Disclaimer: This is a fan work created at no profit and for entertainment purposes only. The author acknowledges that Danny Phantom and related characters are property of Nickelodeon and many concepts used here are the creation of Butch Hartman.
The Phantom Reboot
Episode 7 : War of the Techno Geeks (Part 4)
Tucker barely had time to dive to the side as the armored fists of the Fenton Ecto-skeleton smashed into the space he previously occupied. Tucking in his arms with some difficulty thanks to the Ghost Gauntlets, he rolled under a lab table just as a pair of ghost beams from Technus impacted the concrete floor nearby.
"Not good, not good, not good." he muttered to himself.
People might have expected that a couple of years being sidekick and mission control for a ghost-fighting superhero would have taught him not to panic. Those people would have been idiots. Panic, Tucker had learned, was good. It was healthy. It was to be completely expected when spectral monsters from beyond the pale were trying to kill you.
The key was to panic intelligently.
Even as he dodged, rolled and scrambled his way around the lab, avoiding Technus's attacks, he was scoping out all of his options and trying to come up with a plan. Luckily, he was in a lab full of anti-ghost devices being attacked by a ghost, so it wasn't that complex of a plan.
"Come now, bespectacled one." Technus said, lifting the table Tucker was hiding under. "This is becoming annoying."
Before he could bring the table down on his head, Tucker was off and running again. His mind raced to quantify his options.
Seeing as Technus was overshadowing the Ecto-Skeleton, the first order of business was to get him out of it. That would require either the Fenton Ghost Catcher or the Fenton Peeler. Unfortunately, he hadn't powered up the former after affecting repairs following the Ember incident. And the latter...
He groaned to himself. Jazz had taken a shine to the latter, carrying it with her as part of her standard ghost-hunting gear.
More ghost rays impacted the floor at his heels. He couldn't dodge those forever, even if Technus was a lousy shot. His eyes raked over the lab, searching for plan B. When he saw it, he couldn't help but smile.
With a new plan quickly coming together, Tucker reversed course and dove between Technus's legs. Grasping mechanical fingers managed to grab on to the back of his shirt, but it tore under his momentum. Coming up in a roll, Tucker grabbed a ghost net launcher off a nearby weapons rack and fired blindly behind him. It didn't matter if it held as long as it delayed Technus for a few precious seconds.
The launcher was dead weight, so Tucker threw that behind him too, following that up be vaulting over a work bench and all but sprinting up the stepladder leading up to The Fenton Tactical Anti-ghost Glider. Leaping astride it, he whipped out his PDA, thankful that he hadn't deleted or tinkered with the remote program since the battle with Dark Phantom.
Technus tore the net over his head in two, then laughed at the sight of Tucker trying to balance on top of the glider. "Seriously, child? You think that you can fight me on an even footing with that thing?"
Looking from the glider to Technus, back to the glider and then himself, Tucker shrugged. "Nope. But I know where to find someone who can." With that, he hit the intangibility circuit and flew straight up and out of Fenton Works.
DP-DP-DP
"So..." Sam said, looking anywhere but at the young man in front of her. "How are... things."
Danny glanced aside to find that Dani was still perusing the Nasty Burger menu, trying to decide what she wanted to order. If he didn't know any better, he could swear she was eavesdropping on their awkward small talk and smirking.
"Things are... good." He said. "Um... you're doing okay?"
"Just super." Sam said flatly.
Even as clueless as he tended to be, Danny could tell that wasn't true at all. He didn't even need to feel the churning emotion in their shared link to figure that one out. He frowned. This had gone on long enough. "Look, Sam... if—"
"It's not your fault" She blurted out, then blushed, eyes downcast.
Danny rubbed the back of his head. "That's good to hear I guess. Because I was totally ready to apologize without knowing what I did. Look, if it's about my... after school job and stuff, you know you don't have to..." He stopped when the tenor in the mental link tensed as if in intense dread. He tried to meet her eyes, but she evaded.
"It's my fault." Sam said, then looked over at Dani. "Look, can we not talk about this now. We're supposed to be showing Dani around Amity and getting her caught up in our... well my thing isn't really fair to her."
It was all Dani could do not to curse out loud. Sure, it wasn't the information she was supposed to be gathering, but whatever hilariously awkward thing was going on between those two was juicy to be certain. With a resigned sigh, she stepped up into line, having picked out what she wanted to eat ten minutes earlier.
Danny and Sam got in line behind her. "Really?" Asked Danny. "So we're really going to talk about it?"
Rubbing her arm, Sam continued to look away. "Dani convinced me to, actually. I was worried you and Tucker might be mad at me... you know for abandoning you guys without explaining."
"Well we didn't exactly throw a party." Danny muttered without being able to stop himself. He winced the moment he saw Sam's expression upon hearing that. "Mostly I... we've been worried. I mean I can tell this hasn't been easy for you."
Sam's eyes widened. She'd forgotten entirely that Danny had no way of shutting off his end of their mental connection. "Ohmigosh!" She half whispered, half shouted. "I for... oh no and you were worried it was you fault. I'm so sorry, I'm the worst friend ever, Danny!"
