Attention all former, current and new readers! This is NOT a standalone story; it is part of a faux story lineup I have written as part of a continuation of the TV series. If you have not previously read the stories, or chapters, that come before this one, I highly advise at least giving them a onceover. A list of the stories that I have written for the lineup can be found on my homepage here on this site. It lists the stories in their correct order. However, if you wish to continue, you may do so at your own discretion…you have been warned.
Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon Studios. Any OCs are created and owned by me or have been used with permission by their original creators.
I probably would have had this chapter out sooner, but an incident that occurred in RL put my writing on hold, and still is a bit, and prevented me from finishing the next chapter when I'd expected to. I don't expect any more delays in terms of my writing, so here's to hoping my personal problems won't continue to be an issue.
Anyways, when we last left off, Paradox had just dropped a huge WTF bomb on our two ghost heroes. Apparently the Vlad Plasmius himself was once a prisoner of Walkers. How will they handle this newest revelation? And will anything new be revealed to our two heroes.
With her head propped up against one of her hands, Paradox angrily glared at the pages of one of her books as she sat in her armchair, pretending to read as she ignored, not only the constant mutterings from the ghost down the hall, "-you'll never take me alive…you'll never take me alive…you'll never take me alive-", but the continued badgering from Danny in the cell across from hers as he pestered her for more information.
"I bit off more than I could chew," she grumbled to herself, quietly enough that he couldn't hear her. She had gotten him all riled up with her recent reveal that Vlad had once been a prisoner here, same as him, and now he wouldn't stop asking her questions about Vlad's imprisonment.
"What did Plasmius do to get himself locked up down here!?" Danny would ask constantly. "How did he escape!?" he demanded of her, growing frustrated himself, and barely managing to stop himself from grasping the glowing bars of his cell to relieve his frustration over her ignoring him.
At some point, Dani herself must have grown tired of either pestering the shadow ghost, or otherwise had grown tired of Danny's constant badgering of her, as she was now sitting on the floor again. She leaned her back against the wall and hung her head between her arms as she rested her forearms on her knees. She seemed defeated, in more ways than one.
The questions from Danny continued in repetition for the next few hours until the buzzer at the end of the hall signaled the arrival of the guards, and silenced the Ghost Teen. He and Paradox both looked up as Bullet came into view; accompanied by, not one of the guards, but by Walker himself. They both smirked menacingly as the Ghost Teen as he glares back at them with a fury burning in his eyes.
"So, I heard that the two of you got into a scuffle with my other prisoners earlier this mornin'," Walker snickered as he cast his gaze over at Dani, whom looked up and glared at him angrily. "I'm ashamed to admit that I missed the beatin' at breakfast, and was hopin' to get a "repeat performance" at dinner," he snickered with amusement as Bullet moved to unlock the cell door.
Danny backed away from the glowing bars and Dani jumped to her feet, both looked momentarily horrified by what Walker was suggesting. He was gunna throw them back to the wolves, so to speak. "And if we refuse?" Dani growled, scowling at the warden and his bounty hunter, recovering from the moment of shock.
Neither answered, but Bullet raised his arm, revealing the black wrist gauntlet with the green button on it. His hand hovered over the button as a reminder of what would happen to them both if they refused. Both siblings began to sweat nervously as they carefully eyed the button that would activate the spectral cuffs.
"Finally at a loss for words," Paradox mocked from her cell, drawing the other's attention. "It's about time," she grumbled, never taking her eyes away from the book that she had been pretending to read.
"Well, well, well. So the glorious Paradox finally decides to grace me with her presence," Walker taunted her with a wicked grin, earning a contemptuous glare from her. "How long has it been since last?" he asked her as Bullet escorted the siblings out of their cell, their spectral cuffs linked in front of them. "Two…three hundred years?" he asked her.
"Oh, sooner than that, believe you me," she growled in a low grumble, turning her attention back to her book.
"Your nerves seem strained," Walker continued taunting her, ignoring her comment. "Been under a bit of stress lately?" he asked mockingly, leaning in so his face was nearly against the pink energy that enclosed her. "Must be, having to spend all of eternity listenin' to him," he said, glancing down the hall.
