Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or wishes.
Danny had to admit, he was pleasantly surprised by his parent's new invention. Going by the streak they've been having lately, especially because of Amity Park's ghost craze, he was expecting them to be building some new weapon that would "tear ghosts apart molecule by molecule" as his father always said. This time it wasn't the case.
When he was walking down the steps to the lab, he could clearly see his parents pulling the cover off of a hovercraft looking object. In fact, it reminded him of the Specter Speeder he first used to enter the Ghost Zone. The halfa looked around the lab, surprised that he couldn't find the mentioned Specter Speeder anywhere."
"Danny boy, you're finally hear!" his dad greeted as he reached for a wrench from his toolbox and began tightening a few screws on the ship. "Do you like what you see?" he asked.
"Uh yeah, sure, dad," he replied, "but what is it?"
"You wouldn't happen to have seen Jazz?" his mom questioned, not paying any mind to his question. She instead repeatedly glanced at the blueprints in front of her and back at the craft.
"No, sorry, mom."
She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Now where could your sister have gone to now? Oh well, we were planning on showing this to the both of you, but since you're here already,"
Jack put down his tools and faced his son with a goofy grin plastered on his face. "This is the Fenton Specter Speeder 2.0!" he loudly interrupted to the slight chagrin of his wife. "With it we can easily traverse the Ghost Zone and defeat any ghost we come across!"
"Yes," added his mother. "We may even be able to capture a ghost to study. This has the opportunity to open new fields both in ghost research and hunting. Of course it's not finished yet. We still haven't found a proper material that's strong enough to withstand ghost rays to protect the cockpit, light enough to not weigh it down, and cheap for mass production."
"Mass production?" the halfa asked, taking the final steps down the staircase and entering the lab. "You mean that this isn't the only one you'll make? Who else are you making them for?"
Danny walked over to the new invention and touched the cold metal surface. The machine might havs looked similar to the Specter Speeder, but they did share their differences. While the original had a more boxier shape to it, this one was sleeker and aerodynamic. It also contained smaller engines in place of the bigger ones from before. Probably for better fuel consumption. The biggest difference though was the cockpit. This model had an even more rounded one, about 60% the circumference of a full circle. It would be great for looking out at the expanses of the Ghost Zone, but first you'd have to force him in there. It would definitely give you a beautiful sight for the ectoblast that would no doubt tear the cockpit apart. In other words, it looked like a deathtrap.
"Danny, be careful; That's highly dangerous!" his mother shouted. "You know we don't like it when you touch our equipment! Especially without your hazmat suit on!"
Quickly retracting his hand from the ship, Danny continued to stare at the dark silver surface. "You guys never answered my question."
Danny's mother pulled an official looking document out of her pocket and handed it to her son. "We got a contract with the Guys in White. You know, some of the people who were after Phantom when the million dollar bounty was put on his head. Apparently they're planning on doing something inside the Ghost Zone and need transports. The contract pays well, but they're asking for a lot of these."
"Who cares 'bout that, Mads, when we'll be rich?!" Jack said, placing his arm around his wife's shoulder. "I just wish they'd let us put the Fenton logo on it. That and install some cup holders."
"And have either of you actually been to the Ghost Zone before?"
"Course not, sweety," his mother answered. "After all, this is the first and only working portal to the ghost's dimension. The whole point of building the original Specter Speeder was to have a working prototype for a craft that can explore their dimension safely. We were planning on taking a short trip in it to make sure it worked inside the dimension, but after it was suddenly wrecked, we decided to just run a simulation instead. It would've been too costly to repair the prototype and we just didn't have the time.."
Danny's father quickly grabbed the nearest ecto-weapon and proudly held it up in the air like a sword. "But don't worry about us, Dan-o. We'll shred every ghost in there before they can even move!"
The halfa only shrugged before walking back up the steps to get something to eat and leave his parents alone. "See ya later, guys" he said.
"Bye, Danny," answered both his parents.
Danny went into the kitchen and grabbed some meatloaf, leftovers from a previous night's dinner, and tossed it into the microwave, all the while thinking of the new Specter Speeder. His parents didn't know what they were getting into if they expected that to survive a trip into the Ghost Zone. The original speeder worked fine though, and was even able to save Danny's butt. The inventions of his parents also usually work fine, no matter what they may think. Perhaps he wasn't giving them enough credit.
The alarm on the microwave went off, signalling to the halfa that his food was done. He took the food out and placed it on the kitchen table with fork in hand, ready to take the first bite.
Well the new speeder did fix one of his problems. Now he had a proper transport to bring Tucker and Jazz with him. All he needed was to find Desiree's location. He took one bite out of his meatloaf before immediately spitting it back out. "Bleh, meatloaf!"
