Reincarnation: Chapter 15
The time had come. Danny Phantom would be shunned by his home and then killed by his arch rival. If Vlad still believed in Santa Claus, he'd think it was Christmas. A devilish grin spread across his face as he prepared to take to the podium. The paparazzi and pressed all flashed their cameras, not wanting to miss the mayor's important speech. Truthfully they wondered how he had managed to find the culprit behind the murder. He was certain that Daniel had rescued the girl by now, heard about the news broadcast, and was probably on his way to stop him. Everything was falling in place. There was a projector screen behind him and Vlad checked to make sure the film was ready.
Meanwhile, Dani, Tucker, and Valerie had heard about the news broadcast and suspected that Vlad was up to his old tricks. Tucker phoned Danny to let him know the situation.
"Thanks, but I already know" Danny said. "Jessica told me"
"You found Jessica?" Tucker asked.
"Yeah, I dropped her off somewhere safe and now I'm going to confront Plasmius" Danny told him.
"Wait, what?" Tucker replied before Danny hung up on him. Knowing that Danny might need a little more help, Tucker called Valerie and Dani.
Jessica was running to the park, hoping to beat Danny to the park. He was running into a trap that could very well kill him. She was a little bit too late as Vlad was already starting his speech.
"Several months ago, this small peaceful city was shocked by the brutal murder of a young teenage girl" Vlad said. "The tragedy shook our small town and left us feeling unsafe in our own backyards."
The crowd muttered amongst themselves, wondering where the make could be going with this speech. Vlad noticed this and decided to cut to the chase.
"Although it has taken some time, we have finally made a major breakthrough in the case." Vlad announced. He clicked a button on a remote and a picture appeared on the screen.
The audience and press muttered amongst themselves in confusion. The picture was hard to make out but eventually they were able to see what was being depicted. On the screen was a low res photo of their hero Danny Phantom. And in his arms was the body of the dead girl. Blood coated his outfit and he had a look that could only be described as a combination of rage and sorrow. Could this mean what they thought it did? Was the beloved Danny Phantom the murderer?
"I know many of you may be confused and refuse to believe your eyes, I couldn't believe it when I first saw this" Vlad said, hoping that the young hero was watching somewhere. "however after weeks of further investigation, forensics teams finally came to a conclusion: Danny Phantom murdered Samantha Manson all those months ago."
"Why don't you tell everyone the truth?" A voice rang out. It didn't take anyone very long to identify the voice as belonging to their hero. Normally they would be cheering and applauding, but a few people in attendance didn't know what to think of the situation.
Was he really the murderer? If so, then why? If not, then why was the Mayor trying to prosecute him? Their questions were about to be answered.
"And there is the murderer himself" Vlad said. "Come to turn yourself in?"
"Cut the act, Vlad" Danny barked. "We both know who the real murderer is"
There were more collective murmurs amongst the crowd.
"Yes we do" Vlad replied. "The evidence is right in front of us!"
"Any idiot can snap a photo" Danny said before stepping aside and introducing two young men. One of them wore a bright green T-shirt and a pair of jeans while the other was dressed more formal.
The person in the green shirt spoke first. "Danny Phantom is not the person you're looking for. On the day of the murder, we caught sight of a green vampire thing flying through the air carrying the victim in his arms.*
The more casually dressed man spoke next. "Fortunately we were quick enough to snap a picture of the events. Just before Danny Phantom asked us where the vampire ghost was headed."
"When we tried to hand over the evidence to the police, they ripped the photo in half and threatened to arrest us on charges of presenting false evidence" the green shirt man said. "Fortunately we kept more than one copy"
The two men began passing out copies of the photo to the audience members. Vlad began to panic but quickly managed to calm himself. All the pictures did was prove Danny was innocent. They didn't implicate him in the crime.
"Something wrong, Vlad?" Danny asked mockingly, Dark Danny starting to take over. "You seem a little nervous"
"Why would I be nervous?" Vlad asked rhetorically. "You're acting as if I'm the murderer"
"So you're telling me you're not the killer?" Dark Danny said.