Ahead of them, Dani's ears perked up. Were those weaknesses she was hearing. Nothing was more useful to hear about people than their weaknesses. It was like her dad always said: 'Nothing is more useful to hear about people than their weaknesses.'
Bombarded by Sam's guilt, Danny raised his hands to calm her down. "Sam, it's okay, really. Well it will be okay. We've just all got to talk this out and let us know what happened?"
The mention of 'we' reminded Sam that there was another injured party in the whole piece of drama surrounding her. "Where is Tucker anyway? It's not like him to miss greasy fast food made of dead animals."
Still reeling from the emotions that just struck him, Danny could only shrug it off. "I'm sure he'll be around soon."
Behind them, out the window of the Nasty Burger, the Fenton Tactical Anti-ghost glider streaked past.
"Please be there." Tucker prayed, banking to avoid a flying pair of glowing green bolas that whipped by overhead. Behind him flew Technus, who had taken the time to incorporate various and sundry ecto-weapons into the Ecto-Skeleton before giving chase. "Please be in range of the ghost alarm at least."
"Why run child? It is inevitable that I, Technus will catch you!" Bellowed Technus, unleashing a volley of ectoplasmic beams that raked the street around the fleeing techno-geek.
Tucker's heart sank when there was no snappy quip or technology pun from above, not answering ecto-energy blast that floored Technus and more importantly, no Danny Phantom flying in to the rescue at all. Danny evidently hadn't been at the Nasty Burger. He was alone, facing a powerful ghost without the Ghost Battling Belt, and no one was coming to save him.
Even worse, Technus was right: it was inevitable that he'd be caught sooner or later. He just wasn't that good at flying the glider.
Panic set in and once again, he harnessed that adrenaline to his own ends. He wasn't that good at flying the glider, but one thing was sure: technical prowess or not, he was smarter than Technus. Between them, he wasn't the one that blurted out his plans or got so wrapped up in himself that he forgot to charge superweapons. He also wasn't so easily swayed that people could accidentally persuade him to try his hand at world domination.
"I, Technus, shall defeat you and then I shall add that cool glider to this suit. It will be both rad and far out!"
He also didn't say things like that. Tucker felt a little better now. They were both technogeeks, right? So it wasn't a battle of firepower, but one of brain power—one Tucker was suddenly sure he could win if he played his cards right.
"You want it?" He shouted back at the technological ghost. "How about you try some of the features out first..." He fired maneuvering thrusters causing the glider to do a perfect 180 to face Technus head on. "Like the rockets!" With that, he locked on and fired a salvo of ecto-seeking rockets that streamed out of an under-slung rack on the glider and homed right in on Technus.
"Oh I will." proclaimed Technus, "But not like this." Sweeping the ecto-skeleton's arms up and out, he raised a ghost shield that looked vaguely like a circuit board. The rockets impacted and exploded in a swirling cloud of green fire and debris.
When the last rocket was no more, Technus lowered his shield. "And now to show you that I, Technus..." Through the clearing dust, he found that the street was completely empty of ghost gliders or teenaged techno-geeks. "...Have no idea where you went. What's the deal with that?"
DP-DP-DP
Normally, Tucker wouldn't have telegraphed what he was going to do like he did. That was more of a Danny thing to try and go all James Bond with the one-liners. The truth was, Tucker knew that the ecto-seekers wouldn't have done too much damage to the ecto-skeleton anyway.
What they did manage, however, was kicking up a smokescreen thick enough that Technus didn't spot him using the glider's intangibility circuit to dive through the street and into Amity's curiously huge sewer system.
Bringing Technus to Danny hadn't worked. Therefore, Tucker was going to have to try something else. On the way though, he dialed Danny to figure out where the heck he was when a ghost in powered armor was crashing through the city.
Unfortunately, he got a busy signal.
"Huh. That's odd. With Sam being all weird, I'm pretty sure I'm the only friend Danny's got... wow, that's kinda sad—for both of us." He sighed, realizing that he had more important things at stake than his lack of social life. "Ah well, looks like I'm going to have to do this myself, then figure out what's up with Danny."
DP-DP-DP
Dani felt her Mastersoft All-In-One Signal Blocker buzzing in her pocket, letting her know that another call to Danny and Sam's phones was being blocked—either that, or something that would set off a Fenton Ghost Alarm (like herself). One way or the other, her information gathering wasn't going to be interrupted.
"So," She said, settling into the middle of the booth she'd chosen specifically for the fun of watching the two teens have to share one side and squirm over it, "What about this 'Inviso-Bill' guy everyone in Amity talks about? You guys know his deal?"
"Only that he apparently wants to be called Phantom." Danny blurted out. "...or so I've heard."
"And that he's a hero." Sam said quickly. "No matter what they say about him. I've personally seen him fight bad ghosts."
Dani's eyes lit up. Jackpot. "Ooo, really? Tell me all about it."
DP-DP-DP
Twenty minutes later, and zero captured Tuckers later, Technus stopped his search.
