10
The S-List gathered in the Ivory Tower during lunch the next day, returning to the safety of its walls during school for the purpose of planning the next Spire attack. Sitting excitedly around the conference table, they toyed with small tokens on a large map of the fourth Spire they targeted, chasing one another on the paper in laughter. A sense of joy had fallen over them since the Others and Trixie Tang learned that their often moody and erratic team leader was none other than Timmy Turner, and their parents had been pleased, if not puzzled, by their return home with more genuine smiles and newfound hopes. Their happiness spread through the households, bringing a welcome relief from the gloom and misery that had taken a stranglehold on Dimmsdale for so long.
Caleb watched them from his place near the head of the table, mildly annoyed by their play and the fact that Turner himself had yet to arrive. Between having to keep close watch over a child immortal and the guardian of The Veil Between Life And Death, he wasn't getting much time to himself to go and explore the ruins of ancient civilizations around the world. And the travel bug was biting again.
"Don't rip that, okay? We need it to plot our paths around the Spire." he sighed. Trixie giggled and clasped her hands together, eyes shining happily.
"I can't believe it! I just still can't believe it! Timmy Turner, alive and well! And with so much power backing him in a quest to save Dimmsdale!" she exclaimed brightly, "We'll make the best couple! I know it! All I have to do is remind him how much he adores me and we'll be together!" Chester gave A.J. a glance, then rolled his eyes.
"Oh, here we go." he murmured as Tootie bristled across the table.
"You? No way! You're just after him for his magic and powers!" the young Goth yelled, shaking a fist at the older teen, "I saw him first! He's mine!"
"This is a drastic change from how girls used to treat him in the past." A.J. remarked, watching the arguing girls hurl words back and forth in a tennis match of verbal abuse.
"So then why does he still wish to date girls?" Sanjay muttered under his breath, sitting back in his chair with a pout. He glanced over at the stocky boy by him. "Elmer! Stupid boy! The hat!" he ordered, jabbing a finger at the empty space on the russet-haired boy's head where Timmy's pink cap usually sat.
"I don't have to wear it anymore. Timmy's back and he said he has his own hat." Elmer returned haughtily, arms folded over his chest.
"But we still need to cover for him and pretend he's gone!" Chester told him, "So put it back on!" Grumbling and complaining quietly, Elmer dug the cap out of his backpack and placed it on his head again. "Man, when's he gonna show up? He skipped the whole first half of school today and Remy's been laughing it up since yesterday." the blonde sighed harshly, "I wanted to walk up to him and turn his head inside out!" Before them, the girls got their fairy godparents involved, each touting themselves as 'the perfect girlfriend' for the late immortal.
"She does have a point, Andromeda." Apollo remarked as Trixie preened before a hand mirror, making sure she still looked all right despite the yelling, "Timmy's records state that he's had a thing for Trixie since the day he laid eyes on her. It's the ultimate granted wish for the both of them if they got each other." Romi shook her head furiously.
"Absolutely not!" she shot back, "I'm sorry if this sounds rude or snobbish, but your godchild never gave Timothy the time of day when he was alive! At least my godchild has Timothy's best interests at heart and would never spurn him!" The fairies began their own argument and the remainder of the team quietly shifted their seats a bit further away.
"Don't scratch the tile." Caleb warned and sighed, pulling his hand over his face, "Oh, what am I saying? No one pays attention to stuff like that and I'll just end up cleaning it out of boredom..." Trixie closed up her make-up kit and grinned smugly at Tootie.
"You know, you might as well just give up on him now, Little Miss Middle-School." she purred, "No matter what you say or do, I'm still gonna be the one to get Timothy's attention and heart. Who cares about a scrawny little thing like you..." She struck a lady-like pose that brought her to her full height and finished, "...when he can have someone like me? With all the curves that bring boys like him to me like so many drooling alley pups?" She laughed as the young Goth's face turned red in a mix of fury and embarrassment. "Talk all you want about the inside, Tootie-Fruitie, but to get through a fourteen-year-old boy's mind you have to have the body for it." the Asian went on with a smile, "And you look like you could iron your shirts after you put them on!"
