Chapter 6

Act 1: Containment

The second he was out in the hall, everything blurred. Was it another drug? It must have been. He hadn't even felt the stick of a needle. Maybe he didn't care enough to feel it.

He felt himself being shuffled around. Hard surface removed underneath him, replaced by another. Restraints removed and replaced elsewhere. Voices in his ear and across the room, close and crisp, far and echoed. All without meaning. Danny wasn't sure how much time was passing. Seconds felt like minutes, hours felt like seconds. It was disturbing.

When the world around him unblurred, he noticed the restraints weren't in the normal places. The ones on ankles were still there, but the one normally strapped across his chest was absent, and the ones on his wrists had moved to his elbows. He saw the maniac poised in front of him with a tray of neatly organized surgery tools.

Danny felt his heart beating harder in his chest, and he suppressed the quickening breaths tied to it. He refused to give the maniac the satisfaction of knowing how he was making him feel. "I see you're finally breaking out those toys you were so excited about."

The maniac smirked as he stared at Danny with studying eyes. "Try and hide it all you want with that brave front. I see through you. You are afraid. And I see the evil that writhes just beneath that child-like façade."

"The only evil in here is you, and you don't even bother to hide it." Danny hissed through his teeth.

He let out a dry laugh. "I've spent hours poring over the results of the data you have provided and with every passing minute, I am more confused than the one before."

"How do you even do that when you're so busy torturing me?"

"I manage. Perhaps the answers I seek will soon be revealed." He picked up a scalpel and before Danny could comprehend it, there was a large, deep slice down the middle of his chest. Danny looked at it, at first wondering if it was even real. Ectoplasm oozed from the wound and he could see his sternum exposed in a way that he never should have seen. He felt sick. Sick until the wave of pain sliced through him. Everything after that was pure agony.

"Astonishing," the maniac said as he leaned in to look at what the cut revealed. He grabbed a retractor and opened the incision wider, making Danny's scream intensify. He cut again and Danny felt more waves of pain, somehow more painful than the last. The maniac kept mumbling in awe about what he observed, but each new comment brought more pain.

"Subject EE0626, dissection entry one. Subject has an unrivaled healing factor, even amongst ecto-entities. Small wounds close within minutes."

The maniac came at Danny again, scalpel in hand.

"Get that thing away from me!" Danny shouted as he struggled against the restraints.

He chuckled darkly. "Why should I? I'm hardly in any danger from the likes of you."

A surge of hatred raged through him, and Danny imagined cutting him into pieces with his own scalpel or beating him to a pile of pulp like he'd done to the ghosts. He wanted to destroy him.

The man tilted his head as he looked at him, then began speaking into the recorder again. "Subject EE0626, dissection entry two. Subject's eyes changed to a bright red color. I have only observed them change to blue for ice powers. What power does red signify, I wonder?"

Danny felt his mind reel back in to himself. He had red eyes? How was that possible? Danny couldn't take too much time to think as he saw the maniac grab the bone saw, whirring it to life in his hand. He writhed against the restraints as his eyes locked onto the saw in abject horror as the maniac brought it towards his chest. Danny shut his eyes tightly, then let out a deafening shriek as he felt the saw cutting through his ribs. He could feel the maniac rooting around inside him, examining everything, and each movement sent a wave of pain through him.

"Subject EE0626, dissection entry three. Subject has all landmarks seen in human anatomy, from major organs down to blood vessels. A perfect replication."

The maniac spent hours cutting into Danny, each cut causing another screech to rip from his lungs. There had been so many that Danny's screams were no more than raspy wheezes anymore. The more the maniac cut into him, the more drained Danny became. His screams morphed into weak moans until Danny didn't have the energy left to make any noise at all. He wondered if he was close to death. Was this what it felt like? He felt his body wanting to change back to his human form, but with what little strength Danny had left, he held on to his ghost form. He'd never been this severely wounded in his ghost form before, and he didn't want to find out what would happen if he were to change back.

"Subject EE0626, dissection entry four. Subject has lost a considerable amount of ectoplasm yet is still functioning, albeit sluggishly. It seems Dr. Fenton's theory about this subject's power coming from more than one source may have some credence."

