Chapter 16: Damnation's Flame
"Here we may reign secure; and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n."
-Milton, Paradise Lost, I
Evil is patient.
Maybe not all the time.
I'm sure there are plenty of cases where evil acted immediately, even prematurely. But in the end…that can be more attributed to the failing of humans then that of the darkness within them. Impatient, greedy, shortsighted, obsessive behavior led to rash action…that may or may not have led to failure.
But those evils…are usually the small ones. True ones are patient.
They will wait.
They will manipulate and control, staying deep in the shadows until it is truly time to bloom, carefully keeping its vessels, knowing and unknowing, on the set path needed for it to become truly strong…
"She'll do anything."
"You sure? My crew and I…"
"She's a freak. I think she LIKES being treated that way. Found her on the street. Had her for a while. Any time she says no, I changed her mind. She'll do what you want."
Another small man, doing his small destructive evils, leading others down the paths of least resistance and corrupted vice, offering them a chance to sate their own darker urges, at the cost of others. Tapping deep into the innate desire, buried deep within all humans, some deeper then others, to harm.
Why we have such a desire is unknown. Perhaps it is a survival tool no longer needed by the human race…yet one that remains…for better or for worse…
Survival is, in the end, what drives virtually all people.
And for some, the drive is mighty indeed. So strong that things like mental sanity and seeking change are snuffed out, crushed, obliterated. Even if your life is hell…some still want to live. And some can find no other way then to stay in that hell…
Perhaps that explains why we find this girl here, knowing what we know of her future and what we have seen of her past. She has grown older, but her face still seemed caught between that of a girl and a woman, a remarkably lovely face, unscarred and unbattered…but only because the man who believes he owns this woman does not believe in damaging the merchandise…in ways that can be see. The scars lie hidden under clothing…and intertwined with older, rotten ones in the girl's soul.
Despite what she did, it did not free her. Caught in a world which can be truly merciless and cruel to some, and her body fraught with a despair that would not allow her to just give up and drift away in the dark, her journey to survive eventually ended in the clutches of this man. A man who fed her and clothed her…and extracted a price for such favors that is utterly appalling.
She knew no other way to live, her lone reaction of rage forgotten in the stress of the moment. She only wanted to survive.
Until recently…
"No."
"What you say bitch?"
"I've done enough today. No."
Evil is patient. It will wait until the time is right. Until so much vile is stored that critical mass is inevitable…
"Look you bitch, you DO WHAT I SAY! I OWN YOU! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A PIECE OF MEAT I SAVED FROM THE TRASH! NOW YOU WILL…!"
"I SAID NO!"
The fire comes again.
And this time the memories are not obliterated.
As it all burns around her…and yet all she can see are their looks. The way all men always looked at her. Her father, her male siblings, everyone she has had to take to survive…like she was something they could use and discard. With no consequences. With no cares. With no reason to do either. Why would they? They were the men and she was just the whore. She was trash, they were gods.
They had power, she had none.
Until now.
She does not scream this time: they do.
The time had finally come. The dam had finally broken.
Anything that was left of the girl in the being we now know as Sizzle finally died that day.
And something MEAN was born.
Evil will wait for the right time.
And when it does…the wrong that will be done is far worse…
Such blazing, angry eyes…Another set of eyes is not blazing with anger. They were the set of the being known as Skulker, as he leaned back from his seat near the front of the "bar". For some reason, perhaps because he had stayed and watched the crystal the whole time, while various other spirits came and went, the bar had dubbed him as some kind of special observer. He hadn't hung around for them: the main point had been to do recon for his next hunt for the ghost child and fire spirit, but the longer the battle went on, the more Skulker sensed there might be something greater afoot. So he had stayed, even after the battle had ended, plotting and theorizing about that future hunt, and others, while he waited on his hunch that something else was yet to come…perhaps bigger then anything before.
And it seemed like the other spirits of the Ghost Zone had felt it as well, as they had all eventually been drawn back. Now the entire bar was filled with ghosts, specters, and other supernatural beings, all watching the crystals in the bar like humans would gather to watch a big boxing match. Except this was far, far more important then a battle of the "Sweet Science"…
And yet, as Sizzle stood up from her final destruction of Danny Fenton and laughed, Skulker leaned back and sighed, wondering if he had all been wrong. His hunch had revolved around the boy…and now he was gone, destroyed by the lunatic fire spirit.
"…The ghost child is dead." Skulker said to himself, with just a slight twinge of sorrow, more because he could never hunt the Halfa now then from any respect he had felt for Danny. He leaned back some more, into his chair, and watched the fire spirit laugh, wondering what came next. While most of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone grudgingly got along or at least tolerated each other, Sizzle was clearly going not going to do that. Like Walker, the female apparition was hostile to everyone except herself, but while Walker just wanted order among the supernatural realms, Sizzle wanted the destruction of all mankind and anyone who struck her fancy.
He would have to consult Vlad about this problem. The only remaining Halfa, or so it seemed, would most likely be the ruler of this reality and the human one soon: Skulker wanted to stay in his good graces. But surely the Primmortal would be able to deal with Sizzle: she was just a crazy woman who had been so obsessed with rage and hate that she couldn't even let them go of them when she had died. Vlad was…so much more, or would be.
"The ghost child is dead." Skulker said, this time to the bar as he stood up and turned around.
"O-Oh W-W-W-Who cuh-cuh-cares?" Ember managed to stammer out, her teeth chattering violently as she sat at her table, several blankets wrapped around her and her feet in hot, er, essence energy, as water didn't really exist in the Ghost Zone. While Ember didn't really feel things like a human, in a way that had make the minus 200 plus temperatures of space worse: it would have killed a human in seconds, but Ember, not human and yet and cursed with some of the feelings of humans, had had to endure such utter cold all the way back to Earth. The end result for her was much like a human who had come in from a bitterly icy winter night without the proper clothing. "S-suh-stupid kid sho-shu-shu-should have b-b-backed down when he could. He got wuh-wuh-wuh-what he should have seen c-coming."
"All the same…I, Technus, never thought it would end like this." The technological master said from his own chair. "Despite the fact that he was always foiling I, Technus' plans…I do not think he deserved that."
"Crazy freak." Johnny 13 said from his table, in regards to Sizzle. After all he had watched…he was holding Kitty's hand just a tad bit tighter. What Sizzle had done, through Sam, to Danny…it chilled him to the bones he technically no longer had.
"He suffered what he earned." Said Desiree. "He placed his hands on a woman who was mightier then him, and he paid the…" The wish granting ghost's voice trailed off when she noticed most of the bar was glaring at her. "Do not act so superior! You all despised him, in some way or another! Is this not exactly what you WISHED to befall him?"
"Not like that." Skulker said, as he turned back and looked at the crystal, where the Titans had appeared. "Those costumed humans are on the scene."
"But zounds! If Danny Phantom could not defeat her, who stands a change against the terrible, box-burning Sizzle? I mean, really, beware!" Said the Box Ghost.
"I guess we'll find out." Skulker said as he sat back down to watch the following battle. Well, if he had lost the chance to hunt the ghost child, he might at least get the satisfaction of seeing his killer brought down. Maybe the Titans would prove worthy to hunt when Vlad attained his full power…
Vlad Plasmius, much like his soon to be subordinates, was also intently watching the battle, back in ghost form, his fingers crossed before his face as he sat on his chair, power shimmering around him, a dark haze that permeated the room and his entire castle, a shroud of black that spoke of authority and control, power Vlad was contently let flow through him, power that he was destined to master…and it was that power that kept him from being sad about Danny's death. He would have been a fine son…but when he fully ascended to his rightful might, Vlad could make as many sons as he wanted.
And if the crazy spirit who had dared burn his arm succeeded in killing the Titans, then he would take great joy in destroying her. But for now, he would watch. He was not concerned. His destiny was already written: all that remained was the execution. Literally and figuratively.
His mouth smirked cruelly, as his eyes faintly glowed…
Vlad's expression was mirrored in Sizzle's, though her countenance was false: no real joy lurked behind the smile, just a quiet desperation to stop hurting and the anger that the endless pain fueled.
"Well well, what have we here." She said, as she brought up a hand and absently cracked Sam's fingers, popping the air from the joints in a painful sounding way. "I could have sworn I put enough behind that blast to burn you all. Instead you come back, this time with a few pistols filled with water from the fridge."
Savior replied with actions, as he aimed his other freeze gun at Sizzle, the Captain Cold one, and fired another blast of freezing power, a specially designed ray that would seize control of all the molecules it struck and slow them down, instantly and immensely, combined with a deep chill that would result in the formation of varying degrees of ice.
The ray never made it this time: Sizzle raised her hand and clenched her fingers, and a shimmering wall of heat appeared before her, the ray striking it and the two canceling each other out.
"Heh-heh." Sizzle chuckled. "HAHHHHH!"
The heat haze suddenly expanded, and the Titans were buffeted by immensely hot winds and burning bits of loose grass, paper, and anything else the heat could ignite. All the Titans except Cyborg recoiled from the blast, and his face grimaced.
"You still wish to join this foolish boy in hell? I can certainly grant that wish! Prepare to feel the burn!" Sizzle said, and increased the heat haze/wave tenfold in a giant burst, shoving the Titans back.
And Sizzle leapt up, doing a 360 backwards flip in the air and stopping in an upright position as her essence erupted around and above Sam, growing larger, stronger, fiercer, as Sizzle placed a fist on her side and laughed mockingly, floating in mid air, her power shimmering around her as the Titans recovered.
"Close in, surround her, swarm her, Titans, GO!" Savior ordered, and the Titans split up, aiming weapons and limbs.
"Please. E-YAH!" Sizzle yelled, as she suddenly slammed downward, her fist striking the ground, and fire exploded in a gigantic eruption around her, throwing all the Titans away like rag dolls and sending Danny's body flying.
Sizzle flew from the eruption of flame and set her sights on her first target: Starfire. The alien girl eyes' widened as the heat spirit in the body of Sam flew up next to her, and she tried to direct her large freeze ray at Sizzle, but she hadn't had much practice in the weapon and she had only managed a half hearted aim before Sizzle thrust out a hand and sent off a giant stream of fire. Starfire watched for half a second and then decided her body could take the heat better then the gun and whirled around. The blast smashed into her like a battering ram, sending her flying forward with a scream before she crashed into the upper floors of a building and the entire top of it erupted and collapsed into a conflagration, as the battle moved from Sam's back yard to the streets of Amity Park.
Danny's limp form was just about to hit the ground when white lines of power caught it, Savior reeling the teen in. His eyes, while hard, also showed a certain mourning, as he laid Danny down and checked for a pulse. He found none.
"Oh kid…" Savior said out loud, and then he was aware of a great crashing as Cyborg came down from a jump, having become Sizzle's next foe. Savior looked at the larger then usual robot, and then back at Danny, as he gently closed the teenager's eyes.
"I'll get her for this Danny. I'll take this atrocity right out of any and all hides she may manifest!" Savior snarled, and then leapt away from the prone form of the teen.
