Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Bleach.
Legend:
"Someone is talking."
'Someone is thinking.'
"A technique is being used.
Chapter 20:
A group composed of four figures was nearing Amity Park at speeds far outreaching what any human body was capable of. It was mainly because of their speed, too fast for the naked eye to catch, that they went unnoticed and unseen by the few people and cars travelling in and out of the city. The group itself seemed to have an excited, though serious, air about them which only increased as they passed a sign welcoming them within the bounds of the city. To think that this place was where their target had hidden all along.
It was almost laughable, really, how inaccurate Szayel's readings had been. Still, without that Reiryoku tracking device Szayel had invented, they wouldn't have been able to track their target down. They also wouldn't have been able to figure out that their target had been in trouble and adjust their plans accordingly.
At the moment, the group was preparing for battle. While their target's Reiryoku had started to stabilize recently, it didn't mean that he/she wasn't still in danger. It could just mean that their target had managed to hide from whatever danger he/she was to recover his/her strength or have dealt with the danger and was now recovering. If the target was hiding from the danger, then they would help him/her deal with it. If not, then they could simply locate the target and talk to him/her about their mission's purpose.
Once they had explained their mission to their target, the group expected for their target to begin questioning them. Their target would ask questions such as why he/she should come with them, questions about why he/she should join Dios Aizen, and etc. The level of difficulty in getting the target to agree to come with them would depend on the target's personality and history in the human world.
The blonde haired leader of the group, named Tier Harribel, narrowed her eyes as her group passed through what seemed to be a barrier. 'That energy...' Tier thought as Apacci and Mila-Rose stumbled as they passed through the seeming barrier. 'Where have I felt that energy before?'
That energy was far different from anything that Tier had ever experienced, which caused her eyes to narrow. She knew of how Shinigami, Hollow, and Arrancar Reiryoku felt... but this Reiryoku was far different from them. It caused her nostrils to flare while her skin tingled unpleasantly, feeling as though slime was being pulled across her skin.
"What the hell was that?!" Apacci demanded as the group stopped inside the barrier, glaring at the thing responsible for how unclean she now felt. "It was disgusting!"
"It appears to be a barrier of some sort." Sung-Sun muttered from within her place in Mila-Rose's arms. Her eyebrows scrunched up in confused interest, "But what type of Reiryoku is it? It wasn't anything like our Reiryoku or anything like that of a Shinigami's Reiryoku..."
There came no response. For, seconds after Sung-Sun had finished speaking, something crash-landed against the ground 100 feet away from them. The impact formed a crater on impact that was obscured by the following, billowing cloud of white smoke and air-borne debris. Despite the distance between them, the debris scattered far enough that the four women had to cover their eyes, lest the debris get into and irritate their eyes.
As soon as the impact had occurred, each of the four women had tensed. Apacci was the only one to draw a weapon—two white, chakram-like weapons. It was due to the fact that Mila-Rose was holding Sung-Sun, and couldn't manifest her weapon, while Apacci knew Tier had no need of drawing it. As the Tereca Espada, Tier was powerful enough without it.
"You shall not pass."
The billowing smoke around the crater had cleared enough to reveal the man that was both responsible and inside of the crater. He was a short, wrinkly old man with thinning white hair and sunken-in brown eyes. He was wearing a series of brown, kimono-like robes over one another, a wide-brimmed straw hat, white obi, white tabi socks, and wooden geta. In the man's right hand was a staff with two rings attached to each side of it.
"Are you kidding me?" Apacci demanded with a scowl. "You think that an old man like you can stop all of us?!" The man's lack of response was very telling, which only infuriated Apacci even more. 'The nerve of this guy!' Her grip on her chakrams tightened as her eyes narrowed in anger. "You couldn't defeat one of us!"
"Apacci,—" Tier began to say, a warning edge to her tone.
That "old man" was setting off alarm bells in her head. The way that the man was holding himself spoke of years of training in the martial arts and, try as she might, she could not find a flaw in his stance. Combining that with the high level of Reiryoku that the man had, the little knowledge they had of the man, and the barrier they had just passed through... this man was not to be underestimated.
