It didn't take long for the strange ghost to reveal himself. All of Amity was waiting anxiously, hoping the shield would hold, Danny being one of them.
"Least Sam, Tucker, and Jazz are safe for now." He said to himself. They wanted to come along, but he wouldn't let them do so. Danny had faced many dangerous ghosts, but none like this. The ghost shield glowed over Amity in the night as their enemy slowly approached.
Almost all at once, the military started firing. Artillery lit the sky as the ghost approached the shield. The GIW were firing ghost weapons as well, trying to do anything they could to halt the demon in its tracks.
Unmoved, the ghost fired deadly ecto-rays at the shield, trying to break it. Machine guns added to the noise, but had no more effect than any other weapons. He raised his left hand and ripped through them with ease. Even from a long distance, Danny could hear the screams of the dying.
Nonetheless, the remaining soldiers fought bravely. The ghost backed up from the shield and unleashed a ghostly wail, sustaining it for over a minute. Everyone caught in its path were killed, metal was ripped to pieces, soldiers were killed by falling equipment, limbs being ripped off from the sonic attack.
And then the ghost shield faded out and disappeared. Danny couldn't do anything but stare in horror. After several seconds, he managed to shake himself out of it. "I've got to do something." He told himself. He flew towards the fight, even though he had only once before been so terrified in his life.
X X X X X X X
The ghost was on the outskirts of the city. He unleashed another sonic attack, destroying several nearby buildings. Guns were being fired by the few people still aware enough to use them, but the ghost gave no indication that he even recognized them as a threat.
People were running in terror. Earlier, when the shield was still holding, many stayed where they were and stared instead of fleeing. Now they were paying for that mistake. The ghost fired devastating ecto-blasts into the crowd, vaporizing those nearest to it.
X X X X X X X
A 4-year old girl kept nudging her mother, saying: "Let's go, mommy." not realizing her mother was already dead, her face nearly melted from the attack and the fingers on her right hand fused together.
X X X X X X
It wasn't a simple rampage. The ghost approached apartments and fired another ghostly wail. They erupted into flame as people fled their homes. A few even jumped out of third story windows trying to get away. The ghost flew towards them, destroying the apartments from the ground up. Several vehicles that were nearby, filled with people desperately trying to escape the menace were immediately blown up.
As a result of the fires, power lines fell into the street. Over a dozen people were electrocuted by tripping over the wires within only a few minutes. The ghost fired another wail, killing everyone within 50 meters of himself.
Fire trucks and ambulances were arriving at the scene, slowed down by the masses of people struggling to get away. One ambulance, in its haste to avoid a mother carrying her child, lost its balance and crashed, killing the occupants.
Firefighters tried getting the hydrants to work, but the few that were still functional were not nearly enough to contain the rapidly spreading blaze. They heard the screams of the victims inside the homes, but even with protective clothing, it was too dangerous to go inside.
A few tried anyway; two of them managed to save lives, but the others never made it out. In any case, there was little they could do for anyone. The roads were nearly unusable and the ghost was still in Amity rampaging.
X X X X X X
"Just stay down and hide." Alexander told his wife, Evelyn. They were a middle-aged couple that had been together for nearly 20 years. Their kids had already left the house, except for one. Where he was, neither had any idea. The moment he saw the shield going down, he took his wife and found the best shelter he could.
When he heard people screaming, Alex knew the creature or whatever he was happened to be close by. "Alex, it may not be a good idea to hide here." Evelyn protested.
"Look, we have a better chance here than on the streets." he argued. "If that thing didn't get us, we'd be trampled by others just like us trying to get away." They were currently in the basement, while Alex had a 38 caliber pistol. Privately, he wondered why he brought the damn thing, but any security was better than nothing.
