Disclaimer: I really don't own Danny Phantom. Why don't you believe me?
Cramped, dark, and cold.
Those were the three words that came to Danny's mind to describe his cell. He couldn't even tell how much time passed from when he was first imprisoned. In fact, the only time he was able to leave the cell was when he was being experimented on. Even then he was under a heavy guard of SHIELD's top soldiers and had to wear handcuffs too weaken his powers. He still had some control over his powers, possibly because SHIELD didn't know the true extent of his powers, but he couldn't control them for more than a couple seconds and it made him extremely nauseous.
The experiments weren't so bad. The scientists weren't as crazy as those from the GiW at least. They would usually take a sample of Danny's ectoplasm and then get some readings from his core. Something about Danny must've peaked there interest, because they they took a lot of samples from him, going so far as even getting a couple cheek samples. Why didn't they just get the samples from a normal, less powerful ghost?
Only one answer came to Danny's mind. They could already tell he wasn't like the other ghosts.
After about a half hour of these tests, the scientists would make sure Danny was fed raw ectoplasm so he could keep up his energy, they didn't want him dying on them, and then deposit him back in his cell.
When Danny was first thrown into his cell, he tried to go intangible and escape. Sadly, he underestimated his captors and felt a burning sensation throughout his body as soon as he touched the cell walls. If Danny had to guess, he'd say it was due to ectoranium embedded in the walls. How SHIELD was able to do it was beyond him.
So here the halfa was, stuck in a almost pitch black room with only a bed and a toilet to keep him company. Well he had his mind too, but he didn't talk to himself for fear of losing his sanity. He already lost everything else.
"Hey, Phantom!" a guard shouted as he approached the halfa's cell.
Danny didn't look up. Is it already time for more experiments? I thought they were finished with me for now. Could it already have been that long?
"You in there ghost?" the guard asked. Danny heard the man grab something off his belt with his strengthened hearing. Not only was his hearing naturally strong than an ordinary person's but it also grew more acute do to his lack of sight. This made him hear most anything.
A bright light filled Danny's room, forcing the halfa to flinch back and close his eyes.
"Oh, so you are in there, ghost. That's good. You had me worrying for a second. It's time for your interrogation. You should feel honored; the Director is coming done to do it himself."
Damn him. Danny thought as his eyes slowly fought against the bright light to open. If his eyes weren't fooling him. Danny could've sworn his saw a flashlight in the guards arm pointed somewhere near the halfa's head. Everything was fuzzy though.
"Here. Put these on." the guard ordered before throwing a pair of special handcuffs into Danny's cell. "As per protocol, you have to put those on before leaving the cell. Your armed escort is waiting outside for you."
"Why should I?" Danny whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear with his acute hearing to pick up.
The halfa reached for the handcuffs and stared at them. No matter what he did he was probably going to die, so why should he follow orders? There was that spark of hope that maybe SHIELD would let him go, but judging by how aggressive they were in capturing him and how much protection they've taken in keeping him powerless, they thought of him as an enemy. Definitely not a friend at least.
The guard noticed Danny's hesitation to follow orders and decided to raise his arms away from the gun at his holster. "Phantom, please put on the handcuffs. Resisting will do you no good."
Damn that word! Why did Danny's weakness have to be the word please? He found it hard to resist when anyone, especially his parents, used that word.
After letting out a small sigh, Danny slipped the handcuffs on and headed for the cell door for it to be opened. It looked like he finally got to talk to the mastermind of this whole operation. If Danny was going to die, he was at least going to speak his mind before doing so, and he's force this director guy to listen.
Fury sat on one end of a very long table as he waited for the vacant seat across from him to be filled. The occupant of said seat was supposed to be Phantom, but the guards seemed to be running a bit late. Oh well; not like Fury could do anything about it.
