Danny shivered as he walked through the rain. His pajamas clung to his body as he made his way through the carnival. How he had gotten here, he had no idea, but he needed to get home. As he was about to turn ghost, he heard a faint giggle in the distance.
Turning around, he tried to look for where the sound came from, but no one was here. He was all alone.
"I see you." A childish voice echoed through the night, and out of the darkness came the owner of it.
Danny gasped. It was a clown who was laughing nonstop. Backing away, he heard footsteps and turned around to see another clown on stilts walking toward him.
Remembering that clowns could be trouble due to his encounter with one before, he booked it, only to encounter another one. Only this clown was not on stilts. He was just that inhumanly large as he smirked down at him. The monstrous abomination was then joined by two others.
They all laughed as Danny was frightened for a moment before turning ghost. He fired his ghost ray at them, which caused them to finally stop laughing and retreat. Now alone, the ghostly X-Man watched as the rain stopped and he found himself in a desert.
"What the hell?" He said to himself. Trekking through the sand, he soon came across some water, and when he bent down to get some, he gasped at his reflection.
He was far older now, a young man in his twenties. His skin was dark, and he had gold armbands on him. He was shirtless, as the only thing he wore on his upper half was a golden necklace. On his lower half, he had a shendyt and some sandals.
As he was examining his new appearance, he was blinded by a bright light. Shielding his eyes, he couldn't help but notice a figure in the light. A very well-built figure.
"How ironic fate can be." The figure boomed in a loud voice that displayed power. "You sealed me away, and now your descendant will be a pawn in my release."
Before Danny could utter a single word, the light increased in intensity, blinding him as he fell unconscious. But before he fell under, he heard the figure say one last thing.
"I will have my revenge on you, my old enemy."
"Danny?" Rogue called out as she was looking for her boyfriend. She wasn't the only one, because as soon as she found out her boyfriend was missing, everyone was trying to find him.
The students were wandering all over the lawn in their search for him. Rogue was heading to the garage when Kitty phased out.
"His moped is still in there, along with all the other cars." Kitty told her.
"Where could he be?" Rogue asked, feeling anxious about him. "It isn't like him to just disappear without telling anyone."
"We'll find him, Rogue; don't worry." Kitty assured her.
Rogue decided to go back to his room to see if there were any clues to where he had gone.
"Find anything?" She asked Scott and the professor, who were there searching.
Scott shook his head. "Nothing."
Xavier noticed a jack-in-the-box on Danny's dresser. "And this jack-in-the-box." He picked it up. "I wonder if it has any significance."
"What, that?" Rogue asked. "It's nothing. Danny won it at the carnival last week." She looked out the window. "What could've happened to him?" She then got an idea. Who would be responsible for Danny's appearance?
"Plasmius!" She shouted, making the two jump. "He must have kidnapped Danny." Angry that the older half-ghost had stolen her man, she turned ghost. "That lousy cheesehead! I'll tear him apart!" She started to march out the door. "Let's go get him back!"
"Now, hold on, Rogue." Xavier stopped her. "We don't know it's him."
Rogue gave him an incredulous look. "Professor, he's always been after Danny. How could he not be the culprit? It's just like him to abduct my boyfriend and not leave any trace at all."
"I understand, Rogue." Xavier sympathized. "But until we're one hundred percent sure it's him, I don't want to risk aggravating him. So please, stand down."
Rogue sighed as she turned back to her human form. "Fine." Her eyes then glowed with suppressed rage. "But whoever kidnapped him, I'm gonna rip him a new one."
Scott shivered at Rogue's threat. "I hate to be whoever that person is right now." He whispered to the professor.
Xavier nodded in agreement. "Indeed."
Beast then came into the room. "We've combed the mansion." He said regretfully. "I'm afraid there's no sign of him."
"Then sometime during the night, Danny simply vanished." Xavier said, worrying about his student.
As everyone kept trying to locate Danny, Xavier had Logan sniff around the mansion, and the X-Man confirmed that Vlad wasn't responsible as there was no scent for the older half-ghost.
