7
The influence of the Book of the Underworld was definitely spreading. Danny shook his head to try to get the voice out of his head, but no matter how fast he flew or how hard he tried to think of other things, it kept butting into his thoughts.
"You of the line of the land of the dead, why have you not come to the service of thy rightful King?" the voice of the Ruler of the Underworld, Nebilim, demanded, "Your power is wasted in the land of the living."
"You remind me way too much of Vlad, you know that?" Danny growled, "Back off and leave me alone!" His house wasn't that far off now; if he sped up a little more, he'd make it in before dark.
"I've heard tell that you are in the service of the Fallen Angel. I will have to amend this." the voice mused aloud, a faintly irritated tone coloring the words. Danny blinked and glanced over his shoulder reflexively. That sounded familiar; didn't he hear or read about that somewhere?
"The Fallen Angel?" he echoed and shook his head, "Listen, you! I'm not serving anybody! Not Vlad, not you and definitely not some fallen angel!" He scowled at the air. "So stay out of my head and get ready to get toasted!" That may have been enough to stave off the voice; Danny got no more comments for the rest of the trip.
He wished he could say the same of his friends and family when he finally returned home. They all wanted to know what a robot would furnish his apartment with.
"Is it covered wall to wall with the latest in computerized network technology?" Tucker blurted out eagerly, "Or lots of robot parts? BIG robot parts?"
"Ancient relics and magic books, spell stones and runes all over the place! Right, Danny?" Sam cheered, waving her fists under her chin excitedly.
"No way, a scholar would have wall to wall shelves of books and historical documents!" Jazz put in with a smile. Danny looked at them all, and shook his head, grinning.
"You guys are so wrong. The room was pretty much empty except for a bag of stuff and some papers and that weird giant fork he was carrying around last night." he replied and pulled the sheets with the profiles loose from the satchel. He handed them to Sam. "Take a look. Caleb's up to something involving the three of us." The Goth took the papers in hand and shuffled through them, a puzzled look on her face.
"What's this writing? I can't read it." she murmured, studying the sheets with her image on them, "But he draws really well. I don't remember him staring at me for some of these, though." Tucker pulled his PDA free and tapped at the buttons, looking at the sheets with her.
"He's a robot; perfect computerized memory, remember?" he told her and glanced down at the screen, "I'm gonna run these letters through a language database. Maybe I can find a translator for them." Jazz looked a little miffed.
"There isn't a set for me?" she pouted, "I feel left out. Aren't I a part of the whole 'Danny Phantom' secret?" Her younger brother shrugged bashfully and dove through the floor to deliver the satchel. Sam pulled free one of the sheets with Danny's image on it. She frowned thoughtfully.
"This looks a little familiar. It feels like this is something really important. The writing... haven't I seen this somewhere before?" she murmured. Tucker pressed at several more buttons and sighed, adjusting his glasses.
"No such language shows up in the database. Maybe it's a secret code?" he remarked as Jazz plucked one paper out of Sam's hand. She turned it over, puzzled.
"It looks too well written to be a code, but then we are dealing with a robot. What languages did you check?" she asked the dark-skinned boy, who continued tapping at the keys.
"The usual ones; slang, foreign languages, colloquial variations, even Latin. Nothing." Tucker sighed.
"Try languages based on mythical races." Jazz pointed out and blinked as the two younger teens stared at her, "What? Haven't you heard of Lord of the Rings? They have several languages in there that are somewhat invented for elves and hobbits and dwarves and stuff. Caleb was built with technology made by half-elves, so maybe he knows languages that elves might have used." She gave a little shrug, a sheepish expression on her face. Tucker lifted an eyebrow, but set to work on typing into the PDA as Sam dug into her backpack, searching for the textbook.
Danny found the android humming to himself as he worked on several sheets of paper. He glanced at the sheets and spotted additional writing and a full sketch of Jazz. So much for being left out; the redhead now had her added to the group.
"What exactly are you doing with that?" he blurted out and bit his lip, "Darn it! I shouldn't have said that..." Caleb lifted his head in surprise, eyes wide.