The door to the room slid open before Tootie could form a retort and the group looked towards it expectantly. Timmy stood in the doorway, puzzled as he looked around at them all. Dressed once more in the classic pink shirt and hat he had been known for as a youngster, he tilted his head and lifted an eyebrow in confusion.
"I heard yelling?" he finally said questioningly. Half the group sighed dreamily and Chester rolled his eyes again. A.J. merely grinned at the familiar outfit and Elmer promptly yanked the hat from his own head.
"I told you." he hissed out of the corner of his mouth towards Sanjay.
"It looks so much better on him anyway. A mere photo cannot capture the essence that is the one true Heart of Dimmsdale." the Hindu returned absently, a goofy smile on his face as his glasses fogged over.
"Missed the classic, Dude." Chester finally remarked and stood from his chair to wave at the rest of the teens, "We were just goofing around waitin' for ya." He rubbed his head sheepishly. "Oh, and sorry for takin' over the Others while you were gone. I mean, without you around, the gang was kinda being pushed around a lot more by the Populars..." Timmy waved a hand carelessly at the apology, heading for the head of the table.
"You did what you had to to keep everyone safe. That's cool with me." he returned and broke into a grin, "Thanks. It means a lot to me. I was kinda worried you would all suffer the most during... well, y'know." He held up a folder as the iPod and watch poofed back into the forms of Cosmo and Wanda. "The e-mail came in this morning; we have an official emblem for the Heart of Dimmsdale title!" he declared and set it down on the table for them to see. The group leaned forward to take in the print-out.
It looked, at first, like a large red heart. A second glance registered the fact that part of the center of the heart was missing, the shape of a capital 'T' cut into the color. Stranger still was that the letter had a second bar cutting through it as well, only half an inch below the first bar that comprised the letter. The group blinked at it, then up at Timmy.
"Well? What do you think?" he asked.
"Dude. It's a heart. A big, red heart." Chester remarked flatly, "With pieces cut out."
"It's very reminiscent of Danny Phantom's 'DP' insignia." Caleb added thoughtfully, "Did he draw this? Or Sam?"
"Sam did. Danny's in a bit of a bind right now." Timmy admitted worriedly, "She didn't say much but I know he's trapped in the Ghost Zone and can't get out. His cell phone isn't picking up my calls, but I just figured it was 'cause the Zone's out of range."
"Wish she'd called me about that." the android muttered irritably, "All right. So what exactly is the shape in the center of this thing?"
"A double 'T'. That's what the e-mail said." the brunet answered and blinked as Trixie waved her hand frantically.
"Ooh! I know! It stands for Trixie and Timothy!" she declared brightly and Tootie immediately shook both fists in the air.
"No! Timmy and Tootie! It's our initials of love!" the young Goth yelled. Timmy folded his arms over his chest, scowling.
"I knew I heard girls screaming." he grumbled and shook his head, "At least Veronica isn't involved." The android gave him a suspicious look and he quickly rubbed his head and forced a laugh. "Oh, nothing, nothing! Never mind me; just talkin' to myself! Had a weird dream and was just talkin' it away!" he chattered and cleared his throat. He pointed at the sheet. "Actually, the double 'T' is to represent my initials. Timmy Turner. The heart represents my title, Heart of Dimmsdale. So if they're together like that, then my name, title and the insignia are bound together in everyone's eyes." Timmy explained, "So that would put it under Da Rules as having immunity." Caleb picked up the sheet and studied it.
"Seems like it will work. Let me pitch it to the public and start up a foundation in your name as a smokescreen. Once the city recognizes this symbol as one for you, then fairies will have no choice but to do the same." the redhead decided, "As for that issue you wanted me to deal with... it's been resolved. There is no evidence of your DNA in any lab in the world, save for what wasn't recently obtained. Your old records remain to avoid suspicions, but the strands of hair stolen from you have been destroyed."
