Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Danny Phantom or Bleach.

Legend:

"Someone is talking."

'Someone is thinking.'

"A technique is being used."

Chapter Fourteen:

Malfunction at Axion Labs!

Earlier today the residents of Amity Park were shaken from their beds by a sonic boom that came from Axion Labs. Police and reporters were on the scene in a matter of minutes where they were met by the spokesperson of Axion Labs, John Dales.

Mr. Dales quickly apologized for the commotion; saying that they were testing some new equipment when some of it malfunctioned. Luckily Mr. Dales said that no employees were harmed in the accident and the minimal damage to the building will be repaired within a few days.

When asked about what kind of equipment had malfunctioned, Mr. Dales told us about a prototype jet engine that Axion Labs is currently working on. It is unknown at this time what caused this engine to malfunction, according to Mr. Dales.

In other news, rising rock star Ember McClain is going to be hosting a concert in Amity Park. The concert will be held inside Key Stone Arena on May 22nd and will officially start at 8:00 pm!

(Amity Park—Axion Labs—Control Room)

Technus smirked as he finished with the latest edition of the Amity Gazette, "Fools, the lot of them!" He threw the paper away from himself with a chuckle, "To believe such a ridiculous lie! Hah!"

Still chuckling, Technus turned slightly in mid-air to look around at the very epicenter of the building he had taken over.

The formerly small, rectangular-shaped control room had been converted into a circular shape, which practically doubled the amount of space there was in the room. Hundreds of green-tinted holographic screens with black borders floated close to the walls of the room, each displaying a massive array of information. Directly underneath the holographic screens was a long counter which made up the control panels that had been modified—by Technus—to be able to effect any part of the building.

Currently monitoring these control panels were a small horde of Humans with gray, ashen skin-tones and dulled eye and hair colors. They were attired in short-sleeved lab-coats and had what appeared to be green circuitry embedded throughout their entire bodies.

John Dales—also wearing a lab-coat—stepped towards Technus, "The bait has been released, Dr. Technus." He said in a monotone voice, head bowed. "All that we are waiting for now is for the Arrancar to take it."

Technus nodded before dismissed John with a wave of his hand. He then motioned for a nearby screen to come to him. Once it did, he looked into, eyes softening at the picture within. The machine he had brought from his former lab was now being integrated into this laboratory and upgrading its aged machinery with new parts.

"With that Arrancar's death…" Technus whispered—closing his eyes as a memory of a black-haired woman and child rose to the forefront of his mind—before he tightened his fists. "I shall save you both."

XXXXXX

(The Ghost Zone—Clockwork's Lair)

Clockwork was sitting in his control center as he watched the two circular screens before him, with each depicting the actions of the two teenagers that had done his best to protect.

The teenager in the first screen had short, slightly wavy black hair and light blue eyes. He was dressed in a simple white t-shirt with a red circle on it, a pair of well-worn jeans, and white sneakers. This boy was Danny Fenton, the only half-Human half-Arrancar in existence and current protector of Amity Park. Clockwork knew that young Danny was going through a very troubling time as the boy tried to deal with new-found insecurities over his powers. And, while he did want to help the young man out, he knew that his presence at this point could negatively affect the timeline in ways that he could not hope to fix.

Clockwork then turned his attention over to the other screen that showed the other teenager that was important to the future. The boy in the second screen had short and spiky bright-orange hair and dark brown eyes that were above the permanent scowl on his face. He was dressed in the standard attire of all Shinigami with a thick brown belt across his chest that kept an enormous Zanpakutō on his back.

This teenager was fighting against a Hollow that looked like it was the offspring of a frog and a bat. This Hollow had a name, and its name was Shrieker. Shrieker was a Hollow that truly deserved the title of a monster for its actions, both in life and in death.

As a Hollow, Shrieker had killed a young Human boy before he had implanted the boy's soul into that of a parakeet. He tells the boy that if he could run away from the Hollow in his current form for 3 months, Shrieker would restore his mother to life. Of course he couldn't restore life to someone who has died, which meant that he had only started this game to gain more victims. Attempting to save the boy's soul, two Shinigami had been devoured by him until he came into contact with the orange-haired Shinigami.