Most of Ghost Zone was very simple, ordinary if you will. Everything happened one after another along with the passing of time. No place escaped its precense. Well, no place except one lone clocktower in the outer regions of the Gbost Zone. It didn't move with time. Instead, it existed in its own realm outside of it.
Two similar looking ghosts, both with one lone eye for a head and a cape too big for their body, appeared before this tower and opened the doors, anger clear on their faces. "Clockwork!" one of them shouted. "What is the meaning of this!"
As if on command, said ghost appeared before the two intruders. "Meaning of what? You're going to have to be more specific," he replied indifferently, keeping his attention on one of the clocks hanging on the wall and not the two ghosts.
"You know what we mean, Clockwork!" the second ghost said, pointing his long, green finger at him. "You are the master of time!"
"It's true; I do know everything. That also means I know how this conversation will go. Why don't you save me the trouble and get out." Even though his voice retained its normal indifference and boredom on the outside, there was a slight bit of anger in his command that did not go unnoticed.
"But the time line is screwed up because of the boy!" one of them retorted.
"I can't fix it."
The second one spoke once more. "Yes you can! You may not be able to fix it directly, but you have power to at least do it indirectly."
"This problem isn't with the time stream itself, so it's not my problem to solve."
This seemed to infuriate the first ghost as he glared up at Clockwork. "You are controlled by us! You do what we say! That is the law of the Observants! Defying us is punishable by your destruction!"
The time ghost remained silent. It was true what the ghost said. Being one of the few powerful ghosts that fought against Pariah Dark at the height of his power, it was decided that his power would be reigned in by the Observant council along with all the other ghosts who fought against the previous ruler. The were scared of what he was capable of. Still, they did have the authority to stop him in any way they could, and they developed one weapon that was specifically created to stop one of these ancient ghosts if they lost their mind. In Clockwork's case, it was a machine that could emit a pulse, stopping the gears in his chest from moving and effectively killing him. The pulse was made to pass through the medium of time, not space. Fortunately, this meant he was safe in his tower, though he'd be trapped in it forever.
"I understand the implications," he finally answered. "I don't have the time to go to the boy myself. This isn't the only Universe I have to take care of. Therefore, I won't do anything now but wait for him to come to me, if he'll come to me."
"Clockwork," the second ghost growled out. "You're playing a dangerous game."
"I don't see how that's different than how I normally handle, or will handle, these situations. Now if you don't mind, please get out." By now Clockwork was having trouble keeping his calm demeanor, and cracks were showing through his facade.
"We'll report this to the council and they will not be happy about this," the first ghost said before turning around and floating away. "You best be prepared for what happens next." With that, both ghosts took their leave and left the tower.
I'm always prepared," Clockwork muttered as he watched the events in one of the many tine streams play out. "It's part of my job."
It had been many many hours since the first ghost was released in Tucker's last ditch plan for a lead on Clockwork, yet he hasn't made any progress. It was really starting to aggravate him too. Currently there were around seven or eight ghosts being used to search for Desiree. They all were in a completely different area though. Safe to say most of them didn't actually pick up her scent. Another aggravating thing.
If you asked Danny, he would probably say that Tucker's been at this since inceptions, not even giving himself a break unless it was an emergency. And he'd be right. It's not like Tucker wanted to spend all his time tracking these ghosts, doing hourly check ups could've worked just as well, but he just didn't have anything else to do. Before Sam entered the picture, the only thing the two usually ever did was hang out at the Nasty Burger or go to the park. Rarely did they even go to Danny's house. He didn't really socialize with anyone else.
Maybe he should try and make a new friend. Danny said that both he and Tucker were supposed to be friends with Sam, right? And he obviously had proof too. Maybe Tucker should give talking to Sam a chance and actually get to know her. If he befriended her once, he could do it again. Danny wasn't the only one who was going to turn his life around!
Tucker twirled around in his chair a couple times before the nausea hit him and he forced himself to stop, facing the computer screen once more. How much longer did Danny have with them anyway? Once he found Clockwork and his ticket back home, what would happen? Would he just lose his best friend forever?
"Whatever happened to our Danny?" he whispered into the computer screen.
Alarms suddenly began to burst from the computer's speakers, startling the poor boy and making him fall to the floor in a small thump.
"Crap!" he muttered before he was finally able to mute the speakers and let out a long sigh. Hopefully his parents didn't hear that and thought anything was up. Still, that noise could only mean one thing.
Tucker looked at his computer monitor and noticed a bright red dot flashing in and out near New York City.
"Desiree's been spotted."
And there we have it. Yeah, I don't have much to say.
Reviews:
Guest: Wow, it's been a month. It feels like a week ago though! Eh, whatever. Between the Steam summer sale and Xbox Games with Gold, I'm set for a good long while when it comes to video games.