Danny Phantom flew out, finally above the surface. The base was apparently underground in the woods a few miles away from Amity Park. Still out of breath, he ran into the forest, hoping to lose anyone who might be following him. He had stolen an overcoat from one of the pirates, covering his torn uniform. He'd also taken a sword off another to save energy. He finally stopped running once he reached the park, collapsing down on his knees by the small pond, gasping for breath. He didn't notice the green fog flying above and to his right. Soon Phantom found himself flying back and crashing down in front of the tree, Panther landing on the spot where he had been just moments ago.
"What the..." Phantom didn't have time to finish his sentence. Panther kicked him in the side, knocking him forward another few feet. He just managed to raise his sword up to block Panther's next blow; this time it was attacking with its claws. As its claws approached the blade, sparks of energy surged around the claws, making them have the same strength as the ghost-blade and preventing them from breaking. Phantom just stared at the claws in disbelief before being kicked back again.
---
Vlad and Velkan were watching the battle telepathically.
"What in the world is it doing!?" Vlad shouted, "It's supposed to be tracking down his girlfriend, not beating the living daylights out of..."
"Every time it's tried to take her, Danny has gotten in the way. It learns, Vlad."
---
Phantom caught Panther's punch and retaliated with a kick to the stomach, but it wasn't enough to phase it for long. It sent a blinding flash at Phantom, hitting him right in the chest and knocking him up into a tree. A second flash snapped the branches near him off the tree, sending him flying down with them. Trying his best to stay alert, Phantom got to his feet as fast as he could, dodging two strikes to the face. He tried using his sword, but it was soon swept out of his hand and embedded into a tree. Panther began becoming more clever in its method of attack, though there was no need; it clearly had the advantaged over the exhausted ghost-boy. Anything Phantom tried moved too slowly to avoid detection, and Panther wasn't giving him any time to recover and defend himself. Phantom landed up against the tree, his head inches away from his sword. As the ghost-creature charged toward him on all fours, he yanked the sword from the wall and slashed the thing across its stomach, causing it to reel back in agony. He kicked it to the ground, viciously beating it and wrapping his fingers around its neck. Letting go with one hand, he grabbed the sword off the ground and placed it over Panther's arm. He realised what was happening just in time.
"What am I doing!?" he was barely even whispering, but the brief comment cut deep within his conscience. Never before had he been so ruthless when attacking an adversary before. His pause to reflect was not wise, however. Panther kicked Phantom off itself, whirling around and cutting him right across the face with its claws. With five large slashes, one close to his eye, Phantom could barely see as he was hit hard in the gut and knocked back another few feet by an energy blast. Panther made another strike for his face; this time the blow was parried by the sword. Soon not even this offered Danny any protection. Panther swept it from his hands once more, this time breaking it in two like a toothpick over its knee and tossing the remnants of the blade into the pond. Snarling evilly, it drove its claws into Phantom and fired off brief sparks of energy, tossing him back two whole yards. It leapt up into the air, tossing an extremely large ball of light towards Phantom. He just barely managed to see it and raise the shield quick enough. It wrapped around the light, forming a yellow ball. With a brief surge of strength he hurled it up towards Panther, making a direct hit. Soon the ordinary ghost had returned.
"You stupid cats stay away from me!" he shouted. With that, he vanished in a flash of light, leaving Phantom lying alone in the park. Had he still been half-human, that last blow before the energy blast would've killed him. The scars across his fast stung, but weren't bleeding. He couldn't move, and didn't even bother trying. Even more worn out and with a weary conscience, he closed his eyes to rest until daybreak.
---
Danny Fenton twitched involuntarily in his sleep, his alarm just minutes away from going off. Through clenched teeth he hissed his breaths, perspiration forming on his face. There were no distinct images in this horrific dream; just brief flashes of pain. He could hear shouting, cries of pain, grunts as he attempted to keep it in. Glowing green eyes stared from one end of the room; red eyes from the other. The hatted, long-haired figure was right in front of his face, drawing a weapon...he shot up out of his bed merely five seconds before the alarm went off.
