Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Ultimate Marvel
Chapter 012: Christmas Adventure Part 2 (Edited)
"So, what am I going to be dealing with?" Danny asked.
"The royal guard are running up from the ground level to the upper floors to protect Maximus." Technus replied.
"So how deep do I have to go to reach the prison cells holding the royal family?" Danny asked.
The castle was big, and he feared he could spend over an hour wandering the place without a clue to where he was going.
"The royal castle is made of forty floors. Fifteen above and twenty-five below. The prison cells are on floor B-12." Technus said.
"Alright I want you to try and seal up as many of the royal guards as you can." Danny said.
"What do you want to happen?" Technus asked.
"I want you to turn the castle's weapons and security against them." Danny said as he tuned invisible and flew towards the castle.
The moment he got close to the castle grounds he turned intangible and went through the ground to enter the lower floors of the castle.
"They won't get anywhere close to you." Technus said with an excited laugh that bordered on a cackle. "I am going to raise the roof and bring it crashing down around their heads."
"I do not want them to die Technus." Danny warned.
"That will just make your job harder." Technus said. 'It is probably his human side that made worry so much. One of many poor design flaws.'
"The ones I have run into so far have been overshadowed and have no free will. They do not deserve to die for that." Danny said.
"You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs." Technus said.
"Clockwork brought us here to help these people not wipe out the population." Danny said walking down a hallway.
He flew through a room that looked empty. According to the information provided by Technus It was a trap room where panels on the walls came together in the middle like a giant pair of symbols to crush everything walking inside of it.
"I have the tool necessary to save these people." Skulker said. 'Clockwork was very specific with his list.'
"What do you have?" Danny asked Skulker hoping that it was not going to hurt the people being controlled.
People that committed crimes out of their own free will were one thing, but these guys had no choice. They were caught up in the scheme of villains.
"The robotic drones that I sent through the barriers are equipped with a device that forcefully ejects any ghost from its overshadowed host." Skulker said.
"That is great. Can you activate it now?" Danny asked.
It would save a lot of time if he did not have to worry about the Inhumans.
"They are too far off to activate it yet. I have to wait until they are in the center of each city for maximum impact." Skulker said.
"Technus how far are the drones from the center?" Danny asked as he glanced at the laser rifles that came down from the ceiling.
He wondered if they were automatic or needed an actual person to do the firing.
"I can calculate the correct places on my own. You finish your job whelp." Skulker said.
"Fine." Danny said as he created an energy shield around him to protect him from possible lasers.
He flew through the lasers and watched as they adjusted to his attempt to cross the field. They bounced off of his shield and scorched the walls. He hoped the royal family was going to be okay with the possible damage that he was doing to their castle.
"Technus what is the next trap that I am going to be dealing with?" Danny asked.
"You are near the prison cells, but you are going to be dealing with giant robots." Technus replied.
"Can you shut them down?" Danny asked.
Technus os a technopath and if he could not control robots and could not safely shut down traps then he was terrible at his job and he should be deeply ashamed.
"Of course, I can. Do not underestimate me." Technus replied deeply offended.
"You have not filled me with confidence." Danny said as he dropped to the floor and deactivated his shield.
"Just watch and see." Technus replied.
"Which way am I going to go?" Danny asked.
"You are standing above the cell where the royal family is being held. Just phase through the floor." Technus said.
Danny sighed as he followed Technus's advice. He found himself standing in front of five prisoners. According to the files that Skulker had shown them this was the royal family.
Queen Medusa a tall red-haired woman in a purple dress, Crystal a blonde teen a few years older than him sister to Queen Medusa, Gorgon a man with hooves for feet cousin to the king, Karnak cousin to the king and queen and the one in charge of directing the members of the royal guard.
"What does Maximus want now?" Queen Medusa asked. "I am in no mood to hear another one of Maximus's speeches. The constant boasts of how he had finally taken what he believed was his right. The threat that they would spend the rest of their lives in the prison cell if they did not agree to join him. To live how he had without access to their inhuman gifts."
"I do not work for Maximus." Danny said.
He wondered why Maximus had gone about things this way. If he had an alliance with ghosts why not have them overshadow the royal family so they had to do everything he wanted without people noticing. The next second, he figured out why. Maximus like most villains back on earth wanted to be able to gloat over his enemies. To have them be forced to watch as their dreams crumbled, and he rose to the glory he believed that he deserved.
"Who are you then?" Crystal asked.
"I am the Phantom. I am here to rescue you and the King." Danny said.
Looking at their necks he could see that there were collars around their necks. The people of earth would love such technology to be used on mutants. Weapon X would have probably been the first buyers of such technology.
"He is not here." Queen Medusa said with her fist clenching. "Maximus has somehow put Black Bolt under his control and now has him serve as the commander of his guard."
