Busy life, sorry about lack of updates. :) One chapter left! I'd put it all up now, but I wanted to break it into two 'normal' chapters instead of one incredibly long one.
Thanks be to dizappearingirl, Master Reaper, 91Silver, qqchurch, moknight, Underwater Fire Phoenix, Dragon260, MaxRide101, Some Random Weird Guy, jediguru, Garnet Sky, dannahfenton, Gaptain Deadpool, Asilla, Rahne-Aamar, Amazing Bluie, Anne Campe aka Obi-Quiet, dragondancer123, yumeTakato, Virusir, Angelus-alvus, ImmortalPhantom22, irezel, Kirby77DP77, Blue Wolf Moon, Nylah, Nano Phantom, PinkPanther123, Shay Durrow, jimmy, stick fight3, prophetofgreed, Kitty Ghost, Random Flyer, Arcellant, Invader Johnny, Night's Fire, Pii, Shadeslayer35, and hawkflyer667 for reviews!
I'm Still Here
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria
Chapter Eleven
Danny screamed through the air, his white hair whipping in his ears and his eyes watering in pain. "No, no, no, no, no," he muttered, homing in on the ghost. With the complete lack of ghosts in Amity Park, Dark Dan was like a lighthouse – visible for miles with Danny's ghost sense. Even with buildings in between them, Danny could tell exactly where the ghost was.
Pillars of smoke stained the sunset black and faint screams rose over the wind in his ears. Danny hesitated for a moment just on the other side of a building, taking a deep breath before turning himself intangible and racing straight through the vacant office building. He burst through the other side and into a scene of death and chaos, his eyes wide and scanning desperately for the source of the disaster.
Bodies were strewn on the ground, flames leapt from cars and buildings, and broken glass and bricks littered the street. Danny took in the too-still bodies with a shiver of dread and kept his eyes moving, searching. "It can't be," he whispered, his eyes traveling up the buildings to gaze into the sky, still not seeing the source of all the destruction.
He pushed away from the building, floating into the air, just as the wind blew a wave of smoke over him. He coughed, his arm coming up to try to block the stinging smoke from entering into his lungs and his eyes, when he saw movement on the street.
Danny dropped under the smoke, squinting down as Sam's son crawled out of the shattered window of a shop below him and made his way down the street, a strange-looking weapon in his hands. Danny watched for a moment, then moved in the same direction. "Where…?"
Then he was there.
Flames of white poured around the older ghost's head and insane eyes blazed from a familiar face. But the cheeks were sunken and shallow, his clothes hanging onto a frame that was more lean than muscular. Energy sprang into existence and the ghost sent it blasting towards a random car, laughing under his breath.
"No," Danny whispered, his mind filled with terrifying images of what had happened last time this ghost had gotten loose. His parents dying, his friends dying, everything being destroyed… How can it be? All the ghosts died when the ghost zone was destroyed forty years ago. There's no way he could have survived that!
Dark Dan Phantom turned slightly and a crooked grin grew across his face. "Finally!" he snarled, pointing towards Danny. Energy swirled around the ghost, coalescing in Dark Phantom's hand. "I'm going to destroy you for good this time."
Danny's eyes widened, back-pedaling slightly in the air, his brain still momentarily paralyzed by memories of a time stream that never really existed. Dark Dan's energy blast built up the correct level and he aimed it towards Danny, his grin turning into a fierce snarl.
Suddenly a brilliant blast of emerald energy swirled through the air and slammed into the destructive ghost, throwing off the ghost's aim long enough for the blast to miss Danny by inches. Danny flinched, then scowled, his eyes narrowing in determination. "Get your head in the game, Fenton," he muttered. He took in a deep breath, tried to ignore the fact that if that blast would've hit him he would have been nothing but a smear on the pavement, and focused on the ghost of his nightmares.
The ghost had crashed into the third story of an old building, creating a nice hole in the red bricks. He was pushing himself out of the hole, his hair flaring brilliantly as he scanned the roadways for the source of the blast.