"Rise and shine, Danny!" his mom shouted, "Breakfast is ready!" still breathing heavy, Fenton wiped the sweat from his face and got out of bed.
---
"Whoa," Tucker remarked on the bus, eyes wide, "They really gave it to ya while you were there, didn't they?"
"And I don't even know who 'they' are still," Fenton said, "I couldn't really see them. Just their glowing eyes and one tall one with a hat."
"The ghost with the horse?"
"Who?"
"Never mind."
"Well you've gotta remember sooner or later," Sam said, "And considering the odds of there being another report on the anti-ghost problems in Amity, you should get some more help soon," she was soon proven right. They had not even made it to their lockers when the announcement was made to report the theatre, everything having been set up as it was in yesterday's meeting. Once Mr. Lancer had gotten out his "hip" sayings, the news report began.
"The news has just come in," the reporter outside Washington was saying, reading from a paper, "The director of the CIA David Thomas has decided to follow the recommendation of the commission and remove General Conrad from his position as head of Paranormalics," at those words, almost all the school began applauding, standing out of their chairs. Only three faces did not look happy; in fact, they looked rather concerned. Fenton, Sam, and Tucker knew that this was bad news (though in Fenton's case, he did not know why); now there was just the matter of who would replace him.
"...Thomas has gone personally to President Hartman today, and is in the White House at this very moment," the report broke over the sound of cheering, "Who will take over is yet unknown."
---
President Hartman sat in his chair, calmly looking at the files as he had been doing for the past fifteen minutes, ignoring Thomas's presence in the room. The CIA Director felt the uncomfortable atmosphere far more than the President.
"I'm sorry, Mr. President," he coughed out quickly, "But we've made up our minds. You can feel free to suggest anyone you'd like to succeed him, I'll have no problems with..."
"I don't have the power to change this ruling, and I'm not gonna try to change your mind," the President said blankly.
"...Oh."
"Vote on who should succeed General Conrad let me know when you reach something," he finally looked up, handing the file to Thomas, who took it with a still-shaking hand.
"I'll stop by General Conrad's and tell him the..."
"Won't be necessary, I invited him over earlier. Off getting a drink right now, I'll tell him when he comes back."
"Very well, Mr. President," Thomas nodded, relieved, and headed out the door. President Hartman waited a few minutes before walking over to a large storage cabinet and opening the door, letting Conrad out.
"Let's not do that again," the general said, gasping for air.
"You heard?"
"I heard," Conrad nodded, "I've got about 75 agents workin' for Paranormalics who remain willing to help me out. Alcala and Fountain have moved everything out."
"You have a plan on staying somewhere, retaliating?"
"Go back home to Virginia, wait to see who takes over, if it's Bruce and he gets out of line...retaliate."
"Good," they shook hands, "Just don't let them find out about this."
"Over my dead body, Butch," the President let the informality slide. They went back far enough to excuse little things like that. With that, Conrad left out the same door that Thomas had gone through.
---
"Remember anything?" Tucker asked at lunch; the assembly had been over for some time.
"Nothing."
"Not even Val's new..."
"TUCKER!!!" Sam and Fenton shouted in unison this time.
"What!?"
"Man, I wish there was some clue that could give us some help here besides all the news reports!" Fenton threw his hands up and slammed them down on the table. As he did this, Sam noticed something on his upper arm.
"Danny, what is that?" she asked.
"What's what?"
"That thing on your arm," Fenton looked. Sure enough, there it was. It looked like an "O" connected to a larger circle.
"I dunno," he was as confused as they were, "I've never noticed it before. Looks like some kind of symbol," pain suddenly surged upward from the mark and into Fenton's head. It passed quickly, leaving behind a fresh memory.
"What?" Tucker spoke up, "What is it?"
"It's a burn mark," Fenton said, "They burned it onto me before I got left at Sam's. I still have no idea who 'they' are, but I know how that got there. It must be some kind of mark for their group or something."
"Only one way to find out," Sam said, "After school we'll head on over to the library."
"Oh no," Tucker said, "There is no need for all three of us to go there. Danny and I can look stuff up on his dad's computers, and you can go to the library," Sam looked over to Fenton to see what he thought of Tucker's plan. Fenton just shrugged.
