.
.
.
Chapter 143: Ghost Zone Standoff
.
When Danny got to the next floor, his classmates were all huddled together. This might have been due to the frigid temperature, but was more likely because of the guns being pointed at them. More precisely, because a bunch of ghosts were pointing guns at them. Not ecto-guns or blasters. Guns that would kill humans.
The fight with Aragon had been a set-up. Something to run from, so that they would run into a trap. Danny shouldn't have stayed to fight. He should have gone with his classmates, his vulnerable, powerless, all-too human classmates. He should have protected them. What was wrong with him, doing something as stupid as leaving them alone?
"There's the ghost of the hour!" crowed one of the ghosts, who was dressed in painfully stereotypical 1920s-era gangster gear. Suit, tie, fedora, shiny shoes, the works. Half of the guns swiveled to point at Danny, Mr Lancer, Valerie, and Cujo. The wisps didn't warrant a weapon, apparently.
Danny's eyes flicked over the room, counting potential enemies. Either none of the 'noble' ghosts from downstairs had made it up here, or they had been chased along by the gangsters, because the floor (which was, for some reason, divided into office cubicles) otherwise appeared to be empty. There were twelve gangsters that he could see, but he wouldn't be surprised if more were hiding in the cubicles. Six guns were pointing at him and the others who had just entered. Five more were pointed at his classmates.
"So, tell me, Phantom," said the ghost, "why does the big eyeball want you dead?"
Danny mentally dubbed this ghost the boss. He seemed to be in charge, and was the only one not actively pointing his gun at anyone.
"Who?" said Danny, hoping that playing dumb would buy him some time to think.
The boss was willing to play along. "Issitoq. First of the three Judges. Head Observant. Watcher of Watchers. He's put a bounty on your head. Pretty big one, too. Why?"
"I honestly do not know," said Danny.
"Alright then," said the ghost, raising his gun to point at Dash, who went very pale behind his bruises.
"Wait!" said Danny. "Wait. Maybe- Maybe it's because I'm liminal, and Clockwork likes me."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, I mean, the Observants never liked me, and that's one of the things they didn't like about me, so, yeah. It could also be because there was a future where I lost my mind and basically destroyed the world because a bunch of people I cared about died, but, like, that could never happen now." Danny made the last sentence as pointed as it was possible to be without sounding like he was trying to threaten the gangsters. That would be a bad idea.
"Sure," drawled the gangster. "You wanna try another one before I blow this guy's brains out?"
"I also might have swallowed Aragon's amulet downstairs. You know, the one that turns you into a dragon if you get angry? So let's not do anything regrettable."
The boss looked suspicious of Danny's claim, but other gangsters started to shift nervously.
"Just, you know, for your information. Because, like, I don't really want to turn into a dragon right now. I mean, sometimes you just don't feel like being a dragon, you know? But, you see, I think that if you hurt someone, I would get really angry, and probably, you know, destroy you all. Because I'd be a dragon." Oof. That wasn't his most eloquent.
Despite his damaged core, Danny could feel a great deal of incredulity swirling around the room. Please, let this work.
The gangster boss did not lower his gun. "Is this your idea of a clever plan?" he asked.
"Dude, I haven't had a good night's sleep for, like, a week. Clever doesn't come into it. I'm just telling you facts, here, so you don't kill anyone. Also, you should know that we have an army looking for us. Like, on their way, right now. A literal army. From Elysium. And they're the kind of people who will have a clever plan. Or just beat the heck out of you, just so you know. I feel like that's a thing you should know."
The gangsters were looking really uncomfortable, shifting their weight from foot to foot. The door behind Danny creaked open. Danny didn't dare look behind him.
"What is going on here?" asked Vlad, voice deep and silky smooth.
"Yeah, I'm going to second that question," said Ellie. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Screw this!" said one of the gangsters. "I didn't sign up for three of these freaks!"
"Joe, if you don't stay right there, I'll end you myself."
"Oh, no. You should run, Joe. You see, you're the smart one here," purred Vlad. "Because if you don't, you will regret it for the rest of your afterlife."
The boss sneered. "Please, Plasmius. You have, what, three, four guys? Not exactly an army."
"I don't need an army," said Vlad. "I just need to identify you to Daniel's army."
Danny did not feel the need to mention that he didn't have an army. Not really. What he had were allies who had armies. Which, if he thought about it, amounted to almost the same thing. Actually it was worse, since it was armies, plural, and Danny wasn't in charge and, therefore, wasn't able to screw them up or call them off.
"But," continued Vlad. "If you insist on fighting me, I will very happily destroy you, in the here and now."
"Uh," said Ellie, "same. Especially if you try to hurt my cousin."
"Well," said the boss, "looks like we've got ourselves a little Mexican standoff here."
"Oh, screw you, Charlie!" shouted one of the other gangsters. "This isn't a Mexican anything! I'm outta here!" The ghost flew off, tail disappearing around the corner of a distant cubicle.
"Yeah!" said another. "Screw you and your politics!"
With alarming rapidity, the gangsters departed, leaving the 'boss' alone.
