Time Phantom: The DeLorean Chronicles
Chapter 20: The Hopefire

Vlad looked down at the green mask that had fallen off his face. It confused him at first, but then he remembered. His real face lay within. His outer face was just a façade, a ruse to intimidate, to gain respect. He didn't want to use his true face all the time, because it drew upon his power greatly. It sucked him dry, which was why his inner face was so decrepit.

He decided now that his outer face was gone and his inner face exposed, he should probably put on the true face.

"Daniel," he said, "I see that you've discovered my secret." Vlad looked down solemnly. "You're the first person I've had to transform to fight in nearly ten years, Daniel." Vlad looked up and smiled evily. "Congratulations."

"You…," Daniel was seemingly in shock.

"Yes. I. It is always I. Not you, not your father, not this planet! I am the one who gets what he wants. What I deserve! Goodbye, Daniel."

Ominous music began to boom in the background as red energy tendrils lashed out from Vlad's body, destroying the fake Plasmius costume and knocking Danny back. The red columns of ghost light arced upward, spilling into the sky and tenting it blood red. Vlad hovered off the ground consumed by his power, which now spilled forth from the roof of his tower and down the sides as if it had weight.

Black rings of energy slid into existence at Vlad's center and traced up his body, covering his pale skin and worn tux with the form formerly known as Vlad Plasmius. But now, it was different. The suit spilled over with the crimson power of his aura, and if it were possible, his hair stood even higher and appeared even more as a demon's horns, hovering ominously above his head.

His green skin radiated a glow, as did his eyes. Vlad Plasmius? No.

Plasmadeus!

oooo

Danny struggled to his feet, the subzero chill receding to a gut and giving way to a grim determination. Vlad may have become all-powerful, but so had been Pariah Dark. So had been Dan Phantom. He had beaten them. He would beat Vlad!

"Behold," Vlad bellowed. "The new ruler of this planet! PLASMADEUS."

"You totally stole that from Sizzle," Danny shot, diving towards the newly revealed arch nemesis. "And you know where thieves go!" Danny charged his energies, the ones he had absorbed, and briefly considered the irony of that statement.

"Hell?" Vlad asked, catching Danny in a massive ectoplasm talon and crushing him with it. "Honestly, boy, if hell exists, how can I go there? I am going to live FOREVER!" Energy shot through Danny's body and he screamed out in agony. Vlad's torture wracked is body, then suddenly eased off.

Danny looked up through charred strands of his hair hanging down over his eyes. "I was going to say, '"WASHINTGON D.C.!'" And as he bellowed his punch line, he unleashed the Ghostly Wail on Vlad, blasting him backward and forcing him to let go of his aching body. He drew more energy and a fired a double-handed ecto-beam at Vlad. It didn't even faze him, and Plasmadeus charged forward, thrashing Danny with his fists and then using a hammer fist smash to pound him towards the ground. But before Danny could recover, Plasmadeus blasted down with his aura trailing like a great comet plummeting towards earth, and smashed a fist into Danny's back, then unloaded a combination of brutal blows.

"Stop it!" Danny blasted away and fired back at Vlad, again to no avail.

"Foolish boy!" Vlad deflected the beams with zero effort and created his own massive blast, which he then hurled at Danny, knocking him down, into Vlad's tower. It exploded in a brilliant flash of red. "Stop it? Stop it? It has only just begun!"

Somehow, Danny heard him despite being buried under fifty tons of rubble.

oooo

The sound waves assailed the equilibriums of Marty, Maddie, and Qwan, and they had to cover their ears to avoid being deafened.

"No!" Maddie screamed, "Vlad is killing him."

"Danny isn't going to let Vlad win," Marty said, still struggling through the maze of securities Doc had placed on the DeLorean.

"This is the final question. You've probably more than proven yourself by now, but I knew that I couldn't be too careful." The Doc paused momentarily, then continued. "What is my middle name?"

Marty goggled. He knew it started with an 'L' but… he didn't know what it was! "You don't know?" Qwan blurted..

"He never told me!" Marty protested. "I'm not a telepath."

