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Runs in. Yeets the chapter at you. *Runs away.*
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The day could not have passed slower.
William Lancer tried his best to be present for his students, but his mind drifted to the rebellion's base bellow, and the children- children- who were hiding out down there. He needn't have worried to much, his students weren't paying attention to the lessons today anyway.
The news of an unknown in Amity setting off the GIW alarms last night, and the resulting riot outside of May Tetslaff's house meant that lessons on the significance of the plot of 'The Scarlet Letter' went largely unacknowledged.
Miss Grey kept trying to catch his eye throughout the day, and Lancer had his work cut out for him trying to keep Mr. Baxter and Mr. Weston from leading their fellows down into the rebel base to meet the mystery instigator(s) themselves. He did hear the rumors though.
Lancer was having a difficult time keeping his expression straight when most of those rumors were true.
Danny Fenton.
Danny Phantom.
Returned to Amity Park at last.
Seeing Danny Fenton again, after so long berating himself for never seeing what was so obvious in hindsight; the bruises and injuries, the failing grades, the constant stress, the ghost paranoia...
Lancer had rationalized it all away; never looking too close, never digging any deeper, just trying to help the boy overcome whatever was keeping such a brilliant young man from reaching his educational potential.
And now, Mr. Fenton has returned, with friends who have more fantastic and impossible abilities than Lancer thought could ever exist in one world, to do the one thing Amity Park has been trying to do since Danny first escaped the GIW on that... that day.
Lancer could still remember that horrible day as if it had happened only moments ago. The shock of discovering that their resident ghostly hero was not all ghost, but was in fact one of his own students, swiftly overshadowed by the devastating shockwave that rocked the town's very foundation. The plume of smoke staining the sky and the sirens... the GIW sirens wailing for days on end as they scoured the city and then the cities beyond for the sole survivor of the attack...
At least he'd gotten away.
Years of watching Phantom get thrown through walls and pummeled into the streets... and nothing could compare to the horrors Lancer imagined would happen to Danny if he were caught.
The GIW had tried to spin their lies, and pin the blame for all those senseless deaths on Danny, but the citizens of Amity Park knew better. They were a small town, where everyone knew everyone and everyone especially knew the Fenton family. They may not have known the truth of what happened before the explosion, but they knew for a fact that it was those blasted government ghost hunter's fault.
Thus, the Phantom's Rebellion was born.
It was the high school students who started it.
Valerie Grey, Paulina Sanchez, Star Thunder, Dash Baxter, Kwan Lee, Wes Weston... Just barely into their junior year and they were sabotaging the GIW transport vans, alarm systems and scouting envoys. Eventually escalating up to trying to break into the main GIW facility at the edge of town. everyone remembered the violent aftermath of that endeavor, which pushed many more students and even some recent graduates to join them in their fight.
Instead of putting a stop to it, Lancer and several other willing adults joined them; the Manson's, the Foley's and Damon Grey were first among them. The Manson's had left to divert the GIW attentions as much as they could, while the Foley's scoured the GIW systems, getting as much information as they could to finalize their plan of attack that would push the blasted government agency to leave Amity for good.
It became easier after Christmas. The GIW became fewer and fewer, their patrols less frequent, their brutality non-existent when compared to their earlier punishments on the town in retribution for the rebellion's small attacks and petty revenges against their rules and regulations. George hadn't been able to tell them much, only that the higher-ups of the GIW had gotten some very interesting intel that pushed their search overseas.
Lancer had hoped the GIW were just chasing shadows that the Manson's had left for them. He'd hoped that Danny was somewhere far, far away without a trace for the government goons to track.
And now... Now Danny was here. Danny was back in Amity, accompanied by a, previously nonexistent, younger sister that looked like she hadn't eaten in days, and four magically talented friends who had British accents. Friends who cased every room they entered and kept their backs to the walls as much as possible. All of them covered in bruises and bandages; their shoulders slumped with both fatigue and the weight of a battle that shouldn't have been theirs to fight.
