Danny looked around. His vision having been blurred by pain and the rotating rings, this was his first good look at the inside of The Endgame while it was running. He had to dodge some sparks as a surge of energy left Bruce, who was strapped into the machine, his eyes closed. Danny ran over to the control panel and soon deducted that he couldn't turn it off that way.
"Now way I'm gonna figure out what these do," he muttered, "Looks like I'll have to get Bruce out of there," he turned to face the platform. Bruce managed to restrain himself from delivering a full-on cry of pain, though he could not suppress the occasional moan or two. Danny could tell when a surge of power left him by his slight twitching every few seconds. Danny slowly went intangible, going through the rings; they moved so quickly he couldn't risk running right into one or between them; and reached out to un- strap Bruce's left arm. An ectoplasmic barrier flew up from Bruce before he had another large loss of power, throwing Danny back through the rings and against the door.
"OK, this is gonna be a lot harder than I thought," Danny muttered, rubbing his head. He didn't notice anything strange about himself until he stood up. His suit was now white with black highlights rather than the other way around. Some hair hanging down over his eyes proved that his hair was black. One of the machines in the room was reflective enough for Danny to see himself clearly in. The whites of his eyes were black, his eyes purple, his pupils black. His skin was a strange shade of blue. His body had become a complete negative of the colours it should have been.
"What the..." Danny stared at his reflection in awe, then turned back to The Endgame. He phased through the rings again. He began loosening the straps again, and the moment his glove touched a part of Bruce, he began flowing into his body. In front of his eyes was a strange, black-and-white world, the only colour coming from a human Bruce. He quickly pulled back his hand.
"Was I just inside his mind?" Danny put his hand on Bruce's shoulder and began to get sucked into his body, the strange world flashing before his eyes again, "I was just inside his mind. I dunno why I always find out about these new ghost powers right when I need 'em, but I'm not complaining!" and with that, he flew right through the rings and straight into the Paranormalics chief. He reappeared in the same black-and-white world, his body back to its normal ghost form. There was no sign of Bruce.
"Looking for someone?" a strange, echoing voice called out, "You realise you are in my mind, don't you?"
"Yeah," Danny looked around, "And I can tell that you are one serious nut-case."
"Well this is what happens when someone knocks an injection gun into my arm and turns me into a possessed hybrid," the voice now had a hint of anger to it.
"Look, you need to shut down this machine now," Danny said, looking around for Bruce. The voice just laughed.
"What a fine, brilliant method of achieving such a goal," he was still chuckling.
"I'm serious! If it's left on for too long it's going to start killing people!"
"You expect me to believe that?"
"Yes!" then he thought about it; what proof did he have? "Actually...I don't."
"And I don't. So if you want me out of this machine, then you'll have to do it the hard way," Bruce appeared in front of Danny, in his human form. Yet he still floated like a ghost. He smirked slightly, and the entire world they were in changed. The sky went a violent red-yellow colour, volcanoes, rock ground, and rivers of magma springing up from nowhere. Almost like an illustration of Earth 4.6 billion years ago in a science book.
"What the..." Danny couldn't finish that sentence. Bruce flew up, ramming his knee into Danny's face. His eyes flashed, and a hot geyser of fire opened up from the ground, singing Danny's back. Danny managed to avoid a serious burn and took off as fast as he could, flying around shooting lava and burning rocks being thrown into the air.
"Run all you like, boy," Bruce's mocking voice called out, "I control this world; it is my mind, after all!" as he finished, an enormous wave of lava shot up from the river, ready to crash down on Danny. He put up an ectoplasmic barrier as quick as he possibly could and hoped that it protected him from more than just ghost powers. The melted rock oozed down all sides of the barrier. While most of it was held back, some of it managed to seep in, landing on Danny's bad shoulder and dripping down his arm. As soon as he could do so safely, he flew up, frantically knocking the magma off himself. He gained other worries as he felt something slam into the back of his neck. He whirled around and blasted Bruce in the face with an energy blast. As it hit and the Paranormalics chief fell back, the hostile land they were in seemed to calm. The sky became more dull. Some of the rocks began to fall away, and the magma cool. Bruce got his wind back fast, though, and everything fired up again. Danny didn't have time to figure out what that meant.