"…you'll never take me alive…you'll never take me alive…you'll never take me alive…"
"How does it feel?" he asked, turning his attention back to the shadow ghost, whom was growing increasingly irritated with him with each passing second. "Knowin' that you're damned to this eternal Hell?" When she didn't answer, he continued. "Perhaps you've grown accustomed to hearin' him day in and day out?" he asked as an alternative. "Didn't think you had it in you," he scorned her. "And here I was, thinkin' that you didn't even have the strength left to fight back anymore and try to escape, let alone maintain your sanity."
"RAGH!" Paradox screamed as she rounded on the warden, leaping from her chair and throwing the book she was holding. As it traveled through the air, it dematerialized and reformed into a ball of pure pink ecto-energy that collided with and reacted negatively with the pink energy barrier of her cell. In a shower of sparks and flashing light, the transfigured energy was vaporized, leaving the pink energy barrier as vibrant as ever.
She glared furiously at Walker through the pink energy barrier as he smirked back at her; his face still inches away from the energy, having never even flinched when she lashed out at him so violently. Her chest was heaving for breath as she tried to regain herself, but that was unlikely to happen any time soon.
"Weak as always," he mocked her one last time before he turned his back on the still infuriated shadow ghost, whom had begun pounding on the pink energy barrier of her cell with energized fists, ignoring the pain it gave her with each strike.
"HELL HATH NO FURY OVER WHAT I WILL DO TO YOU!" she screamed, her voice frightening all except for the warden and his bounty hunter. Even the six human ghosts, the smog ghost, and the blue-scaled hydra slunk fearfully into the far corners of their cells as the siblings were walked passed them on their way back to the door. "I – WILL – MURDER – YOU!" she continued to scream as she pounded away at the energy barrier of her cell, making no dent or impact on it, and causing no damage except to herself. "DO YOU HEAR ME!?"
With their spectral cuffs being unlinked once again, the siblings were shoved back into the mess hall by a guard that Walker and Bullet had passed them along to. He smirked and snickered with enjoyment, knowing what was likely in store for them in only a few moments time. Indeed, just like last time, the mess hall fell uncomfortably silent upon their arrival; luckily they'd managed to avoid the embarrassment of falling when they were forcefully shoved by the guard this time.
"Man, she was really ticked off," Dani grumbled under her breath as the guard that led them there floated away. "Do you really think she'd go through with her threat, if she could?" she asked of Danny, looking up at him with concern.
"Yeah, I do," he answered as a bead of sweat began rolling down the side of his face. After all, any ghost that that would try to control the Ghost Zone and destroy all life in the cosmos wouldn't think twice about following through with such a mild threat by comparison. "I think I may have contributed a bit towards her frustration, but most of her irritation was aimed directly towards Walker," he pointed out.
"I'd thought that he'd put us down there for the purpose of irritating her," she speculated. "But he didn't even mention us the whole time he was trying to provoke her," she pointed out.
"Yeah, he seems to have it out for her more than us," he realized as he wondered why that was so. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't let our guard down," he warned her. "There are plenty of others that still have it out for us," he reminded her.
The siblings cautiously swept their eyes across the mass of prisoners that carefully watched them with batted breath. They slowly made their way to the food line, glancing around, and finding a surreal scene; everything was happening the same as before.
The garbage inmate served them up portions of its own grotesque looking body as food on trays before they turned to face the mass of prisoners that was still watching them in absolute silence. You could practically hear them breathing, slow and steady, almost as if poised to lunge out and attack the pair at a moment's notice.
In a repeat of last time, both siblings sat at the only table that offered them any room to sit; at the same table with the same ghosts. Only this time, neither of them was scared in the least bit. Dani even looked up at the troll looking ghost and growled at it as she sat next to him. He continued looking at her intently, but a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his face gave him away.
They could feel the tension of the other inmates fluctuating wildly, like their uneven breathing as they tried to decide amongst themselves without speaking whether or not it would be wise to even try to attack these two. Despite their size, and their undisputed reputations, even with their powers neutralized, they were still a threat that was capable of handling the majority of them, at the same time. Many probably feared the humiliation of being defeated by a pair of Ghost Teens with such major handicaps twice in the same day.
