Clockwork's Lair

Ghost Zone

All was right in the time stream. Earth had been saved, and with it the Ghost Zone, with everyone busy returning to normal life. Humanity was busying themselves with cleaning up the aftermath and dealing with the fact that ghosts, once considered an odd paranormal incident to the world, was now a byword of the day as what little masquerade remained was shattered. The Ghost Zone also spent time rebuilding, getting things in order since a brief absence and the actions of a certain almost-fifteen year old individual trying to allow such saving to happen. And now everyone was busy trying to return to normal in spite of a broken masquerade.

And yet, it was the actions of that same boy who broke a masquerade and united a world, however briefly, to a common cause. Clockwork mused as he glided into the rafters of his lair on the proverbial edge of the Ghost Zone, changing from his adult form to baby form. Quiet, obscure, and few if any ghosts had traveled to his domain as he observed all the paths time could take. He focused windows in the rafters to different time periods, the windows swirling with color before becoming clear. "So, young Phantom," Clockwork asked himself rhetorically as he shifted into the form of an old man, "What paths may you take, now that your true self is known? What twists and turns could the parade of time take?" He knew the answers, but he liked to look at it himself with these windows into time.

Some windows showed a hero, one matured by experience and tendered by love. Others showed him a caring father, though who the children were (or if it was a certain 'cousin' adopted under his wing) was known to him yet not shown. Some stories showed a leader, while others showed a loner. Paths branched, branched again, and intertwined at countless junctions. Clockwork grimaced as he saw a familiar timeline in new context in one of the windows, yet one even more terrifying in other ways. Other paths showed him scarred by wars, others where he acted as a force of peace. And some showed him rising up to a new duty, one similar to his old but wider in range, a course Clockwork knew was best for all time. Like all, there were many paths Danny Fenton/Phantom could take, but unlike others he was in a position to drastically change the routes open to the parade.

Clockwork closed the windows into time and floated down, his form shifting back to adult as he sensed a familiar pair of presences approaching his lair, presences who could not understand the vast choices of time. As he reached the ground level, two beings faded into view, identical in all but their voices. Beings who were essentially eyes with a green body wearing white robes and spoke through their natural ghost powers. "Clockwork," the first Observant said, "You are becoming lax in your duties to time."

"Oh? And what breach of the Observant laws have I committed this time?" he asked, floating around them slowly as he again shifted to an infant form. "Acting with non-temporal abilities in the time stream at behest of a friend? Please, while you refused to act in such a dire time, hiding behind your white walls while allowing all others to die for one man's greed, I do not need my knowledge of time to know that that is well within the protocols of temporal displacement, particularly as no displacement occurred."

"No, Clockwork," the second Observant stated, "The fate of the future Phantom which you refused to destroy."

"Ah," the ancient ghost of time said with mock surprise in his voice as he shifted to adult form and floated towards the containment chamber. Behind a green energy shield and shackled in glowing green chains was a strong ghost, a strong phantom. Blue skin, sturdy musculature, and white flaming hair, the distinct trademarks of this deviant ex-hybrid, one all too familiar to Clockwork and the phantom that all were speaking of on Earth, and one of the areas where it was his duty to merge time. "Yes... Dan Phantom. I know what 'violation' you speak of. Allowing him to assimilate into this time stream."

"He is too dangerous," the second Observant said, "You must destroy him now."

"Should he become free, Clockwork, the Observant High Council will not take this lightly." The first Observant added threateningly.

"And what shall you do to me?" Clockwork asked as he shifted to infant form. "Shackle me as a common ghost and try me before your council? Please, we both know that such sentencing is already pushing the limit of your oaths, nor would you be able to do so. The actions you would need to take to bring me to heel?"

"Be reasonable," the first Observant begged, "You cannot allow this foreign matter of the time stream free. He exists outside of time. The ramifications..."

Clockwork shifted into an old man and cut the Observant off, "The ramifications would be no different in effect on the time stream then the creation of half ghosts has already had. No different than the interaction between Ghost Zone and Earth, one which has implications we all foresaw and shall soon become obvious."

"Such as this so-called GCN that the humans are adapting?" the second Observant queried as an image of the network built to save the Earth so short a time ago showed in one of the screens on the ground floor. "You speak of implications, though I suspect that this GCN is one of the lesser impacts you fear... or know of." There was a paused, then the Observant added, "And why you spend so much of your time focusing on that boy."