---
"Down this way, men!" Alcala shouted, motioning towards the main left hallway. Bruce's sergeant and two other men had just gotten away from them, after tossing some bombs at them and shooting a ghost in the foot. While Alcala's personal forces went after them with him, Conrad led the rest after a large group of soldiers who were trying to keep them away from a room with a large metal door. Besides the silver glow making it a bit harder to see right, the odds were in Conrad's favour. Soon the area was secured and the door broken down.
"The armoury," Conrad noted. Every ectoplasmic weapon imaginable lay scattered across these tables.
"Whoa," Jack's eyes bulged out, "Sure the heck beats the crud out of my equipment," he scratched his head, then placed his hand there as if suffering from a mild headache, "Anyone else feeling a bit dizzy right now?"
"Yeah...I am," Tucker rubbed his head, and then it dawned on him, "Oh no. It's starting! Danny must've..."
"Don't say that," Sam acted as if Tucker had just killed someone.
"We have no idea of knowing how complex The Endgame really is," Conrad said, "Thus, we do not know how long it would take for Danny to shut it off. I doubt Bruce is too keen on letting that happen anyway. The effects are mild now, so don't worry about it that much..."
"I say we get the rest of those headband things and hope they work on us!" the general's words did nothing to relax Tucker, "Box Ghost! Show me where that room is!"
"I shall indeed lead you to the location. I am The Bo..."
"JUST DO IT!!!!!!"
"OK," he flew off, many of the humans following.
"Perhaps as some insurance it would be wise to get those things," Conrad headed down the hallway himself, though more reluctantly than others.
"Sam?" Jazz looked back at her, "You coming?"
"No," she answered. When everyone had headed off, she pulled out the headband Danny had given her. Strangely enough, she didn't care if she ended up having to use it. She had other worries on her mind. Her psychic connection was kicking in again. Danny was in a predicament he'd never been in before, and something was going wrong...
---
The reporter appeared calm, but a sharp eye could see in his eyes that something was amiss.
"The strange silver glow that came across the eastern part of the nation just a few minutes ago has returned, at a quicker speed," he said, "As before, we've been receiving numerous reports of ghosts falling from the sky or suddenly appearing in buildings, behaving as if poisoned and dying. And now it seems," he wince, putting a hand up to his head, "it seems that this phenomenon is beginning to affect us humans," President Hartman shut off the television. He too was beginning to suffer from the effects of this light.
"Bruce..." he muttered. His instincts told him that whatever this was, he was behind it.
---
Smoke and sparks were flying up and all over from Skulker's armour. Another explosion went off, almost causing his arm to separate from the rest of the suit.
"The light has returned..." he stated the obvious, "What sort of poison is it!?" another blow-out in his suit prevented further talking to himself. At the ghost prison, Walker's head was lying on his desk. He was barely awake, his lip quivering from pain. His guards and his prisoners were leaning against walls, bars and tables, some unconscious. For some ghosts, it was already too late. As the energy continued pushing further and further into The Ghost-Zone, the strength of the echoes of cries became more and more unbearable.
---
Danny crashed up against the rock wall, slipping to the ground. From nowhere a sword appeared in Bruce's hand, and he shoved it right into Danny's bad arm. He just managed to hold down his scream enough to keep Bruce from gaining any satisfaction. Once more the world changed. The sky went a dull blue-grey. Snow covered the ground, going up past Danny's feet, and more came down from the clouds. The wall of rock his back was leaning against disappeared, causing him to fall backwards, off the sword. The blade vanished from Bruce's hand. As Danny started to get up, he kicked him hard in the ribs; the ones already injured. He let Danny get up after that before socking him in the face over to the edge of a cliff. He readied his foot to deliver a kick.
"What's the point?" he sighed, putting his foot down, "That's a long enough fall for you to recover and fly back up here," that changed quickly. The ground below the cliff was raised to just a few feet below the drop, sharp, jagged ice crystals coming up out of that ground. Danny caught this just as Bruce knocked him off the side; he managed to phase through just fractions of a second in time. Bruce began to lift off the ground, readying a green flame in his hand. The minute Danny flew back up, he fired a continuous ectoplasmic fire at the ghost-child, sending him flying back even further.
