If Rodents Could Talk

"Ectoplasm has never had any rights, children's or otherwise," Agent O said in response to Phantom's protest. "Ectoplasm is like an infestation of rodents – both must be eliminated." O held a tazer in his hand, toying at it while aiming at the ghost. All the while the ghost kid shivered in the dark chilly basement whose ceiling was six feet underground.

Phantom's eyes were wide as he realized that O and K didn't intend to spare him on account of age. They couldn't do this to him! He had as much right as anyone to live, even if all they saw when they looked at him was ectoplasm. Then again, he knew he was in deep trouble when he was caught. He'd just been hoping the trouble wasn't grave...

Flashback

If it weren't bad enough that Ember had gotten the best of him, leaving her in a position to have limitless reign in the city, he'd been left weak enough that the Guys in White seemed like an unbeatable challenge. Danny knew he had to evade capture, or he'd be in for a world of agony. He had a general idea of what would happen if he got caught, but he had no way of foreseeing how bad it would really be in their clutches.

His life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness were on the line. He tried to fly away, but he got shot out of the air. He landed hard in a patch of dirt, causing a nearby mouse to scamper away in fright. Operatives K and O came forward.

K informed Danny that he was under arrest, while his partner, O, caressed a gleaming tazer gun in his arms. On K's nod, O turned the tazer up high enough that it would make the halfa's consciousness fade into darkness when he was shot.

Danny felt the pain of the tazer ripping through his entire person. With all his being, he knew this was a violation of human rights. It didn't take long before the tazer's high setting did its hateful job and caused the weakened ghost boy to pass out.

End Flashback

"Maybe ghosts haven't any rights," Danny squeaked in one last desperate attempt to save himself, "but what about humans?" He sought out the rings that would change him back to Fenton. He felt his humanity spreading through his form.

"Daniel Fenton?" K said, surprised. "We'll have to apprehend Jack and Maddie for harboring an extremely dangerous ghostly varmint."

"No!" Danny said sharply, trying to spring from the spot in spite of his bonds. To be honest, he hadn't really thought about what would happen to his parents if anyone found about his half-ghost status, but in his mind he was bound to the defense of the family he was sure he'd never see again more intensely than he was bound to the Guys in White's table. "My parents don't know about this! They're completely in the dark that they've been doing anything illegal. Leave my parents alone!"

"I don't think so, kid," K said, giving Danny a look of deepest loathing. The look reminded Danny of the look one would give a decaying rat found in one's house.

"And don't think we're going to give you any special treatment just because you've been disguising yourself as a human," O said. "In fact, this attempt to evade the law will harshen the conditions of your stay here."

"But I am human!" Danny shouted. "If you'd give me a chance to prove it, I would! Come on guys, just think what would happen if the public found out you've been using humans as lab rats."

"Make a note K," O said. "This lesser being is acting as a rodent would to save its own hide – if rodents could talk. We will be doing the public a favor by exterminating this filth." The tazer in O's hands seemed to smile evilly at Danny as though it knew what was in store for him.

K nodded in agreement. "We will eliminate this pest, after a variety of painful experiments."

"Say goodbye to the rights that were never yours, you filthy protoplasmic scum," O said, preparing to shoot the tazer.