Chapter 9

Blackheart watched as Danny Phantom, who seemed to be glowing with ectoplasmic energy, snarled with an animalistic rage that was totally unlike him. Blackheart appeared totally unnerved by this turn of events, and just glared at the enraged half-ghost standing before him.

"You killed Valerie. You killed Vlad." Danny growled, his hands balled up into fists ready to beat the tar out of the demon prince. "And you hurt my girlfriend. You don't deserve to live."

"Strong words, child." Blackheart hissed. "Glad to see you headed my words though. Only the inner monster has the strength to stop me."

"I am not a monster!" Danny yelled, and flew at Blackheart.

His fist glowing green, Danny punched Blackheart right in the gut, causing the demon to double over in pain. Blackheart snarled and attempts to deliver a swipe to Danny's head, but Danny turned intangible, and Blackheart was surprised that his hand still didn't hit him. Snarling, Danny swung another punch, striking Blackheart in the ribs ad sending him skidding back across the concrete. He fired an ecto-blast Blackheart's face, but thedemon swerved away from the beam and lunged at Danny with a snarl on his face. Danny grunted as Blackheart drove his fist into his gut, but shook it off and smashed his leg into Blackheart's gut with enough force to make a demon gasp.

His body now pulsating with ectoplasm, Danny repeatedly smashed into Blackheart, causing the demon to stumble and grunt in pain, seemingly incapable of defending himself against the empowered ghost boy. He narrowed his red eyes, and lifted his hand, unleashing a torrent of hellfire at Danny. Danny swerved to the side, but the fire washed against his shoulder, burning his flesh and making him hiss in pain. Taking advantage of the distraction, Blackheart disappeared in a cloud of black smoke and reappeared in front of Danny, swatting him across the face and sending him flying out of the alleyway and into the open street.

Walking out into the street, Blackheart sneered as several civilians in the street looked at him and screamed, running for cover. Looking out into the street, Blackheart saw Danny get up, his fists charging an ecto-blast ready to fire. Before he could though, Blackheart saw a min-van incoming, and with a wave of his hand, the back end of the van exploded, and the vehicle flipped up into the air and landed on Danny. Blackheart waved his hand again, and the van exploded, killing the unfortunate driver.

Just to see if the attack was successful, Blackheart approached the burning vehicle, but yelled when a powerful ecto-blast shot out of the flames and exploded violently against his chest, knocking him back. A barrage of ecto-blasts flew at Blackheart, and they were coming so fast he didn't have time to defend himself. There was a loud yell as Danny flew out of the fire and slammed into Blackheart, carrying him upwards until they crashed into the side of a building. Lodged in the brick wall, Blackheart grunted as Danny slammed his green fist into his gut several times and then his face, beating him further and further into the wall. Then, Danny yelled as he brought his fist back and drove it into Blackheart's face, causing him to fly through the wall and into the office inside the building. A young woman who had been copying papers screamed when the two opponents flew in through the wall.

With Blackheart beneath him, Danny punched him repeatedly in the face, sparks of ectoplasm appearing with each punch. Blackheart grunted at each strike, furious at actually being harmed by the ghost boy. Reaching out, he grabbed Danny by the throat and tossed him into the copy machine that the woman had been using. The woman screamed as the machine crumbled beneath Danny's weight, and watched as Blackheart picked Danny up, beat him against the wall, and then tossed him out the hole in the wall. When Blackheart jumped out after him, the woman screamed and ran out of the office.

As soon as Blackheart jumped out of the building, he grunted when, out of nowhere, Danny flew at him and slammed him into a second building. He punched Blackheart twice, but the third punch was caught by Blackheart. Danny yelled as Blackheart twisted his fist and then threw his other fist into Danny's face. Yanking his wrist out of Blackheart's grip, Danny grabbed the demon by the throat and slammed the back of his head into the building. Growling, Blackheart grabbed Danny by the head and slammed him face first into the building, and then leapt off the side of the building and tossed Danny into a mail truck.

