Alrighty, this is where the climax of the story really appears.
They'd only slept for a few hours before everyone had gotten up again to resume their search for Danny. So they knew he was probably with the Guys in White and they knew time was of the essence. When it was around six forty five in the morning and Maddie and Jack noticed a blip on their radar that indicated a large amount of ectoplasmic energy had been used recently, everyone was excited, but guarded. From what Maddie could read from the data, the energy had been in the form of sonic waves…
They took off in the Fenton RV as soon as they felt prepared enough to assault whatever group of illegal and rogue officials were holding and harming Danny. They were on the edge of town when the radar in the van picked up a tiny blip of energy next to the road.
Jack skidded the massive machine to a stop and the group hopped out, only to find an unconscious Danny laying on the side of the road…
zzz
They'd immediately gotten him to the hospital. Before, this would've been a nightmare to Danny, but now with everyone knowing that half-ghosts exist, they could at the very least help monitor his human half, regardless of if his heart beat a tad slower or his temperature was a bit lower.
Maddie and Jack did their best to monitor his ghostly attributes, like his core temperature, ectoplasmic levels, and molecular stability.
In the meantime though, they were trying to deal emotionally with what had apparently been done to him. With a combined effort from the Fenton parents and the doctors, they'd estimated that he'd been beaten, though not severely. He had burns from some sort of taser like weapon. He'd been electrocuted by some sort of machine that gauged energy levels in molecules. He'd been burned with chemicals in selected places and burned with a particle beam for some unknown reason. He'd also been cut in a few places as well, as though whomever had done this was simply testing as many things as they could without damaging him too severely for their liking. To top it all off, he was very much dehydrated, hadn't eaten in probably a few days, and sleep deprived.
It was a lot to take in.
They'd be there for him though, no matter what. All he had to do now was wake up for them and for the people of his hometown that waited eagerly and worriedly for news on their hero.
zzz
"He escaped? Just like that?"
Download, Vid, Thrash, Agent O and Agent K all looked nervously at each other. The doctors were in some other room, looking over some of the data they'd collected and trying to figure out someway to make a machine durable enough to outlast the sonic energy from that ghostly wail.
"Uh, yes sir," Thrash answered and gulped.
Omega didn't move or nod. He didn't even tap the arm of his chair he sat in. The money he'd acquired sat in it's case and on a side table next to him.
"I see."
Omega was in deep thought. He was irritated that the boy had escaped; he'd personally wanted to see him die by the doctors' hands. He had his money, he'd had his revenge and the boy had technically been hunted down, right? Except, Omega wasn't pleased. He realized something simple. He hadn't hunted down the boy, though it had been his brilliant plan that had gotten him captured and caused him to receive his money, he hadn't technically gotten his revenge. He wanted Danny Phantom to suffer more. Knowing these things, he realized the money he'd gained would never mean anything to him if the boy went free. He was ready for a real hunt. He'd find Phantom, himself, hunt him down, himself, and then… he'd show everyone what kind of monster the boy really was. Letting him die thinking that no one could ever accept him… that his heroics had meant nothing in the end… was the perfect revenge for escaping and blemishing Omega's perfect kill record.
"Well then…"
All the other hunters looked up in surprise at the sudden return of their leader's voice.
"I suppose I'll just have to go catch him again. Won't I?" Omega stood, leaving the money in the case on the table, and walked out of the room. As his suit melded into the black shadows of the nearest hallway, he spoke again, "No man, beast, or even the dead, can escape Omega."
zzz
"Danny… it'll be okay. We're right here."
It had been a week since Danny had been found and somewhat nursed back to health. He still had some scars but overall he was healed. Perhaps only on the outside though. He flinched at most direct contact, kinda flipped out for a few minutes if Valerie ever changed into her hunter's suit, couldn't make himself go into the lab, and hadn't walked outside since the day they'd found him.
