Author's Note: Somewhere in this chapter, you will be introduced to a new character. The name might fool you into thinking he's an original character, but he's not. He's a Danny Phantom character that appeared in the first season; I just gave him a different name. You can pretty much figure out who it is from the name I gave him, because it's based on a certain something from the episode he appeared in. Can you guess who he is?

Special Thanks: One more thing before I continue. I'd like to thank all of the people who've given me reviews, especially Faith's Melody and Black Thorn Rose. If it weren't for you, this story wouldn't be what it is now. Thank you ever so much.

BEGIN TRANSMISSION #09

Danny peered round the darkened corner. He slid back round, his back pressed against the cold, metallic wall. It was quiet, far too quiet. He had a feeling that there was a trap there in wait for him, not counting the trap that the Praetors had inevitably left for him. Yet for all he could tell, there wasn't a soul, not even a robotic one, in sight. That didn't feel right.

It didn't feel right sneaking through the corridor in human form either, but he had to take the chance. His robotic form gave off an energy signature, he was sure of that. If he continued rushing around as Phantom, he would have been spotted. So far, the Geists hadn't come after him, which was good. The onslaught had lessened, as if the Geists had lost something to home in on. He hadn't encountered battle for nigh fifteen minutes, which, judging from his earlier experience in the Five Towers' lower levels, seemed almost impossible.

The silence was still unnerving, despite having spent so long within the Five Towers in its grasp. Danny thought he could get used to it, but he obviously hadn't. It felt as if he would never get used to the silence, as if this peace was fleeting and would leave his life as soon as it had come.

Once more, Danny peered round the corner and looked into the darkness. He couldn't see very far through the shadows, unlike his robotic alter ego. Danny was at the mercy of his more human senses. Compared to the hero he had become, he was fragile, weak and pathetic. He couldn't fight back against the Geists. All he could do was hope that he could sneak past them. Any mistake he made would be his last.

His sneakers made no sound against the metallic floor, as he ran round from the corner. That was the advantage of his human form, he supposed. Still, Danny was quite heavy and his footsteps made a heavier sound than that of other teenagers his age, even when compared to the overweight ones.

One wrong footing and Danny tripped over a set of cones that had been placed on the floor. He cried out and then fell down a hole.

"I just think it's wrong to build these things," said the red-haired woman, as she watched an impossibly large man tinker away at a workbench. "Won't you end up putting people out of jobs?"

The large man, his greying black hair cropped short with military precision, stopped for a while and looked up from the metallic body of the robot that lay on his workbench. There was grease on his large face, smeared all over as if it were camouflage, and an almost boyish grin on his lips, mirrored only by the sparkle in his eyes.
"Now, Maddie, you know I wouldn't dream of doing that," he told her, he then turned back to concentrate on his work. "Son, would you mind handing over that spanner?"

"Here you go, Daddy."

"Thanks, son," thanked the large man, before he continued, "These robots will do what no man can. They will rescue people from the fires in which no fire fighter can rush into. They will explore the furthest frontiers of space, venture into toxic fumes to put out fires, fix nuclear reactors whilst they still run… Nothing will be too radioactive or toxic for them. Robots are the future, Maddie. Plus they're really, really cool! Right, Danny?"

"Right!" exclaimed the young, childish voice. "They'll be able to fight bad guys… and… and… fly and stuff. It'll be so cool!"

The large man laughed at his son's words.
"That's my boy!" he said and rubbed his son's head, messing up the black hair in the process. He sighed. "Takes after his old man, he does. I'm sure he'll grow up to be a great engineer like his Dad." His voice sounded saturated with pride, so much so that his entire countenance seemed to ooze pride like some kind of spiritual aura. "If only your Father could see him now! That cantankerous old…"

"Jack!" exclaimed Maddie angrily. "I'd thank you not to talk about my father like that."

"I'm sorry, sweet cakes," apologised the large man. He seemed like a little child that had just been told off for stealing a cookie from a jar. "It's just, he always hated me."

