AN: Thanks to stick_fight3 for reviewing.
Chapter Five: Someone....Not New?
"Five sets of campers, a lumber company, and a crazy old man in a hut. Still no Dani," Bouncing Boy muttered as he looked over the readings for the small shuttle pod.
"At least we could see who everyone was from the ship. Well, except the old man. Wasn't that lovely?" Purple Triplicate Girl said.
"He didn't have to point a shotgun at us," White muttered.
"Hopefully the next time we have to go down, it's Dani," Orange commented.
At the moment, a number of the Legionnaires were looking for the wayward girl and her dog. Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad had gone off one way, Brainiac Five another, Chameleon Boy a third way, and Bouncing Boy went with Triplicate Girl a fourth way. Cosmic Boy stayed at Headquarters in case there was an emergency and would call for back up when needed. The Substitute Heroes were close enough to provide a few minutes for them to speed back.
"They can't be too far. Too much farther and we'll hit toll booths and there's been no reports of a green animal being transported in the last day. If she's any farther, it's on foot and she couldn't cover THAT much ground," Bouncing Boy muttered as she looked at the scans again for any human life.
"Another sign of bipedal life! Oh, wait, there's four of them. Hm, looks like they're in a cave...we can't get a visual," White said, looking over at Bouncing Boy. "Should we take a closer look?"
Bouncing Boy thought about it for a few moments. "Well...."
Then there was a faint bang coming from the monitoring speakers.
"Oh no!" Orange said in horror, pointing at the screen showing the cave. The other three looked in time to see the front of the cave collapse with a muted roar.
"What happened?!" Bouncing Boy asked.
"Something exploded. I don't know what, but the people are still inside!" Orange declared.
"We need to land, Bouncy," White stated.
"You're right. Get Saturn Girl and Brainy here. We'll need her to communicate with the people if this takes too long and if we can't find a safe way to get them out, we'll need a plan from Brainy," Bouncy instructed as he began to land the shuttle. "Let Cham and Lightning Lad continue looking."
"Right. Contacting them now," Purple said.
Shortly after contacting the others and landing, Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl were in front of the cave.
"HEY! Can you guys hear me?!" Bouncing Boy shouted as loud as he could. There was a muffled response. Bouncing Boy listened. "It doesn't sound too panicked, so hopefully no one's hurt," he said to Triplicate Girl before shouting again. "We'll get you guys out as soon as we can!"
Orange was scanning the wall of the cave while Purple and White climbed closer to the rocks, pulling some hesitantly. "Stop!" Orange ordered and they obeyed.
"What's the matter, Trips?" Bouncing Boy asked.
"As soon as they tried to move the rocks, the vibrations in the cave shot up. It's not stable," Orange said, frowning at the scanner. "Digging them out is too risky with just us."
"Then we'll wait for Saturn Girl and Brainy," Bouncing Boy and then noticed the grim look on the Orange Triplicate Girl. "What?"
"It's still vibrating. It's stable for the moment, but it's not settling. I'm not sure how long it'll be before another part of the cave collapses. They might not be here in time," Orange said, looking up.
Bouncing Boy's eyes widened in shock and worry before a grim look of determination found itself on his face. "Then we have to try something. Okay, can't move the rocks, but we need to get them out as soon as possible...what to do, what to do?" Bouncing Boy muttered, thinking of what they had.
"I can do it," a voice said behind them.
The Legionnaires looked at the voice in surprise, seeing a girl looking quited...conflicted. All the more to their confusion when they saw how she looked, with snow white hair and green eyes that almost seemed to be glowing. Then there was the odd black and white outfit she had, with a midriff top with an odd D symbol on it and the gloves didn't make it seem like it might have just been a weird fashion taste.
One anyone would have to wonder at with the odd burn scars on her stomach. It looked like she'd been branded with a CW in a gear right over her navel.
"...how?" Bouncing Boy asked. There were a million questions at the girl's sudden appearance and why she seemed familiar, not to mention something about those scars was setting off a warning bell in his head, but first thing's first, they had people to save.
"I can go intangible and I can make people intangible. I can pull them out," the girl said.
"Are you from Bgztl?" Triplicate Girl asked.
"...yeah. I am," the girl said, looking uncertain. "Listen, I'll just go get them," she said.
"Hey, wai-" Bouncing Boy started, but the girl had already vanished from sight. A minute later, she reappeared in front of the cave in, three people with her. "One broke his leg. Couldn't walk with me," she said and disappeared again.
"Jeeze, that's cold," one of the people said aloud as all of them shivered for a second or two.
"You guys okay? What happened?" Triplicate Girl asked.
"Well, Johnny here," said another, glaring at the one who made the cold comment, "lit off a bottle rocket instead of a torch while we were taking a look in the cave."
"But Lucy, it felt the same! Anyone could have made the same mistake!" Johnny complained.
Before more complaints could be made, there was another thundering sound from inside the cave.
"More of the cave collapsed! They're still in there!" Orange shouted, staring at the cave in horror.
"No! Len!" Shouted the second girl.
"I'm fine, Karen," a young man said rather tiredly as the girl appeared again, carrying him. His leg was bloodied however.
"Got him right before the roof collapsed," the girl said with a nervous chuckle. "A bit of a close call, but we didn't get hit. Just his leg now."
