Danny Phantom meets G-Force: Guardians of Space
By Candi Gomez
G-Force Headquarters, Thursday afternoon
"Thank you, team, for responding so quickly," Dr. Brighthead said as he entered the room. "I think you beat your best record."
"What’s the mission, Dr.?" Ace asked. "Your message said it was urgent.
"It’s about this." Dr. Brighthead held up a toothpick with colored cellophane twirled around one end.
"What?"
"Doc, are you kidding?"
"Is Galactor having a meet-and-greet party?" sarcastically.
"A gentleman by the name of Ishmael Manson invented the machine that twirls the cellophane around toothpicks. He received a lot of money for it. He invested it wisely and became quite rich."
"What’s that got to do with anything?" Pewee complained.
"When Mr. Manson died, he left a large fortune to his son. That son is now married with a 14-yr.old daughter. Galactor has targeted her."
"To kidnap her for ransom?" Aggie asked.
"Precisely."
"Have you contacted her parents yet?" Ace asked.
"They’re touring in Europe and we’re having trouble catching up to them. But the daughter, Samantha Manson, is at their home in Amity Park, South Dakota, with her grandmother."
"Then that’s where Galactor will strike," Ace said decisively.
"And that’s where we’re headed."
"We?" said Hootie.
"I’m coming with. I wish to personally discuss this with the local police and set up an adequate base of operations. We don’t have a precise time frame for when Galactor may attack, so we may be there for a few days. We'll leave the Phoenix at the nearest airbase, and just bring your personal vehicles in. Understood?"
"Roger!"
Amity Park, Thursday night
Sam Manson had no idea of the danger she would soon be in. Her mind was currently occupied with a much more immediate problem –namely, the giant ghost baboon that was trying to rip Danny Phantom apart with its massively out-sized canines.
"Danny! Watch out!" she yelled as the green monkey narrowly missed Danny’s back with its claws.
Tucker spun the cap of the Fenton Thermos and yanked it off. "I’m ready. Go for it!"
Danny grabbed the baboon by its tail, swung it around, and flung it into the path of the blue light shooting from the thermos/ghost trap. With a final screech, it was sucked in. Tucker slammed the lid on and screwed it shut.
"Well, that’s the last one your dad’s Ghost Tracker detected," said Sam. Seeing Tucker spinning the thermos like a basketball, she grabbed it from him.
"What’s that for?" Tucker yelped.
"LAST time you did that, you set every ghost loose when you dropped it," Sam snapped.
Danny, having finally caught his breath, said, "Good idea, Sam. And no more ghosts means I can get home in time to study for the algebra test tomorrow!" He changed back into his human form.
The three left the warehouse and headed back to Danny’s home. None of them noticed, about halfway there, the black car sitting in the alley across the street –or the black-suited goons that followed them.
Amity Park Police Station, Friday afternoon
"Well, Dr. Brighthead," Police Chief Harold said, "If anybody strange comes to town, it shouldn’t be too hard to spot them. We’re big, but not that big, so it’s fairly easy to spot the out-of-towners, especially when they're dressed in feathers."
"Has anything strange happened in town recently?" Ace asked, ignoring his comment. "Are there any buildings or anything else that seem out of place?"
The chief snorted. "We could win a prize for weirdest building, but it’s definitely in place. And there’ve been weird things happening in town over the past five-six months. Weirdest I can think of off the top of my head was just last month, when a roller coaster went off its track. It’d been inspected just before the fair opened the day before. But during the investigation, the ride looked like it’d been aging for years! One woman was taking pictures, and a guy was videotaping when it happened. And –well look." He passed a file folder and a video disc over to them.
Dr. Brighthead opened the folder. His eyebrows nearly hit his hairline (though his glasses stayed on). He laid it on the desk for the team to see.
The photos showed a white-haired teenage boy, about fourteen or fifteen, with glowing green eyes and a black-and-white bodysuit. But the definitely unusual part was that he seemed to be flying.
Nor was that all. He was carrying a very large round man who was holding two children –the total weight looked to be about three to four times his own.
"The three other photos show him putting the kids down. But that guy didn’t see where they went. The video shows the same thing in motion –and that the kid can apparently disappear or go invisible."
"Whoa," said Pewee. "You mean like a ghost or something?"