Lancer shook his head with a frown. None of that. Danny was here now, and whether Lancer liked it or not, Danny was here with friends that were ready to help put the GIW down for good. Lancer would do his part and make sure that this rebellion wasn't solely carried on the backs of children.
Powerful children, yes, but children nonetheless.
Lancer began by sending out the call to arms to the rest of the active rebellion members in the form of a parent teacher conference that afternoon, after school hours. The coded e-mail was sent out before the late bell sounded at the beginning of first period. The rest of the day was spent getting brief messages out to the other teachers and students, making sure they all had viable reasons to stay at the school that night without arousing too much suspicion from the GIW agents.
When the last bell rang and school finally let out for the day, Lancer made his way to Principal Ishiyama's office. They would both make sure the school was secure and then head down to the rebel base together.
Lancer was wholly unprepared for the four armed and ready GIW agents standing in front of the Principal's desk.
"Midnight's Children!' Are you alright Mrs. Ishiyama? Am I interrupting?" Lancer stepped further into the room, eyeing the agents and just barely keeping cold dread off his face and out of his voice.
"Mr. Lancer." Ishiyama greeted tartly, her eyes never leaving the leading agent's shaded ones. "No, you're not interrupting anything. These… fine agents were just leaving. Weren't you Agent FT? Or was there any more 'information' you'd like to share for the safety of my students?"
"Just keep your students in line, Principal. We will not be as lenient as we've been in the past." The agents marched past Lancer, slamming the office door behind them on their way out.
Lancer waited a moment to get his thumping heart under control, before turning to Ishiyama.
"Anything new the staff should be made aware of?" Lancer asked, mindful of the probable listening devices placed throughout the teacher's offices. Never could be too careful, after all.
Ishiyama blew out a heavy breath, and slumped in her chair. "No, nothing especially new. They were just investigating the disturbance last night. It's strange though, there have been a lot more agents seen patrolling the town since early this morning." She raised an eyebrow significantly. "Apparently they've been returning to Amity en-mass to investigate what… or who... could've set the alarms off. They think that one of our students may be responsible, can you imagine?"
Lancer cleared his throat. "Yes, well, best leave them to it I suppose. Are you ready for the parent teacher conference? Everyone should be here by now. Oh! And I called for the Foleys to come and take a look at the computer lab servers again. Even a year later and we still have bugs and glitches, thanks to that Technus fellow."
"Oh, thank you William. Let's go invite them to the conference as well, Holly brought cookies."
"An excellent idea."
After exchanging a furtive look, and knowing nods, Lancer followed Ishiyama out of her office. They walked silently past the large windows showing the disturbing view of multiple white government vans circling the block around the school and patrolling the rest of the town beyond.
Did they suspect that the alarms had been set off by genuine ghostly activity, and not from another one of the rebellion's sabotage attempts? Could it simply be a coincidence?
Lancer snorted at that as he and the Principal finally reached the hidden basement door. Of course it wasn't coincidence, this was Danny Fenton after all.
It didn't take long before the rumble of voices reached them as they descended. All the teachers active in the rebellion should have led the other students and parents down after the school day had ended, which meant the basement was packed with people. Lancer and Ishiyama paused on the steps to take in the scene before them.
The rebel base was filled to bursting with parents, teachers and students alike. All of them talking and huddling and calling out questions and concerns at random and none of them receiving any kind of coherent answer.
Danny's younger sister, Ellie, (Lancer was still baffled by this new development), had attached herself to Miss Valerie Grey. Valerie was standing beside her father while speaking to the pale, blond boy Lancer remembered being introduced as Draco Malfoy.
Ron Weasley stood beside the athletic equipment, talking animatedly with a few of the jocks and athletes, Kwan Lee and Dale Porter seemed especially enthralled with a story the young red-head was telling, his long arms stretched out in grand sweeping gestures.
