4
School the next day was a blur of classes and students squirming in their seats. Everyone who was enrolled in the mythology class was anxious to get to it. Danny tapped his pencil against his desk, thoughts of the prior day's conversation with the teacher whirling in his head. Half-breeds could become the worst villains ever, or they could become the greatest heroes in the world. The potential for all kinds of halfas was the same, and it could also be said for just about anything alive. The idea of a half-breed, created by accident, going through the worst kind of life imaginable, and still making the choice to become a hero to the world... it matched far too well to his own life.
Could he possibly have the chance to ensure the future that Dan Phantom destroys never happens? To fully escape the threat of Dark Danny?
The bell rang and he jumped at the sound, too absorbed in his thoughts to be prepared for it. Hurrying down the hall, he passed by Dash and Kwan as they leaned against a row of lockers, noses in the books and feet out to make some attempt at tripping people over. Danny merely sidestepped them, wondering just how far ahead they were reading as he slipped into the class himself. Sam and Tucker were already seated, waiting for him. Caleb sat at his desk, looking somewhat distant as he stared out the window. He was dressed again in a black outfit, the same as the day before. For a moment, Danny wondered if those were the only clothes he had, then looked at his own favorite red and white t-shirt and decided it must be a set that looked exactly like the previous one. He knew about having multiples of the same outfit; if it was comfortable, he got more of it.
"Good afternoon, Caleb!" the class called out and the teacher snapped to attention.
"Welcome. Please state your business." he rattled off automatically and shook his head, "Huh? Oh, sorry! Ignore that. It's a weird response." He shrugged sheepishly at the students staring at him. "I've been trying to get over it for years now and nothing's worked, so I kinda gave up on it." He pat a box on his desk. "Homework gets turned in here. I'll grade it after class." he added and waited as the students each came up to drop their papers in.
Danny lifted an eyebrow at the whole scene. What was up with the teacher? He acted and talked strangely, but his ghost sense didn't go off around him. Was there something in the room masking it, blocking his ability to sense ghosts? He scanned the room carefully.
"Is it okay that we've been reading ahead in the books?" Valerie asked shyly, "The story was too exciting to leave alone!" Caleb grinned at her.
"Thanks. No, it's all right if you read ahead. I was going to suggest it yesterday, but we overstayed our first class and then we had that little ghost attack while I was preparing the announcement." he remarked and scowled at the window, "It broke my window and let me tell you, I was plenty mad about it. If I see another one of those things, I'm going to give it a piece of my mind!"
"Ghosts?" Valerie echoed darkly, a dangerous gleam in her eyes at the thought of one having been around and her not being there to attack it.
"Yes, well. Enough of that. Now, I suspect you've read the chapter on the Triet Desians and the Seal of Fire, chapter two. Have all of you reached the third chapter, Assassin on the Ossa Trail?" Caleb asked the class, looking around at several nods, "Would you like to discuss those chapters today for class? If we have enough time, we'll move onto reading the next chapter aloud." Sam lifted her hand and the redhead blinked, then called her name. The Goth stood up, a serious expression on her face.
"I want to know more about Rettweiler and Hounder, sir. Why is it that they, and you, have names that are related to dogs?" she asked grimly. The class stared at her in confusion, then looked up at the deadpan expression on their teacher's face.
"Ms. Manson, that doesn't have anything to do with the current discussion." Caleb answered flatly, "Unless you have something to say about the chapters..."
"Just answer it! You and your employer and the author of the books in the Archives of the Twin Blades all have names that are linked to dogs! What kind of craziness is that?" Sam shouted in frustration.
"We happen to like dogs." Caleb replied emotionlessly, folding his arms over his chest, "Rettweiler and Hounder are pseudonyms for my employer and co-worker. My name is the only true name there is. Can we get back to the book now, Ms. Manson?" Sam sat down in a huff, but her eyes had that thoughtful gleam to it. Danny watched her in concern, then scrawled out a note and passed it to her on the sly as the discussion began. She glanced at it, then at him, then plucked it out and opened it under her desk.
"What was that about, Sam?" the note read and she scrawled an answer back before passing it on to him. Danny opened it up for the response. "I have a hunch. Let me think about it some more." it said and he shoved it into his pocket, a frown forming on his face.
"The Sorcerer's Ring must be a piece of ancient technology!" Tucker exclaimed excitedly, "That's why it could adapt to different situations, right?" Caleb nodded, writing on the chalkboard.
"That's right. It was called a holy artifact, but in reality, it was a piece of dwarven technology designed to adapt to the current environment to act as a tool and key." he agreed and folded his arms over his chest. "Technology that was created in the past and endures all the way to the future, functioning as well or even better than current technologies is called 'prochaic'. The Sorcerer's Ring is one such piece of prochaic technology." He held out a hand to the class, signaling a new activity, "If we had that kind of technology today, what uses could it have in our world?" The class thought it over. "Go ahead and talk among yourselves. Brainstorm some ideas. If you had a Sorcerer's Ring, what would you have it do? What could it adapt to?" Caleb added, managing a smile on his face that the Goth judged to be just a mask.
"Your name is the only real one, and the others are pseudonyms." Sam murmured under her breath, "Could that mean that the other two men are made up and Caleb is the only real person of the group? Then who's funding the Archives? Who's writing the books?" She turned to her friends. "Guys, I think that Hounder and Rettweiler don't exist. I think Caleb is playing three roles at the same time." she whispered to them.
"What?" Danny whispered loudly, startled at the thought, "What are you saying? That the teacher is a billionaire?"
