CHAPTER 31: JAMAIS VU
Valerie Gray has made a good career for herself as a ghost hunter, ever since her days as a teenager.
Once a rich, popular girl in Casper High, her status as a wealthy youth had come to an end when her father lost her job at Axiom Labs, following its destruction by the ghost of a dog, and Danny Phantom in an attempt to catch it. Left poor and without her social status any longer, she grew a strong, undying hatred of ghosts, vowing revenge on Danny Phantom specifically for his indirect malice towards her.
In a world that had not accepted the reality of ghosts yet, to believe in imaginary beings is an silly notion for most, but to believe in an imaginary enemy becomes insane.
But that notion was not shared by Vlad Masters, one of the few people on Earth with an intimate knowledge of ghosts. Having his own interests against Danny Phantom, the two became allies in their respective goals, with Vlad arming her with the equipment needed to be the effective ghost hunter she would become.
And she became the best of the best.
However, despite many attempts at trying to eliminate Danny Phantom once and for all, she soon set her sights on her very own benefactor, realizing his true motives and true nature as a half-ghost himself. Calling an effective truce with Danny, the two had turned against him, successfully saving the life of his female clone, the girl who would be later known as Danielle Phantom.
Following the Disateroid event, her status as a ghost hunter had earned her the rank of general in the newly-formed Ghost Corps, running her own elite team of soldiers to fight back against the undead, formed with her former rivals called Master's Blasters, a half-baked attempt by Vlad to replace her.
Defending the world from all kinds of ghosts for years, she has made a worthy career for herself that rivals even that of Danny Phantom's.
Now, she is bleeding out from her neck and going to die soon; a dishonorable and unfitting way for a veteran ghost hunter to die.
Her fate was sealed following the revelation that the true Danny Phantom and Fentons had been replaced by an evil counterpart of the half-dead hero from an alternate timeline, with a handful of recurring villains from his rogue's gallery. Uncovering a plan to create an army of supergods to destroy the Earth, if only scratching the surface of such a discovery, her efforts were rewarded with a slash to her throat.
But she has never been one to accept her fate, or give in so easily to pain and pressure. Placing herself back on her feet, she reached into a pocket of her suit, rummaging through a first-aid kit carrying medical supplies. Pulling out from it a large band-aid like strip, she placed it over the wound in her neck.
The strip placed over her throat was not just a simple bandage, but instead carried inside it a nanopaste that repaired any wound on a human body, sealing up severed skin, veins, and arteries instantly. The medical product did its job quickly and effectively, sealing the cut in her neck before she could lose any more blood.
Seeing a demonstration of humanity's technological progression go to work, Demon Phantom, once watching her die in disappointment, now showed intrigue instead.
"Hmm, perhaps you're not such a lost cause after all. This could be interesting." Demon Phantom said.
Inhaling as much air as she could from her clogged trachea, Valerie coughed up and spat out the blood that was reaching her lungs, clearing her airways to be used effectively once again. Wiping the discarded blood from her mouth, she reached to a holster on her boot to pull out a knife; its blade made of ectoranium, the one and only physical substance deadly to ghosts.
Keeping her eyes locked solely on Demon Phantom, she held herself in an attack stance, preparing for a fight against the time-displaced ghost.
"A knife with an ectoranium blade. Cute... but very neanderthal." Demon Phantom said.
"Alright, Danny. I don't know what the hell happened to you, but whatever goodwill you bought yourself over the years just ran out. You're going down for good." Valerie said.
Taking offense to being referred to by his former name, Demon Phantom's excitement turned instead to a scowl, making his desire for to fight her grow stronger...
...and no longer taking interest in it for mere sport.
"So it seems you've made two mistakes today. One, is coming here. Two, is calling me 'Danny'. I'm not Danny Phantom. I saw to that myself, I killed him and destroyed him for good. He is not coming back." Demon Phantom growled.
"Well, that's okay. I brought my own friends to play." Valerie said.
Valerie then pressed her arm-mounted PDA to contact the rest of her team, calling for an attack.
"Maladies, the Fentons are compromised. Move in and attack!" Valerie ordered.
Waiting outside the hangar doors of the skybound fortress known as Fenton City, the elite team of ghost hunters known as Valerie's Maladies stood at a primary state of boredom, having nothing to do but wait for orders to come. Such is the life of soldier in any military: Prepare to wait, and stand at the ready for when orders come, to be a modern-day minuteman.
But when orders come for the soldiers to attack, excitement comes at last, just as it does for the Maladies when their orders are given.
"You got it, boss, we're going in!" Download said.
"Party time, here we come!" Thrash said.
"Alright, finally, some action!" Vid said.
Alongside summoning her team, Valerie also sent a signal to her glider to return to her position, reactivating it from its deactivated standby position from hovering in the air in place. Reactivating at her beckoning, the glider started itself and began flying through the halls of Fenton City, making its way to its master.
In the process, the glider flew past the three ghosts disguised as the Fentons, giving them a split-second warning of the new threat on their hands.
"That looks like a fight happening." Ember said.
"Which means those three outside will try to breach their way inside." Fright Knight said.
"Good. I was starting to think I'd never get a hunt out of this... or a trophy." Skulker said.
While the three pawns of the respective sides prepared to face off against each other, both sides readying themselves for a fight against what lies on the other side of the walls of Fenton City, Demon Phantom kept his attention square and center on Valerie Gray, charging up his hands with ectoplasmic energy to fight her.
As he prepared himself for the battle, his mind began to wander to the days of his once-future past, taking nostalgia out from his soon-to-be fight with Valerie.
"Ah, yes. This shall be a blast from the past. How I remember that day so fondly." Demon Phantom said.
In the mind of Demon Phantom, reaching back to his own averted past, when he was known as 'Dark Danny', he can recall the day in which he had made his way inside Amity Park, the last city on Earth, after being held out of it for years by a powerful ghost shield called the Jericho Wall surrounding it.
