A/N: Warning, strong language ahead. Found a spot with WiFi, but I have to hoof it a couple blocks and sweet talk a manager. Hope I can keep it up so I can do regular updates again.
11
The group blinked in surprise as they found themselves once again standing atop the roof of the building they had staked out for viewing. Caleb immediately plopped unceremoniously down on the concrete and sighed in irritation. He'd been found by the S-List in one hall, wrapped up in what he had first thought was rubber tubing that had been fired on him from some hidden launcher. But casting magic on it had no effect beyond singeing, freezing, and drenching himself and slicing a few strands of hair from his head, and trying to use pure physical power to snap them apart had been impossible. The damn thing had been lucky enough to pin his arms at an angle that refused to allow him even a millimeter of room to work the machinery for such a feat. It took every last member of the S-List to pry the wrappings apart enough for him to finish the job with android strength.
And his wings! Crushed by the pressure of the tubing, the mechanical peripherals he'd designed and built personally were completely destroyed, rendering him ground-bound until he could return to New York and replace them with another set. Simple procedure, yes, but nonetheless aggravating, knowing a mere human with less sophisticated technology had managed to severely damage him on not one, not two, but now three occasions! He found himself with a second reason for helping to destroy the Spires; revenge!
"But not before downloading all of the information about it first, of course." he remarked to himself, simmering in frustration and embarrassment. Chester looked back at him in confusion, received no additional answer, then turned back to watching the Spire through binoculars.
"It's taking a while. You don't think the units got to 'em first, do you?" he asked Trixie worriedly, "Can you or Tootie wish 'em out?"
"We can't use our magic on either the ghost or Timothy. Both of them are immune to fairy magic, and Timothy can only be affected by the magic of his own fairy godparents. No one else can touch him because it violates Da Rules." Apollo grumbled, sitting on the edge of the rooftop. Trixie looked puzzled, eyebrows furrowed together delicately as she thought that over.
"Huh? Wait, I thought you said wishes involving Timmy Turner were forbidden by Da Rules." she pointed out.
"Cha. He's dead. What do I look like, a necromancer?" the fairy growled.
"Okay, this is confusing." Elmer complained, rubbing his head. "Fairy rules say that nobody can make wishes that involve Timmy Turner 'cause he's dead, right?" Apollo and Romi nodded in unison. "And nobody can make wishes about Timothy Neogene because he's immune to it, right?" Another nod, but it took a little longer for the response, and both fairies glanced at each other worriedly for a moment. "Well, if Timmy's immunity is based on his death, what gives Timothy his immunity?"
"Um, the fact that he's dead too?" Tootie put in helpfully, a shaky smile on her face. Trixie's eyebrows furrowed together again as she tilted her head in thought.
"Hmm. I dunno. Apollo's granted wishes about some dead stuff before and he's never given me grief about it. Why would two dead boys, one of whom is now alive again as an immortal, suddenly get a big 'Wands Off' sticker slapped on them?" she questioned. She, Chester and Elmer all went silent, pondering the puzzle set before them. Sanjay frowned, taking up watch of the Spire when they got distracted.
"I would like to know why it is that Timothy died and was resurrected, but the same could not be done for our dear Timmy! If he could be made an immortal, why not do the same for the Heart of Dimmsdale?" he griped.
"Don't ask dangerous questions." Caleb muttered, "If you're that worried about Timothy, Chester, then why don't you head back down there with Trixie as backup and see if you can find him?" The blonde jerked his head up, turned a slight shade of red, then shrugged.
"Whatever, Dude." he sighed and headed for the fire escape. Trixie jumped to her feet and raced after him with Apollo trailing her.
"Hey! Wait for me!" she exclaimed and hurried down the steps with him. Elmer blinked and lifted his head from where he'd propped it on his hands while thinking.
