Chapter 9 - This time, with feeling

"I need to get off this ship." Phantom told Betty. That was one of the few reasons she could stand being around him, he said exactly what he meant to say.
"No can do, Phantom," she replied, turning her attention away from the floating teen. Forthcoming or not, that hovering thing he did still gave her the creeps, especially when his legs became that smoky tail. "You're a wanted criminal, they probably have wanted posters out for you from here to Cluster Prime. If someone recognized you it would blow the entire mission."
"What mission?" Phantom floated into her field of vision, "We're going to a mall!"
"It's not a mall." the only reason she was even in the cargo bay that Phantom had taken over and claimed as 'his room' was to find some sort of weapon to replace her bracelet. "It's a market place filled with potentially dangerous and malevolent creatures."
"And that's different from a mall filled with teenagers because...?"
"Because teenagers don't like humans as an entree." Betty said, digging into another pile of Phantom's junk.
"Okay, okay," Phantom hovered in thought for a while, "What if I wore a disguise?"
Betty couldn't help but imagine Phantom in ridiculous Groucho Marx glasses and a trench coat. "I don't think that will work."
"Really?" suddenly, Phantom vanished from site. Betty looked around her, scanning for any clues to his current whereabouts. It made sense to he that he could cause light to pass though himself, be it was still incredibly unnerving to no know where Phantom was at all times. Suddenly, a flapping noise, she spun around. There was a huge white thing moving slowly towards her, billowing with some unearthly wind.
"A bed sheet Phantom? Honestly?"
"Hey, I've seen some pretty scary stuff under bed sheets. Besides, it's better than being the Box Ghost." he reappeared inside the sheet's folds.
"There's a ghost of a box?" Betty asked, returning to her search.
"No, he's- ugh, never mind. Can I just go?"
"No. I'd prefer to only bring you in incase of a real emergency," Phantom began to protest but Betty held up hand to stop him, "I'll call if I need you, but," she saw him gearing up for another argument, "I probably won't need to since I'll be taking Jake. Besides, I want you to see if you can get any more bugs out of X-fi-, I mean, Jenny."
"Fine." Phantom conceited, "What are you looking for again?"
"A weapon, something small, concealable, maybe worn on the wrist." she moved to a new pile.
"Something like this?" Phantom was holding up a small metallic band attached to a laser slightly smaller than his hand. "The Fenton Wrist Ray." He said, handing it to her.
"Does it work on anything other than ghosts?" she had grown accustomed to asking this sort of question about all of Phantom's technology, considering just how many of them were apparently completely harmless to everything but ghosts.
"Well, yeah, I've been using it for my gh- uh just a, uh project."
"What project ?"
"Project? Oh it-it's nothing, probably won't even work." Phantom floated silently between Betty and the Specter Speeder.
'He's hiding something.' Betty decided. She easily darted past him and moved behind the Speeder where she saw...
"Why is there a hole in my ship?" she shouted at Phantom. The hole led into the engine room and was about six or seven feet tall. Tools were lying all over the floor and circuitry and wires were bolted around the edge on the hole.
"Technically, it's not your ship." Phantom answered sheepishly.
"That's not the point, why is the hole there?"
"Well, it's suppose to be a hole into another universe."
"Another universe?"
"Yeah, the Ghost Zone." Phantom was getting that crazy look in his eye again.
Betty shook her head and began walking out of the room. "If I need you, I'll call." The door closed behind her, leaving Phantom alone.
"Well, that didn't go nearly as bad as I thought it would."
-COTB-
Betty marched into the bridge to see Jake looking perky and ready to go. Jenny, on the other hand, was sulking in the corner clearly upset about having to stay on the ship. 'She'll be alright.' Betty told herself.
"Ready Jake?"
"Pffh, I was born ready, baby!" Feeling she would have preferred a simple 'Yes sir', she began walking to the door.
"Why can't I go?" Jenny called out. Betty stiffened up, the real reason she didn't want Jenny to come was incase she got damaged. Her circuitry was so advanced Betty knew if it was damaged it could take years to fix, let alone figure out. Betty wanted her as close to full power for when they took on the invaders.
"Because Phantom needs help."
"You can say that again." Jake said with a huge grin. Jenny still scowled. Betty's mind began racing; a moody robot could be just as bad as a dysfunctional one.
"The Cluster," she lied, "they invaded this planet a while back. The local were able to fight them off but there are still some pretty strong anti-robot feeling. We can't risk having a mob after us."
"Oh," Jenny's face saddened again, "I understand."
"Don't worry, Phantom's good with machines, maybe he can try and some more of your systems back online."
"Yeah, I guess would be nice to use my blaster cannon again."
"Phantom's in the cargo hold, we'll call if we need you, and-"
"And emergency numbers are on the fridge, I know." Jenny was grinning a little now, Betty smiled in response.
"Let's go Jake." she once again stopped, "Oh, and Jenny? Phantom's working on a project and, well, just make sure he doesn't blow up my ship, okay?"
"You got it Chief." Jenny exclaimed with a thumbs up.
Betty stood stunned, it was almost as if Sparky was standing there. Without another word, she turned and left with Jake following.
Walking at a brisk pace she came out of the ship onto the landing pad. Her only concern was to get to the market and get the supplies.
