Chapter 18
"You belong to me now," Freakshow said, Valerie's face in his hand. Valerie smirked as best as she could.
"I belong to nobody."
There was a beep from her wrist, and a moment later her hover board cut through the crowd of ghosts and flew straight for them. Freakshow managed to duck, allowing the rope around Valerie's neck to get caught. It gave a harsh tug, pulling on her throat, but she was free. She jumped up into the air and landed on her hover board with ease. The crowd of humans cheered as she cut her wrists free.
There was no time to waste. She pressed a button with her foot that let out a blade from the side, cutting the ropes to the other's nooses. At the same time, she unhooked a gun from the bottom and blasted it at Freakshow. Unfortunately, Dani was there to save the day with a ghost shield. The shield shattered, but neither of them were harmed.
"It's go time!" She yelled at the heroes. Sam tossed Jazz a weird handle looking thing, and everybody watched before their eyes as a suit surrounded her in seconds.
Valerie shot another blast out, but Freakshow dodged it this time, and it ended up hitting Danny instead. He flew back into the grass, his chest smoking but otherwise fine.
All of the Avengers and the Fentons started fighting the swarm of ghosts that came towards them.
It was like art. They way they worked together, it was like they had been doing this their whole lives. They flipped and flew and spun and punched and everything in between. It was the most graceful dance of death any of them had ever seen. And it turns out that the Hulk didn't really need any ghost weapons like they thought. The gamma radiation coming off of him was enough to hurt the spiritual beings.
As the fight ensued, Valerie flew around to where Danny was.
"Danny?" She asked, shaking him. He opened his eyes, which were still blazing red. Without any hesitation she leaned forward and kissed him, but when she pulled back, his eyes hadn't changed.
Danny roughly shoved her off, and she rolled safely to the side as he sent an ectoblast towards her.
"Just like old times, then," she said, pulling out her bo staff.
Danny swung at her, but she blocked it with her staff, and used that small bit of distraction to sweep his legs out from under him. Then she pointed the butt of her staff at him and pressed a button on the side, shooting a pink ectoblast near his head. He dodged, just like she knew he would, because this isn't the first time they've fought.
She swung down with her staff, but he blocked it with his forearms, and Valerie knew he was going to be complaining about that for a week. But she pressed another button, sending green electricity through the weapon and into her husband, who screamed in pain. As she electrocuted him, he managed to open up his hands and blast her away.
Valerie could see Tucker running over as both she and Danny stood up. He was probably worried about the screaming. Valerie glanced at him, but it was enough to make Phantom turn his head. He whirled around, only to have Tucker slam into him on accident. They tumbled to the ground in a very precarious looking situation. But before Danny could blast Tucker off, he kissed Danny straight on the mouth.
It only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like hours to Valerie. Not because she was jealous, but because she was really hoping Tucker had surprised him enough to snap out of it.
It worked.
Danny groaned, holding his head in his hands as Tucker straddled him.
"Tucker? What the fuck, man?" Danny asked. "What's going on?"
"Ghost invasion because of Freakshow. But now that you're free we can get them back on our side and stop him. Oh, and your parents are fighting with us but I would be careful around them."
The color seemed to drain from Danny's face at the mention of his parents, and she knew it must be an overwhelming amount of information all at once, but Valerie came and saved the day by pushing Tucker off of Danny, and giving him another kiss herself.
"Let's get 'em, Tiger," she told him, holding out her hand. He grinned up at her, and grasped her hand. She pulled him to his feet. "You ready?"
"Never been more ready in my life," he replied. He gave his shoulders a little wiggle before launching off into the air, hiding himself in the giant sea of ghosts nobody seemed to notice. He would use that to his advantage.
Danny's head hurt. It was like he had been drowning in thoughts that weren't his, trying his hardest to come up for air. Now that he was finally free, a new kind of energy flowed through him. He hadn't been in control of his own body for days.
He was going to show Freakshow what he could do with it.
Despite the fatigue he was feeling from the mind control and sleep deprivation, he had an enormous amount of energy. It was almost like when he fought Pariah. He was down for the count, but he managed to pull just enough energy out of him to end the tyrant king.
Without really putting much thought into it, Danny created a sword of ice, launching himself at Freakshow. But right before he could bring it down on him, Dani flew at him from the side, knocking him to the ground. He rolled several feet away, but only a couple of feet away from where Thor had dropped his hammer. He lifted it up with ease, noting the warm sensation coming from it. The magic inside wanted to protect, to defend. And it was going to help Danny do that.
He couldn't really explain how he got the lightning to come. It was almost like the hammer was guiding him, like all it needed was somebody to hold it while the hammer did the rest.
The lightning struck right next to Dani and Freakshow, knocking them both back. Thor looked surprised, probably because Danny took his hammer without asking, but if he was going to beat this circus freak with ghost envy he was gonna use every tool that was thrown his way.
Even if he was the one that was thrown.
Freakshow had dropped the staff, so before he could reach it again Danny sent out another blast of lightning.
Even if Danny's aim had been bad, he's sure the hammer would have still done all the work. It hit the red orb of the staff, creating a small crater in the ground that knocked Dani and Freakshow back even further.
"No!" he heard him yell. Danny reached out his hand, and the hammer flew back to him. He gently floated to the ground, literal lightning at his fingertips, as he calmly walked towards Freakshow.
