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: I was originally going to have this chapter cover up to when Dan learned the Ghostly Wail. But for dramatic reasons, I think this way works better. More notes to follow at the end of the chapter. For the record, this chapter does contain some spoilers for the Finale chapter of Jeremiad, for those who may not have read my other story. Anyhow, I hope y'like it, and if so, leave a review and tell me! If you hate it, leave a review and let me know why you hate it! Much appreciated either way.
Chapter 9 - Power
Within days I had reduced everything beyond that blue shield to rubble, a grey wasteland of crumbling cement, warped steel, and shredded asphalt. People within the protection of the barrier had lost interest in staring in horror at what lay beyond the shield, and I could watch them through the dome, going about their daily routines, blissfully ignoring me. Every now and again I found survivors in the rubble, stragglers trying to reach the temporary safety of that shield. Needless to say, when I found them, it was assured that they wouldn't make it to that sanctuary.
I tried everything I could to break the shield. When my blasts failed, I tried breaking the towers, hefting huge blocks of debris and throwing them through the shield at the giant towers. The towers proved extremely durable however, and repair crews were too quick; I would take a single tower offline and move on to the next, only to find the first back online when I returned. Even with all my strength, I couldn't be in enough places at once to take down enough of the towers.
I saw Valerie through the shield daily, the red-clad huntress flying to each tower in turn. Occasionally she would see me floating there glaring death, and match my glare with one of her own. But by and large she paid me no heed, secure within the confines of her technological fortress. From high above I watched her motions, hating the woman more and more. She was living at FentonWorks, I discovered. That simple fact set my teeth grinding in useless rage. That fool was living in what had been my home?
More fascinating however, was Paulina. Clearly our previous encounter had rattled the Latina, I often saw her flying near the shield perimeter and looking out into the wasteland. Unlike her commander, whenever she laid eyes on me, her expression was one of deep thought and confusion. I suspect the words exchanged during our last encounter had undermined the story Valerie had been feeding the cheerleader about me. One day, after being stared at for several months, I finally broke the silence.
"What are you staring at?" I growled at Paulina across the few hundred feet and the shield separating us.
Paulina started at being addressed directly, and glanced around for a frantic moment before she realized that yes, I was speaking to her. "Why are you always hanging around? You can't break the shield!" She responded to my question with one of her own.
"Suffice to say I'm haunting my home." I snapped out the pun, idly tossing a green blast at the shield and watching it ricochet off the dome and into the wastes. "After all, wouldn't you hang around looking for a way in if you were locked out of your house?"
Paulina cringed at the blast and shot me a dirty look. "Well yeah, but I wouldn't blow it to pieces, either!"
"Maybe if you weren't such an airhead, you would put two and two together. I have a reason for all of this." I snarled.
Paulina raised an eyebrow and approached the shield until we were face to face, no more than three feet between us. What was she doing? Flaunting her safety in my face, daring death by close approach without crossing beyond the shield? She stared at me long and hard, and I found myself mildly disconcerted by the attention. She stared especially long at my chest, at the emblem I still wore.
"Going to fangirl over me some more?" I sneered, breaking her from her reverie.
"No." She snapped, turning her sled away. "You just... remind me of someone. And I don't care what your stupid reason is, I'll never forgive you."
I bristled at her remarks, calling my revenge stupid. "Likewise."
"Later, ghost." She carelessly waved one hand in my direction as she flew off, leaving me somewhat baffled. It was the closest thing to a civilized conversation I'd had in literally years. What else was there to do? I couldn't simply blast the twit through that irritating shield, and I had gotten sick of being stared at like I was some sort of freak.
Since hanging around Amity Park was proving to be vastly useless, I considered my options. I knew as time progressed I would continue to grow ever more powerful, until I could eventually destroy that shield. What could I do to pass the time until that wonderful day came? I remembered something from the last battle. Those tanks, the jet sleds... all technology that the cheesehead had to have provided. I had been terribly remiss in my promise to finish what I had started years ago when I found out that my idiot cheesehead archenemy was still alive. Perhaps a trip to Wisconsin was in order, and barring that, Colorado.
Since I could fly without rest, it took me only a matter of hours to cover a span that had previous taken me days. I was faster now; faster and stronger and without weaknesses. This time, I would make certain that cheesehead was deceased, rather than leave it to the random chance of explosions and falling debris. A series of giant craters marked my flight path, and before long I found the ruins of the old castle, largely reclaimed by wilderness. I frowned, surveying the area from above. Clearly the man wasn't there, I knew for a fact he had the wealth to rebuild the castle and that he would have.