Left with no more lands to destroy or humans to kill, it has been left his one and only focus for a long time with no solution to his need to destroy it. It has been left standing alive, albeit under strict and focused control by scientific minds, free from his touch, and prosperous, like a tumor in his mind that he cannot be rid of.
Until today, in which he has found the way to destroy the Jericho Wall, taking influence from the same biblical story that was the namesake of the shield.
[Soundtrack Cue: Metallica - Creeping Death]
'So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets, and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.'
Letting out a loud and inhuman wail, the sound that left his mouth bore a tone and pitch that no human ear could stand to listen to, making every citizen of Amity Park cover their ears in pain. Wincing at the sound of the loud and screeching yell that came forth from the ghost, none are free from the deadly wail, making many fall to their hands and knees, as if begging mercy from this malevolent god to stop.
Glass from buildings and windows to hovercars shattered at the noise; no man-made objects in this small remainder of humanity standing a chance against the inhuman, undead screaming that shook the city. The many machinations of the people of Amity Park were facing destruction, the work of many years to create a perfect world broken beyond repair...
...but it is only the Jericho Wall that is the target of Dark Danny, and all that stands in his way between him and Amity Park. His wail at last came to a stop, but not because of the internal pleas and hopes of the people of Amity Park, but because it had served its purpose of destroying the main shield generators of the Jericho Wall.
Valerie Gray was the first to see the destruction take place, and at the worst possible position to view the destruction as it happened. One explosion of many came close enough to blast her off of her current place of footing, which happened to be one of the towers that generated the protective ghost shield.
True to her sharp self-preservation tactics, she jumped off the balcony of the tower before she could perish in the explosion, successfully managing to evade the full force of the blast and any shrapnel, but still was hit hard enough to release her grip on her glider, sending her falling down to the Earth once again, in a stark reminder of her place as a mere human among a world remade in the image of a god.
In freefall above Amity Park, her death is all but assured, and all too near with the ground getting closer.
In the future present time...
Narrowly evading death at the hands of Demon Phantom, Valerie stood up strong against the ghost, just as she had done for many undead foes such as him in the past. Her view of the enemy before her is still uncertain; not sure whether to believe this ghost is Danny Phantom or a new being altogether, and whether its claim of the real Danny Phantom being dead or not is true.
Nonetheless, the facts are of little importance to her at this moment in time. Without fear and without pity for any spectral being that would see her dead, nearly suffering a slow and gruesome fate at the hands of the ghost, Valerie rushed to the enemy with her ectoranium knife, aiming to drive it deep into the ethereal body of Demon Phantom.
Running forward, she began to slash forward with the knife, attempting land a cut into his body. Demon Phantom, watching Valerie rush towards him, saw the threat of the knife coming towards him, and he reacts accordingly to the incoming weapon with a swift dodge to the side.
Further slashes of her knife necessitate more dodges, leading him to continue to move away from the blade before it can make contact with him. When a human brain can process thoughts at literally half a second, and existing as a creature comprised entirely of human thought, there is all the time in the world to react to the attack, and plenty of leisure for Demon Phantom to do so.
Because these facts make the battle nearly no challenge at all to him, he opted not to even fight back at all whatsoever, instead focusing only on dodging away from the weapon for fun. Never able to get another change to be in battle with Valerie Gray in this timeline, he made sure to savor the experience well, not taking the battle all too seriously.
But as the hare had learned in his infamous loss against the tortoise, even the most skilled at a task cannot be lazy or cocky against a rival in a competition if the desire to win is at their heart. A cut had at last landed into the body of Demon Phantom, drawing out a small pour of ectoplasm from the wound.
Taking notice of the wound, Demon Phantom looked away from it and back to Valerie with a predatory glare, setting his sights on destroying her with no more games.
"Very good, Valerie. But I'm not here to play games all day. You're still an obstacle in my way, and I need that obstacle gone. I killed you once, and I can do it again!" Demon Phantom shouted.
Extending his hands forward, Demon Phantom fired a pair of blasts of ectoplasmic energy towards Valerie. Seeing the oncoming projectiles coming her way, she instantly knelt to the ground in response, sliding down between his legs to safety to the door behind him, grabbing her discarded gun in the process.
While sliding between his legs, Valerie landed a departing cut of her knife to an area on Demon Phantom's body that would once hold a vital organ were he living, and do damage that would wound him as a man and potential lover to another. There is no organ to cut in the region, but the feel of ectoplasmic radiation from the knife cutting through his body is still a pain that he cannot stand, leading him to grasp his crotch in pain.
As Demon Phantom looked back to see his target depart from the room with a slide, he was given a display of Valerie's middle finger, held up as a final insult.
In the future past time...
Finding salvation from one previous threat, she is now left with the new threat of gravity promising her a grisly death; falling through the air without any means of stopping her descent. Like all others who live now in Amity Park, she has overcome the forces of nature by the use of modern technology, and she is not ready to accept a death brought about by something so easily surmountable as the force of gravity.
Pressing the appropriate button on her arm to summon back her glider, the small hovercraft followed the beckoning of its master, correcting its own course of freefall through the air and flying towards its master. Rocketing towards the freefalling Valerie, the glider flew within grasp of its rider, allowing her to grab onto it and save herself from certain death, crashing a window in the process.
Back on her glider once again, she began flying to safety once again, needing to collect herself against the new danger that presented itself.
In the future present time...
Flying away from the averted danger, Valerie began making her way down the halls of Fenton City, making her way away from the ghost that attempted to take her life. Having no true life of its own the ghost responded by flying directly after her, making a pursuit down her flightpath.
Desiring excitement and a game during the time his plans were still being constructed, Demon Phantom has received his wish in full, becoming a predator once again and having prey to catch. His target is no easy prey, and is more than a predator herself, more than capable of fighting back against any undead threat like him.
Aiming her ectoplasmic gun to the oncoming ghost, Valerie began firing at Demon Phantom, hoping to drive the enemy back from further pursuit. Like many ghosts she has fought once before, this one is more than able to avoid her incoming fire, letting the artificially reproduced hellfire make its mark against the walls rather than his body.
