Chapter XCII
What use is a hero if one isn't needed? Amity Park had taken little notice in the absence of Phantom. Probably because there were no ghosts for him to fight. The release of DOOMED II: Back for Gore was not strictly limited to Earth. Copies of the game had been purchased in bulk by anonymous parties. Those parties then returned to the Ghost Zone, bringing the strange ethereal dimension the joys of mindless video games.
Phantom, or Danny Fenton as he was presently, did not know that. If he hadn't been preoccupied, he likely wouldn't have cared. The ghosts were purchasing the games legally, providing business opportunities for unemployed humans and ghouls alike. It was a much more efficient method than simply stealing.
Again, Daniel Fenton's mind was indulged to the point where nothing, not even life itself, mattered as much as his game. It was not a totally preposterous situation . . .
"Tucker, can you see anything?" Ghostboy asked his teammate.
"Negative," Fryer-Tuck replied. His voice was slightly distorted, giving off a subtle metallic echo. "The top of that mountain is clear."
"Sam, get to the peak and plant the explosive. Tucker, cover her," Ghostboy ordered. "I'll cover your six."
"Roger that," Chaos said as she leapt into the air, much farther than what a normal human would be able to jump. Fryer-Tuck's player transformed into a human-sized jet and sped off after his partner.
An explosion threw Ghostboy off his feet and sent him flying into an outcropping of rocks. His health bar diminished by half, and his life support systems showed a total system failure. Spinning around, allowing his cape to swoosh dramatically behind him, Ghostboy saw what had caused the explosion. Large, grotesque pig monsters lumbered along a rocky trail. The lava geysers and erupting volcanoes did little to deter the monsters advance (due in no small part to their programming). Riding atop the blue swine were their cyborg pirate masters. The monsters could easily support a platform that could carry at least four of the pirates with additional room for mounted missile turrets or laser cannons.
It was the lead war beast's missile turret that had nearly killed Ghostboy, and there were still four more projectiles to be fired before the turret had to be reloaded. It was no problem to the very liberal pirates. The four remaining missiles fired simultaneously just as Ghostboy rose to his feet.
"Guys! Give me some good news!" he shouted as he drew his sword from its sheath.
"Charge is set," Chaos reassured him. "But the frigate Tucker said was coming? Turns out it was a dreadnaught. I don't know if the bomb's gonna be enough."
"We were being ambushed when I finally got my long range radar working," Fryer-Tuck argued. "Besides, not even a dreadnaught can take a five megaton dark matter nuke to the belly."
"Let's just hope you're right," Ghostboy sighed as he brought his shield up and focused his energy into it. A green aura expanded from around the metal circle, increasing the shield's protective radius by ten times its original diameter. He dropped to one knee and braced himself for the worst. "Otherwise I'm not gonna be the only one dying."
The four missiles slammed into Ghostboy's shield and exploded in a massive fireball. The shield flickered and died and the force from the blast sent him tumbling away.
"Yeah, you sure died," Fryer-Tuck said sarcastically. "Stand by and move to minimum safe distance; preparing to fire thermal magnetic pulse beam."
The thermal magnetic pulse, or TMP, was Tucker's special weapon. It combined the most devastating effects from an electromagnetic pulse and a thermal detonator. The result often left scorched bones and frayed circuitry littered across a ravaged impact radius. And it did not discriminate between friend and foe, which was why Ghostboy was running as fast as he could to hide behind a large boulder. He saw the red streak of energy leave the top of the mountain impossibly fast. Purple electricity surged through the beam, and Ghostboy's vision turned white as his friend's attack tore into the lead war pig. Wails of pain from the organics and screeching metal from the mechanoids roared for barely a second before being silenced.
"All harmful residual energy has dissipated," Fryer-Tuck reported after several seconds. "That knocked out those guys, but we've got flyers inbound from the north. Looks like they're going to try and pin us between themselves and the dreadnaught. You might want to get up here, Danny. Sam almost has this teleporter ready to go."
Ghostboy peeked out from behind the rock. The carnage before him was incredible, but he was unable to enjoy it for very long. Thanks to the new engines installed in the DOOMED sequel, destructible environments meant very destructible environments. The ground that the enemy forces had been crossing was actually a bridge. It was the only way for land based characters to reach the mountain. Fryer-Tuck's light show had effectively destabilized the land bridge, and it was beginning to crumble away. So Ghostboy did the only logical thing there was to do; he ran.
"What are you doing?" Chaos asked quizzically.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Ghostboy replied bitterly. "I'm trying not to die!"