"Great. Okay, guys, there's a bit of a problem with the attack on the next Spire." Timmy told the group seriously, "When I called Sam about the problem of the emblem, she told me that we can't call on Danny Phantom for the next attack." The group uttered a collective yelp of shock.
"What? Why not?" Tootie cried, taken aback by the news.
"Did the ghost get busted or something?" Chester asked in curiosity. Timmy shook his head, a worried look on his face.
"No, nothing like that. I don't think." he answered in a puzzled tone, "She said that something had happened that got him trapped in the Ghost Zone. It's a place that most of the ghosts reside in and Danny's not really welcome there 'cause he keeps throwing ghosts that escape back in there." He shrugged helplessly. "So until he gets rescued by Sam, Jazz and Tucker, Team Phantom is out of the game."
"Is Danny Fenton helping?" Tootie asked and the brunet blinked.
"Uh... yeah..." he mumbled and shook his head, "He's not much for going into the Ghost Zone either, so he's probably just gonna work on this side of the gate. We can't call him 'cause of that." He waved at the map. "But that still leaves us with the problem of who can replace him and destroy the nullifiers while we overload the other units with data." he sighed. Team Turner puzzled over that in silence.
"We need someone who can get rid of nullifier units without being affected by them." A.J. mused softly.
"Someone like Danny Phantom, who can move quickly from unit to unit." Sanjay added, eyes closed in thought as he flicked the frames of his glasses. Tootie pushed her own up the bridge of her nose, then allowed them to slide down again.
"Someone who can destroy them one after another so they can't be made active again." Elmer muttered.
"Who else do we know can survive being near a nullifier, move around fast and totally demolish anything?" Chester asked in exasperation. Timmy and Caleb both jerked their heads up at the question, then looked at each other in realization.
"Anti-Cosmo!" they declared in unison.
"What?" Wanda growled, "You're not thinking of getting him involved, are you, Timmy?" She wagged her wand at him warningly. "You can't trust him, Sport! He's an anti-fairy! Even if he promised never to use black magic on you, what's to stop him from using it on your friends?" she lectured and the brunet looked up at her determinedly.
"What's stopping him from keeping the promise not to hurt me?" he asked in return. The fairy godmother opened her mouth to answer, halted before she could and took on a concerned, though puzzled, expression.
"I still don't think it's a good idea." she finally said and looked over at her husband, "Right, Cosmo?" He floated there with a blank expression, sucking on one end of his wand. "Err... well..." Wanda faltered, "It's still a bad idea."
"It's a horrible idea! That guy's just gonna screw us all over for fun!" Apollo declared in agreement, "There's a reason why he's at the top of the Wanted list in Fairy World!"
"He's dangerous!" Romi blurted out as Tootie nodded eagerly, "What if your magic turns negative again?" Timmy stepped back, startled, as his fairy godparents turned on him and the rest of the group gasped in shock.
"How did you-?" the brunet asked, then frowned, "Tootie! You followed me? You wished yourself invisible and spied on me during those tests?"
"Negative magic? Timmy, have you been using black magic while we were gone?" Wanda yelled angrily, "Don't you know that's dangerous? Who taught you black magic to begin with? It certainly wasn't Caleb or the two of us!"
"Black magic is icky magic! It's the stuff anti-fairies use to cause bad luck for everybody! It works the same as our regular magic, only anti!" Cosmo pitched in, matching his wife's fury with his own, "How can you stoop that low?"
"It's not my fault! My body copied the magic signature Anti-Cosmo had and it turned my magic negative!" Timmy snapped back, "And for what it's worth, I didn't use a single spell the whole time I was turned 'anti', okay?"
"Except for conjuring stuff." Chester remarked and Timmy cringed at the next explosion from his godparents.
