They say that getting there is half the fun, right? What a bunch of bull. I hate long car rides. No matter how much stuff you bring with you it all just sort of gets really dull after a while. I spent about three hours in a car playing Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy on my GBA and ended up with sore thumbs. My bad.
So, some little things. I may have gotten the line from UE wrong but I haven't seen it in a while (oh how I long to). And the line about shooting first and questions is Kleiver's (or however you spell his name, the fat lard tub) from 'Jak X: Combat Racing'.
Sixteen: In Your Regrets
Danny ran up the stairs, after making a quick stop in one of Vlad's private studies, the laptop banging against his leg. ZeE had been taller than him and the strap was set for him. Danny would keep it that way.
He rushed past Dan who shot him a withering look that was ignored and turned down another hall. Dan rolled his eyes and floated down through the stairs, his sharp hearing picking up the noise of the surround sound in Vlad's home theater. He found Sam and Tucker sitting in there, an empty seat between them and floated over to plop into what he assumed had been Danny's place. Sam glared at him briefly.
"Saw Danny tearing through the mansion like the Devil was on his heels." The ghost murmured, "Kind of crazy looking."
"Sam kissed him." Tucker responded bluntly and Sam kicked him, "OUCH!"
"So kissing him makes him want to run through Vlad's house with a fully armed a functional ecto-gun in his hands?" Dan said thoughtfully, stroking his goatee, "Funny, he must have gone off the deep end."
Sam's eyes widened in horror and she bolted from the theater. Tucker watched her go with a slightly amazed expression but Dan was still facing the screen, not looking at all interested in the goings on around him.
"I like The Matrix," He whispered to himself, "It makes you wonder how much of your life you've spent dreaming…" He turned on Tucker, green ectoplasm boiling in his clawed hand, "And how much of it you've spent wide awake and terrified."
Tucker's face went pale and his glasses slid down his nose.
"Come on, Tucker, I know you can scream!" Dan hissed, his fangs prominent and his forked tongue flicking the air, "So scream! And see if anyone comes running for you!"
Sam knew where Danny was heading. But he had a head start. But he was also hurt. Hopefully she'd catch him in time. She took the stairs two at a time, her heavy combat boots thumping on the carpet, turned a corner and ran right through Clockwork. She shivered as a wave of cold rushed over her and then she'd disappeared around another corner and left a rather annoyed and embarrassed Clockwork in her wake.
Sam figured Danny must have taken a different route and cursed. He knew this mansion better than she did and he was probably there already. Where was Vlad when you needed him!? For a moment, her mind flashed to Tucker. She'd left him with that beastie Dan Phantom. But he should be alright. Tucker wasn't stupid.
The Goth stopped short at a landing and looked at the two stairwells, one leading up to the left and the other leading up to the right. Very faint and barely audible footsteps echoed above her to her left and she dove up the stairs. He sounded so far ahead…!
Danny raced up the stairs. This would solve it all, this was the answer to everything. The answer to his future, the answer to the pain, and the answer to the nightmares. He'd be free of it all and life would go on as usual. Of course, he'd thought about before, attempted it before, but had never had the guts to do it. Clockwork's words and his own DNA breaking down were like the Grim Reaper clutching at his neck; a constant reminder. But Sam's kiss had cleared that all up.
He'd been happier before he'd gotten his ghost powers.
When he'd lost them, things went back pretty much too normal.
So logically, with Phantom out of the way he'd be happy again.
So Phantom had to die.
Danny skidded to a halt in front of the room he shared with two ghosts and prayed that neither Clockwork nor Vlad was in there. Stowing the ecto-gun in the back of his pants, the cold metal resting against his back, he pushed the door open and walked inside, closing it and locking it behind him.
Phantom's glowing green eyes found him in an instant.
Tucker screamed.
He screamed as loud as he could. A piercing shriek to rival Dan's Ghostly Wail.
Unfortunately for Tucker, he started screaming at the same time Neo and Trinity started the gun fight in the building where they were attempting to rescue Morphius. And no matter how loud and high pitched he was, there was no way he was beating the gun shots raging from the surround sound.