"I didn't hear you come in! What-?" he cried and yelped, slamming his hands over the sheets to hide them, "You weren't supposed to see these! Argh! My notes at the apartment! You saw those?" Danny floated back defensively as the android's hair seemed to flair slightly in anger. "You were snooping around! I said to get my pack and that's it; what gave you the right to poke around in my personal notes?!"
"Why the heck did you make them about us to begin with?" Danny shot back and threw the satchel at him, "Here. You also got a call from some girl named Collet." Caleb grabbed the sack and looked surprised. "She says that the Soul Stone couldn't be sent, so her mother is going to use the moon to drop it here. She wants a teleporter set up for it." The halfa scratched his head. "That got me confused. How is a woman going to use the moon to drop a stone on a teleporter?" The android groaned and rested his head in his hands.
"Oh, Goddess, Breia, you don't know how to operate the transport system." he moaned, "I have to call her back and tell her to let her husband do it!"
"She's out of minutes. So, tell me, how is the moon involved in this? We've sent people up there and it's a big rock, nothing more." Danny pointed out as Caleb dug through his satchel and brought out the cell phone, dialing a number and putting it to his ear.
"Not that moon. The other one. Earth has two moons." he replied and lifted a finger, "And before you start babbling about it, no, you can't see it, it's cloaked; no, it doesn't affect the world because it's shielded by magic to keep it from doing that; and yes, I knew the whole time it was there because the original Lloyd planted it there ages ago to make sure he could keep an eye on it." He winced suddenly. "Damn, busy. I'll have to text him then." he grumbled and tapped at the keys of the phone. "And don't mess with my notes anymore." Danny pulled the slip of paper from his collar and held it out.
"What about this one? It was clipped with the notes you made on me." he asked and Caleb glanced at it, did a quick double take and snatched it from his hand.
"I've been looking for this for a while now! I found this carved into a garden wall in an old English manor on the British Isles some sixty years back." he remarked and smoothed the paper out, "I've been trying to decipher it ever since." He studied it for a moment, then shoved it into the pack before finishing his message. "I hope Lloyd gets this. Last thing I need is for that stone to wind up in the middle of Missouri."
"Or Wisconsin." Danny added and watched the android pull several tools and blocks of metal from the pack. "So, what are you doing? Is it something about helping me hit those mana ghosts?"
"Yeah. I remembered that Lloyd from the Symphonian time didn't have the ability to use magic, either. Well, not until he became an angel." Caleb remarked, "But he used certain stones to add Elements to his weapons that enabled him to inflict additional damage to his enemies. These Elemental Quartz still exist and I can get access to them very easily. I can create accessories that will apply the Quartz to your attacks so that it infuses them with that particular Element. That way you can use the Element and it won't affect your mana, averting any potential illnesses that could occur from using mana crystals on someone like you."
"And that will let me hit mana ghosts?" Danny guessed and received a nod in response. He hovered around the android and tilted his head. "That blonde guy in the wedding picture... Adam, right?"
"Wren." Caleb corrected softly, working on one of the metal blocks.
"It said Adam on the back of the photo." the halfa pointed out flatly.
"That's his real name, but I always called him Wren." Caleb sighed, "What about him?" Danny finally sat on the table, gazing down at his boots somberly.
"Is he the reason why you wear black?" he asked quietly. The android continued working, silent. "I mean, sure, there were tons of other people you were friends with and they passed away, and I know you were really sad when they died. But this one... he was really special to you, wasn't he?" Danny tilted his head, still gazing at his feet. "Your best friend, right? A chef. I bet he's the one who gave you that big fork." he murmured. Still nothing. "He's probably the one who taught you to cook, too. That food you made earlier was really good." Danny brought his legs up, wrapping his arms around them sadly. "You must have been hurt when he died, and you probably started wearing black ever since. With all the power you had and still have, you could have saved him, could have stopped him from dying. Or you could have just lashed out at the world in pain." he murmured, "So, why not? That reality I saw, when my friends and family died because of me... I lashed out at the world."
