Error's Rival

Chapter 34: Now or Never

Previously: Danny, Sam and Tucker arrive at Rafael's building. The team didn't do so well at first but gained the upper hand for a little while. That quickly changed when Rafael brought out his new 'weapon': a young (demonic) girl named Raine who overpowered them very easily. While being held by Raine's power, Danny notices that Raine appears to be crying…

==0==0==0==

"What the hell is this!" Danny wheezed and gasped for air, "What did you create!" Danny was raised off the ground by the ghostly black hand that wrapped around his body. Horizontal to the floor, Danny twisted his head to look at Sam and Tucker, who appeared to be in the same position he was.

"This, my dear child, is what I like to call, a perfect weapon." His cruel smirk widened to a grin, "she obeys my every demand, acknowledges me as her creator to the fullest and will never ask questions."

"So she's just a damn android that you use to do all of your dirty work now? Rather than fight your own battles, you resort to this!" Danny's eyes became dangerously bright as he reached deep within himself to draw out more power. "Without your experiments and 'trump cards', you really are useless!"

"It doesn't matter how I play my cards as long as they overpower my opponent." Rafael turned to face the young, black haired girl, "Raine, finish them off."

"Yes, Master." The sweet voice of a young girl rang through the room, gentle and soft as a lullaby.

For a brief moment, Danny couldn't help but look at her as an average little girl. But only for a moment. The cold, dark feeling that had already filled the room became chilling to the bone, and every light on the ceiling seemed to dim to a small glow.

The hands that clasped each of them tightened impossibly further. Danny could see the fingers curl over his abdomen, and the sharp dagger-like nails drove straight into his body, cutting clean and smooth as a scalpel. His eyes widened to the point he thought his eyeballs might pop from his head. His head flung back and green blood poured out from his mouth, staining his teeth green and dripping all over his face, chin and neck.

Sam didn't quite have the body that Danny did. One of Danny's unique abilities that was very convenient for him was the fact that he healed incredibly. Even life threatening wounds were able to vanish within a few minutes, as long as he had enough ghost energy to spare. Being a human, she wasn't so lucky. The nails driving into her body was like nothing she could have imagined. Thankfully, the fingers didn't push straight through; in fact, it barely went past her skin.

Tucker nearly fainted seeing the blood gather along his torso. This entire situation seemed so unreal. He couldn't bring himself to believe what he was seeing. "Goddamn it!" The pain seemed slow to process in his brain but soon enough struck him like lightning.

If I pass out, I'll die! Sam's hand clenched into a ball, I can't rely on others to help me! They're in the same situation! Do something! Do something! With her fist, she swung downward and punched the small button attached to her vest, activating the Specter Deflector.

The hand that was wrapped around Sam dropped her to the floor with a thud and quickly vanished from sight. For several seconds, Sam lay there sprawled out across the floor, bleeding heavily. You promised yourself you wouldn't be useless! Get up and help! Sam internally yelled at herself. The agony burned through each wound relentlessly.

Just breathe…calm down and breathe. Ignore the pain. If I treat it soon then it won't be fatal. If Danny or Tucker die now because I was too weak to move, I wouldn't be able to live with that! Damn it! Move! With a scream of agony, Sam forced herself to move her arms, reaching down and pulling out two ecto-pistols from her pockets. With her leg, she kicked the ground and used the momentum to roll her body over to face where the young girl stood. While lying on her side, Sam outstretched her arms and fired the two pistols again and again.

The recoil of each blast jerked her arm backward a bit, and each movement seemed to make the wounds hurt more. Tears dripped from her eyes, smudging across her skin or creating small puddles on the floor.

Tucker watched as Sam had activated her Specter Deflector and willed his body to do the same. He slowly reached down to the center of his metal belt and pressed it. The hand reacted as it had to Sam. Not wanting to touch him because of his defensive belt, he was dropped to the ground ungracefully.

Sam stopped her onslaught of bullets, turning to look at Tucker with relief.

The boy groaned and pressed his hands up to his body and attempt to cover the places where Raine had pierced him with her strange ability.

Sam looked back at Raine and saw what seemed like hundreds of bullet holes covering her body. None of them bled; not even a little bit. Breathing heavily and shakily, Sam put the guns down by her side, letting her body rest for a few moments. Why didn't she even try to dodge those bullets? Does she really only obey what Rafael tells her to and nothing else?

