Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or anything in the Marvel Universe.
Strategy is very important. In capable hands, a strategy can topple empires, destroy worlds, or even create something new. In this case, it can create the most powerful union between humans and ghosts that the universe has ever seen. Even a halfa wouldn't be so perfectly mixed.
Of course there was still one final move to make, a checkmate if you will, and only one being can make that move.
"Your Majesty," a knight clad in black began, kneeling before a cloaked being sitting on a throne. "Everything is in place just as you planned. It is the best opportunity to strike. Just give us the orders."
The cloaked figure stared at a orb floating behind the night which showed a picture of the SHIELD helicarrier hovering above Amity Park. The ship looked so peaceful, even if on the interior everyone was in chaos trying to get it prepped for a withdrawal. Too bad it wouldn't last.
"Begin the final phase."
"Yes, you majesty" the knight got back to his feet and left the room, leaving the figure alone to look at the orb. A minute passed by. Then another. Soon five minutes had passed with nothing changing. Then it happened. An explosion erupted from one of the helicarrier's exterior engines. As the ship began to pitch and yaw, back and forth, a malicious smile appeared on the figure's face. "And here I call checkmate and the victory."
Danny knew something was wrong when he first heard the explosion. Sure this wasn't the first time he heard something like it while on the helicarrier, there was an area near him where the SHIELD operatives liked to test some of their more experimental weapons. Usually those were muffled though, unable to be heard unless Danny really strained his ears to hear them. This wasn't the same. It could clearly be heard from all parts of the ship, especially with the shock waves rattling through the walls.
"What's going on?!" Danny shouted out to any nearby guards.
No response came. Only the sounds of more smaller blasts exploding against the hull of the ship.
"Hello? Anyone there?"
Still nothing.
Crap! I'm all alone! The guard must've run off somewhere! Danny thought. He had to get out of there. He had to go help out. Even if SHIELD considered him their enemy, he still needed to help.
"Grrgh" he groaned as he went intangible and slammed into the cell's wall. Of course he expected the shock that came afterwards, but he had to do something! The zap that followed sent him flying back to the floor in pain.
"Gah, I have to get out of here!" he shouted to himself as he examined ever nook and cranny of his cell. "There has to be a way to escape that the guards haven't thought of."
Suddenly movement could be seen on the edge of Danny's vision as the specialized handcuff he was forced to wear while out of the cell clattered to the floor near him.
"Who's there?!" he shouted out at this supposed intruder. "Show yourself."
"Put those cuffs on now, kid. My master would like to speak with you."
"Master?" Danny asked.
Getting no reply, he decided his only choice was to comply with this stranger, who he was started to think was a ghost because he couldn't see him, at least for now. Danny grabbed the cuffs off the ground and slipped his hands into them. Immediately the cuffs locked onto his wrists and didn't allow them any room to move.
"Wait, these aren't my normal handcuffs!" Danny shouted out in surprise.
"Shut it, kid. They operate the same as your old ones except for the little feature you just saw. We have to make sure that you can't take them off and hurt our master."
"And who is this master of yours anyway?"
"Confidential."
The cell door flew open for Danny to escape. Hesitantly, the halfa decided to step outside into what appeared to be an empty hall. "So, uh, where am I going, anyway?"
A second loud explosion erupted behind Danny. This time he definitely felt the ship shudder and tilt,"What the hell's going on out there?!" he exclaimed.
A large hand grabbed a hold of Phantom's arm and turned intangible. "It's time to go," the voice said as the intangibility flooded across Danny's body but wasn't effected by his handcuffs.
"Stop right there!" Ordered a SHIELD agent as three guards swarmed around the pair with weapons drawn."Don't make a move."
The voice let out a sigh before making a dive for the floor. Unfortunately, the agents anticipated this and fired their weapons.
A third explosion, this one being the loudest of them all went off. At first Danny thought this was a good thing because the tipping helicarrier was starting to correct itself, but then he noticed the lack of gravity pulling down on him.
The halfa was shaken from his thoughts when he realized that he no longer felt the ghost holding his arm and instead the man, no, beast, was lying on the ground and bleeding ectoplasm. He tried to make a move to help the ghost, but one of the guards turned their rifle towards Danny.
"Don't move, Phantom!" the guard shouted.
"Sir, you heard the explosion too!" one of the guards shouted. "We need to evacuate the ship immediately!"
"Quiet! We weren't given any orders to evacuate. The director's got it under control. Besides, this isn't the first time we lost control of our engines."
"But the integrity of our hall has been breached!" countered the desperate guard. "If we hit the ground, the entire ship could collapse on itself!"
"Shut it!"
Slowly Danny made another move towards the dying ghost while the two guards bickered. The third guard noticed his movement though and fired a shot from her rifle. "We said don't move, Phantom! You may be a valuable research subject, but we can still kill you just like your little friend there."