"I could have stopped it, true. But to do that would condemn my best friend to a fate crueler than death." Caleb muttered, "Rather than force him to exist in a personal hell just so I could have him forever, I let him go to heaven with the promise that we'd see each other again one day." He gave a half-shrug. "I wore black to mourn his death, and I still wear it because the pain can never really go away. I'm not human, my memories can't fade with time and let me lessen the pain. The day I attended his funeral; it lives on in me in perfect clarity." He sighed and checked the strip of metal he carved from the block for imperfections. "I can still smell the flowers Ginger placed on the casket, hear the cries of the people who loved and cared for him, feel the wind that brought the rain soon after. I wanted to die right then. Life just didn't seem as bright without my dearest friend."
"So, you didn't commit suicide and you didn't turn on the world. Why not?" Danny pressed.
"Because he loved it. Wren loved the world and he loved life; to harm either one in any way would be to betray him." Caleb remarked and shot him a look, "It's late and the stone will take a longer time to get here if that message didn't get through. Go to bed. I'm sure Sam and Tucker will know enough to head home themselves." Danny flew up from the table and through the ceiling of the basement. After a moment, he stuck his head through to look at him.
"I'll let them know to go home anyway. And that Wren dude must have been really lucky to have you as a friend." he pointed out quietly. Caleb shook his head.
"No. I was lucky to have him. He taught me to love the world and everything on it, to protect it all equally. I'm still here because of him." the android replied and began etching marks into the band of metal, "Bed. Now." Danny made a face.
"You sound like my mom." he griped and vanished through the ceiling.
Tucker didn't make much noise when told he needed to get home. Too busy with tapping at his PDA, holding one sheet of the notes in his free hand, he was oblivious to Danny's hold on him as he flew both the boy and Sam back to their respective homes. Instead of flying through Tucker's window, the halfa simply landed nearby and set him down, head tilting curiously.
"What are you doing?" he finally asked as Tucker paused to scratch his head in mild frustration.
"I'm trying to translate these markings, but so far I haven't found a mythical language to match it. Jazz suggested using Lord of the Rings as a base and see if anything hits." the boy replied and shook his head, "I got a few words out of it, but they sound like gibberish. Maybe it's using a different dialect?" Danny blinked, peering down at the screen in his friend's hand.
"You're using that as the basis for translating a language that a robot made up?" he asked incredulously, "Tucker, what if it's just a bunch of random stuff that mean something to him but not to anyone else? What if it really is gibberish?"
"And what if it's not?" Sam interrupted, reading through several late chapters of the mythology book, "Look at this! I thought those markings seemed familiar! There's pictures of monuments and documents written in that same language in this book!" She held it out to show both Tucker and Danny, "See? If this language really existed long ago, then Caleb must have made a record of it and a translation key. He wouldn't be able to resist it, not if he's really gung-ho on archiving everything about the world!"
"You mean I have to get access to the translation key from him?!" Tucker cried in shock, "How?! You heard what Adam said in school; magitechnology and our technology are incompatible! There's no way my PDA can hack into Caleb's systems!"
"You don't have to hack Caleb, just his archive. The Archives of the Twin Blades is on the Internet, too, right? See if you can get past its security and find the translation key." Sam pointed out flatly and pulled several more sheets of the notes from her pocket, waving them at the boy's face. "I want to know what these say! About you, about me, and especially about Danny! There's gotta be a reason why he took notes on all of us, especially Danny's ghost form!" Tucker grabbed the papers and sighed, a look of displeasure on his face.
"Okay, okay! I'll snoop around the Archives' online site and see what I can dig up. What are you gonna be doing? You can't expect me to do all the work!" he grumbled. Sam tapped the book in her hands.
"I'm going to read some more on this and see if there are any clues in here to what we're going to be up against." she replied and shot Danny a worried look, "If this King of the Underworld guy gets stronger with every person it kidnaps, then how long will it be before it's strong enough to break out of the Book into our world? And will it be strong enough to kidnap Danny too?" The halfa scowled at the thought, shaking his head emphatically.
"No way! Nebilim can toot his horn all he wants but he's not getting me to join him!" he griped and put a finger to his mouth in thought, eyebrows furrowing together. "Although, he kinda worried me a bit when he said I was working for the Fallen Angel." he admitted quietly. Tucker looked between the two and smirked.
"You two can handle the whole spiritual part of this thing. I'm gonna go do what I do best; total techno-takeover!" he exclaimed and ran for his front door, laughing. Sam watched him leave with a scowl, then turned back to the halfa.