"You don't suppose that the reason why both Timmy and Timothy are immune to fairy magic is because they're actually the same guy, do you?" he remarked in sudden revelation. Tootie stiffened, eyes going wide as her heart pounded. Was this it? Were they about to find out the truth? Sanjay brought down his binoculars to glare at the heavy-set boy.
"Elmer..." he growled, "Shut up. Do not be stupid and babble on about things that are impossible. Timmy was buried. Timothy was not. Timmy is from Dimmsdale. Timothy is from New York City. Timmy wore pink. Timothy wears black. They are entirely different people." The chubbier boy looked up at him, blinked again, then sighed, dropping his head back down onto his hands.
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe it was just wishful thinking." he muttered, unaware of the android muffling a fit of snickers behind them and the young Goth uttering a soft breath of relief.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was too dark to really see much, and Chester was already missing the night-vision granted him by the binoculars Sanjay had picked up in his place. Trixie wished for flashlights and all three ventured across the open lots towards the Dark Spire. He fiddled with the Fenton Phones as they walked, hoping that at least those still worked on the brunet after the fiasco in the nullifier hall.
"Hey, Timothy? Can you hear me?" he called out.
"Huh? Chester? Yeah, I read you. What can you see from the roof?" the young immortal replied.
"Actually, me and Trixie are on our way to get you out." Chester remarked and looked down at the detector, "I'm the one with the gizmo, so that should help us figure out how you're doing against those anti-magic things."
"Geez, why don't you people ever listen to me when I tell you to do something?" Timothy complained, "Oh crud!" The tone suddenly changed, fearful, anxious. "Move it! Back the other way! Cosmo, don't charge them, you idiot! Wanda, use the Hammer! I wish Danny would wake up already.... Agh! Don't grant it!"
"Whoa... hey.... Yagh! What the hell is going on?! Gah! Shutting off Topaz Mode!" Danny Phantom was up again. But, did a wish really work on a ghost?
"What's happening?" Trixie asked as she and the blonde both broke into a run for the Spire. Chester made to reply, then skid to a halt as part of the tower was blown outward, a loud eerie howl filling the air as waves of green light burst from the side of the Spire. "What's that?!" Trixie shrieked, hands flying up to her ears, "Owowow! It hurts my ears!"
"Owww.... Danny! For the love of God, warn me when you're gonna do that! Everyone, out! Fly, fly! They're on us!" Timothy's voice ordered sharply and the two S-List teens watched the last of the team finally escape the Spire and head for them. They cheered for the moment, seeing the brunet, ghost and two fairies touch down with them, then yelled in shock as they spotted a mass of the anti-magic units quickly exiting the broken section of the tower, marching towards them with all the speed they possessed. The blonde glanced down at the detector; destroyers and nullifiers, not friendly.
"Show's over! Let's go!" Danny yelled, grabbing onto both Chester and Trixie and flying them up and away from the lot. Cosmo and Wanda waved their wands to magically lighten their godchild, then grabbed him by the hands to carry him off as well.
In all, a disaster of a mission.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A.J. looked up from his laptop as the group of teens finally entered the Ivory Tower and selected random parts of the meeting room to collapse into. Chester flung himself face down onto a couch; Trixie cleared her throat loudly until he made room for her to flop back onto it herself; Elmer and Sanjay both plopped into chairs, sour expressions on their faces. Caleb sat against the wall in a yoga-like position, resting one arm on his knee as he gave the room a cursory scan before closing his eyes to rest. Sam and Danny picked out a second sofa and flopped there, the ghost resting his head on the Goth's shoulder as she absently ran her fingers through his hair, sighing once in frustration. Tootie sank into another chair, too exhausted to keep her eyes open for much longer. Timothy looked as though he would have gladly joined the rest of the team in their search for rest, but chose instead to sit at a table and drop his head into his arms, muttering angrily to himself. Four fairies dropped onto the tabletop with him, sagging against one another as they sighed in relief.
"I take it things didn't go well?" A.J. asked and lifted an eyebrow at the fairy count, "Whose fairy is the red guy?"
