Part 9
"Has it been so long that you've forgotten I hate being called that name?" asked the man in the mechanical crab.
Everyone was surprised to see Grandpa Newton talking to this stranger as if he known him all his life. It was a shock especially considering that he was one of the most premiere ghost fighting organizations on the planet.
"I haven't seen you in a dogs age Uncle Spongy, you never write and stop by and I was beginning to think that you couldn't get around at your age," said the other old man.
"Grandpa Newton, do you know this Guy?" Sam finally asked him.
"Why sure, he's my dad's old partner in vacuum repair," he explained. "Uncle Spongy is like a member of the family that never stops by. I haven't seen him since dad got caught in that unfortunate vacuum explosion."
"Oh Newton, how naïve you still are," said Commander Spangle rubbing his brow. "As much as I don't miss or care to remember about old times, I'm afraid I'm here on business as usual."
"Really, because are vacuum has been really been on the fritz-"said Jack.
"You know I could take a look that son," said Grandpa Newton. They completely ignored the seriousness of the subject in front of them. "Has it been stuttering?"
"Yeah, and its suction has been weak too," the two began to talk.
"You probably just need to clean the filler, let me just grab it and-"
"Enough of this dilly dallying!" shouted Command Spangle. He picked up his controls and showed off his claws with glowing green energy. "You have something that I want and I'm not leaving until I have it."
"Well the way I see it, you have two ways out of here and both of them involve me throwing you out," said Maddie with her big cannon retrained on him.
"I suggest a third lane," he swung his robotic crab claws around the room. The wind alone was enough to sweep away the minor foes, but the most adamant of adversaries was Maddie. She jumped and flipped away from the claws and landed right beside her daughter who was equally armed.
"Jazz!" she called her daughter by her side.
"Right, let's boogey!" she said. Jazz stood up, Maddie took a knee, and together they fired like a mirror imagine of one another. Two cannons beating as one firing green blasts of energy at the man. Spangle might have been old, but his reaction speed was as swift as an arrow. He commanded the controls and used his claws to deflect every blast and knock it right back at them. In one quick calculation he managed to knock Maddie and Jazz's cannons out of their hands and charging full speed ahead before either of them knew what hit them. When the dust had settled, the only ones left standing was Grandpa Newton and Sam. Sam stood in front of Grandpa trying to protect him from the reach of that giant crab. Both were frightened, but Sam tried to fight through it vowing to protect him at any cost.
"Are you trying to intimidate me," he asked?
"Trying…yes," she simply said.
"I've handle creatures ten times more terrible than the likes you girl," he stated with a powerful fist held up. "I've battled ghosts and renegades and mutations the likes of which no man has ever seen. Do you think your puny efforts can stop the likes of me?"
"You know I can almost see my reflection in your head," she joked to smite him. Commander Spangle did not appreciate her insolence making jokes about his bright baldness.
"Alright then, have it your way." Slowly, but surely the man led the machine closer to its objective. Its shadow hovered over the two inspiring fear to highest extent.
"Grandpa Newton stay behind you," said Sam. "I won't let him hurt you."
"From the looks of things, someone's getting hurt today."
***
Danny and Valerie had pushed their fight all the way to Amity Park, but the fight was not going as smoothly as anticipated. Danny and Valerie were loosing ground and were tossed heavily across the field by cannon fire. They landed heavily on the nearest building in their way…the gift shop.
CRASH! Mounds of Danny Phantom merchandise were scattered across the park. What wasn't destroyed caught on fire or buried beneath the mountain of rubble the shop had produced. As Danny and Valerie got up to their feet, Danny's hand grabbed a broke torn Danny Phantom plush doll. He held it in his hand for a second or two before it completely fell to pieces having lost its thread.
"So much for merchandising," he said throwing away what remained of the doll.
"Worry about your imagine some other time," Valerie brushed the dust off her hair with her hands. Then the question remained. "How did this fight turn a 180?"
"Those battle suits are more resilient than we thought and they're pretty good at handling them," said Danny.
"If that's all there is, then I have a simple solution for victory," she schemed.
"I'm listening," Danny smiled.
The Guys in White spotted them planning, but did not want to give them the moment.
"All units converge for final assault," said the ebon agent. They armed the cannons, but there was one objection.
"I thought we were supposed to bring him back alive?" asked intern Blank.
"The chances of surviving this range are 100 to 1," said the ivory agent.
"Is that a chance you're willing to take," he asked?
"Yes!" they said together.
"Now quite stalling and open fi-ah!" Before they knew it, Danny had preempted a strike.
"Hi!" Danny said on the fly. He reached out with his hands and went intangible. Since these particular models were not equipped with ghost shielding, it was easy for Danny to grab the pilot and tug him out of the suit. The instant he left that armor, it fell down like the useless chunk of metal. The pilot was tossed in the bushes where he would do no harm unarmed.
"Why you-" the ivory agent pointed his arm, but what he didn't suspect was a second assault.
"Hey baldy," shouted Valerie! She distracted his attention just long enough to land her board in the face and knock him over his balance. Danny swooped in and grabbed the ivory agent just before he hit the ground. As his metal suit flopped in the dirt, the pilot was tossed right near his partner. Then it was time to deal with the last member. He tried his best to be authoritative, but being new to the field he could barely stand his ground. They looked at him as a nervously pathetic sight.