"Fallen Angel? We're working with an android who is known by these monsters as the Guardian Angel of Heroes. Do you think they mean Caleb?" she asked as Danny carefully picked her up bridal style and took to the air, heading for her mansion next. He gave a small shrug, but the worried look didn't leave his face.
"He's not fallen, though. Aren't fallen angels usually evil?" he wondered aloud. Sam bit her lip, thinking carefully.
"When angels fall from God's grace, they usually become demons. Caleb doesn't strike me as a demonic person." she replied.
"He can't be fallen; he's got special reasons to protect the world." Danny agreed, a stubborn expression on his face that only appeared when he was set on one idea and refused to budge. Sam had seen it several times before; anytime Danny Phantom, or even Danny Fenton, got that face, nothing short of a divine command could sway him from his ideals, and he was known to ignore those too. "His best friend loved the world with all his heart and out of his loyalty to his friend, Caleb's gonna protect the world for as long as he lives! Fallen angels wouldn't do that, Sam." The Goth sighed as she held closer to him, both to stave off the cold night air and tap into that comforting aura of confidence.
Fallen angels had hidden agendas, and could appear to do one thing while secretly doing another. No matter what she said or learned about it, if she tried to talk to Danny about the idea that the teacher could be hiding ulterior motives while he was in this state, the phantom would immediately shut her out. It was strange; when it came to all the people they met in Amity, and all the ghosts, she and Tucker and Danny could tell within a matter of hours whether they were friends or enemies, if their potential was set to good or evil. When it came to Caleb, there was no real way of knowing. His words, his actions, the emotions surrounding him swayed back and forth in a pendulum, confusing those around him and providing a wall of protection that prevented anyone from truly understanding him.
Was this the power of perfect neutrality?
"We're here." Danny murmured softly, slowly descending to the sidewalk near her home. Sam held onto him tighter, one part of her wishing the flight had been longer, the other glad that she was soon to be alone to sort out her thoughts and feelings about everything. "Sam? You okay? You look kinda sad..." his voice called to her and her mind raced for a response. It snatched at the memory of his earlier vow and she used that.
"What you said today, about what you would do if any of us didn't make it in that book... did you really mean it?" Sam asked quietly as she was set down onto the firm concrete. She turned to look up at the ghost boy floating there. He looked slightly guilty for a moment, then his face hardened and he nodded. "But, if you did try to... kill yourself... won't that just do the opposite? Make you fully ghost, like Dan?" she pressed, "You don't have to die for any of us, Danny! If you do, then everyone will suffer for it!"
"I'll find a way to make sure none of me exists if any of my friends die..." Danny murmured and reached out hesitantly. His expression became odd, some strange mix of guilt, confusion, and longing. The Goth found herself pushing up onto her toes, bringing herself just a little closer to his outstretched fingers. He pulled them back suddenly and the expression was gone, a sad, lonely light in his eyes replacing it. "I'd better get home." Danny whispered, "I'm sorry. That's the choice I made, and I'm sticking to it. If... if you don't make it..." He shut his eyes and vanished right there, an invisible form that sped into the air so quickly the leaves on the trees rustled, the only evidence of his departure. Sam brushed back hair that had swept up from the rush, gazing sadly up at the stars.
"Danny, don't you know how much it hurts me to hear you say that?" she murmured, "If Caleb can live on after the death of someone he loved, why can't you do the same? It's not fair to make everyone suffer because someone you care about dies and you refused to be strong enough to move on."
Jazz was setting down the phone as her younger brother flew into the room, reverting to human form at last. She looked towards him and frowned slightly. There was a forlorn expression on his face, as though he had gone through something that didn't quite go as well as he'd hoped. A feeling of sympathy and an urge to comfort her injured sibling came over her and she moved to wrap her arms around him in a hug.
"It's okay, Danny. Everything will be okay." she murmured, pressing her cheek against his soft, black hair, "Mom and Dad called and said for us to activate the Ghost Shield and sit tight. The ghost hunters are having trouble fighting the ghosts in the school, but they noticed that one of them is doing pretty well." When that didn't get a response, she went on. "Casper High's been evacuated, and there's no school until the ghost problem is done. So, you don't have to worry about homework while we're fighting ghosts. Mom said that if things don't turn around soon, they'll be coming back to pick up some stronger weapons." She smiled amid the strands of raven-black, briefly inhaling the scent of the night wind. "If they do that, then the changes Caleb made will be in place and they can fight the mana ghosts. You'll be safe from them when we get into the school. Isn't that wonderful?"
