Episode #46

Transcripted by Dennis Dunjinman

--

PART TWO

Fade in. We see a crowd on the ground outside Bucky’s Music Megastore, all gasping in terror as they see the tipped-over cutout of Ember hanging off the building.

Cut to Sam, her hair blowing in the breeze.

SAM: (begging) Danny, stop!

Cut to Sam on the edge as Danny is stepping toward her with sparkles popping around him.

SAM: (raising her hand) Don’t come any closer!

Cut to Danny, with his hair flung back by wind. He puts his hand forward.

DANNY: But you’re over there--

He lowers his eyes dreamily as he puts his palm near his chest.

DANNY: --and I’m over here.

Cut to Danny.

DANNY: I wanna be (points) over there!

Great logic, Danny. Completely ignore the fact that she’s about to fall off a building. Of course, he did say that she’s really pretty when she is about to fall off. After she lands we’re not so sure. Her face could reconfigure into an unrecognizable clump.

Cut to Sam.

SAM: Wait, I know that look. That’s that same, longing puppy-dog stare you give Paulina!

Cut to Danny, smitten by sparkles.

DANNY: (crawling forward dreamily) Who’s Paulina?

Cut to Sam, pleased.

SAM: *That’s* a pleasant side-effect.

Yep. Now Danny’s no longer infatuated with Paulina, the little witch that infuriates you so much! Isn’t it nice to know you don’t have to hear about him talk about this pretty girl you hate every minute of the day? ‘Course, the trade-off is that he has to talk about you every minute of the day in ways that could end up ticking you off and make you want to crawl under a rock.

Cut to a pleased Sam on the edge as Danny, slumping his shoulders, takes another step closer. The balance further tips to Sam’s side. Sam suddenly flicks back to painful reality and screams.

Cut to the dreamy Danny with the sparkles. He puts his palms up forward, curling his fingers once.

Pan down to Danny’s legs. He takes another precarious step and the cardboard tilts more.

Cut to Sam in panic as she begins to slide off, panning right and screaming. Her outstretched arms are the only things hooking her on the edge of Ember’s hair. Then she falls off.

Cut to below Sam as she screams and falls and falls. Pan down as her feet fall below her and her arm is in the air.

Cut to Sam’s raised hand on a purple action background as she screams throughout. Suddenly, the shot snaps back to reality as a beefy gloved hand catches her by the wrist.

Zoom out to reveal that Sam was caught by a man hanging from a rope ladder dangling from a white helicopter that reads “SWAT” with a yellow police badge on the side. Danny is still standing on the cutout, but two more agents flank him by standing on either side of it with another rope ladder dangling near them. Another helicopter hovers in the background.

Cut to the SWAT agent holding Sam by the wrist as she hangs. Sam looks disappointed by this new turn of events.

Cut to a full crowd of Casper High students. Zoom out as three SWAT vans with flashing red lights pull up.

LANCER: (offscreen over megaphone) Attention, students! By authority of the Emergency Mass Grounding Act--

Cut to a SWAT agent next to the back of a van with open doors. He throws kids inside as the come, the first a black boy with braids, the second a black girl with a pony tail and a purple tube top, the third a short white boy with blonde hair, the fourth a shorter boy with glasses and red hair, the fifth a tall girl with curly red hair.

LANCER: (offscreen through megaphone) --you are all under house arrest.

Cut to Lancer standing on top of a school bus talking through a school bus radio coming from the front window. A police car, a SWAT van, a road block and a SWAT agent are standing by.

LANCER: You will now be returned to your homes to await parental punishment.

This would never, ever happen in real life, but I’m willing to suspend it for cartoon purposes because the idea is pulled off seriously. Still, it would be nice to legislate an Emergency Mass Grounding Act for reasons like this. Just think of all the power parents could have over their kids in an age where discipline is considered heartless rather than required!

Cut to Lancer.

LANCER: And, as for your precious Ember, she’s going down!

Lancer looks up suddenly as a shadow starts enveloping him. He screams in terror.

Cut to Lancer at the top of the bus. He jumps to the right off-screen just in time, dropping the bus radio. Zoom out as the Ember cutout drops down into the shot, breaking the school bus in two and causing more collateral damage to the police car. The SWAT agent runs away. When the dust settles, Dash and Kwan in their purple Ember jackets and black Ember shirts slide into the shot.

Cut to the cutout Ember’s face. Danny Fenton climbs up on Ember’s pony tail holder, with sparkles showing his dazed confusion.

Oh. So you catch Sam but not Danny. At least he came out without major injury.

DASH AND KWAN: (offscreen) EMBER!

Pan down and left to show Dash and Kwan. They throw up their arms.

DASH AND KWAN: We love you!

Both of them hug each other while admiring the cutout.

*snaps shot* Boys hugging (consciously) makes every yearbook funny.

Fade to FentonWorks. Police sirens wail as a SWAT van with blinking red lights drives up to the house and stops.

Cut to the front door. Two booted legs kick the door open. They step down, chucking in Jasmine and Danny on their stomachs with Jasmine still in her Ember outfit, panning left to show a confused Maddie and Jack. They grunt in pain at landing and open their eyes.

Cut to Jack and Maddie. Jack looks angry.

JACK: What is the matter with you kids?

Close-up on Maddie, lecturing.

MADDIE: You need to be preparing for the Northwestern Nine testing tomorrow!

That confirms it. I predicted that the Bucky’s Music Megastore scene was the second FtF day, and since Lancer said on the day with Ember’s Casper High concert that the testing was in “two days”, then there definitely was a day change. Isn’t time-lining fun?

Cut to a dreamy Danny on the floor with sparkles popping around him.

DANNY: How can I study? (closes his eyes) All I can think about is Sam.

Pan left to Jasmine, looking confused.

JASMINE: What’s wrong with you?

Close-up on Jasmine.

JASMINE: Why aren’t you thinking about Ember?

Yep. Spells are definitely the problem with these kids, Danny more so because he has the spell-sparkles. Still, Jasmine has her individuality, and clearly a lot of intelligence. How did she get under the spell and Sam evaded it? Of course we all know the conclusion, but this disproves Danny’s earlier hypothesis.

Cut to Jack.

JACK: Well, I’m thinking about putting you both (puts his fingers on his chin) in the Fenton Stockades.