"He's a billionaire?" Tucker echoed and smiled, "Hey, he could afford the coolest gadgets and computers in the world, then! I wonder if he'll let me see them." Sam rolled her eyes at the boy and turned back to Danny.
"Think about it. He said thanks to Valerie when she complimented the book. He wouldn't have said it if he wasn't the one who wrote it!" she pointed out, "But, why would a scholar pretend to be a billionaire and an author?"
"He can't pretend to be a billionaire; he has to be one. Jazz looked up stuff about Hounder on the Internet." Danny told her, "He's not married and doesn't have kids, he lives alone, his favorite house is in New York, and Tucker said yesterday that there's thousands of copies of the Archives all over the world. A plain old scholar can't afford that!"
"And someone had to write the original set of the Archives. Who better to do that than the archivist who collected the information first-hand?" Tucker pointed out. They looked up to watch the teacher as he wrote out suggestions from the other students on the chalkboard. Danny looked confused.
"But why would he want to hide that? Anytime anyone asks him about Hounder and records it, the records get destroyed by mysterious forces. Why wouldn't he want any evidence of his connections with Hounder to exist?" he wondered aloud. Caleb turned back to the class and they separated quickly, trying to look as though they were interested in the list.
"Those are lots of good ideas, though I'm not sure mimicking the Green Lantern's ring is all that possible." the teacher chuckled and put the chalk down. "Anything else? Any thoughts on the Seal of Fire or the encounter on the Ossa Trail?" One student waved a hand for attention.
"Why was she trying to kill the Chosen? Did that assassin really reject salvation?" the boy asked.
"Funny enough, she was actually trying to bring salvation by killing the Chosen. However, it wasn't salvation for Sylvarant she was intent on. Those of you who read past this chapter know what I'm talking about." Caleb answered, "So I'll have to explain it for everyone. The assassin was from a parallel world named Tethe'alla, and that world was linked to Sylvarant. If Sylvarant was 'saved', its mana restored, then Tethe'alla would begin to fail and lose its own mana." He reached into his desk and pulled out an hourglass. He held it out to the class. "Think of the two worlds like an hourglass." Caleb told them and flipped it over, allowing the sand to fall through. "When one world begins to lose mana, it actually starts flowing to the other world, feeding it and making it healthy and lush. As time passes, more mana flows on and the first world starts to die. Before that happens, the Chosen is sent out to do the world regeneration." He flipped the glass over and the sand began falling back. "When all the seals are broken and the Chosen climbs the Tower of Salvation, the flow reverses. The other world begins to lose its mana, thus continuing the cycle of prosperity and dearth."
"So the assassin wanted to keep the sand flowing to her world?" another student questioned. Caleb nodded.
"Mana. The term for the life force of the worlds is mana. It is a substance that is more important to life than water. Without mana, the very land dies. It stops supporting crops, animals and plants wither and die, magic becomes unusable. Eventually, the world is destroyed." he explained, "Sheena wanted to stop that from ever happening to her world, so she was sent forth to make sure the other world died first, thinking that it would stop the hourglass and keep all the mana on Tethe'alla's side forever." With that, he cracked the hourglass, removing the empty top half and tossing it into the trash can.
"Would it have worked?" another student asked. Danny puzzled over the answer. The teacher was answering everything with such intimate knowledge. Something that could only be done if one had personal experience with the situation. He rubbed his head. The hourglass thing really brought home the complex situation the two worlds in the story found themselves in. Made the whole thing much easier to understand. What puzzled him was how the teacher kept responding as if he had witnessed the whole thing. Crazy.
"For a short time. But there was a catch. Even with the other world dead, an outside force would intervene and turn the cycle again for his own ends. In which case," Caleb replied grimly and turned the half-hourglass over, the sand spilling out into the waste basket, "Tethe'alla would die anyway and no number of world regeneration journeys would bring back the mana that was lost because they would lose a source to take it from. And the outside force would not care." He released the now empty and broken hourglass, dropping it into the can. "Everything destroyed because people could not comprehend the situation, cooperate despite their differences, and see where the true evil lies."
Danny nodded despite his thoughts. That was true, so very true. It fit so many of the situations he found himself in constantly and he wondered if the story could help Amity Park understand him better as Danny Phantom. He wasn't the bad guy; there were worse things out there that could hurt them, but the anti-DP groups kept focusing on him. Maybe this would teach them to take a closer look at what they were doing. He was supposed to be the city's hero, right? So why did some people still hold grudges against him for things he had no control over?
His mouth opened slightly and a faint wisp of breath escaped, his body suddenly chilling in the room. Well, so much for there being a relic in the room that blocked his ghost sense. Panicked, he looked around for the source. Where was the ghost?
Someone shrieked and pointed at the window and the whole class jumped up to see what was going on. Caleb joined them in confusion and looked outside. A second bedsheet ghost floated just outside the building, holding its hand out in a beckoning motion. Valerie growled angrily and raced away. Danny gulped and followed hurriedly, searching out a place to transform. Sam and Tucker would keep the class occupied and distracted; last thing he needed was someone else finding out what he was up to.
"Oh, not this again." Caleb grumbled and opened the window, "Everyone! Stay inside! I'll deal with this thing!" Sam and Tucker glanced at each other and rushed after him.
"Wait! Don't go! What if you get hurt? Who's gonna keep an eye on the class?" Sam cried in alarm, grabbing his arm.
"Who's gonna call 9-1-1?" Tucker added helpfully. Caleb shot them a warning glare and yanked his arm free.
"You'll be fine if you stay in here. I know what I'm doing." he growled and leaped through the window, running after the ghost as it floated away from the school towards the street.