In return, Demon Phantom repaid the attack by sending his own hellfire back towards her, naturally produced from his own body (if his memetic makeup can indeed be called natural). Able to fire ectoplasmic projectiles more efficiently and effectively than any man-made weapon, he is able to fire larger and more accurate blasts than she can, leaving her less time and room to dodge.
Showing her handgun to be of little effect, Valerie holstered the weapon, instead taking to her PDA to retrieve a new weapon. Choosing to deploy a set of landmines, she released the weapons from her glider, allowing them to drop out from the back of her hovercraft and in the path of Demon Phantom.
Unlike a traditional mine which would give off a kinetic explosion to destroy the physical body of any soldier who would come into contact with them, these mines were something akin to EMP-based weapons, adjusted to disrupt the electromagnetic signals of a ghost's body, effectively bombing what was once unaffected by bombs.
Demon Phantom made sure to fly past the explosives to avoid their impact, but nonetheless was still caught in the blast of one of these weapons, given a quick taste of what the devices did to ghosts such as him. The blast had caught impact of one of his feet, sending its formation into a disarray of memetic information floating in place, unable to form itself into a limb once again.
Temporarily stopping in his pursuit, Demon Phantom allowed himself a moment of time to concentrate on the lost limb, focusing to reform the foot back into its former self. With his mind being put to use in reconstituting the limb, the foot had reformed itself from the displaced information, back as it once was before the incident.
Resolving the temporary problem, Demon Phantom took off after his target once again, putting the two back at a chase.
Having gained only seconds out of the deployment of the mines, Valerie took the advantage to keep on the offensive, hoping to eliminate the threat completely before any more risk could come to her. Once again taking to her PDA, she summoned yet another weapon from her glider, this time ordering a weapon for her to use personally.
Her choice was a large ectoplasmic bazooka, selecting a powerful weapon for an opponent that proved itself to be worthy of such a weapon. Turning her glider around to fly in reverse, she began firing back directly at Demon Phantom, sending larger blasts of weaponized ectoplasm towards him.
Once again, Demon Phantom proved to be more than capable of avoiding the blasts, but also showed that even he was not immune from damage nor free from any risk or harm. One blast from the bazooka had resulted in the elimination of his arm, blasting it clean off and dissolving it into disincoporated ethereal energy.
Focusing himself on regenerating a lost limb once again, Demon Phantom chose not to do so at the sacrifice at the pursuit again, this time following through with the task while completing his primary one. With one swift move of consciousness, the lost arm had popped out from the empty socket, regenerating itself as if it were never lost in the first place.
Now witnessing twice the regenerative capabilities of her enemy, Valerie quickly understood that the fight she fell into would not be as easy as she believed...
...and not having any past enemies nearly as tough as shown here, she began to ponder, for the first time in a long time, whether this would be her last battle with a ghost.
Damn. This guy's too good. I've never seen a ghost just heal from a blast that easy. I gotta find out what to do about this fake Danny. Valerie thought.
In the future past time...
Avoiding the danger of death just moments ago, Valerie stopped in her flight to observe the status of the Jericho Wall, fearing for its safety after the cataclysmic event of the ghostly scream. Nearly missing the explosion of the control unit of one of its towers, she held a deep, crushing fear that the worst would come to happen following the wail.
And the worst had indeed showed itself, starting to show itself from a smoke emitting from the tower she had previously stood on. The tower showed to be merely the first to face destruction, as shown by the tower next to it exploding in the same manner, and so on with the next tower, and the next, and the next...
...and the next, until the last of the towers had fallen in a domino effect, destroying the Jericho Wall that once stood as the mighty shield that protected Amity Park from the outside forces that would seek to see it destroyed. All the men, women, and children within the city watched as the shield slowly began to dissipate; the protection they had known for so long to keep them safe vanishing before their eyes in terror...
...and, with its disappearance, the last city on Earth now knew that its end was finally here.
In the future present time...
Hopping on their gliders, the Maladies opened fire on the front door to the hangar, blasting their way inside Fenton City. Breaking through the barrier of metal standing between them and their leader, their ectoplasmic weapons are more than sufficient to blow through any locked door, and they keep them high against any other obstacle that might stand in their way.
And upon arriving inside Fenton City, they find three obstacles awaiting them, expecting their arrival just as they themselves were expected. Shedding their decomposing human disguises, the ghosts known as Skulker, Ember McLain, and the Fright Knight stood at the defense, keeping their weapons held high and ready.
"Ember, Skulker, and Fright Knight. 3 of the big ones." Thrash said.
"They're still just ghosts. We can handle ghosts." Vid said.
With both sides of the battle ready to take a fight with one another, the two factions moved towards each other, ready to clash.
In the future past time...
As the Jericho Wall disappeared, the people of Amity Park looked on the cloudy black sky in terror, knowing that what they feared was behind it had finally come for them, and was ready to take their lives as it did every other man, woman, and child on Earth, leaving it barren and lifeless at last.
Preparations for such a day, unlikely as they might have seemed to the naive population, were still taken long before it came. Sections of the ground began to rise to give accessways to an underground shelter, giving the people of Amity Park one final hope against all odds.
In droves they rushed into the bunkers together in a disorganized panic; the exodus to safety devolving into a the most basic of moral code in time of fear:
'Every man for himself'.
Unlike the many peoples fleeing into the underground shelters below, there is still one woman following that same principle, Valerie Gray. Her following of this principle is not out of fear for her own life (though she indeed is), but because she stands alone against the threat that comes for the city...
...and she knows that it plans to start with her.
Once again, the threat had contacted her on her communicator, still refusing to show any of itself except its glowing red eyes.
"Like the new power? I call it my 'Ghostly Wail'." Dark Danny said.
Her first instinct is to respond with a dismissive comeback in an attempt to assert dominance over the enemy, but Valerie is given no time to do so. The roaring of an incoming projectile puts itself in her ears, and she turned her eyes to it in response, finding something like a purple asteroid flying towards her.
Her acknowledgement of the threat is made all too late, and her meeting with the reality resulted in a direct collision, knocking her off of her glider. Losing her consciousness after the strike, she was then sent falling down to the ground once again, this time without her technology to save her.
