Noel,
Noel
Chapter
Five: Armageddon
The party had found its way through an incredible labyrinth below the coliseum. Noel had observed wryly that it wasn't actually a maze, just a long, winding tunnel with a few branching paths—it was almost as though Future wanted them to make it through.
Of course, the other ghosts quickly pointed out the attack of another set of mythological creatures while in the labyrinth and the fact that Bertrand was now carrying his head around as evidence to the contrary.
The group now stood in front of a massive door, the likes of which none of them had ever seen outside of a video game. The problem was—how to enter?
Danny turned the gears on the door yet again, then flew back down to the group, standing in front and hoping something he'd done would pay off. It seemed that no matter what they did, there was something missing from the puzzle.
Desiree hovered over to Danny and suggested he wish the door open; Danny did so, but the magic didn't seem to have any effect on the door. Danny sighed and walked away from the ghost genie.
Next to her, Ember looked up. "Say, where were you last chapter?"
Desiree blushed as another wall collapsed behind them. "I was… um… looking for the facilities."
Ember scowled at her. "You don't even have legs!"
Desiree nodded again. "Yeah. This is something I really don't like to talk about."
Ember cringed and obviously decided not to pursue the matter any farther.
Danny noticed that Savior had dropped something, and extended his arm with an ecto-trail and picked it up.
"Interesting ability there," Noel observed. "Might want to think of some new applications for it."
"Is that a piece of one of the crystal creatures we fought?" Danny asked, indicating what he had just given back to Savior.
Savior nodded. "I picked up a piece of the last minotaur you killed. I noticed that when you were hitting it, it was glowing green. None of the others were doing anything but breaking from impacts, none but the ones you touched. I was trying to see if there was anything different about them, but as best I can tell…"
Savior trailed off as though he'd just stumbled across a horrible possibility but didn't want to voice it just yet. "Never mind," he said. Savior walked across the way and found a small hole in the door in front of the ghosts, and inserted the crystal into it.
Nothing happened.
Savior reached in, wrapping it with his Shimmer and giving it a hard tug, and the crystal dislodged. "I filed it down so it wouldn't cut me," he explained. Then he handed it to Danny.
"Why are you giving this…?" Danny started to ask… And suddenly, the crystal began glowing green in his hand. "What?" Danny watched as the glow got brighter, and as it did, he began to feel weaker; his shoulders fell and his eyelids got heavier..
"I was right. It's draining power from you for some reason," Savior said. He glanced to his right. "Though why only you is a mystery,"
"I guess it's because I'm half ghost," Danny said. "Or something."
Savior's eyes then lit up, and he inserted the crystal into the slot once again. The effect was immediate—red, green, and blue flames shot out of the area around the crystal along trenches in the door and moved all the way to the larger trenches that went around the circumference of the door itself. There the three colors of flames combined into one massively bright white fire that blinded all the ghosts there…
Then all the gears on the door began turning at once. The latches came undone, and it slid open, revealing a maelstrom of energy behind. The energy faded off into the distance, forming a tunnel, like a passageway into the unknown reaches beyond.
"Wow…" Savior said.
Walker stepped forward and examined the vortex. "How do we know it's not some sort of trap?"
"Only one way to find out," Danny said, walking up beside Walker. "I'll go first."
Walker's eyes narrowed at the ghost boy. "You know this night won't change anything between us, kid."
Danny shook his head. "I don't expect it to. I just… hope."
He stepped into the portal,
and the word went white.
You see, the author he encountered, if you haven't yet figured it out, was Charles Dickens.
The spirit, up unto that point, was the reality behind the legends that became known to most as Santa Claus.. He didn't want to be such a visible figure, though. That's how Santa Claus came about. He worked with a group of magical beings—the fairies—to take a lowly monk named Nicholas and give him many of the trappings that traditionally are associated with Santa.
But at this time, in July, when he encountered Charles Dickens, he was in his drab, grim form. In the Realm of Dreams, he walked with Dickens in his dreams, observing and influencing. Dickens, of course, would go on to write one of the most beloved Christmas stories of all time.
Unfortunately, the dream realm at the time was lorded over by my haughty brother, Morpheus, and he saw fit not to meddle in the affairs of men or spirits. Dickens awoke with only a scant recollection of his time with the Ghost—a recollection only of his dark and dreary form. It was this form that Dickens made familiar with the world—a grim, evil specter.
But at the time, celebration of Christmas was in decline, and Dickens' novel saved the holiday in more than a few ways. So the Ghost accepted that he was now seen as a symbol of blight and villainy, while two ghosts that came entirely from Dickens' imagination were the bright and colorful spirits of hope. Nevertheless, this would become, in the end, strike one against his sanity.
Danny snapped awake, finding himself floating in a void of nothing, and in his human form. "Wha?! I'm going ghost!" Danny cried, transforming and assuming a defensive pose…
Then his guard and his jaw both dropped. The area he was in was massive. He'd never seen on earth or space or anywhere in the ghost zone such an enormous expanse in all directions, and probably never would ever again. The distant boundaries, if they were boundaries, were black as Vlad Plasmius' transformation rings, with glowing green veins of energy throughout, like cracks in volcanic rock where lava was still visible. Down below him, there was a gargantuan structure, shaped like a giant claw and writhing with green energy..
"Incredible, isn't it," said a voice behind Danny, and he whirled around to see Noel hovering next to him.
"Savior!" He blurted. "I didn't hear you show up—"
Danny trailed off when he saw behind Savior that the entire party was there with him, gathered in a semicircle behind them.
"You were unconscious when we came through," Savior said. "We've been here for five minutes waiting for you to wake up."
"Oh…"
"I'm not sure I like this place," Johnny said. "There may be too much trouble here—even for a guy like me."
"That's the price of heroism," Dorathea said. "Something I've been learning for nearly a year now."
Danny glanced at Savior, and Savior once again acquiesced to being possessed. "Hold on, this time I want to try something," Danny said in Savior's body. "I'm going ghost!"
Rings slid around Savior, causing the Titan's eyes to go bright green, and all his clothing to go jet black, his shirt now sporting Danny Phantom's insignia.
"That is so wrong," Ember said.
"Whatever," Danny said with a smirk. "Now we fight as one…"
Danny was suddenly forcibly ejected from Savior's body by a bunch of Shimmer strands, the transformation vanishing from Noel's clothing even has his body went back to the non-Savior form.