"Mine." Trixie called out in exasperation, "Doesn't matter if you guys know about him now. Jorgen can't come into Dimmsdale to take him away."
"Name's Apollo. Lemme sleep." the red fairy grumbled.
"Things went beyond not well." Sanjay reported in irritation, shoving his glasses further up his face and twisting them around to align the lenses, "The magic-users and the ghost were led into an ambush! All kinds of traps were set up inside the Dark Spire to stop them from being able to detonate the time bombs and destroy the tower."
"Caleb's broken again." Elmer added in helpfully and the android snapped awake, scowling.
"I resent that! You make it sound like I'm some little toy that got stepped on by mistake!" he griped, "The trap crushed the peripherals that compose my wings. It's easily replaced, but still an annoyance."
"Timothy collapsed in a hall full of nullifiers. It messed him up pretty badly, but I don't know if it could be enough to do anything." the rust-haired boy went on, "I mean, how does one kill an immortal?"
"Destroy the body. If he stayed in there long enough, there wouldn't have been enough magic and mana in his body to keep it together." Wanda sighed tiredly, "It would have shriveled and turned to dust."
"Good thing Tootie wasn't in it." Romi remarked worriedly, "I'd hate for something like that to happen to her!"
"Ouch." A.J. commented neutrally.
"And Danny Phantom over there got locked in some magic-coated box that wouldn't let him out. He hit it with the charges, but that didn't work and on top of that, it knocked him out." Elmer added, jerking his thumb at the ghost.
"So I was a touch slow in going intangible on the last one! Big whoop!" Danny growled, shooting him a vivid yellow-green glare that looked far more menacing when set against the furious violet of Sam's own. "I can't use Ghostly Wail in Topaz Mode, so I had to improvise!"
"At least we were there to help out." Chester remarked as he sat up and rubbed his head, "So long as we stayed away from destroyers and junk, we can move around inside that tower just fine. Bailing Timothy out of the hall, pulling that rubber junk off of Caleb, we did pretty good. Too bad we don't have anything to protect us from the stuff that dishes damage."
"What about the magitech suits? Caleb said those were being designed to protect non-magic-users from being hurt." Trixie remarked questioningly, "Can't he and A.J. make more of those for everyone?"
"Caleb told you about the armor?" A.J. asked in surprise, "Well, I can bump it up on higher priority, but it's gonna take a while to work out all the bugs and make enough for everyone. We only have the prototype body-suit."
"Then let's work on finishing those suits! A big chunk of the anti-magic unit army got sent off to Mars and Cosmo there blew away a lot more from inside the Dark Spire, so the numbers for the tower should be small for a while." Chester planned out brightly. The other teens perked up at the idea.
"Yeah, and we can use the disc Trixie got to plan another route to the Spire supports!" Elmer pitched in excitedly, "That way, Crocker's traps won't bother Caleb, Danny or Timothy and Tootie ever again!"
"We will reassess the plan of attack, perhaps get additional equipment that is not magic-based to use...!" Sanjay added cheerfully.
"Forget it." Timmy suddenly put in and lifted his head at the group of startled people, a grim expression on his face, "No one is going after that tower. Not after what happened tonight." The S-List looked at each other in confusion, then turned their collective puzzlement on him. "I don't want to risk anyone else doing this." the brunet told them harshly, getting up from the table to be sure everyone heard him, "Chester, Trixie, even Caleb and Danny, all of them have been put in danger or hurt because of me, because of what I'm doing. Even Cosmo and Wanda are getting hurt!" He shook his head furiously. "No! No more! I'm not letting anyone else near those Spires!" he yelled.
The team stared at him in shock. Tootie woke at the sound of his yelling and blinked up at him in a sleepy daze. The four fairies looked up at him in a mix of astonishment and hopelessness. Caleb only gave a huff of disapproval, shaking his head. Danny Phantom, despite his tired state, leaped from the sofa and took to the air, aura blazing white and eyes shining the same vicious bright color as before.
