Phantom Task 2
"{Dialogue}"- Spoken in English
"Dialogue"- Spoken in Japanese (or other foreign language, you'll know)
[Bold Text]- IS Frame/model
[Text]- IS term or Electronic Message
'Italics text'- Personal thoughts
Danny's first day of class was a nightmare. Surrounded by people constantly shooting glances at him. So many awkward questions. A teacher not above verbal abuse. It was like high school all over again…if Casper High had been an all girls school. Danny quickly learned that IS Academy had exactly two male students: himself and Ichika. Right then, he'd considered jumping ship and taking his chances with coming across another random portal but he remained.
His part of the bargain was that he'd keep a low profile and provide ghost technology. In return, Chifuyu promised that she'd convince 'a certain genius' to create a means for Danny to return, in addition to free room and board, and asylum from any and all government agencies.
'I could still do without the uniform,' he thought as he glanced down at the required dress code, white blazer and trousers. When the bell rang, he raced out of the room before anyone else could even leave their seats. After sprinting down the hall, seeking refuge in a bathroom, hastily retreating when a girl inside screamed, and leaning against a wall, he collapsed.
He noticed the lack of lockers in the hallway along with a comparatively sparse number of students, though that changed quickly. The hall was soon packed with girls trying to see the new boy. Over the din, Danny heard his salvation.
"Fenton-san," Ichika called over the crowd, "We're supposed to head to the locker room by the stadium." He pushed his way through the crowd and offered Danny a hand.
Gratefully accepting the lifeline, Danny followed Ichika, ignoring the slight unnatural chill he felt.
"What is this?" Danny demanded, holding up a hanger with a short tube of thin, dark rubber lined with pale green at the bottom.
Ichika looked up from his locker, partially out of his school uniform, "Oh, that's your IS suit. You wear it whenever you plan to use an IS." He tugged off his undershirt to display his, "You wear it like this. And there should be a lower half for you in there too."
Danny looked back at the two halves, "And we wear these why? No one had these yesterday."
"Like we had the time to strip down before calling out our IS to answer an unknown threat. You had Chifuyu-nee nervous. She is never nervous," Ichika retorted. "And you might want to hurry, making the girls wait has consequences."
"Fine, I'll wear it," Danny replied, disappearing. A second later the top half of his academy uniform haphazardly landed in his open locker, followed by his pants. Then he reappeared, completely changed. "It's only twenty girls plus some, right. Not too much."
"Actually, it's around forty," Ichika corrected, still in mild shock over Danny's speedy wardrobe change, "Class 1-1 and Class 1-2 share the stadium for the practical lessons. I think it's to keep the first year representative candidates together…"
"And we're really the only guys?"
"In the whole school, yes," Ichika answered solemnly, completely ready for class.
'Sounds like a plot from one of Tucker'smanga.' Danny thought to himself as they exited the locker room.
"{What. The. Heck?}" Danny spoke aloud upon seeing the girls already there. Their IS suits were like a one-piece swimsuit, with mid-thigh stockings. He felt another chill. Before he and Ichika could even arrive, the girls swarmed.
"Are you really a guy?"
"How old are you?"
"What was your first experience with IS?"
"What's America like?"
A smaller girl pushed up to the front. Unlike the others, her suit was pink. Danny recognized Lingyin Huang, also known as Rin, from the day before, by the twin yellow ribbons in her hair. "I didn't think of it yesterday Fenton-san, but are you related to—"
"{DAAAAAANNNNNNNYYYYYYY!}" a familiar voice cried out. The crowd parted and Danny felt himself tackled by a form slightly larger than Rin. As he went to the ground, he recognized the black ponytail and blue eyes.
"{Dani, what are you doing here?}" he asked as he pulled himself to his feet, "{And why are you wearing that?}" he demanded, realizing that Danielle was also in an IS pilot suit.