Danny could only watch as his friends managed to escape from Raine's grasp and now he could see them lying there in pain. He closed his eyes tightly, desperately pulling out more of his ghostly energy for use. Releasing a throat straining battle cry, Danny reused an ability he hadn't done in a very long time.

Sam heard Danny's yell and quickly glanced up at him, he was still being tightly held by Raine's power. She could see his energy flaring up all around his body. The blood on her stomach began to clear away and seal up inside of her body once more, closing up as though the wound had never been there.

Tucker had kept his hand clasped over his own injuries to try and keep it from bleeding. Within a few moments, that wasn't necessary anymore. The pain and wounds were dragged away from his body, leaving him in a near-perfect state. His yellow shirt didn't have the same luck that his flesh did; the rips remained as they were.

"Danny!" Sam fumbled to a stand, "what are you doing! That is going to take up too much of your power!"

The halfa cried out in agony as the pain and wounds of his friends transferred to his own body in addition to the ones he already received.

The strange black blood that seemed to flow through Raine's veins was constantly dripping from her fingers. The nails that dug into Danny's body caused a few drops to fall into his own bloodstream. Like a poisonous virus, the black blood spread through him. The colour started to spider-web across his skin, changing it from a pale white into a solid black colour. His eyes slowly faded to a blank white.

"Danny!" Tucker cried, "answer us!"

"Danny!" Sam rushed forward and reached up to try and grab a hold of him. But Raine held him well out of reach. "You bitch!" Sam sharply spun to face the young girl, "what did you do to him!"

Rafael laughed heartily, "ah, it looks like 112 will receive a taste of Raine's true power."

"True power?" Tucker muttered beneath his breath.

Rafael replied, having heard Tucker's confusion, "Raine is, to put it simply, a poisonous virus in its greatest form. Only those who are directly infected can know the true horror of her abilities."

Sam glared at the young girl who hadn't moved from her spot. She looked just as emotionless and dead as she did when she first walked in. Even with all of the bullet holes in her, she didn't react. My attacks on her didn't work at all. What can we do to get Danny away! Tucker and I were lucky that we had our Specter Deflectors…but Danny doesn't have anything like that! "Danny! Hang in there!" Sam called to him in hopes that he would hear her despite his comatose state.

==0==0==0==

"Where the hell am I?" Danny scratched his head in confusion, looking all around him at the endless black void.

A young girl's chuckle echoed through his ear. He jumped with surprise, and twisted around, expecting to see someone. "Hello?" Danny called out, "is there someone here?"

The snickering giggle rang all around him once more, "he~y Ghost Boy!" The sing-song words shuttered demonically through his soul, "wanna play a ga~me?"

"Are you Raine?"

"How'd you guess?" She taunted.

"Where are you?" Danny narrowed his eyes, still constantly turning his head expecting her to sneak up on him somehow.

"I'm right here. Right in front of you. Behind you. Above you. I'm everything. This is my world. You are helpless here!" Raine laughed heartily with that young voice.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you working for Rafael?" Danny's heart began to beat faster and a drop of sweat slithered down the side of his face with worry. He couldn't see her at all, yet he could hear her voice so clearly. She was right, he was helpless here.

"Oooh, getting scared, Ghost Boy? I can see you shaking. I can feel your heartbeat." A hand manifested itself inches away from Danny's chest. Danny looked down at the small child's hand. She pressed her palm up against his heart, "I'll rip that heart right out of your chest and see the light fade from your eyes!"

An arm became visible, attached to the hand that had appeared and slowly Raine's entire body was in front of him. Her features were exactly as they were in the outside world, except that this young girl didn't have the demonic features as the other one did. Her hand didn't have long black nails; her eyes were a normal, beautiful blue colour; she didn't have pointed ears and her hair didn't flow in all directions. This, Danny thought to himself, was just a little girl, not a creature.

"What's wrong, Ghost Boy?" The sweet little girl tilted her head.

"Y-you're just a kid! Why are you-"

She giggled lightly, "I'm not-" her smile widened all the way across her face, showing rows of knife-sharp teeth, and her eyes began to flame red, and with a deep, earth rumbling roar she continued, "-as innocent as I look!"

Danny gasped and took a quick step backward. A hand came from behind and wrapped around his neck, grabbing a hold of his throat with sharp talons. He extended his neck as far as he could, holding his breath.

The disembodied hand remained on his throat. He could feel the sharp points of the nails on his skin. She could easily tear my throat open right now.