"You never bothered to ask him what the 'L' stood for?" Maddie quizzed.

"You couldn't figure out your own son was a half ghost superhero?" Marty shot back.

"You have only ten seconds left!" Qwan warned.

"Um…"

Five seconds.

"I ur… Leonard?" Marty asked.

Zero seconds.

"Identity confirmed," Doc said. The faces adopted puzzled looks. "I knew you wouldn't know it," he said, "so if anyone had given the correct answer, the DeLorean would have exploded. Mr. Fusion is now online. Happy Time traveling, my boy. I sure hope you can fix the future."

Marty sweatdropped.

"It's Lathrop, by the way," he said, fizzling out of existence.

oooo

The same sound waves of Vlad's yell shortly thereafter reached the ears of the ghost fighters even now closing in on the fleeing ghost army; they had just crossed the Wisconsin border.

"Oh, man," Sam said, "did you hear that?"

Paulina answered, "I did. It sounds like Danny isn't doing to well, then, no?"

"He will win. He has to."

Dora, now on her glider, flew on in silence. Her quarrel with Vlad was more personal; she'd lost her pet sentient monkey Boots to his wrath, and she wanted revenge.

The rest of the group, including Flare, flew on below them.

"What's that up there?" Dora suddenly asked, pointing a head of them to four red something or others flying to intercept the ghost army.

Gyzz removed a telescope from his backpack and zoomed in on the figures. "..the kludge?" He blurted. "It looks like a bunch of Crimson Chins from those old comic books."

"You're kidding?" Sam deadpanned.

"See for yourself." He handed the scope to Sam, who confirmed what Gyzz had said. "He's right. And that short guy, Kaze, is with them."

Silence overcame them as they waited to see what was going on, when suddenly the Chins—soon joined by four more for a total of eight, laid into the ghost army—as did Kaze.

"Attack, then? Paulina asked.

"I think this as good a chance as any to keep them off Danny. I just hope he doesn't need help."

oooo

"Somebody please help me!" Danny screamed, ectoplasmic tears leaking from his eyes and Plasmadeus continued to thrash him around.

"There is nobody, Daniel. You can only help yourself. Pledge your allegiance…and your mother… to me!"

Danny's anger flared and he snapped out a fist into Vlad's face knocking im back. "I will NEVER let you have my mother, or me!" And an ectoplasmic energy beam the size of a fully loaded minivan flashed out into Plasmadeus, knocking him towards the ground. "Remember that."

Vlad glowed, and suddenly was back up next to Danny. "Ecto-portation," he said. "Very useful."

He waved his fingers in a slashing motion, and tiny strand of energy flicked out and cut deep into Danny's shoulder.

"AAUGHH!"

Again, and Danny received a gash in his stomach.

"Uggh! Vlad, I…!"

"Not Vlad. Plasmadeus."

Plasmadeus cut again, and again, lashing Danny as if with a cat of nine tails, leaving him covered in deep cuts oozing green ectoplasm blood. Danny screamed out in pain. He couldn't give up, but he was about to give in. He had little stamina left and…

No! He had to stop Vlad! But exhaustion wracked his body, and despite his fear being gone, Vlad was just too powerful. He would have given anything for one of his dad's goofy gadgets right now. The gauntlets or the Specter Deflector.

But his dad was ten years dead.

It would have been great if Jazz popped in with the Ghost Peeler and bail his butt out like she had so many times in the past. But Jazz wasn't coming. She wasn't going anywhere. Her mind was completely broken. And then he thought of Tucker. Tucker would just through him a Fenton Thermos and Danny would Vlad into it. Problem solved.

But Tucker couldn't do that either. Tucker was now a part of Danny, in spirit if not in mind. Danny's lifelines were gone. Then it occurred to him that they were gone BECAUSE of Vlad. Because he just couldn't be content with what he had and always wanted MORE. More money, more power. The Packers. His mother. The Packers….

His mother.

"STOP IT!" Danny bellowed as Vlad cut at him again, a short burst of Ghostly Wail bending the dark sword back into Vlad's face. It cut a gash and some blood leaked out. Black, semi-lucent stuff. It was like human blood mixed with ghost blood, evidence of Vlad's continued corruption by his ghost form.

