Hello! Just a warning, this is the start of the violence! In the next several chapters there will be violence! There will be death! None of it will be especially gory, but it will exist!
Since this is the 66th chapter, I'm going to just put up a reminder that I do not own Danny Phantom. I think that Nickelodeon does.
Finally, just a shout out to all of you guys! Over 200 favorites! Over 300 followers! Wow! Thanks for sticking with me through this story.
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Chapter 66:
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"Okay," said Echo. "Harmony is directly above us. I'm taking you directly to the door. Do not sneak off. Do not leave the route. Follow my instructions. Got it?"
There were a few murmurs of assent. Echo glared.
"I'm serious. Don't try to run off and find the GIW." He rolled his eyes when he didn't get any more of a response than before. "Whatever," he muttered, and started off up the stairs. The wisps stayed behind, leaving them in the shadows.
Danny was watching his mother. He had been watching his mother all morning, trying to build up the courage to talk to her. He glanced at his sister, who gave him an encouraging nod. He nodded back, and took the stairs two at a time, so that he could reach Maddie's side.
"Mom," he said, "um, how are you doing?"
Maddie blinked, and looked down at Danny, as if she was surprised to see him. "I'm fine, Danny," she said. "Glad that we'll be going home, soon."
"Okay," said Danny.
She gave Danny a small, strained smile, and put an arm around his shoulders, giving him a quick hug as they paused on the stairs. "I love you, Danny," she said. "I do, really. No matter what."
Danny mirrored the smile. This was as close as they could get to discussing things here, in front of the others.
"You've been working so hard," she said, more quietly, "and we've been making things so hard for you. Thank you for meeting us halfway."
Danny nodded, but he felt like he was going much more than halfway in all this. They came out into a building, a very familiar looking one. It took Danny an embarrassingly long time to realize that it was identical to the Amity Park town hall, only without any doors.
However, luckily for Danny's self-confidence, the others didn't notice until they had reached the front steps.
Maddie stopped dead, at that point, staring, painfully exposed, visible to anyone who might happen by. "It's Amity Park," she said, with a tone of fascination.
Danny caught the look of triumph on Echo's face. But then it was gone. He blinked, trying to figure out why, but dismissed it in favor of pulling his mother off the steps, and shepherding the rest of his charges into a more protected street. It was dangerous here.
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Shade had, thus far, managed to keep the GIW off of the rooftops, away from anything that could function as a good sniper position. Jeremy had helped greatly with that, actually, although Shade suspected that this was more coincidence, and good luck, than anything else.
However, the addition of Echo and Danny's group complicated things greatly. Now they had to keep the GIW away from their path, and although Echo could feel the presence of the GIW, their location in the lair, the GIW agents were trained soldiers, and they could move quickly, much more quickly than Echo could make Lester and Nathan move.
It was a good thing he and Umbra they had already taken out all of their drones. It was a good thing that they didn't have very many drones in the first place. Even with strategic darkness, it would have been impossible to hide the group from drones.
Things went well for a while. Longer than Shade had thought they would, honestly. But then the GIW started to wind their sinister way back towards Echo and Danny's arrow-straight path.
He and Umbra kept them off-balance with occasional ectoblasts, or showing themselves, then disappearing, but, without seriously hurting the men, those distractions only did so much good.
Sooner or later, this was going to end poorly.
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Echo stopped, scowled, and then made a left-hand turn, the first one so far, at the next intersection. "Keep up," he snapped.
Valerie was instantly suspicious.
The ghost had been anxious and snappish this whole time, but this was different. Turning left like this, when he was so insistent on avoiding the GIW... That suggested something, didn't it? That suggested that the GIW were to the right.
Valerie knew that there were things going on that she didn't understand. She knew, knew, that there was some connection between Danny and Danielle, and between Danny and Phantom, something that went deeper than Danny being possessed, or overshadowed. She knew that something had happened between Danny and his parents. Something big.
She knew that Phantom had always kept his promises.
At the same time, she would always, always, trust humans over ghosts.
