Author's Note: Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but I really couldn't write a full chapter this time round no matter how much I tried. I hope you enjoy it anyway.
P.S. Some of you may have been wondering why the Heck I used the four main Xiaolin Showdown characters as the Praetors. It's simple, I wanted four characters that had element alignments but in the Danny Phantom episodes I've seen so far there were none to speak of except for Ember.

BEGIN TRANSMISSION #06

Danny stared out of the window with his head resting on his folded arms. He sighed heavily, as he stared out of the window at the empty streets. His neighbourhood had become like a ghost town. The very city of Amitropolis had become a ghost town. The shops were closed. The streets were empty. The banks, the schools and the post offices were closed. Mail failed to be delivered.

FentonWorx had ordered all of Amitropolis' citizens to stay at home. It had closed the entire city down. Blue Bow Troops were now the only beings that patrolled the streets and many of them weren't even human. No reason had been given. Protests were quickly quelled with the Blue Bow arresting anyone that questioned the Corporation.

It didn't matter that Skulker and his Insurgents had been defeated. None of it mattered. The curfew had been put into place.

Even Danny didn't know why. No one from the Blue Bow Army had contacted him. From the news, Danny discovered that the Metropolitan Police had been disbanded and many of its senior officers arrested. There, would of course, also be the daily reports of Blue Bow soldiers capturing the remnants of Skulker's followers. That was all.

Phone lines were down. Internet connection was down. It was impossible to contact friends or loved ones. And through it all, there was the sound of gunfire and explosions.

His body had been repaired immediately after the fight, yet Danny still felt damaged. It felt as if his soul was torn to shreds, as if his hope had been destroyed completely. He felt useless and powerless. Was this what Danny had fought for in Raven Wharf? Skulker was defeated. His Headquarters destroyed. The Insurgent Plan to use the CHAOS had been thwarted. Yet the curfew was in place; all his fighting had been for nothing.

The day before, the news networks had stopped broadcasting. Television networks, radio stations, all ceased to broadcast. The outside world disappeared. The day before, Dr. Manson had been called away to the Gordon King Hospital and neither Sam nor Danny had seen him since.

Before all broadcasts had been cut, FentonWorx had made an announcement. All citizens were to stock up on tinned foods in their basements and when the sirens went off they were to retreat underground until the sirens stopped. Those citizens that did not have basements were to retreat to the Subway for shelter.

Danny knew that something was very wrong from the moment he had heard the announcement. It seemed as if FentonWorx was now fighting a war. He had been unable to leave his house as Phantom, what with Sam's Grandfather being stuck in the house with them all day and night.

Sirens wailed through the silence.

Instinctively, Danny rushed out of his room, just as Sam rushed out of hers. Their response to the siren was automatic. Wordlessly, they both ran down the stairs like they had done many a time before. Sam opened the door to the basement and flicked the light on, before running down the stairs. Danny closed the door behind them and rushed down the stairs with her.

Sam broke down into tears.

In all the time Danny had spent in the Manson household, he had never seen Sam cry. He had seen her miserable. He had seen her with a scowl on her face. Yet never had he seen tears streak down her smooth white cheeks, like raindrops dribbling down a marble gravestone.
"Sam?" exclaimed Danny, as he knelt down beside her. "You okay?" he asked her, as he watched the tears stream from her eyes, something that he had never seen before.

These tears worried Danny more than anything else. The problems of the world were nothing in comparison to the misery that Sam now displayed through her fractured façade.
"Sam?" he repeated in a tone of concern. He had never been so worried about his sister. "Sam, please talk to me. What's wrong?" He couldn't understand. What was she crying about? Why was she crying?

Eventually, Sam looked up at Danny with tear-stained eyes that seemed to cry out for help.
"Why are you so calm?" she asked him between sniffs. "Why are you so calm?" she shouted, before hitting Danny hard.

"Hey! What'd I do?" protested Danny, as he did his best to shield him from Sam's blows.

"How can you be so calm when our Grandfather's out there?" screamed Sam, as she drummed on Danny with blow after blow. "Don't you care about him? Don't you care at all?"

