Disclaimer: I still don't own Danny Phantom. Nickelodeon and Viacom do, and they are very big companies armed with lots of money and lawyers. Since I'm not making any money from this and I never will be, there is nothing for the law-ninjas to sue out of me.
Author's Note: Oh ye gads, a month and a bloody half to get this done! Granted, I do have some very good excuses as to why it took so long. The usual case of "Why won't my muse cooperate with me?!", which was no doubt made even worse with the addition of having a stomach flu right after I got the last chapter posted, the rush to get caught up on a full week's worth of missed college algebra homework... And this one's going to sound awfully familiar...
ANOTHER BRUSHFIRE. Unlike the Sesnon fire in October though, which got to where I could see flames on the more distant ridge above the house but otherwise didn't come near enough to threaten us, the Sayre fire that started late November 14th was being pushed my direction by winds at times exceeding 80mph. Evacuation warnings were issued at around 1am that night, and we finally had to evacuate the area a little before 5am in smoke and ashfall so thick you couldn't breathe without a mask (and even then, not very well.) Flames crested the hills right above my house at about 6am, but thankfully no houses were lost in my area and we were able to return home (by sneaking back into the evacuation zone and dodging roadblocks) around 9am. We did have some scorch-spots in the lawn though from wind-driven embers, and a neighbor lost a tree in her backyard, but otherwise the only damage done was ash covering everything outside and EVERYTHING reeking of smoke for weeks. If you want to see my pictures from both fires, check them out here: http :// rpstudios. ian-justman. com/ junk/ Firepics2008/
Wow, that's a really long pre-chapter author's note, isn't it? Anyway! New chapter, big announcement to follow at the bottom!
Chapter 23: Bleeding Earth
"Turn on temptation, arise, tear the sky
This nightmare is everywhere, my eyes open wide
Crash on through troubled waters, oceans collide
We stand alone until the end we fight side by side"
-"Strike of the Ninja" - Dragonforce
"Did our heavy firepower guy just go berserk on us?" Sam backed away, her thorn whip held defensively between her and the fire-headed spook.
"You better not be betraying us, ghost." Valerie snarled, Maghnus momentarily forgotten as she leveled the Reality Gauntlet in Dan's direction.
"Put a sock in it, Valerie." Dan retorted boredly, his attention firmly on the tyrant as he cracked his knuckles. "I'll have time to deal with you later."
Further dispute was interrupted by rumbling laughter. Maghnus was watching their exchange and laughing, a gravelly, grating sound above the continued din of battle below. "This is the final alliance of man and spirit pledged in body and soul to my defeat? I have far less to be concerned about than I had believed before, if this is all that stands before that which is mine!"
"What alliance are you talking about?" Dan countered, floating down until he was level with the tyrant. "I don't need their help, or any fancy magic trinkets to compensate for any shortcomings."
The last was delivered with a pointed glance at the silver gauntlet adorning Maghnus' left arm.
"Are you saying you could actually defeat me in single combat?" The tyrant sneered. "After the results of our first encounter?"
"Sure, why not?" Dan retorted. "You're not so tough without that girly trinket of yours. Let's see you win a fight without the stupid thing!"
"Your flimsy insults bore me, spirit." Maghnus glowered, the blows to the tyrant's ego having apparently found a mark as he leveled his sword to point at the fire-headed ghost. "If you wish to duel me in single combat, then cease to belabor the point! Issue your challenge and draw your weapon so that I may deal with you and then take back the Ascendancy from the human!"
Dan's response was a green blast to the tyrant's face. It wasn't a powerful blast, more likely just an annoyance to Maghnus. Just enough to get the fire-headed ghost's point across.
"I'm not fond of formalities." Dan smirked, showing his fangs. "Bring it!"
"Are you insane?!" Danny shouted over the commotion below where the united ghosts and the Patrol were fighting Maghnus' army.
"The question you should be asking-" Dan frowned, "-is if I'm insane enough."
The fire-headed ghost didn't give anyone else a chance to intervene, lunging at Maghnus with both fists glowing in preparation for more blasts.
