Chapter Seven: The Rogues Gallery
Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Well, hello again, everyone, hope you have been enjoying this story, and that I didn't lose you over last chapter's a bit controversial topic, sorry about that again, anyway, I had this chapter basically done before chapter 6, so I am posting them together.
Anyway, On with the Show:
It was a normal school day, or rather what constituted a normal school day for everyone these days. Lancer was teaching his preferred subject of English, most of the class was never really interested in many of the books they had to read over the years for Lancer, however, Danny had taken a particular interest in this class as he was planning on writing his book. Lancer had said over the summer to study the upcoming material well as a support to help him understand how to write a book. However, even he had to admit Shakespeare was a bit dry. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as Danny's luck would have it, something interesting was about to occur.
All of a sudden, Danny's ghost sense went off, and noticing it, Lancer stopped his lesson a second, and fixed him with a look, "Is it bad, Mr. Fenton?"
"I don't know, the school's defenses haven't kicked in, so whatever it is may be just floating around out there," Danny said as he leaned back in his desk, a bit confused.
"Yo, Fenton, you may want to take a look at this," Dash called from the back, Danny turned to see Dash was pointing at the window. Danny stood from his desk and walked over to the window. What he saw was definitely a cause for concern, as his eyes went wide. It was every member of the normal Rogues gallery all floating in a line, as if taunting him.
"That is not something you see every day, Mr. Lancer, to answer the question, yes it is bad enough," Danny said.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Valerie asked, ready to fight.
"No, I will deal with this myself," Danny answered the question, as it seemed to him this wasn't a challenge to fight.
"Are you sure?" Valerie asked as she had gotten a look at the ghosts outside.
"Yeah, I'm sure, this doesn't seem like a challenge to fight," Danny said, dissuading Valerie from coming with him.
"Alright, go get them, Mr. Fenton. Mr. Foley, and Miss Mason will fill you in on what you miss," Lancer gave his blessing. Danny transformed into his ghost form, to the cheers of his classmates, and phased out of the building.
Flying up to his rogues gallery, "What are you all doing here? Has the ghost king been awakened again?" He asked, as he crossed his arms, and floated there with them, eying them with a certain look of confusion and of frustration.
"No, fortunately not, but we have come for a different matter, Whelp," Skulker barked in his usual tone.
"What did you do to this town, kid, it is not fun to come by anymore," Johnny said.
'Ah so there it is,' Danny thought, it was about them wanting to cause a bit of mischief or just visit in the case of Johnny and Kitty, "I got the town armed and trained to fight ghosts, to give me a break from fighting, aside from the more dangerous threats, or to provide aide on some of them." he told them, some were shocked and horrified, others took it in quiet discontent.
"So, who among us is enough of a threat that you will come personally to deal with?" Spectra asked. He knew it was going to be an ego booster for some of them but he obliged them.
He looked over the line of them, "Skulker, Technus, Walker, Ember, Spectra, Desiree is a maybe, and Youngblood, only because very few people can see him, but even then I may not even bother as I have trained my men to how to take each of you down. Youngblood is a different matter as very few can see him."
"That is what we figured you would say, ghost child," the Master of Technology said.
"Hey, I find that a bit offensive," Box Ghost spoke up, everyone else just looked condescendingly at him, "I'll shut up now."
Danny crossed his arms and sighed, perhaps unintentionally showing weariness in his eyes to his regular foes, "I'll make you all a deal, for those of you who actually want to fight me, when you come by, issue a challenge, word will reach me fast, and I will come and we will duel. I will say, if any of you want to come around and not immediately become a target, go legit. Ember, you are the one that can most easily do this, prove to me and the city that you are not a threat, and you may walk among this town, albeit under constant surveillance. I would be willing to help find something for each of you," He offered, it seemed some of them seemed to be considering it. His tone shifted "On the other hand, you can just stay in the Ghost Zone and never come by, for all I care," he said to them, nearly spat it, with spite, almost hatred, to his words, intentionally this time.