Clockwork smiled as he shifted into adult form. "At least one of you is learning."

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Chapter One

Casper High; Amity Park

Danny Fenton smiled faintly as he got his lunch from the cafeteria ladies and went to sit down. Gone were the days when he would fear the jocks bullying him on the way to a table, of having to watch out for hidden tripping. Gone was the threat of being shoved into a locker over a slight. Gone were the days of being beaten on because someone got a bad grade and needed a punching bag. Gone were the days of being the rejected one...

... and as he saw Paulina and all the fan girls gathering along the edges of various tables, he suddenly wondered if revealing his identity to the world was the wise choice. In the past, the fans swarming after Danny Phantom could be evaded by simply shifting back to Fenton form and allowing a loser's reputation to be put to good use. Now, they wanted Fenton too and would not let him go. He saw Tucker and Sam sitting towards the far end of the cafeteria and picked up the pace to get there before he got swarmed again. Theoretically, he could avoid them with intangibility and invisibility, but Lancer had been pretty clear about using his powers on school grounds when the place was not actually under attack. Danny was pretty sure Lancer meant well with the quick patch to the school rules; it was a way to keep things somewhat fair and likely to also make sure he did not go too high into the sky from the sudden popularity, particularly in light of how he acted during the beauty pageant where he ended up as judge. It still made his life a lot harder, though, especially with his newfound popularity that he knew was not temporary in nature.

"So," Sam said as Danny took a seat next to her, Tucker sitting across from the two, "the popularity gone to your head yet?"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "What? It's only been two weeks and I'm already mainstream?" Grinning as he reached for his fork, he continued. "Besides, I think they've all realized that I'm not interested in them."

Tucker spoke between bites from his cheeseburger, "Dash is pretty annoyed that they're all after you now."

Sam scowled at him, "Well, if they want to be a herd of sheep fawning over a boy and ditching individuality in favor of his attention, let them."

Danny smirked at her as he swallowed. "So, what does that make us then?"

She paused, raising an eyebrow in confusion before coughing in an attempt to stop a laugh. "Okay, you got me there, but I'm still me. I'm not changing who I am just to get a date, am I?"

"Nope," Tucker said with a smirk, "But then again, you got years... OW!" A misaimed football had hit Tucker in the head, cutting him off. Danny turned and noticed Kwan hurrying over and he swore that the football player had a hint of... was that fear? Well, I suppose finding out the loser you used to pick on was the badass you admired has to break a few bowels, even those as indestructible as his. Danny mused as the jock reached the table.

"I... uh, sorry, Tucker." Kwan glanced nervously at Danny briefly.

The technogeek shook his head as he looked at the football and tossed it back. "Thanks for apologizing."

"Yeah, accidents happen." Danny chimed in, hoping to clear whatever was freaking Kwan out. It seemed to work as Kwan visibly relaxed and nodded to them before walking off. Once Kwan was out of earshot, Danny asked: "So what's with him? He looked like he was ready to use the bathroom."

"He's afraid of payback," a woman two years Danny's senior said as she put her lunch tray on the table next to Tucker. "Learning that your victim was a lot more powerful than you could ever hope to be, especially when you had shoved him into a locker a day prior? It's pretty basic psychology."

Danny raised an eyebrow towards his sister. "I thought you didn't see that, Jazz."

"Nah," she answered, "I overheard Dash talking about it. I don't think they realized how long you've had your powers, Danny."

Sam cut in after swallowing. "Though I'm sure it does answer a lot of questions they had about where you kept disappearing to, like that time you lead the school in boarding Youngblood's ship, or when Dash tried to be a hero to a bunch of girls who wanted to claw your eyes out when you were in the bathroom..."

"Wait, you knew about that?" Tucker asked in confusion as Danny snickered, imagining the looks on everyone's faces as they wondered how he could pull a Houdini so easily. Especially since the boy's bathroom had no access to the air vents large enough for a second grader. He had not considered the hilarity that would ensue, being focused on trying to find and rescue Sam at the time, but when he had time to he really wished he had left a camera to record it.

"Yup," Sam smirked, "There was a pretty big pool on how you pulled it off. No one won, though, and I didn't bet on it since it would of been a pretty big clue."