Danny didn't know what to do. He just let Sam hit him and let her take all her rage out on him. Perhaps that was the best thing he could do. Maybe that was the only thing he could do. All he knew was that he was no good at comforting people. This was the best he could manage.

Sam was fragile. She was not the emotionless Goth that couldn't care less about the world. It was all a façade used to hide the grief that she felt over the death of her parents, to hide the anger she felt at her helplessness and nothing more. Perhaps, in that way, she was like an egg. She was cold and seemingly tough on the outside, yet she was fragile in reality, no less prone to cracking than crystal.

This was not the Sam that everybody knew. It was a different Sam, a different girl to the Goth that showed disdain to Dash and Paulina and her ilk. These tears were hers, an expression of what was within. They came from a sea of misery that welled up within her and threatened to shatter her with every waking second.

"Sam, he'll be all right," said Danny as reassuringly as he could. "He's in Gordon King, remember? It's inside the Barbican. No way in Hell is that going to go down. He'll be safe there."

Yet even Danny didn't sound convinced. He was worried for their Grandfather too. If there really was a vicious fight going in Amitropolis, Gordon King Hospital would be one of the first targets of attack if Insurgents managed to break through the Barbican. Destroy the hospital and there is no way possible way Blue Bow would be able to treat the wounded.

It was not just Sam that hid the wounds of war in her heart. Everyone in Amitropolis knew the terror of losing a loved one. The country was at war with the robots that had been designed to help the citizens. Danny saw the ravages of the Insurgent War against humanity firsthand every time he set foot outside as the Phantom.

Sometimes, even Danny had contemplated the very thoughts that he knew must have run through Sam's mind every night. How could he continue in a world with no hope, on a world that lived in constant fear? Even Danny felt the pangs of the depression that no doubt lingered in Sam's mind. It grew within him with every passing day and every terrifying night. The sounds of gunfire, the sounds of explosions and death that carried through the air were the only things that Danny could look forward to.

At least, that is what Danny thought and it is what everyone that lived in Amitropolis thought. Sam was not the exception in that respect. Deep down she was just like the others. No matter how she rejected what was popular, no matter how she tried to be different, her rebellious nature was only skin-deep. They too knew what it was like to live with no hope, with no chance of escaping the spiralling descent into violence and madness, with nothing to look forward to except more of the same.

There was a crashing sound as of glass or china being shattered.

"What was that?"

It came from above. That crashing sound came from above and soon both Sam and Danny heard the sound of footsteps above them. Someone was upstairs. Were they thieves that were taking the opportunity to raid someone else's home during the raids? Were they the enemy?

Danny stood up, his gaze trained on the ceiling above. Several thoughts ran through his mind, as he stood there in the cold, damp basement. Yet there was one more important thought that stood out from the others.
"Sam, stay here," he said. "I'm going to see what's going on up there."

"Wait, Danny!" called out Sam as Danny transformed into Phantom in a flash of brilliant light. "Don't go! You can't go up there!" She lunged out and grabbed him by the arm. "Danny, don't be stupid," she said to him in a hushed whisper. "You don't know who could be up there."

She had a point and Phantom knew it.
"Sam, relax," he said with a smiling mask of reassuring confidence on his face. "I can take them on. I beat Skulker, didn't I?"

"Did you?" retorted Sam sternly.

None of her concern was communicated through words, yet Danny heard it. He saw it in her eyes. The very thought of losing him was what worried her. Danny knew that she couldn't bear the thought of losing another loved one. Was that the terror that kept her up at night, that she would lose all those that she cared about and be left all alone? Did Sam truly believe that if she didn't befriend anyone, that she would lose no one?

He knew the answer to those questions. As her brother, it was his duty to know. She was family. He was family, even if it was by adoption. What mattered were the family ties and they were strong between his sister and him.

"Whoever's up there can't be as strong as Skulker," stated Phantom calmly and confidently. "Just relax and stay here." He then waited quietly.

