For the tenth or eleventh time today, Danny held back a yawn as he sat in his chair at his high school graduation, listening to the Superintendent going on and on.
He hadn't gotten a lot of sleep since Skulker had teamed up with Technus to attack him as a 'graduation' present. Danny had spent most of the night on Skulker's island dodging weapons that were even more dangerous and controlled by Technus.
Long story short, Danny got the two ghosts to fight over who would get the credit for beating him and trapping them in the Fenton thermos.
"And now Casper highs one hundredth and fourth graduating class," the Superintendent said, finally ending the speech. Principal Ishiyama took his spot at the podium. "when I call your name, please come and receive your diploma."
One by one, Danny's former classmates were called onto the stage to get their diploma.
"Danny Fenton," Principal Ishiyama called.
People clapped as Danny stood up, his family clapping the loudest. Danny walked onto the stage, taking the diploma from Mr. Lancer. "I've been a teacher for many years, Mr. Fenton. I can honestly say I've never had a student quite like you," he said, shaking Danny's hand. "congratulations."
"Thanks, Mr. Lancer," Danny said, shaking his hand and walking off the stage
After Danny returned to his seat, he drifted off, only waking up when Tucker and Sam's names were called. He cheered for his oldest friends before he drifted back to sleep.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the graduating class of two thousand and-" the speaker system gave out as red storm clouds began to form over the football stadium.
Danny's ghost sense went off as he felt a familiar shiver go down his spine.
"Oh man, not Nighloks again," Danny groaned in annoyance.
A bolt of red lightning struck down. Standing on the fifty-yard line was Sharktapus, wearing dark red and black samurai armor. Half his shark face was covered with a burn scar from Sam and her eternal flame.
Danny was surprised to see standing in front of Sharktapus were the mummy ghost Hotep Ra, whom Danny hadn't seen since Tucker sicced the sphinx on him, Prince Aragon, the creep who tried to make Sam marry him against her will, and Penelope Spectra, the worlds worst guidance counselor.
Though there was something different about the three of them, something in his bones he could tell they were different. They changed, becoming something different, something nasty like Vlad had
They'd become Nighloks.
Behind them, of course, was an army of Moogers
Behind him, graduates, school faculty, and parents were being evacuated with help from his parents, Jazz and Valerie.
While Dani, Antonio, Buzz, Henry, Luke, and the Changs ran to Danny's side.
"Is this really your plan? Sushi faces three of my enemies and an army of moogers," Danny quipped as he went ghost. Tucker had pulled on his beret, tapping a button on the hat, shooting down, covering his body with his Steel Spector armor. Sam had lit a fireball in her hands.
Debbie looked at her siblings before they morphed into the Phantom Force Rangers. Antonio Morphed into the Gold Samurai Ranger.
Sharktapus grinned, showing off a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. "I have more than enough tricks up my sleeves to destroy you, and when I do, human misery will overflow, and the Senzu river will flood this pitiful realm," he gloated before Spectra Aragon and Hotep Ra stepped forward.
"Ready?" Spectra asked sinisterly before holding up her wrist. What was on it shocked Danny
It was a Morpher!
Aragon and Hotep Ra mimicked her. "Ready," they said
"Senzu River rise," they said in unison, tapping their morphs in unison. Senzu river poured out from the morphers forming around their bodies before it changed into cloth.
Each of the ghosts turned Nighloks was now wearing a dark-colored power ranger uniform: Spectra in red, Hotep Ra green, and Aragon blue. There were spikes on their bracers and shoulders. The helmets looked like sharks' heads, the 'teeth' surrounding the visors.
"Uh, since when are evil power rangers a thing," Tucker asked.
"According to historical records since the first appearance of Power Rangers in Angel Grove, though in the past 'evil' power rangers tend to join their more heroic compatriots shortly after," Luke explained. "I doubt the pattern will continue with these three."
Not likely, Danny thought. "How'd you get a hold of the morphing grid?"
"The Morphing grids draws its power from both the greatest source of good at any given time and also the greatest source of evil," Sharktapus explained. "you can thank an old friend of yours in Wisconsin for helping me to access the grid,"
An old friend, Danny thought before it came to him, "Rangers still alive."