However, instead of reassuring everyone, it only made them more troubled. If Plasmius didn't take him, then who did? While everyone continued to look around town, Hank was down below on a computer looking through various newspaper sources when Rogue and Xavier came down.
"Hank, how's your progress?" Xavier asked.
Hank sighed. "Nothing yet. I've begun scanning news and police sources for the entire East Coast. What about Cerebro? Pick anything up?"
"No." Xavier answered. "Cerebro doesn't work on him."
"Pardon me?" Beast said in surprise. "Did you say it doesn't work on Danny?"
"It doesn't." Xavier told him.
Rogue raised an eyebrow at that. "Then how were you able to find him?"
"It's odd." Xavier replied. "Cerebro only managed to pick up his trail once; that was what led me to meeting him for the first time." He remembered meeting him at an abandoned warehouse, where he took refuge. "Conveniently enough, he was in the Bayville area, but as soon as I brought him here, Cerebro had never been able to detect him again." He folded his hands in contemplation. "I theorized that it was a result of his mutation protecting him."
Rogue hummed in thought. "But you've been able to detect me, though, and I have his powers."
Xavier simply shrugged. "I don't have an answer for that."
"Strange." Beast commented. "But I hope that wherever he is, he isn't in danger."
As the day continued, the X-Men continued to look for Danny. Scott rode his car across town in search of his friend, with Jean riding beside him.
"Duncan, have you seen Danny at all?" She asked her boyfriend over the phone. "Have you heard anything about him at all?" Hearing his mocking of Danny, she hung up. "No word from him."
"I don't know why you called him." Scott said. "We both know Danny would stay far away from him."
"I know." Jean replied. "But it doesn't hurt to ask." She then dialed another number. ""Taryn, hi. Listen, have you seen Danny around?"
The others were all searching. Evan was talking with the police about putting out a missing person report. Rogue was flying over Bayville in ghost form while invisible.
Kitty was at the Brotherhood house asking them if they had seen Danny, but things got hostile when Lance thought she was accusing him of Danny's disappearance.
"Oh, relax, Lance!" Kitty yelled as she phased through the door. "I never said you guys kidnapped him! Sheesh. As if one of you hadn't tried to hurt him before." She said sarcastically, referring to his first meeting with Blob.
While Kitty was heading back home, Kurt teleported in the middle of the football field to search for Danny, to no avail.
Back at the institute, the elevator that led to the halls to the Danger Room opened, and Bobby stuck his head out.
"Clear." He told his friends. Now, with no one watching, Bobby, Sam, Berserker, and Jubilee made their way to the Danger Room.
"We really ought to be out looking for Jean with the others." Jubilee said to them.
"Hey, last I heard, we're supposed to have class." Berserker reminded them.
"Yeah, but without an instructor?" Sam brought up.
"When has that ever stopped us?" Bobby pressed the button as the door to the Danger Room opened. "Today's lesson: the Danger Room."
"Hey, guys, wait up!" Jamie ran around the corner before tripping, causing him to make a few duplicates. "Nobody told me we were having a session here." He said as his duplicates helped him up before vanishing.
"Wow. What an oversight." Berserker mocked. "Imagine that. Forget it, Multiple." He told the youngest mutant. "You can't handle the Danger Room."
"No way!" Jamie refused to be left out. "If you can, I can."
Jubilee blocked him from entering. "Sorry, Jamie. We're just more experienced at this stuff than you." She closed the door, locking him out.
"Aw!" He whined before he left angrily.
"Yeah, he was in here." A train clerk said to Logan when the man showed him a picture of Danny.
"When?" Logan demanded.
"About four this morning." The clerk answered. "Bought a ticket to Boston."
With this information, Logan headed back to the institute to tell the others. Hank was using this information to find any leads from Boston when he spotted something. "It's confirmed." He informed Xavier, Logan, Scott, and Rogue, who were in the room. "He's in Boston."
"How do you know?" Rogue asked him.