"He's not dead yet!" Danny replied, only to regret it a few seconds later when one of the two bickering guards grabbed his holstered pistol and shot the dying ghost two more times. He could only watch in horror as the ghost looked back at him with pure rage in his eyes before dissolving into ectoplasm.
Before Danny could even retaliate, the three guards surrounded him with weapons raised. "Get back in your cell, Phantom!"
The halfa didn't heard him. He just continued to stare at the goop next to his feet.
"Phantom!"
"Why did you kill him!" He demanded. "He was injured and no threat to any of you!"
"He was aiding in a prison escape and needed to be terminated. Besides, he's a ghost. We could only assume his intentions for being here weren't good. Now get back in your cell."
Danny's green eyes began to glow brightly and he just stared back at the guard defiantly.
The PA system choose this moment to come alive with the voice of the director. "Attention all crew. Evacuate the ship immediately. It is no longer safe to ramin aboard. Get to the deck as fast as you can and board one of the awaiting transports. I repeat, evacuate the ship.
Right after the messages finished, a huge boom was heard emitting from the opposite end of the ship. It sounded louder than all three previous explosions put together. It was so loud that it shook the very foundation of the hallway.
"Sir!" one of the guards exclaimed.
The supposed leader didn't even spare Danny a glance. In fact, he barely even looked at his comrades before jumping into a full sprint towards the exit. "You heard the director. We have to leave now!" His men were right behind him, leaving Danny to face this new peril all alone. He was half tempted to follow them, but knew that running towards a concentration of SHIELD agents would only get him killed.
The way he saw it, he was stuck aboard an assumed to be doomed ship and left to die. How ironic for the hero of Amity Park, Danny Phantom, the one who fought and defeated Pariah Dark himself, to go out in such a way. If he was going to die, he expected to die by the hands of a powerful ghost, not trapped aboard a doomed ship by his own kind. Though should he really consider himself human anymore? After all, this was how they truly thought of him.
Anger and sadness started to build up in Danny with nowhere to go until he finally realized what was happening. No, he shouldn't think such thoughts. He shouldn't turn into a malevolent ghost like his counterparts. Especially not during his final moments. Instead, he should go out proud of what he did. That's all he really could do at this point.
Smoke poured into the room and it became hard to see even with his superior ghost vision. Soon he began having coughing fits as the smoke entered his lungs with no escape. Was there really no way out. Was he really going to die like this?
A sudden thought hit him. Couldn't he just go intangible. If the SHIELD agents never fixed his handcuffs, then he should be able to go intangible for a few seconds, maybe 10 if he pushed it. Still, there's no way he'd be able to get past all the falling floors in the helicarrier. That's not counting the fact that he would have to be flying too. He really was going to die here.
Coughing even harder, he fell to his knees as tears formed in his eyes. A few moments later black spots formed around his vision and he knew it was over.
Danny was suddenly and violently thrown on his side as the helicarrier came crashing into what was supposedly the ground. Above him the ceiling caved in and he knew the whole ship was falling apart right above him. He did the only thing he could think of and used the last of his energy to turn intangible and have the material fall right through. "Mom. Dad. Jazz. Sam. Tucker." he mumbled, forced to close his eyes out of fear."
Falling metal and concrete continued to fall for what seemed like forever. He was just about to collapse from exhaustion when the last of the rubble past through him. Danny opened his barely moving eyes to see the destroyed remains of the SHIELD helicarrier below him. Not able to ignore the lack of energy anymore, he fell onto the rubble and black out.
Black plumes of smoke rose all around the dead skeleton of the carrier, completely encompassing Nick Fury and his transport ship flying above the scene. "God damnit!" he shouted out into the carnage from his position hanging onto transport's exit ramp. "How the hell did they get through our patrols and defenses?!"
Ms. Hill, who was currently strapped to a see inside the transport, put her head down and avoided looking at the destruction below. "I-It's believed that the ghosts got past out defenses long ago. They were just waiting for the perfect time. That's the only way they weren't detected by our patrols."
"This attack was coordinated." Fury stated. "The must've known are defenses. The easiest way to learn that is from the inside."
"Are you suggesting Phantom, sir?" she asked. "He is suspected of being the right hand of this leader of theirs and is definitely the most powerful ghost as of late."
Fury thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. "No, he was being watched 24/7; there was no way he could've gotten a message through. Besides, he's dead. Why would he go through with this plan if it was going to get him killed?"
"So what now?"
Fury looked down at the scene through the pitch black smoke obscuring his vision and noticed the ever raging fire eating up the remains. "How many survived?"
Ms. Hill grabbed her tablet and started doing some scrolling. "According to this, all but one of the transports launched before the hanger collapsed. Between 40% to 50% of the crew survived, not counting patrols that were already out. I few more may have survived the initial crash and can get out before the fire spreads too far. Though that odds of doing so are nearly 0%."