"I knew it," Buzz shouted. "I knew I wasn't crazy."
Okay, Danny needed to learn what Buzz was talking about. He'd ask about it later.
You know, assuming they survived this, that is
With a wave of his hand from Sharktapus, the moogers charged forward. Tucker stepped forward, bending over slightly. A missile shot from the top of his backpack, destroying the first two lines of moogers
"I've always wanted to use that," Tucker said before pulling out his blasters and charging into the fight, the rangers and the others following after him into the action.
"I've always wanted to do that, too," Danny admitted quietly before charging into the fight.
Antonio uses his barracuda blade to slash through the army of Moggers.
Tucker fired shot after shot, trapping Moogers in the thermoses built into his gauntlets or blasting them with his blasters, sending the fish-faced freaks flying. Three moogers swung their swords at his head. Tucker blocked with his bracers, rocketing forward with his jetpack, knocking them to the ground. He turned and fired his thermoses, trapping the moogers inside.
Without the Senzu River, they'd dry out inside the thermos, turning into mud
The only problem was cleaning the mud out of his suit later.
"Watch out," Debbie Chang, the green Phantom ranger, cried out from where she was fighting with moogers. Tucker turned in time to dodge a blast from Hotep Ra.
"Greetings, my liege," Hotep Ra said mockingly, pulling out a hook-shaped sword. "I will savor smiting you and claiming your kingdom," Tucker's one-time 'adviser' charged at Tucker, swinging his sword at him.
Tucker dodged the attack and opened fire, blasting Hotep Ra with his blasters. When Tucker hit Hotep, Ras's body turned to sand the blasts passing harmlessly through him.
He couldn't see it, but Tucker could tell he was grinning underneath the ranger helmet. Hotep Ra was smiling when the mummy ghost turned Nighlok swung his sword, hitting Tucker across the chest and sending him sliding back. Hotep Ra rushed forward, grabbing Tucker by the helmet and pushing him into the wall. A cracks began to form in his visor.
"You will regret not using the scarab scepter in this fight, my pharaoh," Hotep Ra said. "if you surrender it to me willingly, I'll let you live in my new empire when I take over the world."
Tucker laughed weakly. "I gave it up," he said
"What?" Hotep Ra stepped back, shocked. "why would you give up the scarab scepter? You had unlimited power. You were a god on Earth. You could have ruled the world unopposed."
"That's not the point of being a leader. It's about helping the people," Tucker explained, holding up his bracer and ejecting the contents of the Fenton thermos. Dark red mud-covered Hotep Ra's face plate, Tucker broke free and opened fire, hitting him with blaster shot after blaster shot. Sparks flew off Hotep Ras's costume.
Debbie joined in, standing at Tucker's side and using her Phantom rifle to blast his ancestor's advisor, sending him flying back and crashing into the field.
"I learned that after meeting you," Tucker said, about to move on and keep fighting when sand swirled around Tucker and Julie before they were sent flying back. The sand reformed into Hotep Ra.
"You learned the wrong lesson, my pharaoh," Hotep Ra said, picking up Tucker's Steel Spector helmet and crushing it in his hand.
Sam was throwing blasts of the eternal flame one after another at the moogers, drying out instantly when coming in contact with the 'gift' she got from Loki.
Sam wiped the sweat from her forehead as she fought back to back with Billy. "bet your graduation was a lot easier," she quipped to him.
"Wouldn't know I didn't get one. I just got a diploma in the office," Billy said, using his Phantom mace to pound a Mooger and send it flying. "So this probably isn't the best time, but who knows, we might not get another time."
"Billy point," Sam said, punching a Mooger, knowing her ex could ramble and take a minute getting to the point.
"Will you go on a date?" Billy asked
Before Sam got the chance to answer, fireballs flew from above. Sam grabbed Billy's shoulder and barely got out of the way in time as the fireballs landed. Stepping out of the fire was Aragon.
"Hello, my former bride," he mocked, pulling out a two-handed sword dragon wings shot out of his back as he rushed forward, swinging the sword. Billy intercepted sword and mace, colliding "out of my way, you insolent ranger."
