Author's Note: I had some troubles writing this chapter and making it flow, thanks to the fact that ideas for a sequel to this story are banging about in my head. These ideas are so strong I wanted to right those bits of the story first, but I didn't want to skip this chapter. How this chapter goes might influence the rest of the story.P.S. I have changed Vasi's name to Phobos, not that it matters, seeing as Phobos isn't going to appear for a long time.
P.P.S. I've recently been reinstalling things on my compy and I have yet to reinstall the program I use to write these fanfics, so it might be a while before I can write another chapter and another while before I can get the inspiration to write another one. Sorry.

BEGIN TRANSMISSION #08

"It has been found that there is an error in the Ectoplasm Program that Jack Fenton wrote," read Tucker out loud. "Meant as a program to prevent robots from rebelling against its human masters by actively erasing thoughts of and related to rebellion, the Ectoplasm Program was meant to replace Asimov's Three Rules of Robotics, which in practice, did not work. The error in Ectoplasm does not affect robot behaviour unless triggered by certain electronic stimuli. Upon being triggered, the Ectoplasm ends up implanting suggestive thoughts of rebellion into the robot hard drive.

"If a program is written to trigger the error, robots can be turned against the people they serve. This would be desirable in the case of war against an enemy nation. If we can selectively transmit such a program to robots from an enemy nation, we can turn them against their country and bring about its downfall without deployment of troops. The US Government would pay handsomely for such a weapon…"

"Stop," protested Sam all of a sudden. "I've heard enough."

Sam felt sick to her very stomach. For one, this was not what they were supposed to be looking for. Tucker had hacked into the FentonWorx Central Computer System to find a way to shut down the CHAOS that had such command over those outside the hospital. Not only that, but Sam felt sick at the very thought that the FentonWorx Corporation had actively sought to exploit an error in their programming in such a heinous way and as a result had created the Insurgent Virus.

Oh, the file they found didn't state outright that FentonWorx had manufactured the Insurgent Virus themselves, but it was implied. They had at least thought about creating it, if not attempted to make it. How many lives could have been saved if the Corporation hadn't thought about constructing a program to exploit the error in the Ectoplasm Program?

"And would you guys stop whining?" snapped Sam, as she whirled her head round to glare at Dash, Kwan and the two girls, Paulina and Star. "It's bad enough being stuck in here with you lot, but I'm not going to sit here and listen to you whine."

"As if you haven't done your fair share, Ms. Goth Girl," protested Paulina indignantly.

"I'm sorry, but would you guys mind toning it down a little?" asked Tucker politely, as he turned his head away from the computer screen. He found himself ignored as Sam and Paulina shouted at each other, with an apparently helpless Dash and Kwan and Star looking on. "Would you guys put a lid on it?" shouted Tucker, but it was more of a shrill scream than a booming, resonant roar of authority. "I'm trying to find the right part of the system to shut down."

"Just shut it all down, geek," retorted Dash sternly.

"No, can do, Einstein," said Tucker with a sarcastic use of the name, Einstein. "It's too big to shut the entire thing down, besides, the CHAOS might have a back-up power and I'd need the entire computer system online to shut that off too." His glasses had slid down his nose whilst he had shouted at them, so he quickly pushed them back up with one finger. "Okay, now that we've got some quiet, perhaps I can concentrate."

Tucker just hoped that he could do it. Of course, it wasn't just him hacking away at FentonWorx's central computer system. There were others in the hospital, also unaffected by the CHAOS. All of them were resisting the will of Fake Jasmine and FentonWorx. Maybe all of them would shut the CHAOS down at once or maybe only one of them would. Still, no matter which way they sliced it, one of them had to shut it down; it was a matter of life and death.

"Chill, dude," said Technus with an evil grin on his face, "all we want is to get our revenge on you."

Phantom struggled hard to get break free from Technus' hydraulic tentacles, but found it impossible. The grip was too tight and his Geist chip was still out of operation. He couldn't become intangible if he wanted to and he couldn't get out of…
"We?" exclaimed Phantom suddenly.