"You promised not to conjure anything!" Wanda screamed in a rage, "We're your fairy godparents! If you need or want anything, we're the ones who use magic to get it for you!"
"How could you that whole week you were with that Sophia brat?" the brunet shot back angrily, "I needed stuff during that week and since you guys weren't there for me, I had to make it myself!" He held out a hand towards them and the shimmer of mana appeared before his fingers before solidifying into a perfect little mirror. "I could have made my own mirror and rock at school, but I wished them because I wanted to keep you guys happy and healthy!" he went on, "Excuse me for caring!"
"Don't call Sophia a brat!" Chester jumped in, standing up instantly at the words and scowling at the brunet.
"I can if I want to!" Timmy shot back, "She's a brat, brat, brat for being spoiled by all of you!"
"Of course we spoil her, you dumbass, she's your-!" Chester bit down on the words and sat back down suddenly, "Ah, forget it!"
"She's my what?" Timmy pressed on, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the blonde.
"I said to forget it!"
"Ugh, whatever." the brunet grumbled and threw up his hands, "We're getting way off track anyway." He glanced up at the mirror still floating in the air and snatched it down, shoving it behind his back. "The point is, we need someone to take out the nullifiers without being affected by them. Anti-Cosmo is perfectly immune because he's an anti-fairy, so we need to get in touch with him and see if he'll help us out."
"And why would he want to help us at all?" Trixie asked warily, "He said it himself; an anti-fairy won't do anything for anyone unless he gets something out of it for himself." Timmy shrugged and shook his head helplessly.
"It's just a feeling, but I think Anti-Cosmo made it his mission in life to make Remy as miserable as possible. Why, I don't know, but if we tell him that helping us destroy the Dark Spire is the best way to get Remy ticked off, that may do the trick." he returned. The team looked at each other, thought it over, then nodded begrudgingly at the brunet.
"I still don't like it, but majority rules." Wanda grumbled, hair badly disheveled from her earlier fit of anger. She filed her nails with her wand almost viciously, sparks of magic flying free as she glared at her godchild. "We'll go along with the plan for now, but we are going to have a very long talk about black magic and conjuring when we get home."
"Yes, Mom." the teen muttered sarcastically, earning a smack to the head from the wand. Cosmo merely huffed in annoyance, then nodded.
"Just so long as he stays away from Wanda!" he declared.
"He will, Cosmo. Promise." Timmy sighed, rubbing his head, "So, can anyone trigger some bad luck to call him?" The group remained silent. "Anyone?"
"Dude, I was lucky the last time he gave me bad luck." Chester griped, "I was actually wearing boxers that day! I don't want him dropping my pants again!"
"If I rip this hat one more time, Sanjay's gonna disembowel me with his plastic spork." Elmer whined and the Hindu shot him a glare.
"Not before I rip out your esophagus and strangle you with it first." he added scathingly.
"Trixie, Tootie? You have fairies that can weaken the effects of black magic. Why don't you trigger something?" Timmy asked of the girls.
"No way." Apollo growled, "If he points that wand of his at Trixie, I'm running my sword through his gut. Screw his black magic!"
"I don't know. Anti-Cosmo's scary." Romi whimpered, twirling her wand in her hands, "I don't think my fairy godparent training covered what to do when the anti-fairy you're facing is Anti-Cosmo! That's high-level stuff! I'm only mid-level!" Tootie sighed and reached into her backpack, digging through her possessions before retrieving an umbrella.
"I'll get him." she remarked and stuck her tongue out at Trixie as she lifted the umbrella over her head and clicked on a button. It swept open and unfolded the black fabric, casting her in a shade. "It's bad luck to open an umbrella indoors, right? This should get his attention." Tootie declared and smiled, "Huh, so this is what Sam meant by carry one around. Sunlight is too bright and hot when you're wearing dark colors. I'll have it open when daylight is too strong." The group waited for moment, then looked around warily.
