CHAPTER 42: ICONOCLASM, PART 5

65 million years ago, the rule of dinosaurs over the Earth had come to an end. Their foray as the dominant species of the planet had come to a bold and cataclysmic end when a meteor struck the planet, destroying almost all life on Earth and leaving only a few to evolve into newer beings, giving way to humankind.

Less than 5 minutes ago, a floating technological laboratory/city had fallen into the Earth, and undone what progress life had come to following that initial impact from space that occurred an eon ago. Human life as we knew it had come under threat from the gods created by Demon Phantom, but what he had done with the fall of Fenton City had completed his work.

The human race is extinct, just as the dinosaurs had gone.

Danny Phantom had done everything in his undead powers to prevent that outcome from happening, but his efforts were not enough. They were not ineffective in that they were too little or too late, but nowhere near what he could offer in the demand called of him here.

He had tried with all his strength to prevent Fenton City from hitting the ground, but Demon Phantom denied him the chance to save his planet. Taken from the chance to stop the destruction, Danny was held back by Demon Phantom, restrained from any action, and forced to watch his planet die.

He had put up many protests and screams against the horror, but no words were enough to save the Earth, especially not when actions proved insufficient.

Eventually, Danny Phantom no longer had the strength to fight back against his enemy's restraints, falling limp and defeated in his arms. Slowly and gently floating back to the ground, Demon Phantom released his captive counterpart, leaving him to crudely fall to the ground. The impact is sharp and stinging, but it makes no difference to the sorrow of Danny Phantom...

...nor the rest of the Fentons, who he joins on the ground following the death of the Earth. He is quick to turn away from them in shame, but the Fentons do not allow him the chance to impose any punishment on himself, nor do they believe he is deserving of one, all taking him into their arms in a family hug.

"I... I failed... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Danny cried.

All the contempt they have is for another being that once was the son they hold in their arms, glaring at him in anger over the unforgivable act of destruction against the planet Earth and all its forms of life. Demon Phantom does not take notice of their rage and hatred; his concern is only towards the new, lifeless planet he has made.

And seeing what comes up from the ashes of destruction, the first act of creation he has brought forth, Demon Phantom looks and smiles on with excitement.

In the remains of the Earth and the human race, there is, as far as the eye can see, many ghosts raising from the remains of the bodies they once occupied. Freed of their mortal shells, the ghosts all rise to take their new forms, exploring their new world and new bodies as they now had.

The number of ghosts are nowhere near the number of billions that the count of the human race once made up, but instead somewhere in the millions. They raise up from their deathbeds, making their old shells their birthplaces instead, stepping out from their wombs to breathe in their new life.

In multitudes to the ghosts come to life, coming to terms with their new lives and awareness of their worlds. Their souls glow not only the familiar greens and blues that the Fentons have encountered before, but instead multitudes of colors, each representative of their own selves and their personalities, forming together arrays of colors that resembled something between instances of rainbows and aurora borealis.

And Demon Phantom, in his own mind, saw that it was good.

"I did it... I finally saved the Earth." Demon Phantom said.

Danny and the Fentons continue to look on his smile and content laughter following his self-assurance, and they do not understand his rationale, nor his joy in what he has accomplished. Pushed beyond humiliation and pity in his defeat, Danny stepped forward to dare to question his motives, demanding an answer why his evil counterpart would do what he has done.

"Why? Why did you have to kill everyone?" Danny asked.

"I told you, Danny. I'm trying to save these people." Demon Phantom said.

"How?! How is this saving anybody?! You killed everyone! You destroyed the planet! You killed humanity!"

Demon Phantom let out another laugh, directing the majority of his mockery towards Danny's final word.

"Of course I killed humanity. That's the only way I could have saved mankind." Demon Phantom said.

Danny once again looked on his enemy with offended confusion, to which Demon Phantom replied with a scoff.

"Still don't understand? Even after all that you've seen on the other side of life? Even though you and I are literally the same person, been through almost the exact same traumas that shaped us to this point? Alright, then. I'll tell you. When I saw my family die, I started to wonder something: Why is it they never came back? I've fought all kinds of people come back from the grave, all with their own reasons for coming back, but why is it that the Fentons could never come back for me? That's when it occurred to me. They weren't worthy of coming back. There wasn't enough life or drive in them to make them come back for more. Not even me. They weren't worth enough as human beings to live on forever. But I was. Me and Vlad. We were the only ones who cheated the system. But something else began to occur to me: Why is it that we even come back as ghosts, anyway? What makes us so unique and special that we can carry on our own consciousnesses beyond our own bodies and continue to exist? I found the answer. Man is the center of the universe. We originally began as clueless apes, just barely wandering out of the caves into the sun so we could learn our surroundings. It was only after we started to stumble on mushrooms and psychedelics that we began to conceptualize and learn about dimensions outside of our own perception of reality. It was then that we gave birth to the human soul. We took our first steps out of being mindless animals, to beginning to grow consciousness and sentience and become something else. But we still weren't perfect. We had the soul, this amazing new concept, the ability to learn and think and create, and what did we do? We still stuck to the old ways of the animal. We ate, we slept, we reproduced, and we began to eschew the soul and instead feed the animal instead, sticking to mindless habits of the past in a world that no longer was hostile to us. With the soul, we learned to conquer nature and bend it to our will. We managed to control how our food grows, how to get from place to place faster, and control our environment, all to our liking. Even with our greatest accomplishments, however, we were still held back by our animal side. Every human being has to potential to be the next Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking, but, instead of actually doing the work to acquire that genius and be brilliant, what do the majority of people on this Earth choose to do? They eat, sleep, breed, and waste their time just like everyone else. They follow the mob mentality of the animal. Only the select few can properly set those children's toys away and embrace the full potential of the soul. As I said, man is the center of the universe. One foot in the realm of the animal, and another in the side of the soul. A middle ground with no way forward; only the complication of two separate worlds clashing against each other with no resolution. The animal operates on urge and spontaneousness, but the soul operates on thought and desire. Two political parties, both struggling for control, and you're always the one who gets screwed over. The only way to go is either backwards, or forwards. I chose to go forwards. I chose to go towards the soul. Those who would worship the animal, I have laid waste to. They were not concerned with anything more in their lives other than living day-to-day, filling their voids with blind fun and pointlessness, like eating empty calories when they should be eating nutrients to grow properly. They were already dead, and I ended their misery. Those who embraced what was beyond animal, beyond man, are the ones who were truly alive. It wasn't Jesus Christ who got to rise from the dead. It was John Galt. These people, the animals, they were given an understanding of what is to come after death, and what did they do? The same thing they always did. They ate, slept, bred, and wasted their time. They chose to remain animals. Maybe this is how the religious feel when they try to 'save' people, trying to convince them of a truth that only they have, but no one believes them. The only difference is that I have the real truth, and I showed proof that it really does exist. It's up to all of us to achieve that greatness, and damn the others if they can't. We must serve nothing, and no one. We must only live for ourselves. Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on Earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. But the mind is an attribute of individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. The man who thinks must think and act on his own. It is our brains that contain our souls, and only with our brains can we rise above the animal and become the soul. The individual against the collective. Even this country we were born in was based on the principle of individualism, the freedom to say: 'No. It's my way or the highway'. That is the only way we can live on, and how we can live on forever. Death is the next step in evolution. First, there was the single-celled organism, until the multi-cellular organisms came about. Then, there were the aquatic life forms, until the life forms with legs crawled out from the water. Then, there were the primates, until they were refined as humans. Before, there were humans. Now, there are souls. There is perfection. We went from non-organic material, to organic material, to something new. No concerns for pleasure or pain, no worries of acceptance or rejection. We are eternal beings. We live for ourselves, and no one else. Our truths and our integrity are all we have. We exchange our ideas only in freedom with others. And, together, we can create a perfect kingdom here on Earth, on the ashes of life and death, we abandon the cycle and create something new. We become the new pioneers of tomorrow. We become the world's true heroes." Demon Phantom said.


Concurrent to Demon Phantom's speech, there is another important factor in the final stages of the play that take place. The Fentons and Vlad are all present to hear his monologue, but absent from the group is the dead president Tucker Foley, listening to the speech from afar and out of the immediate attention of Demon Phantom.