"Alright," Sam said.
---
Panther, its fur and tail back, reappeared in the base, dropping a CIA agent to the floor with him for Velkan to interrogate telepathically. He did so, and frowned at the result.
"Just as expected," he turned to face his advisors, "It's Bruce. They don't seem to be giving it away to the press. I'd hoped they would have waited a bit longer. Vlad's plan is set to go into motion soon and with Conrad in charge, they'd be helpless. Now we may have to do some re-planning of our own. Fetch Plasmius," one of his advisors went to do so, coming back with Vlad in a few minutes.
"It's Bruce," Velkan said at once, "They'll be on their guard. What do you suggest?"
"Maybe move up my plan a few days? Surely the Dutchman has brought in all the supplies by now."
"True…" Velkan thought for a moment, "All right. It goes into motion this evening."
"Excellent," Vlad grinned evilly, "Though there is one thing. Both halves of the ghost-boy are still out there, and I will be needing them..."
"Thank you for reminding me, Vlad!" he snapped his fingers, bringing Panther to attention, "Bring us the ghost-child's girlfriend," after it vanished, he turned to his men, "We need to be absolutely sure that Danny Phantom was not too terribly injured last night. If so, I don't expect it to succeed in bringing her to us this time. For that, I have a plan," he turned to Vlad specifically, but did not say a word.
---
Danny Fenton and Tucker were running down to Fenton's house, Fenton keeping an eye on the mark on his arm. Tucker, however, was more interested in the crowd at the new arcade centre. He stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk, which led to Fenton crashing into him.
"Dude, Val's there!" he pointed to the building, "Since you can't remember her phone number, I'll have to lay on the charm in person!" ignoring Tucker's ego, Fenton brought up the more important point.
"Tucker, we have things to do," he pointed to the mark on his arm, "at my dad's?"
"Hey, Paulina's there!"
"Tucker..."
"Let's go, dude!" Tucker dragged Fenton off over to the arcade centre.
---
Sam had made a brief sketch of the mark on Danny's arm at school after they had decided to split up. She was the only one in the library at this time, the books Superstitions of the Victorian Age and Symbols of the Supernatural sitting by her computer. She was on the same page where she had found out about the cursed Amulet of Aragon. So far, nothing had turned up, but she hadn't looked through the books yet.
"Excuse me," the librarian said, "We close in two minutes. Do you need to check out anything?"
"Yes," she closed down the site and grabbed the two books. Outside the building, perched on the roof, was Panther, in invisible form. It entertained itself while waiting for Sam to exit the building by following the motion of a bird overhead. It moved its eyes, and sometimes its head, wherever the bird was moving, almost completely lost in following the path of the winged little creature. It maintained is focus enough, however, to sense when the door below it was opened. Sam walked out, one book under her arm and the other open in her hands. Panther let her walk off a few feet before climbing along the roof and jumping into the tree nearest Sam. It continued to follow her in this silent form as she read.
"Finally," she found the symbol, "'A mark often associated with ghosts, used to brand people during witch and werewolf hunts in the Middle Ages. In the 19th Century, it was rumoured that the ghosts of the murdered crew of a pirate vessel formed an organisation called The Order and adopted it as their symbol.' So that's what it is," she shut the book, put it under her arm, and continued walking. After a minute, however, Sam began to feel the eerie sensation caused by being in the presence of a true ghost. Her pace quickened, as did Panther's. As she began moving faster, it resorted to moving from place to place by light flashes and fog, which were seen by Sam. Soon she was running as fast as she could down the streets of Amity, Panther following her along the rooftops and now visible. Once Sam made a turn between two buildings on a different street, it leapt off from the rooftops, soaring through the air and towards its victim. She just barely managed to jump to the side and make a turn up an alley, Panther quickly getting back on all fours and heading after her. A dead end led Sam to abruptly halt and turn to face the creature-ghost. It smiled, hissing a little and licking its lips. Before it could strike, however, it was hit hard by an ectoplasmic energy blast as Danny Phantom flew down between Panther and Sam.