"Daniel," Danny whispered, his head snapping around to find where Sam's son had been hiding. The man was crouched behind a half-melted car, the ecto-weapon in his hands still smoking from the first blast. The gun aimed again and another too-bright blast of light screamed through the air and sent Dark Dan crashing back into the building.
Danny dropped through the air, landing next to his 'nephew'. "What are you doing?" he hissed.
Daniel's face was set in fury. "Killing the thing that killed my mother." The man checked the battery level on his weapon and aimed it again at the hole in the building. "Either help or get out of the way."
"You can't beat him!" Danny glanced from Daniel to the building Dark Dan was trapped inside. "I can't beat him."
"She was your cousin. Or sister. Or something," Daniel said angrily, turning to stare at Danny. The man's eyes were cold and hard. "You're just going to let her murderer destroy this town?"
"No." Danny looked up at the building, watching the pile of bricks start to move as Dark Dan pushed himself to his feet and brushed the dust from his jumpsuit. "But trust me: we can't beat him this way. How many shots do you have left?"
"One, maybe."
Danny shot the man a glance, shaking his head. "We need…" He trailed off, a bit lost. He had been about to say that he needed Tucker, Sam, Jazz, and his parents. But Tucker was long dead. Sam and Jazz were old and had probably forgotten most of what they had painstakingly figured out seventy years previously. And his parents weren't going to be able to do anything from the grave.
It was him and Daniel, only Daniel had zero experience fighting even the smallest forms of ghosts. He apparently had a pretty good eye for shooting things, but one last shot wasn't going to do either of them any good. If his powers were what he'd said they were – essentially none – he was going to be more of a distraction than anything else as soon as that last shot was gone.
Danny was on his own.
"What do we need?" Daniel asked, his eyes narrowing as Dark Dan scowled down at them.
"A plan," Danny finally finished, his brain working overtime. "A better plan than this."
Dark Dan floated into the air, spreading his arms, gathering energy around him. "I can see you two down there! Is this some kind of family reunion?"
Danny swore softly and pulled energy around him, readying it to blast, setting his half-formed plan in motion. Step one: get rid of any distractions. "You need to get out of here."
"No way in Hell," Daniel answered, his eyes hard. "That thing killed my-"
"-mother," Danny cut in, not taking his eyes off of Dark Dan. "I get it. But you getting killed isn't going to help her any. Get out of here, get the innocent people safe, and get that weapon recharged."
A flare of light from the sky was all the warning Danny had before a brilliant blast of energy slashed through the air. He barely got a shield up in time, feeling the punch to his gut as it hit and his shield pulled energy from his body. Brushing off the momentary dizziness with long practice, Danny got to his feet and raised his hands, sending a flash of emerald light into the sky.
"Sam's got to have weapons stashed around someplace," Danny continued like he hadn't been interrupted. "I can't beat him on my own and neither can you. We need weapons, we need lots of them, and we need them here." He shot a glance towards his clone's child. "You want him dead, you need to go."
Daniel stared at him for a moment, then scowled and nodded. "Fine."
Danny dropped to a crouch, taking a deep breath. "I'll get him focused on me and you get to Sam." As soon as the man nodded, Danny flung himself into the air. Step two: distract and stall until a better plan develops.
He corkscrewed through the sky, his eyes focused on the glowing figure of his older self. "Hey, freak!" he called, sending another couple of blasts towards Dark Dan.
The ghost roared, his voice echoing with power, shattering any windows that had been left. Danny's ectoblasts vanished harmlessly in the air, the ghost's scream disrupting their power. Noting that new skill in the back of his mind, Danny narrowed his eyes and pushed himself up to level with Dark Dan.
"How are still alive?" Danny asked, pulling energy to his hands.
"You idiot," Dark Dan snorted, raising a careless hand and sending an ectoblast towards Danny that was easily twice as powerful as anything Danny could have done. "I'm a ghost; I'm not alive."
