Chapter 11: War Is Hell
"There's many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell."
-General William T. Sherman, 1880
Danny Phantom had it all. The summoned power that had seemingly come from nowhere, a power that had come after being denied several times before. The raging fury to drive him on despite the fact that he'd not only hit his limits he'd surpassed them and went over the edge. The righteousness of his cause, the hero that has seen too much and has finally decided to cut loose. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more, the phrase goes, and that it certainly fit Danny Phantom as he stormed up, his fist pistoning out towards Sizzle.
Yeah, she still had her shield, but this was THAT kind of moment. Surely, Danny would finally find a way past the barrier Sizzle had been hiding behind and strike her down for her crimes.
Wrong.
Danny slammed into the barrier, green and white energy exploding in a furious crackling around his fist and arm, as he hung there for a second, his eyes locks with Sizzle's, even as he seemed to be trying to force his hand through the buffer…
And then the shield reacted, taking the impact Danny had smashed into it and reflecting it back at him, amplified by three, sending the teenaged ghost flying backwards in a crazy twirl, yelling all the way, and Sizzle, who had actually recoiled a bit when Danny hadn't been immediately thrown back, lowered her arm, and then hissed in rage at her reaction. And even though she was mad at herself, it was going to be the boy who bore the brunt of it.
Meanwhile, Danny was stopping from where he had been thrown…and was coming straight back at Sizzle. Sizzle gaped at this as Danny slashed down and slammed back into the shield with his foot, actually shoving the Fenton-copter back a few feet before the shield threw him away again. This time, Danny flew backwards like a wrecking ball, shooting across an entire block: if the two of them hadn't already been so far up in the air he would have surely crashed into a building.
"The boy must have cracked." Sizzle said, and flew after Danny.
Danny had managed to stop himself, panting for air. He might have been able to turn back, but it wasn't like all his energy stores had been instantly replenished. Indeed, he might have gotten a second wind, but he doubted it would last that long.
But before it expired, Danny was going to do one thing: smash that damn shield, the shield that had kept the Titans and he himself from being able to get to his mother, even if he had to spent his entire time left in this state throwing himself against it. It was only a machine: machines could only endure so much wear and tear and abuse. Surely, if he threw everything he had into attacking it, the shield would HAVE to konk out. I mean, it had to cost an immense amount of energy to take a blow and reflected it back at three times the strength: surely it couldn't keep it up!
Sizzle was coming, and Danny went on the attack again, as he thrust out his hands and fired a barrage of EE blasts. As mentioned, you needed to be somewhat close for the shield to hit you with the reflect counter, and hence Danny could keep himself in one place as he pumped energy into the shield, the blasts bouncing off and flying into the sky and to the ground, where they either fizzled out or hit something they really couldn't damage, like metal.
Sizzle was frowning: she couldn't figure out what the boy was planning, unless she had been correct in her initial assessment and he had lost his mind. Then again, he couldn't hurt her, so why worry?
"GRAHHHHHHHHHH!" Danny screamed, continuing his onslaught as Sizzle drew close…and just before he would have gotten the backlash effect he flew up and away at a steep angle. Sizzle followed him up with her eyes…
Danny came out of the sky like a comet, lacing his fists together and bringing them down on the top of the shield as hard as he could. There was an immense crackling bang as the irresistible force met the unmovable object.
The unmovable object lived up to its name.
The retaliatory effect of the latest blow sent Danny shooting off at a downward angle. This time, Danny truly was like a comet…complete with a violent landing as Danny struck the ground and slid along it for nearly a block before coming to a stop. Stars exploded in Danny's vision, even as his body yelled and screamed at such treatment.
His vision began to fade…
NO. I REFUSE.
Danny shoved his pain away again, locking it in a tight box and throwing away the key, and as Sizzle swooped down to follow, he shoved himself to his feet, his glaring eyes watching her as he prepared to strike again.
Far away, in a throne room straight out of medieval times, a familiar figure sat in his chair (though strangely, it was in and of itself not a throne).
Previously, we had seen Vlad Masters spying in on Danny and the Titans via a small crystal. However, the crystal's size was directly related to its task: to spy on the boy and not have him pick up on it, subtlety was needed. For THIS task, however, Vlad didn't need to be subtle: the event was radiating so much spectral energy that some people were probably picking up images of it on their dentures. For Vlad, he didn't just see it, it was like he had a personal front row seat to it, as the crystal on the pedestal several feet from him projected an image that put most big screen TV's to shame.
And he rather liked what he was seeing, in a similar vein that people like to see other people getting hurt on shows like America's Funniest Home Videos, as he watched the Halfa boy, who should have fled to recover a bit after taking a blow like the one he had just taken, zap at the shielded helicopter again and punch it. The backlash sent him flying across the street and into a second story window at the end of it. Vlad half chuckled and half snorted.
"Why are you even fighting, child?" Vlad said. "Even if you free your mother, that spirit who has become so…enamored of you will simply seek out the nearest host to continue the fight. This is not a battle you can win, Danny. You WILL die. More's the pity." Vlad said. He winced: his arm was STILL hurting. Whatever that Soulsearer flame had done, he was still feeling the affects. He had expected the pain to have faded by now. It made him angry, that pain, and by effect made him angry at the one who had inflicted it on him.
But, safe in his castle and having had time to think, the anger was coolly under control. The injury that this psychotic fire spirit had caused was nothing. He may have been Vlad Plasmius, mighty and feared by those who understood his destiny…but he was not perfect. Yet. That would come soon though, and when it did, if she remained, Sizzle would pay a very dear price for the insult she had inflicted upon him. Yes…he could almost see it now. Soon, the day would come where his will would be able to shape reality. The day when he would cast aside all those foolish heroes, champions, and paragons like the children they were and make both worlds, the physical and the spiritual, his.
Heroes died.
Gods faded from memory.
But he was the Primmortal. He would be forever.
So, for now, he was content to watch as Danny Phantom, the silly boy who refused to admit that he was doomed, flew from the broken window and fired off a stream of ectoblasts, slamming all his power into the shield and not getting anywhere. Vlad could have told him his thinking process was erroneous: Jack Fenton may have been a thief, a fool, and someone who would suffer greatly when Vlad fully ascended to his destiny, but when it came to hunting ghosts, even Vlad had to grudgingly admit Jack had a fair amount of competence. The shield would break eventually, but not under Danny's barrage. That sealed his doom. Too bad. Once Vlad had hit the peak of his empyrean abilities, Danny would have finally been easily persuaded to see the reality of the world. A fine soldier, indeed. Much like Sizzle would have been if she wasn't so very mad.
So Vlad sat, and watched, and healed, and planned as he watched the events unfold. He'd be ready next time. He knew all the angles now. Next time, everything would go his way.
And then everything would be his.
As mention, Vlad had been watching the battle on a special crystal that basically picked up the waves of power that Danny and Sizzle were emitting and translated it into a visual image. And as mentioned, the battle was giving off so much energy that you didn't need any special crystals like the ones Vlad had to see it.
"Zounds!" The Box Ghost said from his seat: exactly what he was in, in the Ghost Zone, could be considered in the closest human terms to be a bar, though the ghosts didn't exactly DRINK…it was complicated. In any case, this somewhat bar was where a good deal of the spirits of the Ghost Zone were at the moment, for various reasons. "Danny Phantom will simply not surrender! Even I, the Box Ghost, am impressed by…"
A large cannon was suddenly sticking in the Box Ghost's face. He gulped and looked at a glaring Skulker, who had had just about enough of the Box Ghost's constant yelling talking in third person speech.
"…I have said enough! Beware!" The Box Ghost said, and zipped back over to his "seat". Skulker retracted his cannon and resumed watching the crystal which most of the spirits and entities in the "bar" were watching. After Sizzle had literally vaporized his armor, Skulker had retreated back to the Ghost Zone for a new suit, and he had had general plans to return…as soon as he figured out the best way to deal with Sizzle. To ponder that, he had gone to the somewhat bar, not surprised that Technus was there as well (though Technus had no plans to go back for a bit). Ember was still absent: Skulker didn't know or care where she was (in the middle of making a VERY long trip back to Earth). He was too busy watching the fight. At first, he figured it would be good recon, though he had been saddened when the ghost child had run out of power: it surely meant his doom, Skulker thought, and he would never get a chance to cage or skin the strange creature. When the ghost child had somehow transformed AGAIN though…Skulker had begun to be outright confused.
"This does not make much sense…" He was saying to himself, as Danny flew around the corner of one of Amity Park's abandoned streets, still firing ectoshots at the shield. "The ghost boy has proven to be wily, but for these readings to match, he would have had to pushed himself to his limit twice over. That kind of power should not be possible…yet observations clearly show that this is what appears to be happening. It will be taken under assessment on the next hunt, if the ghost child survives this. If he does not, shift plans to hunting fire spirit. Caging is out of the question: there is no other opinion except her destruction." Skulker finished saying, and went back to watching the fight. Perhaps he would make an enquiry to Plasmius later: The Primmortal would surely know the answer to these events.
What went wrong…
"Bitch."
Sizzle stopped, her ears pricking up. The word was followed by another.
"Whore."
Sizzle turned her head towards the sounds. Robin did so as well, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"Savior?" he said.
Savior was still hanging by his restraints, seemingly dead to the world. But it was clearly his voice that had somehow whispered the words. Words that had angered Sizzle even more, as she let Robin go and strode over to Savior.
"Well well, the Lord made you a retard and yet you are still somehow a pig. Fine then, you can be first." Sizzle said, lifting Savior's head up, his eyes dull and blood still running down his face from the lobotomy that the Lord had performed on him.
Sizzle raised the knife as she drew Savior's face towards her.
She would have killed us all. She was a victim, yes…but the worst kind. Her pain killed her soul. It infected her with its whims. It inflicted the greatest curse of humanity on her: it took what her tormentors did and remade her in their image…
And then Savior's eyes cleared, suddenly and abruptly, and as Sizzle's eyes widened in surprise he rammed his head forward, slamming his forehead into her nose and sending her flying backwards with a surprised and painful squeal.
"ROBIN GO!" Savior yelled, and Robin realized what Noel had done: he had drawn Sizzle away from him in order for Robin to make his last ditch effort. How Savior had known or guessed that was a mystery, once that Robin would ponder later as he only had seconds and what he had to do was extremely painful and yet it was the only way…
"ARGH!" Sizzle screamed on the floor.