Another ghost comes to give his attention to the former president, coming through in a form that phased between the stages of childhood, adulthood, and advanced aging intermittently. Tucker Foley has met this ghost only in another time that never was, making this his first meeting with the watcher of time, and reacting accordingly.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Tucker asked.

"You know and I know that is not important. What is of importance is the matter of Demon Phantom." Clockwork said.

Clockwork then held up an item long since discarded by Demon Phantom, dismissed and forgotten as no longer a factor in his plans. Tucker Foley is not sure how this ghost could have acquired the item nor why he cares to assist, but he knows well that this will do the ultimate good for the rest of the Fentons and whoever he can save.

The item is an Ectoranium nuclear warhead, discarded from the missile sent by his presidential successor.

"You know what you must do." Clockwork said.

Tucker looked to the warhead with an initial shock, well aware of its destructive force and power against humans and ghosts alike, and what it could do to Demon Phantom, but he also knows the only way in which he can activate the weapon, and what effect it will have on him as well.

His acceptance of the new responsibility comes with a nod, taking the warhead in his hand.


Following the conclusion of Demon Phantom's speech, the Fentons looked to the spectral being with an unexpected sense of wonder in his words, restrained only by their anger over the death of an entire planet on his hands. Their eyes then looked to the skies again to the rising ghosts, pondering if so many could have shared such beliefs as the ghost who murdered them.

It is a deep concept for a family of scientists to think about, but disheartening to think about people being so heartless and callous in such beliefs...

...and whether it is fair that they are worthy of living past death at all.

Their pondering over such an idea is cut short by the interruption by another, stepping forward to speak his own apparent approval of the speech.

"You know, Danny... He's right." Tucker said.

The simple utterance of approval from his best friend is more than enough to make Danny's heart sink, as the same happens with the rest of the Fentons, with some giving out gasps. Stepping towards Demon Phantom, Tucker gained the sole attention of the ghost, continuing his initial comment to keep up his gambit.

A quick glimpse of the Ectoranium warhead behind his back gives them relief from the realization that his words are only an act, but it only brings all the more distress when they realize what he is about to do. There is a temptation to speak up and encourage him not to do what he is about to do, even some eyes pleading not to do so...

...but they all stay their mouths, knowing that they have no other chance to win other than the one they are given here.

"I wanted to be angry at him, I wanted to fight back against him... but I can't see how he's done anything wrong. I can see it now. This planet used to be a place of suffering and misery, for what? Nothing. What you did with it, you cleaned it. You made it pure again. You made it Heaven on Earth. Or, it could be under you. We could make it that way together." Tucker said.

Tucker's words bring not only joy to Demon Phantom's face, but a delight not previously seen out from the ghost before during any point of his afterlife. To compare to his previous analogy, referring to his mission as conversion to his religion, he feels as though he has just saved a dear and close friend from failing to gain salvation.

There is no other way that Demon Phantom can express his feelings except with a kiss, taking Tucker by the face and laying his own lips on his.

He followed by taking Tucker into his arms in a hug, embracing his old friend in a display of caring and trust he has not been able to achieve for years. The act is enough to even bring tears and a smile from his face, seeming genuinely delighted to have his best friend return, and to be saved in his own way.

"I knew it... I knew that I'd bring you back eventually... I knew I'd save you..." Demon Phantom said.

Demon Phantom's elation is but a setup for failure and disappointment, as he will soon realize as Tucker prepares the warhead for detonation. Reaching around to start the detonator, his ethereal finger reaches a button that starts a sequence that cannot be stopped, making the detonation of the warhead imminent as the passing of time.

Holding the warhead in one hand, Tucker raised a hand and extended out an ectoplasmic shield, trapping himself and Demon Phantom inside to take the blast of the warhead and sparing the Fentons. As he looked up in confusion at the shield, Demon Phantom looked down to see Tucker projecting it with one hand, and holding the warhead in the other.

In an instant, the joy he felt is stolen, and replaced a billionfold with rage.

"TRAITOR!" Demon Phantom screamed.

"Sorry, Danny. I'm a politician. I lie." Tucker said.

Demon Phantom reached forward with a vengeful hand to attempt to slay the corporeal form of Tucker Foley and stop the warhead, but he comes too late to act.

In an instant, the warhead is detonated.

The blast itself and ectoranium radiation are confined in the shield projected by Tucker Foley, sparing the Fentons from the most dangerous effects of the bomb. But what still effects them is the shaking of the ground that comes with the blast, sending the surrounding area into an earthquake. Taking to the sky, they use their flight to evade the issue of the earthquake, only to watch the event which began the ground's shaking.

A small shield of ectoplasm still remains in its place, with nothing within the blast except for a bright light that ceases to dim out. The Fentons know that within the shield were two souls, and both had perished in the blast. All traces of the beings that were once in are no longer present, and they know that they will never be seen again.

Soon, the light finally dims and gives way to what is inside the shield, and the shield itself dissipates as well to allow access inside. What remains in the place where the two ghosts once stood is only a crater carved open by the warhead, leaving no sign of life or afterlife within.

The last President of the United States has given the ultimate sacrifice for the last of his countrymen.

Tucker Foley is gone forever.

Together do the Fentons look at the site where their dear friend has perished, and all look down on the crater with sorrow and loss. The pain that they feel is one that extends beyond the death of a loved one, just as what has happened here is beyond death itself, and they know that they will never see their friend again.

They are also well aware of the fact that they are the few remaining people who can still qualify as American citizens that are aware of his death, and, therefore, the duties of laying a former president to rest now lie on them. Danny, the closest to Tucker, is the first to carry out the duties, seeking out an American flag for his uses.

Finding a bent flagpole that once belonged to a building, carrying on it a tarnished flag, he removed the cloth from its hanging place. Tradition calls for the symbol to be held at half-mast out of respect for the former president, but the flagpole itself is too far damaged for such a use.

Instead, the flag is laid atop of the crater itself, where the servant of the country said flag represents once stood and gave his life for.

Looking at the lone flag as it laid on the ground, the Fentons and Vlad all gave salutes to the tattered cloth, in turn paying tribute to the man they once knew. No longer existing in life nor afterlife, the only remnants of his existence are those memories which they carry of him, and all that are left to keep him alive.

The funeral is a somber and true one made to respect the lost, but it still finds an interruption from the moment and the emotions brought with it. Coming clanking and sparking were the noises of a machine, growing louder with the approach of a new figure that sought to make itself known to the group.

The new figure was, recognizable even after the extensive damage done, a Techbot, carrying the last scrap of consciousness from the ghost of Nikolai Technus.

"Danny Phantom! Thought you'd seen the last of me? I still survived after that blast! I've still got this one body left, and I've still got more than enough drive and weapons to beat-!" Technus began to say.

Danny did not respond to the surviving Technus with any serious attention, but instead with a stray ectoplasmic bolt, firing it through his metallic body.

"Quiet. This is a funeral." Danny said.

"You think that would stop me?! This is just a body! I'm still Technus, the master of all things mechanical!" Technus declared.

"Hey, genius. Your last body's gonna stop functioning in a few seconds. What happens to a soul after its body dies?" Jazz asked.

Technus prepared to scoff off the question as trivial and unimportant to his mission, but, once his own scientific mind was put to the test of answering the question, he soon realized the point made within it, and what implication it held for himself and his current status on Earth.

And as his body went seconds from a shutdown, he can give out only one response to convey his sudden fear.

"Oh, crap." Technus said.

As soon as the final Techbot ceased to function, the machine toppled over and fell to the ground. Once the machine's own brain died, Technus' consciousness within had no place left to go but out, forced to move on past the physical realm, where it might find better luck back in the Ghost Zone or oblivion.

Technus has gone.

"There, that's better. Now, let's give Tucker some of the respect he deserves for managing to take out Dark Danny once and for all." Danny said.

"That's Demon Phantom to you." A voice said.

Once again, the Fentons are given yet another interruption from their payments of respect, coming now with a familiar voice that they thought gone forever. None are willing to believe that the true enemy is above their heads, having seemingly survived the weapon of mass destruction, because they cannot fathom that such a survival could have been possible.

