Quick notes: The bold in the first part of the story is me.

Before PP. So Vlad's still around and still mayor

Also, the first part is not Danny. It's just a generalization.

Hmm…I'm not exactly sure how plausible this is, but it makes my point, so…I don't really think I care.

And also, pay attention to the rating. It's rated for character death, and this kind of writing is like pretty much nothing else I've written.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Danny Phantom.

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Thirty seconds and millions of people will be no more. A villain is watching the clock—the clock that counts down the seconds until the dynamite he's planted under the city explodes, killing everyone in the city.

And the hero, the only one who can possibly save the day, is tied to the wall, hopeless and helpless to stop the guy. He struggles to loosen his ties but fails. All hope is lost.

Right as the timer hits twenty seconds, the hero's sidekicks bust through the wall. They battle their way through lasers and rockets to their friend and set him free.

Ten seconds.

The hero leaps from the wall toward the handle that will stop the timer, but the villain gets in his way. Eight seconds later the unfortunate soul is lying in a pitiful heap. The sidekicks gasp as the timer hits one.

But the hero has managed once again to get to save the day. He turns to his friends. In yet another hopeless situation, they had come to help him.

What would he do without them…?

When the world's in trouble, the hero always ends up saving the day. When the hero's in trouble, someone or something always gets him out of harms way so he can save the day. Take away that help and what do you have?

Danny was in a slight predicament…okay, a huge predicament. At the present moment, Vlad Plasmius was sitting in his office with his hand on a button—a button that would destroy the city of Amity Park, and all the people in it, and would pave the way to Vlad ruling the world. With Danny and his meddling friends out of the way, Vlad would make an easy run to the top.

Where was Danny? He should've been in the room with Vlad. He should've been stopping him. He should've been standing at the end of this battle with his two best friends beside him.

But he wasn't where he should've been. He was three miles away from Vlad, underground. Three minutes away from stopping him. And he wouldn't be standing after this battle because there was no way he was going to get to Vlad in time. He had been bound by super strong ecto-rope. His hands had been tied together rather painfully and so had his feet. Then, his hands and feet had been tied together behind his back. And finally, he had been stationed in a super strong titanium steel chamber. He was dangling from the ceiling from a super strong chain, and every side of the chamber had been somehow in someway coated with ectoranium—and from the information Vlad had given him, ghosts couldn't touch that stuff.

Vlad was going to pay. That was sure.

Had this been everything Danny was going through, he wouldn't have been as worried as he felt. But this wasn't everything. If this situation had no more variables added, Danny would've rested in the fact that Sam and/or Tucker would've been there in no time to free him. They would've somehow figured out where he was and would've showed up in the nick of time, weapons blazing, ready to get him down and get to Vlad in order to stop him.

There was one small problem.

Sam was three miles away from Danny's current location, in a similar situation as he, minus everything being ecto-coated. And she was also three minutes from drowning as water slowly filled up her chamber.

Tucker was another three miles away, in the opposite direction. He was trapped in a cage so small he couldn't move—not that he would've been able to move anyway. His arms had been handcuffed and feet had been shackled to the sides of the cages. And his cage was connected to a much bigger cage that held a lion that hadn't eaten for a few days. In Vlad's office was a timer that showed three minutes and was counting down. That's how long it was until the automatic door that was between the two cages was lifted.

Danny felt like he was in one of those movies where his friends were equidistant from him and the bad guy had dumped him and said, "Choose Sam, Tucker, or the city, Daniel. You have three minutes." There was but one varying factor. Danny was trapped himself.

Not only were his friends going to die, but they were going to die slow, painful deaths moments before the rest of the town was to be obliterated. And Vlad had said to Danny after trapping him in his prison, "Don't worry about yourself, Daniel. You're chamber is indestructible. I want to make sure you're alive after this ordeal so you can view the city you failed to save. And after I've seen your face, well, I won't have much need for it anymore."

Danny knew what that meant. After Vlad let him see the city, Danny would be killed as well.

When the deed had been done, Danny having felt the vibrations of the earth rocking above him, Vlad made his appearance at Danny's cell. He pressed a button on the side of the wall and the door whooshed open.

"Well, Daniel, it seems as if I've finally defeated you." He laughed. "Well, of course I have. How long did you think an amateur teenaged boy could continue defeating a much more experienced pro?"

Danny didn't answer. He had no witty banter left in him. There was no reason to keep on fighting.

"Ah, well, let's be going."

Vlad flew up to Danny and unhooked the chain from the ceiling. He flew out of the chamber and finally above ground. Danny couldn't bear to look at the rubble around him. The sky was dull, grey. For as far as he could see all he saw were the remains of tall buildings. Bricks and concrete lay in giant heaps.

He shut his eyes and only opened them again when Vlad stopped moving. When his eyes opened all the way he gasped. He was taking in the sight of Sam. She was dangling from the same kind of chain that still held his arms and feet tightly together. No bubbles escaped her mouth into the water as they would've done had there been oxygen coming in or out of her mouth. He shut his eyes, unable to take in anymore.

"I won't be able to show you Tucker, Daniel. It was unfortunate, but where he was had significant damage and everything fell in on him. I know how much you would've wanted to see him." Vlad shot through the ground and high into the sky. Danny's eyes opened. He could barely see the ground now.

"Goodbye Danny."

And with that, Vlad let go of the chain. Danny couldn't control what, where, or how he hit the ground but it wasn't going to matter. What could he do for the world since he had not even been able to save his own city? His family, his friends, everyone was dead.

He had failed to save the day, so why should he be saved? He shouldn't be. He couldn't be. And he wouldn't be. It was all going to be over now. Nothing was going to matter. He was going to die.

And at that moment, that sounded just like paradise.

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Hmm…that's a little dark for me, huh? Have I ever written a story in which someone dies? Eh…well, except that one…

Trivia: I had no idea what the name of this story was going to be until I wrote that last line and said, "Hey, that sounds pretty good!"

Review please. I love reading people's opinions of my story.