Danny heard the clatter of the metal instrument hitting the metal tray and the maniac finally stopped cutting into him. Danny lay frozen on the table, too afraid to move, as the maniac strode out of the room. His entire body trembled, both from the pain and shock. His senses were on high alert, and every little noise made him twitch. He looked down at his abdomen to see the gaping wound oozing green with ectoplasm, adding to the endless slick beneath him. Danny lifted his quaking hands and he placed them around the wound, trying to keep his insides from spilling out. Every breath he took was torturous, but he couldn't stop the shaking, panicked breathing. He couldn't look away from the mess the maniac had made of him as he tore out his organs in search of answers. Danny felt the acidic sting in the back of his throat as he retched at the sight, but he couldn't look away. He wasn't sure how he could heal from damage this severe.

Danny heard running footsteps coming down the hall towards the room, then the door opened again and Danny's shaking intensified. His eyes darted towards the door to see his mom standing there, mouth agape. She walked towards him, taking slow, deliberate steps until she was standing over the table.

"What on earth has he done to you?"

Danny looked up at her, eyes wild with fear locked onto her. He tried to speak, but all of the screaming had caused his voice to seize. When he tried again, he could only squeak out a raspy, barely audible, "Help. Please."

Her face contorted into an expression of heartbreak as she nodded. "I'll be back." She turned on her heel and stomped out of the room with determination.

Danny's head fell back onto the table as his shuddering breaths became silent sobs and hot tears flowed down the sides of his face.

Danny woke up with a start, not having realized he'd fallen asleep. His heart was racing in his chest and he looked franticly around the room for whatever had caused him to wake up. There was nothing. He was still alone and strapped to the table with his arms gripping his abdomen. He looked down at the wound to see that it had healed considerably while he'd been asleep. Everything had closed and the only sign that there had been any damage at all was the series of scrapes all across his chest and stomach. Danny could still feel the internal damage, but it wasn't anywhere near the pain from before. How long it had taken for his body to heal this much? How long had he been asleep? Where was his mom?

Danny heard the door open again, and when he saw the maniac standing there, his body began shaking uncontrollably. His eyes darted away, as if the sight of him repelled them. It was like his body physically wouldn't allow it, even if he had wanted to.

The maniac smirked. "Finally, an appropriate reaction. Not an asinine quip."

Danny couldn't respond. He just wanted it to be over. All of it. He was tired of the torture, tired of the pain, tired of the mind games. He didn't even know who he was anymore. His mom's words echoed in his mind. He was Danny Phantom. Hero of Amity Park. He was a hero. He had to hang on to that.

"Well, I'm sure you're just as anxious as I am to continue," he said. He grabbed one of the scalpels and stalked towards Danny like a predator. He shut his eyes tightly. Whatever was going to happen, he didn't want to have to see it.

The closer he heard the maniac's footsteps get, the more Danny shook. He couldn't fight back or struggle. He couldn't speak. All he could do was lay there and take whatever Dr. Maniac decided to do. He was powerless.

The scalpel had just touched Danny's throat when he heard the door open.

"Leave him alone!" he heard his mom shout as she rushed over. Danny heard a hard whack, and the maniac screamed. The scalpel bounced a couple times, then slid across the concrete floor.

"You! What do you think you're doing? You broke my hand!"

"I'm doing what I should've done a lot sooner," she said, anger thick on her voice. Danny looked over and saw her standing between him and the maniac with a Fenton rod. He made a move to get closer, but his mom swung at him again, hitting him in the torso so hard he fell to the ground, gasping from having the wind knocked out of his lungs. She whipped around and began undoing Danny's restraints.

"Sorry it took me so long to come back. There were some loose ends I had to tie up," she said, then pulled out the remote to Danny's collar and unlocked it.

Danny sat up and she put her hands on his shoulders, looking him directly in the eyes. "We don't have much time, so I have to say this fast. There's an elevator down the hall on your right that isn't protected by ectoranium. Fly up the elevator shaft until you reach the top set of doors. That's the ground floor. There will be a security station nearby—" As she was speaking, an alarm began sounding. Danny and his mom both looked over to see that the maniac had activated a switch near the door. She turned back to Danny. "If you follow the hallway after the security station, it will lead directly to the reception desk and main entrance. That's your way out. Go!"

"But what about you? I can—"

"I have my own way out. Leave that to me. Just worry about you. Go home, Phantom."