"DON’T say ghost! You know how many complaints I’ve had in the past six months where people swear up and down they’ve seen ghosts! And it may or may not be ghosts, but something’s been causing a lot of very real damage. If that kid is a ghost, he may be the ringleader!"
"Now, chief, calm down," said the young police officer as she came into the room. "The doctor said not to get excited, right, Dad?"
Dr. Brighthead –briefly- smiled.
"Besides, according to some of the other reports we’ve got on that ghost kid –few as they are- some people say he’s a hero, protecting people from the ghosts." Officer Ann Harold handed them another file folder. "I’ve collected every report on anything weird or unusual, whether connected with that flying kid or not. Although if you stick around long enough, you’ll probably have a chance to see him for yourselves. The supposed ghost attacks have been increasing."
"And the kid’s been showing up more," said Dirk.
"Exactly."
"Oh my!" Aggie exclaimed, looking in the second folder.
"What?"
She showed them a picture of a house that looked like a flying saucer had landed on the roof. Plastered across it glowed a sign that said, "Fenton."
"Like I said," Harold snorted. "Weirdest house."
"What is that?" asked Dirk.
"That would be the Fenton house, home of our local ghost hunters," said the chief. "As you can imagine, all this potential ‘ghost’ activity has them absolutely delirious with excitement."
Ace frowned. "What are they like?"
The chief considered. "Well, Jack Fenton is technically brilliant, but he is either very naïve or completely crazy when it comes to anything other than ghost hunting; take your pick. Now, Madeline "Maddie" Fenton is a fairly balanced scientist and an excellent cook. She and her son were featured on the cover of "Genius" magazine about four-five months ago, and her cookies make Mrs. Fields jealous. If she wasn’t so centered on chasing ghosts, she probably could get a really important position somewhere. Of course, since the ghost hunting is run from their house, it probably leaves them with more time for their kids then an ordinary 9-to-5 might."
"Know anything about the kids?"
Chief Harold flipped through some papers. "Just the basics. Jasmine Fenton, sixteen. Very intelligent in her own right, high grades at school, fairly popular. And Daniel Fenton, fourteen. Mediocre student, not much special about him."
"Actually, Dad, in one way he’s very special –to G-Force’s mission," said Ann. "He and another boy named Tucker Foley are best friends with Samantha Manson. When Galactor goes after her, it’s likely they’ll be right in the line of fire."
Friday Afternoon
Sam, Tucker, and Danny were strolling along the sidewalk, on the way home from school.
"Thank goodness tomorrow’s Saturday," said Tucker. "We get to sleep in and then have some FUN!"
"Yeah, if any ghosts don’t show up," said Danny gloomily.
"Cheer up, Danny. The Fenton Finder didn’t detect anything this morning or at lunch, did it?"
"Well, no."
"And we’ve pretty much accounted for every ghost that got out of the portal, right?" said Tuck.
"Well, yeah."
"So come on! No homework, tomorrow the weather’s supposed to be great-"
"And we can keep the Finder with us, just to make sure," finished Sam.
"Well….alright." Danny managed a small smile.
Saturday morning
Dirk walked along the street in civvies, pretending to be just a casual tourist. Up the street he saw his target –the Manson house.
As the front door opened, he stopped and leaned against a telephone pole. Not appearing to be paying attention, he watched from behind his sunglasses as Sam walked down the steps, yakking on her cell phone. He could just overhear her words.
"The movie theater? What for? I’ve seen all the movies they’ve got…I get the pre-releases, Tucker. Why don’t we meet at the soda shop, then decide…your parents are going to be ghost hunting there, Danny? …The park? That’ll work. See you there." She closed the phone and headed down the street, away from Dirk.
Dirk turned partly away and spoke into his wristcom. "G-2 here."
"G-1. She’s left?"
"She was talking on her phone. She’s going to the park."
"You shadow her. We’ll meet you there."
A female voice cut in. "G-3 here. Dr. Brighthead says that the latest data indicates that Galactor will strike sometime in the next three to five days."
"Hear ya. Out."
"Roger. Out."
Amity Park's Park
Danny saw Sam and Tucker waiting at one of the picnic tables. He hurried over.
"Hey bud, what took so long?" asked Tuck.
"My dad had a new gadget to show off. The Fenton Tracer."
"Didn’t he already make one of those?" asked Sam.
