Orbits of Glass

[sqweakie]

 

Chapter Twelve

The control center was packed well beyond capacity and comfort for the fire code. The space was already crammed full of desks and computers and mysterious pieces of equipment that blinked and hummed.  Add in almost the entire crew of hunters and staff and it felt decidedly claustrophobic. The highest ranking hunters were afforded front row seats near the screen projecting a map of the city and only a little floor space. Space that Phantom used to pace, gloved hands flying through the air as he gestured emphatically to the room while talking.

“How could you not notice? Days! She could have been missing for days! And who figures out she’s gone?” People winced at the screech, objects vibrating just form his voice but that didn’t stop Danny from ranting. “Gladys! Near-sighted-cleaning-lady Gladys! I love, don’t get me wrong but I absolutely love her but Gladys should not be the one to notice an opened PS Thermos before an entire complex of hunters and staff realizes! That thermos is Permanently Sealed for a reason!”

Hunters actually cowered. Many forgot just how powerful Phantom was, lulled into a false sense of security due to his apparently gentle nature and ready laughter. They forgot how emotional the ghost could become. They took for granted the pleasant exterior that camouflaged a being that could literally tear apart the building with a single breath.

Emotions lay closer to the surface in ghost form with his layer of humanity stripped away, leaving him bared to his soul. He felt more, making it easier to laugh and joke, his ghost half more playful than his human side had become. Anger lay nearer to the surface as well, making both hunters and glass objects shake around him. He knew he was glowing, his aura beginning to tint green from the strength of his well deserved fury.

His mother shifted and Danny stopped ranting noticing how many of the humans stood on edge. He took a habitual but unneeded breath and started again, slightly more controlled.

“What do we know for sure?” he asked the room at large. He was one of the last hunters to get to HQ and only one with personal fighting experience with the controversial ghost. Most of those scattered throughout the room had other jobs at the time of the Witch Doctor. Danny knew of other ghosts more powerful than Nuodov but, to those around him, she was their epitome of evil. She hurt their own, she went after the most fragile of targets, and now she was free to do whatever she wanted.

Danny scanned the crowd waiting for the hunters or anyone else to speak up.

“She could have gotten out at the earliest two days ago,” admitted Norris, the Head of the Council. “No one has had any reports of activity relating to her previous actions but there have been quite a few reports of ghost activity over the past couple of weeks.”

“No one has heard anything? Any rumors that she was going to make a move?” Danny asked next. Negative responses rang around the room

“What about the Ghost Zone?” Brian Smith piped up from off to the side.

“I’m heading over there once we’re done here. I don’t have the time to head all the way to the castle but I can ask some of my contacts to see if there has been any new activity in the zone.”

“I suggest we send out full patrols, groups of at least three. Nichols,” Maddie Fenton singled out the police liaison officer hovering nearby. “Can you head upstairs and see if there are any missing persons reports or missing property? Oh, and let the word spread quietly. We don’t need the local news reporters finding out and spreading mass panic. “

“Sounds like a good plan,” Norris commented after receiving a nod of approval from Danny. “Smith, can you get groups together and divide up the city to patrol. I want you coordinating from here. Everyone else needs to suit up or get to their designated positions. We need to find her yesterday.”

With that the room cleared as hunters and staff made their way to ready everything needed to search the city, leaving Thor, the Fentons and Danny alone in the front of the control area. With the closest person now on the other side of the room and gave the remaining few a chance to breathe.

“Do we have a hunter at the hospital?” Danny asked, for the first time letting worry leak through. He slumped against the nearest piece of equipment and stared at the city map and all the ground they had to cover making him think of a needle and the haystack. If they were lucky Nuodov would stay within the city limits otherwise their haystack just got larger and their needle a whole hell of a lot smaller.

“George offered since he was close,” Thor responded. “He got there about five minutes before you got here. According to the doctor working there was no change in any of their conditions.”

