DP Season 4 Episode 8
Small Hours: Darkest Before the Dawn
Chapter 1
Thursday, August 24
Danny gave a glance at the few people waiting in line at the post office, knowing they were looking at him. It wasn't every day the town's hero needed to go about town on normal errands but here he was, holding a form he had just filled out to apply for a P.O. box. He thought they could just get by with leaving his paychecks at City Hall for him to pick up or for Tucker to deposit into the account for him, but Maddie had pointed out that that could end up being taken the wrong way by people of the town and convinced him to stop by after counseling with Rob.
Counseling was going well. He appreciated Rob's attempts at empathizing with him, even though he hadn't gone through the same type of things Danny had. He had just finished telling the man about his stray into another dimension, though looking back on the hour, he wasn't sure how much the man believed about a world without ectoplasm.
The line moved forwards a step, getting Danny to steal a glance at the clock they had up on the wall. He had been in the lobby for almost half an hour now, a bit of that was filling out the form he had found for the P.O. box. Looking down at the post officers at the stations, he noticed an African-American that looked familiar but he couldn't place where he knew the man from. Throwing it off as just recognizing a face he might have helped around town or side-effects from his swiss cheese memory, Danny pulled out the papers he had copies of from his pocket that proved he was who he said he was. He figured his powers would be enough of an identification but followed what his mother said and brought them along with him.
He looked down at the IRS paper that was on top, giving himself an EIN number. He wasn't sure of the difference between an EIN or a social security number, but he had been told for him it would work.
Danny folded the paper back up and kept it with the form he had filled out in his hands while he waited in line. He was only behind one other customer now, them waiting on the three post officers to finish their jobs with other customers. The older man in front of him kept looking over his shoulder, giving a glare at Danny as he held a hand on his package on the counter beside the line. Danny smiled up at the man, hoping to keep polite.
"What does a dang ghost need with a post office," the man grumbled as a post officer called out for who was next.
"At least I'm not the Box Ghost," Danny mumbled back as the man left for the far post officer. Danny took his place at the head of the line and watched the other two transactions, wondering who would be free first. The African-American he thought he recognized was putting stamps on an overweight red head's letter while his coworker to his right was weighing a package for a skinny man.
Danny knew because he was a ghost there were going to be people scared of him. He knew they had reason to be, especially in this town. But he did wish he could walk around as Phantom and not have either a bombardment of fans or eyes staring at him in distrust. He was lucky he had his Fenton half to allow him to blend into the world. If the portal had fully taken his life, but left him still as a ghost and with powers, he didn't know if he could stand being around the human world.
"Next!"
Danny pulled himself out of his mind and stepped up to the empty station, finding himself looking up at the dark skinned bald man. "Hi, I'd like to get a P.O. Box, please," Danny said, handing the man the form he had filled out. He kept the identification papers in his hands as he looked at the man's name tag to see it read Kashan.
"Can I see your ID?" Kashan asked, his voice deep.
"I've only got copies," Danny admitted, handing over the papers as the man's voice hit something in the back of his mind. He looked closer at the man's face, noticing a small scar right above the man's work shirt on his neck as memories came flashing back. "That's who you are," Danny said, more to himself as the man stopped with his hand grabbing the papers Danny had added to the desk. Danny looked up at the man and asked, "What happened to the Guys in White, Operative K?"
"The Guys in White?" Kashan echoed, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, you know, you're always trying to catch me," Danny pointed out, hoping the job he was doing would keep him safe from the GIW operative.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kashan said, shaking his head as he looked down at the papers Danny had handed him.
"Kashan, why don't you go find this man his keys," a woman said as a woman taller than him stepped up behind him. She turned her dark eyes on Danny and asked, "Mr. Phantom, can I have a word with you at the door over there?"
Danny looked towards where she was pointing and saw a door labeled Employees Only, turning back to give the dark skinned woman a nod of his head. He stepped over to the door, passing the older man that had made the comment in line, and stopped at the door only for it to open and the tall woman to be standing there.
"I'm sorry about this, but please don't bring up anything about the GIW anymore," the woman offered in a hushed voice.
