Chapter four! Thanks for reading!
I do not own Danny Phantom! Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman. OC characters are mine.
The door to the chamber slid open and Agent K strode in.
"Well good morning. Are we ready for today's test?"
Danny, currently in human form, glared at the agent, with his spotless uniform and cool, condescending demeanor. It pissed him off, even now after seeing this man for 12 years. Agent K just scoffed.
"Well I see someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today." He motioned for the guards to take Danny to the testing rooms. The guards each roughly took one of Danny's arms and led him into the adjacent testing room. By now, he knew the sections of his chamber by heart. It was what the GIW was testing each time they led him in here that was still a mystery. This time, Danny warily eyed several types of ectoguns lying on a steel cart at the side of the room. He knew they had almost perfected the models. Agent K lazily strode over to the chart and picked one of the guns up, turning it over and over in his hands.
"So, this is potentially the final version of our handheld ecto-gun. Lets have some fun, shall we?" He turned around to look at Danny again, who glared at Agent K. Quickly, the agent raised the gun and pointed it at Danny, pulling the trigger. The blast grazed Danny's arm and he barely flinched. When Agent K fired the weapon, Danny felt a slight pull at his core. He was accustomed to this feeling now, as the security systems in his chambers were powered through his signature. Those gave him a constant buzzing, pulling feeling in his chest at all times. He couldn't remember what it felt like to not be connected to the system. It was never extreme, the GIW needed him ready for battle, but it was enough to lower his performance ever so slightly. Despite his hatred for the GIW, Danny had to admit that their ability to tap into his energy without completely draining him was nice.
Agent K looked over the now smoking weapon and set it back on the cart. He picked up the next one, a slightly larger model with farther range and repeated the same action. This continued down the line of guns on the cart. After he set the last one back down, Agent K nodded and smiled, eyeing the selection of now completed weaponry. Danny was tired, since the weapons pulled a little from him each time, but he was still standing.
The GIW had made leaps and bounds with their technologies in the past decade. It was how they discovered Danny in the first place. Their tracking devices to hone in on Phantom's ectosignature were improved when Danny went to college, resulting in some close calls when he came home for the first time. Danny was used to finishing a fight and then having time to spare before the GIW tracked him down, but this time they arrived just after Danny had sucked the ghost into the thermos.
After Danny graduated college, the tracker became even sharper. It was now able to pick up traces of Phantom's ectosignature even when Danny was in human form. Eventually, the GIW tracked the signature down to Danny's home, realized that it was coming from him. They were confused and slow to respond at first, blaming this on faulty technology. But when every tracker began to do the same, their suspicion grew.
Team Phantom became aware of the GIW creeping closer and closer each day. Danny tried to find ways to suppress his signature even more, even trying out some of his parents' tech to suppress his ghost half. It was all to no avail as, one fateful night, the GIW came bursting into his home, taking him quietly off into the night.
They had their bases covered too. A fake story was released the following day about Danny going missing, a story that the GIW paid a large sum of money to the local papers to run. Unfortunately, it worked flawlessly. Sam and Tucker tried to protest; however they couldn't fully support their story of Danny being kidnapped by the GIW without revealing his secret. Sadly, with the public support of Phantom's disappearance (the GIW claimed Phantom was preparing to launch a ghost war, using the public's trust against them), Sam and Tucker knew revealing his secret would do more harm than good.
They had tried everything and exhausted all resources. The security was unbeatable; even Tucker couldn't crack it after years of trying. Valerie had inside knowledge but the information about Danny was only accessible by a select few employees. The GIW continued to manipulate the public with false reports and fake documents. It was beginning to seem hopeless.
Danny was led back into his sleeping quarters and was given a tray of food. The only bright side Danny found to his situation was that, for the most part, he remained unharmed (save for the slight drain from the weapons). At first, the weapons took so much energy from him that even an ectogun would leave him panting. How, the GIW learned how to maximize power with only a small amount of help from Danny's energy. With all of the weapons almost complete, Danny knew he was running out time before the GIW launched their war into the Ghost Zone, hoping to destroy ghosts once and for all. Despite Danny's pleas to stop and his explanation about how it would ultimately destroy both worlds, the GIW held fast to their convictions. And with their looming threats of eliminating every one Danny loved, he was left to cooperate and wait, hoping that maybe he could find a way to save everyone once the war started and he was outside of the GIW headquarters. For now, though, all Danny could do was wait.
Bethany breathed in deeply, standing in the middle of the training room. Clockwork watched from the side of the room, knowing what was to come. She pulled at the cold inside her, surprising herself when she actually felt it, and tried to view the world as nothing more than a blur. Suddenly, her body felt frozen and her eyes snapped open. She gazed around the room, finding it to waver slightly. It was as if she needed glasses but forgot to put them on; the room appeared fuzzy. Slowly, concentrating on not breaking her focus, she reached down and stuck her arm through the floor. Gasping, she abruptly stood up and everything snapped back into focus. With wide eyes and a slight smile, Bethany turned to face Clockwork.
"I…I did it. You were right!" Clockwork smiled at her enthusiasm.