I landed in front of the ruin, listening to the wind howling angrily through the skeleton of the once-massive building. It looked deserted, blasted bits of Packers memorabilia littering the ground, more mud-brown and dirty yellow now than green and gold. The cheesehead would never let such valuable personal treasures rot, it was clear the place hadn't been occupied for years. And yet I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, a paranoid sensation tingling up my spine and even in my nose. I checked, no red mist; it wasn't my ghost sense.
I lifted into the air again to get a better look at the area and see if I was being watched. I found my eye drawn to a clearing not far from the ruins. Digging through my memory from my weakness, I recognized it dimly as the place I had first come to that fateful decision over six years ago. From my vantage the daylight glinted off something, further drawing my attention. I flew down, one eyebrow raised as the details became apparent.
It was a grave, I realized. A crude, simple grave; a pile of dirt and marked with stones. I touched down, frowning at the scene. Whoever had put the grave there jammed a wood cross into the heap of rocks, and it was there that I found what had first caught the sunlight and my attention. I frowned further at the picture, entirely too familiar of my family and friends and myself in my weakness, encased in clear plastic that shielded it from the elements. Clearly the cheesehead had survived and had sought to properly dispose of my weakness.
That paranoid feeling was worse, I realized. The wind was howling through the trees now, carrying the promise of a wintery storm. A fitting mood, I suppose, as I stared at the grave. My grave, or at least that of my weakness. In a sense I was dead, was I not? No longer even half-human, with a lifetime behind me in ruin. I was a ghost through and through, powerful now beyond measure, and yet there was something in that clearing that I couldn't identify, a feeling I couldn't pin down.
You!
I spun, energy blast in hand to vaporize whoever had the gall to sneak up on me, only to find nothing there. I let the blast fizzle out, one eyebrow raised. Perhaps it was my paranoia about the place getting to me, a trick of the wind that was pulling at my cape and laying my hair nearly flat from its force. Eyes narrowing to wary slits, I surveyed the area, calling out. "Show yourself so I can waste you."
I'm right here.
I spun again, still finding nothing but the trees, the rocks, and the grave. I peered behind the rock formation at the end of the clearing; I looked behind the largest trees ringing the clearing. No one was there. "Right where?" I snarled into the wind.
Right in front of you, you monster.
I found my gaze drawn to the grave, but still saw nothing. It couldn't be, could it? My weakness was dead, I was his ghost self. He couldn't be a ghost now, otherwise my ghost sense would have gone off. "Great, I'm hearing things."
No, you're not.
"Right, if I'm not, who are you and where are you? I haven't blasted anyone today." I growled, ignoring my own confusion.
You know who I am, and you can't just blast me. Not yet.
I found myself staring hard at that grave, a blast forming in one hand. Was I just hearing things, or was there something there? It couldn't be a ghost; my ghost sense still hadn't gone off. I tried to recall something from my memory about how ghosts form, but in my weakness I had by and large tuned out the particulars of most of my parents' blathering on the subject. And Plasmius had never done much research on the subject either. The best I could recall was being told that ghosts don't happen instantly, that it could take weeks, months, or even years for a ghost to manifest itself completely. Was that what I wasn't seeing? An incomplete ghost of my weakness?
"Maybe I should just blast this instead?" I growled, pointing my glowing hand at the grave.
It won't do you any good. I'll still be here. You can't get rid of me.
I was so close to letting the blast fly. So close to simply incinerating the gravesite and being done with it. My gaze came to rest on that old photo again however, and I grudgingly let my arm drop to my side, blast fading. "What are you still doing here?"
Waiting.
"For what?" I growled.
For her to stop you.
Her? Valerie? "Are you talking about that witch who betrayed us both? You're here cheering for her, after she tried to kill you? After she tried to shoot you after we trusted her?" I couldn't believe it.
She didn't betray me.
I snorted, a dry chuckle lost in the wind. "You useless idiot. She did so, or have you forgotten about that entire-" I pitched my voice higher in mocking rendition of that day. "'You ruined my life, you lied to me, you USED me!' bit? She was shooting to kill, fool."
She didn't mean it. I know. She said so when she came here.