Cut to the inside of the Fenton Stockades. It has a metal door with spikes and a small square hole for the eyes. Maddie peeks in through the eye hole and opens the door, revealing an open shackle on the stair case and a lock on some drab chest.

MADDIE: Jack, we can’t lock the kids in some medieval containment device.

Cut to the whole dungeon. From a spiral staircase leads down to the floor. Shackles hang from the ceiling. A lock is on some chest. Behind a dreamy Danny with green sparkles and a defiant Jasmine in an Ember outfit is another doorway. Maddie is looking into the Fenton Stockades, Jack looks annoyed with his hands on his hips.

JACK: Oh, all right.

Maddie turns to look at Jack with her hands on her hips. Jack turns away with disapproval and crosses his arms.

JACK: We’ll just ground them like every other parent.

There is a good reason why you can’t lock the kids in a medieval containment device. And it’s not just because punishments like those make you look inhumane today (believe me, sometimes we miss the years when we could hang kids on the ceiling by their shackles and hear them scream). Namely, you guys are the Fentons. You’re brilliant inventors and ghost researchers. Where did you get the dungeon and what happened to the ghost lab? Sounds pretty fishy. It kinda looks like a nice model for a lair of one of my OC’s, though.

Cut to Jasmine and Danny. Jasmine’s arms are crossed, but Danny’s too infatuated with his green sparkles to care.

JASMINE: I’m going to Ember McLain’s midnight concert tonight,--

She grabs Danny by the arm, and walks past Maddie panning right. Danny opens his mouth dreamily.

JASMINE: --and there’s nothing you can do about it!

As they almost leave, Maddie holds up her arms and catches her children by the back of the neck.

MADDIE: You and your brother--

She holds Jasmine on the right and Danny on the left, snapping them both back to reality for a minute.

MADDIE: --are not leaving this house, young lady!

Cut to Jack, pointing his finger at his face suggestively.

JACK: (singsong) Fenton Stockades!

Close-up on Maddie. She scowls.

A slamming is heard as we see Jack’s face in the square eyehole of the Fenton Stockades from the outside. Zoom out to show Jack locked in the rather high-tech looking medieval containment device.

JACK: (mouth filling the eyehole) I meant them!

Jack scowls.

You know, in the last shot that thing looked ancient. However, while the Fenton Stockades now have a modern look, the setting is still quite decrepit and rotting. Meep?

But can we count this scene as a time when Jack and Maddie were technically “fighting”? Maybe it’s just a little harsh…

Cut to Jasmine’s pink room. The door is open only a crack. The blinds on the window are drawn wide open. Blue Ember posters crowd the walls. A red guitar with flames stands up by the window next to an amp. Four hatboxes are stacked in a corner in a largest-to-smallest pattern. Textbooks and notebooks litter the floor beside her bed. A TV is on a counter near the door but the wire is disconnected. A pair of boots have been left laying outside her dresser. She is lying on her stomach on the bed in complete misery, but is still in her Ember outfit, complete with skull boots. Zoom in slowly.

Cut to Jasmine lying in depression and misery on her bed as a drumbeat begins to play. Her eyes pop open. She stands up on her arms and looks out the window.

Cut to the FentonWorks sign. Jasmine peeks out the window, smiling. Pan down and left to the ground as a purple van with a flaming purple shape reading “EMBER” on top of it and has blue flames and a picture of Ember painted on the side revs down the street with headlights on and music blaring through the megaphones up top.

SONG: (throughout) Yeah! Whoaaoooaaaoooaa!

Cut to Jasmine in her room looking out the window. She bends down and grabs a grapple gun from under her bed, shooting it out the window until it snaps taut. She jumps out.

A perk of being a Fenton: Having fun inventions to play with!

Cut to the Ember van driving in the street past a building with an open bedroom window as the music continues. Dale peeks out the window smiling as Jasmine swings past on a rope without a grapple gun. As she leaves, Dale climbs out and slides down the water pipe out of his room.’

Cut to a skyline with houses and a tree. The flaming top-part of the Ember van drives past. Pan down to the stoop of a house. Cheering is heard as kids like Jasmine, Kwan and a dark-skinned boy in an oversized red sweater and a green beanie and Paulina in her Ember apparel run past.

Cut to a shot of various pieces of Sam memorabilia. The first is a picture of Sam without a mouth and in a black T-shirt. There is Sam’s pink lipstick. There’s a photo of Sam that is unremarkable save for Tucker peeking into the shot. There is a studded bracelet with spikes that likely belongs to Sam. There is a picture of Sam with a plaid tank top and a choker with half her hair cut clean off. Cut out of the shot is a picture with Sam and Danny’s hair in it. Panning right we see a picture of a wary Danny looking up at Sam giving him the bunny-ears. Inside a wrapper is a wad of pink gum that a piece of blue paper underneath reads “Sam’s Gum”. There’s also another blue sheet of paper with a circular lock of hair reading “Sam’s Hair”. A scrap on a sheet of notebook paper reads “Danny! Urgent! –Sam”, and the final piece looks like Sam in two pigtails, eyeliner, and a black and purple dress holding a cup of punch that appears to be ripped.

This is chock full of various pieces of Sam to be dissected, even if the shrine itself is creepy. Let’s see. First image shows Sam in a black T-shirt rather than a tank top. We see lipstick, but that doesn’t look like Sam’s shade, because it’s too pink and not purple enough. There’s a picture of Sam with Tucker peeking in. Typical gotta-get-attention Tucker. I’ve never seen Sam wear that studded bracelet. This picture with Sam’s hair half-gone has her in plaid and a choker, but since it’s not totally gone and because Sam’s not shaved now I think she probably wanted to shave it all off before her parents stopped her from doing it (which probably was a bad idea in retrospect). We don’t know what’s happening in that picture with Sam and Danny (if it is him). Then there’s my personal favorite, Sam giving Danny the bunny-ears. Typical drive-you-crazy Sam. I don’t know where Danny would get the gum on short notice (unless he had it before… *shudder*) or where he cut off a lock of Sam’s hair (*shudder shudder*). He seems to have saved a vague note Sam left him. And while that’s not quite what Sam looked like at the dance in PB, the fact that it looks ripped down the middle suggests that Danny’s spell made him jealous of someone… wonder who else was in the photo before he ripped it? Tucker, maybe?

