AN: Tumblr prompt: Insane Danny (Dan way) and Avengers realize they can't do anything about it

Drabble 31-The End of a Legend

There wasn't a specific point you could pin down and analyze. Danny going…Dark had been a buildup of several, countless things. Although, it was sooner or later bound to happen to the twenty-five year old.

First it started out with the nightmares. Both from the ghost fighting, villain fighting, and from when he first got his powers. Then it was probably when he was almost seventeen and his parents turned on him once they found out he was half ghost. Of course, he was already a part-time member of the Avengers, so he had somewhere to go. But home wasn't it.

Tucker had been killed in the field. Stabbed by Taskmaster, and by the time they had gotten him to a hospital it was already too late. Danny had been 18.

Next was Sam, his beloved girlfriend and hopefully future wife. He will never get tat chance ever again. Nobody knew him like Sam had, and now that she was gone, he started to get irritable, defensive, reclusive. She had drowned at Niagara Falls while they were saving the world with the Fantastic Four. Danny hadn't spoken to them since. He had been twenty years old.

Then, of all the people he thought were most protected, the one person who could never die on him…Had.

Jazz had made something of herself. She was one of the world's top psychologists at the young age of twenty-nine, and was world famous. On top of that she helped him get through his PTSD and self-guilt while also occasionally helping from the sidelines. Then Vlad had shown up…

It was probably an accident, Danny knew. Vlad had never tried to murder Jazz. But he had gotten more ruthless through the years, and his slow mental decline sped up when Jazz uttered her last words in his arms.

After that, Vlad was nowhere to be seen. Plasmius or Masters.

Danny had made sure of it.

The Avengers , his friends, had tried helping, but they couldn't. Not really. And when Danny realized that, he became unhinged.

Probably permanently.

He started killing the villains. First it was the Red Skull, who had been just as surprised as the rest of the world, who, at first, had considered it a win. No more Nazis to deal with. Then it was Taskmaster. Partly for Tucker, partly because it made him feel good inside. Watching his skull be crushed beneath his foot had been to satisfying. And when he possessed Loki and choked himself to death? Priceless. Danny hadn't had that much fun in years.

A part of him kept expecting the Avengers or Clockwork to stop him, but Clockwork stayed in the Zone, and the Avengers couldn't even touch him.

When the Thing got in his way, he turned the boulder-like man to pebbles.

Several heroes tried and failed to take Danny down. But the ghost boy was seven feet tall and made of solid muscle. Even his parents came out of their hiding spots in Amity and tried taking a shot at him. Killing them had been a weight off of his shoulders. Like a type of closure.

He was confused why people thought they could take over the world when they were this weak. Many of them couldn't even take over New York. It took Danny maybe five minutes and his biggest Ghostly Wail ever to make the city crumple.

Dr. Doom had found him, ad had tried a partnership, but it quickly ended when Danny half drowned him before snapping his neck.

He didn't know when his eyes turned red, but he thought he looked better like that anyway.

"There's gotta be some way we can take him down," Clint said. They were in an underground hideout they had never told Danny about. It was him, Cap, Iron Man, Natasha, Nick Fury, Johnny Storm, and a couple of Defenders, and about a quarter of the X-Men. Thor was in Asgard getting together an army as they spoke. But while they were too busy trying to make a plan, Phantom-a name the whole world had learned to fear-was taking down the Russian Empire.

"We weaken him and send in Thor's army. Then, when he's distracted, we go in for the killing blow," Fury stated.

"Wait, what?" Spider-Man sounded appalled. "We can't just kill him! He used to be our friend! Maybe we should try helping him instead!"

"Was he your friend when he dropped a building on your aunt?" Logan snapped. "Or when he turned Ben into a crappy pile of rocks? Or how about when he murdered the Hulk in cold blood? He was friends with Big Green too. Parker-he's not our friend anymore. He's a cold blooded killer that needs to be taken down, and the only way to do that is if he dies."

"But he's already half-dead," Natasha stated. "What about his Fenton Thermos?"

"Too weak to hold him. He'll break through within minutes, and that's if we're lucky," Iron Man replied. "And none of the ghosts will help us, they're all to afraid of him. Except for maybe Clockwork, but he's not allowed to get involved."

"I find that I can break a few rules if it means sparring humanity."

They all whirled around at the ghost who had appeared before them, his purple cloak billowing behind him despite the lack of a draft.

"And we're just supposed to site here and trust whatever you have to say?" Luke Cage said defensively.

"I understand your concern. But he's a sort of pupil of mine, therefore he is my responsibility. I should have gotten involved sooner. However, ever since he wiped out the Observants I am free to roam as I please. Gather your armies. We will meet him in Denver tomorrow."

"How do you know?" Beast asked.

"I'm the Master of Time. I see everything."

—–

Thor was there, and so were the Warriors Three and Lady Sif, the most fiercest warriors in Asgard. Along with the Asgardians came Frost Giants and dwarves, all equipped for battle. On top of that, every hero left alive through the carnage that Phantom had caused was standing along side them, ready to take down their former friend.

They were ready.

—-

At the end of it all, a good portion of them hadn't made it. Several Asgardians and Frost Giants had lost their lives. The Fantastic Four and Defenders were no more, and there was only a handful of X-Men left. The Avengers had lost quite a few, but had the largest remaining super-group. Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Vision, and Dr. Strange were among the very few that were left.

Danny Phantom's still body laid in the middle of the crater. His eyes were closed, and he was no longer breathing. Clockwork had assured them that he was dead, and he would stay dead. He had already surpassed his full ghost form, and now he was ended.

All of the heroes watched as two white rings split at his waist and engulfed him in the light, until it was just Danny. He had the same black hair, but now there was a white stripe down the middle. He was wearing his favorite hoodie that Sam had given him, and a pair of dirty jeans and old sneakers. He looked at peace. But also like he died to young.

Every single hero standing around the crater had seen themselves and their colleagues going out in a blaze of glory. Not in a spiel of incurable madness that could only be stopped by death.

Clockwork floated into the crater gently, his head hanging. He slowly, but carefully, picked Danny up bridal style and floated back up. Iron Man didn't say anything, but the ghost's tears didn't escape his attention. It must have been hard on Clockwork the most. After all, he had known Danny the longest, had helped him guide through the right and wrong.

Only to give the killing blow.

"I can help rebuild your cities, but I cannot being back the lives that were lost. I can only hope that, with time, they will return to you on the astral plane."

And just like that, Clockwork and Danny were gone.