Negative Feedback (Danny Phantom Fic)

Chapter 37

The gif at the top is to help illustrate something Danny and Camry do in their fight in this chapter, just so you know to check it out :)

RECAP:

Danny held up a fist, and after a second of wondering what to do about it, Relle tapped her own fist against it. "Ready to kick butt, Relle Phantom?" he asked her.

Pink flushed into her cheeks at the question, but she fought through it to smile with determination. "I'm always ready to kick butt, Danny Phantom."

----------------------------------------------------

"Sir, sir!" The lieutenant's voice, pitched higher than usual with panic, cut through the blaring of an electronic alarm bell vibrating in the air. "Something about the quarantine zone has changed in the last few minutes!"

In the underground portion of an outpost situated at the edge of the 'safe zone' surrounding the barrier placed over the city of Bailey Lake, the chief of the government's Supernatural Affairs Division sped over to the control panel the lieutenant sat at. He squinted over her shoulder to take in the sight of the readings jumping all over the screen and reaching new heights never before seen in the area-- or any area, for that matter.

"What am I looking at, exactly, Lieutenant?" he asked, though something told him he already knew. 'More ghosts? How? The barrier hasn't reported a breach since it was erected!'

"I-I wish I could say, sir," she stammered, her hands busy with pressing buttons to reveal the numerical values of the timeline graphs displayed on adjacent monitors. "The ectoplasmic signature changed suddenly, as if multiple new and powerful ghosts just appeared inside the zone. That doesn't make any sense, though!"

The chief's frown deepened as his brain ran through the different but rather limited options available for him to follow. While it was too risky to send troops in, machines were an entirely different matter, and a drone with a camera could hypothetically go in and make it back in one piece. The contamination would be a pain to deal with afterward, though, and their staff was incredibly limited now that they were enduring their third month of uneventful containment.  

He stood up straight then, assuming an air of authority to deliver his orders. "Lieutenant, call off the anti-ecto missile launch until we know exactly what's in there. And I want eyes in the sky inside the zone yesterday. Understood?"

"Roger!" she answered. One hand shot up to the earpiece she wore so she could place the call for holding off the missile launch. Her voice was loud in order to be heard over the alarms still ringing.

"And turn down these alarms-- we already know something's not right about this!"

~

Rain clouds loomed in the sky, threatening a second round of rain to pour down on the fight raging over the lake. The two Phantoms certainly were holding their own against the gigantic snake ghost trying to swallow them whole, but as they fired attack after attack at his body it became clear that Crom's scales were just naturally resistant to their attempts. 

'It's not just a projection thing' Relle realized with a grimace as she just barely dodged Crom's tail trying to whip her out of the sky. She saw Danny fire a widespread barrage of green energy blasts, nearly all of which hit their mark, and Crom shake them off like they were simple mosquito bites. 'We need a new strategy!'

Crom let loose an arc of green fire from his mouth and directed it at Relle, who simply put her hands up and parted the attack like Moses parting the Red Sea. The heat tickled her arms and ruffled her blue hair, but to a ghost with a volcanic core, his fire was all too manageable. Then she ran down the path she'd made and zipped up higher, gathering energy in her fists to prepare for an attack of her own. He didn't see her coming right away as Danny shot ice into Crom's one good eye, effectively blinding him, and Camry's twin punches in rapid succession into the side of his face pushed him back and down closer to the water.