Good afternoon! Sorry for the week's delay in publishing. I practically had a heart attack when I realized how late I was, but my amazing betas came through for me. [Love you guys] Plus I just published another oneshot a couple weeks ago and forgot that WASN'T a Recognized update...
The final battle is beginning, and everyone is descending upon London's Banking District to rescue our favorite raven-haired heroes.
Now: Who woke Danny?
General Notes:
"This is dialogue."
"This is alternative dialogue, meaning whispered or spoken from a distance such as on the phone."
'This is thought.'
This and THIS and *this* are emphasis. The *this* emphasis is more along the lines of the snarky or sarcastic.
[This is digital text, such as notifications on a computer or smartphone.]
I do not own Danny Phantom nor Young Justice.
Ch. 15 originally published: Friday, September 20, 2019
RECOGNIZED
Chapter 15
Convergence
12:00, Thursday, March 22 — 22 Bishopsgate, London, UK
It had all started out as innocent fun.
When Lex Luthor suddenly made an appearance in the same city that the shapeshifter had randomly selected as his first destination after Amity Park, it seemed almost too good to be true. Nevertheless, Amorpho decided not to question his luck and instead capitalize on the opportunity to create international confusion and chaos.
Amorpho waited a few minutes after the real Luthor had entered the construction site before transforming to mimic the billionaire.
"Oh, hello again, Mr. Luthor," the foreman greeted. "Didn't you already go inside?"
"Yes," Amorpho replied, then he cleared his throat and switched to Lex Luthor's voice instead. "Yes, I forgot something in the car. May I enter?"
"Certainly, sir. Everyone is waiting for you in the seven storeys of the original building's core." The foreman stepped aside and gestured to an elevator. "Would you like me to accompany you?"
"No, no, that's quite alright. Thank you." With one final salesman's smile, Amorpho slipped into the elevator and began searching intangibly until he came across something quite familiar indeed.
Minutes Earlier — 11:50, Thursday, March 22 — Undisclosed Location, London, UK
Something was off when Danny awoke. He was inside some sort of containment which didn't feel…right. This glass cylinder wasn't simply to imprison him, per se; rather, it was more to sustain him. Danny gradually forced his eyes to focus on what was beyond the glass. It was some sort of darkened room, so poorly lit he could barely make out a single detail save what was bathed in the containment pod's puddle of illumination.
The boy still felt raw in every sense: emotionally raw from seeing the only true family member he had left be slaughtered in front of him; physically raw from being restrained; and mentally raw from not knowing what the hell was going on anymore. Something else was off with his own physiology, too. There was some sort of indescribable imbalance, an imperfection within him. Something just wasn't…
…right.
Most of all, though, something was off because of what woke him up: Him.
Not Robin-him. Not Dick-him. Not even Danny-him. No; it was Phantom-him.
Danny's eyes widened to their maximum aperture, mouth open in an enlarging 'O,' a scream ready to pierce the air.
Phantom-him's eyes also widened, and he quickly raised his hands in a submissive manner. Stepping forward, and speaking in a rushed voice, he said, "Okay, don't freak out…"
Hours Earlier — 19:00 Local Time, Wednesday, March 21 — Amity Park, Ohio
Something was off when Danny awoke. He was inside some sort of containment which didn't feel…right. This glass cylinder wasn't imprisoning him, per se; rather, it was more to sustain him. Something else was off with his own physiology, too. There was some sort of indescribable imbalance, an imperfection within him. Something just wasn't…
…right.
Vlad's secret lab in Polter Heights. When would Danny have been here? Of course, he was just here after being taken prisoner. But then…that was at his Colorado hunting lodge lair, and this was clearly the one below Masters' Polter Heights mansion.
Something was definitely not right.
"Welcome to the world, Daniel."
Danny instinctively fought against his restraints at the sound of his arch nemesis' voice.
"Calm down, little badger. I'll let you out as soon as you calm down."
Danny scowled. Vlad sounding cooperative—sounding kind—*that* was definitely new. "What do you want, Fruit Loop? And what's the big idea sending that Dani-with-an-I girl after me?"
Vlad broke eye contact and sighed. "Nothing has gone according to plan; nothing at all. And you—you, my boy…you were to be my greatest triumph. Now…you will be my grand finale."
"What?"
Vlad opened a file on his computer and had the holographic screens display an array of photos, statistics, and developmental charts. "I thought you could be my last hurrah in cloning."
Danny's stomach plummeted.
"My last chance at having an apprentice, a loyal son, of sorts, to keep me company in my advancing age and train as an heir to my dynasty. Daniel—or should I say, Experiment 37—you are my swan song. I started you months ago after your original defeated my previous experiments and stabilized the one remaining rogue clone I had. You were my final attempt, completed using only the raw computer data I had after my other cloning lab was destroyed.
