2
Archives of the Twin Blades, New York City~
Sam yawned as she flipped through a magazine, waiting for the latest reports from Tucker and Caleb to come back to her as she sat by the specially designed Ghost Shield that held Danny Phantom captive. Ever since pulling him from the Ghost Zone and out of the clutches of an assortment of ghost relics, the halfa had not changed out of Phantom form even once. He sat on a bed made for him, scowling out at her with the flimsy black gag wrapped around his head sealing his mouth closed. Little more than a week had gone by and little progress had been made in returning him to his normal, Heroic status. Clad still in the villainous colors of red and black, the half-ghost made no attempts to respond to any offerings of friendship or kindness, only sat there in eternal silence, glaring at them all.
The Goth yawned again, then looked up at her boyfriend to check on him, gazing sadly back as Danny only narrowed his eyes at her further. She had seen those same cruel eyes before, the evil crimson that had gleamed with the promise of inflicting pain, but never for this long, with this intensity. Silently, she cursed the evil ghost that had done this to her beloved, furious that Dark Danny had escaped the confines of the Fenton Thermos, wherever the damn thing had been stored, and did this to him. All because of that loophole in the time stream, she and Danny had to suffer through this. It just wasn't fair.
"Don't worry. We'll have you back to your old self soon enough." Sam whispered, hoping that Caleb had done enough research on mana correction to risk another exposure to the powers of the Eternal Sword Pin. The halfa only glared at her before wincing as a shimmer of light passed over him. Sam stood up, ready to call for help, when she paused, watching in shock as the blue-white ring of Danny's transformation ability bloomed around the halfa's waist. It split in two and passed over him in opposite directions.
It didn't change him into Fenton form.
Sam blinked as the light faded and peered closer at him as the halfa settled back down and looked down at his hands in vague surprise. He looked relatively unchanged, until she looked at his hands along with him. The gloves had been altered a bit. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, then checked again. No, the change was there. They used to have sharp lengths of stiff cloth running along the outer edge of the gloves, reminiscent of comic book villain outfits, but now they were gone. She stood back, puzzled. This had happened once before, but there had been no physical change, just a sudden change in Danny's reaction to being let out of the Fenton Thermos or the isolation chamber. Rather than destroy whatever he laid eyes on, he had simply floated there, looking irritated.
"Whatever it is that's doing this for you," she whispered, pressing her hands against the shimmering blue-tinted dome that separated her from the halfa, "I hope it keeps doing it. Maybe it will change you back to who you were." The phantom looked up at her, then resumed his glare, folding his hands back onto his lap as though completely forgetting the change that had been made.
Ivory Tower~
Team Turner gathered around the conference table, plotting and planning as the doors slid open and Timmy and Tootie entered the room. The group looked up at them, most with puzzled but expectant faces. Timmy looked around at them all, gave Tootie a grin and nod, then made his way to the head of the table.
"Anti-Wanda! Can you show up for a second?" he called out and the anti-fairy popped into the room, clutching a partially eaten sandwich in her feet.
"Hey, ya'll! What can Ah dooz fer ya?" she asked cheerfully.
"How's Anti-Cosmo doing?" the brunet asked and Anti-Wanda's smile grew wider.
"Aw, shucks, Sugarsnack! He's been twitchy ever since that last buncha antis showed up with a buttload of energy fer him!" she laughed, "He's even started healing up a little! Might take a while for him to wakey up all the way, but my Anti-Cozzie'll be back to makin' babies cry 'fores you know it!"
"Glad to hear it. You can go on back and watch over him. I'm gonna work on making Remy even more miserable so he'll have something to look forward to when he recovers." Timmy returned brightly and Anti-Wanda waved her hands happily.
"Aw, ain'tcha the sweetest little guy ever? No wonders Anti-Cozzie loves ya so much! Ya gots just as much dark in ya as ya do that icky light stuff!" she declared and anti-poofed out of the room. Timmy blinked in surprise, then rubbed his head.
"Um, I'm a Hero; Heroes don't have darkness." he corrected too late, "Anti-Cosmo... likes me? I just thought he was trying to manipulate me and junk." He shook his head and turned back to the group, "Anyway, what's been going on? Still working on a plan to destroy the next Spire?"
