Chapter 18: Symphony For The Devil

"We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."

Mother Teresa

Evil never dies.

The flesh that holds it may cease to function, the heart may no longer beat, the brain may no longer be active, the body no longer alive…but the darkness within these forms does not fade with the biological aspects that defined life.

It lives on. Sometimes in others, people and beings scarred by the actions that the evils have perpetuated against them, and sometimes in minions, subordinates, admirers, worshippers, those for whom evil has struck a chord in and whose eyes have become taken with a particular vision of a madman or monster, and sometimes just because the evil has existed, unrecognized and cloaked in a façade, for so long that many simply cannot accept it for what it really is.

Genghis Khan slaughtered hundreds of thousands in his quest to rule all of Asia, but in the process he slept with and raped so many women that today nearly sixteen million people are his direct and indirect descendants. Perhaps his genetic code carries no curse of savagery and megalomania…but the DNA that formed the terrible Mongol conqueror lives on centuries after the Khans' empires crumbled to dust alongside the Roman and Ottoman ones…

Hitler may have been dead for decades, but Nazism and his creed live on in others, people who truly believe that the source of all evil comes from religious creeds and skin color, claiming genetic superiority over nearly all, despite the fact that modern science has proven that at the base level there is no genetic difference between any part of the human race. They will not, cannot listen to these hard facts: their prejudice and hatred is far sweeter to them. And hence does the greatest evil of the twentieth century lives on beyond the grave…

And while civic rights and social equality may seemingly have been established in the Western world, the prejudice that reigned for centuries beforehand lives on, in the hearts of many. The truth does not matter: the lies have been told too often, for too long, by too many. The lie has become the truth, the truth the lie, the fear and hatred so deep and ingrained that in some places it seems to be in the soil, the water, the very air itself. Perhaps it will take centuries of reverse thinking to finally change this…or maybe the sense of superiority and abhorrence will live forever, too intertwined with the normal thinking process to ever be cut out, to ever be fully exterminated…

Evil never dies.

And in this world…that can be quite literal…

Robin screamed in utter agony as the Lord, utilizing a cruel mechanical tool, ripped into his leg. The Lord had finally begun the final stage of his plan, and to do so he needed something from every Titan, the teen superheroes whom he had just defeated with the aid of his allies. With Robin, he needed some of the Teen Wonder's highly developed muscle tissue, and he didn't really care what he did or damaged in the boy to get it. Robin, trained by Batman, had been taught a few base techniques for resisting torture, but the Lord didn't want any information. He just wanted spare parts.

And something else. Something no one ever knew.

Robin was too swept up in his agonizing to even notice the Lord glancing back over his shoulder, looking at his teammates. Checking something he is sure is right, but better safe then sorry.

He was right in what he supposed: none of his teammates were paying attention, or at least in a way that would have caused him trouble. Murdercrow is blind, but she has turned away from the torture, as has Shadowmaster. The two may have been cold-blooded killers, but they were also neat, efficient killers, preferring to strike precise, bloodless lethal blows to kill their opponents, breaking necks and sending fatal electing shocks into brainstems, throwing knives at a distance and shattering spines in precise spots. They were killers, but they were not sadists, and this tableau held no interest to them…

And Sizzle…Sizzle is the exact opposite, as could be expected. But it will not save her, for she is TOO far to the other end. While Murdercrow and Shadowmaster have turned away, Sizzle stood there, her eyes closed, drinking in Robin's suffering. She looked almost to be on the verge of orgasm as she silently but greatly reveled in the male teenager's torture. She did not pay attention to the actual scene: she was too busy enjoying it.

None of his allies were watching. Neither was Robin: incredible pain tends to be rather off-putting for acute analysis, and the rest of the Titans, restrained as well, were not in a position to see clearly.

So no one saw it when the Lord reached a hand up and made a slight, ever so slight, adjustment to Robin's restraints. Indeed, even if the rest of Genocide HAD been paying attention, they might have thought the Lord was just making sure Robin's restraints were holding up under his thrashing.

But that was not what the Lord had done. Oh no.

Sometimes, it is the smallest acts that will bring about the final metamorphosis of the greatest evils. Events no one could have ever conceived of playing a role in the future. But as a famous movie said, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. Perhaps the second greatest trick is to hide the events of the most important meaning in the tiniest machinations…

For you see…as mentioned, the Lord had lied to Sizzle, lied to all his allies on the nature of the ritual. They believed they would all acquire great power, when the truth was only the Lord would achieve the godhood he had promised them all. And to ensure that none of them were the wiser…the Lord had very, very carefully planned these final moments.

Murdercrow was in love with him, this he knew. And she would be needed for his ritual. And Shadowmaster, the fool, was in love with Murdercrow: what The Lord planned to do would throw him and prevent him from making any kind of effective maneuver before the Lord neutralized him. But Sizzle…Sizzle was too wary, too paranoid, too eager to find the opening she had been craving for months. There were too many variables for the psychotic pyrokinetic: she could mess everything up and destroy everything the Lord had worked so hard for if he attempted to take her out himself.

So he subcontracted that task to the Titans.

He knew Robin, knew the obsessions that drove him. He knew that Robin, if given a heads up on a deadly danger, would do everything to stop it. Anything.

Including dislocate his own shoulder to get free. And most likely some use of the Birdarang hidden in his boot, the Birdarang Robin probably hoped the Lord had missed in the search. Silly boy. Missing things was a human failing.

But if the Lord had never adjusted the restraints…even Robin would have been unable to get free. His slight tweaking of the bonds opened that door for Robin.

A door the Lord knew Robin would take. And once he was free, he was sure he'd get his allies free somehow. They would take care of Sizzle. Especially if the Lord gave them a period of grace by offering the Titans for Sizzle to torture for her own amusement. She needed to do that: if she went too long without inflicting pain on men Sizzle's psychosis started to gnaw away at her. He'd purposely denied her any relief for a bit so she would jump at the chance, and try and do something big to make up for lost time, something big that would most likely take her out of the room to find the necessary instruments to pull it off.

Which is just what he did. And which is just what she did.

With her occupied, the Lord could complete his ritual and deal with Murdercrow and Shadowmaster in the process. Once the Titans dealt with Sizzle, they'd come after him…except by then it'd be too late. Then he'd deal with the Titans, and then pop down and deal with Sizzle to tie off any loose ends. And then he'd purge of the world of human waste.

In the end though, the Lord never had to deal with Sizzle. The Titans did that. It was an accident, but it did not change the fact that in the end the terribly abused girl was lying dead at their feet. A death that almost seemed happy: a final escape from a pain none of the Titans could ever comprehend.

Except…there was no escape.

Sometimes evil is too vague and ill defined to die. Sometimes it is too far spread. Sometimes it is just too persuasive…

And sometimes…it is carried by a force so great and insidious that none of the natural laws of life can stand before it…not even death…

The peace was short lived.

Awareness soon returned, followed by great confusion. Followed by adaptation…and a realization that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

As Sizzle re-awoke to a sense of existing, slowly began to reorient herself, she slowly realized she was dead…and yet she still suffered. She no longer had a body, no bones, no muscles, no organs…and no nerves…but pain like hers was more then a series of signals in a biological construct.

She may have died, but her agony lived, clawing within her. And as she realized it, that it had followed her all the way…and that even dead, it had no longer failed to leave her but still exerted it's greatest cruel trick on her…she went mad all over again.

She tried to escape it, even as she tried to adjust to this new state of being, her human perceptions trying to adapt to this otherworldly realm she had found herself in. She never really understood where she was…

Was she in Hell? It did not seem like hell, at least not in the traditional sense…but then again, hellfire and brimstone would have been delightful to her, as she discovered her fire powers still worked, though nothing could really burn on this strange plane of existence…but perhaps that showed it WAS Hell, tailor fit for her…except she did not seemed confined, hemmed in. She did not seemed trapped in one place, and hence she went many places. And everywhere she went, new strangeness…and new dangers. But she had learned too much in life to be threatened in death…learned everything except how to escape her pain.

How to escape what it did to her, no matter how much she loathed it.

Nothing brought relief to it. No matter where she went, what she did, what she learned…it never left. It was a fire she couldn't enjoy, burning within her…and yet…

It was something she could not extinguish or smother...and yet…

It was who she was…and who she would always be, for eternity…for if she was already dead, what else could she do to escape it?

And yet…

Madness piled on madness…anger fed on anger…as mere emotions grew, changed, mutated, turned into a force that was as powerful as nature and yet defied it…as Sizzle grew to crave one thing. Escape. She had to find a way back to the realm of the living. And once she was back…if she was doomed to suffer, then everyone was going to suffer with her. She'd find a way to ensure they all felt the pain alongside her. If she would never be at peace, then NO ONE WOULD!

And one day, she found her way out.

And she had learned much in her wanderings. Including of spirits who had crossed over, what they could do, what they should do. And as if blessed by a dark god, Sizzle did not need to look for any of it when she escaped. It was right there, waiting for her: a female, her new body, her instrument of revenge upon the world and the male species that ran it, the male species that had condemned her to this hellish existence.

And a boy…a living boy…the first member of the male species, something that she could finally begin to take her wrath and torment out on…

The rest has been told.

Evil has almost completed its journey. It has become everything it ever could be. It commands the power to do as it wills and the will to do some very bad things indeed. And it will…for it always does…always…

Evil, once again, threatens the world.

And now, in its latest form, evil prepares to take the final step that all great powers aspire to: the subjugation and destruction of any and all who oppose them…


But…in all of history, whenever evil has attempted its final stepping stone…there has always been something, ready and waiting, to make them stumble.

Though, as the crimson and green light engulfed the street of Amity Park where Flammadea and Danny had clashed, you could hardly call what Flammadea was doing stumbling. Indeed, she was completely in control of herself as she flew back out and back from the light, doing a slow flip and then floating as she raised a hand, a finger pointing skyward, as a ball of flame began to appear above her. That previous blow had been a test of power, and while she'd been blown back she was certain Danny had been blown back more: this flame blast she was charging would change him from blown back to blown up…

Danny shot out from the light like a bullet, his legs having disappeared into a misty trail as he lanced at Flammadea. Her eyes widened.

His blow struck her across the face and sent her crashing down into the crater she had made when she had blown away the Titans. Dust and smoke plumed up, briefly, from her impact, as Danny's trail reformed back into his legs, as he swooped down to where Flammadea was.

Flammadea had gotten up, at least in a technical sense: she'd actually reformed her fire body into a standing position. But her expression hadn't changed: she was shocked. Danny had hit her.

And Danny knew it, and he couldn't help grinning at the why. He'd caught a few brief glimpses of the battle as he tried to find a safe place for Sam, and he'd seen the Titans' blows proving utterly ineffective against Flammadea's fire spirit form. After all, you couldn't punch, kick, or shoot fire, so how could you fight it?

But Danny Phantom wasn't the Titans. His Halfa powers granted him an ability even Raven did not possess: Flammadea's fire, by the nature of her current existence, was supernatural, imbued with the essence of the spirit world. The same essence that had been fused into Danny's DNA. An invented on the spot variant of this power had allowed Danny to strike Sizzle while she was in Sam's body, his ghost self and him working side by side but not fused. Now they were fused again, and Danny could feel the power that it brought him. The power that, among other things, allowed him to strike Flammadea if she was an actual physical being.

Apparently, Flammadea had forgotten this fact, as she stared at Danny in shock, and just a tiny bit of horror. Absolute power and supposed invulnerability can go to one's head quite swiftly, to the point where the past, even the most recent of it, is forgotten. To Flammadea, the fact that she had not recently been touched meant she could not be touched. Now that she had…

"What's wrong Flammadea?" Danny flippantly asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

The shock was gone: the rage was exploding back full bore, as Flammadea screamed and leapt at Danny, fire trailing behind her body as she zapped at him, a horizontal meteor, a being so dangerous and violent that seemingly the gates of Tarturus itself did not want to admit her.

Flammadea slashed out a hand at Danny: he dodged away from it, zapping to the side. With a shriek, Flammadea instantly changed directions to go after him, a blade of flame appearing on her other arm as she closed the gap and slashed at the ghost teen. Danny turned intangible and the flaming sword went through him. As Flammadea's eyes widened, Danny returned to normal, his eyes flashing with his own fire as he punched Flammadea in the gut, then slammed his elbow down onto the reared over Flammadea's back, then slashed up his leg in a leaping axe kick, smashing Flammadea into the air.

Flammadea recovered in mid-air and screamed again as she reared back and thrust out her hands, firing a burning stream of fire at Danny. It struck the ground where he was and exploded.

As Danny reappeared, above and behind Flammadea. She barely caught the movement, as she turned her head, astonished.

Danny slammed his laced together hands down on Flammadea, sending her crashing down into the ground like a comet, and then flew down into the dust and smoke, pistoning out his fist towards the thrashing flame goddess…

Whose body swhirled away from the blow and reformed as Flammadea, with another savage cry, delivered a cracking kick to Danny's chest, sending him tumbling across the crater. Flammadea flew after Danny, as she began throwing fireball after fireball from her hands. As Danny flipped over, the balls began exploding around him. Danny leapt up through the explosions, as green energy blazed into being on his hand. He fired a powerful ectoblast at Flammadea…whose body swirled into a spiraling line of fire, avoiding the blast as she corkscrewed through the air and reformed a dozen feet away, her face materializing...as Danny appeared in front of her, charging another ectoblast. Flammadea's eyes widened again.

The point blank attack blasted Flammadea back into the crater, rock and smoke exploding up from where she impacted.

