"Boy! Where are you Boy! You are needed!" screamed a being in blue armour.
A young boy across the street slaped his face, then went over to the screaming giant. "What do you want?"
"Boy, there is great danger. Not just to us, but to this entire town." stated the being.
"Skulker," Danny Fenton said, "I've faced Plasmius, I've faced Pariah, and I've faced a lot of others from the Ghost Zone. I've even faced an evil me! What could be worse than that?"
"Child, while we may battle, there is a secret that I've never told you. Indeed, you are worthy of learning the secret where Plasmius is not. We battle to prevent boredom! Do you think, as untrained as you are, you would really have a chance against all of us, or even me if I trully brought forth my abilities?" said Skulker.
"Yeah, that's why I always kick your butt!" scowled Danny.
Skulker took a second, and then began laughing out loud while leading Danny away from the more public areas. "Child, we exist just short of Forever! Do you not think that we would get bored after all that time? Besides, only a fool, such as Plasmius would want this world to be under an iron rule. I may accept his money, but his foolishness is his own destruction."
"What is it then?" Danny said a little numb.
"Child...Danny. There is a strong power approaching this town, one that we ghost fear more than Pariah. This being is named Black. He pretends to be human. A Wizard, if you will. By the laws he laughs at, all that happens in Amity Park should not occur, and everyones memories would be erased. There are more rumours about him than can be imagined. It is said that he is older than the Ancient spirits who trapped Pariah, that he is the First, but having a way to return to life at any time. It is said that his power is a million times greater than Pariah." Skulker said.
A stunned Danny replied, "What does he want here?"
"Danny, to answer your question, you need to ask, what does any immortal want? Truthfully, I think that he wants to see one ghost who named himself Voldemort to suffer for the pain he put some mortal through. He will probably want to use your portal. If he does, let him. Do not endanger yourself." Skulker warned.
"Besides, Voldemort is a whiney bint! I for one would be glad to hear his screams of torment, if I could get rid of his stupid comments. He does not deserve to be counted among the dead!"
"Wait, this guy is worse than the box ghost?"
"Danny, this guy drives other ghosts off by being a complete complaining, whiny, stupid entity. Of course we want to get rid of him."
"Wait! Hold on!" Danny said, not wanting anything to threaten his family, friends, or town, no matter the cost to himself, "There's got to be a way to prevent something bad from happening!"
Skulker rubbed his chin, "Danny, I know of no being that would challenge him, Evil being fear him, weather they are mortal, ghost, or demon, and yes, demons do exist. The best we could do is make an appeal to him and appease his sensibilities."
"So you'll help me protect the town?" Danny cautiously ventured.
A smirk greeted that question, "I have been authorized by all the ghost you have encountered to offer a truce, from now to a month after his attention is drawn elsewhere. You will not abandon the mortals, no matter what happens, we know this. It was predicted by everyone that knows you, and we respect this."
Skulker looked around to see if anyone, or anything, was listening. "Do me a favour, Ghost Child, do not let the mortals you associate with to know the truth of why I battle, or allow them to know the respect that I have for you, and that you have for me. It is better that they are cautious, and will protect themselves against those who are trully evil such as Pariah. It is a strength that they will need. One more thing..."
Here Skulker shouted hard enough to force Dannys hair to fly back, "DO NOT THINK THAT YOU SHOULD EVER LET UP IN BATTLE! We may be dealing with you lightly, but be assured, the battles will get harder."
"Why Skulker?" Danny said as his oftime foe was about to leave. "Why are you telling me this? Why are you...training me?"
"That is not my place to tell." Skulker replied, "Perhaps you should talk with Clockwork once more."
---
Sam was lying in her bed when a twelve year old ghost dashed into her room.
"Whereishe!whereishe!Dannyhastobehere!whereishe!" said ghost gibbled.
"Whoah! Slow down Dani. What's wrong?"
The young ghost girl caught herself and started to breath slowly, "Mr. Black is coming! He heard about Danny and got curious!"
Sam shook her head, "Who is Mr. Black?"
"Who is Mr. Black!" the paniced ghost girl said, looking around the room for some of Sam's research material. Seeing one of the books that might explain things, she grabbed it and opened it up to a plate dipicting a scarry character. "This is who he is!"
Sam looked at the picture, and saw a black cloaked figure bearing a scythe.
---
A few days later, Days that had a worried Sam, Dani, and Jazz doing everything they could to follow Danny, much to his displeasure whenever he caught them at it, a stranger whistled his way into town. He did the usual things, such as go to a dinner for breakfast, see the sights, and catch the Amity Park Ghost Tour. A tourist through and through, although he was snickering badly at the 'Guys in White.'