The aforementioned orange-haired Shinigami had just finished dodging a couple of Shrieker's exploding leeches before his hand suddenly lunged forward towards the Hollow's head. His hand ripped through Shrieker's mask and gripped its forked tongue.

It was at that very moment that Cinq phased into view by Clockwork's side in a small gust of sand, "How are those two doing, Clockwork?"

"Ichigo is going fine with his temporary powers. He is just now finishing his battle against Shrieker." Clockwork answered before he sighed. "However, it looks like Danny is having some troubles."

On Danny's screen it showed the young black-haired man was currently looking very nervous with a copious amount of sweat around his forehead and armpits. It appeared that he had just woken up from a nightmare, a bad one at that if the look in Danny's eyes was any indication.

"Are we really doing the right thing?" Cinq murmured sorrowfully, the smile on his mask hiding his true feelings.

Clockwork's form shifted, becoming that of an old man with a long white beard. When he spoke again his tone was as weary as his current form. "It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. Nor does it matter if we tear our own souls apart in our regrets over what we must do. All that matters is those two young boys and the power that lies within them."

This seemed to anger Cinq as he whirled around to face his old friend. "This shouldn't be their fight, Clockwork! They shouldn't have to deal with our problems or our mistakes…" Cinq retorted.

Clockwork remained silent in the wake of his friend's anger. Then with but a wave of his staff the monitors shut off and he spoke again "If they don't fight, then there won't be much of a future for them to live in." Clockwork stated ominously in the darkness.

XXXXXX

(Amity Park—Casper High—Cafeteria)

After the Lunch Lady's attack on the football field, the PTA and members of Casper High's staff had begun meeting again to talk about the menu.

It was decided after much deliberation that Casper High would return to its former menu, though with a few changes. The school would now offer a salad bar for its vegetarian students. The school had also decided to offer some small, healthy side dishes that all the students could enjoy.

"That'll be $2.50."

Danny nodded before he quickly pulled out the required money and handed it over the lunch lady. The register rang with a faint "ding" as it opened before she put the money in, closed the register, and waved him off with her left hand.

Danny picked up his tray before he left the lunch lady and entered the cafeteria proper, making a beeline towards the place he and his friends usually sat at.

The cafeteria itself had white tiles covering the floor and dark-grey wallpaper that was partially concealed by posters put up by clubs. Students could sit in one of the white, plastic picnic bench-like tables that were organized in rows.

The table where Danny, Sam, and Tucker usually frequented sat by a large window which allowed them to get a glimpse of the football field. The table itself had some slight scarring—a few words carved into its surface with what looked to be pen—though it suited them just fine.

It had become their table the week the trio had entered Casper High. All of the other tables had been taken over by the various cliques that had formed back in middle school, of which none of the trio were a part of. Having little choice, the trio had made the table theirs, and it had grown over them the past few months.

Sam was already sitting at the table with her backpack lying opened next to her, with an unmoving plushy lying over her Algebra book. It was Sidney. The Ghost had changed houses after Danny's parents had begun sneaking around.

Just as Danny sat down at the table, Tucker came into view with his tray filled with meat. Like always, he sat on the right side of Danny, with Sam on his other side.

"You feeling better, Danny?" Tucker asked.

Danny sighed, "A little bit", before looking up at his two best friends, "I'm sorry that I've been avoiding you guys…"

"It's okay—"

"No, it's not." Danny interrupted his friends. He didn't want to hear them say that it was okay. It wasn't okay. "I was purposely avoiding and not talking to you guys… It's just, things have been hard lately."

Sam put a hand on one of Danny's own while Tucker clapped him on the shoulder. "We're you're friends, dude. No matter how tough things get, we'll be there for you."

Danny told his friends about the fears and doubt that had—and still continued to—plague him since Skulker had been defeated. He told them of his nightmares and what happened in them.