The driver yelped when he felt something hit his truck, and looked out to see Danny stumbled away from it. Looking up, Danny snarled when he saw Blackheart appear in a puff of black smoke, approaching him with a murderous snarl. A crowd of people watched, an elderly woman screaming in terror when she saw Blackheart. Suddenly, two police cars drove up and cut Danny off from Blackheart. Blackheart hissed in annoyance when four cops exited the vehicles, pointing their guns at him.

"Freeze!" One of them said.

Scoffing, Blackheart just lifted his hands up, and the officers screamed when they cars suddenly went up in flames and they were burned alive. Danny snarled, furious at the demon's disregard for human innocents, and flew, preparing to slam into the demon again. Seeing Danny approaching, Blackheart quickly ripped two doors off of the burning police cars and hurled them frisbee style at Danny. Danny dodged one and then blasted the other away with an ecto-blast, and grunted when Danny's fist once again slammed into his face, and even broke some of his teeth. Danny grabbed Blackheart by the dreadlock-like appendages on his head and swung him around until he threw him up into the air and away from the street they were in.

Flying up, Danny grabbed Blackheart, and the two fell out of the sky and into another dark alleyway, where they continued their fight.

ooooo

Natasha and Jack, having left Maddie back at the house to look after Jazz, ran to the alleyway where they witnessed the explosion. The moment it happened, Vlad went ghost and flew off to find Danny without waiting up on the others. To say Maddie was angry was an understatement. When the two arrived at the alley, they were shocked to see Danny, who, despite being in ghost form, looking completely different than normal. His white hair was all fire-like, his eyes were glowing red, and his normally pale skin was now a paper white. He himself looked demonic, but not as demonic as the monster that Danny was fighting.

They watched as Danny rushed to attack the monster, who lifted his hand out and unleashed a wave of fire that burned Danny's shoulder. Then, the creature teleported in front of Danny and swatted him away with enough force to send him flying out of the alleyway and into the open streets. As the demon went off to continue the fight, Jack and Natasha looked and finally noticed the two bodies lying still in the alleyway.

Jack immediately recognized who they were, and gasped.

"Good god, Vladdie!" He said, rushing to the one nearest to him. He turned Vlad around, and gasped when he saw the bloody hole in his old friend's chest. Vlad was dead.

Looking at the other body, he saw that it was Danny's friend Sam, but she didn't appear injured at all. However, her face was ghostly white and wrinkly, as if she had all the blood sucked out of her face. Jack watched as she weakly opened her eyes to tiny slits, and she blinked when she saw who was in front of her.

"M... Mr. Fenton...?" She said weakly. Jack cringed. She sounded so broken.

"Yeah... yes it's me." He said. "Just stay awake, kid, alright? Don't want to lose you, too."

But Sam shook her head. "I'm so tired... I can't stay awake... just want... want to sleep..."

"Don't talk like that, Sam!" Jack said frantically. "I don't... I'm not gonna tell Danny that we lost you! He'd... he'd go crazy. You always made him happy..."

But Sam shook her head still. "Don't... don't let him lose it... tell Danny... tell... I love... I..."

Sam struggled to say that last word so hard, but she just couldn't. To Jack's horror, she fell silent, and her head fell back as she stopped breathing. His face pale white from shock, Jack gently set Sam down, and was on his knees as he looked at the two dead bodies. Behind him, Natasha looked at the sight in sorrow. So much chaos in so little time... How had things gotten so wrong? Perhaps Fury should have just left this case alone.

Suddenly, there was a second explosion, and Jack and Natasha jumped when they saw it coming from the streets.

Instinctively, Natasha ran out there, gun in hand, ignoring the shouts from Jack begging her to come back.

ooooo

An ecto-blast sent Blackheart flying into a mailbox, and he grunted as he gripped his chest. Danny was getting angrier the more Blackheart got up from each strike, and the angrier he got, the more powerful he seemed to get.

"Why won't you stay down?!" Danny yelled as he rushed at Blackheart and delivered punch after punch, seething as Blackheart refused to go down.

He blasted Blackheart away and into the side of a building, dashing forward and driving his elbow right into Blackheart's skull. He punched the demon across the jaw, followed by a fist to the gut that sent Blackheart flying through the building, through several rooms, and out the other side. Blackheart fell back into another alleyway, stumbling as he pulled himself up.