"Okay, maybe not. It was worth a shot though." Danny blasted back into Savior's body before the Titan could react, and the party continued onward.
As they approached the giant claw-platform, Danny saw that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was hovering above the middle of the claw-shaped platform, directing the energies from it from the fingertips of the claws and up into the air into a swirling sphere of ghost-energy…
Future must have sensed them coming, because he whirled around when he perceived them, his body shaking with anger. He raised his bony hands and began gathering energy, which formed into a massive fireball—which he then hurled at the ghosts, forcing them to scatter.
With a wave of his hand, all around the claw platform, more stone appeared, as though he was making a battle ground for the final struggle… But why would he need such a large battle ground…? Unless…
Future raised both his hands again, and something unexpected happened. Windows in space-time appeared, and on the first window, a middle aged woman with red hair, wearing a teal jumpsuit, appeared.
"Um, Danny… Isn't that your…" Kitty started…
"MOM!" Danny screamed, blasting towards the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. But Future just backhanded him and sent him flying… Even as the other windows in space-time began to show their own stories…
Each one began focusing on someone important to Danny—Jack Fenton, Tucker Foley, Samantha Manson, Jazz Fenton, Valerie Grey, and Mr. Lancer. All of them simultaneously stopped, a strange glowing energy washing over their bodies as they fell into a coma-like status. The energy didn't go away, but rather, portions of it leapt out through the windows in space-time and gathering in the right hand of the Ghost, hovering like little red tongues of flame.
And in his left hand, energy pulsed, even as scenes—memories, from the looks of it, flashed across the massive distant walls of the realm they were in—people and places from hundreds of years ago...
And then, Danny alone heard a voice in his head, like a melodious but sharp whisper.
Those who I have graced or made tremble with my presence shall be thy undoing. Fight them or surely thy family will perish.
Danny let out an involuntary burst of ghost sense when the Ghost's words—no, his thoughts—sent a chill up Danny's spine…
In Future's right hand, stars appeared, and the stars mixed with the life-forces of Danny's loved ones (and Lancer), becoming something entirely different. Like the crystal soldiers before them, the new beings writhed and transformed, literally being born as Danny watched…
But these things weren't generic manifestations of mythological archetypes—they were people, psychic impressions of ones who existed or at least had once existed in the past.
"Fitting. From his hand, literal ghosts of Christmas past." Savior said inside Danny's mind.
Danny and the rest hovered down to the rock platforms even as the mixture's stalked closer; Danny left Savior's body and got ready to fight.
"Are you sure this isn't some sort of trick?" Savior cautioned. "What if killing them kills your family instead of saves them?"
Danny pointed at the screens. "I have to do something!" He spat. "These thigns are slowly draining the life out of them. I won't let that happen!"
Nodding, pleased with Danny's determination if not his strategic mind, said no more. "I'm still the rookie here, rookie."
Suddenly, all across the rock platforms, legions of the crystal creatures also cropped up, surrounding the rest of the party. They immediately got to work, smashing them apart, even as the life-force creatures arrived…
And Danny gasped at the first one he saw—Sizzle. "That's not possible! Sizzle is gone! Forever. I'm certain of it this time."
"Unless…" Savior thought aloud, "Future visited Haley Ann Roxx during her lifetime."
Danny
growled. "I'll handle her." An explosion of ectoplasmic energy
sent Danny blasting towards his foe most adamant in her refusal to
leave him be.
"Stupid kid," Savior muttered. "He's going to get himself killed if he keeps leaving his flank open like that." Then a Gorgon jumped on him and pinned him to the ground—or would have if Savior hadn't used his human powers to phase through the ghost-architecture and come up on the other side. He killed the Gorgon with a Shimmer blade and then ran into the oncoming fray.
Not able to watch Danny any longer, Noel left it up to Danny and fate to decide how this would end. Because he knew that Danny was the only one who could end it.
Noel darted past a Wraith that looked like Vlad the Impaler, and cut a swath of destruction through more mythological creatures, until he found his way to the claw platform, clearly the focal point of Future's evil plan, and swung up onto the tendrils, the fingers that gave the platform its claw-like appearance. He was jumped by some harpies and used the Shimmer to loop around over top one of the fingers and kicked one harpy's crystalline head off; the other he pinned to the ground and tore off its wings.
…And then something caught his eye, something that drained his face of blood and made his stomach plunge…
Not twenty feet away, smashing through Walker's men was another Wraith…
One that looked
exactly like Maxwell Collins.
After Dickens' novel, our guardian decided that the premise of going to those that were in need of Christmas cheer and essentially scaring the crap out of them to make them more fond of Christmas was a good idea. Or at least that's what I thought.
In retrospect, I wonder if perhaps the very fact the things that people believed about the ghost from reading Dickens' novel didn't alter the guardian's mind somehow. After all, despite what it is now, it began as a human mind. And perception can be far more powerful than any reality to a human psyche.
It was in this form that he visited people who had trouble getting into the Christmas spirit, and was again frustrated when fear alone wasn't motivation enough for some souls. But subconsciously, he began keeping impressions of the souls. He began storing echoes of the worst of humanity, for the plan he would eventually enact against it—against what they'd done to 'his' holiday.
Sirens pursued Ember and Desiree towards the edge of the platform… Ember hurled her broken guitar at the foes, shattering the faces of two of them. But the rest kept on coming, gradually getting closer to the edge of the platform…
"You know, considering that we can fly, there's really nothing to fear." Desiree said.
"Way to kill the drama," Ember muttered. Then, her eyes lit up. "Wait, I have an idea! I wish I had a shreddin' new guitar!"
"So you have wished it, so shall it be!" Desiree said, handing Ember a gift-wrapped package that Ember opened to reveal a shiny new Fender Spectrocaster.
"This thing is amazing! I was afraid for a minute you could only grant wishes to humans."
"Actually, that's true," Desiree said with a blush. "That guitar was what I got you for Christmas at the Mall of the Dead."
Ember's face fell, but she immediately turned to see the Sirens approaching. Ember's flaming hair raged with life as she stepped forward and jammed on the new guitar; a burst of spectral energy lanced out and washed over the Sirens, blowing them away. "Tell me who you love!" Ember cried, jamming away at their enemies.
