HI! (gir wave)
Okay, this is officially the shortest chappie in this whole story. But I'm not apologising: almost nothing happens on late Monday or Tuesday, but what does is WAY too important to just tack on top of Wednesday. If you get what I'm saying. The point is, more of the plot is revealed, plans are made, secrets told, etcetera. Which is how this chapter got its name. I will be honest, I was surprised that nobody figured out what was on that tape Clockwork mentioned. It really was 'Only a Matter of Time'. Or dates, at least. Well, that information is in this chapter, and I'm sure you'll see why it was so important. Also, I am still taking all bets on who's doing what plot in Amity Park and why. Let the theories fly! Hahaha!
Love and Candy to all reviewers, espicially Tornada Silverwind, who I somehow missed last time. Double candy for you. Thanks to: Meagainsttheworld, AirGirl Phantom, Queen S of Randomness 016, Diamond Raider, Unrealistic, FanFictionist, Epona Harper, Sasia93, BarnOwl93, The Fluff Ghost, egyptianqueen777, Adran06, Pieling, bluename, fan-girls2.0, BratCat, acosta parez jose ramiro, Horselvr4evr123, Chaos Dragon, hermie-the-frog, and once again to Tornada Silverwind. Thanks.
Also please note that I'm enabling Anonymous Reviews for the rest of the story. I just want to see what happens. If any of you reading this don't have an account, please drop me a line and let me know what you think. The more feedback I get on pros and cons, the better.
Toodles! I'm off to food. TO THE SNACK BAR!
HiddenAuthor
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Chapter 11 – Informants
Vlad played the footage again. The private Dalv lab he'd invaded for the next few months was hardly adequate for his research needs, but he supposed it would have to do. His Wisconsin home had been blown up, and he hadn't had the heart to rebuild his destroyed clone facility in Colorado. That loss was still painful. He'd been so close to finally possessing the perfect son. A possession that he knew now he would never have.
There. He quickly switched to slow motion and gave the feed his full attention. The brief flicker, then…nothing. There was a knock on the door.
"Excuse me…sir." Came a hesitant voice. "I was told to tell you that…um…everything is going according to plan." Vlad kept his back to the insignificant little human and allowed a grin to cross his face for the first time that week.
"I know." He said, eyes never leaving the screen. "I'm just waiting on a call. You may go now."
Two hours later, a small radio device began to speak. Smiling triumphantly, Vlad casually picked up the communicator.
"Well hello there Valerie. What a pleasant surprise." He said cheerfully, the dark smirk never leaving his face. "So you've decided to stand up for your town after all? Excellent. Here's what I want you to do for me."
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"As you can see sir, everything is proceeding on schedule. We haven't had any setbacks since we set up. And we certainly aren't hiding anything." Mike flashed a dazzling smile at his boss. Damon nodded absently and typed in a long string of codes. Moments later, several programming windows popped up on screen, long lines of code flashing from one end to the other. The Amity Park Security chief spent several long minutes watching the information flow before deciding to comment.
"This isn't my schematic program." Mike faltered for a moment, but seconds later the smile was back.
"One of our technicians streamlined it." He replied smoothly. "There was redundant code in the original."
"You mean the stuff that let me double-check the information to make sure it was right?" Damon asked casually, closing the window and giving the obviously lying man his full attention.
"Perhaps you should take this up with Mr. Smith." He said calmly. "He signed all the approvals. I didn't have anything to do-"
"I'm asking you, Mike." Damon interrupted coldly. "You're in charge of this tower, not Smith. You work for me, not Smith. And this system belongs to me, not Smith. So I'm giving you two choices. You can tell me exactly what's going on here, or I can replace you with someone who will." Any semblance of a smile on Mike's face was now gone. The look he was giving Gray was making him more than a little nervous. In all his years as a security advisor, he'd run into countless desperate criminals. Punks like that didn't scare him. What scared him were the people he could tell were criminals, but weren't afraid, even when they were caught out. Their eyes always looked like that. What made this guy feel so safe?
"If you wish to fire me, that's your right." Mike said smoothly. "But I advise you to reconsider, Mr. Gray." Damon considered for all of two seconds.
"Get out of my tower."
Damon stayed long enough to see Mike out and swipe his passkey, and then took off as fast as he could for the Shield command tower. He'd let this go on for far too long. But some things were more important than a job. Besides, if trying to keep his job was allowing some outside group to take over the powerful weapon he'd been assigned to guard, he might as well quit right now.
Upon his arrival at command tower, Damon retired to his office and asked for Smith. The man was nowhere to be found. Scowling, the talented programmer began methodically dissecting the locks and false readings those traitors had pushed into his system.
It was only half an hour before Montez gave him a call, telling him his services would no longer be necessary. Smith was now in charge of Amity Park Anti-Ghost Security.
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The entire Fenton family sat in front of the living room TV, mentally digesting everything the Guys in White said.
"Who was that K person, Danny?" Maddie asked her son. "And what really happened to him?" Danny shrugged as he leaned back in his seat, rubbing his temples.