"What has been going on with you, Danny, you don't seem yourself," Kitty asked, almost sounding concerned about him.
"Since you asked, as I may seem not like myself that you all seem to like to mess with, I am tired of the fighting. I dealt with all of you enough on a regular basis that, if we never saw each other again, it would be too soon," He said, his tone still on the agitated side of the spectrum.
There was a similar feeling among the rogues, did they really push him to this point of not caring about them, almost hatred of them, that merely speaking with them filled him with spite? This would need to be discussed amongst themselves in council. "Alright, Whelp, we are gone, return to your normal life, and we will see you soon," Skulker said.
"Hopefully not too soon," Danny's words seemed to sting more then they probably should of, his tone shifted again back to a slightly more personable one, "Two things before you disappear, this is a few months away, but would you all mind coming to my house for Christmas Eve dinner," Danny asked, as he wanted to set that in motion and it was convenient that everyone was here so he didn't have to ask them all one by one. The Ghosts looked back and forth amongst each other, unsure of this development.
"We'll let you know, dipstick," Ember said, with one of her signature nicknames for him.
"Fair enough, and one question, Skulker, how did you become the supposed leader of the group?" Danny asked, as that was something he had wanted to know for a bit.
"Mostly due to how many times I have fought you, Whelp, and it was by popular vote amongst us, also I have natural leadership skills, or so I have been told," Skulker answered the question. The fact that Skulker was voted by the others to be leader took Danny a bit by surprise, and had leadership skills was also a shock to him.
"I assume it wasn't unanimous," he said, eyeing a few others in the group that would have likely tried to be leader, mostly Technus, Walker, and Spectra.
"No, it wasn't, I just ended up with the most," Skulker said.
"We had decided who would be leader at the first council meeting," Poindexter said. The fact that his Rogues had formed a council for themselves was an interesting fact.
"Huh, someone will have to break down the hierarchy for me at some point, if there is nothing else, farewell," he dismissed them, thankful that he didn't have to fight them, even though he knew he could probably take them, as they turned to leave, "Johnny, Kitty, wait a minute."
"What do you need Danny?" Kitty asked, she was usually among the nicer of his main enemies when she wasn't angry at either Johnny or him.
"Could both of you come by the house later today, we should talk, bury the hatchet as it were," he asked them.
"I'll come," Kitty agreed, Johnny needed a bit of convincing.
"I have my reservations," Johnny began to say, which was fair considering their history with the Fentons.
"Mom and Dad won't blast you immediately, they have taken a different approach to studying ghosts, which is not blast and dissect first, and never ask questions. So you will be fine, as long as you behave," Danny addressed the concern, "though Jazz may want to punch you in the face."
"Alright, I'll go, against my better judgement," Johnny agreed to come. Danny smiled and waved them farewell for now. Turning, he headed back toward the school, and phased back through the wall to his class, glad that interaction didn't cost him much time, to the cheer of his classmates. Changing back, he sat back in his seat.
Lancer looked directly at him with a questioning look, "Go well, mister Fenton?"
"Yes, odd, but yes, they just wanted a chat, just something I need to take care of later, no further issue from them today," Danny answered. Lancer nodded and continued his lesson as if nothing happened. However, that meeting with the Rogues gallery would bother Danny the rest of the day.
Later during the school day at Lunch, the group of four ghost hunters sat together. Sam, of course, sat next to her boyfriend, and Valerie sat next to Tucker on the other side of the table. Danny was mostly distracted by his encounter to really eat.
"Dude, what happened out there, obviously whatever it was, has been bothering you all day, to a point you haven't really touched your food," Of course Tucker would be concerned that Danny wasn't eating like he normally did at lunch.
"Sorry, it was weird, it was everyone of my normal rogues gallery, Skulker on down through the Box Ghost, and all they wanted was a chat," he told the group.
"Really? That doesn't seem like them at all," Sam said, recalling all the encounters with them.