"Ohhh, look! You should know damn well bigger never means better in this world of mine!" Sizzle yelled, as she formed twin fireballs and hurled them at the massive robot. The balls exploded against him, but the robot body didn't budge an inch, as Cyborg lifted one of his arms and four micro-gatling guns emerged. Sizzle looked at the weapon and then scoffed.
"What are you going to do, SHOOT ME?" Sizzle laughed. "Go ahead! Kill the host! That's all you do! Go ahead, shoot!"
"You're only half right." Cyborg replied, and opened fire.
Sizzle screamed as several dozen small but potent impacts slammed across her body, knocking her to the ground with a crash.
"Booyah! How do you like my special bullets bitch? My own rubber/wax blend! They won't kill you, but I'm damn sure they're noticeable!" Cyborg whooped, and fired off another burst. Sizzle rolled and then shoved off the ground and back into the air, avoiding the projectiles as they raked across the ground.
"ARGH! YOU FUCK!" She screamed, as she thrust out her hands, forming a fireball that quickly expanded to the size of a small car, flying off towards Cyborg. But twin beams of ice intercepted the sphere, and the angry red blaze quickly transmuted into an icy-white, as Cyborg swung back his fist and smashed the ball right back towards Sizzle, who yelled and dodged out of the way…and found herself flying right into those same twin beams, the freezing blasts covering her right side in ice. Yelling in rage again, Sizzle formed a fire spear and hurled it at the source of the beams, Savior, who stopped his firing to do a Shimmer assisted leaping cartwheel out of the way. Shattering the ice on her form, Sizzle had just started to turn again when another line of impact bullets raked across her back, and with another scream she turned and fixed hateful eyes on Cyborg, who just smiled and aimed up his other arm as parts began to split apart and reconnect.
"You think his ice guns are bad, wait till you see mine! Bigger IS better!" Cyborg yelled.
Sizzle's eyes blazed, and then the anger faded back into amusement.
And then she lanced down and slammed into the ground again, and a giant eruption of fire exploded from beneath Cyborg, sending the huge robot flying backwards, Cyborg bellowing in surprise, as the giant battle droid crashed into the side of another building.
"It's not the size of the boat, it's the motion in the explosion, asshole." Sizzle snapped, and fired off twin balls of flame that smashed into Cyborg. The robot was still up against the shattered wall, and the blasts shoved him even farther back into the building, the further damage causing the structure to collapse on top of him in a giant crash of noise and dust.
An ice beam barely missed her, and Sizzle turned as Savior dashed at her, firing quick shots, but he wasn't experienced at running and shooting, and most of them were missing. Sizzle smirked again, and then held out an arm. A giant whip of flame erupted on it, and Sizzle lashed out. Savior leapt high into the air to avoid it, as the giant whip tore into the sides of several buildings and caused eruptions of fire wherever it struck, as Savior tried to aim in mid air…
And suddenly found Sizzle was out of his sight. His eyes darted around…
She was below him. And coming up fast.
"OH SHIT!"
Sizzle struck, using her fiery haze around Sam and a whirling spin while she was jumping to turn a simple leaping uppercut into a multiple-strike impact that sent Savior flying off into the distance with a scream. Sizzle flew up, grinning as Savior crashed into the roof of a building a few blocks away.
"SHINryuken." Sizzle said.
The fiery girl turned around to find a car encased in dark energy flying at her. Sizzle blew it out of the sky with a look, the car splitting apart into fiery metal and flying around and past her as Raven was revealed.
"Ah, time to go four for four!" Sizzle said, as she brought her hands up, formed a fireball, and hurled it at Raven.
Raven didn't run: instead she floated there, chanting under her breath, until the fireball was just about to hit her…
"ENTOMBIS FREIZUA!" Raven yelled, as her entire right arm glowed blue, and then she rapidly swung it back and forward, actually striking the fireball and sending it back towards Sizzle, who looked a bit surprised at this.
"You're sending the fireball back to the master of flame? Ok, fine!" Sizzle said, as her fireball returned to her, as she too swung back her arm and whacked it back at Raven, this time a little faster.
Raven, still chanting, whacked it back again, speeding it up more.
Sizzle repeated the motion again: the fireball was now going quite fast.
Raven smashed it back: it flew like a bullet…
Sizzle returned it once more, like a lightning bolt…
Raven disappeared into the shadows, as the fireball flew into her shadowy power and vanished. Sizzle's eyes widened, and then the fireball returned, from a shadow portal, now tainted with dark energy, BEHIND Sizzle. The blast struck her and dark power surged out over her body, as Sizzle found herself momentarily frozen.
An apt expression, as Starfire returned, her large gun braced against her shoulder, as she fired at the prone Sizzle. Her larger gun allowed her several options Savior was denied, one of which was a much easier "switch to alter" interface that allowed her to instantly change the type of shots. Her beam fired out, but instead of freezing Sizzle, it struck her like a hammer, an immensely cold hammer, and blue power raged over the black tendrils that Raven had blasted against Sizzle. Her scream increased, and she tumbled to the ground, Sam falling to her knees as the red haze above her thrashed.
Savior dropped down onto the street nearby and hit the ground running, holding his hands up as Shimmer lines flowed from them. Two more lines came from his waist, holding the freeze guns, and Savior fired the rays, not at Sizzle, but at the Shimmer lines coming from his hands. The Shimmer couldn't be frozen…but it could be chilled, right down to near absolute zero, as Savior ran up to Sizzle as she tried to collect her wits and get her host back on the attack.
Savior slashed out the lines, and they flew through Sizzle's haze body, but Sizzle clearly felt the cold, as she screamed. Savior took that as a hint that it was working and slashed again, and again, as Sam's body recoiled back due to Sizzle's agonies.
"ARGH! YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Sizzle screamed, as she fired a wild fire burst. Savior dodged away from it via a roll, coming up to his knees as one of the freeze guns was returned to his hand.
"Keep my mother out of this." He replied, as he froze Sizzle on the spot, making another ice statue. He stood up…
The ice Sizzle was encased in exploded, far quicker then the teen had expected, as a flaming hand reached out from Sizzle's arm and grabbed Savior, and as the teen bellowed in pain, the fiery appendage burning him, Sizzle slashed out her arm and sent Savior flying. Raven, a tad bit late, flew in to help, as did Starfire, but Sizzle dodged out of the way of their freeze ray and ice spell and countered with twin fireballs that blew the female Titans out of the air.
Savior was tumbling to the ground, still out of control, when a giant hand grabbed him. Savior blinked, and then the world righted itself as the hand twirled, Cyborg setting Savior upright.
"Thanks Victor." Savior said, and then repeated the machine-man's actions as he stopped Raven's own tumbling flight with a Shimmer line. "How are the heat readings?"
"Still in the green, for now." Cyborg replied.
"Where's the Oxygen Destroyer?"
"Carefully stowed in a back compartment, heavily shielded. Why, you want to bust it out NOW?"
"No! It's pointless as long as Sizzle is in Sam! We have to get Sizzle out of Sam first!"
"Oh great…how are we supposed to do that?"
"I'm not sure. She clearly doesn't like the cold, but…dammit! I don't know! I'm making this up as I go along!" Savior cursed.
"Aren't we all." Cyborg replied grimly, as he let Savior down and headed for Sizzle, his suit stomping holes in the concrete. Savior saw Raven floating above him and raised himself up on Shimmer stilts to her side.
"You ok?" Raven asked.
"For now. But Sizzle…damn her." Savior cursed, as Cyborg waded into an immense stream of fire, his guns having had to retract under the onslaught to avoid being melted into uselessness, as he swatted at Sizzle, but Sizzle proved to be too fast, dodging away from the blows and sending a barrage of fireballs down on Cyborg. Cyborg raised his arms and they split apart, forming a new shield that guarded his head from the downpour, as the street shattered and cars exploded around him. "Raven, can you get close and Vulcan Mind Meld or something with Sizzle, maybe force her out…"
"No. I checked that. However Sizzle got into Sam, she's in deep. She'd fry me before I could get enough interference to get her out."
"Shit!" Savior cursed. "All right then, keep up the assault! I'm not going to let Danny's death be in vain, or a precursor to anything!" Savior snapped, as he fired out twin Shimmer lines and swung in, even as Starfire returned and fired a piecing beam of ice at Sizzle.
Raven watched for a second, confused.
"…Death?" She said. Was Danny dead? He hadn't been moving when the Titans had stopped Sizzle from incinerating him…but Raven hadn't felt his life energy suddenly wink out, the way it had before with people Raven was close to died suddenly and violently. But come to think of it…she couldn't really feel his essence, she'd been too caught up in the battle to notice…
A building was exploding, and Savior was leaping to catch Starfire, and while he was occupied with that Sizzle was making a beeline for the both of them. Raven's brow narrowed, and then she flew in towards the fight, siding with Savior's mindset that if Danny was gone, he wouldn't go un-avenged.
Or alone.
Alone…
It was strange, really. The darkness seemed absolute, but if that had been the case, Danny wouldn't have been able to see anything. Yet he could see himself, as he slowly drifted down in slow spirals, still a bit fuzzy headed. What was going on? Where was he? And why did…
And then it came back to him: the possession, the beating, the agony…and Sizzle smirking down at him as she unleashed her fire…and then…
"HUUUAAAGHHHHHHHH!" Danny yelled, as he tried to stop his movement in the absolute-yet-not blackness…and found himself doing so. He blinked, trying to clear his head and figure just what…
"Well, see you finally put it together."
Danny turned at the voice…and recoiled in surprise.
"What?" Said the figure…him. The black suited, white haired green eyed him. He looked rather amused. "I'd ask you if you'd seen a ghost, but that seems rather beside the point, wouldn't you say?"
"Uhhhhhh…" Danny said, still trying to process everything. "What, huh, who…who are you?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm YOU." Danny Phantom replied. "Well, sort of. I'm the part of you that was brought into existence when your human biology suddenly occupied the same space as supernatural energy. You're lucky you know: the average human probably would have had a stroke."
"What? Huh?" Danny said, looking around. Though he could see no light, he could see himself clearly, as well as his ghost alter, whom we will call Phantom. And seeing Phantom, as well as the strange place he was in…a sudden, terrible thought occurred to Danny.
"Oh god, am I dead?" He gasped.
"No…no, not exactly." Phantom replied.
"But…Sizzle…she shot fire down my throat, I…how can I be alive?" Danny asked. He didn't want to be dead, but now that he remembered how the battle had gone, he really had to wonder why.
"You didn't want to die." Phantom replied.
"Oh great. Are you going to give me nothing but cryptic nonsense? That's not what I would do, me! Come on!" Danny complained.
"Despite your pain, your desire to live was immensely strong, especially since what Sizzle did to you involved Sam. The way it was hurting her, perhaps even more then it was hurting you…that helped. And you are aware that in your ghost form, united with me, you can form shields."
