Danny staggered to his feet the second the needle was gone and stumbled the grand total of two steps before the energy overcame him. His blindingly green eyes flashed blue and the cell was coated instantly with ice and snow before he screamed in agonised effort as he released an uncontrolled wave of pure green ghost energy, some spilling from his mouth as a ghostly wail. Danielle reacted as quickly as she could by spreading her intangibility further to encompass Robin's hands and the collar. She formed a shield a second too late to block the ice and she could feel Robin shivering against her hand. They watched in feared awe as Danny caused the entire cell to shake, forming cracks in the reinforced glass before he collapsed and changed to human. They waited a moment before Danielle gently guided Robin to the door and unlocked it for them to leave.
They paused in the doorway, neither wanting to leave Danny but were unsure if it was safe to remove him from the ghost cell. Robin shrugged Danielle's hand off his shoulder and grunted as he was suddenly returned to a tangible state. Robin re-entered the cell and crept over to Danny's unconscious body. He placed shivering fingers to Danny's neck, cringing at the bruising, red mark where the needle had been. Happy that Danny was breathing and had a strong, steady pulse, Robin decided that Danny would be alright. However he couldn't be sure that Danny had his energy under control yet and opted to leave the teen in the cell, grabbing a pair of lab coats to make a makeshift pillow and blanket for Danny.
Danielle and Robin then scaled the stairs up out of the lab together, unlocking the door and stepping into the kitchen. Everyone turned to them worriedly.
"What happened? We felt the house shake," Jazz inquired quickly.
"Danny went nuclear," Danielle reported grimly.
"What!? Is-is he alright?" Sam exclaimed.
"That may have been a slight exaggeration. But Danny's fine. He's unconscious right now but he's breathing fine and his pulse is strong," Robin interjected quickly.
"So he's still in the ghost cell?" Tucker pointed out.
"We weren't sure if it was safe to remove him," Robin admitted with a slight apologetic shrug.
"Is that the collar?" Maddie asked, pointing to the device still hanging limply from Robin's hand, after a brief uneasy silence. Robin nodded and handed it to the woman. Maddie gingerly took it and examined the collar. Her fingers lingered over the inch long needle stained green with Danny's ghostly blood. Her expression hardened angrily.
"This was injected in Danny's neck," she growled protectively. A number of the teens shared concerned glances.
"Mrs Fenton perhaps we should go to the living room and wait for Danny to come around. We can discuss our next move with him," Aqualad suggested.
"And James can call his parents," Artemis added with a warm smile to the child. Jazz nodded.
"Come on James. I'll show you the phone. You know your number right?" Jazz offered.
"Of course I know," Jimmy retorted pompously.
"I'll make some tea. Go ahead Mr and Mrs Fenton," Sam decided and nodded to the parents encouragingly.
An hour later, the group of seventeen people were quietly gathered in the living room anxiously waiting for Danny to make an appearance. Every ten minutes or so, Danielle would phase down to the lab and check on Danny only to report that the teen hadn't moved. Jimmy had rung his parents, receiving the wonderful news that Goddard was fine. The explosion was the robot dog playing dead. Jimmy told his parents where he was and that he was fine, promising he'd return home when he could.
Everyone looked up when they heard a door click shut and grinned happily when Danny shuffled into the living room, rubbing his neck gently with a slight frown.
"Danny, how do you feel?" Sam inquired quickly jumping to her feet and rushing to his side.
"Much better. Thanks. But um, the ghost cell's gonna need a lot of repairs," Danny answered, flashing an apologetic smile at his parents.
"Is your energy under control now?" Robin asked. Danny frowned thoughtfully.
"I think so. It's hard to tell at the minute. But without the collar, I'll be able to regulate it now. It shouldn't build up like that again," Danny replied.
"Are you hungry?" Maddie ventured. Danny smirked.
"I could eat," Danny admitted. Maddie smiled warmly at her son before walking into the kitchen, brushing a caring caress on his arm as she passed him.
Sam tugged Danny into a seat and perched beside him, pulling his hand away from his neck, scowling angrily when she spotted the dark bruise left behind by the collar. Minutes later, Maddie returned with a large plate of sandwiches which Danny, Kid Flash, Jack, Danielle and Tucker dove into happily. After Danny revelled in feeding himself and chewing three wonderfully delicious sandwiches, he wrapped an arm around Sam's waist and turned to the others. He didn't have a massive appetite, probably due to not eating much for over a week and then the massive energy build up.
"So, I assume you have questions," Danny remarked. Everyone shared uncertain glances.
"If you're ready for them," Jazz confirmed softly. Danny shrugged calmly.
"I don't have a problem telling you guys what happened. To be honest, most of it was boring," Danny retorted.
