Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I would never dream of making money off his work, this is but one fanatic's homage. So please don't sic the rabid lawyer hordes upon me, there's not much for them to sue out of me.
Author's Note: Well, this chapter brings Anathema squarely even with Chapter 10 - The Dead of Night from Jeremiad, for those who are counting. I'm trying to get back into posting a chapter per week now that Expo is past, and though I had to stay up stupidly late to finish it (and on a school night, no less!), I am pleased with the result. Dan continues to surprise me with his reactions to stuff, the thoughts and musings that he doesn't say aloud.
Anyways, as is always true, I hope you enjoy the chapter and leave a review. Your feedback is always appreciated!
Chapter 8 - Fortress
I prepared to fly through the portal, to wreck havoc on the sleeping city. I was almost through the portal too, when something small and green and fuzzy pounced me from behind, somehow knocking me over.
"Arf!"
Were it my style, I would have slapped my forehead. The furry thing hopped off my back and trotted around to my face, tongue hanging out, radiating glee. It was that stupid dog again. Hadn't he learned the last time I kicked him? I got upright and pointed one palm at the obnoxious little dog ghost, green energy crackling into being, ready to waste him. It would be so easy to blast the mutt!
"Get lost!" I growled, instead half-turning so as to kick Cujo. The mutt howled as he went sailing through the air from the impact of my foot. Why should I waste my power on such a pathetic little pest? I had bigger fish to fry, and said fish was wearing a red and black jumpsuit.
The city was largely silent when I went through my portal, the city bathed in the orange glow of street lamps. It seemed as though they'd done an awful lot of rebuilding since I was last there. Wide swatches of the city were now unfamiliar, new construction having rebuilt what I had succeeded in destroying in the past. Of particular interest were the massive silver towers I saw encircling the city's center. The huge things resembled broadcast towers of some sort, but they were far larger than any such tower I could think of, nor could I understand the purpose of their vaguely circular arrangement; a distinct ring perhaps a few dozen miles wide.
I pushed such thoughts aside, pondering where to begin cleansing this place from memory. I shut my eyes and spun midair, one arm extended, a blast held ready to launch in my open hand. I let my momentum spin down, and when I came to a stop, let the blast fly. With a slight smile I watched the deceptively small green beam lance toward the ground, striking partway up a skyscraper. The green explosion quickly engulfed several floors of the building, the first screams reaching my ears. I raised one eyebrow at another sound, piercingly high-pitched, clear even over the explosion. Sirens blaring throughout the city, the klaxons sounding from several different locations. Did they have some sort of citywide ghost alarm now?
I laughed then. They thought they were prepared for my return, did they? They had no way to know about my triumph over Pariah, of the fluke accident that enabled me to beat that ghost and increase my own strength. They had no idea what they were facing. I started lobbing more blasts at the nearest buildings, laughing as they toppled, spraying glass, concrete, and bodies into the streets below. Soon I could hear the general panic rippling across the city as people poured out of the buildings and started running. Where do you think you can run to? I thought as I continued blasting merrily away. If they had alarms, it wouldn't be long before she appeared before me again.
I was not proven wrong, as I soon heard the familiar whine of jet sled engines approaching. More than one sled, it sounded more like a squadron of fighter jets, and soon I saw them all. Matching orange and black jumpsuits, matching jet sleds except for one; red and black suit standing out against the rest, her sled out in front of the group. I fired a blast straight down, demolishing a large office tower. Immediately I fired a second blast in the direction of the airborne hunters and watched them scatter like insects.
"Isn't this quaint? I remembered today was your 20th birthday, Valerie." I chuckled, addressing their leader, smirking at her hateful stare. "I thought you'd like a surprise party."
Valerie said nothing, but I could practically read her face like a book. That glare was so full of hate, an expression I'd seen so many times before I revealed my identity to her. There was a new intensity to it however, that had always been absent in the past. This had clearly stopped being a personal vendetta for a life ruined for her. I evaded her blasts as I contemplated her hate for me, almost curious about it. I suppose her learning the fate of my weakness had sharpened her resolve.