"Yeah..." Danny finally agreed, voice cracking as his body began trembling, "Great..." Jazz pulled away and turned him around to face her, worried at that kind of answer.
"Danny, are you okay? What's wrong?" she asked softly and wiped away a tear with her thumb, "Why are you crying?"
"I'm not! I'm just tired! Leave me alone!" Danny yelled and raced for the stairs, slamming his bedroom door once he was safely inside. Jazz waited a few minutes, then headed upstairs after him, knocking gently at his door. "I said, go away! I'm going to sleep!" he shouted from behind the wall of oak.
"I know, but just remember that we all love you and care about you. If anything's hurting you, you can talk to any of us about it." Jazz told him through the door, "I'm your big sister, remember? We can talk about anything you want. No one else has to know."
"I'm... fine... Just leave me alone... please..." the teen replied, a half-sob cutting off anything more he might have said. Jazz gave the door a saddened look, then began making her way to the Ops Center to activate the shield that would protect Fenton Works from ghost attacks. It would be a good test of Caleb's alterations if several of the mana ghosts did come after them, though for now, a peaceful night was all Jazz wished for her younger brother.
Come morning, there was the sound of tapping at Danny's window. The boy shifted in his sleep, then lifted his head, gazing in a half-daze at the glass. Tucker clung to the tree branch for dear life, his eyes wide with the idea of being so high up, while Sam rapped at his window again, a strangely determined expression on her face.
Still in a fog, Danny dragged himself out of bed and opened the window, allowing his two friends to tumble into the room before heading back to collapse face-down on the furniture piece. There was silence for a moment, then he felt arms shaking his shoulders, trying to get him up again.
"C'mon, Danny! We have to talk! Tucker got the translation key for those notes!" Sam declared in a hushed shout, "We can't let Caleb know what we learned, so we had to come through your window!"
"It was a pain getting to that key, though. Security was mondo tough, but still nothing Fryer Tuck can't get through." Tucker added, watching as Danny rolled over and pulled his hands down over his face. "You look like a wreck. Man, what happened to you after you dropped us off? Ran into more mana ghosts?" he added in confusion.
"Bad night sleep." Danny managed to say through his fingers. He sat up and rubbed his head, further disheveling already messy hair. He gave a yawn, rubbed his eyes, then blinked at the two of them. "Uh, 'morning?" the halfa finally remarked, "Okay, so what'd you find out?"
"I'm hoping to get a good breakfast out of this. My parents are freaking out. They put the house on lockdown and wouldn't let me out. I had to sneak out and leave the Alibi-O-Matic on snore mode." the dark-skinned boy told him, "I didn't get much sleep, trying to get that key, so something hearty or deep-fried will do."
"Fine. I'll make something in a bit. What'd you learn?" Danny grumbled, dimly aware that he'd have to change clothes soon. He'd fallen asleep in the same shirt and jeans he'd been wearing the previous day.
"Most of the notes are observations and theories about us." Sam began, bringing out the sheets and spreading them on Danny's bed, "His thoughts and opinions about us and all. Caleb wrote that Tucker had potential to be an excellent magitechnician, and that he thinks the way I act is a defensive mechanism."
"Defensive? Against what?" Danny asked incredulously, "You'd beat the crud out of anything if you wanted to!" Sam bit her lip and shrugged evasively.
"Some things you can't fend off with fists, y'know?" she muttered and shook her head, "Anyway, the notes he wrote on you were mostly about the way you act and stuff, like he was trying to analyze you. Something you did or said the first time we were in class together must have gotten him interested in you."
"But he didn't know I was Danny Phantom at the time, so why put my normal self and my ghost self together on the same sheets?" the halfa pointed out.
