Chapter Eight: The Council of Rogues
Disclaimer: See Chapter One
I am clearly a mad man, three chapters in one day? I am a mad man in some ways, but I had a lot of this already written before today so, that helps. Hope you are enjoying this story and will continue to do so. We are going places. trust me, hold my hand, I'll be your guide.
Anyway, On with the Show:
Returning to the Ghost Zone, the Rogues, instead of going their own ways, went to their Truce house, which served as their meeting place for council meetings. When everyone was seated in their chairs around their table, Skulker stood to address the rest of them, "we all know why we are here, to discuss the matter that our main foe/favorite battle opponent seems to not care about us anymore, I open this to whoever shall speak first," Skulker sat down to let anyone else speak. For a moment they sat in silence and thought.
"I guess the question becomes: can we make him care?" Ember said, breaking the silence, all eyes fell of the genie of the group.
"Not happening, emotion manipulation is a tricky thing to do, I can make people become stronger by feeding the emotion that caused them to make the wish they did, like jealousy in the case of when his friend wished to have ghost powers, but to forcibly change someone's attitude toward the opposite way is very complicated," Desiree said in answer to the unsaid question laid on her.
"You speak from experience?" Johnny asked the genie.
"I do, in relation to myself, and those that have wished for someone to love them that did not," Desiree answered. "why do you think I am still a bitter vindictive genie, I have tried to wish myself to move on, but that can't happen?" She asked as a rhetorical question.
"Kidnap him? Torture?" Spectra said, some of the council looked at her like she was crazy, "What?"
"You really are sadistic," Poindexter said.
"Do we give up then, if we can't turn things around, then what is the point, there is no fun in the battle if he doesn't care," Youngblood said.
Skulker sat in silence, listening to his compatriots talk, formulating an answer to their conundrum, as a leader should. At last he spoke, "I will admit, we may have pushed him a bit too far, in our love for battle and mischief making, we have put a strain on him. This is clear, and I currently see no way to rekindle that spark that made things fun. Until we decide the best course of action to take on this matter, I am suggesting that we avoid all intentional interactions or actions that will cause him to come against us."
"Oh I don't know about needing to do that," a new voice said, everyone's head turned to the speaker. To their shock, the Lord and Master of Time floated there, everyone stood up in respect.
"Lord Clockwork, we are honored by your presence," Skulker said, unusually respectful, but then again given who was floating there, it wasn't too out of the ordinary.
"I am sure you are. May I sit with you?" Clockwork asked to the stunned looks of the other ghosts.
"Absolutely, Box Ghost, go get another chair," Skulker ordered, for once, Box Ghost did not object to being told to do something. The others moved their chairs a bit closer to each other to make room for the extra chair. After Clockwork was seated, everyone else sat back down.
"To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit, Time Master?" Walker asked in his signature southern drawl.
"Multiple reasons, but the main one is that, soon enough, I may need your help, all of you. The time sleep is nearly upon me," Clockwork said, his voice heavy with purpose, having shifted to his older form. Everyone looked between themselves, "while I will only be out for a few days, I am concerned that the dark counterpart of Daniel will use my forced need of rest to break free of the time leash I have put on him. I need you all to be vigilant for him, I do not ask you to fight him, normally he is far more powerful than any of you to take alone."
"Wait, dark counterpart?" Ember asked what everyone was thinking.
Clockwork sighed, "an evil version of Daniel, from a dark future that no longer exists. He was removed from the timeline before it ceased to exist. He was trapped in a Fenton Thermos for a time, but now he is free, but I have him on leash so to speak. I will speak no more of him for now, you all will meet him soon enough."
"No offense Time Master, but if you are so worried about him, why not just change the rules of your realm as not to let him leave?" Spectra asked.
"I already have; however, I fear that he may find a way out, there are secrets only I know about the Zone but that does not mean they are lost secrets," Clockwork said, as he shifted to his older form.
"So, when will you need to sleep?" Youngblood asked.