"But…I didn't…"
"Your conscious mind didn't. It was too wracked with pain. But your subconscious mind could read your desire to survive, for your sake and Sam's…and when Sizzle shot her fire down your throat, it acted accordingly. Your power…me, you might say, formed a last second shield inside your lungs. Sizzle's fire may have been a physical gift, and physical in and of itself when she was alive, but as a spirit, the very act of keeping her power imbued it with a supernatural aspect…an aspect that allowed you to block the flame and keep it from destroying your lungs. Not that there weren't consequences to Sizzle's actions, of course. Doing such a delicate operation at the last possible moment has its penalties, not to mention that the air ignited in your lungs and sent a shockwave through your body. Basically, your unique physiology suffered the equivalent of a power surge, knocking it "offline". The state, for you, manifests itself like death. But you're not dead. Your body is basically rebooting itself. It takes a little while, but once it's finished you will return to the land of the living. You won't even suffer any brain damage from the whole not breathing thing, as a bonus. Unless, of course, Sizzle burns you to ash while you're helpless, but hey, such special things like preventing your own immolation are never without cost, or risk." Phantom said, crossing his arms. His rather unconcerned look at the possibility that after he had managed to save Danny, Sizzle could just roast his body and finish her job of killing him shocked the teen…and Phantom seemed to read that from his expression.
"What? You think I'm worried about death? That's your job Danny. I've never BEEN alive. I suddenly just existed, and not in a way like you. I may be a part of you…but it's not a part connected to your living side. How can you be concerned about death when you're never been alive to begin with?" Phantom pointed out.
"But…if I die, you'll go with me!" Danny stammered.
"Perhaps, but I never asked to be created. I just was. My end will be the same: I can fight it and delay it, but it will come to me eventually. So why worry about it, especially when I CAN'T prevent it? For now anyway."
Though the seemingly callous attitude still chilled Danny, he had to admit he had a point.
"How long until I finish, er, rebooting or whatever?" Danny said, looking around.
"Why?" Phantom replied. Danny looked back at Phantom, incredulous.
"Why? You should know! If I'm still alive, I can still fight!"
"No, you can't."
"WHAT?"
"Your body's a mess. Your power is still exhausted. What, you thought that coming back from the brink would offer an instant recharge on top of the whole not being a vegetable thing? Forget it Danny. You just barely escaped death's grasp. Operative word being BARELY."
"But…but…"
"And even IF you could recharge your power, it's not like it matters. Sizzle is beyond your abilities."
"NO! I have to save Sam! I have to fight…!"
"How are you going to save Sam? Overshadow her? You couldn't get Sizzle out of PAULINA, and that was just a normal possession. Sizzle's essence extends far deeper now, like a cancer in every part of Sam's body. She's trapped in Sizzle's grip, most likely forever."
Danny stared in horror.
"And even if you could figure out a plan…you'd never carry it out Danny. Sizzle's just too powerful, too angry, too out of control. Savior said she was pure chaos force, and he was right. You've only escaped so far because of luck. If you decide to engage her again…this little mercy won't be the result. Not again. The result will be your real, final death. Sizzle will blow you out like a birthday candle. No Danny. There won't be any comeback for you. You've already lost."
Explosions blasted across the rooftop, as Savior ran for his life: trying to leap out of the way…
He escaped the flame, but not the shockwave, as it smacked him and sent him flying, out of control. And he found that since he was above open ground, there were no buildings to grab onto (he had actually been tossed back into the Manson's large backyard)…and no Raven or Starfire to catch him as Sizzle had just knocked THEM down before she had attacked Savior. In terms of landing, he was up shit creek without a paddle.
But then again, why was that so surprising? This whole battle was that. No matter what they did, the only thing they accomplished was making Sizzle angrier. And that just resulted in…
Savior crashed down onto the tool shed Sizzle had appropriated her rake and firewood from, the structure shattering under him and burying him in debris and paraphernalia.
It resulted in things like that.
Savior groaned, trying to collect himself and see if anything had been stuck through body parts that wouldn't do well to be ventilated.
"Damn…how…in the hell…can we win?" He muttered in his daze.
He was not surprised to see her when he turned around.
"I thought we were going to lay low." Maddie Fenton said to her husband. She looked remarkably well considering what had happened to her several hours ago: Sizzle's inadvertent brainwipe when the possession was broken and the whole unconsciousness thing afterward probably helped with that. But while Maddie didn't recall her part in this terrible drama, she still remembered that there was something extremely nasty out there in Amity Park, something she and Jack had set out to stop before whatever had happened to her had occured. That knowledge had only been reinforced when they left the hospital and found the last few stragglers leaving Amity Park: questions to the stragglers on why they were doing so had resulted in evasive answers that Maddie immediately knew came from people who didn't have a rational reason for their actions but didn't care, because their primal senses were screaming danger and they weren't hanging around to find out just what that danger might be.
But Maddie wasn't going to join them in running. Instead, they'd headed back to the Fenton Household, with a vague plan to check their scanners for trouble while they formulated a new plan due to the loss of the F.U.M.B.L.E. But said scanners originated the new plan in the end when they started going nuts, reading an immense power signal that was undoubtedly, indubitably a ghost. The sheer power had, at first, even given Jack pause, and she and him had decided they would simply turn on the ghost shields and defenses in and around their house (what did you think that huge crazy metal thing on top of their house was?) and see what happened. But when the power spiked even more…Jack had said he needed to use the bathroom. He had never been a good liar, but Maddie had given him the benefit of the doubt and waited ten minutes before she had gone down to the basement, where Jack was just finishing up loading himself with anti-ghost weaponry. He even had the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, which was just a baseball bat (with the word Fenton on it!).
"I can't lay low for this Maddie." Jack replied, his eyes serious. It was a rare expression for the large man, who seemed like an overeager child most of the time…but Maddie knew her husband better then all his naysayers.
"It's too big. You and Jazz are in danger…and Danny…even IF he left with his friend Sam…" Jack said (Noel had made that call after all, in an attempt to distract himself from his melancholy after the Danny/Sam argument. It hadn't worked, in the distraction part anyway: good thing Raven had shown up soon after). "I can't stay here. Even if the Fenton Ultimate Mobile Ballistics Logistics Equalizer is gone…we still have plenty of weapons. I have to go out and stop this, if I can. I swore to defend the world from ghosts…now its time to put up or shut up, and Jack Fenton NEVER shuts up."
"You're not going."
"Maddie…"
"Not without me." Maddie said, as she walked over and pressed a button on the wall, and a section flipped open with several new rows of ghost weaponry. Jack might have emptied one wall…but just one wall.
"Maddie…you…I don't want to lose you…" Jack said.
"Don't, Jack Fenton. Not now. You never pulled any chivalry nonsense, and that's one of the reasons I married you. You think your desire is unique? I'm not letting that spirit harm my family either." Maddie said, as she began loading herself down with armaments.
"But Maddie…"
The sound of an engine starting up caught Jack's attention, and then another wall slid open, and the Fenton RV drove through. Jack blinked, wondering if his car had suddenly become possessed…and then it stopped beside them.
"Get in. You need to drive this, I just have my learner's permit and you need a special license to drive something like this." Jazz said from the driver's seat.
"Jazz? What are you doing?"
"I'm coming too." Jazz said.
"But you don't believe in ghosts!"
"No, but I believe in evil. And whatever is in this town is a pure form of it. One that won't hesitate to harm us. When it comes to disbelieving pacifism or skeptical decisions, I'll side with the latter. Get in Dad." Jazz replied, as the side to the Fenton RV opened up.
Jack watched for a few more seconds, and then a grin, almost cocky, slid across his face.
"All right! The Fenton family, united and mobilized! I'd never thought I'd see the day! That ghost doesn't have a chance! I just wish Danny could be here!" Jack said, as he bounded in.
"Oh, he might be closer then you think Dad." Jazz replied, as she pulled a gun off the wall of the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle and cocked it. "Yeah, he's probably here in spirit. Let's roll."
The Fentons might be confident, but the Titans, and especially not Cyborg, didn't share their confidence, as the robot pushed himself up from where he had landed. The streets blazed around him, but Cyborg was more worried about the meters he saw when he closed his mechanical eye: meters reading the stress of his heat shields, meters that had crept up to yellowish orange and weren't going back down. His battle body was tough, but it didn't do him much good if he was taking all the hits and dishing out none in return, thanks to Sizzle's damn possession and their virtual inability to harm the fire ghost while at the same time risking the life and limbs of Sam…unwilling, poor Sam…
Cyborg grimaced. Well, it might not be going well, but he hadn't used all his tricks yet!
And then he leapt backwards as a massive fireball came down where he had been standing. Fire exploded upward from the impact, blasting up and past the burning buildings as Cyborg landed several dozen feet away. Then the fire contracted and faded, as Sizzle reappeared in the heart of the mass: she'd covered herself in flame and thrown herself at Cyborg like a missile.
And speaking of missiles, Cyborg's arm was opening up to show a large missile launcher. Sizzle just looked amused. She was very good at doing that, the truth behind her feelings notwithstanding.
"Rockets?" She asked incredulously.
Indeed, dozens of them, fired off at Sizzle at high speed. Sizzle just floated there, feeling the closest thing to tickled that she could. What was the point of this? Even if the EXPLOSIONS, made of FIRE, could harm her in any way, it would just kill the host. Had they decided Sam was expendable? How delightfully, disgustingly male.
She'd play their game better though, as she waved her hands at the approaching missiles.
They all exploded.
And Sizzle realized too late that was exactly what Cyborg had planned.
As she was suddenly assaulted by intense waves of force, ultra-dense sonics that her ears couldn't hear but her body certainly could FEEL, as the insanely precise resonance reverberated through her body. Much like crystal could shatter at a precise pitch, this sound was designed to do the rough equivalent to a human being, and while humans couldn't BREAK, they could certainly be rattled, and even Sizzle, connected to Sam in the precise way she was, felt the immense dichotomizing force tear through her host's body, making the muscles and bones she needed to move feel like jelly. There had been no explosives in the missiles, just these sound bombs that she had inadvertently set off, sound that was now making her previous rattling at the hand of the seismic blasters in the Fenton-copter seem like a slight muscle twitch.
Her power kept Sam's body afloat though, even as it felt like it was being turned inside out, and Cyborg acted, as he charged in. He knew that his weapons were ultimately just mosquito bites to someone like Sizzle, designed to bruise and disorient but unable to cause any serious harm, while her fire certainly could melt him, given time…and that meant he had to take a chance. He had to try and knock Sam out, and to do that, he would need a great blow…a blow he had to try and deliver without breaking her neck or smashing her skull. But his skill with mechanics was great, and he knew he could deliver such a blow, even with his huge metal hands…though he'd most likely give her a severe concussion, but you couldn't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs…
Cyborg reached Sizzle, swinging his hand up…
And found fire, as Sizzle recovered, far quicker then he had predicted she could, and cut loose. The terrible heat washed over him, as he found his body being pushed backwards, the entire street exploding as the gigantic fire blast expanded to fill it, blasting up into the air and through the sides of the buildings and causing them to collapse, as Cyborg crashed into the brownstones at the end of the street and sent them both toppling down onto him.
