No pigeons were injured in the production of this narrative.
Death by Pigeon
Danny felt like an idiot.
He had fooled a man with control over all reality, dethroned the king of ghosts, even fought his demonic future self and managed to live(ish) to tell about it. What had finally caused the downfall of a hero so great?
A pigeon.
A fricken pigeon.
He was willing to bet that its name was Kevin and everything.
Danny supposed the pigeon wasn't completely at fault. Poor Kevin had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Some misplaced aggression (Speaking of wrong place at wrong time. The Box Ghost never knew when he should be wary of the Ghost Boy.) had quickly elevated into a full out chase with the Red Huntress. He had to ignore the urge to roll his eyes at the made up name. As Danny Phantom he really was in no place to judge.
As Danny got higher and higher he snuck a look over his shoulder. Val was right on his tail.
He turned forward just as he picked up the speed.
BAM!
Neither he nor the unfortunate bird saw the other coming. They cried out in surprise as they were knocked out of the sky.
Thrown off balance, they tumbled through the clouds.
Right onto a startled Valerie.
She yelped in surprise and her hand instinctively tightened on the trigger.
Danny felt a cold wave wash over him. It was gone as soon as it was there, taking with it any control he was pretending to still have.
"VAL!" he yelled in a panic. He reached up, desperately straining to grasp onto something. Through the raven locks obscuring his vision, he could see her look of shock.
Since they teamed up to rescue Dani, Valerie had been questioning herself more and more. If she had been so off about Vlad, who's to say she wasn't wrong about Phantom, too. Her priorities switched from getting revenge to finding answers. Still, he was a ghost and couldn't be trusted not to hurt her. So she carried with her a device that could render a ghost powerless without hurting it. However, a hundred feet in the air it was no less lethal.
"Danny?" the huntress asked, frozen as her friend plummeted toward the earth. It didn't take long for her to quickly follow in pursuit. For once her tendency to act first, think later came in handy. "Danny!"
Her second long hesitation could have been hours for all the good it did her.
She dove after the flailing teen as fast as she could. It wasn't until they were level with the top of an apartment building that she managed to get a hold of a red converse.
For the briefest moment, Valerie let relief flood through her. All too soon that was replaced by horror as she gazed at a now empty shoe.
Her eyes grew wide only to be clenched tightly at the audible crunch.
The cry of anguish was almost as deafening as the silence that followed.
Danny's mind was racing, searching for anything that could get himself out of this. He tried again and again to switch back to no avail.
As the ground drew closer, he found himself instinctively trying to go intangible even knowing how useless it was.
Danny wasn't sure what felt worse. His body being crushed by the sidewalk and gravity or the feeling of his soul being torn apart. Scratch that. Definitely the latter.
He was aware that he was screaming but he couldn't bring himself to care just then.
The light faded, soon to be followed by the pain.
Slowly, cautiously, he cracked open one eyelid. All he saw was brown.
Despite the circumstances, Danny couldn't hold back a snort. "Not quite what I was expecting."
It took a moment to realize that he had slipped underground, just as he had down countless times before using his powers. But that didn't explain how he had gotten there this time.
Danny didn't feel like figuring it out just then. The adrenaline left to be replaced by fatigue. He just wanted to sleep and this wasn't the place to do it. The pressure would surely kill him.
As soon as he surfaced, Danny collapsed.
He didn't notice the still form beside him.
Jazz came across the crowd on her way home from the library. She pushed through, desperate not to let her books get knocked out of her grasp. Only when she heard a familiar distressed voice cry out did she stop to pay attention.
…out of the sky…came out of nowhere…
"Get back! Back!"
Even muffled by the suit, Jazz recognized the source of the tortured yells as her little brother's ex-girlfriend.
She pushed her way forward, bumping into a few people along the way.
"Watch it!" they would yell before turning to see who it was. At the sight of her, they would hang their heads and take a step back to make room. This did nothing to calm her nerves.
As she stepped into view, Valerie made eye contact for a moment that could have been an eternity. Then she looked down and shook with a violent sob.
Jazz followed her line of sight and froze. She always knew that it was a possibility yet she had managed to convince herself that the nightmares had been just that.
This was too real. She couldn't bring herself to accept what her eyes were trying to tell her brain. They had to be mistaken. Though sometimes clueless, her brother wasn't an idiot. He could take care of himself. Right?
Right?
She ran forward, almost tripping over the fallen books, and checked his vitals. No pulse. No breath.
Refusing to give up, she started CPR. With every push the ground grew wetter.
As she withdrew her shaking hands she slowly looked up to Valerie. The sobbing girl kept shaking her head.
Jazz's racing thoughts were interrupted when a familiar specter surfaced and collapsed beside lifeless brother.
Danny? Then she, too, found it hard to stay upright.
A pigeon named Kevin is a running joke between my friend and me. I couldn't resist throwing it in there.
This was originally going to have multiple chapters but I kept getting caught up in the smaller details and didn't know what else to write. I was planning to just take it down but I saw that it had gotten a response already and couldn't bring my self to do it. So now it lives on as a OneShot.
Admit it. You love to press buttons. Believe me when I say that "Post Review" one is a blast.