"Invisibility works in a similar way. You need to pull the cold out but instead focus on letting the energy surround only yourself, almost as if it were another layer of skin." Bethany concentrated again on the cold feeling, letting it surround her. She was surprised by how easily it came to her this time. She let herself be covered with her cold energy and watched with amazement as her hand disappeared from plain sight. Slowly, the rest of her body followed suit. When she came back into visibility, Bethany was beaming.
"Overshadowing someone works the same way. Once intangible, you can step inside someone else's body and allow your energy to flow. The person is an extension of yourself." Bethany listened intently, captivated with her newly discovered abilities. Clockwork had explained all she should be able to do in human form, making sure to mention that she may not have a full ghost form. After all, she was the first child born from a half-ghost, so no one really knew how it would work.
"Unfortunately, there is no one to practice with here, since it only works on humans. However I am confident that if you master all other abilities, then overshadowing will come naturally."
"And I need to be able to overshadow so I can get into the facility?" Clockwork nodded, recognizing her parents' intelligence from her quick understanding.
"The GIW want to wage a war on the Ghost Zone, using your father as the front lines. You can free him and eliminate this threat."
Clockwork patiently explained the plan for Bethany, waiting as she absorbed each step.
"Ghost families are very special. Like how humans share blood and genetics, ghosts share ectoplasm and ectosignatures. The frequency of Danny's ectosignature is in line with yours; it matches. Therefore, you can, let's say, borrow his energy. You just need to hone in on it."
Bethany mused over this information, staring intently into the wall behind Clockwork.
"This sounds extremely complicated. I just figured out how to use basic powers. How do you expect me to master this?" Clockwork smiled a small smile.
"We will practice and start small." Bethany let out a sigh. He had the upmost of faith in her. It made her nervous that she would screw something up.
"So if I can use his energy, this means what exactly?"
"The biggest obstacle to freeing your father is that the security for his chamber is run on his own ecto-energy. The same is true for most of the weapons. It is incredibly strong and can only be shut down once inside his chamber or by ending their use of Danny's energy. Since you can tap into his signature, you can effectively shut down the generators and weapons."
"How do they get his energy from him?" She asked worriedly. Clockwork only shook his head.
"They have discovered how to tap into a ghost's energy through its ectosignature. Their technology is modified to work through this, similar to a radio. It aligns with his ectosignature and the matched frequency allows the system to access the energy associated with that frequency. Thus, they can tap into your father's energy system through this signature, similar to how someone can tune into a station on the radio by switching to the right frequency."
"So since I can also tune into that frequency, then I can control the equipment. I can shut down the security. And I can also shut down the weaponry, stopping the war." The final pieces fell into place, as Bethany understood.
"So, how do I tap into his ectosignature?" She inquired. Clockwork guided her to the middle of the training room and turned to face her.
"This will require high focus and patience. I need you to trust what I instruct and to keep trying, no matter what. This step is the most important." Bethany nodded and he continued on.
"Close your eyes and focus on the Ghost Zone outside. Try and grasp a hold of its energy, feel its signature surrounding you." Bethany closed her eyes and reached out with her energy. She recognized her own energy and suddenly felt something else colliding with it. It felt like vibrations offset from her own, an energy on a different frequency than hers. She held onto it and memorized it.
"I want you to try and reach further into the Ghost Zone. Try and find other ghost's ectosignatures." Bethany did as he instructed, finding this step to be particularly difficult. She reached and concentrated, finding nothing but her own and the Ghost Zone's energies. After some time, she felt something off. It was distant and barely detectable, but she felt a third energy, different than both hers and the Zone's. She grabbed at it, bringing it forward. Bethany knew she had found another ghost. Clockwork smiled.
"When you are in the human realm, this will be easier, since the Ghost Zone energy will be less intense. All you need to do is bring forth your own energy and seek out your father's, letting it align with your own. Once you do this, it will be yours to control." Bethany opened her eyes and released the ectosignatures from her mind and body. She smiled and nodded to Clockwork, for the first time feeling confident that she might be able to pull this off.
Later that day, Bethany quickly walked into the viewing room. She made her way to Clockwork and stared at the floor as she conjured up the courage to ask him the question that had been on her mind all day. Finally, she spoke.
"Clockwork, what happens after this?" He knew exactly what she meant, of course, and turned to face her.
"Currently, I have your home town in a different timeline; one where you never arrived. Simply put, no one knows you or has any memory of you. You never existed in that world." Bethany's eyes widened and she snapped her head up at Clockwork. All this time, she simply figured her parents and Seth would assume she had gone missing. She had no idea that Clockwork had removed her from their lives altogether. He sensed her shock and continued explaining before she could respond.
"Should you choose to go back home after your father is freed, I can send you back to the same time as when I took you. No one will know the difference. Should you choose to stay in Amity Park, then your home town will remain in that timeline and no one will know you are even gone."
Bethany soon realized just how difficult this would be. Of course she wanted to go back to her home. That was where her life was. But was it fair to her real parents to re-enter their lives just to leave again? Especially when it was never their choice to have her taken away in the first place?
"Clockwork, do I….do I have to tell my real parents who I am?" He smiled a small, sad smile.
"That is a choice I will leave to you." She breathed a small sigh of relief. This way, she had more time to decide. Suddenly, Clockwork's words brought her back to her dream from the night before. Choose. She stiffened and decided to focus on freeing her dad first, letting the impending choice settle like led in her stomach to be dealt with later.