The Return of the Phantom

No Shame In Chucking Vehicles

Danny was introduced to the giant heap of wheels rather well. After gracefully floating over the final flung car (it was a shame, it was a really nice silver Jeep), he was clocked in the back of the head with a tire.

"Hey- OWWW!!!!" He was actually okay. He'd been hit with worse than tires before. Rubbing the back of his throbbing head with a gloved hand, he spun around to come face to face with a seven story metal creature, his bright green eyes widening in shock. Its eyes were glowing headlights, its mouth was formed from two bent cars that smacked together hungrily, and it was decorated with a multi-colored armor of metallic car shells. Two red pick-up trucks formed its claw-like left hand, and a convertible and a full-sized pickup truck formed the other formidable pincer. It would've been appropriate if its legs were made from tractor trailers, but none of those were usually parked in a park's parking lot. So it was just a bunch of crumpled cars stacked like a jenga tower.

The emergency idea generator in Danny's mind activated. Jenga! Maybe if he could remove the correct car from the stack, it would send the entire monstrosity falling down.

But before he could take action, with one angry swipe of a pincer Danny was knocked down flat. Too bad mentally figuring out solution had to take time in the real world. He wriggled in vain beneath the massive cars, struggling to lift it off him even an inch.

Wait. He phased through the ground, and resurfaced moments later, behind the car monster. Duh. Again the wonders of lack of practice never ceased to amaze him. Picking a place in the legs that looked weak, he fired up an ecto-ray, pulsating in his hand.

"Hey, Auberto!" Groans and squeaks emitted from the beast as it slowly turned itself around, with an expression of pure rage. Danny grinned impishly, enjoying the exhilaration from the thrill of battle, and yelling terrible quips. It had been so long since he'd felt this amazing cockiness and confidence that came with ghost-fighting.

"There's about to be a car accident!" He hurled the orb of ectoplasmic energy straight for the monster's legs, sending every fiber of energy into its release. The monster stumbled, as the orb exploded on contact. But when the smoke cleared, the beast was still completely intact. Danny guessed he must have chosen the wrong block. Wasting no time, he whirled around for another barrage, trying a different strategy. Summoning his ice core to the surface, ice beams shot from his fist and coated the metal. In another loop around the battle scene, he shot ecto beams at the encased legs. He kicked a leg for good measure, and it shattered on impact, sending the monster's hips into a crooked tilt.

In a particular burst of cockiness, he teasingly battered the monster's face with a few sharp ice shards, causing a few car alarms to go off. The monster's headlight eyes blazed with anger, and it honked the notes to La Cucaracha furiously, which Danny couldn't take seriously. He chuckled, and that brief distraction was all it took, and twelve well-aimed tires repeatedly beat the back of his head. ...And he was on the ground again.

"Owww..." Now his head was really starting to hurt, and dizziness overwhelmed him as he struggled yet again to his feet. He managed to float a few inches before something hard banged into his head again.

"YOWWWWW!!!!! OKAY, this has gone on long enough. No more playing around." He wheeled around, paranoid, searching for any more incoming tires. The monster was still recovering from its missing leg. Then he happened to glance on the ground. He sighed.

"Of course." He muttered, half-annoyed, half-relieved. Tucker never failed to perform outstandingly. There was the Fenton Thermos, glittering in the churned up gravel. He picked up the thermos, and tucked it into his bright green sweatshirt pocket, grinning with narrowed eyes.

"You're in a real traffic jam now." He received a rude, drawn out honk in response. He laughed. "Ha, we'll see about that!" He shot into the air like a rocket, hovering high above the monster, who slowly began reaching out an arm to snatch him. Luckily, though its round weapons moved fast, the monster didn't. The next round of tires approached him, and concentrating, he turned intangible, and dove down toward the monster's boxy head. Corkscrewing downward, he fired ice beams yet again. Putting two colossal claws to its head in distress, all the cars simultaneously honked, piercing Danny's eardrums, causing him to swerve away abruptly.