"Not going to happen," Billy said, using his free hand to pull out his blaster, hitting Aragon straight on in the chest. Aragon shrugged off the attack before swinging, knocking him away.
"Billy!" Sam cried out, rushing at Aragon, throwing blasts of fire at the evil blue ranger. Aragon batted away the fire with his sword before swinging it at her, sending a red slime at Sam and trapping her in a bubble.
Aragon stepped towards her. "look at you, the 'Champion of Loki' with the power of the eternal flame," he mocked, spinning his sword. "I am burdened with glorious purpose, and with the power of the Senzu River, I will take back my kingdom with a proper human bride this time and execute you and my treacherous sister to ensure none even think to oppose me again."
Sam couldn't help but snort.
"I have you at my mercy, and you dare laugh at me, you witch," Aragon asked.
"Just like your last dumb plan, you didn't think things through," Sam mocked. "you're a Nighlok. You can't stay away from the Senzu River forever, or you'll dry out." Sam could obviously see Aragon losing his cool. "also, look behind you."
"Do you really think I'm insane enough to fall for?" Aragon was cut off by Billy hitting him in the face with his mace, knocking him away. Billy turned and blasted the prison holding Sam, freeing her.
Sam nodded thankfully
Aragon had recovered by this point, charging at the two. Sam and Billy charged, working in perfect sync with each other. The two kept Aragon on the back, Billy slamming his phantom mace against the ground, creating a shockwave. At the same time, Sam fired a stream of fire. The two attacks combined, creating a flaming shockwave that crashed into Aragon, sending him flying back
At this point, Sam was breathing heavily. Her graduation gown was clinging to her body like a second skin, thanks to all the sweating she'd done from using the eternal flame so much, but it didn't matter.
Sam was a fighter. She had always been a fighter, and while she hadn't always picked the best fight or the best way to go about it, helping people fighting ghosts with Danny and Tucker was the most important fight she'd ever been a part of, and she was never going to give up.
Aragon pulled himself up, his visor glowing blue. "I've had enough of this," Aragon shouted before his visor began to open. Sam pushed Billy behind her and conjured a shield of fire just as Aragon unleashed a massive stream of fire from his mouth
An explosive shockwave crashed into Sam and Billy, sending them crashing down.
Aragon stepped over towards them, placing his boot on Sam's chest and pushing down, making it hard to breathe. "now, who is the one who doesn't think things through, witch?" Aragon taunted, using her own words against her before kicking her in the face and knocking her out
With Danny, he'd been overwhelmed from near the start. It was like every Mooger wanted to be the one to chop him into pieces.
It's probably because he beat their last boss and his psycho kids, but hey, that wasn't his fault.
Then there was Spectra as a red ranger. Danny now knew what it felt like to be on the wrong end of a Power Rangers punch. It was worse than taking a hit from Pariah Dark Mace.
At least during that fight, he had the ectoskeleton to cushion the blows. Now, not so much
Spectra spun, kicking at his face. Danny brought his arms up to block. It felt like he'd been hit by a truck. He was sent flying back. Hotep Ra appeared, hitting him in the ribs and sending him flying towards Aragon, who closed-lined him, stopping his momentum before throwing him into the groundbreaking through the ground. Aragon then tossed him up.
"Fire!" Sharkatapus yelled out before he and the three psycho rangers fired lightning at him from their fingers. Danny screamed as the evil electricity surged over him and through him. Danny fell to the ground, morphing back. Danny was barely conscious around him. He saw his friends and cousins beaten and on the ground.
No
Danny tried to get up, but Sharktapus pinned him down with a tentacle, laughing. "behold the mighty Danny Phantom," Sharktapus mocked. "defeated of Pariah Dark, Undergrowth, Vortex, Nocturne, and Vlad Plasmius, the worst of the worst." Sharktapus threw him across the ground. Danny rolled before coming to a stop
"Look at you kneeling in the dirt like the worm you are before the might of the Nighloks…" Sharktapus continued to mock, shocking him with his lightning. Danny grits his teeth to keep from screaming.
