Chapter Seven: It is Always Darkest Before the Dawn
Our heroes traveled to the next mind, not realizing the danger they would soon be facing. As they made their way to the Valerie's mind, in her mind things were going terribly. Nightmaria's extra magic had made the fear induced copies of Valerie's friends even more terrifying, and more powerful. They were so hideous that if I were to describe them you would run for the hills screaming at the top of your lungs, which is exactly what Valerie was doing.
"AHHH! Get away from me!" yelled Valerie as she willed her jet sled to move faster.
"Why? All we want to do is play tag!" said Danny as he sent yet another ectoblast at Valerie.
Valerie kept flying, trying to escape the monsters that were her friends. She flew in a crazy pattern through the ruins of Amity Park. But no matter how fast or which direction she flew the horrible ghosts still followed her, taunting her all the way.
"You can't escape us Valerie." said Sam.
"Yes, you'll never win." said Tucker.
"Your going to become a ghost whether you want to or not." said Alicia.
"You will join us, why fight the inevitable?" said Alex.
"No! I'll never join you! I won't become a ghost!" said Valerie.
"Like you actually have a choice?" said Danny.
Danny sent a massive ectoblast at the jet sled. The ectoblast hit dead on and the jet sled's engines failed. Valerie screamed as she plummeted to the ground, where she landed roughly. Valerie got up only to see her friends turned enemies coming up quickly. She tried to run but they landed around her, soon she was trapped.
"Now Valerie, time for you to die!" said Danny.
But as they were about to strike a being swooped in and grabbed Valerie. The evil Danny and others looked up to see who it was, and were in for a shock.
"D-Danni?" said Valerie.
"Yeah, it's me, we're here to rescue you." said Danni, as the others appeared behind her.
"What's going on here?" said Valerie.
"Those guys over there aren't really Danny and your friends, their fears created by a ghost named Nightmaria. You're trapped in your own mind Valerie, and you need to snap out of it." said Rob.
"You! This is going to be the last time you mess with my spell!" said Vlad as his appeared, his face then turned into Nightmaria's
"We'll see about that." said Danni, as she put the still confused Valerie down.
With a wave of Nightmaria's hand the nightmares attacked and began to battle our heroes. Danni and the others tried their best, but they were no match for the super powerful nightmares. Despite their valiant effort they were soon beaten black and blue and were backed into a corner. As the nightmares advanced Danni called out to Valerie, who was still in shock at what was happening.
"Valerie help us!" said Danni.
"I can't, their too powerful!" said Valerie.
"Yes you can! This is your mind, here you control things!" said Tucker, as the nightmares got closer.
"Valerie! Help us!" said Alicia.
When Valerie heard this cry for help the part of her that was a hero, who wanted to help people, woke up. Suddenly she was surrounded by a aura of energy and she turned to face the nightmarish versions of her friends.
"Hey! Leave them alone!" said Valerie.
"Oh, and what are you going to do about it?" said evil Danny.
"This!" said Valerie as she sent a bunch of energy blasts at them.
The evil ghosts had barely any time to dodge before the energy blasts hit, leaving a patch of blackened Earth where they just were. They fired back at Valerie who put up a energy shield. She was pushed back a little but was soon back in the fight.
The Nightmares tried to gang up on her and with a combined energy blast they sent her flying back into a wall. She struggled a little to get up and the nightmares landed in front of her.
"You can't win Valerie, you can not conquer your fears." said evil Danny.
"I am tired of being afraid, of being chased around by ghosts, and I'm going to take it anymore!" said Valerie.
The energy around Valerie began to glow brighter around her. The nightmares backed up in fear of the power, and then Valerie sent out an energy wave. The energy wave hit them and they let out a horrible scream, then they were no more.
"No! This can't be!" said Nightmaria.
"It's over you hag, now get out of my mind!" said Valerie.
Valerie sent a energy blast at Nightmaria, destroying the evil double. Once she was gone Valerie's mind returned to normal. She then landed and ran to the rest of our heroes.
"You guys ok?" said Valerie.
"Yeah, we're fine." said Danni.
"So what do we do now?" said Valerie.
"We have to free Sam and Danny next." said Ember.
"Ok, lets go." said Danni.
So they left Valerie's mind on the way to Sam's mind. Meanwhile in Sam's mind she was wandering aimlessly through the streets of Amity Park. After she had found out Danny was dead Danni had informed her how it happened. It seems that they were battling Vlad and his minions.
Danny and Sam had gotten cut off from the rest of our heroes and were facing Skulker. The battle was going well until Danny was distracted by a shot hitting Sam. In this moment of distraction Skulker fired a laser blast at Danny, he never saw it coming. The laser ripped a hole in Danny's chest, killing him instantly, there was nothing they could do to save him, and he had died in her arms.