Danny landed a few meters behind him, still shaking with rage. "You'll pay for everything you've done today. I'll make it so you never bother anyone again. Ever."

Danny took a deep breath, and then, to Blackheart's shock, he unleashed a huge, sonic scream. The Ghostly Wail plowed through everything between Danny and Blackheart, paving away at the concrete beneath them and blowing the dumpsters and trash cans away. The buildings around them crumbled and shook as the sonic boom from the scream tore them apart. As for Blackheart, he felt the sonic energy from the wail tearing at his black flesh, and his ears were now bleeding from the attack. It was ripping and tearing through Blackheart's flesh, and the screaming demon was sent flying through the air and into the building behind him. Soon, the building crumbled from the force of the wail, and Blackheart was buried under a pile of rubble.

After the Ghostly Wail went on for about a minute, Danny stopped. Breathing heavily, his aura had dimmed somewhat, but his increase in power allwoed him to keep his ghost form intact, instead of reverting back to his human form the way he did whenever he used the Ghostly Wail.

With a snarl, he saw Blackheart, who was exhausted and bleeding, weakly pull himself out of the rubble and stumble face first onto the ground. He was to weak to stand.

"Stay down." Danny muttered qiuetly, lifting his hand up. A sphere of ectoplasm formed. "Stay down..."

"Well, well." A voice said, causing Danny to jump. He turned and saw a blonde woman. The same blonde woman he ran into at the Nasty Burger.

She gave Danny a smirk. "You saved me a lot of trouble, Ghost Boy. I was worried I'd have to take this scoundrel back to the boss by myself. But you spared me the trouble of wasting my own strength to put him down. Well done."

"Your... boss?" Danny said, blinking. And then he glared furiously. "You... you're like him, aren't you. You brought that monster here. You're the reason my friends are dead!"

Claire frowned at the boy. "Snappish, aren't we. What makes you any different? With what you've done today you're as much of a monster than he is."

"I'm nothing like him." Danny hissed, wanting to punch this woman.

Claire smirked. "Really? Well look in the mirror then."

Claire motioned towards an old mirror that had been discarded when the garbage in the dumpster. It was cracked from the Ghostly Wail, but it was well intact enough for Danny to see his reflection. Upon seeing himself, Danny gasped. The hair, the eyes. He looked just like Dan. Stepping back, Danny looked away, and instinctively reverted back to his human form.

"No. No. I'm not like that." Danny said. "I promised I wouldn't."

Claire just frowned in distaste. "Hmph. So it seems Blackheart was right about you after all. You're just a goody two shoes. Maybe I should have let him waste you."

Danny looked at Claire in hatred. "Go."

Claire blinked. "Excuse me?"

"I said go." Danny said, standing up and glaring at the demoness in hatred. "Go back to whatever hell you came from, and take your monster with you. Don't ever let me see either of you again."

Claire glared back at Danny, and then hissed. "Have it your way."

"Voyant!"

Danny and Claire looked over and saw Agent Romanoff running up to them. She glanced at Blackheart, and her face nearly cringed in disgust when she saw the broken demon lying on the ground. She glared back at Voyant, gripping her gun.

"Get away from him." She hissed.

"Don't bother." Claire bit back harshly, still glaring at Danny. "We were just leaving."

Danny and Natasha didn't flinch as Claire, and Blackheart, both vanished in a wash of fire. Danny didn't care where they went. As long as they were away from him.

Natasha looked at Danny, who was just looking down at the floor with a broken expression.

"You okay?" She asked. But she already knew the answer.

Danny looked up at her, his eyes devoid of emotion. But as an expert reader, Natasha could see he was not okay in the least.

"No." Danny said. "I'm not."

Natasha heard the sound of police sirens in the distance, and looked around at the destruction caused by the fight. She gantly placed her hand on Danny's shoulder, and he flinched slightly away from her.

"Come on." She urged. "Let's get you home."

Danny sighed, nodding. "Yeah. Home."

And that's the second-to-last chapter. Unrealistic, I know. But you're all going to have to live with it. And no, Sam isn't dead. Not totally, anyway.

Next chapter, the fic comes to an end. But Danny's part in the United They Stand saga will be far from over. Review pleaz.