The ceiling shook above them as loud explosions were heard. Alex and Evelyn huddled in fear, praying they would get through this. The wall above them was starting to crack, and he rolled out of the way. Only too late did he realize that his wife was still in the line of fire. An anguished scream sent him back to reality. She moaned, unable to move. Alex was no doctor, but he realized that she was likely going to die. Maybe at a hospital, they could save her, but trapped in a basement when a demon was destroying their town…
He looked her over as best he could given the darkness of the room. He used his hand to feel where her injuries were, his eyes watering from the dust falling. Alex sighed and figured that not only was his wife going to die, but it would take a long time to do so. Who's going to find us here, in a basement? It'd take them days to find us, maybe weeks. There's no way she'd survive that long. God, what the hell was I thinking? I ignored her concerns and now she's going to die from my stupidity. He gulped and sighed, bowing his head.
"God forgive me…" he muttered as he picked up his revolver and shot her in the head, putting her out of her misery. He cried, curling into a ball, his hair wet with his wife's blood. After an unknown length of time, he started to have difficulty breathing.
He coughed several times, trying to find his way around in the blackness. Alex tried to find a way to escape, but saw nothing. The explosions were distant, which meant the ghost had moved on. He slowly got to his feet and felt around for an exit. However, he tripped over something and hit his head against a cement wall.
X X X X X
The outskirts of Amity were little more than a sea of fire by now. The ghost was systemically destroying every object he happened to find. Soldiers were firing at him, as were the GIW, doing everything they can to at least slow him down, but it was too no avail.
However, the ghost was kicked in the face by Danny Phantom, who had finally arrived on the scene. Danny launched several ecto-blasts into his opponent's body, going on the offensive. Unfortunately, he gave no indication that he even felt the attacks. The ghost fired another wail, ripping apart the concrete roads and killing everyone in its way.
"You'll pay for that!" Danny swore, duplicating into 4. All of them surrounded the ghost and attacked, but it did little good. There were some minor injuries on Danny's opponent, but for the most part, it seemed as if the ghost was ignoring him.
That is, until he started firing energy in return. The duplicates were immediately vaporized and Danny barely managed to get away. He decided to try a different tactic: he fired ice blasts with as much force as he could muster. However, the ghost didn't seem effected in the least as he delivered an uppercut, sending Danny into the ruins of a building. He barely had a chance to go intangible as debris fell.
By the time he recovered, the ghost was already gone. Danny shook his head and slowly got to his feet. He saw very few living people, but plenty of burned carcasses in the street. "I've got to do something to save them, but what?" Danny muttered. "Everything I've tried has been useless and my ghostly wail would likely only add to the devastation."
He flew into the air, watching more and more of his hometown turn into nothing but ruins. I've never seen anything like this; even Pariah wasn't this bad. The only time I saw anything like this was my evil self and even then, I didn't hear all the screams. I'm going crazy here; I have to do something!
He flew to some of the ruined areas and put out all the fires he could. True, it burned too hot to do very much, but he managed to help get the blaze under control. By the time he was done, there were still many fires, but he had managed to save quite a few people from a burning death. However, by this time, he had become exhausted and was in little shape to fight. Not to mention that he was also quite afraid.
"It doesn't matter how I feel." Danny told himself. "I have to keep fighting, no matter what. It doesn't look like I can beat him, but if I can slow him down, it'll give people time to flee. Boy, I hope my parents don't run into this thing!" Danny stopped in mid-air and fell several feet. "Come on, Fenton, get it together!" He slowly flew towards the ghost.
X X X X X X X X
The ghost was now near the center of town, around the tallest buildings and the most populated area. Tanks and helicopters, both military and GIW, were lying in wait for their opponent.
Sure enough, the ghost was seen. Of course, he was destroying everything in his path, the sound of the explosions only dwarfed by the falling debris. Street lights, parked cars, power lines… nothing was spared.
2 GIW jets flew towards him, firing missile and energy rays. Most did not hit their target and even the ones that did were unable to even slow him down. He fired a ghostly wail, reducing another city block to rubble. Helicopters hovered behind him, firing machine guns and rockets, the force sufficient to send him spinning over 200 yards.