Hermione Granger was engaged in a deep discussion with a few recent Casper Alumni that Lancer remembered being especially close to Jazmine Fenton. Jessica Harrington and Lexi Clay were invaluable in their efforts to help sabotage the GIW patrol routes by predicting which agents were most likely to chase after a masked and hidden rebel causing trouble or simply call the disturbance in to government base and leave to finish their patrol route. Their skill and attention to detail made them perfect information relayers as well.
Harry Potter was near the tables and cots, attempting to keep an eye on all his friends while simultaneously answering questions being fired at him by one Wes Weston. Harry seemed to be amused as he nodded along to another one of Wes' conspiracy rants, and was surprisingly adding his own stories to the mix.
And finally, Lancer spotted Danny.
At the epicenter of a veritable mob of people.
Currently, the boy was encircled in the arms of both the Foley parents, desperately pulling them close and ignoring the hoard of people closing in on them. So many shouted questions and compliments from Phantom's admirers back when half the town despised ghosts, Phantom especially. Hands reaching and grabbing, all trying to get as close to their returned hero as they could.
Lancer barely held back a scoff. Many minds had been changed when the truth of Phantom's mortality and true identity had been revealed. When the crowd got too excited or too bold, Dash Baxter and Paulina Sanchez were there to fend people off as gently as possible, all the while shooting Danny furtive looks that Lancer knew held the weight of a thousand words they hadn't brought themselves to say to the young Fenton.
Many minds indeed.
But this was no time to dawdle. Lancer tapped a stunned looking Ishiyama on the shoulder, jolting her from where she'd been staring down at Danny, who was now speaking lowly to the Foley parents.
"June? Shall I get the meeting started?"
"Oh- Oh yes, William, yes. Now that everyone is here... We need to make a plan."
Her eyes shone with new determination, and Lancer nodded and turned back to the crowd below.
"Alight everyone! Let's- ...War and Peace... QUIET!" The noise instantly ceased and all eyes turned to Lancer and Ishiyama on the basement steps. "Thank you. Now, if all rebel leaders could make their way to the tables, and everyone else... get ready." Lancer swept his eyes over everyone, teachers and parents and children, well over a hundred people in all; the entirety of Phantom's rebellion.
Lancer's gaze rested on Danny, his friends gathering around him and standing ready at his side.
"It's time to take back Amity Park."
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"All I'm saying is that it's risky. George just sent us a confirmation that the entirety of the GIW are back in Amity. Why risk going after them now that they're the strongest they've ever been?"
"Because they aren't goin' anywhere! Phantom is here! And he can't leave with the ghost shield and alarms and patrols along the edge of town! We should take out the GIW now, with his help before they can completely organize themselves!"
"You would pit a teenager against the very same people trying to capture and experiment on him?"
"Why not?! He went up against ghosts and gods and whatever else and we didn't bat an eye back then! Just because we know he's Fenton now doesn't stop him from being stupid powerful!"
"That's not the point!"
"Then what is the point!"
Valerie massaged her aching head and fought down the urge to strangle all the adults present, all of them practically strangers to her; Lancer and the Foley's being the only exceptions. She was just glad her Dad was wrangling everyone else and getting the others ready for their currently non-existent plan.
Danny was trying his best to hide in plain sight, which was kinda ironic since he could turn invisible with a thought.
Too bad those ugly GIW pole things would pick up on that and out the entire rebellion in less time than it takes Phantom to come up with a pun.
Which was the biggest problem, honestly.
Valerie sighed and shared a commiserating look with Danny and his new friends, all of them standing beside him after briefing the rest of the rebellion on who they were and what they could do. Turns out, believing that magic existed and that Danny had made friends with wizards was easy to accept in the face of having their hero back in town.
Valerie's eye twitched as another so-called 'adult' tried to shout their opinion on what the rebellion should do now. Danny and Ellie cringed at the rising noise level and Hermione, Draco, Ron and Harry just stood in amazement, watching the train wreck that was the 'rebel leaders' trying to come up with a coherent plan.
Valerie thought she was doing incredibly well keeping her temper in check, seeing as how she was the actual leader of the rebellion.