But upon seeing Demon Phantom above their heads again, they are forced to face objective reality, even when it hurts.

"I no longer associate myself with that name any longer. If Tucker wasn't gone forever now, I'd kill him again myself." Demon Phantom said.

"No... That's impossible..." Danny gasped.

"Never was quite the thinker, were you? Do you really think I would be stupid enough to leave myself vulnerable after giving the long villain monologue? We've all seen the Bond movies. I admit that I didn't expect Tucker to be the one to try to give his afterlife to stop me, but I thought of a contingency just in case. Before he deployed his shield, I dispatched a quick copy of myself and sent it to fly off at a distance to be safe. He only destroyed a sliver of myself."

Hearing the explanation given by Demon Phantom, the Fentons all looked down with heavy hearts, realizing that their gambit had failed them.

"Your friend died for nothing, Danny. I'm still here. Just like I'll always be. Your own personal demon." Demon Phantom said.

Rather than take the news with fear or terror, Danny Phantom stood his ground, facing up to Demon Phantom with a look of confidence instead of weakness.

"Good. I was hoping that you would still stick around." Danny said.

Demon Phantom raised an eyebrow to the act of bravado, but continued to entertain it with a scoff and a smirk.

"Oh, really? And why is that? I've already killed your family, took away your powers once, and destroyed your planet. Are you just that much of a masochist?" Demon Phantom asked.

"No. So I get to personally take revenge for what you did. If I wasn't able to save the world, then I'm going to make sure that I avenge it instead, and without anyone or anything to worry about or focus on, except for taking you out once and for all." Danny said.

Charging up his fists with ectoplasm, Danny Phantom's corporeal form began to glow brighter and more vibrant shades of color, as if further willing himself into existence for the sole purpose of fighting his enemy. In response, Demon Phantom continued to react to the threat by smiling and laughing, welcoming the fight with anticipation.

[Soundtrack Cue: Disturbed - Meaning of Life]

"Is that so? Well, I must admit, I'm a little happy that we're having this moment, too. I wanted the chance to take you on myself before I took your powers, save for our little scrap on Skulker's island. Instead, you decided to cower away like a scared little child, and watch helplessly as I ripped your pregnant wife in half. I would have liked to watch you go down swinging, staying defiant until the end. Looks like I'll have that chance at last." Demon Phantom said.

"I'm glad you're amused. I wouldn't want myself to go out boring my enemies to death." Danny said.

"I am indeed amused. Go on, then. Take your best shot. I want to see everything you've got."

Demon Phantom held out his arms in welcome, allowing Danny Phantom to make his first strike. The gesture is made out of irony and mockery rather than any sign of true sportsmanship, but the subliminal reasons are of no importance to Danny, nor make any impact on his goal.

His only goal is to destroy Demon Phantom at all costs... and all he sees is the first opening of attack.

"THEN I WON'T DISAPPOINT YOU!" Danny shouted.

Flying up towards Demon Phantom with the speed of thought, Danny Phantom threw a punch to his face, knocking his enemy back into the air, and leaving a look of surprise on his face. The surprise comes with the power behind the punch itself; he had not expected Danny to carry any sort of power that could bring him harm...

...but it did nonetheless, which is a fact that he cannot tackle with.

The initial punch to the face is then followed by many rapid blows to his stomach, each punch seemingly made faster than the previous one. The reason behind Danny's sudden increase in strength is a question that Demon Phantom cannot solve on his own, and is forced to turn to interrogation to achieve.

Reaching out his hands in defense, he caught Danny's hands, stifling their punches and allowing the two a moment to speak.

"Insolent manchild! How did you gain such an increase of power after I destroyed your ghost half?!" Demon Phantom asked.

"There's two factors you forgot to think of. One, my willpower. You go on and on about how you destroyed everything I know. That all just increases my own anger and will to fight you, and makes me all that more powerful. Two, your willpower. Remember how that splitting power works? You don't just split off like a cell. You stretch out your ghost into another unit. Two pieces of the same whole. Since you made only one copy, I estimate that you had about half of yourself split across the two, and, with Tucker taking out one, that leaves you half as strong to fight me." Danny explained.

The explanation, when laid out in such a simple way, makes Demon Phantom's predicament all the clear, and making him understand his fatal mistake that may very well have cost him untold amounts of power, and in turn lose this fight. However, such a contemplation of defeat is out of the question for him, and he does not allow himself the chance to see loss.

"It doesn't matter. I've still got plenty of power on my side, and all the will to defeat you!" Demon Phantom shouted.

Releasing one of Danny's hands, Demon Phantom fired a large, wide beam of ectoplasm straight to his chest, throwing him back several feet into the air, and crashing into a nearby skyscraper. Having hit the tower with so much force, the building began to collapse on top of Danny, piling him in rubble and rock.

Phasing himself through the debris and rubble, Danny Phantom rose up from the ashes to fight once again, shrugging off the attack as little more than a scuff. Clenching his fists in anger, he charged back towards Demon Phantom, fully intent on repaying what was given unto him.

His initial attack was dodged by the quick movements of Demon Phantom, his ethereal form still possessing more than enough strength to pose a challenge to defeat and a threat to require immediate action. In turn, Danny's attacks were soon paid back as well with more attacks from his future counterpart, forcing him to be the one to dodge away from the incoming attacks.

Dashing forward with one incoming punch rather than away, Danny ducked under Demon Phantom's incoming punch to move up behind him, taking advantage of his unprotected backside to make another attack. Noticing the long cape that always flowed down across Demon Phantom's back, Danny grabbed hold of it and began to pull on it, all while flying in a spinning motion.

The action resulted in Demon Phantom being spun along as well for the ride, unable to effectively fight back in his centrifugally subdued manner. Eventually, with enough force built up in the spin, Danny Phantom released his enemy, sending him flying down to the ground like a missile.

The impact the missile has on the ground comes not from any explosive payload, but instead from Demon Phantom's corporeal form, sent crashing into the ground and leaving a crater where he fell. Rising up from the ground, he looked to find his enemy again, preparing his hands with ectoplasm to prepare for a counter-attack.

He is unfortunately too late to seize the opportunity for a strike of his own, as the first instance he caught eye of Danny Phantom again is by seeing him fly down towards him with his hand extended forward, firing out a beam of intense hellfire out from it, forcing him to raise his hands in defense to block it.

Danny Phantom allows only one hand to fulfill this task as he continued to fly forward, as the other is kept into a fist to save it for its reserved purpose. Reaching towards Demon Phantom once again, Danny threw a punch to his face, forcing him back from the impact of his blow.

Fighting now on the ground again, Demon Phantom dug his feet into the ground, digging deep into the concrete below him, allowing him to continue standing and fight back against Danny effectively. Unfortunately, the effort was only met with Danny returning with another punch, pushing him further back.

His flight was much shorter than the initial attack, allowing his feet sunk into the concrete ground to act as a brake, keeping Demon Phantom standing tall and still aware of his surroundings. His expectation was to meet with Danny Phantom once again with another flight forward, leading him to raise his hand in readiness for a blast of ectoplasm to shoo him off...

...but that expectation is subverted by receiving a punch to the back of his head, nearly making him topple over from the hit. He turned and fired a random blast of ectoplasmic energy in the air, hoping to hit Danny Phantom by an estimated guess of where he would stand.

Unfortunately, his strike is a miss, hitting only a demolished car, and he once again received a punch from the back, unable to see the attack coming or retaliate for it. He once again fired out a random blast of ectoplasm, destroying a column to a building nearby, but once again missing its intended target.

The next appearance of Danny Phantom does not come with one hit-and-run punch from behind, but this time in an instant after the shot is fired, and made to Demon Phantom's face. It is directly after that he repeats the strategy of hitting him from behind, then returns to the front, then makes one from the side, and so on in a random order to overwhelm his enemy with as many hits as possible.

Carefully waiting out the attacks in their madness, he sought out a method in which they were delivered, seeking out a pattern that only a human mind could coordinate and create to make an effective attack on an enemy, withstanding the attacks in wait for the opening which he could exploit.