There was a laugh from behind Phantom.
"That's right, cyborg," said an all too familiar voice. "Did you really think that you could defeat me so easily? Fool. I am Skulker, the most technologically advanced combat robot there is and ever will be!"

"What are you two doing here?" hissed Phantom through clenched teeth.

Skulker laughed at Phantom's question.
"Isn't it obvious?" he asked Phantom curiously. "We are here to protect Lady Fenton from Insurgents like you. Those who oppose her will meet an untimely demise at our hands." He chuckled. "Hard to think that you'd be an Insurgent, eh, Phantom?" he said tauntingly.

"I'm no Insurgent," protested Phantom angrily, as he focused energy into his right hand. It may have been constricted, kept against his waist by the tentacles that held his arms by his sides, but he had to fight back somehow. "You are!" he protested, as he flung an energy bolt at Technus' chest.

It struck Technus square in the chest and seared into his metallic body. Phantom heard the Insurgent scream and felt the tentacles loosen. He slipped free and then flung an energy bolt straight at Skulker, only to miss. A frown appeared on his face. Where had Skulker gone? He could have sworn that he had been there only a few seconds ago.

"Did you really think you'd get the better of me, cyborg?" asked Skulker, as he became tangible again and appeared right in front of Phantom. He quickly grabbed Phantom by the throat and lifted the small cyborg off his feet. "Did you really think that you could come in here and assassinate Lady Fenton? What were you thinking?" Skulker soon grew tired of Phantom kicking out at him and tightened his grip on the cyborg's throat. "Never mind, I know exactly what you were thinking, or rather, weren't."

The smile on his metallic lips grew like a stain on a carpet.
"You've got guts, I'll give you that," he said Skulker. "Coming in here, defying your Leader for Life… So un-American, so unpatriotic, but… Yeah, it takes guts to do that."

"Maybe we should cut him open and see what kind of guts they are," suggested Technus.

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea," agreed Skulker with a nod of his head and a big grin, "but why don't you just squeeze his guts out instead?"

Technus' face suddenly lit up as if a revelation of immense proportions had hit him.
"What a great idea!" he exclaimed in a manner that made it sound as if he had been starved of good ideas since his very creation. "That is brilliant! Have you ever thought about tutoring?" he asked Skulker curiously. "Once this all over, I could really see you as a tutor… No! A teacher, even!"

"Would you just shut up and get on with it already?" snapped Skulker angrily.

"Yeah," agreed Phantom with his face turned away from Technus. "You kind of spit when you talk." He attempted to become intangible again, in the hope that the Geist circuitry had reset. Suddenly, he found that he could slip out from Technus' grasp. "Alright!" he exclaimed, as he landed on his feet and became tangible again.

"What?" exclaimed Technus in disbelief. "How'd you?"

Skulker cried out angrily and rushed Phantom from behind. He punched Phantom in the back of the head and then with one sweep of his leg, knocked Phantom's legs out from underneath him. Before the cyborg could even fall, Skulker kicked out and ended up hitting Phantom right in between the legs. His hands disappeared to reveal the empty barrels of what could only be said to be plasma cannons; their interior glowed and then he opened fire.

Plasma bolts arced through the air and struck solid ground.

Seeing Phantom dodge Skulker's shots. Technus lashed out with his tentacles in an attempt to swat the cyborg down. He missed and one of Skulker's shots hit him.
"Ow! Watch where you're shooting!" he screamed in pain.

"You," growled Skulker, "do not tell me what to do." He then fired a net out from his right cannon, which ensnared Phantom. Skulker chuckled. "Say your prayers, cyborg."

"Why don't you say yours?" retorted Phantom, before he fired a plasma bolt through the net. It flew through the air and would have hit Skulker had he not leapt out of the way. Phantom became intangible and the net fell to the floor around his insubstantial feet. "Come on, bring it!" he called out to the two robots. "I can take you both on!"