Maddie laughed.
"Oh, Jack, don't be silly," she said. "My Dad never hated you. It's just he never really had much to talk about, that's all. He always did find it hard to strike up a conversation with people if they didn't share a common interest with him."

Jack shivered, perhaps from cold, or perhaps from something else entirely.
"Common interest?" he exclaimed in an almost horrified tone of voice. "How can anyone have a common interest with him? His work on viruses always creeped me out. When I heard about the accident, I wasn't surprised one bit. That man never rests."

"Huh! The same could be said for you," retorted Maddie sternly. "Honestly, Jack, I don't know why you insist on saying bad things about my Father."

"Oh come on, Maddie, you're about the only one in here that liked him," protested Jack loudly.

"Let's not talk about this in front of the children," snapped Maddie sternly.

"But…" began Jack, but was silenced an instant later by Maddie's stern gaze. "Very well," he sighed with a defeated slouch to his great big shoulders. He then went back to screwing in the bolt, but accidentally hit something. There was a metallic chink and suddenly oil spurted out, miraculously missing the large man named Jack, eliciting a scream from behind him. "Darn it!"

"Ha, ha! Jazz got dirty!"

"Oh, Jack," cried out Maddie in a semi-scolding tone, "you've got to be more careful." She grabbed a cloth and rushed over to her daughter. "You got oil all over Jazz," she said, as she knelt down by her daughter and wiped her face gently.

"I can't help it if this darned thing won't behave," protested Jack, as he gestured towards the robot. "You know, I can't for the life of me figure out why this thing won't get up and walk. Everything's connected right." He sighed heavily, his entire body expanding and then contracting like some gigantic bellows, before it deflated and sagged like a disappointed child on a present-less Christmas Day. "And I had Asimov's Rules of Robotics installed and everything…"

He slammed his clenched fists on to the workbench table, the force shaking everything on its surface. A few cans of oil fell over and spilt their blackened liquid like blood gushing from the jugular of a slain animal.
"Work! Why won't you work?" he shouted angrily.

"Daddy, don't be angry…"

"Don't be… angry…"

When Danny came to again, he found his cheeks were damp. Why were they damp? He couldn't understand, as he sat up in the darkness. Almost automatically, Danny began to wonder whether he had been crying again. He often woke to find his cheeks dampened with tears yet with no memory of why he had been crying. Sometimes he wondered whether he would want to know the reason for why he cried in his sleep, but another memory started to encroach his mind.

A light flickered. No, Danny suddenly realised it wasn't just one. All the lights flickered on and off like strobe lighting, as if the light were finally starting to fight back against the darkness, as if it were finally making its presence known. Electricity flowed through wires and suddenly there was light, the darkness vanquished.

Danny realised that was bad, as he sat up. Darkness was good; light was bad. Light meant that the power was back on and that the CHAOS was now functioning again or close to functioning. He was no closer to Fake Jasmine and the CHAOS Core than when he had first stepped into Central White Tower. If he was to save his friends from being controlled, he had to get up to the top of Central White as soon as possible.

The youth stood up, as a brilliant light enveloped him. Unfortunately, he knocked something over and as it clattered to the floor, his concentration broke. The light dimmed and the transformation from Danny Manson to Phantom stopped dead in its tracks. It gave way to Danny's focus to the photograph he had knocked over, though why he had focused on it, he didn't quite know.

It almost seemed as if something was drawing him towards it, despite the nagging thought in his head. The voice kept shouting at him, telling him to focus on the mission and destroy the CHAOS. Yet another part of him couldn't help but focus on the overturned picture.

Danny scooped it up into his hands and lifted it up, almost as if it were a bird with a broken wing. He looked at the picture, at the group of people gathered within the frame, smiling out at him. Danny recognised a few of the faces. It was impossible not to recognise some of them.

There was just something about the picture, though, that Danny couldn't help getting drawn to. He couldn't quite understand what it was. It was the way that Jack and Maddie Fenton looked out from the picture with smiles on their lips. He'd never seen them so happy. In all their family portraits they could be seen scowling out from the canvas, the oil paints twisted into an eternal grimace.