“I can’t believe she’s been missing for days…” Jack said worriedly, the first time he spoke up since Danny had gotten to HQ. His father paced back and forth in the now cleared space. When he drifted close enough his wife would reach out, brushing a hand against his arm or shoulder. 

“She shouldn’t be strong enough to pull anything but we know how well she is at biding her time,” he continued, unconsciously stopping next to Maddie. Thor nodded in agreement while Danny picked at the edge of his glove.

Methodical and patient, not what you want in a ghost. 

“I hate to ask but what are you doing about the kids,” Danny asked the small group. Even though Norris was officially in charge of the Patrol these days everyone knew that the four of them and Smith were the end-all authorities of the Patrol. There were things they worried about that the general Patrol didn’t know about. This included the identities of the fifteen children that Nuodov originally kidnapped over a year ago. Anything dealing with the fifteen was taken care of by their core group and certain select people that new their identities.

“Most of them are at school,” Thor stated after checking one of the computers that tracked ecto-readings at the schools. The schools, along with the hospital, city hall and the police stations all had permanent sensors that tracked people and ghosts twenty-four seven. Danny knew that Thor memorized the ecto id numbers of the kids and various hunters, including Danny’s separate numbers for his ghost form and the number that was modified with a little device that looked like a keychain that he pressed whenever he got near any monitored buildings in human form.

“The Patrol already decided to put the schools in lockdown before you even got here after they attack at the high school,” his mother added. “They’re lifting the lockdowns after each school is searched. There are cautionary letters going home with all the kids at the schools about the increased ghost activity. The four not living in Amity I’m going to notify before Jack and I head out on our patrol.”

“Whose idea was it to lock down the schools to search them and expect local news not to panic?” Danny asked sarcastically.

“Gomez had the idea,” Thor answered. “He’s the new guy in PR. He figures they can word it so people don’t panic.”

“I don’t care what Gomez thinks,” Danny argued.  “People are going to know something is wrong when they find out about the lockdown and the suggestion they stay at home that I’m sure the Patrol will send out next.”

“But they won’t know exactly what the problem is,” his mother countered gently.

“We did the same thing for those slug-like ghosts four months ago,” Thor piped up again. “They were not dangerous, just annoying and messy. People were happy to be told to stay in their homes.”

“Well, great for them but that doesn’t solve anything. Nuodov is out there somewhere. We don’t even know what has she been doing these past couple of days or how she got out in the first place?”

“She had help,” his father revealed, breaking his uncustomary silence.

“What!”

“We still have the thermos that the ghost busted out of,” he turned to look at Danny. “Remember, you brought it to us to analyze. That’s why I designed the locking Thermoses. I looked over her thermos, just a quick peek but this does not show the damage the other did. It is hard but not impossible to open a thermos back up. And at the same time they left the other ghost in the Thermos. If it was an accident they both would have escaped.”

Danny stood still, gloved hands clenching his hair. He counted to ten silently before he started talking, wanting to make sure he was able to control his voice.

“So we start looking and hopefully find her before she does anything,” he decided out lout, feeling hopelessness trying to creep in.

“Her book is untouched at least. I checked and moved it to a safer location.”

“But she wrote the damn thing,” Danny snarled, feeling anger creep back in with the hopelessness. “I’m betting she remembers enough to put together something nasty.”

“So let’s get going,” Maddie Fenton chimed in with a clap of her hands. They looked at one another before heading in separate directions, knowing what each of them needed to do.

Danny vanished and phased through the ceiling to get outside. He didn’t travel far, stopping in a nearby alley to meet up with his partner. Val stood in the shadows, red suit looking dangerous in the half-light. She grabbed his hand tightly as he landed, black-gloved fingers lacing with his equally gloved white ones. He pulled her into a quick hug, lingering as long as he dared before letting go and getting down to business. Quickly he repeated everything from the two meetings, cramming as much information as he dared in the short amount of time they had available. She asked a couple tense questions he answered as best as he could.