"You're quitting?!" he raged, "After all I said about protecting this city and the people you cared about here?! You're just gonna throw in the towel and let some old geezer and a lunatic kid win?!"
"I never said that. I only said that no one else is taking on those Spires." Timmy replied coolly, "From now on, leave them to me. I can survive whatever it throws at me, and if I remember to take the Rune Staff with me, then I won't have to worry about nullifiers either."
"It's late, we're tired and frustrated. Now is not the time to make rash decisions." Caleb announced, getting up from the floor, "Everyone should head home and call it a night. In the morning, we'll figure out what to do. Our enemy has changed tactics. We must do the same." He looked over at the African-American at his laptop. "A.J., have you gained any new information or discoveries in regards to the switch?"
"Everything turned up inconclusive. We're still missing something. I can only assume that the switch is connected to Crocker's fits, which were a result of Timmy's death. There's nothing to pin the switch itself directly to the circumstances of Timmy's accident." he replied and shook his head helplessly, "If I just had more clues, more evidence, maybe something more would reveal itself." The teens all began leaving the Ivory Tower, some upset, some puzzled, some concerned, all exhausted. Destroying the third Spire was not going to be done as easily as the first two. The game had changed, new rules were in play, and if they couldn't put together a new strategy to fight back with, Remy and Crocker would become unstoppable.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Main Control Spire~
It had worked.
Crocker looked over the results of the data feed from the Spire that had been attacked. He'd known it was going to be a target; he'd spotted the blonde, Chester McBadbat, skateboarding past it several days in succession. It made sense. If the new Timmy had recruited A.J. into the scheme to bring down the Spires, why not add in the other childhood friend? He'd sent off a comment about it to Remy, just as a facade of loyalty more than an actual alert. He hadn't been surprised to hear the rich brat jump onto the visual and scream at him to do all he could to either capture the boy or 'remove' him from the scene. Of course, he wouldn't harm the youngster; there had been enough bloodshed in the city and Crocker was in no hurry to repeat tragedies. So he had the liberty of sending out several of his modified destroyers to search for Chester, scattered among the hundreds of others ordered to chase him towards the specialized units.
And somehow, before he had a chance to reach the boy, Remy interrupted the recovery orders and absconded with him. Probably an attempt to lure the new Timmy into a field for 'disposal'. Obviously, the move failed, for here was data coming in that the Spire had picked up nearly a dozen moving life-forms within its walls. The cameras there had been disabled so as to relieve their burden of data from the server control system, but other sensors brought in information about several warm-blooded figures racing willy-nilly through the building to rescue the three primary saboteurs from the traps. He had been surprised, however, to learn that there had been another life-form running through the halls with the brunet.
It was a tad disappointing to see. Crocker had found himself eager to see how his new nemesis would fare in an altered tower, and uttered a disheartened sigh when he fell to the effects of the nullification field. It was still a mystery to him; Crocker had designed the nullification field to only work on fairies and fairy magic. Why it would affect this human boy was a bizarre conundrum.
Still the ambush had worked and the Spire remained standing. Remy would be pleased by that.
But there was the matter of the strange set of data that had come in at odd times. The sudden loss of several hundred ground unit signals, the violent blast that demolished a portion of the granite armor, the sudden arrival, then disappearance of several life-forms around and within the tower, a second violent burst that blasted another hole in the tower, energy readings dancing wildly on the sensors; he'd be busy with the data for days.
"Turner. Are you watching all of this from where you are?" Crocker murmured from his chair, head bent as he pored over the printed photo of the new Timmy and the sheets of data collected by the Spire's sensors, "Does it hurt to see what has happened since you left? Is Paradise truly Paradise if you can see the misery and agony we inflict on each other because of you?"
There was no answer, and there had never been one. Not in the four years that he'd begun asking it. He looked up at a second photo, framed and placed carefully before him on the desk, and smiled, a twisted little grin that bordered instability.