The demonic girl in front of him began to levitate, her eyes now slightly above his own eyelevel so that she looked down on him. Her hair began to wave around her wildly like before. "You betrayed Father. Father's orders are law! You disgusting half-ghost! There was no chance in hell that you could ever win! You, and your friends will all die! I'll rip those two humans apart limb by limb until their blood has soaked the floor! They'll scream in agony and I'll make you watch! Father will be so pleased!" She began to laugh maniacally, "Father has no need for failed experiments!"

Danny grit his teeth, "my friends and I will all walk out of here alive!"

"Oh really? You've been here for, what? Ten minutes? It doesn't matter what equipment or weapons you bring…you can't win!"

The hand on Danny's throat tightened, the tips of the nails pierced him and thin trickles of blood ran down his neck. He gasped, but continued to stare at Raine. "Yes we can. You can too!"

"Why would I want to do that!"

"You could leave this place! You don't have to work for Rafael! I saw your eyes, they seemed sad and lonely. You can live a better life and be happy!"

Raine took a brief step back and held her stomach as she laughed. "Ooh, that's quite a request. But, I'll have to decline." She straightened up, "Even if I wanted to, I'm smart enough to know that I would die if I tried to leave this place."

"I managed to escape! I was in the same position as you!" The hand on Danny's throat yanked him backward, pulling him down to the floor with an iron grip. He brought his hands up to try and pull the fingers away from him, but he just fazed right through them. "Gak!" He heaved in an out through his nostrils. Danny continued to stare up at Raine while struggling to break free of the hand.

"Don't put me in the same position as you, Ghost Boy! You are still partially human and have emotions! Look at us! Me and Pyrros. We aren't like that!" Raine glided down and brought her face close to his, her body hovering horizontally above his own, "we can't change."

Black energy began to seep from her body like a fog, Danny could feel it suffocating him like a heavy blanket.

"You're wrong." Danny coughed, "you have emotions too. You're mad right now. You can think for yourself. That's an emotion, right? Pyrros too! I can see life in his eyes just as I can see life in your eyes right now. Don't think that Rafael controls you just because he created you! Nothing good will ever come from it! So just think for yourself now!" The hand on his neck loosened and he brought his head forward a bit, "are you going to be Rafael's puppet! If you help me defeat him, you can be free to do whatever you want!"

Raine's eyes were wide. Only a few seconds after he finished his sentence, she roared with the power of a lion, "It's never that easy! You delusional half-breed!"

"I didn't say it was easy! But it is worth it!"

Raine looked into his eyes, she could see the strength gleaming within him. That will to never give up. Never before had she seen eyes quite like that.

The black void that the two of them were in began to shake fiercely. Danny looked around him, "what's happening!"

Raine brought her hands up to each side of her head and groaned in pain,

==0==0==0==

The young girl stood in the same place, not moving at all. Everyone watched as her red eyes became wide, as though in a trance. Tears of blood streamed down her cheeks. Her mouth parted and she moaned quietly.

From the other side of the room, the silent and unmoving Pyrros vanished from his spot and reappeared next to Raine. Faster than eyes could follow, his arm lashed out and he grabbed a hold of her neck and slammed her against the wall. The concrete cracked behind her from the impact.

Sam and Tucker gasped with surprise, watching as Pyrros pinned Raine up against the wall by the neck. His teeth bore from his snarling mouth, "snap out of it." He growled.

The black misty hand that held Danny above the ground vanished completely, dropping the halfa, and he hit the floor with a loud thud.

"What are you doing!" Rafael barked at Pyrros.

Pyrros, while still holding Raine against the wall, turned his head to glare at Rafael, "making her use that power will destroy her! You know that!"

Sam and Tucker took the time that those two were arguing to rush over to Danny. His skin remained fully black and his eyes were pale white. "Danny! Answer me!" Sam pressed her ear up to his chest to listen for a heartbeat, "come on, wake up!"

Rafael fumed with absolute fury, "I did not give you an order! Do not act on your own, Pyrros!"

Pyrros smirked cruelly. He relaxed his hold on Raine and let her slide down to the ground before turning to face Rafael completely. Like before, with a speed too fast for a human to see, Pyrros appeared in front of his creator, "fight your own battles." A ball of flaming ectoplasm gathered in his hand and he drove his fist into Rafael's gut, throwing him backward several yards.

Sam and Tucker both gaped with absolute shock at what they had just witnessed.