Cut to Danny on his bed with all the scraps in his Sam Shrine. His legs are crossed and his index and pinky fingers are up. He breathes in.

DANNY: (meditating) Sam…

On cue, Sam peeks in through Danny’s barred window. She looks to Danny.

Cut to Sam. She knocks on the glass.

DANNY: (offscreen) Sam…

Cut to Danny meditating. His eyes pop open. He puts down his arms and turns to the right with more green sparkles following him.

DANNY: Sam! You snuck out to see me!

He hunches his shoulders and closes his eyes dreamily.

DANNY: Oh, this is just like Romeo and Juliet,--

The sparkles stop as Danny points a thumb to his chest.

DANNY: --except I’m the one on the balcony,--

He smiles gleefully and shrugs as the sparkles resume.

DANNY: --and I can understand everything we’re saying.

I read Romeo and Juliet in class when I was their age. When I was their age? Wow, I’m old! Anyway, looks like Danny can’t decipher Elizabethan. You’d think with Lancer helping to annotate he’d understand a little more.

Of course, just for fun, back in Shakespeare's day anything with ghosts (or anything supernatural from monsters, fairies and witches), violent revenge or star-crossed lovers (sickening arbitrary ships from first sight) were all considered instant hits. Surprisingly, that hasn't changed much.

Cut to Sam with her fist on the glass.

SAM: (muffled) Danny, (turns to him angrily) open up!

Danny walks into the shot to open the window.

Cut to outside. Sam has a ladder set up to Danny’s window and is standing on the rungs. Danny slides his window open to let Sam in. Sam climbs inside and the screen shakes as she falls onto the floor.

SAM: Ow!

Heh, clumsy Sam! You’re supposed to step in, not fall in!

Danny puts out his palm.

DANNY: You want me to open up?

Cut to Danny leaning as he looks onto the floor.

DANNY: Okay.

He puts a finger on his face to think.

DANNY: Um, one time, (puts out his hand) when I was five, (clasps his hands together dreamily) I really wanted a puppy, (points up a finger in a mimicking lecture) but my parents--

Cut to Danny behind his bed. Sam pops up to yell at Danny.

SAM: Will you knock it off!

Danny slumps his arms in an absent look. Pan right as Sam steps away as she explains the plan, standing next to the Sam Shrine.

SAM: We have to stop Ember’s concert before (steps forward and spreads her arms) she takes over the world!

Sam looks down at the Sam Shrine on Danny’s bed.

Cut to a shot of various pieces of Sam memorabilia. The first is a picture of Sam without a mouth and in a black T-shirt. There is Sam’s pink lipstick. There’s a photo of Sam that is unremarkable save for Tucker peeking into the shot. There is a studded bracelet with spikes that likely belongs to Sam. There is a picture of Sam with a plaid tank top and a choker with half her hair cut clean off. Cut out of the shot is a picture with Sam and Danny’s hair in it. Panning right we see a picture of a wary Danny looking up at Sam giving him the bunny-ears. Inside a wrapper is a wad of pink gum that a piece of blue paper underneath reads “Sam’s Gum”. There’s also another blue sheet of paper with a circular lock of hair reading “Sam’s Hair”. A scrap on a sheet of notebook paper reads “Danny! Urgent! –Sam”, and the final piece looks like Sam in two pigtails, eyeliner, and a black and purple dress holding a cup of punch that appears to be ripped.

Cut-and-paste action, man!

Cut to Sam, cringing.

SAM: Okay, even the part of me that’s kind of liking the attention is really freaked out by this.

Precisely why the Dunjinman opposes infatuation, primarily because that’s not anywhere near love; true or fake.

Zoom out as Danny walks in behind Sam and happily talks in front of her.

DANNY: It doesn’t matter!

Danny takes Sam’s hands and admires her with green sparkles flaring up everywhere.

DANNY: Just so long as we have each other.

Cut to Sam. She yells out.

SAM: Snap out of it!

Cut to a dreamy Danny holding Sam’s hands. Sam grabs his wrists and pushes his hands away as Danny looks to her, bored.

SAM: You don’t feel that way about me and I don’t feel that way about you.

Cut to Danny. He looks down, the smirks.

DANNY: So why are you still holding my hands?

This is precisely what Dennis says about this pairing. They don’t really feel that way about each other, but the shippers use peer pressure and forced situations to prove their point and say “Yep, they’re in love. Deal with it”.

Zoom out to show Sam holding Danny’s hands by the wrists. She holds them up and throws them down, groaning with exasperation. Danny looks a little sad as she walks away.

Cut to Danny. He points toward Sam as the sparkles come back.

DANNY: And why are you still wearing those--

Close-up on Danny.

DANNY: --Fenton Phones I gave you?

Cut to Sam walking away. She turns around to give a rebuttal.

SAM: Danny, they’re not even real earrings! (throws up her hands shouting) They’re just some stupid communicators that--

She opens her eyes suddenly.

Close-up on Sam with realization.

SAM: --filter out ghost noise!

Cut to a dreamy Danny with green sparkles.

DANNY: (sparkles clear) Does this mean that we’re breaking up?

Cut to a smiling Sam.

SAM: Don’t you get it, Danny? (spreads her hands) That’s why I haven’t been affected by Ember’s music!

She takes the Fenton Phones out of her ears and holds them in her hands.

SAM: I’ve been wearing the Fenton Phones--

Cut to the Fenton Phones in her hands. One sparkles.

SAM: --the whole time!

Finally. Someone reached the proper conclusion. Fenton Inventions for the win in the “plot device” category?

Cut to Danny and Sam. Danny points to Sam as the green sparkles resume. Sam looks confused.

DANNY: So we’re not breaking up?

Cut to Sam. She arches her eyebrows angrily.

SAM: How can we be breaking up? We were never together!

Not unless you pulled a “Let’s Make Believe That We’re In Love (So I Can Break Up With You)”, which happens to be a song title. I remember back in middle school boys used to do that to me all the time, and Dennis kept saying “But we were never together! And I don't even know who you are, let alone what your name is!” Horribly annoying, that is.

Cut to Sam and Danny.

SAM: We’re gonna have to deprogram you like--

Sam grabs Danny by the hand and drags him to the doorway as he resumes his dreamy sparkling.

SAM: --like we did Tucker!

Sam stops in her tracks, skidding her boots.

Cut to Sam leaning back into the shot with sudden realization.