Something hit me in the back and I grunted as the force of it knocked me to the ground. I had just been shot by an ecto bazooka of some sort, I knew the sound of the weapon behind me. It was incredible, it didn't hurt a bit! I got back up and glanced in the direction of the blast, raising one eyebrow at the sight of Paulina in a skintight bodysuit standing atop a jet sled, much the same way Valerie used to.
"You want to give Valerie your head? Maybe I wanted that for a present!" The Latina girl snarled, aiming a large gun for a second blast. I jumped back into the air, avoiding more blows from both Paulina and Valerie.
"You think you can stop me?" I chuckled as I fired a beam at Paulina, making the girl yelp in surprise and hurry to evade. I largely ignored most of Valerie's goon squad, even the blasts that hit me didn't do much beyond nudge me in one direction or another as I contemplated the scene. I had some trouble hitting them even with my large ecto-blasts, but I admit I wasn't terribly worried. They were only human, full of weaknesses and emotional handicaps. There was something though in Valerie's face, something in her expression that would almost have given me chills from the intensity of it.
"That little trick with your sled won't work a second time, Valerie." I pointed out as I destroyed another building. I hadn't forgotten that little trick of hers from our last encounter. "I've gotten a lot stronger since our last battle. This time, there won't be anything left of this stupid city. You can't win. You never could."
"I don't have to win, ghost." Valerie hissed, pure venom in her voice as she threw some grenades at me to accompany her gunfire.
"Mmm-hm, yes." I chuckled, turning intangible to avoid the weapons as I remembered a similar line I'd barked out years ago when I first fought Pariah in my weakness. "So long as I lose, right?"
I heard an angry shriek and the whine of engines, so I moved a few feet to one side. My hair was ruffled by the jet wake as I saw Paulina's sled blaze past, missing me by just inches. Several other hunters intercepted, and I was too busy evading their blows to retaliate, much to my annoyance. Admittedly, I wasn't paying them much attention. Why should I? I was so powerful that their equipment could barely hurt me!
"Red is your favorite color, isn't it?" I raised my voice to address Valerie. Startled, she followed my gaze, gasping when she saw the crowds below that had caught my momentary interest. Dodging more shots, I launched a paper-thin green wave of energy down at the ground.
"You monster!" She exclaimed, her voice an interesting combination of horrified and enraged as the blast cut into an apartment building, raining tons of concrete debris on the fleeing crowd below it.
I couldn't resist the terrible pun. It was simply too easy, and terrible puns have always been one of my vices. "Why don't I paint the town red for you, Valerie?"
Valerie bristled, even above the noise from below I could hear the angry hiss as she pointed her gun at me. "You'll pay for this you-!"
She interrupted herself and dove to one side. I wasn't expecting it, and was caught full in the face by a powerful green energy beam. I yelped, flung through the air easily a mile before I regained my balance. I frowned as I caught sight of what had blasted me. Ringing the battlefield floated dozens of armored vehicles, massive contraptions that reminded me of some hideous spawn of Valerie's jet sled and my parent's RV. It was one of those that had blasted me, its massive ecto-cannons powerful enough to hurt.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that. So you and that cheesehead are still buddy-buddy?" I growled, wiping the soot from my face. Always, always the face. I launched a blast at the offending machine, smirking as it moved too slowly to evade. I heard more cries of pain from below as the tank exploded midair, sending a burning rain of debris plunging into the midst of the people on the ground. "There's no way this dumpy town could afford an army."
"What's it to you, ghost?" She snapped in response, blasting forward holding what appeared to be a pair of glowing green daggers.
"You want to dance?" I chuckled, stopping one of the blades with my hand. This was rich, she thought she could fight me in close quarters with a pair of toothpicks?
"I suppose it's a good thing I can multitask then, isn't it?" I declared from behind her, my second self slamming one foot down on the back of her jet sled. She gasped for just a second in surprise before basic physics took effect and catapulted her through the air, jet sled tumbling out of control in a different direction.