Danny floated down to the ground, as with a blast of fire and heat Flammadea exploded up from where she had been thrown. He watched, calmly, as Flammadea glared murder at him, even as more fire ignited on her hands and then went from red to a brilliant white. She then slashed out her hand, and giant crescents of white fire, deadly daggers of flame, flew out from her fingers, slicing towards Danny, their edges carving into the ground as they flew towards their target, eager to slice him into cooked meat sections.

Danny leapt into the air and began to spin, as his body twisted and distorted itself around the slashing blades, his limbs making impossible contortions as parts of his body went from solid matter to wispy nothingness, just for a second…as he dodged all the white fire blades…And flew right into the fire whip, the white line of flame wrapping around him as he twirled out from his last dodge. Danny yelled in surprise, andFlammadea grinned as she prepared to contract the whip and both crush and burn Danny…

And then he started spinning, and Flammadea shrieked as she was yanked upward, as Danny did his impression of a yo-yo and wound the fiery 'string' around him, pulling Flammadea to him…and then, as she drew close, still unsure what to do, he let out a bellow and green energy exploded from around him, dissipating the flame encircling him even as he completed his final twirl and slammed his fist across Flammadea's face, sending her shooting across the sky.

Danny blasted after Flammadea, as she recovered from her trip and looked at Danny with blazing eyes as he flew at her…and then suddenly, as he was getting close, he interrupted his straight line path, stopping for a length of time too brief to measure and then altering his path about thirty degrees, flying around Flammadea in a tight arc, and before Flammadea knew it Danny had done a circle around her and was now above her. Flammadea whirled around, trying to catch Danny as she hurled an arcing flame blast at him, but by then Danny was long gone from his previous position, the flame blast missing him as he shot down at a severe angle and slammed his foot into Flammadea's face. She flew across the crater and crashed into the edge of it, and a section of street and shattered building broke off from the lip and crumbled down on her.

Danny flew down before the pile of wreckage as Flammadea blasted it off her with an enraged bellow, and no sooner was she free then she was lancing at Danny, slashing and clawing at his face, but every time she threw a blow Danny was somewhere else, as he flew backwards, rapidly dodging her clawing arms...

And then flaming tendrils erupted from Flammadea's back, arcing up and down at insane speed as deadly blades appeared on the ends of them, as Flammadea tried to scorpion-impale Danny to the ground… The points slammed into the ground as Danny leapt up to avoid them, the twin appendages forming a V shape to stab him as Danny had dodged into the open space of the V, which put him parallel with Flammadea's again shocked face...and then Danny flipped backwards, slamming his legs up and smashing them across Flammadea's face. She flew up into the sky like a bullet.

Danny completed his flip and blasted up after Flammadea, who as usual recovered fast and faced herself towards Danny. Her eyes still blazing rage (hell they hadn't STOPPED blazing rage), Flammadea snapped out her arms and they extended like Mr. Fantastic, her fiery hands lancing down towards the ghost teen as he flew up towards her. With a last second spiral dodge, Danny zipped around the extending arms and flew true, as he rammed both his fists into Flammadea's torso.

As mentioned, Flammadea no longer breathed like a human and hence didn't have wind to be knocked out of her, but Danny's blow had a similar effect on her body, as she was doubled over by the blow. Her mouth opened, and if she had been organic, perhaps blood would have come out: instead all that came out was a surprised gasp, even as she continued to fly up a bit, Danny still pressing up against her, his fists grinding into her body.

Snarling, Flammadea's long extended flame arms wisped into nothing as Flammadea got rid of the excess length and grabbed at Danny with her hands…

And then Danny turned intangible, flying up through Flammadea, his continued pressure now making sense as he went right through the fire deity, her grabbing hands missing him as he reappeared above her, his fist clenching…

Flammadea turned around.

Danny's downward punch rang through the air and sent Flammadea back into the ground again. Dust exploded more then a hundred feet into the air from the impact, and then began to settle down, as Danny flew back down to where the impact had been. He said nothing, and his face betrayed nothing.

Fire blew away the last of the dust as Flammadea reappeared once more. Her anger remained, but now it was marred by something.

Disbelief.

Danny cocked his head, looking at the spirit.

"That the best you got?"

Flammadea goggled at Danny.

And then she answered, with another shriek, as she flew up and at him, going towards him at an upward arc, as if she planned to stop and fire down upon him…except Danny took off at the same arc, putting the two on a collision course. The two slammed together, furiously exchanging punches, kicks, slashes, and anything they could think of, as each side fired off and dodged blows, the irresistible force once again meeting the unmovable object.

Flammadea finally landed an upward roundhouse kick, and as Danny was thrown back she snapped out an arm and fired three quick fireballs at him. Danny recovered, and as the flame blasts closed in he slashed out his left arm, knocking one away, then his right arm, knocking away the second, and then he flipped backwards and kicked the third blast back at Flammadea. The fireball flew back into the flame queen, its essence being reabsorbed into her…but she was still surprised by Danny's ultra-quick counter…which allowed him to complete his flip, his hands now charged with green energy, and fire off a twin handed ectoblast at Flammadea. It struck her and exploded.

Tendrils of flame lanced out from the explosion, stabbing at Danny: he whirled and dodged to avoid them…and realized too late they weren't an attack, they were a feint, as the fire appendages combined behind Danny and reformed into Flammadea, as she did another "checkerboard warp". Now it was Danny's turn to turn around…

Flammadea slammed into Danny, her hand grabbing his throat, intense heat scorching the delicate skin, as the two barreled down into the crater again. They struck the dirt and rock with another powerful impact, throwing up another cloud of dust…

Flammadea and Danny flew from the cloud, once again furiously exchanging blows, as Danny ducked, dodged, and flew away from multiple appendages of flame, as Flammadea's right hand again exploded with white fire and she punched at him. Danny leapt to the side as the punch struck the ground and exploded. Flammadea was already on her next move, as she too darted to the side and slashed out her leg at Danny's lower body, but Danny was still a step ahead of her, as he leapt forward and up, over her kick and her form, spinning in mid air to face her as one of his hands ignited green…

The blast blew Flammadea across the crater, though this time she kept her standing position, as she slid back along the rocky ground like she was skating on an ice rink. After several dozen feet she stopped, strands of green power wisping off her, as her expression alternated between insane rage and utter disbelief.

Danny flew at her, and as her eyes flashed in fury Flammadea thrust out a hand and fired off another gigantic blast of white flame, the fire enveloping Danny and flying on to blast another chunk of Amity Park into the side of the crater…

And then Danny's ethereal form emerged from the end of the blast, his body regaining its tangibility as he lashed out and slammed his fist into Flammadea's gut, and then stopped, spun down, and slashed out his leg, knocking Flammadea off her feet and onto the ground before she knew what was happening, and then Danny leapt up and spun twice in the air before he slammed down, knee first, crushing Flammadea's chest under his bludgeoning blow. Flammadea's fire form, lacking bones to break or muscles to bruise, actually acted more like Jell-O, a very firm Jell-O that flattened out from Danny's blow, a blow that rang through Flammadea's whole body as she gasped…and then vanished into flame, fire that instantly flowed up and reformed into Flammadea's shape, her body once again ten feet tall like she had been when she had first obtained her power, her right arm a gigantic fire sword, as she reared back with a scream and stabbed it out at Danny…

Danny leapt up to avoid the sword, and as he did he slashed out his left leg, the limb slamming into the side of Flammadea's head, and even as she began to react to the blow Danny, his left leg still against Flammadea's head, snaked his right leg over her hair and slammed it against the other side of her skull, and as Danny's ankles clamped onto her head Flammadea's eyes widened and her mouth opened as she started to scream…as Danny yanked as hard as he could, pulling her off her feet as he fell down, pulling Flammadea with him…

And slamming her against the ground with his legs, headfirst, and a gigantic explosion of power erupted up from the impact blow, consuming both of them in brilliant energy.

Danny flew out of the explosion of light, doing a tightly coiled backwards somersault as he flew up and back, landing about thirty feet away. He set himself down, his face hard, and waited.

You would think he would be pleased on how things were going, but the truth was, Danny wasn't. Sure, he appeared to be winning…but that didn't change the fact that there was still a rain of fire pouring down on his city (though none had come close to Danny yet, but still, he didn't want to be fighting and then get blown out of the sky due to a wayward missile), or…what Flammadea was. He may have been winning, but there was a difference between battles and wars.

But Danny knew how to end this war. In the end he couldn't think of any other way. There was no Thermos, no way to keep Flammadea confined, especially after her Sumerian charge up. And there was no way to reason with her, no way to find a halfway point or a truce.

Yet…Danny would not yet…

The smoke cleared, as Flammadea slowly floated up from her latest small crater. Danny arched an eyebrow. For one thing, she was back to 'normal' size, and another, the intense fury that had covered her face for their entire up until then fight was gone. It was almost like she had made peace with the fact that Danny could actually battle her…and he knew she wouldn't be doing that. That sharpened his senses, and put his body in a combat pose, as he waited.

"Well." Flammadea said. "Learned a few new tricks have we? Did you go to some weird realm of the dead where time flows differently and train under some mystical being for years and then come back at almost the exact instant you left? No, of course not. Who could believe that kind of nonsense?" Flammadea said, and rolled her neck. Cracking noises sounded from it, and since Flammadea had no bones, Danny had to wonder what was making them.

"Well, don't you look all determined and proud." Flammadea continued, as she rolled her fingers. "I guess I'll have to take you seriously."

Danny's eyes widened.

And then Flammadea was right in his face.

"Boo."

The uppercut sounded like a thunder crack, as Flammadea slashed her arm up so fast Danny never saw what hit him: one moment he was on the ground and the next he was flying up and back like a rock thrown from a volcano. He flew out of the crater and crashed through the upper floors of a building before he flew out the other end and fell to the concrete in a storm of broken glass. He landed on a car, crushing it, as a wheezing scream came from his mouth. Barely, he had enough sense to form a brief shield to keep any falling glass from slicing him, and then his arms fell as his whole body went limp for a second, as Danny struggled to breath. A terrible pain burned in his chest where she had struck him.

He'd been a fool. He should have known the battle was going too well. If Flammadea had taken down the Titans, a group that had defeated at least four messianic-esque beings, what chance did he have alone…

No. He had as much of a chance as he made for himself. He couldn't whine or curl up in a ball and hope the bad thing went away. He had to stand, and he had to fight, no matter what people thought the odds might be. He had to do it, for his family and Tucker and Sam.

Danny rolled off the car, fighting to get strength back in his body, fighting against the pain in his chest. He coughed and then cracked his neck again, looking up.

And then Flammadea floated down at the end of the street, her fiery dress, hair, and tendrils wisping around her, her face looking pleased.

That expression was all it took for Danny to regain his righteous rage, as he yelled and green power erupted on his hands. He slammed his wrists together and fired a powerful ectoblast down the long street at Flammadea.

She didn't move an inch, as the ectoplasmic energy shot at her. Instead, she reared back an arm…and whacked the blast aside, like she was swatting a fly. The power shot flew to the side and blew up another convenience store, but Danny had already forgotten it, as his feet left the ground and he flew at Flammadea, his fist cocking back as he screamed again.

"Such heroic nonsense." Flammadea said, and raised her hands. A ball of fire appeared between them, flashing white and growing to the size of a pumpkin, and then Flammadea fired off the blast at Danny, far faster then he had anticipated: he could not dodge. Instead, he stopped his charge and thrust out his hands, trying to do what he had done previously and force the fireball away from him. But this blast of flame was far more powerful then the ones he had smacked away before, and instead of deflecting it Danny felt himself being pushed back by it, as powerful force-waves erupted from the ball and shattered the concrete and building windows around him, pounding the stone under his feet to powder and sending it pluming up along the street, a giant wave of dust erupting higher then the buildings, and then Danny had reached the end of the T-Shaped junction and he knew he had nowhere left to go so he gathered his power and commanded it to stop…

The ball exploded, the blast sending walls of flame shooting down the three junctions of the road, smashing against the buildings that lurked around the crux of the and knocking them askew. Danny's form was consumed by the blast and by falling wreckage, as a large plume of smoke bloomed up from the detonation.

Had anyone been watching from above the city, and been an avid video fanatic, the blast might have reminded them of a game of Bomberman.

This certainly wasn't a game though…at least, not to Danny. Hell, this wasn't a game to anyone except the initiator, Flammadea, as she floated towards the shattered street corner where Danny had stopped, stopping herself about twenty or so feet away from the fading smoke.

Danny was revealed, his arms crossed before him, his outfit shredded at the forearms and an angry red underneath. Danny lowered his limbs, wincing in pain. His ghost ability, the same one that let him actually hit Flammadea, also seemed to afford him protection from Flammadea's supernatural fire. A human would have been vaporized to nothing from the explosion: instead Danny just had some badly burned forearms and a slightly singed outfit. He certainly wasn't jumping for joy though, as he looked at Flammadea. His intense look was now marred by a slight bleary expression, the gaze of someone trying to put a brave face on pain and fear.

Flammadea smirked at him.

"…What the hell are you?" Danny said. It was all he could think of in regards to this situation, him standing here on the street, surrounded by battered buildings and swirling smoke, looking at the lunatic spirit who had turned his whole life upside down the past few days.

Flammadea just smirked again.

And then suddenly she was right in front of him, again. Danny's eyes widened as she once again zipped right up against him without him detecting the slightest movement.

"Allow me to introduce myself." Flammadea said, as she bowed slightly. "I'm a girl of wealth and taste."