Danny dodged, refusing to allow the ghost to see how outclassed he was. The blast slammed into a building behind him, neatly vaporizing a ten-foot hole clean through the building. Danny licked his lips and settled himself in the air, watching Sam's son vanish out of the corner of his eye.
"If you're asking how I made it through the 'reformation'," Dark Dan continued conversationally, reaching behind him and pulling out a battered and cracked Fenton Thermos. His claws slid over the ancient device a few times, then he tossed it through the air towards Danny. "It's really all your doing. The blast that destroyed everything else never touched me. Made a nice hole in my prison though."
The sneer on Dark Dan's face almost made Danny's heart stop. Danny caught the thrown Thermos, unconsciously glancing down at the tiny confines exposed by the large crack running down the side.
Dark Dan laughed, jerking Danny's head back up. "It's kind of sad how those idiots in white were my saviors after all that time. But now I'm free. And nobody's going to stop me from destroying everything."
Danny's eyes narrowed, his teeth clenching. The Thermos tumbled from his hands, landing in a crunch of metal somewhere on the streets below.
"I'm," Dark Dan said slowly, his lips carefully forming each syllable, "inevitable."
The blast that flew from Danny's hands almost startled him with its intensity – pure fury made the energy around him glow brighter than normal, seething with power. "I'm not going to let you hurt anyone," Danny shouted.
Dark Dan batted the blast out of the way. "As if you can stop me," he said, chuckling darkly. "I've got decades of experience on you this time."
Sam Manson's fingers were white as she pulled her car up to Jazz's house. The older woman was pacing back and forth on the sidewalk, her eyes jumping from the smoke staining the sky to the house where her grandkids were hiding, her hands clenching and unclenching by her sides.
"I can't get my daughter on the phone," Jazz said as soon as the window rolled down, worry clear in her voice. "Danny either."
"Danny vanished when he saw the news reports," Sam answered, shaking her head. "I think he recognized the ghost that's attacking. He's there; he has to be."
Jazz wrung her hands. "I don't get it, how could there be a ghost after all this time? The ghost zone was destroyed – there are no ghosts anymore."
"It doesn't matter, whoever it is, its here now and we have to deal with it." Sam pushed the unlock button on the door, the locks clicking firmly. "Get in."
"I can't," Jazz said softly.
Sam looked up at her old friend, taking in the lines on her face, the frailness in her body, and the age in her eyes. Her own body was little better. "I know," Sam said softly. "I can't either. But that can't stop me from helping Danny."
"You've got the weapons?"
"Every single one," Sam answered, glancing towards the back seat. The piles of ancient technology – mostly charged and only somewhat dusty – made a haphazard mess from where they'd been tossed in place. Her hand drifted down to the brake. "You sure?"
"I need protect my grandchildren." Jazz reached through the window and picked up a small ectogun, checking the charge as if it hadn't been forty years since she'd last done that. "Go."
Sam nodded and, as soon as Jazz stepped back from the car, accelerated down the street. "I'm too old for this," she muttered.
Danny kicked out with his foot, catching his older, jerkier self in the stomach. The ghost grunted in pain, but it barely slowed the ghost's movements. Danny felt Dark Dan grab his ankle, tipping him upside down. As the world spun and Danny struggled to keep his sense of 'up' and 'down', he gathered a blast of energy between his palms and blasted it – point blank – into Dark Dan's belly button.
The older ghost simply phased his body out of existence for a moment, the blast passing through without any damage. "Nice try," Dark Dan chuckled.
Danny was panting by this point, dredging up stray bits of energy anywhere he could find it. He pulled it all in, swirled it around in his chest for a moment, and released it all at once. The wave of power slammed into Dan's fingers, forcing the ghost to release him.
Dropping through the sky, Danny let himself fall quite a few feet before he stopped himself, twisting over to stare up at the Dark Dan. "I'm not done yet," Danny snapped.
