Sam stopped suddenly. Tucker ran right into her sending them both to the ground. A rub of the shoulder and a check of the face and they were both back on their feet.

"Why did you stop like that so suddenly? A little warning next time would be nice." Tucker said brushing his pants off. He continued to stare at Sam for a sec while he readjusted his glasses. "Earth to Sam, are you ok?"

"Did you hear that?" She asked obviously straining against the other white noises to try to hear it again. "Just now?"

"No, I was too busy tripping over you to notice anything."

"There it is again!" Sam jumped in her spot.

"It sounded like gun fire." Tucker said sort of straightly. Then said it again with a bit more worry. "It sounded like gun fire!"

Sam gave him a sort of 'told-you-so' look quickly followed by an all too apparent 'let's hurry' gesture.


The gun hummed in his face and for a moment time stood still. He had nowhere to run and was probably not fast enough to avoid being hit by the blast. His options were slim, but he knew he had to try anyway.

"Goodnight ghost boy." Valerie said with a trace of satisfaction in her voice. She pulled the trigger and all went into slow motion. Danny, being only inches from the gun knew that there was no way to avoid being hit. Not enough time to go intangible or fly away. He did the only thing he could at the moment and that was roll away. Anything was better than being shot in the face, anything.

The shot rang out and hit him square in the shoulder. He let out this horrific pained yell the minute the shot came in contact. His ear was ringing and he couldn't hear a thing. He thought for sure that he was missing the whole side of his face because he could no longer feel it. His arm went numb as he was thrown back into the wall. His vision was cloudy and his thoughts were all over the board. 'This is it. This is how it is going to end. What did I ever really accomplish by doing this? I really should have talked to my parents in the first place. I really should have been nicer to Tucker, and Sam……Sam……I….' He started to black out after his head hit the wall, and he could feel the blood soaking his clothes, but in the distance he could hear Valerie's gun warming back up for the finishing shot.

It happened so fast after that……………


"That was Danny! He's in trouble." Sam continued to run, frantic now and certainly fearing the worst.

"What are we going to do? I mean if that was gun fire then for sure it is Valerie and we can't exactly run in and attempt to rescue him with out tipping her off." Tucker declared.

"I don't know, but we can't just stand by and let her hurt him. We need to do something, like cause a distraction. What kind of weapons do we have to work with? There has to be something!"

"All I have is a bag full of Fenton Thermoses' and my PDA."

"Just short of throwing the PDA at her there isn't much we can do here!" She threw her arms up in frustration at the lack of being able to help. She started to pace.

Tucker watched her pace and tried to think of something, but nothing came to mind. All of a sudden they heard Valerie let out a vicious laugh and the gun went off again. The two froze up as they heard what sounded like a building collapsing.


Valerie was charging up for the final shot, or what Danny was sure was going to be the final shot, the shot that finally ended his days as the phantom hybrid.

Valerie put on this hard face with a twisted smile, already confident that she had defeated the ghost boy who ruined her life. The gun was finally done charging up and she steadied her grip, aimed, and then once again pulled the trigger. It happened so fast after that.

Danny, unable to move for the most part, felt separated from his body somehow. Like he was an observant more than the player, where he was watching all this happen instead of actually living it. Valerie wasn't as close to him this time. She was still across the empty room where she took her first shot that sent him flying. He lay across the room on the floor propped up against the wall, barely able to move. Had this been the first shot he would have had plenty of space to get out of the way or go intangible, but now he was seriously injured and again out of options. Too weak to move he couldn't use any of his basic powers to help out, and not having clear vision or great hearing at the moment he couldn't really see and other options out. His body had other plans though, taking over for starters.

All of a sudden he was going intangible to avoid the shot and shifting his weight to the side to avoid being hit dead on. The blast still connected with him, but not at severe as the first one. Hitting the numb arm and his entire left side, it definitely winded him, but it went wider than the last one so it also took out a good chuck of the wall. The structure was undeniably beginning to give out, not a good sign. Why was it always in a condemned building? Why not a building made of supported steel and concrete?