"Danny's not gonna like this." Tucker sighed helplessly. Sam turned and grabbed for her backpack before rushing out the door.
"Maybe, but I think he'll like having Valerie and Caleb both on his case even less!" she muttered to herself.
Danny shot after the ghost once he was fully transformed, blinking in shock as he spotted the mythology teacher racing after the ghost as well. He swooped down alongside him, frustrated.
"I thought you'd still be in your class with your students." he grumbled, "Leave the ghost hunting to me!" Caleb matched pace easily, shooting him an angry look.
"You obviously don't know what you're doing with these ghosts. So stick with your other prey." he shot back and smiled grimly, "And I got my test results back. Tell me, what kind of ghost still breathes and has a heartbeat?" Danny halted in shock, losing ground as both ghost and teacher left him behind. He flailed for a bit, then flew after them, hurrying to combat the ghost before anything went wrong.
"Okay, so you found out a couple of things about me that are strange in the world of ghosts. So what?" he griped to the redhead once he caught up. The idea that just one conversation with him had revealed that much was scary. How in the world did this teacher find out he could still breathe and have a heartbeat in ghost form when it takes special scanning equipment to figure that out? Sure his breathing as a ghost was minimal at best, barely detectable unless one was looking for it, and more often than not, Danny just stopped breathing altogether. It saved energy for battling. His heartbeat was faint and slow, enough to keep him 'alive' but not enough to alert anyone that he could be more than just a ghost.
"So, it makes me wonder more about this place, and about modern ghosts." Caleb answered easily and stopped as the ghost halted ahead of them and spun around, waving its arms. "Okay, there it goes. Now, unless you suddenly developed an innate Element or brought along that little soup can, get out of the way." the teacher growled and stood still, holding one hand over his heart and the other held out, index finger tracing out some quick symbol in the air.
A whistling sound was all Danny Phantom heard a split second before a missile slammed into the street, hurling him into the teacher and both of them onto the ground. He looked up, staring in shock as Valerie flew in on her hover board, aiming a large gun at him.
"I knew you'd show up and cause more trouble, Ghost Kid!" she yelled out angrily, "I'll deal with you after I get rid of this flying piece of laundry!" She turned the gun on the bedsheet ghost and fired the burst of plasma. It writhed in the light and exploded, the growing red circle beneath it vanishing along with the specter. Valerie thrust a fist into the air in victory. "Hah! Gotcha! That's one less spook terrorizing Amity Park!" she crowed and then spun around to aim at Danny, "And now to finish you off!"
"Wait! I don't want to fight!" Danny cried in alarm, scrambling backwards. There was a bit of movement and he blinked as Caleb stood before him, arms akimbo as he glared up at the flying ghost hunter.
"Valerie Gray! Put that down this instant and get down here!" he yelled. Danny blinked in shock as Valerie stepped back, startled. "Don't give me that whole 'I'm not who you think I am' story! I can tell by your voice who you are!" Caleb shouted, "Don't you dare interfere with me and my work again, or I'll make sure you get double homework tonight!" Danny gasped softly and stood, preparing to escape. The teacher turned to glare at him. "That goes for you, too, Phantom." he hissed softly, "Stay right there; I'm not done with you." He turned back to Valerie. "Get back to class, get out of that ridiculous outfit and think about what I've been trying to teach you! What you think is evil may not be at all and what you think is good may be the true darkness! Haven't you learned anything yet?"
"You talk a lot. I learned that." Valerie griped and flew off, "I'll get you next time, Ghost Boy!"
"Okay, thanks for scaring her off." Danny remarked in a rush, leaping into the air, "But I really have to get going now, so bye!"
"Move from that spot and I'll have your parents ground you, Fenton." Caleb growled, turning around to take in Danny's startled look, "I told you. I can tell from your voice who you are. The echo effect is nice for masking, but once I filter it out, it's as plain as day who you truly are." He smiled. "For the two of us, class is over. We have to talk." he added.
Sam arrived on the scene in time to see Caleb and Danny finish their conversation. From where she stood, she could clearly see the panic and horror on Danny's face. Whatever the teacher was saying to him was making him pale. She took a deep breath and raced to join them, yelling out for Danny to fly away.
"Leave him alone! He's just trying to protect the city!" she yelled and both Danny and Caleb turned to look at her.
"Sam! What are you doing here?" Danny exclaimed, grateful for a change of subject. He landed and stepped forward to meet her.
"Valerie flew past me while I was coming here, and I was worried about you getting splattered all over the place." she managed to keep more panic and concern out of her voice than was needed. She glanced over at the teacher. "It wouldn't be good for any of us if we lost the only ghost who is willing to help us keep other ghosts away." she added for his benefit. Danny sighed and placed his hands on her shoulders, shaking his head.
"Stop, Sam. It's not gonna work. He already knows." he told her softly. He smiled weakly at her startled expression. "He recognized my voice somehow. That's also why Valerie left. He yelled at her, called her by name and threatened extra homework if she didn't leave." he explained. He looked back at the older man. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Your influence seems rather spread." Caleb told him, "I'd like to speak with all those who know who you are as well, and are your allies. We'll return to the school, continue as normal, and meet on neutral ground afterwards. Say, the park?" Danny nodded. "Hey, don't worry. I'm safe." the teacher told him with a smile, "Your secret is safe and I'll tell your parents that we were having a study session if our talk takes too long."
The walk back to school was spent in silence, broken only by Caleb asking random questions about certain buildings and people. Sam watched him warily, still distrustful of the teacher. He only smiled as he chatted on about various places he wished to visit in Amity Park. Danny, now in human form again, walked between him and Sam, silent save for when he answered the random questions.
