The drive to Delaware meant going across the entire state of Maryland on the dirt roads of the forest. Conrad seemed anxious to get there as soon as possible, by nightfall if they could. Danny couldn't see what the hurry was, but no one questioned his order to stop for nothing. They finally made it to the state just before dusk. Camp was set up a good distance west from a large clearing up ahead, to the chagrin of most.
"Why here?" Tucker shouted, "Why here, of all places! There's that clearing right up there!"
"Tucker, we're not even sleeping outside," Danny said.
"...Good point."
"Danny?" Alcala opened the back doors to the van, "General Conrad wants you and your friends to meet him. I'll tell the rest of your folks," he left, closing the doors after him.
"What'd we do?" Tucker asked. Danny and Sam just shrugged.
---
"I suppose that some of you are a tad upset that we're camped out in the forest rather than in the clearing right ahead of us," Conrad said. All of Danny's group had been brought over, and they now stood around the campfire, Conrad sitting on some old crates.
"Yeah, you'd better believe it!" Tucker quipped. Conrad raised an eyebrow.
"But you're sleeping in your van."
"...Good point."
"There's a reason why I didn't want us over there," he said, "You see, that clearing holds the entrance to the second base of The Order. When our spy found it he noticed some cameras hidden all over watching the clearing," Sam and Danny exchanged "so that's it" looks while Tucker started to get nervous.
"So why did you wake us up to come over here?" Jazz had been annoyed since Alcala came to get her.
"We outnumber Bruce's men by a large margin, but all their weaponry is designed to take out ghosts specifically. They make up a good number of our forces and with some of the more advanced equipment he has, they'll get taken down quick. And we still don't know why Bruce left this base intact. That's what I want to talk to you about."
"Huh?" Tucker thought this made no sense, and Danny had to agree. He couldn't see where this was going.
"If the Paranormalics forces are distracted by a conflict within the base, the risk of our ghosts being killed won't be so high. For some reason, Danny, they seem particularly interested in capturing you. If you go in and provide a distraction with your friends and family as protection, then we can move in and..."
"Now hold on a second!" Maddie spoke up, "You can't put something like this on Danny and his friends! They're just kids! And if you think..."
"I'll do it," Danny said.
"What!?"
"Now that you say that, your mother has a point. Are you agreeing because you think you have to, or because you're actually willing to do this?" Tucker started murmuring "please pick the first one" as Danny thought it over.
"The second," he replied. Tucker moaned, "But since you let me choose, you should let my friends do the same."
"Well there's no way you're going in there yourself!" Maddie quipped.
"I'll start packing the ghost-gear," Jack and his wife both moved off to their tent.
"I'm in," Sam said; Jazz just shrugged and went over to her parents. Danny and Sam turned to Tucker.
"What!?" he complained, "I'm thinking!" he thought for another few minutes, "I'm in," he sighed.
---
Danny, Sam and Tucker sat in the Fenton Van, one of the inside lights on. Tucker was messing around with his hat in the back while Danny and Sam sat in the front seats.
"I just remembered," Sam said, "A week ago at school when they showed that news report about the state of emergency passing...they said something about a white light over Delaware."
"Hey...yeah, I remember that now," Danny sat upright, having been leaning against the wall before, "It's gotta have something to do with why Bruce didn't destroy the place already."
"Can you guys save the detective work for when we get in there?" Tucker yawned, "I'm trying to go to sleep."
"Oh yeah," Sam nodded, "We're all going to have to wake up early, so we'd better get some shut-eye," she stretched herself out and lowered the seat back, closing her eyes. Danny looked out the front window. His dad and Conrad were talking, sharing some last words on the plans for tomorrow. At least that's what he assumed they were discussing; he couldn't hear them. He looked down at his hands. Something seemed very wrong. He'd fought Paranormalics before plenty of times, and had never felt so strange...
"Danny?" Sam had sat back up, "You OK?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," he smiled, lowering his seat back, "Good night."
"Good night," they both lay down.
---
Bruce sat at his computer in the control room early the next morning, adding something to his files. Nearby were all the security cameras. Most of them showed inside the base, but four were fed images by cameras carefully placed outside. All had been there when Paranormalics had taken the base. The man on duty at that area was eyeing one of the cameras showing the outside area suspiciously. The fourteen-year old boy wasn't the first person to take a walk across the clearing, but something seemed strange about this one...