"{So it is you Danny, I thought it was you yesterday when Youngblood appeared. And today, the school's been buzzing with rumors about you. How did you get here? I arrived months ago by natural portal.}"
"What is going on here?" Chifuyu yelled parting the dumbfounded gaggle of girls even more. She had traded her standard black suit and skirt for grey sweatshirt and sweatpants for the outdoor lesson. Behind her, Danny recognized Cecilia, Charlotte, Houki, and Laura, each in their own uniquely colored pilot-suits: Royal blue, Navy with orange outlines, White with red outlines, and Grey, respectively. "Fenton," she pointed harshly at Dani, "Explain."
Danny spoke up for her, answering to the harsh tone of his surname, "She's my little sister."
After the chaos died down, Orimura-sensei stated the intention for the day's lesson: mock-combat experience. Behind her knelt 60 IS frames, 30 of the 'samurai-armor' [Uchigane] and 30 of the 'blocky-armor' [Raphael Revive], both mass-production frames. She explained that each student would pick a frame when their turn arrived and they would duel with the next person, alphabetically by surname. After all the other students had been given practice, the representatives could choose to spar with an opponent who had proven skillful from among the students. Tag-teams were permitted outside of the primary rounds. When one student pointed out that twenty individual matches would take the majority of the day, Orimura-sensei stated that primary matches would have a five-minute time limit and that the class would be done for the day and students could leave after everyone had competed once.
"We don't have enough IS for everyone to choose the same model so some of you will have to use the other, first come, first served. Go!" she commanded. In the scramble she pulled Danny aside, "{No ghost powers, we want that under wraps completely. Also for the sake of fairness.}"
"{I'll let Dani know then, too,}" Danny answered, "{No awesome theatrics during our match, only skill against skill.}" His admission surprised her slightly.
"{Answers, later,}" Chifuyu declared, her gaze on the younger Fenton.
Danny grinned expectantly. His match with Dani was nigh. Both had chosen the 'melee-based' [Uchigane], resulting in a 13-27 split, [Uchigane]-[Raphael-Revive], within the group. Eight of the twenty planned matches had already passed, most of them cut at the five-minute mark. Only a few had had a decisive conclusion. He doubted his spar with the little sister he never had, fruit of a failed attempt to clone him, could be completed in five minutes without obvious ghost powers, but he didn't mind. He just wondered how good Dani had gotten in combat.
As the match began, Dani rushed him, sword arcing to connect with his torso. Unaccustomed to the feeling of the IS, Danny clumsily dodged sideways, taking the strike to his arm. His shield energy dropped by fifty-one units. Attempting to at least counter, he threw his other arm at Dani. She took the punch on her arm and used the momentum to increase the distance.
"{What's wrong, 'big brother', piloting an IS can't be that different from flying alone,}" Dani spoke, breathing slightly haggard.
"{I'm still getting used to it, Dani, I've never fought like this before so give me a break,}" Danny answered, planning the next move. "{After this is over, let's talk some more over a burger. I want to hear of any new developments of your powers, too.}"
Nearby Cecilia Alcott brought a hand to her sternum as she gasped slightly. Charlotte Dunois raised an eyebrow. Laura Bodewig made no other indication of understanding than shifting her attention to the girl.
The spar had ended in a narrow draw, Danny with 37 units of shield energy to Dani's 72 units. By the end, Danny had achieved better control of the machine, dodges becoming slightly more fluid. Single direction speed was also near the upper limit of the machine. Conversely, Dani's performance had decreased slightly. Her reactions slowed and she had gotten slightly paler. When it was over, both dismounted and sat off to the side, away from most of the students.
After the twentieth match, most of the other students scattered. A few remained to watch the representative candidates or the two Fentons, but soon, they too took advantage of the extra leisure hours provided. When the only one remaining were Orimura-sensei, Yamada-sensei, the Fentons, and the representative candidates, Danny called out.
"Hey, Ichika-san, know any good burger places around?"
Ichika did know of a burger place nearby and within thirty-five minutes, the eight students had changed back into their uniforms and ridden the tram from the Academy to the city. Along the way Dani had been in a hushed conversation with Rin.
Cecilia glanced between the two Fentons, nervously biting her thumbnail. "So," she started awkwardly, "Daniel and Danielle … that is…a rather…uninspired way of naming a brother and sister."
"{What about my name?}" Dani challenged, breaking off from Rin, glaring pointedly, irises glowing green instead of their natural blue.