And Robin met her scream with his as he twisted violently and forcibly dislocated his left shoulder. The injury sent shockwaves of agony through his torso, but it also provided the leverage he needed to finally pull his hand out of the bonds above him. A hard yank freed his other hand, as the restraint was designed to keep both hands immobile and couldn't work with just one.
"I'LL BURN YOU YOU…!" Sizzle was screaming as she got up, even as Robin tumbled to the floor, his badly damaged leg from the Lord's muscle extraction unable to hold his weight, but he didn't need that, all he needed to do was reach the emergency panel on his boot, hoping that while the Lord had been thorough he hadn't been thorough enough and that…
It snapped open.
The small emergency Birdarang fell into his hand.
Sizzle finally realized that Robin was free and turned away from Savior…
And Robin hurled the Birdarang, praying to all the gods of accuracy and luck that he…
The Birdarang slammed into Raven's hand restraints. It didn't sever them, but the part he needed to hit was scored, a direct bullseye.
The part built into the restraints that blocked Raven's powers.
I never wanted to do it. I wish I could take it back. But for all my power, I can't. Much like for all her power and anger, Sizzle couldn't avoid what fate had in store for her…
And Raven, having woken up and seen what Robin was doing before Sizzle had returned, was ready, as the table suddenly glowed black and flew through the air, the knives on it flying everywhere as it slammed into Sizzle and smashed her into the wall behind her with another scream.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Raven chanted, as all the restraints holding the Titans glowed black and then were torn away.
"YOU BASTARD!" Sizzle screamed as she threw the table off of her. The Lord's discarded katana lay near her, and she picked it up as fire exploded into being on her left hand. Robin was closest, and she fired a blast of intense heat at him.
Shimmer strands flew out and wrapped into a shield form so quickly it seemed almost instantaneous, protecting Robin from the fire. Robin recoiled from the heat, and then the gods smiled at him again as the corner of his eye caught his utility belt hanging on the wall nearby. He hadn't been able to see it before because of the angle it was at compared to the point of view he had possessed when he had been tied up. With his one good leg he pushed out, rolling towards the belt, even as Raven, the only uninjured one, flew forward to confront Sizzle as the Shimmer strand retracted.
And then it all happened at once.
Sizzle abandoned her fire attack to charge at Raven with the Lord's katana.
Raven blocked the slash with a quickly summoned black energy shield.
Robin reached his belt and pulled it down, fumbling for the nearest weapon compartment, not caring what he got as long as he could use it.
Raven took a step back as Sizzle raised the sword for another swing.
The Shimmer lashing out.
Robin grabbing a random disc, not knowing or caring what it was as he turned and threw as best he could.
The Shimmer whacking the sword, knocking it out of Sizzle's hands.
The disc missing Sizzle, flying past her.
Raven reaching up and catching the sword on an impulse…
I never wanted to hurt her. Not even with what she had done, with what she planned to do. I wanted to save my friends…
As the heat disc Robin had drawn exploded behind Sizzle, the pyrokenetic completely focused on Raven and not knowing anything had been thrown behind her until it exploded, the blast wave throwing her forward…
As Raven's arms lowered the sword.
Sizzle…damned herself…
SQUKILSH!
And perhaps what makes it all the more tragic…was that I thought it ended there.
The shock in Sizzle's eyes matched Raven's as Sizzle was impaled on the sword. But as Raven's eyes remained wide in shock at what had happened, at what she had just inadvertently done, Sizzle's shock turned to confusion.
And then, the final expression, one that would haunt Raven the rest of her days, as Sizzle's face suddenly looked…happy.
And then she was dead, her body dragging the sword out if Raven's hands as her corpse fell at Raven's feet.
And Raven realized she hadn't just won a battle by a means she hadn't wanted to use but had happened by accident.
She had just taken part in a very elaborate suicide ritual.
Or so I thought.
Then again, I never saw Murdercrow coming back either…
(The crowd that was milling around the mess of cars, many vehicles jammed together but not involved in worse then fender benders, was naturally drawn to the strange sight of the girl lying on the road, totally still. She breathed so slowly some of them thought she was dead, but anyone who attempted to touch her found out she wasn't, as black energy emerged from her form and slapped their hands away, even if they were good intentioned ones. So they watched her, but didn't get too close…)
Emotion is such a powerful thing. It can make people do the impossible, and for people like us, it can grant us miracles…but it can, like so many other things, become a curse. Sizzle…so angry at the male species…and the world in general…that she couldn't move on even after she did the only thing she thought would give her peace. And here we are, fighting her again…
Yet…I wonder…how?
I will not question her return from death: that is not an uncommon thing in our world. But what puzzles me is her power. Even if it is somehow fueled by anger…
(In the distance, a plan is being put into effect for twin minds, and one will be far more successful…)
Rage is mighty…but it doesn't explain this. How is Sizzle so strong? How can she generate so much fire? What drives her? That kind of power can't be pulled out of thin air, it has to come from somewhere…but where?
Could Sizzle be…
(And far away, a chain gun erupted)
Raven's eyes snapped wide open as the pain slammed into her. As an empath, Raven naturally felt the feelings of nearby people unless she was making a concentrated effort to block them, and she could deal with it…but this was different. She and Noel had spent years forging a deep bond, and as a result everything Noel felt Raven felt, and on top of that, the sensation of feeling someone your love's unique pain that was caused due to their ability made it even worse.
Raven's back actually jerked up like she was having a seizure, temporarily caught in the maelstrom, and everyone watching her jumped back with gasps and slight screams, as Raven spasmed for several seconds before she collapsed.
A pause. Raven was breathing normally now, heavily. A brave soul stepped forward to check on the woman again.
"Um…are you all right miss?"
"Yes…I am now…" Raven said.
Then her eyes opened again, glowing a deep black, as Raven slid up to her feet in a creepy, epileptic style, her body lifting off the ground in a ripple that started at her heels and went up her body before she was upright.
"But SHE'S DEAD." Raven snarled.
And then Raven flew off into the air, heading towards Sizzle. You want to know how mad she was? In the heat of the moment, she forgot it would be much quicker to teleport.
Ah, love. Such a many splendid thing.
Another thing that was splendid was the slashing roundhouse kick Danny was delivering to the front of Sizzle's helicopter. The recoil threw him backwards, but by now Danny was learning how to control it and spun upward with the backlash, backflipping and landing on a nearby roof. By now, his body had clearly realized that his brain wasn't going to be listening to him in regards to its inability to keep doing what he was doing and had stopped telling him anything. On one hand this meant no more pain, but on the other hand it meant Danny might keep pushing himself until his heart exploded. But Danny knew, deep down, that while he may have been granted one last chance it was about to run out. He had to break that shield!
"Come on Sizzle! What are you afraid?" Danny yelled, flying up as he prepared to attack as soon as Sizzle rose up next to the roof.
She did.
With a newly retracted chain gun and armed missiles.
"Nuts." Danny said.
The chain gun erupted even as the missiles fired, four of them, and the entire rooftop exploded, consuming Danny Phantom…and then he rocketed out on a green stream of power, even as he laced his fists together and did a giant roundhouse swing into the shield. The impact rang through the helicopter, as well as sending Danny spinning backwards through the air. As he flew off into the distance, Sizzle hissed at him and locked two more Hellfire missiles on him.
Danny stopped and righted himself as they flew. His eyes grew dark, and then spectral fire appeared on his hands and he thrust them out. Streams of green energy fired from his hands and enveloped the missiles, and Danny could actually see the energy peeling the metal off the two projectiles before they exploded ten feet from him. The shockwave sent him back another dozen feet, and Danny hunched over, taking deep breaths. Down to fumes again…but he couldn't give up…
And then Sizzle was flying through the smoke, and Danny yelped and dove down and away at the last second to avoid Sizzle ramming the front of the helicopter right into him. He turned and swooped towards the street…
The first several gunshots barely missed him…thing was, these shots were coming from the street. Danny yelped and turned around.
"FREEZE! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!"
Amity Park's finest had finally arrived, a squadron of cop cars all parked and the police officers behind them, armed with whatever they had. And despite their yell, it was clear they were there to shoot first and ask questions later, as they opened fire on Danny. Danny decided to check if his intangibility power was still disabled.
It was.
Good thing he checked it while he was moving, as he zoomed to the side and flew along the building, not sure what to do…
And then Sizzle lowered herself down near the ground at the end of the street. Naturally, the cops noticed the machine, and most started shooting at it. Danny's eyes widened at this.
"Argh. More fucking interference!" Sizzle cursed, and started down the street, the bullets bouncing off the armor and even off the clear surface of her cockpit. Whatever it was made of, it wasn't glass.
"No! No!" Danny yelled, and then he flew down. "Her armor is…ACK!" Danny squawked as the several officers close to him turned and started shooting at him. Can you blame them? They were scared out of their wits. Danny flew up to avoid the shots and saw Sizzle was getting close.
"RUN! RUN! SHE'LL KILL YOU!" Danny screamed, but his scream was lost in the sound of the helicopter approaching. Not knowing what else to do, he dug down deep again and unleashed another great ectoblast at the Fenton-copter.
It didn't stop her, and as the reflection caught Danny and sent him flying across the street, crashing back first into another building's brick façade, Sizzle activated her chain gun at the same time. Finally getting it, the cops ran for their lives as Sizzle fired the chain gun into their cars, destroying them like they were toys. Officers ran and dove and in some case flew as the street was consumed with explosions.
Danny pulled himself off the building, but he was dazed and unable to react…so when Sizzle flew from the smoke and turned to avoid hitting the place Danny was, the wind from the rotors blew him backwards and down another street. Sizzle had briefly forgotten about Danny: her current target was the second battalion of cops that had been parked on the other side of the street she had just blown Danny down. These were a few more cop cars and two SWAT vans, with several dozen officers ready and waiting, and they greeted Sizzle was heavy firepower.
Not that it mattered: nothing short of a rail gun was going to put a dent in her vehicle. Did I mention the Fentons REALLY built the F.U.M.B.L.E well? Sizzle smiled that terrible smile again, and then armed two more missiles.