"At the rate you're going, the bridge's collapse will overtake you before you can get to the mountain," Fryer-Tuck stated.
"Then what do you suggest I do?"
"Uh, maybe fly?" Chaos offered in an 'are-you-kidding-me?' tone. "You forgot you could fly, didn't you?"
Ghostboy rose into the air just as the bridge crumbled away beneath him. "No, I was just creating some dramatic tension. Work with me, people!"
He landed on the mountain's summit, seeing his friend Chaos had successfully repaired the damaged teleporter that was required to pass on to the next level. However, the next level's difficulty would be determined by the presence of the enemy dreadnaught. Hence the bomb.
"We should be ready to go," Fryer-Tuck announced. His character's head was a large, single lens that had limitless magnification abilities. The lens rotated around, dilating and contracting ever so slightly. "The dreadnaught is getting closer. In about two minutes it's gonna be right on top of us."
Chaos and Ghostboy looked at the mechanical avatar expectantly.
"What?"
"Oh nothing," Ghostboy said. "Just wanted to make sure you finished that sentence is all."
"We wouldn't want you to accidentally pass up an innuendo opportunity," Chaos added.
"Oh, yeah, like how Danny was-"
"Forget it," Ghostboy cut in, "you missed your chance."
"Aw man," Fryer-Tuck mumbled.
Ghostboy saw a dark shape appear on the horizon. "We should get through the teleporter. Now."
Chaos and Fryer-Tuck looked behind them and saw the dark shape coming closer. The two ran past Ghostboy and into the teleporter.
"Come on, Danny!" Sam urged as the dreadnaught began to descend from the clouds. "Let's go!"
"Go on, Sam," Ghostboy said in a heroic voice. "I'll make sure this thing goes down."
"You mean like how Sam-"
"Shut up, Tucker!" Chaos and Ghostboy shouted in unison.
"Go now, Sam, I'll see you on the other side." Chaos retreated back into the teleporter. "Sam! One more thing!" Chaos stuck her head back out. "If I don't make it, I just want you to know something."
"Yeah?"
"I . . . I lied to you. The last level-up only increased my dexterity by +4, not +7."
Chaos sighed and went back into the teleporter for the final time. Ghostboy looked from the swirling purple and yellow orb to the massive space ship that was starting to push through the clouds. Making sure his friends could still hear him, Danny adjusted his vocal chords to give off the deepest tone his still-developing fourteen-year-old voice could muster.
"Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night-"
"That's the Wolf Man," Tucker cut in. "Doesn't really work for your situation."
"Elementary, my dear-"
"Sherlock Holmes," Sam interrupted. "Honestly, will you just get in here? You're going to lose all the upgrades you're holding for Tucker if you die."
"Seriously dude," Tucker sounded much less amused. "Let's go!"
Danny watched as the massive dreadnaught as it finally descended from the hazy sky. It looked like something out of a child's nightmare; like a twisted, horribly evil variant of Darth Vader's Super Star Destroyer. Rows of lights flashed along its sides and underbelly. Energy weapons glowed hot, ready to fire with only a moment's notice. The spiked dorsal side of the ship sliced through the clouds like so many sharks swimming toward a dying whale. Ghostboy turned to look at Chaos, who was impatiently waiting for him to enter the teleporter.
"And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty, and beauty stayed his hand," Phantom activated his energy shield. "And from that day forward," he grabbed the bomb from the ground and floated into the sky, "he was as one dead."
"That's King Kong, you fool!" Fryer-Tuck shouted as Ghostboy blasted off, heading straight for the dreadnaught.
Chaos stood still, watching as the avatar of her friend shrank into a tiny speck as he flew off to face his death. "Come on, Tuck. We better get ready to get owned in the next level."
"I can't believe this," Fryer-Tuck said in disbelief. "Does he know how hard I worked to get those upgrades? Does he have any idea? Why did I let him hold them all?!"
Sam rolled her eyes as she guided her character back into the relative safety of the teleporter. Tucker absently followed his friend's movements.
Ghostboy held his shield out in front of him. He knew that a single blast from one of those energy cannons could vaporize him. But the big ships never used their heavy weapons on individual players. The small hull-mounted automated turrets were the real enemy. They wouldn't eviscerate him in a single blast, but there were at least twenty on the bow. Maybe he would get lucky and slip past them undetected. When all twenty turrets turned to track him, he cursed his bad luck.