Sam could still remember the agonising days after Skulker's defeat. She could remember the hours of sitting by Danny's side as he lay there on the hospital bed in intensive care. The first time she had been there in Gordon King, she had hated him and loathed him. How differently she felt those days ago when Danny was hospitalised again thanks to Skulker.

It was almost like the incident with her parents, sitting there beside them, never letting them out of sight until the day they died. Sam had feared for Danny's life. She had feared he would pass away, that another family member would have died and that she would have been left all alone again. Even holding on to Danny's arm, right there in the basement of their own home, with an unknown threat above them, those anxious thoughts still plagued her mind.

She let go of Danny's arm.
"Okay," she sighed, as Sam stepped back slightly. "Do what you have to do."

A smile spread across Phantom's lips.
"Don't worry," he told her, "I'll be careful." He then turned round and ran over to the steps quietly. Phantom stopped at the first step and turned round to look at her one last time, before he ran up the stairs as silent as a mouse.

From the bottom of the staircase, Sam watched as Phantom became intangible and presumably rushed through the door. She stood there for a while, her gaze locked on to the door, almost as if she hoped that he would be finished in a second and come back through it triumphantly and in one piece.

Slowly, though, a strange smile spread across her face. It seemed almost as if Sam were chiding herself for being foolish. Perhaps it was. Sam, perhaps, may have realised that she had to be strong like the other citizens of Amitropolis, like Tucker, like her brother and her Grandfather. In the face of adversity, one had to gather their own wits and be strong. To obsess over the negatives was foolish. To look optimistically without even heeding the negatives was foolish. She had to be strong.

"Please, be careful, Danny," she prayed underneath her breath.

The front door had been broken off its hinges. A few family portraits had fallen, their glass scattered across the carpet like glittering snow. Furniture had been tossed asunder. To use the famous cliché, it was as if a tornado had swept through the house. The place was a wreck and yet, it seemed as if nothing had been taken.

Something didn't feel right, but Phantom didn't know what it could be.

A roar seemed to make the ground heave under his feet; he lost his balance and fell forwards to the ground. Glass and china all around him shattered violently. There was a terrifying crunch and a shower of dust and objects fell on and around him, thuds punctuating the fall of every heavy wooden beam and every crash of plaster on to carpet. Then there was silence, or as close to silence as one could get with the sound of gunshots outside.

Phantom looked up. If the place was a mess before, it was even more of a mess after that explosion. A bomb had hit their house directly. What had once been their home was rubble. As sad as it used to be, it was an even more pathetic site. Any happiness that had haunted the house as rare as ghosts was lost.

Only in a place like Amitropolis did one appreciate how easily happiness and hope could be lost.

There was a click and Phantom whirled round, just in time to see a group of Geists open fire on him. Several plasma bolts hurtled straight at Phantom. He dodged them as best as he could.
"What? Blue Bow Geists?" exclaimed Phantom in disbelief. "What are you doing? I'm on your side, remember?"

Each of the Blue Geists aimed again at Phantom wordlessly. Of course, they wouldn't remember. They were machines and nothing more. These Geists truly were tools, programmed to do their owner's bidding. None of them had any personality or any thoughts to speak of, so why should they be concerned about him?

Two of the Geists suddenly became intangible and dropped through the floor.

"Sam!" exclaimed Phantom in sudden realisation. He forced himself to become intangible, but mere seconds before he could manage the transition, several plasma shots hit him in the chest and threw him backwards. Phantom heard a scream from down below, as he smashed into the floor. "Bastards!" he yelled angrily, before he tried again and became intangible, falling through the floor.

The cyborg landed on his feet, as he focused energy into the palms of his hands. He threw two shots, one at each Geist and blew their heads straight off their necks. Phantom watched as the two Geists fell.

"Sam!" he cried out, as he rushed past them. "Sam, where are you?" he called out more worriedly when he heard no reply. "Sam, speak to me!"

A metallic thud emanated from behind and Phantom wouldn't have been surprised to see more Geists if he had turned round. He didn't though. There was the issue of Sam's whereabouts to resolve. He rushed towards the fallen boxes, riddled with holes with burnt edges, signs that the Geists had opened fire before Phantom had destroyed them. Phantom heard the Geists open fire.