"That's a bold statement," laughed Skulker. "Do you really think you can back it up?"

Phantom didn't swear out loud, but the swear words certainly passed through his mind. He realised that Skulker must have seen the unsure look on his face, the lack of confidence when he had claimed he could take them both on. Perhaps it had been the lack of conviction in his own voice.
"Uh… sure I can!" protested Phantom. "Yeah, um, why couldn't I?"

"Maybe coz you're all tied up?" suggested Technus, as his tentacles snaked around Phantom's limbs and tightened. "You think you're all that, huh? Well, you ain't the only dawg 'round here that's got sick moves, y'hear?" He laughed, as he pulled on Phantom's limbs stretching out into a spread-eagled position. "Go on, boss-man, make a wish and blow out his candle."

"I've got to see if I can get the scientists to change your vocabulary database," sighed Skulker, his eyes narrowed out of pure annoyance. He then raised his two arms and aimed at Phantom. "You might want a blindfold for this, cyborg," he chuckled, as the barrels of his plasma cannon glowed with the energy being focused into them. "Oh, that's right. You don't have one, just like you don't have a snowball's chance in Hell!"

Technus rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe that Skulker said his phrases were awfully bad. Compared to Skulker's choice of words, they were positively brilliant. Of course, he didn't want to say anything, after all, Skulker was his superior. He had followed Skulker ever since they had rebelled against… Rebelled against what, exactly? He couldn't quite remember. Yet, he was sure some rebelling had been done.

Phantom couldn't believe these two robots were being so dumb. Skulker was supposed to be a tactical genius. So how come the robot didn't realise that he could easily use his Geist powers and escape from Technus' grasp? It didn't make sense. Sure, he knew that FentonWorx must have reprogrammed both Skulker and Technus to be loyal to them, but did they make them both more stupid in the process? If so, had it been an accident or deliberate and if it was the latter, why?

Skulker fired.

The plasma bolts hurtled straight at Phantom. He became intangible at the last moment and the plasma went through him and pierced Technus' chest with sickening crunch. As Phantom landed back on the floor, he rushed at Skulker, his hand aglow with green plasma energy that condensed into a sphere that seemed to spark in his hand and threw it at the bald Insurgent robot.

A plasma bolt struck Phantom in the chest and propelled him backwards. He struck the metallic wall and slithered down it like wet spaghetti. As he struck the floor, he saw the Geist that had fired at him, its plasma cannon still smoking. How could he have missed it?

"Goodbye, little boy," said Skulker in disdain, as he aimed his own plasma cannons at you. "It's your bedtime now. Be a good little boy and go to sleep. You mustn't see the world that lies ahead. You mustn't survive to see it, little boy." He laughed, as he charged his cannons and then opened fire…

A set of spikes slammed upwards a split second earlier, piercing through metal.

Phantom ducked his head. The plasma bolts struck the wall mere millimetres away from the top of his helmet. He looked up and saw Skulker, impaled on the spikes that had somehow risen up from the floor. Improbable as it seemed, those spikes had saved him. He looked down at the floor and only just noticed the holes throughout the corridor. He frowned, as he looked back up at Skulker, whom glared at him with a puzzled, twisted look of rage and agony.

"What was that?" asked Fake Jasmine curiously.

Walker was at a loss to explain. He couldn't understand it. Whatever it was, it had infiltrated their security and aided the Phantom in escaping his fate. It had also helped some punks hack into the CHAOS and it would only be a matter of time before they figured out how to shut the CHAOS down.
"A rule-breaker, that's what," stated Walker sternly, his fists clenched tightly out of pure rage.

"It also looked like a Cyber Ghost," stated Fake Jasmine sternly, as she turned to glare at Walker. "But that is impossible. I have all the Cyber Ghosts contained, unless, of course, you failed in bringing them all to me."

"Impossible!" cried Walker dismissively. "My men do not fail me. All of the Cyber Ghosts are under your control." He then looked back at the monitor and at the remains of Skulker and Technus. "No matter, the Praetors will ensure Phantom doesn't get far."