“Now what exactly are we going to do?” she asked sounding just as panicked as he felt. She remembered the last time Nuodov created havoc around Amity and neither of them wanted a repeat performance. He squeezed the hand holding his in a poor attempt to comfort. He already knew that the Patrol had contacted her, letting her know that Echo and Tango were to be kept in reserve instead of searching for the Witch Doctor per Thor’s suggestion. That left Danny Phantom and The Red Huntress free to do what they needed to do.

“Call Sam and Tucker and have them meet us at Sam’s house,” he asked of her. “I need to run to the ghost zone and check something out. Sam said she finished modifying that scanner she and Tucker have been arguing about. I’ll meet up with you there and then we can plan our next move.”

“I can do that if you promise to be careful and not go after her on your own.” He couldn’t read her eyes but her voice was dead serious. She never saw exactly how messed up he was right after they captured Nuodov the first time but he was willing to bet anything that either Sam or Tucker told her. 

“I promise I’ll try,” was all he could give her. He reached up with his free hand and phased her helmet right off. She immediately kissed him, a little desperate and a lot worried. Then they just stood there, wrapped together, contrasting suits only half-lit by the sun above them. All too soon he let go, knowing any longer would just be wasting more time even though he selfishly wanted a couple more minutes. With one last squeeze of her hand Danny handed her the helmet and took off for the ghost zone. He left her behind, standing in the shadows before she too flew off to tell Sam and Tuck how in trouble the city was.

 

oOo

 

Danny didn’t enter the Ghost Zone as often as he did that first year he became a ghost. He knew his reputation had grown substantially since the early days. Now most of the tamer ghosts tended to shy away when he entered. There were many harmless ghosts that remained hidden that he never saw. The ones he initially had contact with (and fought with) were more violent than the majority of the GZ’s population. 

It wasn’t respect that kept the weaker ghosts away when he travelled through the Zone. There was fear that followed him, the other ghosts knowing what he was capable of if he decided to turn dark. 

Danny knew exactly how dangerous he could be. Only one time did he go too far, only one time did he take revenge against another ghost. At that one moment he knew exactly how far he would go for his family and how close he was to crossing a line that he knew he should never cross. Other ghosts could sense the stain, see the invisible marks left by that defining moment and it scared them. 

He flew as fast as he dared through the Ghost Zone, ignoring the flickers of ghosts running hiding as he passed. He didn’t have time to feel ashamed of the fear. He had a goal in mind, a particular place he needed to go and without hesitation he passed through a portal in the zone into a lab straight out of a scifi show. 

He had entered this room several times before and had seen it in various stages of upkeep and one time in complete ruin. Every surface was stainless steel or glass. Test tubes cluttered one table while a half-dismantled machine filled up another. As he passed he could see monitors light up and flash out data and information. He ignored it all for the one set of stairs leading out of the lab and into the rest of the mansion.

Dropping to the ground he transformed back to his human form for the added barrier of flesh to pad his emotions. He needed answers quick and only one man had better access to the Ghost Zone and hopefully the information that he needed.

In an over decorated, gaudy office Vlad Masters waited. The lab downstairs may change appearances often due to whatever projects the other man was working on at the time or what obsession took his fancy that month. In complete contrast, his private study was the same each and every time he entered it. The same dark paneling covered the walls, the same dark and overstuffed couches stood guard around the huge marble fireplace. Centerpiece to the room was a desk larger than Danny’s old bedroom. The same metal statue sat at the corner of the desk even though Danny knew it had previous been melted, thrown out one of the huge, multi-paned windows and one memorable time was possessed and was blasted into a million teeny tiny pieces. It was the same ugly statue and he suppressed the urge to melt the thing again.