"Right? Well, it seems that they were concerned about all the new defenses against their kind we put up around this town and the existence of the APPDGD," Danny started to tell them.
"As they should be," Valerie said, between bites of her food.
"They were also concerned about my moods lately when having an interaction with any of them," Danny said. The other three just looked at him with looks of disbelief.
"Really? Skulker was worried about that?" Sam asked.
"and Technus, the dude hates emotions?" Tucker asked.
"Didn't you tell me that Spectra feeds of bad moods anyway?" Valerie inputted.
"You would think, but I get the sense that they get something out of our engagements that seems only worthwhile fun as long as I seemed to care that they are trying to accomplish whatever it is they are trying to do. Was it always that way? No, not by a long shot, but I think in recent times, aside from Girls Night Out," Sam tensed a bit up at the mention of that incident, "that they seem to care, even if they would not acknowledge it to themselves," Danny said. He then soon dismissed it, "not that it matters much to me, anymore, I am after all retired from being a superhero, well not officially yet, but soon enough, I will be."
"Please tell me you don't plan on giving up your powers," Sam asked concerned.
"No, no, I am not doing that. I'll keep them, besides, there may be a situation that comes up that I need to come out of retirement for a fight or two. Dan is still out there after all, sure under Clockwork's watch, but still an issue to be addressed at some point, and as well as the Nature threats," Danny said, his mood turning sour at the thought of his dark counterpart.
"Well, they are gone for now, let your mind ease out of it," Tucker advised.
"I would, but I did ask Johnny and Kitty to come to the house after school," Danny told them, and he was once again fixed with looks of incredulous and curiosity. "It is time to bury the hatchet with them, and hopefully get at least two/three rogues off my back and the town's concern," he answered their unspoken question. The others thought he was a mad man for inviting two of his enemies into his home, for one reason or other, but they did concede that the ghosts probably won't try anything in a house of fully trained ghost hunters, two of which were half-ghost themselves. They finished their lunch period and went about the rest of their classes for the day, but what Danny had told them had occurred between and his rogues was stuck in their heads.
Elsewhere over at the middle school, Danielle was attending to her studies, when she took a quick glance out the window and saw a flying V formation of her big brother's main foes, thinking out loud she said, "that's peculiar."
Her teacher, a nice woman that Danielle liked, asked "What's peculiar, Miss Fenton?"
"Oh, its probably nothing, I just saw a flying v formation of ghosts, that my brother usually deals with. Its his issue and that of the APPDGD," Danielle said,
"Sure you don't want to check it out?" her teach said, understandingly.
"No, some of them in that group, my brother says I am not ready to fight, so I'm not going to do so, I'll ask him about it later," Danielle said, her teacher nodded in understanding and resumed her lecture. 'what are they up to?' she thought.
The ghosts flew in silence away from the high school and back toward FentonWorks, so they could slip back into the Ghost Zone through the Fenton Portal. Their minds a mix of thoughts based on the conversation they just had with their rival. Someone must have seen them, as next thing they knew, police sirens were wailing and ecto-green painted police vehicles were on the streets, they caught sight of the APPDGD's green and blue SWAT vehicle and a green and blue painted helicopter that was chasing them. "Oh crud, it's the fuzz," Johnny said.
"Not even mine either," Walker said.
Skulker didn't hesitate to issue his order, "Scatter, they can't chase us all, lead them in circles and try to get back to the portal, if you find a natural one use it, we will rendezvous at our usual meeting spot in one hour." The group disbanded and went their own ways to try to get away from the officers of Danny's special all made it back to the Ghost Zone more or less safely, with the Box Ghost having taken a few ecto-blaster shots, and the others had taken at least one close call or a glancing blow as well. As they made it home, they all headed toward their meeting place.
Well there you have it, everyone. Chapter Seven of this tale. The idea of the Rogues floating in a line like stated has been an idea from nearly the beginning, or even before the beginning as I did start this tale during the production of Phantom Files.
Next time, the Council of Rogues.
The Emperor of the Multiverse is Out. Peace.