"But I see that I have plagued your original's life long enough. It is time for me to accept that I will never have that which I desire, perhaps as punishment for what I did all those years ago."
Danny's mind tried to come to terms with what he had just been told. "I—I'm not real?"
Vlad turned to him. "Oh, you are real as can be. You are simply not the original Danny Fenton. Tell me, what's the date today?"
Danny thought helplessly for a moment. "Um, well, yesterday we went to play mini-golf, which was Sunday, so…Monday, May 8th? Yeah, it's Monday, May 8th."
"And what year?"
"Twen-…2017?"
"That was almost a year ago, Daniel. Today is Thursday, March 22, 2018. Your last memory-"
"-Skulker's containment cube in your Colorado lab."
"Yes. It happened when Experiment 35—*Danielle*— was first activated. This consciousness of yours sources from what I was able to download while the real Daniel was unconscious. Since then, you have broken free, destroyed my research and equipment, and moved on with your life while Danielle runs around the world. Thanks to your little temper tantrum after Danielle helped you escape, my resources are no longer as sophisticated as Lex Luthor's, rendering me unable to manipulate your programming at all to be current or appropriately driven."
"Oh, now Lex Luthor's involved? How is this supposed to make what you're saying any more believable?!"
Vlad stepped to the control panel and pressed a button, releasing Danny from his restraints. "Truth is often stranger than fiction, my dear boy."
Danny immediately transformed into Phantom and charged his hands with ectoplasm. "Oh, well *that* justifies everything. If I'm actually a clone like you're saying, where's your proof?"
Phantom desperately tried to ignore the sweat beading on his own brow.
Vlad unflinchingly quirked an eyebrow. "I would conserve my energy if I were you, *Experiment 37.*" He meaningfully directed his gaze at Phantom's upraised hands.
Feeling slightly queasy, the boy looked down at his arms. Something was definitely not right.
Hazmat suits shouldn't melt.
Now stricken with horror, Phantom looked back up at Vlad. "W-what did you do to me?"
"It's not what I've done but what I haven't done," the elder man answered. "You were the result of months of experiments which very nearly brought me to a successful hybrid clone. The one mystery you were supposed to help me solve was that of stabilization of your human and ghost halves."
"S-s-stabilization?!" Phantom reabsorbed the ectoplasmic charges and immediately felt better.
"I'm afraid that prolonged usage of your powers will only accelerate the process. I must admit, this is not the purpose which I had planned to assign to you, but I'm afraid I have no choice but to activate you prematurely."
"Activate prema-" The parroted phrase died on the spiraling clone's lips as he reappraised his own condition and transformed back to 'Fenton.' "But if I'm not 'ready,' then…"
After a painful silence, the elder halfa realized what 'Danny' was trying to ask. With a sigh, Vlad explained, "Experiment 36 disintegrated the moment its pod was cracked open amidst a rescue attempt. Experiment 35 has lasted over a year now, though her development was more advanced upon activation. At your current state, I would say…one, maybe two days."
"Then—then why are you releasing me?"
"I have one final task to complete before I abandon this cloning pursuit entirely." Vlad closed the windows and brought up a photo of a skyscraper under construction on the other side of the globe. "Your original is in trouble because of me, and you must get him out. The Justice League is likely sending their protégés, and now 'your' mother is on her way to involve herself, but I have a feeling your presence will prove invaluable, if only to confuse the enemy and retrieve the true Daniel Fenton more efficiently."
'Danny' merely nodded, eyes never leaving his feet.
"Do you understand? You must save…yourself."
The clone looked up and frowned with determination. "Just know that I'm doing it for me—er, *him*—and not for you."
"Fair enough." Vlad produced a pack from a drawer and tossed it to the clone. "A replica of Robin's—or in your original's case, Red Robin's—uniform. They may have stripped Daniel of his when they put him into a pod. Bring this just in case such that he may attempt to maintain some semblance of a secret identity."
"So, where am I going?"
The man led 'Danny' to a computer display. "Everyone seems to think Lex Luthor will be keeping Daniel captive inside their future office building at 22 Bishopsgate, which is currently under construction. That is likely where the protégés and perhaps even my darling Maddie will go. I happen to know, however, that a subsidiary of LexCorp is renting significant amounts of office space in the neighboring Leadenhall building."
A three-dimensional holographic model opened on the display. It featured the two skyscrapers in question in addition to the surrounding blocks in lesser detail. Some of the upper floors of the Leadenhall tower were highlighted in red.
"I suspect Daniel may be in the Leadenhall offices instead of Bishopsgate, but no one else may think to check. I want you, therefore, to infiltrate these floors and try to find any sign of your original. Release him, equip him, and you can be on your way."
"Be on my way to die, you mean," 'Danny' snarled.
