"WWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
BANG!
BLAST!
BOOM!
CRASH!
BOOM!
"WWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
BOOM!
CRASH!
BOOM!
BLAST!
BOOM!
CRASH!
BLAST!
"WWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BANG!
BLAST!
BOOM!
BLAST!
"WWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
BOOM!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
It was absolute chaos.
Danny and his future evil self were battle through the skies, on the ground and even under the surface of Amity Park. Their ability to spit themselves into duplicates had allowed for not just one fight but multiple fights.
Only for Danny it wasn't just a fight.
It was an all-out war.
This wasn't like his battles with Vlad when the evil billionaire would often try to stage and manipulate the fight or when he faced Pariah Dark for the fate of Amity Park.
This was beyond fighting an evil ghost.
This was both personal.
He needed to close the book on his former future once and for all.
He was not him.
He was Danny Phantom!
He was his own self!
He was a hero!
A HERO!
"GAH!" Danny shouted as teleported in front of Dark Danny and fired a blast point blank in his face.
The evil ghost slid back a few feet but then stood up, wiping the soot from his face. "So, you've mastered teleportation, huh?"
Suddenly he appeared right in front of Danny and slugged him in the stomach before following up with an elbow to the back.
"I mastered that in my first year but it wasn't practical for getting through ghost shields so I haven't used it very much." Dark Danny said before kneeing his younger counterpart in the face and kicking him away. "You've come a long way in such a short amount of time."
Danny grunted as he got back up. "Yeah and I'm a lot stronger than I was last time. This time I won't let you get out."
"Oh please." Dark Danny rolled his eyes. "You think you can truly hold me? One or another I would just escape again and not even Clockwork can hold me since I'm immune to his time powers."
"What?" Danny questioned then realized something that made his eyes go wide. "The time medallion you used to come back. It's the reason you never disappeared."
"A minor detail but one that secures my existence." Dark Danny smirked but then stopped as he saw Danny smile and then let out a chuckle. "And what's so funny?"
"It's funny…All this time I was still scared of turning into you even as you're right here in front of me…But you made me realize that I didn't have to be afraid at all. Because you just told me that I'll never become you!" Danny declared with a victorious smile.
"Oh?" Dark Danny narrowed his eyes. "And why's that?"
"You're from a future that no longer exists. That medallion is the only reason you don't fade away like your future did." Danny explained with a grin. "Which means I just have to remove it and you're just a bad dream I've left behind. So sorry, big guy but you're future is gone and I'm never becoming you…So you're not even supposed to exist."
Dark Danny snarled, the sclera of his eyes turning black as they glowed bright red. "I exist because I am the one and only Danny Phantom, having left behind a weak simpering child who couldn't save his family from his own mistakes."
"But I did." Danny retorted. "I did what you couldn't so I have nothing to fear."
"Nothing to fear?" Dark Danny snarled.
"Yeah, because I have already left you behind. You're just a bad memory who can't accept that his time is…GONE!" Danny retorted and shouted at the end.
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Dark Danny lost all composure and lunged at Danny, abandoning strategy and reasoning and resorting to pure brutality.
Danny was able to dodge, his renewed confidence in himself allowing him to keep his mind focused as he evaded his evil counterpart's fists and fought back with the martial arts he had learned from Jazz. His powers were stronger and more focused in the last several years he had been fighting ghosts while Dark Danny was becoming more and more of a beast. Danny ducked under a punch and slugged Dark Danny in the face, following up with a close range Ghostly Wail that sent the evil ghost crashing down the street. Dark Danny snarled as he instantly got back up and shot back at Danny who was floating in the air now, waiting for his enemy to come to him.
Down below, the Fentons arrived in the Fenton RV and jumped out, armed and ready.