Danny eyed the trays of food on the table that belonged to the three ghosts sitting across the table before looking up at them in their eyes. They were watching his hands on the table; remembering what he did last time, they were wary of what he was about to do. They didn't give him the chance and stood from the table and moved away into the crowd of ghostly prisoners that sat at their own tables, watching cautiously, as if waiting for the fighting to break out before they got up to join in; rather than gather around beforehand, like last time.
This caught Danny a little by surprise, but he decided to roll with it. Casting a threatening glance up at the ghost to his side, he balled his hands into fists, cracking his knuckles. Dani had done the same thing, still staring up at the troll-like prisoner with unblinking eyes, as if daring him to make the first move as she too balled her hands into tight fists, cracking her knuckles.
Quickly glancing at one another, the two large ghosts on either side of them nodded in agreement. Danny knew this was the moment, and was about to swing around and throw his fist into the larger ghost's jaw; but he was again quite surprised when, like last time, and like their three former table mates, they both stood from the table and disappeared into the crowd of inmates that filled the mess hall.
The siblings cast curious, yet worried glances at one another. Things were different than before, and they weren't sure if things were going to turn out better or worse because of it. Not wanting to be on the wrong end of a brutal beating at the hands of these prisoners, they were prepared to strike first yet again if it meant keeping the other prisoners from attacking in a unified manner.
They were prepared to turn out of their seats and lunge for the nearest tables, but paused in mid turn when a pair of dark shadows were cast over them. They both nervously looked back across the table and looked up at the pair of ghosts that stood across the table from them. Standing across from them and looking quite intimidating were Hotep-ra and Lydia, glaring down at the two siblings. Hotep and Danny glared daggers at one another, silently, as they contemplated one another.
"May we sit here?" Hotep asked, right out of the blue, catching both siblings by complete surprise. They both stuttered over their words, unable to formulate a response as the pair of ghosts sat on the opposite bench without really even waiting for either sibling to consent. They even set their own trays of food on the table as they shifted to make themselves more comfortable after shoving aside the trays that belonged to the table's former occupants.
It didn't miss the sibling's attention that the moment Hotep and Lydia sat down than did all the other prisoners in the mess hall that had been glaring at them, suddenly turned to each other and went back about their business; eating and chatting, filling the mess hall with indistinctive chatter, much to Danny's complete bewilderment.
Being confused by the other prisoner's suddenly strange behavior, Danny almost missed when Hotep suddenly slid his tray of food across the table so that it sat in front of him and Dani. They both looked down at the tray of food in confusion before it was replaced with astonishment. Unlike their trays of food, which had once again sprouted tentacle-like arms and were currently dragging themselves away, the tray that Hotep had passed them had an unappetizing gray mush.
"Here," the mummy ghost grunted after pushing the tray of food in front of them. "It's still not very appetizing," he cautioned, "but at least it's not complete, and literal, garbage," he reassured, eyeing their former trays of food as they continued to crawl away.
He then glanced at Lydia beside him, eyeing her food as well as she began eating. She noticed his squinting and abruptly turned herself away with her nose in the air as she continued to eat greedily, having no intention of sharing her own food.
The siblings stared at the tray of food Hotep had passed them; Danny with suspicion while Dani stared at it with a deep longing, she was clearly fighting temptation, but if Danny wasn't going for it, then neither was she.
"What do you want, Hotep?" Danny asked, quite aggressively, as he looked back up at the mummy ghost sitting across from him with a suspicious scowl.
"Brawls between the prisoners are not uncommon here," Hotep informed him. "But brawls that have been set up and instigated by the guards for the purpose of their amusement is not," he added with a scowl. "Whatever reason they claim you are here for doesn't concern us, but it is being used for their entertainment. It doesn't matter who you are; as prisoners, we will not tolerate being used to abate their boredom," he declared.
"Well, you're partially right," Danny admitted, a bit reluctantly though. "Plasmius has ordered Walker to keep us prisoner here so that he can destroy our world without our interference. They are using our time here to their advantage, because once he's finished with our world, he's going to order our "release" so we can see for ourselves what he's done before he completely wastes us," he explained.