Whatever it was, the picture brought feelings to Danny that he couldn't quite explain. Everything faded away, melted into the distance. He couldn't understand it. What was this feeling that ran through him? It felt… It felt like a longing for something distant and unattainable. A memory almost surfaced to his mind, yet it was blurred and heavily scarred and soon sunk back down through the ocean of his thoughts.

Slowly, Danny put the picture back on the desk. He looked up.

The greyscale image of Danny Manson looked out at him from through the monitor.

"Who…? Who is that? Is that who I think it is? What's he doing here?"

A strange smile spread across Walker's lips, as he stood there in the security room, the glow of the security screen illuminating his pale face.
"Breaking the rules, what else?" was his reply. "Dr. Gotik, I don't think you should worry about him. He's nothing, a mere gnat. The Geists will dispose of him quickly."

"I don't think so," came the reply from the posh, refined voice. "Last I saw of him, he was being shredded to pieces by the Praetors, yet here he is, standing tall and as whole as he is healthy. What does that say to you, hm?" He paused slightly, as if to give General Walker a chance to reply, but it was an abrupt pause that didn't leave the General a chance to get a word in edgewise. "I'll tell you what it says to me. It says that someone is helping him. Someone has taken an interest in this 'gnat'."

The thin man turned round to face Walker, his face even paler than Walker's, if such a thing were possible.
"And I think I know just who that someone is," he said sternly. "Send the Praetors out to crush this 'gnat' of yours. He must not get through to the Fake Jasmine."

There was a flash and the image on the monitor turned white and blank. Danny had disappeared and in his place was standing a black and white cyborg. Seconds later, the image disappeared and was replaced with snowy static.

The door fell over and fell flat on the floor.

Phantom emerged from the room, just as several Geist robots approached him and aimed their plasma cannons at him. They opened fire. The cyborg crossed his arms wide and an eerie green energy barrier formed around him. None of the shots hit him, obviously. He uncrossed his arms and spread them out wide, the energy barrier expanding outwards in response to his gesture.

He didn't even wait to see the Geists fall to the floor. Phantom leapt into the air and became intangible moments before he hit the ceiling. The cyborg became physical and then landed on the floor.

"Well, well, if it ain't the traitor?" sniffed a feminine voice that Phantom just about recognised. "I've got to admit, you're pretty good. It's a shame you're surrounded, though." The red Praetor gestured around her at the Geists that surrounded him. "Playtime's over, Phantom," Kimiko told him sternly. "Lady Fenton wants you terminated."

Phantom didn't say anything, as he slowly stood up. He just looked around him at the Geists that had their plasma cannons trained on him and at the Praetor that no doubt wanted the honour of personally turning him into scrap metal and dog chow. To say that he felt nervous was an understatement of great proportions. He wondered whether it was a good idea to sink back through the floor. The Geists would almost certainly follow him and so would Praetor Kimiko.

The Praetor chuckled.
"What's the matter, Phantom?" she asked tauntingly. "No smart remarks?" She reached up with her left hand and grabbed the gold-brocaded edge of her green cloak and pulled it off. "Well, then, guess it's time we started, huh?" Kimiko motioned towards the Geists.

They opened fire. Phantom ducked. A few of the lasers flew overhead and struck a few Geists in the chests. He then sprang to his feet like a coiled spring and lunged at Kimiko. Phantom missed as she leapt above him and her feet flamed as she performed a flipping kick at the cyborg.

"Whoa!" cried Phantom, as he leapt backwards and fired a plasma beam at the Praetor. He didn't hit her, but that was to be expected.

"Now, now, it ain't good manners to fight a girl."

A fist connected straight with Phantom's face, as he turned round. He was flung backwards by the force of the kick straight towards Kimiko's fiery, spinning kick. The flames scorched his armour and the force of the kick knocked him back over. He collapsed just short of the black boots of Praetor Clay. One of them lifted up and would have came crashing down on Phantom's head had he not rolled out of the way.

As Phantom rolled, he slammed one hand down and used it to help him leap back up to his feet. His other hand glowed with plasma energy and he discharged the plasma blast, as he spun round. He watched as the Geists became intangible, letting the plasma fly straight through them, just as he expected them to.

