Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I would never dream of making money off his work, this is but one fanatic's homage. So please don't sic the rabid lawyer hordes upon me, there's not much for them to sue out of me.
Author's Note: Holy cow, this has got to be a personal chapter-to-chapter speed record for me. Two days. TWO DAYS between finishing chapter 8 and finishing chapter 9. Spring Break for the win! Be sure to read Anathema, and see this story from a decidedly different point of view. Reviews are appreciated!
Chapter 9: The Dead of Night
"We've got to hold on ready or not
You live for the fight when it's all that you've got
We're half way there
Livin' on a prayer"
-"Livin' On a Prayer" - Bon Jovi
It was a clear night. That was the first impression I had when the sirens started their high-pitched wailing in the dark of night. I was up and out the window on my jet sled easily within thirty seconds of the alarm. Most of the Patrol was, actually- it had become habit for everyone in the Patrol to sleep in their suits, weapons ready nearby.
"Shoot, he's back!" I hissed through clenched teeth, tapping my wristband. "Daddy, get the shield up!"
"On it." My father's voice replied through the communicator. "You'll have to hold him off long enough for everyone to evacuate!"
"Right. We'll handle him!" I glared daggers in the direction of the green explosions, each one more massive than anything I'd seen before. Already several buildings had fallen in the distance, and even from my vantage I could hear the screams of panic. I knew they shouldn't have rebuilt so far from the safety of the shield! There could already be hundreds of casualties even in the brief time it took the Patrol to mobilize.
"What's the plan, Valerie?" Paulina jetted up alongside me, her squadron in tow.
"We've got to hold him off." I replied, raising my voice so that the other squad leaders could relay my orders. "We'll flank him. If we can destroy him, great; but we have to focus on stalling him so that the civilians can get away."
"Look out!" Mikey shouted, swerving aside.
The rest of us scattered to avoid the huge green blast. The time for planning was over, now it was time for action.
"Isn't this quaint?" He sneered, floating above the wreckage of what had been an office building. "I remembered today was your 20th birthday, Valerie. I thought you'd like a surprise party."
I said nothing in response, choosing instead to let my gun do the talking, loosing a pink barrage. Unsurprisingly, the shots all missed as Phantom easily floated out of the way, but he was knocked to the ground by a bazooka blast to the backside.
"You want to give Valerie your head?" Paulina shouted at the ghost, readying another blast. "Maybe I wanted that for a present!"
"You think you can stop me?" Phantom sneered, avoiding more of my blasts, lobbing a green sphere at Paulina, who yelped and wheeled her sled out of the way.
Phantom had aged relatively well. He stood a great deal taller than he had when we'd last met, and had added a white and black cape to his outfit. He was still somewhat lanky, but it was a far cry from the twig Danny had been six years ago. I kept firing, ducking and dodging out of the way of the return fire, while other Patrol members darted into and out of the fray.
To my massive frustration though, Phantom seemed to hardly be paying the Patrol any mind. Most of our weapons hardly scratched him, while every green blast he launched detonated with deadly force.
"That little trick with your sled won't work a second time, Valerie." The ghost grinned, his face illuminated briefly by the green light of an explosion. "I've gotten a lot stronger since our last battle. This time, there won't be anything left of this stupid city. You can't win. You never could."
"I don't have to win, ghost." I finally retorted, throwing a pair of ecto-grenades at the ghost, followed by a volley of energy blasts.
"Mmm-hm, yes. So long as I lose, right?" The ghost turned intangible, the grenades passing harmless through his translucent form.
Phantom sidestepped midair as a wordless shriek of rage sounded somewhere above and behind him, Paulina's attack missing entirely as she jetted past. Mikey and his squadron quickly dove in to intercept, preventing the ghost from countering Paulina's attack immediately. I risked a glance at the broken ground below and saw the crowds fleeing. The ghost shield had already activated in the distance; a brilliant blue bubble casting its light for miles, creating harsh shadows on the wreckage.