And then she slashed out her left arm, her slicing fist striking Danny in the side of the head before he knew what was happening, as he started to stumble to the side, and even as he did Flammadea thrust out her left foot and slammed it into Danny's ankles, and Danny found himself with his feet off the ground and his body doing a mid-air cartwheel from the impact…

And then Flammadea began firing off rapid punches, dozens of blows that immobilized Danny in his upside down position, Danny being blitzkrieged under the impacts before Flammadea slashed her foot up and kicked Danny high into the sky, Danny shot up into the air above Amity Park like a rocket. Fighting through the pain, Danny tried to recover, trying to remember which way was up, as he spun around and tried to get his bearings…

And then a fireball came down on him from the cloud. Danny's scream was swallowed by the explosion.

Flammadea floated up, her arms crossed, looking satisfied at this happy accident…if it was an accident. The smoke quickly blew away to reveal a battered Danny. But his eyes were once again clear, and with a growl he blasted at Flammadea.

He slashed out his foot at her head and hit nothing: Flammadea had dodged back. Danny spun and lashed out with a karate chop at her neck: Flammadea's body flowed down and away from the impact and reformed a few feet from Danny. Danny lanced forward, striking out with a great punch: his fist went through the last fading remnants of Flammadea's smiling features as she spiraled her flame away from the blow and reformed several feet distant. Danny growled and fired off an ectoshot: Flammadea's body spiraled away from that as well, the dissipating flame making sure Danny saw the mocking look on her face until the last moment where the blast went through where she was. Danny followed the amazingly fast line of fire with his eyes as it spiraled away another few dozen feet and reformed into Flammadea. Ectoplasmic energy re-ignited on Danny's hand, but Flammadea immediately began shifting away, her features already starting to be stretched out as her form was drawn off to somewhere else…

And a strange idea struck Danny.

"Find her!" He yelled, and then he fired the ectoblast, even as Flammadea began finishing up her fire trail warp, as the ectoblast flew forward…and then arced off at a ninety degree angle to the left, flew for a bit, then arced another ninety degrees and flew straight up, and another ninety as it flew on…

Flammadea began reforming in the distance, as the beam continued to arc and arc…and as Flammadea finished ameliorating herself, the blast made one last sharp turn and flew true. Flammadea's eyes widened in surprise that an ectoblast was still chasing after her, and this time she had no time to get away, as it struck her and exploded.

Danny lowered his arm, panting, though he didn't know why. Did such a tactic drain more power then usual? If it did, it wasn't worth it, as the energy was fading away, revealing Flammadea nothing the worse for wear unless you count her expression showing more irritation then before.

"Nice trick." Flammadea said. "Now let me show the power of REAL magic!"

And Flammadea reared back and thrust out her hand.

A gigantic blast of white fire flew from her hand, the same kind that had seemingly vaporized Danny and Sam earlier. The last time though, Danny had gotten away from it by phasing through the ground. This time, all he could do was phase out as the blast flew through him. Even intangible, he could feel its power rip through his body, and as the blast flew on and blasted a giant crater in the side of the mountain outside Amity Park he once again returned to the realm of flesh and blood, trying to recover from the sense of violation…

And then Flammadea was attacking, smashing her fist across Danny's face. Stars exploded in his vision, but Flammadea wasn't done yet, as she smashed another blow across his face, and then flipped forward and smashed her heels across his back and shoulder, sending Danny flying down to the roads of Amity Park again, smashing yet another hole in the besieged city's streets. He coughed again, pain wracking his form, and then he tried to force it back down, get back up and fight.

Blood flowed in a cut from his forehead, running down into his eyes and stinging them. He tried to blink it away, even as more blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, the salt working its way onto his tongue…

Forget the pain. Stand. Fight. Don't let her win…

Danny pushed himself up, wiping the blood from his forehead, and then Flammadea was back, floating in front of him, off in the distance. She had her arms crossed again, but in a slightly different position: her left hand was tucked under her right arm while her right arm was raised above her left elbow, fire glowing in her palm, the flames licking between her fingers.

"Dance." Flammadea said.

And she reared her right hand back and threw it forward, sending a spiraling oval of flame at Danny, the blast flying at him erratically and a high speed…but Danny had enough warning to move this time, as he leapt backwards away from it. The blast hit where he had been and exploded, blasting an explosion that extended twenty feet in radius as Danny flew backwards, about to land…

And then another oval blast was flying at Danny. Danny yelped and leapt again as soon as he landed, flying off to the side as the projectile struck the ground and exploded, sending cars flying and detonating from the heat, and even as Danny was flying through the air another blast was heading for him, as Danny bounced off the side of a building and flew back even more, the fire shot exploding against the side of the building and causing the five story structure to buckle inward and collapse, even as Danny landed and leapt backwards again as a forth shot headed for him, blasting another huge crater in the street.

Laughing, her hands throwing off shot after shot, Flammadea chased Danny with her attacks, as the boy frantically leapt and dodged away from the blasts, the explosions blowing a line of destruction and wreckage across the streets of downtown Amity Park.


A line of ruination that Sam Manson could see, all too well, on the hills outside Amity Park, where Danny had left her, halfway conscious, telling her she would be safe there. Sam had woken up fully just in time to see Flammadea's final attack against the Titans blow a massive crater in the middle of her home town, and as she had watched, the destruction had only grown, as Danny had rejoined the fight and Flammadea had begun kicking his ass six ways from Sunday, hell, seven ways. The demolition had zig-zagged back from the ground to the sky, including a huge blast in her direction that hadn't actually gone anywhere near Sam but she had still felt the heat as she threw herself to the ground, covering her ears as the mountain behind her was rocked with an explosion. Lifting herself up, Sam had watched in horror as the series of explosions had begun across Amity Park, toppling buildings and turning streets she had walked since childhood into charnel pits.

And…she knew she had to go back.

She did not know why. Chances are she would just get in the way, and besides, Amity Park, with its clashing forces and fire spewing cloud, was probably more dangerous then the battlefields of all the great wars of the 20th century. She should stay up here, where it was safe…

Unless Danny lost. Then no place was safe, anywhere on Earth. Perhaps others might defeat Flammadea, but Sam had been a part of her. And while she only had vague memories, she could remember the girl's anger. It was utterly inhuman, a living thing unto itself, nothing that would not yield, hesitate, or hold back in its lone goal: revenge against everything that Flammadea had been forced to go through due to the hands of men. Before Flammadea could be stopped, her wrath would do incalculable damage, take untold amounts of life…even the best and the brightest would be hard pressed to snuff out such an unholy vengeance…

Against it…even Danny…

She couldn't stay up here. Not when she could help, in some way, in ANY way. Perhaps this marked her as a foolish girl who did not understand reality, as Savior might have said…but she didn't care. She did what she thought was right. And she didn't back down. Not after Danny hadn't for her.

She started down the hill, heading back to the slowly growing disaster area that was Amity Park.


A disaster area that Flammadea was doing her best to add to, as she laughed and continued firing bolt after bolt of fiery destruction after Danny, the kid leaping like a mad jackrabbit to get away, as the fire blasts destroyed anything they struck, toppling buildings like they were made of Lego's and incinerating cars like they were the wood carvings of automobiles Boy Scout Troops sometimes made to race. She was a star, a red giant, a super nova, her fire consuming all before her. The world was as it should be, all things being made right.

Danny refused to be consumed though, as he leapt and bounced across the streets, trying to figure out a plan. He couldn't fly: the blasts homed in and in the air Danny would be a sitting (soaring?) duck. All he could do was jump and…what? Hope Flammadea ran out of power? He more expected Vlad to appear and confess that he killed John F. Kennedy before launching into a Hilary Duff song then he expected that to happen.

So he leapt on, his city breaking and burning around him…

And he decided, as he did a gigantic backwards flip and landed in the middle of a large intersection (ironically, the same intersection in which Danny had managed to detonate the first round of missiles the Fenton-copter had fired at him roughly ten million years ago), that this was it. He wasn't running any more.

And then, as Flammadea appeared over the building, and several more oval blasts of fire flew at him…the sanity of that decision suddenly became dubious. But Danny didn't have time to flip-flop: instead he struck a battle pose and screamed as he prepared to batter off the attacks.

He never had to, as his scream suddenly caused the blasts to veer off and away from him. Several powerful explosions erupted in front of, behind, and on the buildings above Danny…but none of the blasts hit him. The heat slammed against him, the wind blowing his hair around, and then the ever-present dust/smoke cloud swathed him…but he stood there, unharmed, as the smoke swiftly blew away.

Flammadea lowered herself down to his level, looking both interested and perturbed as Danny readjusted his position and got ready for her next move.

It wasn't long in coming, as Flammadea quickly grew amused again and raised her hands. Balls of white fire appeared glowing above them, even as twin tendrils of flame emerged from Flammadea's back and pointed over her like a scorpion's tail.

"Perhaps a straight out shot is needed." Flammadea said.

And she thrust all four appendages forward, and four lines of intense flame, two red, two white, shot at Danny, melting the street in a line below them, and as they closed in Danny watched them, even as sweat bloomed on his face, his right fingers slightly clenched as he watched the fire streams come, and he wondered what he was doing…

And then he saw the four blasts starting to come together to merge…

And somehow he knew what to do as he leapt forward, doing a spiraling spin, his body flying into the four blasts before they combined into one, his limbs somehow finding the closing gaps of the four flame blasts, and even as his limbs twisted away from the powerful flame expulsion he felt power shoot down his arm and concentrate in his palm, and he thrust it out and fired. This wasn't like his usual ectoblasts: this was much thinner, and much faster.

It struck Flammadea in the face and literally blew half her head off.

The fire lines immediately disappeared, as Danny did one last tight twirl and landed on his feet, looking at his handiwork, as Flammadea drew back into her normal position, half of her flaming countenance literally blasted into nothing. Her remaining eye showed all the shock she needed though.

"You know, I've heard of having half a mind, but this is ridiculous." Danny quipped. He couldn't help it.

He should have though, as new flame exploded in the gap and Flammadea's face quickly reformed, the restored expression once again blazing with vehemence.

"I'LL CUT YOU IN HALF!" Flammadea screamed, and thrust back her arm. A giant blade of flame, almost like a boomerang, formed above her head…a blade over twenty feet long. Danny's eyes widened. "FALL TO PIECES!"

"Why did I have to smart aleck, is it some kind of reflex action that comes with powers…!" Danny yelled to himself as he flew up and backwards as the deadly giant blade lanced at him. He'd have to time it just right or his Halfa status would take on a whole new meaning…

The blade closed in, and Danny lifted his legs and spun over the blade at the last second. As he recovered he watched the blade fly on down the street and sheer the building at the end of it in half. As the building collapsed on itself, Danny turned back to see that Flammadea was forming another one. Deciding that discretion was probably the better part of valor in this case, Danny flew to the left and down the street of the intersection.

He should have picked the other side: it was the same street he had flown down when he had disposed of the aforementioned first six Fenton-copter missiles and the reason he had done so the first time was because Flammadea, then Sizzle, had quickly found him with the Fenton-copter and gone after him once more.

The street appeared to be cursed, because the exact same thing happened. At least the last time, Danny made it to and around the corner.

This time, he never even made it to the corner, as a huge wall of fire exploded up before him and stopped him dead. The heat drove him back, and he whirled as Flammadea turned the corner, her anger having faded a bit but still quite apparent as she smirked and then slashed out her arm, sending off a smaller but still quite large and sharp flame blade at Danny.

And Danny, knowing he couldn't go back and would be sliced to ribbons if he stood still, decided this time on the other side of valor: attack in the face of great danger.

And he did, charging forward, dodging to the side at the last second to avoid Flammadea's flame blade, flying onward as Flammadea fired off blade after blade, the flying swords of fire ripping across the ground and buildings as they flew at Danny, as he did Starfire proud as he dodged and maneuvered around them…

Though not perfectly, as one wasn't evaded quick enough, the ultra-sharp and hot blade slicing open Danny at the shoulder. The pain shot through him, and interrupted his concentration enough for another to zip in and clip his ankle. Pain shot up Danny's leg, but this time he used it as fuel as he flew onward at Flammadea, who realized that Danny was getting too close for fire blades, and how had they all missed him in a fatal sense anyway?

Yelling, Danny attacked…and Flammadea zapped up into the sky at an angle, putting a few hundred feet between herself and Danny within a second. She clenched both sets of fingers, as Danny adjusted his position and flew up into the sky at her, power blazing down her arms and down across every digit, as she thrust her hands down.

Hundreds of mini-fireballs began raining down towards Danny, a mini version of the rain of fire that continued to pound Amity Park (and was on the verge of reaching the hospital).

Danny did not falter, as he flew up into the rain, dodging as best he could, but there were so many, as they slammed into his shoulders, his back, his arms, but Danny didn't back down. One struck his head and his hair briefly ignited and then went out from the wind shear of Danny's upward travel, as he closed in on Flammadea, yelling…

And then zapped to the side, up and around her, getting around her back…

And tendrils of fire shot out from Flammadea's back, reaching up and ensnaring Danny, the boy screaming as he was caught by surprise and burned. Flammadea smirked.

"Sorry kid. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…eh, fuck off."

And she hurled Danny through the air. He crashed into the upper floors of a thirty-story plus office building and tumbled through several cubicles of cheap furniture before coming to a stop.

"Heh." Flammadea said, as she turned to face the building, raising her arms up and bringing her hands together, concentrating.

In the office building, Danny shoved a broken desk off of him, blew a Dilbert comic that had settled on his face off, and then got up, trying to ignore the ache in his body and the burns on his skin.

Growling low in her throat, Flammadea began moving her hands apart, until the two had framed the building between her palms. Her eyes sparked.

"HAHHHHHHHHH!"

Danny felt a rumbling beneath his feet, and he frantically looked around for whatever/wherever Flammadea was planning to attack him with/from, as he flew up and darted his head in all directions.