"Some time after Christmas, I cannot see exactly when, but I will know when it falls upon me," Clockwork said, shifting again to his young form, "speaking that holiday, I suggest you take Daniel up on his offer, I'll be there as well, he had asked me recently to come as well."
"We'll take into consideration," Technus said.
"Also, Walker, I am henceforth ordering you off of Daniel's tail, don't worry I know you would want something in exchange, Daniel will come to you and offer Vlad Plasmius, just his ghost half," Clockwork said to the Warden
That got Walker thinking, if it was just the ghost half, he wouldn't be able to escape so easily, well, he has offered freedom in exchange for another prize, and he would have given Wulf his if he hadn't gone rogue.
"Just as a reminder, he is the one that awoke Pariah Dark," all heads turned to Clockwork, in shock, horror, and anger, "as well as experimenting on our kind, and attempting to clone Daniel." The mention of the recent information they had learned had not sit well with most of them, at least the ones that were once living humans, even Skulker felt off about it, most likely due to the fact that Danielle was not a natural born entity, and everything he hunted came into being naturally at some point.
"Deal," Walker said.
"Daniel hasn't ceased to care about you guys," Clockwork said, allaying their concerns, "it's just that his fighting has taken its toll on him. If you want him to care about you all, perhaps, get him to care in another way," Clockwork said with enough vagueness to make them wonder what he was talking about, but conveyed enough for them to grasp the idea a bit.
"I get the feeling some of us are not going to like what you are going to say," Skulker said.
"Perhaps you should become friends, or at least friendly rivals, that when you want to battle, it is in the name of good sportsmanship, the fight is to keep both yours and his skills sharp," Clockwork said, to the slight shock and slight disgust of some of them.
"I was afraid you would say that," Skulker said. He knew the idea would not sit well with Spectra.
"It's not that crazy of an idea, Danny asked me and Johnny to stop by his house after this meeting for a chat, said he wants to bury the hatchet with us, I would suggest you all try the same," Kitty remarked.
"Assuming it all goes well," Johnny remarked.
"Keep us informed about it, and do be careful, dearies," Lunch Lady said.
"Out of all of us, you two probably would have the easiest time doing so," Ember said, "some of us, I am not naming names, you know who you are, myself included, have some serious issues we need to work out with him."
"That you do," Clockwork agreed, his eyes lingering on some of them, "however, I do believe he would be willing to help you all, did he not say so himself?"
"You were watching, weren't you?" Spectra said, realizing that Clockwork had been spying on them when they went to confront the boy
"Of course I was. What? Did you think I wouldn't watch considering all of you were there," Clockwork pointed out, as he shifted again to middle form.
For the moment, Ember was glad Spectra was on the other side of the table, and that Desiree was sitting beside her. She leaned over to whisper in Desiree's ear, "Are you sure you can't manipulate emotions?"
Desiree arched an eyebrow in question, as if knowing who Ember was going to ask about, "you asking me to alter Spectra's feelings so that she is more agreeable? Forget it, even if I could, I am not using my powers against a fellow council member," she whispered back to the diva.
Spectra fixed both of them with a hard look, "you're talking about me, aren't you?"
"I mean, of all of us, Danny probably hates you the most," Ember said.
"Even over them?" Spectra asked, pointing to the head of the council and the second and third in commands.
"You are the one that tried and nearly succeeded in killing his sister, if he carried a vendetta against any one of us, my money is on you," Kitty said.
"Fair point," Spectra had to agree, they were right.
"Now that is an interesting question, what are we all on the hook for with him?" Poindexter asked.
"General Hunting for sport and trying to mount his pelt on my wall," Skulker said.
"The first battle suit, trying to take over the internet, second battle suit with their family RV which led into controlling the house, the super computer/Satellite incident, and manipulating his emotions to distract him with someone, though I may be off the hook for that one, as he seemed to enjoy his time with the girl I set him up with, or maybe not," Technus said, counting his incidents on his fingers, then remembering the recent encounter where the girl he had set him up with was a bit mad about that.
