Yeah, it does sound like an evil plot, don't you think?"

"FINE!" Danny blurted at last. "I'll go check it out. I know where the club, concert hall, and… where did Sam's parents go?"

"General Patterson Inn," Jazz said. "There's a Beethoven show tonight and Sam's parents 'couldn't wait' to get there despite having not mentioned it at all till today.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess you were right," Danny muttered. "Fine. Going ghost!"

Danny arrived at General Patterson Inn first and immediately knew something was amiss. Nearly a hundred middle-aged and elderly men and women who looked to be of the 'old money' social class were gathering around the concert hall of the inn, filing in one after the other, but none of them seemed to really know why they were there. They were like zombies. Danny flew down, turning invisible and intangible as he swooped through the ceiling and towards the crowd.

There were many more on the inside, ranging from the filthy rich old millionaires to dirt-poor members of the Casper High Mozart club (biggest waste of taxpayer money ever, Danny thought).

"I'm not sure what's worse," he said to himself, "the music, or the smell of old women wearing too much perfume."

Suddenly, his ghost sense went off, and Danny glanced at the stage curtains to see them being drawn back. To his surprise, it wasn't Ember there, but two members of her band. It was the first he'd seen of them since they'd vanished after Danny's first battle with their lead singer.

But oddly, rather than their former punk-rocker garb, they were immaculately groomed and dressed in expensive-looking tuxedos.

But as the recital began, it quickly became clear their new clothes weren't the sign of a new leaf being turned over. Everyone in the audience sat silently, staring as the duo somehow imitated an entire orchestra with only a flute and a violin—using some sort of ghost power, no doubt.

Then, everyone, without provocation, began chanting.

"Ember McLean! Ember McLean!"

"Wow, I guess it only works if you like the style of music this time," Danny thought out loud "Otherwise Sam would be a mindless drone here too."

The ghosts obviously heard the noise and glanced up where Danny was hovering. Danny, realizing he'd blown his cover, phased back into sight and formed a ball of ectoplasmic energy in his hand.

"Sorry guys," Danny said, "but this recital has been cancelled."

Danny blasted the stage, causing wood fragments to explode all over the stage, and sending the two band-members scattering. Danny flew up through the ceiling as the two pursued him, and his last sight was all of the audience suddenly being snapped out of their stupor…

Atop the roof, Violin darted towards Danny, swinging the now-flaming instrument as a club, and bashed Danny backwards towards Flute, who used his instrument as a dagger, trying to stab Danny in the chest. But Danny shot up and blasted Flute with a beam to the face, and his body quickly dissipated.

"That was almost too easy," Danny commented, before being smashed in the back by the flaming violin.

"As I said," Danny repeated. "Almost." Thrusting both hands forward, Danny created a ball of energy and caused it to explode out into a shotgun style blast, tearing through Violin like tissue.

The ghost dissipated as well, and Danny took a moment to survey the area before blasting off towards the next area—the concert hall …

Danny repeated the process at the concert hall with two more members of Ember's band, and they had given him even less trouble since he had been smart enough to take out their instruments first. Unfortunately the lead singer (who, Danny had to admit, put on a very good impression of David Ruffin) had begun to use his microphone as a flail against Danny, bonking him over the head and wrapping him up in the cord.

But an ecto-plasmic shield at point-blank range had been enough to destroy the ghost and the microphone cord.

So, Danny finally got to the disco club little the worse for wear. It made perfect sense that Ember herself would be the one here, and that it would be his parents that ended up with her. She hated adults, and it was unlikely there were any adults she'd hate more than those who sired her archenemy.

Danny just hoped he wasn't too late.

Jazz Fenton sat back in the easy chair in the den at Fentonworks, kicking herself for her promise not to interfere with Danny's ghost activities. Something seemed fishy about everything. It seemed more like a trap for Danny than an evil plot. What could she want with adults this time? The airship had been wrecked (and Jazz regretted ever falling for such a horrible plan back then) and Ember hadn't really tried anything major since then.

Then it had occurred to her that with only one Fenton in the house, the place was totally vulnerable to attack by any ghost that wanted in, and since the ghost shield would only draw attention to herself, Jazz opted to leave it off and act as the house's defender… If she could handle Dark Danny and Spectra, surely she could handle Ember…

So, as she sat and read her book, she had the Fenton Peeler and the Jack of Nine-Tails at her side, just in case.

Danny burst into the disco club to the sight of hundreds of men and women who would have been teens in the 70s dancing badly as disco music blared loudly in the background…

But no Ember. The source of the music was a sound system in the corner, complete with a ghostly DJ that paid Danny no mind at all. Nor did any of the patrons of the club… So, Danny decided, he would have to make them notice him.

Danny fired a beam at the ceiling, immediately drawing attention to himself.

"Everybody, get out now! You're being controlled by ghost-music!"

The adults all stared at him, but didn't move. "Danny Phantom!" several gasped.

"Is he here to hurt us or what?" asked a man nearby.

"He's a hero… Why did he blast the roof?" said another.

"That DJ is a specter come back from beyond the grave to control you!" Danny said, pointing towards the DJ booth in the corner…

To find it empty. Nuts! The ghost had fled the scene of the crime.

Suddenly, Jack Fenton stepped forward, dragging Maddie with him, and pulled a small pistol from his pocket that looked like something from 1930s sci-fi, and fired a green beam at Danny. "You'll never get away from us, ghost!"

Danny dodged to the side and blasted back, intentionally missing his father. "I'm trying to help!"