Danny sat down. "The Fenton Finder finds ghosts. This new gadget is supposed to make it possible to follow them after you find them. You attach a tiny tracer to the ghost somehow and then follow it with a homing device." He pulled out three or four small green disks.
Tucker picked one up."Well, some of your parents’ ideas work. I wonder if this is one of them?" Tuck mused. He dropped the disk in his pocket.
"I don’t care right now." Danny gazed over at where a black-haired young woman and a rambunctious brown-haired boy were tossing a ball back and forth –sort of. The boy would deliberately overshoot, than try to sneak off while his sister was retrieving it. She would always catch him before he got too far.
Danny returned his attention to his friends. "Right now, I just want one ghost-free day. Is that too much to ask?"
"Of course not, Danny," said Sam. "Why don’t we just walk around town for awhile? If we see something we want to do, we’ll do it. Otherwise, we’ll just relax."
They were walking along Main St. when they saw the news crew.
"Cool! They’re filming the opening of the new arcade!" Tucker exclaimed.
"Hey, why don’t we go there?" Sam said. "I’ve heard that some of the games are having their first release."
"Yeah, but look at the line," said Danny. It already stretched down the block and around the corner.
"No problem." Sam grinned. She pulled out a gold-colored card.
Tucker took one look and grabbed it. "Sam, this is a full-benefit-every-perk-you-can-imagine-first-class-service-guaranteed gold lifetime membership card!" Tucker paused for breath. "This’ll get us to the head of the line in a hurry!"
Sam grabbed it back.
Danny looked at the group by the door. "Who do you show it to-? Wait a minute. That’s Harriet Chin. She went to college with my folks! Looks like she got a new job."
"A new job?" asked Sam.
"At their 20th college reunion –remember when Jaz and I got dragged along on that?- she saw me in ghost mode and Dad –as in possessing Dad- fighting a ghost. She got canned when she tried to file a story about it."
Any reply his friends might have made was cut short by the explosion.
____________
After following Sam to the park, Dirk had handed surveillance over to Aggie and Pewee. Once the three kids had left the park, it’d been Ace’s turn.
He’d been leaning against a mailbox, considering whether the crowd would make it easier to get closer to Sam, when a car on the far side of the street exploded. As the smoke cleared, he saw-"Galactor!" The green-suited goons were tromping up the street. No question that the car’s explosion had been a distraction!
And a darned good one. The three kids were nowhere to be seen. But considering that everyone was running and yelling, that wasn’t really such a surprising thing.
Ace raced off too, looking for a hidden place to Transform.
______________
When the explosion happened, everyone started screaming and running, except for the news crew. Harriet yelled at them until they aimed their cameras at the remains of the smoldering car and approaching green clad soldiers.
Danny took a quick look around, confirming that no one was watching them. In fact, it seemed the only one besides the news crew who wasn’t panicking was a guy with a number "1" on his t-shirt who stood looking at the soldiers.
Danny took a chance, grabbed his friends, turned all three invisible, and got them out of there. They emerged in an alley two blocks away.
"I’m going ghost!" he yelled, and transformed.
"Wait, Danny!" Sam shouted. "Where are you going? Those aren’t ghosts!"
"I know that, Sam, but-"
"Don’t you even know whose soldiers those creeps are?" asked Tucker. "They’re Galactor’s army! They even give G-Force a hard time! What can you do?"
"I don’t know," Danny answered. "But I’m going to find out!"
____________
It’d taken a few minutes for Ace to Transform and call the others. By the time he got back, everyone but the news crew were off the streets. Some of the soldiers were headed towards them.
____________
Danny dashed back through the buildings and saw the soldiers headed towards the news crew.One of the goons, in a red rather than green uniform, grabbed the arcade owner and showed her a picture stapled in a file folder. "Where’s this girl?"
"I…I-"
"Hey, snakeface!" The call came an instant before a green energy blast hit the officer, causing him to drop both the woman and the folder.
____________
Ace’s jaw almost dropped. That flying kid was taking on the Galactors single handed!? What an idiot! he thought as he dived into the mayhem.
___________
Danny saw the white figure glide down from the roof of the arcade. His attention was distracted for a moment while an idiot shot at him –the bullets went right through him, of course- and he decked the loser. Then he got a good look.