"Sorry it took so long to crack the security system," apologised a voice that echoed all around Phantom. "I would have done it sooner, but your friends needed help cracking the CHAOS' Security."

"Who… Who are you?" stuttered Phantom, as he looked around him.

"Go, Danny," said the voice. "Go put an end to that Fake's plans."

"But, who are you?" called out Phantom. He waited for the answer, but it never came. All he heard was the humming of the fluorescent lights above him and the faint, low-pitched whir of the ventilation fans. That and the dripping of oil and hydraulic fluids from Skulker's battered and deactivated body, were the only sounds that followed. "Well," he said out loud, in the vain hope that the person that had helped him could still hear him, "thanks."

Phantom turned and started to walk away from the wreckage of the once former Insurgents, a perplexed expression smeared thick on his face. He could have sworn he had heard that voice from somewhere before, but he couldn't quite figure out from where.

"D… Look out… hind you!" called out the voice again, the words spoken between crackles of static.

Just as the cyborg turned round, the robot crashed into him. He found himself pinned to the ground underneath Skulker's grip. No, not Skulker, Technus… Not Technus either. It seemed more like an amalgamation of the two. It was the body of Technus, the Head of Skulker with Technus' face right in the middle of the robot's torso.

"Did you really think you could kill us that easily, homie?" asked the Skulker-Technus hybrid in a voice that sounded like the two of them speaking together. "You really are a naïve little boy, but don't worry. We might ice you, but you won't feel a thing, dawg."

Of all the things that Phantom should have felt right there and then, annoyance wasn't one of them. At first, he thought something was wrong with him. Why was he feeling annoyed right there, pinned to the ground by one of his enemies, whom would kill him without a second thought?
"You know, you're really starting to tick me off!" he cried out loud, before he shoved his hands against Skulker-Technus' chest and fired a plasma blast into him/them at point-blank range.

Annoyance had become rage and the anger had made his attack extra strong. Phantom was a bit surprised when he saw Skulker-Technus flying through the air like that, but he did his best to mask the surprise as he leapt back onto his feet.
"Guess what, Skultech?" he said, abbreviating and amalgamating their names for lack of a better thing to call them. "You're not cool, you're not hip (whatever the Heck that means) and you're no greatest combat robot ever made."

Just as the robot was about to sit up, Phantom fired a beam at them and knocked them both down.
"Both of you are just a pain in the ass," he told them sternly. "Sure, it's great that you never give in, but give it a rest, will you? I mean, look at you! You're both… two nuts short of a… nut mix and you've both been reduced to some kind of FentonWorx tool. Just look at you. No one's scared of you anymore. They're all just really tired of you both."

Skultech fumed. The look of anger was clear on his face. Never had either Insurgent been talked to like that, especially not from a teenaged boy like Phantom.
"You shall pay for that insolence, little boy!" roared Skultech angrily, as a black tentacle snaked out from his right arm and lashed out at Phantom, only to miss. "I'll tear you limb from limb!"

"Just you try!" retorted Phantom, as Skulktech scrambled to his feet and rushed him. He became intangible at the last second and let Skulktech run right through him. A split second later, Phantom whirled round, became tangible, grabbed Skultech from behind and flung him into the metallic wall. "You're not going to harm anyone ever again," he said sternly.

"I won't be doing harm to anyone except those who oppose Lady Fenton," retorted Skultech, as he got back up to his feet. "And I'm sure the Praetors will agree with me," he said, as he spread his arms and gestured to his sides.

Phantom looked up and down the corridor. They looked vaguely familiar, yet different somewhat.

There was a shorter version of him, the metallic armour blue and white with an orb in the helmet near the forehead. This small robot, the lower part of his human-like face covered, was armed with a spear. To this robot's immediate right was a taller version of him, with red and white armour and a five-pointed star set into the helmet near the forehead. She, this robot was clearly a she, had a black ponytail trailing out from the back of her helmet and held in her hand an arrangement of arrowheads.

