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The next morning found a rather irate Goth walking over to her friends. She had no proof that Danny had taken the answer sheet, so when she approached the lockers to talk to him she noted off the bat that he seemed to avoiding her gaze. "Hey, Danny, did you see an envelope at your house? I had one in my backpack and last night it disappeared." Tucker raised a brow at the story that followed about said missing envelope. "Yeah, I found it behind me after the attack. Figured that when I was thrust out of the building by the explosion that I must have hit Lancer's briefcase." Both turned to Danny. He scowled back at them.
"Why shouldn't I use it?" he inquired to their surprise. Slamming his locker, the former halfa walked off. He felt a little bad for snapping at them, but he was still mulling over the thoughts that had gone thru his mind yesterday. He didn't wait to fail the test and he knew his only chance to pass was with that answer sheet.
As they were walking by the teacher's lounge, Lancer having just opened the door a crack to head out, Sam said, "Danny, you need to give them back. You can't cheat just because you have the means to do that." The balding teacher stepped back, a brow raised as the group headed on, the voice of Tucker reiterating what Sam had said. Danny grumbled under his breath at his two friends. "We still have time to study." He shot her a look, that look holding her on the spot, that was filled with disbelief. "What?" Her eyes grew wider for a moment as she realized what he was saying before those amethyst orbs narrowed. "Oh, so just because I fi-"
"Sam, you know it's true," he responded, cutting her off. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but you can't help me study and fight ghosts." Sam looked to Tucker for help. The techno-geek shrugged his arms. "I didn't say I use them anyway," he grumbled. "I'll turn them in later." Sam wanted to ask him why he didn't just give them to her, but decided that school probably wasn't the best place to be seen with said material, so instead responded differently.
"We can talk about this later," the Goth teen said with a look to her bag. "After all, we still need to figure out that thing I told you about." The two males nodded, as they had heard about the strange necklace that Sam had found on the ground after the ghosts had disappeared, with only one of them coming back for more.
Lancer turned and opening the briefcase before him found that it was indeed empty of the answer sheet, his cry of, "Great Caesar's ghost!" echoing around him. Narrowing his gaze at the empty space, the teacher made a note to talk to Danny's sister about what he had heard. He was sure the raven haired male had the answers, but without proof at that moment he could do nothing, but maybe scare the boy into giving them back or wait until after the test and see if Danny had used what he seemed to have.
Later that day after school found all three teens on the floor of Danny's room, the small necklace on the floor hooked up to Tucker's PDA, as he moved his fingers across the screen. "This is like super high tech," the male stated as the pair watched. "I can't seem to hack into it." They were disappointed, but even Sam knew that something was off about the ghost that had appeared to assist a ghost not known for taking all that much help, much less from a child.
"It looks rather futuristic," she stated.
"And you did say that there was a child ghost there that you have never seen before," Danny pointed out. Tucker listened as they explained about the mini lunch lady like ghost that Sam had run into. "Strange to think that there's a child ghost of an-" Tucker gagged and the other two realized that if that child had been the spawn of the Lunch Lady, then that meant she had proc- "Ew." Sam leaned back for a moment, her eyes on the medallion before them. Pulling open his backpack, Danny removed the test answers, Sam and Tucker looking at each other before throwing him a look.
"I thought you weren't going to cheat?" Tucker asked. Danny didn't really have an answer. He wasn't the Phantom anymore, but he really could use the boost of his grades since they would plummet after this test. He just hadn't been able to wrap his mind around a good portion of the information on the practice test and with the thought that even that wasn't a valid excuse he got defensive.
"You two said the test was meaningless, so why are you so upset with me wanting to use this?" he asked, holding it up. The techno-geek looked to Sam, but she was wondering why her friend would even dream about taking the easy way out. He had never really done that before and while she knew that she really had no say in it she shook her head at the other teen.
"Not his mother, so not like I can tell him not to cheat," she muttered. Danny smiled, though still uneasy about what he was planning to do. He still was pulling the tab when Sam released a blue puff of mist, her eyes going wide with the other two as Danny dropped the packet. Rushing to transform, the trio found themselves with a rather new looking ghost before them. Well, he looked a little new to them, but upon looking closer Danny was the first to realize that this wasn't an unfamiliar face. Sam rushed at the male ghost, her body slamming him into the wall, but not before he blasted her off of him seconds later.