"My jet leaves from Amity Park Airport in approximately 45 minutes," Vlad continued, ignoring the comment. "Lock yourself into the bed chambers during the flight, and I will instruct Madeline to stay away without revealing your presence…or existence. I want you to stay on the plane until it lands and take public transportation into town in disguise. It's no use bailing out during the plane's approach and flying into the centre when it will unnecessarily use up the limited reserve of ecto energy holding you together."
11:50 Local Time, Thursday, March 22 — Undisclosed Location, London, UK
Danny took in his duplicate's form: nearly identical in every way to his Phantom persona, even down to the eternally-semi-repaired tear in the left shoulder's seam. "W-wh-wha-what are you?" he sputtered.
"Experiment 37," Phantom-him said. "…Apparently."
"Experiment—?"
Phantom-him rolled his eyes. "Plasmius."
Danny grit his teeth and smashed a fist against his containment pod as violently as he could within the restraints. "Damnit, Vlad!"
"I know, what can ya do?" the clone asked with a shrug.
"So what are you here for, to butcher me?" Danny snipped.
"No, genius, to help," the other him replied. He pressed a button, and the cryostasis pod released the true Danny. "Vlad feels like he's meddled enough. I was apparently his last clone attempt."
"Can we trust him, though?" Danny rubbed at his raw wrists, currently clad in a typical white Cadmus suit.
"Honestly, I think we can," Phantom-him said. "He was the most upset and regretful I've—*we've* ever seen him. Here, Vlad sent this is for you." Phantom-him produced another Red Robin suit from a backpack that had been thrown aside.
Danny hesitated to change when he realized Phantom-him wasn't turning around or anything. "Um…do you mind?"
"Dude, I'm literally you. Just change already."
Danny shrugged and stripped out of the Cadmus suit. "So, where are we?"
"A skyscraper in London's Banking District."
"London?!" Danny exclaimed, tripping slightly on one of the Robin uniform's legs. "Oh, come on! I didn't want my first trip abroad to be because of a freaking kidnapping!"
"Weeeellllll too late now. Let's get cracking. I don't have much time." The duplicate placed a hand on Danny's shoulder blade and ushered him towards the door.
"Much time for what?"
"Until I destabilize."
Danny stopped. "Wait…what?"
The duplicate flinched and stopped without turning to face Danny. "Yeah, uh…that's something Vlad hadn't worked out yet. I don't- mmmh-" He winced and gripped his side. "I don't know how long I have, but my one and only purpose now is to make sure the real me gets out of here safely."
"But…but what about you?"
Phantom-him finally turned around and offered a small shrug. "I just found out there's a whole big group of me's—er, well, *you's* in the world. I don't need to be here."
"But, dude…I thought I might have been a clone for a while there. And I would have still wanted to live my own life if I could."
"Eh, what can you do?" the clone repeated, though this time, his voice wavered slightly. "I'm not even supposed to be awake yet in the first place. And besides…I probably won't last until we find a way to stabilize me anyway."
"But…" Danny was at a loss for words, his heart slowly breaking as he faced the reality of another loss. "But we have a way…back in Amity Park…"
"It's fine," the clone insisted with a smile as a tear rolled down his glowing cheek. "C'mon, 'Red Robin,' let's get you out of here. Oh by the way, your brother's not dead."
Stunned, Danny double-took and realized his clone was leaving him behind. " 'Oh by the way'?! How is that an 'oh by the way' thing to say?!"
"You just seemed pretty sad; I thought you might like to hear it."
"So—?"
"The guy you saw die?" Phantom-him said. "He was a clone too. From Cadmus, though. The original Robin is somewhere else in this building, the Leadenhall, or that one over there-" he pointed out a window at a neighboring skyscraper under construction "-and we gotta find him. The protégé team is probably over there too."
"Wait, have I even met the real Robin?" Danny asked, doggedly following his duplicate through the halls. "And why don't we just phase through the walls to get out of here faster?"
"Who even knows if you have met him at this point? Vlad didn't tell me anything important, other than your location, and I'm working off of memories from when you first met Danielle. And, there are cameras everywhere; they'll see you're part ghost."
"Secrecy is pretty much out the window at this point, dont'ya think?"
"Well if *I* go through the wall, I melt faster, so if you don't mind, I'll continue walking so I can still be here when the ghost stuff is actually useful, thank you."
Slightly Earlier — 11:35, Wednesday, March 22 — London City Airport, London, UK
An elegant businesswoman emerged from the terminal at London City Airport, no less professional in appearance than the slew of other business people pouring into the city centre-bound DLR train. She carried a nondescript, bulky messenger bag type of purse. A careful observer wouldn't even notice the tan line of an absent wedding ring, as it had been fastidiously disguised with makeup.