The ghost was hardly bothering to look at the Patrol members he was easily dodging, his efforts being spent mostly on the people below. I saw one eyebrow lift over those maniac eyes, and he smirked. "Red is your favorite color, isn't it?"
Phantom raised one hand, green energy crackling around it as he swung it in a wide arc. I shouted then, when the green arcing blast of energy sliced into a wall above the crowds. Phantom laughed as the ruined wall fell, almost in slow motion. The people fleeing that particular apartment building ran faster, but gravity won in the end, the mound of debris smashing down into the street, silencing the screams for just a moment.
I turned an enraged glare on the ghost. "You monster!"
"Why don't I paint the town red for you, Valerie?" Phantom grinned at me, delighting in his terrible pun.
"You'll pay for this you-!" I bristled, listening to the chatter over my comm device. I ducked aside as a pair of giant green energy blasts sent the ghost flying half a mile through the air before he could recover his balance.
Farther away from the battle zone circled the Patrol's most recent addition- artillery. Axion had combined technology from my jet sled and the Fentons' ghost weaponry to create flying tanks, heavily armed vehicles packing more firepower than the Fenton's long-destroyed RV. They took longer to mobilize, being larger and somewhat slower than the smaller sleds, but they now encircled the battlefield, lending their powerful fire support. Phantom's merriment changed immediately to that hateful frown as he whipped a blast at one of the big vehicles. The tank was too slow to get out of the way, detonating midair with a brilliant explosion, hot debris raining on the fleeing people below.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that." Phantom growled. "So you and that cheesehead are still buddy-buddy? There's no way this dumpy town could afford an army."
"What's it to you, ghost?" I snapped, dashing at him with a pair of melee weapons Axion has designed, resembling a pair of small daggers. It was pure madness to try and fight the ghost in hand-to-hand combat, but it would mean he would be too preoccupied to fire on the civilians below. So I thought, at least.
"You want to dance?" The ghost leered, blocking one of my weapons easily with his hand. "I suppose it's a good thing I can multitask then, isn't it?"
I gasped with surprise at the ghost's voice behind me. I was sent flying as something stomped on the rear of my jet sled, catapulting me through the air and sending my sled tumbling away. Most people would probably seize up with panic at the idea of such a freefall, but I had actually become somewhat accustomed to it. I was the one who perfected the mid-air recall and drilled proper use of a jet sled into the rest of the Patrol, after all. Instead, I angled my body to fall to one side and avoid a blast the second ghost fired at me, and recalled my sled. With a roar of engines, my board whipped around and caught me before I could splatter against a building. Or get vaporized by one of those emerald blasts.
The sight that greeted me when I got back into the air made my heart skip a beat. I didn't know how, but where one Phantom had hovered there were now four, each wearing an identical version of that crazed smile. I heard cries of surprise echoing my own thoughts as the rest of the Patrol saw it. I didn't know ghosts could do that! How many Phantoms could he split himself into? Were we going to have to taken on an entire army of him?
The four ghosts scattered, leaving me to duel one of them while two engaged the rest of the Patrol, and one continued to rampage, destroying anything and everything in his way. I spat some colorful phrases I'd learned and sideslipped to avoid a fist that was coming right at my face. I spun on my sled, letting my momentum slam my lifted leg into Phantom's face. He fell back for a moment, lobbing a low-power green blast that knocked me off my sled- obviously a defensive move rather than an offensive move. I caught hold of the rear of my sled, heaving myself up to flip atop the silver surface while Phantom regained his balance and glared death at me.
Literally. With eye beams.
My sled sliced higher into the air to avoid the blow, and I took advantage of the high ground to launch several blasts at the ghost I was fighting, as well as the two nearest clones. The crowds below seemed to finally be thinning, and I was surprised to see the sky beginning to brighten in the east. Just how long had this fight been going on? Dozens of fires were blazing unchecked, since fire crews could not respond while Amity Park remained quite literally a war zone. The damage was severe, an irregular march of destruction from outside the city to where the Patrol was presently engaged in combat.