Danny took a breath and stopped in front of that stupid, ostentatious desk. The man behind the desk was very familiar and also unchanged from the last time they ‘talked’. He looked frozen in a moment, same gray hair pulled back into a ponytail, same suit that only Colonel Sanders could love, same creepy expression and eyes watching his every move and his every breath. The man closed the book sitting in front of him and smiled.

“Hello Daniel. What brings you to the corner of my world?” The man oozed self-confidence that left an oily feeling on his skin from just listening to the older man. A couple years previous that would have garnered a pissed-off reaction from Danny. Time taught him how to play it cooler, for a little while at least. There was no point in getting angry just yet and unfortunately Vlad underhanded teaching left their mark and Danny learned to play everything a little closer to the vest.

“Oh, I was in the neighborhood… thought I would drop by,” he said as he leaned his hip against the desk, trying to ignoring the crawling of his skin. The cat and mouse games Vlad still played bothered him, the only difference now was they more often played with words instead of fists and ectobeams. He missed the good old days where he could get pissed and just haul off and punch the guy. Sometimes he had even managed to hit the other halfa in the past.

“Well, if that is all Daniel?” Vlad said, reopening the book and waiting for Danny’s next move. Playing it cool was overrated anyways.

“I need to know what’s going on in the Ghost Zone?” he turned and leaned his full weight on his hand planted on the surface of the desk. Blue eyes flickered upward and an eyebrow cocked itself in amusement. Danny could feel his own eye wanting to twitch but he repressed the motion, not wanting to give Vlad the satisfaction of seeing him get under Danny’s skin so early in their conversation.

“Things are always happening in there. Is there anything specific you want to know? I’m sure I can help you,” he said with mocking sincerity.

Danny raised an eyebrow of his own and waited. The silence got to Vlad a lot quicker than it normally did but that could just mean the man wanted to hear his voice more than normal today. Danny swore that Vlad could be the king of monologging if he desired. 

“Something big is happening and not necessarily just in the Ghost Zone,” the other halfa sighed. “No word exactly what is going on but ghosts are getting nervous.”

“Someone helped the Witch Doctor escape. Know anything about that?” That got the other man’s attention. Vlad froze and for the first time made complete eye contact. He could feel the probing gaze of the older halfa as the temperature dropped in the room a couple of degrees.

“How long?” he demanded, completely serious.

“We think a couple of days,” Danny said as he straightened up a little. “Ghosts have been escaping the ghost zone for a month before that.”

Vlad stood and started pacing behind the desk. His head bobbed a little and Danny would bet anything that if he hadn’t been standing in the room the other man would be talking out loud to himself.

“Anything else unusual happen during that time, Daniel?” he finally asked as he stalked back and forth.

This time Danny chose to remain silent, not offering anything else. He wasn’t sure that their Super’s appearance was a coincidence or not but he didn’t need Plasmius to know either way. Otherwise the city ran normally with its occasional crime activity and normal, if more frequent, ghost sightings.

“Holding back information has never helped you before in the past,” Vlad reminded him. 

“Well, you usually know before I do so what’s the point?” he deflected.

“Tensions are higher than normal in the ghost zone, if that is what you really came to find out,” Vlad finally conceded. “Nothing specific, no new ghosts either since I am positive that will be your next question. The last time the Witch Doctor ran amok it was noticed almost immediately by the others. So no, I have no information for you.”

“Thanks for nothing. It was a wonderful visit,” he said sarcastically as he started for the door.

“I always enjoy your visits, even if it is to see you flail around trying to figure things out,” Vlad’s voice mocked from behind. “How is your beautiful girlfriend doing these days?”

“Leave Valerie out of this,” he snared right in Vlad’s smirking face, somehow making his way around or through the desk without conscious thought. This made the other man’s smirk grow. Danny took a measured step backwards leaving a small amount of space between them.

“Temper, Temper Daniel. You need to learn better control.” The other man was almost glowing with glee at his loss of control. Biting down before he said something that would really upset the other ghost or, more likely, get him into trouble, he turned back around and stomped towards the exit.