It was stupid, standing there arguing with a pile of rocks, and I knew it. "Said what?" I shifted my voice into that mocking tone again. "'By the way, Danny, I didn't mean it when I was trying to tear you apart, molecule by molecule, honest!' She's still gunning for me, you idiot."
For you, maybe. She said she was sorry.
I thought I caught a moment of uncertainty in the non-voice. That witch had come here and apologized to a heap of rocks? Well, that might explain why she was able to fight me like a cornered rat.
She said... she loved me.
She said what! I admit my jaw dropped at that admission. Amity Park's self-described number-one ghost hunter confessed her love for a ghost? I refused to accept it, and turned my back on the silent grave. "Right. I don't have time for blathering at nothing. That cheesehead has got to be somewhere. I need to tear him to pieces."
Go ahead, run away. Isn't that what you've been doing all these years since the explosion? Running away?
I fired a small blast in the general direction of the grave. I heard it as it deflected slightly off the top of the rock formation and hit a few large trees. It was without satisfaction that I heard the crash as each one fell over.
I flung myself into the air with a muted growl. Assuming that was my weakness, all I had to do was wait until he had manifested as a ghost I could vaporize, and that would be that. I shoved the thought from my mind, returning instead to my original mission of locating the cheesehead. If he wasn't living in his castle, there was his Colorado estate, which was only slightly less spacious than the old castle. I had to fight the wind until I got above the clouds and headed west. Thanks to Plasmius, I knew exactly where I was going.
The mansion appeared mostly well kept from the air, a good sign to me that it was inhabited. Not for long, if I had anything to say about it. I raised one hand, blast forming; enough to blow the roof off the chateau, but not enough to simply leave a smoldering crater. I wanted to deal with my idiot cheesehead archenemy a bit more personally. I smirked, taking aim, before I sneezed. I really did prefer it when my ghost sense only made me gasp, but it was a minor annoyance.
I heard something growl behind me, and floated to one side so the attack missed. I'm not precisely sure what it was, some sort of vaguely humanoid ghost monster with blotchy skin, a square jaw, and huge feet. It soon was joined by a small green speck, and a large black legless skeleton. It took me a long moment to recognize them from a hazy memory from Plasmius. Attempts at human clones, the goal he had been working toward with his ghost animal experiments. All because I refused to join him, and he was lonely.
"That's him!" A female voice declared from somewhere behind the other ghosts. Not feeling particularly threatened by the three misshapen ghosts, I turned my attention to the owner of the voice, one eyebrow shooting up in mild confusion.
She was clearly a ghost, tall and slender with white hair tied in a high ponytail reaching halfway down her back and long bangs framing her glowing green eyes. She was clad in a short black shirt with white trim, and loose black pants with a white flame motif that nearly obscured her white boots. I suppose she was fairly pretty, but that wasn't what snared my attention. No, what got my attention was the entirely too familiar emblem she wore on her shirt.
"And who are you?" I sneered.
"You can call me Dani. Dani Phantom. With an I." She retorted, glaring warily at me. "And I know who you are. Dad told me all about you."
Great, another fan. "Dani Phantom? How... original." I rolled my eyes at what appeared now to be some sort of female clone of my old motif. "Assuming your dad is the guy I'm looking for, you'll tell me where to find him, right?"
"He's not here, and I won't let you hurt him!" Dani declared. "I know what you did, Dad told me all about what happened."
Well, she certainly had some spunk, and was clearly covering for the cheesehead. "You're lying."
"No, I'm not." She growled.
"Then tell me where he is, and maybe I'll let you live." I hissed, forming a blast between my cupped palms.
"No! I won't!" She pointed at me and glanced at her three associates. "Get him!"
The three misshapen ghosts all growled and lunged at me, but honestly; I doubt I would have had much trouble with them in my weakness, let alone now. The little green speck blazed toward my face, I merely caught it in one hand and crushed it like the bug it reminded me of. The skeleton and the big guy closed in on me from two different angles, intending to rip into me at once. I fired a blast that carved a large hole in the big ghost; it barely had time to register that most of its torso and one shoulder had been blown away before it collapsed in a shapeless mass of green goo that plummeted into the woodlands below. Ignoring that, I spun and kicked the skeleton, smirking when my foot shattered most of its empty ribcage and snapped its spine. It tried desperately to claw my leg, but a quick karate-chop with ectoplasmic energy and it too was reduced to lifeless goo.