"{Dani, Dani! Calm down,"} Danny told her, "{I'm surprised less people have pointed that out these three years. There is nothing wrong with it.}"
The younger Fenton held her glare for a few more seconds before turning away with a snort. A chilling silence fell briefly.
"Sorry about that," Danny offered to Cecilia, who remained frozen like a deer in headlights, "She gets really defensive about things in the first part of her life. 'Danielle' was the first name she'd ever had, a name given by a good-for-nothing old man."
"Sie hat grüne Augen," Laura observed stoically.
"Elle a les yeux verts," Charlotte expressed awestruck.
"I take it y'all saw?"
Four nods, one shake, one 'no response'.
"Cecilia?" *SNAP*SNAP* No response. He looked around. No one else besides them on the tram. "Ichika, you'll have to catch me. Stand here," he motioned for the boy to stand across from the unresponsive girl. Before anyone could protest, he turned translucent and plunged into the English girl's head. A moment later, the ghost boy was ejected violently into the opposite wall as Cecilia woke up screaming in terror.
Before Danny could pick himself off the floor, Ichika had him by the collar, "What did you do?" he growled.
"Entered her mind, gave her a strong mental image in her dream, she wakes up, I'm thrown out. Just to warn you, avoid sentences with 'applesauce', 'boomerang,' and 'gym class' for the next couple hours. I'll explain more after lunch."
"{You have got to be kidding me,"} Danny deadpanned as he looked at the mascot.
"Ha," Dani called triumphantly towards Rin, "Told ya he'd react to this place. Pay up."
Grudgingly Rin handed over a 100 yen bill.
"Welcome to{The Tasty Burger}, may I take your order?"
The group returned to the academy before eating the food they'd gotten at the diner-styled fast food restaurant. As they sat in a circle, (Dani, Danny, Ichika, Houki, Cecilia, Laura, Charlotte, Rin), Cecilia twitched her eyes between the two Fentons anxiously, between disdainful bites of a Tasty Burger Single. When it seemed everyone was done eating, Laura spoke first.
"Daniel Fenton, are you truly male?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"You will be Ichika's next roommate," Laura replied without answering, "I need to confirm that you are indeed male. You share too many physical traits with your alleged sister for me to let you sleep near Ichika without confirmation."
"Oh," Dani apparently understood, "After the 'Charles is actually Charlotte' incident you're cautious about potential roommates for the first boy here?" Without waiting for a response, Dani reached a translucent hand through the front of Danny's uniform and tugged at his chest, "{Yoink.}" Ignoring his yelp of pain, she withdrew her hand to display a dark hair between her fingers, "Girls don't get chest hair," she stated, laughing.
"Dani, that took more than a month to grow and it was my only one," Danny complained.
"Then tell it to come back when it has friends," Dani replied playfully.
"She's…a…" Cecilia sputtered.
"Half-ghost too," Charlotte finished for the English girl.
"Yup, just like Danny," Dani happily admitted, standing, "{Goin' Ghost!}" she called. The rings of light manifested like for Danny but were vertical and moved horizontally. Unlike Danny's solid black with white boots, gloves, belt and 'D' symbol, her ghost form was wore a different design of black and white. Instead of a seamless jumpsuit, she wore a shirt & pants combo, exposing some of her midriff. The shirt was asymmetrically divided between color schemes from right shoulder to mid-waist, white with a black glove on the right side and black with a white glove and 'D' symbol on the other. The pants symmetrically changed from black to white at a diagonal boundary at each knee. When the transformation was done, she shivered a little.
As the others gaped, Laura gave Dani a once-over with her eye before asking, "What is her chronological age?"
The question baffled everyone besides the Fentons and Charlotte.
"Chronological?" Rin asked, "She looks about our age so what's the point of asking?"
"Not physical age, Rin," Charlotte responded, "Chronological age is the number of years since birth, usually they're the same."
"And they're not now?" Ichika questioned.
"Not if my hypothesis is correct and Fräulein Danielle was artificially created."
"Like a—?" Houki started.
"Clone," Danny answered, "Yes, she is a clone of me, but she is no less human for it. She's about three-and-a-half."