SAM: Oh my gosh! Tucker!

Cut to a dark classroom. Tucker is still bound to a chair by ropes in his Ember shirt, wig and make-up. The wig is crushed under the CramTastic helmet. His teeth are chattering. Zoom out as a concerned Danny and Sam walk in.

TUCKER: Twleve… hours… of… intensive standardized test prep.

Sam proceeds to take the helmet off Tucker’s head.

SAM: Tucker, I’m so sorry!

That's a quote for the books. You forgot Tucker and now you're sincerely sorry instead of stepping all over him like he's a pest.

Danny smiles. Cut to Danny He leans over in admiration and green sparkles.

DANNY: You’re beautiful when you’re wracked with guilt.

Cut to Sam holding the ropes. She puts them aside.

SAM: Not now, Danny.

Cut to Sam, the now free Tucker sitting in the seat, and the dreamy, sparkling Danny. Tucker looks to Danny.

TUCKER: Man, it’s about time!

Tucker stands up and hugs Danny and Sam close by the necks. Sam is confused and frightened while Danny is undisturbed and sparkling.

TUCKER: I always knew you two would end up together!

Peer pressure shipping!

Sam shoves Tucker and Danny away. Tucker looks sad at being scorned, but Danny doesn’t care.

SAM: We’re not together!

Cut to Sam, explaining.

SAM: Ember put him under some kinda (lifts her arms) spell!

Cut to confused Tucker and dreamy, sparkling Danny.

TUCKER: (pointing) So you don’t want to end up together?

Cut to Sam. She shrugs and puts a fist on her forehead.

SAM: I don’t know! (puts out her arms) Maybe! But not like this!

Not in the gruesome, shippy, mushy, peer-pressured, dreamy fairy-tale/operatic and absolutely disgusting way! More like the wait-until-empathy-gets-deeper-for-each-other-until-we're-just-a-lot-more-than-friends-but-soulmates way! But by the time that happens in all of Dennis’s what-ifs for that scenario, Danny and Sam eventually turn out like Jack and Maddie. Complete with Danny wearing orange and growing a white beard with his dark hair (but he’s still thin, don’t worry) and Sam in blue and fairly cheerful (because she’s out of her Goth phase), both just knocking jokes off each other like Jack and Maddie always do. Oh no, they’ve turned into their parents! Heh heh heh, evil Dennis…

Close-up on Tucker.

SAM: (offscreen) Tucker, please!

Cut to Sam.

SAM: We have to break the spell!

Cut to Tucker and dreamy, sparkling Danny, stiff as a cutout. Tucker reaches down and puts the CramTastic helmet on Danny’s head.

TUCKER: Let’s crank up the story problems and--

He turns away from Danny with his hands on his hips.

TUCKER: --and we’ll see him in twelve hours!

Cut to the clock. It reads 11:45.

They left Tucker there since 11:45 AM? That’s like, lunch time. You’d think some janitor would’ve found him, unless school budget cuts mean that janitors don’t clean every room every day (which is true for my school, rooms have to wait a week before they are cleaned). Still, that means it was technically mid-day when Danny and Sam left, just like I said earlier. Time-lining is fun! And the clock also isn’t broken like usual.

SAM: (offscreen) We don’t have twelve hours.

Pan down to Sam pointing up at the clock with a sparkling Danny with the CramTastic helmet sparkling, seen from the back.

SAM: Ember’s concert starts in fifteen minutes.

Sam puts her hand down.

SAM: She gets her power when people chant her name.

She spreads her arms in panic.

SAM: And with a whole world-wide audience--

Cut to Sam.

SAM: --she’ll be unstoppable!

Cut to an aerial shot of the classroom with Sam looking at Tucker and Danny. Tucker takes the helmet off Danny and chucks it away, putting his hands on Sam and Danny’s back as she pushes them to walk away. Danny and Sam look wary of him.

TUCKER: Then we better bolt down to that show and crank down the volume!

Cut to Tucker. He pops into green sparkles and talks quickly.

TUCKER: The volume of a sphere is equal to the square of the race of the base times pi times the height.

Wrong. The volume of a sphere is 4/3 times pi times the radius cubed (4/3лr^3). Because of the sparkles I think Tucker’s under a muddled spell of some kind. Meep?

Tucker snaps back to reality.

TUCKER: Wow, that thing really works! (annoyed) And I spent the first nine years of my school life actually *reading*?

Cut to an arena. Lights in the parking lot around it are all lit. There is a residential zone right next to it and empty streets leading to it. On the hill behind it is a sprawling section of the city only being built. Zoom in as drumming plays.

A residential zone? Right by the arena? Do those people ever get bothered by the loud music? Then again, Dennis does have cousins that live next to an airport and hear loud planes flying every 30 minutes...

Cut to a billboard of Ember with her face and name written on it. Pan down to show a sign below reading “Entrance” and a line of teens cheering and coming in supervised by a beefy man in a yellow security shirt. People are saying things like “Yeah” and “All right!”

Cut to the security guard. His eyes shift as the line of teens walk past him. Pan up slightly to show an intangible Danny Fenton, Tucker and Sam float up from the ground and resume color even though Danny is not touching either of them. Tucker and Sam are holding Fenton Thermoses, Danny has his strapped to his back. They run out of sight.

Cut to a back door. Another security guard is sleeping in a chair and snoring as the trio runs up. Danny grabs Tucker and Sam's forearms and phases them through the door.

Cut to a control station inside with two chairs and lots of cables. Tucker and Sam walk in with Danny behind them, seen from the back.

SAM: (to Tucker) Go kill the power. We'll stand watch.

Tucker runs toward the control terminal.

Cut to Sam and Danny. Danny breaks out into the sparkles again and gazes dreamily at Sam.

SAM: Uh, can you watch something besides me?

Danny pops back to reality, if only for a moment before taking out a photograph of Sam and gazing at it. Sam looks disappointed.

Cut to Tucker, who has left his thermos in the seat next to him. Sam and Danny are in the hall behind him.

TUCKER: (putting a finger to his chin) Okay--

Cut to the control board. It has dials and switches reading “MIN-MAX” on them. Pan across the board to more switches and controls until we pan down to a big red switch reading “PA SYSTEM”. Tucker flips it with his thumb.

TUCKER: --cutting off the power.

Cut to Tucker suddenly.