"There they are!" Jazz pointed up at the sky, watching as the two ghosts fought.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Danny and Dark Danny were trading a flurry of blows that created shockwaves great enough to cause clouds to disperse. Danny narrowly dodged or parried Dark Danny's punches but their attacks were enough to shake sections of Amity Park. Danny punched back but Dark Danny dodged and clubbed his back. Danny recovered in time and spun out of the way of an elbow strike. Danny fired an ecto-beam but the dark incarnation of the world's hero batted it away before flying up and kneeing Danny in the stomach.
Or what he thought was Danny.
It turned out to be a duplicate as the real Danny dropped in behind and booted him right up in the air to where two more duplicates were waiting. Both duplicated unleashed a flurry of punches on Dark Danny who struggled to keep up. He finally blasted both fakes away and spun around to face his real opponent who flew up and punched him right in the face and then blasted him down into the ground. Dark Danny grunted as he pulled himself out of the concrete road just as Danny landed and flew at him.
They traded blows again that were strong enough to leave deep gashes in the ground. Dark Danny growled as a fiery blue aura surrounded him and he shot up with Danny following after him. Just as he reached above the clouds Danny barely had time to react as Dark Danny shot at him like a rocket. Danny teleported, vanishing out of the way and reappeared to engage the future ghost again.
Down below Jazz, Maddie and Jack tried to watch as best as they could. They were able to make out flashes of light in the sky that followed with resounding shockwaves.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
"Amazing…" Jazz whispered. 'His jerky future self is powerful but Danny is not only fighting back he's actually holding his own.'
The shockwaves were actually coming close to the city and Jazz thought she saw all the windows on a nearby building shatter. Danny managed to elbow Dark Danny in the face that sent him falling back to the city. The evil ghost recovered and shot back up. Danny blocked the next punch and used his speed to try and keep ahead of his opponent. Danny then used his new dark powers to blind Dark Danny and followed up with an ecto-blast to the face.
"Take this!" Danny then summoned a sword of ecto-energy to finish his enemy off.
Dark Danny narrowly dodged and threw Danny away as the darkness faded away. "Really? Trying to blind me in the dark? Do you still have that shuttle night light?"
"Did you make one while in that Thermos?" Danny retorted before continuing the fight.
Both enemies flew at each other, their fists immediately colliding.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOOM!
BOOOOOM!
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
More shockwaves, more powerful than before were created in the wake of their fists colliding and spread over the sky above the city. Finally both ghosts flew back, moving away from each other and Dark Danny fired a barrage of ghost rays. Danny created a ghost shield that blocked the incoming beams.
Dark Danny then created a purple glowing ball of ecto-energy that grew into the size of a school before chucking it at Danny. "TAKE THIS!"
Danny immediately fired a large ecto-beam that cancelled out the attack in the form of a large explosion.
BANG!
Only that was not the end.
A volley of ecto-beams shot out, forcing Danny to hastily dodge and make sure he didn't cause any missed shots to hit the city below.
"Quick!" Jazz turned to her parents as the fight raged on above. "Turn on the ghost shield!"
Maddie pressed a switch on her wrist computer and the ghost shield for Amity Park came on just in time to block several stray shots. "This is insane. At the rate they're going they might just destroy the whole tristate area!"
"Danny won't let it come to that." Jazz said confidently.
Xxx
Clockwork watched the fight between Danny and his former future self. "This is what it's been coming down to."
He had always known that Dark Danny would one day escape.
As much as he would have wished to have kept the evil ghost imprisoned for eternity nothing lasted forward.
Well, except maybe true love but unfortunately there has not been a lot of that lately.
And it all started with the disappearance of both Danny's younger clone and his former girlfriend/enemy.
Clockwork peered into the multiple possible futures that had come into existence when Danny avoided becoming evil.
A future where Danny was married to that Samantha girl and had twin children who inherited his powers along with young Danielle being adopted by Jack and Maddie, finally being given the unconditional love she been denied by her creator.
Of course, that was what almost everyone expected but real life has a habit of throwing you unexpected curves.
