Clockwork's Tower
Adult Clockwork floated into his observation room. 'So, the time has come.' He thought as a blue flame appeared. Out of it came Danny and Ember.
"Greetings my young apprentice and Ember as well."
"Hey Clockwork. We're here and ready." said Danny letting go of Ember's hand.
"Yeah, and you finally got my name right too. This may go smoother than I thought."
"I hope you two enjoyed the time you had." They both nodded. "Yeah, it was fun and my family made these for us." Danny said showing his necklace.
"Ah yes, elemental crystals. By wearing these, your powers will increase drastically. It will take some time before they make a noticeable difference." He said turning into an old man.
"How long exactly?"
"At least two months."
"Well, that plan goes out the window." Danny said disappointed.
"All is not lost my apprentice. These crystals play an important part in your training." He smiled turning into a child.
Danny lightened up. "That's good to know. So what's first?"
Clockwork created a red portal. "First you must travel to the outer side of the Ghost Zone and find the lair of the scientist who created the orbs. There you will find the object you require. Once you have it, come back here and we will begin the next step."
"Okay, sounds simple enough." said Ember looking at the swirling window. "Pops, you still haven't told me why I'm here helping Danny. I mean there are other ghost who are stronger and friendlier to dipstick than me."
"That's where you're wrong Ember. Remember I told you can choose the path you follow. This path will not only save both our worlds but you as well." Her eyes became wide.
"What do you mean my life!? I'm already a ghost, what else could happen to me?" She looked into his red eyes as his attention shifted to Danny. 'The dipstick? What does he have to do with saving me?' Danny looked at her and smiled. She blushed.
"Whatever, let's just get this over with." said Ember looking back at Clockwork. He nodded and said, "Very well. If you two are ready, just step through and search for the inventor's lair."
"Okay let's do this." said Danny as they passed through and it closed behind them. Clockwork looked after. "Be careful young ones. It isn't as simple as you think."
Forgotten Part of the Ghost Zone
Danny and Ember exited the portal to a zone with decaying buildings and crumbling rock formations. The sky was a dark eerie green and a hollowed chill penetrated the soul. Floating doors were crumbling apart descending slowly into the endless abyss.
"This place is a dump." said Ember looking around. 'So this is the forbidden part of the ghost zone.'
"Yeah, but this is where we need to look. Now, where should we start?" He said putting his hand on his chin.
"How about over there?" Ember said pointing toward a large white brick building. It was perched upon a land mass covered in trees, vines and boulders.
"Awesome Ember! That has to be it. Let's check it out." They flew closer and landed on the staircase. Above the rusted door was a decaying sign that read "DR. T.C... LAB..TO.Y. They pushed the door and it crashed to the ground.
"That was easy." said Ember walking in. Danny grabbed her hand.
"Wait Ember."
"What's wrong? We have to check this place out." She turned blushing at their conjoined hands.
"Hold on. If this is the place holding such a powerful device, it would make sense to make traps to protect it."
"I guess you're right." He pulled her behind him.
"I'll go first. If anything happens, get out of here okay." He peered inside looking at the unnerving interior.
Ember shook her head and replied, "I'm not going to leave you behind."
He looked her sternly in the eyes. "I don't care. As long as you get out of here safely, that's all I care about. Promise me okay." She nodded.
"Okay, I promise." He smiled as he led the way further into the building. 'Aww he really cares about my safety. Way more than the Skulker ever did.'
They traveled through hallways covered in rust, moss and broken tiles. The silence ruled the building as they walked further. Each room had large windows revealing the beakers and test tubes used eons ago. 'This has to be the place.' Thought Danny looking at a pair of iron doors at the end of the hallway. The doors were untouched by time and a strange black box hung above the entrance. Ember walked ahead of him and held her palm facing toward the door.
"Stand back baby pop. Just in case there's a trap, it might be better to hit it from here." Her hand glowed purple. She fired an ecto ray against the steel doors but, they glowed purple in response.
"What the?" asked Danny. The door's light intensified and suddenly a bigger ray of energy was shot toward Ember. She dodged it by leaping forward. Danny flew up to the ceiling to avoid contact as well. The ray destroyed wall after wall until the outside was clearly in view. 'Whoa, that beam was stronger than mine.' Thought Ember kneeling on the ground.