TUCKER: Electrical power equals electrical current times electric potential.

He shakes his head back and forth. Cut to Tucker as he puts a hand on his head.

TUCKER: Man, I gotta stop doing that!

Cut to three amps above the stage.

TUCKER: (on amps) Man, I gotta stop doing that!

Pan down to show Ember on stage adjusting her microphone stand while Dash and Kwan in security jackets are standing by. All three look up warily.

Is it legal for 14-year-old kids to work as security guards at concerts, or was this a way to include familiar faces into the scene?

Still, that's not how you cut the power, Tucker. All you really need to do instead of turning on the PA is to just unplug it and cut the wires. Done!

Cut to a door backstage reading “STAGE 1”. Ember opens the door and jumps inside with Dash and Kwan following.

Cut to Ember with her hands on her hips next to Dash and Kwan. Ember points her gloved hand toward the left.

DASH AND KWAN: We love you Ember!

Ember cringes with annoyance at her cheering security guards. She looks at them with one eye.

EMBER: I heard you the twelfth time.

She puts her hands on her hips.

EMBER: Now bag ‘em and gag ‘em!

Dash and Kwan rush off.

Cut to Sam holding her Fenton Thermos next to a dreamy, green-sparkly Danny with his strapped on his back. Kwan reaches out and grabs him suddenly, zooming out quickly to show Sam and Danny hanging on the guards’ forearms wrapped on their necks.

I’d like to take a note that Sam and Danny look impossibly stretched in this shot, Sam especially.

Cut to the control terminal. A third security guard which appears to be Dale is dragging Tucker on the floor by his hand.

TUCKER: If a train moving at 25 miles an hour…

Cut to an aerial shot of the arena. The place is totally packed. On the stage is a giant back-board in the shape of purple flames that reads “EMBER”. A couple of riffs go off and the whole arena dims.

Cut to backstage. Dash and Kwan are showing their capture to Ember. Sam looks annoyed, Danny is rather concerned. Ember also looks annoyed. Dale steps in holding Tucker.

Pan right to two men and one woman at a control station with headphones.

Cut to the man in the blue hat and purple shirt. He turns around and holds his headphone. The screen below him reads “ON AIR LIVE” with a 6. It counts down.

CONTROL MAN: On the air in five, four--

Cut to Ember leaning in with her guitar to Sam and Danny.

EMBER: Later, dipsticks.

Sam looks angry at Ember.

EMBER: I gotta go rock my world.

Cut to Ember.

EMBER: And when I say (widens her eyes, pleased) my world--

Zoom out a little to show Ember’s hair blazing.

EMBER: (boldly) --I *mean* my world!

She walks away.

Cut to Danny and Sam.

SAM: Danny, stop her *now*!

Danny closes his eyes defiantly.

DANNY: I won’t leave you, Sam.

Cut to a backup member’s blue hands playing some seriously rocking tunes on a keyboard.

Cut to a boot with a torn pant leg pounding on the base pedal of the drumset.

Cut to a blue-skinned backup member strumming a pink axe with a gray pick.

Cut to the axe player. She has a bandana, a red plaid skirt and a torn shirt on with sunglasses. Pan right to the drummer. He has a red baseball hat, a torn red plaid shirt and spike bracelets and a horrible bite radius. He pounds on the drums with his drumsticks. Pan right again to the keyboard player. He has a green Mohawk, a scar on his face and his keyboard is decorated with a purple flame decal and a pile of three skulls in front of it.

Skull hunt points for those that caught that.

Cut to Sam.

SAM: Forget about me!

Cut to Danny, arguing.

DANNY: I can’t!

Close-up on Danny.

DANNY: I won’t!

Dennis knows where this is going. Somewhere in the field of “I can’t imagine life without you” or something equally creepy in the infatuation field.

‘Course, I’d naturally question how Danny would break free of Kwan’s grip without alerting him to the existence of ghost powers. I mean, I’d let that go for Dash sometimes, but with Kwan and Dale I’m not so sure. Meep!

Cut to all three members of the backup band onstage. The whole stage blacks out for a second to reveal Ember, alone in the spotlight. The crowd erupts in cheers.

EMBER: (raising her fist) Hell-o, Amity Park!

Cut to Ember. She drops her fist and shouts out.

EMBER: Tell me who you love!

Cut to the crowd, cheering.

I know it’s painfully obvious to all that have seen this episode, but I’ll just mention that a Crimson Chin and a guy in a chicken suit are visible. For one thing, the Crimson Chin really let himself go.

CROWD: Ember McLain! Ember McLain!

They continue throughout off-screen. Cut to Ember, smiling as her hair flares up violently.

Cut to the front of the crowd again. Pan left to a crew member with an 8-ball shirt operating a TV camera with the number 3 on it.

Cut to a van reading “ACTION NEWS” outside the arena as drums sound and the song begins. Pan up to a giant satellite on top of it as it sends out blue rings of signal into the airwaves.

Cut to a satellite in space with two solar panels and four dishes, broadcasting signals in various parts of the world.

EMBER: (song) Yeah!

Cut to a green television in a wooden room with two dials on it. Ember’s image fizzes onto it.

EMBER: (song) Oh-oh-ah-oh-oh!

Cut to two identical blonde men in lederhosen dancing on a rug with flowers on it in front of a white couch. Outside the window are the mountains.

LEDERHOSEN MEN: (In Dutch Accents) Ember! Ember! Ember! Ember!

Cut to some place in Japan. Five women in colorful kimonos with their hair tied up are watching TV and bowing. Two are standing and three are sitting. There is a sword in its sheath on the wall and two wodden sandals on the floor by a lantern.

GEISHAS: (Japanese accents) Ember! Ember!

Cut to some place in Arabia. A crowd of cheering Arabic people are assembled outside some small building watching Ember’s concert on TV. A barrel is next to the building and an Aladdin-style sultan palace is in the scenery behind them.

ARABS: (Arabic accents) Ember! Ember! Ember!

Cut to some place in the Outback. There are five Aboriginal peoples present, one with a giant earring with gray hair appears to be a father of four smaller ones. They are painted with white markings and wear basic loin coverings and headbands. Three of them hold spears. A kangaroo is randomly sitting next to them. They appear to be watching a TV with a cord protruding to who knows where. Two of them shake their spears and cheer.