"He's not here yet?" Romi murmured in confusion, looking around between her fingers, as she had pulled her hands up to her eyes at the sight of her godchild triggering bad luck. Timmy folded his arms and tilted his head, puzzled.
"It happened again. What's going on?" he murmured aloud, "Wanda, why isn't he showing up when Tootie triggered the bad luck and not me?" He frowned and tapped his teeth thoughtfully before speaking again. "It's been about three, four days since he took off..." he mused softly.
"Let me try." Trixie remarked after another minute passed with no anti-fairy, "Apollo, I wish I had a salt shaker." Her godfather grumbled under his breath but granted the wish. Trixie promptly flicked the side of it and watched the salt spill out in the tumble. The team looked around the room expectantly. Nothing. Timmy frowned deeper.
"Now I know something's up. Spilling salt is Anti-Cosmo's favorite bad luck trigger." he growled, "If he's not even showing up for that, then something must have either happened to him or he's actually ignoring us!" He turned to his friends. "Guys, let's see if we can't try this one more time, just to see if he's even awake or something! Everybody get a salt shaker!" he announced and watched as Tootie and Trixie wished enough for the group to pass around. "Now, on the count of three, knock over the shakers and spill the salt! One!"
Each teen studied their salt shaker intensely as they waited.
"Two!"
Caleb uttered a soft groan of exasperation. A waste of good salt and he'd have to clean it all up later.
"Three!" Timmy declared and the air was filled with the sounds of various crystal and black salt shakers tumbling across the table and scattering salt all over. A burst of pale blue smoke erupted over the mess and Anti-Cosmo dropped out of it, landing on the tabletop with a soft grunt. "Hah! Finally!" the brunet exclaimed in triumph.
"Blast it all. I thought I could ignore this one." the anti-fairy grumbled weakly, bat's wings flapping once, then going limp as if in protest. He sat up, dusted himself off and glared up at the teen. "Tell me, dearest Timothy, what exactly was going through your mind when you pulled this stupid little stunt? You already used up your favor and I'm not in the mood for giving you another."
"Why the heck were you ignoring me when I broke the mirrors?" the young immortal demanded.
"There's no point showing up when you're immune to bad luck."
"Then how about when Tootie and Trixie opened umbrellas indoors and spilled salt?"
"I was busy scheming, dear boy; I'm not about to drop everything just to go bother some empty-headed girl and a love-struck child." Anti-Cosmo returned in irritation, running his fingers through his hair to straighten it back out from the fall, "Unlike your godfather there, staring vacantly into space, my schedule is packed with things I need to do."
"Like?"
"Free my loyal anti-fairies, of course. I need to spend time planning how to break them out."
"That shouldn't take more than twenty minutes with your estimated intelligence capacity." A.J. pointed out, "Being the opposite of Cosmo, you're a certified genius. Planning a jailbreak should be a cakewalk." Anti-Cosmo shot him a glare.
"I'll be making your bad luck especially painful." he sneered and tried to stand. Part-way through he failed and sat back down on the table. "Well, I was more comfortable this way." he muttered to himself.
"So what have you been doing for close to four days that keeps you from paying attention to bad luck triggers?" Timmy questioned, leaning forward and poking at the anti-fairy. He frowned suddenly. "You've been ignoring them all that time, weren't you? What were you trying to do, force a magical build-up?"
"Actually, I was dieting." Anti-Cosmo huffed. He glanced up at the scowling teen, then sulked, folding his arms over his chest as he looked away. "Fine. I was ignoring the triggers because I didn't care to come back here." he finally admitted.
"We need your help making Remy miserable. Do you care about that?" Timmy asked and the anti-fairy brightened, a grin spreading on his face.
"Ah, sweet music of that boy's agony! It calms my heart and soothes my soul!" he purred, "For the chance to hear that siren song of misery, I'll lend a dark hand!"
"Great! 'Cause Danny Phantom's out and we need somebody to trash nullifiers in his place." Chester exclaimed and looked up at the brunet, "So what's the plan and when does that Spire go down?"