"Yeah, I'll bet," Danny answered. "But seriously, I'm surprised it took people so long to figure it out. Okay, Dash is a total moron and Valerie could hardly believe the idea of human-ghost hybrids with Danielle, but come on. I didn't exactly hide it well, did I?"

"Well, I needed to see you transform to figure it out." Jazz pointed out. "You tend to give off a completely different persona when you go ghost."

Danny was about to take another bite when his insides chilled and a small wisp of blue breath came out of his mouth. "Speaking of going ghost..." He pushed himself up and turned to see a certain suit of powered up armor hurtling towards the windows. The suit fired several blue bolts at the edges of the windows, which fell outwards as students began screaming in terror. Danny leapt up onto a seat to get a better look as Skulker hovered at the window.

"I told you that you would be a far more valuable prize now that you are a world hero," the cybertronic armored ghost said menacingly as he aimed a wrist blaster at him, "And now that you no longer have a secret identity, I don't have to herd you out of the way to get a good hunt."

"Yep. That's an attack. Going ghost!" Danny shouted as he began shifting his form, white rings appearing around him and spreading from his waist to his head and feet, transforming the human body of flesh and bone to his ghostly form of ectoplasm and an iconic black jumpsuit. Now able to use his powers in full, Danny created a shield of green energy to block Skulker's barrage of energy blasts and reflect them away from the students now hurrying out of the way and sprang forward, his legs disappearing into an indistinguishable tail as he flew towards the hunter and crashed into him, knocking him into the pavement.

"So, how does it feel, ghost boy?" Skulker asked as he punched Danny in the waist with his right hand and knocked him towards the football field. "How does it feel to be the target of many hunts?"

"Wait, I've never been a target before?" Danny retorted, the faint echo his ghost form caused reverberating in every word as he landed and charged a bolt of plasma, firing it out of both hands at Skulker and blasting one of the hunter's jetpack wings away. "Ca'mon, you were one of my first opponents and I was always picked on. I've always been hunted- OOF!" He had taken a rocket to the chest and was blown into the air as Skulker activated a pair of jet boots and soared after him, smashing into him with an uppercut before grabbing Danny's throat.

"Not a hunt to kill or humiliate, a hunt of love. Of making that perfect shot of a million to one..." He never got to finish as Danny focused his cryokinetic powers around his throat and froze Skulker's armor before smashing the right hand and decking Skulker across the face.

"Yeah, well, I already have a girlfriend."

"Wait, wait, time out." Skulker said as he held his hands (or rather, left hand and sparking remains of right hand) out. "I can't believe this."

"What, that I have a girlfriend? Everyone said it was obvious." He asked, raising his eyebrows in disappointment that Skulker had the exact same reaction he had to learning Ember was dating Skulker.

"Well, yeah. You and the Goth girl." Skulker said, "I just can't believe that you finally did it."

"Okay, you got me there. Now, for the reenactment..." Danny brought his fist around, charged with another bolt of plasma and shot it at Skulker's head. The cybernetic ghost tumbled down as Danny pursued him to the ground, muttering to himself as he flew. "I might be bigger prey, but he still can't recover from any..." Then he noticed the armor self repairing, the broken jet pack wing fixing itself and activating in time to move Skulker out of the way. "... wounds." Danny finished before realizing that he was still hurtling with inhuman speed towards the field and crashed head first into it. Disoriented as he pushed himself up and glad that he could not break his neck in Phantom form, he noticed a large green blade extending itself in front of his neck. "Oh... great."

"Game over, whelp," Skulker said when a pink energy blast stuck him in the face and blew him backwards. Danny turned to see a familiar black and red jet sled and the woman riding it.

"Valerie; dad hasn't taken the new suit yet, huh?" Danny asked with a grin. "I thought he hated you flying."

"Well, someone's gotta protect the school. Besides, I think this'll be a much shorter run-in than when we had the flour packet."

XXX

Skulker grunted as he rolled backwards from his landing. "So, the ghost boy and the huntress... working together again." He glanced down at his right arm as the self repair mechanism finally finished fixing it and grinned. "Excellent, two prey in one hunt and vengeance for humiliation." He activated the glowing wrist blade in his left hand and his blaster in his right hand and leapt out of cover, firing the blaster towards the huntress while leaping at Phantom. The two turned from their witty banter and dodged to the side as Skulker impaled his blade into the ground where Phantom had been a moment ago before he flew into the air. Skulker turned the blaster to fire at him as the ghost boy began to glow a whitish blue.