"Gonna make it rain PORK RINDS!" She crowed.
"NOOOOO!" Danny screamed as the missiles launched, and he tried to hit them with a pair of ectoblasts, but he couldn't get the angle right, and the blasts missed. All Danny could do was watch in horror as the missiles flew down and detonated in amongst the officers and vehicles, everything being consumed in explosions.
"No…" Danny whispered. They'd just been doing their job, without any superpowers…how could he have failed…
The smoke cleared.
Sizzle's eyes widened.
Where she expected to see a smoking crater, there was instead a massive dome of black energy, a dome that tore apart to reveal a group of very stunned police officers looking at the purple cloaked floating girl who had appeared in their midst.
"Sorry guys, I need to borrow these." Raven said, as she raised her arms. "Azarath…"
The police cars and SWAT trucks became encased in black energy. "Metrion…" The vehicles began to rise into the air, and finally realizing they were out of their league, the officers all began clearing out. "ZINTHOS!"
And the automobiles flew at Sizzle.
"Fuck a duck." Sizzle said.
The vehicle barrage sent the Fenton-copter into its craziest spin yet, but even as the aircraft went nuts and Danny's heart leapt into his throat again, Raven wasn't done. Her eyes glowing ever brighter, she thrust her hands out. A black energy claw shot from a nearby building, an absolutely gigantic one, reaching and grabbing the Fenton-copter, and before Sizzle knew what was happening Raven yanked her arms up and the claw hurled the helicopter into the air like a football. Sizzle shrieked as her machine flew upward, doing all kinds of crazy moves that came dangerously close to sending the vehicle completely out of control. Raven flew up after it, ready to grab Maddie Fenton if Sizzle couldn't regain control of the helicopter. In the end, though, she did, so Raven reverted back to her previous plan, which could be summed up in the monosyllabic words of another universe's superhero: HULK SMASH.
Danny flew up next to Raven, and she glanced at him, her hood having blown back at some point during the battle.
"Your plan?" She asked.
"I…smash her shield…but I'm…tired…" Danny said.
Raven's hand was suddenly gripping Danny's front, and in the next few seconds Danny suddenly felt a lot better. He wasn't back in tip-top shape, but he certainly felt he could go a few more rounds, and he looked at Raven.
"What did you do?"
"Took some of your exhaustion into my own body. Don't worry, I've got energy to BURN." Raven said, as Sizzle finally found her targets again. Her little trip had put her back into a screaming mad rage.
"JUST DIE!" she shrieked as she opened up with the chain gun. Raven and Danny flew apart from each other, the bullets flying where they had just been. Danny did an ultra quick circle around the Fenton-copter and let loose with a storm of ectoblasts, staying away so he didn't get hit by the echo effect, and then Raven, having done a slower circle, fired a huge black energy bolt after him, smashing the helicopter back. Sizzle screamed and fired off two missiles: Danny took them out before they reached Raven as she fired several follow up telepathic blasts. Sizzle blasted at her with the chain gun, but Raven disappeared into a portal of dark power, and then Danny lanced in, ramming both his feet into the front of the Fenton-copter and sending it into another spin even as he flew off into the distance from the recoil. Sizzle screamed wordless curses, and when Raven showed up in front of her when she righted the helicopter again, Sizzle fired off a missile. Raven didn't move this time: instead she reached out with her right hand. The missile became encased in dark power, yet continued to fly at Raven.
Who waved her hand slightly to the right, even as she jerked her head to the left. The missile passed right next to her shoulder, flying past her due to the slight nudge she had given it, and as it flew on behind her, Raven clenched her fist. The missile was crushed, and then exploded, as Raven looked at Sizzle with a classic "That all you got?" look.
Sizzle screamed and fired off another missile.
Raven raised both her hands this time and did several quick motions. A black portal of energy appeared before her, and the missile flew into it, disappearing from sight. Sizzle blinked, and then Raven raised her hands and the portal appeared over her, and the missile flew back out, heading straight for Sizzle.
"NOT THIS AGAIN!"
The missile hit, the helicopter spun, Sizzle cursed, the usual. By now the computer was constantly telling her the helicopter should exit combat soon, it was in dire need of repairs, but Sizzle ignored it as she fought with the stick and managed to get the helicopter righted.
And found herself staring at Raven and Danny, back to back, each holding out an arm towards her.
"…Well gosh." Sizzle said, out of curses.
Danny and Raven fired, a blast of green and black power that combined into one mammoth strike that smashed into the front of the helicopter. Forget a spin: the helicopter did its best impression of a Beyblade as smoke exploded from the machine again, as it staggered, and then started heading for the ground, finally on the verge of crashing.
"Mom!" Danny said, and then he started violently coughing. Raven looked at him.
"You're almost completely out of it Danny. You hold back, I'll get your mother. I promise." Raven said, as she flew off after the helicopter, Danny following.
"DAMMIT FUCK! COMPUTER, HELP ME OUT HERE!" Sizzle screamed as she tried to get her falling metal bird its wings back.
"Please insert toast!" The computer chimed merrily.
"WHAT?"
"Mrs. Fenton, you know I wasn't built to bend that way!"
"What the fuck is YOUR problem?"
"Please press Control-Alt-Delete!" The computer merrily replied.
"Great, the comp's been knocked loopy. The girls always have to do all the heavy lifting alone." Sizzle cursed. She was just about to pass the tops of the tall buildings of Amity Park: from there it was only a short distance to the street and a big boom, but Sizzle wasn't going to let that happen, as she wrestled and yanked at the controls so hard she was lucky she didn't rip them right out of the helicopter.
And, by whatever dark god was watching over her, she managed to get the helicopter under control. She flew back up a few feet, unable to see how badly battered and burned the outside of the machine was, but she didn't much care. What she cared about was the two targets that had swung down in front of her when they realized she wasn't going to crash. She ground her teeth…and then, looking behind them, she had an idea.
"I think a few more knocks on the shield should do it in. I'll make those knocks." Raven said, as she raised her hands.
And then two more missiles were flying at the pair.
"I think she'd rather slam the door in our faces!" Danny said, as he concentrated. More spectral fire exploded on his hands, and a blast knocked the missile from the air, sending it crashing into the street. A strange feeling flowed through Danny at that, and he knew what it meant: ok kid, we gave you your final burst, but we're tired and we're going to go home. Just a warning. Raven, meanwhile, had grabbed the second missile and ripped it apart.
And then the second volley came.
And went over their heads.
"WHAT THE?" Danny yelled, as he turned and saw the missiles fly on…right towards the skyscraper whose rooftop Sizzle had nearly chopped Danny to pieces on. Danny's eyes widened.
"She's aiming for people!" He yelled.
"Ah, the sadistic choice. I love my job." Sizzle said, and commanded the struts to reload. "How many missiles do I have left?"
"Um chomp chomp munch…sorry, you caught me eating…" The computer said.
"NUMBER OF MISSILES LEFT!"
"Archie Andrews is the smartest student in Riverdale High! He has an IQ of 638!"
"TELL ME OR YOU'LL GET A FIRST HAND LOOK AT THE INSIDE OF A VOLCANO!"
"I like to have eggs on my pants!"
"Forget it!" Sizzle said: she figured she was almost out…though she'd just been using the Hellfires so far, she hadn't used the Sidewinders yet…
At the moment though, Danny was more concerned about the Hellfires, the ones that were flying towards the office building that might have been emptied by now but could very well still have a bunch of employees inside being slave driven by a bunch of a cruel, empty headed CEO's and he turned to ask Raven what they should do…
And found she was gone.
"………Oh." Danny said, automatically knowing he was on his own again.
The building was indeed still full of employees…some of who had begun noticing the missiles heading towards them, but just before panic could start, Raven appeared from the shadows in their midst, looking around to verify, yes, there were a bunch of people there and if she didn't do something they were all dead as they began to scream…
"DAAMMMMNNNNNN!" Raven cursed, and thrust out her hands. A massive shield of black energy appeared in front of several of the building's floors.
The missiles slammed into them, and the windows behind the shield exploded as the shockwave rang through the shield and through Raven. She staggered back, and then the shield disappeared as glass fell to the ground in a shower and all the employees gaped in amazement at what had just happened.
"Sometimes…I hate being nice…" Raven said, and then she fell on her back again, out of it.
Danny, meanwhile, had turned back to Sizzle, and with her missiles being reloaded she reverted to the chain gun. Danny dodged upward and fired off another stream of ectoblasts, knocking the helicopter back…and the feeling flowed through him again.
It was time.
Danny knew it. Strangely, he wasn't afraid. In fact, he felt rather peaceful, as he flew up to a nearby roof. He knew Sizzle would be following him, but he didn't care, as he reached behind him and unstrapped the Fenton Thermos, laying it down on the ground. He looked at his boot, and saw that yes, The Fenton Mini Ghost Catcher was back. Danny removed it and laid it down…
And circles of power appeared over him, sliding over his form and returning him to Danny Fenton.
Human once more, and out of miracles this time. If he survived this battle, it would be as how he was born. He picked up the Thermos and Mini Ghost Catcher and began backing up.
He had just about hit the edge of the roof when he heard it, and then Sizzle rose up before him.
She cocked her head. The boy was human again. And he wasn't running.
Instead, as Sizzle appeared, Danny raised the hand holding the Fenton Mini Ghost Catcher and made a "come on" motion, or maybe in the words of Dwayne Johnson, "Just Bring It".
Sizzle smirked. Well, ask and yee shall receive…
"And may this send you to hell so fast you're there an hour before the devil knows you're dead." Sizzle said, as her latest set of Hellfires finished arming. She locked four onto Danny Fenton.
"I won't die." Danny said.
"Says who?" Sizzle replied, and fired.
The missiles fired.
And wind caught Danny's hair and clothes as the T-Ship rose up from behind Danny, a metal orange guardian angel, as Sizzle's eyes budged out.
"Says us." Savior replied.
Lasers fired from the T-Ship and blew up the missiles in mid air.
"Surprise surprise!" Cyborg whooped from the other cockpit. "Now little lady, let me show you what a REAL pilot can do!" The teen machine said, even as he repeated a gesture Sizzle had done roughly a million times in the past 30 minutes: flip open a shield on his pilot stick and press a button.