"Of course you're not," Dark Dan muttered, "you're not smart enough to know when to stop." The ghost snapped his fingers and the sound reverberated around the entire city. Danny's hands flew to his head, his eyes closing in pain at the sharp noise. "You're like a fly. Annoying, but ultimately doomed."
How's he doing that? Danny thought desperately when he worked his watering eyes open, his ears still ringing. A deep breath slid into his chest and Danny raised his arms over his head. Energy swirled and flew, only to be blocked by Dark Dan's shield.
"I have forty years of practice since the last time we met," the ghost said darkly, "and you expect a simple ectoblast to defeat me? I heard you spent the past seventy years in a Thermos. I thought it was a fitting place for you."
Danny glared up at Dark Dan, his fingers clenching into fists. His brain was starting to feel watery from all the energy he'd used, his muscles beginning to tremble. I need a plan and I needed it five minutes ago.
"Do you know what I'm going to do to you?" Dark Dan chuckled. "Did those annoying friends of ours tell you what I did to our clone?"
Danny shook his head, narrowing his eyes. There's got to be a weakness somewhere. A move he can't counter.
"When those idiots in white destroyed the ghost zone – my kingdom – and set me free, I tried to find you. Surprise, surprise that you weren't around. But I found our little clone. Danielle. Quite a fitting name for a rather pretty girl."
Danny snarled softly under his breath, readying another blast of energy. Dark Dan snorted and sent a backhanded wave, a wall of energy swirling through the air. Danny barely had time to raise a faltering ghost shield before it hit and drained him of even more energy.
"She had a little baby boy. Such a beautiful child."
Breathing heavily and looking around for something to help him defeat this ghost, Danny's eyes caught on movement in the street. Daniel was helping some people out of a building – an older man and some unconscious woman. Daniel looked up, Danny momentarily catching his gaze.
"I did the most wonderful things to our clone," Dark Dan laughed. "How she screamed and pleaded with me for her life and for the life of her child before she died. You should have heard the sound of her neck break."
On the ground, Daniel was still standing still, staring up into the sky. Danny could tell from the darkening expression on the man's face that he could hear every word. Get those two people out of here! Danny wanted to scream at him. Stop listening and run!
"I broke her neck so carefully. She didn't die from it – she just couldn't move anymore. She had to watch as I slowly took out her intestines and her stomach." The ghost was sneering, cruel delight dripping from every syllable. "She died very slowly, very painfully, knowing with every breath that once she died I'd do the same thing to her precious child."
Danny wrenched his eyes off of the man on the ground listening to the story of his mother's death, focusing on the ghost floating above his head. His fingers curled into fists by his sides, his heart clenching in fury.
"If he hadn't shown up, that child would be long dead," the ghost snarled. "But nothing's going to stop me from doing the same thing to you. And then to everyone you've ever held dear."
"I'm not going to let you hurt anyone!" Danny glared up at Dark Dan, his entire body trembling in anger. Blue flared in his eyes, frozen tendrils reaching up from the core of his body and making his fingers sting. "EVER!" An icy blast slammed upwards, catching the ghost by surprise.
A coat of ice surrounded the older ghost, freezing the expression of anger in place, and Dark Dan tumbled towards the ground.
Danny, screaming in fury, followed, energy dancing around him.
Sam watched the ghost fall from the sky, her heart jumping into her chest when she spotted Danny's smaller figure dropping towards the street. "Danny!" she yelped, stomping on the brake and staring up at the sky. It wasn't until she saw a flare of light from Danny and he pulled out of his dive that her heart continued beating. "Be careful."
She carefully applied the gas again, working her way between the stopped vehicles blocking the road. Seventy years ago, she would have ditched the car and carried her weapons at a sprint, but not anymore. She had no illusions about how far she'd be able to tote the arsenal in her back seat and still be able to help.
One eye on the figure floating in the sky and the other on the cars, she completely missed her son stumbling down the sidewalk until he called out. "Mom!"