Oh, man. Someone’s going to nitpick the Worldwide Tour of Cultural Stereotypes for sure, but Dennis will let it go. It’s just cartoon shorthand for the little single-digit children out there who don’t really care that the nations of the world can be stereotyped this way.

ABORIGINES: Whoo-hoo!

Cut to Sam next to a dreamy, sparkling Danny.

SAM: I hate to do this to you, Danny,--

She looks to Danny with seriousness.

SAM: --but if I can’t break Ember’s spell--

Close-up on Sam, unsure of what she’ll do next.

SAM: --I’m going to have to break your heart!

Cut to Dash holding Sam. Sam looks up at him, turns around and takes his arm.

DASH: What are you looking at?

All of a sudden, Sam jumps into the air and hugs Dash with one of her boots flying up as she kisses him passionately. Dash looks totally confused.

Close-up on the kiss. Dash blinks. The two part away to reveal a green sparkling Danny.

DANNY: Sam--

Close-up on Danny.

DANNY: --how could you? (closes his eyes angrily) How?

Zoom out to show Danny yelling in a pink action background.

DANNY: Hey, get away from her!

Now that’s what Dennis calls a fake-out make-out. And yes, it totally worked!

Cut to a wall. Dash, disgusted and shocked, steps back into it.

DASH: Ugh! She tastes like *geek*!

Cut to another wall. Sam, also disgusted and shocked, steps back into it.

SAM: Ugh! He tastes like failure!

Dennis has no idea what those taste like, but she figures she probably tastes like pickled turnips. Or mouth rot, it’s been a while since she remembered to brush her teeth. She does that mostly so others won’t try to kiss her. After all, who knows where that person’s mouth has been?

Cut to Dash, Kwan and Dale with Sam, Tucker and Danny. Dash screams and runs away with Kwan and Dale following.

Cut to Sam looking behind her back next to Danny. She turns to him and tries to explain herself.

SAM: Danny, I’m so sorry, (crosses her hands) I--

Danny looks down.

DANNY: You and Dash? (points to Sam, smiling) But we were--

Close up on shocked and worried Sam, blinking.

Close up on smiling Danny, who looks down again.

Cut to Sam and Danny again.

DANNY: But… we weren’t,--

Danny drops his hand, Sam looks down.

DANNY: --were we?

Cut to Sam.

SAM: No, Ember did that.

She leans her head forward.

SAM: It’s just, this is so hard because part of me… part of me really liked this and--

This line always felt out of place. Not once in this episode has Sam showed approval for this whole coupling thing (unless you count the time she said she liked having Danny forget about Paulina). Maybe all she wanted was a little attention, but definitely not Danny’s affection.

Cut to Danny. Zoom in as he looks down. He turns to the right looking with determination.

Cut to an angry Danny with Sam next to some amps. Pan right to Ember strumming as she sticks out her tongue.

EMBER: Bleh!

Isn’t it rather loud to be onstage next to the amps? I hear most rock stars actually wear hearing aids onstage just to block out all the super sound (and Dennis knew someone with a hearing aid because he went to too many rock concerts when he was younger). Oh well, it’s a cartoon. Danny and Sam are probably deaf anyway.

Cut to Danny. His eyes blaze green in anger.

DANNY: (growling) Ember…

Zoom out to show Sam putting her hand on Danny’s elbow.

SAM: Danny? Are you okay?

Danny closes his eyes. The green glow fades away.

DANNY: No. I feel like my heart’s been ripped out.

Close-up on Danny.

DANNY: But I know who I can take it out on!

Cut to Danny’s hand. It clenches into a fist as the screen flashes. It reappears in a turquoise action background with a ring forming around it turning into a glove.

Cut to Danny in a turquoise action background as the ring passes from the right to the left, changing him into Danny Phantom. He clenches his fist and puts his chin down.

Cut to Sam with Danny in his flying stance next to him. Danny jumps up off-screen, blowing up all of Sam’s hair.

Cut to Sam from the ground. She uses her hand to push back her hair, zooming out as she smiles.

Finally. Danny’s got his brain back from lunch and is ready to save the world from a horrible rock music fate. Meep!

Cut to an aerial shot of the arena. The band plays.

EMBER: (song) Oh, Ember!

Cut to Ember with her hands on the microphone.

EMBER: (song) You will remember!

Cut to the arena again.

EMBER: (song) Ember!

Cut to Ember holding the microphone again. She opens her eyes to looks around.

EMBER: (song) One thing remains.

Cut to the arena again.

EMBER: (song) Oh, Ember!

Cut to Ember with her band as the crowd cheers.

EMBER: (song) So warm and (she pumps up the fist with the bracelet) tender!

Cut to Ember, putting down her hand as she looks around.

EMBER: (song) You will remember my name!

Ember’s looking around a lot during this time. I wonder if she thinks someone will sabotage her act…

Cut to the cheering crowd. Several are wearing Ember apparel. One is holding a sign with green letters reading “Remember”. Pan left to show Ember from behind playing her guitar. Her hair flares up again.

Cut to Ember with her band as her hair flares up to be as tall as she is. Suddenly, Danny flies in a loop and knocks her offscreen. She screams.

Cut to some spotlights. Pan up as Ember flies upside-down into a television with her picture on it, cracking the screen and turning it purple. Sparks fly.

Cut to the stage as Danny floats in.

DANNY: Hey, No-Hit wonder! Mind if I jam with the band?

Cut to the crack in the sparkling television monitor. Ember raises a gloved hand, then peeks out of it with messy hair, red bruises and messed-up face paint. She flies out.

Cut to Ember’s guitar taking flight. It stops in mid-air as Ember lands on it, surfing away. She dives down.

Kinda reminds me of a Limozeen song. Over the pavement, guitars take flight! Wearing my tightest pants, because it’s Midnite!

I’ve got the heart of a lion and the wings of a bat because it’s Midnite…

Cut to Danny from the back as he watches Ember surf past and land just hovering on the stage.

Cut to Ember. She raises her guitar and her hair is flaming wildly.

EMBER: Get this straight, dipstick!

Cut to Ember’s guitar setting dial. She changes it from skull to fist, which lights up as it activates.

Cut to Ember.

EMBER: I don’t do duets!

Zoom out as she raises her fist, glowing green with energy. She strikes a flaming power chord, panning right as a green wave with a fist at the front surges forward.