"You… injured me." Vlad's statement was said without emotion.

Well. Not entirely. Danny thought somewhere deep inside, he had said it with mild surprise. Without warning, ghost energy lashed out. Danny saw it, heading for his eyes. But it moved so fast, he didn't have time to blink… and that probably wouldn't have helped anyway. The beam cut into his eyes; Plasmadeus jerked it away, and it disappeared.

Pain surged through Danny's face, and he screamed out as he grabbed the oozing sockets where his eyes had been.

"Now, I have injured you, Daniel," Vlad said. "We're even."

oooo

A ghost soldier lunged forward and rammed his bayonet into a Crimson Chin; the spandex clad hero buckled back and vanished in a poof.

"Hey!" Timmy blurted, "what gives?"

"Sorry, Sport, answered the newly healed Wanda. "We can't have the Crimson Chins dying without messing up comic continuity."

Cosmo spoke, "Any more than it is already, of course."

Timmy ignored him, and blasted a wave of ghosts. "So you're saying that if a Crimson Chin gets hurt, you poof him back to the comic world?"

"We have to, Timmy." Wanda insisted.

"That's just great," Timmy dodged under a shotgun blast and used a wind blade to rend the ghost to pieces…. "Fine, then. Let's get turbulent!"

Charging his Kaze-Fu powers, Timmy unleashed a vortex on the battlefield, tearing thorough the ghosts and clearing a way for the oncoming traffic. Freedom fighters from Amity apparently were following the ghost army, because soon after he and the Chins had engaged the army, Timmy had seen fireballs and soul sabers flash about, indicating the battle had just gotten a lot easier.

Timmy took the opportunity to have some fun. "Ha!" he dodged under a slash from a rapier. "To slow. Missed me." He blasted the ghost and found a new sparring partner.

"Man, this is just like a videogame!"

oooo

"Watch it Gyzz," warned Sam, "this is not a videogame!"

"I know." Gyzz looked at the display his backpack projected in front of him. "The ghost army is still retreating towards the Palace. Is it possible that Vlad is… scared?"

"Somehow, I doubt it," Sam replied sadly.

oooo

"Ugh!" THWACK! "UGH!" Danny flew back and slammed into a wall, his power fading, his hair turning black again…

"NO!" drawing deeper from those he had absorbed, Danny forced more power to the forefront. Vlad wouldn't not be content to toy with him if he wasn't a ghost. And Danny had to buy time!

"No what?" Vlad laughed. "Honestly, Daniel, you aren't making much sense."

"Shut up," Danny bit out. "You… you are going to pay for all this, Plasma… Vlad. My dad. Valerie, Tucker. My sister."

"How can you fight me, Daniel? You can't even see me! I could kill you at any moment, and yet you persist."

Danny tilted his head in the direction that Vlad's voice was coming from, and through the darkness, he could FEEL Vlad, he could sense the evil power, and the sheer madness radiating from him.

Danny blasted in that direction, but felt Vlad move out of the way at the last second, his beam flying harmlessly into the distance. But he had what he needed; if he could feel Vlad, he could still fight him.

"It ends tonight, 'Plasmadeus'," Danny insisted, spitting up some ecto-blood. He charged at the monster, pounding at him with everything he had and more, contacting with blow after blow, until Vlad had no choice but to fight back.

Three hits was all it took to end Danny's rampage, and Danny began to fall, no longer directly above the tower, the blind teen feel straight towards the outer wall of Vlad's palace, unable to know how fast he was going, unable to see the ground. He was barely even conscious….

THUD.

He landed sooner than he had thought, and a new wave of pain wracked his body, his shoulder coming out of place.

And oddly, he thought he heard Sam's voice…

oooo

"Danny, I got you!" Sam said. She wished he hadn't hit the glider so hard, but it was the best she could do. Still, Danny was in pain, with a bunch of wounds. It would take more medical skills than Sam knew to fix him up…

Landing the glider, Sam took Danny's body in his arms, and ran towards the calm center of the maelstrom of violence around them…

"Mrs. Fenton!" she yelled, dodging an anti-ghost artillery shell from one of the Endsville units. "Maddie! I've found Danny!"

