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For all of his talk of protecting Amity Park and preparing them for the worst and what was about to happen, Danny hadn't expected to be woken up in the early, early hours of the morning - still technically night - with blaring ghost alarms and the sounds of weapons firing off downstairs. He was only half wake when the door was busted down by two ghosts with guns aimed right at him.
Two gunshots rang out and Danny blinked as the ghosts fell to the ground with screams, and oh, right. Randy and Andrew had stayed over with him. "Looks like Walker was tired of waiting," Andrew mumbled, a swirl of purple in his eyes as he slowly sat up. A familiar scream from downstairs had Danny changing and flying down at once, hands filling with energy and oh. Not a scream. Battle cry.
"Oh, sorry we woke you up sweetie!" Maddie frowned lightly from where she and Jack were surrounded by collapsed ghosts who were a mix between prison guards and Section 13, Jack calmly sucking them up into a thermos. "Are you and the boys alright?"
"We're perfectly fine, Mrs. Fenton," Andrew hummed, sliding his coat on as he walked into the kitchen, Randy close at his heels. "If it's alright with you, however, I suggest we leave. I have no doubt more guards will arrive soon."
"Jesus, I was having a nice dream, too." Danny rubbed at his eyes, trying to get his tired brain to catch up with the fact that this was it. God, his life fucking sucked. Shaking his head, Danny groaned and caught the thermos his dad tossed him before clipping it onto his belt. "Do you think he was just after us?"
"Unlikely." The kitchen phone rang, Randy snatching it up and listening for a moment before looking back to them. "Tucker and Sam say they're fine. Seems like ghosts are attacking all of town."
"They weren't expecting us to be so prepared, I bet," Andrew snorted, heading for the front door. "It seems Walker wants a show."
"Wha- Andy! We can't just walk into the middle of town and call Walker out into a fight!" Danny paused, looking to Randy. "Can we?" It would save them a lot of time, after all.
"Mhm, yeah," Randy nodded, still on the phone. "We're heading to the center of town now if you two want to follow." Did he just- Randy hung up. He had. He did. Why. "Come along, mon douce. We have an annoyance to take care of."
"Generally you view an army of ghosts after us as more than just an annoyance," Danny grumbled, following after Randy and unsurprised when his parents followed at a more sedate pace, Jack grumbling about coffee and the lack thereof. Truly, he was their prodigy.
Whatever amusement there was at the situation quickly vanished when they saw that ghosts were swarming the skies. It seemed Walker had only waited so long because he was doing a bit more recruiting. Danny didn't know who the hell half the ghosts were, but they were dangerous, there was no doubt about that.
"They're leading everyone towards the center," Randy muttered quietly. Following his gaze, Danny swore because shit, he was right. They were all coming in from the outside and working their way in and there was more than one human running through the streets to either escape or chase after a ghost who had attacked.
"Best not to keep him waiting, then, yeah?" Danny flew towards the park that was somewhat in the middle of Amity Park, feeling his powers spike up around him. It was almost surreal how quickly it all had led up to this, but at the same time he had been in too many fights to be surprised at how fast things were moving now. Besides, having them all in one place was just fine with Danny. It would make it easier to count how many heads he was going to be knocking in that night - morning?
"Hope I didn't wake you, ghost boy." Walker was waiting for him with a good two dozen ghosts floating or standing around him, the man himself looking… Not quite unhinged, but more like Vlad before he and Danny had resolved their differences. Vengeful. "I told you, ghost boy, I'm a man of my word."
"Yeah, somehow I doubt that." It seemed the entire town was being pushed and shoved towards the center - well, maybe not the entire town, but it was pretty close. Even kids and teenagers were being hustled along. "This is between you and me, Walker."
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing." He could feel it. That same rising pressure like there had been before Pariah attacked the town. A normal night turned into something terrifying. "I'm a man of my word and I promised to end you myself."
"Yeah, cause we've seen how well that works out." See, Danny knew what being angry felt like. He did, really. He knew anger. This, though? This wasn't anger. This was wrath. "Do you remember what's happened to everyone who's ever hurt someone I cared about?"