But it didn't stop him for very long. The ghost fired more ecto-blasts, bringing down nearly half of the helicopters. The army took whatever cover they could find and fired, but their courage was hanging by a thread.
X X X X X
George Drucker drove the M1 Abrams closer to the creature. He couldn't admit it even to himself, but he was close to panicking. Nothing anyone had done so far had been able to stop this ghost, assuming it even was one.
"Come on, Drucker, we got a job to do." His gunner told him, whose name was John Doe. Obviously, this resulted in quite a bit of ribbing from his buddies.
"Yeah, you're right; got to pull myself together." Drucker told himself. "Could be worse; I could be outside with no protection at all." He admired their bravery; if he were in there shoes at the moment, he'd likely have a heart attack. For that matter, his current job didn't seem like a small risk at the moment.
He drove forward even more, since the orders were to fire at point-blank range or near enough as to make no difference. Other tanks moved ahead of and beside him. The fact that he wasn't alone reassured him to some degree, though the fear was still there.
I thought Iraq was bad; had no idea what the hell I was talking about. He thought. "Okay, fire!" he exclaimed. He moved forward within 50 yards of the creature as the tank nearly rocked on its heels. With over 20 tanks and a dozen helicopters firing at the creature simultaneously, it would have to stop him… right?
Alas, it was not to be. The creature fired some sort of sonic attack, destroying the tank in front of him. More helicopters went down as the jets went for another pass. A few of their shots hit the tank, though thankfully they didn't penetrate.
One of the jets went down, but before it hit the ground, the ghost actually grabbed it and picked it up. There was a brief lull in the firing as they wondered what he was going to do. They didn't have to wait long as he threw it into the tallest building in Amity, the closest they had to a skyscraper. It smashed into the 18th floor out of 22 and set the top of the building ablaze.
The ghost fired another wail, ripping apart every tank and airplane in its path. The helicopters were all destroyed, while the tanks were severely damaged. Drucker shifted it into reverse, trying to get away from the creature. However, they didn't move for more than a few seconds before the engine conked out.
X X X X X X X X X X
For the people trapped above the impact, there was no hope. Many inside were dying from smoke inhalation and burns. Nobody could see anything around them. Freddy coughed loudly, rubbing his eyes, which were watering rapidly. He was only 10 years old and had no idea why this was happening. "Mom, where are you?" He called out and got a lungful of smoke for his trouble.
He found himself growing weaker and weaker, the smoke in his lungs having a serious effect on him. It was impossible to speak, or even see more than 2 feet in front of him. Every breath he took caused him pain, but he was unable to hold his breath for long.
Freddy fell to the ground, where his mother scooped him up. "Don't worry; we'll be with Daddy soon." she told him. He looked around and saw everything going down. The pain was slowly disappearing, but he found it more and more difficult to move. He stopped struggling and fell to blackness, never to wake up.
X X X X X X X X X X
"Ok, now what do we do?" John asked.
"Let's see… we have plenty of ammo left, but we're a sitting duck." Drucker replied. "I suggest we bail out and try to evade that thing's attention." Neither wanted to leave the relative safety of the tank, but it didn't look like they had any other option. They stayed out, their personal weapons out. Logically, both knew that it was useless against their enemy; if tanks and helicopters wouldn't stop it, a pair of pistols certainly wouldn't.
By and large, the military had been ripped apart in the fight. True, there were still stubborn groups fighting, but the others were either dead or playing possum. In any case, the ghost was mostly ignoring them now, having concluded that they were no longer a threat.
It fired an ecto-stream at the base of the skyscraper. Drucker held his breath without even realizing it for several seconds. People that were trying to flee the skyscraper were cut down like wheat before the ghost moved on throughout the city.
Drucker and John moved slowly towards the civilians, trying to see what they could do for them. Most of the surviving personnel were doing the same, except for a handful of GIW agents that were stubbornly following the ghost. They heard the occasional moans from the group, but other than that, they were silent.
The soldiers did what they do, but that was very little, especially since they had wounded comrades of their own. "Some of those people we couldn't even save in a hospital, let alone in the middle of a goddamn war zone." Doe shook his head.