"God damnit!" he swore once more. "And because we were planning on leaving, all our equipment was on board. We lost everything. This will be a military bloodbath."
"Sir," Ms. Hill spoke as she fiddled with the radio to her left, "The National Guard is moving in to secure the city. News already reached them of what happened."
"What?!" he exclaimed. "They only got their first shipment of ghost hunting equipment yesterday! There's no way they'll be outfitted to fight off these ghosts yet! If they come, they'll be slaughtered! Can we transmit a message to them?"
The lieutenant did some more scrolling. "No, sir. Our transmitter's only good for short range communication. By then it will be too late."
Fury's eyes grew wide with the understanding of one pure fact. "T-The ghosts won." he stated. "We have nothing to stop them." a few moments passed before determination took the place of his fear. "Order any transports to pull back immediately. Tell them not to stop for anything. There's nothing more that we can do."
"Sir," his lieutenant began with a moment's hesitation. "What about Mr. Deggle. Did he get out?"
"All prisoners were locked in their cells when the ship went down. Well, we had a one man prison break during the main attack. We still don't know who escaped though."
"Could it have been Deggle?"
Fury frowned and shook his head before grabbing the side of the transports wall and heading inside, pressing a button to close the ramp. "I suspect it could've been Phantom. It would explain why he would order the attack on the ship with him still inside."
"Sir, do yo-" Maria spoke, but was immediately cut off when a huge explosion hit the side of their transport and they were thrown against a wall.
"What the Hell's going on?!" Fury shouted at the preoccupied pilot in the cockpit.
"Strap yourself in sir; We've been shot at!" Cried out the pilot before sparks erupted from one of the consoles and began to burn him. "Agh!" he screamed, slowly falling unconscious from the shock.
"Sergeant, are you okay? Answer me!" Fury commanded. He walked over to the unconscious man. "Hey, wake up!"
Fury was only able to look out of the cockpit for a second before he slammed against the ground and was thrown towards the opposing wall. His eyes, now getting heavier by the second, could only look around the transport as no other part of his body could move. Blood was coming down the face of the pilot, no doubt unconscious or dead, while Ms. Hill sat limp against her seat completely still. She had some minor bruising, but was otherwise alright. What grabbed most of his attention was the bright glowing green energy coming from the closed ramp. It slowly glowed brighter and brighter until the metal started melting away. The strong, if inexpensive, metal was slowly disintegrating under the blast of a very powerful ghost. There's no way a medium or weaker level ghost could blast through such metal. Was it Phantom? No, even if the ghost did survive, he would never risk attacking Fury. He was never the risky sort of biggest one he took was attacking a base on the ground. and even then he disappeared as soon as he came.
"Ah, Mr. Nicholas Fury," came a muffled voice from the other side of the ramp. "I hear you like chess."
Fury ignored the pain that shot up his arm when he reached for his holster and drew his pistol, pointing at the ramp and waiting in anticipation with his finger on the trigger.
"Well," came the voice. "I always thought war was a little more complicated than chess." cracks formed throughout the ramp and started breaking off, revealing light from the outside world.
Fury tried to look past the light to see the dark figure that was forming through the cracks. It began to get the better of him though, and he had to close his eye in fear of going blind.
"In one move I was able to destroy your entire set of chess pieces and throw you in checkmate. Granted, you did take some of my pawns and even one of my knights. Actually, Phantom took my knight. Of course, if we were really playing chess, that would never have happened." The figure walked towards Fury, allowing the director to be able to open his eyes without risk of blindness and gaze upon the figure.
The figure had the tainted green skin of a ghost that seemed to glow even with the light pouring into the transport. Eyes fully red without even a hint of a pupil. In fact, the only true human qualities about this man were his long hair that curled around his ears and the combed, yet large beard. His uniform also resembled what would be expected of a medieval knights, except it appeared to be a little older.
"Who are you?" Fury asked, black encompassing his vision. "I've never seen you before."
The figure grabbed his sword and drew it from his scabbard before speaking. "I am William the First, true duke of Normandy, king of England, and unifier of the Ghost Zone. Now I shall use this power for control over the world." the figure looked down at Fury contemplating on his next actions. He put his sword back in his scabbard and left his nearly unconscious foe. "My code of honor dictates that I should not kill a wounded man, so I won't deliver the finishing blow. Still, I don't expect you to survive the night with your injuries."
Words tried to form in Fury's mouth, but he was too weak to speak. He couldn't even look up at this ghost, much less move his mouth. This didn't stop the ghost from bragging.