At the present, Sam and Tucker as well as Valerie, Star, Paulina, Kwan, and Dash were trying to get Danny to come out of the house and go to the Nasty Burger. At least school hadn't been much of a worry on anyone's minds; the building was still being repaired.
"I… I don't…" Danny was at the doorway. He was hiding half of his body with part of the door frame. You could tell from his face that he was conflicted and that he didn't want to be afraid, but you could also see all the glances he gave everything outside. The unassuming trash can, the movement from a stray cat… If Danny had been paranoid before his secret had been spilled, this was a new level.
The government on the other hand were scouring everywhere, looking for Omega. He was the only one that hadn't been captured and arrested. Agents O and K had turned themselves in and received a much shorter sentence due to turning on Download, Vid, Thrash, the doctors, and Omega, as well as being helped by written testimony from Danny that the young hero would've died if they hadn't helped him escape.
Omega being free still, was certainly NOT helping Danny in the least.
"You can do it, Fenton. I promise. Me, Kwan and the rest of the football team have your back, man."
Danny managed to form a short lived smirk before a siren from a car went off nearby and his attention was drawn back to everything that could turn into Omega.
Star put a hand to her mouth at Danny's jerky reaction to the noise. Paulina had to bite back a few tears; even if they were overdone, they were sincere.
Sam walked back up the stairs and reached out her hand. "Here. Take my hand."
"But…"
"I've trusted you to make sure we flew through the air, Danny. You think… you think you can trust me to not let you leave my sight?" Sam asked. She looked at his troubled face and had the strange curiosity of what his personified emotions were doing in his mind now, after everything that had happened to him. Was Joy swinging or hiding away? Was self-loathing blaming himself for being afraid of one man? Was paranoia screaming his head off, making it hard for Danny to hear her or the others at all? Call them metaphors, but she was curious and worried just the same.
Danny gazed down at her hand and slowly reached out and clasped it. Carefully they both walked down the steps while Tucker and the rest there started to wear large smiles on their faces.
As they walked down the street, Danny and his friends, both old and somewhat new, walked around him, making something of a human barrier between him and most everything else.
Things were going great, until a blue wisp of fog spilled from Danny's mouth.
"Hello, ghost child."
Everyone in the group, plus others walking on the streets turned to see Skulker floating and preparing his guns to fire.
"Now is not the time, Skulker!" Sam yelled out.
"It's always the right time for a hunt, girl!" Skulker called out and aimed his weapons.
Danny's legs and arms were starting to shake, but before anything else could be said, he dutifully transformed into Phantom.
"You need to leave, Skulker," Danny stated evenly, though no one could deny the slight waver in his voice. It wasn't that he was afraid of Skulker really; it was more that he was afraid of letting his guard down.
"Make me, whelp!" Skulker grinned.
Valerie was worried for Danny since he was somewhat distracted and not as focused on Skulker as he used to be. Skulker's weapons started to power up to fire and without even thinking, she instinctively transformed into the Red Huntress to give Danny support.
"You'll have to get through both of us, spook!" Valerie called out but noticed the strange looked on Skulker's face. She turned slowly and saw that Danny was frozen in midair, stock-still, staring at her.
"What's wrong with the ghost child? He's acting all… twitchy," Skulker asked.
Valerie growled and looked back at Skulker. "That's none of your business!"
"Very well then, I shall take my prize and leave," Skulker declared. He pointed his arm cannon and fired, snaring the frozen Danny within a net before trying to reel it in.
"Stop, Skulker!" Sam cried out.
Tucker was typing furiously on his PDA, trying to disable the robotic ghost, while the others were pulling out small weapons, since most all of Danny's friends had learned how to use a wrist ray to some passable degree. Valerie was shooting towards Skulker with murder written on her face.
All this stopped however when Danny let out a blood chilling scream, releasing his ghostly wail at the same time.
"LET ME GO! LET ME GO! LET ME GO, NOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" The wail disintegrated the net, blasted Skulker back and out of sight completely, before beginning to cause buildings to shake, glass to shatter, and people to scream in fear.