"Four-and-a-half," Dani corrected, "I've been here for about 19 months."
"Is there a story behind this?" Cecilia quietly asked.
"Yes, and it's kinda long," Danny answered.
So Danny told the tale of how he'd come to meet his clone. He spoke of his bitter enemy, Vlad Plasmius, and his attempt to create a perfect clone of Danny as an ideal son. Danielle had been the most stable of all the failures, Danny spat the word contemptuously. How Vlad had nearly sacrificed her to create a perfect clone. How she had escaped him only to nearly fall prey to dissection by him when she returned to seek help from Danny.
As he finished, the expressions on his audience were as expected: rage, sorrow, pity.
"That man, term used lightly, is no more," Dani stated flatly, "Abandoned in space by Jack, fou… I mean three years ago. Good Riddance."
"Understood," Laura spoke, "Now Herr Daniel."
"Huh," Danny responded, confused slightly by 'Herr'.
"I desire to test your Close-quarter combat skills, attack me," she stood up, brushed some dust from her poofy pants, and stepped away from the circle, assuming a combat position.
"I'll repeat," Danny deadpanned, "Huh?"
"The style you displayed this morning suggests you rely heavily on close quarter combat. It is my desire to test your skill."
It was at that time Danny learned that technical skill beats raw stats within certain margin, with bruises to prove it. Every attempt to strike was countered with a block or throw. His 'Catch!' tactic with a 'Tasty Burger Special Sauce' packet, theoretically lethal if it was true combat, was merely an ignored distraction. After a few minutes, he tapped out as Laura had pulled his arm into a lock on the ground.
As Laura released his arm with a dissatisfied grunt, Ichika and Charlotte ran over to help him up. Ichika's expression told of a similar experience, while Charlotte seemed concerned with the new classmate's wellbeing. Behind them, the laughter of Dani was audible.
"He'll be fine," Dani crowed between laughing fits, "He's half-dead already, what's a few more bruises?"
"You're enjoying yourself," Danny stated deadpan, checking his new uniform for stains, "Dear little sister."
Dani calmed down slightly before admitting between giggles, "It's not every day that a legendary hero gets beat up like the Box Ghost." She paused, "What's the ketchup packet do?" she asked as the condiment pouch flew towards her.
"Not ketchup, Nasty Sauce," Danny answered grimly as he fired a ghost ray at the ballistic seasoning, 'I hope, at least.' In the same instant, phantom Dannys, one for each present representative candidate, rose from the ground and grabbed Ichika, Laura, Charlotte, Cecilia, Rin and Houki individually. As one, they channeled intangibility into their person, just as the green energy beam collided with the packet half a meter in front of Dani.
The tiny package bulged before violently exploding in a conflagration 3 meters across. A few seconds after the flash dissipated, the spots in everyone's eyes vanished too, and a transparent icy-blue barrier was visible before a flinching Dani, arms crossed in front of her face as she ducked her head. The defense wasn't perfect though, some of her bangs had been singed.
One by one, the duplicate Dannys released their charges. Cecilia, Rin and Charlotte, shivered a little.
"What was that?!" Cecilia smacked her Danny duplicate with an IS arm, dispersing it.
Ignoring Cecilia's demand initially, he walked to his sister, through her cryogenic barrier, and pat her affectionately on the head. "{That'll do, Little Sister. That'll do.}"
Unknown to them, the entire event starting with the meal had been observed by Chifuyu Orimura and the Student Council President, Tatenashi Sarashiki.
"So," the teacher put forth, "What do you think Sarashiki-san? Are they tied to Phantom Task?"
"I can't say for certain, but I have doubts for now," the blue haired girl answered, staring at the two obliviously romping 'siblings', "He interests me though. I'll find out more soon enough," she said with mischief in her eyes.
"Keep it low key," Chifuyu ordered her eyes on the charred circle of grass caught in the fireball of highly explosive condiments, "Both of them have abilities that could match an IS, the last thing we need is an incident where Russia's representative is seriously injured."
"Relax, Orimura-sensei, too much worrying with give you wrinkles," Tatenashi advised, to the teacher's irritation, "I'm Student Concil President for a reason. Give me three weeks, and I could have Fenton-kun wrapped around my finger, or at least his trust." Her expression was of curious expectation.