“Oh Daniel, two more things before you stomp off in a huff.” Danny stopped only feet from the door but he waited. After a few moments Vlad started talking again.

“One, the offer still stands. If you get tired of playing ‘loyal lackey’ for the Patrol I could always find a place for you here.” His hands clenched but he didn’t rise to the bait.

“And the second thing?” he growled out still not turning as he waited for the second melodramatic proclamation.

“Not all humans are good and selfless. You remember that about ghosts easily enough but sometimes you are blinded to humanities faults.”

“You have a name?” he asked without expecting an answer.

“Unfortunately no and before you ask my source is not for sale at this point. Just watch yourself. I would hate for someone to kill you before I can convince you to join me.”

oOo

Within an hour he made his way back through the GZ and exited in his parents’ basement. He stopped momentarily to place his hand against the fractured doors that once blocked the portal from the human world. The metal door was actually melted to the slightly warped wall leaving the portal permanently open. Pushing off, he waved at the camera set up to monitor the portal and exited the building. It wasn’t that far to reach Sam’s house and with a quick transformation back to human he knocked at the door. Immediately the close-mouthed butler greeted him and led him up to Sam’s suite.

Inside waited Sam and Tuck, a sight that made Danny smile. The room still had the Goth vibe it had years ago but now it seemed to have mated with a metal shop class and he stood in its insane lovechild of a room. Three walls were painted a dark violet while the fourth was covered with sheet metal and pegboard and tools. The large bed at the far end of the room was covered with black silk and surrounded by candles while at the opposite end huddled worktables and tools and little pieces of equipment in different states of construction. A hidden stereo pounded in the background and though Danny didn’t recognize the song the bass thumped steadily and matched the slight head banging occurring on the metal shop side of the room.

Sam stood at a worktable surrounded by tools and metal parts. All he could see of her was the back of her black shirt and pants that he swore were laced up the sides of her legs. She also wore a pair of heavy gloves that suspiciously looked like leather (or at least a vegan alternative to such materials). Occasionally sparks would fly in front of her striking the gloves that ran up to her elbows and covered every available patch of skin on her arms.

At a safe distance sat the other occupant in the room, Tucker. Danny could see even less of him since he sat ensconced at a computer desk on the other side of Sam. He could barely make out his red skullcap or the black sweatshirt Sam gave him last Christmas.

Sam noticed him entering the room first, gloved hand waving briefly before returning her attention to the project in front of her, mysterious clunking and pounding now accompanying the sparks. Tucker, who must have seen the motion, pushed slightly away from the desk and grinned.

“Hey Danny! How are you d…doing?” Tuck looked pretty good, his hat pulled down snug around his scalp as he pulled ear buds out to hear. Danny grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the desk. He could see various programs running. He settled in as Tucker yanked out a cord from behind his ear and straightened his hat. They both winced when a slightly louder clunk came from Sam before the sparks started again.

“It’s been a long month,” he stated with dark humor.  “How was your visit to your grandparents’ house?”

“Good. They let me stay up as long as I wanted to. But they w…wo… “ Tuck started to stutter.

“Woke you up early,” Danny finished with a laugh. Tucker shrugged and they both knew that it wasn’t the first time his grandparents did the ‘waking up at the crack of dawn’ thing. It was just good to see Tuck smiling about it. Danny was less than pleased when they did the same to him last fall when he went with Tuck for a couple of days. Tuck talked about how his grandparents were doing and all the uninterrupted time he had to work on his designs and programs and how it felt being back in Amity Park again, an occasional stutter halting the brief reminiscence.

“It’s good to be home,” he finally stated with a small smile. “With the ghosts and the evil taskmaster with the soldering gun.” Danny had to laugh at that as Sam mock growled.