She'd been the first to try sabotaging the GIW after Danny had escaped, quickly realizing that her ghost hunting gear set off the alarms and then just as quickly deciding that it didn't matter if she couldn't be the Red Huntress while fighting these bozos. She would just do it in civvies and kick their smarmy white butts just the same.
She'd been the first. The first to fight. The first to sabotage. The first to protect others who fought back against the stupid rules. The first to include the rest of her classmates in her fight when they'd been determined to help in any way they could. She'd gladly accepted Lancer and the Foley's and the Manson's assistance once they'd begun going after bigger targets. They were the only adults that had actually wanted to help them fight the GIW.
The other 'rebel leaders' just took over all the decision making and planning in the name of 'protecting' the teenagers from the 'horrors of the fight,' or whatever.
Valerie sighed irritably and decided that enough was enough.
"Alright, SHUT UP!" The 'rebel leaders' looked at her scandalized, but she continued with narrowed eyes, daring them to interrupt. "How about we act like civilized people, and come up with a real plan." She pointedly turned her back on one of the scandalized adults as they opened their mouth to reply and faced Lancer, the Foley's and Danny and his friends. "So, what do we know, and what should we do next?"
Danny held her gaze for a moment, eyes flickering once over her shoulder to the adults at her back before giving her a sharp toothed grin. "Well, I know how the rebellion has survived this long now." He chuckled quickly, before sobering with a thoughtful look. "We know that the GIW were in Europe looking for me, but after we escaped them and came here and set off the alarms, they're suddenly all coming back to Amity."
"Which means... it's likely they know, or at least guess, that Danny is back in Amity now, too." Hermione thought aloud, and Valerie nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, which puts us at a bit of a disadvantage."
"No kidding." Ellie snorted. "Those light-pole modern art rejects are keeping me and Danny from transforming and helping you guys with everything we've got."
"So, we either come up with a plan that doesn't include you two using ghost powers, or a plan that includes destroying those machines." Lancer decided.
"I might be able to help with that!" Mr. Foley said with a grin and an achingly familiar PDA in his hand. (She'd found out early on where Tucker had gotten his love of electronics from.)
"I'd been having a lot of trouble hacking into the GIW mainframe without them realizing, but with all of them coming back to town and the general chaos of their operations, I was able to get in and find out exactly what those structures are! It's fascinating really, that such a horrible design is being used to do so much-"
"Maurice dear, not the time." Mrs. Foley gently prodded Mr. Foley back on track.
"Right, right... These structures aren't just ghost detectors and alarm systems, they drain ghosts of their energy and the surrounding atmosphere of all its ambient ectoplasm, and they then use that energy to... to push the boundaries of our dimension away from the Ghost Zone."
"Wait- what?" Danny asked, wide-eyes turning to equally stunned looking friends.
"What? What's wrong?" Valerie grabbed Danny's shoulder, his eyes finding hers.
"Frostbite, a friend of mine in the Infinite Realms, he told us that the Realms and the physical world are being pushed apart by something... We just never expected it to be because of the GIW. How are they even doing it? Most of their stuff doesn't even work half the time!"
"That's because those things aren't all the GIW design." Mr. Foley answered.
"What?"
"Well, I pulled the blueprints of these things to see if I could find a way for us to disable them from outside of the GIW mainframe, and the base design was built around one of... one of your parent's inventions."
"What?! That's impossible! After the whole deal with the GIW buying our lab and all that, my parents refused to work with them!"
"It wasn't one of your parents recent inventions though. It was one they worked on in college."
Valerie did not like the way that made Danny freeze and Ellie pale. The half-ghosts turned to each other with identical looks of horrific understanding. Before Valerie could ask, Mr. Foley continued, completely absorbed in whatever was on the screen in his hand.
"Yep, the design looks to have been updated recently, which made it easy for the GIW to assimilate into their light-pole like structures, and update with their own alarms and trackers. Unfortunately, I don't see any way we can shut these things down without doing it from the GIW main base of operations. These things were built to survive anything, the GIW spared no expense in making sure these machine would be physically impossible to destroy."