"He was a Guys in White agent. This summer, he chased me Sam and Tucker across America as we tried to rescue you guys and their parents. Long story short, you guys were kidnapped, my secret got out worldwide, the Guys in White wanted to dissect me, and it took three days to sort everything out. After we did, I used a reality-changing gauntlet to wipe everyone's memories of what happened so nobody remembered my secret, then told K and his partner to leave my family alone. Then I destroyed the gauntlet so it wouldn't happen again."
"And the gauntlet made him crazy?" Jazz asked quietly. Danny shrugged, looking more than a little guilty.
"We don't know that for sure." Maddie said. "They might have been lying to get us to help them. But no matter what happened, you didn't do anything wrong Danny. You were trying to protect us."
"Yeah!" Jack said bracingly. "You could have just blown him up, but you didn't hurt him. You did the right thing." Danny nodded absently, though he did look marginally better.
"I guess." He said grudgingly. "I just wish he hadn't gotten hurt. Yeah he was a jerk, but he was only doing his job. I don't know how they found out I did it though." He said, confused. "I thought I wiped all the tapes." Jazz's eyes lit up.
"Oh, I forgot!" She said. "Clockwork gave me a message for you guys." Jazz flushed momentarily as she gained her family's undivided attention. "He wants us to watch Lab Security Tape 1105041400. Whatever that means." Maddie and Jack looked at each other in confusion.
"That tape's two years old." She said to her husband. "Why would he want us to watch that?" Jazz shrugged from her couch.
"He didn't say." The older girl replied. "I don't think he was supposed to tell us. Not that that seemed to stop him." Danny grinned.
"Alright." Jack said, and quickly headed to the basement. The others sat in confused silence for a few minutes before he came bounding back up with a dust-covered DVD case.
"Here it is." He said. "Lab footage for November fifth, 2004." Sitting back down, Jack began running the footage. After fast-forwarding through several hours of inactivity, he quickly hit play.
"Hey, that's me!" He said enthusiastically. Jack Maddie and Jazz looking down at a console, the Ghost Portal standing secure and closed behind them. Then, Jack began pushing his thumb onto the top of the device over and over. Each time he did, the portal shot open, releasing a ghost. There went a ghost squid, a ghost wolf, a ghost snake…
"That was your fault?" Danny asked incredulously. Jack flushed and turned back towards the screen.
"I told you this genetic lock was a great invention." The recorded Jack boasted loudly, releasing several more ghosts. The Fenton family turned towards the hunter.
"Well it was." He said defensively. "When I wasn't pushing it." Groaning, they all returned to the screen in time to see a strange shadow ghost force the portal to remain open.
"Wait a minute." Jazz said. "Isn't this when…" Johnny 13 and Kitty could be seen biking through the portal. Suddenly, shadow's pent-up power caused a malfunction.
"Ahh!" Kitty screamed on the video.
"Kitty!"
"I knew it! I can't maintain my form; I'm split between here and the Ghost Zone. I'm spreading my energy into my stuff. Get some girl to wear it so I can reform around her. Don't forget about me, Johnny."
The feed continued for some time, but none of the Fentons were watching.
"Kitty was unstable?" Jazz asked, wide-eyed.
"But she was fine after that." Danny said slowly. Maddie and Jack didn't move.
"So she created a new, stable body by forming around living matter. Once she got the boost, the new body worked fine on its own." Jack said wonderingly. Maddie looked up and grinned triumphantly.
"The electricity, the heat, it was all part of what a living body gives off all the time!" She exclaimed. "That's why the formless ghost matter reacted to it! All we have to do is find a way to recreate how Kitty got her body back, and Dani can be cured!"
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Deep in the Ghost Zone, behind a pair of very ornate doors, five ghosts looked nervously at each other.
"The military is active in Amity Park." Intoned the center ghost. The others nodded, looking ill.
"Well this is good then." Said the far left ghost. "If they cause trouble, we can keep Clockwork off for good, and take whatever steps we need to get rid of those terrible half-ghosts once and for all."
"I'll agree with removing that Vlad character." Growled the ghost beside him. "But the Phantom boy's done nothing wrong. If we must, we'll remove him, but it really rubs me the wrong way to punish an innocent boy."
"Innocent for now, perhaps." Intoned the close right ghost. "But we've all seen what he might someday do. And that was with limited potential! He's far too dangerous to be let free."
"I wish Clockwork were here." Groaned the far right councilor. "He always had some wise thing or other to say. True his powers have always been limited – for good reason – but he's seen so much more than we have. We would benefit from his advice."
"Bah!" Said the far left. "He's too close by far to that Phantom." He said. "His judgment is clouded. And I suspect he knows less than he pretends." Eyebrows rose throughout the room.
"One should not question the ghost of time." Whispered the head councilor. "True, he submits to our authority, but I suspect that that is due to some moral code rather than any lack of power or submission. We must take care not to cross him. I have not seen what he might be capable of if he stopped limiting himself, no more than I understand Phantom. And I'm not in a hurry to find out."