{And in other news, we have received information that there is another male capable of piloting IS. A mister Daniel Fenton has been confirmed as a student at the Infinite Stratos Academy starting today. Details on the young man are scarce and no legitimate claim has been made by any country as of yet…}
The screen went blank as the 'power' button was pressed. The lone figure within the room remained seated, mind blazing at speeds not catalyzed in years. A hand reached for the untraceable phone. A moment later, the other end picked up.
"Who is this?" a digitally garbled voice inquired.
"Bishop 'G' reporting in, my Queen," the caller replied in Japanese.
"What do you want, 'G'?" the garbled voice questioned harshly, "You're not due to report for 34 days."
"I'd like to request another target added to the list, 'M'," 'G' stated, trying to keep a level voice as a smile crossed its lips.
"How oddly proactive of you, 'G'. Request denied," 'M' answered promptly, "Unless you have something else to put forth American, shut up and get back to researching the core you were so graciously provided for a method of mass production."
"The plan is at risk," 'G' frantically expressed, demeanor wavering.
"Oh?" 'M' queried, a mix of contempt and curiosity conveyed through the artificial voice, "How so?"
"He is an obstacle to the true target, your real target, 'M'," 'G' paused for effect, "A wall in your path to Ichika Orimura."
Silence.
"Who, might I ask, is this obstacle?" 'M' resentfully probed.
"Daniel Fenton," 'G' informed. '{Little Badger.}'
Translations
Sie hat grüne Augen./Grüne Augen hat sie.: She has green eyes (German)
Herr- Sir/Mister/Mr (German)
Fräulein/Frau- Ma'am/Miss/Ms (German)
Elle a les yeux verts.: She has green eyes. (French)
Author's Notes
So here we are the end of chapter 2. Yay! This story hasn't gotten as much attention as I'd hoped, but I associate that with me posting it at 2-3am central daylight time in the middle of the week. Speaking of time, in the last chapter I forgot to mention the time difference, Japan is 13 to 16 hours ahead of the US, depending on which part of the US is being compared(Eastern:13 hours, Central:14 hours, Mountain:15 hours, Pacific: 16 hours). So 0217 hrs (2:17 A.M. for those unfamiliar with military time) in Japan is 1317 hours (1:17 P.M.) the previous day in Washington D.C. so Chifuyu could have contacted the US Government without having to wake someone up.
Thus, this chapter has Danny actually pilot an IS in combat. I'm not sure if the Academy actually does have sixty operational IS that they'd all deploy at once for a couple classes to use, but just go with it. The reason Dani did so well against Danny (pretty confusing with two characters with almost phonetically identical names, ain't it) was because of her greater experience with IS in addition to using the machine's armament as well. Still not sure if either will get a personal machine, since neither are native, Danny expressly desires to return to his world/dimension, and only 467 IS cores were distributed throughout the nations (a single core vanishing could change the balance of power). Admittedly, if either Fenton/Phantom was given a personal IS, it wouldn't be some high-specs third-generation or fourth generation machine, it'd be a lowly first generation or early second generation machine, ghost powers compensating for mechanical inferiority, and vice versa.
Now for Danielle Fenton, one of the big parts of this chapter. I might be shooting myself in the foot by introducing another Danny Phantom character so early, but whatever. Danny won't be expressly involved with all the harem antics and would have probably stuck mostly to himself without someone familiar to be open around at first. It also gives a chance for him to display/explain ghost powers that she might not grasp completely (cryokinesis, ghostly wail). Also, since Dani and Danny are virtually identical, besides primary and secondary sexual characteristics, it allows for the other characters to reasonably question Danny's gender without seeming unreasonably paranoid.
Danny did notice Dani's shivering and diminishing complexion recognizing the symptoms of growing cryokinetic powers. The 'Tasty Sauce' was a halfhearted jab at her… that happened to explode. He would've pulled her aside to help her with ice powers before she collapsed as he had in 'Urban Jungle'.
And so the plot thickens (maybe). Thank you for reading and as always, please review.