"Isn't it funny that by getting you to focus your attention on one measly ghost teenager, you never saw the plan that I put into action right in front of you? The ghost played his part well. Of course, he didn't even know he was being used. He was just an innocent puppet in this game of war. Even if you somehow live through this though, you won't remember that. You're probably too weak to even remember what's going on right now. Yes, the next you see Phantom, you'll try to hunt him again. I can already see it now. Pitiful humans."
The fire that was previously burning through the remains of the helicarrier had by then reached the transport and was blocking the only exit. The ghost seemed to expect this, turning intangible and walking through the fire. "Goodbye, Mr. Fury. Now that I have my foothold on Earth, nothing shall stop me from conquering the world."
The last thing he heard before falling completely unconscious was an animalistic roar that seemed to shake the very skies above him.
The Fenton parents were utterly defeated. They rarely moved, spoke to each other, or even ate. Instead, they would sit on two different corners of their cell and stare dejectedly at the walls. At first glance one might think this was because of their treatment under SHIELD, but that would be far from the case. All the prisoners were actually treated very well under the ever watchful guards. They had unrestricted access to the cafeteria and commons area where they could do most whatever they wanted as long as they followed the 9 p.m. curfew. They even had many sources of entertainment to keep them occupied.
Still, the Fenton's almost never left their quarters. After hearing what happened to their son, they couldn't face the outside world. First came denial. They vowed vengeance on SHIELD for playing such a cruel trick on then. After that, and the stage they were on now, was grief. They couldn't face the fact that their only son was dead and the fact that they have yet to hear from their daughter.
Yet this didn't stop them from noticing the odd behavior outside of their cell. They were almost certain something bad must've happened, since it was pure chaos outside. Everyone was running this way and that, screaming to the other end of the hall about information on SHIELD's mobile headquarters. That started a couple hours ago. Now prisoners were being escorted by guards off the premises in a very rushed manner. Soon these guards would come to their cell actually. Yep, any minute now.
"Mr. And Mrs.. Fenton?" asked a taller deep voiced soldier.
Both Fentons slightly nodded their heads but didn't get up from their respective corners.
"I'm here representing SHIELD's scientific and technological development team. You two have just been drafted to help us develop more efficient weaponry to combat these ghosts due to our emergency wartime state."
Maddie's eyes grew wide and her fists clenched at her sides as she stood up off the grown. "What?!" she cried out in a hoarse whisper. "We're at war now?!"
"I'm afraid so. The resolution was already passed by the United Nations unanimously and currently a bill is being made to go through Congress as we speak." She then looked down at her husband and could see his rage building up and ready to explode. Still, he didn't even glance away from his corner.
"Jack, dear," she said, trying to soothe him. "We have to help them."
Jack threw a punch at one of the walls. "These guys are the same people who got Danny killed! There's no way I'm helping them!"
Maddie unconsciously took a step back as the rage continued to build in her husband. "Jack, the ghosts killed our boy, not SHIELD! Ghosts, the ectoplasmic filth we've been hunting since college. Don't you think we should honor Danny's memory by destroying every single one of them?"
Jack remained silent.
"And what about Jazz? She's with SHIELD right now! We need to do what we can to protect her!"
Jack slowly rose off the grown and grabbed a hold of his wife's shoulders. "Fine," he said, despair evident in his voice. "I'll do this for Jazz, not SHIELD."
A grin formed on the waiting soldier's face. "Welcome to SHIELD, Mr and Mrs Fenton."
And this story is finished. Well, at least the first arc of the plot. The second arc will be its own story. It's been a long ride and I definitely learned a lot more about the Marvel Universe. Anyway, the second arc should probably begin relatively soonish. If you have anything to say, please speak up and review!
Here's some behind the scenes information if you want it. I have been deciding on who would be the antagonist since this plot's inception. I originally planned on using a DP character (the specific character I won't name), but I realized that none of them really fit the profile. Of course I realized that when I was writing this chapter. My beta gave me the idea of using a Marvel character instead. If any of you know much about the Marvel Universe, you probably know that no super hero or villain ever actually dies in the comics, something I had to figure out. That left me with one choice, using a real world historical figure as the villain. The thought's always been on my mind; I just never gave it much thought since I planned on using a DP character instead. That's how we got the antagonist we did.
Sorenalice is the best for beta-ing this.
Reviews:
Guest(1): Thank you! I didn't think my writing has actually good enough to emit an emotional response from someone.
Inviso-Al: I'm hilarious? I know I am! I feel like I was supposed to notice something. Hmph, whatever. It's probably nothing.
Midnight Bloom: Well he only has one good eye. Apparently his other one was used for something after all. By now you know that mysterious figure was Danielle because she's just naturally evil.
SnowMiko: Ha! I defied your expectations and took two months! Wait...It's been that long?! That can't be possible. Didn't I really not notice that?! Well then. Time to make things awkward by stating I'm a guy and not, in fact, a girl. Explanation time... comics stink. Yep, that's about it.