Falling to the ground at last, her arrival with solid Earth is made next to the destroyed Nasty Burger from years past; a hallowed ground which bred the disastrous timeline that Amity Park was forced into. Perhaps there is some symbolism or irony in her final destination, but it is ultimately unimportant in the grand scheme of her life.
What is more important is what she sees when she opened her eyes again, opening her eyes to not the one ghost she hated most, but another from years past.
"You?!" Valerie asked.
The ghost flew down to reveal itself as the Fright Knight, subservient warrior-knight to Pariah Dark, the Ghost King. But his employment under the self-proclaimed necrotic nobility has long changed since the coming of Dark Danny, as revealed by his next choice of words.
"Yes. And I serve a new master now." Fright Knight said.
Preparing yet another of the ectoplasmic meteorites in his hand, the Fright Knight threw it towards Valerie, delivering it towards her with the all the accuracy of a professional baseball player, but with a payload of projectile far more deadly than a ball in a mere children's game.
For Valerie knows that this is no game, but now war, and war calls for smart decisions to be made quickly under pressure, or perish in battle. It is such a mindset that led her to press her PDA yet again, summoning back her glider to save her from yet another brush of death brought about by the undead.
With her glider making its way towards its master, Valerie grabbed hold of the anti-gravitional board once again, evading the blast from the Fright Knight. Instead of reaching its intended target, it instead collided with the Nasty Burger, destroying it completely and finishing the job once started by a simple incident many years ago.
Again, there might be some deeper meaning to the imagery, but Valerie is unconcerned with it, and focuses only on what matters more in the grand scheme.
In the future present time...
Immediately moving onto their targets, the Maladies began firing away at the three ghosts, letting nothing be held back on their offensive capabilities. In turn, the ghosts responded with their defenses put up against the incoming fire, likewise responding with their own offensive capabilities shortly after.
"I'm going for the big guy." Thrash said.
"I'll take the punker girl." Vid said.
"Of course you want the girl, Vid. Lesbos always want the first dibs on a chick." Download joked.
"I'm not a lesbian, asshole. Don't believe what you hear about chicks in the military."
"Yeah, right. Think life would be better if you were a man?"
"No. Would you?"
Leaving her teammate with an insult for him to choke on, Vid took to her selected target, as did Thrash. With three invaders and three defenders, each side taking to a respective target to take on; Thrash to Skulker, both with bulky, strong builds, and Vid to Ember, both the femme fatales of their teams, the fight was well underway for both teams to a proper battle.
Making use of his anti-gravitational boots, Thrash ran up the wall, taking an advantageous point to open fire on Skulker. Aiming his weapons to the antagonistic apparition, he made use of an ectoplasmic gattling gun to open fire on Skulker, unleashing a fury of artificial hellfire to his opponent.
Knowledgeable in the tactics of hunting, Skulker once again proves that he is just as effective in combat with another human being, even when he himself no longer is one. Deploying multiple guns and rocket launches out from his metal body, each and every projectile within them were sent right back towards their attacker, returning fire with fire.
As he continued his run along the wall, the enemy projectiles did not manage to make any hits into Thrash, keeping him safe from the volley. Alas, he also realized that the defensive capabilities of his enemy were just as good as his own, leaving the two in a deadlock of mutual fire.
Deciding to make better use of his larger build, Thrash holstered his weapon in favor of a pair of brass knuckles made from ectoranium in place of any hard metals, allowing his punches to be made all the more deadly to an enemy ghost. Holding up his hands in a defensive stance, he made his challenge to Skulker for a game of fisticuffs, hoping to get an attack that would bear fruit.
A hunter to the end and beyond, Skulker accepted the challenge, retracting his weapons back into his suit and raising his fists, all with a smile on his face.
Welcoming the challenge, he waved one hand towards himself, taunting Thrash forward.
Like a child taking to an invitation for play, Thrash accepted the taunt by jumping off the wall, deactivating his anti-gravity boots to fall back to the ground. Making use of his descent to his advantage, he raised his fists up as he descended, bringing them down towards Skulker as he reached the ground.
The initial strike made no impact upon Skulker, but it brought no disadvantage to Thrash, either. Instead, he simply stood back up and made his approach to the enemy once again, keeping his fists raised and ready to attack. Throwing his first punch towards Skulker, the hit once again failed to land, leaving it only hitting air as its target dodged it.
Skulker returned the motion with a punch of his own, following many more made in rapid succession. Just as Skulker himself had avoided Thrash's punches, however, Thrash himself demonstrated himself to be just as fast in avoiding enemy hits, ducking and dodging away from the punches easily.
Finally, a punch made its way to Skulker's face, leading hardened ectoranium colliding with the ectoplasmic metal of his warsuit. The impact had sent undead hunter stumbling back after the hit, even causing some ethereal blood to drip from his mouth, but he still did not back surrender or back down in their fight, standing back up straight and keeping his fists raised.
And, once again, having the opportunity for a decent challenge and hunt, he smiles.
Placed against a foe without any apparent projectile weapons, Vid made full use of her own ectoplasmic submachine gun, beginning by firing a full, unrelenting stream towards Ember. The attack drove her target behind a crate for cover, continuing to fire to keep her suppressed and easier to eliminate.
Gaining no resistance from her target as of yet, her own fight seemed to be the easiest so far to achieve.
"So, you were one of Danny Phantom's biggest enemies, huh? Not so tough in reality, are you? You were better off dead!" Vid taunted.
Though taking cover behind what shelter she could find, Ember McLain had not yet counted herself out from the fight. Instead, she prepared a guitar pick in one hand, holding her new guitar tight in the other, ready to make use of the instrument in order to retaliate against her enemy.
"Hey, techno-head! Haven't you heard?" Ember called.
Jumping out from her cover, Ember took to the air, throwing her pick down to play a riff.
"ROCK AND ROLL WILL NEVER DIE!" Ember shouted.