"If you're so mighty, how come you wanted to make Vlad, someone with the same powers as me, into a Nighloks?" Danny quipped through gritted teeth as he pushed himself up onto his feet. "How come I've been kicking your scaly butt whenever you crawled out of your sewer dimension for the past three years," he asked.
Sharktapus growled
"Nighloks aren't mighty. You're just a bunch of knockoff boogeymen who smell like a fish market trying to scare people," Danny said, "and I'm not afraid, not one bit."
Danny didn't notice it at first, but on the Changs' wrists, their phantom Morphers began to beep, glowing red, blue, and green, then finally white.
"Ecto genetic repairs complete initiating recombination sequence," a recording of Jack Fenton chimed before white lights shined from the morphers, creating a portal to the morphing grid white light showed over the fallen members of team Phantom healing their injuries and giving them renewed strength.
But that's not all it did
Stepping out one after another were clones of Danny, though their features differed about them. Some were tall, some short, some muscular, some skinny, some with different hair, and so on. Henry, Luke, and Buzz recognized them instantly. "brothers," they muttered, recognizing their fellow clones from Vlad's first cloning attempt after becoming a Nighlok.
Danis eyes were drawn to four specific clones: one larger and more muscular, one thin one who was six inches tall, and one who looked like Danny but with a shaved head and a birthmark that could be mistaken for scars at a distance.
"Brothers," Dani said, tears in her eyes as she couldn't help rushing over. She hugged the four, and they hugged her back.
"What is this?" Sharktapus demanded, shocked. "These clones died years ago saving this miserable world from the Disasteroid I know it."
Danny smirked, feeling refreshed as he cracked his knuckles. "this is a family reunion," Danny answered, "and you weren't invited."
Danny looked back to the others, "ready."
"Ready," everyone echoed back in unison.
"We're going ghost"
"Phantom Force going ghost."
"We don't have a battle cry," Tucker shouted.
Everyone who could morphed before they charged
Sharktapus, if he were smart, might have retreated at the surprise of twenty-nine new enemies, but no one ever called the Nighloks smart. He summoned more moogers. "CRUSH THEM ALL!" he shouted, charging into the fight.
The fighting was fierce. The clones tore through the Moogers like wrapping paper on birthday presents.
Sam and Billy, working together, overwhelmed Aragon, tricking him into trying the same fire attack as before but firing into his open visor this time. The ghost tyrant turned Nighlok exploded in a ball of blue flames
Hotep Ra turned into a sandstorm, sending clones flying and making it difficult to see Tucker using his PDA to hack into the school sprinkler system and turn it on.
Hotep Ra, when hit with the water, turned from sand into mud and tried and failed to reform into the evil green ranger completely and was a sitting duck for Tucker and Debbie to fire, destroying the Nighlok.
Spectra was the hardest of the psycho rangers to beat, knocking around clone after clone and knocking Henry into Luke before drawing two swords and rushing at Danny.
"There's no way I'm giving up!" she yelled insanely, not that anyone would say Spectra was ever completely sane in the first place, as she rushed at Danny.
'I've never tried using this power in a fight,' Danny thought. 'here goes nothing.'
As Spectra swung her swords at Danny's neck, Danny turned into green smoke just like his evil self from the future did. He'd screamed when he developed this power, and part of him even worried that he was becoming just like him.
But Danny knew better. He had what he didn't: friends, family, the love of his beautiful girlfriend, and the promise that he'd keep that he wouldn't become him EVER.
Danny reformed behind a shocked Spectra, holding up a hand powering up a ghost ray.
Danny fired the ghost ray, overwhelming Spectra and disintegrating her.
Soon, the Moogers were either destroyed or were drying out from not being in the Senzu River. Even Sharktapus was beginning to dry out he was beginning to dry out.
"It's over," Danny said coldly. "Now give up."
"NEVER," Sharktapus swore, "I don't care if it takes me a hundred years, a thousand years, or a hundred thousand years. I will conquer this world and wipe out your entire bloodline. I will make them curse your name and the day you walked into the ghost portal."
Danny knew Sharktapus would keep that promise if he could, so Danny wouldn't let him escape to do it. "not going to happen,"
Danny and the others fired in unison. Their combined attacks were too fast-hitting Sharktapus before he could escape, destroying him completely and entirely in a red explosion.