"Who are you?" Danny asked, though he had an idea with the eyes that were looking back at Sam, though the body looked different. He didn't even look over at Danny, but he did respond as he smirked down at Sam. She didn't like this. She too could now see that the male before her was a ghost that they all knew, but not in that body.
"I am Skull-Tech 9.9," he stated, leaning closer to her. "The future ghost world's greatest hunter." That's when they all noticed that there was another face on the body of Skulker, that of Technus, the head pointing out that he was the operating system for the ghost hunter. All three teens looked shocked to think that the pair had come together, but a slight look of fear crossed Sam's face when he busted out seven extended grabbers before she went intangible to get the ghostly male out of Danny's room. Not only because she feared what he could do to her friends, but because of the fact that Danny's parents would wonder why there were two ghosts in his room as well. Taking the futuristic ghost out onto the streets she was tossed off, the grabber on one side coming down to slam her, her small body moving as quick to move out from under his grasp. Another one struck her, the feeling of her body being crushed forcing a scream from her lips.
She just wasn't fast enough for the combination of the pair, but she still tried to fight, kicking out to knock the grabber on her body. She managed to bend it, but another one came around her neck, cutting off the air flow, while he pulled her to him. "Ah, so I finally have my prize. Say good night, brat." Another grabber appeared lower, next to her stomach, the fingers of it swirling faster until it became like a mini circular saw.
"Crap," the female half muttered, her mind trying to figure out how she was going to get out of this one when the sound of beeping brought all three of them to a stand still, Skulker looking to his wrist with a rather annoyed look. Sam was thrown back as the ghost before her found himself off again, like the several times that Tucker had managed to detour the ghost with his PDA. She looked over as the pair of teens came out of Danny's house, Tucker looking rather surprised that his trick has work again.
"I don't know if I should be upset about that or glad," Tucker stated with a frown, Danny shooting him a look before Sam took to the air again, her hunt for the strange new partners on. Below her stood Lancer, insinuating that Danny had the test answers, his tired gaze on Jazz as she defended her brother. She did wonder how her brother could have managed to get the answers out of the locked, always attached to his arm, briefcase, but then again Danny wasn't one to cheat so why did Lancer think he was?
Sam watched the partners fight with each other, the perfect chance to strike and strike she did, a green blast coming out to hit them right in the chest. It was just too easy as they fell from the skies and right down in the Nasty Burger, a crash that knocked them right down the middle of the ceiling. Sam rushed to try and get them, but the new Skulker was faster, a quick blast that hit her in the chest, knocked her back and when she thought that maybe it was weak she found herself de-transforming, her body falling from the skies.
"No!" she cried, her power flickering around her as she reverted back to the Phantom. Were they taking her powers? She didn't have really enough of them to fight back as it was, so this wasn't good. She needed to get rid of them and fast! She took to trying to strike them, but with that previous hit, her powers refused to work and the blast came out weak as they returned fire. Another blast had her falling again, her arms flailing out for something, or someone, to save her. Unfortunately for her Tucker and Danny were just coming onto the scene as Skulker grabbed her from the air with a another arm, this one attached to what appeared to be a thick metal belt.
"You are so much weaker than that other Phantom we have to fight," Techus spat with a laugh. Skulker joined in, his body sparking the belt around her body with such zap that she felt as if her body were not her own, the weightless feeling of her head making it all blurry. When it seemed that all was lost the other teens came to her aid, though not before Skulker added his two cents.
"Say good-bye to your future!" Beep. "What the hell?" He looked down to see the beam from Tucker's PDA on his body just seconds before his body seemed to crash, his form falling from the air with a thud just feet from where they were.
"Tucker, come on!" Danny cried as he grabbed to the top of the belt around Sam, the Goth still looking a little dazed as Tucker joined in grabbing the other side of the belt. "Sam?" he inquired when he noticed that she was still off in La La Land. Blinking, the trio found themselves engulfed in a bright blue light before they were pulled from the spot with a cry. Following the future robot of Skull-Tech the trio was pulled thru a familiar glass, the robot releasing Sam upon impact. As Tucker got up, Danny ensuring that the Goth was okay, they looked around them, the glass still reflecting their time.
"Where are we?" Danny asked, the other two silent as they gazed around what appeared to be a clock tower. The sound of said clock ticking could be heard in the silent space as Tucker headed for a window with Danny and Sam right on his tail. "It looks like the Ghost Zone, but I don't recognize this part of the Zone." Tucker noted that on the wall were necklaces like what Sam had shown them.