"Don't worry, Dama Harribel. You need not soil your hands with him." Apacci stated as she slowly pulled back her chakrams. A few moments later, she threw both chakrams towards the old man at speeds which made the thorny edges of the weapons blur into twin white walls. "Pulsera Cuerno (Horn Bracelet)!"
Something changed in the old man's eyes. With expert swiftness, he brought forth his staff in the path of Apacci's chakrams seconds before they would have torn into him. Sparks formed as the weapons clashed with, though the man didn't seem too intimidated by the sudden assault. He did react, however, when he sensed a brief flare of Reiryoku from his side. He raised an eyebrow at the deception of the action but reacted in no way that belayed what he was thinking. He then quickly dropped to his knees, bringing his staff down with him just as a large broadsword passed through the area where his head had just been.
When Apacci had gone into battle, Mila-Rose had deposited Sung-Sun on the ground before materializing her weapon and joining the fray. She had thought that she could quickly end this farce of a battle by striking the old man with a surprise attack to his back. So, it was a great surprise to her when he dropped the ground and Apacci's chakrams, free of their former obstacle, raced towards her head.
"Watch it, Apacci!" Mila-Rose thought as blocked the chakrams with her broadsword.
Unfortunately this left her open to the old man follow up attack. He quickly lashed out with his right leg to sweep Mila-Rose off her feet and attempted to stab her with his staff while she was disoriented. The old man was forced to prematurely end his attack before it could land as Appaci appeared next to him and tried to slash him with her required chakram's. The old man effortlessly slid past Appaci's attack and planted his foot right into the disguised Arrancar's midsection. The force of the blow, while only enough to stun Appaci, did give the old man the proper footing to perform a back flip away from the two.
"You should be concentrating more on attacking me than fighting with your comrade." The old man stated as he landed.
Mila-Rose and Apacci shared murderous looks. At an unseen signal, Mila-Rose lunged to her feet and swung her broadsword at the man's midsection, only for him to block with a minute twirl of his staff. Sparks danced through the air as Mila-Rose disengaged before beginning a brutal series of crushing strikes, trying to get through the man's staff.
"I must admit, though, you are pretty skilled for someone so young..." The old man remarked as he twisted to the side so as to not become bisected by an overpowered swing. The old man bent low to the ground and gripped his staff with both hands dodged another two-handed strike from Mila-Rose. "You're blows are quite heavy and—" He vanished in a burst of speed, momentarily startling Mila-Rose before a heavy blow from behind sent her stumbling forward. She quickly readjusted her footing and blocked a secondary strike from the old man's staff with her broadsword. "—you have quick reflexes."
Mila-Rose hated to admit it, "You're not too bad yourself."
Spotting something in the corner of her eye that the old man hadn't noticed yet, Mila Rose regripped her weapon and poured all of her strength into her next swing. The old man leaped back from the attack with practiced ease but the smirk on his opponent's face alerted him of the danger that he was now in.
"Bala (Bullet)." "Cuerno Corte (Horn Cut)!"
While Mila-Rose was keeping the old man busy, her compatriots had been preparing their own attacks. Now, with the old man in mid-air and with no way to dodge, they let their attacks fly. From the left side of the man came a bullet-sized burst of pink Reiryoku while, from behind, Apacci appeared in a burst of Sonido with her chakram horn-like segments alight with her Reiryoku.
'There's no way that he'll survive this!' The three Arrancar thought in unison.
Defying the three's expectations, the man vanished in a burst of Reiryoku-enhanced speed and out of the path of the two deadly attacks. Unfortunately his disappearance caused Mila-Rose to be straight in the path of the two attacks that were meant for him. Mila-Rose's eyes widened as Sung-Sun's Bala illuminated the area in a pink shroud of light. Blinded by the incoming attack, all she could do was attempt to Sonido away but she was still too slow to avoid getting some deep slashes from Apacci's attack.
Mila-Rose appeared a dozen feet away, holding her injured side, and was about to look around for the old man when she felt a fist impact with the small of her back. 'What the—?' She thought as the air was knocked out of her lungs alongside the saliva within her mouth. Before she could even attempt to turn around and strike the infuriating old man she felt a sudden surge of foreign Reiryoku enter her Gigai as hundreds of lines of spidery script began to race across her body. 'What is he—?!'