"Then what do you-"
"Impossible hmm?" Valerie faced the interrupting blond as his smirk stretched. Draco then pointedly nodded his head to the other foreign kids as Harry and Hermione gently pushed Ron forward with knowing grins.
"Actually," Ron said carefully, one hand fingering his magic wand and the other brushing the back of his neck, "I have an idea..."
"Yeah?" Valerie asked.
She paused, quickly shooting a look at Danny and Ellie and finding them both staring back at her with nods and steely looks. She returned their nod before turning back to Ron. "Let's hear it."
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"Sir, the last of the International Requisition Squad has just landed."
Agent A looked up from his desk with a scowl. It'd been a horrible ordeal getting the British Government off their backs after their botched attempt to retrieve Subject DP. It had escalated quickly after they'd attempted to investigate the new allies the subject had tricked into doing it's bidding. The strange energy and abilities that weren't affected by their anti-ectoplasmic weapons and contingencies; it was a wrinkle in their plans that Agent A hated to ignore, but the sudden perimeter alarm in Amity Park last night wasn't a coincidence.
The Blanc Siphon Poles had done their job, categorizing and reporting the genuine ectoplasmic signature it had captured. Phantom was back in Amity Park. The slippery ghost somehow getting past the shield and patrols around the town. But now that it was here, it wasn't leaving unless it was in a containment device being shipped off to the Investigation Ward's Research facilities.
Agent A nodded at the report, and got up to lead the way to their base's Operations Center. "Good, get Agent C to brief them and then send them out to sector beta. Agent FT got back a few hours ago from the school, but found no evidence of the Subject in the area. We need to sweep this backwater town again, before it has a chance to-"
Agent A paused as the bright-white lights above flickered. Before he could question it further, pounding footsteps thundered around a corner and barely stopped in time to keep one of their newer intelligence agents from plowing into the wall.
"Agent A! There's been an attack on the BS Pole system! They're going offline!"
"What!"
Agent A sprinted to the OPS center, his subordinate agents following close behind. He found the other Intelligence agents scrambling, at their computers and shouting incoherently, the largest viewing screen showing their system overlaying a map of the town. There was a large, red, offline signal where a green Blanc Siphon pole should be.
As Agent A watched, another of Pole signal flashed red and became inoperable.
"What is this! How are they being disabled?!"
"We don't know Sir! Ecto energy would have set them off and they're constructed to be impossible to destroy by external forces! Not even a stick of dynamite would put a scratch on them!"
"Well, they aren't just magically being destroyed! Get them back online!"
"Yes Sir!"
"Agent PL!"
"Sir!"
"Get word out to the squads nearest to the disabled BS Poles! They search the area until they know for sure what's disabling our machines!"
"Yes Sir!"
"Agent A! Another unit has just been disabled! And another! And another!"
Agent A whirled back towards the screen, and ground his teeth at the five red offline symbols, and seethed as yet another two flashed red. That was now more than half of their system. If the blasted rebels managed to get the entire system offline-
"Sir! Word from the squads in sector lambda! They're using the sewer system! They're in the tunnels beneath the town!"
"Word from sector delta! They just witnessed the BS pole get destroyed! They aren't just disabling them, they're blasting them apart somehow! No evidence of explosives or other machinery on the scene! And the rebels escaped through the sewers before the squad could catch them!"
Agent A grabbed the nearest agent by their lapels and yanked them up to his level. "Prepare Project Mastermind. When that system goes down we'll need it to go up against Subject DP."
"Sir!" The lesser agent dashed out of the main OPS center, and Agent A glared at the final green spot on the viewing screen.
"The BS pole system may go down, but our town-wide ectoplasm sensors are still in place! Get them up and running and sweep this blasted-"
The green dot flashed red and a shockwave ripped through the base, sending all the agents to the ground and scrambling their screens into stuttering static.
"Report! I need a report! Where is it?!"