Everyone was holding their ears, trying to ignore the painful noise. Eventually the wail ended and Danny commenced to flipping out further.
"Danny!" His friends cried out in unison, when he started blasting at random buildings and then turned on Valerie.
His eyes were dilated and blank and he shook visibly before firing a bolt of ice energy at Valerie's board. It struck and caused her to start spiraling down towards the earth. Luckily for her, she was able to activate her backup prolusion and land before disengaging her entire suit.
"Do you think it was me in my suit? That was so stupid of me!" Valerie exclaimed quietly.
"Maybe that and the net, feeling confined, but that's in the past now, we've got to stop him before he hurts himself or somebody," Sam answered.
"But how? He flies," Kwan asked.
"And Valerie can't use her suit," Star continued.
Everyone looked up and saw that Danny was zipping around overhead as though he was confused about which way to run slash fly. It wasn't much longer before Danny's family showed up at the scene; the screech of RV tires announced their arrival.
"Danny…" Jazz murmured and joined the group of teens, staring up at the panicked Danny.
"Should I use the Fenton Ghost Fisher?" Jack asked
"No sweetheart, that would make his panic more intense," Maddie replied hurriedly as she rooted around for something in their supplies.
More crowds had gathered by then and were anxiously watching their hero fly around erratically. They'd all heard the basic idea of what had happened, that Phantom slash Fenton had been tortured by the remnants of the Guys in White organization and was still recovering from the aftereffects, but seeing it first hand was saddening. Seeing someone you look up to, someone you believe to be practically invincible, so broken, was certainly sobering.
"Seems I did a number on that kid."
The semi-digital and deep voice came out of no where. Danny went rigid mid-flight once more to come literarily face to face with a man that had recently haunted the halfa's nightmares, Omega.
Some people shouted in surprise at his sudden appearance. In truth, he'd used his built in invisibility suit to get so close without anyone seeing. He floated there, with his jet on his back and the backs of his calfs, burning fuel.
Sam reacted instantly and fired her wrist-ray at Omega in a semi-furious rage.
"You son of bitch! Don't you even dare touch Danny!" Sam yelled out and Omega dodged slightly.
Valerie, Tucker, Jazz, Maddie, and Jack all collectively aimed in unison as their weapons charged.
Omega only let out a slow chuckle. He turned and stared at Danny. "Think you could escape? You sub-human creature, you?"
In a flash, Omega fired a stream of blue energy that wrapped around one of Danny's ankles and around one of the opposite wrists. Omega's calf jets increased power and he took off flying in a large circle around Danny. As the halfa blindly struggled and his family and friends fired vainly at Omega, who simply threw up his portable ecto-shield; the streams wrapped Danny's arms and legs tightly together and he let out another straggled scream of fear. Danny propelled himself forward and attempted to whip Omega around to slam him into a building. Omega simply struck the building with his feet and displaced the force; the bounty hunter pushed off and tackled Danny to the ground before drawing out a short glowing dagger.
Everyone froze.
Danny was looking anywhere but in Omega's eyes. His own were darting around and his body was twitching, still in the midst of full on panic. That was until Danny's eyes finally landed on Omega's face shield and the dagger.
Danny wailed. He wailed like he'd never wailed before.
The earth around him buckled and trembled and the air seemed to be given life. After barely jerking back quick enough to avoid the sonic waves at close range, Omega watched in morbid fascination as his prey's eyes turned fully green, his skin started to crack slightly near his hairline, and fire spouted from his head, near his chest and shoulders and flickered out the sides of his mouth. The halfa growled deeply and pushed himself forward as his irises turned red and his teeth and tongue became sharp and forked. He swiped hard at Omega and cracked the side of the man's visor, ripping four long gashes through the surrounding parts of the helmet. Omega toppled back under the sheer power of Danny's strength and was pounced on.
Oh snap, Omega pushed Danny too far.