“So if you guys are done being all touchy and feely, can we get back to the little situation going on right now? Thanks,” Sam didn’t turn towards them but Danny could hear the smile in her voice. It however was a gentle reminder this wasn’t a pleasure call. Tucker sobered up too soon and asked the important question.

“So, it’s true?” Tucker asked. “She’s back?”

“Well, she isn’t in the Thermos so that’s a pretty safe bet. Right now the Patrol is combing the city and going over records for the past month to see if there is any hint at what she’s doing or where she might be. I guess we became too complacent. “

“Well, you had a feeling…” Sam reminded him and Tuck jumped right on that.

“He had a feeling! You didn’t say you had a bad feeling.”

 “Give it a rest Tucker. I wasn’t going to call and ruin your vacation for a vague feeling. So did Val fill you guys in?”

“Yeah.”

“She said she wanted to take a couple scans of her own with her suit then she’d give us a call, see if it picked up anything the normal scanners didn’t.”

“So do you have any new toys for us to play with,” he asked hopefully. Sam and Tucker shared a look and his hopes were dashed.

“Neither of us have had any time to start anything new,” Sam admitted reluctantly. “I gave Valerie the upgraded sensor. We manage to up the range to about half a kilometer.”

“Everything else is in the prototype stage,” Tucker finished. “If you gave us a couple more weeks we were going to work on those net things you suggested.”

“Well I’m sorry that we didn’t plan the escape of the crazy ghost to fit your schedule. I’m sure she’ll postpone any attacks if we ask her really nicely.”

“Geez, Danny. Calm down for a couple of minutes.”

He looked back and forth to Sam and Tucker. They were his best friends, sticking with him since the beginning and there was no reason to treat them like he was.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “It’s been a very rough month. This was the last thing we needed right now.”

“So did Vlad have any info,” Tucker asked.

“Nothing definite,” he sighed. “He hinted that a human was involved with letting Nuodov out and stress is at an all-time high in the GZ but that was all he told me.”

“You mean he didn’t try to make you come over to the dark side or brag about how great he is? Is he sick?” Sam sounded almost worried. Tucker barely held back a sarcastic snort.

“Please tell me you got at least one lonely-cat-man jokes in before you left.”

“Sorry to disappoint. I didn’t even see either of the little hellions. Oh, he did offer me a ‘place in his organization’ again.”

“Maybe we should get him a third cat. I swear the second one made him a little mellower.

His cell phone rang before they could start trading any more of Vlad-the-Cat-Lady jokes. He answered it, cutting off the Twilight Zone ringtone that Tucker had last installed on the phone. With the static filling the background he figured it was Val calling him while flying on her glider. It was a bad habit that she wouldn’t break and it was frustrating trying to pick her voice out of the static. 

“Danny, we’ve got a little problem,” he was finally able to make out after the third repeat.

“What’s wrong? I can barely hear you Val. Land somewhere so I can actually hear you,” he ordered. After a couple of seconds the static faded and he was able to make out Valerie’s voice.

“I stopped at home to give my dad the heads up about the Witch Doctor and no one was in the apartment.” She sounded very worried and he could feel his stomach drop. “I was able to get a hold of my dad at work but I have no idea where Robin is.”

“He’s disappeared?” and the phrase made Sam and Tucker freeze and concentrate on Danny’s end of the conversation. He saw Tuck mouth ‘who’ at Sam who in turn just shrugged. Danny held up a hand so they didn’t start barraging him with questions and then concentrated on his girlfriend’s voice.

“Either he disappeared or he turned into a piece of furniture,” she responded tersely. “I can’t find him anywhere.”

“Crap. We don’t have time to look for him.” They really didn’t need a missing super on top of everything else. They so did not need this right now. 

“I was afraid you’d say that,” she sounded just as tense as he now felt. They really didn’t need this. 

“Hopefully he won’t hurt himself,” and what else could Danny say. “All you can do right now is get back here. I don’t know what else we can do.”

“Sure. I’ll see you in about twenty minutes.”