"You have terrorized my people," he said. His voice boomed eerily, and lightning and ectoplasmic energy sparked around him. Every step he took, the ground froze beneath his feet. Freakshow started backing away in terror before tripping over himself. He tried to crawl away, but Hulk just huffed at him. Freakshow was pale already, but now he was downright paper-like. "You have terrorized the people of Amity Park." Danny leaned in, his sense of humor outweighing the rage he felt. "You will pay for your sins," he said directly into Freakshow's ear. He screamed and tried backing away, but backed up right into Hulk instead, who grabbed him by the ankle and lifted him up.
Danny couldn't help it. He started laughing at him, letting all of the anger kind of flow out of him. The lightning around him stopped, as he calmed down his normal powers.
"Hey Thor!" He called. "Thanks for letting me borrow this!"
He tossed the weapon back to the Asgardian, who looked absolutely dumbfounded. But he caught it with ease anyway, holding the hammer a little closer to his chest than before.
Danny, without explaining anything, flew up into the sea of ghosts where he knew his old friends would be.
It wasn't hard to find Clockwork and Frostbite in the sea. Wulf had done them a favor and opened a portal to the Zone, so the ghosts were slowly filtering out of Amity.
"I'm sorry everything got so out of hand, guys," he said to them. Frostbite didn't say anything. He just flew up to him and pulled Danny into the strongest hug of his life. Once he let go, Clockwork pulled him into a hug as well.
"Good work, Daniel," he said. "Shall I cancel the next council meeting?"
"God, please," Danny said, making everyone laugh. He was tired. Every bone in his body hurt, and he still had a massive headache. "I'll be back soon. I gotta take care of things here first. But can you make sure everybody gets back safely?"
"As you wish, My King," Frostbite said. Danny gave them one last smile before flying back below the sea of ghosts that was slowly but surely getting smaller.
However, as soon as he was far enough away from the other ghosts, a sharp, intense pain erupted in his side. He plummeted to the ground to fast for anyone to catch him. There was an audible gasp, but Danny was more focused on trying not to let the rings come. If they came, he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to pull them back.
He groaned as he tried to climb out of the small crater he had created, but as soon as he came up, two barbs latched into him, one in his arm and one in his chest, sending several volts of electricity through him.
The pain was immense. He was hurting before, but now it was overwhelming, white hot pain shooting up and down his whole body. All he wanted to do was help the person who was screaming, until he realized that the noise was coming from him.
It seemed to last forever, but he knew it was probably just a few seconds. But it was enough to make him collapse, half in the crater and half out. His vision was fuzzy, the edges turning black. His parents were still pointing their guns at him. His mom actually took the shot, just as he saw Valerie running towards his parents, her bo staff in her hands.
"That's my wife!" Danny managed to yell at them. He started coughing vigorously before flopping down on the ground, ready for the pain to hit him. But it never came.
Dash Baxter stood in front of him, blocking the blast with an old, beat up trash can lid.
Danny tried lifting his head up, as he noticed more people stepping in between him and his parents, armed to the teeth with bats and rocks and other various items that could cause a lot of damage if thrown. Danny's heart swelled. For once his town was protecting him.
When the rings came, he let them wash over him. He was vaguely aware of someone, maybe Sam or Tucker, grabbing his arms and lifting him up, but he quickly passed out after that.
Iron Man was furious.
He watched as Clint and Sam pulled Danny-who now had black hair and normal clothes on-out of the crater. It seemed like everyone in Amity was standing in between his parents and Danny, and in turn Iron Man stood in between the crowd and the Fentons. His hands were up, pointed at the ghost hunting duo. But he didn't need to do anything.
Valerie was a force to be reckoned with. She was beat up and bloody, probably running on fumes, but the second they shot at her husband she went buck fucking wild.
While the Fentons were distracted with the crowd and with Iron Man, she ran up behind them and started beating the ever loving shit out of them. If it hadn't been for both Thor and Steve having to hold her back, she probably would have killed them.
Tony gave himself a mental reminder not to get on her bad side.
As they pulled Valerie off of them, Iron Man walked over to the now bloody parents, his hands whining with arc energy, ready to blast at them if needed.
"Put your weapons down and put you hands behind your head," he told them. They glared up at him but complied.
Smart choice.
It took an hour for S.H.I.E.L.D. to get there. There was one ship for villain transport, which Iron Man was more than happy to throw the Fentons in with Freakshow, while the other one was for medical purposes that all of them clambered into.
Danny was the most injured out of all of them, what with the brain washing, fatigue, and now the injuries from his parents. Valerie, despite the cut on her forehead, was sitting by his side, holding his hand. Tucker and Sam were on the other side, half asleep. The Avengers all sat around on the extra benches, all doing relatively okay. There weren't too many injuries among them thanks to Tucker's tech.
Tony took off his helmet and slumped down next to Steve and Thor, really looking at Danny now that he had transformed.
He had black hair, darker than the night sky. His skin was littered with little scars everywhere that Tony hadn't noticed before because he was always wearing sleeves. He had a wedding band around his finger that had one green and one red stripe on it, signifying his and Valerie's colors.
"Holy shit," Tony sighed, running an armored hand down his face. "What a day, you guys."
"I still can't believe it," Steve admitted.
"He held Mjolnir," Thor said, still stunned. He was looking at Danny intensely, but in awe.
"What's the big deal?" Steve asked.
"Only those who are truly worthy can wield Mjolnir," Thor explained. "He is truly worthy. A noble ally to have on our side."
"I wanna know how he did the magical girl transformation," Clint said with a yawn.
"We'll explain everything later," Valerie told him, not looking at him. She didn't want to peel her eyes away from Danny at all. Not even for a second. "It's...Kind of complicated."
"That," Tony said, yawning himself and settling back into his seat, ready to drift off, "it a big fat understatement."