"Hmm," Hotep pondered as he nodded. "A brilliant plan really, if your intention is to break your enemy's will to fight back," he admitted. Danny scowled angrily at the mummy ghost for pointing out what he feared to become reality. Hotep noticed this and recovered by shaking his head. "You should eat," he urged, nodding towards the tray of food. "You're only half-ghost, so I would imagine that you can't go forever without eating," he reminded the Ghost Teen.
Again, Danny glanced at the tray of food. Dani hadn't really taken her eyes off from it, and even though she was restraining herself, she couldn't help herself from starting to drool as her stomach began growling. Danny was hard pressed to give in and let her eat even if he didn't, but he was still too distrustful of the mummy ghost.
Hotep must have known the Ghost Teen was reluctant to eat for this very reason. "Phantom, you are not the one responsible for us being locked up in here," he reminded the Ghost Teen. "You may have defeated us, but we do not hold any ill will towards you or your-" he paused as he glanced at Dani, "-sister…for our imprisonment," he finished. "We also have a proposition for you, if you'd like to hear us out?" he offered, taking on a serious tone as he became all business.
Danny still watched the mummy ghost with criticism as he contemplated what he said. "I still don't trust you, but I believe that you have no reason or intention to do us harm, seeing as the guards are doing that already," he admitted whilst pulling the tray of food closer to himself and Dani. She took this as an invitation and started digging in, shoveling food into her mouth as if she were afraid it would be taken away before she got her fill. "I'd also be lying if your proposal didn't catch my interest," he admitted before he also began to dig in, abating his own hunger. Thinking about it, they hadn't eaten since before they returned from the other dimension, and that was several days ago by this point; so they both had to be pretty hungry, especially when presented with food that was at least edible, even if not very appealing.
After a couple of minutes of scarfing down food, Danny finally managed to address Hotep again, whom had been waiting patiently for the two Ghost Teens to finish, knowing how starved they'd been.
"So, what's this proposal of yours?" Danny asked. He wasn't finished eating yet, as he put a spoon-full of the grayish mush into his mouth after he asked this; he'd just slowed down enough to address his fellow inmate.
"It's common knowledge around here that you helped lead the revolt that led to the last mass breakout," Hotep informed him. "Most of our fellow inmates were part of the crowd and were later recaptured," he said, indicating the other prisoners, the closest of which glanced at them and gave acknowledging grunts or nods of their heads before they went back to their own business. "We've had the idea of trying again, sort of a slap in the face for Walker and the guards; and a few of us want you in on it, if you're interested?" he offered the Ghost Teen, leaning on the table and giving him a mischievous grin.
Dani paused in inserting another spoon-full of food in her mouth and slammed her spoon clenching fist onto the table. "Even after that ruff beating we got earlier?" she asked with a glower.
"I said there were only a few of us that want you to stand with us," Hotep reminded her with a glare of his own. "We did not take part in today's earlier scuffle except to break it up after things started getting out of hand," he informed them, explaining why he and Lydia had intervened. "The others, while not expressly wishing to engage in this endeavor, certainly side with us. They would love the chance to relish in the fresh air that is freedom beyond this prison's boundaries," he concluded.
"Have you guys managed to come up with any sort of a plan?" Danny asked curiously. He was certainly starting to get back into the swing of things. If it meant escaping from Walker's grasp, he'd certainly stomach working with former enemies again, especially if they had similar goals in mind. These inmates may not have had any desire to help him beat Plasmius, but they still wanted out of here all the same.
"We've tried observing the guards to find any weaknesses that we could exploit," Hotep began to explain. "You know, try something devious and elusive, without them catching wind of our plans; but they change up their routines far too often. The same guard almost never works the same shift twice in a row, and with hundreds of guards at his disposal, Walker makes sure there is no pattern to follow," he said with a sigh. "Our only other option would be another riot, but there's a chance that Walker and the guards would be well prepared, especially after the last one that resulted in almost all of the prisoners escaping," he warned.
"Yeah, Walker's already told us that he's increased security measures to prevent any future breakouts," Dani confirmed. "Likely a consequence of your previous escape," she presumed, looking up at Danny.
"Well, Dani and I certainly don't have time to come up with anything elaborate," Danny speculated, holding his chin with his fingers. He and Dani were done eating now and had pushed the now empty tray of food away so they could think and try to formulate something. "Our world dangles on the fringes of destruction; another riot may just be the only way to go," he figured, squinting his eyes in displeasure. "The only question is, when and where to do it?"
