Everything that could have possibly gone wrong had happened.
Danny had started the fight early, hoping to draw his friends in and the crowd out. Hopefully, Barry would follow the mob. There was always a better chance of finding the white haired boy there instead of in the middle of the fight. Right? Barry could even see him fighting, and chase after him instead. Right?
The boys' small bout of distraction was the perfect moment for Plasmius to approach him, grabbing him by the neck and hoisting him into the air. Danny's hand flew to the one trapping him, forgetting to use his powers to free himself. He stared down at Plasmius, frightened at the hungry look in his glowing eyes. Both of them knew that Danny was in no threat in the ways of lack of oxygen; ghosts, even half ghosts, had no real need to breathe. For the two of them, this only worked when they were in their current forms. Danny kicked out once at the arm anyway.
"Why did you bring Barry here?" he demanded. Plasmius only chuckled, looking pleased with himself.
"Why, I don't know what you are talking about, Daniel. Not at all, Daniel. Barry?"
"Don't you lie to me!" Danny snapped, kicking at Plasmius again. His booted foot connected with a mouth, and he was certain that he chipped at least one tooth, hopefully a fang. He grinned when Plasmius spat out blood and fragments of a tooth, running his tongue over what was indeed left of one of his fangs. "You know, this isn't some Twilight movie, but you've got the costume down. Now all you need is some glitter, and you'll be all set. Oh, and you should fix your hair. That style is so Nosferatu." He rambled, spouting off the first vampire name that came to mind.
"His hairstyle is completely different! Don't you dare even try to engage me in a battle of hairstyles Daniel, for it is a battle you will always lose!"
"Fine, you win on that. But you're definitely going to lose here!" Danny challenged, purposefully spitting blood and saliva in Plasmius's eye before phasing away. The man snarled, wiping furiously at the mess on his face before looking around. The boy took this moment to throw himself back at him, landing his shoulder in his gut with enough force to make even Dash proud. The two of them were thrown back, smashing through the cheap glass front of a department store, crash landing into a row of mannequins. The fighters instantly separated from each other, staying within fighting distance. They circled each other shortly, trying to think of the best way to attack each other. Only one truly wanted to kill the other, so the thoughts were not balanced in the least. Suddenly, they ran at each other, fists raised and glowing. Plasmius stopped after two short strides and Danny kept going, his rate of speed increasing when he slipped on a stray mannequin hand. He quickly hovered, righting himself just in time to meat the beam of pink energy with a green shield of his own, his hands shaking under the pressure of the attack. Looking down, Danny realized that he was moving back, though both of his feet were planted firmly on the ground. He had underestimated Plasmius, believing that the man would be weaker due to his obviously weakened state of mind. Now he could see just how wrong he was- Plasmius was stronger than ever before, fueled by a horrifying dream. His eyes focused on the blue man, widening when Plasmius duplicated himself and had the copy attack in the same way.
Like a twisted set of twins, the halfa and his copy grinned, forcing more energy out of their hands. A crash sounded, Danny's shield had given away. Danny was thrown back into racks of clothes, which hurt in ways that should have been impossible. The rack broke in several places, falling with Danny. Why could he not get back up now? Go, go! Danny craned his neck, peering down his back to check for damage. What he saw made his blood run cold.
One of the bars that held the hangers displaying the clothes had been driven into his back, just below his right shoulder blade. His body finally registered what had happened to it. There was so much pain, all at once, that he could not move to even save himself.
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Alex swore when he fumbled the box of knives in his hand, deciding to just drop it. Hopefully there would be time to get it later. Not now!
"Come here, sweet child!" Barry sang in a would-be motherly way that was ruined when he began cackling. He seized a cooking timer from a shelf, throwing it at the young spy when Alex began to run off once more. "Quit running, you little brat!"
"Sod off!" Alex yelled, narrowly missing the timer as it flew over his shoulder. He made a lap around the store, stopping in front of the entrance where Sam and Tucker were trying and failing to lift the security gate. "Both of you need to find Danny!" He said, jumping out of the way when a wooden cutting board was thrown his way. "He'll need the help!"
"What about you?" Sam asked fearfully. "Alex, I think this is the same thing that hurt Danny before. When we got him out of the book, he looked like someone had tried to butcher him!"
Barry cackled again, rushing to the boy, loving the way he was just standing there. Could it be fear, the emotion he had grown to adore when he saw it reflected in the eyes of his prey?
"Sam, if this is the same thing, then it's better for it to be in here." he called, referring to Barry as an "it" only because he wasn't sure if the killer was a real person or a mass of energy. "It thinks I'm Danny. Go and help him, I'll be fine."
"No lies this time?"
"No lies. Go already!"