Dan's grin widened and he clenched his fist, dissipating the ectoplasm gathered there in an instant and clamping his hand over the dark-skinned boy's mouth. Tucker's eyes were the size of dinner plates.
"Now listen closely, Tucker," Dan whispered but it somehow carried audibly over the stereo system, "Clockwork may have me on a leash and I may be under orders but that doesn't stop me from hating you all." He tilted his head to the side, still grinning, "Remember what I told you and Sam when we first met?"
Tucker nodded under Dan's grasp. He remembered it vividly.
"Ah, Sam and Tucker. If I had one ounce of humanity left in me this would be a very touching reunion. Unfortunately for you, I got rid of my human half a long time ago."
His body went numb with the memories. Dan evidently sensed this drop in temperature because his grin became all the more prominent.
"That's what I thought." His evil smile suddenly dropped and he slammed Tucker into the back of the chair, "Now think about this! If Fenton tries to destroy Phantom and winds up killing himself, who do you think Phantom's going to turn to!? Vlad! He knows about me! He knows how I got this way! And he knows he's got no chance of surviving on his own!" A twisted sort of half-grin, half-snarl curled Dan's pale lips, "And however much I'd love to see that happen…it would mean I would never get back to my own time! Do you understand me!?"
Tucker gulped and nodded, at a complete loss for words. Fear had choked him. Dan sat back, green energy flicking off his body, and crossed his arms over his chest, red eyes narrowing.
"There is no spoon." He muttered at the same time Neo did.
"Oh, geez, I was just about to go looking for you." Phantom said in a hushed voice, standing up off the bed, "Danny I just want to—."
"To be Danny Phantom again." Fenton put in bluntly and his blank features suddenly contorted in pain and anger, "No way! I told you I'm done with the hero crap!"
"Will you just listen to me for once instead of screaming at me!?" Phantom was obviously distressed, "I know you don't want any of that but I'm still you! I'm a part of you! You can't just—!"
"Shut up." The black-haired Fenton boy didn't shout but the rage in his voice was crystal clear. He yanked the ecto-gun out of his pants and pointed it at Phantom, "Just shut up. You don't get it. I. Don't. Care. I don't want to be Danny Phantom anymore. Danny Phantom was a failure who let thousands of people die! I was a risk to my friends and family. To this whole town! It's better off this way!" Tears welled in his vibrant blue eys, spilling over and down his cheeks, "I should thank those stupid Observers for what they did!"
"B-but Danny," Phantom was struggling for a foothold in the conversation, trying to delay the inevitable, "How can you protect everyone now?
"What, you can't?"
"You know I won't be able to! I'll fade same as you! And besides," The ghost seemed to think he'd gotten Danny's attention diverted from the gun, "I'm not…not nearly powerful enough. N-not…without you."
"Well, I'll tell you how I'm going to fend off you ghosts…" Danny leveled out the ecto-gun so it was pointed straight at Phantom's heart; if the ghost had one, "Just like this."
Sam skidded around a corner, trying desperately to get to the room before it was too late. She knew Danny would beat her there but hopefully he wouldn't dive in guns blazing like he would have done in his early days. Back then it was "shoot first and then shoot the ones asking questions."
Now…well, Danny had grown up. Changed. Experienced things that no teenager in the world should have had to experienced.
The Goth rounded the final corner and charged down the hall, hardly noticing how out of breath she was, and slipped to a stop in front of the door. She grabbed the handle and yanked on it but, predictably, he'd locked it. But Sam had been busting through her own lock on her door in her room for years and knew how to get this one out.
She hefted one leg up, aimed, and kicked with all her might, jolting the door and cracking lock, effectively opening it. Her eyes widened and the color drained from her face.
"Danny! NO!"
"Danny, don't do it…!" Phantom stumbled across the room, glowing neon green ectoplasm tickling down his cheeks, mirroring Fenton's own tears, "Don't pull that trigger…!"
Fenton matched his movements perfectly. Soon, they were lined up, across the room from one another, parallel to the wall with the locked door.