"Ordinarily, I'm opposed to the killing of sharks," Sam said, looking at the spot where Sharktapus had been standing with hatred. Danny couldn't blame her; Sharktapus had spent a while messing with Sam's emotions, feeding on them to make himself powerful, and probably would have eaten her when he was done, "but he's an exception."
"I second that," Tucker said, looking at his destroyed helmet and picking up the pieces. "I'm really hoping that's the last we see of Nighlok…"
Danny and Sam seconded that before they hugged.
"Hey!" a clone shouted. Danny needed to figure out which one. He'd have to learn their names later. "Let's celebrate."
Everyone else gave a resounding cheer at that.
Before they left, a giant explosion happened, and Sharktopus grew to a giant size.
"I completely forgot they can do that…" Danny grumbled .
"I will destroy you, Danny Phantom!" as Sharkapus l
raised his foot to stomp on our heroes, a giant samurai robot with wings on its back came down and kicked the Giant Nighlok in the face.
"The Samurai Rangers, what are they doing here?" Sharktopus yelled as he stumbled from the kick.
"Fantastico, they got my message and are here to help…" Antonio said.
Sharktapus fired a barrage of teeth from his mouth as the battle wing Megazord flew up and dodged the attack. The Battlewing Megazord flew high into the air, its gears on its back winds, charging with yellow energy before striking Sharktapus down by plummeting and slicing him in half.
"Nooooooo!" the Nighlok screamed before he exploded.
"Samurai Rangers victory is ours!" The red ranger said.
"That was so amazing!" Tucker gasped in amazement.
"Thanks for calling your team, Antonio…" Danny thanks Jazz's boyfriend.
"It's no problem, amigo. Also, my team will finally seal the Sanzo River so Nighloks will never invade Earth again…" Antonio said.
"That's awesome!" Danny stated.
"So wait back up a minute," Penny asked, holding a hand and sitting next to him on the Fenton Works couch at Team Phantoms graduation party. "The clones have been ALIVE this whole time,"
'
"Well, alive isn't the exact word," Danny said before going into how his parents explained it to him when they asked him to give up the red Phantom morphed minus the slideshow they had
"Okay, so Vlad recycled the DNA from Danis brothers and mixed it with Senzu River water. Then he used a computer to mold the clones so that they looked at me on the outside, but on the inside, they weren't completely stable. Not till he added Dani's DNA to the mix were they semi-stable," Danny said, looking towards Dani, who was happily talking with her clone brothers.
They'd been close, unaware of Vlad, who had played them against each other, and she had hidden that their melting into goo had really hurt her. Dani had rarely left the fourth side.
She only briefly talked with her five clone sisters.
Yes, sisters, because of Vlad's cloning tech, one of every five clones got two y chromasomes instead of an x and a y like Danny.
"And Danis DNA gave Luke and Buzz their sapience," Penny said. "with it, there were more Fenton genes than the Senzu River."
Danny nodded
"Yeah, something that my parents and Tucker figured out, and unlike with Henry, Luke, and Buzz, they couldn't use ecto dejecto to purge the Senzu river from their genes. The river water was the only thing keeping them stable, but if they didn't do something, the water would overwhelm the human DNA, and they'd turn into Nighlok…"
Something no one wanted, one Nighlok with ghost powers was bad enough. No one wanted to imagine how much damage twenty-five could do.
"And that's where the morphing grid came in," Penny asked.
Danny nodded
"Yeah, my parents reached out to all kinds of scientists they knew over the years, from ecology to biology geneticists. Even Ben was asked,"
Though by then, he'd broken the Omnitrix
"But only one guy had an answer that could save all of their lives: the morphing grid by having the clones become part of the grid, the Senzu river water would be replaced with genes from various power rangers. Apparently, something similar happened to this one power ranger who got mutated into an evil lizard thing."
Penny looked around. It explained all the different features so that they looked less like Danny's clones and more like his cousins.
"So the Changs are getting the morphs. What was that about?" Penny asked
"Access to the grid whenever the morphs were used sped up the gene restoration," Danny explained. "I only used the power as a last resort, so with the rate I was using the Morpher, it would have been one clone getting genes restored every two years, and they only would have been let out when they were all restored."