"I don't see why we should talk to you about anything when you're keeping secrets, too." Sam finally blurted as they reached the school. Casper High had recovered quickly from the ghost attack, something it had developed after so many months of constant encounters. Caleb sighed.
"Fine. I'll discuss some things about myself when we have our meeting." he relented, "Not everything, because I'm sure that will take nearly forever and you might not believe me anyway. So I'll just say what you can handle." Sam folded her arms over her chest, a challenging look on her face.
"Oh, you don't think, after all me and Danny and Tucker have been through, that we'd believe anything you have to say?" she asked, "Hah! Try me!" Caleb grinned at the challenge.
"Okay. You have your book with you, right?" he asked. Sam pulled it out. "Turn to chapter thirty-six." She opened the book, and flipped through the pages until she reached the proper chapter. "Turn it two more pages and check the image there." She did and gaped in shock. "Yeah. That's me. I just had a change of hairstyles recently, so it's not a perfect copy." Caleb told her with a grin. Danny lifted his eyes to see what Sam was staring at.
On the page was a group image of the would-be heroes Danny already recognized, along with several others that he didn't know yet. What caught his attention was the pair of twins that looked remarkably like Caleb. One of the red-haired men wore dark clothes, a look on his face that hinted at a flirtatious nature. The other wore a green outfit and trenchcoat and looked more humble and friendly. He blinked and looked up at Caleb, puzzled.
"I'm the one in green. The other one is Zelos Wilder; you'll learn about him in a few more chapters." the teacher explained.
"But... how...? Not... possible!" Sam stammered in confusion, eyes wide with disbelief. Caleb rolled his eyes.
"I told you, but did you listen? No. I'll tell you about it later! Let's get back to class!" he cried and hustled them back into the school.
The day went by in a sort of haze. Between knowing that the mythology teacher had discovered his secret identity and knowing that he somehow was a part of the ancient story they talked about in class, Danny didn't have enough sense left in him to think about what he was doing. It wasn't until Sam and Tucker were both dragging him by the arms through the halls to the exit that he recognized the day was done. He blinked as he spotted Jazz standing by the double doors with Caleb, a concerned look on her face.
"What's going on, Danny? Caleb told me in the hall that he wanted to talk to all of us together about something important." she asked him and blinked at Sam and Tucker, seeming to put something together in her mind as she tapped her cheek. Her eyes went wide.
"It's all right, Ms. Fenton." Caleb told her.
"Jazz." she corrected blindly, color draining from her face as fear crept into her eyes.
"Correction noted. Jazz, don't worry. I know about your brother, but that's only part of what I wanted to talk about." Caleb murmured softly, "Let's get to the park. The less ears around us, the better."
A section of the park was isolated, surrounded by trees and bushes, making it perfect for the secret meeting. Sam, Tucker, Danny, and Jazz sat on a fallen log, worried over what was going to happen. Caleb stood before them for a few minutes, watching them all.
"Before we start, does anyone else have anything to say about how I should call you? Corrections to my files need to be done before they become habit." he remarked. Tucker brightened at the words.
"You have us recorded in a computer somewhere?" he asked, "Oh, and just call me Tucker."
"Correction noted." Caleb remarked and smiled, "Um, sort of. I'll talk about that in a bit. Ms. Manson?"
"Sam." she answered, "Will you tell us about the guys with the pseudonyms?" Caleb sighed.
"Correction noted. I believe you already figured me out on that, Sam. Yes, I'm the only real person; the other two are just identities that I fill in now and then to keep questions from popping up. Yes, I am wealthy; yes, I wrote the books; no, I didn't let it get to my head."
"Danny. Just Danny." Danny sighed his name glumly. The teacher nodded.
"Correction noted. All right, now that we have that out of the way, I'd like to ask you all why it is that Danny here can alternate between ghost and human at will." he began and listened as the three younger teens launched into a shortened version of the story of the Fenton Ghost Portal, the accident that fused his DNA with ectoplasm, and his decision to use his new powers to protect Amity Park. As they talked, they watched as Caleb reached out and pressed his fingers to Danny's forehead lightly. "Fascinating. Even your mana seems as if it was altered by that accident." he murmured in surprise.
"My... what?" Danny asked in confusion, "What did you do?" Caleb smiled brightly.
"Tucker, you were right about me storing things in a computer. Remember what I said about prochaic technology?" he asked. Tucker nodded.
"Yeah, you said that it was technology built in the past that can endure and function all the way to modern times. The Sorcerer's Ring is an example of prochaic technology, but no evidence of it has been found recently." the dark-skinned boy answered and brightened, "You have a prochaic computer? Cool!" Caleb laughed.
"Not quite." he admitted, "I'm the prochaic computer, of sorts." The group stared at him. "I'm an automated doll, an android in layman's terms. I was built during the age of Symphonia to help Lloyd and his friends rescue Zelos, and afterwards I decided to go on a journey to archive the history and the knowledge of the world." He held out his arms and closed his eyes. Danny and his friends watched in awe as the black outfit seemed to glow with a soft white light, shifting about on the man's body until the light faded and he stood before them in the same green outfit he wore in the book.
"Wow." Sam murmured in shock, "So that's why you're in charge of the Archives of the Twin Blades! You actually collected all that information yourself?" Caleb nodded. "What about that whole billionaire thing?"
"I accumulated wealth from working several jobs and storing my pay in banks and bonds." he replied, "I just let it sit there for a few centuries. Once, I put the accumulated interest back into bonds, went overseas to archive Soviet history and by the time I got my nose out of the books, the Soviet Union had fallen, the Bay of Pigs was being invaded and I became one of the ten richest men in the world." He looked annoyed, "It was a pain to get my accounts straightened again. Bankers are so picky about details they have no reason to pick about."
