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Tucker, Ellie, and Sam stood by Danny's bedside, their expressions filled with a mix of hope and fear. For a moment, all seemed well. Danny’s bruised throat healed enough for Frostbite to take him off the ventilator at last.
Without warning, Danny's body tensed, and he began to seize. His muscles contorted in painful spasms, his back arching off the bed.
Ellie's eyes widened in terror as she watched her father's body convulse. “Daddy!”
Tucker rushed forward, his hands trembling as he tried to hold Danny still. “Danny, stay with us!” Tucker pleaded , panic rising in his voice.
“Danny, don’t leave us!” Sam cried. She had seen Danny in dangerous situations before, but this was different. This was her friend, her lover, her family, fighting for his life right in front of her. And she can do nothing but watch.
As Danny's seizure continued, the machines monitoring his vital signs began to beep erratically. His heart rate skyrocketed, and his breathing became shallow and labored.
Tucker looked up; his eyes wide with fear. "We need help! Now!" he shouted down the hall.
The door burst open, and a team of medical staff rushed in, pushing Tucker, Ellie, and Sam aside as they worked to stabilize Danny. The room was filled with urgency and chaos as the medical team fought to save him.
Danny’s body went limp, his eyes rolling back into his head as his vital signs flatlined.
The room fell silent, various monitors screaming out Danny's fading Core.
Then everything went white.
Clockwork was beyond pissed.
“Of all the Timelines, Ĉefo had to choose this one?” Clockwork muttered to themself, ignoring the looks from the other Ancients “The malzorgema stulta bona por nenio putriĝanta okulglobo!”
“Master Time,” Pandora asked, “what in all of the postvivo is going on?”
All Pandora knows now is Clockwork is unusually expressive, the Head Observant is missing, and Fright Knight left claiming "An attack against the crown."
“The end of the Observants, my dear Lady Hope.”
Clockwork pushed the grand doors open. The entire hall was in shambles. Icy marble pillars crumbled to dust and glass mosaics shattered to sand.
The Head Observant stood in front of the Eternal Throne, the ring and crown were both strangely dormant in the eyeball’s grubby little hands. Fright Knight’s sword lay shattered across the floor. Behind them, Clockwork hear Lady Pandora draw her own blade.
“Ĉefo, you coward!” Clockwork screamed, slamming their staff on the ground.
Clockwork saw this could have happened. They saw that the Observants would attempt to take back control when Daniel could not actively oppose them. But it was one of those instances where the pin could fall anywhere. The Timelines were so dependent on one single choice.
“I have tolerated tiu stulta plago ŝajnigante esti la ĉeesto de Alta Reĝo long enough! It's high time for the Council of Observants to regain our power! And for you, Antikvulo de Tempo, to remember your place!”
Clockwork had foolishly hoped to spare young Daniel the burden of public executions until he was more suited to his new role. But because of Ĉefo attempting to steal the throne in the most dishonorable of ways, the entire Honored Council of Observants will be wiped from existence as punishment.
Ĉefo raised the crown high above his stupid little eyeball.
if the Head Observant just waited a little longer, Daniel would have woken up, 18 years old and officially the High King and the Observants would be spared for a few more millennia but because of this... Ĉefo had forced the young Prince’s hand.
“ Remember my place? ” Clockwork chucked to themself. “ Ĉefo... you and your predecessors never fail to amuse me so. ”
Ĉefo cried out in pain as the crown seared into his hand. A cacophony of twisted whispers and unearthly screams tore through the air like a swarm of ravenous insects, permeating every facet of creation. Waves of pure power pulsed from the timeless metal in a thousand colors. The crown got brighter and brighter in tandem with its ring counterpart, both becoming indistinguishable even to Clockwork.
“Should we do something?” Pandora screamed over the shrieks; sword abandoned on the floor as both sets of hands desperately tried to save her poor ears.
“What is this?” Ĉefo hissed, clutching his burned hand close. The Head Observant glared at the Honored Timekeeper of Kreado, who simply smiled in response.
“La Princo estas Morta, Vivu la Reĝo vi fika hundino.”
Across the battlefield that was once the sleepy town of Amity Park, warped metal jutted out of the ground as people and ghosts fell at the cynical hands of the Ghost Investigation Ward.
The Red Huntress shot yet another agent down. Days after Phantom disappeared, the GIW descended on Amity, call for the death of every “ectoplasmic smear they could find.”
Which, for them, meant every single Amity Park resident regardless of if they were dead or alive.
Citizens had taken their Constitutional Second Amendment Rights to the fullest to defend their homes. Ghosts like Ember and Skulker defended the children. Anyone else who had the balls to do it directly ambushed and attacked the agents where they stood. If Valerie tried hard enough, she could hear Mr. Lancer literally weaponize his favorite books down at Central Pond.
Valerie covered from above. “Thank God the Gays in White haven’t thought of aerial weaponry.”
But then, without warning, the tide of the battle shifted. A dizzying shriek threatened to knock her off her hoverboard as ectoplasmic chains erupted from the ground, ensnaring the GIW agents and immobilizing them. The ghosts went into a frenzy, cheering and celebrating as if they had just won a World War.
Valerie stood dumbfounded. “ What the hell just happened? ”
Within the bowels of the blatant OSHA violation tumor that was Fenton Works, the GIW’s finest agents were working like ants to do the pencil pushers’ bidding. Drs. Fenton stood beside them, their faces etched with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension.
The massive ballistic missile loomed ominously in the center of the room, its sleek metal exterior gleaming in the dim light. GIW technicians worked feverishly to make final adjustments, while Drs. Fenton supervised, their voices sharp with urgency.
"Is everything in place?" Special Agent Sigma demanded; his gaze fixed on the missile. The man practically oozed so much ego and misogyny that even Jack picked up on it almost immediately. Which said something.
"Just about," Dr. Maddie Fenton replied, her fingers flying over the control panel and inwardly suppressing the urge to deck Special Agent Sigma in the nose. "We are launching in three... two...”
The lights suddenly whined and flickered. The walls shook violently. Dust rained down from the hairline fractures forming on the ceilings above. The agents and Drs. Fenton exchanged worried glances, unsure of what was happening.
And then, with an ear-shattering roar, a burst of brilliant light erupted from the center of the room, engulfing the missile in a blinding explosion of energy. The force of the blast sent everyone staggering backwards, shielding their eyes from the intense glare.
As the light faded, the agents and Drs. Fenton looked on in disbelief as the missile lay in ruins, its once formidable, possibly illegal, constructs reduced to twisted metal and smoldering debris. All the screens warbled and glitched.
"What the hell just happened?" Agent P exclaimed. He was so outraged; his face was slowly turning redder than a tomato.
"I don't know," Dr. Jack Fenton replied, his voice trembling with awe. "But whatever it was, I’m willing to bet it has to do with that ghost boy, Phantom.”
As they stared at the wreckage before them, the familiar sound of a gun being loaded shattered the silence.
Ellie was scared. She didn’t know what was happening. Everything was too bright, too loud, too much. Strange pictures, like the ones in her storybooks but moving and glowing, burned in the air, surrounding her daddy.
The medical room was a mess of overturned equipment and startled staff. The beeping machines had all but stopped, replaced by the crackling energy and ear-bleeding shrieking that filled the air.
When the light faded, Danny was left on the bed, conked out with the Crown of Fire floating lazily over his head and the Ring of Power gleaming softly on his finger.
“Danny?” Ellie, Tucker, and Sam screamed simultaneously.
Danny slowly opened his eyes. “You're... not my bagel.”