"So he is Operative K," Danny said, feeling validated.
"Yes, he was," the woman offered. "I'm sorry, my name is Maya Jackson. I used to be Operative M, leading officer of the Amity Park/Emerton branch. Shortly after the beginning of the year we were ordered to close down operations. Our operatives were ordered to have their minds wiped and sent out into a type of witness protection we had set in place for retirees. This program wasn't designed for someone of Oper-Kashan's age, I'm afraid."
"You wiped his mind?" Danny asked, not fully surprised they were capable of that.
"We've given him a second chance," Maya informed. "Please accept my apologies for what all Operatives K and O did to you, but please do not remind him of his past. He doesn't remember it himself anymore."
Danny took a moment, taking in the idea that the GIW were closed down. "Is all branches of the Guys in White closed?"
"Order 26, all Guys in White branches must be terminated by the first of July," Maya informed, nodding her head. She gave him a smile and added, "Because of you during the Disasteroid, government officials called for us to be closed."
"And you got to keep your memory?" Danny asked, confused why Kashan couldn't remember his past.
"A few select operatives got to keep their memory and help those who were slated for decommissioning to adjust to their new lives," Maya informed. "Those, like me, were already on the side that ghosts deserved better treatment."
"Thanks, I think," Danny said, remembering the last time he had seen a large group of the white clad officers as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Found them, Mrs. Jackson," Kashan said as the man walked up behind the door.
Maya turned and smiled at the man. "Thank you, Kashan," she said as she took the papers and keys from him. She gave a look at the papers before handing them and the keys to Danny. "Here you go, Mr. Phantom. You now have box number 72. Thank you for using your local post office."
Danny gave the woman a look before turning back to the Operative turned post officer. He forced a smile on, for the sake of giving the man the second chance he was on, and said, "Thank you. Have a good day."
"You too," Kashan wished.
Danny turned around, checking he got all of his papers back before looking at the key. He walked over to the half of the post office dedicated to the little gray boxes and found his, testing the key as he finally realized he no longer had to worry about the Guys in White. A type of relief washed over him as he closed back up the box and pocketed both the paper work and the keys before flying up and through the ceiling.
He floated up above the buildings and turned towards the water way where the office building sat across from Axion Labs, flying in that direction. In no time he made it within the area he knew they watched but kept himself visible. The closer to the building he got the more a worry built up inside him, wondering if the woman at the post office had lied to him, but couldn't figure out a reason why she would have. If it was a trap, it was a weird one. Not too weird for them, but still weird enough.
He came up to the five story office building and flew through the front doors, keeping himself visible to the world as he dropped to his feet in their empty lobby. He quickly took notice of dead plants sitting wilted in their pots by the door, chairs pushed up against a wall to clear the floor. He stepped up to the receptionist's desk, looking for any sign of life, only to see any electronics that might have been there had been stripped from the desk.
Passing the desk, he walked through an open doorway to see the start of offices, remembering their first floor masqueraded as a typical office space. He flew downwards into the basement, where he remembered they kept prisoners. He had been lucky enough to only see the space once before, when he dropped off Freakshow. He flew below the ceiling for the basement and found the space almost empty of everything. The chamber that had held Lidia was gone, the electronics used for a number of things he didn't want to think about were gone. Only a dividing wall still stood, blocking part of the room off. He found a few papers littered on the floor, dropping to his feet beside them to lean down and pick up one only to see it was a print out of a calendar for June. Written on the Saturday that was July first was someone's handwritten note just stating Leave.
He rose back up, letting the paper fall back to the ground with the other pages of someone's printed out calendar, and gave another look around the abandoned basement. He floated upwards and through the ceiling, slowly going up each floor only to find more of the same. He stopped on the fifth floor, standing in what he guessed might have been a server room for their computers with the brackets and wires left behind, as he rested his hands on his hips.
"They really are gone," Danny said into the empty air. He looked down at his feet and asked, "Than why doesn't that make me feel any better?"
AN: the layout of the building is a little nod back to my Danny Phantom/Code Lyoko crossover. Go give it a read, its Phantom Virus.