"Sam? Is that you?" Maddie dashed over to see Sam and her son.

"Is he alright?" Marty McFly asked?

A soul saber blade crackled to life and cut down a small flying bat ghost before it could take out Marty's face, and Qwan warned Marty something about being more observant.

"I don't, know," Maddie said. "Just get him in that car! You guys have to go back and undo all this!"

More ghosts succumbed to the explosions, more humans fell and became ghosts themselves, and Vlad observed it all from above.

"ENOUGH!" he bellowed, raising the Amulet of Roasha high above his head. All the ghosts under his control immediately looked up, their eyes glowing bright red as they gazed upon their master. "This war has gone on long enough, and it ends tonight. I must thank you, Daniel, for gathering all my adversaries here. I can eliminate them. All of them."

"No!" Danny bit out, opening his eyes and forgetting they were sliced in half. Pain bit at him, but he did not flinch.

"No! Danny!" he heard his mom gasp in horror at the sight of his wound.

"Oh, my gosh! Your eyes!" Sam got closer as if she could help by proximity. "Are you OK?"

"No. I won't be OK until this future has no Vlad Plasmius."

"Then let's go undo it!" Marty said. "The Time Machine is ready!"

Danny chuckled. "Vlad will never let us escape. And I won't be satisfied until I make him pay for everything he's done here."

"Danny, revenge isn't the answer. It will lead you down the same path Vlad has taken."

"This isn't revenge, mom! It's justice! It's… retribution!"

"Snap out of it Danny!" Sam admonished. "If you give into these feelings, then you're no better than him!"

"DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT!" Danny bellowed, his power flaring towards Sam, who jumped away in shock. An icy chill ran up Danny's spine again. Had he just…?

The look in Sam's eyes would have said it all, he knew. He was glad he could not see it... "Sam…" Danny fell on his knees. "I'm sorry."

Plasmadeus, apparently getting bored, interrupted. "This whole thing is really touching," he said, "but I have a war to win." Vlad's power flared around the amulet, and the ghost armies began breaking up, disappearing and joining Plasmadeus, making him stronger, if that were possible.

"No!" Flare swore in Japanese at Vlad, but it was all to no avail.

"Forget it, Flare," Danny said. "It's hopeless."

oooo

Maddie bent down, and placed her remaining arm around her child.

"Maddie?" Vlad bellowed. "Is that you?" his voice seemed almost… concerned.

"Ah, well, as a ghost, you'll like me a lot more than you do now." Vlad grinned, bearing dark teeth, but Maddie ignored it.

"Danny," said Flare, "Get up. It is only as hopeless as you make it."

"No, it's pretty hopeless," Sam insisted.

Maddie embraced her son, and leaned over to whisper in his ear. "Son. Do you remember what I used to tell you about hope? About how even a faint spark could turn into an ember, and that ember into a flare…"

Danny tilted his head his mother's direction. "And that flare into a burning fire that could consume all evil." He smiled.

"Hope," she whispered. "All our hope is in you know, Danny. I know you can do this. Don't do it for your father, or Tucker or Valerie; do it for those of us you still have! For me, and Jazz… and Sam."

The words of Maddie Fenton echoed in his mind. Fighting for revenge: it's what he'd been doing the whole time. But that… that was wrong. It would only lead him down the same path as Vlad. And that was a place he NEVER wanted to tread. Danny stood up, and looked in the direction of Vlad. "Plasmadeus!" he bellowed. "I don't care how powerful you are! I won't let you hurt anyone else!"

Danny's aura flared, and he tapped into hope. The hope of those around him, the hope of his mother, of Flare, of Marty and Kaze, of all the soldiers. Of Paulina and Dora.

His aura grew.

Vlad cackled. "You're resolve is admirable, but you're power is gone, you can barely stay transformed. Give up!"

"No."

"Then you'll die with everyone else."