That’s the leader of G-Force! Danny considered for a moment, blasting another soldier. I should let him do his job. Noticing the folder he thought: But I’ll take this with me. Maybe it will tell me what they’re up to.
____________
By the time Ace had finished kicking Galactor tail and the other team members had arrived, the flying kid was long gone.
"Crap!" Ace kicked the side of the fallen mailbox. "I wanted to question him!" Then he noticed the news crew, a little worse for wear, approaching.
"Excuse me, I’m Harriet Chin. I just caught the whole incident on camera, and I’d like to interview you before tonight’s-"
"Wait," said Ace. His eyes narrowed. "Did you say the whole fight? Including that kid in black?"
"Yes, sir," Harriet answered cheerfully.
"Tell you what," he said. "Get me copies of those tapes –and you’ll get your interview."
Sam’s house, basement, Saturday night
"I’m glad G-Force’s captain showed up," said Danny. "Those soldiers are tough."
"As tough as ghosts?" asked Tucker.
"More like a different kind of tough," Danny rubbed his shoulder where he had collided with a soldier. "I’m just glad that bullets going through my ghost mode can’t hurt me."
"And that they can’t fight worth a darn," said Tucker.
"What’s that, Danny?" asked Sam, indicating the file folder.
"This guy –I think he was the boss- was showing this to the arcade girl and asking a question. I grabbed it ‘cause it might tell us what they’re doing in Amity Park of all places."
"Well, give it here," said Tucker. He flipped it open. Then his generally cheerful face changed to one of shock.
"What?" Sam grabbed the folder –and saw a copy of her school picture inside.With it was a note:
Capture this girl.
Gallactor.
G-Force Temporary Headquarters/Living Facilities, Saturday night
Dr. Brighthead and four members of the G-Force team watched the tapes of the battle, pausing and zooming in on interesting points.The fifth member came in, Detransformed, and flopped down on the couch.
"Rough day?" Dirk asked.
Ace grimaced. "That woman is very good. I had some trouble answering her questions while not telling too much. Maybe the Institute of Science should hire her to gather info."
"Hey, you volunteered," said Dirk. "Personally, I was going to tell her to shove it."
"I’m glad he made that bargain," said the Dr. "These tapes are an excellent view of the performance of the Galactors as well as that super-powered boy."
"Yeah," said Pewee. "Can you believe it? This town has its very own superhero!"
"I'd rather have him at one of the Institute’s bases," replied the Dr. He rewound and paused it as the boy made his first appearance on the scene. "I'd rather Galactor didn’t get their hands on anyone who can phase through a solid wall like that. And it is solid; I had it checked."
Ace looked around. "Who’s watching the girl?"
"The local police. I don’t want to attract any more attention than necessary. Hopefully, the Galactor will think you’re by yourself and be more careless than if they knew the entire team was here."
"According to their last report," said Aggie. "Samantha and her two friends are at her house, most likely in the basement, since the plans for the building show there’s a large recreation area down there. And by large, I mean large –the place makes our training area on base look small. There’s even a bowling alley!"
"Any reports of Galactors in the neighborhood?"
"Nope," said Dirk. "And the Doc made it very clear that if they see anyone suspicious they’re to call us."
"And Dirk told them a few stories about what happened to guys who didn’t cooperate with such orders," said Hootie. "’Course, half of them were exaggerated and the other half were just plain made up."
Ace reached over and thwapped his second.
Sam’s House
"They were after me!" yelled Sam.
"But why?" wondered Danny.
"Let me do a web search," said Tucker. After a minute, "Here we go. About a year back Galactor kidnapped a little rich girl called Maria and demanded a million dollar ransom." He poked a few times at his PDA. "They’re probably looking to do that with Sam."
"Over my dead body!" Danny snapped.
Tucker looked at him, all humor temporarily wiped from his face. "Even though you’re half-ghost, Danny, if you’re not careful, it might very well be."
"I will be careful. And until G-Force deals with this, I’m not letting Sam out of my sight!"
"It’s so sweet when you admit to being together," Tucker teased.
"We’re not together!" Sam and Danny yelled.
"Whatever." Tucker waved them off.
Danny had a thought. "This could get pretty messy, Tucker. Sam’s involved in this whether she wants to be or not, and I have to protect her-"
"I can protect myself just fine, Fenton-"
"Help protect her, but you don’t have to be involved in this. Maybe you should keep your distance or hole up until this is over, one way or the other."
