This is the last talky chapter for a while; mayhem and doom start in Chapter Five!Where are Katara and Sokka?Our heroes meet evil face-to-face!
"Danny?"
The voice was hazy, yet familiar.
"Go 'way."
"Danny, wake up!"
Groaning, Danny opened his eyes, seeing his sisters' face hovering directly over his. He started violently, jerking himself up onto his bed's headboard.
"Geez…never do that again, please!"
"Danny, are you feeling okay?"
"Okay? Why wouldn't…"
It came back to him in a flood, confused images like those in a nightmare. The creature tearing the house apart, his family unmoving on the floor, and himself, drowning in blood.
Involuntarily, Danny's hands went to his arms, rubbing spasmodically. Blood everywhere…
"Danny, snap out of it!"
His sisters' reproach brought him back to reality. No blood, no monster. Danny was starting to think that it had been a dream, when he finally noticed the bandage Jazz was sporting across her forehead. He also noticed that there were a few extra pieces of furniture in his room; things that looked like they belonged in a hospital, machines that trailed wires hooked to electrodes, stuck to his head, chest, and arms.
"Do you remember anything?" Jazz asked, concern widening her eyes.
"More than I'd care to. Mom…Dad…"
"They're fine. Well, they're not in immediate danger, anyways. A few broken bones between them, but nothing major."
"How about you?"
Jasmine waved Danny's question aside.
"Just a scratch. It's not important. Danny…there are some…people…here to talk to you."
Danny started pulling off the electrodes. They left an unpleasantly cold feeling behind
"Okay…Jazz, normally I'd ask you what the heck was going on, but since I'm pretty sure that you're as clueless about this as me, I'll just ask this: can I have my pants?"
Fully clothed again, Danny made his way down the staircase, followed by Jazz. He glanced toward the gaping hole in the front of the house; it was sealed by massive metallic shutters. Concluding that the entire house was probably covered with them, and blessing his father's redundant nature, Danny turned down the basement stairs.
Three people awaited him inside his parent's laboratory: Aang, looking at little battered, his clothes ripped, and still wearing the dejected look Danny had seen him wear when their cancellations had been announced only hours before.
The second, Danny didn't recognize, but by his anachronistic garb, the ghost-boy figured that he was one of Aang's co-stars. The scarred boy was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over a swath of bandages tied around his chest.
Standing in the shadows, further back from the other two, was a tall figure in a well-pressed suit, looking poised and smug as ever.
"Plasmius!"
"Everyone knows I'm here, Daniel. There's no need for theatrics."
"Theatrics? I'll do a one-man production of Pain on your face, if you don't get out of my house!" Danny's eyes, normally blue, and abnormally green, flared a bright yellow-green.
Aang stepped between the two half-ghosts, his expression changed to a cold mask of stone.
"Stop it, now. This isn't helping, Danny."
"Helping? I don't even know what's going on!"
Aang sighed, his dejected look returning.
"Something bad. Very bad."
Vlad Masters, alias Vlad Plasmius, cleared his throat, smoothing his tie at the same time.
"Generalities aside, I believe I can help clear that up for you, Daniel. Our network has come under an attack of some kind; all communication from within and without has been cut off. All programming has been cancelled."
"All? How's that possible?"
"Whoever is coordinating this must have control of the Central Broadcasting array. In short, they control the whole of Nickelodeon."
The bandaged boy narrowed his eyes, the giant burn scar over his left eye shifting unpleasantly.
"And how exactly do you know all this?"
Vlad gave a narrow smile, his own eyes narrowed with contempt.
"I always know what I need to know."
The scarred boy snorted. Aang gave an exasperated sigh, stepping in between them now.
"Zuko, calm down. This won't do that wound any good."
"Shut up," Zuko replied sharply. "I don't need your counsel, or this fool's. I just want to find whoever it was who had the gall to challenge me, and burn him to ashes!"
"That'll be difficult, considering the shape you're in," the Avatar replied evenly. "You couldn't Bend enough to catch a dry leaf on fire."
"I said shut up!"
"Enough!"
Danny's voice shook the basement, solid though it was. His temper has still not receded, but there was more than ghostly rage in his eyes.
"Plasmius, tell me exactly what's happened."
The older half-ghost smoothed his hair back, thinking.
"As I said, all programming has been canceled, directly from Central Broadcasting. Additionally, the Fifth Walls, the barriers that keep Nickelodeon's programs mostly separate from one another, have been weakened or removed. That's how attacks like the one here happened."
"Wait; that monster was a Nicktoon?"
Plasmius smirked. "Indeed. Ickis, a Real Monster. Canceled several years ago, and apparently recruited into some kind of army. Or enslaved."
Vlad pointed a small object on one of the lab tables. Spherical, red, and sprouting two small tendrils, it was also covered with dried blood.
"I took this off the body. There's no interface, so I can't determine what it is, and I can't seem to dismantle it, so I can't even tell what it's made out of."
"So, you're clueless too. Fine."
Danny ignored Vlad's enraged spluttering, and turned to Aang and Zuko.
"You guys ready for a little mayhem?"