Disclaimer: Do I even need to continue? I think we've all gotten the point by now. On with the story.
Chapter 7: Setting Off and Intrusions.
- (Fenton Works) -
Jazz was worriedly pacing back and forth in the living room. After last night she figured her parents would go for the night and come back, but apparently not. It wasn't unusual for Danny to be gone for a few days on ghost business, but her parents usually made it home by morning.
As Jazz turned to make another lap around the room, there was a knocking at the front door.
"As if there wasn't enough trouble to worry about." She mumbled to herself as she went to open the door. Opening it, she found Sam and Tucker standing on the other side, both looking about as worried as she was. "Hey guys, if you're looking for Danny, he's not here right now-"
"We know, Jazz." They both replied at the same time. Sam and Tucker stopped and looked at each other before rifling through their pockets. They each pulled a cog shaped medallion from their pockets. They both spoke at the same time again, "You got one too?"
Sam traded a knowing look with Tucker before looking back at Jazz. "Danny's been taken by Clockwork, and we've come to find him."
Jazz motioned the two inside before shutting the door. The three teenagers decided to move their conversation into the basement. "You and my parents both. They left last night in the specter speeder to find Danny and haven't gotten back."
"We have to go after them." Sam said; determination on her face and in her voice.
"But how? Mr. and Mrs. Fenton already took the specter speeder, and we don't have any other way to get through the ghost zone." Tucker pointed out. "Even if we had one, who knows if Danny's still with clockwork anyways?"
"Well, the second one I can't say anything about, but about having another speeder." Jazz said hesitantly before moving over to a large device covered by a tarp. Pulling the tarp away, she unveiled a large vehicle that looked like a mixture of a truck and a boat. On the side, a black and white symbol was painted that looked like a mixture of a D and a P.
Sam and Tucker stood in shock. From what they had heard from Danny, his family only made one specter speeder after the last one was destroyed. But another one was sitting right in front of them. It just didn't add up.
Getting over the initial shock, Tucker spoke first. "How-"
"I've had a lot of time on my hands over the college break since dad and mom help Danny and you guys with your ghost catching." Jazz interrupted. She blushed a bit in embarrassment before continuing on. "I found the blueprints and decided to piece together another one. Just in case an emergency came up and didn't have the other speeder."
"Good enough for me." Sam said before going to a counter to get some anti-ghost weaponry.
"I got shotgun!" Tucker yelled out, getting ready to run to the speeders front seat.
Before he was able to get to it, Sam grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Uh, to help Danny?" Tucker replied, not quite understanding why Sam was stopping him.
Sam let go of Tucker, letting him turn around to face her. "Oh no you're not, you have to stay here."
"What? Why? Danny's my friend too!" Tucker said angrily.
"Uh, because you're the mayor." With that, Sam turned around and started packing anti-ghost tech into the new speeder.
"So?"
"Sam's right, Tucker, you have the whole town to look over." Jazz informed him. "Besides, without Danny or my parents here, the three of us are the only ones who can catch any ghosts that might appear."
Tucker's face changed from angry to disappointed. His best friend since childhood was possibly in trouble, and his responsibility was keeping him from going to help him out of it. "But I want to help Danny too."
"Face it, Tucker, you have too big a duty to be going off into the Ghost zone so suddenly." Jazz put her arm around Sam, pulling her close before continuing. "You just leave this mission to me and Sam. We'll bring Danny back."
Sam pushed Jazz away before looking at her. "Uh, no offence Jazz, but I need you to stay here too."
A surprised look crossed Jazz's face after hearing this new bit of info. "What? Why?"
"I need you to stay here and contact me in case your parents get back." Sam closed the back of the speeder, finished with packing the tech. "Anything we can get about where Danny is from them could be useful. I'll try to get back as soon as I can." With that, Sam hopped into the driver's seat and started up the speeder.
"I hope you're safe Danny."
- (Danny's domain) -
"I must say, I'm quite surprised. I honestly thought that being told you were going to be killed would result in a bit more surprise."
Danny, Ember, and a ghost recently introduced as Toren stood across from each other, a confused look on Toren's face. He had just told Danny that he was going to kill him, but got no reaction, other than Ember looking like she was about to fry him.
"Eh, you hear it once, you've heard it a million times." Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Though, usually, it's more something like 'I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU AND MOUNT YOU ON MY WALL!' or 'ONCE WE CATCH YOU, WE'LL RIP YOU APART, MOLLECULE BY MOLLECULE!'"
At this, Toren stood surprised. He soon collected himself before speaking again. "Well, I dare say this reaction messes up my speech entirely. We must move on, none-the-less. Now, I dreadfully dislike fighting, so I bring you a choice."
This time it was Danny's turn to be confused. "You're giving me a choice in how I die? That's something I didn't think I'd hear from a ghost."
Despite Danny's words, Toren continued. "I know a bit about you. Daniel Fenton, age 18, resides with his mother and father, sister is off at college. 4 years ago had an accident in your family's lab that infused you with ghost powers. 2 years later another accident happened that took away your powers, later reversed by most of the ghosts in the Ghost Zone hitting you all at once with their combined power."
Danny was surprised to hear how much this ghost knew about him. So far, the only full ghost to know this much about him was Clockwork, and he was the master of all time. "How do you know about me?"
"Oh, I know most things about everything in the ghost zone. I'm not the cataloger for the council for nothing. Anyways, you have two decisions before you. Decision number one, go back home, experience that accident again, and never try to regain your powers again. With that, Danny Phantom will be gone and done for with no need for worry. Decision number two, we fight and I kill you. So, what shall it be?"
Danny looked at Toren for a second before looking down in thought. It was close to the same decision that Clockwork was having him choose, except for the fighting and killing part.
"You can send your decisions straight back where they came from, you old fogey."
Danny and Toren looked up and over at Ember, who had loudly voiced her thoughts on the matter. Even Cujo, who until the moment was running around like he had his tail on fire, stopped and looked at her. "I don't care who you are or what council you're from. I'm this guy's guide and you'll have to go through me to get to him." At the end of her sentence, Cujo ran up next to her and barked loudly, as though agreeing to what she was saying.
Toren smiled at this before holding up a hand aimed at Ember. "I don't believe I was asking you." Finishing his sentence, his hand pulsed with green energy before firing at her.
Before Ember had time to move, the green ecto-blast flew towards her. Running on instinct, Danny jumped in front of Ember and raised a barrier against the blast. On impact, the ecto-blast exploded, breaking the barrier and pushing Danny, Ember, and Cujo back. Before the dust could settle, Toren walked forward, another ecto-blast pulsing in his hand.
Danny prepared to make another barrier to try and block the blast again, but as soon as he moved, Toren was in front of him, the pulsing blast against his stomach, ready to be shot. Before Toren could fire the blast, however, he was hit by a blast from the side. Danny looked to the source of the blast to see Ember.
"I just told you, you'll have to go through me to get to him. I don't like to be ignored." Ember said.
Danny looked from Ember to where Toren was, or was supposed to be. All that was left where Ember blasted him to was air. Danny looked around, trying to find where Toren went. Despite the dust from the first blast having settled, Danny couldn't find Toren.
Suddenly, Toren's voice echoed from all over the room. "I shall return for your answer soon, young man. Until then, try to stay alive. I'm not the only one after you, you know." His message finished, no more was heard from Toren.
A/N: And thus comes a close to another chapter. A look on the other side before the choice is given again. Edit: Ok, final form. A bit more of an action ending than before. Next chapter, we learn more about Danny's latest enemy, and about the mysterious rooms in Danny's domain.