Maddie self-consciously smoothed her hair back despite it having already been tamed into a tidy bun. She checked her watch: 11:36, another 21 minutes estimated until the train would deliver her to Bank station. Maddie elected to sit, choosing a seat to face the nearest set of doors from a few rows' distance away.
After the train had departed, however, a motley group of teens tumbled into some seats just past the door. Maddie did her best not to bristle; they didn't appear to be anything too annoying or threatening—a lanky redhead with too much energy; an African boy wearing a scarf around his neck; a blonde with her long hair in a ponytail; a girl who vaguely reminded her of some television character she hadn't seen in years; a rough-and-tumble, black-haired boy, likely a current or future rugby player based on his build; and a black-haired girl wearing what resembled a Catholic preparatory school uniform.
It wasn't until much later into the journey when Maddie began to place the redheaded boy's face. She side-eyed him, trying to study his features until she could remember precisely where she had seen him before. He soon produced a short smile in response to a joke one of the other teens had made.
'Of course!' Maddie had seen him at the DARE ball, sometime during the few moments she and Jack had been there to thwart the latest ghost attack. One of Danny's lookalike's friends…
He locked eyes with her.
Maddie immediately dipped her gaze as innocently as possible, smoothly transitioning it into a search for her bag's strap. She drew it over her head and stood, walking the opposite way to the next set of doors.
An announcement came over the train's intercom: "This is: Bank. Please mind the gap between the train and the platform. Change here for the Circle, District, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, and the DLR. This train terminates here."
—
Wally stumbled onto the platform and stood on his tip-toes to look above the crowd. But, it was to no avail. The rest of the undercover protégé team gathered behind him.
"Who was it you saw?" Aqualad asked, adjusting the scarf to better disguise his gills.
"I'm telling you, she looked exactly like Mrs. Fenton!" Wally insisted. "Great, last thing we need is a soccer mom getting in the way."
"Way to go, french fry," Artemis jabbed, poking Wally's side for emphasis. "You see where involving his friends gets you? Now yet another civilian might be in danger."
"Well, we can't be sure it was her?" Zatanna suggested. "I heard somewhere that we have at least 7 people who look exactly like us in the world. I mean, look at Danny and Robin."
"Yeah, except they're actually related," Superboy answered.
"Well, there's nothing we can do now besides find that access tunnel Batman told us about," Megan said and rested a comforting hand on the speedster's shoulder. "C'mon, Wally, I'm sure she'll be alright if it was her."
The team followed the crowds deeper into the station until they came across an unmarked door. Aqualad looked at a schematic on his phone and nodded to Zatanna. The magician whispered, "Eht rood si dekcolnu," while passing her hand over the knob. The door popped open, and the team slipped inside a dark corridor.
With another utterance of Zatanna, their disguises disappeared, and the protégé team was ready to infiltrate 22 Bishopsgate in stealth mode. They followed Aqualad through a maze of increasingly unfinished tunnels until they were deep underneath the Banking District.
"Alright, team, you all know the mission: locate Robin and Danny Fenton as quickly and discreetly as possible," Aqualad instructed. "We do not want a firefight, especially in a big metropolis like London which is not acclimated to supervillain violence. Miss Martian and Zatanna, I want you to start from the top of the tower and work your way down. Superboy, Artemis, you will follow a similar path starting from the top of the completed floors. Kid Flash, you stay with me from the subterranean levels, and we will work our way up."
The assembled team gave murmurs of agreement.
"Excellent. Miss Martian, now is the time."
"R-right," she agreed. Wringing her hands together, the Martian stepped forward and looked up. "Okay, everyone, step forward and grab hands."
Though they all did so, Kid Flash quipped, "What are we gonna do, sing Kumbaya?"
"I am still learning density shifting, and having a tactile connection makes it much easier to focus," M'gann answered, doing her best to ignore his snark.
Everyone grasped hands and silenced. M'gann closed her eyes, concentrating hard, and soon the entire group was levitating. They inched closer and closer until they started to pass through the concrete ceiling. It was an odd sensation for everyone except Kid Flash, who had already had this experience infiltrating Axion with Phantom. They slid through the earth in virtual silence, no one wanting to distract the Martian at such a critical point. Moments later, they passed through another layer of concrete and hovered inside a small, barren room still underground.
M'gann opened her eyes and let everyone drop to the floor. "I did it!" she cheered midair.
"Sh!" Artemis hissed. "Someone might hear-"
"Did you hear that?" a voice said from outside the room.
Superboy rolled his eyes. "I thought we'd already gotten beyond this in our training."
Present — 12:01 — 22 Bishopsgate
"Excuse me, sir! Excuse me!"
The foreman looked up from the open construction document to find a tidy businesswoman waving to him from the gate. "Excuse me, gents," he said to the workers surrounding the document and walked to the gate. Her violet eyes captivated him as he approached. "May I help you, madam?"