The Goth nodded solemnly, taking Tucker by the arm and running off. There was no way to know where to start looking at first, there was debris from the fight everywhere. Helplessly, they began calling their friends name. How could two ghosts cause so much damage so quickly? As they continued running, Sam looked off to the side, visibly cringing when she noticed the streak of green blood on a damaged pillar. Ghosts have never been known for their bleeding when they were injured. They rarely had any in them, just a different type of ectoplasm, light green in color. Halfa's had some blood while in their ghost forms, thick green stuff, but not nearly as much as they did in their human forms. There was no mistaking this stuff. She stopped Tucker, pointing to the evidence.
"He could be nearby, Tucker. Start looking." She said quickly; already off to search under broken tables. The boy nodded, starting his own search elsewhere. Both of them continued calling for Danny, until something made them stop, hearts clenching.
A scream, full of agony, ripped through the area, steadily growing in volume and emotion.
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Plasmius took his time as he walked over to the boy. A smirked played across his face as Danny went intangible, an effort to get the bar out of him. He couldn't focus his powers properly, and the bar became intangible as well. Danny's eyes were shut tightly from the pain already, and a growing pool of green was spreading at a very slow rate under him.
"Deep breaths, Fenton, try again!" the boy's mind commanded. "Don't think, just do!"
There wasn't much other for him to do but lay there, his body flickering from intangibility to tangibility and back again. One arm was pinned under a heap of clothes, but he dare not try and move it to free himself for the pain it caused as muscles in his back moved. Everything hurt, reminding him that he was still awake. If he transformed back into Fenton, he'd be in serious trouble; his human body probably wouldn't be able to handle the shock of the injury. That was a fact. Now, any others? Other than the bar sticking out of his back and the broken nose, Danny was fairing well, a positive note. He still had all of his limbs, he wasn't completely dead just yet, the clothes piled around him were on sale… The last one did nothing to boost his moral.
"I'm alone." he thought. "Everyone is gone, I'm alone."
"Are you asleep?" Plasmius asked, interrupting the boy's train of thought. Danny groaned, opening his eyes. Plasmius was standing over him, but Danny could read the man's expression because his own eyes had watered up and everything was blurry. "Oh. You're awake, Daniel."
The suddenly sweet tone of Plasmius voice did nothing to lighten the mood. Rather, it terrified the boy.
What is that? Danny whimpered and opened his eyes further to see what had caused him more discomfort, finding a black boot to be the cause. The shoe was in the middle of his chest. What was even worse was that there was a foot in the shoe, and that foot was one of two belonging to Plasmius.
"Honestly Daniel, you can't even land on a bar properly…" The older halfa sighed, applying light pressure to the foot over Danny. "Allow me to help you." He grinned when Danny cried out, pausing a moment to watch the boy before stepping on him again, putting more and more pressure on. Danny was screaming, desperately trying to shove the foot off him, resulting in Plasmius only stepping harder. In between his screams, and then his sobs as well, Plasmius could make out the boy yelling "get off, get off". If anything, this only offered him encouragement in continuing to drive the bar through Danny's chest. There was a series of gunshot- like cracks, and Danny's ribs broke, allowing the bar to continue on. The pool of blood had grown, ruining the clothes around Danny. Another set of cracks, and then a blast. The pressure left Danny's chest instantly as Plasmius was thrown back, crashing through into a dressing room.
"Danny!"
Danny heard the voice, saw the people running towards him, and a fresh onslaught of sobs racked his body. His right arm rose to cover his mouth, he didn't want his friends to hear him cry, and he suddenly realized that the dull throb on his hand meant that someone or something heavy had been on it for a while. This wasn't exactly important- focus!
Sam had fired multiple times at Plasmius, every shot meeting its target. She kept the ecto gun trained on him as she ran with Tucker to Danny's side. Her own eyes began to sting as she saw him, broken all over again. How could things have gone wrong so quickly?
"Danny, don't worry, we'll get you out of this, ok? It will be fine, I promise." Sam said, dropping to her knees. Tucker took a small step away, readying the guitar in his hands. The Goth took Danny by his hand, holding it tightly. Her lips twitched for a moment, and she almost smiled in relief when he squeezed his hand back.
Tucker played a few notes when he saw Plasmius, and the attacks hit head-on, instantly destroying the image. The boy frowned with worry, quickly telling Sam and Danny that there could possibly be several Plasmius ghosts around them. This was confirmed when several ecto blasts were fired at the techno geek at once, all from different angles. He managed to avoid the worst of it by ducking to the ground, but his hat was not so lucky. The red beret was shot off his head, vanishing in the twisting aisles of the store. He stayed on the ground, returning fire with a vengeance. As if reading his mind, Sam readied her weapon again, covering his back while maintaining a close eye on Danny.
"Daniel, this is unfair. Two against one is unfair." The ghosts whined. Sam and Tucker picked up their locations this way, and blasted many of them away.
"Who's the one with all the copies of himself, huh?" Tucker challenged, destroying another copy and a mannequin in the process. "There's more of you than there are of us!"
"Really now?" a single Plasmius chuckled, his breath brushing over Tucker's face. "Well, this should be easy then, shouldn't it?"