The turrets opened fire simultaneously, hammering against his shield at one hundred rounds per second. For each turret. Diverting all available power to his shield, Ghostboy continued on his way. Once he was under the shield's targeting range, he landed on the ship's blackened steel surface and thought through his options. He could replant the bomb here and hope it did enough damage, or make his way back to the engines. It was a sure victory, but the engines were heavily guarded. Deciding to take his chances, Ghostboy reactivated the bomb on the nose of the ship. Hopefully it would do enough damage.
Once the bomb went off, the teleporter deactivated. Seeing 00:60 flash repeatedly on his HUD got him moving. But there was a problem. Flying away from the ship left his rear vulnerable, and he could only hover backwards; not nearly fast enough to outpace the dreadnaught.
A laser bolt caught his attention as it scorched the metal near his feet. The flying targets Fryer-Tuck had spotted earlier would provide adequate cover. Again, hopefully. Taking to the skies once again, Ghostboy headed straight for his airborne adversaries. The mechanical wasps sporting several mounted laser weapons were unaware of his plan. Once he was high enough, the dreadnaught's turrets opened fire. Ghostboy reached the first of the swarm just as the barrage reached him. Wasps exploded on every side, splintering into millions of metal shards and pieces as they were devastated by friendly fire. Ghostboy shoved many of them out of his way with his shield, but most of them were consumed in the laser flak.
Finally, the teleporter at the peak of the mountain appeared. Ghostboy sped for it, but the remaining Wasps now turned to fly with the dreadnaught. The combined fire was doing serious damage. Ghostboy spun around just as his health bar reached critical level.
"All power to shields," Danny commanded confidently. The voice-recognition software translated his words into action, and Ghostboy began to fall from the sky. His shield glowed a brilliant green, almost white color and expanded wide enough to protect his whole body. The combined fire from the Wasps and the dreadnaught forced him backwards as he fell, and rapidly ate away at his energy shield. Ghostboy hit the ground and rolled backwards, but not far enough. He came to a stop several feet away from the teleporter. With his character's low health, it would take longer for him to get up and run. Time, unfortunately, was not on his side. Fryer-Tuck, fortunately, was.
The large rectangular shield deployed in between the hoard of angry hostiles and the teleporter.
"I can keep this up all day, but we have five seconds to get the heck out of here," he stated.
Ghostboy was up off the ground and in the teleporter in two of those seconds. Fryer-Tuck took one more second. The last two seconds were spent making sure everyone was intact. And then there was a deafening roar as the dreadnaught was ripped apart by otherworldly forces and the mountain, which was actually a volcano, violently erupted.
Then, there was the loading screen.
Walker paced back and forth atop his newly rebuilt prison. After his battle with his father, the structure had suffered considerable damage. With some degree of persuasion, many ghosts eagerly lent a hand, or a tentacle, or some other appendage, to help refurbish the place. But rebuilding his estate was not enough. The island that the prison was built on was moved by Walker himself to the massive chunk of land where Pariah's Keep was located. Walker's island was merged to the expanse of rock at the opposite end of Pariah's castle. It did an adequate job of keeping unwanted visitors out.
Unfortunately, it also did an adequate job of keeping welcome ghosts out as well. Walker had been impatiently waiting for Wulf to return to the prison with his latest employee for over an hour. He was growing irritated.
"Let go of me, you barbarian! I am not some chew toy for you to, er, chew on! I am Technus! Master of-"
"That will be quite enough from both of you," Walker snapped. "Wulf, you do not need to go out of your way to find my loyal servants. They know the price of betrayal."
Wulf growled at Technus before setting him down and leaving the roof.
"I was examining the schematics of the Fenton Ghost Portal before that dog soldier carried me away," Technus complained while rubbing his wrist.
"Did you make any progress?"
"I have successfully constructed an operational prototype. Creating the final model will be simple enough when I have all the equipment I will need. It is your proposed implementation for the portal that may take more time."
"My father was able to generate ghost portals at will to take him anywhere in the Ghost Zone he could imagine," Walker replied. "And he isn't the master of technology."
"If what you've told me is true, then it is probable that your father enlisted my services to aid him in creating a device that could simply give him such power," Technus stated.
"You died long before my father began thinking logically. I know he regretted wiping out over half of all life in the Ghost Zone, you in particular. But he learned the power to travel through dimensions naturally."
Technus took a moment to ponder his employer's statement. "If you have aged as far along as your father did in your own timeline, then shouldn't you have developed this power as well?"