---
Sam ran up to the door of The Endgame, the silver glow seeming to seep out even faster than before. Sam put one hand against the wall to hold herself up, catching her breath. The energy from The Endgame was starting to affect her stronger than before, but she didn't care. There was definitely something going wrong in there. She looked at the control panel by the door, but there were only two buttons; a red one and a green one. She tried hitting the red and then the green and hitting them both at the same time, but the door remained locked.
"Sam?" she heard Tucker's voice behind her. He came running up, a headband on his head, "You'd better get one of these headband things before...hey, how'd you already get one!?" he noticed the one in her right hand.
"Danny gave me his before he went in here," she said quickly, not bothering to turn and look at him, "We need to get inside this thing now."
"You said it! So much for Danny being a superhero. I would've had that thing shut down by now..."
"Not that!" Sam seemed more irritated by the joke than Tucker expected, "There is something going wrong in there!"
"More psychic connection stuff?" Conrad and Jack ran up, both wearing headbands.
"What's going on in there?" the general asked Sam. Before she could answer, Tucker spoke up.
"She says she and Danny have some weird psychic connection and that something's wrong with him," they could tell he was being serious. Conrad pulled out his walkie-talkie, diverting the subject away from the door.
"Wincat?" he said into it, "You alright?"
"Yeah..." he sounded like he was in pain, "This light is...it's starting to..."
"Work on us, yes. Head back to the main hallway, I'll have Jack show you where to go," he shut it off and turned to Jack, "Head down there, t ake them to the room. Are there any left?"
"Just a handful."
"We'll have to place faith in Danny then," he turned back to Sam and Tucker, Jack running down the hallway. Sam put on her headband and looked at the door again. She was feeling more and more nervous by the second, and what she could feel about Danny in her mind didn't calm her down any.
---
The world now nothing but a flat, snowy plain surrounded by grey, Danny had nowhere to hide. He was up standing, but out of breath and holding onto his left arm. Bruce flew above the air, grinning. He readied another blast of ectoplasmic flame and flung it forward. This time Danny managed to raise a barrier in time. It wrapped around the flame, forming a white-green ball that shot back at Bruce too quickly for him to dodge. It made a direct hit to his stomach, blasting him back for what seemed like miles. As this happened, the world slowly fell away, becoming the endless black-and-white realm that it had first been.
"Of course," Danny slapped himself in the forehead with his good hand, "Bruce is the creator of this world! If I hurt him, then it all falls apart! Now here comes the hard part," he watched as Bruce flew back up, enraged, "managing to do that with a bad arm and injured ribs," he fired off an energy blast, which the Paranormalics chief managed to dodge. He flew up, firing another blast of flame at Danny. It was again blocked, wrapped up, and fired back at its creator. Having already hit him, Danny flew in, kicking Bruce right in the jaw. The more blows he landed, the more this world seemed to fall apart. It began to crack like glass. Danny made one good kick, and a large chunk fell away, revealing a dulled pink.
"It's working..." he noticed the missing part, "It's working!" he flew in to deliver another blow, but before it landed, Bruce shot his hand out, catching Danny's foot. He fired something at Danny, but neither of them could see it. And it didn't hurt so much as it seemed to force him to move away. He was shot right out Bruce's mind, flying out into The Endgame and crashing into a mess of wires and one large machine. As the wires snapped and the machine collapsed to the floor, sparks went flying everywhere. Not just in the room, either. The disturbance ran along the cables and into one of the generators...
---
The ground shook abruptly and a sound similar to firecrackers came from behind The Endgame's door. The energy began to flow out slower and the glow on everything becoming more dull. Everyone's full attention was now at the door, Jack having ran over.
"What the heck was that?" he asked the question on everyone's mind. Alcala came over. The machine had not stopped poisoning anyone; far from it, in fact; but for all those unprotected, the pain had lessened severely. Humans now felt mild headaches or sores. Unconscious ghosts came to, though still dying. The blow-outs on Skulker's armour in The Ghost-Zone ceased. Walker's eyes half-opened. On Earth, Sam looked at the door with a renewed sense of hope. Danny seemed better, and The Endgame was weakening...yet something still seemed wrong.
---
Danny flew down to the floor, having only been singed by the explosion.