"The door absorbed your energy and shot it back. That's some defensive system. So, we can't blast our way in. There has to be another way." Ember nodded as she went to stand. She turned looking back at the door when a blue light came from the black device. It widened and scanned her from head to toe. It vanished and a light on the device turned red.
"Unauthorized signature. Access denied." said a robotic voice.
"What was that?" said Ember backing away from the door.
"I'm not sure. Let me have a look." Danny came up to the door and the beam scanned him too. The light turned green.
"Signature recognized. Access granted." The door opened. 'Why did it open for me and not her?'
"Come on Danny, its open now. Let's worry about why it didn't open for me later." 'She's right. No time to waste.' They entered cautiously. The room was decorated with shelves and a countless number of books. There were maps and sketches of various inventions and ghosts along the walls. Danny walked closer to one that caught his attention.
'What is that around his arm?' Danny thought examining the sketch. It was of a ghost who looked around his twenties. He wore a black and white shirt and pants. A red dragon flowed down the chest and along the right pants leg. He was balling his fist and around his fist was a faded ring. 'Maybe it's a ghost power.'
"Hey." Danny snapped out of his trance looking at Ember going through a book.
"I don't see anything on the orbs anywhere." Danny walked toward the desk in the center of the room. Moving a large book, he found a stack of papers labeled. "Samuel Technus; Research Notes." Ember looked at him surprised and confused.
"Technus, there is now way." said Danny looking at Ember.
"It can't be the Technus we know. His first name is Nicolai. I've never heard of the guy." Danny picked up the papers and began reading.
"Does it say anything about the orbs?"
"It does. It says he was studying the way ghost use ectoplasm not only as energy for their physical forms but also for their powers. The presence of ectoplasm allows ghost the ability to heal quickly and adjust their forms."
"That makes sense. If we are injured in the human world, our wounds take longer to heal but, here they heal way faster."
Danny continued. "Ectoplasm also provides limitless power to ghost who have experience in absorbing it as apart of their abilities. These ghosts possess unimaginable power much like that heathen Pariah." 'That explains why he was so powerful.'
"This is great to know but, does it say anything about where the device is?" Danny looked back at the document.
"Therefore, I have constructed devices that will allow the user the ability to absorb ectoplasm for energy. Thanks to the forceful request of Braedon, my research has led me to construct two devices of a similar nature. One for him and the other as a countermeasure. He can't be trusted so, I made it just in case everything goes wrong. If anything were to happen to me, the location of the device is behind the bookcase. Once it has been used, it must be returned here for my assistant to keep it safe. Furthermore, only the one who was able to open this door will be able to open the safe. I have to leave before Braedon comes to finish me off. I hope my love for science doesn't destroy this world but, help to make it better."
"So, it's behind the bookcase then." said Ember heading toward the back of the room. She pushed it aside and behind was a large iron door.
"Great. If what he said is true, then I have to be the one to open the door." He walked closer as he was scanned once again.
"Signature recognized. Access granted." The door slowly opened and within was a metal box. "This has to be it." said Danny examining the container.
"Ember, stay out here just in case." He placed his hand on it and it quickly opened. A yellow gas fills the room.
"Danny! Are you okay?" yelled Ember as the thick cloud hid him from view.
"I'm fine Ember." said Danny coughing and walking out parting the smoke. "But look at what I found." He was holding a large white sphere.
"Way to go dipstick. That was easier than I thought."
"You're telling me. Let's get out of here before something bad happens." Ember nodded.
"Hey dipstick. What do you think that gas was for?" Danny shrugged and replied.
"I'm not sure but, I'm starting to feel dizzy."
"Danny, are you okay?" He fell to his knees. "Yeah, I will be fine. Here take this." He passed the orb to Ember. He grabbed his stomach as he grimaced in pain.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH, "screamed Danny as his body began to glow an intense yellow.
"Danny!" yelled Ember as she watched a yellow mass of energy come from Danny's body and float over him. He fell to the ground as the energy started to take shape. Ember rushed over to Danny and helped him up.
"Danny, are you okay?" He opened his eyes. He looked at his hands. "I don't know. The pain only lasted for a few seconds and now I'm perfectly fine. What is that?" They looked up as it took the shape of human. A bright light blinded them. Once clear they saw the fearsome form it took.