Running her pick over the strings of her guitar, Ember played a power riff towards Vid, sending a powerful soundwave directly towards her. Unable to defend herself against a projectile made of pure, intangible sound, Vid could do nothing but take the blast in full, forced to slide back against the ground.
Losing her submachine gun in the blast, she was then forced to take to the rest of her technology to handle the threat standing before her. Moving to her anti-gravitational boots, she increased the pull of gravity against her feet, allowing herself to stay firmly cemented onto the ground and unable to be moved.
Now planted firmly into the ground, Vid drew out from her back a pair of swords made with ectoranium blades, placing them in front of herself and crossing them to make a defensive stance against her enemy. Noticing that her attack was no longer pushing her foe away, Ember continued playing her guitar towards her, this time moving on to a solo to keep up her constant flow of sound.
Activating her suit to provide her with a pair of earplugs, Vid is given little comfort against the relentless loud music blaring in her ears, but it is all she can hope for against the enemy before her. Descending to the ground, Ember began to step closer to her, making the music grow louder with her approach.
As Ember grew close enough, Vid broke her plant into the ground and lunged forward with a slash of one of her swords, finally breaking Ember's concentration from playing her music any further. Advancing forward with her blades, her efforts kept Ember from playing any more notes, allowing her a proper chance to fight.
Knowing she would have no more opportunities to use her guitar to attack by sound, she jumped back to prepare it for an alternate means of attack. Spinning her guitar around in a ZZ Top-style fashion, she caught the instrument upside-down, holding it with both her hands around the neck.
When holding the guitar in this different stance, the body of the guitar grew a pair of blades protruding from each side; the sight bringing a look of surprise from Vid.
"What? They don't call it an 'axe' for nothing." Ember joked.
Caring not to respond to her witty remark, Vid instead moved forward with her swords once again, striking and slashing towards Ember in battle once again. Meeting a pair of melee weapons with one of her own, Ember responded to the attack by using her own axe against the swords, parrying away her next attacks.
In return, she threw her own forward in response, swinging her axe towards Vid in retaliation. Unlike Vid's quick and nimble strikes with two thin, easily usable weapons, Ember's larger weapon of an axe showed itself to require more effort to move, even when a mere idea in construct.
The two made intense use of their weapons against one another, and displayed an equal amount of ferocity, making it a question now which weapons was superior.
Lastly, Download took to the Fright Knight, both left as the only remaining matches on their teams, despite sharing no real similarities save for a weight class. Despite being stuck as the leftovers, however, this did not stop Download from approaching his enemy with enthusiasm, beginning his attack with a jest to his opponent.
"So, it's world's worst Lord of the Rings cosplayer. Weren't you off busy serving Sauron or something last we heard of you?" Download asked.
"Yes. And I serve a new master now." Fright Knight said.
"Yeah, well, doesn't matter, because you're gonna be nothing but a bad memory to the world when I'm done with you. Medieval times are over, you're in the future now, pal."
"Past or future, it does not matter. A knight and his sword can never be outmatched by a boy who relies on fragile inventions to protect himself."
Displaying his superiority over the advancement of modern technology, the Fright Knight moved forward with his sword, preparing to use it against his opponent. Seeming to wait for the incoming strike, Download did not appear to make any attempts to flee or defend against the incoming attack, instead choosing to stand in place.
When the sword finally began to come towards his body, Download finally responded to the incoming threat by blocking it with a pair of ectoranium batons.
"I wouldn't worry about that. Back in boot camp, our team had nothing but two sticks and a rock." Download said.
Keeping the sword above his head and its user's hands kept on it, Download responded to the attack by kicking the Fright Knight, driving him away.
"And we had to share the rock." Download said.
Unfettered by the joke, his name a testament to the lack of humor in his being, the Fright Knight moved forward to attack once again, keeping his sword up and throwing it towards his opponent once again. The incoming attack was once again blocked by the ectoranium batons; its user named Download still focused in the fight.
Whether or not the two could be perceived as a mismatch is still an open question, but there is no denying that both sides give each other all the fight they have.
Man, hope the boss's doing alright. Download thought.
In the future past time...
"I've gotta get to dad." Valerie thought aloud.
Still stuck as the primary target of the Fright Knight is Valerie Gray, fleeing from his relentless and persistent attacks. The enemy is still hot on her heels, intent on destroying her once and for all on the behalf of his master, without life and without any obstacle or excuse to keep him from succeeding in his task...
...but Valerie is not so easy to surrender and give up against the impossible odds, especially not with the fate of the last city on Earth in her hands. Flying past any building standing in her way, she focused only on reaching the one place where the crisis that Amity Park has been plunged into may be averted:
Fenton Works.
The once-home of the Fentons is at last in her sight, putting salvation and victory well within her grasp. Just as it is in her own sight, however, it is also seen by the Fright Knight, giving him all the reason to destroy it before she can arrive and see that their own victory is all but ensured.
Charging yet another asteroid of ectoplasm, the Fright Knight launched it towards Fenton Works, hoping to destroy the building before any means of counteroffensive can be made. Throwing it towards the now historic building, his projectile had successfully managed to collide with it, blasting off a significant piece of its build and sending part of the tower falling down.
However, the attempt to thwart the mortal resistance had only granted his target the means to enter the building all the more easily, which Valerie gladly did. Flying into the new, wide opening of Fenton Works, rushing down the stairway to the ground floor and through the kitchen, she made her way to the basement, successfully managing to reach her father, Damon Gray.
Even with the partial security of reaching her strongest authority figure, she is still not composed enough to speak of the danger on her mind. With Fenton Works in high alert and Damon Gray frantic at work on a nearby computer terminal, her efforts to speak seem to be moot anyways...
"Dad, the Fright Knight's here. Which means he can't be far behind. What do we do? What do we-?!" Valerie panicked.
...and, hearing the inhuman sound of the ghost who brought the last city on Earth to its end, she now knows for a fact of how useless her words are. Again does the wail come, and this time far closer and bringing even more danger to the two, for there is only one thing more dangerous than knowing of your impending doom:
Confronting it.
