The bolt screeched on the door and Jimmy scooted away from the door to stop himself getting hit. Danny didn't even stop his pacing, jumping to turn around. Cheshire stepped inside the room and instantly hugged herself and shivered in the sudden cold.
"Can't you stop that Phantom?!" Cheshire snarled.
"I told you. I can't! This is your fault! Messing around, stealing my energy," Danny retorted heatedly. Cheshire huffed in bored annoyance.
"So you said. Get up kid. Back to work," Cheshire concluded. Jimmy obediently got to his feet stiffly and staggered out of the cell. Danny paused as Jimmy glanced over his shoulder. Danny gave the boy a small reassuring smile and nod before resuming his pacing again, using all the area he had in the cell now.
Jimmy shivered as he walked obediently towards his work space, Cheshire giving the occasional nudge in the right direction. Cheshire opened the work room door and locked it behind them. She sighed loudly.
"There's hot chocolate on the desk. Only because Phantom's near frozen you. Don't get used to it. Kinda doubted you'd like coffee or tea," Cheshire muttered. Jimmy blinked in surprise before stuttering a thank you through chattering teeth. He shuffled over to the desk and picked up the steaming cup with shaky hands. He sipped the drink through numb lips and hugged the warming cup to himself. After a few minutes, Jimmy stopped shivering and had finished the hot drink. He put the cup to one side and began to work on the distress signal machine.
Jimmy, as usual, lost track of time as he finished the machine. He decided not to switch it on yet. Instead he turned to the power unit and easily fixed the leaking problem. He then returned to the interior schematics to address the second issue. Increasing capacity. He turned the problem over in his mind. He'd have to make the unit larger. And he'd have to make one from scratch in order to improve the condensation circuitry. So that's what he did. It took a long time and a lot of fiddly work, but he made a new, functioning power unit that should fit into the collar Danny was being forced to wear.
Cheshire stood up and called to him that he had to leave now. He'd asked the last time he worked on the power unit. They were only allowing him to work a few hours at a time in order to give him time to rest his mind so he didn't burn out and time to churn ideas on design in his mind. They also were giving him the time to sleep. Jimmy glanced at her and nodded. He put down the new power unit and discretely switched on his distress signal before jumping off his stool and joining the masked woman at the door. Cheshire took him down the corridors, passing the metal door to Danny's cell. There was a cold breeze emitting from the door that made Jimmy shiver and frown worriedly. But Cheshire pushed the boy on further and they walked down a series of corridors until they came to a solid wooden door that Cheshire opened and shoved Jimmy through. Jimmy stumbled but caught himself before he fell. Cheshire shut the door with a snap.
Jimmy licked his lips worriedly and scanned his new cell. It was an old office. Obviously prepared for his imprisonment at short notice. The desk was still there, too large to fit through the door. There was a swivel chair too and metal filing cabinet, locked when Jimmy examined it. The drawers and cupboards in the room were cleaned out though. Jimmy's heart leapt though at the first thing he noticed. The room was naturally lit by sunlight, streaming through a large window. He was at the ground level but the window was barred and locked. Jimmy scrambled to the glass and greedily stared at the outside world. There was a bright orange tinge to the sunlight. An evening sun. The room was pleasantly warmed up by it and made this new cell, as Jimmy wasn't foolish enough to call it anything different, almost cosy and comforting.
Jimmy instantly became guilty. Here he was seeing the outside world, feeling sunbeams on his skin while Danny had been there longer. Jimmy frowned worriedly and glanced at the door when the teenager came to mind. Danny was freezing his cell because of the situation. His energy building in his body to dangerous levels because he couldn't work off the excess energy fast enough. Jimmy frowned as he considered the halfa's situation.
He wondered if Cheshire and these criminals even did start taking his energy away again, would it be enough? The unit was meant to act like a tributary of a river, siphoning off energy steadily. What Danny needed was something to break the dam holding his energy back in his body. Would putting a power unit in the collar be too little too late? What would happen when the collar was eventually removed? Would Danny be able to withstand the sudden release of his energy? Just as having his energy being siphoned had affected him, Jimmy suspected that having the energy bottled up will have had an affect too. What if his body could no longer hold the energy inside him by itself? What if storing so much energy in his body for this length of time had a negative effect on Danny? There were too many uncertainties.