"Fool enough to come unarmed to a duel!" Maghnus whirled, matching the direction of Dan's leap, aiming to slice right through where the smaller ghost's trajectory would take him.
Which might have worked, save for the fact Dan turned semi-intangible, the tyrant's blade bisecting only green goo that quickly reformed, the fire-headed ghost now in a prime position to hit Maghnus from behind.
"While he's keeping the big guy busy, let's focus on taking out the rest of the goons!" Tucker bellowed before diving down on one of the larger skeletal beasts, bringing four sets of claws and his fire to bear against the thing's vulnerable backside.
"He's right, let's go!" Danny forced himself to quit gawking, diving back down into the fray.
"Don't think you're getting away with what you did to my city!" Paulina hissed, blasting away with her favorite beam cannon.
"Die, human!" One of the veiled skeletons leapt at the Latina from behind.
"Oh no you don't, bonehead!" Danny slammed into the ghost feet first, smashing the skeleton to bits beneath the Ecto-Skeleton's armored bulk as Paulina glanced over her shoulder to make sure the there wasn't another threat coming from behind.
"Hi Danny!" She beamed, merrily fragging another enemy ghost with her weaponry.
"Ur... hi, Paulina."
"Less flirting, more fighting!" Sam swept overhead, using thorn whips in both hands to tangle more skeletons and swing them around into crowds of enemy soldiers as makeshift bludgeons.
Valerie tore her gaze away from Dan and Maghnus with a snarl, returning her attention and the Reality Gauntlet's power to the enemy troops. More golden bolts lanced from her weapon toward the ground, massive flailing arms of stone tearing up from the earth to lash across the battlefield. The rusted hulk of an old Guys in White combat tank rose into the air shakily, rusted limbs shattering through portions of the hull, joined by a smashed fighter jet affixed to the quasi-humanoid golem's back like some kind of malformed jetpack. With a roar of tearing metal, the thing lurched into the fray, swatting at the veiled ghosts that tried to raise their spears and swords against it as it slammed one metal foot into the side of a nearby catapult.
"Dance about all you wish, it will do you no good in the end!" Maghnus roared, swatting at where Dan kicked the tyrant in the shoulder.
"Will it?" The shorter ghost retorted, splitting into two copies to dodge around the fist.
Dan let the duplicate vanish as he flew close to the swatting arm, scoring the armor with a sustained green blast. Maghnus snarled and lashed out, catching Dan across the stomach with the back of one fist. With a grunt of surprise, the shorter ghost was sent tumbling through the air, stopping himself short of slamming into anything and not much worse for the wear.
"Not doing as well as you had thought you would?" Maghnus taunted, his smile a vicious slash across his pale face.
"Just warming up." Dan snarled, launching himself high into the air above the massive ghost.
"Chew on this!" Valerie rained a mixed volley of autocannon fire and Reality Gauntlet beams on the enemy ghouls beneath her, leaving a glowing red trail of molten rock and twisted spears of stone and metal in her wake.
A ballista lay burning on its side as it sank into one of the larger pools of magma; rather than leave such a major hazard, another quick pass with the Reality Gauntlet turned the red hot pool to solid stone, the remains of the burning war machine and several still-twitching skeletons sticking out of the now-cold rock. The huntress spotted the Box Ghost hovering above a regiment of Maghnus's soldiers that Skulktech had cornered close to another one of the jagged red gouges she'd carved in the surface.
"BEHOLD MY CORRUGATED SQUARE DEATHTRAP!" The Box Ghost bellowed, forming a large box-shaped enclosure around the skeletons.
"Will you get on with it?" Skulker growled.
"Eesh, and you like to say that I, Technus, am excessively long winded? Me, the master of-"
"Yes, you're long-winded too." The ghostly hunter scowled at his partner, cutting the tirade short.
Box Ghost grinned, miming the motion of a box shrinking with his hook-tipped arm and good hand. To match the motion, his trap around the goons began to steadily decrease in size, pushing the veiled ghouls toward the liquefied rock. With nowhere else to go, they went into the magma with shrieks, only a few quick enough to turn intangible and escape that way.