Twin beams fired from the T-Ship and struck the Fenton-copter, and Sizzle yelped/screamed as the whole thing started shaking like a caffeine addict in need of a hit.
"Seismic blasters! Booyah!" Cyborg whooped.
"Victor, that's to destroy rock! What good is it going to do on an aircraft?" Savior asked.
"Besides making it shake like a Mexican space shuttle? Well, nothing, but I'll bet the bitch isn't happy!"
Indeed, Sizzle was not, as she cursed and spat, trying to get her machine to stop shaking. By now she was used to spinning and jerking, but not being shook like she was a Christmas present.
"Whoo! Shake it up baby! Twist and shout!" The computer said.
"SHUT UP!" Sizzle yelled.
Danny was turning to look up at the T-Ship when a small part of the underside slid open and a strange purple beam slid out. It was rather more like water then a beam, as it flowed over to Danny and then suddenly he was encased in it, albeit not painfully.
"Huh?" Danny said.
"That's our tractor beam Danny." Savior said, spooking Danny as it sounded like he was speaking right into his ear (in reality it was a miniaturized radio transmitter that Savior had fired onto his shoulder while the tractor beam was emerging). "It'll get you out of harm's way…though I'm afraid it won't be a fun trip…"
"Huh…" Danny said, and then found himself jerked off his feet as the T-Ship turned around. "Aw man, NOT THIS AGAIN!"
The T-Ship flew off, dragging poor Danny under it, as Sizzle finally recovered from her little experience as a macarana, and with a snarling scream she took off after the T-Ship.
"She's on us." Cyborg said.
"Opening up line of communication." Savior said from his cockpit.
Sizzle jerked back when her glass screen suddenly opened up a see-through hologram of Savior sitting in his chair.
"This is our only offer Sizzle." Savior said as the T-Ship turned onto a new street, making the turn a lot smoother then Sizzle did. "Surrender now, and we'll try and get you help. Keep trying to kill us, and suffer complete and utter destruction. There is no Door Number 3." Savior said calmly, look at his own vid screen of Sizzle sitting in her cockpit (one of the things Cyborg had done while flying over here was preparing a hacked communication line to be zapped into Sizzle's aircraft).
Sizzle, for a moment, seemed stunned.
And then, as she turned the corner that the T-Ship just had, that smile broke out again, the kind a famous character who stole Christmas might have been able to make if he was also the bastard love child of the Marquis De Sade…and suffering from rabies. Savior was glad Danny couldn't see his mother making that expression: it was the kind of thing that landed you on a shrink couch for years.
"Complete and utter destruction? SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!" Sizzle yelled, as she finally slid her hands over to a button she hadn't had a chance to use yet. AIM-9 Sidewinders are air to air missiles, and the Hellfires had been working fine for the boy, so Sizzle had kept up with those, but now she had a proper air target, and with a yell that was part joy and part violent fury, she launched the four Sidewinders at the T-Ship.
"You're a mean one, Mrs. Bitch." Savior muttered, and then his chair rotated 180 degrees so he could see behind him, switching the piloting fully over to Cyborg. Danny was yammering at him, but he didn't have time for that so he pressed a few buttons on his dashboard and switched it to Cyborg. Let HIM deal with it.
"Bogies on our ass Noel!" Cyborg yelled over the personal com link the two of them shared.
"I see them." Savior replied calmly.
"Well do something about them!" Cyborg yelled as the missiles flew in close on his radar.
"Just…a…min…launching flares!" Savior said, as he pressed a button. Bright red lights fired from the back of the T-Ship, and the Sidewinders immediately changed direction and went for them, the explosion ringing out behind the T-Ship as it flew around a corner…
"Wait, I don't think our bogey was still behind us." Savior said.
And then, at the end of the street the T-Ship was currently flying down, Sizzle came roaring around the corner.
"That's because SHE'S IN FRONT OF US!" Cyborg yelled.
"Second course!" Sizzle said, as she fired off a new quartet of Sidewinders.
"Put us in reverse." Savior said as he spun back to face the front of their plane. He flicked several switches, and then his cockpit rose up from the T-Ship slightly as twin guns extended from the new bulge that had appeared below him. Controls slid into his hands.
"All right, let's see if all those hours of Wing Commander can be useful." Savior said, and began firing small, concentrated lasers. Two of the missiles went up in flames almost immediately, but the third and forth proved tricky and elusive, even as the T-Ship was rapidly running out of room to back up.
"Argh! They're coming in too fast!" Savior said, and then winced as he realized what he had just said. He continued to fire at the missiles, but he just couldn't hit them.
"Less then fifty feet until impact!" Cyborg yelled, in regards to their backing up.
"Ah fuck this." Savior said, as he reached over and flipped a few switches, changing his controls from the lasers to the seismic blasters, which he pointed at a 30 degree angle and fired, right into the ground. The ground erupted in a mass of rocks and dirt…that the missiles flew right into and crashed, exploding.
"Ah. My motto has always been, be prepared." Savior said.
"I thought that was the Boy Scout's motto." Cyborg replied.
"The little creeps stole it from me! Remind me to sue!"
"Yeah well, the big creep is heading right for us!" Cyborg said, indicating the helicopter.
"180 degree spin, full thrusters. I'm going to drop off the rookie." Savior said, as he began undoing his harness.
"What do you mean…"
Savior formed Shimmer goggles over his eyes and then he actually opened his cockpit window. The rushing air tore at him as he stood up and placed his hands on the side, and then rungs of a Shimmer ladder appeared across and under the ship. Since the material stuck to his hands and feet like the greatest glue ever invented, and Savior could hold his body close to the ship with other lines, he had no problems crawling under the ship and to where Danny was still getting dragged by the tractor beam. His eyes widened.
"Has Marvel ever considered a lawsuit, considering how much you rip them off?" Danny yelled. Savior ignored the comment, as he took one hand off the "rungs" and more Shimmer lines fired from it, wrapping around Danny.
"Ok Danny, one question. Can you turn back?" Savior asked. Danny looked at Savior, seeing how his face and shirt collar were still crusted with blood from the knock he had taken, and he shook his head.
"Ok then. We are going to set you down, don't worry, you'll be fine! Then, we are going to smash the shield around that damn machine and use this very tractor beam to pull your mother out! Then we'll deal with Sizzle! Understand?"
"What about the…!" Danny yelled back.
"No time! Good luck kid!" Savior yelled, and then suddenly the purple energy holding Danny disappeared and he found himself falling towards the ground, wrapped up in white energy…and then he jerked to a stop just before he hit, and then the energy was gone, and he fell the last few feet to the ground, landing on his feet. Deciding that it wouldn't be in the best if Sizzle saw him, Danny quickly hid on the roof, and watched the smoking, banged up Fenton-copter fly over and past him. He sighed and decided that all he could do now was pray.
"The package has been delivered." Savior said as he slipped back into the cockpit.
"Ok, shall we proceed with the plan?" Cyborg asked.
"Yes. On your mark." Savior said.
"Beginning separation." Cyborg said.
"Ok you fucks, let's see…" Sizzle was saying, and then she gaped at the T-Ship twisted a bit, and then one of the wings actually broke off and flew off on its own. The wing sprouted a few new extensions, and suddenly it was an aircraft all by itself. The remaining, larger piece spouted a few new parts as well to help it keep flying. Suddenly, Sizzle found herself faced with not one but two attackers, both looking like ship designs rejected for Star Wars.
"All right Victor. You shake, I'll bake." Savior said.
"Oh, don't you think that choice of words would be bad luck?" Came a new voice, and Savior looked down to see Sizzle's face had appeared on his vid-screen. He grimaced slightly: stupid girl figured out how to reverse the communication line. Well, no matter: if she decided to yell at him he'd block her out.
"No, I find it quite apt." Savior said.
And then Cyborg flew in and fired a line of small but potent laser blasts along Sizzle's side. Sizzle forgot what she was going to say to Savior and tried to turn, her connection cutting out…only to find Cyborg was now behind her, pelting her with more shots. Sizzle snarled and tried to lock onto him, but he was already flying away…and then Savior flew in, three double-barreled cannons booming as they fired several power shots into the Fenton-copter. The inside of the cockpit erupted with sparks, and Sizzle screamed.
"Argh! What the fuck do I do?"
"Infiltrate the building. Destroy Metal Gear!" The computer told her. The only reason Sizzle didn't melt it right then and there was because Cyborg was flying back, buzzing her with more blasts. She tried locking onto him, but he was just too quick, zipping in and out, and before she knew it he was flown off again and Savior had come by for another strafe. The cockpit filled with sparks again, and Sizzle, having run out of curses, started inventing new ones.
"Fuckers…think…wait…" Sizzle said, as she saw she was in the middle of a very long street. Cyborg had flown down one end of it and was zipping towards her.
Then she had an idea.
"Booyah baby, you can't see me!" Cyborg said, actually taking a hand away from his controls to wave them in front of his face.
His words proved prophetic, as Sizzle literally couldn't see him: she was turning the Fenton-copter away from him. Cyborg arched an eyebrow, but he couldn't do anything as he was too close, so he zoomed under Sizzle, firing a few shots into her underside with his rotating cannon, and flew on.
And then his cockpit alarms went off, and his remaining veins filled with ice as he realized what Sizzle had done: turned herself around so she could get a lock on him the second he flew past her.
"Oh shit! Savior, I think I may be in trouble here!" Cyborg yelled, as Savior swooped in behind Sizzle.
"Stay on target." Savior replied, meaning keep doing what you were doing. Savior had a near perfect aim at the helicopter's tail rotor: if he managed to hit it with all three of his cannons even the extremely tough armor wouldn't protect it from being blown off, and without the tail, the machine would go into a spin and crash in a way that Mrs. Fenton could survive.
"Savior I'm not kidding! This thing has weak armor, I could be blown to bits!"
"STAY ON TARGET." Savior said through clenched teeth of concentration.
"There once was a robot who thought he could fly, why oh why did he think he could fly…I guess he'll die." Sizzle sang, and fired off four more Sidewinders.
"AH! NOEL! REALLY! HELP!"
"STAY ON TARGET…" Savior said, more to himself, as he almost had everything lined up…
"DAMMIT NOEL! I SAID I NEED HELP!"