"Falsch Gehäusedichtung (False Body Seal)." The old man stated.
"Mila-Rose!"
Mila-Rose fell to the ground in pain, feeling as though she and her Gigai had just been set alight. She could not voice out her scream for her teammates to run, run away so that they could run and avoid whatever was happening to her. Nor could she voice the realization that they should have listened to Tier; this man was stronger than all of them. She could only cry out, "A-Apacci... Sung-Sun...!"
Slithery snakes made out of pink Reiryoku burst from the ground on either side of the old man with their mouths open to clamp down on his legs. It wasn't fast enough though, as the old man jumped up into the air to avoid the animated Reiryoku. While in mid-air the old man was forced to use his staff as a weapon once again as Apacci appeared before him and attempted to strike him with a rapid series of slashes from her chakrams.
Sparks bloomed off the edges of their weapons as dozens of strikes from Apacci's chakrams were parried by the blunt shaft of the old man's staff. "You bastard!" Apacci shouted as she continued to try and break through the man's guard as they fell towards the ground. "What did you do to Mila-Rose?!"
The old man's expression didn't change in the slightest, even when the ground was coming ever closer to them, "If you had used that other technique of yours, you could have, perhaps, ended me and avenged your comrade. No?" He vanished within another burst of Reiryoku-enhanced speed, appearing behind Apacci. "Then let me show you your foolishness." He slammed his staff into her back, causing her to lose the breath in her lungs seconds before they slammed into the ground.
Dust danced throughout the air, followed by muttered words and an alarmed shout. This was the prelude to a slight displacement of the air, more words, and another shout of pain. This time, however, it was also accompanied by the sound of a body falling onto the ground.
"Three down." The old man stated as he emerged from the dust cloud, unruffled. "One—"
A wide, golden cero ripped through the space where the old man's head had been only moments before. It was only his instinct that had him dodging the left, only to come sword-to-staff against a furious Tier Harribel. She gave him no warning, no explanation or reason; she simply attacked.
Ordinarily, Tier stood back unless she was forced to fight. She was content with watching two parties battle until the battle had reached its conclusion and refused to fight unless she was ordered to or if her Fracción were challenged. This could be seen in the current, on-going fight.
While having tried to warn her Fracción about the man, she had stood back and allowed them to fight. The man, though, had quickly proven his strength by deflecting her Fracción's attacks and luring them into his own, or repurposed, attacks. The final straw was when he had struck down her three Fracción. Despite her reservations about fighting, she would not stand for what happened.
In her anger, she had materialized Tiburón, like Apacci and Mila-Rose had materialized Cierva and Leona, and attacked. It did not matter if they were in Gigai or not; nothing could stop them from calling upon and receiving the aid from their bestial sides and "Inner Hollows". Nor could their Gigai completely hold back their power; the Gigai made it so that Soul Society couldn't detect them like they would if they weren't wearing the Gigai. They could still access their power and use all of their techniques.
Right now, though, Tier wasn't thinking about that. No, as she engaged the man in a rapid series of blows, slowly chipping away at the man's staff, she was haunted by the look on Mila-Rose's face. She was haunted by the screams she had heard from within the dust cloud as the man struck her other two Fracción down. Her attack was so quick and intense that she managed to make the old man start sweating, grip faltering as he attempted to keep up.
"Do you understand, Tier? Can you see now?" Tiburón whispered from within as the old man tried to flee, only for Tier to appear before him with Sonido. He barely got a chance to raise his staff, which keened miserably as Tiburón's Zanpakutō form clashed against it. "Unlike us, those three "friends" of yours can't even stand up to a Human. They are weak. Useless. Burdens."
'Shut up.' Tier practically snarled as she used Sonido to appear behind the old man, aiming to slash him across the back. It was blocked by the man's staff as he hastily dodged. Seeing how unsteady his grip was, she pressed her advantage until, finally, she sliced through the staff and into the man's back.
For the first time, blood flew through the air. Even so, the old man, bleeding steadily from the back, refused to give up. He jumped forward in another burst of speed, noticeably slower, before he brought up both sections of his staff to block Tiburón's cutting edge. His eyes widened in mild alarm, though, when golden Reiryoku began to fill the hollow portion of the blade.