"Yeah, we're thinking of going with the same plan as before. Hit up the control units and nullifiers to keep the magic-users safe, then overload the servers by messing with the remaining units once the controllers are gone." Chester told him, rolling out a printed map of Dark Spire Three. He pointed at the markings on the paper. "The layout is pretty much the same, so all we have to do is just keep our eyes peeled for any new tricks that it might have decided to 'learn' after watching us in the last attack. We just don't know when to do the actual assault."
"Two weeks." Timmy said with all confidence, "In two weeks, we'll attack the next Spire." The group looked up at him in surprise.
"Why so long?" A.J. asked in confusion, "We can do it in less than a week. Heck, give us all three days at least to rest and we'll take it out before the end of next week!"
"We have the time to fully rest. The damage we did to the network connections isn't something that can be patched up real easy, what with cutting out huge chunks on two ends and then flooding what was left with mouthwash." the brunet remarked with a grin, "Besides, we need that time to get Victoria and Chip trained if they plan on fighting with us, right?" He looked to the two adults and they nodded eagerly.
"Any chance I get to trash somebody's junk without having to worry about cops is a good one in my book!" Victoria crowed and rubbed her hands together, "Two weeks is all I need to bust out all my old street brawlin' moves and get my hands on some kick-ass new weapons!"
"I could use the time getting used to being out of the sewers again. Musical creativity could use some work and, hey, if anyone can help me get more target practice in with my awesome Teeth Fu, that'd be rockin'!" Chip declared brightly, gesturing and spinning in his chair as though he hadn't aged a bit since the four years he was last seen as a teen singing sensation.
"On top of that, we need to make two more sets of the magitech armor for them. We can't just send them off into a battle without some protection." Timmy added and looked heavenward, a vaguely worried expression flickering over his face. "I just hope Anti-Cosmo forgives me for having to break a promise. I know he doesn't want me to destroy the Spires anymore, all because of some truth getting revealed. And I know Wanda won't like it either, but it has to be done. Whatever gets revealed, we'll deal with it later. Right now, we have to save Dimmsdale and the world from this."
"Or find a way to calm down the whole place. The city's in a constant state of panic and Lord only knows how it is Dimmsdale is keeping the fact that it's under siege by an army of anti-fairies a secret from the rest of the States." A.J. remarked dryly, tapping at his laptop, "Considering the panic, the President should have declared a state of emergency here and sent the Coast Guard in, or the Army. Is somebody doing something to cover the fact that Dimmsdale's infested by antis?"
"Probably Jorgen's handiwork." Apollo filled in, touching down on the tabletop and walking along it with his hands behind his back, a pensive frown on his face, "If anti-fairies are discovered worldwide, then that blows the cover on fairies and we'll all get pulled back double time." He paused and looked up at the brunet. "And Jorgen absolutely doesn't want anyone from the fairy military coming down here." Timmy lifted an eyebrow at that. "Eh, conflict in interests. Fairy business, you get the idea. You probably don't get politics."
"I get it all right. I just don't like it." Timmy returned and nodded, "But, yeah... You're right; somebody's covering up the fact that anti-fairies are here. With them doing all this energy gathering, we can't really risk an attack without sending all of Dimmsdale into a spiral we won't be able to save it from."
"So then what can we do until it looks safe? What do we do for those two weeks?" Trixie asked uncertainly and Sanjay waved his hand eagerly.
"We can continue our investigation into Timmy's murder!" he exclaimed, "By going to the site of the original crime!" The group hissed at him as Victoria and Chip both whipped their heads around to stare at him, then up at the brunet, their eyes wide with emotion. Timmy seemed to deflate.
"Oh, I was hoping to avoid this..." he moaned as the two adults leaped out of their chairs with near inhumane shrieks.
"Murdered?" they screamed, "You were murdered?" Timmy flinched and held up his hands, hoping to calm the two of them down.
"I'm gonna kill him!" Victoria snarled, hands curled up claw-like as her eyes suddenly went vivid with fury, a disturbing froth collecting in her mouth, "I'm gonna rip that punk gray kid limb from limb and I'm gonna kill him!"
"If you thought I was in the fight before, I am seriously pumped to dish damage out to somebody now!" Chip added in as equally a malevolent growl as the carrot-top beside him, eyes narrowed dangerously, "Who did this? Who took the Heart of Dimmsdale from us?" The brunet watched them both fume and rage with a deadpan expression, lower lip jutting out in a pout as his eyes narrowed slowly at their continuing declarations of revenge and retribution. Finally, he slammed both fists onto the table, body erupting in a wild aura of brilliant white light tinted with pale pink, and let out a feral shriek of his own that immediately shut everyone in the room up and had them all instinctively move several inches away from him.