The director grabbed the folder that was near him on the desk and pulled out a picture of Phantom. The kid- no, ghost, couldn't be any older than sixteen. That was the problem though. In the case of ghosts, appearance don't matter. For all Fury knew, the ghost could really be hundreds of years old, only deciding to take the form of a teen to trick his enemy. This ghost was deceptive. Even if, he still looked so young.
A buzz cam from the door, signaling it's opening as Phantom stepped inside the room with multiple guards flanking him.
"Sir," one of the guards spoke up. "We've brought Phantom like asked. "
Fury studied Phantom's form up and down. The kid looked a little worse for the wear, his squinting eyes even showed that his eyes were still adjusting to the light, but otherwise he was okay. What surprised Fury was how young the ghost looked. He somehow looked even younger than his picture. This made him wonder how Phantom died for him to still retain most of his innocence.
What am I thinking? Fury demanded inside his head. The ghost is just trying to deceive me!
"You guards are no longer needed. Wait outside until otherwise instructed."
"Yes, sir!" all the guards shouted while giving a salute. They walked out of the door, leaving the ghost and the director ordering the hunting of the ghost alone.
"Phantom, please sit." Fury said, gesturing to the chair on the other side of the table.
The ghost didn't say anything; he just took his seat and stared at Fury with resentment in his eyes.
His eyes. Fury wanted to shudder at his eyes alone, the only thing stopping him being his training. The green eyes signaling ectoplasm running through the ghost's veins no longer glowed. They barely had any life in them at all. If there was one thing that gave away Phantom's true age, it was his eyes.
Fury took out a picture of FentonWorks and showed it to Phantom. "I want you to tell me where these ghosts are coming from, Phantom. You and I both know that these ghosts are coming from somewhere, and you have to know where this place is."
"No."
"No? What do you mean by no? Answer my question and I may be able to set you free. At least give you a lesser sentence!"
"No." Danny said, giving the same answer as last time.
Fury tried to read Phantom's face to see what game he was playing, but he got nothing from it, still just that bit of resentment in the ghost's eyes.
"You are in league with the other ghosts to conquer Amity Park, correct?"
"No."
"Damnit!" Fury shouted for all those listening in to hear. "Can't you say anything other than no? You are a person, well aren't you?"
"No." Danny said simply. This time he decided to elaborate more and spoke further. "I don't have any rights; therefore I am not considered a person. No ghost is considered a person."
Fury was going to slam his fist down onto the table, but held himself back. There was no point in getting angry. It wouldn't solve anything. "Do you wish to die, boy? Don't you want to do some good for once?"
"I am a ghost, I am already dead. All ghosts are evil, so I cannot do any good."
Fury fell back into his seat as he thought the conversation over. Something just didn't seem right in Phantom. Wasn't he supposed to have been a hero to this town a couple months ago? Why did not want to help it even now? He acted more like he didn't care about life anymore, like he just wanted to die. Wait a second!
"So that's your plan." Fury began. "You want to be used as a martyr for the other ghosts so they'll fight harder."
One of Danny's eyebrows went up and his eyes slightly widened. Interpreting this as him being correct in his assumption, Fury continued. "Well, we can always execute you in secret so your friends won't find out."
Phantom didn't show any emotion to the claim, much to Fury's disappointment.
"I have to questions for you, Phantom. Have you ever met the leader of this ghost attack before?"
Phantom didn't respond so Fury assumed he never met him.
"Here's my last question. Why did you choose to betray Amity Park?"
"No," Danny simply replied.
Great, we're back to this again. Fury thought as he shouted for the guards to come back in. "Take this ghost out of here and tell the scientists to run whatever final tests they need to before his execution."
Two of the guards walked up to Danny and tried to grab both of his arms, but the halfa turned them intangible and their arms went straight through. The rest of the guards reacted by drawing their weapons and pointing their weapons. Phantom didn't care though, he just kept staring at Fury. "You guys aren't the good guys." he stated. The two guards roughly grabbed his arms and led him away. A little after they were out of sight, the dizzy spell finally overtook him and he fell to the ground unconscious.
