Paternal Instincts

Chapter C

(C equals 100)
(Yay 100!)
(Boo Roman Numerals...)

Sam and Tucker watched as Danny fiddled with one of his parents' inventions. They tried to keep from intruding and mostly minded their own conversation and meals, but Danny Fenton at the Nasty Burger without so much as a fry basket seemed quite out of place.

"Do you think you'll be done any time soon?" Sam asked finally, unable to sit by any longer.

"Yeah, didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to build anti-ghost weapons at the table?" Tucker chimed in.

Danny grinned and rolled his eyes. "They told me it was rude to do anything at the table except eat, unless that particular anything involved ghosts. Incidentally . . ." Danny finished tightening a screw into the odd device he was tinkering with and slid it across the table to Tucker.

"You made us come here, forced us to leave you alone for an hour, and completely ignored us just so you could build a boomerang?" Tucker asked disbelievingly as he studied the object.

"It's one of my dad's inventions," Danny explained as Tucker examined the object from all angles. "He calls it the boomerang. It keys into a ghost's unique ecto signature and finds them."

"How?" Sam asked as the boomerang was passed to her.

"Drop it," Danny instructed.

Sam looked at her friend suspiciously, but did as she was told. Before the boomerang could hit the table, it sped right at Danny's face. It smacked him in the forehead and fell to the table with a clatter, attracting a few odd looks from the other Nasty Burger patrons.

"That's pretty neat," Tucker grabbed the boomerang again and let it go just to see it fly across the table and smack into Danny's forehead once more. "It really works," he said with a bemusedly evil grin, figuring it served Danny right for ignoring them the past hour or so. "So you've been adjusting it to key into your ecto signature this whole time?"

"Yup," Danny nodded as he rubbed his head.

"Wait a minute," Sam said in realization. "You're not going to use that thing to find your son, are you?"

"You guys are starting to catch on quick," Danny chuckled. "He's my clone, so it would have to lock onto him."

"What if it locks onto Walker?" Tucker asked.

"Well, that's just as good; he's the one watching him," Danny noted the shocked expressions on his friends' faces. "I mean, Technus was working for him while he was inside the school, so who else would he give him to?"

"That's . . . really not all that surprising, if you think about it," Sam said as she twirled her hair.

"Guess not," Tucker mumbled.

"Besides, I don't think this thing would try to find Walker anyway," Danny snatched the boomerang away from Tucker. "He's got some of Paulina's DNA too."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Again, if you ever have to ask yourself why he's a psychotic murderer, just remember that."

Danny scowled at his friend, but let her remark slide.

"How's Valerie taking the news?" Tucker turned the conversation away from what could have led to an argument.

"She said she'll support me no matter what I decide to do, but I made her swear to let me find him alone."

"And she did?" Sam crossed her arms. "That doesn't seem like something she'd do."

"Why do you say that?" Danny asked.

"Well, I mean, no offense or anything, but you weren't exactly the one carrying little Phantom Junior around in your body," Sam began. "Even if it was only for a little bit. On top of that, you said she shares the bond with him too. And Valerie isn't the kind of girl who walks away from this kind of thing."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "How would you know?"

"While you and the two stooges were thinking about how to find Technus, she told me that she didn't want to take the backseat in raising him. She knew he was a ghost, but he was still her child. She didn't want to mess up her first shot at motherhood."

"Even with all the other stuff she's been through," Danny said softly.

"Don't try to play her up to be more devoted to him than you," Tucker said. "Sure, she's your baby's momma, but you're still the super-powered dad. You're the one who can beat Walker and get him back once you get the chance. You're the one fiddling with these weird machines to hunt for him. I mean, sure, she's probably got a lot on her plate, but you have more and you've had it longer."

"That doesn't mean that her stress is any less than Danny's," Sam retorted.

"I never said that," Tucker countered. "Valerie's stress might be more, shall we say, traumatic, but Danny has a lot more and he's had to deal with if for a lot longer."

"So what you're saying is that Danny is more stressed out than Valerie?" Sam twisted in her seat to look at Tucker.

"Yes, I am saying that. Valerie's mom might have died, and you're never supposed to forget something like that, but you move on, you know? You don't get over it, but you keep going; you don't let it control your life. It's not supposed to hang on you forever. I think she's finally accepted that and is moving on with her life. Danny, on the other hand, can't just move on. His enemies aren't just going to fade away like memories. They're a constant threat, and he always has to deal with them or some new thing. Valerie might have had a lot of serious stuff thrown at her all at once, but Danny's has been building up for months and it isn't just going to go away."