"Will everyone lay off of Francis already? Stop trying to kill each other for no reason!" the immortal raged and shot glares at each member of the team to be sure they understood him, then straightened and let the light fade to nonexistence. He ran a hand through his hair, took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then spoke in a calmer tone. "I came here for the sole purpose of preventing other innocent people from dying. Turns out I didn't die from an accident; the fall was set up so that I could be killed by a turn of the jungle gym. Francis is just as much a victim as I am." he told them, "Please, calm down and don't do anything that could hurt Dimmsdale more. Whoever murdered me made sure to make it look like Francis was the bad guy. He was just a scapegoat; I forgive him because he really had nothing to do with it. I ask you all to do the same." The group looked up at him with mixed emotions, the majority of which was wariness, before finally settling down and nodding.
"Someone murdered the Heart of Dimmsdale. I'll forgive the punk gray kid, but I want a piece of the real guy who made us all suffer!" Victoria grumbled, folding her arms over her chest as she stood up, "So I'm gonna start my training right now, if nobody's got issues with that." Timmy sighed and shook his head.
"Whatever will make you feel better, Victoria." he remarked.
"Don't call me that." the woman growled between her teeth, eyes still flashing with fury, "This city was seriously slacking off if some jerk can sneak in on my watch and kill off the biggest money-maker I had at the age of sixteen!" Startling the group with her sudden change in attitude towards her name, she stormed to the door. Once there, however, she paused and pulled her hair free of its business-like bun before quickly tying the tresses back up into a familiar ponytail. The mere silhouette of the hairstyle could make children under the age of twelve seek useless shelter in a corner of their rooms and it had not been seen in the four years since Timmy Turner's death. The woman turned back to grin viciously at the brunet as Chip leaped up and joined her at the doorway, a determined smile on his own face. "Better let the bad guys know... Icky Vicky's back in the game!" Vicky declared and walked out, her signature maniacal laughter ringing in the halls as she and Chip vanished to begin combat training.
Ivory Tower~
The days passed in a new routine and the only true bump in the road had been Timmy's revised orders to the anti-fairies to continue collecting energy but try to keep themselves hidden as much as possible to avoid stirring up more panic than necessary. Otherwise, most of Team Turner's time and efforts were put to solving the mystery of Timmy's murder. Between getting Chip and Vicky ready for combat and making occasional calls to New York to check on both the new magitech armor sets and Danny Phantom's condition (which was improving only a bit and at random times), they had nearly forgotten the local threat that was the reason the Dark Spires existed to begin with.
But he didn't.
So the shock of having an explosion so close by and feeling the Ivory Tower tremble at the sudden blow completely took them by surprise. With everyone rushing to figure out what happened, what was hit and if anyone was hurt, Timmy raced to a nearby window to look out and find out what caused the blast. He narrowed his eyes at a blonde figure standing by a tank painted all in white with the black spade symbol plastered on its sides, the massive gun aimed directly at the Tower. Remy Buxaplenty was making a bold move, attacking the Ivory Tower in broad daylight. The Tower had an engraving in Timmy's ten-year-old image on the side of the building, placing it under the protection of both Fairy World and Dimmsdale itself. Attacking it would bring the wrath of the citizens down on Remy's head in a heartbeat.
Provided they weren't busy freaking out at the surge of bad luck besieging them.
"And I wondered what happened to the ammunition that he was supposed to be booby-trapping his anti-magic traps with." the brunet remarked and looked back at Cosmo and Wanda as they fluttered about in a panic. The couple had seemed to have gotten over whatever caused their earlier fight and focused entirely on trying to convince Timmy out of his plan to pursue the destruction of the Spires, with no success. "Guys! You stay here and help the rest of the team assess damages! Everyone! Calm down and get to protected sections of the Tower for safety!" he ordered sharply, pulling a pair of Fenton Phones from his pocket and clipping them on, "Tootie! Go look after Anti-Cosmo for me, please! I can't let anything Remy does put his life in danger!"
"Got it!" the Goth declared and raced out of the room with the rest of the teens as they scurried to find better armored rooms within the Ivory Tower. Timmy looked back out the window and tightened his mouth. Looks like he was going to have another chat with his old rival. Taking a deep breath and hoping that his imagination could manipulate mana for the attempt, he leaped out the window towards the young millionaire.