Figuring she had finally got the best of him, Valerie let out this laugh. It was backed by completion of her revenge and the satisfaction of knowing that her skills had greatly improved as a hunter. Her laugh rang loud and filled the buildings halls, echoing out the broken windows. Then a sudden noise brought her back to reality. He was still moving after that shot! How? No it must be pieces of the wall falling down or something. A groan shattered that thinking right quick. How could he have survived that blast? I hit him! Seeing him try his best to crawl away she grabbed another weapon, but in her haste to finish him off she made a grave mistake. She grabbed the canon.

He was unable to see out of his left eye, his whole left side was numb and in pieces, and he was pretty sure that he was now permanently deaf in his one ear. He was still trying to get away. Basic will to survive had kicked in and he didn't care how pathetic he seemed, but crawling was all he could manage at the moment. Being in ghost form was probably the only thing keeping him alive, but after being weakened by fighting all day long and taking both of those hits from the huntress over there he knew that he would change back into a human any minute. Then he looked up and froze in terror. She had grabbed the canon. Was she serious! In here! She was getting desperate and making bad calls, getting sloppy. The building would not survive the next blast for sure.

It didn't.


Sam and Tucker round the last corner just in time to see the building come down. Well at least the top three floors of it anyway. The five story building buckled after the weight of the top floor collapsed in on itself causing a chain reaction that resulted in the demise of half the building. They saw Valerie fly out on her board and hover around all the smoke that came up from the dust and fire that was all about. No sign of Danny though.

"Oh my gosh, Danny!" Sam screamed as she ran towards the rubble.

"No Sam wait!" Tucker grabbed her wrist in attempts to stop her. "Wait, it isn't safe yet. Pieces of the structure are still falling and you can get hurt!"

She stopped but for a second then pulled her hand away from him. She put her arms up in front of her face and ran in to the rubble, pieces still toppling over each other in a landslide of bricks and drywall. Tucker quickly ran into the mess as well hoping that Danny had gotten out in time.


Valerie hovered around satisfied that that had done the job. She couldn't see through the dust and smoke, but waited above for a bit with the canon in her hand ready for another shot had he survived and tried to get away. After a few minutes she decided that all was done and she headed for home, happy with herself. Luckily she didn't notice the teens below searching through the debris for their friend.

"Danny! Danny! Where are you? Call out to us, let us know where you are." Sam cried out.

"Hey Danny, c'mon, give us a sign to let us find you!" Tuck screamed out.

Danny wasn't paying much attention at the moment. Still in ghost form for the moment he tried to clear his vision. Something was putting pressure on him. He had avoided the shot from the weapon only barely, but not being able to do much else he fell along with the rest of the structure. He could tell he was pinned down under something, but not until his vision cleared up a bit did he see the severity of it. His whole torso was crushed by a pillar like object and his one leg was under a piece of a wall. Panic set in, then he felt it. All his energy was spent and the two familiar rings appeared signaling the transformation back into Danny Fenton.

"NOO!" Danny wailed as the transformation back was complete and all the pain came in one fail swoop.

"Danny! Danny, where are you?" Sam cried as she heard his scream. "I can't see you! Danny…."

Tucker swiftly ran to where the wail was coming from and could see part of Danny's arm through the rubble. "Sam over here, quick!" He motioned her over.

"Oh my gosh, Danny are you ok!" Frantic, Sam was trying to move pieces to get to him, but all Danny could do was cry out in pain. "Danny hold on. We are coming."

Danny's cries died down a bit, his voice giving out. Then the pain stopped. Not faded, just stopped. Not good. He saw a bit of the streetlight as his friends moved pieces to get to him. He could swear that he heard the faint sounds of an ambulance, but he couldn't be sure. "Sam…"

"Danny I'm here, just hold on."

"Sam…."

It was then that he was aware that he was swimming in a pool of his own blood and couldn't feel anything below his neck. He passed out just as he saw the outline of Sam's figure over him, just like an angel. His angel.