"Not so fast!" Kaze screamed, and hurling a boomerang, he knocked the Amulet of Roasha from Vlad's hand. It plummeted to the ground, where Danny caught it, feeling where it was by the power circulating through it.

Vlad laughed again. "I've been absorbing the ectoplasm of every ghost I've found worthless to me for ten years, boy. You think that getting your hands on the amulet will change anything?"

"I have something better than ectoplasm, Vlad! I have the love of my family! The faith they place in me! And the HOPE that I can destroy you once and for all!" Danny raised the amulet up, and his powers coursed into it, shattering the red glow around it. "You can't see past your own arrogance, Vlad. You could never have a family. You could never know what it means to have people there, who always pick you up when you can't do so for yourself!"

"Touching, isn't it?" Vlad said to himself. Or perhaps to one of his many fractured personalities.

Danny reached out and touched. He touched the minds and hearts of all the ghosts he could find, on earth and in the Ghost Zone, and drawing them to Wisconsin. Thousands upon thousands.

Vlad lowered his hand, and then raised the other to his chin. "What's this? You've brought me more fodder?" Throwing his head back, Vlad began to absorb the newcomers, tearing their bodies apart and growing stronger.

"How the?"

"He must have had the amulet for so long his body acts like a living battery of ghost power now." Sam tried. It was as good an explanation as any.

"You take what doesn't belong to you, Vlad. I take only what is freely given!" Danny reached out through the amulet and connected with the legion of spirits around him. "If you want this nightmare to end, if you want Vlad's reign to end and the war to finally stop, then give me your hope! Please!"

They agreed. It was do or die, and anyone who wanted not to die (again) decided to do. Even if Danny lost, it was better than not taking the chance, they agreed.. White-green power echoed out and the flow of energy to Vlad stopped.

"What?" he blurted.

It all flowed in to Danny, charging him, empowering him. Hope. A small spark. An Ember. A Flare. And now a fire. A consuming flame that licked around Danny, lighting up the Wisconsin countryside for miles. Danny was but a tiny silhouette in the luminescence,…

Then something amazing happened. Danny changed; he ascended to a higher level. And he transformed again, his gloves and boots and belt radiating their color inward and making Danny's suit a brilliant white, blinding the eyes of many as he hovered above the night sky. The logo Sam had made for him reappeared on his chest in brilliant glowing green.

He opened his eyes.

They were back, no longer cut, and were a solid green ectoplasmic pit with no pupil or iris, but they were deep with righteous fury and compassion. In everyway, they were exactly like what Vlad's eyes were not.

Sam looked up, and a tear ran down her face. It was so beautiful!

Maddie smiled, and she and Sam reached a consensus: "Get him, Danny!"

The Fire around Danny flickered into a stream, like the tail of a comet, as it chased Danny across the sky and over to Vlad's imposing figure.

"How? You insolent little!"

Danny looked down into Vlad's eyes, and without even moving, his aura caught up, and exploded into a massive ball of energy around Vlad. He held out his hands and charged, blasting ectoplasmic energy beams into his dark adversary. "I'm not the insolent one here, Vlad. You're the one who thinks you own the darn world."

A horrible scowl twisted over Vlad's face. "My name is PLASMADEUS!" Power erupted form him, knocking Danny backwards and upwards, twirling through the air. Plasmadeus, satisfied that all of Vlad had been purged from his being, flew up, and raised his hands. "I rule this planet, and you will not stop me no matter how much 'hope' you think you have!" Plasmadeus held his right hand high above his head.

"PIERCING OBLIVION!" He bellowed. The attack that formed above him was just that: a literal oblivion. A dark void of utter nothing, held in check by a faint crimson aura. And looking into it pierced your brain and without fail made the most self assure person feel how weak they truly were in the grand scheme of the Universe.

It had no such effect on Danny.

Enraged, Plasmadeus, flung the dark ball, the size of a skyscraper, at Danny. "You may not fear it now, but when it touches you, you'll wish you had!"

Danny raised a hand, the Fire priming around him, becoming a green glow… and he caught the attack. "No Vlad. I am SICK of fear, and I'm SICK of YOU!" Danny hurled the attack back at his foe, the crimson shell cracking, and falling away to reveal a green shield around the dark ball of nothing.