"A few dozen down, a few hundred thousand to go!" Sam whipped by, dual-wielding her favored thorn vine weapons and hurling a battered beast into a cluster of soldiers.
"Second squadron, you guys go cover Valerie!" Paulina commanded via her armband communicator; there was no way her voice alone would carry clear across the battlefield otherwise.. "Don't leave the Commander vulnerable!"
Dora winged by overhead, leaving a wake of burning machinery and skeletons behind her, Tucker paralleling the flaming dive a few hundred feet away. Arrows whistled up from the ground, most clattering harmlessly off the dragons' protective scales. Dora hissed when a few went through one wing membrane and she banked hard to one side, spitting a sizeable fireball at the offending group of veiled archers. With shouts of surprise and panic the flaming ghosts scattered, sowing further chaos among the ranked troops.
"Behind you!" Danny yelled, spying one of the flying beasts coming up behind Valerie.
"What the-?" Dan yelped, his target having moved almost too quick for the ghost to follow.
"You fail miserably to challenge me, spirit!" Maghnus bellowed, catching Dan across the shoulders with his spiked mace.
Dan managed to avoid the worst of the blow, but he was still sent reeling into a crowd of veiled ghosts on the ground. They looked ready to dogpile the prone ghost, but instead formed a ring a respectful distance away as Maghnus landed, the ground quaking under his armored boots.
"It is finished!" Maghnus crowed.
"I don't think so, ugly!" Valerie glared down the length of the Reality Gauntlet, having used the device to transform her attacker from freakish boney beast into something else entirely.
The creature was still hideous, but with a rattling shriek the beast turned and landed amid several goons and began attacking them, a whirlwind of bone, flapping cloth, and tormented cries and shouts.
That she could completely change a living, or at least pseudo-living creature and make it do her bidding had some very interesting implications. She doubted it would work so well to bend an intelligent being to her will, but against minions and goons such power could make at least part of the battle much easier.
Several of the surviving Patrol members took up positions around her, forming a protective ring some hundred feet in diameter to give their Commander breathing room without worrying about attacks from all angles at once.
With a smirk, she took aim with the Gauntlet, and opened fire.
Dan rode the blast wave from his point-blank blast to avoid a sword sweep that would surely have caught him right in the neck otherwise. With a wordless snarl, he sprang at Maghnus, hoping to use the giant ghost's momentum to his advantage and attack during the sword-strike's follow-through.
The shorter ghost's fist impacted; and snapped something, Dan's flight speed taking him out of the tyrant's immediate retaliatory attack range. With a sneer, he skidded to a halt, jagged cape flaring out behind him from his inertia.
"How'd you like that?" Valerie sneered, her attack laying enemy ghosts within a hundred feet of her position flat, many writhing in pain or resistance to the Reality Gauntlet's magic.
"What the heck did you do?" Sam gaped, watching as the veiled figures below bent and twisted into new, unrecognizable forms.
"Not enough, spirit!" Maghnus boomed, a snarl in his voice indicating that Dan's blow still made the tyrant angry.
"Aw, the big bad ghost king upset at a little cosmetic damage?" Dan sneered back, waving the broken length of black horn like a makeshift sword.
"Only a cornered beast has the luxury of being a braggart, and there is no doubt that you are cornered!" Maghnus hissed, leaping at Dan with his sword at the ready.
"Funny, you're the one doing an awful lot of the bragging." The fire-headed ghost retorted, half-turning and raising the busted horn to block the larger weapon.
That was a mistake. The sharp edge of Maghnus' blade stuck briefly in the curved length of horn; but the bony thing snapped easily under the combined force of the blade's edge and the tyrant's momentum. Dan threw himself to one side, snarling when the blade scored a shallow gash in his side, the green wound stinging fiercely as he tumbled gracelessly across the jagged side of a fallen building.
I remember knocking that down a few years ago. Dan noted dazedly to himself as he got his feet back underneath himself.