Cold teal-colored orbs gazed into panicked brown ones. Seconds later, a wide ribbon of golden energy was sent screaming forward as Tier's stored-up Reiryoku was released from Tiburón. The old man's body was quickly consumed within the attack, too fast for him to even try and scream.
Despite how it may have looked, Tier looked into the resulting smoke for any traces of the old man; however it may looked, he may still be alive. Besides a few specs of what she assumed to be burnt cloth floating about, alongside the smell of burnt flesh, there was nothing. Still, something seemed wrong. It was almost as if...
"My, my... it seems that your old age has rusted Sensei's skills." A slightly mocking voice called out once Tier's had faded and Tier had lowered Tiburón. The woman quickly turned around to see a masked man standing amidst a platform of floating sand. She gripped Tiburón's blade, only for him to wag a finger at her. "No, no, no... You wouldn't want anything to happen to them, would you?"
Tier then saw that, behind the masked man, were the bodies of her three Fracción. Each of their bodies were covered in a layer of sand that was also suspending them in mid-air, unconscious but alive. A weight that Tier hadn't known of lifted off her shoulders at the sight of them while another weight dropped onto them. That man seemed to know of her attachment to her Fracción and was using it to stall her hand. But, for what purpose?
"Falsch Gehäusedichtung (False Body Seal)!"
Hearing this caused Tier's eyes to widen in alarm. She didn't have time to question how or why that old man—Sensei—had survived before she saw a spidery script run across her Gigai as foreign Reiryoku invaded from her mid-back. She ejected out from the Gigai, only to feel resistance as the spidery script latched onto her spirit body and transform into chains. She pulsed her own Reiryoku in an attempt to break the chains, only to feel it be absorbed and for the chains to grow thicker.
Within seconds, the chains had wrapped around her arms and stomach. Seeming to have enough leverage over her, the chains began to pull her back towards her Gigai. Tier fought against it with all her might and Reiryoku, but it was not enough. Her mind was clouded, sluggish, while her body was burning from the chains nipping and feeding off her Reiryoku.
It was made worse by the fact that something was beginning to affect her memory. The past few minutes were slowly being washed from her memory; the feel of the barrier as she passed through it, the appearance of the masked man, the name and appearance of Sensei, and the fact that there was more than one person who attacked them. Was there even a second person who had attacked them? She didn't remember another person—just an old man with a staff...
Tier's eyes fluttered to a close as she fell backwards and into her Gigai. The script that binded her slowly lost their fiery color before fading from sight altogether. For the second time in her life, Tier Harribel had been defeated in battle. Although this time, it was not due to someone being stronger than her.
XXXXXX
"It is done." Sensei stated as the blonde woman's sealed Gigai fell to the ground. He looked up at the floating Ghost with narrowed eyes, "You could have told me how powerful that woman really was. If you had done that, I would have been able to take proper precautions and save you from appearing here."
Cinq frowned underneath his mask as he lowered himself to the ground, "Do you think that I don't know that already?" Cinq then waved his hand towards the sleeping woman, causing some of his sleep sand to fly to her. The sand glowed with a golden light for a few seconds before it flew into the sleeping woman's eyes.
Once that was done Cinq turned back to Sensei and resumed his argument with the old man. "I couldn't have told you how strong your opponent would be because neither I nor Clockwork knew who Aizen would be sending."
Seeing the confused look on Sensei's face Cinq sighed before looking off into the distance. "Very soon we are approaching a period in time that plays a pivotal role in deciding the future. Any small decision or event can lead to a drastically different future then the one that we're trying to prevent." Cinq then turned back to Sensei and stared straight at him through the eye holes in his mask. "And because of that Clockwork's visions of the timeline are becoming ever more clouded... "
"And more and more details are beginning to elude his sight." Sensei finished in a somber tone as the gravity of the situation finally struck him.
"Yes." Cinq reluctantly admitted before he sighed. "All we can do now is follow whatever path Clockwork thinks will lead to a better future and work to make sure that it comes to succeed. If it does not, then everything we have worked for will be reduced to ashes around us."