Which is just what Flammadea assumed he would do, and it cost him.

The concrete around the office building shattered in a perfect square as a shimmering wave of blazing red heat energy flew up around the building. Danny recoiled with a yell as red power shot past his floor, shattering all the windows and hitting him with a wave of intense heat. Before Danny could do anything else the heat barrier had reached the top of the building and sealed itself up, completely encasing the structure in Flammadea's latest demonstration of power.

"The daily grind…how about the daily ground between my fingers?" Flammadea said to the air.

And then she slowly began moving her hands together.

The whole building spasmed as the heat energy suddenly began to contract, crushing in on the thick metal and stone walls of the edifice, the whole building shaking as the outside began to be simultaneously crushed and incinerated. Danny yelled in surprise again, and then decided he had no desire to see what it was like to be the inside of a soda can as he flew at the barrier outside the shattered windows.

And screamed as he was violently repulsed from the shield, as he slammed into it and was shoved back and burned in a few new places. He hit the ground and rolled a few more times before he sprang back into the air, as he heard Flammadea laugh above him.

"Trying to go intal kid? You can only do that so many times before a girl knows how to block it!"

Danny's stomach seized with fear, as cracks suddenly shot across the floor under him. He was trapped and if he didn't do something he'd soon learn what it felt like to be a sardine in a can. Gathering that since the barrier had been going up when he had seen it and hence closed off the roof, Danny opted for down, as he went ethereal again and flew into the floor.

He plunged down, through story after story, as the building continued to be crushed in Flammadea's merciless grip. The forces being exerted on the building caused the floors and walls to buckle violently, throwing everything on them through the air, and after a few floors Danny found himself flying through a storm of debris with each level…a storm that kept getting more and more concentrated as the building continued to be compacted in on itself…

And then the red strand erupted from the wall, just as Danny emerged from his latest ceiling. He never saw it coming, as it smacked into him despite his intangible state and knocked him through a wall with a scream. Confused, he tried to turn intangible, forgetting he was ALREADY intangible and hence just turned tangible again…just in time for him to crash into the storage shelves in the room he'd been knocked into, falling to the floor just before all the stuff on the storage room shelves collapsed on him, even as the walls around him shattered like a thin piece of wood being clamped end to end in a vise.

Danny fell through the floor as he briefly did a "flicker" intangible, landing on the tiled floor below as he coughed violently. His mind reeled as the building shook, as he tried to gather himself…and then another pillar of fiery power plunged through the wall. Danny had just been starting to get up when it exploded from the wall, hence he didn't have far to go when he threw himself flat against the ground, the immensely hot strand shooting over his back. Danny coughed again, wondering how in the hell he could get out of all this…

And then he realized where he was.

And then…as he looked upon a certain construct, he had a crazy idea. Sucking in a deep lungful of air, he flew forward.

Outside, Flammadea laughed again as she continued crushing the building within her barrier, as she slowly compressed it further and further within until she had a rickety line of jagged metal and stone balancing in the middle of what had once been an office building. With one final gesture, she thrust up her hand, and with one final screaming laugh, she thrust down, compacting the makeshift pole into an extra-large paperweight, destroying anything and everything within the building into a super-condensed lump of stone and metal.


It might have been a neat thing to watch, if not for two things.

1) There was no one AROUND to watch.

2) The ones who were around had their own problems.

On the roof of Amity Park General, a few residents and a nurse were positioned on the roof, looking warily as the black cloud spewing fireballs down on Amity Park finally began to draw close to them. They had been told that they were supposedly safe, that a superhero had put some kind of magical protection around the building…but then again, these kids ran around in their underwear and constantly saw stuff that would drive normal men insane: they might not have the greatest grasp on reality. So, despite her promise, the heads of the hospital had sent these volunteers up on the roof to keep watch. If the fire cloud arrived, and the fireballs starting hitting the hospital anyway…then everyone was ready for an attempted mass evacuation. Which would certainly be immensely hard considering the situation Amity Park found itself in, but these kind of situations often demand a loss of life vs a total loss of life, and if you just stand there frozen, unable to choose, the situation will choose for you, and it will often pick the latter choice.

The man and two women watched nervously. They'd been in some stressful situations as they tried to save lives and worked on fully becoming doctors, but this…this was beyond normal. If it hadn't been so dangerous, they might have actually been snapping pictures: how many people could say they'd seen something like this?

The cloud was starting to cross over the building, and all three saw the first fireball coming down. They knew enough to see it was probably going to hit the roof fifteen or so feet away from them, but they got ready to run anyway…

In the end, there was no need. The fireball never hit the roof: it hit something invisible several feet above the roof and was snuffed out. There was a rapid flicker of dark power that expanded out from the impact and went over the hospital, briefly allowing anyone who was watching to actually see Raven's shield.

The residents and nurses relaxed, but only a tad. They waited to see if the effect repeated itself: it took nearly thirty seconds for another fireball to fall at the proper angle, but it indeed suffered the same fate. With that the three fled the roof, one of them pulling out a cell phone to call the head doctor to tell him that the shield indeed seemed to be working.

In the end that was unnecessary, as the head doctor had stood at the window of his office and watched himself as a fireball had zoomed down and struck against the window below him: it had also been snuffed out, the flicker of the dark energy passing up past his window before the doctor's eyes. One worry was over for him, but another swiftly replaced it: how long would this so-called magic shield last?


It appeared that Danny had experienced his own last situation, his last hurrah. All that was left of the office building was a molten lump of gunk that was already starting to cool off as Flammadea floated down, chuckling to herself. It wasn't the most drawn out torture, but she had to admit it was one hell of a finish, the boy's ashes encased within the blob of liquid stone and metal. Maybe after she'd destroyed all of mankind, she'd come back here, dig it up, and put it on display.

"Well boy…" Flammadea said, as she walked forward. "I guess our little feud is over. Too bad I couldn't hear you scream. You probably sounded like a pig squealing as it was butchered." Flammadea said.

Another thing Flammadea couldn't hear was the sound of the manhole cover being shoved aside.

"I mean, you little fucktard, who were you in the end anyway?" Flammadea asked the ruin.

"No one of consequence."

Flammadea's eyes widened at the voice, and she turned…just as Danny swung his spirit energy encased manhole cover across her face, a dull clang sounding as the impact slammed across Flammadea's features, the blow actually distorting her facial appearance outward like it was made of Silly Putty.

Danny had escaped death yet again, and in the end it was thanks to Flammadea. He'd seen the way she had made her escapes by extending her body outward and transferring her mass in a long twisting line, much like, again, Silly Putty, stretching it out to another end and reforming it there. And if Flammadea could do it…why not Danny?

And that was exactly what he did, as he had taken a deep breath and then flown into and down the toilet in the bathroom he had been in, utilizing a unique variation of his intangibility talent to stretch his body out and flow down into the pipes and rapidly through them, out of the building and into the sewers beneath it. When Flammadea had been finishing up her building squash, Danny had been reforming his body back into its normal shape even as he tried to overcome the immensely unpleasant experience it had been: maybe with practice he could have done it without any effect but he'd improvised it on the spot and that hadn't resulted in the best sensations. These bad feelings had quickly fanned the flame within him again, as he found the sewer exit and the manhole covering it quickly. After listening to Flammadea's gloating, it was quite satisfying to introduce her to the heavy metal disc.

She didn't much care for the introduction, as she reared back from the blow, and as she once again realized Danny was still alive and still plaguing her, she snarled and thrust out her hand.

"YOU MUST DIE!" She screamed, as she fired a fire spear from her palm.

Danny leapt over it.

"Prepare to be disappointed." He said, as he brought the manhole down on her head, smashing it flat, and even as it flowed back up from the blow he spun and slammed Flammadea across the face and body with it again. She flew down the street, and as she stopped Danny reared back his arms as he transferred the manhole cover to one hand, and then he hurled it at Flammadea like a discus, throwing it with enough force that it probably could have gone through two inches of plate steel.

Flammadea glanced at it, and the manhole flashed with fire and then was suddenly metallic ash as it drew within two feet of her. Considering how much heat it takes to MELT a manhole…and we've been over this ground before.

"I don't like to be disappointed." Flammadea replied. "In fact, it makes me try twice as hard."

And then she suddenly disappeared into a twirling wisp of flame, the same way she had disappeared from the last three fights. For a moment, Danny wondered if she had left again…

And then fire exploded into being all around Danny, and suddenly there were five Flammadeas, all standing around him.

"Or maybe FIVE times as hard!" All the Flammadeas laughed, and then they all shot blasts of fire from their hands, eyes, and tendrils. Danny didn't have time to escape and screamed again as he was consumed in the explosion, the blast throwing him to the side and through a building, where he crashed out the other side and slid to a stop at the other end of the street, just where the street met the sidewalk. He groaned, as Flammadea(s) laughed and then turned into streams of fire that flew towards each other, as the five started becoming one again.

Danny began pushing himself up, as anger re-awoke within him…but even though he felt the virtuous wrath flowing through him again, he had no idea what to do to Flammadea. She just seemed to shrug it all off…

And then he spied the lamppost, a typical pole of steel that extended over the street to provide some illumination at night.

Use it.

Danny wasn't sure where the voice came from, nor what the hell it was talking about. Use what? Use the pole? How? He was stronger in his ghost/human fusion but he wasn't Superman…

And yet he found himself getting up and staggering towards the pole, and then his fingers shot out, grabbing the end as Danny kneeled down. Even as his eyes filled with shock, Danny saw his fingers sinking into the stainless steel, even as the ground shook, and then with a yell Danny yanked the end of the pole right out of the ground. The weight did not strain his arms or body, as he blasted ectoplasmic energy from his eyes and blew off the rock that was clumped at the end.

"I'm baaaaaaccccccck!" Flammadea yelled as she leapt over the building she had blasted Danny through.

Danny turned and swung the pole out, and the light-bulb end slammed into Flammadea, the tip melting against the fire goddess, but it still smashed her into the same building she had sent Danny through with a yell of surprise.

Danny yanked back the steel pole, and noticing that the hooked end was twisted and red from striking Flammadea, he shot twin beams from his eyes again and sliced it off, leaving him with a giant steel baseball bat.

Screaming, as she did when she was taken by surprise, Flammadea exploded from the building that both she and Danny had had the experience of being sent through. The poor structure decided that was enough for its lifetime and joined its many fallen brothers.

And even as it fell behind her, Danny swung out the bat and smashed Flammadea with a gigantic home run swing, sending her flying down the street like an out of control locomotive. Ness would have been proud.

Flammadea stopped at the end, gathering herself. Danny, his harsh gaze the only expression he allowed himself, shifted his grip on the metal pole so the end was tucked under his arm, and then he launched himself into the air, streaking down the street towards Flammadea, the pole held out before him like a javelin, even as green energy crackled out from Danny's body and over the pole.

Flammadea had only recovered enough to see the very end of this charge, as her eyes widened.

"What the hell…!"

Danny smashed the end of the pole into Flammadea and drove her backwards through the wall of the building behind her, Danny going in after her as he ripped the floor he was smashing her through apart, the two of them exploding out the other end in a hail of debris. Danny didn't give Flammadea any time to recover: she was still stuck at the end of the pole and he used that, as he yanked the pole up as hard as he could and flung Flammadea high into the air. Not hesitating for a second, Danny shifted the pole again, slipping her palm under one end, and hurled the large steel shaft up into the air like it weighed nothing.

Flammadea flipped over, and looked down as she saw the pole flying up as if to impale her. With a derisive snort, she zipped aside, the pole flying up past her…

Followed by Danny, as he lanced upward and rammed his knee into Flammadea's torso, once again doubling the fire spirit over from the impact…and then he once again turned intangible and flew up through Flammadea's body. Flammadea may have been able to make a fire barrier that resisted his wraith state, but that was only with considerable concentration: her body did not share that bonus. A fact she probably regretted as Danny flew up, grabbed the pole, and slashed it down, sending Flammadea flying down into another street of Amity Park: the entire street rippled outward from her impact, sending up a spray of shattered concrete and knocking the buildings around it out of kilter. Snorting, Danny flew down to the crater…and found it empty: Flammadea had gone elsewhere. He doubted she had gone far though, and even if she tried, she couldn't escape him. He could smell her.

Flammadea was actually repeating Danny's previous exit from the sewers a street down, though where he exited in a fairly normal way Flammadea just melted through the street. She shook her head, her anger briefly dampened as her mood swung back more to her calm, sociopathic state…and then she spied something.

While the wreckage of the Fenton-copter had been cleared away by Raven, to prevent the Army or Air Force from showing up, examining the wreckage, and tracing it back to the Fentons, which would probably result in their arrest and conviction even IF they could somehow prove they weren't behind the actual rain of destruction the combat machine had caused…the same could not be said for the wreckage of the news helicopter Chet Ubetcha had used to try and get his breaking news before the news nearly broke his connection to the living world. It had fallen down to another street, and by the time the police had re-gathered themselves enough to find it, it had already finished burning, leaving the scorched metal structure behind. By then, the mass exodus that had seized the people of Amity Park, their senses (accurately) screaming that what had occurred that afternoon had just been a warm-up and something REALLY bad was coming, had already begun, and all the police had done was throw up some crime scene tape around it and leave it there. And so it lay in the street. And it had given Flammadea an idea.

Danny had followed the trail to the street Flammadea was on swiftly…and once again found nothing. His brow narrowed: he knew she was close, but where…

A shrieking sound of ripping metal got his attention, as he turned…

And his eyes widened in surprise as a blackened steel framework that had once been the tail of a news helicopter swung at Danny's pole. Danny yelped and tried to block, but his angle was bad and the impact rang through his arms. And if you ask why the scorched and weakened tail structure didn't break…well, the haze of red power around it will probably answer your question.