"I give you one final chance to surrender and accept a swift end." Maghnus stepped forward once, twice, closing in on Dan. "You ought to consider yourself fortunate to be offered the opportunity, for I am not known for my patience with insubordination!"
"Too bad I don't know the meaning of surrender then." Dan spat. "I did drop out of high school after all."
That line would work a lot better if Vlad hadn't finished college, y'know. Danny noted to himself, one of the few keeping tabs on the fire-headed ghost's battle while fighting the goon squad.
Before Maghnus could retort, Dan took a deep breath, though the movement brought jolts of pain from his wounded side. It was far from full power as a result, but at close range, the Ghostly Wail still had enough force to bowl the tyrant over.
"Alright, how'd you like that?" Valerie crowed, watching the gold shockwave wash over the nearest goons and causing total chaos to erupt in the ranks as the Reality Gauntlet turned dozens of the simpleminded veiled skeletons against their comrades. "With this, it doesn't matter how many lackeys this guy's got!"
"Man, can't you just turn all of them against Maghnus then?" Tucker complained. "Not like they'd do much good, but at least they wouldn't be shooting at us!"
"Hey, he said he wanted to go one on one with Maghnus." The huntress retorted.
"Valerie, this really isn't the time for that." Danny groaned while blasting several beasts out of the air with the Ecto-Skeleton's arm cannons.
"I know, but he's doing fine without the help so far!" Valerie remarked, launching another gold beam volley into the slowly thinning ranks of Maghnus' forces.
"Is that so?" Maghnus sneered as he righted himself, grit and dust only slightly dulling his wild mane of red hair. "Then I shall teach you the meaning of the word suffering!"
The tyrant raised his sword in both hands and surged forward with a guttural bellow. Dan's eyes widened in surprise; there was no way he could dodge that, not with his injury slowing him down.
Dan didn't waste his breath on a retort; if he couldn't dodge, the only other option was to counter, since he rather suspected Maghnus wasn't expecting him to rush into the oncoming attack. Ignoring the protest from his wounded side, he launched himself forward with all the speed he could muster. He had to get in beneath the massive sword's arc if he was to have a chance.
It worked; he narrowly slipped past the bulk of the blade. With a shout, Dan braced himself, catching and grabbing the hilt of the weapon and forcing it to a halt. Maghnus snarled at him and shoved down on the weapon harder, trying to force the shorter ghost to falter or weaken his grip. Dan's growl was a mirror of the expression, the fire-headed ghost putting all the strength he could into wresting the weapon out of the tyrant's hands; though in reality it was taking everything he could muster just to keep the weapon from descending the rest of the way and catching him over the head.
"Are you nuts?!" Danny yelled, catching sight of the pair's deadlock. "Get out of there!"
The shout drew the attention of most of the others, who spared a glance from their respective battles to see what the alarm was about. Even Dan barely glanced toward the noise, a fraction of a second of slight distraction.
In an instant, Maghnus' snarl turned into a grin, the tyrant shifting his grip to hold the blade with one hand and seize advantage of his opponent's brief lapse of attention. The other hand swooped down on Dan like the end of the world, catching the fire-headed ghost around the midsection and squeezing, hard. Dan saw it coming too late to do anything except gasp in pain at the sudden and intense pressure on his side, the pain causing stars to dance in his vision.
"A single moment of weakness, and you are finished!" Maghnus crowed, hurling Dan into the air. "The triumph is mine, and soon the Ascendancy shall be as well!"
Dan tried frantically to get his bearings, get control of his trajectory. With his vision blurred and the wind howling in his ears, coupled with his injury sending paralyzing jolts of pain up his spine, he was having trouble enough just figuring out which way was up as he tumbled wildly through the air.
"Dan-!" Tucker yelped, abandoning his part of the battle to power into the air in a futile attempt to reach the fire-headed ghost.
"Tucker, get down!" Danny yelled, seeing what the tyrant's next move was going to be.
Maghnus laughed with nothing short of delight, a small globe of red ecto-energy pooling into the air above his hand. "And there will be no escape to another world for you this time!"