Remy looked up at him in shock and the brunet grinned. The tricky part was pulling off the crazy entrance. Flipping over in the air to land feet first, he mentally called up the mana of the air around him to support his weight.
"Volare Silentium." he whispered, his mind working furiously to weave the ribbons of green mana around himself in a personal cyclone that landed him gently on his feet. Now the blonde looked stunned. Timmy swept a hand aside, brushing the last of the ribbons back into the mana stream as he allowed a small smile to grow on his face. "Well, well. Here comes the little mortal boy, looking for trouble from the world." he greeted and folded his arms over his chest, "Can I ask why the heck you decided to knock on my door with armor piercing missiles?"
Remy gaped at him for a moment longer, then shook himself off and jerked a thumb at himself, dressed in the white armor and logo that mimicked the magitech armor Team Turner possessed.
"My Spires are completely off-limits to you, you mongrel, and yet you persist in this futile effort to thwart my plans. Do you have any idea the amount of damage you've done to the network?" he hissed spitefully, "The repair cost is ungodly! I can't even wish for it to be repaired or I'll end up arousing Crock-Pot's suspicions!" He shook a fist at the brunet. "Why the bloody hell do you keep attacking my beautiful Spires?"
"Why the heck do you keep trying to put them back after I tear 'em down?" Timmy retorted and scowled as Remy waved his hand and the tank fired several more rounds at the Tower. "Will you cut that out?" he added in a fury. Remy only huffed and folded his arms over his chest, Timmy mirroring him as they glared at one another.
"Now you know how it feels, mongrel." the blonde growled heatedly, "You've been causing me nothing but headaches since the moment I laid eyes on you months ago. What will it take to have you vanish from my sight?" Timmy smirked at him, a fairly defiant grin.
"Destroy your own Spires. If you bring them down yourself and destroy the blueprints to them, I'll walk out of Dimmsdale and never return. But I doubt you're that keen on knocking over your own little toys, expensive as they are to build." he returned coolly.
"Then I have no choice but to bring down yours." Remy purred darkly and waved his hand again, "Fire the tank! Bring that tower crumbling to the earth!" Timmy cried in alarm as the huge gun launched several more rounds on the silver-white tower, sending several chunks of the white granite crashing down onto the lawn. Spinning around to face Remy once again, he opened his mouth to let out an infuriated yell, only to utter a second cry of shock as the blonde leaped at the tank and hit a lever on the side of it. "Activate the nullification system!" he declared in triumph, "Now you can't use magic of any kind to stop me from laying waste to your precious Ivory Tower! Just like you destroyed my beautiful Dark Spires!"
The pulses of anti-magic flooded out almost instantly, sending the brunet reeling in dizziness. He wrapped his arms around himself, crying out in pain as he felt mana and magic stored in his body seep away, neutralized by the frequencies of the device in the tank. The Fenton Phones sputtered to life and the voices of his friends called out to him.
"The Tower feels like it's shaking apart! What's going on?" A.J. exclaimed.
"What's attacking us? Most of our security cameras got destroyed!" Trixie added fearfully.
Timmy struggled to speak, his thoughts scattering with each wave of the nullification field that washed out over the area. He managed to gasp out the blonde's name, then faintly heard the enraged cries of his friends as he dropped to his knees, still trying to hold himself together.
"What's the matter, little mongrel? Not so chipper without your precious fairy magic, are you?" Remy purred, walking around him merrily with his hands behind his back, "This city has always been fated to be under my control, didn't you know?"
"S-stop firing... on the Tower...!" Timmy gasped, glaring back up at him, "Th-there are people inside!" Remy paused before him and smiled smugly, mocking the expression that the brunet had worn when he first touched down on the grassy lawn.
"Oh? Is that so? What are you willing to do for them, hm? What will it take to have me spare their worthless lives?" he asked coldly and grinned as Timmy lifted a hand, stretched it shakily towards the tank and shut his eyes in concentration. "Oh, don't bother trying to pull that freezing trick on it. Crocker didn't build that tank." Remy went on and shook his head as it seemed that the brunet ignored him, "And it's not fairy-based either, so it's perfectly immune to the nullifier. How sad that the same can't be said of you."