"All it took to destroy our Heart was a simple gesture and a selfish dream. Turner, can my wish be granted someday?" the elderly man murmured softly, "I wish...."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was impossible.
The thought continued to spin through Remy's mind even as he sat before the fireplace in the study, gazing into its flames as he turned the cell phone over in his hand. The same phone that should have been the lure to get Timothy out to a nice open, empty, desolate lot where a ton of nullifiers and destroyers had lain in wait for him. If he managed to survive the ambush there, there was a great chance of him being so tired from the battle that he'd have nothing to combat Remy's wishes with, especially if they were being made in regards to that Chester punk. He would have had all the information he desired had everything worked according to plan. But Timothy hadn't fallen for the diversion; rather, he sent in one of his own in the form of that double-crossing Trixie witch.
He'd been caught with his pants down, figuratively speaking, when the mongrel showed up in the middle of a wishing duel and then that impossibility occurred. How? How?!
Cosmo and Wanda, Timmy Turner's fairy godparents, should have been taken from the world for failing to protect their godchild! It was in Da Rules; the greatest crime a fairy godparent could commit was to allow a child in their care to meet Death, and severe punishment would be dished out accordingly for that crime. He'd demanded to see that rule and read through the entire section of Da Rules concerning it until every line, every situation, every instance of it was burned into his memory. There was no loophole. Yet, Wanda escaped with her neck in one piece and Timothy had gained control of her, used her to render his own fairy incapacitated so that he was utterly defenseless while that mongrel paraded his friends through the mansion and out the door. Don't think with the southern head, indeed! Juandissimo should have taken his own advice, not gone off lusting after some pink-haired widow and ignoring his wishes. Two minutes with a nullifier had served to remind him who was in command.
Still, it was of little consequence. It must be. His greatest headaches in facing Timmy in the past had been from his godparents; combined, Wanda and Cosmo's power far outclassed Juandissimo on his own, no matter how much more often his Latino fairy got things granted right. Something about those two when paired with Beaver Boy granted them both a great deal of magical power in some incomprehensible form. But here was Timothy, another godchild and highly undeserving of being one, with Wanda alone and Cosmo having been already offed as punishment for Timmy's death. That power was gone forever, and with only half the magic she once had, the widow would be easy to overwhelm in a wishing duel.
Of course, that was assuming a wish duel could even take place. If Da Rules also state that this Neogene dog was unaffected by the magic of any fairy, why would he bother to enlist the aid of one, knowing he was immune to her skills and any beneficial magic she had? It seemed idiotic, it should have been idiotic and fail to work, yet it had worked. It was almost as if the pair was blessed with the oblivious dumb luck that had surrounded the green-haired fairy. Oh, wonderful. But at least it was just one half of the pair. He could handle that. If he'd had to have met with the both of them that day, Wanda and Cosmo together, it would have been very much akin to having Timmy Turner reach out from the Great Beyond, grab him by the gonads and give them a good twisting.
He'd laugh while he was doing it, too, fucking martyr.
Juandissimo sat in a corner of the study in his peacock form, head tucked under one wing as he slept. Remy wondered for a moment if he'd known all along that Timothy had possessed the pink widow in his arsenal of tricks, then shrugged it off. It didn't matter. The Spires were still working furiously to calculate the perfect method to create the all-encompassing nullification field that he dreamed of putting over the town. Only two had been torn down in all the months they stood over Dimmsdale and the city's population was far too bogged down in their own sense of eternal grief and lack of caring for anything beyond the tending of their beloved grave to even bother to see that their skyline had been drastically altered by the black needles of anti-magic. And as Crocker had said, the interiors of the Spires had already been modified with traps and ambush units to prevent additional attacks like the ones that destroyed Spires Seven and Six. If the mongrel couldn't reach the support points of the tower to blow them away, there was nothing he could do to the tower. His magic, fancy and pretty as it was, was nowhere near powerful enough to take down a whole Spire. By himself. From the outside. And a good distance away. Impossible.