The woman smiled warmly and answered, "Well, I certainly hope so. You see, I have an interview in a few minutes with LexCorp Farms' international office, and this was the address I found online. But…it doesn't appear to be correct?"
West London, based on her accent. Slightly posh but not unreachable.
The pair both looked up to the concrete shell of a structure towering above them. Only the lower floors had the glass cladding already in place.
"Well," the foreman began. He faltered when the mystery woman casually undid her bun and let her smooth auburn locks fall around her face. She raised her left hand to push some of the hair out of her eyes. 'No ring!' "I-I-uh, you see, nobody's moved in yet because we're still building, you see?" He cleared his throat. "I couldn't say for LexCorp specifically, but a lot of the companies have temporary offices over in the next tower." He gestured over his shoulder to another skyscraper visible around the corner. "There were a handful of offices to let until a few months ago. Perhaps you might find them there?"
At that moment her phone buzzed.
Jack: [Phantom's signature just appeared on the Fenton Finder's radar without using the overboost. Live tracking him now to The Leadenhall Building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London. Sending you the location now…]
Maddie returned her attention to the foreman. "Well, I'll dash over there immediately to see before I run out of time!" She let out a cheery laugh and extended a dainty hand to shake. "I will have to try to find some way to repay you for your kindness—?" she cooed and hesitated at the end with an unspoken question.
"Oh, B-Bill, ma'am," he stuttered.
"See you around, 'B-bill,' " she teased and slowly backed away. And with a final wave, she was gone.
The foreman stared absently for a moment before some snickering behind him broke his momentary paralysis. He glared at the chorus of mocking "B-bills" and ordered the other men to get back to work.
—
Maddie smiled victoriously to herself as she walked away. 'Bill' had been far too easy to use, especially with the fake accent she'd perfected years ago in training, and Jack's message had confirmed it. She entered the lobby of the Leadenhall Building and found a single-occupant restroom.
Maddie stripped the business suit and replaced it with the black tactical uniform inside her messenger bag. She distributed the array of ballistic and martial arts weaponry amongst the pockets adorning her person, shoved the business suit inside the bag, put on the boots, and left the messenger bag shoved above one of the ceiling's drop tiles inside the bathroom. Moments later, Maddie was inside the HVAC system looking for a vent which opened past the building's security.
12:05 — Bishopsgate
Something was off when Robin awoke. He was inside some sort of containment which didn't feel…right. This glass cylinder wasn't imprisoning him, per se; rather, it was more to sustain him. The last thing he could remember was having a stack of boxes topple over onto him in Axion Labs' basement, and now he found himself captive in some barren storage room. Something just wasn't…
…right.
"Billy?"
Robin's eyes—still masked, though the rest of his uniform was missing and replaced with one of Cadmus' typical white suits—snapped up to the source of the voice.
"L-Lex Luthor?" he croaked. "Who's Billy?"
"No, Billy, it's me, Amorpho!" Lex answered. Robin spasmed as Luthor's body twisted unnaturally until it was a featureless grey blob with red glasses, black trench coat and fedora. "I promise I tried to stay away like you asked, but it's your own fault for finding me!"
Robin hesitated before reiterating, "Who's Billy?!"
Realization somehow managed to dawn on the floating blob's—well, where its face would be. "Oooohhhh you must be the other one I saw running around. My name is Amorpho, and I'm a ghost who can shapeshift into anyone I like!" As if to prove his point, he morphed again to be a spitting image of Robin in his current white uniform. "See?"
"Great. Who's Billy?"
"Oh, you know, Billy. Billy Fenton."
"Oh, Danny."
"Him too, I suppose."
"Now Amorpho, are you here to rescue me?"
"Well, I'm really just here to cause chaos…"
"Nothing will cause more chaos than Lex Luthor finding his captive has been set free by himself," Robin suggested.
"Heeeyyyy, that's not a bad idea! I like the way you think, kid!" Amorpho said. He pressed the release button on the containment pod's control panel.
"Thanks, Amorpho," Robin said. He dabbed at a painful injury on his forehead. "Do you know who else is here?"
"Besides Luthor and those shmucks that follow him around, no. I only just arrived myself."
"Well, thank you," Robin repeated. He shook his duplicate's hand. "Do you think you can help me get out of here? I seem to be without my tools at the moment…"
"Sure!"
"Great. Let me just take care of this…" Robin approached the containment pod's control screen and opened its terminal.
bin/rm -r -f* [Enter]
"What did you do to it?" Amorpho asked from over Robin's shoulder.
"Activated the kill switch which will erase everything on their server," Robin answered smugly. "Same thing that almost erased Toy Story 2. Now let's get out of here."
