Danny Phantom Unlimited 18.1

Sick Sad World: Aftermath.

In the floating command center of the New Millennium Foundation, inside a windowless pitch black room, Danny faces Mr. M -in a manner of speaking- about the dire events that happened befallen the Phantom Convention.

"…So you have decided to tell the world the truth about the incoming war between the human world and the Ghost Zone?" Mr. M asks.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because I had to. I-I can't keep that a secret. That is not something that affects just me, it affects the entire world, they deserve to know what's going to happen."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"For years the Millennium Foundation has kept the world safe without anyone ever knowing anything about us or what could have happened. Hundreds of men and women all of them died with bravery trying to save and protect the world from that which others can't understand. We would always do the things that none else can, do what has to be done, without the world knowing about us or about the dangers that we keep away from them, because people are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."

"Well, if you think so then maybe I don't belong here. Maybe you got the wrong hero."

"You think people can handle the truth?"

"I believe we can help them, and sometimes is better when they know and are willing to get help."

"…And that Danny is exactly why you are the hero we needed all this years."

"Wait how long have you been up here?"

"Long enough to say that in the sky there is more than meets the eye. We have always been there Danny. Like shadows in the night, we are the unseen... watching over your shoulder like a guardian phantasm. When danger out of this world arrived, we would be the first and last to ever know about it, we would keep the world safe for tomorrow without saying a word or asking for gratitude or a parade for our sacrifice, always unknown, always unheard, always unnamed, always... unseen…"

"Okay… You said unseen twice."

"I'm sorry, sometimes… I let myself go."

"It's ok, I'm sure lived through the sixties or the seventies."

"But then the world changed, people now sees the dangers that were once invisible to them."

"But… I assume that doesn't mean you can go public."

"No, we can't, the world has changed but, people hasn't, and if they can't how can we? To protect the world we've done things… horrible, horrible things. People knows ghost are real and are a threat bigger than just haunted houses and when they see you they see the one man who can fight them, the one hero who can protect humanity from ghosts."

"I still don't get your point. Why can't you go public? Why do you have to keep things a secret? If you have kept the world safe, people will see that, they'll see that you are the good guys like me."

"People see what they want to see, in you they see a hero because you keep them safe, they see how you sacrifice yourself. They see you got power they can't even understand but they're not afraid of you because you have shown them your responsibility to them, and you have shown how to control it."

"I… wouldn't precisely put it like that…"

"But... if they see the power we have, they would not even see how we have used it to protect them, even worst they would be so afraid of it they would deem us irresponsible for how we have used it, for we do not answer to anyone. This kind of power they would not let someone they do not know to have control over it, instead they would want to think they can control it and they would fight us for it. If we go public it would panic like you have never seen, but you can change that. You can change how people think so we can change for the best, because you are a leader of men but for people to follow you, for they to trust you enough to lead the way to the future, you have to trust them that same way."

"So… telling them what I know about the war was the right thing to do?"

"People might not find themselves fond in what happened or what you said, but when the moment comes, and it will come, they will see in you a straight man so see through-"

"That actually hurts."

"-that they will see there are no lies in you."

"I don't think I can see that working out well... Wait, what you say… I'm basically your P.R. then, am I not?"

"Now Danny, do not think so low of yourself. Now let's talk about some more… personal affairs."

"…Ooookaaayy…"

"How are you feeling?"

"Aaahh… fine… I guess?"

"Hasn't there been anything that troubles you? Any pain of sorts?"

"Nothing, just the usual phantom pains I have from my battles but they always wear off, why'd you ask?"

"Because I have the feeling that there is one that doesn't wear off."

"What do you mean?"

"The suit monitors your vitals stats as it heals you but, there appears to be some... complications. Last night in your battle with Skulker, you emotions were too close to get the best of you."

"He is being nice," the suit's operative system G.A.S.P.E.R says," they actually got the best of you."

"No they didn't."

"And in your rile your ghost core seemed more active than usual, it produced more energy than the suit can handle, any more angry and it would have… overloaded. But that is not my biggest concern right now, I trust you will learn how to manage your temper…"

"Ha, yes he will." GASPER says sarcastically.

"Shut up!"

