God Save the Queen Chapter 37: Setting A Trap
As Dani made her way to the Clock Tower, she made sure to constantly look over her shoulder in case she ended up accidentally stumbling upon the ghost beast once again. She seemed a little jumpy at any sudden movements, constantly double checking to make sure no one or thing was following her. The short scuffle with Ira had clearly shaken her up, something that Dani was well aware of. She tried calming herself down, telling herself that there was nothing to worry about, that Ira was long gone and even if they did cross paths again, he'd likely have no interest in fighting her again. Although that raised another concern in that Ira could easily be looking for more victims to terrorize. The more time that was spent looking for him was more time the animalistic ghost could be mutilating some unfortunate soul. Dani pushed all of those thoughts out of her head for the sake of not getting too panicked. By this time, Danny and Sam should've gotten out of school two hours ago so Dani tried calling them to let them know of the situation. Strangely, their phones went straight to voicemail, not ringing once, raising a few red flags. Even if they were fighting ghosts, their phones still should've rang. Dani tried calling them again, getting the same result, causing her to become concerned before returning to the task at hand and focused on getting to the Clock Tower, looking over her shoulder cautiously the whole way there.
"Look at me, I've faced ghosts that are much more terrifying yet this ghost has me jumping at every little noise," Dani chuckled humorlessly, dismissing her concern for Danny and Sam by thinking "Maybe the batteries on their phone just died; there's nothing to worry about… I hope."
When Dani arrived at the Clock Tower, she found that it was deathly quiet. Normally, Clockwork's domain would be filled with the sound of constantly ticking clocks and occasionally bells ringing. The lack of noise only served to make Dani even more tense. Did Ira's escape have some sort of effect on the Master of Time? Was even he intimidated by the savage specter? Apparently not as Dani found Clockwork staring nonchalantly into a time warp ball.
"Come in, Danielle, I've been expecting your arrival," Clockwork, changing from his adult form to his child form as continued staring into the time warp ball. The Time Master made a small grunt of intrigue at what was taking place inside said time warp ball before turning to address Dani. "So I take it you're here because of Ira's recent escape?"
"I see you've heard the news too," Dani said, nodding her head in response to Clockwork's question.
"Are you kidding me; the Observants almost drove me mad this morning with their constant demands regarding Ira," Clockwork said, switching into his elderly form. "It's amazing that two supposedly omnipotent beings can question the Master of Time, the only person who knows for certain how events will play out."
"So can you help us recapture Ira?" Dani asked. "After fighting him personally, I can say for a fact that we're going to need all the help we can get. The monster of a ghost was seemingly invulnerable to everything I threw at him."
"Unfortunately, I'm unable to lend assistance for this problem," Clockwork told her.
"What!? But why not?" Dani asked, trying her hardest to hide the fear in her voice.
"My responsibilities require me to keep a constant eye on flow of time and the multiple timelines that are based on our own," Clockwork explained.
"But I can't possibly take on Ira on my own!" Dani argued, sounding a little frantic. "And I can't seem to get in tact with Danny, Sam, or Tucker at all!"
"The King, Queen, and Mayor are currently preoccupied at the moment with their own problem," Clockwork said, switching to his child form and then to his adult form in rapid succession and glancing down at the time warp ball in front of him. "Don't worry, they'll be finished with their task in time to help you and Plasmius deal with this new threat."
"Wait a minute, how did you know I was teaming with Vlad?" Dani asked.
"Master of Time," Clockwork reminded her, shifting to his elderly form once again. "I can tell you right now that even with your combined strength, the two of you will be unable to defeat him. However, the two of you shouldn't be trying to defeat him. For the time being, your primary focus should be containing Ira and keeping him confined to the Ghost Zone until Danny and Sam make their return."
"But how are we going to be able to contain Ira if we can't even hurt him?" Dani asked. "And after the fight I just had with him, I don't think he'll be interested in fighting me again. And even if I can get him to fight me again, how long will I have to keep him distracted before Danny and Sam get back?"