It always was easier to give advice than it was to listen to it.
Savior hurled himself at the Maxwell Collins Wraith—not knowing or not caring that it was not his real father, just driven into a frenzy by the very sight of the beast that spawned him. It was like the Shimmer equivalent of professional wrestling; there was no subtlety or grace in the attack. Savior hurled his whole body into each blow, smashing off bits and pieces of the Wraith with every strike…
But unlike the crystalline entities, the Wraiths were malleable foes and he could not just chip them down to size like a chiseler. Noel took one strategic step back and turned his Shimmer-bludgeons into blades, and threw himself at the Maxwell Collins Wraith once again. "YOU THINK YOU CAN MOCK ME BY MAKING THIS THING LIKE MY FATHER!?" Noel shouted, more at Future than at his foe. "YOU'RE WRONG! I'll take this thing and tear it limb from limb and feed it to you piece by piece!"
Noel's blades went as thin as he could, and he threw everything into a killing strike against the Wraith, raising his arms to slice its ethereal head off…
And he paid dearly for it.
Savior had been so focused on the Maxwell Wraith that he hadn't noticed the nearby centaur leveling its bow at him…
But he felt the pain when the spectral energy arrow went right through the armor of his coat, through his armpit and into his heart… The arrow dissipated, and Noel felt the sticky sensation of blood staining his shirt and running down his side, even as he desperately tried to order the Shimmer to seal off the wound… And the pain… The pain was so great Noel's brain refused to register it…
And then the Maxwell Wraith looked down at him with his cruelty-filled eyes and smashed Savior across the claw platform with a powerful backhand…
Noel slammed into one of the claws fairly high up,
and rolled down it, even as everything went black.
High above the battlefield, Danny saw Noel get shot, and saw the subsequent blow that the Wraith had delivered to him… Why Noel was focusing so powerfully on that particular one, Danny didn't know. But he did know he'd just watched his fellow hero die.
His heart sank even as his eyes filled with rage. "NOEL!" Danny shouted, blasting straight down towards the Wraith that had hit Savior in a wreath of green fire. He tore through the ghost, ripping it to shreds and then turned and blasted the centaur that had shot Noel into shards…
The ground of the claw grew brighter around them…
But up on the massive television-screen-esque displays of Danny's loved ones, the magenta aura around Jack Fenton vanished, and Danny's father slumped to the floor, his screen vanishing…
"NO!" Danny yelled, not knowing whether his father was unconscious or dead. "Show me my father!"
Future seemed to hear Danny's cry of pain, because the image reappeared; it was instantly obvious Jack was alive due to his loud snoring, but he was also completely unconscious… And the image vanished again, preventing Danny from monitoring his father's status..
Danny shot a glance at Savior and muttered a curse. His family or the guy who dumped on him all the time? Hero or not, it wasn't a hard choice.
Danny turned, seeing the Sizzle Wraith grow stronger even as his sister weakened. "Leave my family alone, you freak!" Danny snarled, blasting towards his foe. Sizzle turned and blasted towards him, focusing a ball of fire onto her fist.
When
the two collided, the impact could be heard all across the Ghost
Zone.
The true final straw came in the twentieth century, when everything began changing so fast. The various legends of Santa Claus were unified—not by a grand novel or event unifying the world in celebration of Christmas based on it's true meaning or on virtues of giving and love. No… The various depictions of Santa were all washed away in favor of one popularized by a Coca-Cola advertisement.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, as he'd come to call himself, saw that not only did the view of Santa that was used to sell a soft drink become universal—at the same time, even the real Santa Claus—the one managed by the fairies—changed, becoming more like the one from that advertisement. Years of rich tradition were universalized by consumerism. And our guardian could only sit back and watch as the twentieth century unfolded. Everything about Christmas, everything he'd worked so hard for transformed before his eyes into an annual cry of GIVE ME PRESENTS. Films like It's A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street were replaced by A Christmas Story and Jingle All The Way. Everything wrong with the holiday, everything that the guardian had fought against all those years, became what defined the holiday—and in the grand scheme of things, it was all like the blink of an eye to someone who'd lived so long.
And even then, he tried to fight back, tried to turn the tide… But… as you all can see, that didn't last. He decided that with 'his' holiday so hopelessly out of whack, he'd destroy the whole universe if he had to, just to escape the job he now considered a curse.
And, well, you know the rest of the story.
Walker charged forward, smashing through several Centaur and a Gorgon to attack a nearby Wraith—a man who oddly looked a lot like himself, only without the whole skull-for-a-face motif. Walker's men fired at the doppelganger, blasting away his ethereal flesh, but were dismayed as it grew back.
Even as this happened, Dora tore through more of the crystalline entities in her dragon form, even as more appeared, overwhelming the massive dragon.
"Shadow, slice and dice!" Johnny commanded. The bad luck spirit flew out from Johnny like a bullet, slicing through all the creatures trying to take down Dora, and then returning.
A Wraith that reassembled Lex Luthor manifested behind Johnny, and the ghost dived forward to avoid the Luthor Wraith's blow. Johnny turned, and sent Shadow after it; but Shadow's attack did little damage, and Johnny took a step back towards Dora…
"NEED HELP!?" the dragon bellowed.
"I think I have this one covered!" Johnny said. "Shadow, merge!"
Shadow lashed out, smashing everything in the area away from Johnny, and then melding with Johnny's green ghost aura, transforming him into a darker, more powerful version of himself.
"Meet Shadow Johnny," the new creature said with a far more gravely voice; then he began pounding the Luthor Wraith's face in. The Wraith went careening backwards into a pile of crystalline entities, where it dissipated, surrounding the creatures and merging with them, and in a flash, the Lex Luthor Wraith had become a crystal-coated giant enemy crab.
Johnny charged forward, smashing at the Wraith's legs, but the crystal deflected his attack, and another leg slammed into Johnny's side, sending the merged ghost sailing across the battle ground.
The
giant enemy crab turned to attack Dorathea, and the Dragon charged
forward, spewing ectoplasmic fire.
Savior did something unexpected…
He woke up and took a deep breath…
He didn't expect to do this, because he'd expected to be dead. And yet, here he was alive, and apparently quite well. At first he thought perhaps he was a ghost now, but then found himself able to phase through the floor with his fingers…And also found that his hand was in incredible pain.