Penny did the math in her head twenty-nine times two, and Danny was seventeen. It would have taken until he was fifty-eight years old for all the clones to be restored.
"Dang, no wonder you got fired"
Danny nodded. "yeah, I would have fired me too."
Danny looked around, smiling, seeing all the clones interact with his friends and his family. Jazz loved the idea of having new sisters and was spouting about writing a paper about nature versus nurture and possibly settling the debate
Henry, Luke, Buzz, and their girlfriends, who had come when the party started, were chatting happily with the clones. Mina looked overwhelmed about suddenly having twenty-three new possible in-laws.
Gwen was curious about the morphing grid and what living inside it was like, and Alex was unfazed by the situation as she talked with one clone happily.
'Make sense she's a spy. probably sees some weird stuff on the job,' Danny thought. 'not that I know anything about spies,' Danny quickly thought, not sure if any of the clones had telepathy
Danny was going to watch what he said until he did
And last, he saw his dad, Tucker Billy, and one husky clone having an eating contest while his mom, Sam, and Velma watched while rolling their eyes.
Danny would have fired his parents if it meant moments like this would come sooner.
Danny smiled, watching until he got a call from Ben.
"Yeah, okay, okay, I'm on my way. I'll call Supergirl as backup, and we'll meet you there," Danny said before looking to Penny. "so aliens are invading Middleton,"
Penny nodded understandingly, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "be careful and come back in one piece," she asked. Danny nodded
"Do you want some backup?" she asked, looking at the clones. Man, they really needed to come up with their own names, and soon
Danny shook his head. "Nah, let them have fun. If things get really bad, I'll call."
Danny kissed Penny and signaled to Gwen, who'd been watching the conversation out of the corner of her eye before they discreetly left the house.
First Nighloks, now aliens. Things always got exciting around here, did they?
Danny looked back for a moment and smiled as he went ghost.
He wouldn't want it any other way.
"Wow, this one is a long one," Deadpool said, showing up in the author's notes. "And wow, ain't that a shock the clones coming back to life?" Deadpool made air quotes when he sarcastically said shock
"Yes, it's pretty long, and adding the samurai rangers to the story to kill him off for good is the most difficult part of this chapter. I was going to introduce the Phantom Zords, which would be based on extinct animals, but I decided to do the samurai rangers to make it much easier for me…" PFN said.
Danny Phantom is a superhero story. Plenty of people have come back to life in superhero stories, some more than once.
It depends on how you revive those sad characters. For example, the Dragon Ball series uses the arms of his namesake to revive people all the time.
"Fair," Deadpool conceded, "but what about the one-in-five girl clone thing."
PFN: Yeah, all the clothes that were made were male , and none of them were female
In Kindred Spirits, Dani was the only girl clone. I doubt Vlad bothered really trying to improve the tech he had Henry, who was obviously his favorite
The rest, besides Luke and Buzz, were mindless robots that Vlad would have just melted to make new clones when he discovered they were perfect copies of Danny.
"Or they would have turned into Nighloks and wasted him first."
Or that yeah
"So Number Boy, have you considered writing a spinoff for the spinoff? I can see it now: The many clones of Danny Fenton costarring me Deadpool as I help them find their own perfect matches or clone Penny a bunch of times, whichever comes first."
Yeah, no, I'm not writing that. Ask PF if you really want it.
Fine spoilsport, first you don't want to write your own version of the original now this Danny obviously has the largest extended family…"
I was thinking of making my own spinoff about Ben and Kim's relationship and the Danny and Penny Universe. It will show how the two go on another date and how they fall in love with each other. There would've been many trials for them to get through, like Julie being jealous of Kim, Ben learning how to keep his ego in check, the many girls trying to get with Ben , and the rivalry between Kai and Kim. One of the chapters I wanted to adopt was the episode where Ben gets hypnotized by the cat villainess when he is going on a date with Kim. Another story I want to adapt would be the movie and the finale.
"That would be awesome to see that, and can I be in the story as well?" Deadpool asked
PFN: yeah, but only for cameos
"Darn it!"