XXXXXX
(Amity Park)
Things were not looking good for the Amity Trio, now considered the Amity Quartet to signify Sidney's entrance into their group. Not only had they barely made it out of Axion Labs before the police had shown up, they were out way past their curfews. It wouldn't help them that they each looked like they had walked out of a war-zone.
"Are you sure that you're going to be okay, dude?" Tucker asked with an obvious concern present in his tone, looking over at his male best friend nervously. "I mean, we've all stayed out way past our curfews, so we can weasel our ways out of serious punishment... But this is your second time coming home this late and you look like you've gone through hell."
Sam's lips thinned into a single line. "Of course, being kidnapped, tortured, and almost murdered by an insane Ghost wouldn't be considered going through hell, Tucker."
Today had been a really bad day for Sam. Not only had Peten attacked the school and ruined the gym in his fight with Danny, Danny had been kidnapped which led to the whole ordeal at Axion Labs. The discovery and appearance of her and Tucker's powers was very cool, alongside her new weapon, but she was so very tired. When she was tired, she got a bit cranky. Combining that with all of the stress she had undergone today and one was left with an irritable, frustrated Sam Manson.
"I didn't mean it like that..."
Sam's eyes flashed dangerously, "Then what did you mean, Tucker?"
"We can't fight right now, guys." Danny said as he stepped in-between his two friends with Sidney floating behind him, uncertain of how to help. "I know everyone is stressed, but we can't fight. Fighting would only make things worse and, frankly, we're all too tired to fight."
"As if that matters..." Sam muttered under her breath. Hearing Danny sigh, she looked up and frowned at everyone. "You guys all know that's true. Our parents probably already know about what happened at the school today and will grill us the moment we get back home. Even if we're too tired for a fight, we're all walking straight into one."
"You're right, Sam." Tucker admitted with an unhappy look on his face, tired of Sam's sudden anger. "The moment each of us gets back to our houses, our parents will start asking questions about where we were, what we did, and why we look the way we do right now; like we've gone through a freaking war... So what do you expect us to do?"
Everyone went quiet after that. It was a relief, in a way, since it was holding the fight that nobody really wanted while making them focus on the real issues. Tucker was right: what were they supposed to do? They knew that telling their parents the truth, while easier, wouldn't fly as then they would have to explain everything else. And that was not a can of worms they wanted to open right now. So, what else could they do but lie?
That, in turn, brought out the question of what lie could explain everything—their long disappearance, how tired they were, and how beaten up they all were. Several ideas were formed but rejected as each of them considered what their parents could accept and what they could not. For example, the Fentons would probably believe any Ghost-related excuse but the Foleys and Mansons would need more concrete details.
It was Sam that finally came up with the idea. "We'll tell our parents the same thing. That a clownish Ghost calling itself "Peten" invaded the cafeteria and chased everyone around while we were in the bathroom. When we came out of the bathroom, everyone was screaming and running around... Peten came and started chasing yes, so we had to hide from him. We were so "scared" that we hid, losing track of time."
"How would we explain our injuries?" Tucker asked a bit skeptically.
Sam frowned for a moment, finger to her temple as she thought about it. "I got it," She said after a moment. "While Peten was chasing us, he threw weapons at us. As we were running, we managed to avoid most of them... but a few managed to rip our clothes and leave a few injuries."
"I don't know if my parents will buy that..." Tucker said.
"My parents will buy it the moment they heard that a Ghost was involved." Danny said with a small shake of his head.
"With all of the Ghost activity recently, it shouldn't be too hard for your parents to understand, Tuck." Sam responded before smiling deviously, "I mean... no one knew where Peten went after he destroyed the gym and the whole school knows about how he attacked... So why not milk that for a free excuse? Beats telling them the truth."
Tucker looked uncertain, "... I guess so."
"Good." Sam said victoriously. "Now let's go home before our parents send out the police to search for us." She paused to look at her (human) friends sternly. "And don't forget to stick to what I said. If they find out we've lied about it when talking to each other, it'll get really bad for us. And, trust me, they will be talking to each other."
"You're the expert."