"It can't be!" Plasmadeus bellowed. "This is--!"

"Impossible? It's happening, isn't it?"

That wasn't Danny's voice….

"J…. Jack!"

Vlad and Danny turned to the side, where Jack Fenton stood. A ghost, but looking no different than he had ten years ago. "That little girl in the goth shirt who takes care of dead people told me all about you, Vlad Masters."

"Jack!" Plasmadeus wretched, hating himself. Even after all his toils, all his troubles, Jack Fenton lived on even in death. "JACK!" A dark claw reached out, ready to rend Jack's ghost in two.

But a white Flame destroyed it, and Danny hovered in between them. Danny looked back, his burning eyes full of happiness, at his father. He said nothing, though. Jack had the most important words of all.

"Danny," he said. "I want you to know that above all else, I'm proud of you. Now go fix this mess. It's hard to find fudge when you're not among the living."

Turning, Danny blasted over to Plasmadeus and riddled him with blows, beating the ever loving snot out of him, and finishing off with a painful sounding spin kick. "Eh…!" Vlad couldn't even beg for mercy, as Danny's kick had shattered his jaw.

But mercy Danny granted anyway, in a form. Channeling his energies into a familiar pattern, Danny formed a perfect replica of the Ghost Catcher, suspending the net inside a ring of his Hopefire, and flung it at Plasmadeus… and the ghost was ripped out of him, the frail human Vlad Masters falling towards the ground, crashing with a sickening thud into the flying DeLorean.

"I got the walking corpse!" Shouted Marty. "Finish off that ghost thing!"

Danny complied, and just as the pure essence of Plasmadeus' power surrounded him, the Fire exploded around him again, blasting it away, and curling it into a ball, a tiny prison for an immense power.

"Danny!" Gyzz shouted. "Here!" Danny looked down to see Gyzz use his backpack's mechanical arm to fling a shiny white object towards him—The Fenton Peeler! It had saved his life so many times before, and now it was time he used it to save everyone else's. Danny pressed the button, and the armor within surrounded him; he transformed and it began to glow, and the burning green D logo appeared on it's chest.

"YOU WILL PERISH!" The essence of Plasmadeus yelled, charging at Danny one last time.

Danny smirked. "You first!" He pulled the trigger, and an eye-burning teal-white beam exploded from the tip of the gun, tearing into essence and knocking it back… It dissipated in a burst of Hopefire.

Plasmadeus was no more.

oooo

Danny lowered to the ground, and his family rushed to gather around, congratulating him. And so did the entire army.

After he'd assured them it would all be OK now, he detransformed and turned to Marty, his eyes repaired by the power. "I still have some energy left. I can feel it!" Danny realized he was innaproriately giddy given the mood, but…

"If we go back in time now to before Valerie died… we can change this whole mess!"

"Then let's get going!" Marty reasoned. The two walked over to Vlad Masters. He was dead. Apparently his body had been so ravaged, subsiting only on Ghost Power for so long, that he couldn't survive with out it. Danny did not watch as Dora and Paulina carried his body away. He would always remember what Vlad could have been without his ghost half, what he had seen the first time he'd been to the future. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the man.

"Let's go home," Marty said.

"Wait!" Sam came up, and knelt by Danny. "Danny. I… In the past. You know I care for you, right."

Danny nodded."We're best friends."

"Danny…" Sam held him tightly. "You know it's more than that. I don't want this to be our future."

"Are you saying…?" Danny gasped.

"I don't know. I don't know how I would react, or even if you cared back then. But…"

Danny pushed her away. "I understand, I think. Sam, I promise that this future will never happen long as it's in my power to change it. I won't let you go through this again."

They embraced again...

Then the two parted, Kaze, Marty and Danny Phantom entering the DeLorean. "Destination: 2005!" The car accelerated to 88 Miles Per Hour, and in a flash of light and a trail of fire, it disappeared to fix the past.

"See you there," I guess, said Flare.

A tear fell from Jack's eye. "Lot's of fudge," he whispered.