Sam slouched in her seat, having lost the logic debate against her adamant and informed opponent.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence, Tucker," Danny said with a grin. "And Valerie won't have to wait long for her shot at being a mother. I'm going to get our baby back."

"Order fifty two is ready for the Foley party," the waitress at the counter said in a bored tone over the loudspeaker.

"Ribs!" Tucker exclaimed excitedly. "Hang tight!"

Sam and Danny watched him go, wearing the same grins that parents would give a child.

"Danny," Sam turned her attention back to the boy in front of her. "You can't really be serious about trying to find him."

"Of course I'm serious!" Danny looked at Sam in confusion. "Why wouldn't I be serious?"

"Well for starters, he's being cared for by Walker." Sam rested her arms on the table and leaned forward. "You really think that you could get your son away from Walker by yourself? And even if you managed to get away, do you really think Walker would just let you keep him?"

Danny remained silent.

"And then there's the whole fact that everyone in the Ghost Zone hates you for some reason or another. The only ghosts that wouldn't try to kill you on the spot are the ones that are on Earth, and I doubt they'd be too eager to go through the trouble of getting the Son of Phantom away from the most powerful ghost in the Ghost Zone."

"I wasn't going to go right now," Danny said dejectedly. "I know it's not going to make things easier for when I do find him, but Walker is probably giving him as much care and affection as Tucker gives to his PDA. He might grow up to hate me like Walker does, but at least he'll be happy and cared for."

Sam smiled. "That's really grown up of you, Danny," Sam reached across the table and took his hand in hers.

Tucker chose that moment to flop down in his seat, dropping the platter of ribs in the middle of the table with a loud CLANG. Sam and Danny withdrew their hands to prevent them from getting crushed. Almost as an afterthought, Tucker swiftly slid Sam's salad to her.

"Thank God this wasn't a long wait; I'm starved!" Tucker took the biggest rib he could find and tore all the meat off the one side with his teeth.

Sam squinted her eyes in disgust and slid down the table. Danny helped himself to some of Tucker's ribs, enjoying the company. He knew every second away from his son was one more second Walker had to twist his impressionable infant mind. At the present, though, there wasn't much he could do about it.

"It is . . . unsettling to see him in such a state," Skulker admitted as he looked upon the figure of a ghost locked away in stasis. "He was once such a bold and noble warrior."

Plasmius regarded her upgraded minion with irritation. "I did not go through the hassle of augmenting your form and abilities just so that you could go soft on me."

"I did not mean anything by it," the robot's arms rose in its defense. "He was just part of my mind for so long."

"You would to well to forget that part of your past, Skulker, as Kaine is no longer a part of you."

The robotic shell maneuvered its head to look into the reflective steel wall behind Kaine Manson's stasis unit. His exoskeleton was much different than his predecessor's. The body was nearly the same; only slimmed down for enhanced maneuverability. The most significant and outright frightening outward appearance was his head. Where his mouth once was, there was now a row of spikes. Two horns curved out from the sides of the skull and pointed out at an angle. Where his two optical sensors once were there was now a single translucent sensor. His flaming Mohawk still dominated the top of his head, and served to make this new Skulker look all the more . . . demonic; the exact effect Plasmius was aiming for.

"I exist to serve only you, my master," Skulker replied solemnly. "The memories of Kaine will only serve as motivation to complete your missions."

Plasmius grinned. "Then allow me to direct you to your first one."

The two ghosts exited the containment room, leaving Kaine and his three roommates behind. Plasmius led Skulker down to another holding area, only this one was designed in a fashion similar to that of a dungeon.

"Was this a logical design plan for this room?" Skulker asked. "I feel your research could be expanded if there weren't so many unusual chambers."

Plasmius ventured confidently into the scarcely lit room. "This room is expanding my research."

Skulker's sensor switched to night vision, adding an enhanced ecto detection unit. He saw a blur of motion off to the side of the room and turned to face it. The creature, whatever it was, moved faster than Skulker thought was possible for something its size. Skulker crouched into an attack position, keeping his sensor trained on the ghost. "Target acquired," he growled. "Shall I execute?"