He sat up and pulled the hurting left hand into his right, examining it…
"Broken," he muttered. "Just great." He'd have to set it with the Shimmer for now, because clearly there were no medics here. But as he stood up, Savior quickly found his hand wasn't the only thing in pain—his leg nearly gave out as he stood. "A sprained ankle too." More Shimmer strands needed to fix that.
The pain forced him to lean against the pillar the Maxwell Wraith—which Noel now saw no sign of—had smashed him into. And when he did… he watched as his hand seemed to magically un-mangle itself, his ankle sprain vanishing as well…
"What the—?"
Savior moved his hand closer to the pylon and it began to heal faster, the bones not mending, but un-breaking, as if Control Freak was rewinding it with his remote. "It's reversing time…" Noel realized out loud…
Suddenly, a loud boom alerted him to the fact a battle was still in progress and he was still a potential target. Noel felt his side and confirmed that not only was the wound gone, but so was all the blood on his shirt—as if it had flowed backwards into his body.
The source of the boom, Noel realized, was Danny, fighting with what appeared to be a massive crustacean; not only was he attacking it, but so were Johnny and Dorathea.
"Danny!" The nearby Ember shouted. "Attack its weak point on the bottom for massive damage!"
"I'm getting the sense I should be groaning for some reason..." Noel said to himself.
The Wraith within the crab's shell suddenly began glowing red, and Savior gasped when he saw someone—the young black girl who hunted ghosts, whose name he forgot—up on the screen, begin to writhe uncontrollably, even as more life energy left her body and entered the enemy crab.
"He's draining her!" Noel tried to shout at Danny. Danny goggled when he saw Noel alive.
"How…"
"Doesn't matter! Just save the girl!" Noel ran forward, even has some more crystalline harpies swooped at him. Noel fought them off, cursing his earlier mistake. He'd just got done yelling at Danny for that same blasted thing, and then nearly gotten himself killed over it…
And up above the battlefield, Savior saw the Sizzle Wraith fighting with Desiree—and winning.
"This is going poorly," He noted.
He heard Danny shout, and turned to see that the crab Wraith had pierced one of its legs right through Dora's chest…
And Danny was none too happy about it, his eyes literally burning with green fire as he tore into the crab's under-section with a flurry of powerful punches… And the realization suddenly hit Noel that Phantom was tapping into the Primmortal power…
One massive uppercut later, the crab Wraith exploded into a million tiny pieces, vanishing in a burst of green energy from Danny's attack. The life-energy stealing aura around Danny's ghost-hunting girlfriend vanished, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious like Jack.
But then something happened that only Noel noticed… The ground had glowed with every blow Danny had leveled against the crab, and it had glowed the brightest when Danny destroyed the Wraith completely. Savior watched the glow travel up the pylons that gave the platform its claw-like appearance, and coalesce at the very tips, where it then lanced out in narrow laser beams to a ball of energy that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was manipulating high above the battle area…
And instantly, Noel knew what was happening—everything made sense. The ghost attacking Danny at the mall, the fact he kept leaving the doors unguarded, and that he constantly allowed each fight be just difficult enough to keep Danny's resolve from breaking…
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come wasn't trying to stop Danny… It was trying to use him.
Danny blasted away from a Centaur, then grabbed a Gorgon's head and tore it off, then threw the head at the Centaur. Both creatures shattered from the impact, and Danny turned to find another of the Wraiths—the one that looked like Vlad the Impaler.
"Christmas is for chumps!" it cried. Danny didn't disagree, but it was draining the life from someone he cared about. He had a problem with that. Danny slugged the Wraith in the face and then backhanded the ghost when it turned around. It hovered back and then pulled out a sword and tried to stab Danny with it. But the hero just rolled out of the way and smashed the blade at the hilt with his fist.
The Wraith jumped back again and pulled out a long whip, which it smashed against Danny's chest. Danny fell back, the ghost cracking the whip at him again and again, until Danny decided to grab the whip as it came, and jerk it forward. As 'Vlad' arrived, Danny kicked him in the face and threw him over his shoulder. "Go ghost stinger!" he shouted, sending that same attack up the whip at the Wraith… Which was promptly torn apart atom by atom.
Danny pulled the tip of the whip up to his face and arched an eyebrow. "Is it just me or is this fight getting easier?"
He turned to see everyone else struggling to survived and shrugged. "I guess it is just me…"
On the 'screens' above the battlefield, the life-draining aura around Maddie vanished, and Danny's mother collapsed unconscious.
As Danny started to fly off, though, he saw Noel running towards him, smashing through some enemies as he came.
"Phantom, listen to me!" Savior said. "I know what Future is planning."
"How did you survive that—?"
Savior turned and pointed to the pylons, clearly worried. "Those things are gathering energy and converting it into some sort of Negative Time. My guess is he wants to shoot that into the future and nullify all future instances of Christmas."
"And that would get him out of his job? Or bring about the Apocalypse?"
"The timeline can't take that sort of abuse," Noel explained. "It would probably collapse in on itself if that many 48-hour periods suddenly vanished. And Danny, I know a guy born in 2982. This is going to take a lot of power…"
Danny's eyes lit up. "Which means if we can find his power source and smash it, he's done for."
"No, Danny!" Noel said with a frown. "YOU are his power source—this battle is his power source. But mostly you—because of… um.. you're half-ghost nature or something. I think I read something about this in his mind, but it was buried in my subconscious till now."
Savior glanced to his right again. Why does he keep doing that?
"You mean he lead us here so he could suck our energy.." Danny said trailing off. "Great, now what do I do!?"
"Just hold back, try not to use too much power. I'll… think of something." Savior started to run off, then turned back to Danny. "Just hypothetically, if you were going to use that Hopefire attack again here, is there anything I could do to help?"
Danny frowned. "Unless you can conjure up a new Amulet of Roasha or give me a psychic connection with every ghost in existence… I don't think so."
Noel cursed, and ran off.
And Danny couldn't help but think Noel
hadn't given him the whole story.
Savior ran towards the other ghosts, ice in the pit of his stomach. He hated to do this, but if Danny couldn't use his Primmortal power or his Hopefire, their options were limited. And Savior couldn't just tell him about the Primmortal power—it could only be accessed by those not searching for it.