"Then how about facing somebody who doesn't care about that kind of crap?" Chester's voice called out icily and Remy looked up in surprise as the Leader of the Others marched out of the crumbling Ivory Tower, green eyes narrowed and flashing angrily. Clad in the black magitech armor, he stopped beside Timmy's crumpled form and folded his arms over his chest. "Hey, Mr. Moneybags, we never got around to me putting that bruise between your eyes." he added with a dry grin, "So how's about we get on that and finish what we started back at the third Spire we took out?" Remy huffed and flicked a finger across his nose, giving the other teen a disdainful look.
"As I recall, I dealt with you rather well back there, and you had no fairy godparent to aid you. I'm certain none has come to you yet, or you wouldn't have the gall to enter this nullification zone." he returned flatly, "On top of that, unlike your black rags, my Aces High armor magnifies my strength, speed and agility, plus offers me protection in the way of force fields. You have nothing; always had, always will." He grinned at Chester's reddened face, taking in the angry scowl. "And you may as well get used to referring to me as the new Heart of Dimmsdale. Once my Spires retake the city, you and your little outcast band of ragamuffins will be spending the rest of your days wallowing in misery." the young millionaire added cruelly, "After all, it's only a matter of time before I have the means to eliminate Timothy here once and for all. How will it feel, McBadbat, to know that you failed to support this soon-to-be un-immortal just like you failed that Turner brat?" The blonde ground his teeth together and shook his head furiously.
"Don't you ever talk about my pal Timmy like that!" he snapped back and fell into a fighter's pose, keeping himself light and mobile on his feet as he held his fists up, "You'll never take his title! Dimmsdale's gonna get its magic back and all its hope and dreams, too! I swear it on my Pop's baseball bat!" With that, he launched himself at the other blonde, all while the tank continued firing rounds at the Ivory Tower, shaking yet more white granite from its walls.
Team Turner winced as more of the ceiling crumbled down on them in a shower of debris and dust. A.J. continued tapping at the computer console before him as Trixie flinched at another explosion, holding her hands over her head to protect her hair from the dust. It was an effort to stay standing as the Tower rocked again.
"A.J.! Hurry! Chester and Remy are all over each other down there!" Elmer called back over his shoulder from where he stood at the window.
"I'm typing as fast as I can! The mana field generator is still only in its prototype stage! I won't be able to hold it for very long even if I can get it back online!" the technical expert returned harshly, "Just let me know how Timmy's doing! If he stays in that nullification field too long, we all lose!" Sanjay cringed at another blast that shook the building, then shook it off and clicked the last piece of his laser rifle into place. Hefting it up, he took a position at the window, startling the stocky teen that watched the battle in the street.
"Sanjay? What are you doing?" Elmer exclaimed in horror. The Hindu peered through the crosshairs of the rifle.
"What does it look like? If I can get a clear shot, I might be able to stop the assault!" he returned in a low voice, "Now quiet and let me concentrate!"
"You're not gonna shoot Remy, are you?" the other teen blurted out.
"Tempting, but no. If I can pierce the armor of that tank, perhaps I can disable it."
Trixie yelped as the Tower continued shaking. If this kept up, could the whole thing come down on them? She bit her lip fearfully; if only their stronger allies were there! Caleb would know just what to do to work the technology super-fast and have Timmy rejuvenated by the mana field generator. Danny Phantom would be immune to the nullifier and scare Remy away with his ghost powers. But neither of them were there; the phantom was caught in some weird evil phase and the android was so focused on fixing him, he ignored everyone else.
And then there was their team leader, Timmy, who was at this moment probably lying in the street in agony, at the mercy of the nullifier threatening to destroy the last thing that bound him to life. Her eyes watered, tears running down her face at the thought of him dying again, painfully, awfully. She uttered a soft cry as her thoughts jumped to the other teen, Timmy's second-in-command and the Leader of the Others. The only thing protecting Chester from Remy's tricks was the magitech armor emblazoned with the Heart of Dimmsdale insignia. Yeah, he was a good fighter, but he fought honestly and held back lethal strikes.
Remy wouldn't do the same; he'd try to kill him again, just like at the third Spire, and there wasn't any Revive spell on him to save him from Death this time.
"I... I've gotta help...!" Trixie finally whispered to herself and shook her head fiercely, "I've gotta help him!" With that she raced out of Tower Control and made her way to the ground level.
Vicky stumbled and fell forward, startled by yet another of the blasts that threw her and Chip out of training. Pushing herself up from the floor, she instinctively reached out for a weapon, momentarily forgetting that she wasn't in her room, with all of her swords within easy reach. She brushed her hair out of her face instead, glaring around herself as the echoes of what sounded like thunder reverberated through the Ivory Tower.
