Chapter 12

The young agent working for the Guys in White crouched down next to the fallen man. A frown settled on his dark face. The man hardly looked much older than he was. With a careful nudge, he rolled the unconscious man over onto his back to get a better look at his face. Some bruising lingered around the nose, but the injury seemed to be healing well.

"What did you think you were doing?" the agent wondered out loud as he checked the fingers of the man's hand that ripped the marker chip free of the ghost. They were blackened after touching the device, not a surprising fact. This was Amity Park after all. It wasn't uncommon for the people to be victim of ghostly possession. But the marker meant something different this time. For other towns, the marker came in handy to determine the victims that came in contact with any ghost. They specially modified the marker to check the people of Amity Park. The black on the man's fingers meant that he came in contact with public ghost enemy number one, aka Danny Phantom.

His brown eyes drifted toward the ghost next to the unconscious man. What was this man's connection to ghosts? He didn't hear much of the discussion the dark haired man was having with the ghost, but from afar, it looked like the man was trying to calm the ghost. The agent couldn't recall anyone actually walking up to a ghost to talk with it. Either they were ghost hunters like him and attacked first or they were like the average citizen who ran away the moment a ghost appeared. What made this man so different?

His sensor alerted him to the attack. He shot away from the man and the ghost before the energy ball could hit him. Retrieving his ecto gun, he aimed at the ghost that appeared on the scene. His jaw nearly dropped when he spotted the familiar shock of white hair and the green eyes that glowed menacingly as the ghost glared at him. He was still fairly new to the organization, but he did all the research he could find on the ghost known as Danny Phantom. He never expected on his first real outing in Amity Park that he would run into the famous ghost.

"By order of the Guys in White, you're under arrest," the agent shouted, his hands shaking only slightly. "Come quietly, and don't do anything stupid."

Danny Phantom touched down on the ground. In two long strides, he closed the gap between them. His chest pressed against the barrel of the gun, almost daring the agent to fire it. A manic grin splayed over his face, madness dancing in those green eyes. The agent couldn't stop the tremor of fear coursing through him at that moment. This was the ghost that no agent ever managed to catch. Sometimes, he almost wondered why they wanted to catch him when all evidence suggested that Danny Phantom protected this town. But he had no rights to question his superiors. In the moment, he could almost believe that Danny Phantom was the villain the Guys in White painted him up to be.

"It would be wise for you to run now," Danny Phantom said, and the agent thought he almost caught a flash of red in those eyes. His voice promised pain if the agent stayed and tried to capture him.

The agent gulped nervously. His superiors could yell at him all they like for not capturing a wanted spectral criminal, but he didn't want to sacrifice his life. He was still so young! He still had a long life ahead of him. If he tried to fight this ghost, he could only see his loss. He lowered his gun.

"Good choice." Danny Phantom laughed quietly. "Now would be the time to run." A green glow appeared around one hand, and it was the only warning the agent needed.

After placing the gun back in its holster, the agent activated his jet pack. He took off into the air and started flying away from the park. Fear made him keep throwing glances over his shoulder, but Danny Phantom didn't give chase after him. It wasn't until he was far away from the park that it occurred to him that he shouldn't have left that man there. What if Danny Phantom hurt him? He remembered the marker on the man's fingers. It wouldn't be their first meeting. Perhaps Danny Phantom showed up for the sole purpose of protecting this human that didn't see ghosts as an enemy or something to fear. That only made him all the more curious about who exactly this man was. Perhaps it was time to start doing some new research. First item on the list would be discovering that man's identity.


"That will probably come back to bite me in the ass," Dan muttered once the Guys in White agent disappeared from his sight. He shifted his form from his Danny Phantom disguise, returning to his true, grand appearance. He never liked changing his appearance to resemble Danny Phantom, but it felt necessary in this instance. His gaze fell upon his younger half and he frowned. Could this side of him never stop getting into trouble?

Part of him still felt anger to his younger half for destroying the timeline that he originated from. But after spending nearly a decade trapped inside that infernal Thermos, he learned to let go of most of that anger. That was probably the most important reason that Clockwork even decided to release him from the Thermos.

He gritted his teeth, thinking of how much of a pet he became to Clockwork after being freed. But being a pet was better than being inside that Thermos. He was still allowed to cause some destruction in the Ghost Zone from time to time, after all. Getting to scare that newbie agent wasn't too bad either.

Crouching down, he searched this younger half until he found the Thermos that Danny kept on his person. "Strange being on the other side of this again." He pointed the Thermos at the other ghost and sucked her unconscious form inside it. His gaze fell upon the small square device lying on the ground as he capped the Thermos. Inching closer to it, Dan tentatively tapped a finger to it. He saw how it affected Danny and the random rogue ghost before, making him cautious. But the device didn't react to his touch. Perhaps it was a onetime use device and was spent after zapping Danny and the ghost, or maybe it didn't react because the Guys in White weren't there to activate it.

Whatever the case was, Dan picked up the device and pocketed it. Clockwork didn't mention anything about the device in his instructions, but Dan thought his older half might be interested in examining the piece of technology fashioned by the Guys in White. He scooped up his younger half and slung him over his shoulder. "Maybe I'm getting soft," he mumbled, shaking his head. For some reason, he couldn't just leave Danny lying unconscious in the park.

He returned Danny to his apartment, dropping the young half ghost none too gently on his couch. Danny would likely be confused when he woke, and Dan would enjoy a great laugh at his expense. But he had a job to finish. Dan stared at the Thermos in his hand. "Well, he'll figure it out at some point." He frowned at his younger half. "Maybe. I hope he's wised up in all these years." Dan took off toward the Ghost Zone to bring the ghost to Clockwork. This ghost made two, but there were still other ghosts that didn't belong, wandering the human world.

When he reached Clockwork's Tower, Dan tossed the Thermos to the Time Keeper. Clockwork caught it with seeming ease, though Dan wondered if he ever used his ability to stop time to make it look like he never failed to catch something. In all the time he dwelled in the Tower, Dan never saw Clockwork fumble or drop anything. But he guessed being the Master of freaking Time and knowing how and when every damn thing was going to happen tended to make one able to appear so damn perfect. It probably explained why Dan had this irritating desire to do something to royal mess with the Time Keeper. But anything he did would be seen by Clockwork and easily avoided. That only made him more frustrated.

"He's still as clueless as ever," Dan announced, crossing his legs as he floated in air.

"It's not time yet for him to realize what's going on." Clockwork took the Thermos over to a containment unit. After popping the top off it, he placed the Thermos to the entry point on the side of the unit. The woman's ghost left the Thermos to be trapped inside the containment unit where she would remain asleep.

Dan breathed out a frustrated sigh. "Can't you ever just make things easy?"

"I let you take the easy route when you decided to rid yourself of all the pain that human emotions bring after your family and friends died." Clockwork glanced over his shoulder, and a hint of a smirk ghosted across his features. "And look how you turned out."

"I turned out just fine." Dan scowled at him, wondering if the Time Keeper even realized how annoying he was.

"Of course you think that." Clockwork adjusted something on the unit. "But things aren't meant to be easy. Certain experiences are needed before one can accept things as they should be. Danny needs to play this out, or it will change the course of time."

Dan huffed out his frustration. The course of time was of little interest to him. He, after all, existed outside of time. He should have been completely erased from existence, but Clockwork kept him. Frowning, he watched the Time Keeper, wondering what grand plan Clockwork had in store for him. He hoped it wasn't simply to play his pet and run errands to maintain the proper flow of time.


Author's Note: Yup. I totally forgot that the Guys in White wear black shoes. Sorry about that.