"I don't suppose you'd surrender peacefully?" he asked.
"Nope!" said Danny and Val. The rushed him hard enough to knock him out of his suit like all the rest. Intern Blank was thrown in the water fountain to literal phrase begin all washed up. He was drenched from head to toe as he floated on his back in the fountain stream. With that last threat neutralized they assumed the battle was over. They turned to each other for thanking one another.
"Good work," said Danny.
"Not bad ghost boy," said Valerie.
"Attention agents!" called a voice in their ears. The ebon and the ivory agents crawled out of the brush to receive it. "Primary objective complete, begin evacuation proceedings." They spotted Agent Blank in the vicinity of the two hostile targets and knew that a chance of rescue was slim. They called to the voice for a tactical response.
"Sir, what about intern Blank?" asked the ebon agent.
"Expendable, continue as order," said the voice.
"Commander Spangle, your nephew," pleaded the ivory agent.
"Would you rather I leave you here?"
"Uh, um, understood," said the ebon agent signing off.
"The Chief is going to have our heads," said the ivory agent.
"Not if Commander Spangle beats him too it," said ebon agent. "Let's do what he says."
The lights came on as the giant ship overheard began to move away from the sun. Danny and Valerie watched as peaceful weather returned to Amity Park. The ship's cables had receded as the blur of two jet pack wearing agents sped up into the ship's docking bay. It left and faded into the clouds. Danny and Valerie thought the day was won for good.
"Danny!" they heard a cry. The people gathered around to congratulate and cheered for their hero. Yet, no voice was more recognized than that of a beloved family member who called. It was Jazz pushing and pulling her way through the people. Jazz hugged her brother not know if that last battle had been his last. "Danny, I'm glad you're okay."
"Jazz, what's wrong," he sensed her concern.
"You have to come with me," she said.
"Is everyone okay? Is grandpa okay?"
"Grandpa's fine," she could barely bring herself to continue. "It's just that…"
"What happened," he asked?
"He took…Sam." The words struck Danny's brain like an atom bomb.
***
A light shinned above her had, the only comfort in the darkest room imaginable. A voice called her name as echoing through the faceless shine of an old man wearing sunglasses.
"Samantha Manson," he called. "You're probably wondering why here."
"Could it be because you're an authoritarian jerk who's never read the Bill of Rights?" she said. He completely ignored her remark and instead reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a small remote control that turned on a television screen in the darkness. It was a static screen but it changed to images of Sam riding atop a mechanical suit riding it like reigns. She recalled the incident at Grandpa Newton's house.
"This is camera footage taken from the affected battle suits," explained the Commander. "As you can see, somehow you managed to hardwire a supplicated ghost armor battle suit while your computer skills have been ranked nowhere near genius level it would take to accomplish such a feat." He turned off the screen and stepped into the light. Sam was petrified, not by his face but by the fact that he had that long shaggy beard. "Now the way I see it, there are two explanations for this feat. One is that you're just very lucky and happened to do the right thing in a fraction of second, highly unlikely. Two is that you have recently come into contact with a mysterious round orb in the possession of one Newton Fenton."
"Seriously, do you ever shave that thing," Sam tried to distract herself.
"Enough of foolishness, answer the question," he commanded.
"I don't have to explain anything to the likes of you," she said.
"Fine, then let me refresh your memory," With a snap of his fingers the floor began to crack in a perfect circle. Right in front of her face emerged the black sphere in a cloud of mist standing on an elevated pedestal. Same came face to face with the object she had found in the attic. She looked at her face in the reflection of the sphere and was in awe as commander continued his questions.
"Do you know what this is?"
"Uh, bowling ball," she simply said.
"Don't play dumb with me Missy," he said. "This is one of the oldest and most advanced pieces of ghost equipment on the planet. And you…touched it!"
"I…don't know what you're talking about," she looked to the side.
"That footage was the proof; it's a classic sign of contact with the Phantom Sphere."
"Phantom Sphere, who came up with that name?"
"Who's asking the questions here!" he lost his composure. For moment he got a handle of his incisive badger and became calm and poise once more. He coughed to try and break the tension, but Sam knew from that point that he was crazy as he was shaggy. "Ahem, now listen well. I require this object at its full potential and for that I need you to unlock it for me."
"Unlock, I didn't even know it was closed."
"It wasn't, until you touch it," he explained. "In that instant your mind was imprinted with vital information at a subconscious level. The downside is that now the Sphere is useless until it recharges. Since there's no way of knowing when that will be, I'm going to need your assistance to reactivate it."
"As fascinating as this all is, I see no reason to help you with anything."
"What if I asked nicely?"
"Seriously, the answer's no."
"Then let me ask you again, without the niceties…"
The lights went off and all that was left was the eerie glow of the Phantom Sphere.
_____
To be continued…eventually.
At this point I have already caught up the to number of chapters I have actually written and I will need time to write the rest of them knowing that I have the whole thing figured out, it's just a matter of actually writting them to a point where I can release them on a routine basis. Meaning that until I work on those chapters I'll consider this volume 1 of the epic journey of Danny Phantom, but there is still more to come. So stay tuned for future installments.