"Sir!" An agent taps frantically at their keyboard, bringing their system flickering back to life. "Huge ectoplasmic signature at the water park! It's a match for- Wait! Another signal!"
"Two?!"
"Yes Sir! Another signal in the heart of downtown Amity! It's..."
"What?! It's what!?"
"Sir... It's hundreds of times more powerful than our last reading of Subject DP..."
A tense silence swallowed the room as all shaded eyes found Agent A. He growled deep and straightened his spine, looking down on them all.
"Another disgusting ghostly trick. Agent J! Is the water park signal a match for Subject DP?"
"A little weaker than the Subject's known power levels, but yes. It's a match, Sir."
"Dispatch all available squads in the field! Concentrate our forces on the water park signal, capture that ghost before we go after the fake one downtown! Gather all inactive agents and get them geared up and ready! Set out in five minutes as backup to take those despicable ghosts into GIW custody! Get going! NOW!"
As the agents before him scrambled to follow orders, Agent A stomps out into the hall towards their secure containment wing. They'll need Project Mastermind for this operation.
He smiled to himself as he reached the prepared cell, roughly pushing two scientists out of the way. Phantom was as good as handing himself over with this stunt, and Agent A wasn't going to pass up this perfect chance at finally, finally, capturing their prize.
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Danny couldn't help but laugh as he soared around a high-rise in downtown Amity, dodging a volley of burning shots from a swarm of agents on the street below.
He'd felt it the moment the last weird pole machine was blasted to bits, and he'd let his core surge with energy as he transformed and drew a bunch of the GIW vans out into the open.
Ron's plan was genius, in that it was terrifyingly simple.
Destroy the GIW machines. Easy to do when you had friends that could magically blow them up. It had been a genuine pleasure watching his friends emerge from the tunnels below and obliterate the stupid white machines on sticks with a wave of their wands and quickly spoken word, only to disappear just as quickly before the agents could even get close.
Then onto phase two; have Danny and Ellie draw out and separate the GIW's forces.
Then take the suits down as they fall right where the rebellion wants them.
Danny and Ellie were flying again mere minutes after they'd begun the operation. Danny had whooped with joy at the feeling.
At least he'd managed to keep enough of a lid on his power to transform into his normal Phantom form, or else the stares he'd felt on his back from the of the rebellion would've been much more intense.
He hadn't told them about the whole 'King of the Realms' thing, yet. It was probably for the best. Even Valerie, zooming past him on her jet sled to back Ellie up at Floody Waters, had stared at him from behind her tinted visor.
But they'd all snapped out of it quickly once Danny landed hard in the middle of the plaza, cracks spiderwebbing out from the crater at his feet and stopping the approaching squadron of agents in their tracks.
"Looking for me? Then come and GET ME!" The words ripped from his throat with enough of his ghostly wail behind them to shatter the surrounding shop windows. Danny drew a hand back before the agents could recover from their shock and built up a blindingly bright bolt of energy in his palm. Whipping it out, he sent the agents crashing into their own vans and into the shop's open windows.
There was a tremulous pause before the tumultuous cries of the rebellion shook the ground, and they surged forward towards the faltering GIW agents. Danny flew up and around to fly close to Draco and Hermione, both of whom were crying out their own battle cries, wands flashing bright with powerful spells sending agents flying.
Even with the new waves of incoming agents, the rebellion was still in control of the fight. Dash flattened an agent with a full on football tackle and Paulina kicked one down before slashing at his face with her perfectly manicured nails. Lancer and Mr. Grey brandished truncheons with brutal efficiency, and Wes laughed maniacally as he jumped on an agent and blinded him with his camera's too-bright flash.
The rest of the rebellion was just as chaotic and efficiently destructive on the GIW's forces. When the agents tried to pull out their own sick versions of ghost containment devices, the rebellion destroyed them in an instant before one could even be pointed in Danny's general direction.
It wasn't long before the GIW vans were screaming away and the rebellion roared their approval.