In the future present time...
Pushing her glider to its full and utmost power output, Valerie continued to fly away from the incoming Demon Phantom, finding no reward to the efforts she put up to find safety from the monster. The amalgamous apparition continued its pursuit of her, keeping close on her tail with no signs of letting up the chase.
To some degree of relief, Valerie does find the end of the chase, not by escaping the ghost, but by reaching the hangar once again, finding the rest of her team battling off the other ghosts as well. Making her way to the end of the tunnel, Valerie immediately stopped in her tracks and turned back towards the entrance, preparing to launch a full and more effective counterattack on Demon Phantom.
"Hey, boss! Looks like the Fentons are all dead! We got Skulker, Ember, and the Fright Knight all here! It's like a goddamn evil spook convention!" Vid shouted.
"Do you really have to use that term for them to a black woman, Vid? You do know what it used to mean, right?" Download asked.
"Nobody uses that on black people anymore, you jackass! This is the 2020s, get with the times! Ghosts are real, and we use the term on ghosts now! Totally different context!"
"Oh, yeah, sure, you always gotta be correct about everything, don't you, you racist bitch?"
"Cut the chatter! The big one's coming this way, and I'm giving him everything I got." Valerie shouted.
"Uh... 'the big one'?"
A sliver of dread came to cloud the minds of the Maladies from their fights, receiving a promise that something worse than the enemies they now faced were not the worst nor last threats they would be facing. Like a child trying to sneak a peek at a dirty scene in a movie between a parent's covering eyes, they sought to gain a glimpse of the new ghost, stealing looks between the exchanging of blows between their opponents.
What they saw was not the ghost that was promised to be a threat, but instead Valerie activating all weapons systems in her glider to use against the alleged enemy. At the command of its master, receiving orders sent through her PDA, the glider began to deploy multiple ectoplasmic blasters and missiles, readying itself to aim and fire all of them towards the incoming enemy.
And the weapons follow their orders right as given, sending their payloads straight at their selected target.
Like competing horses off to the races, ectoplasm and missiles alike all rush down the hallway, heading straight towards their sole target of Demon Phantom. The number of projectiles sent towards the ghost detonated on impact as intended, resulting in a large explosion of smoke and soot from where the hallway ended.
Even with the large blast coming out as a result of Valerie's volatile volley of ectoplasm, she did not cease in firing down the hallway, taking no chances against the enemy which came for her. Letting loose all the ammunition that her glider could carry, she allows no chance for for the enemy to survive, knowing that to fail in defeating him would result in her own death.
After a full few seconds of continuous hellfire, she stopped firing, allowing time for the smoke to clear. Believing the enemy target to be dead beyond death, Valerie slowly flew forward to get a glimpse of the enemy or a lack of sign of him; anything to prove that he was gone forever and cannot hurt her again.
And, for better or worse, she is given what she wished for, seeing a pair of glowing red eyes in the smoke.
In the future past time...
"Valerie, run!" Damon Gray ordered.
The father shows the utmost concern for his daughter and gives her the advice she needs to survive even in these last moments of his life, his own genetic instincts to preserve his offspring put into action, but the action is ultimately pointless in the face of the threat that now comes before the father and daughter.
The screaming, inhuman wail had caused a crack in the ground to form, letting out from it a green glow and smoke, with the ultimate threat to mankind lurking closely behind for his chance to reveal himself. Continuing on his ghostly scream, the ground finally gave way, as if the Earth had opened itself for its new master, revealing him for the world to see.
And all that is left of the world is Valerie and Damon Gray, the only people left alive on Earth, and more than enough for him. Bursting out of the ground, the ghost stood tall with its arms raised up, letting loose a maelstrom of hellfire from the broken Earth below him in a small display of his full power.
Valerie and Damon Gray cannot bring themselves to do anything in response to the coming of the ghost, and they know that anything they could think of would be useless anyways. The ghost that the world has feared for so long has shown itself again, and it has brought with it the reckoning that it has promised Amity Park.
Once, this ghost was known as Danny Phantom, the protector of the world against hostile ghosts.
Now, it has been called Dark Danny, and it is here to destroy the world it once swore to save.
In the future present time...
Taking the temporary pause of Valerie Gray to his advantage, Demon Phantom fired an ectoplasmic blast to her glider, throwing off its balance and sending its master off. Falling off her glider, Valerie tumbled to the ground, bearing the brunt of both the ectoplasmic blast and her fall.
In reaching the ground, she has just enough strength to get up again, but that undying hurrah that forces her up once again is put down by another. Brushing off the attack as if it were a mere child's game, Demon Phantom flew down to Valerie and pressed her to the ground, grabbing her head to hold it up and watch her teammates continue to battle.
The show is not one that gives her the sight of her Maladies winning, but falling one by one to their opponents.
A game of fisticuffs can last a good amount of time if both fighters are agile and carry enough stamina, but every man has his limits in a fight. Thrash is one fine example of such human limitations; putting his body to work in a fistfight against the undead hunter named Skulker, the professional ghost hunter has now started to find his own, feeling his body weaken by the minute.
Skulker, unlike his living enemy, has no such weakness such as fatigue to slow him down, for without a mortal body to grow tired, he is free to fight for as long as he chooses, and he has chosen to continue his fight until its very end, just as a hunter will do for his prey.
Dodging away from a half-hearted punch, Skulker returned one of his own to Thrash, sending him stumbling back from the hit. Moving forward towards his weakening enemy, Skulker continued to punch away at his face, not stopping until he would fall to the ground in defeat.
And fall in defeat he finally does, landing on his hands and knees. The attempt to keep himself up to fight again is wasted with the feeling of a boot pressing him down, along with a hand reaching to his back. Turning his hand intangible, Skulker reached through the solid skin and muscle to reach the bone, reaching and grabbing ahold of Thrash's spine.
The uncomfortable feeling of hands touch his spine is a sensation that Thrash was not prepared for, but the feeling only lasts for a moment before he no longer feels any sensation any longer. Pulling his hand out from Thrash's back with his hand still on the spine, Skulker ripped Thrash's spine and skull clean out of his body, instantly killing him while obtaining a trophy for himself.