Pyrros' entire body ignited with scorching hot flames. He sharply turned and walked toward Sam, Tucker and Danny.

Instinctively, Sam and Tucker raised their weapons toward Pyrros.

"Shoot if you want, but I won't be able to help that idiot if you do!" He dropped to his knees next to Danny. Sam and Tucker had to scoot away to avoid being burned. "Wake up you stupid half-ghost! You're not done fighting yet!" He brought both of his clawed hands down onto Danny's abdomen. The flames from his hands began to burn away Danny's suit, but his skin didn't seem to be affected. The black virus that had swollowed him up began to vanish. The black on his skin slowly withered away until he was back to normal.

Pyrros pulled his hands back and stood up.

Danny's eyes opened and with a smirk he said, "you finally decided to join the party, Pyrros?" He let out a light groan as he rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself to a stand. The top half of his black outfit had been severely burned to the point that it seemed to not exist. It only held together by a few thin strings.

"Danny!" Sam's eyes lit up, "you're okay!"

"Sorry for making you worry." Danny replied with a small smile.

Tucker leaned toward Sam, "so, explain to me, why is the bad guy helping us?" He whispered.

Sam shrugged, having wondered the same thing. The way Danny had just spoken to Pyrros made it seem like he knew Pyrros would help them.

Danny walked up to stand next to Pyrros, "is Raine alright?"

"She'll wake up soon. I don't know what she'll do after that."

Sam looked at Danny, with his shirt burnt away she could clearly see the scars on his body that he had obtained throughout his life. The one that stood out the most was the large X on his back that went from his shoulders to the opposite hip. She remembered that scar and remembered him telling her for the first time about it and all of the things about Rafael.

Sam clamped her eyes shut for a moment and inhaled deeply. She relaxed her muscles and exhaled as she loaded two guns in her hands. That's right. We're here to defeat Rafael for everything he's done in the past. We won't let him get away with any of this! It's now or never.

Tucker followed as Sam had, tightly holding his gun in hand, ready to battle.

Danny gathered green ectoenergy in both of his hands, "You ready, guys? Warm up's over!"

Rafael stood up from where he had been thrown, "that was a good punch, Pyrros. Looks like I wasn't able to trust you after all. I should have known you would join them."

"Ha! Don't misunderstand!" Pyrros replied, "Only reason I'm helpin' them is because we have a common goal right now."

"I see." Rafael gave a half-hearted sigh, "it won't do any good. I can defeat you four on my own." He raised his hand up into the air, "I think you'll find that I'm more powerful than I look." Yellow sparks danced on his fingertips.

Danny's eyes grew wide, "you have powers!"

His question was answered as Rafael snapped his fingers. From his hand, a bolt of lightning shot forward.

"Shit!" Danny threw his hands forward and forced a barrier around the four of them. The lightning bolt exploded into thousands of small sparks from the shield.

"When did you get powers!" Sam barked, more out of fear than anger.

"I have been studying supernatural powers long before you all were born. Did you really believe that I wouldn't give myself some?"

Danny's brows pulled together, "but you never used them before!"

"I never had a reason to." Rafael casually replied.

"Not even last time we fought!"

"I didn't need them. I killed you without the use of any powers, didn't I? Even now, I don't know if I will need them. But considering it's four to one right now, I think it's appropriate to use them. Not to mention, it's been quite a while since I fought. If I don't use my powers at all I'll get rusty."

"Bastard…" Danny ground his teeth together, continuing to hold up his ghost shield.

"Are you just going to hide beneath your little shield for the rest of the day?" Rafael took a few steps forward, "what happened to all that confidence from before?"

Danny looked toward his two friends, "Sam, Tucker, don't you dare get hit by his lightning!"

"Same goes for you, dude!" Tucker smiled lightly.

"We're all walking out of here alive! You hear me!"

Pyrros shook his head and sighed, "that optimism is so childish."

Danny reluctantly released the shield that protected all of them.

Rafael chuckled lightly and raised his hand up, bringing his thumb and middle finger together, "too easy." He snapped his fingers. A flash of lightning once again exploded from his hand toward the small group of teens.

A/N: I just realized this…why does Danny seem to lose his shirt during battles in my fanfics? Maybe I wasn't happy with the lack of shirtless Danny in the show and want to make up for it with my stories…

Anyway, sorry for the late update. Again, I'm telling my readers that if you want to know why any chapters are late or anything, I have been putting updates and info in my profile. And feel free to send me a message for whatever reason! Thanks!