"What!? Of course not!" Vlad replied.
"Think fast!" Danny yelled as he fired an ecto blast at Vlad. The audience gasped, shocked that their hero would attack a humanitarian. Vlad instinctively threw up an shield, revealing his own ghostly powers and giving the crowd their third surprise today.
Vlad realized that he had been exposed and decided their was no point in pretending anymore, transforming into Plasmius and firing back at Danny.
"I have to admit, that was a very clever trick, Danny Fenton, oops did I just reveal your secret identity?" Plasmius asked mockingly. "I did kill your little girlfriend and I'd kill that bitch again just to see the look on your face!"
The crowd started fleeing to safety as the two mortal enemies floated in front of each other, preparing to engage in one last battle. A few cameramen stayed behind to get some footage of what was going to be an epic battle.
"You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment" Danny snarled, eyes glowing bright green.
"As have I, it's time I put an end to you once and for all" Plasmius said as he pulled out the crown and the ring and put them on.
"For once, I completely agree with you" Danny said before initiating the fight by punching Vlad in the face.
Vlad retaliated by kicking Danny in the gut, sending the young superhero sailing into the side of a building. Danny quickly recuperated and answered with a flying headbutt. The move left Plasmius dazed and confused for a couple of moments allowing Danny to grab him by his shoulders and toss him headfirst into a streetlight. When Danny moved in to continue the offense, Vlad elbowed him in the nose, but Danny no sold the attack and socked Vlad in the mouth.
At that moment, Jessica was trying to fight through the swarm of fleeing onlookers to get to Danny. Tucker had informed Dani and Valerie of the ongoing fight and the three of them were also headed to give Danny some assistance.
Danny wiped the blood from his nose while Vlad spit out the blood in his mouth. There was a smirk on Danny's face that irritated the billionaire. He had already killed his love, kidnapped her reincarnation, and almost ruined his public reputation. Why was he smiling?
"What are you so happy about?" He cried, curious as to his foe's smug attitude.
"Because, after this fight you'll be left with nothing" Danny replied. "Your good PR, gone; your money, most likely going to be seized by the government; any small chance you had at winning my mom's heart, definitely gone. Not to mention that at the end of this fight, you're probably going to be spending the rest of your life in a cozy little jail cell"
"Don't get too full of yourself" Vlad replied. "Have you already forgotten that I have the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage in my possession?"
"It's going to take a lot more than those little toys to beat me" Danny said, showing a newfound arrogance Vlad had never seen in him before.
"Oh really?" Vlad responded before using super speed to fly behind Danny and uppercut him before he had time to react.
Vlad followed up by backhanding Danny when he lunged at him. Vlad grabbed Danny's leg and swung him around 8 times before letting him go. Danny crashed into a statue, which proceeded to topple onto him. Plasmius attempted to finish him off with an ectoblast, but Danny was quick enough to move out of the way.
Vlad was caught by surprise when Danny launched himself into his stomach like a cannonball. Vlad doubled over and coughed up a little blood while trying to catch his breath.
"What's going on?" Vlad thought. "He shouldn't even be able to lay a hand on me let alone put up a decent fight"
Vlad's thoughts were interrupted when Danny punched him in the eye. Vlad stumbled back for a moment before surprising Danny with a blast to the chest. Vlad took advantage, grabbed Danny by his head, and kneed him in the face. More blood dripped from Danny's nose as Vlad twisted his left arm behind his back while simultaneously wrapping his own arm around Danny's neck.
"Fighting me is futile, you don't stand a chance" Vlad snarled, trying to choke the life out of Danny.
Out of nowhere, an ectoblast hit Plasmius in the face, causing him to let go of Danny. Danny looked up and saw Dani and Valerie coming to his aid. He looked down and saw Tucker and Jessica cheering him on.
"What are you are doing here?" Danny asked. "It's too dangerous for any of you to be here!"
"Did you think we were just going to let you fight Plasmius alone?" Jessica asked.
"Besides, you're not the only one who has a score to settle with Vlad" Valerie said.