By the end of his monologue, Danny felt as if another weight had been lifted from off his shoulders. It felt unbelievably good to tell his friends what was going on without editing it, like he had with Ms. Spectra.

Tucker and Sam's reactions were varied.

Tucker felt bad that he had been unable to help Danny. He was also a little angry at Danny for not coming to him and Sam sooner. Didn't Danny know that they were his friends? Didn't Danny know that he and Sam would do anything to help him?

Sam felt a little bit angry at Danny as well. She was angry that Danny hadn't told her about what was going on? Hadn't she told him what had been gnawing at her? She was also mad that he had lied to her, saying that he was fine.

But, seeing how bad Danny was feeling, Sam and Tucker shoved away these negative emotions. Right now Danny needed them and they could always be mad at him later.

"You're not a monster, Danny." Sam assured her friend.

Tucker nodded empathically, "Yeah! You can't be a monster; you don't go rampaging around town like that green dinosaur-like monster did in Tokyo! Now that was a monster."

"You mean Godzilla? Tucker, that was a movie!"

"Well, the principle is still the same!"

Danny cracked a smile at his friends argument. Even though he didn't like it when Sam and Tucker fought with each other over small stuff but now it actually made him feel a bit better. It was good to see his friends hadn't changed much, in spite of everything that happened to them.

"Hey, Fenton!" A loud and unfortunately familiar voice yelled out, ceasing all chatter in the cafeteria.

At once Tucker and Sam stopped their argument before they, and Danny, saw a very furious blonde football player walking towards them. Dash had a look of anger on his face, a far cry from his usual look of misplaced superiority, as he made his way over to their table.

"Great he looks real angry this time.' Danny thought as the jock got closer to them.

Danny sighed as the angry blonde stopped a couple feet away from them, "What do you want Dash? Can't you see that we're eating?"

"I want to know why you turned me into Spectra, Fen-turd!" Dash barked angrily, the veins on his neck straining, as if trying to escape. "Do you know how much trouble I've gotten in because of you!"

"No… enlighten me." Danny said in a deadpanned tone. To be perfectly honest Dash no longer inspired any sort of fear in Danny. After facing down the likes of Skulker and the Lunch Lady Dash was really just an annoyance.

"Because you ratted me out, I almost got kicked out of the football team! And that hag told me that she would be watching my grades!" Dash roared, face red with rage. "'One slip up or below C and you'll be kicked off the team'! Who does that old bag think she is?"

"Ooh~! Which 'old bag' is this?" A mockingly light tone said into Dash's right ear, which immediately froze the blonde in place.

Floating directly behind Dash was a man sized Ghost that was dressed as some sort of clown. The Ghost had a blue vest with a frilly white collar over a loose shirt with yellow and green stripes that led to frilled cuffs. The Ghost also wore a matching pair of yellow and green-striped parachute pants and blue jester shoes. On top of the Ghosts head, covering his long red hair, was a wide brimmed crimson hat that had a large set of feathers and fur coming out of it. and a red fedora hat with a purple feather.

The things that drew everyone's attention though were his purple hands that would move in disturbing patterns and the black and white mask that had perpetual eye smiles, giving him the look of utter delight.

"Don't look so frightened of poor ol' Pe-ten, child ~!" The clown-like Ghost—Peten, presumably—cackled. "Peten is just here to have some fun~!"

With but a wave of his hand, Peten created over a dozen floating, slightly translucent green daggers. Dash screamed when he saw the daggers which caused everyone else to start screaming. Everything then degenerated into chaos at that point as people abandoned their seats, dropped whatever they had, and ran towards the doors.

Peten cackled as he lovingly petted one of his daggers, "Peten so enjoys it when the little peoples run~!"

Peten then launched his daggers towards the fleeing, screaming students only for each of them to be blocked by a single piece of paper. Peten turned to where the papers had come from to see who had ruined his fun when he saw an odd sight, a flying penguin. Sidney was floating in fid air in front of the deranged clown as his tiny bat wings flapped furiously to keep him in the air. Sydney had escaped Sam's backpack earlier and was given a plan on what to do from Tucker. So with all of his courage Sydeny began glaring at Peten, though the effect was somewhat lost since he was still trapped in an adorable doll.