"You know the freezing point of metal?!" Phantom shouted at him as icy blue bolts of energy shot from his hands and froze Skulker's armor together. Struggling to turn the suit intangible while freezing himself as his deeply connected suit suffered from the sudden drop in temperature...

WHAM

He was caught off guard when the hover sled crashed into him, the board's opening around his neck like his head was on the guillotine, bits of ice flying past as the crash and high speed of friction melted it away.

"I think it was a serious question," the huntress said, "He failed the last physics test pretty badly." Skulker was about to retort when the suit shot full of electricity as the hover sled glowed an electric red before he fell out of it and crash landed just outside of the sports field. Pushing himself up and rubbing his head, he heard something charged and turned, wondering who it was this time.

"Oh great. The ghost boy's human helpers." Skulker muttered angrily as he saw the ghost boy's sister and two friends facing him. The male friend was aiming his PDA at him threateningly while the two girls had thermoses aimed at him. Anyone else doing so would be laughable, but with these humans... Skulker activated the jets in his boots and sprang towards them when his armor suddenly stopped functioning, much to the male human's amusement. "Oh COME ON!" Skulker shouted angrily as he was locked out of the system. I thought I got rid of all wireless connections, even my link to Hunters dot Net! Skulker thought angrily as he prepared to eject from the suit as the two thermoses began activating. Springing out of the suit as the small blob of ectoplasm he really was, Skulker was just in time for them to activate and catch both him and his suit. "NO!" he shouted as his suit went into the thermos held by the ghost boy's girlfriend and his actual form being sucked into the thermos held by his sister. At least I'm small enough to actually fit, he decided glumly as he was sucked inside and the thermos was capped.

XXX

"How did you know about my grades?" Danny asked as the two white rings passed around his body and he was once again visibly human. Valerie had likewise changed with her armor fading to wherever Technus had designed it to store itself when not in use. They had landed right outside the football field where Jazz, Sam, and Tucker were holding the two Fenton Thermoses and had seen them capture Skulker.

"I... uh," Valerie coughed into her hand. "We're in the same physics class, remember? Everyone failed that one badly from the whole Disasteroid scare."

He pursed his lips briefly before shrugging and answering in his normal voice again. "Good point. Alright, which Thermos has Skulker in it?"

"I think he got separated from his armor at some point," Sam said as Jazz gave him the Thermos she was holding, "Because I got his armor in this one."

Danny grinned, "Good. When we put Skulker back in the Ghost Zone, we can keep the set of armor to slow him down. Hmmm, hey, Valerie, think your dad would like researching Skulker's armor?"

"He doesn't do research, remember? He just guards it." Valerie folded her arms with a slight frown. "But yeah, I think the pencil necks he guards might appreciate it. Axion Labs has been doing some ghost investigation work for APPD. I think they're hoping to start arming cops with better anti-ghost materials so they aren't dependent on you, just in case you're busy elsewhere, and they've been into the ghost business for a few months anyways."

"So that's why they were giving me so much trouble about a research budget." Tucker said with folded arms.

"Heh, yeah. Well, guess they'll have something better to argue with now, won't they?" Danny pointed out as Sam handed the Thermos to Valerie. "Mayoral duties can be rough, eh?"

"Uh, Danny. I'm not mayor anymore, remember?"

"Huh?" Danny asked with a confused frown, "I thought they made you one as a matter of 'Meh, he's a friend of Phantom's anyways' or some such nonsense that really wasn't a compliment to you." He paused a beat, "Not saying that it was wrong since you did pretty much plan out the network, but the motivation wasn't one I'd use to put you up."

Jazz and Sam facepalmed as Tucker explained, "Yeah, but that was essentially for the ceremony only because Vlad had kinda displaced a lot of the mayor's normal emergency and non-emergency successors who would do something like that. They haven't voted in a new one, so nominally I still am, but I don't really do anything." The technogeek smirked and pulled at his backpack straps self-importantly, "Besides, I can always get a real landslide victory when I'm older."

"Wow." Danny said in surprise. "I thought you were going to stick with that gig since someone listened to you. I gotta know though: why?"

"I'd rather get people to listen to me in a landslide victory than just being thrown into a filler role. You don't command true respect when it's arbitrary, everyone just listens because they have to. Besides, Lancer made it clear I'd still be marked tardy even if I tried to keep the job and an emergency happened." Tucker shrugged. "Guess he still doesn't cut us a lot of slack."