"So you know my story and we sort of know yours. What are we doing here, but more importantly, why are you here?" Danny asked seriously, standing up to face the teacher. Caleb bowed his head, then lifted it, an equally serious gaze on his face.
"I'm here because your city, and our world, is in serious danger of falling to darkness." he told the group of teens, "And if I don't stop an ancient relic that shouldn't have survived through the millions of years that have passed since Symphonia's era soon, everything we know and love will be destroyed."
"Ancient relic? There's an ancient relic in Amity Park that could drag the world into darkness?" Jazz asked in horror. Caleb nodded. Danny snapped his fingers.
"The King of the Underworld! He said he was going to bring the world into the land of the dead to join his kingdom!" he cried, "That must be how he's gonna do it!" Caleb shot him a look.
"King of the Underworld? Where did you hear about that?" he asked sharply.
"In the Amity Park Public Library nearby, there's a voice that calls itself the King of the Underworld. It set up an area around the building that no ghost can get through that I call the dead zone." Danny went on and sat down heavily, "It's freaked out some of the strongest ghosts in the Ghost Zone and even I can't get near it without getting hit by its vibes. I made the mistake of going ghost inside and that's when it spoke." Jazz turned to stare at him in disbelief.
"When was this?" she asked suspiciously, folding her arms over her chest. Danny shrugged.
"Couple nights ago. It wasn't pretty." he sighed and shook his head, "It was calling for the ghosts of Amity Park to join its army. As far as I know, they haven't fallen for it and they're staying in the Ghost Zone to keep away from it." He took on a fairly exasperated look. "Well, except for the Box Ghost, but I'm starting to think the others just boot him out to get some peace and give me some hell." With Jazz starting up a lecture on his wandering around near potentially dangerous objects, Sam and Tucker turned back to the mythology teacher for additional information on what they faced.
"So you know what this thing is that's messing with Danny and the other ghosts?" Sam demanded, "What is it? How do we get rid of it?"
"And does it involve using some really cool ancient technology?" Tucker added with an eager smile. Sam shot him a glare as the redhead shook his head with a sigh. He reached into a pocket and brought out a strangely intricate object of beaten brass and a shimmering material neither the Goth nor the techno-geek had ever seen before. He set it down on the grass and pulled a shining blue-white gem from another pocket, setting it within a space in the device. There was a click and a brilliant light shot up from the device, catching Jazz and Danny by surprise and ending their argument dead. Sam and Tucker only gasped softly and stepped back.
"In the age of Symphonia, just before the worlds were united, my friends encountered a cursed book in the Sybak library that was a gate to the Underworld. This book was draining life from around itself, entrapping humans and elves alike in order to gather strength to unleash its demons onto the world." Caleb told them, pointing up at the image in the light, "There were others like it, and most of them had been destroyed, but this one got stolen before it was burned. Lloyd and the Heroes of Union managed to locate and destroy that book. I had thought that it was the last of its kind, but within the past few months I learned otherwise."
The image Danny and his friends saw was of an eerily misty realm, with thousands of translucent platforms and paths suspended in the air in a staggered formation. It appeared to be of similar strangeness as the Ghost Zone, but unlike its population of doors and gates and ghosts, this realm was filled with demonic monsters and creatures the likes of which Danny had never seen before. Jazz lifted her hands to her mouth, eyes wide with horror. Sam cringed, backing away from the hologram and bumping into the raven-haired halfa behind her. Neither noticed the contact though the boy instinctively placed an arm around her shoulders in a comforting gesture.
"That is seriously creepy. So, it's a book that's causing all this?" Tucker asked quietly. Caleb nodded and the techno-geek looked down at the device. "What's that?"
"Data crystal reader. Another piece of prochaic technology and the most common one I use. It stores massive amounts of data in specially created crystals." the teacher replied, "The original Archive is comprised entirely of data crystals. The Archives the public has access to is edited for various reasons, both obvious and not." He rubbed his head and sighed. "I kind of control history as well as record it, to keep certain things from being known. Humanity isn't ready for the full truth of the world, so I just wait and watch."
"A book in the library. That's why no one could find anything." Danny murmured suddenly and turned to look back over his shoulder. "The Public Library is right nearby. We can go right now and destroy it!" Jazz shook her head clear of her stunned state and shot him a glare.
"Danny! No! If that Book is doing things like that to you in your ghost form, then I don't want you near it!" she yelled, "It's too dangerous! What if it brainwashes you or something? How do you expect us to deal with you then?"
"I agree with Jazz. I only alerted you to this because you, as Amity's protector, should know what's going on." Caleb added in sternly, "I'll handle the Book. You should stay out of ghost mode until it's been destroyed." He picked up the device and slipped it out of sight. "Now then, it's getting late and I should investigate that library. I'll drop you all off at your homes and provide your families with excuses." With that, he headed out of the copse of trees, clothes glowing brilliant white as they returned to the Goth-like black outfit he wore that day.
Dropping Sam and Tucker off with the pretense of being in a late study session was easy enough. The Mansons were delighted with the idea that their daughter was finally 'shaping up' and the Foleys weren't surprised to find their son in the care of another technophile. The Fentons were another story however.