The minute they became intangible, Phantom ran straight at them. He darted through them, following his plasma bolt and fired another blast of plasma energy in front of him to clear the way of the remaining Geists. They scattered aside in a flurry of shattered metal, spraying oil and broken gears.

"Hey! Come back here, ya' varmint!" cried out Clay, as he saw Phantom running away from him. "Hey, you hear me?" He shoved a few Geists aside in his haste to run after his prey. "I said come back 'ere, ya' yeller-belly coward!" he cried, as he whipped out a lasso and flung it through the air. He watched it fly gracefully through the air and catch the cyborg by the legs. "Gotcha!" he cried, as Phantom stumbled. He pulled back.

"Hands off him!" cried a voice and a rocket flew through the air, trailing thick smoke behind it.

It detonated.

Both the Praetors and the Geists were flung backwards by the expanding ball of flames and smoke. The thick smoke obscured their vision, making it impossible to see who had fired that rocket at them. Even with Kimiko's heat sensors, they wouldn't be able to identify the person.

Clay pulled on the rope and heard a metallic object sliding towards him. There was a snip and then he reached the end of his rope; it had been cut straight through with a knife.
"What in tarnation?" exclaimed Clay in utter disbelief. He looked up and as the smoke cleared, he recognised the red armour of…

"Grey?" exclaimed Kimiko. "What are you doing?" she asked incredulously. She didn't understand what was going on. Surely, they had neutralised Valerie Grey as a threat?

Valerie stood defensively in front in between Phantom and the Praetors, armed with the huge weapon that had been given to her by Skulker. Her face couldn't be seen underneath the helmet, as always, but her anger was still visible through it.
"You used me," she said angrily. "You all used me." She cocked her modified bazooka, as it were an oversized gun and then aimed it at the Praetors. "You're going to pay for that, robots."

"Oh yeah?" exclaimed Kimiko, as she stood up. "You and what army, sister?"

"Phantom's all the army I need," was Valerie's stern reply.

"Don't think so, babe," came a reply from her side.

Before Valerie could even turn round and react, Raimundo appeared out of nowhere and slashed at her with the glowing plasma claws on his right hand. The tips of the claws shredded deep through her armour as if it were snow. Metal melted and became liquid around the claws, as they tore through her armour to leave huge gashes both in it and her tanned skin. She cried out and was then knocked over by a well-timed kick to her legs.

Raimundo then turned his head and smiled at Phantom. It was an arrogant, cocky smile, the one he kept giving to Phantom for what seemed to be nor reason.
"Nice to see you alive and kicking, Phantom," he told the black-armoured cyborg. "When you disappeared, I thought you'd pulled through somehow."

"Yeah?" exclaimed Phantom with a deliberately blatant, feigned tone of interest.

"Yeah," was Raimundo's reply, as he nodded as if to emphasise his reply. "Only someone like you could have survived something like that." The smile on his tanned Brazilian face widened, if such a thing were possible. "I always liked you, Phantom," he said. "What do you say you join us, huh? You'll have it great! We've got everything you've ever wanted. You want it, you name it, you'll get it."

There was a hopeful look on Raimundo's face, as he looked at Phantom.
"Come on, what do you say?" he asked Phantom curiously. "Anything you ever want, you can have it. Just join us and pledge allegiance to Lady Fenton. Money? Fast cars? Videogames? Hot chi…? Um… You name it. Come on, you know you want too."

Phantom couldn't believe what he was hearing. Only a moment ago, they had been trying to kill him. Now Praetor Raimundo was trying to get him to pledge allegiance to the Fake Jasmine and renounce his cause? Did Raimundo realise how unlikely that was? Perhaps he did, after all, the expression on his face looked almost desperate and full of fear.

Here he was at another crossroads. Phantom could still remember giving in to Walker and signing up to join the Blue Bow Army, out of fear of having his secret identity exposed. He had caved in to a threat. That had been a mistake, Phantom knew that now. The way Blue Bow had betrayed him, how Walker had tried to kill him and his family soon after the attack on Raven Wharf, still haunted his mind. What if he were to accept Praetor Raimundo's offer? Would he be betrayed again?