"Here, in the mess hall," Hotep answered. "It's the only location where all of the prisoners are allowed to congregate together at the same time," he informed them.
"It's the most obvious place though," Dani pointed out. "There are guards watching from every direction, they are on high alert," she observed, noticing a few of them on the catwalk above, surrounding the upper edges of the mess hall, watching them in particular. They were whispering to each other and did not seem all too pleased about something. They were glaring at the Ghost Teen's and their two fellow inmates and began to shuffle along at a hurried pace when they realized she was watching them. "They are already aware of our discussion," she warned them, glancing back down and curling her hands into fists. "They're on their way now."
"We don't have a lot of time then," Danny said in a rushed tone. "How fast can you spread word around to the other inmates without any of the guards noticing?" he asked of Hotep, growing desperate to finish planning before the guards arrived.
"Overnight," he answered. "We can be ready to go by morning," he reassured confidently. "When the guards bring you here for breakfast and unlink your cuffs," he said, eyeing their glowing spectral cuffs. "That will be our signal to strike."
"There's a very good chance they might not bring us here for breakfast tomorrow, or any day after that," Danny warned, cautiously glancing around for the presence of guards coming to take them back to their cell. They needed to finish planning now, before they lost their chance.
"How do you know?" Hotep questioned suspiciously, his eyes squinting.
"Dani and I are supposed to be in isolation," he explained to the mummy ghost. "Vlad's orders. Walker and his guards only brought us here to the mess hall to watch the prisoners beat up on us, not to have us sitting here planning an escape with you," he said in desperation.
"If they suspect what we're planning, which they very well might, then they probably won't release us from our cell again," Dani warned.
"The isolation unit," Hotep whispered in amazement, lost in thought for a moment, before he realized he was wasting precious time and shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Quick, give me a layout of it," he urged them. "What kinds of obstacles lay between your cell and this mess hall?" he pressed them for information. It had been more than a minute since Dani's warning. The guards hadn't come for them yet, but they surely would soon.
"The bars of our cell are infused with polarized ecto-energy," Dani quickly explained. "The ecto-energy in our spectral cuffs is also polarized; they repel one another. We can't even touch them without getting severely shocked by them."
"And even if we got passed them, the metal door at the end of the hall is secured tight," Danny continued explaining in a rushed tone, trying not to choke on his words as he spoke. "It requires two keys to be inserted from the outside in order to open it. There's no getting through unless they open it to let us out," he warned.
"Or to let themselves in," Hotep corrected with a wicked grin. "I don't have an idea for those ecto-energy infused bars of yours; but you'll have all night to come up with something," he warned. "But if you can get passed them, I may have an idea to get you through that secure metal door," he reassured them, his grin widening menacingly.
The doors at the other end of the mess hall swung open abruptly as Walker walked in, fury in his eyes, as a number of guards followed before one of them pointed in their direction.
"I'm all ears," Danny said, turning his head back to Hotep, giving him his full and undivided attention. He didn't want to miss a single syllable of the mummy ghost's plan before Walker and the guards nabbed them.
"I'll spread word around to the other prisoners to riot tomorrow morning, like we'd originally planned," he began to explain, hurrying his explanation along as Walker and the guards drew nearer, hampered only by other prisoners "accidentally" getting in their way. "This will set off an alarm throughout the prison. That will be your queue to get passed those energy infused bars of your cell any way that you can. The next part will take a little bit of patience on your part," he cautioned, putting up his hands to keep the two young Ghost Teens calm. "It may take some time, but eventually, the guards will need to check on you. If they believe you're the one behind the riot, they will need to make sure you are still contained, and the only way to do that is to-"
"Open the secure door to the isolation unit!" Danny interrupted him, realizing where he was going with this.
"If we can get out of our cell before they arrive, then we can fend them off and get out," Dani cut in. "Maybe even lock a few of them in if we shut the door behind us on our way out," she added with a mischievous grin.
"Then you can join us as we break the front door down," Hotep concluded with a wicked grin of his own. "We can all go about our merry ways from there."