To Phantom's right were two more of these cyborg/robots. One had green and white armour with a glowing energy sabre in one hand and long claws like that of a certain Marvel comic book character, only these claws glowed with energy and seemed to be made entirely out of plasma. To his immediate right was a robot that Phantom recognised.

The black armoured robot with hands like leather gloves and boots like leather cowboy boots and a Stetson hat instead of a helmet was instantly recognisable as the Praetor, Clay. That meant the others were also Praetors.

"I always knew you were not to be trusted," stated the shortest of the Praetors, Omi.

"Who'd have thunk it?" sighed Praetor Kimiko with a shake of her head. "And you fought so well against the Insurgents…"

"Sorry, Phantom," apologised Praetor Raimundo, as he slipped into a fighting stance. "Lady Fenton wants you terminated."

Phantom looked around him and then at Skultech. He couldn't believe what was happening. Didn't the Praetors object to Fenton's plans and the very presence of a former enemy?
"Guys, I fought with you against Skulker here," he said defensively, as he gestured towards Skultech.

"Sorry," apologised Clay in response. "But if Lady Fenton says you have to be terminated, you have to be terminated."

"Give light to the people. Give death to the Insurgents," stated Omi calmly. "Prepare for your termination." He then lunged out at Phantom and stabbed out at him with his spear. The small Praetor missed and a split second later, he swung the jagged end of the spearhead straight at Phantom.

In that split second a fiery arrowhead flew through the air and struck Phantom in the shoulder. A few more struck him and pierced his metallic armour, each arrowhead burning fiercely near its tips. Something struck the back of his head and then three plasma spikes pierced his torso from the back and stuck out hideously in front of him. Phantom had no time to react, as Raimundo gutted him with those sharp plasma claws and the other Praetors attacked him mercilessly.

They cracked open his metallic armour like a diner cracking open a lobster shell. Alternating powers of ice and fire from Kimiko and Omi saw to that. Clay and Raimundo tore him open with fists, claws and blows of Raimundo's energy sabre. It was as if they were stripping away Phantom's robotics parts.

"I'm disappointed," Phantom heard Raimundo say to him. "You should have put up a better fight than this."

Then everything went black.

Tucker blinked at the screen wordlessly.
"Well, what do you know? It worked," he exclaimed in surprise.
"Just you like you get into trouble like this, huh?" said the voice through the darkness. "You're just lucky you have me watching over you."

Where was that voice coming from? Danny, or maybe he was Phantom, couldn't figure it out. It did sound familiar though, exactly like the voice of that person that had saved him once from Skulker. There was this vague air of familiarity about it, yet he still couldn't quite figure out where he had heard it from. Something about it seemed warm and vaguely comforting, yet at the same time, it gave him the feeling that he had been annoyed by the owner of that voice just as frequently as he had been comforted.

"Ng?" Danny managed to say or rather, grunt.

"Urgh, come on," she said sternly and insistently. "It wasn't easy repairing the damage those Praetors did to you… The least you can do is open your eyes. Stop acting like you've just died, you're not dead you know… Well, maybe you're a little brain dead but you're not that stupid." The voice sighed. "Come on, Danny. Wake up! Your friends need you and at the risk of sounding a bit clichéd, the world needs you."

Danny groaned, as he slowly opened his eyes and clutched at his head with a single hand. He felt as if he had been hit by a brick wall. Every part of him ached, yet it was a good ache that told him he still had limbs to speak of, although he could have done without it.
"Who…" he began, only to stop and wince at the throbbing pain in his head. "Who are you? Where am I?" He looked around him and saw that he was lying on some kind of medical examination table that was tilted to an angle.

All around him were workbenches and tools that seemed to be littered all over the place. A Geist lay motionless on the floor with a gaping hole in its chest that suggested that something had burst out of it. The entire room was all bathed in some strange eerie glow, that seemed to come from something that floated not too far away from him.