Back then, when he had signed his name on the Blue Bow contract, Phantom had rejected his own ideals and that of his sister. To save his secret identity, Phantom… no, Danny Manson, had sacrificed his own ideals. His distrust of FentonWorx and of the Blue Bow had all been put aside, just to keep one secret identity safe. He should have been more careful with it. Danny should have known better. Yet now, would he cave in to Raimundo's offer? Would he sacrifice his promise to his Grandfather, his vow to bring down FentonWorx and the Fake Jasmine, all for the supposed promise of whatever he wanted?

Sam had called Paulina shallow. She herself had once been as shallow as Paulina and she regretted every moment of it. Would Sam think of her brother as shallow if he accepted Raimundo's offer and pledged allegiance to Fake Jasmine? No, she would probably think worse of him. Sam would probably never trust her brother again. She would probably despise him for the rest of her life.

"Yeah," began Phantom calmly, "I'll pledge allegiance to Lady Jasmine…" He saw the smile on Raimundo's face. "… over my dead body!" he finished, before he fired a plasma bolt straight into the Praetor's chest. He was surprised by the force of his blow; he never expected his blast to send Praetor Raimundo flying into the metallic wall like that.

"Treacherous dog!" cried another voice from behind him.

A wave of water crashed into Phantom and knocked him back off his feet. As he crashed back down onto the metallic floor, he instantly knew who had hit him. There was no doubt it was Praetor Omi, the pint-sized Demigeist with control over water. Who else could it be?

"I do not believe that an honourable warrior would ever stoop so low as you," stated Omi, as he closed in on Phantom with a spear in his hand, its point angled down towards the floor. "To hit your enemy while he is offering him your hand is most dishonourable, yet I must admire your stubbornness to your cause. If only you were as loyal to whatever insane cause you hold as you were to Lady Jasmine."

The small, blue Demigeist looked up towards the other Praetors.
"I trust it that you will have no problem with me terminating this useless piece of junk?" he asked the other Praetors. "He is, as you say, a lame chicken."

"Lame duck," corrected Raimundo, as he picked himself off the floor.

"That too," stated Omi.

Phantom knew that he was outnumbered and possibly outclassed. He could possibly fight against the Praetors, one by one, but not all four of them. They were all Demigeists. What powers he had, they were likely to have as well. If he tried to fight against them, they'd beat him down again. Even worse, they'd tear him apart, limb by robotic limb and what if the mysterious entity that had saved him couldn't get to him again?

No, he couldn't risk fighting against all of them. Yet he couldn't leave, not with Echelon/Valerie left here in the corridor at their mercy. Phantom had to fight back, if only to save the girl that had hunted him down for Skulker.
"What makes you think you can terminate me that easily?" asked Phantom curiously.

"Silence, traitor!" snapped Omi, before he stabbed out with his spear.

"Missed!" taunted Phantom, as he leapt away from Omi and then ducked underneath the fiery arrowheads that Kimiko threw at him. He stood in front of the prone body of the human that had once been known as Echelon. "Is that the best you can do?" he mocked them, before he fired a few plasma blasts at them.

One managed to catch Praetor Clay in the shoulder, eliciting a terrible roar of pain from him.
"Why, you dirty varmint!" he cried angrily. "I'll teach you to mess with us." He flung his boomerang straight at Phantom; it sliced its way through the air and hit nothing. "Try this Seismic Kick on for size!" he called out, before slamming his foot down on to the ground with such force the corridor shook violently and everyone except for him stumbled and fell.

Clay used the momentum he gained from slamming his foot down into the ground to propel himself forwards. He ran straight at Phantom and swung both his arms at Phantom. Those hands of his, large and strong, would have gone through thin air had been a second slower. As it was, he managed to grab Phantom before he became intangible and threw him into the wall with all his might.

The wall should have dented, but the force of the blow propelled Phantom straight through him, leaving a torn, gaping hole in the metal.