The energy ball was small in the tyrant's hand; Maghnus stabbed his sword into the rubble, and like one would flick a marble, brought one finger up to snap the beam into motion; a ballistic arc through the air, with Dan as its target. Tucker gave a yelp and folded his wings to drop like a lead weight and wincing when just the wake of the beam's passage burned some scales off.
The direct hit was worse.
Dan had been launched high enough and far enough that his pained cry came down as just a thin wail as the red beam hit him in the midsection... and kept going, the blast disappearing into the distance as the fire-headed ghost plummeted, a gaping hole in his abdomen visible even at a distance.
"Now, human." Maghnus smiled, a cruel, dangerous grin as he turned in Valerie's direction. "If you wish to continue your futile struggle-"
"Eat this, ghost!" Valerie snarled, snapping out of momentary shock at seeing him, Phantom, her nightmare of the past decade so thoroughly beaten to bring the Reality Gauntlet to bear again, this time actually going all the way and seizing the tyrant's own troops to throw against the giant ghost.
Danny winced even as he put the Ecto-Skeleton into motion, racing across the battlefield to match Dan's plunge. He knew entirely too well exactly what it felt like to have one's innards blasted clear out by an ectoplasmic beam, and it was not a memory he cared to dwell on. I guess what goes around comes around or something.
With the speed boost of the powered armor, he easily maneuvered into position to break Dan's fall without breaking his neck. The taller ghost's wound was even worse to behold up close, a nearly circular hole messily punched clear through his torso, almost wide enough to have cleaved Dan in two. Surprisingly little ectoplasm was flowing out of the massive injury; for the most part the edges had been cauterized by the heat of the energy beam's passage.
"Hey, hang in there!" Danny weakly encouraged his allegedly worse half.
Dan didn't respond save for a gargling groan, both arms weakly clutching at his midsection, red eyes unfocused and glazed over.
"Valerie!" Tucker saw Dan's condition and roared over the din of the battle to get the huntress' attention. "Need a little help here, and we don't have Vlad to play nursemaid!"
"What do you want me to do about it?" Valerie shouted back, her right arm a blaze of gold as she put the full firepower of the Reality Gauntlet into play against Maghnus, who was busy wiping out his own forces that had been turned against him.
"Hello, duh! Artifact of near-infinite power!" The royal geek countered. "Look, I know you don't wanna, but can't you... I don't know, fix him or something?"
"Tuck's right." Danny agreed. "We've gotta bring the entire Ascendancy against this guy, and that includes the Ring and the Crown. Which he has."
Valerie visibly balked at the idea of saving the fire-headed ghost. She knew the circumstances, that like it or not, they needed Dan's firepower. It didn't make the idea any more palatable, given how long she'd dreamed of seeing the ghost laid low and beaten the way he'd left her father and so many other people who crossed him in the past. It was a dream come true, with the absolute worst timing possible.
Who says I can't beat this tyrant guy without his help anyway?
Ten years of conditioning, of structuring everything she did so as to interfere with Dan, to oppose him in anything and everything was a hard habit to break.
A black beam cut a jagged arc through the air, Valerie barely had time to counter with a golden blast from the Reality Gauntlet; the clash of opposing powers sent her jet sled reeling through the air and it was only by virtue of years of practice that the huntress kept her footing.
"Pathetic!" Maghnus boomed, the daylight gleaming off his gauntlet, the device crackling with the promise of more attacks. "Even my fool brother staged a superior resistance than this!"
"Valerie! If you can't set the whole vendetta thing aside so we don't all end up like this," Danny indicated the crippled ghost held in the Ecto-Skeleton's arms,"-then just do it as a favor for me, okay?"
That stopped the huntress up short. That Danny of all people was standing up for the fire-headed ghost was such a foreign concept that it gave her pause. Even if he was only doing so out of acceptance that they needed Dan's overkill brute force to win, it was still a baffling, alien idea.