"If it gets rid of you and your stupid meddling…!" Danny snarled, grip tightening on the gun, "You've been haunting me and haunting me and I'm tired of the past trying to take…me…DOWN!"
There was a cracking noise and then someone screamed, "Danny! NO!"
The cry made him jerk in surprise, having two consequences; the ecto-gun went off and Danny's aim changed. The beam blasted through Phantom's left shoulder and splattered the ghost's green blood everywhere. Phantom fell back against the wall, sliding down it, one hand to his shoulder, and leaving a bright green smear down the white wall.
There was a horribly thick silence.
Danny dropped the ecto-gun to the floor, breathing heavily, a shocked look on his face, Sam stood framed in the door, panting from her run, horrified at what Danny had almost done, and Phantom…
Phantom raised his hand off his shoulder, looking with wide, terrified eyes at the green staining his white glove. His emerald gaze shifted from his shaking hand to Danny's face.
"You…you shot me…" He whispered, "You shot me…" He blinked, as though trying to focus on something, "You shot me." He pushed himself to his feet, fear being replaced by pain and hate, "You shot me!" Ectoplasm swirled around his clenched fists as he hovered in the air, "YOU SHOT ME!"
"DANNY! MOVE!" Sam screamed and the black-haired boy dropped to the floor just as a beam of energy fried the wall behind him. Danny's face was pale and he was shaking as he scrambled across the floor on his stomach, dragging his right arm and the laptop behind him. Sam grabbed him under the arms and hefted him upright and they dodged out of the way as another ecto-beam blasted the door off its hinges.
"YOU SHOT ME!" Phantom continued to scream, flying out of the door and charging another ecto-beam in his hands, "YOU SHOT ME!" Sam and Danny dropped to the floor once again as the beam whizzed over their heads. Phantom's eyes were blazing almost white with insanity and hatred, his white hair was wild, tossed and twisted, and his right arm, even though it was damaged by his DNA breaking down, was moving, supported by his boiling energy.
"Run…!" Sam choked, shaking next to Danny, "RUN, DANNY!"
Danny dived one way and Sam the other as a hail of ectoplasm burned away the carpet. Danny was practically trying to run on all fours (or all threes, considering his right arm was not working) and ended up falling head over heels down a flight of stairs, Phantom hot on his trail. Sam dived at the ghost and knocked him out of the air just as he attempted to blast Danny with another charged ecto-beam. The beam misfired and ripped a hole in the ceiling, sending a shower of drywall, glass, wood, and carpet bits from the floor above raining down on them. Dust filled the air, obscuring their vision.
"Danny!? Danny!?" Sam coughed, waving her hand through the air, trying to dispel the dust, "Danny!? Are you okay!"
"Sam!? Ahhhhhhhhhggg!" A flare of green through the smoky air and Sam ran forward, stumbling over rubble, eyes burning with tears.
"Danny! Danny, answer me!"
Something heavy fell on her and sent her to the floor, causing her to scrape her arm on a piece of glass and cut it open. She struggled but found herself trapped under a piece of ceiling, everything from her waist down being crushed painfully tight against the floor. Blood was pooling on the floor from her cut arm.
"Danny! Danny if you can hear me run! Get out of here!" She shouted at the top of her voice, still trying to get out from underneath the ceiling piece, "Find Clockwork! Or Vlad! Heck, even Dan! Just GO!"
"Sam!?" Another flare of green light, "Sam, where are you!?"
"It doesn't matter! Get out of here!"
"Sam!"
"YOU SHOT ME, DANNY! YOU SHOT ME!" There was a blast of white-green light so intense that Sam squeezed her eyes shut and could still see its radiance, feeling the cold energy roll down the hall, hearing it rip the walls and lights down. There was a roaring sound, a scream of pain, and then, with a sort of teasing, agonizing slowness, darkness took her.
And I think I'll just leave you there. Man, the way I'm writing this up it's sort of starting to sound like the ending, like someone's going to die. How depressing.
Well, I did warn you. Someone went off the deep end. Phantom. How wonderful. And now, because he's completely lost his mind, Phantom's trying to kill Danny.