"He didn't." Tucker interrupted, "They were on separate sheets of paper, and his observations then were written as if he were confused. He saw similarities between Fenton and Phantom, but there were differences too. He wrote a few theories trying to figure both of your sides out, but when he learned that you were both, he clipped the sheets together and changed the title." He pointed at the top of one sheet and Danny peered at it. Faint marks were still etched into the paper. "He erased the name 'Danny Phantom' on this sheet, then wrote it on the Fenton sheet. Any notes he's made after that refer to both Fenton and Phantom on the same sheets."
"And what about the sketches?" Danny asked, still puzzled over the situation and Sam's reasons for a 'defense'.
"He was trying to get our likenesses worked out." Sam put in, her eyes widening, "How we react to situations, how we look normally, how we change expressions based on different things... Caleb wanted to know how we moved and acted and talked, so he took notes and made sketches about that." Danny looked even more confused, picking up several of the sketches.
"I don't get it. If he was doing that, then why are the sketches he made of me less detailed than the ones he made of you and Tucker and Jazz?" he asked. Tucker lifted an eyebrow.
"Caleb's got notes on Jazz?" the techie questioned. Danny nodded. "He's thorough. I just thought he missed one, but I guess not."
"Caleb was distracted by this." Sam interrupted to answer the halfa's question. She held up the sketch of Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom standing side by side, writing surrounding the two rebellious-looking teens. "The sketches of you doing things were done quickly, like he was trying to capture how you were acting at that moment, not recording how you would change reactions. And based on those quick sketches, he compiled them into these full figure drawings."
"They look like they could come to life." Danny agreed carefully, eyeing the pencil work. Tucker nodded.
"That's because they were meant to." he explained, "That writing around them, those are measurements and lists of materials. That sheet isn't just a set of notes about you; it's a makeshift blueprint for making a copy of you." Danny dropped the sheet and leaped back from them.
"What?!" he yelled in alarm, forgetting that he was supposed to be asleep. Sam clamped her hand over his mouth, bringing a finger to her lips.
"Shhh! You wanna alert Caleb to the fact that we know what his notes say?" she hissed, "Calm down!" Danny jerked his head away, gasping.
"Calm down?! How can I be calm when I've got a million-year-old android in my basement who's planning on building robot copies of me?!" he snapped back, face paling, "Why the hell would he want to do that anyway?!"
"Not just you, Danny; he's planning it for all of us." Tucker pointed out, picking up the other sheets, "The papers that have full body sketches of us have the same lists and measurements. Caleb is designing robot copies of each of us; you, me, Sam, and now Jazz." He shrugged. "He didn't write down why, though. So only he knows for sure why." The group stood in silence, letting that information sink into them. An ancient robot from mythological times, planning to build robotic duplicates of them all, including Danny Phantom... but for what purpose?
So absorbed in concerns and fears were they that the teens jumped and yelled in alarm when a loud thumping knocked against the floor.
"Hey! I hear more than one voice up there!" Caleb yelled, "Danny! Are your friends up there? I told you to take them home, not have a sleepover! You need rest!" The three friends looked at each other warily. Well, they had an excuse provided now. The only question now was whether or not to confront the android about their discovery.
"Let's not say anything." Sam decided suddenly and scooped up the sheets, "Danny, sneak these back into his pack so he won't know we had them. We'll pretend we had a sleepover." She shoved the sheets into the halfa's arms, then proceeded to muss up her hair. She shot Tucker a glare. "You too, Geek-Boy!" Tucker shot her a glare, then yawned.
"I don't need to pretend; I still wanna crash." he managed to say, but rumpled his shirt anyway. Danny nodded and went invisible to sneak the notes back. The door didn't open, so it was safe for the two remaining teens to assume he dropped through the floor insubstantially. Sam and Tucker took deep breaths, then headed out of the room to join the android downstairs.
They found the redhead in the kitchen with a spatula in one hand, gazing curiously at the floor as Jazz sat at the table, eating waffles. Caleb looked towards the newcomers with the same puzzled expression.
"Did Danny just sink down through the floors? I picked up his mana signature going down. That's a strange way of reaching the kitchen so fast." he remarked in confusion, "I think he missed. He's all the way in the basement." Sam plastered on a smile, looking somewhat sheepish.