Later that afternoon, he started to visit areas that normal people would not be allowed in. This pissed off the 'Guys in White', which prompted a personal visit by him to their headquarters. Nobody said what happened, but suddenly, the 'Guys in White' were all smiles, forced smiles, but smiles, as they were being audited by a person the man left behind.
This person, dressed in black, was going through every one of their receipts and disallowing so many of them, that the threat of dimminished funding was becoming overwealming.
"May I ask what it is that you are buying that takes up approximately a quarter of an 8 billion dollar budget?" the auditor without a recognizable face asked.
One of the two Guy's in White answered, "You will need to file form 1007D in triplicate along with Information Request form 877A and Information Release form 9437B to get the necessary forms to file to receive that information."
The auditor was getting angry. So far, no matter what he needed, it seemed there was a form, that required a form, to get a form, to fill out a form to receive the original form in order to get the information. "Right. In that case, I'm going to have a billion dollars removed from your budget. It's obvious that it takes that amount of dead trees to get simple information."
The two agents looked at each other. "Detergent. It's for the detergent we need to keep our suits white as per department regulations."
"Now we're getting somewhere," the auditor said under his breath. "Almost 2 billion dollars for detergent for one hundred agents? What do you do to your suits, eat garbage with them on? I'll allow $250,000.00 for the year. That should get you dry cleaning everyday of the year for all of your people, which means that you've seriously overspent on just that department."
"Now, I've noticed that you've earmarked a budget of almost 250 million to follow one Danny Fenton around. I also notice that you are using a lot of technology from Fentonworks that has not been paid for. I can only assume that this means the technology being used has been stollen. All this money, to try and find something to blame on a child, seems more to ensure that you do not have to pay the Fentons if they find out that you have stollen their technology. That budget will be slashed to one hundred dollars, and you will comply with federal regulations. Which means that you owe the Fentons ten times what it would have originally cost if you had just purchased the technology originally or obtained the rights to use it. You will be paying them as a purchase of the technology, and use only what they will allow you to. This means the Fentons must be brought in to audit all of your equipment." the auditor said as he tapped a copy of the Fenton Ghost Thermos.
The two agents winced. If truth be known, everything was based on the Fentons technology, and they had already made the kid mad at them several times in the past. It would not be pretty if he was the one to audit their equipment. "What if we set it up as a college fund for the kids?"
"Possible. I agree. In this case, your former target, Danny Fenton, will be the one to conduct the audit." He smilled at the obvious winces and clenched hands that the two agents in front of him made. It was so nice to catch them in wrong doing. A big part of the MoB was catching governments going overboard.
"Getting to that, you've listed Fenton and his friends as allies of this Danny Phantom. Since you are stopping this persecution, you will allow Phantom and his allies full governmental protection. This means no chasing him, hounding him, or going after him. In fact, I think he will make an excellent boss of your organization once I talk with the people back in Washington. In the meantime, I have contacted C.O.N.T.R.O.L. and have gotten their permission to have one of their best agents assigned here to help you determine what to do." Serves the idiots right. Going after the badd guys was ok, but going after the good guys? It was England all over again. Besides, Phantom was a ghost, and that meant that he was magical.
"Control?" the agent on the right opened his eyes wide, "Is this a joke? Control doesn't exist!"
"Strange of you to say that. Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 will be in charge of the Guy's in White until such a time as your budget and organization are fully reviewed with the President." The auditor smirked as he took a bite of the excellent strawberry shortcake that he had been served, "A word of caution. He is better than the cover story we made for him, although he does speak in all of those cliches that we used on the show."
The agent on the left winced, and then almost grovelled as he fought to keep his 8 billion dollar budget.
This was important! If they lost the Phantom case, then their budget would be reduced to a ridiculous ΒΌ billion dollars, especially if the Fenton's ripped apart their arsennal.
---
Harry was having a good time in Amity Park. It was a nice place, calm, peaceful, and nothing like the reputation made it out to be. "I guess the muggles sensationalize everything out of proportion to what's actually happening."
He had hoped to meet the local Ghost Hero, however, and congradulate him, possibly even get him to come and teach a few classes back at the island as he was the only one who could possibly teach others how to deal with beings like Peeves. Unfortunately, it would have to wait as he had to get back to what he needed to do. Can't let the bad guys think he was on a permanent vacation, despite how relaxing that sounded.
He'd have to come back every two weeks until he finally met Mr. Phantom. It was the only thing to do in this situation, and he was sure that they'd meet up if he kept to this schedule.
Besides, that dinner had some of the best coffee cake that he'd ever tasted!