There was another future where Danny retired from ghost fighting to settle down and think about his future only to be dragged back into the fight with the reappearance of Vlad and a sinister plot that threatened the Multiverse. Curiously he had met a boy named Ben Tennyson who did not exist in this timeline but Clockwork was not surprised, being the ghost of time and thus could see multiple possible timelines.
Another timeline showed him with a twin brother named Andy Fenton who remained human as they teamed up with digital beings known as Digimon to battle both Vlad, evil ghosts and evil Digimon.
Another one showed him reuniting with Dani a few years later after the Disasteroid and he saves her from becoming what he would have become if not for be given a second chance; making her the second ghost her in the world.
There was even a few with him teaming with the Earth's Mightiest Heroes and battling the most powerful evil forces in not just one universe but several of them.
A few other alternate futures showed him getting together with various other women besides Sam and having a good life with its own ups and downs with more than couple of them being red heads.
'Are we sure he doesn't have a type?' Clockwork wondered to himself.
Too bad none of these possible futures were coming into play here.
Here, the number of perfect possible futures was dwindling to the point he hoped that at one of the futures that at least didn't end in Armageddon would happen.
"Tampering with Multiverse always leads to consequences." Clockwork muttered to himself. "And it always a headache…Some bigger for others."
Ever hear of the Butterfly Effect?
In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state.
Well in this case, the abduction of Dani and Valerie caused a series of changes that no one, except maybe Clockwork himself could have predicted:
Damon Gray's decision to run politically against the Fenton Family and impose restrictions.
Tucker's forcing his 'Techno' policy on Amity Park and causing its near and complete collapse which led to him getting tarred and feathered before he was run out of town.
Danny and Sam breaking up.
Sure there was a future where they would be happy together but real life has a habit of forcing us to see the flaws of those closest to us.
Even ones we love dearly.
Then there were other events that had shaken his bonds with his family and humanity.
Jack and Maddie hiding the existence of his brother from him.
Tucker using him to enforce his policies.
Sam's hypocrisy and break up with him.
Damon Gray blaming him for his daughter's disappearance.
The fans endlessly hounding him.
"You would have many obstacles to overcome for many years to come, young Daniel. At the beginning you were caught between two worlds, the most wanted in the Ghost Zone and a ghost to be hunted in the Human world. Everything is going as it should be…Is what I would wish to say." Clockwork sighed as he waved his hand and the images of the multiple possible futures surrounding Danny vanished. "This is the final trial you always had to face, Danny Phantom to ensure that any evil you still fear is dealt with. As for your…cousin…"
Before him appeared the image of Danielle in another world, with another family looking after her and for the most part she is happy.
Even if she has no memory of her past.
"I am not responsible for watching her actions nor can I interfere where she is…Yet. However rest assured, she lives a relatively normal and happy life with her own trials to overcome. And hopefully, the Huntress will find her way to break free and regain what is being taken from her."
Another image showed Valerie in her upgraded ghost fighter suit that was being upgraded by those who abducted and brainwashed her.
"I know there is a chance that we can still make things for the best, even under these circumstances…But then again, I know everything."
Xxx
Danny kicked Dark Danny through the clouds, the evil ghost returning the favor by firing ecto-beams in his direction. Danny either dodged or battled his way through the blasts before his dark counterpart suddenly stopped, grinning at him.
"Well, this is quite the surprise." The once future Phantom admitted. "I knew some time had passed since we last fought but you've become a lot stronger than I would have thought, even after you somehow gained the Ghostly Wail that took me ten years to get."
"I told you, a lot has changed since the last time you were here." Danny retorted.
"Clearly." Dark Danny looked down at the city, seeing the ghost shield up. "I noticed something else as well…"
"What?"
"Where are Sam and Tucker?"
That question threw Danny for a loop before he schooled his features to not give away anything. "None of your buisness."
"Oh really?" Dark Danny snickered. "I actually heard you got together with Sam and that Tucker had somehow become mayor of all things…And that it also didn't work out."