She angled herself so her fall drifted out of the path of a second energy blast, and within moments she was back aboard her sled. The look on her face when she saw all four of me was absolutely priceless, sheer shock mingled with horror and doubt. I didn't let her gawk for long, I darted forward and launched a punch at her face, but her sled slid sideways and I missed. She spun on the ball of her foot, a parody of a ballet dancer, and slammed her other leg square into my face. I stumbled briefly and retaliated with a pair of beams fired from my eyes, another trick I had neglected for the past few years.
While that me was busy playing with Valerie, two of my other selves were keeping the rest of the hunters occupied. Even though I was outnumbered several dozen to one, I had all the advantages. My fourth self, shielded by the three of me busy fighting continued to level the city, brilliant green explosions ripping buildings apart to their foundations, spraying the fleeing crowds below with hot debris. I was making much better progress than I had in my previous two attempts at destroying the city: Vast tracts of suburbia were already reduced to ruin. In mere hours I had already accomplished more than I had been able to in three days on my previous attempt.
"Don't think we don't have a few more tricks left, Phantom!" Valerie hissed, leaping from above me and crashing bodily into me. I admit I was surprised by the maneuver, and together we plummeted toward the ground. Her expression was positively wild as I fell with her legs wrapped around me, the huntress throwing her entire weight into driving her knives into my chest again and again. The sensation reminded me vaguely of that day six years ago when I awoke to the claws of the Ghost Gauntlets lodged in my torso, but the pain was miniscule in comparison.
"As do I." I smirked. I let that duplicate vanish out from under the red-clad woman. It was momentarily strange to think of Valerie as a grown woman, no more of a child than I was. Her years of training showed most flatteringly through her skintight body suit, but it wouldn't matter in the end. She would die despite her best efforts.
Paulina had one of my other selves separated from the general melee, or rather, I had split her away from the crowd. "Do you honestly think you stand a chance against me, Paulina?" I sneered at the Latina. "When not even Valerie can touch me?"
"Get away-!" She shrieked, firing at me with her bazooka. The weapon seemed horribly mismatched, a giant gun that was sorely at odds with her slender frame.
"What, I thought you used to adore me-" I leered, a blast to the back of the head interrupting me and knocking me off balance for a moment. At least it was a change of pace and not a shot to my face.
"Adore you?" Paulina spat. Literally, I saw the spittle flying. "Who told you that? My only love is the ghost-boy!"
I snorted as I regained my balance. The airhead still hadn't figured out that I was her beloved ghost-boy? "I should have known you were so shallow, just a pretty face. I suppose I ought to fix that, shouldn't I?"
It was almost amusing the way Paulina paused for a moment as my worded barb sank in. Then her face twisted into an angry snarl as she grabbed a second gun from the small arsenal slung across her back. "Are you calling me shallow?"
"Mm. Yes. I think Sam said it best, didn't she?" I snarled. Sam had always been a particularly sharp wit, and observant with it no less. I would need to track down those ghosts and destroy them. They couldn't be allowed to continue to desecrate the memory of my deceased friends. "That I could stand in a puddle of you and not get my feet wet."
I didn't think it was possible for Paulina to look any more enraged, but the Latina proved me wrong. "I don't care what you heard some dead goth girl say about me!"
I was about to snarl an angry reply. How dare she talk about Sam like that? Sam was a better person than the Latina could ever hope to be! She had no right to talk down about my late friend like that, and I would make certain she paid for her arrogance! I didn't get a chance to vaporize her, unfortunately. I heard Valerie shout something, and a volley of blasts from Paulina's bazookas and a number of those flying tanks slammed into that duplicate. I let that copy vanish, focusing my efforts through my remaining two selves.
"How amusing." I mused as I brought a building down, crushing the short form of one hunter beneath its bulk. I landed on top of the heap of debris and phased intangible through it until I found the bloody remains. I was pleased to see he wasn't dead yet, and better yet his arm was enclosed in a gap in the debris, pinned at a horribly nasty angle. I ripped his glove off and laid claim to his wristband, listening with a fanged smile to the communications chatter.
While I was doing that, my other self was busy fighting both Valerie and Paulina, the two women furious at the death of their comrade. Paulina slammed into me with her sled, while Valerie jumped off hers entirely, a volley of gun blasts preceeding her.