"I know, but we've got to try." Drucker replied. "I joined the army to protect others and that's what I'm going to do." He heard a dull thud close by. He looked up and saw several people jumping out of the windows on the top floor, desperate to escape the rapidly spreading blaze. He grabbed a wounded civilian and hoisted him over his shoulder, Doe doing the same.
"We better move; that building isn't going to hold much longer." Doe pointed out. To the best of their ability, they carried the civilians out of immediate danger and looked over their injuries. Drucker took out bandages and morphine. One of them might have a chance at survival; as for the other… he sent the morphine into his system, trying to make sure he at least died peacefully.
"So should we go back and try to get others or just get the hell out of here?" Doe asked. "I hate to say it, but I'm opting for the latter. Call me a coward if you want, but I'm a human being." Before Drucker could answer, they heard the building collapse. He picked up the surviving citizen and sprinted out of the way. It was almost like a debris tsunami, sweeping people away and killing many of the ones who had stopped to help people.
After it seemed like they had escaped, Drucker and Doe got to work on the person they rescued.
X X X X X X X X X X X
"The fires are raging throughout downtown Amity." an aide told Vlad. "Most of the water mains have been destroyed, so we can't put them out. If not for Danny Phantom, things would be even worse than they are."
"Damn it, can't you do something to stop this thing?" Vlad demanded. Before the aide could reply, they heard something on the broadcast.
"11th armored division has been destroyed! Repeat, 11th armored division has been destroyed!" The person on the line stated. "The present location of our target is unknown. Requesting further instructions; requesting further instructions."
"This is the Mayor; activate emergency code 615." he ordered. "Even if we can't stop him, we can try and save some of these people."
"Yes, sir." The broadcaster replied. He spoke to everyone listening. "Initiate emergency code 615! Initiate emergency code 615!"
X X X X X X X X X X X
Danny had finally managed to catch up with the ghost. By this time, it had destroyed much of the city, methodically pounding it to rubble one block at a time. It took savage pleasure in doing the same to the people, overthrowing vehicles, rupturing gas mains, and firing the occasional ghostly wail.
"Ok, I've got one shot at this." Danny gulped. He was already tired and hurt from the last fight, but he forced himself to push past the pain and the fear he felt. He flew towards the ghost, uppercutting it into a destroyed apartment complex. The second it got up, Danny charged up his ghostly wail.
He fired it at full strength, steadily driving the ghost back. It tried to stand up and fight, but was unable to do so. True, the sonic attack destroyed various parts of buildings as well, but it seemed like Danny had finally found a way to defeat whatever this thing was. It fell into a pile of rubble, Danny constantly hammering it.
He kept it up for two minutes and fell to the ground, on his knees, barely able to keep up his ghost form. But all of a sudden, it didn't matter so much. "PHANTOM! PHANTOM! PHANTOM!" the people cheered, or at least the ones that were still able. Danny tried to fly away, only to find that he didn't have the energy.
And he was now in even worse trouble now that the ghost ripped itself out of the rubble, not hurt very badly at all. Military jets arrived on the scene, but they were able to do even less good than Danny. He gasped in horror as a couple of children were trampled. He tried to fly over there and rescue them, but didn't get more than 10 feet before he feel flat on his face and returned to human form. He briefly worried that people saw him, but no one was paying him the slightest attention. Soon, he found himself fleeing with the others. Unfortunately, he tripped and fell into a pile of concrete. To make matters even worse, it started falling on top of him. He raised his heads above his head to protect himself… which was the last thing he remembered.
X X X X X X
While all this was going on, Tucker, Sam, Jazz, and Davis were watching the coverage of Amity's destruction. However, out of nowhere, Davis grabbed Sam's hand and started pulling her. "Come on, we've got to get down to the lab." He informed. "It won't be long before that thing gets over here."
"Hey, shouldn't we go to the Ops center?" Tucker suggested. "That thing can actually fly and get us away from here."