"It can't be!" said Danny as he saw a fiendish version of himself floating above them. The clone's skin was a pale green, his flaming hair was snow white and his eyes were void of reason. He smiled revealing his sharp fangs and laughed at the stunned hero. Danny looked in horror as he saw his worst nightmare before him. "This can't be real."
"Oh it is Daniel." said the clone. "Did you miss me?"
Danny grinned. "Is that a trick question?"
"Always with the comebacks Daniel. Jokes aside, you know you can't win. Have you forgotten who I am?" He pointed to him. "I'm a stronger and better you. You could never defeat me without the help of your pitiful friends. If you couldn't beat me then, do you really think you can stop me now and still keep the world safe?" Danny gritted his teeth and balled his fist.
"Ember, get out of here now and go back to Clockwork." Ember noticed Danny's eyes flash neon. 'No way.'
"Look dipstick. I'm not leaving you behind. You may be the hero but, I'm here to help. I will wait outside if you need me to fight too. When he's done for, we both will go back." Danny smiled.
"Fine you win. I won't be long." Anger returned to his face as he floated before his counterpart. The clone eerily grinned.
"Well Daniel, what now?" the clone hissed with his forked tongue.
Danny smiled and placed both of his hand at the clone's stomach.
"This." A ball of green energy formed in hands and then a huge explosion. The roof was shattered as the clone was sent flying into the air. He recovered and looked for Danny. All he saw was Ember flying through the roof and out of the way.
"Where did you go Daniel? You still have your weak human half holding you back! You can't defeat me with sympathy and words. I'm your strength and you can't deny it. Don't forget. I was the one who took everything away from you!" Danny suddenly appeared from the building and flew toward his clone at top speed.
"Silly child. I have the upper hand here." He held out his palm and fired a vortex of flames toward him. Danny quickly dodged and duplicated himself. Both firing ecto rays and hitting him. He flew back into a rock formation, flying through a few trees and then hits the ground hard. Danny reassembled himself and flew down toward his evil clone. Standing above him, he charged energy in his fist and punched him further into the ground. His clone yelled out in pain as he was driven deeper into the earth. After the dust cleared, Danny looked at his clone as he laid motionless in the crater.
"How can you be this strong?" evil Danny asked grunting in pain and struggling to speak.
Danny looked into his counterparts eyes. "Because I stopped making excuses for not being able to protect anyone and worked even harder after I fought Dan. He may still be a little stronger but, you're not him."
"So you're not afraid of me?" His clone hissed.
"Why would I be afraid of a memory?" The evil clone smirked and laughed.
"Very well, you're more impressive than I thought child. You have passed." He turned back into a mist of yellow energy. He floated above the trees and Danny quickly followed.
"Passed? This was a test."
"My apologies let me introduce myself. I am experiment 45-1. I was created by the doctor to carry out a single mission in his absence. He gave me specific instructions to emulate the fears of whoever is able to open the safe. You are the second person I've ever tested actually. Anyway, I took that shape and tested you to make sure you were able to be trusted. My job here is done."
Danny let out a sigh of relief. "What are you going to do now?"
"The only thing I can do. Continue to guard the lab."
"Why don't you go to the regular part of the Ghost Zone and live there. At least you won't be by yourself."
He laughed. "You went from fighting me like I was your worst enemy to worrying about me having company. You're alright in my book Daniel. No, it's fine. This was my original purpose and I will uphold my duty. Besides, you have more important things to worry about. Seeing that you came for this, means Braedon has returned."
He nodded. "Yes, Clockwork sent us here."
"I understand. I wish you luck Daniel and your friend. May you emerge victorious."
"Thanks. Uh, do you have a real name?"
"Yes actually. The doctor named me Seth. He said it was the name of his son when he was still human. I was given that name because I was one of his first successful experiments."
"Thanks Seth. Once everyone is safe, I will come and visit." Danny flew to where Ember spectated the battle.
"That would be nice Daniel. Good luck and may the light guide you." 'Doctor, you truly have a knack for picking the most qualified. He has the same qualities as him and their powers are really one of kind. Now to see if you're right about the world being saved once again.'