"….Right. Damn it." Savior said as he broke the lock and zoomed over Sizzle, switching the lock to the missiles chasing Cyborg. Three simultaneous shots took out three of them, but there was no time to stop the forth, and it slammed into Cyborg. His yell rang through Savior's ears, as the T-Wing flew out of a cloud of smoke, lurching and looking ready to crash.
And Savior was suddenly aware that the Fenton-copter had flown up behind him.
"SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" Sizzle crowed, and opened up with the chain gun. Bullets tore through the T-Main, and Savior cursed as he twisted the controls and tried to get away. He did, but not before getting riddled fairly badly…
And then one of the bullets pierced through the cockpit, and for a second that seemed like a year, Savior was sharing the same small space as a rapidly bouncing 30mm round…and then, almost on its own, a Shimmer strand sprang out of one of Savior's eyes and grabbed the shattered but still deadly bullet…right before it was about to go through Savior's head.
Savior couldn't help but stare at the bullet for a few seconds, a bullet he could have never caught on his own…but sometimes, the Shimmer knew things, especially when it came to protecting the brain and spinal cord, where some people theorized it "lived". Finally snapping out of it, Savior tossed the bullet aside and headed for Victor…and then he was aware that alarms were telling him that four more Sidewinder missiles were on his tail. Looking at Cyborg, who looked to be about five seconds away from getting a rude re-introduction to Mother Earth, and back at the missiles, Savior cursed and dumped all the remaining flares rather then concentrating on the careful moves that would let him disable the missiles without wasting them. As the missiles blew up behind him, Savior flew up to Cyborg, and the two ships recombined and reformed into the T-Ship.
"You ok Victor?" Savior asked.
"Dammit Noel, I know how you think, but don't be pulling that shit with me!" Cyborg cursed back. Savior sighed.
"Sorry. Tactical error."
"Yeah but…uh oh! Our friend is back!" Cyborg said, as the T-Ship was joined from behind by the Fenton-copter.
"Take over the flight, I used up all the flares so I'll have to manually shoot down the missiles." Savior said, as he prepared to activate his personal gunning cockpit again.
There was a loud crackling noise and a curse from Cyborg.
"What was that?"
"Something's wrong! I can't recalibrate the flight controls to me! Something must have been damaged by the missiles!" Cyborg cursed.
"You mean I have to fly AND run defense?" Savior replied.
Laughing, Sizzle fired off four more missiles.
"YES!" Cyborg yelled. Savior only sighed.
And as they turned the corner for a new street, he spun around as Shimmer strands grabbed the flight controls for him, and as his cockpit lifted slightly, Savior used another strand to turn off the communicator that connected him to Cyborg. He'd need total concentration for this.
The missiles followed him around the corner, and Savior opened fire again. Not able to really do anything considering he was flying blind, Savior kept the T-Ship in a straight course forward as he concentrated on the missiles. One went down quickly, but the other three were tricky. Savior could feel sweat running down his face, and he recalled that his early outfits had included a sweat band. Why hadn't he kept that anyway…
Another missile finally went up, the third followed quickly. Savior glanced at Sizzle to see if she was planning to send any more friends, and not seeing anything, he turned back to the forth missile, and closing one eye, he lined up a shot…
Boom, up in flames it went. Feeling satisfied, Savior disarmed the gunner controls and turned forward…
And found out the hard way that he shouldn't have turned off the communicator: it had blocked Cyborg's more and more frantic screams about what Savior was doing flying blind.
Which was keep going until he was about ten feet from a skyscraper.
"Oops. A wall." Savior said, and yanked the stick back as hard as he could. Cyborg's mechanical genius showed as the T-Ship, originally a submarine, had been converted so well that it could not only pull off such an insane high-G maneuver, it could do it quickly without falling apart. Even so, as Savior went straight up the side of the skyscraper, the underside of the T-Ship maybe 2 cm from the glass, he remarked that that had been sloppy. What was wrong with him? He was ignoring teammates, running off half cocked, such behavior was more fitting for Gauntlet or Robin when he was in a Slade fugue, as Savior turned the communicator back on.
"AND THE MOST REPREHENSIBLE…!" Cyborg was bellowing.
"SAVE it Cyborg. Yell at me later."
"I just got grey hairs! Do you want to know what's remarkable about that? I DON'T HAVE HAIR!" Cyborg yelled, as the T-Ship zipped past the top of the skyscraper and went into the sky.
Sizzle watched them go up as she stopped at the helicopter's base, and then she snorted and twisted the stick, flying off to the side. She'd circle for a bit, and if they didn't come down, she'd go back to hunting for the boy…
"I take it all back! You're a…hey, how long are we going to keep going straight up?" Cyborg said.
"Another four seconds." Savior replied. "And Victor, really. When this is done, you can yell. Ok?"
"Uh…" Cyborg said, having lost his train of thought, and then the engines cut off. "Oh no, please tell me you did that."
"I did." Savior replied. "Ok Victor, we have a few seconds of hang time, let's review."
"Review what? It can sum it up in two words: NOTHING WORKEE! Who built that thing, Hephaestus?" Cyborg cursed. "That shield just won't break, and neither will that armor! Missiles don't work! Lasers don't work! My cannon didn't work, the Starbolts, thrown cars, whatever that Danny kid uses, NOTHING! I don't know what kind of impact would be needed to break that shield, but I doubt we have it!"
Savior didn't reply.
"Noel? You still conscious?" Cyborg asked.
"Yeah." Savior replied: by now the front end of the ship was starting to tilt down, the motion the front heavy aircraft would do before it plunged back to Earth. "Just thinking. I have a plan."
"Oh really! Great!"
"And I just want to say…Victor, I'm sorry."
"Huh?" Cyborg replied, turning his head as he saw Savior pressing a series of buttons in his cockpit. "What do you mean you're…"
And then Cyborg's roof hatch exploded off.
"SORRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYY!" Cyborg screamed as his chair suddenly ignited and flew out of the T-Ship, Savior having manually activated his ejector seat.
"Sorry Victor." Savior replied as he pressed a few more buttons, and then, instead of extending out, Savior's cockpit actually retracted into the T-Ship, the cockpit in the middle doing likewise. Several seconds later, Savior emerged in the middle one, as the ship plummeted back to Earth.
"I didn't want to do that, but you'd never let me do this with you on board." Savior said, and reignited the jets, flying back down to Amity Park.
Cyborg was doing his own flying, as his chair flew up and through the air, and Cyborg, finally realizing what Savior had pulled, started cursing again.
"You know Noel, I love you man, BUT YOUR )( PLANS NEED A OF WORK!" Cyborg yelled, as he prepared to pull the cord that would activate his parachute. "And furthermore…!"
Cyborg pulled the cord.
And it came off in his hand.
Cyborg stared at it.
"That can't be good."
And then the chair broke apart. Sizzle's lone missile had done more damage then Cyborg had known, or Savior, and before Cyborg knew what had happened the entire framework had disintegrated, taking Cyborg's parachute with it and leaving him in freefall.
And did I mention that when fixing himself, Cyborg has to scrap his jets?
Cyborg immediately began hailing Savior to turn around and grab him, then realized that Savior would have immediately turned the communicator off so he couldn't hear Cyborg complain what he had done…not realizing that he was leaving Cyborg to an extremely messy fate.
Give Victor Stone credit though, he didn't panic. Instead, he reached over and turned on his arm that allowed him to communicate with the Titans's normal devices.
"Cyborg here. I am currently 1500 feet above this city, with no parachute, no jets, and since I am currently reaching terminal velocity, no way to grab or grapple anything without ripping my arm off, so, if there are any fliers in the vicinity, I could use an immediate pickup, as I would like to remind you that without any of the three aforementioned items I am incapable of flying. AT ALL!" Cyborg yelled as he plunged past the top of Amity Park's skyscrapers. "NOW WOULD BE GOOD!"
The street rushed up…
"AHHHHH FUUUCCCKKKKK!"
And black energy appeared beneath Cyborg. The next second, he was gone.
Danny hadn't been able to observe much of the battle: the two machines kept flying behind buildings and he had lost both of them about two minutes ago. So, while frantically trying to find them, you can forgive him for being immensely shocked when a portal opened up near him and Raven stepped out with Cyborg.
"AHHHUUUHHHHH!" Cyborg said: being stopped from terminal velocity by some kind of mystical mumbo jumbo wasn't the most pleasant thing.
"Yikes! What are you doing here? I thought you were in the plane!" Danny said.
"Operative word being WERE, DAMMIT SAVIOR!" Cyborg yelled, as he pulled away from Raven, looking at his arm. "I am going to tell you even IF you have me blocked…"
"I think he's busy." Raven said, and Cyborg turned to follow her pointing finger.
Savior had appeared on a street in the distance to the far right, Sizzle having found him and once again on his tail, firing at him with the chain gun, but Savior quickly outran it, turned the T-Ship along a street that ran horizontally parallel to the one the Titans were standing over, which allowed them to see what was happening, and zipped all the way to the end of the street (one thing the T-Ship had over the Fenton-Copter: speed).
"What's he doing?" Danny asked.
"Not sure, but if he had to eject me…" Cyborg began.
"Are you there people?" Savior suddenly said from Raven's communicator, and everyone jumped. Raven managed to unhook her communicator to use before one of the males grabbed it.
"Savior, what are…"
"Are all civilians evacuated from the area below?" Savior asked.
"What?"
"Are all civilians evacuated from the area below?" Savior repeated.
"Well…I believe so Savior." Raven said.
"Good." Savior said, and signed off.
And then the T-ship did an abrupt U-Turn as Sizzle came around the corner in the Fenton-Copter. Danny's eyes widened.
"What's he doing?"
Savior watched as the helicopter came fully into his view, the aircraft so battered and banged up and yet still flying. But Savior knew what would bring it down.
And he knew the cost of his choices to use that tactic. But…he felt he had no other choice. It had to be done, and he would do it.
He recalled how Raven had said it, and a wistful, yet sad look appeared on his face.
"Yeah…funny how it gets in the blood."
And then he hit the afterburners.
"……Oh god he's playing chicken." Cyborg said.
"WHAT? NO! NOOOOOO!" Danny yelled as he grabbed Raven's communicator and flipped it open: the short time between the ending of the last conversation and this one automatically re-opened the channel. "SAVIOR, MY MOTHER'S IN THERE! STOP! STOP!"