"OK..." he coughed, "That wasn't how I was planning on shutting this thing off, and I don't think it's a good way..." he noticed he was still in the same form that had allowed him to enter Bruce's mind the first time. Seeing this, he flew back in. On the previous time, Bruce's body had done nothing, save react violently to a loss of power or cringe when his mental body was hit. This time was different. Two sets of ghostly hands came out from his one, one pair gloved. His spasms became more violent, and not in reaction to losing his power. His arms and legs in particular suffered from this, as if trying to break free. The non-gloved pair of hands shot out again, a green flame in the right hand. The gloved hands knocked that hand away so that the flame fired into the frame of the platform. The rings were sent flying into the controls and into the cables in one of the tunnels. Now free, Bruce's body seemed to be flung forward, Danny; now in his normal ghost form; flying in the opposite direction. Both were out of control, and both slammed into more equipment. As Danny got his wind back, he caught Bruce flying right at him, knocking them both into the mess of wires above. Explosions, sparks, and smoke ran rampant throughout the room and into the tunnels that led to the generators.
---
As the silver glow from The Endgame finally vanished completely, the entire complex rocked. One tall man ran up to Alcala, gasping for breath.
"There's been a blow-out..." he wheezed, "in the...generators..."
"What!?"
"This place is gonna...blow," as he said that, there was an explosion within the wall behind them. Sparks and some rubber casing were all that was left of the cables. Conrad whipped out his walkie-talkie, setting it to his men's common frequency.
"Attention!" he shouted, "I don't care if that sergeant's been taken or not! This place is breaking apart, and I want everyone to get out of here on the double!" he turned to those with him, "Let's go!"
"But what about Danny!?" Sam pointed to the door. Conrad looked back-and- forth from it to her reluctantly.
"...We can't get that door open," he said.
"You've got bombs!"
"Meant to work on ghosts, not break through doors," Tucker and Jack looked at the door. Jack couldn't stand the thought of leaving his son behind, but...
"Can't we try?" Tucker asked before Jack could. Another, more intense explosion came from behind them.
"Now!" Alcala shouted it this time. They met up with a group of ghosts heading towards the main hallway. Tucker; and after a few minutes Jack; reluctantly followed; Sam stayed where she was, a look of disbelief on her face.
"Sam, let's go!" Tucker yelled. She didn't move.
"Samantha, he can phase his way out of there!" that didn't work either. Having no other choice, Jack grabbed Sam and hauled her off, despite her protesting.
---
Danny just barely managed to avoid flying sparks as Bruce cracked a loose piece of cable at him like a whip. The two had continued to duel, and Danny could tell that the base was falling apart. He was more worried about getting out. Bruce had gone back into the possessed hybrid form completely, losing all reasoning. He slammed into Danny and further extended this now pointless and dangerous battle.
---
Jack, Sam and Tucker met up with Jazz and Maddie the cage, Jack still having to drag Sam along.
"Where's Danny!?" Maddie asked frantically.
"We couldn't get the doors open..." Tucker was cut off.
"No one even tried!" Sam shouted.
"He's a bright boy. He'll probably phase through the tunnels or something..." another explosion went off, preventing Jack from finishing his words.
"Come on!" they responded quickly to Alcala's command.
---
The two combatants fired energy blasts at one another at close range, the explosion knocking them both back. Danny slammed against the wall and fell to the floor; Bruce became entangled in several wires connected to one of the few machines still intact, though it was liable to blow at any minute. These wires pulled him back towards the device. Trying to break loose, he fired off random blasts of energy; one of them went right into the machine. As the explosion surged through the wires and fell to the floor, it pulled Bruce with it, frying the Paranormalics chief from the outside. He landed, an electrocuted human. He could not have known it, but this was the same way that his friend Sarah Frost had perished...the first time, anyway. Danny slowly got up. A piece of metal had lodged into the controls to the door, opening it just wide enough for him to get through. He also noticed some support beams crashing down from the ceiling. He managed to slide out just before the exit was blocked. Outside The Endgame, it was raining sparks all over. Danny ran as fast as he could towards the main hallway as the explosions grew more intense, the generators about to completely go out...
---
The last of the men out, Alcala slammed the door shut, running off into the forest. A few moments later, the ground above where the last base of The Order once was collapsed down onto what was left of the compound.