A silver bolt lashed by, Valerie yelping in surprise as she deflected it with the Reality Gauntlet, the energy rebounding off the golden gauntlet and carving a ragged trench in the ground below. While she was dealing with that, the tyrant whirled, weapons in hand as he launched his armored bulk in Danny's direction. After all, he hadn't finished Dan off yet; that his strike would no doubt deal with the pilot of the Ecto-Skeleton along with the crippled ghost was simply icing on the cake.
"Whoa-!" Danny yelped when a flickering green blast knocked the powered armor upside the bubble canopy, sending the suit tumbling off to the side and out of the incoming blade's path; the sound of something being hit, and hit hard coming from where he'd dropped Dan.
Even Valerie had to stare, not entirely sure she could believe what she'd just seen, as Dan struggled to push himself upright; an effort badly hampered not only by the hole in his torso, but also by the fact one arm was bent at an unnatural angle and didn't seem able to move properly while the other was a nearly unrecognizable green pulp. Green goo marked the pointed claws of Maghnus's gauntlet and the edge of his sword; in blasting Danny out of the way, Dan had instead taken the brunt of the blow, losing use of both arms in the process.
"How quaint, that your noble sacrifice shall ultimately be in vain!" Maghnus loomed above the struggling ghost, sword raised to finish the job.
"Don't get the wrong idea." Dan managed to snarl through hissing gasps for air. "'Noble' is one thing I don't-"
A bright yellow beam lanced out, the ground beneath the wounded ghost rippling almost like some sort of fluid and floating the fire-headed ghost out from under Maghnus's sword strike that no doubt would have finished Dan off. A short distance away, Valerie stood, Reality Gauntlet primed and aimed, her expression unreadable.
"Valerie!" Danny exclaimed, watching with a mix of trepidation and relief when a flick of the huntress' hand lifted Dan a few feet off the ground. "Guys, c'mon, we gotta keep the big guy busy!"
With a roar of rocket thrusters, Danny slammed the Ecto-Skeleton into Maghnus's unguarded flank, momentarily unbalancing the tyrant and causing a shot aimed at Valerie to go astray. Tucker and Dora immediately followed the shorter ghost's lead, lunging at Maghnus claws first and fireballs aimed at his smug face. In short order the rest of the defenders joined in on the dogpile, doing everything they could to keep the tyrant's attention off of Valerie and what she was doing with the Reality Gauntlet.
"Don't you get the wrong idea either, ghost." The huntress growled, launching another golden beam at the prone ghost. "As much as I hate it, I owe you one for saving Danny back there."
Dan was unable to reply for the moment, the ghost preoccupied with trying not to squirm at the sensation of the gauntlet's power as it ripped through his already ragged form. Gradually the wound in his torso shrank, other injuries also mending far more rapidly than they would have without the aid. Assuming he would have survived long enough to heal on his own in the first place.
"And I'm not about to let some horn-headed freak steal my revenge from me, you got that ghost?" Valerie continued.
Dan touched down, prodding at his torso through the hole in his suit. "Gentle as always." He snorted, trying not to grimace too badly. "And not even the decency to fix my suit while you're at it."
"Whatever. We settle our score after Maghnus is taken care of, got it?" Valerie eyed Dan warily.
"If by 'taken care of', you mean 'torn limb from limb', then that's fine with me." The fire-headed ghost countered, showing his fangs in a wicked smile. "After dealing with Maghnus, settling things with you will be like a pleasant diversion."
Before Valerie could retort, Dan was already in the air and launching himself at Maghnus, a scattering of green blasts the only warning for the others to get out of the way. Dan shot overhead, almost close enough to grab one of the tyrant's remaining horns, a large green beam taking the place of witty banter.
"You!" The tyrant bellowed, lightly scorched from the blow. "You should be dead!"
"Funny you should mention that." Dan sneered, flitting around a red counter-attack. "I'd say that I was, but I got better... except I am a ghost. A neat quandary, isn't it?"
"....Okay, that's not from my vocabulary." Danny quipped from the sidelines as Maghnus sent a volley of silver beams arcing toward the fire-headed ghost.