Savior turned off the link and blocked the communicator, turning cold eyes towards his target as it approached him. Despite Danny's fear, he knew exactly what he was doing. This street was closely hemmed in: to dodge him, Sizzle had to move, and there was no way to move quickly upward and no way to move sideways without crashing. Which is what Savior wanted: he was certain a crash would take care of that damn shield. He already had the tractor beam controls under his palm, ready to grab Maddie Fenton and pull her from the machine before it completely crashed, and he would, he would, because if he didn't…he wouldn't fail. He would not
Danny didn't much care how determined Savior was not to screw up though, as he screamed and threw the communicator away, and he reached deep within himself and tried to find the power to go ghost again, to stop this…
But though the spirit was willing, perhaps as willing as any man or boy had ever been in the ages…the flesh was completely, utterly beat. Sometimes, no matter how much you want it, you just can't change things.
"STOP HIM! HE'LL KILL HER!" Danny screamed.
"I dunno about that, but what the HELL! SAVIOR! THAT IS TOO DAMN RISKY! STOP! STOP!" Cyborg yelled into his arm communicator: if Savior heard him he did not reply.
The see-through viewscreen flicked on across Savior's cockpit shield, revealing the battered but determined face of Sizzle, Maddie Fenton's features glittering with a mad joy.
"Well, look who it is! The pig has decided to play chicken!" Sizzle said, as the two vehicles approached each other above the broken, wreckage strewed street. "It looks like your higher ideals to protect innocent victims just apply to the ones with a penis, I see!"
Savior didn't answer, as the two ships bore down on each other. Sizzle's mad joy faded a bit, replaced by a more sociopathic determination.
"Whatever you may think of me shithead, know THIS: I AM A WARRIOR. If you are expecting me to blink, FORGET IT." Sizzle snarled, as the T-Ship flew at her, and Sizzle pushed the throttle to make her own forward charge. "And know that if you're gambling that your ship will prove to have tougher armor then mine, know damn well that smashing these ships together WILL result in this woman's death, while I will just be required to find a new host. Is that not a pointless sacrifice to make?"
Savior said nothing, his eyes hard and his hands not wavering from the controls.
The two aircrafts were now less then five seconds from impact.
And Sizzle chuckled.
"Well now, I guess you've made up your mind." Sizzle chuckled. "I'll see you in hell."
Three seconds to impact…
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Danny screamed.
Two seconds…
"Damn." Savior said.
And he yanked the T-Ship in an insanely tight turn, pulling it up on it's side and just managing to get through the gap between the Fenton-copter and the building, Savior's glass dome literally a millimeter from the glass of the skyscraper, and then it was past Sizzle and turning a few rapid spins as it flew off, even as Sizzle yanked the throttle and spun the helicopter in a tight circle so her front was facing the fleeing back end of the T-Ship.
"Funny…" Sizzle said "In the end I'm the one with the stones."
And she locked her missiles and fired.
"AH FUCKKKKKK!" Cyborg yelled as she saw the new cluster of missiles, both Hellfire and Sidewinder, twelve in all, launch from the Fenton-copter and head after the T-Ship. "SAVIOR YOU IDIOT!"
"Oh no. If your plane gets hit and goes down in a populated area, it'll kill hundreds!You have to stop the missiles!" Danny yelled, and almost grabbed Raven and threw her off the building before she pulled his hand away.
"If we leave Sizzle alone, the same if more innocents will be at risk, not to mention you Danny." Raven said.
"WHAT? You're saying because of your so called leader's tactical error people are dead either way?" Danny said.
"I didn't say that." Raven replied.
"Could very well be Rae: we already used up all the flares. I doubt Savior can fly and shoot them all down, and if he can't do that eventually the missiles are either going to hit him or something else."
"Yeah, if your boyfriend used up all the anti-missile defenses, what's he going to do now?" Danny asked.
Raven's face was hard.
"His job."
Savior looked at the radar screen that informed him that no less then twelve bogies were on his tail, and he was now over a non-evacuated area of Amity Park. So even if he engaged in acrobatic fanciness, the missiles had to hit something if they missed him.
His eyes sharing the same hard look Raven's had, he made his choice. This was his bed and he was going to lie in it, as he reached over and pressed a few buttons, even as he did a tight turn and headed for a lake in a nearby park. He'd have to time this perfectly.
"Activating autopilot." Savior said, as he started going over the lake. "Maximum evasive maneuvers. Activate primary ejector seat on my mark. 2. 1. Mark." Savior said.
The cockpit exploded and Savior flew up into the air. He waited two seconds and then used the Shimmer to rip himself out of the ejector seat and its life saving parachute, and as he began to fall the Shimmer flowed out from his back and formed a crude set of wings. These couldn't allow him to fly, but they'd let him glide, just a bit, so he would go down at a angle rather then straight down, as he swooped in towards his targets: the missiles heading for the T-Ship…that were now over the lake.
The Shimmer lashed out, the energy forming into a blade and whipping at high speed, ripping a huge gouge along the side of the first missile and screwing up the computer system that controlled its flight and explosive properties, causing the missile to nosedive into the lake without detonating. Savior adjusted the Shimmer as much as he could within half a second and then lashed out again, this time with so much force he cut straight through the second missile's body as both pieces twisted violently due to the sudden change and fell into the lake. Three and four passed on each side of him, as he lashed out the Shimmer and ripped into their guts as they flew by, careful not to touch the nose, touching the nose was bad, as it would send the signal to detonate and if any of the missiles blew while he was nearby he'd be so much hamburger, as the fifth missile was flying right at him except he was dropping under it as he swung the Shimmer up and looped around the middle to yank himself back up into the air, even as the Shimmer contracted around the thin steel frame of the weapon and sent it crashing into the lake, even as Savior flew back up and missiles six, seven, and eight were passing underneath him almost in a straight line and he nailed all three with one vicious lash, and even as those missiles were flying apart and into the lake Savior was falling, and then landing, right on the ninth missile, and Shimmer strands were shooting from his feet and piercing right through the missile even as he was leaping again, just making it under the tenth missile and looping a line around it to swing to the eleventh, even as the Shimmer strand around the tenth contracted and crushed the booster, even as Savior swung out for the eleventh…
And miscalculated the angle, causing the Shimmer to thunk against the nose.
The missile exploded in mid-air, but it was still out over the lake, so there were no people to get blown up or sliced up by shrapnel…just Savior, as the shockwave threw him through the air like a rag doll, and away from the last missile, as it zipped by and started reaching the end of the lake, where it could fly on and shoot the T-Ship and bring the whole thing down right in the middle of a city street…
A Shimmer strand just made it, flying out and looping around the missile, but Savior cannot crush it, because the missile has passed the lake and is over solid ground, and even if he stops it from flying it could go down and smash stuff if it doesn't just blow up upon impact, so all Savior could do was yell as the missile pulled him along, even as he continued to fall, being dragged by the missile as he scooted the water. He was about to hit the shore, trailing on the end of the missile like water skiing from hell…
Shimmer strands shot out, and as Savior hit the ground they pierced into it and tried to get a grip, but the ground was too soft and the missile's propulsion system was too fast, and Savior continued to be dragged, the lines ripping up the ground around him, even as he sent more and more lines into said ground, trying to slow down…and in front of him, a giant rock…
Savior shoved himself up just before he hit the rock, and the Shimmer strands anchored into the huge stone, 70 of which was hidden underground, as Savior braced his legs and stopped…and feels like his entire muscle structure is trying to be pulled out from his arms, as he let out a snarling scream, trying to drag the missile back, man against machine, fighting the two tons of thrust, and the Shimmer could lift over seven tons but that was a set weight it's not weight that's being shoved down on you like this missile was trying to do by pulling away so much force behind it it was going to pull the Shimmer right out of Savior…
If it hadn't been so delicate, as the line dug into its metal skin and altered its course, just a tad…which was enough to stop the away direction and send it spinning chaotically off into the sky…which allowed Savior to finally yank it behind him and swing it down, throwing the missile into the lake.
A brief pause.
The missile detonated underwater, and if anyone had taken a picture they would have truly gotten one for the ages: Savior on the rock, backdropped by a gigantic plume of water, staring at what he had wrought, at what he had managed to do.
A hero.
But only because he was a fool.
Savior lowered his arms as the waterspout falls back into the lake, taking deep breaths. His limbs burn from his efforts…but he doesn't care.
Because in the sudden silence after Savior's latest James Bond on steroids stunt, he can still hear it in the distance: the helicopter, the one he had tried to fool into crashing so the shield would be disabled and Savior could pull Maddie Fenton to freedom and safety…except Sizzle hadn't blinked.
Savior growled and hopped off the rock, walking past the gathering people, He looked at a man who had pulled out a cell phone.
"Tell the police there are still ten undetonated warheads in that body of water, don't let anyone NEAR them. Tell them the Titans will swing by to clean them up later." Savior said.
"What?" The man replied.
Savior didn't answer, as he started to run, heading back towards the battle.
"Ok Cyborg. You can't fly, so for the moment, you stay here and protect Danny. I'm going to see if I can finally get that shield to finally give up the ghost, and hence give up OUR ghost." Raven said.
"You sure about Rae? How do you feel?" Cyborg asked.
"Like someone drove several monster trucks into my head and unleashed a five star demolition derby, but hey, that's the business." Raven said as she floated off the ground. Cyborg didn't have a reply to that, so he accepted it, as in the distance Sizzle turned away from where she had fired the missiles after Savior and started bringing the helicopter higher up from the ground.
"Ok then…now where is that boy…" Sizzle said.
Raven flew in front of the Fenton-copter, letting loose with another blast of black power…closer then she thought: the recoil didn't send her flying, but it smacked her back and make her migraine headache even worse. Sizzle was barely staggered by the blast: by now she was used to all the shocks and tumbles.
"How many missiles do I have left?" Sizzle asked.
"I'm da greatest tapdancer in da world! Humper dumper dido!" The computer replied.
"Are you STILL messed up?"
"Look out Snake! She's under Mantis' mind control!"