"You don't necessarily have to fight him to keep him distracted," Clockwork replied. "There's more than one way to draw and keep the attention of a beast. Just use what you already know about Ira to your advantage and keep Ira preoccupied until the King and Queen make their return."
"But the only thing I know about Ira is that he loves fighting and destruction, and that he has a weakness to electricity, how can I-" Dani said before getting an idea. "Thanks Clockwork, you've been a great help" she said quickly as she departed back to the castle to inform the others of her plan.
As she left however, Clockwork gave her one last piece of advice "Oh, and be sure to keep your anger in check while fighting Ira." Dani nodded, agreeing to heed his instructions and went on her way.
Jonathan and the other guards were anxiously pacing the floor, awaiting the return of Danielle. Jonathan, in particular, didn't know if he could ever forgive himself if something bad happened to the young princess. The guards would have to wait no longer as Dani walked into the throne room.
"Your highness, thank goodness you're alright!" Jonathan said, before noticing the small cuts and bruises on Dani's arms and face. "You didn't have an encounter with him, did you?"
"I wish I could say no," Dani replied. "I finally got a chance to see what all the fuss was about. Just like Plasmius said, almost everything I threw at him had virtually no effect on him."
"You're lucky to have escaped with your life," Jonathan commented. "A being that ferocious isn't known for sparing his opponent or in his case, prey."
"There's no way we're going to be able to defeat him or lock him back up on our own even with Plasmius' help," Dani informed them. "We're going to have to keep Ira busy and contained within the Ghost Zone until Danny and Sam get back."
"What?!" Jonathan exclaimed. "If we aren't even capable of defeating Ira in combat, how can we possibly hope to keep him here in the Ghost Zone?!"
"Don't worry, I've got an idea of how we can keep Ira distracted with having to fight him," Dani told him. "I'll be right back, I just need to get some things." With that said, Dani had left just as quick as she arrived and headed to FentonWorks. With all the ghost hunting equipment at the Fentons' disposal, they were bound to have the gadget she'd need. As Dani made her way over to the Fenton Ghost Portal, she made sure to check over her shoulder. The last thing she needed was for Ira to follow her through the portal and into the human world. When Dani exited the portal, she saw Jack and Maddie in the basement, working on some new type of weapon.
"Hi there, Danielle," Maddie cheerfully greeted her. "We hadn't seen you since this morning and were starting to get worried."
"Heh, no reason to worry, I was just… you know fighting some ghosts and returning them to the Ghost Zone," Dani said nervously, not wanting to let them in on what really was going on.
"That a girl Dani, show those ectoplasmic slime balls who's boss!" Jack said before asking. "Say, have you by chance seen Danny, Sam, or Tucker? They'd normally be here by now since school's over."
"No, I haven't seen or heard from them," Dani said, getting slightly more worried before saying "They're probably just got caught up in fighting ghosts, I'm sure they're fine."
"Is everything alright?" Maddie asked, picking up on Dani's nervous demeanor.
"Everything's fine!" Dani quickly assured her, making sure to change her stance to better hide her nervousness before lying and saying "I'm just a little worried since I haven't heard from Danny all day."
"But I thought you just told us not to worry since they were probably just out fighting ghosts," Jack retorted, a little suspicious but not having any reason to be too concerned.
"That doesn't mean I'm not a bit concerned about their safety" Dani replied before changing the subject and asking "Say, you wouldn't happen to have any hologram projectors, would you?"
"In the drawer to the bottom left" Maddie said, pointing Dani in the right direction before growing curious and asking "Why do you need them?"
"It's been a rather slow day, so I'm just going to go do some training in The Ghost Zone," Dani lied, opening the drawer and finding five hologram projectors. Dani grabbed two projectors and the remotes that controlled them just in case things went awry before quickly thanking Jack and Maddie and heading back into the Ghost Zone. "Man, that was close" She thought to herself, speeding back to the castle. "If everything goes according to plan, this problem will be over in no time."