Phantom groaned, as he tried to get back up to his feet. He had never been slammed into a wall that hard before. His head seemed to be ringing and throbbing with pain. A part of him feared that he was bleeding internally from the blow, but he knew his cyborg body was far more resilient than that.

A few more burning projectiles hurtled straight towards him. They would have hit, but Phantom had thankfully regained his sense by then.

"Where'd he go?" exclaimed Kimiko, as she stepped through the hole in the wall.

Before she knew what was going out, a fist materialised out of nowhere and struck her.
"Sorry about that," apologised Phantom, as he became visible in front of them. "I normally don't hit a girl, but you sure ain't one."

"Why you…!" began Clay angrily, as he stepped through the hole in the wall he had made with Phantom's body.

"Hold it!" called out Kimiko, as she staggered back on to her feet. "Leave him to me. You go protect Lady Fenton." She wiped the back of her hand against her lips in that clichéd sort of way you normally get from someone who has just been punched really hard in a movie. "He's all mine."

"I'm flattered," retorted Phantom, "but you're not my type."

Kimiko whirled round to glare at the other Praetors.
"What are you waiting for?" she asked angrily. "Go! And deal with that treacherous human on the way out."

"That's not going to happen!" protested Phantom, before he rushed straight at Kimiko.

"Too right, it ain't!" protested Clay, as he stepped in front of Kimiko and blocked Phantom's attack with his barrel-shaped chest. He let the cyborg bounce off him harmlessly, as if he was made from a gelatinous mass. "You're not fighting him alone, Kimiko."

Phantom felt slightly conflicted as he got up to his feet. On the one hand, it was unfair that the Praetors were ganging up on him. On the other hand, it was kind of gratifying to know that they considered him enough of a formidable foe that they needed to team up against him in the first place.
"I'm not fighting the both of you," he protested, as he glared at the two of them.

"Of course not," whispered a Brazilian-accented voice from behind him, before he was grabbed from behind.

The two Praetors watched as Raimundo lifted Phantom up into the air and then slammed him back down into the ground again, with such force that they nearly winced at the sight of it.

Praetor Raimundo would have dusted his hands off, but it was difficult, what with a sword being in one hand and the other having long, sharp claws attached to the back of it.
"You know, Phantom, I wish you hadn't refused," he told the cyborg calmly, as he floated above his body. He looked very disappointed, almost heart-broken at the thought of Phantom's refusal. "Still, if you don't want to join, I guess we can't make you."

The sword he held crackled with electricity. It sparked and crackled like some mad scientist's Tesla coil. Raimundo dived down and stabbed his claws at Phantom, only to miss as Phantom leapt out of the way. He swung his sword and caught sliced past Phantom's armour, nearly ripping a huge gaping hole through the black metal.

Electricity shocked Phantom momentarily and he was flung backwards. He felt as if smoke was coming off his body like in the cartoons and he could almost smell the scent of roasting flesh. It wasn't pleasant. He fired a blast of energy at Raimundo, as the Praetor approached him; it was parried by a deft flick of his wrist. Phantom disappeared and seconds later, he struck Raimundo in the chest.

Clay and Kimiko rushed straight at him.

The fiery Praetor, Kimiko, became a flurry of literally flaming punches and kicks. She moved with the grace of a dancer, or to be more precise, a karate expert. Kimiko seemed to spin in the air like a top. Her fists curved through the air and flaming shuriken flew thick and fast. Phantom had little chance to block her attacks. Blow after fiery blow hit the cyborg and Kimiko didn't seem to relent.

Out of the corner of his eye, Phantom saw Clay prepare himself for a powerful kick. As Phantom did his best to block Kimiko's attacks with his arms, there not being room for him to create an energy shield around himself, a thought occurred to him. A smile slowly spread across his lips.

It infuriated Praetor Kimiko.
"What? Why are you smiling?" she asked irritably. "You think I'm weak? I'm not good enough? I'll show you!" She leapt back and flung a whole volley of fireballs straight at Phantom, just as Clay kicked out at him.