"Why do I even bother…" Sizzle said. Well, if she couldn't tell how many missiles she had left, she'd stick with the chain gun for now, as she lined up a shot and opened fire. Raven, even dodging, nearly lost a foot, an experience that would be unpleasant to say the least. She flew up into the air…
And nearly flew right into it, as she suddenly became aware of a weird echoing sound involving the helicopter. Strange, it sounded like the helicopter was behind her…but the Fenton-copter was clearly in front…so what…
And then she turned and stopped with a gasp as she almost flew right into the second helicopter, and then she had to dash to the side before its forward momentum caused it to ram itself into HER. For a moment Raven thought the police had come back in their own chopper…and then she quickly realized it wasn't the police, and that she had better engage Sizzle right away before something really bad happened.
"What the…who's that?" Danny said as he saw the second helicopter fly in, even as Raven zipped down to the Fenton-copter and smashed it with another blast of power, and then picked up a car and threw it at the helicopter again, doing everything to keep Sizzle's attention on her. Cyborg was wondering himself, as he closed his organic eye and zoomed in with his mechanical one.
What he saw made him wince, and for a moment he was glad Noel had tried his stupid plan: it kept him from being here and pitching a fit.
"It's the damn media." Cyborg replied. Danny looked at Cyborg with incredulous eyes.
"WHAT? What kind of a MORON would be so STUPID to fly in and risk his life filming THIS?"
"Live from Amity Park, this is Chet Ubetcha!" The Elvis haired near midget newsman said into the camera. "As I said, we are LIVE from Amity Park, where a very boring story about floral arrangements as seen by the air has turned into a ruinous disaster we are calling, CRISIS IN…uh, what state is this in anyway?"
"Uh…" the cameraman said.
"Never mind!" Chet replied, as he quickly got out of the shot so the cameraman could shoot footage out the front of his helicopter. "In any case, we are LIVE for this calamity, where a lunatic has somehow acquired a war helicopter and is wrecking havoc across Amity Park! Casualties of the rampage are not yet know, but we do know that the world famous Teen Titans are on the scene, battling this monstrous madman in a fight to a finish! Oh, look at THAT! AMAZING!" Chet yelled as Sizzle fired two missiles at Raven, and Raven, not at full power and unable to do any more fancy tricks, this time just settled for shoving the missiles to the side and into a pair of abandoned storefronts (she knew they were empty, she'd done a quick telepathic scan before she acted). Fires exploded around Raven, and she recoiled, and then she had to fly backwards rapidly as Sizzle came after her, chain gun blazing. Raven, her cloak in tatters, used a combination of flight and shields to protect herself.
And elsewhere…
"OH! OH! OH!" A man with a rather flat face, large jaw, and eyes that didn't convey the brightest expression half said/half almost grunted as he eagerly watched the chaos play out across his TV screen. "This is better then the last ten action movies I saw put together!"
"You see dear? You don't need to watch your silly cartoons for violence! There's plenty on the evening news!" A slightly too overly sweet woman sitting next to the man said to the small figure sitting in front of them on the floor. We, esteemed readers, should know this small, pink hated figure very well.
"Uh…" Timmy Turner replied, not quite sure what to make of what he was seeing. One of the goldfish in the bowl he clutched in front of him shared his questioning expression: the other shared the "This is AWESOME" look Timmy's dad shared, at Raven flew along a building as Sizzle followed her with the chain gun, windows shattering in a long twisting line, even as Raven hit Sizzle with more telekinetic blasts.
"Actually, I think I need to use the washroom." He said, and stood up and dashed out of the room, running into the hallway behind the living room. He stopped, and then the goldfish in his bowl disappeared and reappeared in their true forms in front and above Timmy.
"HEYYYYY! It was just getting good!" Cosmo complained, and then with a wave of his wand he turned the wall invisible so he could keep watching: the Turners were too engrossed with the footage themselves to notice. "Man, whoever thought the evening news could be so awesome! But…wait…it's not even 3'o clock! How can it be evening? What's going on? I fixed all my clocks! It was fall forward spring back right? OH DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME, WHY DO YOU MOCK ME!" Cosmo lamented, in only the way he could.
"Wanda, what's going on?" Timmy asked.
"Well hun, I don't have to be a fairy to tell you some nutcase is shooting everything that moves, and everything that doesn't, in some city called Amity Park!"
"Yea but…uh…it's not because of anything I did right?"
"Uhhhhhh…" Wanda replied, and then a big thick book with "Da Rules" appeared on it and Wanda opened it to the back, where fairies kept personal logs. "Let's see…didn't want to eat his carrots so he wished them away and made the whole world blind…wanted to play a really awesome new sport and nearly destroyed the Earth when the moon almost crashed into it…wish written on a smeared piece of paper foolishly granted by Cosmo which resulted in the return of Supertoilet…"
"AH! AH! SO-MUCH-CLOGGING!" Cosmo agonized when he heard the name of Supertoilet.
"But…nothing I can see here that could have caused this." Wanda said, closing the book.
"Whew! That's a relief!" Timmy said, wiping his forehead. Cosmo had, by now, immediately forgotten everything he had just been distressing about and resumed watching the news, where Raven was ducking under another blast of chain gun fire and got a rude surprise as part of the building she was in front of collapsed under the assault and fell on her, smashing her down into the ground and burying her.
"Ohhhhhh, that looked like it hurt!" Cosmo/Mr. Turner said at the exact same time, and then looked around in confusion at the echo.
"Oh no! The female Titan is down! And it appears that the lunatic is arming a missile to finish her off!" Chet was saying on the screen, as Sizzle flew backwards a bit. Dark energy appeared on the rumble, shoving it off, but it appeared to be too late for Raven as the missile was off and flying at her…
And OVER her. Raven pushed the rest of the rubble off of her body and looked up in confusion…and then her eyes widened as she turned around.
"Man, that lunatic must have terrible aim! The missile missed the female Titan entirely! I mean, it went completely the wrong way! It's…heading straight for us! It's-AHHHHHH!" Chet screamed as the missile suddenly filled the camera screen.
And then the TV went to static.
"Oh no! Chet!" Timmy said.
"Oh don't worry! He'll be fine! After all, he's just on TV!" Cosmo said.
Cosmo may have thought Chet Ubetcha was unharmed due to his very presence on television, but Sizzle didn't share his clueless optimism as she watched the news helicopter explode in a tremendous fireball. She chuckled.
"Three's a crowd asshole." She said, and turned back to Raven.
"Ah noooooooooo…" Danny groaned: he hadn't known Chet at all but he had known there were people in that helicopter and he had just seen them die.
Cyborg stepped up next to him, ready to comfort the kid, who hadn't seen even a fraction of the things Cyborg had and hence didn't have the proper distance when things went wrong…and then he blinked. And then he pointed.
"Look! I can see their parachutes! They're ok!" Cyborg said. Danny looked at Cyborg with a resigned expression.
"You don't have to lie to me. I might be a rookie according to your boss, but I know that they're dead, no need to try and conceal it."
"No, REALLY! They brought parachutes! Look!" Cyborg said, and Danny, rather annoyed that Cyborg would condescend to him so much, looked back…and saw Chet Ubetcha dropping past the roof edge on, indeed, a parachute.
"I'm paranoid!" He said as he went by to no one in particular, the cameraman and pilot following him.
"Even with that…kid, Raven can't fight Sizzle on her own. I have to help her. Here." Cyborg said, as sections of his back slid open, and he reached behind himself, removed something, and then handed Danny two objects that looked like sleek irons.
"What are these?"
"Special clamps for climbing buildings. There's no stairway off this roof, I checked. These things can exert powerful suction. Just turn them on and dial for more and more powerful holding power. You should be able to climb down the side without any problems, just adjust the pressure accordingly to slide right down."
"Uh, thanks." Danny said, as he took the devices. His eyes caught a switch that Cyborg hadn't mentioned: switching the devices up activated the suction, and the middle was apparently the turn off switch…but the switch went down as well. "What's that do?"
"Oh, don't touch that. That switches the holders from air suction to magnetism. You can't use that, this is a stone building…and besides, if you're not careful with the power settings on the magnetic side you'll yank the fillings right out of your teeth." Cyborg said, as his armed converted into a grapple cannon. "Get out of here Danny. You've done everything you could. We have to handle it from here." Cyborg said, and before Danny could reply the robot was running, jumping, and firing off a grappling hook that he swung to another roof to, as he started running alongside it to join Raven.
"What…" Danny said, and then suddenly felt saddened: his mother was still in danger and he had been written off completely, first by Savior and then by Cyborg, It was rather depressing. They hadn't even asked to take the Thermos or the Mini Ghost Catcher.
That, and the fact that Danny was still afraid for his mother, was what kept him from leaving the roof.
Cyborg landed on another roof, and he ran to its side as Sizzle flew down the street that faced said side, after Raven, who was pretty much reduced to being on the defensive. The grapple cannon converted to the sonic cannon, as Cyborg's other arm converted to his gatling gun.
"Cy's here bitch. You better recognize!" Cyborg said, and opened fire, shooting at the rotors and engines, trying to do some, or any, damage.
"Argh. Am I being bitten by another mosquito?" Sizzle asked.
"My shiny teeth that sparkle! My shiny teeth so clean! My shiny teeth that twinkle! It's almost obscene!" The computer sang. Sizzle had by now quit relying on the completely screwed up AI for help and was answering her own questions, as she twisted the stick and swung the helicopter up, flying up to Cyborg and firing another burst of chain gun fire. But all it hit was the roof, as Cyborg had run and jumped off it just before she had begun firing. He hit the concrete, his immense weight cracking it, and then he leaned up and fired a fully charged sonic cannon blast into the Fenton-copter's underside, rocking the machine up and down as he took the time to run across the street. It wasn't long until he was joined by Raven.
"You want to do our version of the Sonic Boom?" Raven asked.
"I got the sonic if you got the boom." Cyborg said, as his cannon glowed. Raven nodded and then picked up another car.
Sizzle had righted herself and turned back towards the two.
Raven hurled the car at the cockpit, even as Cyborg shoved his two arms up and fired them at the same time, the concentrated burst of ultrasonics giving the thrown vehicle even more force as the bullets tore into the gas tank, trying for a spark, hoping for a spark…
A spark.
Sizzle screamed as the car exploded five feet from hitting her, the flaming wreckage slamming into the machine and sending it flying back as Sizzle's cockpit erupted in sparks again.