Danny stiffened but remained focused.
"How deliciously ironic. Their deaths in my past led to the death of my humanity and my rebirth as a true ghost and here you saved them only for them to abandon you. I heard Sam dumped you rather harshly after Tucker tried to use you for his own agenda. How the idiot thought he could build a perfect futuristic utopia." Dark Danny threw his head back and laughed while Danny clenched his fists. "And even after you save their lives, they still leave you."
"Shut up." Danny growled.
"Perhaps some things are meant to happen no matter how you change them." Dark Danny taunted. "Of all that could have happened I never saw this coming."
"Shut. Up." Danny growled even louder this time.
"It really bothers you to know it was worthless in the end." Dark Danny looked down at the ghost shield with a grin. "Well, it's about to be completely worthless."
"What?" Danny asked, not understanding what the evil ghost meant.
"Funny thing, when you sealed me in that Thermos all those years ago it gave an endless amount of time to work on escaping. Of course, Clockwork was there to keep the Thermos suspended in a time field so it wouldn't rust and degrade with age so I couldn't wait to escape. So I began planning and working on ways to improve myself." Dark Danny explained. "There wasn't much to improve upon but then I remembered how that pile of ecto-slime Technus controlled and manipulated technology and it gave me an idea."
Dark Danny held out his hand and it released a massive blast of electricity that collided with the shield.
"The shield repels ghost!" Danny called out. "You can't break through it."
"Never stopped me before but this time I'm being a little more subtle." Dark Danny chuckled.
Suddenly the towers projecting the ghost shield exploded, causing the shield to drop.
"WHAT?!" Danny gaped.
"I applied a reverse charge to the ghost shield that overloaded it. As the former son of two ghost hunters did you actually forget I know all about how Fenton Anti-Ghost technology works?" Dark Danny taunted. "I know they use ecto-energy to power their equipment, including their ghost shield. I had an idea of using this to overload the Thermos holding me and maybe even break it down and absorb it into myself. Luckily those idiot Observants took hold of the Thermos from Clockwork, afraid that I would break free under his watch."
Danny's eyes widened when he heard that.
Those Ghostly bureaucrats were the reason his jerky older self escaped?
"Frankly I never understood how Clockwork could stomach working with those fools. They were always so easily scared, even when they had the Ghost of Time at their beck and call." Dark Danny rolled his eyes. "They actually brought about the outcome he tried to prevent."
"I'll be sure to have words with them when this is over." Danny murmured.
"One of us will." Dark Danny said confidently.
"Ghost shield or not, you're not touching anyone down there." Danny got ready to attack.
"I don't have to." Dark Danny held up his hand, releasing another charge in the form of a shockwave that spread all across Amity Park.
In the old days the charge would be harmless but since Amity Park had been upgraded with anti-ghost technology provided by the Fentons and powered by the same form of ecto-energy it wasn't just a harmless power outage…
It was a disaster.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Appliances powered by ecto-energy short circuited, power lines released electrical surges as they broke apart, and the ecto-energy core at the new power blast exploded.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" Dark Danny threw his head back and laughed while Danny looked down in horror.
And his eyes zoomed in on his family.
Jazz threw away the Fenton Bazooka in her hand and looked behind to see the Fenton RV overloading. "RUN!"
She and her parents took off running just as the RV exploded.
BOOM!
The blast sent them all flying as debris flew in all directions.
Jazz grunted as she hit the ground hard and was left in a daze. The building she was in front of was on fire as the electrical wires connected to it exploded and caused a wall to fall…
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Danny screamed, flying at full speed to save his sister.
Jazz looked up with a dazed face...
Danny reached out with one hand, desperation on his face as he flew as fast as he could and maybe even more as he tried to make it.
CRASH!
Only he didn't make it.
Jazz felt the wall crash on her and let out a scream before the pain caused her to black out.
"JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!"