"Don't think we don't have a few more tricks left, Phantom!" I hissed, leaping from my sled and bodily tackling the nearest one from above. Startled by the move, we both plummeted while I punched him repeatedly, driving my anti-ghost knives into his torso time and again, the weapons etching ugly green gashes across his chest.
"As do I." He smiled up at me, seemingly unfazed by the wounds. He simply vanished from under me, as if he had never even been there, and I fell faster with a shriek. Instinct served me well, I recalled my sled without even thinking to do so.
"Get away-!" I heard Paulina shriek, and jerked my head around to see the Latina trying to single-handedly take on one of the Phantom clones.
"What, I thought you used to adore me-" The ghost leered at her before I put a gunshot into his head.
"Adore you?" Paulina spat as she was able to put some distance between herself and the ghost. "Who told you that? My only love is the ghost-boy!"
"Feh." Phantom steadied himself midair and I heard another building detonate somewhere near where the other two clones were still running loose. "I should have known you were so shallow, just a pretty face. I suppose I ought to fix that, shouldn't I?"
"... Are you calling me shallow?" Paulina hissed, unslinging a second gun from her suit's shoulder straps. I have to admit, the former cheerleader made an imposing sight standing atop a jet sled in the form-fitting Patrol uniform, with a bazooka slung under each arm.
"Mm. Yes. I think Sam said it best, didn't she?" Phantom mused midair, seemingly unfazed by the threat of dual-bazookas. "That I could stand in a puddle of you and not get my feet wet."
I barked an order into my comm unit, and watched three of the tanks line up their massive double-turrets.
"I don't care what you heard some dead goth girl say about me!" Paulina snapped. I cringed to myself. The loss had been sharpened and amplified by the loss of Danny as well, but Paulina was unaware of that. She didn't know what I knew about the entire situation. Paulina shouted something unfit for print, twin green blasts surging from her weapons.
"NOW!" I shouted into my comm. The tanks added their larger energy beams to Paulina's volley, and Phantom just... popped. Well, his clone did, at any rate, leaving two Phantoms still on a rampage.
"One down, two more to go!" Paulina crowed, jetting off to rejoin the battle.
I wheeled midair to do likewise, just in time to see a precision blast from one of the two Phantoms take out one of the engines on Mikey's sled, causing both to plummet toward the ground. The small squad leader shrieked as he fell, trying in vain to steer the out-of-control board to a relatively safe landing.
"How amusing." One of the two Phantoms stated, firing a large blast at a building looming above my comrade.
"Oh no-!" Mikey looked up and saw the debris falling, raising both hands to shield himself as several tons of steel and concrete plowed into him. I cringed when the mess slammed to earth, catching a few stragglers from the fleeing crowds as well.
Paulina and I both charged one of the two ghosts, Paulina ramming her sled straight into him, while I jumped from mine again, firing my gun with one hand, the other bearing one of my melee weapons. It was amusing, in a dark sort of way, that the Latina's preferred melee weapons were a set of energy-talons built into the gloves of her suit, a wicked parody of the perfectly manicured fingernails beneath the black material.
"If you weren't already dead, I'd kill you!" I shrieked.
"I'll gouge his eyes out!" Paulina snarled, swiping the weapons at the ghost's face to make good on the threat.
I landed several shots and stabs before Phantom flung us both away, Paulina's sled spinning wildly out of control and dislodging her, while I got flung back and recalled my sled. I shot over to catch Paulina, even though her sled was already on its way back to catch her- she wasn't quite as good at the mid-air recall as I was. A green explosion engulfed Paulina's sled, and we exchanged brief looks before I had to dodge another blast.
"You shoot, I'll steer!" I told her, veering my sled in a wild sideways arc to slip past another blast.
"Right!" I saw a flurry of red bazooka blasts launch out the corner of one eye as Paulina fired at Phantom. The injured copy finally disappeared, leaving one Phantom wrecking havoc in the pre-dawn twilight. The crowds below had thinned, and I saw virtually no one running in the streets or over the rubble. I saw plenty of people who would likely never move again, and tried to shut the sight from my memory.