"Heh. Close, you metallic fuck. But not close enough." Sizzle snarled, as she raised a hand and fire exploded anew on it, glowing brilliantly white. THIS flame would melt him into a river of destroyed flesh and molten steel…
Starfire flew in, a giant flash of bluish white energy freezing Sizzle…but only her lower half. Then again, that was enough to disrupt Sizzle's forming of the white fireball…but not enough to keep Sizzle from retaliating, as she turned and fired another blast of fire at the attacking alien. It took her in the shoulder before she could properly defend, and Starfire yelled as she lost her hold of her massive gun, which flew from her hands and down into the flaming buildings below. She glared back at Sizzle as the fire spirit melted the ice on her lower half away, like it had never been.
"I need no weapon! For what you have done, MY RAGE IS ENOUGH!" Starfire yelled, and thrust out her hands as she fired a bombardment of Starbolts, which crashed into Sizzle.
"Starbolts? STARBOLTS?" Sizzle yelled, not even budging. "You stupid alien bitch, HEAT ENERGY SUSTAINS ME!" She yelled as she flew from the explosion, zapping up and grabbing Starfire by the throat before the girl even knew what was happening. "Your Starbolts, pathetic as they are, merely make me STRONGER!"
And Sizzle proved it, as she hurled Starfire down into the concrete street like a meteor, sending a wave of force out that sent smoking shards of stone and other granites spraying everywhere. The impact rang through Starfire's body, dazing her…and then she recovered, started to get up…and screamed as a massive blast of flame came down on her. Sizzle's previous massive blast of flame against Cyborg had reduced the buildings on the street to flaming, sagging hulks, and the blast Sizzle brought down on Starfire finished the job, as the burning buildings around the alien shattered from the explosion, collapsing around the ruined street as Sizzle laughed and laughed…
And then dark energy swirled into being around her, enveloping her before she knew what was going on, the dark power forming into the shape of a raven. Raven had pulled out a move she rarely used: her soul self, a dark power that took all the negative and poisonous things that a being had done and fed them back to them…at least if it worked. Which it didn't, as the shadowy raven shape only existed for a few seconds before light streaked from it, and then the energy was blasted into nothing as fire shot out and consumed it. Raven was sent flying back, shrieking, as Sizzle reappeared in the middle of her own fiery bird shape, a true phoenix come to life, except this phoenix wasn't interested in life, but death, as Raven spiraled down to the ground and Sizzle went after her.
Raven got control of herself and landed…and then a blade of flame slashed down. Raven zapped to the side, part of her cloak disintegrating as she barely avoided the deadly controlled fire. And she wasn't out of the woods yet, as her dodge brought her towards a lashing flame whip. Raven vanished into her shadow power, as the whip ripped up the ground where she had just been. The sorceress reappeared higher up in the air…and screamed as Sizzle slammed into her from above, a powerful arcing kick slamming into her spine and sending her crashing down into the dirt with a powerful thud.
Raven tried getting back up…and found Sizzle had floated down in front of her, her hand snapping out, seizing Raven with terrible strength, lifting her up easily as the hand contracted even more, crushing the goth's throat as she tried to get air into her lungs.
"You're the one who killed me. I want you to see what that's like, right up close." Sizzle said, as she continued to squeeze…
"WHAT!" Danny finally said. "What do you mean I've already lost! How can you, a part of me, think that?"
"I'm just a part of you Danny, not you in and of yourself." Phantom replied. "But I am the part that is separated from your emotions, and hence sees the truth behind them. Sizzle can't be stopped. She's too strong."
"Bull! I fought her before, I did…alright…"
"Your first battles were with a spirit that was readjusting to her newfound state. There's a difference between being a ghost in the Ghost Zone and being one in this place of existence, believe me. That is why you were able to survive: she wasn't fully sure of what she could do. But Sizzle's fully adjusted now. And her rage has only grown since her failure to kill you…grown, mutated, turned into something so ugly I can barely believe it. And it's pushed her to a peak you can't touch. She's too powerful for you to beat. That is simply the way it is."
"So what should I do? Run away?"
"If you want to live, I would suggest it."
"NO! If I run, Sizzle could slaughter thousands! How dare you suggest such cowardice against something like her!"
"If you don't run, you will die, and she will slaughter thousands anyway. How dare you suggest such abject stupidity against something like her." Phantom replied.
Danny stared, his eyes filled with a sudden despair. So, when all the chips were down…he WAS just a useless rookie, little more then a target for a psychotic destroying force…
………….NO. He was not that. And he would not believe it.
"…All right then. I don't need you. Let me out of here!" Danny yelled.
"You tell me to be gone? Danny, the only reason you could fight her was because of me, of what we become when we combine. I have told you that that is not enough. You alone…that is hopeless." Phantom replied.
"Screw you! Screw you and your heartless rationale! I won't run away! I won't! I'll fight her with my bare hands if I have to!" Danny said, as he whirled and stomped off.
"You'll die." Phantom said.
"If I run now, I'll die every day." Danny replied. "If I die now…I may not live in a physical sense, but in the way that counts, I will live forever."
"Hmmmm." Phantom said. "Noble sentiments…but in the terms of harsh facts, pointless. You can't beat her. You don't have the power."
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT POWER!" Danny screamed. "I care about my friends, my family, my town, all the people Sizzle hurt in her nihilistic sickness! She has to be stopped, and even if I can't do it, even if I die, I'm not going to give up and go quietly into the night! If someone had stepped up and helped Sizzle before, when she was alive, maybe all this could have been avoided, but no. They all took the path of least resistance. And look what it got the world. Well, I may be the only one who is willing to stand up to her, and even though it may kill me, I'M GOING TO DO IT ANYWAY!"
Danny spun and stalked off, leaving Phantom behind.
For a moment.
"Danny."
Something in the voice gave Danny pause, and he turned back around. Phantom still stood there, his arm still crossed…but his expression had changed. Just a tiny bit…but it was noticeable.
And Danny realized that Phantom never wanted him to give up and run away. He, or himself, just wanted to be sure that Danny didn't want to.
"…I understand." Danny said, as he realized he had just been tested, and passed.
"I thought you would." Phantom replied, nodding slightly. "But Danny…there is something else you must know."
"What?"
"I cannot say it in words. But I can still tell you. Come." Phantom replied, offering his hand. Danny blinked, and then he got the idea, as he walked forward, reached out, and took Phantom's offered hand.
And froze as it bolted through him.
As images poured before his eyes, a stream of pictures and sounds that threatened to overwhelm him…terrible things. Death. Destruction. Ruin. Human beings slaughtered or worse. An endless stream of catastrophe and horror.
This was bad enough…but what was worse was that underneath it was the knowledge that this had not been caused by Sizzle.
"You must understand this." Phantom's voice said in Danny's head, as Danny looked upon all the atrocity he saw with alarm and dismay. "Power plays no favorites. It is but a tool to be used. And while human beings can create wonders…it is not in their nature to do so. Your species says power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely…"
And the images finally came to a giant castle, a grotesque thing that was the size of a small city, as Danny panned through all its rooms in an instant and came…
His eyes widened as far as they could go.
It was him. Sitting on a throne. Except it wasn't him. It was an older him, perhaps in his late twenties or thirties, festooned in a magnificent yet terrible costume, in a court full of prone worshippers or horrible monsters, and at his hand was a rope, a rope that let to a woman…Sam, older too, wearing virtually nothing…and their eyes…Sam's eyes were dead, slack, lifeless, a woman trapped in a reality she had finally tuned completely out of, and his eyes, his green eyes, filled with such a horrible corrupt decadence…
Danny let go of the hand, recoiling back and falling on his rear, gasping for breath, not believing what he had seen…and yet knowing the reality of it.
"You may walk a path, and seek a goal that you think is noble…but your nature…human beings are forever caught between animal and god, and the combination is rarely, if ever, good. That is the price of bearing power. Do you wish to pay it?" Phantom asked.
"What…what…was that my future?" Danny asked.
"No. Just a possibility. That is life as well: possibilities. But I am only showing you what your kind is prone to lead to. Many have sought to bring about ideals higher then their base nature…some were mad, and some went mad. It is the flaw you can never exorcise, Danny. If you wish to return…you may win. And in doing so you may unleash something more monstrous then Sizzle ever was. It is only a possibility…but humans…" Phantom said, and let the last word stand for itself.
Danny knew why, and how it tied into his vision. Humans. They could be such terrible creatures, destroying each other and themselves, or worse, doing their appalling little horrors until they created something like Sizzle. All because they wanted power, in some form or another.
But…
If he was being shown this…
Phantom had said there was no way for Danny to beat Sizzle, and when Danny had refused to give up he had shown him that dreadful vision. But there was a message in there…
Danny looked up at Phantom, who looked back.
"What are you?"
"You. Something else. Possibilities. Inevitabilities. Dreams. Nightmares." Phantom replied. "In the end…it all comes down to you Danny. I am only…what I am. It is up to you define such a thing."
Danny slid over to his knees, as he let the last few images play over his head, such sights, such destruction…and what would be needed to do such a thing.
"Is that what you are?" Danny asked, not needing to verify his question: Phantom was a part of him, and Danny was sure Phantom knew what he meant.
Just as sure that Phantom would remember Danny's fear from the story the Titans had told him just last night, a lifetime ago, of the Martian Manhunter and the darkness within him he was never aware existed until it was too late, and what that darkness did. How it had made Danny afraid of his own power, and what it could do to him. And if he continued on, and took what he believed was possible, even though he had no idea how or where such a thing had come from…what might come of it.
It was another test.
And in the end, Danny did the only thing he could.
"If that is what you are…" Danny repeated.
"I am that. I am other things. I am a paradise. I am a hell. I am a key. I am everything. I am nothing." Phantom replied. "I am only what I am. Do not forget that if you make this choice."
Danny's eyes narrowed.
"This is what you are?" Danny said.
Phantom nodded.
"Then by god, LET'S TURN YOU LOOSE." Danny declared, as he reached out and took Phantom's hand again.
And the darkness exploded in brilliant, magnificent light.
The light was fading elsewhere, in Raven's eyes: she had been exhaling when Sizzle had grabbed her, and was now unable to take a new breath, needing oxygen to concentrate, to escape, and she couldn't get it, as she looked at Sizzle's mad, grinning face…
And it went flying through the air.
Sizzle snapped up her hand and grabbed the pair of hedge trimmers, the giant shears stopped a few inches from plunging into Sam's back, as Sizzle glanced over her shoulder at Savior, who had emerged from the wreckage of the tool shed and hurled the deadly blades.
"Nice try." Sizzle replied.
And she hurled the blades back at Savior, a whirling circle of sharp death…
Shimmer strands grabbed the blades by the handle an inch from Savior's face. His expression did not change.
"What was that supposed to accomplish?" Sizzle mocked.
"Turn around and see." Savior replied.