Learning the attack pattern of Danny Phantom, he found his opening, and he took it.

Demon Phantom threw a fist in an uppercut that seemingly aimed for thin air, collided into the chin of Danny Phantom as it was revealed to be intended to do. The impact brought an end to the half-dead hero's onslaught, now sending him flying up above the remains of Amity Park.

Catching control of himself and ceasing his fall, Danny suspended himself in the air, looking down to see Demon Phantom not only staring directly back at him with murderous intent, but also flying up towards him, sent on a velocity aimed for him and him alone.

Responding with an attack that once brought the end of this enemy, Danny let forth a Ghostly Wail, unleashing a scream that rung beyond high and low frequencies, bringing a cataclysm to what was already a destroyed city brought to ruins. It is not more damage on the city that is Danny's goal, for there is no damage that he could do now that could make anything worse...

...but instead it is meant to bring what is left falling on Demon Phantom, which it does. Skyscraper, tower, and any manner of building that still stands all falls to collapse on Demon Phantom, causing rubble and debris of his own making to descend and collide with him, planning on dragging him back to the ground.

Initially, he reacted to the falling debris by dodging and shooting it out of his way, but Demon Phantom was soon forced to face the inescapable debris of an entire city falling on him, taking on chunk after chunk of concrete and metal dragging him back to the Earth again.

His collision with the Earth is met not only with his own impact, but also the impact of the rest of Amity Park's remains as it smothered him, burying him in a grave made out of a city that now was itself no more than a grave for its inhabitants, as if the city attempted to claim its murderer for itself.

Danny Phantom was not content with merely burying his evil doppelganger under the city, but instead flew down and prepared to take advantage of his enemy while he was down, charging straight to the ground where Demon Phantom laid buried. His speed and flight make it seem as if he is only posed to collide into the ground without reason, with no signs of his target in sight...

...but the target made itself known soon enough, phasing out of the rubble and destruction to fly back towards Danny Phantom and attack as he previously attempted to do. his attempts to reach the sky are again thwarted by Danny, who this time sought to personally send him back to the ground.

Demon Phantom this time responds to the situation proactively, and phased both himself and Danny through the ground to beneath it.

Their battle previously was as gods on Earth, fighting to take their place over the other, but now they have taken their fight below, where the physics of open air are no longer present to allow most of their powers to be used. Ectoplasmic bolts and other energy-based attacks are useless, as they now exist as intangible forms, and such attacks would explode upon creation and hit nothing.

Thus, the only option left available to the two is their own fisticuffs, forced to do battle as men settling human matters. They are still not bound by gravity by their powers of flight, giving them enough maneuverability in their new environment, and not slowed down by the physical matter between them.

Though their bodies have no impact on the underground, the punches and kicks they do throw, however, do. Passing through does not carry with it any force to move the Earth, but the force behind their punches, when making impact with the other, cause the ground itself and the surface above to shake.

And that is what happens when the two trade off punches with one another; Danny throwing a punch to Demon Phantom's face, Demon Phantom throwing a kick to Danny's back, Danny retaliating by throwing a punch to Demon Phantom's stomach, and so on are the blows exchanged.


As above, so below: The aforementioned attacks and their impacts under the ground make the world above shake and tremble, decimating what has already been almost completely destroyed by the fall of Fenton City and the Ghostly Wail. The abuse that Amity Park takes as a direct result of the battle is no longer comparable to beating a dead horse, but now an act that would be laughable if it did not defy nature.

The living are no longer present to take in the horror and destruction that unfolds here, but are spared from it all in death, but the many ghosts still occupying Amity Park are here to witness the insane shaking of the ground and destruction beyond apocalyptic description are still witness to it, and they are no more secure about the matter than if they were still alive.

The case is true not only for the Fentons, but also moreso in the knowledge that the destruction is caused by the battle of their favorite son and a dark mirror of himself, and the lack of knowledge over who is currently winning the fight, or who is most likely to win it.

"Jesus Christ! Can those guys possibly cause any more damage?!" Danielle shouted.

"Who cares? There's nobody left to even hurt! Why aren't we doing something to try to help Danny?" Sam shouted.

"We're all beat to hell after that robot onslaught! All we can do is sit back and let Danny do what he can!" Vlad shouted.

"Who cares? Our son's fighting his worst enemy, and he's doing it all by himself! We have to do something!" Maddie shouted.

"From what they're doing, there's not much we can do to make a difference! Their fight's too above your weight, and I could can barely stand against him alone!"

"You're not alone, Vladdie-Boy! You're a part of this family, and families take care of one another!" Jack shouted.

"We're not gonna let Danny face him alone! We help him, no matter what!" Jazz shouted.

Vlad's sole resistance against action was quickly outvoted by the rest of the Fentons, forcing him to give into democracy and the greater good for Danny. Letting out a sigh, he conformed to the views shared by the rest of the family, agreeing to them with the caveat that all action is taken on his terms.

"Alright! We'll help Danny, but we're gonna do it my way, the right way! Anything else isn't good enough! Listen carefully!" Vlad shouted.


On and on does the fight between Danny Phantom and Demon Phantom continue under the ground, confined to a fight of physical (or should we say metaphysical) blows where energy projection has now been rendered useless. Their constraints come back around to make their fight all the more intense, but it puts the two fighters down to a deadlock in their fight.

This realization is only but a seed in each of their minds, and it grows only with the continued blows that are landed into each other, with the occasional dodge to avoid the other's attempt at one. Thrown punch after thrown punch, thrown kick after thrown kick, the realization eventually comes to fruition for the more cunning of the two, and decided to end the current affair to take advantage of this realization.

Instead of attacking Danny any further, Demon Phantom began flying straight up out of the underground, moving out of the dirt and reaching the surface again. Danny began to fly directly after in pursuit, being led back up above ground as well, freeing both fighters from their past limitations.

Expecting Danny to follow directly behind, Demon Phantom turned himself slightly tangible once again, allowing himself to touch the ground and manipulate it as any mortal man could. As he is not a mortal man any longer, he is free to do more than a man might manipulate the soil...

...and he does more than that with the act of shooting ectoplasmic beams out from his hands to carve out the land above him, then reach out and lift the severed Earth from its place. Lifting the separated ground above his head, he flew above the newly-carved crater, waiting in anticipation for the first sight of Danny Phantom once again.

The aforementioned living ghost appears not too long after the initial act of mass deconstruction of the ground, witnessing the new crater left behind by the removed Earth, as well as the enemy ghost flying above his head with the missing piece in his hands, and looking directly down at him.

Before he is able to move away to safety or turn intangible again, Danny is stricken by the severed Earth, having the large segment of the ground thrown at him by Demon Phantom as a projectile. Forced to suffer the full blunt of the attack, failing to avoid the obstacle in any way, he is crushed under its weight.

As the segment of Earth crumbles away into dirt and dust, Danny was seen in the rubble below, laying pained and damaged from the weight of the colossal obstacle thrown at him. Rising up to his feet slowly, struggling to keep himself on his own metaphysical feet again, he looked to see Demon Phantom standing with a smug sense of victory, taking himself a moment of joy in the sight of his enemy near defeat.

The sight of pleasure on the enemy ghost's face and his own refusal to be seen weak and near defeat are enough to make Danny forget and override the pain he felt, forcing him to focus solely on the target set in front of him. As Demon Phantom took as well a laugh from his short reprise, Danny flew forward to put an end to his arrogant show of strength.

Throwing a punch to his face, Danny sent Demon Phantom flying back up to the sky, forcing him to focus on the battle once again and cease his laughter. Before he was able to strike back, his eyes pointed forward to see a tornado forming around his body, throwing his flightpath out of balance and making his escape an uneasy task to meet.

Looking into the walls of the tornado, Demon Phantom found Danny flying through it, insinuating the tornado itself with his own speed causing the natural disaster to occur under his will. The tornado itself was but a background obstacle in the fight, as next a barrage of punches all came flying to his face.

Each punch came in rapid succession of one another, each hit landing within less than seconds within the other, and all were delivered by the rage of Danny Phantom. Running now on the pure anger and rage in service of destroying his target, Danny unleashed all power he still had reserved on his enemy, attempting to eliminate him once and for all in a final bum-rush.

