Chapter 3: City Under Fire
Danny and Shego managed to evade the soldiers, weaving through the war-torn terrain until they reached a battered city. Smoke curled into the evening sky, and distant screams echoed through the streets.
The two of them ducked into an alleyway, catching their breath.
"Okay, what the hell is going on?!" Shego demanded, glaring at Danny. "Where did you just drop us?"
"Me?!" Danny shot back. "You're the ones who played with a portal machine! Not to mention going after Kim when it opened a portal!"
"Because you were in my way!"
"Oh, I'm sorry for trying to stop you from getting vaporized! How the hell protecting you lot makes me get in the way, I'd never know!"
Their argument was cut short when an alarm blared through the city. A woman's voice, speaking in a language neither of them understood, announced something over loudspeakers. The civilians around them paled in fear, scrambling in different directions.
Then—
The first artillery shell hit.
The battlefield was alive with chaos. Smoke and dust clouded the air as artillery shells screamed overhead, their explosions shaking the earth beneath Danny's feet. His breath came in short, ragged bursts. His lungs burned with the stench of gunpowder and blood. His ghost sense flickered uselessly—there were no ghosts here, just the overwhelming presence of death.
Shego sprinted ahead, her agility keeping her just ahead of a wave of rifle fire. She moved like a green blur, dodging between shattered ruins and crumbling stone walls, her plasma flaring to life in her hands. Danny followed her lead, staying low and trying to ignore the rifle bullets that whizzed past his ears, he needed to conserve his strength, he wasnt sure how long this would take.
They had stumbled into a slaughterhouse.
The battlefield wasn't some grand, open warzone with clear sides and objectives. No, this was urban trench fighting at its worst. The city they had landed in—if you could even call it a city anymore—was a half-destroyed ruin, filled with snipers, machine-gun nests, and desperate soldiers fighting over every pile of rubble. And now, they were caught right in the middle of it.
"Move your ass, Ghost Boy!" Shego shouted, sliding behind a chunk of broken concrete as another explosion rocked the street.
Danny dove beside her, barely avoiding a hail of bullets. "In case you haven't noticed," he panted, "I don't usually do this kind of combat!"
"Yeah? Well, welcome to war, sweetheart!" Shego growled, peeking over cover. "This ain't capes and costumes anymore, this is survival."
Another explosion thundered nearby, sending chunks of debris flying. Danny felt the impact in his bones. He gritted his teeth. Survival. That was all this was. He had faced ghosts, monsters, and mad scientists before, but war? This was a whole different beast.
"Alright, listen up," Shego said, her eyes darting around as she analyzed the battlefield. "We need to get out of here before we get caught in an artillery strike. I saw a church tower back there, we can use it to get above the battlefield and figure out where the hell we are."
Danny swallowed hard. He wanted to argue. He wanted to demand why they were even in this nightmare in the first place. But arguing wouldn't help. So he nodded. "Lead the way."
Shego smirked. "Smart choice, Casper."
They moved quickly, darting between cover, timing their movements with the bursts of machine-gun fire. Danny hated how easy it was for Shego. She moved with a predator's grace, reading the battlefield like she had done this a thousand times before.
How?
Danny had always seen Shego as a thief, a mercenary—someone who fought, sure, but not someone who thrived in war. Yet here she was, maneuvering through the urban battlefield like she was born for it.
He filed that thought away for later. Right now, he needed to focus.
They reached the ruined church in under a minute, kicking open what remained of the wooden doors. The inside was just as wrecked as the rest of the city—rows of shattered pews, holes blown through the stained-glass windows, and the smell of death lingering in the air.
Danny's stomach churned when he saw the bodies. Some were fresh, others weeks old. Soldiers, civilians… it didn't matter. War had devoured them all.
Shego barely glanced at them. "Come on up the bell tower."
Danny forced himself to move. He tried not to look at the lifeless faces staring at the ceiling. Tried not to hear the distant echoes of suffering in the streets below.
The wooden stairs creaked under their weight as they climbed. The tower was tall, giving them a clear view of the battlefield. Danny exhaled sharply as he took it all in.
A city in ruin. Smoke rose in thick plumes. Fires burned unchecked. The frontlines were shifting, soldiers clashing in alleyways and collapsed buildings. And at the center of it all—
Danny's breath caught.
A legion of soldiers moved with eerie precision. Unlike the ragged, desperate fighters in the city, these men were organized. Their uniforms were crisp, their movements calculated. They carried bolt-action rifles, some wielding strange magical-looking weapons that crackled with blue energy.
And leading them—
A blond girl in a military uniform.
Danny's eyes narrowed. Even from this distance, there was something unnatural about her. She looked like a child—small, delicate—but her movements were sharp. Cold.
He watched as she raised her hand in a swift motion. Her troops responded instantly. A squad moved into position, their weapons raised.
A second later, a blue flash exploded from their ranks—
—and the entire block of enemy soldiers vanished in a fireball.
Danny's blood ran cold.
"What the hell…?" Shego muttered beside him.
The girl, whoever she was, lowered her hand, completely unfazed by the devastation she had just unleashed.
Danny's fists clenched. "We need to get out of here. Now."
Shego turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "You know her or something?"
"No," Danny said, his voice tense. "But I don't need to. Anyone who wipes out an entire street like it's nothing—they're dangerous."
Shego studied him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, alright, I'll take your word for it. But that means we need a plan, 'cause those guys are moving this way."
Danny cursed under his breath. Of course they were.
Shego smirked. "Guess it's time to see if that ghostly little butt of yours can handle real combat."
Danny exhaled sharply. No time to hesitate. No time to be scared. Time to survive.
He turned intangible, his body glowing faintly. "You handle the ground," he said. "I'll take the sky."
Shego grinned. "Now you're talking."
And just like that, they leapt into battle.