Before they could move, however, the door opened to reveal Luthor's assistant, Mercy. She was saying into her phone, "-checking his containment status now, sir."
She froze in the doorway, momentarily taken aback by the two Robins.
"Good morning, my dear," Amorpho answered and transformed back into Luthor. "Do you know the quickest way out?"
Mercy glanced between 'Luthor' and the active phone call. After a moment's thought, she raised her bionic arm cannon.
"She's not a friend!" Robin shouted and pulled Amorpho to the ground. The blast from Mercy's prosthetic hand obliterated the pod's control panel instead.
"I noticed," Amorpho replied. He grabbed Robin's forearm, made them intangible and pulled Robin through the concrete to the level below.
12:05 — Leadenhall
"So, what, we're just going to run through the halls for the rest of time?" Danny griped.
"I'm currently a big fan of not melting!" his clone replied. "Besides, I don't see you volunteering your powers!"
After turning yet another corner, the pair stumbled into the main reception area for LexCorp Farms' temporary offices. They stopped running and froze in the middle of the room as all the employees present stopped their discussions to stare. The standoff endured but a moment until the Phantom clone cleared his throat and chirped:
"Um…hi?"
It was no surprise that chaos erupted after a moment more of tense silence. LexCorp guards and Light goons materialized from nowhere, chasing the two boys back down the corridor from which they had come.
"How high up are we?" Danny asked.
"Like fifty floors, so jumping powerless out the window isn't an option."
"You can fly!"
"I can melt! How many times do I have to say it to get through to you?!" the clone snapped, then he thought for a moment. "...Er, to me."
The two ducked into a side door and barricaded it.
"You said you were saving your ghost powers to help us escape," Danny persisted. "I'm pretty sure this qualifies as our escape!"
Multiple rifles cocking ceased their disagreement. The pair froze in place and slowly glanced over their shoulders. To their dismay, their choice of shelter had been the guards' armory.
"Well…this is bad," Danny muttered through clenched teeth. "Any bright ideas?"
The clone whimpered.
"O-okay," Danny shakily mumbled to himself. He raised his fists in a rather uncertain fighting stance and looked at the eager, malevolent goons around them. "Faaaaan-tastic."
It came out of nowhere.
A figure dressed entirely in black dropped from within the ceiling vents and wrapped its legs around the neck of one of the closer goons, pulling him to the ground. The newcomer let out a few feminine grunts as [apparently she] began artfully making her way through the Light's forces.
Danny and Phantom-him merely dropped their raised fists and gaped in amazement. A room of more than a dozen men, and this person blew through them like straw houses. The boys' deus ex machina stood catching her breath for a moment before she removed her cowl.
"Mom?!" Danny and the clone cried simultaneously.
Maddie turned to look at the two boys and focused on Phantom. Her battle-hardened expression melted. "Danny!" She ran to him and pulled the boy into a hug. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"Um…uh…what are you doing?"
"Don't play dumb with me after all the crap I went through to save you."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Mrs. Fenton," the duplicate replied with false heroic bravado.
"I know it's you, Danny Fenton," she said.
"What?!" He looked to Red Robin. "Since when?!"
"I dunno," the real Danny replied with a shrug.
"It wasn't that hard of a deduction when you quite literally disappeared from our doorstep. Plus…Jazz was very vocal."
"Well, I'm still not Danny," the clone repeated. "That's Danny." He pointed to the boy dressed as Red Robin.
Maddie looked. She insisted, "No, that's Robin."
"No, that's Red Robin, actually your Danny. I'm his clone. Hi!" he said with a wave.
"Clone?!" Maddie cried and stepped back in shock.
"He's not the only one," the real Danny added. "I'll introduce you to Dani-with-an-I later. But all of that begs the question: What the hell are you doing here, Mom?!"
"What do you think?" She casually shifted her weight onto one leg. "I'm here to rescue you."
"Rescue? Mom, the whole Justice League protégé team is on their way, and I'm not exactly defenseless! Plus there's a whole secret terrorist organization after me!"
"Oh, Danny, have more faith in me. I can handle the Light."
Danny hesitated. "Wait…how do you know they exist?"
"I need to tell you the truth, Danny. About what I *really* did before starting college."
"You—you joined the Peace Corps…"
"I joined…*a* corps…"
"Mom…" Danny began in a reprimanding tone.
"I was in the Marine Corps, Special Operations."
"The Marine Corps?!" Danny squawked. "So *that's* how you're so killer at, like, everything!"
"I was top of the class in the Martial Arts Program," she said somewhat smugly. "I eventually became liaison to the Kingdom of Atlantis' special forces before I was honorably discharged."
Danny collapsed to sit on the nearest object; an unconscious goon, as it happened. He slumped his shoulders and stared ahead at nothing. Phantom-him mimicked his position on a bench.