Upon entering the house, Caleb was assailed with a barrage of questions from the jumpsuit-wearing couple in the front hall. From demanding where the kids had been for so long to wanting to know if ghosts were involved in any way, the attack of questions went on with rapid-fire accuracy and relentlessness. Danny's eyes crossed at the idea of having to come up with answers to each one that would satisfy his parents without giving away too much information. Jazz looked pale, head slowly tilting as her brain seemed to just fizzle out at the thoughts. Their teacher, however, quite smoothly answered each question with a well-crafted lie and half-truth. In the end, he won over both Jack and Maddie Fenton, exchanged casserole recipes and told both adults that their children were doing quite well in a class that wasn't as strict as normal classes.
"Well, as long as Danny keeps his grades up in your class, I suppose it'll be all right to let him be in your study group." Maddie remarked carefully, eyeing the group before her through the red-tinted lenses of her jumpsuit's hood. She tapped her husband on the shoulder, reaching up to make the contact, in order to regain his attention. "C'mon, Jack, we have work to do!"
"That's right! The Fenton Spook Sleeper's almost done! Then we can make all those ghosts fall asleep on the spot so we can rip 'em apart easier!" the large man declared with child-like glee before racing for the basement steps and disappearing down them far faster than any man his size should be able to move. Caleb glanced down at his students and lifted an eyebrow at Danny's paling face.
"I really wish they wouldn't say stuff like that. I always end up with nightmares I really don't need." he muttered as his mother hurried after Jack to prevent yet another explosion.
"This is where we part ways for the night." Caleb remarked softly, "I think our interview should be rescheduled for another night. For now, that library must be investigated." He regarded the direction in which the older Fentons had run off in and tilted his head thoughtfully. "I don't suppose your family has network access to whatever setup is in their home lab for configuring weapons?" Jazz nodded slowly, uncertain of what he meant by that. The teacher only smiled and clapped his hands together. "Perfect! Then I'll gather data on the ghosts from them; it'll save me the trouble of having to actually meet them myself for now."
"You might want to use my records. My parents don't really know what they're doing when it comes to half the ghosts I fought." Danny added under his breath, "They try, but it'll be a while before they get the idea of what's really going on." Caleb only shook his head, still smiling, then left, allowing both Fenton children to head to the kitchen for a quick meal before bed, thoughts of an ancient evil relic in their town still whirling in their minds.
As it was with Danny in either human or ghost form, his stubborn streak refused to let him just sit on the sidelines as the fate of the world was decided by an archaic robot and an evil book. Only an hour after wrestling with his conscience, he jumped out of bed and headed for the window, staring out in the direction of the forbidden library. That Book, the Gate to the Underworld, was going to try to swallow up the living world, and he was told that he couldn't help.
"No way. I'm not just gonna stand here as some stupid book takes over the world!" Danny muttered and leaped out the open window, transforming to ghost mode in mid-air and taking to the skies. He raced towards the library, determined to make a stand of his own against this new darkness.
Amity Park's skies were normally full of stars and the occasional clouds, like any other sky in the world. Tonight, however, there was the burst of a brilliant white light not far ahead of him. Danny scowled; there was a fight going on and he wasn't in it. Whether he liked it or not, Caleb was going to have some help in the form of Danny Phantom!
He dove down towards the library, fully confident in his abilities to aid in whatever battle was going on, only to yell out in shock and lift his arms protectively, forming a small ectoplasmic shield to block a barrage of fireballs that went soaring up to him. Though it seemed as though the magical attack had missed him, a second burst of the light went off and he fell, blinded by light from that strange whiteness and the fire. Slamming into asphalt, Danny gasped painfully and scrambled to his feet, squinting into the brightness around him. When the light finally faded, he blinked in surprise.
Dozens of bedsheet ghosts, white and now yellow ones, filled the air between the library and Caleb, who looked back at him with an angry frown. Danny took to the air again, gathering ectoplasmic energy into his hands. The green-clad android leaped back gracefully from the cluster of ghosts to stand by him, the scowl never leaving his face.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he hissed, holding a strange weapon in his hands. Danny glanced at it and both eyebrows shot up in surprise. Was that... a giant fork? Wood handle, metal prongs and all? "I told you to stay out of this; you don't know what you're doing!" the teacher went on in frustration, "I can't deal with these guys if you're in the area! Get out of here!"
"I've been doing this for months now! I'll be just fine!" Danny shot back and fired the Ghost Ray at several of the ghosts now scattering about to surround the both of them. The ones that were hit dropped to the ground, stunned. Danny grinned in victory, then yelped as he was attacked from behind by a small flurry of hammers. Spinning, he fired several more bursts of ectoplasm, watching the spinning dome of ghosts begin to close in on them. "What are they doing?" he cried as Caleb stood still, watching as well.
"New trick they learned over the last thousand or so years." he remarked and glanced aside at the young halfa, "Your few months of battling modern ghosts means nothing compared to my thousands of years of combating everything the forces of evil has set loose upon the world." Danny stared at him and Caleb grinned, but it was nowhere near as kind as his previous smiles. "Remember what I said about half-breeds being either the worst villains or the greatest heroes the world could ever know? Well, here's a lesson on the use of mana, as only the most powerful half-breed of his era could use!" he declared, a circle of light spinning into existence at his feet, "I call upon thee in the land of the dead to unleash thy fury of thunder! Indignation!"
A field of violet light bloomed below the shrinking dome of ghosts as shimmering rays of an energy Danny had never seen before spiraled up over the ghosts to form a second dome. Then, without warning, there was a blast of light so bright it blinded him instantly, followed by a clap of thunder that dazed him. He fell to the ground, stunned by the attack. For several long moments, there was nothing; no sounds of anything, no sensing of anything moving.