"We do it like last time. Everyone here will wear the magitech armor with strands of Cosmo's hair in the fibers and the Heart of Dimmsdale emblem on them so they can distract the units and stay safe from Remy's wishes." Timmy returned, "With the anti-magic units busy trying to update the server system on the locations of us 'fairies', we'll heat up the computer system and force an overload and shutdown of the whole system! After that, we'll just walk in, plant the bombs, walk out and detonate 'em."
"With Anti-Cosmo's immunity to nullifiers, it will be up to him to destroy the nullifier units before they get close to the magic-users." Caleb agreed, "Or those of us with magic will be taken out of the fight before the damage is complete."
"I say we attack tonight!" Timmy declared and the group of teens looked suddenly uneasy.
"Tonight's not a good night." Chester pointed out, "Pop and I are having a Guys' Night Out and I promised I'd be home in time for it. I kinda forgot to tell ya 'bout that..."
"I'm going shopping with my mom. We're buying a new car for me since they think me being happy is making them all feel happier and better." Trixie added, "Sorry."
"I'm studying for grade-out tests." Tootie put in, "If I pass, the school says I can move up to the next grade, so I'm trying to get through two at the same time. The sooner I'm a full-time high school student, the better."
"I'm still working on your murder mystery." A.J. explained, "Between picking through the results of the simulation program and compiling a list of your known enemies and motives, I'm beat most days. I'll need some time to recharge and be ready for an assault."
"I am still being punished for forgetting to take a hand grenade out of my pants pocket before it was put in the laundry." Sanjay sighed, "I am not allowed to be out with weapons for the next two weeks."
"My mom wants to take me on a Mother-Son retreat camp." Elmer sighed miserably, "She says I need counseling for wearing your hat all the time. I told her I promised you I'd wear it, but then she starts crying and she always craves a bubble bath after she does that. We'll be gone every weekend until October."
"I need time to establish the insignia as the official symbol of the Heart of Dimmsdale." Caleb explained to the brunet, "That could take a week at the least! Plus, I'll need additional time to inscribe the insignia onto the magitech armors without damaging them."
"Oh great, so we won't be able to attack the Spire until next month?" Timmy exclaimed in exasperation, "What rotten luck! How is it that you didn't remember to tell me any of this until just now?" He blinked, then shot an infuriated glare at Anti-Cosmo. "You!" he snarled as the anti-fairy smiled and lifted his still shining black-star wand.
"It's a start at recovery." he remarked softly, "I'm still fairly light-headed from lack of bad luck, but this will do for now. Give me a week or so to fully recover. I'll be ready to aid you in this mission at that time." Another weak flap of his wings and the smile grew slightly wider. "I don't suppose your magnanimous offer of a room at your little manor is still available?" he asked casually. The brunet pulled at his hair and fumed as Wanda and Cosmo floated by him with droll expressions.
"I told you so." Wanda simply remarked.
The days marched on slowly, the members of Team Turner and their opponents, Remy Buxaplenty and Denzel Crocker, all working furiously to either prepare for attacks on the Spires or complete the newest defenses for them. The destruction of the strands of hair before the processing could be completed resulted in disaster for Remy, who learned that what remained of the evidence could not be used to identify the brunet that had pestered him so much.
He fumed over it for a least a week before resuming his normal schedule of trying to advance the A-List back to top popularity and putting in bids for usurping Timmy's title for himself.
The televised unveiling of the Timmy Turner Foundation for Future Education by the Hounder Organization gave him a conniption, as did the new Heart of Dimmsdale insignia that the group also revealed as the official logo for the title and foundation. The city welcomed it with open arms. Remy threw the plasma screen television out the second floor balcony window.
The Populars found themselves the target of a strange streak of bad luck. Each time they brought out a good luck charm, it vanished instantly in a burst of pink or green smoke. The sounds of laughter seemed to follow them almost constantly and it wasn't long before even Remy was sick of being around them, which made the laughter louder and more delighted-sounding.