"Come on, Dannys, is it really worth the theatrics?" Maddie demanded, fists on her hips. "Lots of people have been in the Marines and not been able to talk about what they did!"
The clone glanced up at her in bewilderment. "Uh, yeah, but not all of them end up being just my mom. Well…*his.*" He jabbed a thumb over in Danny's direction.
" 'Just,' he says. I'm also a professional ghost hunter and doctorate-level scientist!" Maddie argued.
"Look, we don't have time to unpack all of that right now," Danny said, "so let's just set this discussion aside until we're relaxing on a tropical beach somewhere."
"Agreed," Maddie said. "We'll have to find an alternative way down. I suspect they'll be guarding the staircases."
"How did you get up here?"
"HVAC vents, though it'll take longer with three of us."
The trio heard some footsteps approaching and readied for a fight.
"Did Dad know?" Danny interjected.
"I told him last night when I was leaving for London," his mom answered.
Danny shook his head. "Well, great. My mom was a Marine Corps badass and not even *Dad* knew. Any other deep, dark family secrets you're hiding?"
Maddie hesitated. "…About your Aunt Alicia…"
Danny looked at her in shock. "I was being sarcastic!"
12:07 — Bishopsgate
"There are likely dozens of Cadmus employees on the other side of that door," Aqualad mused. "Are you prepared for the resistance?"
The rest of his team all confirmed, keeping their uniforms' stealth modes active.
"Kid Flash: If you would not mind…"
Kid Flash nodded once and grabbed the door handle. He inhaled and exhaled one short breath before thrusting the door open and charging the first wave of guards. The rest of the team poured out of the closet and began their fight to escape.
A few minutes of sparring later, and Superboy picked up on a whispered voice somewhere nearby. He froze in place like a statue and stared literally through the crowd until his infrared vision locked onto an engineer hidden behind a wall.
"Don't worry, sir, they're nowhere near the core yet," he assured into a cell phone. He paused then continued, "Just the second sublevel, Mr. Luthor."
Superboy refocused on the fight at hand, realizing a single guard had been struggling to budge the Kryptonian at all into a headlock. Superboy forcefully pushed the man away with the back of his forearm and spoke on the team's mental link, "I just heard a scientist talking about us being nowhere near a 'core.' It's probably worth checking out."
"Construction records indicate the first seven floors of the original tower's core were built before the project lapsed. Perhaps this is what he meant," Aqualad said. "Kid Flash, Artemis, please investigate."
"You got it," Kid Flash agreed. He and Artemis split off from the fight and ran to the stairs.
12:08 — Leadenhall
"Witness" -grunt- "Protection" -kick- "Program?!" The last of the most recently arrived Cadmus employees dropped helplessly to the floor at Red Robin's feet.
"Her cover was blown! She and I look enough alike that she can pass as my sister, so that became her new alias. Why do you think she lives in the middle of nowhere?!"
"I just thought she was a hick!"
"Danny!" Maddie reprimanded. "That's no way to speak about your aunt!"
"She's not my aunt!"
Mother and sons all turned their heads when they heard stampeding in the corridor. "Later," the woman barked. "We've got more company."
Maddie parkour'd on top of a bookcase overlooking the entrance. The Phantom clone transformed back into 'Fenton' to stop glowing in the dark and be able to hide better. Danny, meanwhile, pressed up against the wall next to the door and crouched down. He touched his hand to the linoleum floor and sent a wave of frost creeping over its surface. The trap was set.
The first pair of LexCorp guards strode into the room, quickly falling victim to the slick frozen surface. They careened into a desk and collapsed in a heap on the floor, just as a second pair repeated the mistake of the first. The third pair of LexCorp guards, however, caught on and entered much more cautiously.
That was when Maddie attacked. She leapt off the bookcase and tackled them both to the floor. One recovered, however, and began grappling with her. She sent punch after punch, kick after kick, but this guard seemed to be more capable than the rest. He blocked and returned her strikes until Maddie found a moment to unsheathe a knife and slash his quad. With an animalistic roar, he dropped to the floor.
The other guard, unfortunately, had recovered and kicked the knife out of Maddie's hand. He aimed his weapon, but Maddie dropped to the floor out of the path of its barrel and charged forward into the man's knees.
Meanwhile, another guard had found Danny's clone. "Hands up!" the guard—a woman, apparently—barked. The clone raised his hands in fear and shakily rose to his feet. "What are you doing here, kid?"
"J-j-just doing some sightseeing," he answered, then tripped forward. "Whoa!" the clone shouted, feigning clumsiness. Instead, he gripped the barrel of her assault rifle and melted it with an ectoplasmic charge. Sporting a cocky grin, he added, "Oops," then transformed back into Phantom and intangibly charged her. He dragged her and another entering guard through to the next floor above them, tossed both employees against a column as hard as he could. He instantly collapsed, though, when he was overcome with pain. He doubled over and gripped his stomach, looking on in horror as his melting forearm recovered.