"Sir, there's someone in the field and I don't think he's just out for a walk," he said. Bruce walked over.
"Where?" the soldier pointed to the camera. Bruce eyed the figure for a moment, then smiled and chuckled quietly to himself, "Send some men up to get him. Use both man and ghost weapons."
---
"Hold it, kid!" Danny turned around. Several men had come up from a hole in the ground. They had both guns and lasers aimed at him, the one who had spoken grinning. Danny returned the grin, confusing them. He phased through the ground, re-appearing inside the tunnel that the soldiers had climbed up to get outside. He grabbed the door leading outside and slammed it shut. Upon hearing the sound, all the soldiers whirled around to find they were kicked out of their own base.
"Banzai!" a voice said from behind them. They whirled around in time to see Jack Fenton's gigantic form crashing down on them, armed with the Ghost Gloves. Danny waited for the sounds of combat above the surface to fade away before he opened the door again. Jack was standing over the soldiers, victorious. He moved over to head down the hole, but as soon as he started...
"I'm stuck!" he shouted. Danny sighed and started pulling on his dad's legs, Jazz and Maddie pushing down on his shoulders. He managed to get inside; everyone else managed to get in with no problem. As soon as they got into the first room, Danny took out the security camera.
---
"Sir, the security camera's dead in the entrance," Bruce looked at the said screen. Sure enough...
"Have the fresh troops secure the cave," he grabbed a communication device from off the table, "Sergeant? Gather the original 20 men and meet outside The Endgame. Move for nothing and no one; not even me," with that, he dropped the device and ran out of the room.
---
"So far, so good," Tucker said, looking around.
"Shhhh," everyone turned to him. Danny slowly opened the next door. In front of them was a large cave, lit by green lights. The floor had been smoothed and sloped, and all the stalactites and stalagmites were gone. There were several trenches and shields within the cave, behind which a massive number of Paranormalics agents stood.
"That is definitely more than 20," Danny said quickly before flying into the cave, drawing in the soldiers' fire. Jack charged in, shouting off who knows how many battle cries. Maddie was a bit more cautious, running in, firing, dodging to the side, and firing again. Sam and Jazz did likewise; Tucker stayed by the door, firing off random shots with his eyes closed tight and head turned off to the side. There were too many men for them to hope to win, but when a loud siren went off, all the soldiers ran off out of the cave and into the next room. Seeing this, Tucker stood triumphantly.
"Yeah, you'd better run!"
"What was all that about?" Sam spoke the question on everyone's mind.
"Dunno," Danny touched down on the ground, "Dad, shouldn't we contact Conrad about there being more soldiers than they thought?"
"Good plan, son!" Jack pulled out a walkie-talkie.
---
"How many do you think there were?" Conrad asked; he had just heard the news.
"About 60, 70..." Sam's voice took over.
"I'm thinking that while we were in the woods some of the men in Amity moved down here," Danny added.
"Probably," Conrad sighed, "You'll have to hold them off longer now; this changes everything. Thank you for the information again, and good luck," he shut off communications and turned to Alcala and Fountain.
"So what now?" Alcala asked dryly.
"First thing's first," Conrad stood up, "Men!" he shouted, "I have just been informed that the Paranormalics agents inside that base number far more than 20! I want the equipment manager Fountain chose in place of Jack Fenton over here at once to discuss the situation!" a tall ghost ran over from a group including The Box Ghost; they had been playing Old Maid.
---
"Is this some kind of office?" Tucker looked through some scattered papers on the floor.
"It used to be, anyway," Sam looked around, "Looks like this place got looted."
"And Bruce never bothered to get someone to clean up," Jazz shook some junk off her foot. Jack broke down the door with the Ghost Gloves.
"Uh, Jack dear?" Maddie smiled weakly, "There was a handle. You didn't need to do that...and make a large noise..." Jack just looked confused. Maddie sighed, "Never mind."
"Onward!" Jack declared. They were in a long hallway. At the end, it split into two hallways going in opposite directions.
"I say we go left," Tucker said, "The right's always where they expect you to turn."
"We'll flip a coin," Jack took off the gloves and pulled one out of his pocket, "Call it!"