Once she was back at the castle, Dani took the time to explain her plans to the guards, who were still curious as to what trick the Phantom daughter had up her sleeve.
"So, your highness; what is your plan to defeat Ira?" Jonathan asked, he and the other guards sitting in the conference room, awaiting their orders.
"First things first, we will not be able to defeat Ira on our own," Dani informed the guards, causing them to let out a collective gasp that was a combination of disappointment and worry. "Yes, unfortunately we're reduced to waiting until Danny and Sam return before we stand a chance at even recapturing him," Dani said, causing the guards to sigh in further disappointment before Dani added "But… that doesn't mean that we can't keep Ira distracted and away from everyone else."
"But how can we possibly hope to keep that monster distracted if none of us can even match him in combat?" One guard asked anxiously, wondering if the princess had lost her mind.
"I know it sounds crazy, but just trust me on this one," Dani said before continuing to explain her plan. "The key to keeping Ira preoccupied relies on using our wits instead of our brawn" Dani then pulled out one of the hologram projectors she had borrowed from the Fentons and turned it on, bringing about a holographic image of Ira, himself. "Right now, the only thing I know about Ira is that he loves a fight and apparently, he loves it when his prey puts up a good fight. So what better way to keep Ira at bay than by presenting him with an opponent that he can't hit?" With that said, Dani pressed a button on the remote to the projector and the image switched to that of your typical generic ghost.
"Your highness, are you proposing that we use these things to keep Ira distracted?" Asked one guard, not seeing just how Dani's plan could work. "Doesn't that seem a little ridiculous? I mean, that creature is a savage and you expect hold his attention with mere holographic images?"
"That's exactly what I'm proposing," Dani replied. "If anyone else has any other ideas, I'd just love to hear them." The entire roundtable fell quiet, with none of the guards able to think of another solution. "That's what I thought, now let's get down to finding and luring Ira out into the open."
With that said, the guards and the princess split up and set out to find Ira.
In the Next Chapter:
Instantly, a hologram depicting a common red shirt ghost appeared in the center of the tomb's ruins. Ira landed on the island shortly after that and one of the soldiers hiding behind the rock lent their voice to the hologram to fool the creature.
"Hey! Over here, stupid!" He yelled, prompting Ira to turn around towards he hologram. Instantly, the beast started salivating at the mouth with his fangs glistening as he licked his lips at the fresh prey before him. With stunning speed, Ira pounced at the "ghost", and was surprised when he went right through him despite the fact that Ira hadn't seen the ghost turn intangible. "Ha! You're the big bad monster that's got everyone shaking in their boots? What a joke!" The "ghost" mocked Ira.
"You know, maybe if you trained and conditioned yourself after being freed instead of terrorizing and attacking a bunch of worthless, spineless, helpless bags of ectoplasm, your punches might hit a little closer to home" The 'ghost' taunted Ira yet again. To keep the illusion going and to keep Ira from getting suspicious, Dani used the remote control for the hologram projectors to play an animation that showed the 'ghost' taking damage and flying backwards at the exact moment Ira threw a wild punch to its face. Sweat dripped down Dani's forehead as she stayed focused on making sure the hologram's movements were precise and in sync with its voice actor as well as Ira's movements, like a puppeteer.
Hmm, that's an interesting idea that Dani has and a new approach to defeating a foe. Trickery and strategy rather than just "Attack! Attack! Attack!". The only question is will it work against the raging spirit? Could Ira widen up to her trap and avoid it or will he prove to be so mindless that the trap fails anyway?
Eddie: Given the preview of the next chapter you gave, Yadonushi, I'm pretty sure the readers already know that her plan works to some degree.
But they don't know to what degree her plan succeeds and to find that out they're going to have to tune in next time to God Save The Queen! Peace out and have a good day!