"If I, Technus, Master of Both Hiding and Seeking, haven't found the child by now, then surely he is well and truly gone." He hung his head in a second. A would-be world conqueror shouldn't fail at a simple capture and savage beating mission. Oh, but speaking of...
He straightened up with renewed vigor. "And that means it is time to return to the lab, charge my new device, and then take over the world!" He let out his best maniacal laugh and flew back toward FentonWorks at top speed.
Phasing into the lab via the ceiling, Technus touched down in front of the workbench where he left his staff. "And now, as the kids today would say, time to get a charge out of this!" When he went to pick up the staff, however, he found that it and the Ghost Battlin' Belt Mark II were missing. "Wait. What?"
"First of all," Came a highly distorted voice behind him. Technus whirled to find a figure in black and green glowing armor hovering behind him. The buckle on the belt around his waist had a 'T' on it. "The kids never say that. Second, the second Ghost Battlin' Belt you made? It's working perfectly—and the ghost rays have 145% of the output of the original."
Bringing his hands together, Tucker-as-Mane-Frame launched a ghost ray burst as big around as his head into Technus and the ecto-skeleton. The force took the ghostly scientist off his feet and threw him all the way across the lab...
...Directly into the glowing strands of the newly re-activated Fenton Ghost Catcher.
The ecto-skeleton crashed into the far wall in a hail of sparks and about six weeks worth of repair work for Tucker. Its former occupant was left floating in midair looking confused.
"Wh-what happened?" Technus looked behind him to find the badly damaged ecto-skeleton, then turned back to find Mane Frame aiming a Fenton Thermos at him. "Well that's not good..." he managed just before the blue vortex washed over him, drawing him into the thermos.
Tucker closed the cap on the thermos with a satisfied smirk. "You did some great work, but unfortunately for you, my old lab assistant was more qualified in the all-important, 'not a megalomaniac' category. Feel free to reapply in a couple hundred year though."
A turn of the dial on the new belt powered it down, leaving Tucker to slumped against a lab table, completely tapped. Even though he wanted nothing more than a nap, he looked around at the burnt, smashed and knocked over sections of the lab.
"How to explain all this to Danny though... Maybe I should hide out in the thermos a while myself..."
DP-DP-DP
An hour and a half later, Danny had headed home to see if Tucker was sick or something (his phone couldn't get a signal to call him) and Sam was left walking home with Dani, as Vlad's new house was in the same neighborhood.
"Well this was a fun day." Dani chirped, balancing on the edge of the curb as she walked slightly ahead of Sam.
"Yeah, it was okay..." Sam's voice was distant. Her mind was on Danny and the odd place they were now in. She wasn't sure if they were okay yet and wasn't sure if they should be okay.
Dani easily picked up on that and smiled to herself. "Something wrong?" Sam made a non-committal noise. "Something about Danny?" She prodded.
"It's complicated." said Sam. "And I don't want to make you uncomfortable... him being your cousin and all."
Sensing she was wearing down, Dani slowed so they were walking side-by-side. "We're not like real cousins. He never even met me before today, remember? Besides, a boy's a boy and you look like you could use some girl talk. Wanna come over to my place? I know you're not the kind for ice cream and romantic comedies, but I have nachos and splatter-horror."
Sam let slip a small smile. "That does sound pretty good. Tell you what: I'll drop my stuff off at my place real quick, then we'll head over to your place."
"Sounds great." said Dani brightly.
Once Sam was out of earshot, on the way to her house, Dani pulled out her cell phone. A malicious grin spread across her face as she said, "Hey Daddy? Oh yeah, the first day of school was great. No, I haven't found out who the Phantom is, but you'll never guess who I'm bringing home..."
DP-DP-DP
So ends Episode 7.
This would be the place where I beg forgiveness and explain why it took so long to update. Really, while I'm sorry, I really can't say I take back my reasons. Between making my original writing my full-time career, some illness both on the part of mine and my loved ones, and one or two special occasions that took my attention, my fan-work time suffered badly.
To tell the truth, this sat ay 70% finished for at least a couple of months, same with the next installment of Menace in Mexico AND a new Avatar: The Last Airbender fic I'm working on (Get this: It's Sokka/Azula). I've got a little room to breath in a schedule that has me putting out 5 (!) books this year, so I'm working on those to make sure you guys don't feel like I abandoned you.
Fair warning, the next TPR episode might not start until December unless I do awesomely at getting Soul Battery #1 finished.
Anyway, talking about the story! Yes, Tucker now has a Mane Frame belt of his own and more tech and power then ever before. That's... going to be important later. Also Dani is once again the bad girl I kind of wonder what people think she's up to. One thing that disappointed me last time is that no one caught on that Technus has heard of Jack Fenton.
Now for the part you're all waiting for:
Next Episode:
Episode 8 'The Jailbirds of Ghost-catraz' Part 1
The maiden jaunt into the Ghost Zone goes poorly as Danny finds himself under arrest by Walker and tossed into prison alongside none other than the Dark Phantom. With some of his worst enemies looking for revenge, can Danny team up with his evil doppelganger and one surprise ally to bust out?