Phantom could've escaped, Fury thought. He could still use his powers with those cuffs on. Just how powerful is he?
Sadly, the part about SHIELD not being the good guys went right over Fury's head. He'd been told that by so many criminals before that he just started ignoring it.
Deciding there was no point in staying in a empty interrogation room, Fury walked out the door and activated his earpiece. "Ms, Hill, the interrogation was a bust. Phantom didn't give us any information."
"Sir, the lieutenant spoke, pausing for some unknown reason. "You may want to return to the bridge. There's a message for you."
Fury paused. "Message. What message? Is it from Amity Park?"
"I don't know, sir. It's classified. To secretive for even me to look at."
So a unknown message from an unknown source carrying classified information is meant for Fury? Well he's seen weirder. "I'll be right there."
"Yes, sir."
It took a while for the director to reach the bridge, partially due to a chemical spill in the sciences labs creating a huge ectoplasmic spill, but also because Fury decided to take his time. He had a feeling that whatever the message was, it couldn't be good. It seemed like no new information was ever good these days.
"Sir." His lieutenenant greeted as he walked past. "I already set up your computer for you in your office."
Fury went into his office and locked the door behind him.
Ms. Hill expected him to come out a couple minutes later, giving her some of the information in the message like usual, but he never came out. Two hours past and Fury was still in his office, most likely looking out the window to Amity Park like he usually did these days. She had to admit, she was starting to miss the days when Fury was obsessed with HYDRA and not ghosts. She tried to reach him over his earpiece, but couldn't get a signal. The lieutenant then tried to enter his office to make sure her director was stop okay, only to find the door to be locked, there wasn't even a shout for her to leave after her attempt. The room might as well be empty.
Another hour past with no sign of the lieutenant's nerves subsiding. She was beginning to lose all hope for her director. Suddenly static came from the intercom systems all across the helicarrier and a voice could be heard. Fury's voice to be exact. It may have been a little stressed and weak, but Maria knew her director's voice.
"Attention, agents. The battle of Amity Park is now over. It is time for all active agents to return to the helicarrier so we can depart for SHIELD Headquarters tomorrow. I want all vehicles and equipment tied down before we depart tomorrow night. That means the first to be transported up here are vehicles. You all have fought like true SHIELD agents should. Please relay these orders to all active ground troops immediately. That is all."
Maria once again went up to Fury's door, but this tike just stood. In the depths of the director's room a lamp could be heard smashing into the wall along with the monitor of Fury's computer.
Tis the next chapter will most likely be the last. That's all I really have to say. Also thank you so much to the super rad Sorenalice, my beta, for gracing me with your friendship and great writing skills. Anyway, if you have something to add, please leave a review!
Reviews:
SnowMiko: i get that a lot actually. I guess the mind of a war obsessed teenage boy is just too hard to comprehend. Go figure. I actually have over 4 plots in my head for a new DP story. Only one maybe two if I really think about it will actually make it to it's first chapter though. The rest will probably be scrapped.
Inviso-Al: How can you say such a horrible thing?! My sarcasm is amazing! Let's see. SHIELD decides to build many vaults for the upcoming nuclear threat within China. Nukes drop. People run into vaults which are secrets being used for experiments. Post apocalyptic America. Did anyone actually get be crude attempts at a referencs?
Matt: I don't watch that show but the penguin must've been pretty crazy then. He's as crazy as Sokka from ATLA when he ate the weird mushroom in the desert.
Guest: No offense taken mainly because I don't agree with you. I'm not sure how you expect Danny to escape a ghost proof cell with armed guards equipped with anti-ghost weapons and then somehow escape the headquarters of SHIELD, also armed with anti-ghost weaponry.
Guest(2): Maybe Fury isn't insane but you are. Maybe he is the only sane one in the world. True, that is what an insane person would say, but who knows? Who really knows?