"I found an article about a socialite who claimed they had been robbed." Beast explained. "Police report that there was no sign on entry and no security cameras caught any footage of a perpetrator. Anyone else you know who can turn invisible and phase through stuff?"
"What was stolen?" Xavier inquired.
"Just a small golden ring." Beast replied as the computer showed the image of the golden ring, which had a red gem on top of it.
"Doesn't matter what's been taken." Rogue said, glad to have found a lead on her man. "The jet's prepped. Let's go." She was about to leave when Xavier called out to her.
"There's no point." He said. "After stealing that ring, he obviously would have left."
"Man, what is going on with him?" Scott wondered. "This doesn't make any sense."
Rogue then realized what was going on. Danny vanishing out of nowhere, using his powers to steal, could only mean one thing.
"Mind control!" She blurted out, making the other look at her funny.
"Mind control?" Scott repeated.
"Yeah. It's happened to him before." Rogue remembered the time Danny told her about that clown who took control of him. "And when he was mind-controlled, he was forced to commit various robberies. So it's pretty clear it's happening again."
The others thought this over.
"But who's the one controlling him?" Xavier asked.
"The last time it was a clown named Freakshow." Rogue revealed. "It could be him again."
Beast started typing. "According to this, Freakshow, or Frederich Isak Showenhower, is still in prison."
"So it's someone else." Scott realized. "But who?"
"The hell if I know." Rogue said. "But I'll find him, no matter what." She vowed.
"Rogue's right, Scott." Xavier agreed. "But we simply must wait for another lead."
As the group continued to discuss, they were unaware of a small bug drone that happened to resemble a certain evil half-ghost watching them.
Vlad watched the mutants talk as he pondered this new development. Someone had taken control of Daniel. It was clear what needed to be done. He must find out how and see if he can replicate it. If not, then whoever was controlling Daniel must be eliminated.
Back in the Danger Room, the four mutants were being held in the air by metal tentacles that were spinning them around.
"This is going well!" Jubilee jeered as she tried to use a firework to break out, but it wouldn't budge.
"All the other X-Men make it look so easy." Sam pointed out.
"Come on. We can do this." Bobby tried to instill confidence in everyone else. "Everyone combine your powers on mine first." He froze the tentacle as Ray and Jubilee fired their respective powers at it, breaking him free as he fell to the ground. He landed on his feet as he shot a beam of ice at the tentacle holding Ray. "Now Berserker's." They repeated the same thing, freeing Ray, then Sam, and finally Jubilee.
"Yeah. That was cake!" Ray cheered as he high-fived Sam. "We rule!"
"What are you talking about?" Jubilee felt they had nothing to brag about. "I'm totally chafed!" Deciding enough was enough, she turned to leave. "Class dismissed. I'm out of here!" She pressed the button next to the door, but instead of opening, another set of doors closed, locking them in. "Hey, what gives?"
A panel on the wall opened up, revealing a flamethrower, while a pair of turrets appeared along with a group of spider drones that surrounded the mutants.
"Uh, I think we got some extra credit coming our way." Bobby said.
Up above in the observatory deck, Jamie was messing around with the Danger Room. He chuckled evilly as he rubbed his hands together like a supervillain.
A couple minutes later, the doors finally opened as the four limped out. They were all bruised and battered, with parts of their uniforms torn off. As they rested against the wall, Jamie came up to them and gave them an arrogant smile.
"So, still think it was cake?" He taunted.
"You did this?" Bobby snarled as they all glared at him.
"Let's get him!" Ray cried out.
"Oh." Jamie said before screaming as he ran away. The four were about to chase him, but they were too exhausted.
"We'll get him tomorrow." Jubilee promised as they all went the other way.
"Yeah." Sam agreed. "Tomorrow's good."
Rogue couldn't sleep as she lay on her bed. How could she when her boyfriend could be anywhere? They had no leads on where he would show up next or any idea of who was doing this to him.
"If only there was a way I could find you." She muttered.
"Use the link." A voice whispered.