Despite how invigorating all of this was making him, Danny still couldn't help but feel some reluctance in it all; too much could go wrong. Walker would have prepared defenses against something like that from happening again, he even said he had. And there was no guarantee that he could get passed the energized bars of their cell. If he couldn't, it would all have been for naught. But he was reminded by himself that he had to get out in order to stop Vlad at all costs, and this reinvigorated his determination.
"We'll be there!" he declared with his renewed determination burning in his eyes, or was it the sparks of electricity that were now coursing through his and Dani's bodies? "ARGH!" they both screamed as strong bolts of ecto-electricity emanated from their spectral cuffs.
The other inmates in the mess hall turned in their direction at the sounds of their screams of agony. Hotep and Lydia leaned back in their seats at the table, as if being a couple inches further away would prevent them from being shocked as well. All eyes watched in horror as the two Ghost Teens fell out of their seats and collapsed to the floor, still writhing in agony as their spectral cuffs shocked them mercilessly.
Standing over them, Walker looked absolutely livid as he held his thumb down on a green button on the face of a remote control box; it must also have been linked to the spectral cuffs that they wore. He alone was not amused, the guards behind him chuckled with amusement at seeing the two Ghost Teens writhing on the floor in pain and agony.
Finally, Walker released his thumb from the button, giving the siblings the chance to catch their breath as their bodies lay on the floor, smoke wafting upwards from them. "Get them back to their cell!" he spat furiously. As his guards grabbed up the siblings and dragged them out of the mess hall, Walker turned his gaze upon Hotep, both of them glaring at each other with merciless intent.
Paradox paced back and forth across her cell, gliding from one side to the other as she massaged her injured fists, her eyes were furrowed in concentration. She passed and snapped her head in the direction of the door buzzer, signaling the return of the two hybrids. "Hmph," she snorted with derision as the two siblings were once again dragged down the hall by numerous guards that all cackled with delight as they floated away after locking them back into their cell.
"The two of you were away for twice the amount of time as before," she feigned surprise. "I guess the two of you put up more of a fight than last time?" she asked with a mocking grin that told the siblings she knew that wasn't the case.
"Not exactly," Danny answered, humoring her as he knew that she likely knew herself that no fighting actually took place. She knew everything else, why wouldn't she know about what just happened now.
The door buzzer at the end of the hall sounded, but the hall wasn't empty. Both siblings glared up at Walker as he alone strode up to their cell and glared back at them. "Yet again, you've surprised me, Punk," he growled, feigning praise. "I had been hopin' to watch you and the clone get beaten into ground beef, and instead I find you plannin' another escape," he accused.
"We weren't planning an escape," Danny responded sarcastically. "We were just enjoying a lovely meal with some old acquaintances of mine," he spat cynically.
"How stupid do you think I'd have to be to fall for somethin' like that?" Walker retorted, his eyes squinting into a scowl.
"Pretty stupid," Danny responded.
"Somewhere on the same level as the Box Ghost," Dani said, putting in her two cents.
Walker's already squinted eyes turned into thin slits when she said this. He turned around in an instant and glared at Paradox, whom had been snickering behind his back, but stopped the moment he turned around. She pretended to have been whistling innocently, minding her own business. He grumbled with annoyance before turning back on the siblings.
"At any rate," he continued. "Whatever plans you two may have made are about to get locked away," he informed them menacingly, a wicked grin forming.
Danny did not like the sound of that; he had a pretty good idea of the meaning behind Walker's witty quip. This was confirmed for him when the buzzer at the end of the hall went off. Still smirking, Walker turned his head and glanced in the direction of the approaching guards and the prisoner they were now leading down the hall in their direction. Both hybrid's eyes widened in terror when Hotep-ra was walked into view by a smirking Bullet and another guard; Hotep's arms bound by glowing green energy behind his back. He glanced sideways at the siblings before hanging his head in shame as he was led by their cell and taken a bit further.
The guard that had escorted him, opened the metal door to Wulf's old cell as Bullet led the mummy ghost inside. The door was slammed shut and locked before Bullet and the guard turned to sneer at the Ghost Teens that had watched the procession in horror.