The ghost flushed. "Ungrateful bastards-!"
"I would hesitate to give advice to such a charismatic leader," said Vlad, "but you should be aware that intimidation only works when you have something to intimidate with."
"You're the one that will regret this," hissed the gangster, before running away himself.
Vlad sighed, then floated up, scanning nearby cubicles. "Let's get a move on, shall we? It's freezing in here."
.
.
.
They made their way to the next floor in grim, hurried, silence. The guns had spooked everyone but Vlad. Danny expected the gangsters to jump out from behind any and every thing that was big enough for them to hide behind, and several things that weren't. Maybe it was paranoia, but everything was out to get him, and he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"They called you Phantom," said Sarah, softly.
There it was, the sound of the other shoe dropping.
Intellectually, Danny knew his secret was shot. But Danny was being driven more by emotion than by intellect and logic at the moment. He was currently cherishing the notion, wild hope that it was, that if he didn't give direct confirmation that he was Phantom, then this would all go away. His classmates, without proof, would be treated much like Wes Weston, and Danny's general unpopularity and weirdness would gradually come to overshadow the mere suspicion that he was Phantom.
The thought crossed his mind that there might be more to it than even that. Ghosts were obsessive creatures, even before getting to capital-O Obsessions. Then again, why blame everything on his ghost half? He had been plenty stubborn before the Accident, and keeping the secret had been a life-or-death matter. No, it was a life-or-death matter. His secret getting out into the world-at-large, or even just the GIW and other ghost hunters, could sentence him to a second death, or something even worse.
He couldn't trust these guys with his secret! No. Not yet, at least.
But they already knew...
He shook his head, hard, lips pressed firmly together, brows furrowed.
"You're like Ellie," added Mikey. "That's why you look so similar. Not some weird double-clone thing."
"Yeah," said Dash, in the tone of someone who had just discovered that two plus two was four. "So why didn't you do anything before? You could have gotten us out of here!"
Dash's complaint was more confused than accusatory, but it was distressing to hear, and added one more entry to the list of 'reasons I'm not saying anything.'
"Hey!" snapped Ellie. "Back off!" She flew up next to him as he continued to walk forward. She started to say something else, but broke off in favor of surveying Danny with worry. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Fine," said Danny. "I just want to get out of here."
"There are the stairs," said Vlad, pointing.
"Thank Clockwork," whispered Danny.
Ellie hooked her arm through his, and extended her flight to include him. "We're going to go check it out!" said Ellie, voice forcefully bright. "No nasty surprises like last time!" She zoomed them to the stairs.
"Wait!" said Danny as they touched down halfway up the staircase. "We can't leave them back there! What if there are more gangsters?"
"Gangsters? I thought they looked more like mobsters, personally."
"Ellie..."
"Look, they'll be fine. Vlad's with them, the wisps are- Or, no, here they come."
"Ellie," said Danny, severely, as the wisps turned themselves into glowing crowns in the two Phantoms' hair, "Vlad is one person. And the wisps aren't going to be able to fight. That's not what they do." The wisps hummed in agreement.
Ellie tugged him up the stairs. "There aren't any more of those guys, we would have seen them when we flew over, and Vlad can take them, anyway. So can Val, probably. Hey, Cujo! Good boy!" She pet the dog. "You need another break from them, anyway."
"I took a break from them!"
"Not long enough, clearly!"
.
.
.
"Do you think," said Dash, "I said something wrong?"
Vlad repressed the urge to throttle the brat. He had been trying to repress his actions of several floors ago, and interact with Daniel and Danielle as usual, as if nothing had changed. A trying task, to say the least, but one that he had been successful at. The children had even, dare he suggest it, dare he even think it, seemed to warm up to him by some small increment.
But then these- these- Vlad couldn't come up with a suitable epithet. They had chased Daniel and Danielle away, driven them off with their thoughtless inquisition! Either as his human self or as Phantom, hadn't Daniel done quite enough to earn the benefit of the doubt from these children?
Vlad wanted nothing more than to abandon them himself. He was ill-suited for looking after children. He was no babysitter.
But, by leaving them, Daniel and Danielle were demonstrating trust in him, a trust he was not eager to betray. Not even if the task that trust had saddled him with was unpleasant.
He grimaced. The task wasn't too onerous. He would only have to get them up the stairs.
.
.
.
"Ancients!"
"What?"
"We must've-" started Danny spinning around wildly. "We forgot about Andy! We left him outside!" He lunged for the door.
Danielle dragged him back by the back of his shirt. "Who?" she asked, brow furrowed. "Wait, we left Lin! The heck did we forget Lin?"
"Who's Lin?" asked Danny, momentarily distracted. Had Ellie picked up a new friend?
This time, Ellie whirled. "Madeline! My twin! You know, your other female clone? How the heck do you forget about that? How did I forget about that?"
"Er, Ellie? What does this floor do?"
"It- Oh. It makes it so that you have an identical twin. I'm a moron. Crap."
"Oh," said Danny. He sat down. "So Andy... He isn't real."
"Guess not," said Ellie, sounding equally depressed.
"I hate this floor."