Thrash is dead.
The ferocity of two women scorned is a sight of fury that no other two forces on Earth could possibly hope to replicate, and to see both forces in action is a sight to behold only when in person to witness it. Vid and Ember have made good use of their bladed weapons against each other, each intent on taking their ounce of flesh and more from one another.
Their prowess and speed are evenly matched head-to-head, but the factor which makes the fight a toss-up is their choice of weapons. Vid took to a pair of ectoranium swords, where Ember converted her own guitar into an axe, requiring slower time and more focused coordination to make a hit.
At face value, it may seem that speed would be the more important factor and the faster fighter the clear winner, but, when speed is in the odds of the fighter who is not dependent on a physical body to rely on being fast enough, the answer of who will be the victor becomes much more clearer to the observer.
Case in point: When deflecting away a pair of sword strikes with her axe, pushing the swords upwards, Ember spun with the movement to charge energy for an attack with her weapon, swinging it up towards Vid's groin. Leaving her crotch unprotected and her genitalia susceptible to attack, the opening is taken full advantage of.
Feeling ectoplasmic metal drive its way through her crotch up into her uterus, Vid no longer held any concentration for the fight, instead leaning over and screaming in agony, her eyes wide open in shock over the pain. In leaning forward while covering the wound, she inadvertently gave Ember another opening to attack, leading her to raise her axe one final time to finish the fight.
Bringing her axe down to Vid's neck, Ember lopped her head clean off her body, putting her scream to an instant stop with her death. Leaving her severed head to roll across the floor, her damaged body collapsed to the ground, no longer having a brain to support itself.
Vid is dead.
Finally, the fight came down to Download against the Fright Knight, determining the success of Demon Phantom and the ghosts with the results of their fight. Even with the two losses of the Maladies, to have even one more member of the team having a fighting chance against the ghosts is a hope that Valerie desperately needs, as does the rest of the world.
Alas, even Download is unable to keep up the hopes of his team leader, as he, too, began to show signs of weakness against the enemy he was pitted against. Having centuries of combat experience on his side, the Fright Knight was the clear winner to be seen in this battle, even without the small sliver of hope in Valerie to prove the opposite.
Deflecting an attack away with his sword, the Fright Knight knocked the batons out of the hands of Download, following with a kick to his chest. The blow of heavy medival armor against his body left a large breath of air taken from him, and sent him down to the floor, unable to pick himself up again.
His attempt at doing so would have made no difference anyways, for all of his action is stopped by the feel of the Fright Knight's sword under his chin.
"I'm sure you are well aware of my sword's special ability: To send a man to a place where his worst fears come to life. Do you know why that is? In all my many years of existence, I have found that death is simply... worth nothing. When I have slain the heretics and the traitors to the king many centuries ago, they provided me nothing. They simply ceased to be. And, unlike me, most of them know the rest of a peaceful afterlife, or perhaps were even free of that pathos altogether. I was not privileged with such luxuries. I have instilled fear into the heart of many mortals in my day, and I exist now to continue to do so. And most of all, I find that placing them under fear to be much more pleasing. Now, tell me, boy... what do you fear the most?" Fright Knight asked.
Swinging his sword into the body of Download, the Fright Knight did not cut into him, but instead put to use the power of his sword to use, sending him to a world created out of his own personal fears, all designed specifically to torment him. Fading out of existence and subsequently vanishing, Download was gone from the mortal realm, instead sent somewhere far from reach and rescue.
Disappearing from the face of the Earth, Download opened his eyes to find himself naked, without his weapons or armor, in a limbo world comprised solely of fishing poles. Such ordinary objects would seem passive and uninteresting to the average person, but, to Download, they remind him of a deep, dark fear that he has had since his early childhood.
Remembering an incident that occurred while fishing with his grandfather, he recalled the feeling of a fishing hook digging its way into his skin, and the horrible pain it caused him to his younger self. Buried deep into his finger, it seemed impossible to try to get the hook out of his finger, with talk of amputation being floated by those who tried to help get it out.
It might seem but a small, if unpleasant memory for most, but, to Download, it has given him an intense fear of fishing poles, a fear that has remained his worst...
...and has come to life in this hellish pocket dimension.
The fishing poles were all cast forward towards Download, all throwing their hooks directly towards him. Unable to escape the incoming hooks, Download could only stand idle as the metal pierced through his skin, digging deep into his flesh and beginning to pull on it.
Each hook thrown forth grabbed onto a different portion of his body, ranging from the least to the most sensitive, leaving no square inch of himself unhooked. As each hook dug into its target, they all began to pull at their catch, attempting to all take a piece of it with them.
Feeling his body being torn apart by the fishing hooks slowly and painfully, Download could do nothing but scream against the torture placed onto his body, leaving him suffering at the hands of the invisible forces which sought to take all the skin from his body; the greatest fear that he had carried with him since childhood.
Finally, the fishing rods do their job. The flesh being pulled from his body is finally torn off, sent flying off his body and taking all protection to his inner organs with it. Unable to keep his organs in his body any longer, they simply slid out of his skeleton onto the ground, leaving him an empty set of bones with no more life to animate it.
Killed almost instantly in the pocket dimension created out of his own fears, Download was subsequently returned to the real world once again. A more appropriate description would be to say his body was sent back, but what had returned was mere pieces of flesh thrown about, as well as a skeleton that wore his uniform and weapons, leaving nothing left of the ghost hunter.
Download is dead.
Watching the last of her team be murdered, Valerie began to shed tears for her lost comrades; knowing and training them for many years, battling ghosts together with them, they are the best and closest family she has ever received, and, stuck at the mercy of Demon Phantom and his subordinates, she knows she was powerless to save any of them...
...and, unable to stop the ghosts herself, she knows their deaths were also in vain.
Allowing Valerie to watch the deaths of her teammates, Demon Phantom prepared for the final strike to end her life, reaching to her neck. Digging into the recently-closed wound around her neck, he reopened the cut, drawing out blood and leading it to leak both onto the floor and into her lungs.