"You shall do no such thing," Plasmius ordered as she kept her focus on the area where Skulker was looking. Even without enhanced visual aids, she could see perfectly fine in the dark.

The blur jumped from the floor to the wall, then to the ceiling. Skulker felt his computer systems flicker as an odd sonic vibration pinged off his armor. He was being scanned by echolocation. The ghost took into account all the animals he knew of that used that particular method of pinpointing objects. None of the results matched the form of the creature in the room.

"Come down, my boy," Plasmius called out in a friendly voice. "Don't be afraid, Skulker will not harm you."

Skulker thought about adding 'unless provoked' to the end of her sentence, but decided not to as the ghost creature slowly descended the wall and cautiously made its way over to Plasmius. Once in the light, Skulker saw it for what it truly was. "A human?"

"Oh, he is much more than that," Plasmius corrected sinisterly. "Skulker, meet Eliot. Former agent for the Guys in White."

Skulker reviewed his memory banks for information relating to the individual. "This is the one responsible for the death of Valerie Gray's mother," he stated. "And it seems that he also struck a girl named Samantha Manson."

Plasmius' eye twitched. "And does that have any relevance to the matter at hand?"

"Seeing as how I do not know who either of those two females is, no, I suppose it does not."

The ghost woman grinned. "Excellent." She turned her attention back to Elliot. "While he was in the White's custody, they introduced him to some of Daniel's DNA. The healing factor saved his life, but it also imbued him with ghost powers."

"That is not possible," Skulker stated. "Ghost powers cannot be transmitted via DNA fusion."

"Well then how is he still alive?" Plasmius gestured to the ghost creature at her feet.

"Uncertain. With enough time for dissection and molecule examination, I-"

"Will have to wait until he's dead," Plasmius finished. "Your first mission is with him."

Skulker looked at the ghost. His new face was unable to express emotions, but he felt overwhelmingly disappointed. "Him?"

"I will give you a full synopsis after he has departed."

"How do you plan on getting the creature there?"

As if to answer the robot's question himself, the ghost creature stood on its hind legs and spread its arms out. The two end fingers on each hand had been fused together and elongated. A thin membrane stretched between the ends of the fingers and the side of his body. He had wings.

Skulker tilted his head to the side. "Fascinating."

"Proximus, as the Guys in White have so aptly named him, is a triple hybrid; part ghost, part human, and part vampire bat. The bat DNA, when combined with Daniel's regenerative strands, mutated his biological physiology and forced an evolution. However, he cannot fly without his wings. He is also incapable of turning invisible or intangible, but one other aspect of his ghostly nature was enhanced as well."

Skulker felt the pings of Proximus' echolocation. The ghost seemed to be sizing him up to judge how formidable an opponent he was. If he had a mouth, Skulker would have grinned.

"His sonic manipulation," Skulker answered the unasked question. "My monitoring has revealed to me that Lydia and Wulf suffered a new kind of injury as they attempted to flee the government headquarters. Sonic vibrations of an unusually off-key frequency almost completely destabilized them."

"Sonar is not a conventional weapon, but it seems that evolution intended that all along," Plasmius ushered Proximus out of the dungeon and sealed it shut behind the trio. "Submarines have killed entire pods of dolphins and porpoises with sonar. Sonic pulses are much more powerful than standard energy attacks because humans are so sensitive to sound. It is even more detrimental to ghosts due to our naturally unstable molecular structure."

"So Proximus has mastered this form of attack?" Skulker looked down at the bat creature as it padded along on all fours.

"I am uncertain. The gene splicing severely damaged his mental capabilities, so I am unable to train him as I would a sentient being." Plasmius opened the door to another room.

This room had a circular door built into the ceiling. With the push of a wall-mounted button, the circular barrier retracted and a breeze drifted into the room. Skulker's olfactory sensors detected several scents of nocturnal creatures; it was nighttime. Proximus ran around in circles under the sky door, screeching and growling excitedly. He would pause to look at Plasmius every few seconds.

"Go ahead, my pet. Find Phantom and engage him in combat. Let him know you still live." Plasmius flashed a toothy smile as Proximus howled up into the night before taking flight. He rose up through the door, flapping his massive wings, and disappeared from view.

"What would you have me do, master?" Skulker asked after the door had shut.

"A contact of mine will be arriving at my Colorado home within the hour. Please be there to greet him. There are . . . matters I must attend to here first."