"I know but I have a way to free him." Danny said. "Technus unlock the cells."
He could see no panels around them to do such a thing so it must be another system controlled by Castle security. If it wasn't then Technus could just cut the power that were keeping the force field active.
"Who is Technus?" Crystal asked. 'I have seen a person with white hair before in the capital. I wonder which city he was from?'
"He is someone that I am forced to work with." Danny said and watched as the cells opened and the four people inside walked out the moment that they could. "Now let us go take down Maximus."
'I found a place that holds information on their technology. I am downloading it now.' Duplicate 2 thought to him.
'I am dealing with the woman with glowing daggers and the teleporting man right now.' Duplicate 3 thought to him.
"It is going to be hard to that. As long as these collars are on us, we cannot use our abilities and he has plenty of Inhumans to use." Queen Medusa said.
"Since you are the royal family do you know of any secret passages that lead straight to Maximus?" Danny asked.
If the Inhuman castles were anything like the ones that humans had made there were probably dozens of secret passages that could move them through the castle in case of an emergency.
"You are a stranger." Queen Medusa said. "Even if you helped us there is no reason that I should tell you this."
"You can either be suspicious or you can help your husband." Danny said. "Which matters more to you right now?"
He was also their only way out of here given that he sealed the doors.
"We need to go up two floors. There is a passageway there that can take us to the royal rooms without encountering traps." Medusa said.
"Good to know. Alright I am going to move us through the ceiling. Everybody gather around and hold together." Danny said as he held out his hands for the group to take.
They flew up through the ceiling and the floor with the lasers landing in a hallway he had yet to be in.
"Where is the entrance?" Danny asked.
"This way." Medusa said as she started walking to the wall.
A scanning light came from the picture and a second later the giant picture of the royal family sild up revealing the passageway.
"Awesome." Danny said as they started walking.
"Which city are you from?" Crystal whispered.
"I am not from this planet. I come from the planet Earth." Danny said.
"How is that possible?" Crystal asked as she regained her pace.
"It is a rather complicated story." Danny answered not wanting to go into a huge explanation of the ghost zone and Clockwork.
These people had enough on their hands to deal with.
"Earth should be far away from here." Crystal said.
"You know of it?" Danny asked surprised.
"I may not have liked the classes but as a member of the royal family it was expected that I know how they had come to this planet and the original one their ancestors had left behind." Crystal said.
"What are you doing here?" Queen Medusa asked warily from behind.
"Maximus has entered into an alliance with someone that wishes to conquer my planet. I have come here to put an end to it before it becomes a serious problem." Danny answered her.
"Our ancestors were from the planet Earth." Queen Medusa said. "They left a long time ago to escape the prejudice of humans that had thought that they were monsters."
"That is horrible." Danny said.
"Have the people changed since our people left?" Crystal asked. 'They had to in some ways since The Phantom had powers.'
"In some way but they still dislike those that they believe are different." Danny said thinking of the mutants that were currently fighting for the right to be treated the same as baseline humans.
The graifti that he had seen on the streets insulting them.
"This way." Medusa said sliding a door that revealed how to move forward.
"Looks like we are going to have company." Danny said as his ghost sense went off again.
"What do you mean?" Gorgon asked.
"I can sense when the members of your guards are coming." Danny said as he stood in front of the group.
"How?" Triton asked.
"I am sensing the ghost that is overshadowing them." Danny answered.
"Ghost? Overshadow?" Queen Medusa asked.
"They are beings that come from an alternate dimension. They have the ability to go through walls and turn invisible. They are the reason that your people have turned against you" Danny said to her.
"Are you one of them?" Queen Medusa asked.
"Half of me is. They don't like me much because of that." Danny said.
"If we are going to have an encounter with the guard you will have to deal with the fighting on your own." Gorgon said. 'I want to help but I do not want to hurt my own people.'
"That's fine. You just tell me about the possible abilities they may have." Danny said as he knew what power the ghosts overshadowing them could have but they also had Inhuman powers that could be a threat.
They walked into the hallway and ran into the two people that were waiting for them. One was a man with a bald head and a woman with dark skin.
"Who are they?" Danny asked.
"The man is Pulsus, and the woman is Auran." Karnak answered.
"How tough are they?" Danny asked as he watched as their eyes began to glow green.
"You are getting no further." Pulsus said.
"Pulsus can generate electricity and Auran can heal." Crystal said frowning at what was about to happen. 'This is horrible. They had been very proud that they got to join the royal guard and now they fought against them under enemy control.'
Well, that told him who to deal with first.
Danny ran straight in between Auran and Pulsus and fired an ecto-ray at Pulsus that he rolled out of the way, but the moment Pulsus tried to fire back with electricity he turned intangible and let it hit Auran straight on. She could walk it off, so he was not that concerned.