Finally, his vision returned and Danny picked himself up slowly, head still pounding from the thunderclap, haz-mat suit slightly smoking. Running one hand through his hair, he felt sparks of electricity jump about. Turning his attention outward, he saw the dome of ghosts had disappeared. Caleb stood calmly where he had been before the blast of energy went off. He turned his head to look coldly down at the half.
"See? You can't even cast Fireball, a novice spell; what makes you think you can use ectoplasm against ghosts and monsters that still use mana as their source of power?" he asked and turned his back on Danny, "Go home and stay out of this battle. You'll die if you attempt to face the higher level monstrosities on your own."
"What? I can handle myself! Just because you can do the same thing those ghosts can, it doesn't mean you're better than me! It doesn't mean that you still don't need help!" Danny shouted back, "I was doing fine until they cheated!" He fell silent, hovering several inches above the ground. "So, what was that that you did?" he asked quietly.
"A spell, a potent Electric-based spell." Caleb returned, "I'm a prototype artificial mage, so I can use mana to cast magic. It's also the power source I run off of, and since mana is everywhere, I never need to 'plug' myself into an external power supply." He grinned and this time it was the same as his normal smiles. "Helps the illusion of me being human." He shifted on his feet and sighed harshly. "The Book isn't here anymore. It was moved and there weren't any records anywhere of where it could be now." Caleb added and waved a hand around, "I suppose those ghosts were sent to this world to gather more victims for the Book, but when they could no longer find the gate, they just milled about here."
"If it's not here, then the ghosts from the Ghost Zone might start re-emerging." Danny muttered, "It's the threat of that Book that kept them there, but now what?" Caleb shrugged and turned to leave. "Hey! Where are you going? What about the Book?" Danny shouted in frustration once he realized the teacher was walking away, "It's that thing's fault people think the ghosts are crazier than normal! Me included!" He waved his arms emphatically. "Aren't you going to do something about it? Or at least help me explain to these people what's going on so they don't try to shoot me all the time?"
"That's your problem. Not mine. Once I have the data I want, I'm leaving." Caleb shot back, shouldering the unusually large utensil, "Modern ghosts don't fall in my jurisdiction, and as long as they don't threaten the world, and thus my archival mission, then I have no quarrels with them." Danny stared at him in shock, then scowled.
"I thought you were a hero." he hissed. Caleb stopped suddenly, then shook his head slightly.
"You thought wrong, then. I wasn't built to be a Hero." the teacher replied dully. Danny took to the air once more, glaring down at the redhead.
"I wasn't born a hero, but I chose to be one when ghosts began coming through my parents' portal. It was my fault the portal activated and let them through, so it's my responsibility." he growled, "I never wanted to be the hero, but I knew something had to be done. It's the right thing to do."
"Gentle Idealist, your words bring hope to the darkness of the world." Caleb recited half-heartedly, "Be the Hero, Phantom; I'll have no part of it. I'm done with dealing with Heroes." With that he turned and threw something onto the ground that emitted a flash of light that blinded the halfa once again. When Danny's vision returned, the teacher was gone.
"Jerk." Danny grumbled and flew on, determined to find the Book himself. If it was still in Amity Park, then he could find it just by letting the voice in it call to him. A dangerous way of locating the relic, but it was all Danny could think of to pinpoint it.
Sam woke to the sound of tapping at her window and growled, folding her pillow over to hide her ears as she cracked open one eye to peek at her clock. Four in the morning; well, at least she had gotten one extra hour of sleep before Ghost Boy decided to pay a visit. The tap came again, a little more slowly this time, and she finally got out of bed to let him in.
"Much as I enjoy the late-night attention, why can't you go bother Tucker at four a.m.?" the Goth grumbled as Danny flew in and flopped onto her bed, limbs splayed out carelessly.
"He sleeps like the dead and his snoring wakes 'em. Bad combo." the halfa replied lazily, "That Book's gone. I searched all the libraries of Amity, but it's just up and disappeared." Sam lifted an eyebrow as she pulled up a chair for herself.
"That's good, right? No Book of the Underworld, no problems for you in your ghost mode. Which you're still in, by the way." she replied.
"Too tired to change. Gimme a minute."
Sam waited the minute but all the boy did was collect his limbs and turn on his side to better see her. For a moment, it looked to her like he was getting settled in, but his shifting stopped and he gave a little shrug. There was no attempt to return to Danny Fenton form. Sam gave him another look and the halfa yawned.
"In a minute." he managed to say.
"Ugh! Fine. So what happened? Why did the Book vanish? Wasn't Caleb supposed to go to the library to destroy it?" Sam griped, throwing her hands up in defeat. Phantom or Fenton, Danny could be so exasperating at times! He only gave another shrug and made a face.
"It was gone by the time he got there. Said so himself. There were a bunch of those weird bedsheet ghosts hanging around the place, and I was gonna jump in to help him get rid of 'em, but he yelled a bunch of stupid stuff and the next thing I know, I'm kissing the street and the ghosts are gone." he complained, "He said he used magic on 'em and then said he was gonna finish collecting the data we had on ghosts before leaving Amity." Sam blinked in confusion.
"A robot using magic? How? And why is he leaving Amity already? What about the Book?" she blurted out, "What about the other ghosts? If they find out it's gone, they're all gonna start coming back even worse than before!" She watched the halfa sigh harshly as he threaded his hands behind his head.
"In a nutshell, Caleb runs off of mana, so he can use it however he likes, including cast some really showy spells. Since the Book was moved and there weren't any records of it, he's assuming it's no longer in Amity Park. So there's no point being here. And because 'modern' ghosts aren't his problem, he's not gonna bother helping me do something about the crap that's gonna hit the fan soon about this." he grumbled, "The jerk. If I had any respect for the guy, it's gone now." He waved one hand around in the air before sliding it back under his head. "I searched every library in Amity Park, trying to see if it was still hiding out here, but I got nothing. It's gone and probably still trying to take over the world."