"Boring?" Sam repeated, giving her boyfriend an incredulous look. Danny smirked and nodded.
"That's right. All I did was sit in my cell, too exhausted by my energy being filtered away into a power unit to do anything. I slept a lot too," Danny replied. Jimmy nodded in agreement.
"They didn't… you know…?" Jake mumbled. Danny raised an eyebrow.
"Torture me?" Danny guessed. There were a few grim nods around the room. Danny shook his head.
"No. That would have been counter-productive. Healing takes energy. Hurting me would have meant they got less energy," Danny answered.
"But you got shot?" Maddie recalled worriedly. Danny nodded.
"I did. That was because Cheshire, the prisoner keeper or whatever, was trying to take Jimmy. I tried to stop her. Before Jimmy came, they only came into my cell once the power unit was full, by then I was too exhausted to do anything, let alone attack anyone and make a run for it. But they came to collect Jimmy before then so I had more energy. Cheshire brought in a couple of guys with anti-ghost weapons. I didn't back down so she gave the order to shoot me. They stopped taking my energy after that and because I was so used to losing my energy, it built up superfast. All that energy healed my leg completely, and any subsequent injuries," Danny explained.
"Then what about your neck?" Sam muttered, flicking her gaze to the dark bruise.
"I had no energy stored away to heal it after the collar was removed," Danny reminded her.
"Wait a sec, can we get back to the anti-ghost weapons? How did they get Fenton Works stuff?" Artemis interjected. Danny shook his head before fixing his gaze on Jake.
"They didn't. They were Guys in White grade weapons," Danny corrected. Jake gasped.
"Rose," he breathed. Danny nodded grimly.
"Rose?" Rocket repeated, completely lost.
"Jake's girlfriend. Last year, just after Hallowe'en, Jake's girlfriend went missing. We found her with a mind-control device on her that we linked back to the Light," Robin recalled.
"The plate! It absorbed ghost energy," Superboy exclaimed in remembrance. Danny nodded.
"I think it might have been a prototype. But they had thousands of those plates made. I highly doubt they made those plates just to make one collar," Danny pointed out.
"So why did they need all those plates? And why kidnap you? I mean, no offence dude, but it would probably be easier to catch and detain a ghost than you," Tucker mused. Danny frowned in thought.
"You're right Tuck. And that trap would only have been for someone looking into the Guys in White," Danny muttered.
"Ugh, you see this is why I hate the Light. They can't just have a straightforward plot and be done with it. They have to have stages and plots within plots. Half the time I swear they make things up as they go," Kid Flash complained.
"Maybe they kidnapped Danny because… because they needed him specifically," Spud mumbled thoughtfully. Everyone turned to the teen genius.
"What do you mean?" Jake pressed.
"Well, if I wanted to get someone to gather ghost energy, then Tucker's right. A full ghost would be easier. Ten times easier. Danny is well-known and respected. If he went missing, the entire country if not the world would be on high alert. A normal ghost would be easier to catch and hide is missing. I mean the Ghost Zone's massive. That ghost's friends might just think they missed it. It would take a lot longer for that ghost's disappearance to be noticed," Spud explained. Danny nodded in agreement, understanding exactly what Spud meant.
"It would take a long time. Because they'd need human help or my help to track down that ghost. And most ghosts are too proud to ask," Danny remarked. Spud nodded.
"So they had to have wanted to catch Danny in particular. The trap was way too specialised to be for anyone but Danny. I haven't looked at the trap mechanics but I'd hazard a guess that it would need ghost energy to activate. Maybe the Light even guided Danny to check out that base without you guys knowing," Spud resumed. Danny shared an uneasy glance with Tucker. Tucker was the one who found and organised who looked in which bases. It was a scary thought that they could have hacked into Tucker's system.
"So, perhaps we should look at the energy draining thing as a side issue. Maybe a bonus for catching someone with ghost energy to take or it was a method of keeping Danny subdued to prevent escape," Spud concluded.
"Well Danny?" Zatanna prompted. Danny blinked.
"I don't know. Cheshire didn't tell me anything," Danny retorted defensively.
"And I was only allowed to work on the power unit," Jimmy added. Everyone frowned in thought. After a long silence, Maddie sighed loudly, spotting Jimmy yawning.
"It's late. Perhaps we should all get some sleep. We can think about this in the morning with fresh minds. We have sleeping bags if you want to spend the night here," Maddie suggested.
"I'm gonna have a shower first mom," Danny interjected and stood up, planting a kiss on Sam's head before heading upstairs, rubbing his aching neck as he went. Maddie and Jack began distributing sleeping bags and settled the teens in the Ops Centre for the night.
Everything seems to have settled again. But… has it really?
Let me know what you guys think.
Until the next chapter.