"You need to work on your aim." Danny said as he lifted Pulsus off of the ground with telekinesis and slammed him into the ceiling.
"I am not that easy to take out." Pulsus said as he leapt at him and tried to kick the halfa in the head.
'Not happening.' Danny thought as he twisted out of the way.
If Pulsus had been a normal criminal, he would have used his super strength to block but that was not a good idea. The moment that he got around Pulsus he hit him with an ecto-ray.
"You are going to regret that." Auran said as she tried to punch him.
"Not today." Duplicate 1 said as he turned visible and grabbed her arms. "You and the royal family go ahead. I can deal with this."
"Who is that?" Gorgon asked.
"He is a duplicate of me." Danny answered as they ran past the Inhumans.
They took another turn but his ghost sense activated again. He hoped that his duplicate had not fallen so easily.
"Another one?" Crystal asked before they heard footsteps approaching.
"Who is that?" Danny asked looking at the tall man in a dark blue/black costume.
"That is my husband." Queen Medusa said.
"What is his power?" Danny asked as he got a look at the King of Attilan.
"Nothing good." Gorgon said. "If King Black Bolt opened his mouth to say something then the force of his words would kill us all."
"I am activating the device." Skulker said.
'Talk about perfect timing.' Danny thought but before anything could be said there was a wave of energy that flew through the room.
King Blackbolt fell to the floor and the group watched as the ghosts flew out of their hosts and were pulled somewhere else.
"Where are they going?" Crystal asked.
"Hopefully, somewhere far away." Danny said.
"What is going on?" Queen Medusa asked as she ran to her husband.
"Your husband and the other people that were overshadowed have been freed," Danny answered her.
"Will they be okay when they wake up?" Karnak asked.
"Skulker?" Danny asked.
"Yes, the people being overshadowed are free and fine, but they will be unconscious for the next few hours." Skulker replied.
"Good to know." Danny said.
"So that just leaves Maximus." Karnak said.
"That is right." Danny answered him.
"Then let's hurry." Gorgon said ready to get his revenge.
"Since he is a member of your family do you want to deal with him yourselves?" Danny asked as they stood outside the door to the royal chambers.
Maximus had taken the room for himself when he overthrew his brother.
"We would love too." Queen Medusa said.
What happened next was a copious amount of violence as each member of the royal family got their revenge on Maximus for his actions.
0-0-0-0-0-0
"For services rendered to the Inhuman royal family we thank you Phantom." Queen Medusa said as she sat on her throne next to her husband.
He felt it would be easier to just have this chat over some food, but the Inhumans had traditions and he would comply with them since he was on their planet.
Acordding to Gorgon's warning King Blackbolt could not speak without risk of using his powers destroying everything. He was tempted to give the man a tablet that allowed him to convert typed words into an automated voice. That way he could speak without having to worry about always needing a translator, but he seemed content with his wife translating for him.
"I thank you your majesties. I just want my world to remain at peace." Danny said from his bowed position.
Not to mention that his duplicates had copied a massive amount of Inhuman technology. He did not want to be thrown into a cell next to Maximus and he held no doubt that they would try and do that if they learned what he had done.
"We also request that you do not spread word of what you have seen here today." Queen Medusa asked.
He knew what she was worried about. He had some method of arriving at their planet so if he told people where they were others could come looking and that would just raise the risks of war. The people of his planet still did not like those that were different.
"I will not tell anybody." Danny said and watched as a green portal opened behind him. "Looks like my ride is here."
0-0-0-0-0-0
He stepped out from the portal and found himself in Clockwork's lair.
"Hello Daniel." Clockwork said not looking at him but at his screens.
"Clockwork I assume you are content with how things went down?" Danny asked.
"Yes. Stopping Maximus has set our enemies plan back a few steps." Clockwork said.
"But not enough to ruin the entire plan?" Danny asked.
"Our enemy is old, and they are used to setbacks every now and then. He has many servants working for him. This is nowhere near enough to destroy their ambition." Clockwork said.
"So, what is our next move?" Danny asked.
"There is plenty to do but you will be busy soon." Clockwork said.
"What do you mean?" Danny asked.
"You will find out once you return to New York." Clockwork said opening a ghost portal that would take Danny back to his room.
"What does that mean?" Danny asked not willing to go through the portal without some answers.
"Magneto will be on the move soon." Clockwork said.
"I thought Magneto was dead." Danny said.
All the newspapers and television shows stated that Charles Xavier had killed him during Magneto's assault on the White House.
"Charles Xavier only made it appear that he was killed. Instead, he changed Magneto's memories and sent him on his way." Clockwork said.
That is horrible. Also, the main reason that he is grateful that the mutant could not access his mind.
"How soon is he going to rampage again?" Danny asked.
"Very soon." Clockwork said ominously.