Chapter 8

The next morning had been rough. He had to say goodbye to Dash, and so far that had been the hardest part. Because the next time he said goodbye he had no idea if it was going to mean forever. He had a feeling one of these days it would.

After that, he went to the Zone, except he had been so drained of energy lately that he tried to casually sneak in through his parent's portal, which was a nightmare in and of itself. He really needed to remember to ask about their security systems next time.

Now he was floating to the Observation Tower, where the meeting would be held. But despite not having a mouth, all Amorpho ever seemed to do was talk. He knew deep down that it was because the shapeshifter was nervous. Some would argue scared. He was about to go undercover for an unknown amount of time. So instead of saying anything, Danny just tuned him out. He had to calm his nerves before he stepped into that meeting, otherwise he would blow up. It had happened before, but what can he say? The Observants just got on every single one of his nerves without even trying.

As the approached the large, old wooden doors, the guards on the outside stood up straighter and moved in front of the entrance.

"Move, I'm a part of this meeting," Danny told them. He tried not to show his irritation, but couldn't stop his eye from twitching. The guards looked at eachother, seemingly nervous, before one of them cleared their throat.

"The shapeshifter is not allowed," he stated. His voice wavered ever so slightly as he looked at Danny, waiting for his reaction.

"He's with me, it's okay," Danny replied, trying to sound calm. Obviously this guard was only ever yelled at for just doing his job. He didn't want to scare the ghost more. "Just let us through, we're already running late."

Without any more argument, the guards moved out of their way. Thanks to ancient ghost technology or magic or whatever the fuck the Observants used, the doors opened on their own. Frostbite was talking with one of the Observants about halfway down the hall, but when the doors opened and he saw his apprentice, he immediately stopped and gave Danny a warm smile. Danny always thought it was strange that such a cold creature could have the warmest of hearts.

"Ah, Great One! Welcome, boy," Frostbite said, greeting him with a bone crushing hug. He gave a sort of weird look to Amorpho before seeing the look in Danny's eyes. He said It's okay while at the same time having a spark of defiance. Naturally, Frostbite knew, Danny couldn't really help himself. He loved pissing off the Observants, and having Amorpho here as an ally would surely do the trick.

"Come. Both of you. The meeting is about to start," Frostbite told them, leading them with a hand on Danny's shoulder.

The Observants meeting place wasn't that hard to figure out. Danny had been there several times over the years, and he found that the only important room in the entire place was the giant one at the end of the main hall. All of the rooms on whether side on their way down was either just extra rooms or storage units, and therefore unimportant.

The meeting room (which everyone called the meeting hall, which Danny didn't understand, and therefore refused to call it that) was a giant, round room that had a huge round table in the middle of it. There were fancy chairs for everyone, but there was on extra fancy chair for the head Observant, whose name Danny had never learned. He sat there with a normal Observants on either side of him. Then it was Frostbite and two generals from his army that Danny recognized, and Clockwork on one end, and Princess Dora and Pandora on the other. Completing the circle was Danny, Dani, and Amorpho.

"So," Danny starts, wasting no time in getting the meeting started. "What's the plan?"

"I suggest we form an army, and take a small group of powerful individuals to go for Pariah himself," Frostbite said. Murmurs broke out among a few of the others. Danny turned to his mentor and added something that could go to the plan.

"I brought Amorpho so he could be a spy, collect information, do some recon type stuff. With him we might be able to get one step ahead of Pariah when he breaks loose."

"What do you mean when?" One of the Observants asked. Geez, he must be new.

"We all know it's going to happen," Dani stated. Her short, white hair was slicked back, but she ran her fingers through where her bangs used to be out of habit. "We might as well be prepared for it. I for one think sending Amorpho out into the field is a great idea."

"Absolutely not," the other normal Observant argued. He left no room in his voice for discussion, but that wasn't going to stop Danny from at least trying. "Amorpho is a loose cannon and unreliable. He'll probably turn on us and spy on us for Pariah!"

"He's also right here and is capable of making his own case!" Danny fired back. "Don't talk to him like he's not here."

"That does raise the question, though," the lead Observant said. He was much calmer, and sounded more open to the idea of working with the shape-shifting ghost. "How do we know we can trust him? His past isn't exactly credible."

"Because I would rather live in a Ghost Zone like this than one with Pariah ruling everything. I don't want to be ended, man."

"So you're doing this for yourself," one of them said. Amorpho shook his head, and Danny's grip on his knees tightened.

"Not for myself. For my friend, Danny. You know, the Savior. He asked me to do him a favor, and I'm gonna go through with it, whether you agree to it or not."

"It seems as though the halfa has an influence on even the criminals," the one on the right said. "Perhaps too much."

"I have influence because I actually do stuff. I see a problem, I do my best to fix it. You all just sit around and do nothing all day. We get it, you're only supposed to observe, but at lease take some responsibility for your fucking actions!" Danny's voice had slowly risen over the course of his rant, ending in him nearly yelling. He didn't know when he had stood up, but Dani had her hand around his arm, and Frostbite was giving him a look that told him to take a chill pill. Danny's mouth tightened as he took a deep breath before looking at the Observants again. "How about instead of arguing, we work with each other. Amorpho is a part of this. He is at this table for a reason. So treat him like it. And for the love of all that is good, do something about the problem for once in your life, instead of just sitting on your ass and waiting for us to pull your weight."

Danny sat back down, glaring at the three Observants. He was practically daring them to say something. He glanced over at Frostbite, who looked like he had really wanted to avoid that but was kind of glad it happened, and then to Clockwork, who was glad to be able to sit back and actually enjoy the show for once. Danny was sure he had popcorn in his lair so he could re-watch all of this unfold again later. Danny honestly couldn't blame him for it, though.

"I think…Sending Amorpho in is a smart, tactical move," Clockwork spoke up for the first time, and it almost startled Danny that he was on his side. Usually Clockwork would pick apart his suggestions and point out the flaws. He helped Danny to be a good tactician like Frostbite helped him to be the greatest warrior he could be. Both seemed to be paying off now.

"We could do that, I suppose," the head Observant said. "But we also have to think about the civilians of this world. Part of our job is to keep them safe, which is something I think most of us have forgotten about."

"Perhaps we could evacuate them to the mortal plane," one of the others said.

"That's a really bad idea," Dani piped up. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair. Danny could practically see the migraine forming. "Humans are going to get hurt in the chaos, and they're not going to know how to handle what the media is certainly going to describe as a ghost invasion. You want to stay hidden, and we can't help you do that if you all go haunting businesses."

"Dani has a point, there," Danny agreed. "Really, the only town in the world that would know how to handle a bunch of ghosts is Amity Park, and they're a shoot first ask never kind of town. It would be more dangerous to evacuate them into the mortal plane than it would be to just keep them here. Maybe we could hide them, depending on what core they have?"

"We'll continue this later," Clockwork said, suddenly standing up. "We have more pressing matters to attend to."

"Like what?" Amorpho asked. Clockwork turned to him, his red eyes boring into Amorpho's very spirit.

"You're needed immediately. Daniel, you better hope your plan works."

"What do you mean?" Danny asked. He was standing again, and his voice was tinged with a sudden urgency. Clockwork turned to him now, grimacing.

"It's Pariah," he said. "He has awoken."