"You just don't have much luck with helicopters, do you?" Flammadea laughed, as she yanked the framework down against the side of the pole, and Danny had to leap back and weaken his defense even more to avoid the still present and very deadly tail rotor that was at the end of the frame. Stumbling, he tried to regain his balance, and Flammadea laughed as she, holding the framework more with her tendrils then her actual hands, swung her makeshift sword around and slammed it against Danny's. The pole slipped a bit, but Danny managed to quickly regain the grip and reapplied pressure, shoving Flammadea back. The two slammed their huge, improvised swords together, the blows ringing through the street. It was a scene that would have done the Brotherhood of Dada (remember their previous mention back in Chapter 9?) proud.

Flammadea didn't much care for some crazy city-in-painting sealers though: she wanted to do some harm. And she was just about to, as with a smirk her eyes flashed again.

And then the red power flowed off the burned framework and drilled into the green energy surrounding Danny's weapon, and before Danny could react the power had broken through his. Danny screamed as the pole suddenly heated red-hot in his grip, and with the heat immediately making said grip virtually nonexistent, Flammadea easily used the metal tail to shove/toss the lamp pole out of Danny's hands, the heated rod slamming against the side of a building while Flammadea swung her weapon back and knocked Danny to the ground. With a laugh, she leapt up as she shifted her own grip and then drove the end of the helicopter into Danny's fallen form. The street shook with the impact, and Danny screamed as Flammadea began pressing down as hard as she could, trying to make the end of the helicopter's tail a permanent fixture in Danny's chest.

"You know…" Flammadea said over Danny's screams. "Considering your luck with vehicles, it's probably a good thing you didn't live long enough to get a driver's license." Flammadea smirked, and pressed down even harder. Danny screamed again, trying to push back, but the leverage was with the flame deity, and she was just so strong…

And then, even though he could swear his chest was about to cave in, Danny saw something: the tail rotor. It was just above him…and he realized that if Flammadea could break through his energy essence, he was damn sure he could do the same!

So, even though it increased the pressure even more, Danny took one arm away from holding up the end of the helicopter tail and reached out, trying to concentrate, green energy infusing his fingers.

"Now what?" Flammadea laughed.

And then the green energy shot out from Danny's hand, enveloped the tail rotor, and with a shriek ripped it from the framework and sent it spinning forward at high speed.

It cleaved Flammadea's head in two.

The pressure immediately ceased, as Flammadea flew back a bit from the impact. Danny shoved the helicopter tail aside and took in gulping gasps of air, even as Flammadea floated there, her two head halves wilting to the side like an under watered flower. Strangely, unlike the last time she had had an experience like this, she did not look angry. Rather, she just looked perturbed.

"First the melting, then the freezing, then the slicing the head in half…" Flammadea said as the halves began to be drawn back together, reconnecting. "Man, Robert Patrick's gonna go medieval on our ass with lawsuits."

Danny flew into the air and connected with a cracking scissor kick, sending Flammadea flying back up into the sky. Drawing in another pained gasp, his chest badly bruised from what Flammadea had just done, Danny's eyes quickly spied a way for payback. The rest of the charred wreckage of the news helicopter still lay on the street, including the twisted and bent but still in-one-piece main rotor. His eyes once again flashing with rage, Danny flew over to the primary aerodynamic part of the machine, thrusting out his hands as green energy surged out and enveloped the seared metal construct.

Flammadea corrected herself in the air and shook her head.

"Ugh, boy sure gets ahead of himself on these heady matters. Whole thing's coming to a head. And those terrible puns makes me worry if something was knocked loose in MY head." Flammadea muttered, as she ran a hand through her hair and then looked down.

As Danny, with a scream, yanked the helicopter rotor from its support and sent it flying up at Flammadea, whirling up at her in a dervish of slicing death, much like the Fenton-copter's main rotor had at Danny and Starfire. The difference was, Flammadea didn't have enough flying skill to move.

"Well, SPLIT." Flammadea said.

The giant bladed rotor sliced right through Flammadea, ripping her body to bits. Danny lowered his hands and the rotor's green energy container/guide faded and the burned metal fell back to the streets, where it shattered on a rooftop.

Leaving only several dozen floating flicks of fire, like mid-air candles, albeit with no actual candles. Danny's eyes widened.

And then all the flames expanded and formed into a Flammadea, all of them laughing, and Danny realized just how badly he'd messed up.

"You went for a strike, all you got was a seven and ten split!" All the Flammadeas laughed. "Now roast up like turkey!"

And all the Flammadeas began firing down on Danny, thousands of fireballs streaking from the sky, and Danny yelled and tried to fly away as all the projectiles rained down on the him and the blocks surrounding him, blowing everything to pieces as the buildings buckled and collapsed under Flammadeas' assault. Danny tried to fly clear but there were too many blasts and when one struck him it was all over as he fell, screaming, into the rising mass of explosions.


"Fifteen minutes remaining…" The computer intoned.
Danny's smoking body flew back up from the last of the explosions and smoke clouds, his outfit now torn in several places. The hundreds of blasts had first pounded him into the ground and then actually tossed him back into the air before they had ceased, and Danny was still going up from their eruptions…

But not for long, as Flammadea streaked down from the sky and slammed her fist across Danny's face. He whirled in mid-air from the impact, as Flammadea streaked past him…and then exploded into wispy flames and was gone.

And seemingly reappeared, behind Danny, as she lanced in and slammed her foot into his back. He flew forward with a scream, as the second Flammadea disappeared…and then a third one lanced up from below Danny, smashing him with yet another uppercut, knocking him up as the third Flammadea disappeared…and a forth lanced down at an angle and slammed her foot into his face, sending him back down, the forth Flammadea vanishing just in time for a fifth one to knock him back into the air with a axehammer strike. Flammadea had found another use for her clones, as each one nailed Danny with a punishing blow and then disappeared as Danny flew into the eager hands and feet of the next one, as Danny was smashed back and forth across the sky and through a few buildings before he was finally thrown up again…in front of the real Flammadea, the one that commanded her true sentience, as she smirked.

And then she thrust out her hand and a gigantic stream of fire erupted from them, enveloping Danny and blasting him across Amity Park. Somehow, Danny managed to scream again as he flew across the hemisphere…and right over a suddenly terrified Sam Manson, who immediately ran in the direction Danny had gone.

Danny slammed against something, HARD. The impact knocked the wind out of him, though he somehow managed to keep enough mental capacity to stay aloft and not fall to the street below. His whole body was screaming with pain, but he ignored it as a notion wormed its way into his mind. Yeah, he'd hit hard…but not as hard as he should have had he struck something solid. So what had he hit…

Danny turned his head.

And his eyes widened. Even his up close view didn't keep him from recognizing what he had hit: Amity Park General, near the top of it to be precise. Slowly, he reached out and pressed his hand against the barrier. Some kind of shield, with more give then a normal wall. Must have been put there by Raven. The shield had blocked him, and even softened his impact…

And then, as a cold pit of horror awoke in his stomach, he realized how much danger he was putting the building in. It might have been shielded from Danny, and probably from the rain of fire (which is why Danny assumed it was there in the first place)…but what about Flammadea herself? He had to get away from here! As far away, take the battle across the city, not let…

Danny turned around.

And Flammadea streaked from the sky, her foot slamming into Danny's chest and torso, squashing him against the shield and her limb, and the wind was driven out of him with a wheeze and he fell, just a bit, before one of Flammadea's tendrils caught him.

"Hold it boy, we're just starting to have…fun…?" Flammadea said, as her eyes noticed a flicker. Intrigued, she looked from where it had come…and then, with another tendril, she reached out.

The barrier repulsed the tendril. Flammadea arched an eyebrow.

"Well well, a do not enter sign. How rude!"

Danny pulled himself from the tendril and flew at Flammadea, trying to knock her away from the hospital.

Flammadea dodged aside from his punch and once again slammed her fist deep into his chest. Danny reared over her arm from the impact, and with a hacking cough greenish blood spilled from within his mouth.

"They didn't invite me to their party! Guess I'll have to crash." Flammadea said, as several tendrils reached from her back and grabbed the prone Danny. "Fortunately, I have a key! It's not a skeleton key, but that's just because I haven't applied enough heat yet!"

And Flammadea flew back, as her tendrils yanked Danny back, and then with a pointed finger, the tendrils slammed the boy forward, smashing him up against the shield. It rippled outward from the impact, as Danny gasped out a half-hearted cry.

"Lock's rusty!" Flammadea said, as she pulled Danny back and then slammed him against the shield again. "Man, this keeps up I'll need a locksmith!" Flammadea continued as she pulled back and slammed Danny against the shield for the third time. This time, instead of actively repulsing Danny, the shield seemed to bend in slightly, leaving Danny stuck in a slight indentation.

"Man, my key's not working!" Flammadea grumped. "Guess I'll just have to kick the door down."

And Flammadea flew forward and began barraging Danny with punches, smashing the boy with such rapid fire impacts by the time he felt one she had already delivered two more, his body jerking and spasming under the assault, as Flammadea hammered on him, trying to use his body to get through the shield. Making an annoyed sound, Flammadea flew back and fired off several fireballs into Danny, and even before the smoke cleared she had flown back and began slamming Danny with more punches and kicks. Danny had thought he'd been on the end of ass kickings before: in reality he hadn't seen nothing yet when it came to being trashed…

"Hey!" Flammadea said, as she slammed a few more blows into Danny's body and then flew back, as more tendrils expanded and coiled out around her arm. "I'm coming up, so you better get this party started!"

And she lanced forward, striking out with both her fist and her tendrils.

The shield shattered and Danny, somehow managing another scream, was slammed against the wall of the hospital. The whole building shook, and everyone inside screamed and made noises of fear and surprise. Danny just made a low groan, as more greenish blood leaked from his mouth.

"Finally! I'm in!" Flammadea said, grinning. "Now to bring down the house!"

And her tendrils coiled around Danny, yanked him back, and then slammed him against the hospital again. The building shook again, and cracks sprang up from where Danny had been impacted. Pain shot through Danny's body, pain on top of pain, agony enveloping agony, a hell that even Samael could not conceive of…

Flammadea reared Danny back and slammed him against the building again. The cracks spiderwebbed out more, as dust and loose bits of the ceiling began to fall inside the hospital and the people screamed in their fear.

"Man, I usually don't have THIS much fun!" Flammadea commented, as she unraveled her tendrils. Danny started slumping off the wall and then she fired out her fist, slamming it into his gut, and as his head came forward from the doubling over she grabbed it and slammed the back of Danny's head against the stone. A terrible spasm ran through Danny's body…

And his hand, in a random motion, pressed flat against the wall.

And his closed eyes suddenly opened wide, as images flooded through him, somehow drawn from the building itself into his mind, Flammadea's merry face completely fading away as rapid fire images played before him. He saw young people and old people, children and babies, injured people, sick people, people in surgery, people on life support, people who had been burned by the very fires Sizzle had caused. And he saw their fear, as children cried for their parents, and grown up men held the hands of their mothers and fathers and wondered if they would both be leaving the world today, and surgeons trying to stay steely under pressure despite the fact the world seemed to be falling apart around them, and people huddled together in rooms, some praying, some just trying to give comfort to each other, a cavalcade of humanity all under assault by an unholy utterly lunatic force…

Flammadea's hand slashed out again.

Danny caught it.

"NO." He hissed.

Flammadea was a bit surprised at this, but not much.

"Oh. What was that?" Flammadea said, as she drew back her tendrils for another strike.

And then a shockwave of power hit her.

"I….SAID……" Danny snarled as he opened his eyes, now glowing bright green. "NO!"

And power exploded around him, a sphere of might that drove Flammadea back and actually shattered the wall behind Danny even more, as might beyond anything Danny had ever felt surged through him, as his blazing eyes fixed on Flammadea.

"What?" She said.

Danny lanced out with a punch, the impact noise ringing through the streets as Flammadea was smashed away at a speed and power unlike any she had felt before. She flew down at an angle and crashed into a building and kept going, as she was driven along the ground and through the buildings behind it, a line of destruction following her uncontrollable trip, a long trail of dust and smoke spiraling up as the line went halfway across Amity Park.

A few shattered pieces of rock were still falling from the small hole Danny had made in the hospital behind him, as Danny turned his head and looked at his bit of property damage. His eyes were still glowing, but softer now, a more benevolent radiance.

The pieces Danny had broken off floated back up and refitted back into the hole. With a flash the surface was pristine again, as if it was never touched. The same could be said of the entire hospital.

Danny floated out a few feet and reached out his hand, touching the ragged end where Flammadea had used his body to break through Raven's shield. Misty green energy flowed off his hand and the shield swiftly was reformed. Reformed and strengthened.

"It's ok now." Danny said, and while he seemed to be speaking to himself, somehow the whole hospital heard him. "I'll keep you safe."

And Danny turned back to the line of destruction he'd razed across Amity Park, as the glow in his eyes went from benevolent to blazing.

"Because now, FLAMMADEA GETS HERS." Danny snarled, and flew off.

Far in the distance, Flammadea screamed as she erupted from the crater at the end of her trip, flipping up and back and landing on the street beyond it. She had no idea what had happened: One moment she'd been on top of the world and the next she'd been down in the dirt. All because of the boy, that fucking goddamn million trick never-dying bane of her existence boy, and if she did anything she was going to destroy him, wipe him from the face of the earth, and she could see him coming and she thrust out her arms as her tendrils snaked over her body and more joined them, all of them glowing with white fire, and she bellowed with rage as she let loose with dozens of arcing white fire blasts, the attacks so close together they bunched up and intersected over each other, as they all headed for the charging Danny.