"Less talking, more butt-kicking!" Valerie raced past, covering Dan's attack and negating Maghnus's gauntlet-beams with the Reality Gauntlet's power. "I'll keep him from hitting you with the gauntlet, now get in there and do that dismembering thing you're so proud of!"
"I'm not taking orders from anyone, especially you." Dan sniped, darting past a wild sword swing and lobbing a needle-like volley of small green blasts at the tyrant's face.
"Well, they almost have that whole teamwork thing down." Tucker noted, shifting back to his normal form so as to be a smaller target for errant blasts.
It was clear that the fight was all about Dan, Valerie, and Maghnus now; the rest would most likely get in the way of the high speed display as Maghnus launched himself into the air, Dan and Valerie giving chase. Within moments, the view from the ground was that of a sky gone mad; a crossfire of red and green orbs and explosions, gold and silver lightning, ominous jagged bolts of black that were almost invisible against the purple sky, with two small figures circling the tyrant at the center of the maelstrom.
The fact that the powers of the three parts of the Ascendancy they had were split seemed at first a handicap; with Dan wielding the Lesser Ascendancy's power, and Valerie using the Reality Gauntlet, it seemed as if the collective firepower couldn't be concentrated enough to truly challenge Maghnus' gauntlet and natural strength. Valerie was too busy deflecting blows from Maghnus' gauntlet to try and strike the tyrant back; and Dan...
The fire-headed ghost had gained more than just a second wind from Valerie's treatment; judging by the deranged sneer on his face, Dan seemed to be truly enjoying himself, dodging around beams and sword swings to pepper Maghnus with blasts and the occasional punch or kick if he could get in close enough. He didn't seem to be paying any attention to the bolts from the tyrant's gauntlet, apparently trusting in Valerie's hatred and desire for revenge to keep the fire-headed ghost safe from the device. Certainly not the most sane thing in the world, trusting that someone wants to kill you so badly as to deny anyone else the opportunity; but then Dan had a well-established history of tending toward the 'not sane' end of the scale.
"It is time that we finish this laughable battle!" Maghnus roared, lunging to grab at Dan with his gauntlet-protected arm, simultaneously sending a wide arc-shaped red blast in Valerie's direction.
"I couldn't agree more!" Dan grinned wickedly, seeing his opportunity and rushing to meet the tyrant's lunge.
Valerie dispersed the blast headed her way and immediately launched a counterattack, a golden volley that momentarily consumed Maghnus' attention. A single moment of distraction in which Maghnus wasn't immediately paying attention to Dan. With a ruthless efficiency born of nothing short of experience, the fire-headed ghost grabbed the tyrant's arm, quickly flipping himself up and within range of the giant ghost's shoulder. Without waiting to toss out a snappy one-liner, Dan sneered and formed a large green beam over one arm and brought the ectoplasmic thing down at the leather armor protecting Maghnus' left shoulder.
"What was that you said about a single moment of weakness?" The fire-headed ghost purred as green energy blade sliced through the armor with ease... and kept going, aided by a forceful wrenching of the joint courtesy of Dan's free hand.
The tyrant's only answer was an enraged bellow and a reflexive swing that Dan didn't have time to evade as Maghnus' right fist arced over like a living hammer. Dan took the blow full on, sent tumbling several dozen feet backward and laughing all the way as he halted his flight, holding his prize aloft.
"What's he laughing about-?" Sam began to ask when Danny and Tucker both exploded in a flurry of excitement.
"Look what he's got!"
"Dude, I'm not sure if that's just gross or just awesome."
"I've been told I have a razor sharp wit." Dan chuckled, plucking the gauntlet off of the tyrant's severed arm and casually discarding the still-twitching limb. "But I doubt it was meant so... literally."
"... And he skipped over the really easy 'disarmed' joke, too." Danny noted.
"You-!" Maghnus hissed at Dan, shock written all over his normally immobile pale face. "Not even my own brother could-! I swear I'll-!"
"It's called pain!" Valerie quipped, cutting the tyrant's halting tirade off as she sent a fresh volley of blasts from the Reality Gauntlet racing toward the wounded ghost. "Get used to it!"