Tootie had completed her tests and hosted a party at her house for passing them both with flying colors. Dimmsdale's youngest high school student in history, she ended her party with a blast. Quite literally, as she had her fairy godmother grant her wish of detonating the girls' bathrooms in the middle school as penalty for having so much pink decorating the interiors when they knew how she felt about the color and what it meant to her.
Victoria's Charity Babysitters had fewer run-ins from the gang of thugs Remy had hired to run them out of business, mostly because Victoria had pitched the idea of getting her girls to a martial arts class and actually got the vote for it. Jeanette could no longer take the competition and was thrown out of the city for endangering darling little Sophia. Remy made sure she didn't remember anything of her time there.
Sophia herself seemed much happier when people weren't constantly showering her with attention and gifts. On occasions when she toddled around in front of her apartment building or the local pizzeria in the company of a fairy princess porcelain doll, Timmy would pass by on his training exercises and occasional anti-magic device hunting runs. They'd chat a bit, though to the most observant of onlookers it seemed as though the little girl's eyes strayed more to the iPod decorating the boy's shirt than anything else, then they would part ways. Timmy found himself disliking the girl less and less with each random visit, but never knew exactly why that was so or why his best friend, Chester, constantly threatened to tackle him head-on if he so much as considered following Sophia home.
As vaguely promised by Sam Manson, Timmy did get another call back on the status of his cousin. Two weeks and little progress had been made; though Team Phantom had located their team leader, he was apparently sealed in some strange bubble that thwarted all efforts to break him free. The last Timmy heard before someone called out in a panic from the background was that Sam intended to use the Stygian Seal to get Danny freed. He received only static from calls after that conversation. Caleb told him not to worry, but the android immediately went into a nearby kitchen and the sound of clattering pots and pans made Timmy worry more. There was nothing he could do, though; Danny was in Amity Park, or, at least, the only safe entrance to the Ghost Zone was in Amity Park, and Timmy couldn't survive in there without ghostly backup. Magic was useless in a mana-less environment and most ghosts resented the fact that he was both dead and alive almost as much as they resented Danny being a human and ghost at the same time.
For what it was worth, Danny Phantom was out of battle indefinitely and Amity Park was beginning to panic the longer they went without seeing the familiar streak of black and white soaring overhead. Especially those that found Phantom Taxi far too convenient to take up driving to work again.
The first case of Veronica taking a more active role in seeking proof of Timmy's continued life came from stumbling onto her at the cemetery, setting up cameras around the little grave. Thanks to Anti-Cosmo's bad luck feasting, her cameras all had their lenses too far out of focus to make much sense of anything. She did, however, manage to tackle him again when both were at the grave at the same time inadvertently. Timmy had panicked, fled, then complained bitterly in the medical ward at the Ivory Tower that the girl needed to trim her nails more often. Caleb agreed, but mostly because the mad dash had resulted in a torn shirt and all that remained of it were pink scraps of fabric.
Both Tootie and Trixie, in a rare sense of partnership and camaraderie, had offered to go to Veronica's house in the dead of night and gouge out her eyes with perfectly manicured nails as a form of retribution for having inflicted damage to their beloved immortal. Wanda made him decline.
.
After roughly three weeks of preparation and dealing with the stresses of life as Timmy knew it, the team was finally ready to begin another assault on the Dark Spire. They gathered in the Ivory Tower to make a final decision on what was to happen and try to make contact with Team Phantom, if only to wish them luck in retrieving their own team leader.
"No answer, huh?" Tootie asked after watching the brunet hold the cell phone to his ear for several minutes without any reaction. He clapped it closed and shook his head. "Well, they should be fine. They've been doing dangerous stuff longer than us, so they have tons of experience, I bet." she sighed and managed a smile for him, "So let's do our best together on our mission! That way we can tell them all about it when they get back from theirs!"