The punches are accompanied not only by the tornado, but also by the scream of the Ghostly Wail, screamed out from Danny's mouth, and a pair of ectoplasmic beams firing from his eyeballs. Unleashing every attack that he could muster and put forward to a singular target, Danny showed no mercy to Demon Phantom, inflicting as much damage on his enemy as possible without a care or concern.

The berzerking bombardment of blows beyond belief shows much results gained from the effort; each hit began to tear into the face of Demon Phantom, leaving burn marks within his corporeal unflesh and make his ears bleed under the scream of the Ghostly Wail. The assault is nothing short of torment to Demon Phantom, and surely there is no way he can escape from this punishment...

[Soundtrack Cue End]

...but a stray hand reached out into the walls of the tornado catch hold of the neck of Danny Phantom, putting an instant stop to his assault.

The catch in his hand is a simple enough a move, and it is more than enough to put Demon Phantom back in control of the battle, now having hold over Danny and no intention of letting go. Holding the grasping hand of Demon Phantom in one hand, Danny Phantom reached out the other in attempt to fire, but his free hand was taken and crushed within Demon Phantom's other free hand, leaving him defenseless.

Now, after a long, hearty fight that both sides played to win, it seems that one side has found victory, and it is not the nobler of the two.

"See, Danny? It made no difference if you had weakened me or not. I'm going to beat you, just as I did last time. You still lose to me. After all, if you weren't able to beat me alone before, what makes you think you could now?" Demon Phantom asked.

Another party stepped forward to answer on Danny's behalf, giving it in the form of an ectoplasmic blast fired into Demon Phantom's back. The surprise of the attack and the pain associated with it are both enough to make him drop his victim, forcing him to lose his grip on Danny and set him free.

Both Danny and Demon Phantom turn to the origin of the blast, the former taking relief and pride when seeing who fired it, and the latter feeling anger and frustration. Both responses are all that are expected of the lone shooter, seen to be Jazz Fenton, with the rest of the Fentons flying behind her and ready to attack.

"Because he's not alone. As long as he'll have to fight you, we'll never let him be alone." Jazz said.

Looking to his newly-arriving opponents, Demon Phantom moved his view back and forth between Danny and them, carefully planning out the best course of action to take in his current situation. Soon, his indecisive, frantic change of views came to a stop as he placed his attention solely on Danny.

"Alright. You want to bring more friends to play? I can do that, too." Demon Phantom said.

Returning to the use of his ability to split his consciousness into separate beings, Demon Phantom reproduced himself into a total of 7 ghosts, giving each of the Fentons an extension of himself to battle against. In response, the Fentons raised their fists in anticipation of the incoming fights, each taking their own target to fight.

As each side moved in to attack, the 7 separate fights took off in separate directions across the remains of Amity Park, spreading out so each fighter would have their own chance to fight their respective target without any interruption or interference from the others.

Just like the battle against Technus and the many Techbots that his consciousness occupied, each of the extensions of Demon Phantom are perfectly alike in battle strategy and attack form, and each of their enemies are individual minds, with unique ideas and thoughts that can each approach their enemy in an unpredictable way.


[Soundtrack Cue: KMFDM - Revolution]

The first to take on one piece of Demon Phantom is Maddie Fenton; a mother placed against an estranged wayward son. The very idea of a mother laying her hand in violence against a person she spent 9 months cultivating and gestating inside her body, to have to inflict harm on that being is a situation no sane mother could see themselves in or enjoying it at all...

...but Maddie Fenton keeps in mind that the ghost before her is no longer her son, but instead the one who brought harm to her and her real son, and, at the end of the day, is still the one manner of creature that she has spent years hunting, and has always enjoyed fighting, just as she will now:

A ghost, and a threat to be defeated.

"Ah. I remember the times when you wanted to spend some quality mother-son time together. Still trying to grasp onto the good little glimpses of the past while you still can?" Demon Phantom asked.

"Ghost, I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you are not my son. You're just another spectral anomaly for me to bust." Maddie said.

Possessing a scientific mind that has brought about the many inventions that brought the many ghosts haunting the Earth back to the Ghost Zone, or to oblivion itself, Maddie is far more strategic in her side of the fight, carefully watching her opponent and the attacks he makes in order to properly respond to them.

Demon Phantom, conversely, has trouble making strategy the forefront of his fight. Forced to fight the 7 Fentons at once, splitting his ghost to 7 different extensions in order to fight them all, his mind cannot focus on one single enemy at once between the multiple battlegrounds he is stuck in, no more than you could handle 7 different tasks at once.

As such, Demon Phantom's attacks are far more sluggish and poorly-planned than those made against Danny Phantom, giving Maddie more than enough leeway to plan against it. Like a slow and uncoordinated brute does his attacks come, throwing punches and kicks and ectoplasmic bolts with no sense of rhythm or any apparent thought going into the attacks.

These poor attacks are all too easy for Maddie Fenton to avoid, dodging bolt after bolt, evading kick after kick, parrying punch after punch, all in a mutual dance of which one party is the one in charge. Avoiding the attack with ease, Maddie returned the attacks in full with all her strength, showing no mercy against the enemy before her.

Where his punches failed, hers more than succeeded.

Where his kicks failed, hers more than succeeded.

Where his hellfire failed, hers more than succeeded.

Not too long into her retaliation, the counterattack becomes too much for Demon Phantom to bear, leading his present extension to fall out of the sky in defeat.

"Besides, not only would my Danny never raise a hand against his own mother, but he'd definitely put up a better fight than that." Maddie said.


As the mother had dispatched one piece of Demon Phantom, the father had begun the process of taking down his enemy as well. Like Maddie, he has no intention of harming his own child, but the reminder of the damage and pain Demon Phantom has caused overrides any parental notions regarding the ghost before him.

And Jack, unlike his better half, is far more a logical thinker than an emotional one, as evidenced by his own cheerful and somewhat doofy demeanor in life. He is a man that operates purely on scientific logic, a pure distillation of male concepts of logic and order, and he does not even spare a second of time towards the idea that the ghost before him is his son, nor the promise of trying to save him.

All he has been thinking about is how to fight this enemy, and he has been planning his fight since he first laid eyes on his target.

"So, you and I get a chance to tumble, huh? I never even liked the idea of spanking when I had Danny, but, if it's a whoopin' you're wantin', you came to the right place, sonny-boy." Jack said.

"Dear old dad. Still the big, fat goofball just as ever? You know, if I hadn't killed you myself, I'm sure you would've croaked from being a sugar-scarfing fatass. You should be thanking me for the quick death." Demon Phantom said.

"Laugh all you want, it isn't going to help you here. I've been trying to capture Danny Phantom years before he was my son, and, in a weird, roundabout way, I finally have my chance."

Like with Maddie Fenton, Demon Phantom's only way to attack is to sloppily lunge forward and lash out with everything he has in a kamikaze way, having only part of his mind focused in this form to fulfill the task of fighting multiple opponents all at the same time, while existing in multiple locations at the same time.

Again, this is more than easy for Jack Fenton to fend off against, especially when he is more than able to see the attacks coming and plan against them, and plan a full 10 steps ahead of what his enemy is doing. Once Demon Phantom began to throw his punch forward, Jack stepped forward to enact his plan, already having made it and foreseen its outcome, breaking the fight down to a series of math equations.

As the punch came forward, Jack pushed it aside with one arm, having both raised up in defense, and throwing the other to Demon Phantom's face. Reaching forward with his other hand, he grabbed Demon Phantom by the back of his head, pulling it down and ramming it into his knee.

Jack repeated the strike of his knee against his enemy's head, relentlessly bashing against his etherial skull and massively disorienting him. Releasing his grip on Demon Phantom's head, he finally landed one last blow to his face, sending him flying back from the hit.

Flying up over Demon Phantom, Jack then grabbed his legs and pulled his enemy back, reaching and grabbing him by his back with his free hand, lifting him up in the air. Bringing Demon Phantom back down to his knee, Jack drove a painful, back-breaking move on him, following with his finishing move of driving a people's elbow to his chest, finally sending him falling down to the ground.