"If you weren't already dead, I'd kill you!" Valerie shrieked. Even I had to wince slightly as her voice hit a painfully high pitch in her anger.
"I'll gouge his eyes out!" Paulina snarled, swiping at my face with her claws.
The two hunters landed several punches, shots, and scratches before I launched a small energy blast that flung them both wildly through the air. Valerie called her stupid sled back to catch her as expected, but I heard Paulina shriek as she was thrown from her ride. Valerie shot underneath the Latina and caught her, and I spied the other sled flying back toward the pair.
I snickered and fired a green blast at the thing, chuckling as the craft stupidly flew right into the green blast and was vaporized. I started firing at Valerie again, but she was a crafty aerialist and slipped out of harm's way despite the added burden of Paulina on her sled. Paulina opened fire, a few red beam blasts striking me. I let that duplicate vanish.
"Dad, how much longer? Nothing we're doing is hurting him! We're taking heavy losses out here!" I heard Valerie's voice through the tiny speaker on the communication wristband I'd taken. I ignored the chatter and dove into the midst of a group of those flying tanks. The things were utterly defenseless in close-quarters. I blasted one to pieces and grabbed another by the turret; spinning around and slamming it into at least three others before I released it and sent it slamming into the side of a building.
"Just a little longer, Valerie!" I heard a male voice I distantly recognized over the tiny communicator.
It was almost daybreak, the harsh blue light of the pre-dawn twilight revealing that the crowds below had thinned to nothing. There were still a few dozen more hunters alive than I would have liked, but I was making excellent progress on reducing their numbers.
"Dad. How much is a little longer? We're going to have to pull back the artillery first and cover the retreat with the infantry, or we're going to take serious losses while we retreat to the shield!" Valerie's desperate voice called over the airwaves. Retreat? To the shield? I didn't recall seeing the green dome of the ghost shield.
"You certainly are going to take losses." I sneered into my pilfered communications device, tone full of the loathing I felt for Valerie. "I like to think they'll be total losses."
"YOU?" I heard her shriek in response. I watched her sled wheel around and dodged a volley of red energy blasts from Valerie and Paulina. I returned fire of course, but they continued to elude me.
"Everyone is under the shield that can get here! I'm ordering the artillery to fall back now!" The voice of Valerie's father issued from the communicator.
Valerie dodged her sled around another one of my giant energy blasts and shot past me, her voice almost lost amid the howling of her sled's engines. "Think you're so hot, spook?"
"Tag, you're it!" Paulina cried, throwing a grenade at me. Her throw was deliberately shallow, the weapon exploded before it ever reached me, the resultant shockwave knocking me backwards a few feet.
The explosion didn't even char my cape, and I smirked as I floated from the cloud of smoke. "Isn't that cute?" I sneered as I gave chase. "You two want to play a game? Fine."
Valerie spun her sled around to face me and dove beneath me as I shot overhead, Paulina firing at me the entire time. She wanted to dance, did she? I chased the pair through the ruins, a high speed game of tag in and among the crumbled buildings. I fired at the other hunters as I gave pursuit, I wasn't stupid enough to focus on Valerie to the complete exclusion of her merry band of soldiers. Tanks fell from the sky as I tagged them, green explosions setting off new fires in the ruins below.
"You're terribly good at running, Valerie." I sneered into the communicator as I chased the pair into the burned out hull of a building, firing a large blast into the haze where they had to be. I heard a series of explosions and the ever-present whine of jet engines, and knew that they'd avoided it. "But you know you can't run forever."
"I may be good at running, ghost." Valerie retorted over the communication wristband, voice full of loathing. I emerged from the wreckage of the building and saw the pair, unscathed. "But you sure suck at hitting anything!"
"Yeah, all talk and no substance!" Paulina shouted to me directly. "It must be all that hot air making your hair stick up like that!"
I bristled at the comment and responded with more energy blasts. It reminded me entirely too much of how I was always blown off by the pretty Latina in my weakness. Mocked and ridiculed, when I had the power even then to destroy them all. I could have done much worse to them all then with my powers than the occasional invisible prank or overshadowing of that idiot Dash. I could have, but in my weakness I was kind and merciful. Never again would I be such a fool and so nice to people who couldn't give a care in response. Never!
