Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing at all.


Chapter 4: Not What He Seems

Cell floated in front of a large space fleet, far away from the Earth's atmosphere.

He smirked at the "army." A futile amassing of filth would usually be beneath the perfect life form, but Cell had to wet his appetite from time to time.

"So, this is the dreaded Lord Makino? Of course Dread would be too weak to handle these insects."

Cell raised his palm as a bright energy ball began to flare to life. It shot out from his hand like a rocket. The ki blast erupted against a ship and soon, the entire armada was swallowed whole

Cell smirked at his handy work before blasting off to Earth, leaving the wreckage behind.


"What are we gonna do?" asked Tucker.

Danny sighed as he leaned back on their couch. "I dunno, Tuck."

It had taken a while to come to grips with yet another organization after them. It was beginning to get tiresome.

"Well, we've got to tell the others," interjected Sam. "We need all of them on board with this."

Danny shook his head. "No way. We can't let this much people in on this! Someone might spill what we know."

Tucker shrugged. "Alright, but we can at least tell Jazz right?"

Danny rubbed his temples. "Yeah, yeah. Sure, but we can't tell anyone else. And we can't let the N-Tek guys or Max Steel find out what we know, got it?"

Sam and Tucker nodded. "Got it."

Tucker sighed. "I really hope these N-Tek guys aren't evil. I was really starting to like it here."

Danny stared hard at the table, back hunched. "Yeah, but we've got to do what we've got to do. Otherwise, they're gonna have their way with us. And I'd rather not be at the mercy of another fruitloop organization."

Sam stared at Danny and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We don't know if they're evil yet. We're still investigating, right?"

Danny nodded, halfheartedly. "Yeah."

A silence enveloped the trio. It wasn't long, however, until Tucker broke it.

"So, how are we going to get in the room?" asked Tucker.

Danny smiled a bit, thankful for the change. "Well, that'll be easy since they don't have any anti-ghost security. I'll just phase in like last time."

Sam nodded. "Anything we can do to help?"

Danny rubbed his neck, sheepishly. "Um. . . I'm not sure yet, but I'll let you both know when I figure something out."

"Cool," replied Tucker, rubbing his hands together. "I just hope I get to hack something!"

Danny grinned. "With our luck, that's probably gonna be necessary."


"These imbeciles will be no help at all!"

Vlad had been plotting his betrayal ever since the impromptu team's first battle against the heroes. His anger had been pushed to new heights when he'd been sucked into that wretched portal. There was no doubt in his mind; he had to get back to Amity Park.

The first question he had to ask himself was how would he sneak off? That was a relatively simple question, however. A little use of intangibility and invisibility and he'd be out.

Sure, Cell could be potentially annoying to deal with due to his sensing abilities, but he'd likely lack motivation to go after the ghost.

He'd have to create his own ghost portal, of course. For that, he'd need some parts from Dread's company.

Vlad pondered if that would even be worth it. He could just stick with them and have them build a portal. . .

No. He'd have to go it alone and take some parts along the way. He couldn't risk Danny returning before he did.

Vlad sighed as he sat his chin on his interlocked fingers. In any case, he had work to do.


Viceroy scavenged through his various plans as they raced across the screen. He was grateful that this dimension's computers were compatible enough to allow his flash drive to transfer its schematics.

He rapidly typed on the keyboard, initiating his plans for betrayal.

A detail of plans flashed across the screen.

Victory scowled. It would've been far easier to have done this back on his Earth, despite the Sorcerer. Now, it would be darn near impossible to create his weapon with the Sorcerer breathing down his neck.

Victory sighed as he wiped his brow. He'd have to make do with his circumstances.

He still woke up in a cold sweat thinking about what the Sorcerer had done to McFist. It was clear that every second he wasted could be the difference between freedom or a gruesome end.

The scientist shook his head of those thoughts as he clicked throughout the files. A smile began to stretch across his face as he was face to face with his salvation.

"They won't stand a chance!"


Gohan walked over to Jasmine, who was reading a book.

"Hey, Jazz."

Said girl looked up, a bit startled, before smiling in recognition. "Hey, Gohan. What's up?"

Gohan rubbed the back of his neck as he sat down next to her. The saiyan awkwardly gestured. "Nothing much, I just wanted to talk."

Jazz stuck her bookmark in her book and shut it. She turned to better face the demi-Saiyan. "So, is there anything in particular that you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, uh, I'm a little curious about what your world is like."

"It's pretty much normal, aside from my town with ghosts and stuff."

"If you don't mind me asking, how did the ghosts get there. Were they just always there or. . ?"

"No, my parents created this ghost portal, and it. . ."

Gohan's eyes widened. "I'm so sorry! Did I bring up a bad memo-"

Jazz waved him off and gave him a thin smile. "No, it's fine. I just haven't thought about that in a while."

Gohan shifted on the couch, internally kicking himself. "Alright, if you say so. ."

'Stupid, Gohan. Stupid, stupid, stupid! You've messed up one of the few friendships you've had with a kid your age!'

An awkward silence stretched over the duo.

"What's your planet like?"