"I guess he's just trying to be fair, the norm here is vastly different than what's normal elsewhere." Valerie cut in, "Now, we should probably get back into the cafeteria before Lancer has us hanging from the field goals for skipping."

XXX

Three Hours Later

It turned out that Lancer decided not to give them detentions for 'skipping' lunch. Not getting a chance to really eat was enough of a punishment in his mind, especially in light of the fact they had kept Skulker away from the rest of the student body, nobody had been hurt, and other than the windows property damage was trivial and within the range of normal school maintenance. Unfortunately, the fan girls were waiting for Danny to come out with a patience that Skulker would kill, and probably has killed, to have.

"On the upside," Danny said as he glanced out the window through the school doors and stepped behind them, habitually moving from outside view. "Its three o' clock, the bell has rung, and school is over, which means..." Two passing white rings later, he shifted from Fenton to Phantom, turned invisible, phased through the doors, and flew off into the afternoon. Tucker and Sam had already dodged out the side doors where the fans were not gathering, but Danny decided to go through the front so that if his powers did have an accident like him forgetting to maintain his invisibility, they would not be swamped with him. Jazz, oddly enough, never had the problem and he could see her walking through the crowd unglomped. Lucky her, Danny bitterly mused as he saw all the fan girls (and guys) hanging out in front talking to each other. All of them fully equipped with cameras, cell phones, and a few of them wearing the new DP shirts that were finally getting out there into the marketplace.

"Heh, I almost pity them..." Danny muttered to himself as he cleared the airspace of the school and started flying home. He reached into a side pocket of the backpack and slipped in an earpiece with a microphone and turned it on. "Okay guys; is this working?"

"Loud and clear," Tucker answered from the corresponding headset that he had, and Sam had her own too. All three headsets courtesy of FentonWorks. "It all work out?"

"Yeah," Danny answered as he flew through downtown and let his invisibility drop now that he was clear of the crazed fans. "The fans all think I haven't left the school yet and I'm heading home. How about you guys?"

"Same plan as before," Sam answered, "Though I'll be late, I need to give my parents a dodge. They're fine with me being with you... but they still want me to be wearing a GIW Specter Shield."

Danny frowned as the words got through to his head. "GIW? As in Guys in White? Specter Shield? What do you..." he looked up just in time to smack into a billboard for Nasty Burger and collapse onto the nearby roof.

"You okay?" Tucker asked, "It sounded like..."

"I hit a billboard? Yeah. I wasn't paying attention. Back to Sam, and her parents' Guys in White gear, please?" Danny asked as he sprang into flight again.

"Oh, my parents are really obsessed about my personal security. I guess they're wondering what mingling with a half ghost does so they want me protected."

"Mingle? Sam, we've been together a lot since I got the powers." This was just too rich for Danny. Him, rubbing off on Sam? More like the other way around, and for the better. "So unless you've developed some sort of psychic connection with me or are starting to phase through the silverware, I think you're fine."

There was a distinct pause in Sam's reply. "Yeah, but I need to make sure I have the code so I can shut it off before I get to your house. The GIW version of the Specter Deflector is more... militant than the original."

"I'm sure." He glanced up and could make out the distinct Ops Center on top of his house. "Alright, I'm almost home. Anything else we need to talk about?"

"Yeah, make sure the fan girls think you're not home." Tucker said, "I love attention as much as you, but you get a bit too much."

Danny laughed as he cut his flying powers and switched back to human form as he passed through the open window into his room, "I'll try, Tucker. But I can't maintain a duplicate too far and definitely not while human." He glanced at some of the new things he had put into his room, mementos and similar from his heroics that he did not have to hide anymore since his identity was known, briefly wondering if he really needed them there.

"What, do you have a secret identity or something, Invis-o-Bill?" Sam jested. While it was a comment in jest, for some reason it hurt Danny on the inside.

"Funny," he dryly retorted, "Alright, later guys."

"Later." Tucker said.

"See you soon, Danny. Oh, and don't worry, I was just giving you a hard time."