Unfortunately, his mother and her ninth degree black belt had the next word in the argument, as Maddie leapt forward and knocked Danny out of the air with a Specter Deflector-enhanced kick, then drew her double-edged beam-sword and ran at Danny…

There was no hint at all in her movements she was under any form of mind control…

"And if they're not under a spell. Ember's not here…! Then… Oh no… Jazz!" Danny turned and ran from his mother, blasting out of the roof intangible and making a bee-line back towards his house… He had been so stupid! He just hoped he wasn't too late…

Jazz had no idea anything was amiss until a massively loud crash in the basement alerted her to an intruder. She immediately grabbed her two weapons and headed down stairs, hoping it was just Danny being clumsy…

But when she got there, it became clear this wasn't the case. Ember McLean lay on the floor, surrounded by and partly covered in a pile of junk that had been growing in the corner since Danny and Jack both insisted it was the other's job to clean the lab up.

Ember glared at Jazz as soon as she entered the room and threw her head forward, sending a plume of her flaming hair at Jazz. Jazz dived out of the way and activated the Fenton Peeler, encasing her body in metal armor. She fired twice at Ember, who dodged the bursts and kicked Jazz in the head, knocking her backwards. Jazz thrust forward her Jack of Nine Tails, but Ember materialized her guitar and blocked the attack, then blasted forward and turned her fist intangible. Then she reached through the armor and punched Jazz in the face, sending her flying backwards. Jazz grunted loudly as she hit the wall, but quickly fired again… and missed, as Ember dodged the beam again.

"Sorry," Ember said, "but this song is getting old. Maybe you should just retire early. Pull a Garth Brooks and release a new album—a few years later!" As she said the final word, Ember jammed a power cord on her guitar, sending a stream of ghost music that pushed Jazz harder against the wall, then ceased.

Ember turned and looked across the ground, obviously searching for something among the junk and gadgets. Jazz finally noticed that the rest of the lab had been quietly ransacked while she was reading. Curse the addictive adventures of the Ultimate X-Men!

Ember turned around, ignoring Jazz long enough for Jazz to formulate an idea. She glanced to her side and saw the switch to turn on the ghost shield, and smirked. Then she reached over and flipped the switch down, causing the egg-shaped barrier to surround the entire house with ghost-repelling energy…

"What did you do!" Ember shouted, turning around.

Jazz was already moving. She set maximum intangibility on her Fenton Peeler and blasted it an angle at the ground..

Ember gasped, then stupidly looked at the floor like a deer in the headlights a split second before the reflected beam came out of the ground in a concentrated burst that knocked the punk-rocker off her feet and sent her flying back towards the console. Jazz dived forward towards her father's ghost-claw gadget—she couldn't remember its official Fenton Name—and hurled it forward at Ember…

It struck her foe in the gut, impaling her inward and causing her to double over…

Then Ember's eyes lit up. "Oh, thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for." She pulled the claw out of her stomach, grimacing from the pain and frowning as some green ecto-blood leaked from the wound. Then she looked back up at Jazz, then smiled wickedly. "Ciao."

Ember repeated Jazz's reflection trick, but instead of aiming at Jazz, the beam she shot through the ground bounced up and hit the Ghost Shield lever, knocking back into the off position and breaking the lever so that Jazz couldn't turn it back on.

Then Ember vanished through the ceiling, and Jazz shouted a mild expletive. She'd gotten away, and taken something from them. Jazz had failed…

Danny arrived only shortly after Ember had gone, but it was too late. Danny agreed to take half the heat from their father for the lab being a mess if Jazz would vouch that they had both been there the whole night—meaning of course Danny Fenton couldn't be Danny Phantom, an idea that Jack and Maddie would never entertain anyway.

Either way, it was officially a pattern now. Either Danny's enemies were working together… or they were working for someone.

Danny had a pretty good idea of who that someone was.

Back in Master's Castle, Ember hovered closer, the Ghost Gauntlet wrapped in a brown bag and angled so that it wouldn't poke her should the claws activate accidentally.

Vlad, no longer transformed into Plasmius, entered the room just as Ember did, a smile on this face. It was a cruel smile that actually unnerved even Ember…

"Here," she said. "I got your stupid gauntlet, now where's my reward?" She handed him the device.

Vlad shook his head. "My dear Amber, you'll never be popular again with that attitude." Vlad opened the present and examined the gauntlet, apparently satisfied with its condition.

"My name's not Amber," she barked.

"If you wish to be popular again, you'll learn to straighten up," Vlad said, as he strapped the gauntlet onto his arm… He paused for a moment, as if there had been a veiled threat in his words and Ember had just missed it. Then he continued. "But of course, I guess you'll never be popular again. Not if you can't sing anymore."

Ember's eyes widened. "I can sing just fine, Plasmius. What's with all the creepy Gestapo crap? It sounds like you're starting to believe your own hype."

"Perhaps I do," Vlad said. "And perhaps… you should too."

Suddenly and without warning, Vlad's arm snapped forward, the gauntlet's claws tearing into Ember's throat. Her eyes grew wide with betrayal, fear, and anger, and then began to well up with tears of pain and rage.

Then Vlad pulled out the Ghost Gauntlet, Ember's vocal cords now held in his tightly clutched fist. "My dear," he said. "The first rule of being a good villain is this: never violate your own principles. You don't trust living adults or ghost adults. Why trust those who walk in both worlds?"

Ember clutched her throat, trying to scratch out one simple word: Why?

She couldn't quite produce it, but Vlad understood her meaning, and glared back at her, staring into her hurt eyes. "Because dear, I can. You may understand some day. Thank you for your help, Amber… And good night."

Vlad extended his hand towards the girl, formed an energy blast in his palm, and fired.