"Dad, how much longer? Nothing we're doing is hurting him!" I yelled into my comm, watching Phantom get into the middle of a tank formation and start blasting. "We're taking heavy losses out here!"
"Just a little longer, Valerie!" My dad's voice replied, slightly garbled.
"Valerie, isn't he going to attack the Patrol when we retreat?" Paulina pointed out. "We're covering everyone's escape, right? Who's covering ours?"
I mouthed some choice words under my breath. She had a point. The sleds wouldn't be quite so vulnerable, but we'd mobilized the entire artillery division of the Patrol, and they would be horribly open to attack from the rear. With what we'd seen of Phantom's behavior, he would most certainly seize advantage of that fact. I hated to admit it to myself, but we were utterly outmatched in this battle. I had no idea what he'd been doing since his last appearance to gain so much strength, but the fact was we had no real way of fighting him. The best we could do was distract him, and hide under a shield. A sobering thought.
"Dad." I called back to headquarters. "How much is a little longer? We're going to have to pull back the artillery first and cover the retreat with the infantry, or we're going to take serious losses while we retreat to the shield!"
"You certainly are going to take losses." That voice whispered over the comm. "I like to think they'll be total losses."
"YOU?" I snarled at my wristband. Phantom must have lifted the comm unit off one of the Patrol members he'd taken out. I clenched a fist, spinning my sled so Paulina and I both had clear shots at the ghost. Needless to say, we both opened fire.
"Everyone is under the shield that can get here!" My dad exclaimed over the comm, his voice barely heard over the intense exchange of weapons fire. "I'm ordering the artillery to fall back now!"
"Got it." I responded tersely, blazing past Phantom and narrowly avoiding one of his massive energy blasts. "Think you're so hot, spook?"
Paulina lobbed a grenade at the ghost, the thing exploding just before it hit him, so he didn't have a chance to turn intangible. "Tag, you're it!" She called to him before whispering to me. "Maybe we can make him mad and he can chase us so that the others can retreat? You've got the fastest sled, right?"
I nodded, dodging another blast- we both had to duck. "Hang on tight then, this isn't going to be a smooth ride."
Phantom emerged from the explosion, only mildly scuffed from the blast, smiling wickedly. "Isn't that cute? You two want to play a game? Fine." He put on a burst of speed, giving chase as I wheeled the sled around and dove under him. Paulina kept one arm locked around my torso to keep steady, firing at Phantom with her bazooka the whole while. With my hands both free, I was firing at every chance, but had to focus primarily on flying. My sled was fast, sure, but Phantom was probably faster. We'd have to outmaneuver him.
It seems that the ghost had an extra dose of animosity directed at me, likely due to my role in his creation. At the moment though, that hostile attention was a plus, because while he was focusing on Paulina and I with a singleminded intensity, the rest of the Patrol took the opportunity to scatter and fall back, squadrons of the sled-equipped infantry laying down cover fire for the slower artillery units. That's not to say they all got away, unfortunately. Just as we were taking every opportunity to fire at him, he took every chance he could to fire at the Patrol members.
"I don't feel so good." Paulina cringed behind me as I took us through a stomach-turning roll through the skeleton of a building, firing at the ceiling to shroud our exact position from Phantom. The building creaked ominously around us, and a massive green blast consumed the hallway behind us. Thankfully, the debris I had already knocked loose shielded us from the actual blast, and I twisted the sled around and sideways to it's smooth underside caught the shockwave. Paulina blasted a hole in the wall just before we would have slammed into it, and we were blasted out into the open air again.
"You're terribly good at running, Valerie." Phantom's voice taunted from my wristband. He had to have obtained one of the communication devices. I hissed a curse at the thought of that ghost looting the corpse of one of my allies. "But you know you can't run forever."
"I may be good at running, ghost." I snarled back. "But you sure suck at hitting anything!"
"Yeah, all talk and no substance!" Paulina shouted as well. "It must be all that hot air making your hair stick up like that!"