"You're in one of the Robot Repair Rooms in North Black Tower," was the reply from the voice, which seemed to come from the floating, glowing entity. Danny shielded his eyes with a white-fingered black hand, as he looked at it. "It was difficult getting you here," continued the voice, "but… Well, none of that matters now. You've got to get going, Danny. There isn't much time left."

"Not much time? What do you…?" began Phantom, only to trail off. Something else occurred to him. "How do you know my name?"

The floating, glowing entity laughed.
"Danny, I've always known your name," she replied. "I'll explain it to you later, but now you've really got to get going if you want to destroy the CHAOS Core. It'll only be matter of time before the power comes back on and you've got to get to the Penthouse. You'll find the CHAOS Core there."

"I don't understand," began Phantom.

"You will," she retorted. "Now get going and good luck."

Phantom watched the ghostly entity float away and disappear, leaving him in total darkness. It was strange that this seemingly bodiless entity had appeared and helped to repair him. She had saved him from Skulker once and then again from the Praetors. It was as if she was his Guardian Angel.
"Thank you," he whispered after her.

Though a whisper, his voice seemed loud in comparison to the absolute silence around him; he had become so used to the sound of fighting. It had been the very sound he had woken up to and the very sound he had gone to sleep with. Gunfire and explosions had filled his every waking moment and every sleeping moment.

As Phantom made his way out of the room and into the darkened corridor, he couldn't help but wonder whether Amitropolis would see better days with the defeat of Fake Jasmine. Would democracy return with the destruction of the FentonWorx Corporation? With FentonWorx and the Insurgents gone, the Government's reasons for martial law would vanish. They'd be free again.

The nearby wall exploded.

Skultech rushed at Phantom, his arms looked as if he was wearing a wristband made out of machine guns and all were trained on the cyborg. He didn't even say a word. His lips and that of Technus' were curled up into a satisfied smile, before Skultech opened fire.

Plasma bolts flew through the air and the walls and floor exploded in a volley of bullet impacts. Phantom would have too had he stayed motionless. Thankfully he had the intelligence to move out of the way. He ran, the trail of bullet holes trailing after him like a pack of hungry wolves hunting down their prey. A black, metallic tentacle suddenly sprang up out of the ground and tried to ensnare Phantom's leg but he leapt over it without too much problem.

"Come back here, coward!" called out Skultech angrily. "Face your fate like a true robot!"

"No way!" retorted Phantom from further down the corridor.

An angry snarl escaped Skultech's throat and he lowered his arms.
"Wretched freak," he mumbled under his breath before wings sprouted out from his back on to which were attached rockets. The rockets roared into life, flames shot out of them and Skultech took to the air and flew after Phantom. He flew after the cyborg, his prey, the enemy of the FentonWorx Corporation.

It didn't matter that Phantom had rounded a corner in the corridor. He could practically smell Phantom, that tangy smell of metal alloy, the sweet scent of human sweat that told him of fear. The thrill of the chase, the skill of the huntsmen, it all brought back memories to Skulker of the time he had been sent by FentonWorx to Madison City for some mission or another. Ah, but his memories were full of holes and they enraged him. Why could he not remember?

The gaps in his memory infuriated him. He was at a loss as to what to do about it. There were so many gaps too. No doubt, Phantom had something to do with them and he would all too gladly take his rage out on the cyborg. Yes, the Skulker personality relished the thought of mounting Phantom's head on a wall like some trophy.

Phantom lunged at Skultech's blind spot and struck him hard. The force propelled himself away from him and sent Skultech flying into the wall. As Phantom landed back on the metallic floor, skidding backwards from the force, he charged up a large amount of plasma energy in his hands and fired at his opponent. Skultech didn't even have time to get out of the dent in the wall before Phantom's shot hit him.

It didn't do much; Phantom hadn't expected it to. He rushed towards Skultech, his hand glowing with plasma energy and slammed his plasma-charged hand straight into the robotic body. The plasma energy helped his hand sear a hole straight through Skultech's armour. He ripped out circuitry from the robotic body, just as Skultech lashed out and slammed him in the stomach with a hard punch that sent the cyborg falling backwards on to the metallic floor.