And just as he has forseen and planned it, Jack Fenton has won against his enemy.

"Important note on weight, sonny: The bigger they are, the harder they hit." Jack said.


The parents are not the only ones to take up arms against the one named Demon Phantom, for also does the sister involve herself in full, taking on a being that once had qualified as her brother. For all the time she stood alongside and stood up for her brother in absent of their parents, she had unwittingly become another parent to Danny himself, making her a closer sibling than most would have in their lifetimes.

Where Jack and Maddie had a certain degree of the side of Danny within Demon Phantom, Jazz had possessed almost all the information that there was to know about her brother, giving her more than enough advantage and ability to defeat her extension of the enemy ghost.

And unlike her parents, she has also spent the most amount of time with Danny following their deaths...

...and does not even waste her time with the fact that Demon Phantom has part of her brother in him as an excuse to be easy on him.

"Jazz. So long you spent following after me like some nosy private eye, eventually getting caught up in my little white lie and becoming part of my world. To think, before me, you didn't even believe ghosts existed at all. Such a long way you've come, isn't it?" Demon Phantom asked.

"The real Danny and Danielle showed me that I still have a long ways to go. And I'm gonna get off to a good start by beating the crazy ghost that killed me and my family!" Jazz shouted.

Knowing full well his attack patterns, Jazz can dodge and evade every punch thrown and shot fired her way, able to predict every attack coming her way with ease. In response, she is able to retaliate effectively and efficiently with her own punches and blasts, taking down her enemy before he even has a chance to stand any resistance against her.

Again does he flail out without any full coordination or focus, even though her strategic efforts draw some of the most attention away from his other 6 forms, but nothing he does bears fruit to victory. Again are his attacks made all in vain and fail, leaving him at the mercy of his former sister.

She landed a final ending on her attack by grabbing Demon Phantom by the head, charging up as much ectoplasm as she could concentrate within her hands. The result bred out of Demon Phantom is his defeat at her hands, falling to the ground with nothing to show for his efforts.

Jazz has spent many years fighting ghosts alongside her brother, but this is the first day when she did so as he did personally, rather than stand on the sidelines.

"To think, if the world was just a little bit different, I could've been doing this like Danny did." Jazz said.


Husband, wife, son, and daughter; these core tenants of the American family unit have all stood their ground against the ultimate enemy, but the addition by marriage is next in line to take her stand against Demon Phantom, where Sam Manson Fenton takes on the next extension of the ghost.

Being the wife of the man that Demon Phantom used to be, Sam carries the deepest and most personal feelings towards Danny, which extends to the being before her. The Fentons by blood carry a love that is unconditional for Danny Fenton, but that love is based on immutable genetics that bond them, a privilege that Sam does not carry.

Her love for Danny is made on the connection that must be made between two individuals (or more, for the polyamorous), and made based on trust that is built up over time and collects over time to a greater connection. It is hard for Sam to know that the ghost before her is a thing that is, at least partially, comprised of her husband and the person she loves the most...

...but she remembers that this thing had torn the life growing in her belly out from her, murdering her and the unborn within her womb.

"So, two of us finally got married, and had a baby on the way. If I were still partially human, I might've been glad to see it happen." Demon Phantom asked.

"Too bad you didn't keep your human half. That was always the better half of you." Sam said.

Unlike the rest of the Fentons fighting against Demon Phantom, Sam is the most aggressive and unhinged against the enemy, slashing out and wildly firing ectoplasmic blasts towards him without a care in the world. The vicious manner in which she attacks with is too much for a mind split into 7 to possibly handle, especially when better fighters who require more attention have it.

Instead, all this extension of Demon Phantom can do is what anyone can do to survive a storm: Weather it.

It is no different than a storm than how Sam attacks the perversion of supernature, she takes offense to the appearance of the enemy resembling her husband, and she wishes nothing more than for the offensive image to be removed from her sight. Demon Phantom has unleashed absolute hell on the Earth through his actions, but he has forgotten the most important fact about hell that anyone knows:

It has no fury like a woman scorned.

Still does she fight and lash out, and still is Demon Phantom unable to withstand what she throws at him. His defensive measures eventually become nothing more than holding up his arms and hoping that he can block away the attacks, but it soon proves to not be enough to protect him.

Charging up her own hellfire once again, Sam fired one last concentrated blast of ectoplasm on Demon Phantom, this time making all her energy within the attack count towards taking him down. He still cannot do anything to defend other than block against the projectile with his bare hands, and he knows that this measure is not enough to protect him.

Soon, that thought comes to reality as the blast becomes powerful enough to shoot through his defenses, hitting him in the chest and forcing him to take a full, unadulterated blast of ectoplasm straight to his chest. Feeling the ethereal energy strike him directly, he cannot stand against the blast for long, and he eventually his strength buckles under that of the projectile's.

Again, Demon Phantom falls defeated to the ground, leaving Sam standing victorious over him.

"And you killed my husband when you were born. I'm not about to let that slide." Sam said.


The core family has all had their turn with Demon Phantom, leaving the newest additions to take their pound of flesh, or, rather, unflesh, with the enemy. The next opponent is Danielle Phantom, a half-ghost who has spent her years as a girl living on the streets for survival, and her years as a woman trying to help other wayward souls out of the abyss they all lived in.

Her home has not been much, and she has had no family to speak of until recently, but she has recently been offered a seat at the table of the most famous and influential family on the planet, where her progenitor served as its golden child. Before she could see a life on either side after the mission she was set on, both her worlds were taken from her by the enemy before her.

Danielle has believed that all people and souls alike are capable of redemption and goodness... but that truth does not hold the same for the ghost before her now.

"Again do I meet the new girl. Ponytail is cute, and I like the streetwise look. Very urban." Demon Phantom said.

"Well, I wasn't a big fan of the 'Hades' or 'Angel of Death' look. See, I'm one of the actual good guys, and I try to look the part." Danielle said.

"And the humor is on par with the real deal. This ought to be interesting. Let's see how you match up in fights, shall we?"

Demon Phantom is the first to make the initial strike, lunging forward with a punch. Danielle is more than experienced to avoid a simple punch coming her way, which she does so with ease, following her dodge with an uppercut made directly to Demon Phantom's jaw.

Flying back up to Demon Phantom, Danielle is once again presented as a target to him, and he takes advantage of her sudden appearance by throwing another punch. She is gone from his sight in an instant, and instead appeared directly behind him, catching him completely unawares.

"Tag!" Danielle shouted.

Taking advantage of the blind spot solely of his creation, Danielle fired an ectoplasmic bolt to the back of his head, resulting in a direct hit. The projectile and all its force are felt by Demon Phantom, leading him to snap around in an instant, firing off an ectoplasmic bolt of his own.

Once again does Danielle vanish, this time appearing above his head. Familiar with this strategy and its pattern, Demon Phantom cleverly snapped to the opposite direction in attempt to stop her surprise attack before it could start, but managed to hit nothing from his attempt.

The cleverness here belongs to Danielle, who flew down to Demon Phantom and sat on his shoulders, wrapping her legs around his neck and covering his eyes.

"Okay, now. Spin around three times and try to hit it as hard as you can. There's a lot of goodies in there." Danielle said.

"Get off me, you misbegotten brat!" Demon Phantom shouted.

Unable to see his opponent, Demon Phantom began wildly reaching and grabbing at the air in attempt to grab Danielle, firing off ectoplasmic bolts in attempts to hit her, but she responded by simply dodging the attacks, none of them being close enough to hit her or shake her loose.

In an act of bravado, she also raised one hand in the air, as if she were riding a bull for sport.

"Yee-haw! I love me a big, wild bronco ride!" Danielle shouted.

Finally reaching an attainable part of his enemy, Demon Phantom grabbed hold of Danielle's ponytail, gripping and pulling it hard.

"Ow! Hey, I only like it pulled in doggystyle! I'm the one on top now!" Danielle joked.

Continuing to pull on Danielle's hair, Demon Phantom tried desperately to get his opponent off his head, but his efforts did not bear any fruit. In spite of the painful experience of having her hair pulled and yanked in attempt to get her off of Demon Phantom's head, she refused to budge, not buckling under the pain.