"Heads," it landed on tails.
"We go right!" Jack slipped the gloves back on as Tucker moaned. Before they could go anywhere, however, a laser was fired from the left hallway. Five soldiers were grouped there.
"Told you we should've gone right!" Tucker said. Danny flew over to the soldiers, landing a deep kick into the gut of the one standing up. He knocked them all out soon as the others headed down the hallway. Before he could catch up, however, an ectoplasmic door closed off the hall. They noticed.
"Keep going!" Danny said, "I'll fly down this hallway and see if there's a way to cut over!" he did so, and the others kept going...except Sam. Something seemed strange. She stared at where Danny had been a bit more before running off to catch up with the others.
---
Danny tried to make a turn into another hallway, but an ectoplasmic door closed it off. Two groups of soldiers were coming at him from different directions. A strange green shield moved across the entire ceiling and floor. Danny landed, prepared to fight, but he could tell he was outnumbered right away. He was caught.
"Not again," he sighed.
---
Bruce watched as Danny was brought into his office. He had been cuffed to a device strapped to his chest, preventing him from getting loose. He was shoved into a chair on the opposite side of Bruce's desk from the Paranormalics chief. The soldiers left, leaving them the only ones in the room.
"Danny Phantom," Bruce nodded, looking him over, "For someone with your reputation, you get captured rather easily," Danny didn't even dignify him with a look of shame. He may have been captured again, but he wasn't letting them mess with his head this time.
"Frost and I went back a long way," Bruce stood up, walking the length of the room, "She entrusted me with things that not even her men knew. The file on you that The Order stole seems lost forever, but before her death, she sent it to me by computer. I know all about you and your little girlfriend," Danny rolled his eyes. Did everyone get that wrong?
"So when you found out you attacked me at my own school for revenge," he said sarcastically, "How surprising."
"Not for revenge, Danny," Bruce smirked, "When we first came to this lair, our plans were to destroy it. I ordered my men to begin setting charges as soon as we had taken the main hallway. Then I discovered Velkan trying to destroy a very interesting machine in a very interesting room," he walked over to his drawers, grabbing a folder off of the top of one, "Despite his valiant attempts, he failed. Velkan now is no longer a problem for anyone. He had a file of the machine with him. It's called The Endgame, and it emits a special energy meant to poison and slowly destroy whatever species the machine is set for...humans, for example," Danny knew Velkan was misguided enough to try something like that, but he couldn't help his jaw from dropping, "Horrible, yes. The machine was only half-built. However, it suddenly occurred to me that this machine could prove very useful. All it'd take would be some design modifications and it could be set to target ghosts. Thus, this his now headquarters for Operation: Endgame."
"And this relates to me how?" Danny asked, waiting for some chance to escape.
"Velkan's files state that the machine needs to be powered by a ghost, and that hybrids are more a more favourable power source than pure ghosts. The ghost of one our workers volunteered to test the machine to see if that was true..."
"The white light over Delaware," Danny muttered, cutting Bruce off.
"Correct. As it turns out, the file didn't lie. Then I remembered you. Of course, you may be too young and your powers too undeveloped to fully meet our needs. Possessed hybrids are more unstable. The ghost of one of our workers produces seeds similar to Volpe's and one of them," he pulled out a strange-looking gun, "is in this ejection gun. Very kind of you and your girlfriend, coming into our base so willingly. And then she still might be too young. If that ends up the case, we'll turn to the hybrid kind enough to send The Order flying into our hands; Vlad Plasmius. You've heard of him, haven't you? "
"I've fought him."
"We've sent him one of these," he held up a metallic headband, "anonymously, of course. The only thing that can save a ghost from The Endgame. We have more for the ghosts of our men who still work for us. Of course, if Mr. Masters hasn't the sense to be prepared and wear it all times as we suggested, then we'll have to find another. There's only one way to know if we'll even need him," he snapped his fingers. The soldiers who had brought Danny in grabbed him, forcing him up and out of the room. Bruce calmly followed.
---
"No sign of any of those Paranormalics lackeys," Jack looked around, "And with Conrad still presumably outside considering the best course of action...it's grown dull in here," he slumped.