Skulker bowed. "As you command." The mercenary activated his warp sequence and vanished.

"What are the readings on his neural patterns?" Plasmius asked her computer once the new Skulker was gone.

Technus' face appeared on screen. "I detect no ulterior motivation to his actions. Serving you is his highest priority."

"What of his memories?" Plasmius made her way back to the containment chamber. Technus' computer screen followed along.

"The Spectral Separation Unit worked exactly as predicted. Not only did it separate Kaine from his composite form, it also took his more meddlesome memories with him. This new Skulker will have no recollection of his romance with Ember McLain, his relation to Samantha Manson, or anything else that might place a hindrance on your plans. Those remain with Kaine."

"Did it remove any of his powers?" Plasmius sealed the chamber door behind her and examined the occupants of the other three units.

"Skulker's composite form was one of his powers. I suppose it still is. Aside from reduced durations of intangibility, invisibility, and flight, Skulker is still as powerful as he was before. The new suit, with its enhanced strength modifiers and magnetic repulsion systems, should make up for the slight detraction."

Plasmius carefully studied the body in the first chamber, churning Technus' report around in her mind. "Anything else I should know?"

"It seems that the separation process enhanced Skulker's reflexes and agility. With the artificial augmentation the new suit design gives him, he will be much more deadly in combat than my original calculations predicted."

"Excellent."

"There is one drawback," Technus said. He did not sound apprehensive of divulging this information, as her other subjects often did. "The suit requires slightly less energy than the first model, but it runs directly off the energy of the ghost wearing it. Since Skulker is permanently bonded to the armor, acting as its consciousness and power source, he is unable to use any standard ghost attacks, such as ghost rays. The lack of on board weapon systems, in addition to his lack of natural offensive capabilities, leaves him particularly vulnerable to attack."

Plasmius had moved from the first tank to the second and was now fondly looking into the third one. "I suppose we will have to see if his agility can compensate."

"I have run several thousand simulations to observe the same issue. Rest assured that Skulker is still capable of holding his own against Daniel."

Plasmius intangibly reached into the tank she was standing next to and brushed a strand of hair away from the ghost's face. It was so . . . beautiful. But she was missing one critical piece to complete the genetic puzzle that lay before her. Composing herself and standing up straighter, Plasmius headed for the upstairs quarters of her Wisconsin home.

"Keep tabs on Proximus. I am curious to hear how their encounter goes over."

"It will be done," Technus filed the command away for later. "Would you like me to send your letter now?"

"Yes, but type it and send it through the postal service. I want there to be a delay between the events of Proximus' appearance and the arrival of the letter."

"As you wish."

"Now if you'll excuse me," Plasmius reverted back to human form.

The black-purple ghostly rings formed at her waist and traveled over her body. The devilish, evil appearance of Plasmius was sealed away by the disarmingly gorgeous face of Vanessa Masters. The human woman entered her elevator and headed for her helipad on top of her house where her aerial chauffer was waiting to fly her to Colorado.

Her associate, the enigmatic Mr. Showenhower, did not know of her ghostly nature. The hybrid decided to keep it that way.

To Be Continued

A/N: Yeah, I know, these are getting somewhat shorter in length. But they're oh-so-intriguing, right?

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the lovely Cordria again for her beta-ing of this episode. She really is a joy to work with. If you ever need someone to beta your story . . . STAY AWAY! SHE'S MINE! Er, I mean, I'm sure she'd be just ever so delighted to help you.

But yes, for some reason, Maternal Instincts is one of the most favorite episodes ever. I think it's either one of his favorite or the very favorite episode of Butch Hartman. I, personally, was put off by how down-played the whole "we're in the wilderness being chased by ghost mutants!" thing was. But never fear, for Jack will surely make things interesting!

There is, as is my custom, a twist to this chapter in addition to the ones you've already seen. It is a direct tie in to the next chapter, which is a combination of Control Freaks and one of my favorite episodes. This is not a tangled web I weave, it is a very intricate one.

Reviews hit 1080 earlier. 1080 is an awesome N64 snowboarding game. Special thanks to everyone who put me over that number, especially darkbunny92, Vorago Atrox, inukagome15, Bloxham, Shining Zephyr, phantoms-allie, and Pterodactyl.

So, like, who wants to draw these guys, huh? Go crazy! HURGLAHBARGLEOBBLEGOB!

HURGLAHBARGLEOBBLEGOB!