Jimmy bit his lip with concern and willed for someone to pick up his distress beacon and come to the rescue. Hopefully someone who could help Danny. Someone that could stand against Cheshire and that man, Sportsmaster. Left alone, without Danny's company to distract him, Jimmy's mind drifted to his parents, Goddard, his friends. He was worried about them. He knew they'd be worried about him in return. He wished he could send them a sign that he was fine. He couldn't even be sure that the distress signal reached far enough to call for help. He couldn't imagine what the week Danny had spent alone in that gloomy cell had been like. Jimmy had gotten out of the cell to work on the power unit. Danny didn't have that. He was left alone, only getting social interaction with Cheshire when she came to collect the power unit and replace it and to feed him. Jimmy was surprised that Danny's sanity had survived that.
Jimmy returned his gaze on to the view outside, drinking in the sight eagerly. The sky was a beautiful burnt pink and orange colour with a few wispy clouds. There were a number of cars, including the van that Sportmaster used to kidnap him, in view, parked beside the building. However, to Jimmy's horror, they were in the middle of nowhere. A dusty, dry hard-baked dirt field that stretched to the distant horizon. Geography wasn't one of Jimmy's strong suits, but he could tell that he was very far away from home. He dreaded to recall Sportsmaster's smug brag. The police weren't going to find him. Jimmy swallowed down that fear and squared his shoulders.
"No one has to find me. They just have to hear my signal. Help will come. It has to," Jimmy whispered to himself.
Jimmy watched the sun set and stared at the night sky above. He had always loved astronomy. And despite Danny's near constant exhaustion, both prisoners had learned of the other's love for the night sky. They had discussed at length various constellations. Jimmy would probably have gone on longer but Danny's exhaustion had overcome the teen and he had fallen asleep. Jimmy understood why Danny found it difficult to keep track of time. The teen slept a lot. Jimmy didn't blame him. His energy was being stolen from him, energy he would have usually used to stay awake and walk, run and fight ghosts with. At least it was the beginning of summer vacation. Neither of them were missing school while being locked away.
Jimmy gazed at the stars, wheeling the swivel chair to the window. It was amazing. He didn't realise how much he would miss being able to stargaze or feeling sunlight on his skin until he had lost the opportunity. He thought about vowing to spend more time outside but knew he'd never keep that promise to himself. Inventing was an indoor activity for the most part. But he did tell himself not to take freedom so lightly. The freedom to stargaze. The freedom to sit outside and feel a summer's breeze. The freedom to watch a sunset. He only wished Danny had the same opportunity.
The teen had told Jimmy that he had been locked in that room for the entire time he'd been captive. His ghost form was far more efficient at using what he ate than his human side which meant he didn't need to go to the bathroom. He could eat normal food but since being caught he'd only been given that grey smoothie stuff. It seemed to be a concentrated semi-solid liquid with all the nutrients he needed in order to re-energise him in minutes. He didn't know what was in the bag, but he knew it worked. Jimmy had asked what Danny really missed about being home. Danny had confessed that he was too exhausted to truly miss anything. He survived minute to minute. He mostly worried about his family and missed being able to use his hands. Walk without exhausting himself. Feeding himself was high on the list.
Jimmy sighed tiredly. He was getting tired. He would need to figure out where he would sleep in this room. But then Jimmy blinked and rubbed his eyes. In the sky… he saw something. He knew he did. Jimmy pressed himself against the window frantically, desperately searching for what he knew he saw. Something large flying in the sky. It was for a split second. Jimmy grinned in spite of himself. It just had to be help on the way.
So the prisoners have been separated and Jimmy turned on his distress call. But did he see help coming? If he did, who? If he didn't, what did he see, if anything?
What about Danny? Will he be okay?
Let me know what you guys think of the story so far.
Until the next chapter.