"That's the thing about Danny and his powers. Sometimes they go off at random and all we can do is just stand around and hope no one noticed." she forced a laugh, rubbing her head, "He fell through his bed and the floors, but give him a sec and he'll be right up here!" She elbowed Tucker, "Go down there and help him up, Tucker, before he falls all the way through to China!" she added through clenched teeth. The African-American boy jumped with a start and scrambled for the stairs. Caleb cocked his head and rolled his eyes at last.
"I forgot how teenagers are. Gah, you all seem to be running off of nothing but hormones and sugar!" he declared and pointed the spatula at the table set with plates, glasses, utensils and laden with waffles, butter and juice. "Sit and eat! We have a lot of work to do today. The Soul Stone will be arriving in a few hours at Amity Park, and I need to get you all trained in how to fight these ghosts and monsters." he added with a grin, "I haven't had a good spar in ages; I'd like to test out my new inventions and see just how strong the famous Danny Phantom really is!"
"I smell waffles!" Danny yelled and came racing up the stairs with Tucker at his heels. The two boys said nothing else, only fell to the plates of food with all the rowdiness of a pack of wolves. Sam and Jazz stared at them, then rolled their gaze at the baffled android.
"Maybe I should run tests on how much that boy can pack away." Caleb remarked, bending to study him a little more carefully, "I didn't even use Wren's waffle recipe. Man, I really am out of touch with teens nowadays."
The basement was cleaner than it had been the previous night, and the teens looked around in wonder as Caleb hurried to the table he'd been working at all night. He picked up the Fenton Peeler and held it out to Jazz.
"Here. I adjusted it so that it can hit mana ghosts and not harm Danny." he told her with a grin and pointed at a button on the side of the device, "This switch will appear at the base of your neck when you're armored and activates a wide-beam mode for a greater range of attack. However, it drains power from the White Quartz I implanted a lot faster than the normal mode, so use it sparingly. When the Quartz breaks, I'll have to replace it." Jazz examined the weapon in her hands and slipped it into her purse with a smile.
"Thanks." she murmured as the android picked up the Fenton Thermoses and handed them to Sam and Tucker.
"I modified them to help you avoid sucking Danny into them. Also, I got these to help you fight, as I'm pretty sure the Fenton Thermos wasn't really designed to be a weapon." Caleb added and turned back to the table to grab a pair of items. He turned back and presented the first item to Sam. "This is a mythril dagger that a friend of mine once wielded. It's blessed by the Church of Martel's Dream, so it has an excellent advantage against the undead. I kinda thought it would suit you, Sam, so I'm giving it to you." he told her and smiled as she gingerly accepted the sheathed blade. Sam carefully pulled the dagger free and her eyes went wide at the shining metal blade, blood-red engravings etched along its length in a beautifully ornate design. "Take care of it and it'll serve you well."
"It's beautiful. I've never seen anything like this before, not even in the Goth shops online!" she breathed. Danny bent to examine the blade and hesitantly reached out to touch his finger to the dagger. Reflexively, he flinched, but relaxed as nothing happened to him. "Danny, be careful! Don't cut yourself on it!" Sam lectured him but softened, "Isn't it gorgeous? How cool is this?"
"It didn't hurt me." Danny wondered aloud, "I thought it would work against undead things, like ghosts and stuff."
"You're not undead; you're still alive." Caleb told him, "And it's blessed against evil; you're not evil."
"Not yet."
Danny yelped at the sudden smack over his head and looked up at Caleb in shock. The android was scowling fiercely.
"One more word about that from you and I'll give you the exact same treatment I gave Wren during his dark years!" he lectured and took a deep, calming breath. "Now, Sam, this dagger requires you to be close to the enemy. Do you think you can handle fast, stabbing attacks?" he changed subjects.
"I can run a heck of a lot better than Ghost-Boy here." Sam joked with a laugh and strapped the sheath and dagger to her waist on a belt the android provided for her. Tucker looked eager for his 'gift' and Caleb chuckled softly before revealing it to him.
"This crossbow is something I designed and built for myself using Lens technology, an ancient science that's along the same lines as magitechnology but using lenses made from the bioenergy of various monsters as a source of power to deal damage." the android explained, "It fires bolts of intense laser light and recharges using outside sources of light. Just squeeze the trigger to fire it off." He handed the gun and a holster to Tucker and smiled wider, lifting a finger to add another point. "You can keep this; I can always build myself another. It doesn't work on ectoplasmic ghosts, but it does great against mana ghosts and it's already tuned to phase through Danny, so don't worry about hitting him. However, it likes to work on humans and androids awfully well, so aim away from your friends and definitely away from me!"