Whirling round, he spread his arms and created a force field of plasma energy in front of him. The energy shots smashed into the shield and dispersed, the surface of the force field rippled with each hit.

"Danny."

The cyborg turned his head and saw a pale hand thankfully still attached to an arm from underneath one of the cardboard boxes. With an angry roar, Phantom threw the shield forwards; it rushed across the floor and smashed into the Geists, melting their bodies.

Quickly, Phantom rushed over and threw the boxes off of Sam, as the force field start to dissipate. His eyes dilated in disbelief.
"Sam," he gasped.

Blood trickled down Sam's forehead and the black sleeve of her shirt was stained with blood where one of the plasma shots had hit her. She smiled weakly up at Phantom.
"I'm sorry," she apologised. "Looks like, I'll be joining my parents."

"Don't say that!" protested Phantom, no… Danny, her brother. "You've still got a chance. You'll get better. I know you will."

"Look out," cried Sam weakly, but urgently.

Without even looking, Phantom fired a plasma shot at the Geist that dropped down from above. He hit it square in the chest and punched a hole through its body and its circuitry.
"You just hold on tight," he said sternly, as he grabbed her and lifted her up into his arms. He stood up slowly and turned round, just as more Blue Bow Geists fell down from above. "Bastards," he said, the word directed towards the Geists. "You'll pay for what you did to my sister!"

The Geists aimed their guns at Phantom without a care in the world.

A cry escaped Phantom's throat, as he ran straight at the Geists. He leapt high into the air and landed on the head of one Geists. Phantom kicked out violently and propelled himself forwards; the head of the Geist fell off its neck from the sheer force. The sheer momentum propelled him forwards with great speed, such that to Phantom, it was nothing more strenuous than skipping across stones.

Still with Sam safely in his arms, Phantom landed on the other side of the group of Geists and ran up the stairs. He leapt at the last step and rushed through the remains of what had once been the door to the basement. Phantom heard no comment from Sam at the destruction of their house. He didn't expect one, as he ran through the rubble and out on to the street.

Phantom skidded to a halt. There were Geists everywhere and they were all Blue Bow Geists.

Why had they all turned on him? What was going on? Had some Insurgent managed to infiltrate Blue Bow Headquarters and seize control of some of the Geists? Was it possible that an Insurgent had started a civil war within the Blue Bow Army?

"I don't have time for this," sighed Phantom angrily. "I've got to get Sam to a hospital and I'm not going to let some tin dummies get in my way!" He held on to Sam tightly and became intangible, in the hope that she would become intangible too. Just in time too; the Geists opened fire and would have hit Sam and him had he been a split second slower. "Hold on," he told her. Phantom then ran.

The cyborg that had once fought against Insurgents and their Geists, ran through the hordes of Blue Bow Geists. He didn't look back, as he switched off the Geist circuitry immediately after they had safely passed the battalion. Phantom merely ran in the direction of the nearest hospital. He ran not for his life but for Sam's and he was determined to see she survived this terrifying night.

The image of a youthful red-haired girl was on the television screen. She sat what seemed to be a gold and white throne; the backrest appeared to part of a huge column that stretched high above her, with the FentonWorx Emblem emblazoned in gold on it high above her head. Within the screen, one could see arches behind her that looked out on what appeared to be nothing but sky.

The red-haired girl was youthful, possibly in her late teens. She was dressed in white laced with gold brocade around the edges of the fabric and a strange constant smile adorned her lips.
"Now we no longer have to fear the traitors, led by the vigilante, Phantom," announced the girl. "Blue Bow Forces have eradicated the Insurgent and those that conspired with him to bring the FentonWorx Corporation and humanity down to its knees. Peace and justice has prevailed! Long may our democracy live!"

Tucker couldn't understand what was going on, as he watched the broadcast on the television. The screen had long since been dead. No networks had been able to broadcast, yet here, the FentonWorx Corporation's very own media outlet was broadcasting a message from Lady Fenton.