"Ooh~! Looksie, Peten sees a little flying penguin!" Peten squealed as he began to dance in midair. He clapped his hands together before folding them underneath his chin. "Does the penguin wish to play with Peten~?"

Sidney muttered under his breath, "Not really…", before pasting a fake, shaky smile on his face. "S-Sure! Follow me and we'll play, Peten!"

With that, Sidney raised his flippers into the air and dropped to the ground just as a trio of knives flew through the space where he just was. Seeing how close he was to being sliced in thirds Sydeny turned around and ran out of the cafeteria with his flippers waving like mad and his peg-legs becoming only blurs as he put all of his years of running away experience into play. He needed to lead Peten away from the cafeteria before his already low levels of energy completely ran out.

Peten laughed manically before he zoomed off after Sidney, snapping his purple fingers to create more of his daggers before throwing them at the "Penguin". The fact that said "Penguin" was able to dodge each dagger only caused him to grin further.

This was going to be fun!

After running through the deserted hallways of the school for a few minutes, Sidney ran through the doors to the gym, with Peten naught but a few seconds behind. The crazed clown Ghost burst through the doors and blinked when he saw that the "Penguin" was gone. Where had the "Penguin" gone to?

While he was looking for the "Penguin", Peten caught sight of the white-haired Arrancar standing in the middle of the gym. Peten remembered the mission that the icky scientist's zombie had sent him to do; kill the white-haired Arrancar. Peten's grin grew even wider at the thought of dying that Arrancar's hair red with his own blood. His earlier thoughts about the "Penguin" were already gone as he materialized his daggers besides him.

"Hello~!" Peten greeted in his usual joyful and deranged manner. "Peten is here to kill you, white-hair!"

With that, Peten launched his daggers towards Danny with the intent of making him a pincushion. Danny didn't bother moving from his spot as he calmly shut his eyes in the face of the incoming blades. Peten was disappointed that the white hair didn't run, it was no fun if he would give up to easily.

A loud, "clang"-like sound rang out through the gym.

Then Peten's smile twitched a bit when all of his daggers bounced of the Arrancar's skin and clothing as if they were made out of iron.

"White-Hair's stronger than Peten thought White-Hair'd be!" Peten exclaimed. He smiled again before he clapped his hands together, summoning another couple dozen daggers around himself. "Meutre Cirque (Murder Circus)!"

With that, Peten launched his daggers towards Danny once more. However, when the daggers had flown two feet away from Peten, swirling greenish-red portals appeared before each dagger. The daggers then proceeded to fly into the portals, which closed as soon as the daggers had finished going through them.

Danny looked confused and more than a little bit wary at the turn of events. He had been ready for another barrage of Peten's knifes, though he hadn't expected Peten to be able to form what looked to be some sort of portal.

This did not bode well for him.

Using Pesquisa to see if he could sense what was going on, Danny was alerted to the amount of spiritual energy around himself before over twenty reddish-green portal erupted into existence behind him. He lunged forward and away from the daggers that surged forth with his hand already moving to his sword.

Once he got his sword free from its sheath, Danny turned around mid-leap and tried to cut at the approaching daggers. Unfortunately Danny was unable to do so as the daggers had once again entered another set of portals.

"White-Hair think Peten stupid?" Peten demanded with his grin never leaving his face. "Peten KNOWS what White-Hair will do! Peten isn't a one-trick pony!" With that Peten created more daggers and threw them into more of his portals.

For the next several minutes, Peten would send his daggers through a portal towards Danny's back in an attempt to injure the Arrancar. Through liberal use of Pesquisa and his own developing battle instincts Danny would dodge the flying knives and Peten would form portals to absorb them again. This cycle continued on until Danny had had enough.

