Location: Casper High School - Amity Park
"This is so much worse" Danny grumbled as he rinsed out his mop before going back to swab the cafeteria floor.
"Really? Tucker asked scooping up another load of spoiled meat "Cleaning up after the Lunch Lady is worse than having to fight her?"
"It totally is" Sam said, gagging slightly as she held open the trash bag for Tucker to dump another load into it.
"When I'm fighting her I don't really have time to focus on how bad this stuff stinks" Danny explained wrinkling his nose at the lingering stench "Also it sucks how the A-listers get to sit out from the clean up"
"Why are we even doing this anyway, isn't this what we have janitors for?" Tucker complained gesturing towards their fellow students also struggling with the leftovers from Dannys' latest battle.
"You heard Lancer, 'Students should take pride in their school' " Sam said earning a chuckle from her terrible impersonation "Of course the A-listers don't need to worry about this. The football team has a big game coming up, can't have them or those airheaded cheerleaders miss practice"
"Honestly I'd take a visit from the Box Ghost over any more of this" Danny sighed.
The teens were snapped out of their misery by the sound of a distant explosion causing their fellow students to panic. Sharing a quick look the trio raced outside to try spot where it came from.
"There look smoke coming from the industrial district!" Tucker yelled scrambling to get his PDA out, searching social media for any further details.
"That looks pretty bad. Who do you think it is?" Sam asked while fishing her Fenton phones out of her bag.
"If it's the industrial district I'm betting it's either Technus or Skulker looking for new tech" Danny said "But whoever it is we indeed to move fast before they can do anymore damage"
Taking a quick look around he ducked down while Sam and Tucker moved to block him from sight "I'm going ghost!"
As he finished his battle cry a glowing ring appeared at his waist. Splitting in two to move across his body his clothes were replaced with a black and white jumpsuit while his hair changed from black to a stark white, his eyes from a gentle blue to neon green.
"I'll fly ahead and see what we're dealing with while you guys head back to my parents lab. Grab a backup thermos and any weapons you need"
A quick nod from his friends and he was off, taking to the sky and racing across the city. Pushing himself he quickly reached the source of the smoke. Bellow was the smoldering ruins of a warehouse, a mangled sign reading 'Mandark Industries'.
"Whoa this place got hit hard" Danny thought, turning invisible as he drifted down for a closer look.
Once he was past the smoke he finally got a glimpse of the attackers. Scuttling, Clambering and hovering over the wreckage was the strangest collection of creatures he'd ever seen. Small tick like creatures, legless mosquitoes, pincerless crabs and living stone blocks?
"Okay this is new" he admitted as he continued to observe them. He noticed that each of the creatures had at least one symbol on their bodies that resembles a stylized eye.
"Well if they're going to give me such a great target" he shrugged before firing two ecto blasts from his hands.
The first stuck the block in one of its 'eyes', blasting it into pixels of light while the second carved through the legs of one of the crabs sending it crashing to the floor before striking one of the ticks behind it.
Becoming visible he couldn't help but snark "You know if you've got a major weak point maybe don't paint a literal target on it. You never played a video game?"
Upon registering the threat the remaining creatures all scrambled into action, a volley of red energy blast rushing to meet him. Turning intangible Danny swooped down and once he was out of their line of fire turned solid once more to deliver a swift uppercut on the remaining crab leaving it helpless flailing on it's back.
Turning on his Fenton phone while firing a few ecto blasts to scatter the flyers Danny finally realised something. His ghost sense hadn't gone off once since he got here.
"Guys I'm at the site. There's a bunch of freaky looking creatures here but whatever they are they're not ghosts"
"Whait seriously? Then what are they?" Tucker asked, the sounds of Sam sorting through piles of tech could be herald in the background.
"I don't know, they fall apart into pixels after I smash them though" Dodging a spray of acid from one of the mosquitoes before blasting it apart.
"You think Technus has found a way to make digital monsters? Maybe that's why this place was attacked" Sam suggested
"I don't think this is Technus, he'd totally have bragged about his 'hip new army' or something by now" Danny said, flying up to avoid a beam of ice from one of the blocks.
"I'll call you guys back when I figure out who's behind this. For now I'm going to have to play exterminator"
Firing a double blast down he destroyed the block before one of the ticks managed to score a glancing shot on his back. Dropping down he smashed a tick before unleashing a slicing attack of ecto energy taking out three more. Despite his best efforts their numbers didn't seem to be decreasing at all.
"Well this place is a wreck anyway" he thought, gathering a dense ball of ectoplasm between his hands before unleashing it all at once. The green beam carving through the swarm of creatures in front of him and blasting out the back wall.
Before the dust from his latest attack cleared a series of energy blasts rained down from above sending him staggering back, sending him tumbling over a pile of debris. Gritting his teeth Danny forced himself back to his feet, the dust clearing to reveal more crabs, mosquitoes and blocks.