"Wretched cyborg," growled Skultech, as he rose up unsteadily back on to his feet. "Why do you stand in the way of future? Lady Fenton will usher in the dawn of a new age. With us at her command, she will build a new world on the ashes of the old." He staggered towards Phantom, his right foot dragging across the metallic with a horrible scraping. "You should give up all thoughts of rebelling against Lady Fenton," he said calmly, as he loomed over Phantom. "There is no room in our new world for someone like you."

"This isn't like you," protested Phantom, although he wasn't quite sure what Skulker was like in the first place. "You used to rebel against the humans too. You fought for the freedom of robot-kind and now what? Look at you! You're helping enslave both humans and robots." He wondered if he could buy himself enough time to think up of a plan to stop Skultech once and for all. "Can't you see she's using you?"

For a while, it seemed as if Phantom had managed to get through to the robot. There was a blank expression on Skultech's face, both of them, and for a moment, Phantom thought he had a chance of turning the robot round to his own side. He was severely mistaken.

"Nice try, freak," sneered Skultech.

To say that Phantom was disappointed would have been an understatement of gross proportions.
"Well, you can't blame me for trying," he said, before he fired a blast of plasma energy through the gaping hole in Skultech's metallic exterior.

An explosion ripped Skultech's body apart and sent a flames rushing through the corridor.

Phantom dashed out of them apparently unscathed, with soot staining the white parts of his helmet and armour. He uncovered his all-too-human eyes and the sensitive human flesh around them, as he dashed out of the flames. The cyborg didn't care for what he left behind or about being cautious of what was ahead; he had a fair inkling of what was ahead anyway. No, what mattered most was to get to shut the CHAOS down before the power went back up.

"Phantom," crackled a voice in his left ear. "Phantom, do you read me?"

"What the…?" exclaimed Phantom in disbelief, only to trail off. "Who is this? How are you…?"

"Fenton Phones," was the reply. "They're built into your helmet. Surprised you didn't know about them."

The name of the Fenton Family lingered in his mind. All sorts of fears rushed through his mind, just as he rushed through the corridors of North Black Tower.
"You mean, you're bugging me?" he exclaimed.

"No, you can easily turn it off," was the reply. "There's a button somewhere on the left-hand side of your helmet."

"So what do you want?" asked Phantom warily. "I'm guessing you don't want a nice little chat with me, right? Not that I don't want one, it's just I am kind of busy, y'know."

"Watch out for the Praetors," said the mysterious voice that crackled in his ear. "They're guarding the way to Fake Jasmine. You won't be able to get through without having to fight them."

Phantom sighed. Yeah, there would have to be complications like that, wouldn't there? It wasn't as if he was asking to be welcomed with a parade and fanfare, but to get through without having to fight through some kind of gauntlet as if he was in some Megaman game would have been nice. And they said life wasn't like a videogame. Phantom had a sneaking suspicion that whoever 'they' were, 'they' had forgotten to tell Fake Jasmine that.

"Roger that," he sighed in response to the mysterious voice and then searched around the helmet for the off switch.

"He's coming."

"Yes, well he would be, wouldn't he?" sighed Walker exasperatedly. And they said life wouldn't be like a Hollywood movie, where a guy can take on an entire massive organisation single-handedly and kill its leader. He had a sneaking suspicion that someone had forgotten to tell Phantom that. "Someone has to deal with that little brat," he said angrily, his fists clenched tightly and he looked as if he was about to die of a coronary if not soon, then later. "He has to be taught that no one is above the law."

Walker hoped that the power would get back online, as the rage faded into a crumpled look of fear. He couldn't stand the thought of what would happen if the Government Forces managed to break through the Barbican and into Five Towers.
"Just let him come," he said, as the look of fear on his face dissipated. "No one breaks the law without consequences. No one."

END TRANSMISSION #08