Not only that, but she was claiming that Danny was a traitor to the human race. She claimed that Danny had been killed by the Blue Bow Army.

The television was switched off. Tucker didn't want to hear anymore from Lady Fenton. There was no way he could bring himself round to believe that Danny had betrayed them and that he had conspired with Skulker and the Insurgents. He couldn't believe a single word she had said, least of all her claim that peace and justice had prevailed, that their democratic regime would survive and last forever.

Democracy? Tucker laughed at the idea. There was no such thing as democracy in Amitropolis and even in the rest of the United States, the idea of democracy was dying under the rule of Martial Law. Emergency powers granted to the President had made him a dictator. Government Forces brutally repressed robots everywhere, regardless of whether they were truly Insurgents or not.

Democracy, freedom, peace and justice? They weren't ideals. You couldn't fight for those things, because they no longer existed. No one could believe in them anymore. Federal Government, State Governments and the ruling corporate entities spouted those words constantly without putting any feeling behind them. Democracy was a buzzword. Freedom, peace and justice were all meaningless words spouted to bolster support. Only the truly idiotic still believed in those four concepts and believed that they still existed.

"You okay, man?" asked Tucker, as he sat down beside Danny.

There was a look of disbelief on Danny's face. It was understandable. What wasn't understandable, at least to Danny, was why the Blue Bow Army would have betrayed him. He couldn't understand it. Had Walker planned on betraying him all along or was it Jasmine Fenton that had ordered him to do so? Furthermore, what was the reason behind it all? Why was he betrayed and for what cause?

The black-haired youth shrugged his shoulder away from Tucker's hand.
"I'm fine," he said dismissively, before he looked towards Sam. "You okay, Sam?" he asked her in concern.

"I will be," was Sam's reply, "when you stop asking me every five minutes."

"Sorry," apologised Danny sheepishly.

"Hey, don't be like that, Sam," protested Tucker calmly, yet quietly. "Danny's only worried for you. I mean, he rushed you all the way to hospital."

Sam didn't say another thing, which Danny expected. He knew her almost better than she knew herself. Danny knew the only reason she snapped at him was because she didn't want him to worry over her and fuss over her. Yet he cared. He was her brother after all. It was his duty to care for her.

It had been difficult to get her into a hospital. Many of them were either in ruins, bombed to the ground presumably with the patients and hospital staff still in them, or they had been guarded by Blue Bow contingents. The only exception was Maudlin Hospital, which for some strange reason was guarded by Government Forces.

The very presence of the US Army confirmed Danny's suspicions. Amitropolis was a war zone and FentonWorx was at war, but not with Insurgents. If anything, the FentonWorx Corporation was the Insurgent Force, having betrayed many US Military Bases. The Corporation had launched a bid to seize control of civilian and military satellite networks, from what he could tell of talk within the hospital.

Still, even with knowledge of what the FentonWorx Corporation was doing, Danny still had no idea of what they were up to. He still had no idea why he had been betrayed and labelled an Insurgent by the Corporation. Was it possible that they knew he would never support their plans, whatever they were? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Danny knew that Echelon was actually the daughter of a former Blue Bow soldier?

There were so many questions in his mind and he wanted answers. For example, why did they also target his sister? It was clear from the way the Geists acted that the Blue Bow wanted not only to eliminate him, but all his family members. Perhaps they feared that whatever information he knew, they knew too. If only he knew what that particular piece of information was, then he could act and…

"Grandpa," exclaimed Danny in sudden realisation.

"Danny?"

"Grandpa's in danger," explained Danny, as he turned away to look out of the window towards the Barbican. "I don't believe I didn't think of it sooner," he said angrily, hating himself for not realising sooner. "Blue Bow wasn't just after me. It was after you too, Sam. I think Blue Bow wanted to eliminate everyone close to me and that means…"

"No!" cried Sam disbelief, as she sat up. "No, you can't let it happen!"

Danny turned to face her.
"I won't," he told her sternly. "I'm going to get past the Barbican and save Grandpa from the Blue Bow. You can bet on that."

END TRANSMISSION #06