That left just the feminine lookalike and I floating in the air above the estate. Her expression registered shock at how easily I'd ripped her three goons apart. She slid into a fighting stance, and I realized she was drawing a compact ecto-gun from some hidden pocket. That struck me as strange: If she had ghost powers, what need did she have for a gun? She ought to have been able to fire ectoplasmic energy beams just like I could.
"Last chance." I smirked. "Tell me where the cheesehead is, or join your buddies in oblivion."
"I can do this..." I heard her mutter to herself in a nearly inaudible voice. "I already told you, I won't let you do anything to my Dad!"
"Suit yourself." I shrugged, immediately firing a blast at the ghost. To my annoyance she turned intangible, the blast passing harmlessly through her and detonating nearly a mile below against a mountainside. In a moment she turned solid again and fired with unerring aim at me, each shot stinging only slightly.
"It's your fault Dad can't-!" She growled, voice pitched slightly higher out of some vendetta I was unaware of. "Because of you, I'll never-!"
"Never what? Survive this encounter?" I leered, zooming forward and punching her across the face.
She sailed backward several hundred feet before she regained her balance. With surprising agility she darted around my next volley of blasts, returning fire with her gun. I admit I was still baffled as to her need for the weapon, but I didn't care enough to inquire about it.
"Is that all you've got?" She taunted as she sidestepped a blast and shot at my face with her useless little gun. Need I make the obligatory face-shot remark at this point?
"You do realize that your little toy ray gun isn't doing any damage?" I remarked dryly, batting a pink beam aside with one hand.
Dani growled and lunged at me, fists glowing pink with energy. I recognized it for what it was; the same sort of device Valerie had in her suit that charged energy to her fists. Why wasn't this ghost girl using her own power? Why rely on artificial and entirely useless weapons? I decided to force the issue and let her get close before I responded, both hands shooting forward and grabbing her wrists.
"Let go of me!" She shrieked, struggling to break my hold.
"That would be a bit antagonistic to my killing you, don't you think?" I chuckled, tightening my grip until she cried out, dropping the gun.
"I said-" She growled, green energy now swirling around her captive fists. She opened her palms, pointing two small green spheres of ectoplasmic energy at me and firing. "LET GO!"
The blasts hit with surprising force, I felt myself go sailing backwards with a startled gasp and snapping of bone. That hurt... and my head was spun completely backwards on my shoulders from the force. I blinked in momentary confusion as I got my bearings.
"I got him!" I heard Dani crow behind me... or would that be in front of me?
"I think not." I growled, turning my back to her so I could see her surprised face. I admit her expression was priceless, a sort of horrified disgust as I untwisted my neck and spun my body back around to face her properly again. "Though I'll give you credit, that actually hurt just a little bit."
"You just... you-" She stammered, floating backwards in fear.
"I was wondering why you were using the toy weapons." I sneered, forming a blast in one hand, tossing it from one to the other idly. "But I can't say I really care. Either way, you'll be dead shortly."
"Dad said you were a real jerk." She growled out, putting a bold face on her terror. "Come on then, gimme your best shot!"
"Gladly." I chortled, throwing the blast at her. She didn't miss a beat, throwing a green energy shield up to deflect it and responding with a blast of her own. We might as well have been playing Pong, given I bounced her blast off a green shield of my own. "Really, is that all you've got? Even in my weakness I could do more than that."
Even at a distance I could see her veritably grinding her teeth in frustration, wrestling with some unsavory decision. She narrowed her eyes and bit out. "Even if I ran, you'd follow, wouldn't you? You won't let me escape, even if I told you where Dad is." A statement of fact, not a question.
"I gave you a chance, and you squandered it trying to protect that cheesehead." I smirked. "That's much more generous than I have been lately."
She sighed; apparently my answer settled whatever internal debate she was waging. "Dad warned me it would probably come to this if you showed up." She hissed, charging a blast between her palms. I quirked an eyebrow as I caught sight of something a bit odd. Was that a greenish glow near her feet as well that I caught a glimpse of?
I suppose she was now as serious as she would get about the fight. I deflected the blast off my shield, resisting the urge to yawn. She growled a curse and fired several more beams, from different angles, I simply enlarged my shield and repositioned it appropriately, studying her movements. There was a decided green tinge marring the white trim of her pants and beginning to cake her boots. Perhaps she was like those three ghosts she had been commanding that had merely turned into goo?