"Danny! Danny get to Floody Waters! The others need reinforcements!" Lexi shouted, frantic, with a hand pressed to her ear, one of the few long-range communication devices the rebellion had pressed to her ear. Danny nodded and was quick to grab hold of Draco and Hermione to fly them over to Floody Waters to join Ellie, Valerie, Harry and Ron.
"Look out!" Draco called right before a net expanded right in front of them. Danny dived out of the way making Draco and Hermione shriek at the sudden drop. Looking down and spotting the red of Ron's hair, Danny streaked forward, wind whistling past his ears and slicking his hair back.
"Danny! It's Ellie! Get to Ellie! We'll hold them off here!" Harry shouted out as Danny quickly dropped Draco and Hermione off beside him. Not wasting a second, Danny shot up and dodged another glowing net and volley of scattered shots, heading straight for the swarm of agents strapped to jet packs, circling Ellie like angry wasps.
Valerie jetted past, chasing off three agents while trying to fend off two more aiming capture devices at Ellie's back.
"Ellie!" Danny cried, voice echoing back off the empty water slide behind her.
"Danny! Stay back!"
Danny didn't want to do anything of the sort, but the glint in Ellie's eye told him that he'd better listen to her.
He dodged another shot and then snarled as he grabbed hold of a flying agent, fangs bared and eyes blazing, he drove the man down into a park picnic table, leaving the agent groaning atop the pile of broken, splintered wood.
Danny rose up again, but then paused briefly at the sudden creaking rumble coming from deep below the depressingly empty wave pool. Looking up to Ellie, Danny saw her curled up in a ball, eyes closed and face scrunched in concentration... and completely defenseless to the agents flying towards her with guns capture weapons armed and ready.
Danny flew, single minded in his haste to get to Ellie, his ghostly tail streaming behind him. But, as fast as he was, he had the sudden, cold, core-cracking realization that he wouldn't make it in time.
The Agent's teeth bared in triumph.
Weapons blazing green as they're fired.
The rumble below transformed into a roar.
Ellie's eyes snap open, swirling ocean blue, and water crashed upwards.
Pipes squealed and burst and the ground crumbled beneath the tsunami now dragging agents, both flying and grounded, away in a whirlpool of destroyed weapons and ruined white suits.
The rebels screamed in surprise and then in victory as all the agents were taken out in one fell swoop.
But Danny only had eyes for Ellie's drooping form, stuttering flight and the lurid green dripping from the end of her hair and tips of her fingers.
"Ellie!" Danny gasped as he caught her as gently as he could and quickly flew down to the ground. Valerie's zoomed down beside him.
"Danny! Is she alright? I couldn't- there was so many and they came so quickly! I'm-"
"Don't apologize Val." Ellie grinned tiredly, waving a weepy fingered hand. "I'll be fine. I just used a lot of core power for that stunt. Unfortunately, I'll never have the stupid amounts of power like my dear DNA donor here." She patted the side of Danny's face with a grin.
"Wha- Ellie!" Danny's could feel his cheeks coloring as Valerie stuttered out an incredulous laugh that she tried to hide behind her hand.
"C'mon Danny, I'll be fine." Impossibly, Danny believed her, and he sighed with relief before offering her a smile.
"Ellie! Danny! Valerie!" Ron was splashing towards them, followed closely by the rest of the magic quartet and other members of the rebellion. "You alright?! We saw the wave and then Ellie fell and then-"
"Look out!" The call came from the approaching crowd of rebels and Danny only just dove out of the way of another glowing net. The shot came from one of the agents, recovering enough from the shock of being nearly drowned to take a cheep shot at Danny's back.
Danny hissed through his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the agent, making the man falter back in fear. The sight made Danny smile.
"How about you chill for a bit, dude." Danny brushed a hand across the pooled water he was crouched in, flash freezing the soaking wet agent in place, along with the rest of the agents still laying in soggy heaps.
With a gusty sigh, Danny turned back to look down at Ellie with a wry smile. "A water core, huh? Clockwork said those are even rarer than ice cores, you brat."