"Danny, Danny, Danny," sighed Tucker. "You just don’t know how Galactor works. They’ll probably blow the town apart rather than be thwarted and there’ll be no safe place. Better I just stay with you guys."
"Blow the town apart?! But-but Jaz…and my folks! And everybody at school and-"
Sam cut in. "Let’s say that’s what they’ll do. Not that Dash and Paulina would be a big loss, but you did tell us that the leader of G-Force is here. He’ll probably call his buddies in –if they aren’t here already. And both sides are probably watching my every move. So, why don’t we bait a trap?"
"What!?" This time it was Danny and Tucker in unison.
"Just listen." Sam grinned conspiratorially. "It starts with a nice long walk…"
A few miles outside of Amity Park, Sunday morning
What are those two doing all the way out here? Dirk wondered for the hundredth time. He shifted his weight; the branch was more than thick enough to hold him, but the bark was bloody rough and uncomfortable, even through his birdstyle. But sitting on his cape caused it to choke him when he leaned forward…He sighed, shifting his position again.
Below him and a few feet off, Sam and Tucker were sitting on a log. I wonder were that other kid is? Those three seemed to be attached at the hip. Although finding that out was actually Pewee’s problem right now…
Little did Dirk realize that Danny was closer than he thought.
_________
Invisible, Danny looked down from his branch. The red-and-blue clad member of G-Force was about six feet below him. Sam was right. Good thing I’m invisible. Danny grimaced, shifting his own weight. Wish I could go intangible, but I’ll fall right through the tree. He gave a mental sigh. I wish Gallactor’s creeps would just hurry up already.
Below him, the watch on the G-Forcer’s wrist began to flash.
________
Dirk lifted his left wrist. "G-2 here."
"Dirk!" Ace’s voice. "Galactor soldiers headed your way, with airborne assault sleds! Coming from the northwest. Stand ready, we’re coming!"
Dirk fluidly shifted to a crouched position, prepared to attack or defend. He checked on the kids, than began studying the horizon for the first sign of Galactor.
________
Danny stood up and checked on Sam and Tucker. He, too, kept an eye out for the first sight of the green goon brigade, ready to surprise them with an ecto-blast.
_________
By the time the other four members of G-Force arrived –everyone but Pewee having to race up on foot because the tree were far too thick for the last quarter mile- the battle was in full swing.They saw the ghost kid blasting the soldiers with liquid green fire, but didn’t have time to wonder how he’d known to be there. Gallactor hated being thwarted, and had sent in every soldier he could locate, plus as much heavy artillery as he could cram on those flying sleds of his.
(Do I really need to write in detail the average G-Force vs. Galactor fight?)
Danny was surprisingly good at bringing down the sleds. Phasing his hand through the engine block, he would damage the engine, causing them to crash. He was ready to turn the sleds intangible if they were headed towards anyone who wasn’t a Galactor.
However, this time Galactor pulled a fast one. While G-Force and Danny Phantom were busy beating up Galactor goons and wrecking their hardware, another vehicle snuck in from underground and snatched both Sam and Tucker.
________
"Sam! Tucker!" Danny yelled. He raced towards the disappearing drill tank. In his haste, he was caught in the blast of a concussive grenade and flung to the ground.
A powerful explosion ripped through the tunnel, collapsing it behind the tank and preventing Pewee's Buggy from following.
"Great," growled Dirk. "Now what?"
"Maybe there’s a clue somewhere…" said Hootie, trailing off as he observed the mess the six of them had made.
Pewee landed and came out of his buggy. "Yeah, like where?"
Aggie’s foot kicked against a bundle of cloth on the ground. "What’s this?"
"Looks like the Foley kid dropped his backpack," Ace noted.
"I mean this." She pulled out a PDA-type device with a round blinking light on the screen.
"Let me see that," said Danny, carefully taking it from her. "Hey…this is the tracking device for the Fenton ghost tracing system. Tucker must still have the tracer in his pocket!"
"You mean the one that Daniel Fenton gave him yesterday at the park?" Pewee asked.
"Yes…How did you know about that?!"
Dirk grinned evilly. "Do you really want to know?"
Danny flinched. "Eh…Not really."