XXXXXX
After Sam had come up with the cover story they would be using, and made sure they remembered it by bombarding them with numerous questions, the group had reluctantly spilt apart. Sidney left with Tucker, Sam left for her family's house, and Danny began to walk the short distance to his home.
Honestly, he wished he didn't know that he was going to walk into a war zone. If he didn't, then he wouldn't be stressing out about if Sam's cover story would hold up against his parent's bombardment of questions. Or if he would be able to adapt to any flaws or cracks his parents found and quickly make up a believable excuse. He knew he was going to make some error—he was so tired he wanted to fall asleep right now, even on the sidewalk—and was already having to force himself to focus.
Who knew what was going to happen when he faced his parents.
There came a sudden surge of energy. Feeling it caused Danny to stop walking before he closed his eyes at the increasingly familiar feel of the energy as it flowed over his body like a bucket of cool water on a hot summer's day. It felt wonderful; soothing all of his protesting muscles into a relaxed silence. After a moment of this, the energy receded back to from whence it had come, leaving Danny to feel as if he had just woken up.
"Thank you, Leviatán."
"You need not to thank me. I simply channeled some of our Reiryoku into your system. The effects of it should provide you with a clarity of mind and a relaxation of the muscles." Leviatán responded from within Danny's inner world, tiredly resting his head on the silver sands. "It is only temporary, so you must seek to end the argument before it completely wears off."
Danny sighed, "Alright. I suppose we have to get this over with, then..."
With that said, Danny walked the rest of the distance separating him from his home. Getting there, he quickly walked up the staircase, took out his key, unlocked the door, and entered. Strange shadows stuck out against the bright hallway walls, centering above the opened doorway that led into the family living room. They hinted at the danger that awaited him there, furthered by the dead silence caused by a conversation that had just suddenly ended.
They had been waiting for him.
"... Danny?" His mom called quietly, hopefully, before the sounds of her footsteps echoed through the silent house. Her uncovered head peaked around the entrance to the living room, eyes puffy and red-rimmed. "Is that you..." Upon seeing him standing there, his mom's eyes lit up in a mixture of happiness and relief before she launched herself at him. "Danny!"
His mom's arms wrapped around him before she pulled him into a tight, relieved hug. It was nice, after all that had happened tonight, to feel this warmth. The hug also made him feel really guilty because it reminded him that his parents, despite their obsession with Ghosts and developing anti-Ghost technology, really cared for him and Jazz. They were concerned for him. And he had repaid them by lying to them.
"We were really worried about you, Danny." His dad said as he and Jazz emerged from the living room with a concerned look on his face. It flickered for a moment, becoming more serious, before he put a gentle hand on his wife's shoulder. "C'mon, Maddie. Let's take this to the living room."
His mom looked up at his dad and seemed to have a conversation with him by just looking his dad in the eyes. After a couple of moments, she nodded once, slowly unwinded her arms and let go of Danny, and took his dad's hand offered hand. "Alright, Jack."
With that said, Jazz turned and retreated into the living room and sat down on the far end of the couch. She was followed by Maddie and Jack, who sat in the middle of the couch, and then Danny, who sat in the reclining chair across from the couch. It was the same set-up as the last time Danny had been confronted by his parents, when they thought someone was extorting him. The meaning of the arrangement was clear; it was time for the confrontation to begin.
"Before we ask you what you were doing, I would like to say one thing Danny." Jack said seriously, looking into his son's eyes. "While I am very happy that you are mostly alright, I am disappointed in you. You never came home after school or tried to contact us. And after that Ghost attacked your school today, your mom and I needed to know you were okay... We thought that..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, unable to say or acknowledge it.
"Now, we know that we have been busy lately," Maddie continued in lead of her husband, "but that isn't an excuse for you to start acting like this, Danny. Starting food fights into the cafeteria, staying out late with your friends, coming home bruised and battered, and not contacting us when we were worried sick over where you were."
Danny's heart constricted at his parents' words. It hurt a lot to hear his dad, fun-loving and goofy dad, seriously tell him that he was disappointed in him. While his parents may have scolded him and grounded him, they had never told him that they were disappointed in him. So, for them to tell him that they were disappointed now... he really wanted to tell them what was really going on. That way, they would understand that he wasn't trying to be bad; he was only trying to deal and learn to control himself as an Arrancar.
