Mad World

Mad World: The Escape

Danny can tell you with absolute certainty. Dying sucks.

Now he was no stranger to death, he's a halfa, he fights ghosts for a living and he was there when his family, all of them, died. Twice.

But this time there was no reset button to make it all better.

And it hurt like hell. So many times he came close to giving up but he managed to live, survive with the help of his friends that he will forever be grateful for. If it weren't for them: Clockwork, Frostbite, Princess Dora, Wulf, Cujo, Dani, Howard, Randy, and Jake he would probably become Dan regardless of the fact that Vlad was in space.

But actually dying.... Now that was whole new ballpark. Danny can now say with absolute 100% certainty that it was not fun. At. All.

Especially because his friend killed him.

It just had to be the day that the loss of family wasn't crippling him with grief anymore was the day tragedy struck again and ended in his death.

The countdown to his death started when he arrived too late, when he got to Norrisville there were corpses of humans, magical creatures and demons lay scattered among the ruined village.

The smell of burned corpses marked the air, remnants of a desperate battle was evident. Broken bottles and furniture lay around as final testaments of their last act. The sky was dark and rumbled with thunder, promising the coming of the storm but other than that it was silent. Deathly silent.

In his extensive experience, silence was never a good thing.

Danny ran past the carnage, blue eyes searching for any signs of life when he stopped dead at the sight of a monstrous corpse. One of the Great Demons, an Akuma lied dead burned inside out. Its long pale face charred and nearly unrecognizable, body broken in so many places it hardly looked like it was a living creature once upon a time; much less one of the most powerful demons capable of tearing apart realities.

In front of that corpse was a young man, slumped over with his sword lying abandoned beside him, next to him was a belt full of odd neon green balls. His normally pristine Ninja suit was covered in so much blood it looked more red than black, not unlike his Tengu fire mode, and he was staring listlessly into his hands. It looked completely wrong but after all the things Danny had to get through that day he ignored the signs and ran straight towards him.

"Randy!" He cried in relief, kneeling beside the slumped figure. "I'm glad you're alright."

The boy didn't move, didn't speak which was odd from the usually energetic fourteen year old, his usual twinkling sapphire blue eyes was dead and listless. He was looking at.... scraps of bloodied clothing?

No... Wait...

"Howard.... is...." Randy hiccuped softly.

Those were—!

"Howard.... is d-de—!" Randy cut himself off and howled in despair. He cradled the, what Danny now recognized as Howard's bloodied clothes, closer to his chest.

The sky rumbled and Danny just realized the sky had an odd green tint. The belt of neon balls was glowing ghostly green and Randy seemed to get... strange. His eyes was turning green and every single instinct in Danny's body was raising warning flags all over the place.

"Randy!" Danny yelled, slapping him upside the head to snap him out of whatever daze he'd fallen into. Randy stared at him with haunted eyes, looking vulnerable and older than what his appearance suggests.

"C'mon," Danny murmured, patting his shoulder and pulling him up. "Let's go."

Randy barely resisted when he pulled him up and dragged him away although he did bring with him the scraps of Howard's clothing, his sword and the belt. He stayed in a catatonic state barely reacting to anything.