Cut to Danny at the edge of the stage. The fist impacts him head-on. He screams as he goes flying into the air.

Cut to the crowd, standing up on what appears to be pavement. Even the tuba player has a white Ember T-shirt and his tuba is covered with a smorgasbord of Ember stickers. Paulina is also there in the foreground. Danny lands on his back in a blank spot between teens.

Cut to Danny on the ground, putting his hand on his aching head. He groans, and then opens his eyes to look. He turns an intangible blue and phases through the ground.

Cut to the stage. Ember’s backup axe player and drummer are playing as Ember steps up to the microphone again with the spotlight following her.

Cut to the floor of the stage as Danny phases up through it. Pan up to Ember, who opens her mouth to sing until Danny’s glove peeks in to swipe it away from her as her. Her eyes pop open suddenly with stage fright.

Close-up on Ember, looking angry.

DANNY: (offscreen) Sorry!

Cut to Danny holding the microphone stand in both hands.

DANNY: No vocals in this number!

Close-up on Danny.

DANNY: Have you considered taking up mime?

Good. Dennis doesn’t like vocals very much; good songs are ruined with bad lyrics. However, she once found a band that took music from old NES games and made them heavy metal music, and did it without lyrics. They were called the NESkimos.

Cut to Ember. She jumps up into the air.

Cut to Danny crouching with the microphone stand as Ember jumps in. Ember sweeps her guitar at Danny to knock him off his feet, but he jumps over it. They clash microphone to guitar.

Freeze frame. Cut to Ember on a purple background. Zoom out and rotate to reveal Danny blocking her guitar slice with the stand.

Freeze frame. Cut to Danny on a blue background clubbing with his microphone stand. Zoom out to show Ember blocking with the guitar at her back.

Freeze frame. Cut to Ember on a green background attacking. Zoom out and rotate to show Danny taking cover with the stand over his head, blocking the guitar.

Close-up on Danny. He leans back in the turquoise action background bringing his stand back like a bat and screaming his head off like a maniac.

Close-up on Ember. She brings her guitar back to bat it, also screaming like a maniac.

Cut to the stage as they both jump in, clashing their instruments in a way that produces a bright, astounding wave of blue light. They hold it as long as they can until there are both flung away.

Cut to a part of the stage. Ember lands on her skull boots crouched low.

Zoom out. Danny’s foot touches the floor. Ember jumps up again.

Cut to Danny. Ember screams as Danny holds up his stand. Ember clubs Danny with her guitar, causing him to fall backwards and the floorboards to bust up under the force of the smash.

And when you think The Who smashed their guitars on the stage after the show, what happens when the star smashes the stage instead? Ghost guitars must be extra durable, but then again, it has to be because Dennis knows that when ghostly devices are broken, creators and users are never happy about it.

Cut to the stage. Danny lands on his bottom with two bent halves of a microphone stand. He looks at them as the bottom half smolders.

Cut to Ember’s boots. She drops her guitar on the ground as it smokes blue. Pan up to her, her hair in a question mark shape ending next to her head. She holds her fists over her head and charges pink energy, throwing her hands forward into two energy beams, screaming her head off.

Cut to Danny on the floor, looking up in shock with his broken pole. The beams impact him, but he remains unharmed. Zoom out to show him inside a swirling, conical pink vortex, obviously trapped.

Cut to Jasmine and Paulina in the crowd.

JASMINE: Mindless teenage rebellion *and* a killer light show? (turns to Paulina) Is this an awesome concert or what?

Isn’t that your brother up there? The spell must’ve conked her out, too. Unless she truly does have a careless and rebellious side we don’t usually see.

They pump their fists as everyone breaks out cheering again.

CROWD: (throughout) Ember! Ember! Ember!

Cut to Ember looking at a shocked Danny inside the vortex with her guitar on the floor.

EMBER: Hear that? (motions to the audience) They’re chanting my name (raises her hands in strength) all over the world!

Cut to Ember, putting her hands on her hips. She lifts one hand and lets it blaze with pink energy.

EMBER: The revolution *will* be televised!

Cut to Danny in the vortex.

DANNY: She’s too strong. If I could just stop the crowd from chanting.

Cut to the crowd pumping their hands in the air. Pan across it to the right.

DANNY: (offscreen) Something horrible that will break the spell--

Close-up on Danny, looking back.

DANNY: Like…

Cut to Danny. Pan left as he turns back to Sam and Tucker backstage.

DANNY: Sam kissing Dash!

Cut to Tucker with his dreamy smile. Zoom in on him.

Cut to Danny. He’s smirking and holding a microphone.

DANNY: Or worse.

Zoom out as Danny prepares to chuck the microphone.

DANNY: Tucker, sing! Take the mike and sing!

He chucks it.

Cut to Tucker, his arms out to catch it. He holds it, unsure.

TUCKER: Wait, you *want* me to sing?

Cut to Tucker popping up.

TUCKER: You said I stink!

Not necessarily. He did say he’d need his hands, and covered his ears, but didn’t directly insult Tucker.

Cut to Danny in the vortex.

DANNY: Oh, uh, (laughs and shrugs) I-I was kidding! (points his fingers) You rock! (lifts his arms) You rock out loud!

Cut to Tucker.

TUCKER: You got that--

Zoom out as he holds out the microphone.

TUCKER: --right!

Cut to the stage. Surprisingly, there are two identical pink axe players, both of which along with the drummer and Ember have stopped playing. Danny is still stuck in the pink vortex. Tucker runs in and sildes on his knees into the spotlight.

TUCKER: (squawking off-key) Ember! You will remember!

Cut to Tucker holding up the microphone.

TUCKER: Ember! (bows his head and holds up a finger) One thing remains!

Tucker raises his hand and waves it.

TUCKER: Ember! (puts his hand on his heart) So warm and tender!

Cut to a crowd cheering “Ember!” throughout.

TUCKER: (offscreen) You will remember my name!

Suddenly, the entire crowd loses its focus as it is swamped with green sparkles. One acne-faced red-hair boy puts a finger to his chin.

RED-HAIRED BOY: Ember?

Cut to the two dancing Dutch men. They dance and cover their ears doing it.

Cut to the Japanese women. They all cover their ears. One of them in a purple kimono with flowers reaches up for the samurai sword and chucks it at the TV.

GEISHA: Hi-*yah*!

Cut to the Arabic crowd. They all scream and cover their ears.