Danny put his sword back into its sheath before he began to gather a low amount of power into his right hand. While he knew that what he was going to attempt was dangerous, to the gym at least, he had no other choice right now. Once his technique was complete spun around, with his right hand held at eye level, and released his attack, "Cero!"

With that, Danny's ice-blue Cero surged forward, consuming the majority of Peten's daggers before continuing onwards to Peten himself. The crazed clown Ghost's eyes widened as the top part of his fedora hat was vaporized by the energy blast.

That Cero could've just as easily vaporized Peten's head as it did the Ghost's hat and Peten knew this.

Peten dropped to the ground on his butt in a light sweat before he crab-walked backwards, away from Danny. The normal ear to ear smile on his face was turned upside down as he looked at the white haired Arrancar . "Stay away from Peten, monster! Peten say, get away from Peten!"

At the word "monster", Danny's eyes had widened as his body froze up of its own accord. That single word brought his most recent fears and insecurities about himself to the surface causing him to ignore his downed opponent.

Peten, seeing Danny's hesitation, slowly regained his former smile, "Ah… Perhaps White-Hair more like Peten… Tell Peten White-Hair, how many enemies has White-Hair defeated? How many people has White-Hair brutalized? How many—" Before Peten could continue, he suddenly stopped. His eyes dilated as an intricate web of green circuitry formed on Peten's mask. The very air around Peten trembled slightly as the feeling of madness grew. "Peten must...KILL YOU ALL! Mort du Clown (Death of the Clown)."

With that, nine jugglers' knifes materialized into being around Peten, each thrashing widely in the air before Peten grabbed one of them. At Peten's silent command, the knives were consumed within eight different portals, which then appeared all around Danny's body.

As the jugglers' knives surged out of Peten's portals, Peten himself lunged forward with the knife in his hands aimed at the Arrancar's eyes. While his knives would be aiming for eight vital points on White-Hair's body, he would be aiming for White-Hair's eyes. He wanted them to be for ingrained in a look of pain as he carved them straight from his body.

either of Peten's attacks ever connected as Tucker and Sam—previously hiding behind the bleachers—took action. A small amount of green light appeared around both teenagers' feet before they simply vanished.

Within the next second, Tucker appeared before Peten before he planted his elbow into the demented clown's face. The force of the attack sent Peten towards the ground which then became slightly cracked from the force of his impact.

Sam, on the other hand, appeared in front of Danny before her arms—holding her practice sword—became a blur. One by one, the knives that had been flying towards Danny's vital points were deflected, whereupon they flew to the ground, having been cut in two.

Peten by this time had managed to push himself upright and could only look on in abstract shock as the two humans displayed powers that were unheard of to him. "How is this possible? How could you hurt Peten like this? Your only humans, you're not supposed to be this strong!"

"It's because we trained." Tucker responded as got into his Muy Thai stance.

Sam lowered her practice sword 'till it faced the ground. "We trained until our hands began to bleed and we collapsed from exhaustion, but through that effort we've grown."

Green light formed around Sam's feet before, like before, she suddenly disappeared. Sam reappeared in front of Peten and was already swinging her sword down at the Ghost.

Peten cried out as the edgeless wooden blade, which was now coated in a faint green energy, cut into him. While Peten was stunned from her sword attack Sam delivered a harsh kick into his side, sending him tumbling over the ground and away from the catatonic Danny. The crazed Ghost finally came to a rest when he crashed against the bleachers, groaning as he did so.

"Goodbye, Peten." Sidney whispered as he finally allowed himself to become visible, the opened Fenton Thermos in his hands ready to capture the deranged clown.

Peten never even got the chance to scream before he was sucked into the Fenton Thermos in a brilliant display of white and green lights. As soon as Peten's small frame had been fully captured, Sidney capped the lid back onto the thermos before he set it down on the ground next to him.

It was at that moment that Danny snapped out of his sudden stupor, releasing an unintentional Pesquisa. Unlike the last time he had used it, the flames that made up Sam and Tucker were now even brighter and the colors were crystal clear. The flames were a dark teal in color instead of a chaotic mixture of blue and green flames.