He could never tell them that, though. If he did tell them, there was no limit to what they would do. They could accuse him of being controlled by a Ghost, that he really wasn't their son, or try to "fix" him through their studies into paranormal world. So, despite how much it hurt, he would have to keep lying to them. He took a deep breath.
"At school today, a Ghost proclaiming himself as "Peten" came into the cafeteria and surprised Dash, who came over to tell me off for telling Ms. Spectra that he was bullying me. Everyone panicked and we all fled from the cafeteria... Peten came after us and started throwing these weird sword-like knives at us, so we tried to hide." Danny said.
"And by "we", you mean you and your friends." Maddie stated.
"Yeah. We all hide in the janitor's closet. We heard everyone screaming and didn't know what to do; we didn't have anything with us. Lancer had confiscated Tucker's PDA earlier, Sam doesn't have a phone, and my phone was out of battery." Danny continued to say, looking down.
"So you're saying that you hid in the janitor's closet for hours? Even after your mom and I came to the school and looked for the Ghost?" Jack asked with a suspicious tone in his voice. "We checked everywhere and used the intercom system to inform anyone still within the school that the Ghost was gone and they could leave."
Oh, crud.
The lie that Sam had come up with was hitched on the idea that his parents believed it and would talk to her and Tucker's parents about it, making it more believable. His dad's question threatened to collapse the entire idea and, if that happened, they would only grow more suspicious and demand the truth. If that happened, Danny didn't know if he would be able to lie his way out of it. What could he do about it, though? He wasn't like Sam, who could spin up a believable lie to her parents.
"Yes, we hid in the janitor's closet in the gym. We thought it would be a good hiding place, but the Ghost came after us. From the sounds we heard, it seemed like the Ghost was fighting somebody else. I think the intercom speaker got broken or something, because we never heard anyone over it." Danny said, half-lying. He honestly didn't know if his battle against Peten had hurt the intercom system, but Peten had been flinging around a lot of knives; it was possible. "We came out once we believed that everyone had left and the gym was trashed."
There came a brief silence as Maddie and Jack digested what Danny had said. It was true that there was damage in the gym; lingering ectoplasmic energy, slash marks on almost every surface, and a huge hole that had been created by another, as-of-yet unidentified type of energy. While they had went through and collected samples of the obvious fight, there was enough damage to suggest that Danny's explanation was plausible.
There was a brief moment silence as Maddie and Jack mentally digested what Danny had said. It was true that there was damage in the gym; lingering ectoplasmic energy, slash marks on most of the gym's walls, and a huge hole that had been created by another as-of-yet unidentified type of energy. The amount of damage in the gym did lend credit to Danny's excuse, but still...
Jack and Maddie exchanged brief looks, almost as though they were having a silent conversation. After a moment, Jack opened his mouth and began to speak: "If that is what happened, then we can forgive your actions tonight. We cannot however, forgive how you have been ignoring our rules recently." He looked down at Danny with a frown. "You are grounded for the next three weeks; you are to come home straight after school. That means no meeting up with your friends after school for hours on end, and no television. You can still take Karate since you already paid for it, but you are to come straight home afterwards."
Danny felt relief flood his system as his parents laid out his grounding terms; they had bought his excuse. Granted he was now grounded but it definitely could've gone worse. Hopefully now his parents would, unknowingly, complete the plan and eventually talk to Sam and Tucker's parents. If Sam and Tuck stuck to the same story they had come up with, they would get away with it. Still though, getting grounded was a serious bummer.
Being grounded meant that he wouldn't be able to meet up with Sam, Tucker, or Sidney for a while. They wouldn't be able to talk about what had happened tonight, those strange abilities they had displayed, or ask about why Sidney had changed from being monochrome to technicolor. Sure, they could talk about it at school during lunch, but with the total lack of privacy and the fact Jazz was probably going to be watching them for a while was gonna make that an extremely difficult thing to do.
"We should start your punishment now, but with the our college reunion coming up, we will be postponing it until we get back from the reunion." Jack said before he sighed and looked down again, "Now... just go to your room, Danny. We'll all talk about this more, tomorrow."