He smiled, "I know. But the name still makes me cringe. See you soon." He slung his backpack over onto his bed and pulled the Fenton Thermos from it as he shut the earpiece off. He hoped that his parents had fixed the portal so he could just shoot Skulker into the Ghost Zone instead of having to use the Infi-Map to find a natural portal and then keep him on the other side until said portal closed without trapping himself in the Ghost Zone with an unfriendly ghost. He meant to return it to Frostbite, but the old Far Frozen had insisted he keep it until he had a reliable way into and out of the Ghost Zone again with the Fenton Portal. He made his way down to the lab where he could hear the sound of power tools.

"Careful, Jack!" Danny's mother warned, "You want to be on the outside when we activate it!"

"I know Maddie," his dad answered. "I mean, I still can't believe Danny survived that. The odds... I mean, we did the math. I have a bigger shot at winning a thinness contest than someone has surviving that much ecto-energy being infused into them!"

Danny blinked, pausing where he was to hear the conversation. Long odds? He had never considered himself lucky to have survived the portal as he spent so long being more worried about going from geek to freak and later protecting his identity. Essentially, there was too much going on to worry about his odds of survival in the first place since he survived. Were the odds that long at me surviving? Maybe being half-ghost was more of a warning than I realized...

It also gave something a new meaning. He had found it annoying at how much Tucker, Sam, and Jazz trying to talk him out of depowering himself with the portal had sounded like they were trying to convince him not to commit suicide, but now he realized that they might have been a lot closer to the mark with that kind of approach than he ever realized. I was probably protected by my powers there, Danny realized, but the first time? I guess the pain was the nicer thing. Wow, and I did that twice getting the powers because of Desiree! Either someone with deity level powers like Clockwork had been loading the dice enough to make Einstein's head spin, or he had burned out all his luck in a few goes.

"Speaking of Danny," his mother continued, cutting Danny off from his contemplation, "is he home yet? The news said something about a ghost fight at school."

"Ghost? Fight? School?" Jack asked.

"Uh-oh..." Danny muttered to himself and prepared to turn intangible as his father barreled up the stairs like a lard cannonball on fire.

"I'M COMING, DANNY! COMING TO HELP WASTE THAT GHOST!" Jack shouted at the top of his lungs, still wearing his stained orange jumpsuit as he stormed up.

"Uh, dad!" Danny shouted as he turned intangible as his father ran right through him, skidding to a halt at the top of the stairs and stumbling forward onto his face as he realized he just ran through his son. "I caught it. Or, Sam and Jazz did after I helped beat it down."

"Oh," Jack said as he slowly pushed himself up dejectedly. "Well, I wanted to help..."

"Now Jack," Maddie said as she came up the stairs, "Danny has grown to be a capable ghost hunter of his own style. He doesn't need you leaning over his shoulder every second anymore."

Danny pressed himself to the edge of the wall as his parents met at the top of the stairs. "That said," he interjected, "I'd like to help you or get help when it comes to things. I mean, there's things that I can't take on alone. The only reason I didn't go for help before was..."

"Molecule by molecule, yeah." Jack said with a sad nod. "Jazz... kind of tore into us after things settled down about that when we were wondering why you hadn't told us before."

This is awkward, Danny thought before clearing his throat and holding out the Thermos. "Anyways, the ghost in question is in here. I was kind of hoping the portal was working again so it'd be easier to flush him back into the Ghost Zone."

"Almost fixed, and it would be a good chance to make sure the flush system is working." Maddie said as she pulled her gloves tight again. "You can leave it there and we'll take care of it."

Danny glanced down at the Thermos again and realized that he might very much pity Skulker if any dissection knives came out. "Alright, I'll leave it down there. Just try not to dissect him first; he's pretty small without his armor."

"Don't worry," Jack said as the two (mad) scientists started walking down the stairs again. "We're not nearly in shape to dissect a ghost anyways."

Danny snickered as he entered the lab, "I'm sure some ghost out there is feeling very relieved about that." He looked at the portal; it still eerily looked like it did the first him he stepped in, except the on/off switch had been moved to the outside and more advanced now. Fighting back a shiver, he glanced over the gadgets on the lab table and saw that his father had been modifying the Fenton Ghost Peeler's armor mode. I wonder if they're modifying it for Jazz? She seems to like using the armor portion, at least. Not that she gets a chance very often, she made it clear she's not carrying it around and Lancer made it clear the Thermos was pushing it as far as the school's weapon policy goes. Danny suddenly had a funny feeling that Lancer had no idea Valerie was busy hunting ghosts the way she did when she disappeared, or the fact that she never carried weapons anymore, they just somehow materialized from Technus based technology, spared her from the rule.