"They were weak." No, they hadn't been. Danny had always been the weak one, but then people started needing him and now look. He was the hero of the town. He was the one everyone was looking to as they cloistered together with uneven breathing and tight grips.
The ghosts who lived in the town were defending the humans they had come to adore, the adults were sticking together, teenagers were in groups with backs facing the children that had been forced to run as well. Casper High students were near the front of the lines, weapons ready and primed and Valerie at the front of them with her suit ready and waiting.
It was clear to see that they outnumbered Section 13 and Walker's guards, but they were also human. No matter how it ended people would get hurt, unless… Taking a deep breath, Danny walked over to Walker, frowning as the man only looked confidently amused. "Gonna try and make me part of your truce, boy?"
"Yes." He gave every ghost a chance, even Spectra. Besides, Walker could maybe be reasoned with. He didn't have to do this. He didn't have to hurt all the ghosts! "Come on, Walker. One last chance to stop this." Danny took another step forward, pushing. "One last chance to stop and repent. It doesn't have to be this way!"
"Look at you. Just a kid who never figured out how the world really works." No. He may have been a 'kid' in some ways still, but he had figured out the world very quickly.
"It screws you over, but that doesn't mean everyone else will. Come on, Walker, you saw what happened to Spectra. I gave her the chance to change and she didn't take it and now she's gone. She refused to change. You- You're still here, though. You can still change! It's not too late-"
Bright green energy flew towards him, Danny sighing softly instead of flinching away as the blast hit a crystal white shield that formed in front of him in a second. He had helped so many ghosts, but he never seemed to be able to help these two.
"This farce of acceptance ends now!" Walker's voice raised and Danny knew he was speaking to his own. "These monsters are finally going to be destroyed!" He was so lost in his own delusion he didn't even know what he had become, did he? If his mission was to get rid of all ghosts then it wasn't going to end well for any of them. "I'm going to make sure that Amity Park will never be remembered and will be nothing more than a forgotten footnote in history!"
"No, it won't." After all that happened, Amity Park was never going to be forgotten. Danny clenched his fists and gritted his teeth and no. He wouldn't let Walker destroy anymore. "Amity Park is going to be remembered as the place where it all began."
"You wanna bet on that, boy?" The pressure was back and Danny could tell each side was ready to attack or charge or do something.
"Last chance, Walker. Turn away and leave." A breath passed and there was a moment where Danny hoped and then all hell broke loose.
Danny would like to say that he knew exactly what was happening and that he was in control of it all, but it was a mess. His fear was ramping up to crazy levels and it was all he could do to fly around from group to group and place shields around those he could reach and blast away the ghosts that were in his line of sight.
A normal ghost fight was fine, that was just two people, but this- Why did no one tell him how difficult an actual battle was. There were hundreds of people all screaming and shouting and firing weapons and the Section 13 ghosts were using their own weapons or mastering their powers and it felt like each movement Danny made was saving him from getting seriously injured.
A flash of red streaked by and caught one of the blasts aimed for his back, Danny returning the favor and knocking out the hunter that had been chasing after Valerie. "Where's Walker!"
"Dunno, he went towards Riter!" Andrew? Why would he- Reality. Andrew could change reality. "Head's up!" Danny ducked just as she threw a grenade, frowning when it zapped four ghosts out of the air and sent them towards a horde of angry teenagers.
"Was that really necessary? You could have hit me!" Danny didn't need to see Valerie's face to know she was grinning at him.
"You dodged, didn't you?" Hmph. Right, Danny needed to get to Andrew. Quickly. "Try near the playground!"
Speeding off, Danny didn't get very far because there were so many people in danger. There were too many ghosts and he could barely keep up with who was on their side and who wasn't and so many people needed to be protected-
The sky seemed to grow darker even as it got lighter, the change causing Danny to stagger in the air and just what was… Oh. A thick dome of crystal white energy was wrapped around the entire park, Danny slowly grinning as hundreds and hundreds of guns began to appear in the air and oh. Someone had made Randy very, very angry.
A lone streak of white flew towards the middle of the battlefield, Danny shocked when the form settled into Randy himself and he didn't know Randy could do that. It looked like Randy said something, but Danny was too far away to hear and he didn't think it mattered too much when every gun went off at once, the shots curving and flying to hit each and every Section 13 ghost there was.