"Locking him up with most of you, taking over his town to make him look bad with Wulf, and the Summer camp incident,"
"World Domination concert, team up with Youngblood, and maybe the Girl's Night Out event, don't know about that last one, because he was away from town," Ember said.
"He was dealing with me at the time," Skulker inputted.
"The incident already mentioned, and the ghost mosquito flu, when I tried to get a new perfect body," Spectra said.
"General chaos from wishes, pitting his friend against him, making him forget his other friend and not having powers incident cause of a wish his girlfriend made," Desiree said.
"Trying to use his sister as vessel for me, and then possessing the girl he liked to mess with Johnny and the incident that Ember mentioned," Kitty spoke for the both of them.
"I did also chase after him, blowing off some steam before you three did your thing," Johnny added.
"Misunderstanding between us, and I possessed his body and his soul was in mine for a time," Poindexter said.
"Team up with Ember and attempt to make it seem like he had gone crazy," Youngblood said.
"Accomplice to Spectra's deeds," Bertrand said.
"Meat monster and a brief attack in a butcher shop," Lunch Lady said.
"General nuisance and Pandora's Box," Box Ghost said,
"You got off easy for that one," Skulker said, his head leaning on his right hand.
"Skulker, I believe you know where this Vlad Plasmius is," Clockwork turned his attention back to the Hunter after the council recounted off their misdeeds.
"Yes, I do. He is hiding out in a cave, but does have a working portal now thanks to my efforts, he got it working about a few days ago." Skulker answered the Time Master's question.
"Good, then take those among this group that are good in a fight and you trust to watch your back, along with Walker and his men and go apprehend him, and deliver him to Daniel for trial and sentencing," The Time Master ordered.
"Why?" Skulker asked, confused.
"Consider it a peace offering to the boy, considering all of your indiscretions against him," Clockwork said.
"Hold on, I never said I was going to make peace," Skulker said, but Clockwork merely cleared his throat in a way that left no room for argument. Not wanting to anger the timekeeper, "Alright, fine, I'll do it. Technus, you're with me, Walker, gather your men, Johnny, Kitty, don't mention this to the Whelp when you see him today, as for the rest of you, scatter, and I suppose that you could start thinking about ways to make things up with Phantom. We will talk after everything is done." Skulker doled out his orders. "If there is nothing else to talk about, we can call this meeting concluded. Everyone got up.
"Skulker, Technus, you two better follow me, I'll load up a transport vehicle with my men and then we can all go get Plasmius together," Walker said.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Technus agreed to that plan.
"I'll catch up, and meet you at the prison, I need to speak with the timekeeper a sec," Skulker dismissed them. When everyone else was gone, Skulker turned to the Lord of Time that was still seated at the table, hands folded over his scepter. "No offense, Time Lord, but what are you planning, coming here to see us, and ordering us about, which we follow your orders, as we are terrified of you, most the Zone is scared of you and doesn't want to cross you," the Hunter said, still sort of respectful of the other ghost, but a bit accusatory tone to his voice.
Clockwork slightly laughed at that fact, "if only the Observants were afraid of me, but that is a different matter." The Lord of Time then let out a long sigh and shifted to his older form, before standing up, almost leaning on his scepter for support, "I am trying to manipulate things for the better, for both our world and the human world, and for Daniel's sake, above all else."
"You really care about him don't you?" Skulker asked, crossing his arms.
"Yes, very much so, goodbye Skulker, go get Vlad, bring him to Daniel, and I will see you soon, probably at Christmas," Clockwork bid the leader of the Rogues farewell and took his leave. Skulker was left there alone with his thoughts, he turned to look at the empty hall one more time and then left himself to meet up with the others.
What Clockwork didn't know however was that while he was talking to Danny's regular foes, back at the Clocktower, Dan was in the Library, which is where he spent most of his days, and had uncovered a book that Clockwork had tried to hide, written by the Timekeeper himself. Most of the contents were meaningless to the dark spirit. However, that didn't mean there were not juicy secrets in there.