Vlad regained his composure and rose to his feet.
"And it looks like your gang of cheerleaders has arrived to cheer you on" Vlad quipped. "They get a front row seat to your demise"
"Not if we have anything so say about it" Dani said, attacking Vlad by throwing multiple ecto balls at him.
Plasmius threw up an ecto shield to defend himself from the attack, but was taken by surprise by shuriken a thrown by Valerie. One managed to cut his right arm and Vlad was unprepared to get pounded by Valerie's Ghost Gauntlets. Dani kept up by nailing Vlad with a stiff roundhouse kick, sending the fruit loop crashing to the ground once again.
"I'm getting real tired of this" Plasmius growled before knocking out Dani with an electric shock. He then turned his attention to Valerie. "Did you forget who made that battle armor for you?" Vlad pulled out a remote. "That armor was made to defeat Danny Phantom and I'm not Phantom". Vlad pressed a button on the remote and Valerie's battle suit began flashing red.
Valerie knew that wasn't good and immediately ejected just before her armor exploded, despite being a good 30 feet in the air. Fortunately, she still had a rappel watch and managed to latch onto a tree branch. The rappel wasn't able to stop her from crashing into some bushes but was able to slow down her descent enough that it wasn't fatal.
"Now, where were we?" Vlad asked, turning his attention back to Danny and being hit with a hard punch to the face. "Enough with the cheap shots!"
Vlad managed to land an absolutely brutal kick to Danny's forehead, creating another gash in the teen hero's head. Danny answered with a vicious headbutt that busted open Vlad. By this point, both Danny and Vlad were covered in bruises and blood was flowing freely down their faces. Despite being sore all over, neither side was willing to give up and the fight slowly started moving into the city.
Vlad grabbed Danny by his hair and started ramming throwing him face first through office windows, the glass creating even more cuts on Danny's face. Danny wasn't worried about it since he knew his healing factor would take care of a majority of his injuries. Sam couldn't just stand back and watch her boyfriend get beaten to a pulp and looked around for something she could use.
Incredibly, despite self destructing, a few parts of Valerie's suit were still functional. Sam grabbed one of the Ghost Gauntlets and fired a blast a Vlad. Vlad dodged and a smile started growing on his face.
"Looks like your girlfriend wants to get in on the action to" Vlad said.
"She's not my girlfriend" Danny insisted.
"Open your eyes, child" Vlad said. "Are you telling me you still haven't connected the dots?"
"What are you talking about?" Danny asked.
"You've never noticed the similarities between Jessica and Samantha?" Vlad replied.
"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Do I have to spell it out for you? The two of them are one and the same!" Vlad told him. "See for yourself!"
With that, Plasmius blasted out a chunk of a nearby building. Jessica didn't have nearly enough time to move out of the way before being crushed by the falling debris.
"Jessica!" Danny cried, rushing to her aid. When he uncovered her from the rubble, he saw not Jessica, but Sam. She looked the same way she did at her funeral but was somehow still alive.
"That bastard!" Dark Danny exclaimed. "He killed the love of our life, not once but twice!"
"Sam?" Danny said, being relieved when he heard a heartbeat. Suddenly there was a golden light in front of him. Danny looked up and saw Sam standing in front of him, alongside Gabriel. "Wh-what's going on?"
"It's a long story" Sam said. "I'll explain later. Right now, just focus on kicking Vlad's butt!"
She wrapped her arms around Danny and planted a huge kiss on his lips before saying "I love you"
"I love you too" Danny said before going back after Vlad.
"Well that was an interesting turn of events" Vlad said, mocking Danny. "But at least you got to see your girlfriend one last time before I kill you."
"You… you wash your neck and wait" Danny said, his eyes changing to that dangerous red. "I'm going to beat the crap out of you"
In the blink of an eye, Danny was in front of Vlad. He uppercut Plasmius and unleashed with a flurry of super fast punches. Vlad floated backwards, trying to gain some distance between him and the rabid teenager intent on killing him. He suddenly felt a lot weaker and his injuries started taking their toll on him. Vlad looked down at his hand and discovered the ring was was gone. Glancing up, he found that the crown was missing as well.