Unable to successfully remove Danielle from his head, Demon Phantom changed his strategy; no longer would he attempt to remove her, but take advantage of her fixed position. Keeping his hold on her hair, he began flying straight down to the ground, attempting to make her take the brunt of the fall.

Seeing the ground quickly become larger and larger in her sight as she came close to it, Danielle realized that the danger of impact was imminent, but she did not yet remove her grip on Demon Phantom. Instead, a fastly-construed strategy was concocted in her head to think of a ways to make the impact fall under her purposes instead, allowing Demon Phantom to take the two down.

As the ground became all too close to make impact all but inevitable, Danielle Phantom released her grip at last, allowing Demon Phantom to see the incoming danger of his own making. Realizing that she was no longer on his head, and therefore no longer the victim of the impact, the initial shock caused him to release her hair from his hold.

With Danielle at last, Demon Phantom collided into the ground, joining the many others of himself sent down in defeat, defeated himself now as well.

"When you grow up on the streets, you have to know how to take care of yourself in a fight. And humor helps you ignore the pain. You learn both pretty well on your own." Danielle said.


Next to take their place at the plate is Vlad Plasmius, the biological father of Danny Fenton and, by a indenture of sins needed to be repaid, as much a part of the Fenton family as the others. He has all the guilt of the world bearing on his shoulders, and that of another world that Demon Phantom has also destroyed.

For he knows that he is responsible for the creation of this bastardization of Danny Phantom, that the world has been destroyed twice over by his hands, all in the service of trying to take the pain away from a scared and lonely boy that lost his entire family in a tragedy.

Again, his guilt is of two worlds: One in sin from doing something terribly wrong and evil, and another in sin of the one time he has tried to do anything right.

In confrontation of Demon Phantom once again, Vlad Plasmius has nothing to give to him but a look of scorn and disgust, save for the punishment that he will soon deal out on the enemy and bring him to an end at last. He knows that the only way to his salvation is to destroy this creature, and avenge the many deaths it has wrought.

"Two Earths you've destroyed. How many billions of people is that? 14? 16? 18? 20?" Vlad asked.

"Counting it twice feels like cheating. Besides, what do you care? Weren't you the one who tried to take over the entire planet when the opportunity arose?" Demon Phantom asked.

"I wanted to rule the world, not murder it."

"I was born to murder the world. You saw that out."

"Doesn't matter. Now, I'm going to undo that mistake once and for all!"

Vlad is the first to strike out, sending forth his projectile of ectoplasm in furious anger and rage against the ghost of his own creation. Unlike the Fentons, his vengeance is more than easy to fulfill, for it is not only Danny Fenton that is partially in the ghost before him...

...but also partially himself, and there is no hatred he holds greater than the one he now has for himself.

Demon Phantom is fast enough to evade his blast, but only enough to where the beam grazed his arm, tearing away some of his memetic buildup in the process. In response, he gives his own ectoplasmic bolt to Vlad, firing one of his own directly back at his maker in an act of defiance against the hand that once fed.

Vlad dodges away from the shot just as the enemy had done to his own, but he is fast enough to evade the projectile in full and not suffer any damage as a result. Responding to the force with more of his own firepower, he fires not just one bolt, but multiple shots of hellfire directly at Demon Phantom, giving him little to no room to dodge.

So Demon Phantom does not dodge the incoming hellfire, but instead disappears from sight, making himself reappear behind Vlad instead. Catching his opponent with a chokehold, Demon Phantom grips on tightly and does not let go, attempting to restrain his enemy long enough until he surrenders.

Vlad does not oblige his ambition to subdue him, but instead reached back and grabbed him, throwing him over his head in response. Repaying the unwanted grip around his neck, Vlad grabbed Demon Phantom by the neck, gripping against his corporeal throat tightly, and began punching him in the face.

Each blow is made relentlessly and mercilessly, and seem to be made less by a man who is half-ghost, and simply a man who is possessed and driven beyond comprehension to eliminate his enemy once and for all. Each hit is more than enough to make Demon Phantom cringe in pain against the relentless attacks, and give him little outlet to the attack other than to take it.

Until he raised his hands up to Vlad's face, firing out ectoplasmic blasts out from his palms. The blasts hit Vlad square in the face, returning the karma of his assault in full, leading him to release his grip and rub against his face to quell the pain. Making his enemy put his face down, Demon Phantom drove his fists down in a slam to send him flying down to the ground.

The impact does indeed drive Vlad down, but it is not enough to make him crash to the ground. He is able to catch himself prior to the impact and stop his collision, allowing him to look back to Demon Phantom and see what attack he attempts to inflict upon him next.

What he chooses to do is make himself a human (metaphorically speaking) bullet and drive him into the ground himself, flying down with a flightpath intended to crash directly into him. Noticing well what his intentions were, Vlad concocted a counter-strategy to prevent his own fate, raising up his hands to release another charge of ectoplasm.

Unlike the previous uses of bolts and projectiles meant to cause damage, he instead emitted ectoplasm glowing a brighter color of light than usual, creating something akin to a flare. The flash of the ectoplasmic flare is more than enough to blind Demon Phantom, making him avert his eyes.

It is unfortunately not enough to make him impact to the ground, as he has learned that lesson from one of his other opponents. Instead, he stopped himself from colliding with the ground by ceasing all flight, suspending himself in place to collect his senses again.

Upon regaining his eyesight, Demon Phantom looked to find Vlad again, soon finding him directly above. What is in his hands, both extended up into the air, is a large ball of pure ectoplasmic energy, charged up over a good sum of time to result in the large size of the ball.

Before Demon Phantom could respond to the ectoplasmic ball, Vlad threw it towards him, taking him along as it began its descent to the ground. The very act of touching the ball was enough to burn his ethereal form, so to push against the projectile was out of the question.. The only remaining option now was to be sent back to Earth, colliding against it with the imminent blast of ectoplasm inflicting further damage.

And that is what happens, the prediction fulfilled with the loud blast of the projectile. This Demon Phantom has been defeated as well.

"So this is what being a good guy feels like. I can get used to this." Vlad said.


At last, the final extension of Demon Phantom is at odds with the final Fenton, and the core member of the family that has brought all its obsession with ghosts to fame and fortune. There is nothing more that can be said about these opponents that has not already been said, or that they have said themselves, so allow us, then, to not waste time with any more introductions.

Instead, let us focus on the fight between the last two opponents, and see how they respond to the victorious battles that have passed already.

"Taking on too many fronts at once? That's the biggest mistake anyone can make in a fight. Not to mention, you're forgetting something more important." Danny said.

"Really? And what might that be?" Demon Phantom asked.

"Not only are you taking your attention away from me, but I'm also capable of doing that little trick, too."

To prove his point, Danny split himself into 2 separate beings, then 4, then 8, then 16, then 32, until the sheer number of Danny Phantoms became too much for the lone Demon Phantom to count, especially when his attention is taken away to other locations on the battlefield already.

In unison do the Danny Phantoms speak, all focused on the same task and goal, declaring it out loud.

"And unlike you, I've only got one target to focus on." Danny said.

The Danny Phantoms then all collided with Demon Phantom, all attacking him at once like an angry mob. The 'battle', if it can even be called on to this point, is laughable at best; there is no chance for Demon Phantom to win, and he has already lost the moment he decided to split his consciousness apart.

Unlike for Danny, which the power suits him more than well here.

[Soundtrack Cue End]

Finally, just as the others had done, this piece of Demon Phantom hit the ground with full force, putting the ghost to a complete defeat. Barely able to stand up, the final extension of Demon Phantom struggled to stand up again, as his others suffered the similar issue.

They are still able to come back together, despite their difficulties to stand, and Demon Phantom is able to congregate himself into one being yet again. But the effort is one that barely helps his plight; still is he exhausted and defeated by the Fentons at last, and can no longer stand a chance against the family.

The Fentons themselves are aware of this fact just as he is, who come back down to the Earth and declare their victory on him.

"It's over. Dark Danny, Demon Phantom, whatever you want to call yourself, you lost. Your whole crazy mission is over." Danny said.