Gohan leaned back in his seat, holding in a sigh of relief. "It's very. . . beautiful. The world has technology just about advanced as N-Tek. There are dinosaurs that can talk and other cool things. There are even alien planets all over the place. It's great."

Jazz's eyes glittered. "It sounds beautiful."

Gohan smiled. "It is."

"Hey, Jazz."

The half-Saiyan and soon-to-be psychologist turned to face the young halfa.

"Can I talk to you, alone?" Danny added, glancing at Gohan.

Gohan nodded as he smiled down at Jazz. "It was nice talking to you."

Jazz returned the smile, albeit apologetically. "You too, Gohan."


"What's up?"

Danny sucked in a deep breath. "These guys are documenting our powers and trying to make weapons out of them. They might also want us dead."

Jazz blinked. "OK, there may be a misunderstanding; maybe they're just being careful. They just had an alien attack a while ago."

Danny stared hard at Jazz. "They were also documenting our possible weaknesses."

Jazz's eyes softened as she put a hand on his shoulder. "Danny, I'm behind you one-hundred percent, but I think we can trust them. Or at least give them a chance."

Danny couldn't help the laugh that escaped his throat. "And why is that Jazz?"

Jazz looked a big sheepish. "It's a feeling I've got."

"A feeling! Is that the same feeling that made you think dating Johnny would be a good idea?!"

Jazz jerked at the reminder of the ghost. "Danny, what is with you?"

Danny threw his hands up. "Oh, nothing. I just figured my sister would have my back when people are, y'know, plotting my death. But hey, looks like I was wrong."

The halfa turned and stalked off in direction of the fortified room, ignoring his sister's calls.


Danny flew through the corridors, invisible and intangible. His mind raced with past thoughts of his conversation with Jazz. He phased through the guarded door to see an odd surprise.

"Ninja?"

The Ninja glanced down at the halfa with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

The Ninja stared at him for a while, before shrugging. "I was curious about this. . uh . . organization, and I wanted to, uh, inspect it. . . for bad guys. What about you?"

Danny glanced along the walls. "I'm here to find out more about a little secret."

If Danny could see his face, Danny was sure he'd see a raised brow. "What kind of secret?"

"If you wanna know, follow me. Just be careful to not set anything off."

The Ninja scoffed. "Dude, I'm a ninja, stealth is what I do."


Ten Minutes Later. . .

"So, you wanna tell what you two were up to, Danny and Randy?"

Danny and Randy stayed silent as they sat in the cold dark interrogation room. They'd gotten caught when Randy triggered a sensor. Naturally, Danny was pretty miffed about that.

Forge stood tall and imposing as he loomed over them.

The Ninja jerked and Danny winced slightly. "I'm not Randy! I-I mean, who is this Randy you speak-"

"Give it a rest, man."

Danny sighed as his blue rings flared to life, returning the ghost hero to Danny Fenton.

The halfa glared up at the Commander. "I was just looking for the bathroom, when I found out my hosts were coming up with plans to kill me! Sorry if that makes you feel a little antsy."

Forge sighed as he sat down in front of the two teenagers. "Look, I know it may look bad, but we never intended to kill any of you-"

Danny snorted. "That'd be a first."

"We were just taking necessary precautions in the case of a wide-scale assault on our world. As you may have heard, we just went through an alien attack only weeks ago."

Danny stared hard at the Commander. The two held a long staring contest as Randy glanced, nervously, between the two.

They seemed to be holding a silent argument or test with neither side willing to back down. Soon enough, Danny leaned back in his couch.

"Alright, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, for now. I'll be watching you."

Danny stood up and headed for the door.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Danny turned and gave a snort. "My room. Home. Out of here. Take your pick."

"Neither of you are going anywhere, not until we've gotten everything sorted out."

Danny scowled. "I thought we already came to an agreement. I wasn't gonna fight you guys, and you all weren't going to kill us."

Forge sighed, tiredly. "Yes, we did. But we still haven't had a truthful interrogation of the other breachers."

Danny rolled his eyes and plopped down next to Randy.

The ninja regarded him with wide eyes. "Uh. . . well, shoot. You've got a lot of balls, dude."

Danny glanced at Randy before sighing. "I'm usually not like this. I've just been, I dunno, stressed lately."

Randy snorted. "Yeah, jumping through dimensions'll do that to you. Time travel's still worse to me, though."

Danny cracked a grin at that. "Oh yeah, definitely. I hated my time travel trip."

Randy's eyes widened. "You went back in time, too?! That's so bruce! Up top."

Danny watched the teen's eager hand for a bit before giving the purple haired Ninja a halfhearted high-five.

Before long, the elevator dinged as everyone stepped in.

Danny wasn't able to even muster the courage to look at Jazz; his mind still raced from their past argument. He felt like he was drowning in guilt.

"So, what is this about Forge?" asked Max Steel.

Danny glanced at the Commander before turning back to Max. "He didn't tell you?"

"Well, it was a bit short notice, since I wasn't expecting two teenagers snooping around," retorted Forge.

Danny winced as he could feel Jazz gaze boring into his head.

"So. . . this is about?"

Forge nodded. "Right, this is-

Booom!