Danny flew right into them like they weren't there. The explosion destroyed everything before Flammadea, disintegrating all the buildings in front of her…and then Danny flew out from the explosion, not even slowed down, and he hadn't even gone intangible: he'd just flown right into the attack and blast and out the other end, and as Flammadea did a double take he streaked on towards her and struck.

The sound from his fist striking Flammadea was like the sound of two gods clashing weapons. The impact blew away every stray bit of debris and dust that was around the pair…and then Danny struck again, this blow shattering the ground below the two as Flammadea was once again smashed up into the air, a firework from hell. Spinning out of control, Flammadea finally regained some sense of where she was and began to form a plan to strike back as she began correcting herself, high above the downtown sector.

Danny's hand seized on her ankle.

"What?" Flammadea yelled, as she was swung up and then pistoned downward as Danny streaked back towards the city. Right below them was the second tallest building in Amity Park, with 68 stories.

Danny slammed Flammadea against the roof like Thor bringing his hammer down on one of his legendary foes. Flammadea was smashed through the entire building, fire exploded out from all sides on each floor as she went down, a domino effect along the whole building before Flammadea hit the ground and the building imploded and collapsed on her, the din from its falling like the noise of an ancient primordial beast dying in some god-forsaken swamp. Dust rolled off in great waves around the destroyed structure, covering the surrounding streets in gray.

Except where Danny was landing: the dust blew away from him, as he watched with hard eyes on the spot where he have driven Flammadea, seemingly straight down to hell itself.

But hell had already demonstrated to have a tenuous grip on the spirit, as there was a rumbling that built to a great roar, and then Flammadea blasted all the wreckage away from her. Once again, she was back in her larger ten foot form, and this time it wasn't part of a play to given Danny the impression he was winning. He WAS winning, that had actually HURT, and she was utterly maddened by it.

"YOU FUCK!" She shrieked, as she thrust up her arms. A ball of fire began forming above her, swiftly growing to the size of an Olympic swimming pool. "BURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNN!"

Flammadea hurled the ball at Danny.

Danny raised an arm and five green needles of energy fired from his fingers into the ball, and then the flame was split apart and dissipated by an explosion within it. Flammadea's eyes widened: had she had normal eyes they might have been bulging with veins at the moment.

Danny lowered his arms, and then with a scream he clenched his fists and diaphanous green energy exploded around him, a sphere of power that crushed and shoved anything near Danny away from him, shattering another shallow crater under Danny's feet, bending the nearby light poles out of shape, and sending everything nearby that wasn't nailed down flying like they weighed nothing.

Flammadea couldn't believe it. Where was the boy getting this strength, this power? Well, it didn't matter, because it was nothing compared to hers! She'd show him, as she clenched her own fists and let loose with her own war bellow. Streams of crimson energy poured from her body, shooting upward, drilling holes through the clouds and any nearby buildings.

Danny erupted forward towards her.

Flammadea was ready and waiting.

The two slammed together, and any window that had survived the fight up until then in the surrounding ten blocks shattered in a storm of cutting glass, as Flammadea and Danny furiously exchanged blows. But neither could get through the other's guard, as the two superpowers clashed violently. And someone needs to provide me with a metaphor similar to the irresistible force meets the immovable object, because it's been done to death.

Flammadea's fist slammed into Danny's crossed arms: Danny's kick slammed against Flammadea's blocking forearm. Danny's fist slammed into Flammadea's shoulder: Flammadea's fist met Danny's as he intercepted it with the side of his own fist. Their feet digging into the dirt, the two reared out and locked arms, their fingers intertwining as the two exerted their might against each other, the ground shattering around them, as the powers of light and darkness battled each other at the highest peak known to man.

And in the end, Danny won, as the two split apart, traded a few more blows, and then Danny ducked under Flammadea's punch, balanced on his hands, and thrust his leg up, doing a sideways upper thrust kick that once again sent Flammadea shooting up into the air. Danny followed her like he was her shadow, as Flammadea spun back to face him and fired off another gigantic blast of white fire. Danny turned intangible, and the blast flew on through him and struck the ground. Another gigantic explosion shook Amity Park, and another skyscraper near where Danny and Flammadea's battle raged supports finally gave out as it came crashing down on the city.

Flammadea was already reacting as Danny reformed and punched at her: she zipped away and punched at his head. Danny zipped away and kicked at her chest, Flammadea zipped away as she lashed at him with a tendril and then continued flying away at high speed…as Danny dodged the tendril and flew after her, spinning and slamming his heel into her face. She flew across the sky like a shooting star, and then with a scream she flipped over and cut loose with hundreds of fire blasts from her hands. Danny flew into the explosions again, but this time, instead of an outright charge, he stopped and thrust out his own hands, and with his own scream he began firing off hundreds of his own blasts, the two onslaughts meeting each other and filling the sky above Amity Park with explosions that all combined into one big blast that pounded down on the besieged city.

And then Danny appeared behind Flammadea. She tried to turn…

Danny's arcing axe kick sent Flammadea shooting back into the ground and smashing another line of destruction across Amity Park, more buildings collapsing from the impact and power.

Danny cracked his neck, and then flew down to the crater. He waved a hand and a powerful wind blew the smoke away…revealing an empty hole. Danny arched an eyebrow. Where had she gone…

"Over here, asshole."

Danny turned to the sound of the voice, making out the figure…

And then a dagger of pure ice stabbed into his heart as he realized Flammadea wasn't alone.

"Well now, isn't this a surprise?" Flammadea asked from where she floated, arms crossed, a tendril extended from her shoulder…from which dangled a struggling Sam. "Did you lose this?"

The dagger became a glacier, as Danny realized that Sam, as he should have expected, hadn't been able to leave him behind, her sense of duty and caring (and maybe more?) overwhelming her common sense, and she'd headed back into Amity Park and look what happened, the old cliché, wrong place and wrong time, hero and villain and supporting cast that's put the hero over a barrel. There ought to be a law.

Danny opened his mouth, but no sound came out, as emotions roiled under his gut: fear for Sam, anger at her for not listening, and under that the rage Danny carried for Flammadea, for all she had done and all she kept doing, the latest being her hiding behind Sam despite the fact that she had enough power to literally raise hell.

"Oh wait wait, allow me." Flammadea said. "'No! Don't hurt her! I'll do anything, but don't hurt her!' That about right?" Flammadea asked, and smirked.

"Danny…" Sam managed to choke out.

"No wait, I know this too! 'Forget about me, save yourself!'. Do you actually think he's going to do that, your traitorous whore? If men aren't sick, they're stupid beyond belief! Utter wastes of flesh!" Flammadea said.

"Don't do this." Was all Danny said.

"Well now, at least that's somewhat original. You know what? I think I'll just roast her and use her bones to dig out your heart." Flammadea said. Smoke began rising from Sam's neck, and she screamed. "You should learn something Danny Fenton! No matter how well you play this game, in the end I'm holding all the cards."

Danny did not leap to Sam's rescue.

"Not all."

His eyes flashed.

And the tendril holding Sam snapped, the connection to Flammadea broken in mid-air, much to her sudden intense surprise.

"What the HELL…!"

Danny zapped up and leapt backwards, smashing Flammadea under the chin with his right foot and sending her flying off into the sky (again).

A small scream escaping her throat as she started to fall, Sam suddenly found herself stopping, a foot from the ground, a green energy sphere surrounding her, and she looked at Danny, his arm out…and his eyes down.

"Danny…" She said.

"You have to go away Sam." Danny said quietly, and before Sam could protest her sphere was suddenly flying through the air, away from Danny. Her startled yell of protest faded quickly as the sphere carried her away, somewhere safe.

Danny lowered his arm.

"I don't want you to see me like this." Danny said.

Flammadea was doing her usual correction in mid-air, as anger seethed through her. What the hell had happened! It was like he'd cut her connection with a thought! That was impossible, even for him! How did…why she…

And then her eyes spied it, the rapidly moving green sphere down on the ground. And one didn't need to be a genius to figure out what it was. Flammadea smirked, as fire exploded on her hand. Well, it was impersonal, but it still served her purposes, as she aimed…

At Danny's chest, as she suddenly was floating in front of her, his eyes intense.

"Stop it." Danny said.

"Aw man!" Flammadea said. "Now my shot's wrecked! Now your girlfriend has to suffer before she dies!"

Danny's eyes widened, and then they filled with a rage that rivaled even Flammadea's.

"You…!"

Flammadea blurred away from Danny's punch, as she spun off and reformed, re-aiming her shot…and then her eyes widened as she found Danny in front of her again.

"YOU…….!"

Danny slashed out his leg across Flammadea's head, and then slammed an uppercut under her chin. Before she could begin her upward journey Danny furiously stopped her by pounding dozens upon dozens of punches into her stomach, and then rearing back and thrusting out his leg, kicking Flammadea in the face and sending her flying into the distance.

"YOU!" Danny screamed, as he reared back, green energy exploding on his hand, and he fired off an arcing blast of green power. It struck Flammadea, and her silhouette appeared against the explosion before she vanished in the gigantic green energy blast. Danny saw her form fly from the bottom of the detonation and crash into the ground. His heart swelling with righteous rage, he thrust back his hands as they glowed green…

And then he began firing down on Flammadea, dozens of blasts, hundreds, a myriad of power shots that flew down and consumed her form in destruction. Danny kept firing, and firing, and firing, the explosion smashing down buildings as it continued growing ever wider and ever higher, as Danny screamed and fired and fired and screamed, wanting nothing more…nothing more…

Then…

What Flammadea wanted of him.

The blasts stopped, and the green energy fizzled out as Danny looked at his hands.

"…What am I becoming?" Danny asked himself.

He already knew the answer. The same thing that befell Savior was befalling him. For the sake of trying to save lives, Savior had tried to control everything. For the sake of saving lives, Danny was becoming as relentless and violent as Flammadea was.

He remembered himself on the throne…

…He couldn't live with that. Maybe it was the most practical thing…but it wasn't the right thing.

He had to do the right thing. He had to try and end the war, instead of just prolonging it.

His furious green eyes fading back to the more muted green he usually wore, Danny flew down to the devastation he had, moments ago, wrought against his enemy. A jerk of his head produced a wind to blow away the smoke, revealing a shadowy form pulling herself from under a pile of wreckage. Strangely, instead of blasting it all off her and flying up, her usual motif, Flammadea was getting up like a normal human who was under debris might have. The fact that Danny had reduced her to that, even for a moment…it only finalized Danny's resolve.

"Flammadea!"

Flammadea's head jerked in the direction of the voice. Her face was unmarred: you can hardly bruise, cut, and scar fire after all, but the look of baleful rage in her eyes was all Danny needed.

"Is this what you want?" Danny asked. Flammadea's expression did not, on the surface, appear to change, but Danny caught a tiny part of curiosity at the expression: it clearly wasn't what she was expecting to hear after Danny's eruption of fury. Danny raised his arms and gestured around him with them, indicating the ruins that surrounded the two, wrought by both of them in their battle.

"Is this ALL you want?" Danny asked. "This endless fight? This never-ending destruction, clashing again and again and again and again, until there's nothing left of both of us, in this world or the next?" Danny asked. "Oh, maybe you claim you want nothing but all this. But there's only so much of this to go around Flammadea. And I know, and I think, deep down, that YOU know, that it won't solve the main problem that drives you. Your pain. The pain that eats at you. No matter what you do, Flammadea…this won't make it go away. No amount of killing or destroying will take it away. No amount at all. You're fighting a battle in a war you've already lost." Danny said. Flammadea's malignant eyes only increased in intensity, but she did not make a move to attack him again. Instead she stood there, her dress and hair swirling around her, as Danny lowered his arms.

"You can't win." Danny said. "This can't end your pain. And the pain is what drives you to this. It may center on my destruction, or that of the male species, or hell, this entire planet…but when it all comes down to it, you just want the pain to end. But how can it end? Revenge didn't stop it, death didn't stop it, and I have a feeling godhood hasn't stopped it either. So why do anything else but destroy? You have no other options." Danny said. "Well Flammadea, I have options. The option to end this all, once and forever."

Danny thrust out a hand.

"Give me your pain."

Flammadea arched an eyebrow.

"Take my hand! You're driven by your past and all the suffering it brought you, well, give it to me! I'll take the burden away from you! I'll take it all! The memories, the nightmares, the horrors, the poison that's been eating into your mind and heart and soul your entire life! Don't you see Flammadea? Do this, and you win! You win in a way you could never manage in this endless chaos! You want me to suffer? Then give me YOUR suffering! I'll take it away from you, and I'LL have to bear it, and you…you'll finally have peace. No more anguish, no more rage, no more need to destroy everything, because it'll all be gone. All of it. You want to take your revenge on mankind? You see me as their paragon? Well then Flammadea, let me feel everything YOU feel, and let yourself be FREE of it. Forever."

Flammadea cocked her head.

"This is no trick. What could I do, make the pain worse? Could it get any worse? Is killing me the best way to sate your hatred? Or would you rather give me the agony you've lived with, a torment I'll have to bear the rest of my life? Doesn't that sound so much better?" Danny asked. "Take my hand. Give me your pain. You win the day and find your peace. Come on Flammadea. No more fighting. It won't solve your problems. But this will. I promise. Give me your hand."