There wasn't even enough time to shout out a warning. One second Tucker was standing behind Sam, and the next there was nothing there. He was thrown back to the side, tumbling into a rickety table of cheap jewelry. He hit one of the legs and kept going, the table collapsing and following. Plasmius watched this with interest, hoping for a similar result to Daniel's. Sadly, Tucker was only unconscious, having hit his head a little too hard against the floor, and wasn't in any way injured beyond that, other than a few small cuts. Plasmius turned to look at the girl. She couldn't see him, because he was invisible, so it was very interesting to see the way she reacted. There were tears falling down her face, and she gaped at Tucker's body, mouth agape in horror.
"Oh, he isn't dead, girl. Calm down." Plasmius soothed. Sam's face snapped into a mask of fierce determination, and she began to take pot shots towards the voice, hitting after the first few tries. Plasmius went skittering back a ways, right into the shoe section where he regained his visibility.
"I'll have to admit, you're very good at this, girl. And look! We're the only ones left. I know the saying is 'ladies first', but you know…"
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Alex was a quick learner. During the past fifteen minutes, he figured out that his crazed pursuer was in fact a man, was armed, and thought that he was Danny. This new guy was insane, ignoring all the pain he had been inflicted as Alex would kick him in the gut. The force behind these attacks should have knocked him out, but they only seemed to fuel his fire to spill blood.
"Damn!" Alex groaned, ducking behind the counter, under the cash register. He held a box set of knives in his hand, and was frantically tearing it open. Barry was hacking away at the thick glass of the counter that separated them, too focused on murder to realize that he could just walk around and end Alex right there. It seemed that arming himself would be the only way to save him, Alex decided. Fists and feet were out of the equation. With an annoyed sigh, he tore the last of the packing material from the knife set, tearing a few of the new weapons out. He chose a bread knife and a smaller paring knife. With a quick roll and jump, he was out in the open, standing and facing the crazed man. Alex bit his lip, throwing the hand with the paring knife back. Barry was laughing, his meat cleaver raised high as the boy threw the knife at him, and the laughter died away, replaced with a cry of anger and surprise. The small knife pierced Barry through his pale throat, ending all other forms of verbal protest other than a gurgle. He fell to the ground, twitching, and then lay still, his glassy eyes looking skyward and seeing nothing but the crummy tiles of the ceiling.
Alex didn't stay around to watch. He was already at the front of the door, opening the gate and running out, not bothering to look back. As he ran, Yassen appeared beside him, floating and keeping pace.
"Where are the others?" Alex demanded. Yassen shook his head, pointing over to the proper store.
"There, Alex." He said. He must have looked like he was about to vanish, because Alex grabbed him by the arm.
"No! Don't leave us yet!" the boy said. "You can't leave."
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"What are you going to do, kill us?" Sam spat. "Going to go on a killing spree, are you?" Her voice shook at the end, and Plasmius chuckled.
"Miss, stop this acting. I can see that your hands are shaking."
Sam seemed to hesitate, then she stomped a foot, shaking her head in anger as tears stung her eyes. "Fine, but I'm not going to let you kill us!"
The gun was fired again, and Plasmius threw a box of shoes at the shot, causing a small explosion between him and the Goth. He remained strong, but Sam stumbled back a few steps, surprised by the blast. With a cry, she fell back as she tripped over something, landing on her rear on a pile of clothes. She fired off a few potshots at Plasmius; not bothering to see if any made their target, and then plunged a hand into the backpack she had with her, taking out the Fenton Thermos.
Unfortunately, he saw this, and wasn't pleased. With a snarl, he phased through the floor, rising up when he was in front of Sam, armed with a foot scale. He kicked the thermos from her hands, sending it sliding away to the front doors, and then kicked her for good measure. He raised the foot scale, and took a few steps towards Danny. The boy stared up at him, his green eyes pleading.
"NO!" Sam cried, jumping up to stand between them, taking the foot scale in the shoulder as it was brought down swiftly. The edge of it hit her skin, breaking it a little and causing blood to spill out. There would be a hell of a lot of bruising later, but she refused to back down. "You can't kill him!"
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The spy swore when the thermos bounced off his shin, but he took it as a sign that he was meant to take the object, so he went chasing after it. It rolled away, stopping randomly in the middle of an aisle. Alex picked it up, running off to where the eye of the chaos seemed to be.
And there they were. Sam saw him and began shouting.
"Use it, Alex! Use it!" she screamed, blocking another hit from Plasmius. There was a dull thud, and she cried out. Alex's instincts were to help her first, so he ignored her command, rushing at Plasmius instead to deliver a roundhouse kick at him. Plasmius was knocked away, and Sam wrenched the thermos from Alex's hands, opening the lid and pointing it at Plasmius. The man cried out, flying into the air, but Sam kept the thermos trained on him the entire time. A blue beam shot out of the device, enveloping the halfa before there was any time to react. Vlad Plasmius was pulled by force into the small tube, one of the most horrible of places to be held due to the tight squeeze. He managed one last sentence before the blue light died away:
"You're too late, all of you! Daniel is dead!"
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