Remy flicked open the phone and studied it leisurely. Phone book option. He clicked on it and began scrolling. A.J., Caleb, Dad, Elmer, most of the entries he recognized, though the entry for 'C' gave him a bit of pause. Curious, he keyed the number and lifted it to his ear, listening to the rings.
"Hello. This is Caleb, scholar for the Archives of the Twin Blades, an institution backed by the Hounder Organization for the further education and archival of the world. I'm not available at this moment, but if you leave a name and number, I'll get to you as soon as I can. Thank you and please visit one of our many fine museums one day!"
He sounded so obnoxiously chipper, this one. But he worked for the Hounder Organization, which made him untouchable unless a wish was involved and no one could trace it to him. After all, who really cared about scholars these days? Though, it was a bit of wishing that got him Chester to begin with and Hounder's flunkies managed to chase it back to him and give him hell for it. Perhaps, for now, this Caleb bloke was hands off.
Remy continued scrolling down the list, pausing when the cursor moved over Timothy's name. He gripped the phone tightly, trying very hard not to immediately chuck it into the fireplace. Those words came back to mind, clearly remembered despite the fact that he'd been brimming over with so much rage he could barely think straight. "You mess with anyone under the protection of the Hounder Organization and you get screwed over fast." Wretched, wretched mongrel.
Oh, bother. Gripping the phone like that keyed in the auto-dial feature. Bloody cell.
"Hello?" He actually answered? Remy lifted an eyebrow, looking down at the phone in his hands. Speaker function. That explains it. "Hello? Anyone there?" He sounded tired, probably caught him in bed or something. Remy grinned and settled back in the plush seat. If he kept the bugger awake for a good chunk of the night, what were the chances he'd screw himself over in class the next day? "Ugh, it's two in the morning. If you're not gonna answer, I'm hanging up. I've got school." There was a pause, and then the dial tone as the brunet made good on his promise. He allowed himself a moment of chuckling, then swallowed the rest down and keyed the re-dial, waiting.
"Hello?" This was so much fun! Childish and idiotic, but fun! Why hadn't he thought of this sooner? "Look, I don't know what your deal is, but I had a really rough night. I want my sleep. Don't call back again." Another dial tone as the line was dropped and Remy burst out laughing, startling Juandissimo awake.
"What is so amusing that you had to wake me from my sexy sleep?" the fairy grumbled.
"I'm prank-calling Timothy Neogene!" Remy snickered and doubled over in laughter, holding out the phone, "It's... hilarious!" The peacock looked unimpressed for a moment, then lit up with realization.
"Can you, by chance, get Wanda on that phone? I have a few things I'd like to discuss with her, if possible." he crooned and the blonde held the phone away as though it were a favored toy he had no intention of sharing.
"No! I'm enjoying myself and the very idea of you trying to coerce that little pink wretch into joining you for phone sex is utterly vile!" he snapped, "Make yourself useful and get me some hot chocolate that I wish to have!" The fairy snorted but lifted the wand to grant the wish. Remy plucked the mug from the air, sipped at the drink, then hit re-dial once again.
"Okay, look. I've checked the history on this thing and it's saying that the number dialing me is Chester's. I know for a fact that Chester's number changed and I don't have it yet. So that means only one thing." Timothy hissed through the phone, "Remy, you little rat, quit calling me or you're seriously gonna see what new tricks I've been learning for the past week. I told you before, you're lucky you only have to deal with me, but that luck's gonna run out once I get stronger. Count your towers with both hands while you can, 'cause I'm taking back this city and there's nothing you can do about it." The dial tone took back over and Remy ignored the threat, clicking the button a fourth time.
"I'm sorry. The number you have dialed cannot be reached at this time. Please check the number and dial again later." the operator's recorded voice seemed cheerful. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. He took another sip of hot chocolate and relaxed in the chair, clutching the phone as though it was some precious little memento. Perhaps he should add it to the box with the others, like that delightful little switch that made life so sweet for four years.