So, he pulled the trinket he'd used to stop Spectra out of his coat and began sucking the ectoplasmic energy out of the crystalline structures, all of them becoming nothing but fancy glass sculptures once their energy was gone…
But the artifact was, as Raven put it, a dime-store magic machine, shoddily made with frog's eyes where the eyes of newts should have been used, and forged with bronze instead of gold alloy. In other words, it couldn't keep sucking in energy indefinitely…
Noel found Bertrand, Walker and his men, Ember, Johnny 13, and Kitty all fighting off a horde of Minotaur. Dorathea was helping Desiree battle one of the Wraiths, which put Savior's heart a little at ease.
He discharged all the energy currently in the artifact into one of the minotaur, destroying it, even as he sucked in the energy from the rest, making them easy to smash…
"Thanks for the help," Johnny said. Savior glanced at him again when he realized his voice and appearance were darker than normal—like the Prince in the second 3D Prince of Persia game.
"Actually, I've come here to bid you all good riddance."
The ghosts stared at him for a minute, and then, Ember finally broke the silence. "What?" she spat.
"Danny can't do this without helping the ghost meet his goal, and this artifact won't hold out forever. I'm going to use your energy to strike down Future once and for all. I'd rather lose a bunch of criminal ghosts than have the world come to an end."
"TRAITOR!" Bertrand snarled, but it was Walker who attacked first, lunging at Savior with a bowie knife drawn from his side…
Savior activated the artifact and sucked the ghost warden in. "I'm not fond of having to do this myself, but don't mistake that for emotional cowardice," Noel growled.
A nearby thud alerted them all to the fact that Danny had just been batted out of the sky; he slammed into the ground and bounced a few times before rolling to a stop near Savior.
The Titan facepalmed. "Great."
"What do you think you're doing?" Danny asked as he stood up on shaky legs. "The truce…"
"Doesn't apply to me," Savior said. "As your 'friends' are so fond of reminding us."
"What are you trying to do?" Danny asked, his voice growing dangerous, though far to weary to dissuade Savior.
"He wants to use us as ammo against that freak!" Bertrand said. "But there's no guarantee even our ghost forms will survive that!"
Danny goggled, then narrowed his eyes, furious. "Noel, you can't do that."
"You only help him with every bit of power you expend, Danny!" Noel shot back. "It's either them, or the entire universe!"
"Then let the universe rot!" Ember shouted. "I'll find all the popularity I need in the Ghost Zone!"
"There may not BE a Ghost Zone if the universe ends," Savior said tersely. "I'm sorry, Danny, but there's no choice."
"There's always a choice!" Danny growled, diving at Savior. But a shimmer line lanced out and smashed the weakened Phantom to the ground.
"Yes," Noel whispered. "And this is it. When you get older, maybe you'll understand."
He
pressed the button on the artifact again, and the energy beam that
absorbed the ghosts lanced out into the crowd—all of them unable to
dodge or fight back...
And then the artifact exploded as a brilliant pink bullet slammed into it.
What was left of Walker sprayed all over the battle field, even as everyone present craned his neck to see who had fired the shot.
"I think they might want a second opinion," Skulker said, holstering his pistol and pulling out a very large baseball bat.
And behind him, Technus and Wulf glared at Savior angrily.
"Consider this payback," Technus said, even as Skulker, his future partner in crime, raised the bat and smashed Savior halfway across the battlefield…
Wulf hovered down and helped Danny to his feet. "What you see in him?" the werewolf ghost asked.
Danny rubbed his head pursed his lips. "Anymore, I'm not sure. I can't believe…"
Skulker narrowed his eyes at Danny. "Now that the ectohol has worn off and I'm thinking clearly, I realize this is far more important than getting even more drunk. So what was that spiel about you having to hold back against a ghost this powerful?"
"Savior—he said that the Ghost is using the power from this battle to pull off his plan, and that it had something to do with my halfa-status."
Skulker and Technus gave each other a knowing look, and blasted off, tearing through the forces. Wulf made sure Danny was okay, and then did the same.
A last-second Shimmer barrier had prevented Savior from receiving any broken bones from Skulker's attack… And nevertheless, Savior found himself cursing as he sailed across the way. He almost went off the platform into the abyss below, but was able to get a Shimmer strand into one of the pylons and pulled himself up…
Right next to The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
"Happy holidays." Noel said, staring up at Future with his icy blue eyes.
Future raised a hand and summoned his scythe, but then Savior began talking. "You'd love that, wouldn't you? To kill me? Send Danny into a fit of rage—then he'd unleash his power and you'd have more than enough to finish your plan."
The Ghost seemed surprised when Savior finished, and the delay was just long enough for Noel to jump away from a swing of the scythe and into a sea of crystalline creatures. Noel fought his way through them as best he could, but the Ghost entered the fray as well, grabbing Savior by his shirt and pulling him up close.
Savior struggled against this grip, but the bony hands were surprisingly strong, and Noel could do nothing to break free…
Unless... Well, it's worth a shot. Savior pulled his foot back and kicked Future as hard as he could manage in the groin. And then fell flat on his butt as the Ghost dropped him, his eyes, hidden in the darkness, flaring red with the pain.
"One day the villains are going to learn to wear a cup," Savior deadpanned, even as he turned tail and ran like a madman. It wasn't fast enough—Future hurled a fireball that barely missed Noel, but the explosion of which sent him flying through the air…
Right into Desiree, who he bounced off of, falling and slamming his head into the ground. He fell unconscious.
Danny blasted towards the remaining Wraiths and crystalline creatures, the newly-reinforced party of his ghostly enemies right behind him, tearing into the forces as Danny attacked the Wraiths themselves, trying to obey Savior's admonishing to hold back as best he could.
Though mostly it was causing him to get his face pounded three ways from Sunday.
The Sizzle Wraith smashed him into the ground with flaming hands. Danny pulled himself out of the crater he'd made... Only to see the Wraith hovering over him, smirking with the same self-righteous smirk he'd seen so many times on Sizzle. He felt his blood boil—not at the departed-for-hell/oblivion/whatever Sizzle… but at the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come for intentionally trying to push his buttons this way…
For honestly, if not to anger him, what other reason would he have made one of the Wraiths this particular person? And the sad irony was, it still had his intended effect, perhaps amplified now that Danny knew the reason…
So he smashed his fist into the Wraith's face, sending her flying across the platform, straight towards Future. But the Ghost didn't panic—it just created its scythe and sliced the Wraith open, releasing the energy it had absorbed from Danny and the others into the machine.