"The Patrol is inside the shield! Get back here!"
"We're out of here!" Valerie sighed, turning her sled toward the center of the city. Her relief was short lived however, as I teleported in front of her.
"You're not going anywhere." I growled, firing at her.
"Wanna bet, ghost?" She snarled and swerved aside.
"Out of the way!" Paulina snarled from behind Valerie, the muzzle of her ecto-bazooka leveled at me from over Valerie's shoulder. It spat a pink beam that caught me in the face, scorching my eyes and momentarily blinding me as I howled my rage. I was really sick of the potshots at my face! I heard the jet sled tear past me, felt the wake of its passing whip my cape wildly.
I snarled and gave chase as soon as my vision cleared, dodging Paulina's shots and returning fire with a volley of green blasts of my own. "When I catch you, you'll wish I was only tearing you limb from limb! What I did to my weakness will pale compared to what I'll do to the two of you!"
The sun crested the horizon as I steadily gained on the two hunters, casting sharp shadows over the rubble-strewn streets and dead bodies below, and lighting up the plumes of smoke in sharp relief against the brightening sky. I really had torn the city a new one during the night, the landscape was positively bleak as I chased them down. The two women started cheering for some reason, Valerie's jet sled sliding sideways to a halt.
I was nearly on top of them, and didn't realize why they stopped until I was brought suddenly and uncomfortably to a halt as I slammed into what seemed to be a solid wall. I knew I had to look ridiculous, flattened against the smooth surface like an idiot. I never could quite shed that particular observational quirk of finding shields by hitting them with my face. I shook my head and floated back a foot or two, only then realizing what had stopped me as Valerie and Paulina flew up alongside me.
A giant blue dome of energy separated me from my intended victims, those "broadcast towers" buzzing as they generated the gigantic barrier. I growled as I realized the shield they had been talking about hadn't been the FentonWorks ghost shield. It was this behemoth barrier, sheltering a colossal portion of the city. A ghost shield bigger than I would have thought possible.
"Sorry to disappoint, Phantom, but I think we went somewhere." Valerie waved to me, her voice dripping with sarcastic sweetness, taunting me with my most recent failure from within the perceived safety of that shield.
"Looks like you lose, ghost!" Paulina winked and blew a kiss in my direction.
I snarled, energy charging around my fists. They thought that stupid shield would protect them? With all the power I had gained in my fight with Pariah? I raised my hands above my head, charging the biggest blast I could manage. I was furious, staring at those two mocking faces.
"You think that silly shield will stop me?" I hissed. Paulina yelped and ducked when she saw the green sphere, likely spanning the better part of her vision. Valerie stared coldly at me, mocking my wrath, mocking what I was capable of with her utter lack of fear in the face of an explosion that would likely vaporize everything for several miles around. "DIE!"
The explosion was tremendous, a gigantic blast of green energy rocking the area. The shockwave alone tore buildings beyond the shield to shreds, snapping them back and forth like I recall seeing in old nuclear bomb test videos. The thundercrack of the initial impact gave way to a deafening roar as the ectoplasmic energy played havoc with the wreckage, twisting steel into nightmare sculptures, ripping asphalt from the streets and sending huge slabs flying hundreds of feet through the air.
It took several minutes for the blast haze to clear, and I was stunned to find it hadn't so much as dented the giant blue shield. Valerie smirked up at me as she turned her sled away, taunting me with what would normally be an easy shot to the back.
"Yes, I think that silly shield is going to stop you." She beamed, calling over her shoulder as she and Paulina flew away. "So long, spook!"
"This ghost shield won't stop me forever, Valerie!" I hissed, firing a few more blasts at the shield, my rage growing as each one dissipated or was repelled outright by the cursed shield. They thought they could lock me out of my own home with technology clearly borrowed from my dead family? Did they think to hide underneath that blue dome, imprisoned in their perceived safety? Their prison couldn't stand forever. I would find a way to tear it down, render that obstacle useless so that I could finish what I had started.
I would kill Valerie, and I would make absolutely certain it was as messy and agonizing as possible.