"That shield HAS to be finished. I'm going to make SURE." Raven said, as she flew forward, concentrating with everything she had left. "Azarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!"
And Raven lashed out with every drop of force she could muster, and the sky exploded in brilliant light as once again, the irresistible force clashed with the unmovable object. Cyborg threw up his hands and recoiled…and in the process, happened to look up, which allowed him to see Raven shooting over his head like a bullet, flying across the whole street and smashing through a window at the end.
Unmovable object 2, irresistible force zip.
"Geezus, who gave them the plans for that shield, the Weaponeers from Qward?" Cyborg cursed, as roller blades sprouted from his feet and rockets from his legs. As Sizzle recovered from the blow and started after Cyborg, the rockets reversed themselves and Cyborg went shooting down the street backwards, firing his sonic cannon and trying to stay away from the chain gun as Sizzle chased him with it.
Danny watched as Cyborg shot down the street that was to Danny's left…and gaped as he saw Cyborg turn onto the street that Danny's building was parallel to, as Sizzle launched two missiles at Cyborg, exhausting two of her remaining four Hellfires. Cyborg increased the power of his rockets, but the boosters on the missiles were a lot more powerful then his, and he found the missiles catching up.
"Damn it!" Cyborg cursed, as he fired at the missile. Two shots from his sonic cannon managed to connect with the first one and screw it up, and it flew past Cyborg, going over his head, as Cyborg turned his attention to the second, but it was too close, there was no way…
"DAMMMNNNNNNNNN!" Cyborg bellowed as, instead of firing at the missile, he stole a trick from Savior and fired at the ground, thrusting several large shards of concrete up…but still too close, as the missile flew into them and Cyborg was caught into the explosion, losing his grip on the road and tumbling backwards.
And then the missile Cyborg had managed to divert slammed into the building behind him, and as the stone face began to crumble, Cyborg slammed into the base of it…just in time for tons of rock and other debris to come crashing down on him and burying him completely.
"Aw no…." Danny said as he saw this, as Sizzle turned around, her radar informing her that her primary target was close. Huh, she'd forgotten all about the boy for a moment! Well, time flew, and he was close now. She'd find him.
As soon as she dealt with Raven, who was now at the other end of the street, though from her floating pose it was clear she'd rather be anywhere but. Sizzle smirked to herself: girls had no drive to keep going these days.
"Quote the raven, no more." Sizzle said, as she locked her last four Sidewinders and let loose.
Raven saw them coming, but she refused to dodge, because she had to stop that helicopter and she could only thing of one way…
"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" Raven chanted as she raised her hands, and as the missiles drew close they were encased in black power, as Raven tried to find the power to turn them around and fire them back at Sizzle…
And then Sizzle was there, having followed her missiles, and she laughed merrily as she fired her chain gun at Raven. Raven had no choice but to fly up to avoid it…and that disrupted her concentration, the missiles were free, and they were right on top of her as her eyes widened in fear…
"NO!" Danny yelled as he saw a flash of black power be consumed by a massive mid-air explosion. When the smoke cleared, there was nothing left.
"Poetry in motion! Oh yeah!" Sizzle said, and even though Danny couldn't hear her he could sure as hell see her: her helicopter was right at the base of the building he was on top of. Laughing, Sizzle glanced over to her radar to check her main target: once again, close. And this time, she was SURE, there would be nothing standing between him and her.
Danny watched her start to rise, and he knew what she was doing. After all that had happened, was this it? Was he doomed to be killed by his own mother?
The helicopter was still rising.
And as Danny watched it go up, he came to a decision, an absolutely insane decision, but he would follow it out anyway. He had to. He was the only one left.
He had to save his mom. No matter the cost.
"Still messed up computer?" Sizzle asked.
"Thing Ring, Do Your Thing!"
"Oh well, too bad you'll miss this!" Sizzle said. She knew she was almost out of ammo, (hell she was amazed the Fentons had been able to cram all their ghost hunting junk as well as all the backup missiles onto this thing without harming its performance: they must have been mechanical genius) but she had enough bullets and two missiles left, and that was plenty to completely erase the boy. She'd have to find a new host and take a more hands on approach for the rest of her quest…but in a way, she was getting pretty bored of flying the helicopter, as she flew up next to the roof.
And Danny Fenton finished his run and launched himself off the edge, and Sizzle's eyes widened in utter shock as the normal boy leapt through the air at her…and fell, as he was no long jumper.
As Danny raised his right hand, tightly clutching one of Cyborg's devices, and flipped the switch to magnetism.
The yank nearly pulled the device out of his hand: Danny had turned the power switch to near-full, but Danny managed to hold on, as with a yell the device crashed into the underside of the helicopter, the impact once again nearly causing Danny to let go. He grimaced, but he refused to release his grip.
A slight impact rang through Sizzle's feet, and she arched an eyebrow: what was that? And where did the boy go? Sizzle tried to turn the helicopter to a proper position so she could look down and see the boy's body.
Danny reached up with his left hand and flipped the switch with his right wrist: the second device clamped onto the metal underbelly of the helicopter, leaving Danny hanging from the underside. Sweat ran into his eyes, but he didn't falter, as he adjusted the strength of the magnetic clamp with his thumb and yanked the right device off, clamping it down a few feet away from the first as he readjusted the strength of the pull, and then he did the same with the left one, and again, and again, as Danny pulled himself across the bottom of the aircraft and began working his way up the side.
Sizzle didn't notice: she was too busy flying the helicopter higher and higher, trying to find Danny.
"Where are you?" Sizzle snarled, and by now Danny was so close he could hear her, his mother's wise tone twisted by a hideous soul, and that gave Danny the final burst he needed, as he made one final "step". He was right below the door…just…one…
A loud thunking noise startled Sizzle, and she looked to her right incredulously to see an arm having just stuck something on the right side of the helicopter right next to her open doorway.
As Danny reached to his belt and pulled out the Fenton Mini Ghost Catcher, and then with a scream he yanked himself up to the cockpit.
"GET OUT OF MY MOTHER!"
And Danny jammed the cattle prod like device into his mother's body. She screamed, and that scream hurt more then a physical blow, but Danny didn't stop as he pulled the stick back and zapped Sizzle again. Sizzle thrust out her hand, trying to generate fire, but her connection to her host was suddenly all screwed up and she couldn't call it: all she did was shove the boy. That nearly worked in and of itself, as the shove caused Danny to almost lose his grip on his brace, but he didn't, and with a snarling yell he pulled himself back and zapped Sizzle again.
"OUT! OUT!" He bellowed, and as he thrust the stick again and again into his mother's chest and torso he could see a red haze start to appear around her, a haze that grew more defined, and eventually it was no longer his mother's mouth doing the screams but the haze itself, as Danny zapped and zapped and zapped…
And in one last desperate move, Sizzle managed to regain control of Maddie Fenton's leg and lash out with a vicious kick. This time, Danny lost his grip, and he fell…
A few feet, before he grabbed onto the second, lower placed clamp. Unfortunately, this motion caused him to drop the Mini Ghost Catcher, and he watched it fall to the street far below (the Fenton-copter, with no one to change its direction, had kept going up).
But it didn't matter: Sizzle knew she was done. Her connection and control were shattered, and if she tried to repossess Maddie Fenton in this state there could be serious consequences: her personality could butt heads with Maddie's and shatter, causing Sizzle to pretty much cease to exist as she was, to name one. No, the boy had broken her possession: she had to leave.
But she had enough control left to do one more thing.
"Well whoop de fucking doo kid!" Sizzle said as she sluggishly lifted Maddie Fenton's arm and began opening a small pocket the woman kept on her upper leg. "You certainly made a risky move pay off!"
Danny had, by now, pulled himself back up to the cockpit's torn off door…as Sizzle pulled out what she wanted: a pair of handcuffs. But all Danny got to do was see them, as the fact that there was no pilot and the autopilot had not been turned on caused the helicopter to violently lurch and Danny was thrown to the side, holding onto his sole brace for dear life.
"But there's always a cost to risky moves…" Sizzle said as Danny tried to get back in…just in time to see Sizzle snap the handcuff around her own, or actually Maddie's wrist. "And often, it entails that you sacrifice a piece!"
And before Danny could do anything, Sizzle grabbed the other end of the handcuffs and snapped them around the Fenton-copter controls.
"NO!" Danny yelled, grabbing at the metal, trying to keep it from sealing, but it was too late: the cuff had locked. Danny immediately went for the pocket that he had seen Sizzle pull the cuffs from, looking for a key…and then he was aware of great heat above him, and he looked up
Sizzle was out of his mom, floating inside the cockpit, albeit in a smaller form so she could fit, dangling the key in front of Danny.
Which melted before his eyes.
"If your mom wakes up before impact, tell her it's your fault she's dead."
And Sizzle thrust her hands into the controls and blew up the entire dashboard of the helicopter, reducing it to slag and nearly blowing Danny out of the helicopter again. It also did what none of the Titans or Danny had been able to do: disabled the shield, and as it vanished Sizzle flew up, melting through the cockpit window and flying into the sky with a laughing cry of triumph, as several parts of the Fenton-copter exploded and the machine went into a terminal spin, straight down.
"Mom! NO, MOM!" Danny yelled as he pulled himself back into the cockpit. He grabbed at the handcuffs and yanked as hard as he could, but nothing happened. The spinning of the helicopter as it went down made it nearly impossible to keep his balance, but Danny refused to let go, as he yanked, tugged, pulled, and screamed at his body that he didn't care if he could never go ghost again, he just needed two seconds of intangibility to pull his mother free.
Unfortunately for Danny, even though it seemed infinitely longer…only fourteen minutes had passed since Sizzle had rearmed the original weapons of the now crashing Fenton-copter.
That gave Danny four minutes to go.
Time to impact…
TWENTY SECONDS.
"MOMMMMMMMMMMM!" Danny screamed, as he pulled with all his might, hoping that he might get one of those bursts of super strength that people sometimes get when their kids are trapped under cars…but life wasn't cooperating.
Apparently, it was telling him the same thing Sizzle had, as the Fenton-copter spun down into the streets of Amity Park.
Your mother is dead Danny Fenton.
And so are you.