The action alone seemed to give the humans a bolster of courage, all of them fighting back even more viciously and quickly moving to get the younger ones out of the area. Danny was ready to double back and help when he saw Valerie fighting Walker, both already with nasty hits in on them. God, what he wouldn't give to stop time now.
"Come on, Walker, don't you know to pick on someone your own size!" Danny raised a shield just as an attack was sent towards them, lowering it and letting Valerie fire back her own shot.
"Ain't no one powerful enough to take me on, ghost boy." With that, Danny was being tagged by a small red device that sent him screaming towards the ground and fuck, fuck, fuck, it felt like he was getting fucking shocked-
"Don't you touch him!" Danny cracked his eyes open to see Valerie toss a few of her grenades before flying down and ripping the device off of him, swearing viciously and leaving Danny gasping and breathing deeply when it was off. "He's got a lot of tricks up his sleeves."
"God, tell me about it." Rolling over onto his knees, Danny looked up and groaned. "We have company." Of fucking course Walker wouldn't fight fair. All around them they were surrounded by the Section 13 ghosts and the weapons pointed at them didn't exactly look human friendly, either. Considering they were backed up against more fighting and their opponents could fly…
"I don't know about you, but I like to think we're getting pretty good at unfair fights." Valerie grabbed a gun off her belt, coiled and tense and ready to hop back on her board. "Powers alright?"
"Yeah, just feel like shit." Danny sat up more, staring down the hunters and how dare they harm his town. How dare they hurt his friends. Clenching his fists, Danny sucked in a deep breath before breathing out ice and pulling on that cold sensation more and more. "Valerie, I want you to duck behind me when I say to."
"You got a plan?" Well, maybe not a plan, but it was something. Stumbling to his feet, Danny glanced to where the ground was turning to ice underneath him and he had only tried this a few times in small scale, but it should work.
"Get back." He sucked in a breath, Valerie ducked, and Danny screamed with everything in him, aiming straight for where Walker sat behind his hunters and smirked. He knew the wail was loud - he knew it was - but his entire world went silent as he screamed as it always did.
Although, he could feel the cold, and when his screams finally stuttered out and he fell to the ground gasping for breath as his transformation flickered around him, he saw the area in front of him looked like the Far Frozen.
"Whoa." Valerie steadied him as she sat on the ground herself, eyes wide and hood retracted. "Since when could you do that?"
"Didn't think it'd work to begin with," Danny laughed, voice hoarse and that had definitely taken out a good chunk of hunters. The problem was that Randy could only keep this dome up for so long and it was already flickering and more hunters had quickly swarmed them and-
"I don't believe this is the fight you should be focusing on, little Phantom." What looked like blue circles - clocks? - formed under each hunter before shooting up and wrapping around their necks, lifting them into the air as they screamed and struggled.
"It's not like I was trying to fight them," Danny grumbled, accepting the hand up and smiling at Clockwork. "No more oath."
"No more oath," Clockwork agreed, smile wild and dangerous as the hunters disappeared with him. Danny looked over to Walker before sharing a look with Valerie.
"You got my back, right?" The girl beamed, and the hood moving to cover her face again was all the answer Danny needed.
An unspoken signal and all three were moving forward, Danny fiercely happy to be fighting with the Red Huntress instead of against her. He was even more proud when he saw others jumping in and out of the fight which was incredible.
A well timed blast from Star and Paulina had a device exploding before it could land on Danny, an attack from his sister had Valerie getting the time she needed to fire off her own attacks. A white shield kept him from getting knocked out of the air and a purple knife destroyed Walker's aim on something that would have been very not good.
It wasn't just Danny and Valerie fighting in this fight, but it was the entire town that was fighting Walker. They all wanted their town safe and they wanted their ghosts safe and Amity Park was fighting back with a single mindedness that Danny had never seen outside of kids trying to get out of a test.
"Enough!" The word was screamed more than it was spoken and Danny caught a flash of Valerie falling off her board - they were forty feet up - before a red thermos was sucking him in and it hurt and no.