Sizzle arched an eyebrow, and turned…
And Raven breathed out pure icy wind. Savior hadn't been trying to catch Sizzle with the hedge trimmers: he had meant to distract her with them, and cause her to reactively loosen her grip on Raven's throat while her attention was diverted, which had allowed Raven to inhale, and then whisper a few short words to a spell, a spell that turned the carbon dioxide in her lungs, a deadly poison to her, into a deadly poison for Sizzle, an icy essence she exhaled directly into Sizzle's face. Sizzle screamed, her hand letting go of Raven as she thrashed around due to the up close nature of the attack: it had affected her like Savior's chilled Shimmers had, except more so. Raven warped away from the agonizing spirit and reappeared next to Savior, taking deep breaths.
Savior was about to ask if Raven was ok: Starfire interrupted him as she dropped down next to the two, battered and burned but still willing and able. The three looked at each other, and then back at Sizzle, who was still going nuts. But it wouldn't last, and the three knew it.
A strange whining noise filled their ears, and then Cyborg came down from the sky, this time on jets firing from his feet and back to keep him from hitting the ground like a felled tree.
"All right, what's going on?" He asked.
"Sizzle's still in Sam. Any and all attempts to get her out have failed." Savior said. "Cyborg, you haven't used your ice cannon yet, why are you holding back?"
"My cannon's got a lot more power then your guns or Kory's…Kory, what happened to your gun?" Cyborg asked in disbelief.
"I lost it." Starfire said.
"Great. Oh well, come what may." Cyborg said. "I have to carefully charge my cannon. If I fire it at too much power…I won't just cover Sam's body in ice, I'll freeze her solid. I don't want her shattering like the T-1000." Cyborg said.
"She's recovering." Raven said gravely, as Sizzle's crazy spasms finally subsided.
"I will occupy her." Starfire said, knowing from his expression that Savior was trying to come up with a plan and that he needed time. She flew off, towards Sizzle, her fists cocked. She wasn't sure what she was going to do…but she'd figure something out.
"We can't use the Oxygen Destroyer unless Sizzle is out of Sam. And we can't keep fighting her forever: the city may be abandoned but the hospital certainly isn't. If this battle keeps going we could draw near that place, and I don't want to put all those sick and injured people in the line of fire." Savior said, as Starfire attacked Sizzle, doing the equivalent of bitch slapping her and then flying away, a furious Sizzle pursuing.
"After that spell, I doubt I can get close enough to Sizzle. She won't let me." Raven replied.
"Damn. Then how the hell do we get her OUT OF THE HOST?" Cyborg lamented.
Savior thought for a few seconds, and then his face grew hard.
"Break her back."
Cyborg and Raven looked at the white haired teen.
"What?"
"You heard me. Break her spine! If the host is a paraplegic, Sizzle can't use it! Which means she leaves, and we have a chance."
"And it means Sam is crippled for life! Damn it Noel, you can't be serious!" Cyborg retorted.
"Do you think I want to hurt her?" Savior snapped back. "We're out of options!"
"But…!"
"Dammit Cyborg, the Shimmer can regenerate nerve tissue! Raven can heal injuries! Together, we can undo the damage, but we can only do that if we get Sizzle out and destroy her!"
"But…"
Savior looked at the black teen/robot, his face grave.
"I didn't want to do this Cyborg, but I'm asserting my command. I order you to break her spine! Now either accept or be recalcitrant, but do it quick. You have two choices and five seconds to make it. PICK. ONE." Savior ordered.
Cyborg's eyes narrowed.
And then he turned and launched himself into the fray, as Starfire flew back in, going low, and Sizzle followed her down by tossing a giant fire spear. Cyborg froze the spear with a quick blast of his freeze cannon, and then twin guns opened up on his large shoulders and barraged Sizzle with concussion-force blasts, Sizzle reeling back from the heatless impacts.
"I hated doing that." Savior said as he turned to Raven. "You also have a problem?"
"Only that your Shimmer only has a 100 percent repair rate with YOUR nervous system Noel. With Sam, it could be hit or miss." Raven replied. She was not angry or defiant, but she was clearly unhappy with what Savior had chosen to do.
"Well, if it comes to a teenage girl living an inconvenienced life or thousands dying, my choice is made." Savior said. "Fill in Kory! I have to do something quickly!"
"What?"
"Hope you never find out." Savior replied grimly. Raven stared at this strange answer, and then flew off to join the fight, as Savior opened up his communicator and keyed in a special code. It didn't take long for a reply to come, as a long-boned green face filled Savior's picture screen.
"Noel?" J'onn J'onzz, aka the Martian Manhunter, and the one who ran the Watchtower and decided where the JLA went to deal with threats, said.
"Yeah J'onn, it's me. J'onn, you remember that possibility I brought before you?"
"Yes, but…"
"It's becoming more likely. Perhaps too much so. So tell me, before I have to make a decision like this, I don't suppose you have an alternate. Like, say, Firestorm having come back from that huge mission you said the JLA was on."
"No, sorry. I wish he was. I don't want to do it either." J'onn replied.
"How about Zatanna?"
"No."
"Fate?"
"I have no idea how to contact him. He always contacts us."
"Right, what fun would life be if you could point Amazo at every threat? How about Jason Blood?"
"He said the last time he was here he had some mission on some demon plane…"
"Damn it!" Savior cursed.
"Is there anyone else who could provide assistance?" J'on replied, as explosions rang in the background.
"No, or I would have asked. I hate to do this to you J'onn, but I think you have to arm it."
"Savior, using that weapon could have serious consequences."
"Yeah, so could not using it. Arm it J'onn, and hope you don't have to fire it. I'm going to try and make that a possibility." Savior said, as he put the communicator away. Looking up at the battle, he saw that Raven was currently engaging Sizzle and pulled out his freeze guns to help.
Dark power crackling on her hands and sweat running down her face, Raven was currently trying to best Sizzle in a war of strength, as her power was extended out and meeting Sizzle's flame as Sizzle poured on her own power. Raven was doing her best, but the situation had worsened since their last engagement: Sizzle was now pouring out heat from her body, intense heat, and even if you kept your distance, the heat was more then enough to sap your strength. And that's what it was doing to her, as Sizzle screamed and increased her literal firepower, the red flame shoving against the dark energy going to dazzling white and shoving the black power back…
But one of the advantages of being on a team was that you were never alone, as twin beams of ice suddenly cut through the air at Sizzle. Sizzle saw the movement though, and she dodged out of the way…and then screamed as she was caught in a super sonic cannon blast, Cyborg having finally whipped out his battlesuit's enhanced version of his primary weapon. The mighty blast carried her upward…and Starfire flew in, having been filled in on Savior's plan. And though she didn't want to do it…she pretty much knew that their options were running low. So she put her feelings aside and flew in, fully in the warrior mindset her planet had trained her to acquire.
The only problem was the aforementioned heat that Sizzle was putting off. Whether said heat was due to her anger or a tactical boon she had thought of, who knew: the fact remained that the closer one got to Sizzle, the hotter it got. Sweat stung Starfire's eyes as she drew in close, behind Sizzle, who was still recovering from the sonic cannon blast, holding her breath so she didn't breath in superheated air and suffer Danny's fate, as she laced her hands together and swung them back, as Sizzle realized that someone was behind her…
Starfire's hands slammed against Sam's back, and Sizzle was smashed downward into a freefall, as Starfire stopped and gasped, trying to get some air into her lungs and wondering if she had succeeded…
And then Sizzle stopped with a scream. Starfire's heart sank. She hadn't gotten the proper impact behind the blow: the sweat had made her hands slip just a bit and bleed off the contact needed to cause the crippling injury. And while in the end Starfire was grateful all she had given Sam was a deep bruise, she realized that her failure was going to have serious repercussions.
"DAMN YOU!" Sizzle screamed. "DIEEEEEEEEEE!"
And Sizzle coiled her body inward and then snapped out all her limbs, and fire exploded around her and erupted in all directions, deadly superfast fireballs that flew everywhere. Starfire gasped and tried to dodge, but one clipped her and made her spin out, which allowed two more fireballs to slam into her and explode, sending her smoking body crashing into the ground.
"DAMN!" Cyborg cursed, as he threw one of his arm shields to guard against the outpouring of fury. A myriad of flame orbs slammed into the shield and other parts of Cyborg's body, and his (organic) eye widened as his heat meters spiked up into the red. Having no choice, Cyborg retreated to cool off.
Down on the ground, Savior cursed as he ran between the downward-aimed fire spheres, as Sizzle finally reappeared, her ball of fire fading from around her. Savior aimed and fired at Sizzle, both guns blazing freezing energy, but Sizzle saw it coming and threw up a fire shield. The ice beams didn't go through, even though Savior poured on the power for several seconds before he cut off, not wanting to overload the guns…
Sizzle swooped down at him, her hands blazing flame, and Savior cursed again and ran for it. Fireballs came raining down towards him, destroying an entire street as Savior ran, leapt, swung…and was caught, blown forward by the last wave of blasts. Not in a way he couldn't control through, as he did a few turning flips and landed facing the opposite way he had been running.
As Sizzle fired off her final blast of flame at Savior. His eyes widened, and he tried to get his guns up to freeze it, but it was too fast…
And then a bolt of dark energy slammed into the blast from the side, knocking it away from Savior and into the lower floors of a building. They exploded, and then the building buckled and collapsed towards Savior: he ran backwards to avoid it, everything in front of him being swallowed by the dust and smoke.
Raven floated down next to her lover.
"She's coming." She said, as her fingers did what looked like a few random motions to Savior, but was really Raven drawing ruins in the ice, as icy winds again swirled around her fingers. Savior nodded, and brought up his guns.
The dust cloud split apart as Sizzle flew through it, heading for the two.
Three beams of intense freezing power flew at the flame spirit.
And a white hot blast of flame came from Sizzle's hands, the two sides meeting in an catastrophic interface: when intense hot and cold suddenly and violently mixed together, the results were…explosive.
The explosion battered all the buildings around the sorceress, Titan leader, and fire spirit, shaking the whole city like an earthquake. From where he was recovering, Cyborg's eyes widened at the explosion and force wave, and even though his readings weren't optimum yet, he turned back from his protective position and headed for the site of the blast. Along the way, utilizing the tracking mechanism he built into all his gear, he retrieved Starfire's ice cannon. He just hoped Starfire was still in decent enough shape to use it.
Savior and Raven weren't in the best of shape though: the explosion had sent them both flying backwards at high speed, and while their respective talents saved them from being smashed to bits, getting blasted through a building (albeit a strangely softer one then usual) and then bouncing along the ground a few times was never pleasant. The two came to a stop.
"Ugghhh…Noel, you ok?" Raven asked as she floated up, her cloak shredded. Savior got up, shaking his head.
"Um, Noel…your arm." Raven said, noting that Savior's left arm was hanging at an odd angle, dislocated again. Savior snorted, and then the Shimmer snapped the limb back in, Savior screaming through his teeth. Raven didn't need to be an empath to feel that.
"I don't suppose the explosion affected her as badly as it did us." He asked.
"No, the fact that she's heading right for us like a freight train would suggest otherwise." Raven replied.