"Bring him to the ship! We can fix his leg there!" White said, looking worried.
The girl nodded and followed the recombining Triplicate Girls to the ship to see to it the young man was treated. Bouncing Boy took the job of seeing what happened and that the other three weren't hurt.
It was about fifteen minutes later that Triplicate Girl and the girl came back out. "The break isn't too bad. The rock cut open his leg, but it's only a small fracture it looks like," she said with a bright smile that it wasn't something worse. "Can you drive him to the hospital for a more thorough check up?"
Lucy nodded. "Yeah. We brought two cars," she said.
"Great! I'll help you get him to one," Triplicate Girl said, hurrying back to the ship with the three civilians.
The girl turned to leave, but was cut short on her escape by Bouncing Boy. "Hey, thanks for the save," he said.
The girl smiled nervously. "Oh, it was no trouble," she said.
"It's really too bad we don't allow double powers in the league. You got a good hero spirit and were pretty quick to phase them out," Bouncing Boy commented.
"Really, think nothing of it. I really should be going."
"Well, first, what's your name? Phantom Girl is away for a while and if you're interested, you could still join the Legion of Substitute Heroes," Bouncing Boy said.
"M-my name? Um, well, it's...." The girl started, looking nervous.
"Dani Fenton."
The girl went rigid, slowly looking over her shoulder at the voice that had spoken so matter of factly.
"Your dog didn't feel like hiding when we arrived," Brainiac Five said, pointing to Cujo in Saturn Girl's arms. "So I didn't imagine the hair and eyes."
"Dani...? Is that really you?" Bouncing Boy asked, looking shocked. "I thought you looked familiar!"
"Uh...I...I don't know what you're talking about! Gotta go!" Dani said and started to turn invisible when ropes suddenly hit her. She hit the ground in a grunt and struggled. "W-what?! This isn't ecto! Why can't I phase?!" She yelped, looking panicked.
"After seeing your dog phase, I wanted to be sure you didn't get away. It was meant for Cujo, but this works just as well. They're bonds not even Phantom Girl can phase through," Brainiac Five said, walking over to Dani.
"Doesn't that seem a bit extreme?" Bouncing Boy asked.
"She was attempting to escape," Brainiac Five pointed out.
"Oh....you got a point." Bouncing Boy admitted.
"Let me go!" Dani shouted, glaring at the two of them.
"No. You are a person from the past. You can't go running around the future as you please," Brainiac Five said coldly.
Dani glared at him. "Oooo, just be glad I'm a good guy, Brainy..."
"Or what?"
Dani's hands glowed, putting a strain on the rope. "Because if you were a bad guy, even not being a ghost, ecto hurts like a bitch if I shoot it at you. Ghost powers do more than phasing," she said through gritted teeth as she clawed at the ropes as best she could, but making little progress. "CUJO! Bad dog! No treat!"
Cujo whimpered, head lowering even while in Saturn Girl's hand.
However, no one was paying much attention to the dog. No one had heard of anyone outside of those from Bgztl who could phase and no one from there could make the glowing energy Dani was making.
"Ghosts do not exist," Brainiac Five stated yet again, taking in this new information.
Dani rolled her eyes. "Yes they do. Half ghosts too," she said. "And yes, there is scientific proof and I'll happily give you a rundown of it, IF YOU UNTIE ME RIGHT NOW!"
"I think....you need to be locked away in a cell until you calm down," Bouncing Boy said, grabbing the ropes to pick up the struggling Dani. "We know you're a good girl. You helped those people, but if you're gonna be clawing like that, even at ropes, you need to let your temper cool," he said, carrying to the the ship.
"Damn it! LET ME GO! LET ME GO!" Dani shouted, struggling desperately, the others following.
Brainiac Five watched as Dani struggled. She had been so cooperative before. What was it...that made her so desperate to get away from them now?
~ ~ ~ Page Break ~ ~ ~
A thousand years in the past and a skip to a parallel dimension, there was a place of constant ticking. In this constant ticking was only one person who resided among view screens into all time.
Clockwork watched the scene of a struggling Dani in ropes that managed to bind her without being made of ecto. In another screen was Danny, explaining to his parents about Tinya and Brin.
Another screen was Brainiac Five, the moment he lost his robotic parts.
Another, Vlad in the void of space, looking quite angry.
Another, a robot with three circles on his forehead, about the same place in space, but a far different time.
Another, Danny boarding onto a space shuttle.
Another, Tinya looking horror struck at the Ghost Portal.
Another, Danny with a look of one who has given up everything, but has not quite broken.
Another, Dani gripping at her stomach as she stood amongst the ticking, looking at him pleadingly.
Another, Brainiac Five looking in surprise as a gauntlet with three jewels within it.
Another, two shadowed figured of two people who were never meant to exist in the same time line. One clearly female with long hair in a ponytail. Another clearly male and flaming hair. Both surrounded by a destroyed land with green sky.
And yet one more with Dani smiling at Brainiac Five, looking saddened and happy at the same time. "Not easy being human, huh?"
"Still you struggle, little one," Clockwork said to himself, still watching the first screen. "Though I knew that. Even without knowing everything, you couldn't succeed him without trying. Even if it is...inevitable."