And the ball of energy above the claw flashed,
coalescing into a solid ball where it had been a maelstrom of energy
before.
Desiree had dragged Noel to safety before he finally woke up, rubbing his spiky white hair as though it was the hair and not his head that hurt. But the Titan would not be put down for the count so easily, and he was ready to resume fighting, when Desiree pulled him aside. "Look!"
Savior watched as Danny retaliated against the Wraith that looked like Sizzle, smashing her across the room, and he watched as Future sliced the Wraith open and let out all the energy it had gathered into the machine—not to mention the ambient energy Danny's punch had released.
"I told him to hold back!" Noel cursed. "Stupid rookie, he's going to play right into Future's plot…"
"He's using the power that Vlad Plasmius calls Primmortal to power his machine," Desiree observed. "But what if Danny had a different source of power?"
"Yeah, good luck with that. If I could just wish he had a psychic connection to ever ghost in the Ghost Zone for the next, say, three or so hours, I would. But do you see any genies around? Any Personal Deus Ex Machinas or Fairy Godparents?"
Noel rubbed his hair again, as though he thought he might be missing an important detail but wasn't sure what.
"Did you really hit your head that hard, kid?" said Desiree sarcastically.
Savior turned and looked up and down the former harem-girl… "Wait… You're a…"
Desiree nodded. "And not because you deserve it, filthy human, but because I am compelled: So you have wished, so shall it be!"
Hands raised, Desiree sent her magic out and into Danny Phantom, altering his mind—temporarily—into a transceiver of all things ectoplasmic and post-human.
Savior then noticed the ball of energy that the Ghost had been manipulated changed, and then bulged as though it was about to fire… And he looked straight up to see the 'sky' of the area changing, warping into some sort of time-portal…
"He's really going through with it!" Noel muttered. "He's trying to end Christmas by literally making the days of Christmas vanish…." Noel formed a megaphone with the Shimmer, and took a step closer towards the rookie. "DANNY! STOP THAT BEAM!"
Danny must have heard, because he instantly looked up and saw the beam of Negative Time lance out of the ball of energy and head straight for the time portal above them… And Danny took off, faster than Noel had seen even Superman ever fly, straight up the length of the beam and to the tip…
Where energy surrounded Danny Phantom, coursing into his fists as he raised them both, clasped together, and hammer-smashed the beam of Negative Time straight downward… And whereas a strike at an angle might have deflected it way from the intended target, the head on strike Danny delivered caused the beam to shatter, quanta of its energy blasting all across time and space—Noel blinked, amazed at the display, even as the chronoton particles passed through his body; he felt the scars he'd acquired in his years a hero literally vanish and he felt new ones appear in other places or the same place—he felt some of them twist, changing their angle of entry ever so slightly…
Danny was literally changing history with nothing but a punch, Savior realized…
Yeah, that always ends up working great for everyone, he thought.
But
the explosion that sent waves through history was also too much for
Danny to take, and the young hero hit the ground hard and did not get
back up.
A face…. Speaking…
"Ascend with your foe to where his descent began."
The ghosts gathered round, even as Savior used the Shimmer to pull Danny's body from the divot he had made in the platform. Savior checked for a pulse, and found a faint one. But it was regular—he had just been knocked out…
The rest of the Wraiths vanished, and all of Danny's loved ones were released. Though this wasn't admission of defeat, not by a long shot, from the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. It was a step towards a new strategy…
For the Ghost itself landed near Danny, picking him right out of Savior's arms and pulling the teen close…
Danny snapped awake as Future held them face to face… And with the wave of his arm, the ground transformed, a miniature version of the platform they were on rising out of the ground and using its claws to tangle Danny up within them…
And the more he struggled, the more energy the pylons drained, pulling it up into the larger pylons and rebuilding the ball of energy…
When Savior and the others tried to attack… Future batted them all away—even the powerful Wulf.
That which I desireth, givest thou unto me!
Danny struggled against the claws all the harder, the voice in his head causing him to squirm… But the more he struggled, the more energy vanished.
"Let go of me!" Danny shouted. "I…. I won't let you do this…"
Danny stopped struggling, and tried to let his mind fill up with peace… And suddenly realize that that was the problem—he couldn't focus his thoughts—he couldn't shut out thoughts…
Because his mind was literally filled with words and feelings, running through his head at the speed of light… "What are you doing to me?" He asked..
Future leaned back and looked perplexed, his head tilting forward towards Danny at first, and then scanning the rest of the ghosts…
"I can hear them all—every one of them… They're in my head." Danny said… "And…"
He closed his eyes, not trying any longer to block out all thoughts, but rather to filter through them. And buried underneath all the hustle and bustle, and all the fear of the Apocalypse, of which word must have spread fast in the Ghost Zone… Underneath all that, Danny found what he'd needed…
Hope.
A well of hope for the future, shared by all ghosts—and a hope for Danny in particular, the only one who could stop this… thing from ending the Truce forever.
"This is Christmas," Danny said with a wicked smirk, glaring up at Future, his eyes now aglow with white fire. "It wasn't a good idea to pick NOW to end the universe!"
And suddenly, an explosion of white fire consumed Danny, his miniature prison breaking open. The flames blasted Future backwards, his cloak catching fire as it stumbled back into a nearby pylon. With a wave of his scythe, it put the fire out… but now… it wasn't sure what to do.
But Danny was; the first thing he did was blast out his white flame in five directions, one burst of fire for each pylon on the claw platform… And all of them shattered, falling into the abyss below.
"This ends tonight, dude," Danny said. "Whether you like Christmas or not, you blow up a Hot Topic, nearly murder my friends and family, and try to use me to destroy the universe? That would tick nearly anyone off."
Phantom blasted forward, smashing his fist into Future's face. The ghost retaliated with his scythe, slicing into Danny with all his might and sending Danny careening the other way. But Danny stopped himself with a burst of Hopefire and shot straight up, hurling white fireballs at Future. But the ghost deflected them, charging at Danny and trying to force the teen to eat his scythe. Danny jerked the weapon out of Future's hand and kicked him in the stomach, then hurled him down at the platform.