This alone would be more than enough to kill her, but Demon Phantom is not so easy to end it so ordinarily.
In the future past time...
"Hello, Valerie." Dark Danny said.
Looking at Dark Danny standing before her, Valerie watched him with eyes wide and mouth agape, unable to give any other reaction towards the ghost. Knowing of his inescapable power, there is nothing can do and no point in running or attacking, so she does neither.
Instead, she only watched in terror before the supernatural being, awaiting her fate in pure shock.
"And-" Dark Danny said.
"-goodbye." Demon Phantom said.
In the future present time...
Keeping his hold on the opening in her neck wound, Demon Phantom pulled the skin on her neck up, tearing more of the damaged flesh to rip more of it off. Continuing to pull until the skin was finally free from her head, he removed all manner of skin and flesh from Valerie's skull, completely degloving it to leave her muscles, veins, and arteries to be exposed in the open.
A split-second is all she is given left to live, taking one final gasp of air before finally perishing; a bitter, stubborn fighter to the end.
In the future past time...
Raising his hand to Valerie and Damon Gray, Dark Danny fired an ectoplasmic blast towards the two, disintegrating the two under the blast of energy sent directly in their way. The blast of energy did not stop its destructive path with the two, but instead carried over to the rest of Fenton Works, expanding outwards to destroy the entire building and leave nothing of it behind.
And Dark Danny succeeds in completing that personal task, eliminating the last of any trace of the Fenton family from the face of the Earth. With his own personal vendetta accomplished, he can now finish his quest to eliminate all life on Earth, purging it clean and barren at last.
And there is no one left to stop him.
'And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.'
[Soundtrack Cue End]
In the future present time...
Deprived of her face, Valerie Gray dropped to the ground, having no more breath in her body nor any strength to carry on fighting.
Valerie Gray is dead.
With all their enemies completely defeated, the ghosts all allowed themselves to take a moment's time to recover from the battle, each giving their all in their respective fights to keep their plans moving. The importance of what they fought for rested heavy on their heads during their battles, but the relief of accomplishment settled in after, giving all pause to collect themselves again.
But in their moments of recovery, they fear what will come next from their leader; having tried hard to avoid this outcome, his wrath seemed all but imminent to come...
"So, uh, boss? We won, so, we're all cool now, right? You're not still mad at me for getting us into this mess?" Skulker asked.
...or, so it seemed. Rather than respond with any signs of anger, Demon Phantom instead smiled, seeming to carry joy within himself.
"On the contrary, Skulker, your stupidity may have just given me the opportunity of a lifetime. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was fate that led us to this moment. It isn't everyday you get to kill your worst enemy for a second time." Demon Phantom said.
"I believed Danny Phantom was your worst enemy, sire." Fright Knight said.
The mention of his name still makes Demon Phantom all too uncomfortable, even after personally ending his life at his own hands, making him pause before responding.
"True. Thank you for that important reminder, Fright Knight." Demon Phantom said.
"Yeah, look, I had a good exercise out of all that too, but now what? Tucker sent the bitch and her friends because he thought something's wrong with the Fentons. He's gonna figure out something up now that she's dead!" Ember said.
"No matter. The president still hasn't figured out our ruse, but, even if he did, we have enough time to see the plan work. All I need is but to buy a few of those minutes."
"Oh, really? And how do you plan to do that?" Skulker asked.
"By working with what's been given to us. Valerie Gray was the greatest ghost hunter of all time short of Danny Phantom, perhaps it's time I made use of some of those talents myself."
Reaching deep into his own consciousness, Demon Phantom once again split out a duplicate of himself, the duplicate entering and possessing the body of Valerie Gray, just as he did with Maddie Fenton moments ago. After the duplicate entered her body, Valerie seemingly sprung back up to life, rising to her feet, letting out a loud, raspy gasp.
The other ghosts all watched the feat in shock and disgust, none watching a faceless human being seemingly rise from the dead.
"Oh, my god... That is officially the freakiest thing I have ever seen." Ember said.
"Enough whining. Valerie had made her own body a weapon against any enemy she fought against, making herself a more effective fighter. Now, using this body to one last advantage, I have a loose end to tie up." Demon Phantom said.
After rising from the ground, Valerie's possessed body summoned her glider through its PDA, having the hoverboard immediately come to its beckoning. Jumping on the glider and ordering the reformation of its helmet, it then began scavenging weapons and equipment from the bodies of the dead members of the Maladies, arming itself with all the weapons that it could to be ready for its next duty.
"I doubt he'll be prepared for one of his own generals to try to kill him. In the meantime, we have a slight change in plans. First, you three clean up the mess you made with those bodies. There should be an incinerator somewhere here to dispose of those. Then, you head to the laboratory and help Technus with whatever he needs. Time is of the essence now." Demon Phantom said.
"Wait, what do you mean, 'try to kill him'? Are you seriously talking about trying to kill the President of the United States? What is that gonna do to your plans?" Skulker asked.
"If done right, which it will be, buy some more time. With no president to suspect something's wrong with the Fentons, we'll have more time until the rest of the government figures out what happened and come after us. Without Tucker, he won't be able to point those guns at us right away, because he's the only one who suspects anything of us."
"But you'd be throwing the whole country into chaos." Ember said.
"Does that make a difference if our end goal is to destroy the entire world?"
Unable to refute their leader's statement, the other ghosts no longer put up any protests, instead taking to their assigned tasks to finish the work on the God Machines.
Keeping his control on Valerie's body, Demon Phantom began flying it towards the open hangar door, sending it flying off into the sky to complete its intended task of assassinating President Foley. Tinkering with possession a handful of times in the past, to extend his powers to use his possession remotely to complete a task so far away is a challenge he has never tried before.
But he does so anyway out of a sense of self-confidence, pushing the body to complete its job, and silently anticipating the fallout that will come with it.
"The last of the original gang. Dead again. It's fun having a brand-new world all to yourself to destroy." Demon Phantom said.