Ellie giggled as she pushed herself up, already looking better than before, her hair and hands full and solid and no longer dripping green.
"You sure you're all okay?" Harry asked; he, Ron, Hermione and Draco all looked concerned with wands still held ready.
"Yeah. Yeah we'll be okay. Was that the last of the GIW? Did the infiltration team make it into the GIW base alright?" Danny asked Valerie.
"I know the infiltration team made it in alright, so we should be hearing from them soon. As for the rest of the agents-"
"Valerie! Valerie! There's- We have a problem! We have a major problem!" Jessica pelted towards them, water splashing in every direction in her desperation to get to them. She was closely followed by George, his suit disheveled and his eyes unshaded and terrified.
Danny jumped up beside Valerie, Ellie clinging to him to stay upright. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco crowded close with looks of worry.
"Jessica! George! What's going on?" Valerie asked quickly.
"I didn't know! They never said- I didn't know!"
"George! Calm down, what didn't you know!?"
"They have-"
"-Have you surrounded." Danny whirled around and found himself facing a wall of armed ecto-guns, armed and trained on him and his friends. Danny's core stuttered and his fist clenched at the sight of hundreds of agents pinning them down. How hadn't he noticed them? When had they-
"Confused Phantom?" The leader of the GIW himself stepped forward, suited in a distinguished black that stood out starkly against the wall of white. The man smirked and laughed cruelly. "It turns out the best way to hunt a ghost is by using their own tricks against them. Who would've thought?"
"What-" Danny swallowed his fear and gently pushed Ellie's trembling form behind him, "What are you talking about?"
"You didn't notice Phantom? I thought you could sense other ghosts? Or, is your kind exempt from that rule? I suppose we'll have a chance to test it, won't we?" The Agent leered at Danny with contempt in every line of his too perfect suit. "You'll be coming with us, Phantom. To live out the rest of your disgusting excuse of non-sentient existence under our merciful control."
"Leave him alone! Get out of Amity you-"
"You poor child." The Agent spoke condescendingly down at Valerie, cutting off her angry shout. "Tricked and misled by this half-ghost freak. Agent G, too? I expected better of you." George flinched back under the Agent's shaded gaze. "But it's alright now. Once we have Phantom, the whole world will know the might of the Ghost Investigation Ward. No one will scoff at us if we have an all powerful and nigh indestructible ghost under our command."
"Yeah? And what makes you think I would do anything you say, huh?" Danny bit out, fists rising into a ready position, wreathed in emerald flames. Valerie's suit activated with a thought and she leveled an armed ecto-gun right at the Agent's face. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco all closed ranks, hiding a still recovering Ellie out of sight, and raising their wands in unison, trained on the surrounding agents.
The rest of the rebellion followed suit; Jessica, George, Star, Kwan and Mrs. Testlaff were immediately recognizable as they readied themselves nearby. The rest of the rebels tensed in anticipation.
There was a distant rumble that made Danny heart and core leap in unison. The other half of the rebellion's forces were closing in from downtown. They'd have backup in mere minutes.
Despite all of this, Danny's stomach dropped when the Agent began to laugh.
"Tsk tsk, Phantom." The agent chortled, completely at ease and unconcerned with the threat of a brutal fight in his immediate future. "And here I thought you were intelligent with how long you avoided your inevitable capture. You really think we, the Ghost Investigation Ward, don't have a sure fire method to keep you under our control?"
Danny stayed completely still, the tension stretched enough that he could almost feel the rebellion's restraint cracking and snapping under the pressure.
"No, no, Phantom. We have such grand plans for you. Of course... we had to test them out first, to make sure they worked well on something like you. But don't you worry, Project Mastermind was a rousing success!"
A beat. A breath. A blink.
"What?"
"Well, I'd hate to tell you when I can just show you." The Agent smiled wide and snapped his fingers once before pointing at right at Danny.
Danny wasn't given any time to react. He felt the presence at his back the instant a hand closed around his throat. He heard three whispered words before the world fell away into nothing but screaming colors.
"Hello Little Badger."
.