Future opened a portal with his green flame, though, and appeared behind Danny, slamming a bony foot into Danny's back and sending him into the same crater he'd just pulled Danny out of. Then Future's hand glowed crimson as he smashed into the crater, hoping to hit Danny…
But through all the white flame pouring from the crater, Future missed, sending the energy scattering with an explosion that leveled half the arena and sent everyone else flying into the other platforms.
But even with the Hopefire gone, Danny was nowhere to be found…
Except right behind Future. Danny performed another hammer smash, this time sending Future flying off his own platform and into the abyss below….
Or so Danny had intended…
The platform below Danny flashed green and chunks of it exploded upwards, smashing into Danny even as Future himself burst from it, now covered in his trademark green fire. Future grabbed Danny by the shirt and hurled him into the ground, then picked him up and threw him into the air.
Danny deflected several punches, but let a powerful, bony right hook through his guard and into his abdomen, and spat up green blood. Danny returned the blow, blasting Future in the face with a burst of Hopefire and then launching himself backwards and assuming a battle stance…
But Future had also recovered, and was now allowing the green flame that he wielded to burn around him, making himself even more frightening than normal.
"Yeah, he's definitely going down as an Omega," Danny muttered.
Danny glanced over at Noel, who looked at him with a mixture of awe and disdain… Of course, never cutting the rookie a real break. Danny surrounded himself in Hopefire, and then focused it all into his fist. "New applications, huh?" he thought…
Danny hurled his fist straight back, letting the ecto-trail stretch like a cord, and then blasted straight towards Future, as fast as his powers would propel him… Until he got within a few feet. Then he let his arm snap back forward, and slammed into Future with an immense amount of power.
KRAKABOOM!
Green and white flames turned into a mushroom cloud of smoke and dust and confusion, and even as Dora inhaled and blew the smoke away, it was obvious Danny's attack had been devastating…
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was doubled-over, holding his chest in agony and coughing up green ectoplasm.
And Danny knelt on the ground next to him, cradling his mangled mess of an arm…
"That wasn't too smart," Danny said aloud—then realized that it was someone besides him who had thought it. His mind was still receiving signals…
"Did he do it? Did he win?"
"Is Danny Phantom gonna die? Can a halfa die!?"
"This is like some bad dream… some horrible nightmare…"
"Dream.." Danny said aloud. "'Ascend with your foe to where his descent began.'"
Danny stood up, cradling his arm, forcing what was left of the Hopefire to straighten it out…
Future stood too, pulling out his scythe and lifting it to strike Danny down… Obviously the blow had taken a greater toll on Danny than it had its target… But Danny wouldn't let that stop him.
"You probably… Don't want to do that," Danny said, reaching deep into his well and causing more Hopefire to form around his body. Then he reached out and grabbed Future in a bear hug and flew straight up with him, the Hopefire cascading off of them.
What doest thou!?
"If your fire can tear open a portal, then so can mine!" Danny shouted, hurling a ball of white flame high above him, a flame that spread into a circle—which turned into a portal…
And just like
that, both Danny and Future vanished...
Noel glanced at Dorathea, who begrudgingly transformed back into a Dragon and allowed Noel to hop on her back. They took off, all of the ghosts gathered, into the portal Danny had opened… And it closed behind them, even as the realm built from scratch by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come collapsed into nothing…
The Dreaming—a realm from where all human dreams originate.
Danny didn't know how he'd learned of it, or what had possessed him to go here—but when he'd heard the word dream in the thoughts of the ghosts around him… He had somehow known that was where they had to be..
All across the dreamscape, scenes of snow and presents flickered in and out of existence; scenes of a far away manger in Bethlehem, scenes of mistletoe and roasting chestnuts…
The dreams of Christmas.
But Danny and Future battled through this realm, terrorizing the dreams of adults and children alike, until Danny was pinned in the snow, the Ghost's blade at his throat. It raised the blade to plunge it through Danny's neck, when Wulf's claws tore into it and Noel smashed Future in the back with a powerful kick.
Future turned to see the rest of the party all aiming various instruments of pain directly at him.
"NO!" Danny said. "I can handle this!" The teen hero kicked up, smashing his foot into Future's stomach and kicking him over his head. Danny flipped over into kneeling position, and lunged at the ghost again, shoulder ramming him towards a distant black wall, writhing with all sorts of evil things—Greed and Lust and Stress and Selfishness…
Everything Savior hated about Christmas, Danny realized…
And when Danny slammed Future into the wall, his dark cloak grew longer, his eyes, deep within the darkness of his cloak, shined brighter. It was as though the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was being empowered by the very things that Christmas was not supposed to be about.
And he struggled greatly against Danny, trying to force them away from the wall, as if anywhere, anywhere but beyond it was preferable…
"What's behind this wall you don't want me to know about?!" Danny demanded. "Is it the reason you exist? Is it the source of this curse? Is it where you hide all your bad deeds so 'Santa' can't see them?"
Future's eyes burned red…
But even as they did, music began playing from around them… The songs of Christmas, running through the dreams. Herald angels sang, and the Whos down in Whoville loved Christmas a lot.
And Danny found that it only added to the power of the Hopefire… "I could learn to like this realm," he said to himself. Then he narrowed his eyes at Future… "Now what is on the other side of this WALL!?"
Danny shouted the last word, even as he dilvered a powerful punch with his unwounded left arm, smashing the ghost through the wall of sin and into a new place…
An overwhelming place that Danny could only describe… "It's like… Pure concentrated Christmas Spirit…. Ugh, who writes this garbage?"
The fourth wall collapsed, allowing Savior and the rest to come in.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come staggered backwards and fell to his knees. The burning in his eyes went out, and he trembled, the psychic energies of the realm overwhelming him…
"It's like there's nothing here but joy," Ember said… "No greed or malice… Just goodwill towards men and all that stuff."
Danny hovered over to Future and knelt in front of him on one knee. "This is where you come from? How could something so evil come from a place like this?" he asked…
"Evil?" a new voice asked. "No… he's not evil. Insane, maybe… But not evil."