Phantom quickly grabbed Clay's foot and used the Praetor's own momentum to spin him round. He flung the Praetor straight back into the volley of fireballs and at Kimiko.
"Nah, I think you're pretty good," he said as Clay crashed into Kimiko, "for a girl." Then he waited, hoping that he had been right about Kimiko's personality.

"What?" screamed Kimiko from underneath Clay. "What did you say?"

"Kimiko, calm down!" protested Raimundo, as he dived back down towards Phantom. He slashed out at Phantom with his claws, just as Kimiko threw Clay off of herself in a fiery burst of flames.

Frankly, Phantom was surprised they hadn't gone off sooner, but Kimiko's latest outburst did the trick. The sprinklers went off, dousing them in a fine spray of cooling water. It almost felt refreshing on what little of Phantom's skin that was exposed. Yet far more was refreshing was the thought of all that water being doused on a fire-based robot like Kimiko.

Water splattered against them, giving the allusion of a watery aura surrounding them. Kimiko's long black hair was flattened with water and the flames with which she had burnt were all but gone.

The Praetor screamed out angrily. She rushed straight at Phantom, shoving Raimundo aside in the process and lashed out at him with punches and kicks that had lost their strength with the loss of her flames. Kimiko screamed out in rage, as she hit Phantom blindly.

"You need to chill," was Phantom's remark, before he blasted her with a burst of plasma energy.

"Chill? I'm calm," protested Kimiko, as she got back up to her feet. "I'm the calmest person, I know!" she screamed furiously. "Just watch how calm I am when I take you down!" The Praetor rushed straight back at Phantom, blinded with rage.

Phantom leapt into the air, his body spun round and he kicked out at her. He landed back on his feet and watched as Kimiko collapsed to the floor with a heavy splash. This was followed by silence. None of the other two Praetors moved; he didn't expect that. They just stared at Kimiko in silence, contemplating what had just happened.

"I…" began Kimiko, only to trail off, as she stared up at the ceiling quietly. "I can't move… Why can't I move?"

"Clay, get Kimiko out of here," snapped Raimundo, before he turned to face Phantom. "I'll deal with Phantom."

Those words were not exactly what Phantom wanted to hear, but he had expected them for a long time. He thought about leaving, now that one of the Praetors was out of commission. That left three more, but with Praetor Clay no doubt taking Kimiko off for repairs, that meant only two were still present to stop him. With two Praetors on his heels, would he be able to proceed through Central White Tower and get to Fake Jasmine?

Suddenly, Phantom realised that something was amiss.
"Where's Omi?" he wondered out loud. Then he remembered Valerie, whom had been left slumped against the side of the corridor outside.

A terrible thought occurred to him. While he had been battling against the Praetors, the one named Omi must have been doing something else. The small Praetor hadn't participated in their battle, when he could easily have done so. Phantom realised that Omi must have been dealing with Valerie somehow.

"He's probably taking her to Walker," was Raimundo's accented remark. "I've never thought of Omi as a person to execute somebody, you know, just as I never thought you'd turn against us."

That remark seemed to hit a nerve with Phantom. His face seemed to set into a determined look of righteous fury.
"Turned on you?" he exclaimed in disbelief. "Hey, news flash, you guys turned on us! Have you seen what it's like out there?" His fists clenched tighter than ever before, so much so that the fingers nearly dug straight through the metal and into the palm of his hands. "The city's like a war zone," he told Raimundo. "No one's happy. Not the robots, not even the humans you were built to protect."

Phantom noticed a strange look spread across Raimundo's face. No, on second thoughts, it wasn't a strange look. That expression on the Praetor's face was doubt. He had seen it many a time before out there in Amitropolis, not least on his own face.

"You don't understand," said Raimundo with a shake of his head. "How can we protect the humans, when even they themselves will hurt each other? If they're… If they all think as one, why would they hurt each other?" He didn't sound very convinced though. "This is for their own good, so they can survive."

"I'm half-human, you know," stated Phantom calmly, "and I can tell you mind control stinks. As a human, I'd rather die than be controlled by that fake!"

"Fake?" exclaimed Raimundo curiously. "What fake?"