All of this weighed heavily on Sam's mind as she wandered. Her mind was so consumed with misery and guilt that she did not notice she had wandered into the cemetery. She kept walking until she found herself in front of Danny's grave. She fell to her knees and began to cry for her friend/ boyfriend.
"Oh Danny! I'm sorry! I should have looked out for you, it should have been me that died, not you!" said Sam as the tears flowed down her face.
"Saaam…Saaam!" came a strange voice from out of nowhere.
"W-whose there?" said Sam nervously.
Then out of nowhere the thing that had been calling out to her appeared, it was Danny, or what was once Danny. The ghost that now stood before her was a far cry from the Danny we all know. His skin was a deathly blue color and his hair was filthy and dirt covered. His eyes were blood shot and with a look of anger and madness in them. The suit he was wearing, the one he was most likely buried in, was tattered and ripped.
"D-Danny?" said Sam in fear.
"Sam, how could you leave me? How could you have let me down?" said Danny.
"I d-didn't mean too, there was nothing I could do." said Sam.
"You still let Skulker kill me! You still let him rob me of my life!" said Danny, grabbing her by the collar.
"I'm sorry Danny." said Sam, crying.
"Then if your really sorry you know there is only one way to fix this." said Danny, as razor sharp claws sprang from his fingers.
"No, there must be another way." said Sam.
"I'm afraid not, the only way to make up for what you did is to join me in the after life." said Danny.
"Ok, just make it quick." said Sam, her grief and fear addled mind not realizing there was something terrible wrong here.
"I will." said Danny.
Just as he was about to rack his claws across Sam's neck, the evil ghost Danny was suddenly hit by a laser blast. He was sent flying into a tombstone, when he looked up he could see the angry faces of our heroes.
"Sorry to interrupt this murder…oh wait, no I'm not!" said Valerie, holding a ghost bazooka. (Which she had gotten from Alicia.)
"You! This has gone far enough, I refuse to lose another mind to you little brats!" said Danny, as his faced turned into that of Nightmaria. She then threw Sam to the side and she hit a headstone, knocking her out.
Nightmaria fired an ectoblast at our heroes, who jumped out of the way.
"Is that the best you can do? Its going to take a lot more then that to defeat us." said Rob.
"Oh, I am not done yet, prepare for your destruction!" said Nightmaria.
She sent a barrage of blasts at our heroes who responded with their own attacks. Danni tried to punch her in the head but Nightmaria grabbed her and flipped her over her shoulder, sending Danni flying into Alex. Valerie fired at her but the evil ghost batted it away, then fired at Valerie, knocking her from the sky.
The rest of our heroes did not fair better, and soon it was down to Alicia. She was trapped under a shield trying to defend from the punches Nightmaria was raining down on her. She looked around for help, and her eyes landed on Sam, who was just coming too.
"Sam! Help us!" said Alicia.
"I can't, its Danny, I can't hit him." said Sam.
"Look at his face, that's not Danny." said Alicia.
Sam looked at the face and instantly noticed that it was not the face of the one she loved, but with the spell still on there was still doubt in her mind.
"Sam, think about it, the real Danny would never blame you for his death, he would know that if you could have you would stop it, he would not ask you to die because of it either." said Alicia.
Sam listened to all of this and it began to swirl around in her mind. As the pieces began to fall into place Sam realized what was going on, and she was enraged by it. How dare this ghost use the one she loved to torment her, that ghost was going to pay. A aura of energy surrounded her and she began to float in the air.
"No! not again, this can't be happening!" said Nightmaria.
"I'm afraid it is, and now it is time for you to pay for using me!" said Sam.
Sam sent a wave of energy at the evil Nightmaria double. The wave hit it and ripped the evil being apart, with a scream it was gone and Sam's mind returned to its normal gothic self.
"Sam, you did it, you saved us!" said Alicia.
"Yeah, now all we have to do is save Danny." said Tucker.
"I just hope we're not too late." said Ember.
"Don't worry, Danny's a tough guy, we'll save him." said Valerie.
"Let's go, the sooner we rescue him the sooner we can kick Nightmaria's butt." said Danni.
So they left to rescue Danny from his own fears, but little did they know what awaited them.
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A message from Rob Phantom: Sorry I haven't updated my stories as often, but I'm having a tough time right now, what with the holidays, friends, family. All of this is taking up a lot of my time, leaving me with not that much time to write. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but please bare with me. I really appreciate all the people who read and review my stories, and I hope you all understand, thanks for reading and please review.