Everyone turned to see a young woman standing, her stark white skin contrasting with her black clothing and hat. An ankh dangled from a chain on her neck. "You.." Danny watched as she came over and knelt by the Ghost, and began talking to him—talking like an old friend.
"I was afraid of this from the beginning," Death said. "I guess in retrospect I kind of foolish to think a human mind could handle this sort of thing. Are you ready now? To go on to the next world?"
Future looked up at Death and nodded.
"Then we will consider the deal terminated," she said with a sad smile. "Good bye."
And with that, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come… simply vanished.
Death turned and smiled at Danny. "I told you we'd meet again someday. Thank you, for bringing him here."
"You released him from his curse?" Danny said…
"Curse?" Death said, taken aback. "No, no, it was never a curse. It was a blessing, though one I don't think he ever fully understood. Perhaps I should start from the beginning."
"Please do," Savior said. "As… I really detest being this confused."
Death nodded. "I suppose after all you've gone through I owe you this much. You see, centuries ago, when Christmas was first starting out, there was a man, a powerful sorcerer, who truly loved the holiday. Though, he wasn't so much fond of it for the aspects related to the birth of Christ as he was the general goodwill towards men part.
"And incredibly, though he was but a mortal, he found a way to contact me. He pleaded with me that, if I spared him from dying—for as long as Christmas was celebrated—he would be its eternal guardian. And so he became the guardian of Christmas, a patron saint even before there was a Saint Nick…
And well, you know the rest of the story.
As Death finished her tale, everyone shook their heads, even the vilest of those gathered. For in the realm they were in, the pure Christmas Spirit outweighed their own evil enough for them to see the tragedy. Honest.
"But how did I know to take him here?" Danny asked.
Death smiled. "It's a good thing Morpheus is no longer Dream. I asked my brother Daniel, the current lord of dreams, to send you a message while you were unconscious. I figured that this was the only place that could shock him back to sanity long enough for me to release him. There was no way I could just cancel the contract—my end was signed in blood and stamped by my boss."
"Your boss?" Danny asked.
"Do I really have to spell it out for you?"
Danny laughed. "I guess not."
"If everyone has closure now, I'm going to head back home now. I… still have a lot to do even tonight."
Everyone gave Death a somber nod, even as The Dreaming faded around them, and everyone found themselves back in the banquet hall of Dorathea's castle—even Spectra, who'd managed to regain some semblance of a humanoid appearance…
"Does it bother anyone else that we essentially just killed the guardian spirit of Christmas?" Noel asked.
"No, not really, no," was the general consensus of the ghosts present.
Danny patted him on the back. "Relax, Savior. Christmas doesn't need a guardian spirit. If anything it just needs bitter people—like us—to quit pouting about all the bad and help make it good."
"Easy for you to say, rookie," Noel muttered. Noel looked down at his watch. "Danny, it's 11:39. You'd better get home soon. I'm sure Jump is falling apart without me. Or at least the Tower is."
"Always the egotist," Danny said with a smirk.
Ten minutes later,
Danny had flown Savior out of the Ghost Zone and through the Fenton
Portal, at which point he told the Titan he was on his own if he
wanted to get home before Christmas. "Which starts in ten minutes,
technically," Savior said.
"You just watch!" Jack shouted. "Santa will be here tonight and I'll be there to photograph it."
"Jack, please, grow up; you know as well as I do that reindeer would freeze to death at those altitudes."
"Lies, lies I say!" Jack said, and covered his ears… And nobody noticed Jazz or the Phantom Child phasing into her body…
"What does it matter, guys?" 'Jazz' said as she walked into the room. "I say you need to stop arguing year in and year out and tormenting me—I mean Danny. Me… and Danny."
"Jazz, are you okay sweetie?" Maddie asked…
"Your eyes look a little green." Jack observed.
"Um… They've always been that way," 'Jazz' lied. "Look… Why do we need a jolly fat elf being the guardian of Christmas? Santa isn't even the reason we celebrate anyway, is it?" 'Jazz' thumbed to the Nativity relief on the mantle above the fireplace that the Foleys had given them last year. "Please, just lay off…"
And invisibly, again
without being noticed, the Phantom kid slipped into Jack, then
Maddie, both fooling the other into thinking they agreed...
Tuesday saw the end of the Christmas season and the count down to the end of the year. Jazz was still mad at Danny for being used the way she was, but Danny didn't really think she'd stay that way.
Meanwhile, Sam and Tucker were over, enjoying their time out of school with their Superhero best friend. And Sam was happier than Danny had seen her in a long time. "How ironic is it, really, that all it took was a little 'suggestive' overshadowing to stop an argument that's gone on for nearly 20 years?"
Tucker smirked. "Only slightly less ironic than the fact that, in the end, Danny's dad was right about Santa Claus existing."
"Don't remind me, and don't ever let him know," Danny said. "Or the argument will start all over again. Meanwhile…"
Danny sat down at his computer, and opened up a file for his latest foe. "'The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come…'" Danny typed. "'Class… Omega.' Threat? 'Neutralized.'"
"Then that's that," Sam said. "Wanna go grab a shake at the Nasty Burger? My treat."
"Sure," Danny said with a shrug. "Why not? Not ever year you get to save the universe on Christmas Eve with someone who dreads Christmas as much as I always have."
"Speaking of you-know-who," Sam said. "Did you get Savior anything for Christmas? It would only be nice after all you put him through."
Danny smiled and put his hands behind his head. "Oh yeah, I sent him something."
"That smirk is really creeping me out dude," Tucker said as they left the house.
"I
know." Danny continued to smile.
24 Hours Earlier...
"Friend Noel!" Starfire cheered gleefully, "may I inquire as to what the Danny Phantom got you for Christmas?"
"Yeah, dude," Beast Boy said. "The world is dying to know. Okay, so not really, but I am!"
Savior muttered something unintelligible and handed Starfire his gift from Danny. "It's an autographed photo of Dennis Leary."
Starfire didn't quite get a hold on his gift, and it fell to the floor where Beast Boy clambered over and read the words out loud, and then began rolling on the floor laughing:
To Noel, the guy who embodies the Spirit of my most famous song – Dennis. Merry Christmas, Noel!
Fin.
And so it's done! With mere moments to spare until Christmas Day on the East Coast. Merry Christmas everybody, and I hope you enjoyed this thing!