Worry started to creep in, as Phantom continued to think about Valerie and what fate would befall her if he didn't hurry. Then there was the fate of Sam and Tucker. What would happen to them if he didn't hurry? Had any harm befallen them during his stealthy siege on the Five Towers?
"I'm sorry, but I really don't have time for this," protested Phantom, as he went intangible and ran through all the Praetors, leaping through the hole in the wall that he had made.

He stopped and looked around him. There didn't seem to be any sign of Valerie anywhere around. Where could she have been taken to? Praetor Raimundo suggested that she had been taken to Walker, but that only begged the question of where Walker was.

Suddenly, Phantom was pinned to the wall. He glanced sideways to see Raimundo's claws stabbed into the wall and buried one millimetre into the metallic surface of his shoulder. Phantom glanced back towards Raimundo, the shock on his face slowly disappearing as he saw the smile on the Praetor's lips.

"You didn't think you'd be able to get away from me that easily, did ya'?" asked Raimundo curiously. He chuckled, before he said, "No way, buddy. I'm not letting you get away from me. You're mine. Your shiny, metallic ass is mine." The Praetor was uncomfortably close to Phantom, his eyes glazed over with some kind of maniacal essence that a person like Danny Manson or Phantom couldn't quite understand.

"Where's Walker?" asked Phantom determinedly.

"I think that's gonna be the last of your worries, Phan'," retorted Raimundo.

There was a tiny bit of silence, as a smile slowly spread across Phantom's lips.
"You know, I don't think so," he told Raimundo with a shake of his head. He suddenly became intangible and went straight into the Praetor. Phantom didn't even attempt to leave Raimundo's body, he just went inside it. He didn't even know how it would work, but he attempted to control the Praetor's body and access his hard drive.

Logically, what he was doing didn't make sense. Even the Geist Chip didn't make much sense. How was it possible for a piece of technology to enable him to walk through walls? How did it do it? More importantly, how was he capable of entering someone with that technology and then being able to control them? Surely, if he was intangible, he would have no way of affecting a physical body?

Yet somehow, he managed to access Raimundo's hard drive. He found something that shocked him, something unmentionable and then there was something else. Phantom found it! He knew where Valerie was being taken to!

"Urgh, get out of me!" cried Raimundo, before one of his hands became intangible and he reached down deep inside himself.

Phantom didn't feel the hand, but he somehow felt Raimundo pulling him out of the Praetor's body. He was suddenly pulled right out of the Praetor and flung across the corridor away from Raimundo. The cyborg landed on his rear with a heavy thud.
"What's the matter, Rai?" he asked the Praetor tauntingly. "You didn't enjoy that?"

Raimundo's face looked tired, as if he had just finished twelve all-nighters in a row. He seemed to be breathing heavily, a strange thing for a robot to do, as he glared at Phantom with a confused, conflicted expression on his features.
"You…" he began, only to trail off. "I… But…" The Praetor shook his head, then screamed wordlessly.

A bolt of lightning arced through the air without warning and struck Phantom, its electrons surging through into his body. He felt his heart convulse erratically and feared that it would stop. Every muscle, even the robotics, seemed to have a seizure. The pain that filled him was unbearable. It was all his mind could feel. There was no thought. He couldn't think, it seemed as if the electricity even surged through his brain, overriding the natural electrical impulses within it.

There was suddenly a burst of energy and it stopped.

Valerie thought her life would be over, as she was stood up against the wall. In front of her was a whole line of Geists, each of them armed, their plasma cannons aimed straight at her. She looked at each of them. There was no face to see. She couldn't tell whether they felt remorse at their acts, but she knew they didn't. There was nothing reassuring about them or her surroundings.

No one would come to save her. This was real life. There wouldn't be any last minute heroics or accidents. In real life, there were no reprieves. Heroes never existed. Everyone was a villain. All there were in this world were victims, an endless number of people held hostage to their own actions or the inconsiderate actions of others. Everyone needed saving, but there was no one to save them, merely false hopes and dreams.

It is impossible to be saved by false hopes.

So Valerie closed her eyes and lowered her head. She waited for the end.

END TRANSMISSION #09