Cut to the Outback. An Aborigine and a kangaroo are jumping on top of a cracked TV set. The gray-haired man with the earring is pointing his spear at it.

Cut back to the stage. Ember runs up desperately.

EMBER: What? *Wait*!

Cut to Ember as her hair reduces to nothing. She raises her hands.

EMBER: No, stop!

Cut to Danny standing like a pencil in the pink vortex. The whole thing vanishes instantly. He runs off.

Cut to Ember with her hands on her chin and a very, very small bun ponytail.

EMBER: No! (runs toward the camera) Tell me who you love!

Cut to the disinterested crowd. Pan left across them.

EMBER: (offscreen) Come on, say it!

Cut to Ember. Zoom out as she falls onto her knees.

EMBER: Say my name. (crying out) Say my name!

She falls over next to Danny, holding the Fenton thermos in his crossed arms.

Cut to Danny as Ember’s eye twitches.

DANNY: The only thing we’re saying here--

Cut to Danny.

DANNY: --is (thrusts out the thermos as it charges up blue) goodbye!

The thermos blasts a blue capture beam.

Cut to Ember on the floor. The beam takes her. She shrieks as she is pulled up it.

Cut to Danny with the thermos. Ember screams as she flows up the beam into the thermos. The thermos smokes blue, and Danny caps it.

Cut to Danny onstage. He looks to the right. Pan to Ember’s backup band. The drummer vanishes with a blue pop, leaving the drum set. The axe player pops away. The keyboardist does, too, but leaves the keyboard behind. There are no skulls in front of it.

Cut to Danny. He turns forward and looks down.

DANNY: Uh, o-okay, (turns and raises a palm) y-you can stop now.

Cut to Danny with a hand on his hip looking down at Tucker on the floor, still screaming into the microphone.

TUCKER: Ember!

Danny flies off over him.

TUCKER: One thing--

Tucker stops suddenly as his eyes pop open.

Cut to Tucker as he stands up. His wig is removed somehow as he turns.

Cut to a crowd covering their ears. They all start cheering again.

And Tucker gets some well-deserved recognition. I don’t care if they are cheering because he stopped; we can pretend.

Cut to Sam backstage as Danny swoops in and changes back to Danny Fenton in mid-air. They share a hug.

SAM: Danny, that was awesome!

Cut to Danny and Sam hugging. Sam’s eyes pop open. She steps back and blushes dreamily. Danny blushes, too.

SAM: Uh, I guess Ember’s spell hasn’t quite worn off.

Pan left to reveal Tucker without his wig, pointing his finger at Sam to ruin the shippy moment.

TUCKER: You were never under Ember’s spell.

Sam clubs him in the stomach with her pointy elbows. Tucker holds his shoulder as yellow and red stars pop around him.

That actually sounds like something Dennis would do, had she had shippy friends. Besides, why make a big deal about a hug? Friends hug all the time, even if they were the same gender. After all, Sam and Danny share a hug after Danny’s battle in Fright Knight, and they share a hug after Dark Danny disguised as Danny returns from the future (Tucker, too). Of course, she would probably stand out of arm’s reach for the delivery as she usually does to prevent getting clubbed and watch the awkward teens wait for her to leave. I’m so nasty, heh heh heh…

Cut to Danny, smiling.

Fade to Casper High.

LANCER: (offscreen) These standardized test scores are the worst in school history.

Fade to inside. Lancer has his hand on a stack of papers. Principal Ishiyama is standing next to him. The black board behind him reads “Homework Due Monday!!” and “Learning is hip!” Everyone is in CramTastic helmets. Zoom in slowly.

LANCER: No doubt due to the rampant late-night carousing prior to test day.

Time-lining is hard. It’s obviously not the day after the concert because the test already happened, but it takes a long, long time for standardized tests to get graded, just under a year most of the time. I’m guessing this was within the week because cartoons speed up everything for convenience, which occasionally irks Dennis based on how badly it would affect the logical sequence of events.

Cut to Lancer as he holds up a loose-leaf paper with red pen reading “100 A+”.

LANCER: However, one student’s perfect score did manage to bring the entire school average up. And that’s (perks up) good news for my bonus.

Pan right to Principal Ishiyama.

ISHIYAMA: Therefore, Tucker Foley is excused from this afternoon’s mandatory CramTastic session.

Cut to Tucker with Danny and Sam looking at him. All of them are wearing CramTastic helmets. Tucker lifts his hands and throws off his helmet.

TUCKER: Yes!

Cut to Tucker pointing his finger.

TUCKER: This would an example of irony: a literary device employing the incongruity between (points to the right) what might be expected, (puts down his hand) and what actually occurs.

Speaking of which, I’d like to ask if this means Jasmine was brought down in rank by Tucker’s sudden academic achievement. Oh well, she still has the CAT.

Zoom out as two girls in glasses, a red-head and a blonde, lean in with their fingers clasped adoringly.

GIRLS: Tucker, we love you!

Tucker wraps his arms around both as they all walk off.

Was this the one time Tucker actually had a good ending, and walked off with girls? That should up this episode with the Tucker fan club a little, even if the anti-shippers still don’t like it.

Quickly pan back to Danny and Sam.

SAM: I don’t suppose you could release Ember and get us out of this?

Cut to Danny.

DANNY: Nope. Besides, (leans his head back) she’s a little busy right now.

Cut to the Ghost Portal. Zoom in.

Fade to a collection of floating islands of ice and snow surrounded by two rings of purple doors. Ember is walking forward with Klemper.

Hm. What a place to end up *smirks*. Still, Ember at least has to find her way back, because two episodes later in 13, she’s seen near the front of a giant line outside the Fenton Portal about to leave. Never actually gets out, though.

Cut to Klemper as he pumps up and down.

KLEMPER: Ember! Ember!

Pan right to Ember, her arms wrapped around her making her appear cold and miserable. She covers her ears, then puts her arms down as she screams shrilly.

EMBER: Stop saying my name!

Aw, he only wants to impress you so you’d be his friend! Sure, he’s a little clingy, but still.

Cut to Ember and Klemper. Klemper continues chanting Ember’s name throughout. Zoom out to show all the floating ice islands as a wisp of wind with snow loops past.

Iris out on Klemper.

-End Title Card Screen-

END PART TWO.

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END FANNING THE FLAMES