Rogue darted her eyes around the room. "Who said that?" There was no answer as she was all alone, with the exception of a sleeping Kitty.
"Use the link." The voice repeated. Rogue listened to it; it was faint, but it was feminine.
"Who's there?" She demanded.
"Use the link."
'Link.' Rogue thought. 'What the hell does that mean?' It then hit her. Her telepathic link to Danny. She could use it to locate him.
Closing her eyes and putting her hands on her head, she tried to connect her mind to Danny's. As she concentrated, she could see bits and pieces. She could see a face with strange markings looking straight at her. There were also images of another ring. And she thought she saw the outside of a bank in a city. As she was able to look around the city, she recognized it. She had been there before. It was New York.
He was going to be in New York.
Jumping out of bed, she woke up the professor and told him what she had seen. In her excitement, she completely forgot about the voice in her head.
"I saw the guy's face and a ring, and the ring was in a bank in New York City." She explained as she, Xavier, and Beast were in the computer room.
"Another ring. This one in New York City." Xavier muttered as Rogue allowed him into her mind to see what she witnessed. "We'll have to send someone there to intercept Danny when he tries to steal it."
With that, Rogue, along with Wolverine, who was informed about their new intel, boarded the Blackbird as they headed toward New York.
An alley cat was trying to find its dinner when it felt someone approaching it. Screeching, the cat fled as the mind-controlled Danny walked over to the Township Bank. Using his powers of invisibility and intangibility, he walked through the entrance with no security cameras spotting him. However, if he had paid attention, he would've noticed that the cameras had all been destroyed.
Spotting the vault door, he phased through it and soon found the ring. As he took it, an ecto-blast hit him in the side, launching him through the door as he became visible. As the dazed phantom looked over to see where the blast came from, he was Rogue, who was in ghost form, and Wolverine became visible. The two had been waiting for him to show up, and now it was time to bring Danny home.
"Danny, whatever has happened to you, snap out of it." Rogue pleaded. "It's me, Rogue!"
Danny merely stared at them before firing an ecto-blast, which the two dodged.
"Come on, Danny." Wolverine tried to reason. "It's us. We don't want to hurt you."
Ignoring their pleas, Danny flew over and punched Wolverine, sending him through the window. He then turned around to assess the other threat. He fired a ghost ray at her, but Rogue blocked it with a shield she made.
"Danny, please!" Rogue dodged a kick he sent. "We just want to bring you home."
His only response was to turn invisible, leaving Rogue with no clue on how to find him.
Wolverine then raced in, only to find Danny was gone. As they were about to head back to the Blackbird, they saw it take off as Danny piloted it to his next destination, leaving the two X-Men stranded.
"This is starting to get me seriously upset!" Wolverine grumbled in irritation.
At the computer, Beast had found some info on the rings that were stolen.
"There are three of them." He told Xavier. "Tibetan artifacts. Early Han Dynasty, if I'm not mistaken. The first was a family relic to the socialite, while the second ring was kept in a safety-deposit box in the Township Bank."
"Until now." Xavier said. "Where's the third?"
"Still looking." Beast said as he did more research.
"I'll see what I can find about the person orchestrating all this." Xavier said as he made his way to Cerebro. Using the computer, he managed to form a picture of the face he saw in Rogue's head. As he was about to try and see if he could match a name to the face, Jean walked in and saw the supposed hypnotist.
"Is that the guy you saw in Rogue's head?" Jean asked, as she thought that it looked familiar.
"It is." Xavier confirmed. "Now, I'll have Cerebro scan its mutant profile to find a match."
As Jean examined it, she recognized it. "Wait a minute. I know that face. Follow me."
She led the professor to Danny's room, where she wound up the jack-in-the-box, and out came the face of the culprit. "The mind-bending Mesmero." She revealed. "He was in Bayville last week with the Circus of Mystery."
"Then we need to attend their next engagement." Xavier said as he looked into the face of the person responsible for all this.
Beast then appeared in the doorway. "Professor, the last remaining ring? It resides in Washington, D.C., at the Museum of Eastern Antiquities."