"I'm with Mr. Fenton," Tucker dropped his laser, "I'll bet Danny's having all the fun!" he noticed Sam's attitude. She was the only one of them not bored; she actually seemed unusually tense, "Sam?"
"...Something's wrong with Danny," she finally said, her voice shaking.
"How do you know? He's not even here!" Tucker then remembered a similar situation when The Order had kidnapped Danny, "Is it that psychic connection thing again? Man, I wish I had something like that!"
"Come on!" Sam took off down the hall.
"Where're you going!?" Maddie shouted. Tucker shrugged and followed, as did everyone else.
---
The ectoplasmic door removed, Danny was dragged down the right hallway. About halfway down, they stopped at a door guarded by 20 men. Bruce hit the green button on the control panel by the circular door, and it slid open. Danny stared in amazement at the dark, enormous half-circle that made up the room. The most strange and bizarre wires and electrical devices hung from and were mounted on the walls. A large, old-fashioned looking control panel was built into the base of the wall and floor, and in the centre of the floor, there was a raised platform surrounded by two large rings. What looked like places to strap a person into the machine were on the frame on which the rings were attached. A long pole went up from the top of the frame, eventually branching off into wires going into all directions, attaching to some gadget or another.
"Welcome," Bruce smirked, "to The Endgame. Put him in," he ordered dryly. Danny was pushed up to the platform. His legs were strapped in first. The device on his chest was removed and his cuffs taken off, but his arms were strapped in before he could get away. He watched in frustration as Bruce pushed some buttons and moved some levers on the control panel. The rings slowly started to circulate. They were so slow Danny thought that snails probably moved faster, but he was sure they'd speed up.
"If you're worried about your own fate, then don't," Bruce said before he left, "The energy starts from this room but doesn't effect it. This machine will only make you too weak to move once all's done. I'll spare you," he grinned, "for a later date," with that, he closed the door, leaving Danny alone in the room. Slowly the rings began to move faster and faster, and the faster they moved, the heavier Danny's breath got and the more nervous he became. Electrical sparks started flying out through some of the machines. Within a few minutes, the rings moved so quickly that they just served as a slight blur to Danny's view of the door; not that it was much to look at. Danny felt the clamps on his hands and feet tighten and his posture become more rigid, and then all the energy in his body seemed to explode upward. The inside of his body seemed like it was on fire, and the sheer force of everything going up was enough to draw out a yell. Sparks exploded from all over the room as electricity surged through the wires and into the machines. The areas around those machines began to glow, but Danny was now just struggling to keep his eyes open...
---
"Sam, don't you think you're overreacting?" Tucker looked bored again. They had gone backwards and found nothing, "There's nothing here."
"Exactly," she pointed down the hall, "There was an ectoplasmic door there last time we were here. That's why Danny couldn't get to us, remember?"
"So he probably found a way to turn it off!"
"So where is he?" Tucker was about to open his mouth when a strange electrical sound came from in front of them.
"You guys here that?" he asked. No one answered; they were too distracted. A strange glowing white light was flowing outwards from a room halfway up the hall, filling the base. It passed right through them but left them unharmed (though it did scare the heck out of Tucker).
"What the heck is this?" Jack looked around; other than that everything now had a silver tint, nothing was out of the ordinary.
"...A strange white light over Delaware," Sam muttered to herself. This had to be what that was. She looked back up at the door, "Danny, where are you?"
---
Alcala slapped a fly crawling on his face.
"We about ready to move out?" he asked.
"Just about," Conrad nodded, "Just need to...what the heck is that?" he pointed to the clearing. What looked like the top of a dome of white light was coming up from the ground. It continued to come up, and it was already large enough that it reached over to the campground. Conrad watched as it rose up into the air, giving everything a silvery tint.
"That all it was supposed to do?" Alcala asked rhetorically.
"Looks like it..." Conrad looked back at his men. The humans were as confused as he was, but the ghosts had a very different state of mind. At first the pain was just a minor annoyance, like a brief headache or an itch that won't go away. But soon it grew, and it went from bad to worse, and worse to worst. Their long, painful moans carried throughout the forest, growing more and more unbearable.
"I am The Box Ghost!" the little nimrod shouted, "And I am in increasingly growing pain!" with a proper energy source now, this strange light grew much faster than it had one week ago. Already most of Delaware was covered, and it was spreading fast.