"Sweet! Long-distance firepower! I'm so gonna make this my favorite toy." Tucker laughed, putting on the holster and adjusting the silvery handgun. Danny shifted uneasily on his feet.
"It won't hurt me, but it can hurt you guys? I don't know if it's a great idea to give it to Tucker then." he murmured worriedly, "I know he's got good aim and all; I mean, he shot off the straps that held me down in the North Mercy Hospital without a problem, but Mom's modified lipstick tube is a lot less lethal than that thing sounds like it could be."
"He'll be fine. Don't worry about it!" the android remarked dismissively and smiled hugely, "And that reminds me! I saved the best for last!" The group blinked as Caleb turned back to the table and picked up a pair of metal bands, presenting them to Danny. "These I made specifically to fit you." he murmured.
They were definitely metal bands, but made of a shining silver metal that seemed eerie and otherworldly. Delicate carvings decorated the bands, running on the edges and alongside a ring of shimmering white stones. They were fairly wide, the width of three fingers, and there seemed to be an air of archaic magic surrounding them. Danny reached out and touched a fingertip to one, jerking back in surprise as a sudden warmth pushed through from the metal into his hand.
"Whoa!" he breathed. Caleb grinned wider.
"Thought you'd say that. This is the latest in dwarven-enhanced magitechnology. These armlets are made from an alloy composed of mythril and aionis, the same alloy that makes up my body." he remarked proudly, "The metal and the charms engraved on them will channel the Light Element from the ring of Quartz directly into your arms and into your ectoplasmic beams, that Ghost Ray you use so often. As you use up each stone, the next one in the ring will activate, so I won't have to change out your Quartz as often as I will with Jazz." He traced his finger on some of the marks. "These had to be made just for you, to make sure the spells worked with your specific mana signature and allow you to still be able to use your Ice Element abilities. Otherwise, the power just passes over you and does nothing, or could shut off your Ice powers completely. Put them on your ghost form so they can tune themselves to that part of you. They'll remain on you even if you turn human, so they can be removed once everything's done." Danny accepted the armlets and called up the white ring orbiting his waistline, watching it split in two and transform him. Once it was complete, he slid the armlets on, one to each wrist, and flexed his limbs. The bands stayed put, melding into the white aura that surrounded his body perfectly.
"Nice." Sam commented with a smile.
"They feel warm." Danny added with a nod. The armlets' color fit with the contrasts of his haz-mat suit, silver and white to complement the black and white.
"That's from the Element. Light tends to have a comforting warmth to it that is attracted to other sources of Light-based mana." Caleb replied and flipped his hand negligently, "Eh, there are some other theories to it, but I haven't explored them all yet." He brushed his fingertips over a set of marks on the band, "When you need Ice, stroke this set of runes and say 'Ice'. The armlets will suspend the flow of power from the Quartz. When you need Light, stroke it again and say 'Light'." he explained with a grin, "Simple, right?" He turned and picked up his satchel, slinging it onto his shoulder as Sam, Tucker and Danny stiffened in sudden anxiety. "Let's go and pick up the Soul Stone, but first I need to get back to my apartment and pick up my fork." the android added.
"Your what?!" Sam sputtered in surprise as Tucker burst into laughter. Danny held out his arms to try to describe the length of the utensil.
"He's got this really big fork in his room; I told you guys about it yesterday. I saw him with it the night the Book of the Underworld escaped." he explained and Jazz gave him a disbelieving glare. "I'm not kidding! His chef friend gave it to him, I think! It's a really big fork made of wood and metal!" Danny cried.
"Why would a robot have a giant fork?" Jazz muttered under her breath.
"Transportation and offense." Caleb answered easily and headed for the stairs, "C'mon! I don't want to be late picking up the stone! Danny, human form, please. Sam, Tucker, keep your new toys hidden. Jazz, let's go! We're gonna have to borrow your car, sorry."
"Fine, but I'm driving." the carrot-top agreed begrudgingly, "A fork for transportation? Amity Park always gets the weird ones!"