"While I hate to agree with her... I have to agree with her." Dan sneered, fitting the tyrant's stolen gauntlet over his left arm and watching with a quirked eyebrow as the magic device shrank to fit comfortably on him. "It won't last long, I promise."
"Never!" Maghnus tried to lunge at Dan, to fight back with the sword still clasped tightly in his remaining hand.
A lunge that was cut suddenly short when massive stone hands rumbled up from the ground to snare the tyrant, and a golden beam transformed his sword into a large sword-shaped balloon. Valerie smirked, studying her handiwork, another bolt turning the metal armor protecting Maghnus' vitals into cracked shards of glass.
"Let's see how you like being on the receiving end, shall we?" Dan wiggled his left hand, taking aim with the stolen gauntlet.
The tyrant barely had time for his eyes to go wide before Dan hauled off and sent a silver blast lurching through the air to make impact squarely in Maghnus' now-unprotected midsection. He shouted in either pain or blind rage and fired off a red shockwave that shattered the stone restraints and sent Dan and Valerie both falling back a dozen feet.
"We're not dragging this out, got it?" Valerie growled at Dan, while using the Reality Gauntlet again to hamper the wounded tyrant's motion. "Finish it off already!"
"But I haven't even started on the other arm!" Dan protested, voice dripping with sarcasm.
In the end, the killing blow seemed almost anticlimactic. There was no deafening explosion, though the blasts launched were massive in size. Just the tyrant's final defiant shout cut short, lost in the massive ball of silver and golden light that was difficult to look straight at without hurting the eyes. Several long seconds later, the light faded, and finally there came the noise; the sonic thunderclap as air rushed in to fill the void left in the wake of the blast, the sound rolling and bouncing wildly off the wreckage, from the walls of the crater, off the malformed, twisted wreckage of the massive battle.
And then, silence.
Any cry of celebration quickly froze in the throats of the victorious defenders as the dust settled.
"Oh no..." Danny squeaked.
"They're-!" Sam tried to keep her own voice from cracking.
"Well, Valerie." Dan stated dryly, glaring as he leveled his left arm, and the gauntlet in Valerie's direction. "Didn't we have a score to settle?"
"I've been waiting a long time for this, ghost." The huntress responded with a frigid tone, sighting down the Reality Gauntlet at the fire-headed ghost. "I've had to wait too long for the chance to finally avenge everybody."
Author's Note: So anyway... geez, I already did the "What's up in my life" ramble... so... On to the big announcement, I guess!
The bad news: The final two chapters of the fic are probably going to be at least a little bit delayed. The reason for this is that I want to have both chapters actually finished before I post the next one. Plus I have final exams coming up in just over a week, and assorted school-related stuff to get done by then.
The reason for that is the good news: When I post the next chapter, I want to be able to tell you guys that the finale WILL be posted on X date, and be guaranteed to have it ready by then. The only way to do that, obviously, is to have the finale done before the next chapter is even posted. So while there may be a big gap between this chapter and the next, there won't be a huge gap between the next chapter and the finale.
And the reason for THAT is the big announcement: The day the finale is posted, I'll be doing a chat party thingie on AIM, and everybody's invited to come hang out, chat about the fic series if you want, grill me for taking so damn long, and just to generally hang out and have fun. I got the idea from a fic author over in the Phoenix Wright fandom, and it was a lot of fun to participate in. Along with the chat party, I'll also upload a .zip file containing various "bonus" material; original story outlines and timelines, a selection of songs that were important to my writing the series, a translation of all of Wulf's dialogue, and stuff like that. Preparing those bonus goodies are also part of why the final two chapters will probably be a little delayed.
And on that note, pumpkin cheesecake ice cream to you kickass reviewers: Selofain, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, Gareth, Skandragon Blackheart, Luiz4200, Mappadouji, Sukoru, spiritmind675, i AM the Random Idiot, Moony's Metamorphmagus, Phantom-Akiko, Tie-dyed Trickster, Angelic Kittens, Marcus S. Lazarus, Akino Ame, SkeiththeTerrorofDeath, SilverK, and Anthiena!