"What the hell is going on out there?" she growled as Chip groaned painfully, picking himself up and pressing a hand to his head, "What is that twerp doing?"
"The album comes out... July Twenty-Fourth..." the singer mumbled dazedly and shook his head, "Ugh. Wh-what's going on?" He looked up at the carrot-top as she climbed to her feet, clenching one hand into a fist as she glared over her shoulder, teeth ground together.
"Somebody's attacking us and it looks like nobody's doing anything about it!" she declared, "Twerp! What in hell are you doing out there?" She scowled again and looked aside at Chip as he got to his own feet, looking around in surprise as dust rained down from the ceiling. "Hey, you didn't break anything right?" she asked. The singer blinked in surprise at her, still rubbing his head.
"No. I don't think so. Why?" he returned.
"'Cause I don't want anyone thinking I busted the new member of this ratty little team." the woman grumbled and stomped towards the exit, "Come on! I wanna bust heads for what happened! We're supposed to be training and I can't concentrate on ripping things apart when the place is shaking like lime Jell-O!" Chip hurried after her, holding his hat in place as yet another explosion ripped through the Ivory Tower. They stumbled but maintained their balance to keep from falling again.
"This kind of thing happen often?" he asked as they rushed for the elevator. Vicky jabbed at the button, cursed bitterly when she found it unresponsive and stormed for the nearest staircase.
"I'm just as new to this as you. But considering the crap Timmy went through and all the people he's pissed off over the years, yours truly included, I'd have to say that this is gonna be something we have to get used to pretty damn quick." she returned bitingly and gripped the handrail tightly, grunting softly as another tremor shook the building and nearly sent the two of them tumbling down the steps. "Stupid lousy building! Did they even build it to code?" she added irritably, continuing down the stairs.
The battle wasn't going entirely as well as Chester had thought, not when he was constantly distracted by his worries over Timmy. The brunet lay half-curled on the asphalt, breathing shallowly and face twisted in pain as he tried to hold the quickly vanishing mana closer to himself. Apparently that was taking up all the concentration he had, else he would have at least pointed out where the nullifier was to Chester and he would have smashed it for him. He blinked at a sudden movement and flipped back, twisting a leg around for a retaliatory kick as he escaped Remy's sneak attack.
"Nice try, but that'll get you killed in the back alleys of Dimmsdale." Chester growled, ignoring the scuffs and grime that decorated the once jet black material of his armor. Remy huffed, regaining his stance as he mimicked the other blonde's poise. He glanced aside at Timmy, then smiled wickedly.
"Perhaps, but I'd wager that the time you spent trying so hard to place that coveted blow to my skull is enough to ensure that the little mongrel is taken out of the battle for good!" he declared triumphantly, "I won't even need Crocker's little invention to get rid of him!" His laughter ended with a single laser blast that slammed into the tank, setting off an explosion that sent him flying forward in shock, halted the firing of the armor-piercing missiles and destroyed the nullifier unit.
"Hah! I told you I could hit anything!" Sanjay cheered from his vantage point, lifting the rifle up as he looked down at the partially destroyed tank. From the top of the Tower, a flash of light erupted and a rush of wind blew out from it, whipping the flames of the tank and vegetation into the air.
"And I got the mana field working!" A.J. declared into the Fenton Phones Chester wore, "Timmy should be reviving any second now!"
The door to the Tower slid open and Trixie hurried out, quickly followed by Vicky and Chip as they raced to join Chester on the street. The two adults took up fighting stances, angry expressions crossing their faces. Trixie dropped to Timmy's side to check on him, pulled back as he waved her away, then darted to Chester's side, fists held up and a determined expression on her face. The blonde glanced at her in surprise, blushed slightly, then turned his gaze back at the boy millionaire who stared in shock at the sight of Chip Skylark standing there in the flesh.
"Looks like you're gonna have to beat it like a whupped dog, Monty Moneybags." the Leader of the Others remarked with a grin, cracking his knuckles as Timmy inhaled deeply and picked himself up from the ground, eyes narrowed viciously at Remy as he held out his hands, spheres of red-gold Fire mana surrounding them. The young millionaire glared at the both of them, then whistled sharply.