XXXXXX
As her little brother left to go to his room, Jazz's eyes never left him. A part of her was screaming at her that she should just march up and confront him. Another part, however, was telling her that it was best to wait; she didn't have all the evidence yet.
Jazz knew that, ever since that accident, something had changed within Danny. He had started breaking lab equipment in school, began staying out late with Sam and Tucker, started taking karate classes without telling any of them about it, and hadn't been that surprised when FentonWorks boomed as a reaction to the confirmation of their parents' work.
She had certainly been surprised enough, as she had believed that Ghosts didn't exist and that her parents were just chasing fake entities to rationalize the ridcule that the rest of the scientific community showed them. To learn that her parents weren't obsessed failures, or even the tiniest bit crazy, had been like a slap in the face to her.
Danny, on the other hand, had accepted the existence of ghosts with little to no shock, almost as if he knew that the ghosts were already there. Still, it was nice to stop hearing people calling her parents lunatics or whispering about how smart she was "compared to her parents".
No, she was getting off-topic. What she meant to be thinking of what all of these changes meant for her brother and what was casuing them. Danny wasn't telling anyone what had happened during the accident, except perhaps Sam and Tucker, and Jazz knew that they wouldn't tell her if she asked. The lack of trust between them was a little hurtful since she was just worried about her brother and wanted to find out what was wrong so she could help him.
'I will find out what's wrong, Danny.' Jazz thought as her brother vanished from sight, having reached the top of the staircase. 'I'll unravel all of your lies and get to the truth of the matter, I will find out what's wrong so I can help you, no matter what...'
Techniques:
1. Pulsera Cuerno (Horn Bracelet): A technique in which Apacci throws her Zanpakutō, Cierva, as though they were a boomerang. Cierva will then fly towards an opponent or part of the surrounding environment and saw into it with the spiky horn-like segments on it. If Cierva initially misses the target, Apacci can adjust their flight with a pulse of her Reiryoku; changing its direction or simply bringing Cierva back to her.
2. Bala (Bullet): A technique that hardens the user's Reiryoku and releases it in a swift yet potent blast. It is similar to Cero in nature, though it is not nearly as powerful as it. To make up for the lack of power, it is 20 times faster and can be fired in rapid succession.
3. Cuerno Corte (Horn Cut): A technique which involves Apacci applying a sharp edge of Reiryoku into her Zanpakutō, Cierva. This edge of Reiryoku amplifies the cutting power already present within Cierva, allowing it to cut through opponents or its surroundings much more easily. It can be negated, however, with a strong enough defense or by simply dodging it.
4. Falsch Gehäusedichtung (False Body Seal): A technique in which Sensei seals a spirit hiding within a false body into it. Mere contact with the false body unleashes a potent burst of Reiryoku, in the form of a "spidery" script which then races along the false body. As the technique seals the spirit into the false body, it causes both immense pain, to subdue the spirit until the technique is complete. If the spirit is strong enough and try to flee, the script will take the form of chains to keep the spirit in the false body or pull the spirit back into it.
A/N: Author's Note: That was an exciting chapter. Not only have Tier & Co. got near Amity Park, we got to see a fight between them and Sensei. We also got to see that Clockwork isn't all seeing and that, in the future, more and more "little changes" will start influencing the timeline more. And we got to see Danny getting confronted by his parents for the second time as a result of being kidnapped. If only he would tell them the truth...
I am thankful that I have been able to write this chapter in the library and with the use of my school's computers. If not, then I wouldn't have been able to contact the co-author of this wonderful story and work on it with him. For those of you wondering about my laptop, I sent it in with the warranty as was suggested by friends and family and, just today, I got my labtop back! Whoo-hoo~!
Now I can get back into things! The first few things I'm going to do are:
1. Post this chapter.
2. Work on Fate: Chaos' next chapter and upload it.
3. Plan out the "Battle of Saffron City" chapter of P:EC.
Well, that's it for now. Tell us how we did in this chapter; what you liked, what you thought could've been done better (what was wrong with it, how it could be improved), or suggest some things that you guys want to see in the future. It might not happen in the "Musical Vlad" arc, but it could happen sometime later... So, remember to review!
Bye, guys!