At the Museum of Eastern Antiquities, a security guard was patrolling the area when Danny passed by him. Intangible and invisible, he passed through all the security defenses and took the third and final ring for himself. With his business concluded, he flew back to the Blackbird, which he parked on top of a nearby building, and set course for Bayville.
It was time to give his master the final ring.
While Danny was heading back home, the XM-Velocity arrived in New York to pick up Rogue and Wolverine.
"About time." Wolverine greeted briskly. "We aren't exactly dressed for socializing with the general public."
"That's okay." Beast replied. "We'll all fit in right at the circus."
"Circus?" Rogue asked curiously.
"The professor found out that Mesmero from the carnival was the one who took control of Danny." Beast explained.
"That circus freak is going down." Rogue made her hands glow green with energy. He was going to pay for kidnapping her boyfriend.
The stolen Blackbird touched down at the abandoned carnival. Danny exited the jet and appeared in front of the tent that his master was waiting in. Before he could go in, he heard the sound of helicopter blades and turned to his right to see the XM-Velocity.
Cyclops spotted him as he flew over. "There he is."
"Try to keep him occupied." Xavier ordered the X-Men. "I've got an appointment with a mutant named Mesmero."
The helicopter landed as all the X-Men unbuckled their seatbelts and prepared to fight their teammate in order to help him.
"I don't like this; he's our friend." Shadowcat said, not too keen on fighting one of her friends.
"We just gotta subdue him." Wolverine told her. "No one has to get hurt."
"Yeah?" Cyclops replied skeptically as he saw Danny move over to them slowly. "Tell that to him."
As the X-Men stood ready, Xavier rolled off to go confront the mastermind of all this.
Rain soon fell as Beast took a charge at Danny and wrestled the ghost to the ground.
"Come on, Danny!" He urged. "Don't fight me!"
Beast was thrown off as Spyke fired several spikes at the hybrid, who caught them with his telekinesis, turned them around, and threw them back at Spyke, pinning him to a wall.
The ghostly X-Man then jumped to the side to dodge some of Rogue's ecto-blasts.
"Don't make this harder than it has to be." Rogue warned him, but Danny merely ignored her as he grabbed her arm and flung her into a stand. He then moved out of the way of an optic blast sent by Cyclops before grabbing him, ripping off his visor, and pointing his laser at the other X-Men who ran for cover.
"Danny!" Cyclops cried before he was dropped to the ground.
His hand glowing green, he prepared to fire on his friends when he was blasted in the back, sending him to the ground.
As Rogue and Wolverine went over to inspect their fallen comrade, they were greeted with Plasmius appearing at his side.
"Ah, the X-Men." Plasmius greeted. "I should've expected to see you. This is a circus, after all."
"Plasmius!" Rogue growled. "What do you want?"
Plasmius grabbed the unconscious Danny. "Just to take back what's mine." He was then blasted a few feet away by Rogue.
"You're not getting him!" She shouted as she flew in and punched the half-ghost.
Getting up, Plasmius couldn't help but admit that Rogue had skill. "Well, you're quite a feisty one, aren't you?" He grabbed her ankle as she tried to attack him with a flying kick before swinging her away. "You know, I could teach you more about your powers." A shield appeared in his hand to block a ghost ray she fired at him. "I have experience, Rogue. Much more than your boyfriend does."
"Forget it, creep!" Rogue refused as she made a shield to protect herself from the ghost ray he fired.
"Impressive." Her foe complimented. "He's taught you well. Can you do this?" Three copies of him appeared to try and surround her.
Rogue smirked at him before pointing over his shoulder. "No, but he can!"
Plasmius was hit in the back while his duplicates were destroyed. Turning around, he gasped as he saw four Dannys.
"Daniel!" He couldn't believe the boy had mastered duplication without his help.
Danny tried to stomp Plasmius, who moved out of the way. Still under mind control, he also fired two beams from his eyes at Rogue before being tackled by Plasmius. The two wrestled for a bit before being separated by a blast sent from Rogue.