"Juandissimo!" he yelled and the hatch to the nearly demolished tank popped open, allowing the fairy to fly out and hover by him with a faintly guilty look on his face, "I wish we were home!" A wave of the wand and the two of them were gone, leaving a mess of rubble and a burning tank as evidence of what had happened. With them gone, Timmy released the mana spheres and sighed weakly, sitting back down on the grass and hanging his head as Chester ran his fingers along his teeth to be sure they were all in one piece. Vicky snorted and turned away from the group, looking annoyed as Chip knelt by the brunet to be sure he wasn't going to faint.
"Are you okay?" Trixie asked the blonde beside her and chuckled as he blushed again and glanced aside bashfully.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's no big deal. I mean, c'mon... when you've got dozens of junkies and messed up kids constantly trying to beat the crap out of you and your friends, you tend to just roll with the punches. Y'know?" he returned sheepishly.
"But what if he... you could have..." Trixie whimpered softly, eyes watering all over again. The blonde sighed and shook his head.
"Tricks, really. I woulda been fine." he insisted, "'Sides, I wasn't gonna let him get away with callin' you all those names before." He paused and looked thoughtful. "I still haven't nailed him between the eyes. Looks like I'll have to wait another time to hit him." he mused aloud and grinned at the Asian's soft giggles.
"Hey, little man, you okay?" Chip asked worriedly as Timmy brought both hands up to his face.
"Ugh. Not really. I thought I was finally getting over that nullifier thing; mana shields, changing my mana signature to match an anti-fairy, I come up with ways to protect myself against it, but I never get a chance to actually use them to save myself!" he complained and looked up at the group, "I'm just really tired out. Was anyone hurt? How's Anti-Cosmo?" he added.
"Timmy? That you? You asked about Anti-Cosmo?" Tootie suddenly remarked over the Fenton Phones, "He's okay for now. Mint and I kept most of the junk from falling on him and the machines working. He's looking a little better, but he's still out of it. Won't wake up yet."
"As long as he's still alive. That's all I care about right now." the brunet sighed and looked up at the ruined Tower, taking in the sight of large patches of white granite missing, littering the lawn with rubble and debris. He winced slightly; Genis wasn't going to be pleased with this, and he was pretty sure Caleb would be hopping mad if he was around. Thinking of the android reminded him of his still altered cousin and Timmy closed his eyes, picturing him in his mind again and forcing his memory of what Danny truly was like over that evil, corrupt version of him. The same little warm feeling he got when he did that grew in him again and he let go of the overlapping images.
"Timmy, why not make a wish to have the Ivory Tower repaired?" Wanda asked, "Since it has your picture on the walls, Cosmo and I are the only ones allowed to use magic on it." Chip helped Timmy get to his feet as he shook his head in the negative.
"Remy has seen first-hand the damage he's done and he knows about Da Rules saying no other fairies can use magic on anything tied to me. If he happens to pass by here later, and sees the Ivory Tower all fixed up like nothing ever happened, he's gonna start to wonder about the truth of Da Rules." Timmy replied with a sigh, "We're going to have to leave the damage there to keep my cover." The group began returning to the interior of the Ivory Tower, somewhat downcast by the near destruction of the Ivory Tower and the realization that they couldn't use magic to solve this problem so easily. Chip leaned the brunet against him and helped him walk to the Tower. Timmy paused when Chester tapped at his shoulder and looked back at him, puzzled.
"Sorry for not staying behind." the blonde apologized, "But I've got a serious beef with that guy." Timmy grinned tiredly.
"No problem. I should be thanking you, though, for bailing me out of that one. I really shouldn't be getting so cocky." he returned, "And I'm not surprised to see the two of you start up your own rivalries. After all, you're both leaders of two polar opposite social groups. He's got the A-List and you have the Others."
"But, you're the Leader of the...!" Chester exclaimed and Timmy shook his head adamantly.
"Not anymore. I died and you stepped in to take my place. You deserve the position." he corrected, "You're doing a great job of it. Protect everyone, Chester, you're strong enough to do it." He grinned again and tapped knuckles with the blonde, "Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go crash for a few hours."
"No prob, Dude." Chester laughed cheerfully. Trixie looked between the two of them and looked thoughtfully down at the floor as she walked with the group.
How strange. Was she actually thinking that this... redneck... could be someone worth looking at? The guy got praises from Timmy for being a really good guy; what better vote of credibility than one from the true Heart of Dimmsdale? Her face flushed slightly but she stole a glance up at the blonde, smiling briefly at the pride glittering in his green eyes. Well, clean him up a bit more and work at his grammar... maybe it could work...