The car stopped once again, this time Sam getting out. She gasped at the blood smeared down the front of her son's shirt, hurrying around to help him with the woman he was trying to carry. "Are you okay, Danny?" she said, pulling open the side door so he could set the woman inside. "Sarah!" Sam gasped, finally catching sight of the woman's bloody face.
"I'm fine, all this blood is hers," Daniel said, panting a bit. "She needs a doctor." He opened his mouth to continue, but caught sight of the mess of weapons in the back seat. "Wow."
"I'm going to help Danny," Sam said quickly, opening up the back door and pulling the weapons out of the car. "You drive Sarah to her house – Jazz should know how to help her." She yanked on a few of the guns, finding them wedged into place. "Help me!" she snapped over her shoulder.
Daniel pulled her out of the way and got to work on the weapons in the back of the small car, handing them out one at a time. "The ghost…" he hesitated, then swallowed. "Mom, the ghost is the one that killed Danielle."
Sam blinked at him, catching the odd warble in his voice. "We never proved that a ghost killed your mother, Danny," she said softly.
"One did," Daniel snapped. "And he's back!" When he grabbed the next weapon, Sam saw that his knuckles were white. "And you know it's a ghost – you're the one who chased him off the first time."
"No I didn't, Danny," Sam said. "We've been over this. Whoever killed Danielle was gone before I got there, along with whoever chased off her murderer. All I ever saw was the text message she sent." She reached out and touched his shoulder, feeling him trembling with anger. "Take a breath, Danny."
Her son did, his shoulders moving as his lungs expanded. "He's back," Daniel said, his voice thick with fear and anger, "and he's going to finish the job he started. Then he's going to kill you too."
"No, he's not," Sam said. "Hand me those last two weapons." As Daniel reached into the car to grab them, Sam continued. "I'm going to stop this ghost, whoever it is, and we're going to have pizza for supper." She took the weapons and set them on top of the pile.
"If I were half the ghost Danielle was-"
"Stop it." Sam cut off her son, pulling him out of the car and turning him to face her. "Stop trying to measure yourself against someone you don't remember."
"But-"
"Get in car. Drive Sarah to Jazz. You need to protect her."
Daniel looked up as a huge blast of light made them squint and flinch. A rumbling roar grumbled down the street as a building collapsed a block away. "I'm not leaving you here."
"You don't know what you're doing," Sam informed him. "I do. Get in that car, Daniel Madel, and get out of here before I kill you myself." She turned around and picked up the nearest ectoweapon, checking the charge and brushing off a layer of dust.
The old man who had been following Daniel and lingering in the shadows stepped forwards. "Still chasing Phantom around Sam?"
Sam shot Kwan a grin and gathered as many weapons as she could carry in her hands, slinging the strap of a battered Fenton Thermos around her neck. "Always."
"Mind if I catch a lift?" the man asked Daniel, reaching for the door without waiting for a reply. "I used to be a doctor, you know."
There was silence for a moment, then the sound of a car door shutting as Kwan settled himself into place. "I'm coming back," Daniel finally said
"Of course you are," Sam said, a smile twitching at her mouth as she headed up the street at a limping run. "You're related to Danny Fenton. I wouldn't expect anything else."
Just a ways down the street, perched on top of the hotel they'd been staying in, Vlad Masters and his hologram watched the fight. A slight frown crossed his face and he leaned forwards, weaving his fingers together under his chin. "Who is this ghost?" he whispered.
"Do you think the boy's going to win?" the hologram asked, 'sitting' down on the rooftop air conditioner next to its master.
"I doubt it," he answered. "Daniel is quite outmatched this time." Wrinkles appeared on his forehead and his eyes crinkled in thought.
"Are you going to go help him?"
Vlad remained silent, a finger coming up to tap against his lips. Then he glanced over at his hologram and turned it off with a flick of his finger, leaving Vlad alone on the rooftop. "I haven't decided yet," he said softly, turning back to watch the struggle and debate which was better: the rest of his life knowing Daniel was alive but hated him and wanted nothing to do with him, or the rest of his life knowing Daniel was dead and he was truly alone.
To be continued...