"And how long would we last in the air?" Davis demanded. "It's already destroyed many of the jets trying to take him down, the military and GIW alike barely able to slow him down, let alone stop him. Come on, we've got to get to shelter."
"Stop pulling on me, Seriza!" Sam demanded. "You're hurting me!" Davis immediately let go, only to pick her up. She kicked and screamed, but to no avail. He ran to the lab, which had recently been reinforced with supports, Tucker and Jazz following reluctantly.
"I hope Danny's all right." Jazz gulped. "What I've seen this thing do… it's not like any other ghost Amity has ever seen. When I saw him fighting… I mean, fleeing."
"I'm sure he can take care of himself." Davis replied. Now that they were all in the lab, he returned to his usual quiet self.
"So how do we get out of here?" Sam demanded quietly, once they were out of his earshot.
"You actually want to go out there?" Tucker hissed. "There's no way we can find Danny right now!"
"I saw how badly he fared in that fight; I'm not leaving him and I can't believe you would. What kind of friend are you, Tucker?"
"Look, Sam, Tucker may have a point." Jazz broke in before they started shouting. "I don't think we can find Danny right now, and he certainly wouldn't want us to be in the middle of that. It's why he refused to have us come along." Normally, they would have ignored him and come along anyway, but this time… she hated to admit it, even to herself, but she was too frightened to do so.
"I don't care; I'm going out there to find him, with or without you cowards!"
"No, Samantha, you're not." Davis looked at her sternly. "There's no way you can find him out there, even if he is Danny Phantom. I told Jack and Maddie that I would keep you children safe, and I intend to keep that promise.
Before Sam could reply, they heard explosions nearby. The power flickered and then went out. Thankfully, the Fentons installed emergency lights, although it was still difficult to see.
Try as they might, none of them could tune out the screams of the dying. Along with explosions, there were scattered bursts of gunfire, but it was obviously a futile gesture. The building rocked above them, but fortunately did not collapse.
Tucker, Sam, and Jazz held each other closely, hoping to get through this alive and hoping for Danny's safety. Davis simply watched them silently, lost in his own memories. The explosions grew less frequent and more distant. Tucker and Jazz heard Sam muttering to herself, saying something neither of them could understand.
"Sam, what are you saying?" Jazz asked.
"It's the Jewish prayer for the dead." Sam replied. "I thought it might offer some comfort, but nothing." She muttered to herself in Hebrew, bowing her head.
They heard the door break open, a slab of brick sticking into the lab. Now even if they wanted to, they were unable to leave, except through the ghost zone, and since Jack and Maddie took the specter speeder, they had no method of transportation.
None of them knew how much time had passed, but eventually, they sun came up and with it, the horrible stench of death. However, there were now very few screams and no more explosions. The ghost had obviously left Amity, leaving behind a devastated city.
The trio slowly fell asleep, still worried about Danny and the Fentons. Jazz fell asleep first, Tucker doing so shortly afterwards. Sam stayed awake longer, worrying about Danny, her parents, and everyone she knew. True, she may have hated the preps at school, but she didn't want them dead. At least the danger was over.
For now, that is.
Damn, that took me quite some time to write! I went through it 3 or 4 times, making sure it was just how I wanted it. In my opinion, this is the most important chapter of the story. Some of you might complain that Danny only played a minor role here, but I wanted to show the true price of something like this happening and how I believe people would react.
There should be two more chapters after this one and yes, I am well aware this is pretty tragic. Some of the images are pretty obviously based on actual occurrences. In response to any possible accusations, I was not trying to use to my advantage the tragedy, but rather, show how terrible it truly is. This story has an obvious message and I think it is relevant to what we are currently facing.
True, I based this on one of my favorite movies, but I decided to put my own twist on it. It's got a different message and one that fits with my thought. Hey, I did warn you this was, to some degree, a political story.
In any case, please review; if you flame, at least tell me what I did wrong. Telling me I suck isn't going to help matters any.