Perhaps many would say Danny had no idea what he was offering to take from Flammadea. Savior had spoken to him of how fruitless and unattainable the goal of understanding what drove a lunatic was. If he did indeed take the hideous memories within Flammadea, and the festering wounds that had seared so deep into her being that even death could not separate her from them, it could break him, instantly, drive him deep into a drooling catatonia from which he would never emerge again from, or worse, dig in deep into his being and sense of self and slowly begin chipping away at everything he held dear within himself, chipping and twisting and clawing and rotting away within him until Danny woke up one day and found he was something he'd never conceived of being, something not even found within his worst nightmares, and worse, something he could never escape or change back from…

But…at least he'd understand what he was accepting. At least he'd have a fighting chance against the terrible sickness that raged within Flammadea's soul. He had a loving family, a powerful support base, all the help he could want, unlike Flammadea, who was just been given horror after horror until she had been driven beyond any human state or existence…

Males, petty greedy sick destroying males had done this to Flammadea. And the weight of their sins…Danny was sure it would be excruciating. But in the end…he could bear it better then Flammadea. In the end, his sacrifice would save the world from the consequences of those men's actions…

No one had ever helped Flammadea. No one. And things long overdue had a truly heavy price.

But…if it would stop this madness, bring peace to Flammadea's soul and end her need to destroy everything, save his town and all the women Flammadea had sucked dry…he'd do it.

Sacrifice.

That was what heroes did.

"Give me your hand."

Flammadea just stared at him, the baleful look gone. Now her eyes seemed wide and amazed, almost like a children seeing Santa Claus, as if the reality of the offer was starting to sink in and she couldn't believe the concept of it. A life without pain…

She turned, just a bit.

And then she took a step towards Danny. Then another. Then another.

Danny did not move: he stood there with his hand out. He did not give any indication whatsoever that what was about to happen would be terrible for him. He could not give her any clue that he did not want to do it, any type of bracing or hesitation. He had to stand, and he had to bear what was coming…because it would end it…finally end it…

Slow, hesitatingly, Flammadea reached out her hand. It extended until it was just over his.

Danny held his gaze. His eyes spoke for him.

Do it.

Flammadea blinked.

And then…she lowered her hand.

Just…for a moment, their palms touched.

"You still don't get it kid." Flammadea said.

And then she smashed Danny across the face with her other hand, sending him flying across the shattered street. His shock was so great he didn't make any kind of defensive or reflexive moves to lessen his injuries from hitting the ground, as he did so and bounced a few times: the pain finally snapped him out of it and he flipped up to his feet, even as he looked upon Flammadea, his eyes wide with astonishment, and not of the good kind.

"…What…why…?" Danny asked.

"Why? Why? WHY?" Flammadea snapped back, her tone eerie in the sense that she seemed to be talking to herself. "You haven't learned a damn thing kid. You're a stupid little boy, safe and snug in your little town, not understand a whit of what the human mind and heart is TRULY like. Everything's black and white to you, all problems able to be fixed, as long as people are willing to make the effort to fix them. In your safe little world, you can never, WILL never understand the truth about living." Flammadea said.

Danny was silent, as Flammadea threw up her arms in a mockery of what Danny had done a minute ago.

"You know what living is kid? Living is keeping on going even when you don't want to, when you so dearly want it to stop, because no matter what gets inflicted on you, you can't overcome the damn urge to keep going, keep going on, even if nothing lies in the future but the same, continuing onward and onward through the same old shit…and eventually, that shit becomes the REASON you go on. Everything you hate still comes down on you, again and again, and yet you keep going, because you need a reason to keep going because you can't stop and LIFE HASN'T GIVEN YOU ANY OTHER DAMN ONE EXCEPT THE ONE YOU HATE THE MOST!" Flammadea snarled. "Go out into life Danny. Seek out women who, though they recoil when you strike them, have a semi-happy gaze shining through their tears, a shine of happiness derived from the blow, the abuse, the hell, because humans NEED to be happy and if they can't find it they'll WARP things until part of them, no matter how terrible it is, MAKES them happy. Seek out ladies who go back to men who would kill them, because they think they deserve nothing less. Look at women who have reduced themselves to wasted sacks of flesh walking the street, performing sick acts for sicker men for a violent brute who beats them and abuses them and yet they keep doing it because life has taught them that this is all they will ever get, so they better get some happiness out of it. That's life Danny. Life is an unending, never-changing HELL. A hell that eventually becomes comfortable to you. And that, Danny, of all the atrocities your fucking species has inflicted on me, is the one I hate the most, the one that enrages me so much, the part that has been burned into my body, my soul, my VERY EXISTENCE! Give you my pain Danny? Kid…without my pain…I have nothing at all."

Danny had listened the entire time, and yet despite the whole rant, he couldn't believe what was occurring to him. Until the last two sentences.

Those, and the following mad laughter, a series of rapid chuckles Flammadea made as she brought her palm up to her face, finally made him realize something he'd never wanted to believe in…but now he had no choice as it was staring him right in the face.

Danny didn't want to believe anyone was completely gone, utterly and truly beyond any redemption at all…but listening to Flammadea's laugh, the strangely sweet laughter of a completely broken soul, he realized that as horrible as the concept was, and as great a blow it struck at his creed…it existed. Even though the battle with Flammadea seemed endless, even hopeless, Danny hadn't wanted to give up on the chance that he could somehow use some other way besides a sword to bring an end to the fighting, an end to the war. But he realized that even that was beyond his means. Fighting the battle for Flammadea wasn't endless or hopeless: it was pointless. She was too far gone to be saved, and she didn't want to be.

And finally, Danny understood just how Savior had grown so bitter, so cynical, so scornful of his so-called mission…and yet why he kept doing it despite how much he seemed to dislike and outright loathe the credo and the people he fought for with it. Because the only alternative was doing nothing…

Danny had nowhere near the reading experience of Savior, but there was a quote he could recall, from Einstein. Einstein was a true case of both sides in play: his theories had led to great advances in several sciences but had also allowed for the invention of atomic weapons. But the true heart of his morals had stemmed from something he had said once: 'The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.'

This was what happened when good men did nothing. This was the result of fear, ignorance, and apathy: a creature so tragic and yet so incredibly dangerous. Too dangerous to let exist, no matter what created her.

And as Flammadea lowered her arms, once again looking at Danny with something that resembled angry joy, Danny realized what he had to do. Despite her terrible past, which had driven her to this zealous madness and all consuming wrath…she had to be stopped.

Saving her had failed. Now he had to stop her.

And Flammadea, in her own twisted way, believed the exact same thing. Towards Danny that is: the boy had stupidly tried to help her, showing his utter worthlessness in never understanding, never even being capable of understanding what drove her, and it was long long long past due for him to pay for his latest sin and all his previous ones.

Flammadea snapped her hand to the side, as Danny saw the motion and got into a combat pose.

"But…since you want pain so badly…far be it from me to not do what I can to grant your request! After all, if I didn't have the power to resist, I'm sure you'd just beat and abuse what you wanted out of me anyway!" Flammadea laughed/shrieked.

Fire exploded up from around her, a whirling tornado of terrible heat, driving Danny back, as Flammadea laughed again, this time long and loud.

"So be it Danny!" Flammadea laughed. "You want pain? You want suffering? You want to burden yourself with hell?" Flammadea laughed. "I'LL GIVE YOU ALL THE HELL I'VE GOT TO SPARE!"

As she reached deep down within her, and fully opened up the door as far as it could go, calling upon her true power, all of it, to end this farce and finally bring about what she wanted so much: the end of Danny Phantom.

And then she began to grow.

"HOLY…!" Danny yelled, though there was nothing holy about it, as fire exploded into being around and then was immediately absorbed into Flammadea's mass, so quickly it was virtually invisible to the naked eye, hence the illusion that she was just growing, in and of itself. Before Danny could even begin to grasp what was happening she was already twenty feet tall.

It was about then that Danny realized that of all his options, standing still staring in shock and horror and disbelief probably wasn't the most advantageous, and with that realization green energy exploded on his hands and he lanced forward at Flammadea, swinging back a fist…

And slamming into some kind of energy barrier, throwing him backwards and up at high speed, and Flammadea laughed, a laugh that had grown stronger and deeper, as she continued to grow, the ground cracking under her feet as her form rose above the buildings and began reaching for the sky.

From her perch on a roof, far away, Sam's eyes were so wide they seemed about to pop from their sockets, as she watched Flammadea rise up in the distance, growing as large as the tallest building in Amity Park and beyond. Her mouth opened, but no words came, only random noises of utter incredulity.

And then she decided that maybe she better get off the roof. Hell, maybe she should get into the sewers.

Danny pretty much shared Sam's expression, as he recovered, shook his head, began heading back…and then stopped dead as he fully saw what was before him, looking up at Flammadea's gigantic form as her hair stopped just above the clouds. Danny's mouth opened and stayed open, as he looked upon the behemoth form of his foe, the true power of Flammadea, the Lord and Master of the Inferno.

Chuckling, the noise now sounding like thunder, Flammadea looked down on Danny's body.

"Oh my lord." Danny finally said.

"The Lord?" Flammadea laughed. "HE AIN'T GOT NOTHING ON ME!"

And she reared back her hand and slammed it down, much faster then Danny had expected, but then again, he was trying to apply normal scientific rules of mass and velocity to some things, normal scientific rules that had pretty much been chucked out the window a long time ago, and hence he was almost squashed flat before he gathered his senses and zipped to the side. Flammadea's fist smashed down on the ground below him, smashing four large stone buildings like they were made of Tinker Toys, and Danny, as he flew on, looking back at the eradication, was suddenly glad that he hadn't tried going intangible: for all he knew Flammadea had surrounded her body with the same shield that had kept him from leaving the office building, and he wouldn't have wanted to have been on the receiving end of that blow if that was the case.

Nor the following blow, as Flammadea laughed as she reared back up and then lifted her leg and thrust it out at Danny. Danny yelped and flew upward as Flammadea's foot smashed and crushed a whole street to nothing as it slammed down on one end and dragged along a bit before Flammadea stopped. Still laughing, Flammadea's eyes shone, as if she was delighted at what she had just thought of, and then her mouth opened and a mammoth blast of flame sprayed out. Danny zapped away and watched as the blast carved a huge line of annihilation across Amity Park, igniting whatever it didn't just knock over and vaporize. Flammadea's (still continuing) rain of fire, as mentioned, wasn't really setting the whole town ablaze, but Flammadea appeared to be making up for lost time.

"Come here LITTLE boy!" Flammadea bellowed, and her arm was clawing for him again. Danny yelped and zapped away as the hand flew down and smashed two more buildings into nothing.

"Aw man, where's the Power Rangers when you need them?" Danny cursed as he flew away from Flammadea…and then his eyes widened as she aimed her other, gigantic hand at him, and suddenly thousands of spears of fire were flying at him, shot from her football field sized palm, and Danny found himself again in a mad dodging game. As the fire spears reduced several more blocks of Amity Park behind Danny to flaming rubble, he flew up and around the wave of fiery javelins. Somehow, he made his way out of the top of the onslaught without being impaled or sliced to ribbons…

"Stop running!" Flammadea roared, and then concentrated beams of fire shot from her eyes at Danny. Once again, he managed to dodge, though one of the beams grazed his foot: that was enough to burn through his boot and liquefy the skin underneath. As the beams blasted into the clouds and disappeared, Danny yelled as he flew on, his mind reeling. How the hell could he win? How the hell could he fight back against something like that?

And then, as he completed turning around, he spied the hospital.

And he remembered.

And he knew how to fight back, as he turned back to face Flammadea. He had tried to save her, and she had thrown his mercy back in his face, violently repulsed his kindness because she had learned to accept her pain to feed her a cruel version of that sweet milk. Now…he had to stand. Stand and fight. And win!

"Oh, finally accepted the inevitable, have we?" Flammadea said as Danny suddenly stopped and then blasted at her. "Well then, look upon the face of your fate!"

Flammadea grabbed at Danny.

Danny dodged away from the hand and fired off a long stream of ectoshots, the spectral power slamming across Flammadea's body with a line of powerful blasts. For a moment, Danny had a brief flash of the movie The Mummy, specifically the part where Arnold Vosloo's villain formed a gigantic face from a sand cloud and attempted to bring down the plane-carried Brendan Fraiser. Fraiser's character had a machine gun mounted on the plane, which he'd turned on the sand cloud. Since he was shooting sand and nothing that actually felt pain though, the gun had no effect. Danny was getting that vibe, as his line of blasts only seemed to anger Flammadea, as she bellowed and stomped her foot at him. He dodged that, the impact shaking all of Amity Park, and then he flew backwards. Flammadea turned, and then, just like Godzilla, fire exploded from her mouth and blasted across Amity Park, reducing everything it struck to nothing as Flammadea tried to blast Danny. She missed, again, as Danny flew back up, looking at his massive foe in the distance, and wondering what in the hell he could do.

And then he had an idea.

"You are starting to irritate me, little bug!" Flammadea growled as she stomped across Amity Park, crushing anything she stepped on underfoot to nothing, as Danny flew towards her. She lashed out with a fist, missing and smashing more buildings, and then as Danny flew between her legs and then back up and away, she whirled around and sent off a huge barrage of fireballs and bombs. They exploded through the air and onto the ground, blasting apart even more of Amity Park, but Danny avoided all the explosions, as he flew up face to chest with Flammadea, and then, as he focused, a low growl coming from his throat, he brought up his right arm and slammed his left arm against it at the inner wrist so the two arms formed a perfect 90 degree angle, as green radiance suddenly glowed on his right arm.

Flammadea finished turning towards Danny, her massive body now facing the ghost teen as she looked at him with amusement.

"Oh what the hell is that?"

"CHHHHHHHHIYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Danny screamed, and then an energy blast fired out from the length of his forearm, a rectangular blast of power that streaked out towards Flammadea. Who couldn't have dodged it even if she thought she had to.