She almost turned, almost ran to the GIW. But then, just before she did, she looked at Danny, really looked at him.
He looked terrible. Sick. The scar that had been little more than an angry shadow a couple of days ago was now a lurid green. His eyes swam with green sparks. His skin was so pale it was almost gray, almost transparent. He looked half-dead. He looked like a ghost.
And with Phantom possessing him, he would have an ectosignature.
The GIW always shot first and asked questions later. She remembered what Elliot had said. They had shot at him because of his hair color. What would they do to Danny?
Why was Danny here, anyway? He hadn't wanted to come. He didn't like the GIW. He had to know what he looked like. He was taking a spectacular risk.
She didn't turn. She didn't run.
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Echo was frustrated. The GIW kept blocking them. Kept turning, as if to track them. How were they doing that?
He glanced back at the group. Lester and Nathan were too slow. Paulina wasn't much better. Annoying. Why had they insisted on coming? They would have been cared for, well cared for, back with the Harmonians.
Echo was making plans. Danny had to be protected above all else. That was obvious. His death could be the death of all of them. The lair might crumble, without Danny's mind to give it form. Danny did not quite understand that, or he would have been more cautious. Although, Ellie's existence would prevent the lair from disintegrating entirely. That was fine, though. It was a burden he need not know of. It wouldn't help any.
Then, after Danny, Tucker, Jazz, then Sam. Jazz and Sam were both more athletic than Tucker, with faster reflexes. They'd be more likely to get themselves out of harm's way that Tucker. Then, the twins, then Paulina, then Dash. Valerie could take care of herself. Maddie... Well. Echo didn't really want her to die. It would devastate Danny. If everyone else was fine, he would protect her, too.
He made another turn. He knew this landscape infinitely better than the GIW, but there were more of them, and they were starting to split into groups. The shadow snarled. They were tracking them, somehow. That complicated things.
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Danny had more than enough time to build up a significant sense of dread before Echo stopped before a building's doorway and made to usher them in. When they had started to run, he had known things were bad. When Echo had doubled back to throw the twins over his shoulders, he had known things were terrible. But if they were abandoning the effort to get to the Door, which Danny suspected must be in a facsimile of FentonWorks, in favor of hiding in a building, then things were hopeless.
"Stop!" Danny's head swiveled towards the unfamiliar voice. There were two men there, in camouflage and body armor, at the corner of the building, not even thirty feet away. They had weapons in their hands, raised and trained on the group. Out of the corners of his eyes, he could see Valerie, Paulina, and Dash, obeying, and raising their hands. He could see Echo tossing the twins into the building. Maddie started to move, to step in front of him.
He saw the guns move with her.
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Team Eurydice had instructions about what to do when they encountered the Fentons.
The preferred outcome would be for each of the four Fentons to be sniped, long distance, with a high-powered ectoplasmic rifle, then for Eurydice to withdraw, and send in Team Orpheus. It would be easier for them to blame the deaths on ghosts that way.
But there were other contingencies. An apparently accidental death was acceptable. Being caught in the crossfire between agents and a pair of ghosts would also do nicely. The children wouldn't be able to tell who shot who, in such a situation, and they would be so relieved to be rescued, that they wouldn't ask questions. Yes. That was an excellent scenario, and one that Alpha and Gamma were more than willing to carry out.
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Danny saw the guns track Maddie, traced the probable trajectory in his mind's eye. He saw the agents start to squeeze their triggers.
Something snapped, inside him, and across all the shadows, rippling, shuddering, altering things, just a little bit, just for a moment. It was the culmination off all the pressures he had been put under, suddenly made dire, made explosive, by the application of extreme, outside force.
No ghost could tolerate such a direct assault on their obsession. Not in their presence, and certainly not in their lair.
Danny had even injured his own mother, when she raised a deadly weapon against another.
Danny loved his mother.
These, however... He had no obligation to them. No desire to protect them, to keep them safe.
They might be human, but... Did that mean that they were people?
No. Not after this.