Ace gestured at Danny. "We need to be following them. Hand that over and we’ll get going." He reached to take the tracker from the ghost kid.
Danny turned intangible.
"What?!"
"I’m going with you," the Phantom said evenly. "It was my responsibility to protect them, and it’s my responsibility to get them back!"
"Like I said," chirped Pewee. "Local superhero." Aggie clunked him on the helmet.
Ace glared. "We don’t have time for this-"
Danny smirked and floated about a foot off the ground. "I can really fly; I’ll be able to follow them just fine. So do I go with you or on my own?" And why didn’t I just float when I was sitting in that tree?
After a moment Ace answered. "With us."
Four voices: "What!"
"On one condition."
"What?"
"You come with the team, you act as part of the team. From now on, you follow my orders. I don’t need any loose cannons on my team."
"Don’t you mean anym- Ow!" Pewee rubbed his head and glared at Aggie.
Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Fine," he said. "And call me Phantom."
Inside Galactor’s base, Sunday afternoon
Sam banged on the one glass wall of the cell again, hoping it would give just a little, enough to start working it loose. But it held. She growled in frustration.
"Give a rest, Sam. We’re not getting out of here until that Purple Doberman decides to let us out," said Tucker. Sam spun and glared at him. Ignoring her, he continued, "I wish I hadn’t dropped my backpack. I’m so bored without my PDA." He shoved his hands in his pockets as he leaned against the wall. "Hey, what’s this?" He pulled out a small green disk.
"That’s the tracker that Danny gave you yesterday!" exclaimed Sam, grabbing it. "Ewww, Tucker, you’re wearing the same pants as yesterday?"
"Well, I slept in them."
Sam rolled her eyes in disgust, then thought. "It’s too dangerous for us to carry it around. What if they decide to search us? Ah-hah!" She pounced on a spot at the back of the cell, where a tiny air vent bravely tried to relieve the stuffiness of the airless closet. Pulling her nail file out of her pocket, she managed to pry the grate covering the vent far enough away to slide the small disk in between the frame and the wall. "There. Now it’ll be harder for them to find it. They’ll have to really look. And that’s something these guys don’t seem to be much good at."
"But what good does that do?" asked Tucker.
"If Danny’s parents can track ghosts with these, then Danny can track us! And the longer it can signal him, the longer he has to track it!"
Outside the Galactor base, Sunday afternoon
"Whoa." Danny’s green eyes stared at the huge silver structure partially buried within the mountain’s heart.
"Galactor bases can be impressive when you first see ‘em," said Hootie.
Dirk snorted. "Seen one, seen them all."
Aggie looked over Danny’s shoulder at the Fenton Tracer. "Well, if this thing is accurate, Sam and Tucker are in there somewhere."
"It should be," said Danny. "My p- The Fentons’ inventions have been working more often lately."
Dirk raised an eyebrow.
"But how do we get in?" Aggie asked. "It looks sealed. I can’t see anywhere to sneak in-"
"And if we blast our way in, they’ll either escape with the kids-" added Ace.
"Or kill them," finished Dirk.
"I don’t see any soldiers going in we could replace or use as camouflage," said Hootie.
"If only we could bypass the security system somehow!" Pewee fumed.
"Wait- You can bypass their security?" Danny asked.
"IF we can get in," Dirk snapped. "And right now, getting in without being noticed is a pretty big if."
"You have an idea?" Ace asked skeptically.
"I can phase through walls and stuff by becoming intangible," Danny said tightly.
"So?"
"So, I can make other people intangible, too! It’s sometimes necessary to get them out of the path of a vicious ghost or something. And if I can get you in-"
"We can disable the security system on the door!" Pewee cheered.
"Now wait just a minute," Dirk growled. "Is that even a good idea?"
"Sam and Tucker have been made intangible –and invisible- a few times. They haven’t had any problems." Danny was about ready to start growling back.
Ace studied him for a minute. They know you. That’s why you were so close to both attacks. "Then I’ll-"
"I’ll go," said Aggie. "I’m the best at electronics." She cut Ace off with a sharp motion of her hand. "Like you said earlier, we don’t have time. Whenever you’re ready, Phantom."
"Fine," said Ace. "And if you can make yourselves invisible, Phantom, you should."
Danny shot him a what-makes-you-think-I-don’t-know-that look and took Aggie’s hand.