"But if the military threatens the secret of half-ghost creation, we must act. Ongoing judgment or not, we cannot sit back and let the most dangerous secret in either world to fall into the hands of such as these." The far left intoned.
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Very well." Stated the center ghost. "This new information is troubling, but for now we must not act. We cannot influence the human world; it would compromise our judgment of Clockwork. So we will watch, and we will wait." The others nodded silently, and the council sat as one to await new developments. It was only a matter of time.
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Danny was beaming like crazy all day, but the most annoying part was that none of his friends could get him to tell them why. He'd only grin and tell them "at lunch."
Well lunch had arrived, and the four had finally gotten together at their usual seat. There was nothing keeping Danny from telling them but a twisted sense of humor. Fed up, Tucker decided to break the ice.
"You know," he said conversationally, "we probably shouldn't always be sharing deep dark secrets during lunch."
"What else would we do?" Sam asked in the same tone, smirking slightly.
"Oh, I don't know…eating maybe?" Tucker finished. Val snorted.
"Alright, enough. What's the big secret, Fenton?" Sitting back and looking very pleased with the world in general, the ghost boy answered.
"We figured out how to cure Dani." Tucker and Sam both stared for a second then broke into huge grins. Val sat back looking confused.
"What's a Dani?"
"She's Danny's clone. We've been trying to fix her for months." Sam answered before turning back to her boyfriend. "That's great Danny! How?"
"Danny has a clone?" Val asked, looking very lost. Tucker shot her a pitying gaze.
"Vlad made her." Danny said to her. "She pretended to be a cousin; we had her funeral months ago." Returning to the present he turned towards his more clued-in friends. "Clockwork bent a few rules and told us about some lab footage we could watch. It gave mom and dad all sorts of ideas. She should be cured by this weekend!"
"Vlad has a cousin from Clockwork's funeral?" Val asked weakly, now completely out of the loop. Her boyfriend quickly draped his arm over her shoulder.
"I'll explain it after school." He said quietly. Valerie nodded mutely, and put on a happy look for Danny, who was clearly pleased.
"So," he said, face going serious. "What did Vlad want?" The huntress's face fell as she thought about her equally confusing instructions.
"It was weird. He told me to trick you into going to this 'Partners' and Patrons' Spring Formal Ball' on Saturday. But he didn't say why, he just said he'd mail me two signed invitations." Sam had paled slightly, but both boys looked confused.
"What's a Spring Formal Ball?" Danny asked, scratching his head. Tucker nodded, facing his girlfriend.
"News to me."
"It's this party the Mansons have every spring. Vlad's going, and he wants us to be there, too." At 'Mansons', Danny had started swapping gazes from a slightly red Sam to an equally confused Valerie.
"Sam's having a party?" He asked. Sam rolled her eyes.
"It's not for me, dumb-dumb." She said in exasperation. "I didn't want you to know I had to go to that kind of thing. fMy parents throw it so they can suck up to people they do business with. And try and get me to date their kids." She added bitterly.
"Sam has a date at the party with Vlad?" Danny asked, shaking his head. Sam smacked herself in the forehead.
"Look." She said slowly into her hand with a frustrated voice, somehow unable to keep a small smile off her face. "Vlad's going to my parent's party. They want me to meet boys. Now you're invited. So you can scare away all the boys my parents like." Danny brightened slightly, allowing his eyes to flicker.
"Except Vlad sent the invites, so it has to be a trap." Tucker pointed out. All three paused, then nodded, frowning.
"But why somewhere public?" Danny asked. "It doesn't make sense. Neither of us can do anything with that many people watching." He shook his head. "Whatever's going on, we'll have to go to the party at least. That way Vlad can still think Val's working for him, and I can get close enough to maybe figure something out. Sam," he said, turning towards his girlfriend, "you'll have to be there; it's your parents' party." She nodded.
Tucker smiled. "So I hide outside and try to wreck Vlad's plans as we figure them out?" Smiling back, Danny nodded. Val scowled.
"I don't like it." She said. "Three of us will be stuck at that party. Tucker needs backup."
"Why not Jazz?" Sam asked. Three sets of eyebrows rose. "What? Vlad wouldn't expect her, he's probably not watching what she's doing all the time like the rest of us, and she's really good at figuring people out. Maybe she'll spot what Vlad's doing before the rest of us." Danny nodded.
"Good. I'll tell her after school. I guess we should spend the rest of the week trying to figure out what he wants. Except me." He finished, eyes flickering slightly again. "I have a few questions for the Guys in White."
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Smith smiled into his console, his fingers flying.
"Yes sir, everything is moving forward." He said into his microphone. "Damon will probably try and rally the Fentons, but they won't be able to break back into the towers before it's too late. Phantom won't know what hit him. And yes, I've already added the individual Tower shields. They work fine. No one can attack these things from outside or inside the dome." There was a brief pause.
"Yes sir, the…er…special generators are also ready to go. We tested them on a local ghost, and they work beautifully. Yes, I've been told that the devices were successfully planted at Fenton Works. They'll be ready to activate at the appropriate time. Thank you sir. Smith out."