Danny hesitated for a second, then nodded and disappeared as he followed her directions. He found the elevator, phased through the doors, and raced to the top. The alarm became quieter as he flew higher. It must have just been on the floor he was on. Danny hoped the rest of the building didn't know about it. It took him a while to reach the top, even going as fast as he was. They'd had him deep underground. He phased through the doors, making sure to stay invisible, and looked around the empty hallway. He heard echoes of voices coming from his right. Stationed security guards, maybe? That had to be the direction he needed to go. He flew through the hallway, hearing the voices getting louder. He turned a corner and found the security station was, but there was little room to get through it. There was a giant metal detector, almost like the ones at a TSA checkpoint at the airport, though he guessed it wasn't for detecting metal. It was so big that it covered the entire hallway, except for a very small gap between it and the ceiling. That ought to be big enough. He floated carefully over to it, then tested to see if the machine itself was a material he could phase through, but as soon as he touched it, the machine buzzed loudly. The staff stationed in the hall walked over to it.

"What set it off?" one of the men asked.

"I'm not sure. These things just go off for no reason sometimes," the other one said as he scratched his head.

"Yeah, but isn't that only when someone's going through? I've never seen it just go off like that."

The first one shrugged.

Danny held his breath and made himself as flat as possible, stretching himself until he could fit through the gap without touching the machine. Once he got through, he sped through the hallway but stopped when he heard the alarm beginning to blare. The staff below him scrambled as they followed whatever protocol they were supposed to do. They must have realized he wasn't on that floor anymore. Danny shook his head. He couldn't think about it. He continued through the winding hallway until he got to the reception desk and saw the exit. His eyes widened as he saw the outside through the glass doors for the first time in what felt like forever. He made a beeline for it, easily phasing through the first set of doors, but when he tried going through the doors that led outside, he smashed hard into a ghost-shield.

"No," Danny whispered as dread filled his chest, making his heart jump into his throat. He pushed against the unmoving force-field, then started hitting it. "No!" Escape was a pane of glass away from him! He had to get out! This couldn't be what stood between him and freedom. He took a deep breath to calm himself. He couldn't get worked up now. There was still a way out of this. The roof. There had to be a transmitter there. But could he get to it? This whole place was littered with ectoranium. He looked behind him, seeing the workers inside still running around like chickens with their heads cut off, then he realized this part of the building was just an outcrop from the rest of the building. Would they have really lined this part of the ceiling with ectoranium? Danny floated up and put his hand to the ceiling panel, pushing it through with no resistance, then grinned when he phased through it and followed the force-field up to the roof of the building, making a conscious effort to remain invisible. There were probably cameras up here and he didn't need agents ambushing him up here.

He looked around the expansive roof for the source of the ghost-shield, but couldn't see anything he recognized in the mess of equipment. It was like they made it as cluttered as they could up here to hide it better. Considering all of the underground levels and the machinery he'd experienced, all of this might have actually been necessary, though he could only guess at what he hadn't seen. He floated around, looking at all the large pieces of equipment, trying to figure out what everything was. HVAC units, air vents, plumbing vents, solar panels, satellite dishes, antennas, there were even a few water tanks. They could have camouflaged the ghost-shield transmitter into anything up here. Should he just destroy it all? The only way to do that quickly would be to use his ghostly wail, and he wasn't sure he had the energy to use it. It wouldn't do him much good to destroy the shield just to pass out up here for them to find. He wanted to hinder their operation and destroy everything he was looking at, but at the same time, he didn't particularly want them to know he was up here. He'd only use his wail if he had to. Danny had to be careful about this. If this shield was anything like his parents' ghost-shield, the dome would lead to the transmitter. Danny flew up until he was touching the top of the shield and began following the arc to what felt like the center. He descended to a nondescript box with a thin antenna and attempted to phase his hand through it. He couldn't. This had to be what he was looking for, but how should he destroy it?

Danny thought back to when he was testing what powers he could use in the cube, the first time the maniac had shocked him. He was about to use his cryokinesis. Maybe Dr. Maniac had stopped him because it would have worked? He focused on the chill in his core and let out a frigid breath. He heard the metal groaning at the sudden temperature change as frost grew in delicate spikes all around it. That ought to do it. Danny kicked down hard on the box and it shattered into pieces, along with everything inside it.

Danny flew high into the sunny sky and did a few loops and spins, his chest swelling with excitement.

He was free. Danny was finally free.

Author's Comments:

Well there you have it! He's finally out of the GIW's clutches! What will happen to him now? How will he deal with his newly acquired trauma? Tune in next time to find out!

White Lie will be on a short hiatus as I polish the next few upcoming chapters for Act 2: Aftermath.

Thank you for reading, and I'll be back soon!