A giant ball of flame flew at the couple: Raven threw up a black energy shield. The fireball struck it and exploded, and while the shield absorbed some of the impact, it wasn't enough as it shattered and sent the couple flying again, as Sizzle flew in, laughing. As Savior and Raven came crashing back down onto the ground again, Sizzle threw back her hand, a radiant ball of white fire swirling into existence on it, aiming for the downed pair…
And then a rumble passed under her feet. And it wasn't the sound of Cyborg's feet, or another shockwave like the one from her previous explosion, no. This was something…bigger. Sizzle's fireball faded at the strange sensation.
And then green energy suddenly exploded off in the distance, a brilliant emerald luminescence that shot far into the sky…and then as quickly faded, as if it had never existed.
Savior stood up, wiping blood from his face, not sure what had just happened, or what had just saved Raven and himself. Sizzle seemed equally confused.
"What the hell…" She said.
Savior leapt in for the attack.
A lashing whip of flame flew out and coiled around Savior, and then twisted and hurled him through the air. Savior crashed through a wall of something and came to a stop, groaning. He shook his head and looked around…and realized where he was: the wreckage of the Manson estate. No wonder his previous trip through a building had seemed soft: it had been through the fire-gutted hulk that Sizzle had blown up when she had first made her appearance in this battle.
And it looked like she wanted to finish the job, as she aimed her hand at the mansion.
"SIZZLE!"
The voice stopped her. Actually, it froze her completely. She should have never heard that voice against except when she wanted to relieve memories…and only then. Not in any other situation, and certainly not coming from the battlefield, as she turned to face it…
Raven watched as Danny appeared from the smoke. She blinked, surprised but not too much. A lot less then Savior, anyway, who had pulled himself onto one of the creaky sides of the fire-ravaged mansion to get away and stopped dead when he had seen Danny.
"…What the hell…" Savior said. While Danny's clothes were a mess, every injury on his body was gone. Every broken bone, cut, and bruise Sizzle had inflicted…vanished. And for good reason. Had Danny just woken up from his body's "saving throw", the injuries would have stayed…but Danny had woken up to a lot more then just a suspended animation state.
And he was ready to show Sizzle that.
Savior wasn't the only one surprised.
"He's ALIVE?" Skulker said, as he stood up from his chair in shock. His words and the picture on the screen spread through the bar like wildfire, as everyone saw that Danny Fenton, contrary to what everyone had assumed, was still in the land of the living.
"Hah! I knew it! Even though he is a plan-ruining, box-hating annoyingpants, I knew Danny Phantom would not be so easily be placed below the earth in a box!" The Box Ghost said.
Skulker didn't have anything to say…at least not verbally. His mind, however, was alight with possibilities. The ghost child had been savaged and then seemingly murdered, and yet here he was again, fresh and chipper and rarin' to go. How could that be possible…unless…and if that was possible…it might mean…
Skulker decided he'd figure it out later, as he sat back down. While the bar had been fairly interested in the Titans/Sizzle fight, the entire group was now completely fixated on the crystals that projected the images they were watching. For some, Danny was an enemy, for others he was something they had heard of, the Halfa, the boy who was part ghost and possessed all their powers. The only one except…Vlad Plasmius. Who many had been told and/or assumed would soon rule the ghost AND human worlds.
But if Danny Fenton had come back…
Everyone watched. They all wanted to know.
And the shock wasn't just among the rank and file of the ghost world. The would-be king was just as bewildered as them.
Vlad, when Danny had spoken, had been drinking an expensive wine: the glass and bottle now lay shattered by his chair, as Vlad, once Danny had appeared on the screen, had dropped them and actually gotten out of the chair, walking up to the crystal image, as if getting closer would prove it to be a trick of light that would swiftly vanish once the proper perspective was regained.
Except Danny did not disappear. He remained, standing there, his eyes hard. Vlad's own eyes were pools of utter astonishment…the bad kind.
"No…NO!" Vlad cursed. "You were dead! I saw it! You could not have survived…could not…unless…"
The possibility that was dancing at the back of Skulker's head came full bore to Vlad…and was immediately squashed.
"No!" He said, as he waved a hand, the chair floating up and over so Vlad could sit and watch right up against the giant image, the way some kids will sit too close to the TV because they believe they can somehow see better that way. "He was just lucky! He learned some trick of his powers! Only that! Well boy, it's too bad you're wily enough to do that yet not clever enough to know when to retreat. That crazy girl will annihilate you. And why shouldn't she?" Vlad said, rationalizing it all away.
And so he sat and watched, waiting for reality to accurately follow his predictions. It always did so before, and considering who he was, it would do so now.
It had to.
Sizzle, if it was possible, was even more stunned by Danny's reappearance then Savior, the ghost observers, and Vlad. Danny, in a way, took great pleasure in her flabbergasted look. She hadn't seen a ghost; she'd seen a living boy. How was that for irony?
"No…" Sizzle said, as Danny started walking forward again. "No. NO! NO! YOU'RE DEAD! I BURNED YOU FROM THE INSIDE! WHY AREN'T YOU STARTING TO ROT!"
"I am not so easy to kill." Danny replied. He knew that now, more then ever, as he continued to head for Sizzle.
Sizzle, to her credit, didn't stay shocked for long, as her stunned expression quickly morphed into one of angry amusement: angry that Danny was somehow still alive, amusement that this would let her kill him all over again.
"I don't know how you do it kid. You're not a bad penny, you're a whole fucking mint." Sizzle said.
"Let Sam go." Danny replied.
"Oh, did my fire somehow escape roasting your guts only to fry your mind? You're in no position to make threats, Danny boy. You might be alive, but that is an oversight I will quickly rectify." Sizzle said, though a tiny part of her was beginning to be surprised and annoyed that if Danny was alive, he wasn't transforming. Maybe he had had to use up all of his power to prevent her fatal attack and undo the rest of her previous play? But, if he couldn't transform, why was he striding towards her like he was…unless she really HAD broke his brain. If so, it was a pity: insane people were no fun to torture. They had lost perspective on such things.
"You know, I thought you were a monster. I was wrong. You're more then a monster. You're a hypocrite and a coward. You act like your life has given you the knowledge that everything you do is justified and everything you do is right, but then you turn around and break your own rules. You claim to be so much better then men, that you will bring women to their rightful place, and then you turn around and hide behind a woman, tormenting her because you loathe the fact that she cares for a man and you can't conceive of such a mindset, so it has to be destroyed!" Danny yelled. "Well Sizzle, maybe the world has done you wrong, but you've done the world worse in return, and you know what they say about actions and reactions." Danny said.
By now, Raven had teleported over to Savior, ostensibly to see if he was ok, but the reality was she sensed something Savior could not feel. That inability to feel was clear on his face.
"What is he doing? Even if he's back, against Sizzle…crazy kid!" Savior yelled, as he leapt down to the ground. By now, Danny was almost right in front of Sizzle, who was now looking more amused then angry.
"Well well…so the boy thinks he can play knight in shining armor, be the big hero. Well, it ain't happening Danny. You fate was sealed from the moment we met, and you can't evade it forever! So come on Danny! Look upon the face of fate!" Sizzle said, as fire exploded on her hand. "Now taste my righteous fire, AND CHOKE…!"
Danny swung out his fist.
Sizzle's head recoiled back from the blow.
Savior stopped. He hadn't been expecting that. A second later Raven caught up to him.
"Bloody hell. He hit Sam." Savior said. "I never thought anything could make him do that."
"He didn't." Raven replied. Savior looked at her.
"What?"
"Look."
Sizzle was turning her head back…or more accurately, Sizzle was turning Sam's head back. By now, Savior had noticed that Sizzle seemed to be drifting in and out of her control of Sam's face: half the time Sam's features expressed what Sizzle was feeling, and half the time Sizzle emerged from Sam's body in the red haze form she possessed to express her feelings on her own, separate from Sam, whose face became dull and lifeless due to Sizzle's repression of her personality. The haze, due to all the features kind of blurring together, could be hard to read, but Savior had watched it long enough to accurately observe what the red haze was expressing when it was separate from Sam.
Sam's face was unaffected, as it had been when Sizzle had done this before, the expression slack and prone in the way of a puppet…but Sizzle's face was once again in shock. A far deeper shock then she had been in before.
"…Wha…what…what…?" Sizzle gasped, as she brought her hand up to her "cheek". Savior was puzzled: he saw no injury on Sam's flesh…so why was Sizzle…
"I think you might have been looking at the wrong fate." Danny replied.
Sizzle's features contorted in rage.
"YOU…!"
Danny slashed out his leg in a powerful roundhouse, and Sizzle was knocked right off her feet, Sam's body flying and coming crashing down on its back.
Savior didn't need to see Sizzle's face now: he could read body language well enough that he knew, from the way Sizzle started getting up from the blow, the slight pause in her process of doing so, the tiny scrabbling back when she had been doing it…Sizzle had been knocked from her anger and back into utter disbelief at what had happened. A disbelief that was mirrored in Savior.
"He's hitting Sam!" The white haired leader blurted.
"No. No he's not. He's doing the exact opposite. He's found a way to fight Sizzle." Raven said.
"No…what's going on! How can you…!" Sizzle screamed as she started getting up.
Danny ran up and slashed out his leg, his toe of his foot slamming under Sizzle's chin. Her head snapped up, and then it came down…right into Danny's punch, which smashed Sizzle right back into the ground.
Savior stared, utterly baffled.
"Look at his body." Raven said. Savior looked at Danny, seeing only a very determined teenager…but this boy loved, or at least deeply cared for, the host that Sizzle was in, so why would he…
And then he saw it.
It was faint, much fainter then Sizzle's red haze over Sam's upper body…but there was a slight aura around Danny, a pale layer of energy that seemed to be superimposed on his form. It was like a shield, or a…
"AIIIIIIIIYYYYGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Sizzle screamed, as she flew up off the ground and let loose with a fireball. Danny raised an arm as it flew at him.
"Ack! He'll be killed!" Savior said, starting forward.
Raven stopped him.
"No."
Danny lashed his arm out.
And Savior saw the aura EXTEND, ever so quickly, colliding with the flame and knocking it aside. It exploded off in the distance, but Danny didn't stop there, as he flowed one move into the next, using the outward momentum of his arm to roll forward onto his shoulders, and then twist off his shoulder and arms on the ground and spring forward toward Sizzle…
And this time Savior saw it, as the aura extended outward, amazingly fast, and slammed into Sam's body. Or at least that was what it looked like: what actually happened was it went THROUGH Sam's body and slammed into Sizzle, knocking her down again, as Danny landed on his feet, the aura there and gone so fast it was like it had never been there.
"Whoa." Savior said. And yes, he did sound like a certain actor.
"Danny's not just back, it looks like he learned a new way to merge with his ghost self." Raven said. "Danny's pulling his attacks at the last moment and letting his ghost self deliver the actual blow."
"But why is Sam being knocked down?"
"Remember how we couldn't hurt Sizzle before because while she was hooked up to Sam, it was in a way that anything we did to her, only Sam felt? Well, Danny's discovered the opposite of that. He's striking Sizzle, not Sam, but Sam is getting pulled along because of her attachment to Sizzle. But Sam's not feeling a thing. This is all Sizzle this time." Raven said, looking wickedly satisfied. "Danny found a way to attack her. And after all she's done, there's hell to pay."