Meanwhile, just after Maddie had disabled the first guard, Danny found a pair of collapsed eskrima sticks inside the replica Red Robin uniform; Vlad had apparently thought of everything when he'd produced it for Danny's use. Danny then held the sticks up defensively as he sped into the corridor and checked for other LexCorp guards, but the hallway was silent.
"UNGH!" Danny grunted as he was practically bulldozed forwards. He called on some of his flight powers to hover as he somersaulted forward and launched his aggressor into a pile of storage bins. Danny dropped back to the floor, as if it had merely been a moment of acrobatics.
Behind Danny, another troop of guards approached, this time in all-black, unmarked livery. Danny leapt into the air and over their heads, using his rotational momentum to strike outwardly between the first two goons and send them hurdling into opposite walls. He landed amongst the remaining four and realized he was suddenly outmatched.
"…'Afternoon, fellas."
All four converged on him at once, so Danny dropped to the floor, allowing them to merely run into each other. It was then the boy noticed a labeled button on the handle of each eskrima stick with which Vlad had equipped him: 'STINGER'
"Huh."
With a cocky smile, he pressed the buttons on both sticks and watched as they charged with ecto-electicity. He raised and extended them up above himself from his crouched position, and each tip prodded and shocked a different guard. The four goons cried in momentary agony before falling to the ground, unconscious.
Danny collapsed and holstered the eskrima sticks and turned to face the goon who had attacked him from behind. The man was shakily rising out of the pile of bins.
"You!" Danny barked.
The goon looked up in terror and scrambled to untangle himself. Danny, however, stormed over and grabbed the man by his lapels. Danny thrust him against a pillar a couple times before dragging his limp form back into the room where his mother still fought two guards simultaneously.
"I got it!" Danny shouted and threw his original aggressor into one of the two guards attacking Maddie. The remaining guard used the distraction to grab Maddie from behind and throw her against the window. The glass hummed in protest but remained intact. The guard, though, drew his rifle and shot the glass in three places next to Maddie, missing the woman entirely.
But, the man's weapon jammed, preventing any further attempt of shooting her. He thus ran forward, and Maddie, who had drawn her forearms to shield her head and upper torso, was unprepared when the guard then front-kicked Maddie into the window once more, completely shattering the glass and sending her careening out of the skyscraper.
All Danny could think to do as he watched yet another of his loved ones face certain doom was to cry out a single word:
"Mom!"
Yes, yes, I know, another cliffhanger. BUT, this chapter is already 6500+ words AND I haven't finished drafting the second half of this fight, so it would be astronomically long and unacceptably late in publishing if I included all of this climactic battle in one chapter.
Did I throw you off by having Amorpho show up before revealing it was another clone that woke Danny? :p
Easter eggs this time around:
- A paraphrasing of brilliant comedian John Mulaney (Danny saying "We don't have time to unpack all of that...")
- Experiment 37 is a reference to a line in a song from Hoodwinked. "37 years ago, a witch done put a spell on [a goat who is helping Little Red Riding Hood]." The creative team specifically said a random number like 37 because a rounded number like 15 just wasn't funny enough.
- The Toy Story 2 kill switch line of code is a true story, if you're not a Disney nerd who knows all of this already. Pixar lost almost the entire movie when this line of code was inputted into the server. Fortunately, one of the animators had taken a copy of most of the files to work from home, so she saved the movie.
- 22 Bishopsgate is a real skyscraper, and it really did have 7 stories of the original structural core built before the initial project went bankrupt. A new design was built on the same site, integrating that original core. I believe it has finished construction now or is very nearly finished, but the tower was nowhere near complete when this story takes place.
- You will notice I typed "7 storeys" in the dialogue of the foreman scene and then "7 stories" in the note just above this. That is because the guy talking was British so I gave him the British spelling just for giggles and then wrote it the other way just now because I am, in fact, an American. Also worth noting that the foreman says "offices to let" which is British speak for to rent. I would normally never say this, but the character is British, so there you go.
Sh*t's gettin' real next chapter. Like you have no idea. Super fighty-actiony.
I love you guys and all your feedback and constructive criticism! Stay classy, FanFiction.
-hiimian
CHAPTER 16 UPDATE: I'm working on it as much as I can, I promise! I got great news regarding one of my 3 (THREE!?) thesis projects for my masters degree, but it does mean I've had to spent every waking moment preparing it to be made as a scale model. But don't worry, i haven't forgotten and I'm not abandoning this fic. Stay tuned!
CHAPTER 16 UPDATE 2: The next fic update is likely coming this Friday, November 22! FINALLY. I've felt so guilty keeping everyone waiting.