Walker balled his hands into fists. "Another opportunity he cheated me out of. And another crime he will pay for." Technus remained silent and allowed Walker to recollect himself. "Now then, you have news for me?"
"Yes," Technus responded, eager to move off the subject of the seemingly inevitable dark future. "During my monitoring of Plasmius' transactions, I came across some particularly interesting orders she made from several notable security systems and spectral weapon manufacturers. From what I've been able to piece together, she is going to upgrade Casper High School's security and anti-ghost defense systems."
"Is there any particular reason for this sudden interest in the safety of the young humans?" Walker inquired.
"Not for them, for Daniel. Plasmius thinks she has created an Artificial Intelligence system by using my basic programming. By using her "AI", I have been able to monitor her laboratory. Her experimentation with Daniel's DNA has resulted in a techno-organic ghost creature. It has escaped confinement and is heading for Amity Park to search for a power source."
"And she believes the ghost is going after Phantom?"
"It is," Technus confirmed. "The ghost is, essentially, a clone of Daniel. It is a very crude, underdeveloped clone, but a clone nonetheless. It will recognize Phantom as a compatible and virtually limitless power supply and attack him."
Walker rubbed his chin. "Suppose this ghost attacks Daniel. What would happen if it won?"
"The ghost would assimilate Phantom into its own mass and feed off his power until Phantom was completely absorbed. I have run several simulations, and if the ghost is successful, it will restructure its body around Phantom's own and merge with him."
"Will the process kill him?"
"No," Technus ran through several more equations in his head. Red binary streamed across his eyes. "But he will wish it had."
Walker bared his teeth. "No science spawn of Plasmius' is going to deny me the pleasure of slaying my father. Go, bring him here so that I may eliminate him myself before Plasmius' idiocy completes my task."
"How shall I go about this?" Technus asked.
"That is your decision. But choose wisely. Your first mistake will likely be your last."
Technus bowed sagely and flew off towards his own lair. His prototype ghost portal was operational and in need of a test run. With his afterlife on the line, Technus decided to perform the test himself. The portal was supposed to work fine, in theory. It opened up on the outskirts of Amity Park in some remote location. What's the worst that could happen?
After arriving at his lair, activating the proto-portal, running through the safety protocol and procedures, disengaging the locks on the device, and setting a timed shut down sequence of twenty seconds, Technus contorted his form and squeezed through the portal.
Pixilation was nothing new to the ghost master of technology, but he had never merged with the game code of an MMORPGFPS before. The new senses flooding his processor all at once overloaded his mind and Technus blacked out. Twenty seconds passed, and his only way out of the strange new world disappeared.
The ghost portal was a prototype. How could Technus have possibly accounted for the possibility that the opening on Earth would be in a different format? How was he supposed to know that he was going to be thrown smack-dab in the middle of DOOMED II: BACK FOR GORE on the Saturday night after its release?
When he woke, Technus would make the best of his situation and, by very unconventional means, set about accomplishing his master's goal. He was not alone, however, in this game. A lone, red eye watched him from afar. And it was hungry.
To Be Continued
A/N: Longer chapter, because YOU wanted it! And because a chapter of nothing but Danny playing DOOMED didn't seem like something I'd enjoy reading myself. If you didn't figure it out, Ghostboy is Danny, Fryer-Tuck is Tucker, and Chaos is Sam. They look different, if my description of "Ghostboy" wasn't accurate enough. Fortunately for you, you can see what Computer Danny looks like on my DeviantArt page. HiddenAuthor, when he was still around, was kind enough to color a picture of him. He didn't get it exactly how I envisioned it, but it's hard to color something to a person's exact specifications when they don't tell you what you want. So it's my fault. But go ahead and check them out.
Oh Em Ge. I almost didn't believe it, but then I did. I have hit 1000 reviews! Huzzah! When I thought about it, I probably should have made the create-a-character contest for the 1000th reviewer instead of the 700th, but I do like the Paper Shredder, so it all worked out. Bitchy Princess (reviewer #1000), you are phantastic. I'd give you an e-heart, but for some reason the little symbols don't show up on this site. I'll send it in a PM so you can print it out. It's going to be worth a lot someday.
Moving on, there is no DxV lemon. I just wanted to get people excited about stuff. But nobody noticed/didn't care except for, like, two people. So yeah. It gets really DxVish, but not sexually. Or does it?
Thanks to all my reviewers (1000!), especially MissMeliss4251, darkness over day, Vorago, darkbunny92, Thunderstorm101, Coppa-Cola, and Bitchy Princess.
TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!