From there, the three hybrids duked it out as all the X-Men could only watch. Rogue was having trouble as she dueled both her boyfriend and his creepy stalker.
"I could use some help." Rogue called out to the others, who jumped in. Wolverine tried to slash Plasmius, but only fell through him.
"You know, you kind of remind me of Jack." Plasmius said as he kept moving out of Wolverine's attack range. "Both unintelligent, both headstrong." He threw an ecto-blast right into the mutant's chest. "You even wear an orange jumpsuit." He mocked before being pushed by Beast, allowing Logan to send a kick at the half-ghost.
"And you're like Magneto." Wolverine returned. "You never know when to shut up."
Plasmius managed to grab the two mutants in a telekinetic hold before casting them aside. He looked over to see Rogue and the other X-Men fighting Danny.
With a few more ecto-blasts, they were taken out of the fight as the three half-ghosts fought once more.
Mesmero stood outside his tent and chuckled at seeing the fight.
"Mesmero." Behind him, Xavier rolled up to him. "You may be able to control Danny's mind, but can you handle mine?"
The hypnotist started to struggle in pain at Xavier's mental invasion before he was able to throw him out with the help of an outside source.
"You have no idea who you're messing with, Xavier." Mesmero told him as he called upon the help of an outside source as Xavier was knocked out of his chair. "You have no idea."
"Then let's take a look." A duplicate of Plasmius said as he appeared and overshadowed Mesmero, looking within his mind and stealing all the information he could gather. Once he was satisfied, he vanished back to his original.
Mesmero, exhausted by being possessed by Plasmius along with Xavier still trying to enter his mind, lost control of Danny, who fell to the ground as Rogue went over to him.
"Danny, are you okay?" She lifted his chin up to look into his eyes, and to her joy, they were not blank like before.
"Rogue?" He asked. "What happened?" He then saw Plasmius looming over them. "And why is he here?"
"Oh, I was in the neighborhood, and I thought I would stop by." He then smirked at Danny. "Until we meet again, Daniel." Plasmius said before vanishing with a swish of his cape.
"Danny, you're back!" Cyclops said in relief as the other X-Men gathered around him.
"Why are we at the carnival?" Danny asked.
"It's a long story, bub." Wolverine said as they found the downed Xavier and Mesmero.
"Are you all right?" Hank placed him back in his chair. "Did Mesmero hurt you?"
"Not Mesmero, Hank." Xavier told him. "Mesmero was just a puppet like Danny was. There was someone else pulling the strings. A powerful mind."
"What could he possibly want with those rings?" Rogue wondered as she and her boyfriend glared down at the man who caused all this trouble. She was about to fire an ecto-blast at him when Danny stopped her.
"Enough, Rogue." He said before turning to the professor. "What did he want the rings for?"
"From the bits and pieces I managed to gather from his mind, the rings form a key that opens a door. But that's all I know." Xavier said as all the X-Men surrounded Mesmero.
"But there's one thing I don't get." Danny pondered. "If he wanted to open the door and he had me under his control, why didn't he just have me phase him through? I can walk through walls."
All the X-Men looked at each other before looking at Mesmero, who seemed dumbfounded that he didn't think of that easy solution.
He smacked himself in the head. "Why didn't I think of that?" He cried in frustration as he realized that he wasted his time.
In the end, Mesmero was arrested, and the three rings were returned to their respective places.
The X-Men returned home, happy that Danny was back and relieved that Mesmero had been dealt with and that it was finally over.
In Tibet, Plasmius was exploring a mountain when he discovered a small hole. Knowing that this was the entrance to the hidden temple he saw in Mesmero's mind, he entered it. Refusing to spend time admiring the architecture, he made his way over to the door that sealed off the rest of the temple.
"So those three rings form a key?" Plasmius muttered as he contemplated the trouble Mesmero went through to open this one door. "What a waste of time for someone like me." He turned himself intangible. "Let's see what's on the other side." He walked through it to discover the secrets that lay on the other side.