She never knew what hit her.

The blast struck her in the chest and suddenly green energy exploded across her entire torso, and her eyes went as wide as saucers as the energy shoved and then blasted her backwards. She shrieked as she stumbled back and then fell, smashing a good chunk of Amity Park's suburbs in the process.

Danny lowered his arms, breathing heavily, hoping…

Screaming her rage at being knocked down, Flammadea began shoving herself up, causing even more destruction.

"Ah dammit! That always worked for Ultraman!" Danny cursed, as he found himself back at Square 1. He had to think of something, fast! Because if he didn't…

"BURN!" Flammadea bellowed, as he held out a hand and her arm extended towards Danny. Danny's eyes widened and he dodged aside as the arm flew past. It struck the tallest skyscraper in Amity Park and snapped it in two like a matchstick, the building tumbling down like dominoes as Danny watched in horror. If he didn't do something fast, there wouldn't be an Amity Park left!

Flammadea was stomping towards him, her arm having retracted. He turned back, and then yelped as a foot stomped at him. He dodged out of the way and Flammadea, having already reduced what was below her to ruin, just succeeded in smashing another crater in the ground. Danny flew up at an angle, even as Flammadea's eyes followed him…and then more beams blasted from the giant optic orbs. Danny stopped and zapped to the side at the last moment: the beams flew off in the distance and struck the one of the peaks of the mountain range beyond the city. The entire top of the mountain was atomized into nothing, as Danny once again goggled at the utter destruction. This was insane! She could do so much damage, and yet he couldn't even annoy her! It was the Fenton-copter all over again: the target protected in the inside and the outside…

And then it hit him.

And then Flammadea tried to, as she swung her fist out and down, trying to smash Danny into the Earth and probably all the way to China. Danny dodged again, as he flew up, level with Flammadea's crazy/angry face. His only conceived solution was insane, but that was the name of the game here.

"If I can't hurt you now…" Danny said, as he drew back, concentrating. "Then I guess I'll have to perform an inside job!"

And he streaked towards Flammadea, her arms out as he gathered his power. He had remembered how the Fenton-copter had kept Sizzle safe with its armor and shield, and there was nothing Danny could do to get to his possessed mother. But this wasn't the case here. In this case, there was an obvious crack in the defense. The only problem was, he'd more likely then not get killed trying to exploit it.

Flammadea's eyes locked on the approaching Danny, and she smirked, and then her mouth widened and another gargantuan blast of fire flew out towards Danny.

Danny didn't dodge this time: he flew onward as he closed his eyes. The fire struck and enveloped him, but he did not stop flying, a green barrier around him trying to hold off the immense power of the attack as he flew on…and on…and into Flammadea's mouth, disappearing within the orifice.

Flammadea's mouth closed as she arched an eyebrow. What had just happened? She'd lost sight of Danny…had she finally vaporized the…

And then she felt it. While she had no organs or anything like a human body…she suddenly seemed to have the mother of all indigestions, as she looked down at her body…

Beams of green light began streaking forth from within her. Flammadea's eyes widened, as more beams appeared, and then she screamed as her whole body was blasted apart from within, her gigantic form shattered into thousands of strands of flame as Danny reappeared, finishing his own scream as the huge green energy field he had called up pulled back to his form and disappeared.

Danny slumped over, gasping for air as the wisps of flame flickered out. The flight through Flammadea's fire breath, down through her body, and then blowing her apart, had utterly exhausted him. He had nothing left, again, and he wondered if he should get down to the ground lest his power cut out in mid-air and leave him…

"AAIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Flammadea screamed as she lanced down from the sky. She was back to her 'normal' sized form, but that didn't make her blow any less powerful as she slammed her fist into Danny's face and sent him spiraling across the sky. She's been able to reconstitute herself after Danny had blown her into pieces, but what he had done had hurt, really hurt, not to mention she'd been foiled for seemingly the tenth zillionth time. Her anger raged through her, utterly in control, as she flew after Danny, shrieking in an ire that would have chilled a banshee. Danny, worn out after his previous move and unable to mount a defense, could only stop and turn to face Flammadea when she zapped in and slammed both her fists into his stomach. He doubled over, as Flammadea flew back and then rammed her knee into his gut, doubling him over her limb even more, as she slammed an elbow into the back of his head and then twisted her leg up to kick him in the face. Danny flew back, and Flammadea lashed out with a gigantic punch that smashed into Danny and sent him flying back towards the ground like a black and white asteroid.

Danny crashed through the roof of something, hit the floor, and slid for a few dozen feet before coming to a stop. He coughed as his vision blurred and then cleared, and he shook his head, trying to recover his senses, trying to think of another way to fight back…but he was just so tired…and her anger seemed endless, utterly endless…

And then, as Danny leaned up from his position and saw the rows of pews, he realized where he was. A glance behind him, revealing an alter and a cross, confirmed it. He was in a church.

Slowly, Danny got to his feet, wondering where Flammadea was…and even if he knew, if it did him any good. His eyes scanned the church, and then came back to the cross. It was a large one, a wood statue of Jesus attached to it, though with all the different religions and sub-religions Danny had no idea the exact denomination of the faith that worshipped here.

Danny stared at it for a bit. He was not religious, and he had no real opinions on God, Jesus, and all the usual that surrounded such things. But, as mentioned, he sometimes wondered what the Ghost Zone was, if it somehow tied to religion, if there was any truth in it…and if there was a God, why he allowed things like this to happen. Free will, supposedly: letting man make all his own choices, for better or for worse.

Danny was not a hypocritical type: he didn't really have much of a belief and he wasn't going to throw himself down on his knees and plead for aid in his battle. For whatever reason, he doubted anyone would answer. Mankind had made Flammadea, and now they had to answer for her.

Still…Danny couldn't help but look at the cross.

"…I just…want to do the right thing…" He whispered.

And then the church began to shake. But Danny knew this wasn't any divine intervention. Oh no. If anything, it was the opposite.

All the candles suddenly ignited, their wicks blazing much higher then the scraps of string would usually allow, and as Danny turned around, the shaking grew worse.

And then the stain glass windows started exploding, beginning with the ones near Danny and moving along to the back of the church, and as the final windows shattered the pews started erupting and exploding in flame, the wooden benches shattering in a straight line back towards Danny as he clenched his fists. The splintering, exploding pews finally reached him and finished blowing up around him, and behind him the cross caught fire, the wood representative of whom many believed was the son of a benevolent god burning with no apparent celestial protection.

Flammadea lowered herself through the roof: there was no falling wreckage: she simply reduced everything she touched to ash as she floated down. She looked upon Danny, and then around her, as if realizing where she was in the first time.

"The House of God." She said sarcastically. "You a believer, Danny boy? After all, God supposedly made man in his image. Hah! GREAT JOB!" Flammadea snorted. "You know, I bet the bible had it all wrong. Adam was the first creation, the so called highest being in the garden, you can bet that went straight to his head and he wanted more then he got. I bet he was the one who ate the apple and when he and Eve were kicked out of paradise he made sure everyone was told SHE was the one who ate it. Tempted by a serpent…hah. Great imagery, considering the ones who are really enamored by snakes, if you know what I mean." Flammadea said as she walked up through the burning pews. "Look at it all. The first murder, between brothers! You can bet that if Eve had daughters, that never would have happened! Women don't need to kill each other! After all, that's why they have men, don't they? To ensure their lives are as brief, and as brutish, as possible! And on top of that, we get blamed for every problem! Eve ate the apple and got humanity kicked out of paradise! Delilah cut Samson's hair! You hear about the Whore of Babylon, you never hear about the Violent Brute That Controlled The Whore of Babylon! Always women! Always evil! You know, if this so called god wants to always put us in the position of malificence, we might as well start living up to the role!" Flammadea snarled.

"You can't do this." Danny replied. His mind was a bit dazed: he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"What? Burn down a church? It's a building, kid. It commands no special protection. Much like your manhood doesn't, despite eons of it being treated as some kind of divine gift! Mankind, gods of earth! Women, their stepping stones! Well, we're sick of being stepped on."

"So this is your solution? To step harder? To act just like they supposedly do? To destroy everything in revenge of them destroying everything? WHAT KIND OF A SOLUTION IS THAT?" Danny screamed.

Flammadea smiled.

"Mine."

Danny's eyes narrowed.

"I can't let you do this. It's not right! It's terrible! It's pointless! It's…illegal!" Danny said, blanking once more on a good final word.

Flammadea laughed.

"Illegal?" She said. "Like forcing yourself on your eight year old daughter? Like sticking a pipe up your rear because two teens find your screams funny? Like being tied down and whipped and shit on and being told you're garbage? Like being beaten half to death because you brought in a dollar less then an amount that had never been named? Aren't those things illegal? AREN'T THEY? WELL THAT DIDN'T STOP THEM FROM HAPPENING TO ME! AND THINGS A THOUSAND TIMES WORSE!" Flammadea screamed. "Above all else, you will learn one thing Danny. I DO NOT ANSWER TO THE LAWS OF MAN."

Danny stared, and then he looked around again, just a bit, and as the church burned around him he returned his gaze to Flammadea, his eyes hard and his fists clenched.

"Then…I guess you'll have to answer to God." Danny replied.

Flammadea chuckled.

Danny never saw her uppercut, as Flammadea zapped across the remaining distance and smashed Danny out through the roof of the church. Flammadea followed him, leaving the burning building behind as she zapped after Danny, who was still floating in the air, momentarily frozen from the blow, and as he finally started recovering…

Flammadea's fist slammed across his face, and again, and again, punch after punch hammering into his face and chest, Danny immobilized in the assault, as Flammadea started adding kicks to the onslaught, hitting and hitting and hitting…

As she withdrew one arm from the attack and put it behind her, cupping her palm. A fireball ignited in her hand, the crimson red going to brilliant white…

As she finally spun and slammed a cracking roundhouse kick into Danny's chest, sending him flying back…

As the white of the fire in her hand darkened suddenly and became a brilliant blue, the hottest fire that could be, and as Danny stopped Flammadea smiled and slammed out her hand.

From the fireball a huge blast of blue fire erupted, flowing out towards Danny. His eyes widened in shock.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The blue fire consumed him and exploded, heat so intense it melted the tops of buildings a thousand feet away. The supernatural aspect of the flame once again saved Danny from being incinerated, but that was no comfort as his body streaked from the sky and went crashing down into a ruined street, making another deep crater in the ground from the impact.

Flammadea smiled again, as she held up her hand.

Fire once again ignited, but this time it didn't start growing brighter. It started growing darker, as the red flame went as black as pitch, the Soulsearer flame returning, and then growing outward as Flammadea formed a ball of it above her head, then a sphere, then a massive globe, and then even beyond that, the huge attack filling the sky above Amity Park.

Groaning, a pair of hands grabbed the edge of the crater as Danny tried to pull himself out…and then he saw the attack. He froze in utter terror.

Flammadea looked down upon the fallen Halfa, remember his last words to her in the church. She smirked again.

"You first."

And she hurled the ball down.

Danny saw the gigantic orb of Soulsearer flame descending, and he knew he had to get out of there, but the blue fire attack and impact had sapped his remaining strength and crossed all his wires: he couldn't tell which way was up and which way was down and left and right…but he had to get free, as he managed to untangle his thoughts enough to get airborne, trying to fly up and away…

Flammadea saw this, but she did not blink. Instead, she just pointed at her descending blast.

"This battle is over."

And the ball thrust down, going even faster, and Danny's eyes went as wide as saucers as all escape routes were cut off and the ball came down on him. He screamed, long and loud, as he vanished beneath the ball.

The explosion seemingly shook the planet, as the massive ball of Soulsearer contorted and then blasted an enormous column of pitch black flame into the air, a pillar fifty feet around that fired up and went straight through the cloud above Amity Park and beyond.

Up in the Watchtower, J'onn's own red eyes widened as a terrible black THING that surged up through the clouds suddenly filled the picture the satellite was beaming to him. J'onn recoiled away from the screen, as the black fire reared up, piercing out through the atmosphere and something still going despite there being no oxygen, the blast reaching up and completely filling the satellite screen before it went to snow, as the blast engulfed the satellite and blew it to bits before it faded away. The flaming space tool fell into the Earth's atmosphere, what was left of it eventually crashing into the Atlantic Ocean.

And back down on Earth, Flammadea lowered herself down near the ground as she looked at the aftermath of her grandest attack. She blinked.

And then, she started laughing again, the sound slowly building from a slight chuckle to an all out uncontrollable outburst, the sound of lunatic triumph.

"It's over. It's FINALLY OVER!" She shrieked/hooted, and then once again Flammadea laughed, the terrible noise reaching over the entire city as she gloried over the scattered atoms of Danny Phantom…


Slowly, J'onn returned back to the screen, staring at it, wondering what the hell had just happened. Nothing in the world could have caused that to happen…and that fit, because the attack had not been of this world, but of a world J'onn faintly remembered from bedtime stories told to him when he was a youngling and later seen parallels of in the religious teachings of the human race.

There were many words for it, but J'onn picked the most simple.

It was from hell.

"Seven minutes remaining…"


"It's over! IT'S OVER!" Flammadea screamed, utterly out of control in her mad joy.

And then the beam flew through the air, striking her in the back and drawing a short scream from her before she was frozen in a block of ice.

A block of ice that nearly eight different projectiles assaulted, consuming in a giant explosion, a barrage of firepower that went on for nearly ten seconds before it slackened.

The cloud swiftly cleared, revealing a very angry Flammadea, as she whirled to face her attacker.

Jack Fenton lowered his Ghost Bazooka.

"Not YET."