"No, my biggest concern is this," says snapping his fingers displaying a large holographic screen with Danny's x-rays. "As you can see, there are some bone splinters in your legs, your back spine, your lounges and most dangerously near your heart." Mr. M says pointing the bone splinters in red. "Yet they only seem to be there in your ghost form."

"How…?"

"You still think there is nothing wrong?'"

"Well that explains a lot."

"Does it, now?"

"I mean I usually feel this… phantom pains from my wounds like for weeks even after they heal but… they usually wear off… or get replaced by new phantom pains from other wounds. Sometimes I wouldn't even notice them anymore, I feel them there but I can't even tell if they're new or old, you know because of the constant beat up I get."

"I can imagine that."

"Since when do I have these?"

"Since the day of the bomb."

"How comes Gas didn't tell me this before."

"Believe it or not, you had more of them but they seemed to dissolve unlike these that moved along in your body and got stuck in rather delicate areas. We could remove some of them with a few surgeries, but the one in your heart is the one that- "

"Oh please no need to worry, is not the first time I take things outta me! I'd just simply phase my hand and take off."

"You don't understand, these are not band aids you get to rip off. A wrong movement and you might lose a leg."

"Lose a leg, like in… I won't move it anymore?"

"Or worse, you could damage your heart."

"Well that suck."

"Don't worry, we'll talk to the best surgeons and ghost expert to extract them from your body, on the mean time I'll give you this to ease the pain." Says teleporting in Danny's hand a drug prescription with a pills container. "But be careful, that drug can be highly addictive."

"Oh come on, is not Vicodin, isn't?"

"…"

"My God, you're giving me Vicodin? Are you too cheap to give me one of those unheard drugs you defintely have?"

"I think we talked enoguh here. You can go, and remember… this conversation nevere happened."

"I know, honesty is the best policy..."

"except when it isn't."

Many, many months from now.

The once wonderful and peaceful city of Amity Park is now split in two parts: the human half were all human citizens could live relatively safet and the ghost half, locked away by a red ghost energy shield that goes from above to under the ground, trapping the half that was once blown by a ghost nuclear bomb in a spheric ghost shield. This half was so contaminated by "ghostly radioactivity" and plagued with so many ghost-zombies that the government didn't have any other choice but to look it away from the world before the ghost-zombies situation goes even more out of hand.

Inside this dome, the hero of Amity Park who for all ironic purposes is a half-ghost and half-human stands before his enemies, the ones responsible for the bomb. Unlike their last encounter, he is not beaten, instead he stands tall and victorious before them, who have fallen and at his might.

Technus, the ghost leader of the ghost army that has gone full-out war on the human world lays on his knees before him. His entire system is being affected by a powerful virus Danny created specally for him.

"How? How could you do this?" He asks squirting in pain as his entire system goes down.

"Simple. You see I am supposed to save the world, but to be up to the task I can't limit myself to be the kind of hero who solves anything with his fists, I learned that last time we met. So to be up to the task I had to change some things, I had to change my methods, to break those limits," Danny explains walking towards his sworn enemy, "so first step getting a new suit -in this case I got two- because as all hero know when you get a new suit is because shit just got real, step two using my brain to outsmart you all, and God I had so much potential wasted all this years. This virus running through your whole programing is the proof of it, of course I took some classes with Tuck, but I did it all by myself daddy. This Trojan seemed like an average backdoor Trojan Horse, but the trick in it is (and I so love it) that when you recode it to shut it down, it'll trigger a different self-duplicating virus inside it that blends with a malware installed during your last upgrade. Thus, when you attack it you'are attacking your own system, is like a ghost-computer version of an immune disease.

"So in other words you are destroying yourself, you are your own worst enemy, and eve if you don't fight it, it will still do a a virus does. Honestly I'm surprised I could come up with it, and trying to download it into my suit won't work 'cause I'm not even here. This is an artificial-virtual body real enough to fight you, you were fighting a cybernetic replica all the time and you didn't notice that, what a master of technology. And now, it is my favorite part, the mercy killing...". States pulling out his arm-sword, raising his arm and swing his blades at Technus.

His end was now and as it casted upon him, a large shadow casted upon all of Amity Park, it was the shadow of a new age.