"Looking for something?" Danny taunted him before holding up the crown and the ring. Before Vlad could make his move, Danny crushed them both in his hand. "Let's dance!"
"Oh sh-" Plasmius said before being sent flying up into the air.
Danny grabbed Plasmius and hit him with a backbreaker, nearly snapping Plasmius in half over his knee. Vlad tried to buy some time by using duplicates, but Danny disposed of all of them with one attack. The next thing Plasmius knew, a series of icicles were headed towards him. He managed to throw up a shield but could only hold back the icicles for so long before they broke through his shield. As a result, Vlad ended up covered in cuts. The two briefly put some distance between each other before flying headstrong towards each other. Both cocked their fists back and tried to deliver a punch at the same time. Their fists ended up colliding, resulting in a shockwave that shattered all the windows in the surrounding area.
"What happened?" Danny asked mockingly. "Can't beat me without your little toys. I thought you said you were going to kill me?"
"Don't you mock me!" Vlad screamed, firing an ecto beam at Danny. Danny deflected the attack and sent it right back into Vlad's right eye. Vlad screamed and clutched his eye. Fortunately for him, it wasn't completely blinded but he would definitely have trouble seeing out of it for some time.
Danny grabbed a billboard and using it as a ping pong paddle, sent Vlad flying halfway across the city. Danny used his super speed to appear in front of Vlad and smack him with the billboard again. A double handed blow to the back made Vlad crash land hard onto the asphalt. Vlad foolishly tried to fight back but Danny was one step and head and unleashed his Ghostly Wail. Plasmius tried to resist for a few seconds but succumbed and crashed into a tanker carrying gasoline, resulting in a spectacular explosion. The attack left Vlad covered in second and third degree burns with part of his hair singed off. His back was broken, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Desperate, and knowing he had lost the fight, Vlad tried punching Danny in the face, only for Danny catch his fist and rip off his left hand.
Vlad screamed as blood sprayed from the wound and finally transformed back into human form, broken and soundly defeated. Danny to changed back into human form and raised his fist to deliver the finishing blow before Sam grabbed his fist and held him back.
"What are you doing?" Danny asked, intent on finishing off the fruit loop.
"He's not worth it, trust me" Sam told him.
"But, he killed you!" Danny said.
"I know, but you're not a killer like him," Sam reminded him. "Avenging my death won't make you feel any better"
Both Dannys took a moment to think. Danny agreed, but Dark Danny still needed a little convincing. Eventually, Dark Danny decided to spare Vlad but not before spitting on him. Paramedics arrived shortly afterwards and took Vlad to a hospital.
With that out of the way, Danny, Tucker, Dani, and Valerie all had questions for Sam and her guardian angel. With the ordeal over, Sam and Gabriel had no problems explaining everything.
After everything had been explained, Danny asked "So what now?"
"Well now that her job is complete, Sam has the option of returning to Heaven or she can return to Earth" Gabriel informed them. "The decision is up to her"
There was a period of silence before Danny said "Go."
"What!?" Everyone asked in shock. Did he just say what they thought he said?
"Sam, you're getting into Heaven, eternal paradise" Danny said. "I don't want to hold you back"
Danny had finally managed to stop blaming himself for Sam's death. He didn't want to keep her on Earth longer than necessary.
"Are you sure?" Sam asked.
Danny gave her a passionate kiss and nodded. The two lovebirds shared one more kiss before Sam along with Gabriel, ascended into the sky.
Danny wasn't going to delude himself by saying he wouldn't miss her, but he knew she would be happy. Besides, he knew that Sam would always be watching over him in Heaven and that one day he'd see her again.
End.
OK, OK, I know a lot of you wanted the two lovebirds to be reunited, but I... Actually I don't think I can defend choosing to go with this ending other than gut instinct. This may or may not be the last chapter. I say may or may not because I might post an alternate ending where Danny and Sam are reunited. Until then, I hope you've enjoyed the story and as always have a great day.