"How have you guys gotten so strong?" Danny asked his friends. Tucker and Sam turned to him with a set of proud smiles on their faces. "I mean, last week the flames that you guys were made of were a mixture of blue and green flames… now they're solid teal."

Sam frowned in confusion at her friend's statement but answered anyways, "I don't know about these 'flames', but ever since your battle with Skulker I've noticed that i started gaining some powers of my own."

"After Skulker, we started to experiment with them when something strange happened." Tucker admitted. "It was really hard at first to call upon the energy that caused them, not to mention exhausting, but it's started to become easier once we practiced with it."

"While it isn't much, at least we can help you now, Danny." Sam said as she sheathed her practice sword

Danny found himself happy that his friends would want to help him with his battles. However, he knew he shouldn't be too surprised that they wanted to be more then side helpers; Sam and Tucker had been there for him every step of way and they wanted to continue doing so. He smiled as he was about to thank them, but he was interrupted before he ever got the chance to speak. All of a sudden the windows near the ceiling of the gym were shattered as dark shape burst into the building and began surrounding Danny and his friends.

Coming in from all sides of the gymnasium were teams of two-legged humanoids wearing full-bodied SWAT uniforms, including helmets, which quickly fell into a tight perimeter around the Danny and his friends. Once they had Danny surrounded all of the enemies hefted riot shields in front of them and trained their weapons at the four that they had encircled. When Danny saw the deadly weapons were aimed at him and his friends he instantly sprang into action.

Disappearing with a Sonido, Danny reappeared before the enemies closest to him and his friends and began knocking them away with a few well-placed punches and kicks. Then, while the first group was down, Danny vanished again and started mowing down the guys in the back of the gym.

Sam was cheering Danny on when she happened to look down at one of the enemies that Danny had already defeated. Sam froze in shock at what she saw, the things helmet had been knocked off when Danny had smacked him in the head, there laying on the ground was an unconscious human. Sam whirled around just in time to see Danny send three more of the SWAT humans into the stands when she yelled out what she discovered, "Danny! These guys are Humans!"

Danny froze just as he was about to Spartan kick another enemy. 'These guys are human?'

Having gotten up from Danny's assault, and seeing Danny's new-found hesitation, the SWAT guys took advantage. One SWAT guy quickly removed what appeared to be a rubix cube before he hurled it towards Danny.

While in the air, the rubix cube twisted itself into completion before it landed by Danny's feet. Danny barely managed a confused "What" before a small section of the rubix cube opened up and a bright light began to pour out from it. Before Danny could move away from the strange object he felt a strong pulling forcing him to close to the cube. When he was two feet away from it the force became stronger and he was sucked into the cube as he could do nothing to stop it.

Sam's eyes widened with shock, "… What? How could they have—?" Eyes narrowing, green light gathered at her feet again before she vanished. "I won't let you take Danny!"

"Retrieve the target." Ordered one of the SWAT in a dead tone of voice.

The SWATs surged forward from all over the room, heading towards the rubix cube to follow their orders. However, just before they got there, Tucker appeared directly above them, clasped hands raised high above his head.

"Denied!"

With that, Tucker slammed his fists into one SWAT guy's head before he landed. However, as soon as he landed, Tucker was shot by three tranquilizer darts in his back. It was only seconds later when he fell forward, unconscious.

The same fate awaited Sam when she reappeared next to the rubix cube, though she was shot with five darts instead of three. The last image Sam saw before her vision went black was the unhelmeted SWAT pick up the rubix cube before storing it in one of his vest's pockets.

"The target is secured...returning to the labs."

'No Danny...'

Techniques:

1. Meutre Cirque (Murder Circus): With this technique, Peten summons a multitude of daggers before he sends them off towards his opponent. When in flight, the daggers fly through portals, the reappear in a place according to Peten's will.

2. Mort du Clown (Death of the Clown): With this technique, Peten creates eight jugglers' knives before, like Meutre Cirque, he envelops them in portals. The portals then open above the target's eight vital points before surging forward, killing him/her.