I dovetailed the sled out of the way of the massive green blast that was Phantom's response to our witty banter, taking the moment to see how much longer I had to cover the retreat. No pressure at all, knowing that the survival of most of your paramilitary force depends on you. Really. The sun would be up soon, which would limit how we could hide and evade, but it also meant safer flying with better visibility. Already the upper reaches of the plumes of smoke were lit with the pleasant colors of pre-dawn.
"Valerie!" My dad called again. "The Patrol is inside the shield! Get back here!"
I heaved a huge sigh of relief. "We're out of here!"
"You're not going anywhere." Phantom appeared in front of me, and I yelped and swerved aside.
"Wanna bet, ghost?"
"Out of the way!" Paulina fired over my shoulder, catching Phantom by surprise with a shot to the face. The ghost yowled and clawed at his scorched face in anger. I didn't stick around to see what happened next- I stomped the switch and pushed my jet sled's engines as hard as possible, almost instantly leaving the angry ghost well behind us. I felt Paulina shift her weight, getting low to the board and facing our rear to fire at Phantom, and I knelt low as well to reduce the wind-resistance, praying we would reach the shield in time.
The sun finally peered over the horizon, casting harsh shadows as we flew west toward the blue light of the shield and safety. Phantom's shots were getting uncomfortably accurate, and I heard Paulina shout over the wind that he was gaining on us, and fast. Even over the wind in my ears I could clearly hear the ghost's enraged shouts as he described in detail how he would rip us both apart.
The dome wasn't quite as visible in the new daylight, the blue light appearing more faded against the sky. That might be why Phantom didn't see it. Or perhaps he was so fixated on my jet sled that he didn't pay any heed to anything besides that. We both cheered loudly as we shot through the blue barrier as though it wasn't even there, the sled spinning sideways to a halt midair.
Just in time to watch Phantom slam bodily into the shield face first at full speed. The ghost stopped dead in his tracks as if he'd just flown smack into a brick wall. For just a moment, with his cape splayed out and limbs askew, he briefly reminded me of a bug on a windshield. A very angry, very powerful bug, but still, a bug. He pulled back a few feet from the dome, and I flew up alongside him, just inside the protective barrier.
"Sorry to disappoint, Phantom, but I think we went somewhere." I smiled wickedly, waving in mock-sweetness at the very visibly angry ghost.
"Looks like you lose, ghost!" Paulina blew Phantom a thoroughly sarcastic kiss. I swear, the irony in that action was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"You think that silly shield will stop me?" Phantom hissed, raising both hands over his head, charging a massive green blast.
I wanted to run, wanted to shy away just in case we were wrong and the shield wouldn't hold, but I forced myself to stare impassively at the ghost, knowing thousands of eyes were on me. I heard Paulina yelp and cover her face behind me. The sled had to have only been six feet away from Phantom, six feet from a blast that likely had the destructive power of a small nuclear bomb. And I stared him right in the face the entire time with a cold gaze.
"DIE!" Phantom shouted, lobbing the blast at the barrier. The explosion rocked the area, but the blast dissipated along the shield, repelled by the blue barrier.
I grinned at Phantom then. "Yes, I think that silly shield is going to stop you. So long, spook!" I wheeled the sled around and returned to headquarters, listening to the explosions going off in the distance, mingled with Phantom's enraged shouts as he took his anger out on anything outside the barrier. A cheer went up from people once they saw the shield had worked as planned, the thirty four silver shield generator towers no longer eyesores or unnecessary in anyone's minds. Those towers were now the sentinels of Amity Park, the only thing that stood between the intact city inside and the ruins outside.
Phantom's rampage continued for several months, but the shield repelled him at every turn. The city beyond the dome however, was largely reduced to ashen rubble, buildings toppled or burned, streets blasted out and littered with debris. There were easily thousands of deaths, but no one dared venture beyond the barrier to look for the corpses or the survivors. We were safe from Phantom, but caged in by that safety. So long as the towers stood, we were safe. Nothing in Phantom's arsenal of ghost powers could breach that barrier, no matter how strong he became.
Or so I thought.