"What about that mythology class? Isn't Caleb gonna finish teaching that? If he leaves now, it'll bring up too many questions. Not even a rich robot can talk his way out of a city and state investigation if he just abandons it!" Sam pointed out incredulously. Danny merely closed his eyes and shrugged again. The Goth folded her arms over her chest, thinking carefully. "He wants data on modern ghosts, even though he can handle ancient ghosts just fine. That Book of the Underworld is a gate where all these old monsters and ghosts come from. The king there wants to recruit modern ghosts in his takeover, but why would he do that if he already has so many ghosts and monsters of his own?" she murmured and frowned, "Hmm, Caleb doesn't know about modern ghosts at all. Could it be that the King of the Underworld is recruiting modern ghosts because it knows that Caleb can't deal with them? Is that why he sent those other ghosts to attack him, to keep him from learning about modern ghosts?" She got up and began pacing, her thoughts spinning in her head.
Caleb had been built during the time the ancient ghosts were the only ghosts around, and they were easy to get rid of as long as someone had Light element magic to hit them with. Being a robot that could use magic, he could easily wipe out large numbers of them by himself. But time passed on and Caleb spent time archiving knowledge and data without doing any actual research of his own. So ghosts evolved, but Caleb didn't. If he tried to fight a ghost now, he'd probably lose, and badly too. It was even possible that his magic was now useless against 'modern' ghosts. That would give him more reason to gain access to the Fenton Family's data; not only would they have information about modern ghosts, but they saved the blueprints and schematics to all their ghost-hunting equipment in the Fenton Mainframe. Caleb could copy that and recreate the weapons for his own use. He couldn't afford to leave Amity until he had all of that; therefore, he would have to continue the class until he finished stealing the information.
And it was stealing in her mind, because Caleb was just using Danny to get new upgrades for himself. So much for him being someone trustworthy. Sam growled silently to herself for falling for the trick, then turned to say as much to her friend.
Danny, still in ghost mode despite promising to change once he had the strength for it, had fallen asleep on her bed.
She stared for a few moments, then shook her head, a blush creeping over her face. What a dilemma to face so early in the morning; let him sleep to catch up on needed rest and have a very embarrassing time in just two hours, or boot him out and watch him suffer through classes later in the day? Sam bit her lip, thinking it over as the halfa curled up protectively on one side of the bed, snuggling against the pillows piled there. The white ring appeared at waist level, now vertical to compensate for his lying position, but only spun in place, as if unsure whether to complete the transformation or not. Finally, it split in twain, traveling along him until he was back to human state, dressed in shorts and a white muscle shirt for the warm night.
"Oh, for crying out loud! You're no help!" Sam hissed at the ring as it faded away. Danny mumbled something and she clamped her mouth shut, afraid that he might wake up in a panic. When he stilled again, she relaxed and tilted her head, baffled. What could she do? If he was deep enough asleep that a soft sound didn't wake him, then if she tried to kick him out of the house he'd only freak out and bring the wrath of her parents down on them both. Yet, she couldn't just leave him here; if her parents learned of it in the morning, just a short two hours away, only a miracle would be able to repair the damage that shock would cause. Besides... where would she sleep?
Sam puzzled it over a few minutes more, then threw up her hands in exasperation. She couldn't throw him out; not when he needed rest after all he'd been through that night. And she was too tired after all the thinking and pacing to care about her own sleep needs. She'd just get in bed, try her best to ignore the halfa, and get back to sleep. Screw the 'rents.
Just to be safe, Sam locked her bedroom door and made sure she left plenty of space between the raven-haired boy sleeping on top of the covers and herself as she crawled underneath the blankets. The blush never left her face the rest of the night.
The thing to remember about Danny, Sam realized all too late for it to be useful, was that he always panicked. And when Danny panics, hell always breaks loose. Eighty percent of the time it happened, he'd get hit with it at full strength. Sometimes, and it had been happening more often in recent weeks, he'd manage to slip by without harm.
Sam thanked God this was one of those times.
It began with her radio alarm going off to the sound of punk rock music. The first slams of electric guitar and bass sent Danny shooting into the ceiling, literally, with a shriek. This, of course, snapped Sam awake as she screamed along in surprise. When each finally saw the other in disheveled bedclothes, they screamed again, with Sam dragging her blankets up to hide her reddened face and Danny immediately going invisible on the spot.
The screams brought the Mansons straight to Sam's door and they began pounding on it, demanding to be let in. Sam pulled her blankets down, staring at the spot where she last saw her friend, but there was nothing. Only the curtains that draped over her window flapped gently, and she knew her windows were shut.
'Must have flown the coop.' she thought dimly, before putting together a quick story and opening her bedroom door. "Sorry! My radio scared me!" she laughed forcefully, "There really isn't anything wrong, so just go on down to breakfast and I'll, uh, join you later!"
"Samantha Manson! Did we hear a boy's voice in your room?" her mother yelled through the door.
"Radio! It's the radio!" Sam yelled back and threw open the door, "See? There's no boy!" She watched distastefully as her parents swarmed in, and rolled her eyes as they satisfied themselves with the sight of an empty room. "And then they say I'm not normal." she grumbled under her breath as she ushered them out the door. After a minute, Sam turned back to her open room. "Danny?" she called out softly, but there was no answer.
She changed in the closet, just to be safe.