"I was kidding about being an exterminator but I'm starting to think this really is an infestation"
Behind the swarm however Danny noticed a hole beneath some broken loading equipment, five of the ticks came clambering out to join the rest. So they're coming from underground he thought, I need to get down there and try to cut them off at the source.
Turning intangible Danny rushed through them dropping down before calling back "You want me? Come get me!"
He assumed they released the danger to their nest(?) and moved to follow. Now all he had to do was find out exactly where they were coming from before too many appeared. Reaching the end of the tunnel he found himself in a far more advanced room, at the far side of which was a large circular machine with a bright light coming from it's center.
"Big ominous glowing machine, that looks important" Charging up an attack, Danny prepared to take it out.
Before he could finish his attack a new figure emerged from the light. It was bipedal with jet black metallic skin. A three point fin like crest stood at the back of its head, three yellow claws extended from between the knuckles of its hands. A single glowing eye sigil was visible on its face above a snarling fanged mouth.
"Still no ghost sense but this one definitely feels different from the others" Danny thought shifting his aim and saying "I'm not sure what you want but I think this place has reached it 'ugly freak' quota for the month"
With a savage snarl the creature leapt towards him with incredible speed, his panicked shot missing it's target as it slammed into him dragging him back down to the floor. Struggling against its savage attacks Danny forced it off with a point blank ectoblast, before getting somewhat shakily back to his feet.
"This thing is nuts! Guess this must be some kind of guard dog for whoever's behind this"
As the beast scrambled back to its feet Danny flew forward, determined to take it out quickly. Seeing his charge it let out a roar as if in challenge before rushing to meet him head on. Just before they could clash Danny pahased through the creature and delivered a vicious kick to its back, sending it skidding face first across the room.
While they continued to fight the creatures from the warehouse finally reached the lower level, using their energy blasts to force Danny on the defensive.
"Damn it, I can't focus on this thing while dodging their attacks" as if to make matters worse several more crab and blocks spawned from the machine behind him "Oh perfect, is it too late to go back to cleaning up the cafeteria?"
Now totally surrounded Danny turned intangible to buy some time. If he could just get to the machine and stop anymore reinforcements then he could focus on picking them off in smaller groups. Unfortunately the beats seemed far more intelligent than its more animalistic cohorts, snarling at the flyers and ticks they began to make their way back towards to hole in the roof.
"If those things get out someone could get seriously hurt, but I've got to take out that machine without getting sliced up by that psycho"
As he wracked his brain for a solution he recalled his recent run in with his dark future "I can try take everything out in one shot but if I don't I'm a sitting duck"
As the machine spawned more flying enemies that attempted to escape Danny made his choice. Flying back to the hole he sent a few quick shots to slow the nearest ones down before taking a deep breath. Perhaps sensing that the intruder was up to something the beats sprinted forward on all fours before leaping towards him, its claws reared back for a killing blow.
It never got the chance as Danny let out a piercing wail, the force of which instantly destroying the smaller creatures while sending the beast rocketing back, slamming into the now sparking machine. In a startling show of strength the beats began to force itself off the machine digging its claws into the floor as it dragged itself forward.
Although his strength was fading fast he forced himself to keep going, pouring every last bit of his power into his attack. The beast struggled valiantly against the crushing force of his wail but could not withstand it anymore, the shockwaves ripping it apart as it faded into black pixelated smoke. Behind it the machine finally exploded in a shower of sparks and burning metal.
As the wail trailed off Danny felt himself begin to transform back, weakly he tried to float down before his transformation ended but lost control four feet from the ground. Landing hard he felt the breath knocked out of him as he lay among the wreckage. His vision fading he could swear he saw shape descending the tunnel above.
"No...got to...get up...can't" he tried to sit but his strength had left him, falling back as he slowly slipped into unconciousness.
The agents stared at the devastation in front of them, the lab looked like a hurricane had swept through. The ceiling creaked ominously as they moved towards the boys' unconscious form.
Tapping his ear piece the agent called in "Area secure ma'am no sign of hostels. The area has sustained serious damage and appears structurally unstable, I recommend pulling back and letting the drones handle data retrieval"
"Understood" came the reply "Is there anything else to report?"
"Yes ma'am there appears to be a survivor" as another agent approached the scanner in her hands began to flare up catching their attention "Hold on, the ecto scanner is getting a reading"
"A ghost attack?" the voice asked while the agents moved to scan the boy.
"Negative readings are coming from the child..wait sensors have a hit. Ecto signature is a 97% match to designation 'Phantom' requesting orders"
"A medevac is on route. Secure him and prep drones for data retrieval, we need to find out what happened here"
"Understood ma'am"