"I told you once before, Punk," Walker sneered, bringing the Ghost Teen's attention back to him. "I've tightened this prison's security since you last escaped, and I've put stronger regulations in place to cut off all avenues for which my prisoners may have to plan an escape amongst each other. Your "old acquaintance" can't spread word of your plan to the other prisoners if he's locked up down here, same as you," he sneered.
"And what about the woman that was at the table with us?" Dani asked mockingly, thinking she'd found a flaw in Walker's "regulations". "If we had an escape plan, couldn't she tell the other prisoners?"
"Lydia's a mute," Danny answered her somberly, having returned to glaring at Walker angrily. "Whose she gunna tell?" he asked rhetorically.
"And I've got other protocols to fall back on as an extra precaution in case you still think you have even a fools chance in Hell of gettin' out of here unscathed," Walker informed him, snickering. "I was trusted with keepin' you two locked up; and I will put up as many barriers as I can muster between you and the outside world," he promised.
Danny only smirked at this, as if accepting a challenge. "This coming from the ghost that couldn't stop me from escaping the first time," he snickered in retort to Walker's boastful claim.
Walker himself only smirked at this, clearly not intimidated or outraged at the Ghost Teen's quip. "No," he chuckled, still smirking. "That comin' from the ghost that's kept her imprisoned since before the human race even crawled out of the mud," he chided the Ghost Teen, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the shadow ghost behind him. She sneered furiously at him, crossing her arms over her chest, but made no more death threats towards him. "If I can keep her imprisoned for as long as I have, then it should only be too easy to keep you under lock and key," he snickered. "Face it, Punk. You have no hope for escape," he declared triumphantly. "Never have, never will."
And with that, he turned and walked away, leaving the isolation wing, and apparently ordering the lights to be prematurely dimmed for nightfall, leaving the entire wing in darkness, except for the glowing pink energy of the Ghost Teen's spectral cuffs, the bars of their cell, and Paradox's cell's energy barrier.
"And here I thought he had it out for me," Paradox scoffed, finally breaking the silence of the dark.
"You sure recovered quickly," Danny growled with frustration as he helped Dani limp over to the back wall and set her on the floor so she could rest.
While they'd been through the same treatment thus far, she was not holding up as much as he was and looked near to her breaking point. With their recent, and likely only, avenue of escape now locked up like them, their chances of finding a way out had indeed dwindled.
"Where did all that unbridled rage suddenly disappear to?" he asked her scoldingly, looking up from a forlorn Dani.
"One of these days, he will get his comeuppance," she answered with a smirk as she glanced to her left where the paper dart board on the wall over her desk bearing Walker's head was now completely buried under a hailstorm of darts, turning it into a literal pincushion.
"What I don't understand though, is this," Dani groaned, drawing attention from both her brother and the shadow ghost. "If Vlad really was once a prisoner here, in this very cell; then why is Walker working with him?" she asked, a very confused look in her eyes as she looked at the floor, as if the answers she seeked were carved into the stone. "Let alone taking orders from him in regards to our imprisonment?" she added, shaking her head in disbelief before she looked up and into Danny's eyes. "Does he even remember? Do either of them remember? Does anyone?" she asked, growing desperate, for things were growing very confusing for them.
Turning away from her with a look of determination in his eyes, Danny set sight on Paradox as she smirked back at him, knowing exactly what he was thinking; if anyone knew the truth, it would be her. She knew, she had to know; but she wouldn't give up her secrets so easily. She'd dangle it in front of his face, tauntingly, until he lost his temper, only to hide it away forever afterwards. It was clear enough to him at that point that they weren't getting any answers out of her. She merely barred her fanged teeth through a wide grin before her entire body dissipated into smoke and disappeared into the now darkened shadows of her cell.
Well, so much for that idea, it was quite well thought out for having been made up on the fly. Their potentially only hope for escape has been locked away, same as them. How will they ever get themselves out of this situation if Walker is blocking them at every turn? Can they figure out a way to escape? Guess they'll just have to wait for Walker to slip up somewhere.
What more could Paradox be hiding from our heroes? If Vlad was once Walker's prisoner, then why would the warden be taking orders from him now? She must know something that no one else does, but what could it be? Are yet more surprises in store for our two ghost heroes? Stick around to find out.