"YOU FUCKER!" Sizzle screamed, as she fired another blast of flame at Danny as she got up: Danny dodged around that one and ran in before Sizzle knew what was happening. His fist slammed out, slamming across Sam's face, except it wasn't Sam that was being struck, it was Sizzle: Sam was just the helpless puppet whose strings were being jerked. But that was nothing compared to what Sizzle was feeling: after hiding behind hosts for so long, and being able to fry anything that threatened her for longer, the fact that she was actually being hit made her both furious with rage…and something else, something she hadn't felt for a very very long time, a sick feeling she thought she had long banished…fear.
For the first time, Sizzle was afraid.
But Danny wasn't showing the slightest bit of mercy, as he slammed out his other fist, smashing it into Sizzle's face. The heat haze actually seemed to extend out of the back of Sam's head and then snap back, and then Sizzle screamed in fury, fiery claws appearing on her hand and slashing out at Danny, but Danny leapt over then and lashed out with a leaping reverse heel roundhouse, knocking Sizzle away again.
"Guys!" Cyborg said, as he landed next to Savior and Raven. "What's going…whoa." Cyborg said, as he saw the fight. "What…huh?"
"Danny's back. And he's brought a few new tricks with him." Savior said.
"What do you mean?" Starfire said, as she dropped down and startled the Titans as per her usual. "I was under the impression Danny was dead."
"That was what I thought too. I was wrong." Savior replied. "And boy, I usually hate being wrong, but this isn't one of those times."
Danny ducked under Sizzle's mad slash and slammed his fist into Sam's gut, and while Sizzle didn't have wind to drive out of her the effect was still pretty similar as Sizzle doubled over. Danny leaned up, grabbed Sam's shoulders as Sizzle came up from her recoil, and slammed his head forward into hers, staggering Sizzle. He then he fired off several more punches, barraging her face with blows. Sizzle finally dodged away from one and fired off another blast of flame, but it was clear her motions were confused and starting to grow desperate. He was hurting her, he was finally getting around all her defenses, and he wasn't letting up.
"HOW DOES IT FEEL SIZZLE!" He yelled as he slammed his fist across her face again. "You like being helpless? You like being tortured? You like being treated like this?"
"FUCKING BASTARD!"
The intense blast of flame enveloped everything in front of Sizzle for twenty feet…and it didn't matter as Danny was in the air, flipping above Sizzle, and as her head turned to follow him he landed and thrust his leg out, kicking Sizzle in the gut. She doubled over again, and Danny grabbed Sam's hair and slammed his knee up into Sizzle's face, sending her recoiling back again. Sizzle recovered and began to scream again before Danny's fist cut it off.
"Get the Oxygen Destroyer out Victor." Savior said. "I have a feeling this is just about ready to end. But just to be safe, everyone spread out and get ready. Oh, and Cyborg, start charging your freeze cannon. We'd better have a full power shot ready, just in case." Savior said, as he pulled out his ice guns. The Titans nodded and began doing so, Cyborg having given Starfire back her ice cannon.
And, a fair distance away, a large RV automobile braked to a stop in front of a street filled with rubble.
"Darn it! That ghost is already back to causing property damage! We'll have to go around!" Jack said, as he tried to put the RV in reverse…and found that doing so was difficult. "Argh! Jazz, why did you pick the stick model! You know I have difficulty turning around with a stick!"
"Oops. Sorry Daddy. It's what I was learning on." Jazz replied.
"Let me drive." Maddie said, nearly throwing Jack out of the driver's seat before she sat down, fastened her safety belt and yanked the stick back, reversing the RV and driving down a side street to get to the fight
Danny didn't notice the Titans creeping around him, or know that his family was coming to help, or care about either. All he could see was Tucker, bursting into flames, and Sam, weeping as Sizzle forced her to harm him, and that was all he knew: he was too busy whaling on Sizzle to know anything else. He ignored her muffled cries as she realized she couldn't get Danny away from her: all she knew was how to burn people, and utilizing her ability took concentration, and Sizzle, having spent too much time in an untouchable state, had found she couldn't focus on attacking with fire or doing something to her advantage like igniting a fire inside his chest, not with the pain Danny was forcing on her, the pain she thought she had left behind, and a pain Danny would normally have never wished on anyone but he was beyond all such caring as that as he slammed punch after punch into her body and face.
"DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU!" He was yelling. "YOU HURT MY FRIENDS! YOU HURT MY FAMILY! WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE-JUST-STAYED-DEAD!"
The uppercut finished the onslaught and the fight: it didn't knock Sizzle down but it sent her staggering back, and then she collapsed to her knees. Sam's body was gasping for air, though Sam wasn't doing it, and since Sizzle was a ghost she didn't need to breath. Danny felt that was probably more due to Sizzle's still apparent bewilderment at this sudden turn of events. He also finally noticed that the Titans were nearby, watching his back. But he didn't need them, and that wasn't ego: in the new way his ghost self had combined with him, he was the only one who could touch Sizzle, and he had reached out and touched her, big time.
"It's over Sizzle." He said. "You've lost. I would offer you mercy, even though you don't deserve it…except I know that it won't do any good. I never thought anyone was beyond redemption…but I know that when a dog is rabid, you have no choice but to shoot it. But know that I take no satisfaction in this fact, or will do nothing to prolong it. Now get out of Sam, or I WILL hurt you more." Danny said, cracking his knuckles.
Sam's shoulders were shaking, and for a moment Danny wondered if he was witnessing the impossible: Sizzle crying.
Then she looked up, and the sound came. Laughing. Mad, insane laughing. He should have expected nothing more. Sizzle wasn't going to break down and weep: she was too far gone to ever again shed tears.
"Oh…you stupid boy…you stupid, accursed, fucking refusing to die boy…you think that you pull a miracle turnaround and it's all over…you think you can act like the Neanderthal you pieces of shit all are at heart and win…you think it's all over…"
"It is! You're through!"
"Oh maybe…if not for one little thing…Danny…did you ever consider that once I took control of Sam, the first and only thing I did was make a beeline for your meeting room?"
Danny's brow furrowed.
"You think that was what I did. Heh…heh heh." Sizzle chuckled, as she finally got Sam's body back up, though it was swaying, a boxer needing one more blow to be knocked out. "No Danny…I didn't do that. I did…a few other things first…looked around…looked…and listened…"
And suddenly, Raven realized what was going to happen, and her heart filled with ice.
"NO."
"Believe me, if you make an effort…" Sizzle said, as she reached into Sam's shirt. "You can hear the most INTERESTING things!"
And she pulled out the Sumerian artifact.
"DANNY! STOP HER! STOP HER!" Raven screamed, but her sudden panicked yell just served to distract Danny and the Titans preparing for Sizzle to leave Sam's body.
And that was all Sizzle needed.
As she thrust the amulet out, and fire exploded on her palm…and suddenly the words on the artifact lit up, glowing brightly, and as Danny snapped his head back to look at this Raven drew in another breath.
"DON'T LET HER START THE SPELL!"
Too late.
"Labiru dinger damiq ma nekelmu!" Sizzle chanted. By now, Savior had realized what was going on, as he ran over to Raven's side…and stopped as he realized something else.
"What the hell…how can Sizzle read Sumerian?"
"She can't." Raven replied. "But Sizzle remembers everything she absorbed from her hosts. She can't read Sumerian. But Maddie Fenton could. DANNY! STOP…!"
But Raven was too far away and giving info to the wrong person, as despite the fact that he had seemingly tapped into a new power, Danny was still a kid, and kids don't react well to things that were seemingly going swimmingly suddenly doing a 180 on them. Hence, instead of attacking, or trying to knock the Sumerian relic out of Sizzle's hands, he stood there, uncomprehending…
"Ni sisitu za-e, mina zu emuq itta kad kal!" Sizzle bellowed, and suddenly immense force began sweeping up around her, driving Danny back. He looked at the Titans for help, but Cyborg and Starfire were just as confused, and Raven just looked terrified.
"Shit! SHIT!" Raven said. "She's doing the spell wrong!"
"What? The spell wrong? That's bad?" Savior asked.
"Yes! Remember how I said it looked like the groves let you focus something through the artifact? Sizzle is forcing her essence through it, and it appears that's enough to get the spell to activate! But that remnant just has the spell itself! It doesn't have the other incantations you need to recite with a spell like this!"
"What incantations?" Savior yelled back.
"Spells like this, they're like pure alcohol. You don't drink pure alcohol in beer, you drink a mixture of liquids with alcohol in it! This spell calls for power, but anyone who recited it would do other spells with it, asking for a specific place to draw the power and a specific amount of power! If he or she didn't do that, they'd just start drawing on power until their whole body was destroyed! But that won't happen to Sizzle, because SHE'S ALREADY DEAD! And since she's not asking for a certain place or kind of power, the spell will just draw on what SHE thinks will bring her power…and there'll be absolutely NO LIMIT ON IT WHATSOEVER!"
"What's she drawing on?" Savior yelled back, as the wave of force coming off of Sizzle increased. Raven appeared to be thinking…and then it came to her like a thunderbolt.
"Oh no. OH NO!" Raven yelled, and vanished into the shadows.
"NADU REBU INA EBEBU!" Sizzle screamed, as she held the amulet above her head.
Starfire gasped as Raven suddenly appeared right next to her.
"Kory! Come here!" Raven said, grabbing Starfire with a dark energy claw and pulling her up against her. "I hope this works!" Raven said, as she began chanting rapidly, waving a hand around like she was having a seizure that just involved one arm.
"NADU REBU INA ETU!" Sizzle screamed. "NURU MA ASBU, ANKIDA!"
And then streams of red energy began shooting from the artifact, tendrils of red power much like Sizzle's haze form, and Danny found himself recoiling from the power, not knowing what was happening.
One of the lines fired straight for Raven and Starfire, as Raven finished the last of her chant and motions and slammed out her palm, the fingers spread wide. A symbol appeared in mid air before her, and the energy tendril struck it, a shockwave flowing back through Raven and Starfire, as Raven gritted her teeth and fought against the spell with all her power…and then it faded out, the line disappearing, and Raven collapsed to her knees, gasping.
"Ah…can't believe I…managed to block it." Raven gasped.
"Raven! What WAS that? What's going on?" Starfire asked.
"The artifact…it has a spell…that brings power…if you ask for it…but…Sizzle…asked for power…with no specifics…so the amulet is bringing her what she believes…will bring her power. Women. The spell will seek out what she saw as strength in women…from the women she possessed…and from any and all women in the area of the spell effect…and without any kind of specifics…oh god…" Raven gasped. "It'll steal all their energy…all of it. From every women around, possibly in a hundred miles…!"
And then more lines began appearing, dozens, scores, hundreds, thousands, lines of power shooting off into the distance at insane speed. The spell had been invoked, and now it would do as it was commanded: bring the caster the power of the female sex. All the power a human body had.