"So, anything new I should keep my distance from?" Danny asked as he looked over the nearby lab table.

"Nope, just some repairs to the gadgets. Speaking of which, how come you lost both the Specter Speeder and the jet?"

"A lot of ghosts and a lot of plasma blasts, though the jet was the auto-eject going off." Danny answered off handedly as he noticed a newspaper lying on the lab bench. GCN Under Hot Debate – Use or Dismantle? He frowned as he pulled the paper out and read over the article.

"Much debate goes on in the aftermath of the 'Disasteroid' incident and the network set up to save the Earth finally filled its purpose. Although most of it is being dismantled and moved out of the way, after all, who wants to take pictures of the Great Wall of China when there's a bunch of metal cables on top haphazardly, investigations by curious Norwegian scientists and their colleagues in Reykjavik have discovered that the cables have unusual properties. Namely, the ability to transport large amounts of energy across long distances with minimal waste during travel. Experimenting with the geothermal power plants of Iceland, they discovered that they were able to use the tubes that connected Iceland and Norway and the sea between them to acquire approximately ninety-nine percent (99%) of the power into Norway. Speaking before the General Assembly…"The name of the scientist was smudged out by a bit of ectoplasmic goo, "… spoke of the potential of solving energy problems by allowing energy rich regions to ship power to other countries directly via these cables. Although never officially named, common parlance uses the term 'GCN', or Ghost Control Network, to designate the long network of cables and hubs. These scientists propose that with some simple manipulation of location, such as burying cables underground and taking time to secure it, green energy could be made more available to all."

Danny whistled quietly. That was something Sam would love, and if they were able to do that it could solve a lot more problems than geeks figuring out the best way to charge their array of handhelds. But a quiet part of his mind started blaring warning alarms; it was possible to use ghosts as a power source beyond just them turning something intangible like they had done, and usually through painful methods. If the Guys in White became involved... he read further.

"However, opposition from several pressure groups, including Westborough Baptist Church, have advocated for its utter dismantlement, claiming that such technology should not exist. This idea is gaining traction in some areas, including some energy companies who feel threatened by the idea of free exchange of power. Regardless, all parties involved have agreed that something must be done and the potential is great in this network. Underway currently is a debate on the creation of a special task force composed of a variety of international officers, soldiers, and support staff to protect the important sites of the GCN while it is determined what to do with them."

The article ended there, but it left Danny curious as to what was coming. Ignoring the crash in the lab as his father dropped a large crate of miscellaneous parts, he immediately started running down a list of reactions from notable players. Guys in White? Probably would want to use it to literally control ghosts and blast them as soon as they came in. If it was modified to make Earth fully ghost shielded… He did not even know if the science behind it would work, but if they were willing to fire a theoretically dimension destroying missile into the Ghost Zone without even considering the fact that if the Zone went, so did Earth, then anything was possible with them. What about the ghosts? Technus would be all over it. If he got into the system… Yes, he would have to make sure he kept Technus a priority if he ever showed his egotistical face again. Nocture might use it as an amplifier if he got the chance, but if he's out I need to paste him anyways. Most of the other enemies he had were low on the list, they would probably take any advantage they could from it, but he doubted that any would have major plots involving it. He put down the paper as the doorbell rang.

"Danny, could you get that?" his mother asked as she pushed a large crate that was starting to fall from the top of a stack back into place. Danny put the newspaper down and hurried up the stairs and through the kitchen to the door. Glancing outside, he saw it was Sam and Tucker.

"Hey guys," he said as he opened the door. Tucker was looking normal, but Sam was smirking as she held a deactivated belt lined with blue power lines in her hand and shoved it into her backpack. Danny guessed that it was the Guys in White variant that Sam had warned him about, deactivated and useless until turned on. "So, Tucker, you bring that new game?"

Tucker grinned as he held up the box, "Yup. Your system still working?"

"Yeah. I managed to keep my parents from cannibalizing it into parts for the new Specter Speeder. Ready to rage against the machine?"

"We're in." Sam and Tucker said together with grins as they walked in. As he closed the door, Danny noticed that at the end of the street one of the loonier fans he had seen in the crowd earlier and turned invisible as he finished closing the door. Hopefully, the loony fan did not see anything.

XXX

End Chapter