He was sick of the pain, he was tired of fighting so much, he was angry at his home being hurt, and he was done. The energy sunk into him and made him feel like the portal was attacking him and it felt like he was dying, but he refused to let this go on for any longer and this time it was his no more.
Grabbing at his energy even in the state he was in, Danny threw everything into the thermos. Every scrap of power and emotion and rage and obsession and no more.
An explosion of burning energy searing into his skin and a sharp ringing in his ears had Danny quickly covering them and oh- Oh! That meant he was free- Get up. He had to get up because the fight wasn't over yet. Staggering to his feet (he was on the ground now?), Danny stared at where Walker was in front of him and shaking in rage.
"What does it take to kill you?!" Unable to stop himself from laughing, Danny shook his head and oh, man.
"More than you have." It seemed that was the question everyone kept asking because despite it all Danny was still here and struggling on. "One more chance." The area around them was clear and Danny's explosion of the thermos must have caused some massive backlash because everything seemed to have gone quiet. "One more chance, Walker."
"After all of this… You're still trying to offer me that damn truce after everything that's happened!" It wasn't like Spectra's soft spoken words and twisted smile. This was nothing but hate and rage.
"I made the truce for everyone - for every ghost. This is my town and these are my people and I'm offering you one last chance so take it. Take it and repent and try to do some good this time. You can still change things!" Because that's what Danny had always been about. Second chances and protecting those he loved.
Although, not everyone deserved those second chances. He knew that as Walker laughed, the sound wild and mad, but, still. He wouldn't be a hero if he didn't try, right? "You're nothing but a weak ghost struggling to survive!"
Danny felt his mates settle on either side of him, Valerie staggering forward from where a ghostly Elle was supporting her and his entire family and all his friends closing in around him, and… No. "Don't mistake kindness for weakness, Walker."
His entire town had fought so hard and Section 13 was destroyed and all that was left was to get rid of Walker. The problem was that Walker would never be able to be contained. He wanted revenge so badly and he would do anything to get it. He would never be able to be stopped like this. "My kindness does not make me weak."
Looking Walker in the eye, Danny sucked in a rattling breath, and "Time out." The world fell still and the sound disappeared. All around him he saw the battle had stopped as if someone had pressed a pause button, which… That was sort of what happened. Every face had a fierce look and everyone was so willing to protect… Ah. The sun was rising.
The dusky streets were starting to be taken over by a golden glow that Danny had stopped, the world about to wake up from the horror the night had seen. Danny didn't even want to know how many ghosts and humans had been hurt. He knew at least a few had died. The humans were angry and Section 13 was deadly.
That wasn't for now, though. Not yet. Right now the world was silent and still asleep and there was nothing but him and if Clockwork was still there then he did and said nothing and that was okay. This was Danny's fight.
"I'm sorry." He truly was. Even if his words echoed in this world that no one else would ever see, he still felt like it needed to be said. "I'm so sorry that you ended up like this." Moving even a step felt like he was walking with hundreds of pounds attached to him, but he managed to make it to Randy's side, sliding one of the guns free of it's holster.
"You're never going to stop, though, until all the ghosts are dead." And that was something Danny couldn't let happen. "You won't stop until you get your revenge and I can't let that happen." The gun was warm in his hands and Danny felt Randy's energy clinging to it and mixing with his own, building into something sharp and deadly.
"I'll at least make sure you're remembered, although not how you wanted." Walker and Spectra would be warnings. They would be cautionary tales and monsters that hid between the pages of a book. Nothing more than the Big Bad Wolf and the Boogeyman. "Sorry, but I vowed to protect my town."
Countless drills from his parents had him aiming the gun at Walker, but millions of times watching Randy had him pouring his energy in and building the power up until all it would take was one shot and Danny may not have been Randy, but he still had good aim. "I vowed to protect them, Walker, no matter what it cost me."
Danny looked back to his mates, giving a weak smile. This was going to haunt them for a while, but they would get through it. His mates would help Danny through what he was about to do. "You took care of my last nightmare, so let me take care of this one on my own, okay?"
The energy gathered and grew, the gun burned in his hands, the world was quiet, a shot was fired, Danny breathed out, and-
"Time in."