Jack Fenton never saw what happened: he just heard a sudden noise as the beam shot out and struck his wife, and she jerked with a swallowed cry, and then the beam disappeared, and Maddie fell face first onto the steering wheel. She was not dead…just…completely empty.
"Maddie?" Jack said, and then heard a thud behind him. He whirled.
Jazz was down on the ground, her eyes blank and lifeless.
"MADDIE! JAZZ!" Jack screamed, as his head darted back and forth, not sure what to do or who to help first…and then the blaring horn reminded him that Maddie had been driving, and now she wasn't…
And then the RV, pushed by the way Maddie was leaning on the steering wheel, jerked to the side of the road, hit the sidewalk, and flipped onto its side, and Jack screamed as the giant vehicle toppled onto its flank and then crashed into a sportings good shop. The vehicle shuddered and then laid still, no movement coming from within it.
And that was just the beginning.
Some distance from Amity Park, a blonde male teen was taking a bite out of his cheeseburger when he heard a slight cry, and he brought the burger down to find the woman who had made the cry was now lying prone on the ground.
"Mom?" Dash said.
Elsewhere, at a considerably nicer restaurant, a man checking wines heard a strange noise and put down his menu to find the two women sitting with him had suddenly fallen forward, face first, into their plates of pasta.
"My dear? Paulina?"
In the hospital on the outskirts of Amity Park, a black man, having been watching the fireworks on the other end of town with growing fear, heard a slight gasp and turned around as the room filled with the piercing buzz of a flatline. Which it wasn't: this wasn't something so simple as death…but the machines read it as such.
"OH NO! VALERIE!"
An elderly woman, calmly knitting, suddenly jerked, and then slumped over as a bearded man looked up from the book he was reading.
"Mom? MOTHER?" Mr. Lancer said.
And far away, in a strange little town, a flat faced man looked in confusion at his wife, who had suddenly fallen right on her face without any warning.
"Mom?" Timmy asked. "Mom, what's wrong, what…"
And then Timmy stole a glance at his fish bowl…and saw one of his fish was lying limp at the bottom of the bowl, the other swimming around the prone body frantically.
"WANDA! WANDA!"
They all were drawn out by Sizzle, drawn to her, the power of the female species, what she knew lurked within all women and what she craved now, as the red tendrils suddenly began glowing with golden power, power that was heading straight for her.
Danny, by then, finally realized he had to take action.
"No! Ok then, I'm goin'…!"
Too little, too late.
The power slammed into the relic, and Danny was thrown backwards by the immense wave of force, the Titans recoiling, as more and more power was drawn into the artifact and down into Sizzle, as her aura grew, expanded…and then snapped out of Sam. The goth girl collapsed to the ground, unconscious, as Sizzle rose up above her, her body streaming brilliant fiery light.
"Sam." Danny said, as he got up and scrambled over to the girl, taking her up in his arms. "Sam? Sam?"
Sam did not reply, but her face was peaceful. Danny looked down at her, feeling relieved…and yet saddened. The poor girl had been through so much…all because of him.
No.
All because of Sizzle.
Danny looked up as the power continued to pour in, as all the women and girls in the miles and cities around Amity Park suddenly stopped what they were doing and collapsed. And while this caused a fair share of accidents and tragedies…Danny and the Titans couldn't think of that, as the power continued to be drawn to Sizzle, her form growing, as the light shone ever brighter…and brighter…
And then it ended with a gigantic flash that blinded the Titans and Danny, and they recoiled away from the light…and then it was gone.
The Titans didn't want to look, but they had to.
Sizzle floated there, a changed being. She was nearly ten feet tall now…and her body…it looked…
"Human flesh?" Savior said to Cyborg, not sure what had happened. "She gave herself flesh again?"
"That's not organic." Cyborg said as his eyes scanned Sizzle. "That's fire."
"THAT'S FIRE?" Savior said incredulously, unable to believe that Sizzle's new form wasn't skin, muscle, and bone, because it looked exactly like that.
"Yes, fire. Insanely precise controlled fire. Do you have any idea how much power it takes to command molecules like that in such a way that you can do it without focusing on it at all?"
"…Oh shit. Oh shittttt…" Savior said, as he looked at Sizzle, the newly made over Sizzle. Previously, her whole body had been fire, a shifting red mass that had a human shape. Now…the fire was only obvious on the "clothing", as Sizzle was clad in a long, flowing dress of crimson flame (rather like Spawn's cape). Her hair, formally in a vague ponytail shape, was now loose, and flowed around her head, a more deeper, blood-red flame. Everything else looked like a human: the legs, the arms…the face…the eyes.
The Sumerian artifact was now pinned to the center of Sizzle's chest, as she raised her arms and looked at her hands, formerly crude shapes of flame, now perfectly formed fingers.
"…I am complete." Sizzle said.
And that wasn't hyperbole.
"I…the power. I feel it. All the things they hid from the male species. All their anger, all their resentment, all their injustices…everything you sinned against them with…" Sizzle said. She ignored that there was a lot of positive emotions mixed in with all the negativity: Sizzle only saw what she wanted to see.
Danny slowly stood up, putting himself between Sizzle and Sam, and the flame being's eyes caught the movement and she looked down at Danny.
"Oh no…oh no…" Raven said. It was worse then she thought. The sorceress now had a vague idea how the spell had worked in the old days: the caster would use it to call upon the strength of his fellows, and the artifact would take the power of the group and add it together in the caster, making him or her a mighty warrior. But the difference between that and this was that in those days, the caster would have taken power from others who had willingly given it, and only taken so much, both so the others could fight and so the caster didn't draw too much power into him or herself. If they took too much, their body wouldn't be able to handle it.
But a ghost had no such built in limits. So while the casters in the ancient days of yore might have only been able to drain perhaps twenty or thirty others before running the risk of harming or killing themselves…Sizzle had been able to claim the power of hundreds of thousands of women. And since Sizzle hadn't properly limited the spell, she'd essentially sucked every woman in god knows how far of everything they had, their very soul.
It was like how Murdercrow's anger had been absorbed by the T-Tower and caused it to act like a power battery and enhancer for her…only this was about a hundred times worse. And it chilled her to the bone.
Such fear was in Danny's heart too…but he did not let it overwhelm him. He couldn't, not even now.
Sizzle was looking down on him with an expression he'd never seen before…apathy. As if…he didn't matter anymore. Much like an ant wouldn't matter to a dinosaur.
But that didn't last, as Sizzle smirked.
"Don't think this changes anything Sizzle!" Danny yelled. "I'll take you down!"
"Sizzle?" Sizzle replied. "A sizzle is the sound of meat frying. It does not fit me any more. I am so much more then that now…" Sizzle said, as she raised her arms. "I am the Lord and Master of the Inferno, now utterly and truly! I am a goddess of the blaze! A deity of fire, a flame queen…flame queen…what was that Latin word for queen…dea…Flame Dea…Flammadea…Flammadea. A far more fitting name. Has a nice…ring." The newly rechristened Flammadea said, as she looked back down on Danny. "I have always dreamed to destroy mankind…now that dream is truly within my grasp! I can remake the world as I see fit! All that I wish will be mine! And you know what I wish first, Danny Fenton?" Flammadea yelled, as she threw back her arm. "REVENGE!"
The Titans never had time to help Danny, and even if they had it wouldn't have mattered, as Flammadea thrust out her hand.
All the previous streams of fire Flammadea had thrown had been about the size of her arm or slightly larger.
This blast of white fire was the size of a skyscraper.
Danny recoiled, throwing himself down on Sam, trying to guard her…and then he vanished in the disintegrating white line, the blaze consuming him and Sam and burning a huge line across the town of Amity Park. There was no explosion: just a complete and utter vaporizing of everything that was three hundred feet in front of Flammadea…including Danny and Sam.
And then the fire was gone. The Titans drew back from their recoil, and Cyborg wondered why they weren't dead too: such a blast of large, intense flame should have roasted them just as a dead as Danny, considering how close they were to it.
Except…it was thrown by Sizzle. Who had utter mastery over fire. Including what it burned and what it didn't. The fact that she could throw out such a huge blast of heat and only destroy what she wanted…that didn't give Cyborg any comfort. It only made him realize how powerful she was. And that she had more planned for the Titans then a simple disintegration from collateral damage.
"Heh heh heh heh heh…" Flammadea laughed, as she lowered her arm, as the smoke and dust cleared to reveal nothing but scorched ground before her. "COME BACK FROM THAT, YOU SON OF A BITCH! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Aw no…Danny…" Savior said: unlike last time, his emotions were more tug of war, as he had just seen Danny and thought him dead, and then he was alive again, and now…it looked like he was dead again…and Savior couldn't waste time worrying about the fate of Danny Fenton. Sizzle, er, Flammadea had super-ultra-omega charged herself up, and if she got a full handle on the power she had now…
"CYBORG! FREEZE HER!" Savior yelled, and Cyborg remembered that he'd been charging up his ice cannon all this time, and since Sizzle was out of Sam and calling herself Flammadea now, he figured now was the best time to use it, as he aimed and fired.
Flammadea turned and saw the giant blast coming. All she did was smirk.
"No." She said, as she held out her hand. A small line of fire flew from her palm and struck the ice beam, stopping it dead. Cyborg poured on the power, but the small line of flame didn't budge an inch, and Cyborg had to eventually stop before he overloaded all his systems.
"Shit! That kind of chill would freeze the plasma on the surface of a star!" Cyborg cursed.
"What say you now, Titans?" Flammadea laughed. "Do you actually wish to fight me?"
Savior didn't answer. He just looked around at his teammates…and then he gestured. They knew what that meant.
TITANS, GO.
With a combined battle cry, the Titans flew at Flammadea.
The flame goddess just flew away, laughing madly.
"So, you do not understand. Very well then! You wish to take up arms against a being such as me? Then I shall provide you with a most glorious Armageddon!" Flammadea laughed, as she raised her hands.
Fire exploded on her being, fire that stopped the Titans and drove them back from the insane heat, as Sizzle laughed and concentrated her power onto her right fist.
"LET THE HEAVENS BURN!"
And she zapped down to the ground, as she raised her fist and slammed it against the Earth.
A colossal pillar of fire exploded up from around her and tore up into the sky, piercing into the dark clouds that gathered over Amity Park, power zapping and crackling through them…and then they split open and erupted.
"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHITTTTTTTTTTT!" Savior screamed as massive fireballs began to fall from the sky like hailstones. "RAIN OF FIRE!"
Indeed it was, as the fireballs began crashing down on Amity Park, exploding the ground around the Titans as they dove for cover. Several blocks around where the Titans and Flammadea were immediately consumed in an inferno that began to spread immediately.
Fire rained down. Amity Park burned.
And Flammadea floated up, laughing, glorying in her newly acquired godhood.
Savior had another phrase from his studies of war: for hell to be brought to the surface of the Earth. It meant to represent the destruction Nazi Germany had wrought in its attempts to conquer the world. But it was just a metaphor.
But as everything burned around them…
And Flammadea laughed and laughed…
Savior realized he was seeing the reality of the phrase.
And he also realized he probably wouldn't live long enough to see it for long.