She paused in her barrage, panting now from the exertion, white bangs plastered against the sides of her face from a nervous sweat. There was an air of desperation now, and I admit I found it quite pleasing. Valerie never yielded, never revealed any sort of desperation; she was all bravado no matter how dire the circumstances. This little slip of a ghost girl on the other hand was radiating desperation; clearly she was close to her breaking point and knew she was doomed.
"I think it's my turn." I smirked, firing a large beam that collided with her and sent her tumbling out of control. Not enough to vaporize her mind you, but enough to smash her squarely into one of the mountain peaks not far below. I swear she made a squelching sound on impact, leaving a spatter of green goo from the collision.
Clutching at her side, she wobbled back into the air, her attire torn and scorched in half a dozen places, green goo slowly dripping from her feet. She raised one arm and fired again at me, but my little shield trick again blocked it. "You can fire at me all day if you want, you can't get through this." I gestured at the barrier.
"I guess there's no other choice." Dani shut her eyes briefly, and I saw tears running down her battered face. "Sorry Dad, but I'm toast either way, and this is my last, best shot at him."
"What are you talking about?" I raised one eyebrow as she lowered her arms to her sides, bent slightly at the elbows, her fists clenched tight. She turned to face me directly and took a deep breath, holding it for just a moment.
When she shouted, it was like nothing I'd ever seen or heard before. A massive green shockwave shot toward me, accompanied by the most hideous tortured shrieking sound I had ever heard. I raised my shield against the blast, but it proved utterly useless, shattering before the sonic onslaught. I tried to cover my ears to block out that horrific noise, but it pounded in my skull despite the gesture, flattening my hair against my head and threatening to rip my cape right off. The sustained shockwave intensified, and I fought just to keep my aerial footing, to no avail. Like a leaf in a hurricane I was flung backwards, the pressure from the shockwave plowing me into the ground and through the better part of the mansion, the walls shattering from the impact.
After what seemed nearly an eternity, the attack tapered off, and I heard a wet splatter outside the wreckage I was momentarily tangled up in. I couldn't hear anything as I intangibly extricated myself from the rubble; I suspect that shriek had temporarily deafened me. Mildly battered, I stalked over to where I could see Dani had fallen. I suppose in my weakness I would have been horrified at the sight, but after that, I was pleased to see the girl lying in a steadily expanding puddle of ectoplasmic goo, a substantial portion of her torso and legs already melted away.
"What was that?" I demanded, though my own voice sounded distant and slightly garbled yet. I grabbed her by the ruined front of her shirt and hefted her to my level. "Tell me what that was!"
She barely lifted her eyelids, glaring at me. That power, that was what I needed to break through that accursed shield protecting Amity Park. After what it had done to my little barrier, I had to know how she had done it. It had hurt, and it had hurt a great deal. Such an amazing power, it would be the perfect tool to finish my appointed task of destroying that stupid city.
"I'm not telling." She declared in a voice barely above a whisper, a far cry from the powerful shriek she had been using just moments prior.
"You'd better, or I'll-" I snarled, shaking her.
"Or you'll what?" She asked, glowing green eyes dimming. "I'll never tell you what-..."
She never finished the statement as the remainder of her body melted into thin green goo in my hands. I made a disgusted face and flicked the stuff from my gloves. She had shown me the very thing I needed, and then took its secret with her into oblivion just to spite me. I stormed through the puddle that was her remains, splattering the goo in all directions as I stalked toward the mansion, blast in hand. In short order, the mansion was reduced to a deep crater. I would figure out how she had done that. I wanted that power for myself, that ghostly wailing was the very thing I needed so badly.
I didn't care how long it would take me. I'd spent months in my weakness trying to learn to duplicate myself; if it took me months, or even years, it would be more than worth the effort. I ripped a hole into the Ghost Zone and stepped through it. I would need to practice, and the ghosts would be perfect to practice on.
Rest of the Author's notes: Honestly, I fully expect to get at least one flame for this chapter, given how the fandom from my experience seems to be rather split about Dani. Yes, she did hit him with a Ghostly Wail. I figure if Danny picked up that skill in the normal timeline at about 14 years old, after having had ghost powers for several months, it would make sense that Dani would also possibly gain the same skill since her genetic code is based on Danny. And heck, I think it's suitably dramatic.
Oddly enough, while I was disgusted and horrified writing the scene where Dan kills Danny, I think this scene had me more depressed. Perhaps because she was actually fighting and melted in vain. Anyhow, only one more chapter until the story gets into the stuff from TUE! Thanks for reading!