"Right." Timmy agreed and headed back to the desk with the other members of his team, "Okay, everyone got the game plan? Anti-Cosmo, you get what's going on?"
"What do you take me for? A runt of MENSA?" the anti-fairy retorted indignantly, "Of course I know what's expected of me! I'm the one who has to destroy those nullification devices that are a burden to you positive-magic-users."
"No harm in checking." the brunet answered peaceably and waved a hand around the table, gesturing at the brown boxes set before each teen, "Caleb brought in the magitech armors for us. They've all been modified again so they carry the insignia. Once everyone changes into the armor, we'll head off to the Dark Spire."
"Are you gonna be going in with the normal outfit or are you gonna dress up as Neogene like you did before?" Chester asked him suddenly and Timmy blinked at the question.
"Uh, well, since you guys know who I am now, there's no point in not wearing my usual clothes, but we don't know if Remy is going to show up again, so I'd better stick with my stealth outfit." he replied and looked worried, "Also, I still remember those cameras from the second Spire we destroyed. If there are any cameras at the other Spires, I don't want them to see me dressed as my old self. There's a freaky weird organization that's been hunting after Caleb and Danny for the longest time for some stupid reason and I don't want them to see me as a new target to add." He rapped on the table with a grin. "Okay, everyone! Let's go! Change up quick; we want that tower down before dawn!" The group cheered then grabbed up their armors before rushing off to get ready for the attack. He watched them leave, looked down at the white Adventurer's Map on his arm, then sighed. "We don't even have a reading on the number of traps and the ratios. What if this plan doesn't work?" he murmured worriedly.
"Then we come up with another, on the field if we have to." Anti-Cosmo told him quietly. He slipped his hands into his pockets, turning his back on the brunet and his fairy godparents and gazing down at the tabletop. "Believe it or not, I want those Spires destroyed as badly as you do." he added under his breath.
Master Control Spire~
"Spire Four Squadron Control units active. Current total set at two hundred. Spire Three Squadron Control units active. Current total..." Crocker read off the reports to himself as the screen before him lit up with wire-frame models of the Dark Spires. "Everything seems like it's under control." he finally remarked and looked over at the smaller computer where Remy's face appeared in a vid-conference window.
"For now, perhaps, but I know that mongrel is going to make a move." the blonde returned with a slight scowl. He narrowed his eyes. "He and that little bunch of outcasts have been awfully quiet for the longest time. I believe they've been biding their time for another attempt at my beautiful Spires." Remy added and sat back on his end of the line, "Continue monitoring the situation and let me know immediately if anything begins to go wrong with any one of those towers!" With that, he clicked off. Crocker sniffed disdainfully before returning his attention to the monitor before him, watching the models and their blinking displays of light that represented the various units surrounding it in their hatches.
"I want him to come, you buffoon. Magical power like that could be very useful." he muttered and smiled, holding up the small motherboard that had been inside the device detector stolen from Chester weeks ago, "Very useful indeed. Once I have a greater understanding of this marvelous technology, I'll be able to harness fairy magic without actually destroying the creature in the process! I'll have the proof that fairy godparents exist and I'll have the power to resurrect the Heart of Dimmsdale in one fell swoop!" He tapped the card against his chin, chuckling to himself.
"Come, come, come to me, new Timmy. Just a little further, a little more training. Bring me absolution when I've pushed you to the furthest limit of your power." he purred, "Then, and only then, will I get you and the fairy that haunts my faintest memories to surrender the power to return our city's most precious child."
A/N: Someone once asked how Timmy was resurrected by Danny. The idea behind it is Death can collect a mortal soul only once, cuz it's a mortal soul, right? You can only die once, right? Well, since Death had already 'collected' Timmy's soul, he got checked off as being collected. Then Danny snatched him away and put his soul back. That means Death can't collect him again, he's already been marked off the list. That's why Timmy is known as The One Who Stands Beyond Death's Reach.
there's more to it, but I'll post the poem tied to it later on.