The first thing that caught his eye was the lines about the rules of Ghost Realms, hoping there was a way for him to escape: If the creator of the realm is incapacitated, any ghost that has spent a significant amount of time in the realm can be granted temporary control over the realm. Not to fundamentally change the layout or composition of the realm, as that lies with the creator of the realm, but rules about who can access the realm can be changed or allow those stuck inside to let themselves out. "Finally," the evil ghost said to himself, "but how do I get the chains off my neck?" he kept reading and found a passage on deeper ghost powers that ancient ghosts could access. There are abilities that very few ghosts can access, almost fragments of creation itself, as many would consider these powers divine abilities or more like sorcery with spells. "That is what he did to me, how do I break it?" he asked the text, as if it would speak back to him. I have only ever met few others with access to these kind of abilities besides myself. Vortex, Undergrowth, Nocturn, old friends of mine, I trained them how to access these powers, and we taught each other about each other's special powers, even how to counter them if necessary. "Bingo, Clockwork, you old fool, I know your age would get the better of you one day, but how do I incapacitate you, I can't even lay much of a finger on you," the answer was in the next passage he read, As always, with great power, comes great cost. I don't know what the cost is for the others, but for me, it is the time sleep, as I call it. Every so often, I must deeply sleep for a few days, to recharge my power. A sleep so deep, it is nearly a coma, or a living death. "Gotcha, now I just have to play the waiting game huh, I don't have the patience for that," he put the book back, for once, taking care to make it seem like it had not been disturbed so that Clockwork didn't decide to take a closer look.
Leaving the library, he decided to checkout Clockwork's room to see if he kept a journal or a diary. Checking the nightstand, he found what he was looking for. Speed flipping to the most recent entries, The time sleep is nearly upon me, within a frame of one year from now, I don't know exactly when, I will need to sleep. I need to warn Daniel about the possibility of his dark counterpart getting out on the off chance he finds out how to escape the realm. "One year, I can suffer one year, after being in that thermos for several," he said to himself. Dan heard something, panicking, he shoved the diary back into the drawer and shut it, and raced back to the library, grabbing a book of the shelf at random, and had just enough time to sit down and open to a random page, before Clockwork came into see where he was.
"Ah, there you are," Clockwork said coming into the room.
"Here I am, as I am most of the time," Dan grumbled in distain, trying to act like he hadn't found out what he had found out.
"Read anything good?" Clockwork asked.
"Not really, you got a lot of boring books, old man," Dan insulted the time master. Clockwork merely shook his head at the old man comment.
"Well the one you have now, should be interesting to you as it is about your old pal, the Fright Knight and the legends around him and how he came to serve Pariah Dark," Clockwork said, noticing the book Dan had on his lap.
"Oh that is somewhat interesting," Dan said, doing his best to seem like he cared.
"I am going to make us something to eat," Clockwork said as he stood up from his chair, not entirely convinced of Dan's report of his time alone, but let it slide for now.
Once the other ghost was out of earshot, Dan blew out a sigh of relief, 'too close there me, hopefully he bought it,' he thought. The book he grabbed in haste now seemed a bit interesting to him since the Fright Knight served him in his timeline as his herald of fear. So that is what he read, waiting on food from the Lord of Time. In his mind, however he was already forming a plan of action. Once Clockwork was in his time sleep, dan would figure out how the realm would respond to him, escape, find the other ghosts that had deep powers, have them break the spells on him, recover his strength and then strike at his counterpart.
Well, there you have it everyone, Chapter Eight of this tale. I hope you enjoyed it. You have to admit the image of Danny's foes sitting around a table talking about him is funny. So Skulker is going to catch Vlad and Dan has found his way to escape, well have to see where this goes, right? Stay tuned, next time, Danny meets with Johnny and Kitty to bury the hatchet.
The Emperor of the Multiverse is out. Peace.