______
After gliding through the door, Aggie guided him to its controls. Danny took a good look around before turning them visible, but no soldiers were in sight.
"I guess they trust security to keep out uninvited guests," he said.
"Sometimes, or they might be on roving patrol inside the base," said Aggie. "Keep a lookout while I get the door open."
As Aggie fiddled with the door controls, Danny’s attention wandered. It was brought sharply back by the sound of approaching boots.
"G-3!" Danny reflexively went invisible.
Aggie looked around. There was no place to hide. She pulled out her yo-yo.
There were only two soldiers. The minute they saw the Swan they pointed their guns at her and snarled, "Hands up, G-Force!"
"I’ll take those," came a disembodied voice. Suddenly turned intangible, the guns were yanked from their hands. The next moment, a bright yellow yo-yo clobbered both of them upside the head. Instant brain-bleed; they dropped like rocks.
Aggie spun and finished opening the door.
Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "I-I know you could have handled them, but-"
"Helping me saved on time and noise," Aggie finished. "Thanks."
"And I'm sorry I didn't-"
"Don't worry about it. It can't be reflexive to turn others invisible."
The male members of the team slipped through the door. Aggie punched the buttons to close it.
Dirk cocked his head. "Started the party without us?"
Aggie shrugged. "Nothing we couldn’t take care of. Let’s find a place to stash these guys and find the kids."
__________
It took the better part of half an hour before they found the glass-fronted cell where Sam and Tucker were.
"Danny!" Sam yelled. "What-"
"He can’t hear you, Sam," said Tucker. "Wait until we’re out of –uh oh."
"G-Force. Great." Sam tapped her cheek thoughtfully. "How much do you think they suspect?"
Danny turned intangible and poked his head through the glass. "I’m going to turn the glass intangible so be ready to move and I told them I’m called Phantom and I don’t think they suspect anything." He pulled out and put his hands on the glass.
As soon as the glass took on the weird blue glow of intangibility, Sam grabbed Tucker and hauled him through.
"H-hi," Tuck said.
"You know, if you were trying to stop me from getting captured, you did a lousy job," Sam snapped.
Dirk growled. Ace quickly cut off the scathing comment that was forming."Maybe, but we need to get out of here. Now." He turned to his team. "Hootie, Pewee, I want you to stay with these two. Aggie, Phantom, take the lead. Dirk, you and me will watch our retreat." He raised his hand and brought it down. "G-Force, go!"
________
Halfway back to the entrance, (stopping to place remote-detonate bombs along the way) they came across a large round room with miscellaneous boxes and machinery scattered across the floor and piled around the walls, standard to any Galactor base. When G-Force had passed through it before, it’d been empty of goons, but now it was filled with them.
"Great," whispered Danny. "Any way out besides past them?"
Aggie had already hacked into a small wall computer terminal. "Unfortunately, no." She raised her transpower band. "Ace, we have a problem."
_____________
Aggie and Danny met the others several yards back from the entrance to the central room.
"Can you make us all invisible?" Pewee asked, a little too eagerly.
"Are you kidding?!" Danny barely remembered to keep his voice down.
"Yeah, especially after you passed out fighting that lunch lady ghost," said Tucker.
"I’d just spent two hours fighting her and her meat monster and that was my first case and of what interest is it to you anyway?" Danny snapped.
Sam smacked Tucker hard upside the back of the head.
"In any case, I can not make eight people invisible all at the same time!"
"Eight?" asked Hootie.
"Including him," said Aggie softly.
"And don’t even ask about making everyone intangible. Same thing; I can’t do it. I’m not that skilled yet!"
"Okay, okay, calm down," said Sam. She turned to Ace. "You’re supposed to be the big leader. So what are we going to do?"
Ace thought for a minute. "Well, I only see one thing to do..."
_____________
A soft whistling echoed through the central room of the Galactor base.The soldiers knew all too well what that was: the call of the leader of G-Force. Still, they were caught by surprise as he and two of his teammates leapt from the shadows.
As the battle raged, Aggie, Pewee, Phantom, Sam and Tucker slipped around the edge of the room under cover of the multitude of scattered junk. They were almost out of the room when a slightly more observant goon spotted them and opened fire. Instinctively Danny called up an ectoplasmic shield, deflecting the bullets and giving the others time to duck behind a pile of crates.
Now what?