"You're wrong, Danny Phantom. I've brought an end to human life on Earth, and I've replaced it with something more beautiful. Something eternal. I've brought eternal life on Earth, and I will build a kingdom on this planet where we can live up to our fullest potentials, just as we were supposed to when we first stepped out from the caves. You can't defeat eternity." Demon Phantom said.

"There's nothing eternal about your plan. Why don't you take a look to some of the people you 'saved'?" Danielle asked.

Demon Phantom followed Danielle's pointing hand to the many ghosts who watched the fight from the sidelines, pointing out a fatal flaw in his plan.

The ghosts, upon freed from their human cages, were indeed free as Demon Phantom spoke, no longer having to worry about pain or truth or choice, none of the alleged freedoms that come with being a mortal being, no longer bound by desire or the other immaterial forces that will material bodies in a material world...

...but those human traits lost now leave the ghosts alone, afraid and scared of the world they live in. The are no longer truly a part of the world itself, they are merely a lingering light that shines upon it for its own purpose, and their purposes no longer contribute to a system or great machine that holds a means to an end.

All there is for them now is loneliness, and cold.

The cold is what drives them inward in attempt to find a solace against the loneliness and despair, but their withdrawal into themselves do not bear fruit. They cannot look inward for what it is they seek, for what they are looking for is not within themselves; not in their purpose, not in their talents, not in their abilities, not in their individuality.

It is what is before them that they seek, and they need to feel whole once again. There are some kindred ghosts that offer their hand to others, indiscriminately making their offers for kinship or intimacy. Whatever it is that their fellow ghosts need, they are here to provide, and they will give it without question, because they need what they other is seeking just as well and deeply.

Then, the ghosts accepted the offers of one another, taking others by their hands and joining their brothers and sisters in embraces, friendly and loving alike, all to give those lost souls the one place of comfort and solace that they need and have lost so quickly and without their say or wishes.

Joined with others in peace, the ghosts began to move on from the mortal realm itself, and free from the pain and cold of existence as a lone spirit.

The human race is extinct, but it has now gone in peace.

And Demon Phantom knows that not only has he failed, but his desire to save the human race from itself has failed.

"You see, Dark Danny, being an individualist's all fine and dandy. Improving yourself, learning your talents and turning them into skills, trying to be smarter and a better person, that's all great stuff. We should all try to do that. But it doesn't mean anything if you're not using those parts of yourself to help others. Human beings are still social creatures, even in death. When there's no greater society to contribute to, or nobody to help, then all those talents and specialness means nothing. Then, you're truly just a ghost, because you lost sight of the bigger picture and got lost." Danielle said.

The final epiphany made by Danielle is enough to not only bring more despair to Demon Phantom, but then bring him to his knees, breaking him in soul as well as body. With only a few simple words has he felt his entire worldview crash down around itself, and the very reason for his existence disappear...

"I... have fought so hard for what I did... so I could save people. So they wouldn't... be so sad... and lonely... like I was. I... gave up... my human side... because I wanted freedom. I was no longer bound by any... worldly matters... and... all I wanted to do... was take people with me... to save them, too... to be... a hero... and you took that away from me. Now... I cannot save anyone." Demon Phantom said.

...but he himself has not yet disappeared.

He has not left in peace.

He refuses to leave in peace.

He cannot leave in peace.

"You have taken my purpose from me. You took my soul from me. But that does not matter anymore. Now, I have a new one." Demon Phantom said.

"Oh, yeah? Let me guess, that's destroying us all. How are you going to do that?" Danny asked.

Demon Phantom first responded by displaying an item in his hand, one that drastically changed the expressions of the Fentons from one of certain victory to anxiety of an uncertain future, all changed with the one item resting in the hand of the ghost, simple, yet damning without any words.

But Demon Phantom nonetheless had his own to add.

"I told you. You took my soul from me, but now I have a new one. More than one." Demon Phantom said.

In his hand was the Fenton Thermos, containing within it the gods that the Fentons had all battled and defeated, swiped away during his previous fight.

"What-?! How'd he-?!" Danny stammered.

"You said it yourself, splitting apart myself when I was already weak when fighting 7 other enemies was too much for me to take on. You don't seriously think I did that because I was stupid enough to believe I'd win doing it, would you? Now, here's a math question I know you can understand: If you can't un-divide an equation, what else can you do to increase its value? You multiply it." Demon Phantom asked.

Reaching down to the cap, Demon Phantom gripped it and pulled upwards, preparing to open the canister and release the ghosts within.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Danny screamed.

But his plea came too late.

[Soundtrack Cue: Ministry - Psalm 69; Starting from 0:16]

Removing the cap to the Fenton Thermos, the pocket dimension to the gods within was opened, allowing the artificially-created deities to escape. All at once do the gods fly out from the Thermos, shooting up into the sky like some bizarre art collage of different cultures.

The gods all fly in the air in celebration of their freedom, allowing their strange and inhuman forms to fill the sky with their unnatural appearances, as if blighting the Earth with something that does not belong on it. Their presence without purpose is only made briefly, for the gods then turned their attention to the one who created them, flying down towards Demon Phantom.

Together do the gods all fly down to Demon Phantom, not just to their creator, but inside him as well, flying their ghosts into his by adding their consciousnesses to his. For all the many gods that have been created by his hand, the process is slow to follow through, so many instead circle around him for the chance to join inside him.

The process is not only slowl, but also painful for Demon Phantom. He remembers the painful birth he had undergone during his own time, and the pain of having his consciousness corrupted and expanded by foreign minds and thoughts has compounded, bombarding him relentlessly with a further perversion of supernature than he himself already was.

Soon, the gods go inside his body one by one, forcing him to withhold many gods in his ethereal form and assimilate them into himself. What happens to him he cannot describe with any words or language, instead can he express his agony only with screams and frantic shakes, prancing about like a paranoid schizophrenic on a rant.

The screams eventually grow so loud that they force the Fentons to cover their own ears in response, but trying to block away one sense does not stop the screams from happening, nor does it spare them from what their sense of sight tells them is happening before them.

Their sight is then shown the images of Demon Phantom's skin beginning to crack and break, as if breaking out of a shell to reveal what laid beneath. The very minute and human conceptions of what could show next beneath the image is one that they do not dare contemplate, nor predict.

But they are shown anyways.

The skin of Demon Phantom is finally blasted away, breaking through in an explosion which made the very ground of the Earth shake, and the sky begin to thunder under incoming clouds of storm and lightning. The blast comes in a massive green expansion of ectoplasm, encompassing the entire surrounding area and disintegrating whatever is in its path.

The Fentons are all lucky enough to be blown back by the force of the blast itself, spared from the deadly hellfire expansion, but the act which spared them only gives them the privilege of welcoming this new god with a position on their hands and knees, as if subconsciously submitting themselves to this higher power already.

Finally, the new Demon Phantom is revealed, and what they see is a creature beyond their understanding. No longer did Demon Phantom resemble a simple mix of Danny Phantom and Vlad Plasmius, but now a completely different entity altogether resulting from the many influences and cultures that went into the gods that made him up.

His body was an androgynous form with ample breasts, a phallus of exceedingly great length, and skin a pure gold that shone like the sun with reptilian scales. His hair was similarly shiny and flowing like the sun, long and floating up in the air and to his sides of his head. His mouth also bore snake-like fangs, with a face like a bird's beak, and large, bird-like wings extending from his back, spanning out in full.

Reborn in the image of all of Earth's gods and goddesses, Demon Phantom let out a screech that no longer resembled any sound a human being could make, no different than a newborn baby making its first cry. The abomination is welcomed with horrified eyes and mouths all wide and agape at the entity, with only the Fentons as the only remaining witnesses on Earth to see it.

But they also know that they are the only ones left on Earth, and the sole targets for it to attack.

And Danny Phantom has never felt fear so greatly as he has felt in his life.

[Soundtrack Cue End]

At last, the newborn god spoke out, addressing its witnesses with its declaration of self. It thinks, therefore, it is, and it speaks aloud what it is.

"I... am... supergod." Demon Phantom said.