"I think I know how we can get back," he stated, pointing to the wall where said items were located. As he was picking up one, Danny noted the glass that they had come from was now just static, an image flickering in the midst of it. When nothing happened to Tucker upon placing the accessory on his neck, he groaned. "Nothing."
"I don't know, something is off about all this," Sam stated, her gaze moving to look around the tower again. "I'm not sure if I like this, not with ghosts from the future coming for my head." Would this have happened to Danny had he been in this part still?
"It doesn't get any better," the raven haired male stated, the former halfa still looking at the screen as it became clearer, the form of Sam, older, before his eyes striking at the cars below her as she chuckled. Sam came to his side, Tucker with her as they noted that it said 'Ten Years In The Future' below the image. Her white hair was longer, some of it tied back as it floated around her. She was striking buildings, people, cars, really anything she saw before her eyes. The Goth in question moved closer, her fingers reaching for the screen when the female in the glass turned to stop, eying the carnage around her, and began to laugh. It was a dark laugh, but what got her was her eyes. They were like looking into two pools of blood. She felt a shudder up her spine. "Your future doesn't look all that great," he said now, turning to his friend. He could see in her eyes the disbelief and he too didn't want to believe that Sam would turn into the maniacal woman before them, but something told him that this glass wasn't lying to them.
Before them more scenes of destruction occurred, the arm coming to fight the evil Phantom before them, but she just opened up her mouth, a rippling power of purple with a loud wail knocking all of the humans before her back. All their equipment was no match for what sounded like Sam to be a wail of despair. Tanks and helicopters were blown away, cop cars were tossed away, her older self smirking, but she could see it. It was a look that she recognized. This woman before her was evil, yeah, that was rather obvious, but her gaze was shuttered and cold. What had happened to her that would have led her to this kind of future? Danny, on the other hand was rather surprised with the new power, his own thoughts on what she had been thinking earlier. Would he have been where Sam was in the image? Did that mean he could have ended up with such a power. Again, he found himself missing having his powers, but at the same time he wondered what could have made Sam go to the dark side...well to the evil side. Sam was a Goth and as a Goth was known to be rather dark, but he couldn't see her doing this.
Tucker was about to try and gain some insight from the downed Skull-Tech before him, but before he could do that the body was gone, thrust into the glass where future Sam was still destroying things, a ghost floating down before them. "Who are you?" Danny and Sam asked, both noting that this male before them was not a ghost they had ever run into while Tucker stayed silent. He too, was taking in the appearance of the ghost with a grandfather clock body that seemed to change ages every few seconds. The ghost smirked, Sam finding that it wasn't an evil one, but not a nice one either.
"Introductions?" he queried with another change of his body. "I suppose you should know the one that is out to destroy you so that," he said, pointing at the screen as his body became an old man. "Doesn't happen." Sam's mouth fell open, fear flickering in her gaze as both of her friends glanced over at her. Danny wasn't happy about it and yet with him as a human there was no way for him to stop it from happening.
"Why would I turn into that?" Sam inquired. "I mean, I know that I can be dark, but I would never turn evil." He seemed to agree, but still glowered at her. She didn't want to fight him and yet, she knew that if she didn't than she could be killed. She wasn't ready to die, not when she didn't even get a chance to tell Danny how she felt. She looked at him now, noting that he was pissed off. He knew that she was right, didn't he?
"I do not know, child, but I have been given a task and as you all have seen too much as it is, you must all be destroyed." Sam glowered at him. There was no way that she was going to allow him to harm her friends, even as more of him appeared from different times and in different outfits. "Just accept your fate. There is nowhere else to go." Recalling that there had to be something special about the necklace around his neck Tucker grasped two more as Danny yanked Sam closer to him. She almost refused to go, worried that if the male before her struck at her that he could get caught in the crossfire. Tucker thrust the necklaces into their hands as Danny noted that the glass behind them was still on the future and as they had just come from that same glass pulled Sam and Tucker with him toward the future, the one that wasn't too bright. Getting where he was going, and while apprehensive with the knowledge that her evil side was there, she grasped both of them and flew off into the large glass.
Clockwork just smirked. He wondered how well the girl would fare against her more powerful and evil self from the future. Would her future self do all the work for him?