"Hey, yo! Wait up!" Jake was a few feet behind but Betty didn't seem to notice. She did notice, however, when Jake was towering before her in his dragon form.
"Alright," he said, "What's up?"
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"What do I mean? You keep spacing out, you're always getting confused about weird little things, you don't sleep, you don't eat." Jake let out a sigh and returned to his human form, "You miss 'um, don't you?"
"Miss who?" She didn't really want to be having this conversation.
"Everybody! Betty, the whole world is gone and all that's left is you, me, Phantom, and Jenny. You can't tell me you don't miss your friends."
"Most of my friends were aliens." Betty tried to get around Jake, she really didn't want to be having this conversation.
"Most of them?"
"I really don't want to talk about this."
"Yeah, well, I learned a long time ago that it's a bad idea to keep stuff like this bottled up."
"And I suppose you're the expert on these sort of things?" Betty said sarcastically. Jake looked down, she was right, he wasn't an expert in stuff like this. Betty took the opportunity and walked past Jake.
She had a pretty good guess where the market might be and-
"Rose." Jake muttered.
"What?"
"Rose. She's the one I miss the most. I think about her all the time. Every morning I wake up and wonder if it's worth it to live in a world without her."
"Jake, I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"Let me finish. I wonder if it's worth it but then I realize that she wouldn't want me to just give up. I'm not saying that makes me perfect, but at least I can say I miss her out loud. I can admit that she's gone. But you haven't even acknowledge you had a life before the invasion."
Betty sighed, he was right, "Can we talk about this later?"
"Yeah, we could. But it won't get any easier and I'm not moving until we do."
Turning around she saw the way Jake was standing he wouldn't move. She let out a soft sigh.
"I never really had many friends on Earth. The Galactic Guardians contacted me when I was in kindergarten. I wound up spending more time training than I did playing with other kids. I guess I just never really got around to making friends planet side. By the time I got into grade school all the other kids just sort of avoided me. I was just too weird, too different. I tried not to let it bother me. After all, by then I was considered a hero on over a dozen planets. Any time I started to feel lonely I'd just call up my team and go on patrol. Before long I knew more about alien cultures than I did about my own family. I even started to think like most aliens, Earth seemed like one of the worst places to live. A backwards, primitive planet, home to the most ignorant, pathetic beings ever to be called sentient."
"Gee, thanks."
"Sorry. Anyway, by the time I was in middle school no one really wanted to hang out with me. I was too weird, too different. Then I meet Noah. He didn't care how weird I was, he was my only real friend. I mean, I liked my crew and no matter where I went in the galaxy people would welcome me but," tears began running down her face, "I never really had anyone to go skateboarding with or to talk to about comic books or music. I just can't believe he's-he's," she felt Jake's hand on her shoulder, "he's gone." Betty was suddenly overcome with tears. She tried to fight them off but failed. They came steadily for a good few minutes until her eyes were sore and her face drenched. Finally she was able to stop.
"There, feel better?" Jake asked.
"Yeah," she admitted, "a little. But you know what would make me feel a whole lot better?"
"What's that?"
"Catching up with those invaders and making them pay."
"Awww, yeah, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" Jake hooted as they started off towards town.
-COTB-
After Jake and Betty left, Jenny had begun to preoccupy her self. Namely by generating random numbers an seeing how often the same one came up.
"Oh boy, seven again." she said, staring lazily at the slip of paper she just printed out. Finding herself now thoroughly bored she began to wonder about this 'project' Phantom was working on.
Meanwhile, Phantom stood in front of his ghost portal with a set of controls in hand. He flicked a few switches and the machine began whirring to life. Green sparks jumped from wall to wall. The gentle hum of the portal, however, started to give way to a clanking, sputtering noise. The ghost boy fiddled with the controls but the noise just got worse.
"This won't end well." he said calmly as he turned intangible. The ghost portal made a sound like a huge cough and out of it came a huge plume of smoke, sending bits of circuitry and papers flying. As soon as the air settled Phantom became solid again and switched off the machine.
"That wasn't supposed to happen, was it?" Jenny's voice startled Phantom, causing him to lose balance and fall to the floor.
"Sorry!" Jenny shouted as she helped Phantom up. "I didn't mean to spook you. Get it? Spook you?" Jenny began laughing heartily.
"Hilarious." Phantom mumbled, "Betty wanted me to try and fix you up. Might as well do that now." he said, glancing at the portal.
"What is that thing anyway?" Jenny asked.
"Fenton Portal." Phantom said, rummaging through the junk.
"Fenton Portal, Fenton Thermos, Fenton Wipes. These Fenton people must have been inventors."
"Mmmm-hmm." he found what he was looking for. A device that looked somewhat like a mix between a camera and a laser gun. "Stand over there, please." he pointed to a slightly cleaner section of the room.
"So, how is it you have all their stuff? Did you steal it? Or maybe you worked with them in a top secret government lab!" Jenny stood were Phantom had pointed to.
"They were my parents. Say 'cheese'." with that the ghost-boy pointed the device at Jenny and pulled the trigger. A blinding flash of light enveloped the robot for a split second. The device then spat out a piece of paper.
"What's that?" the robot girl said, pointing at the paper.
"Your schematics."
Jenny gasped, blushed furiously and followed up with a forceful slap to Phantom's face powerful enough to his head backwards.
"That was incredibly unnecessary." Phantom said fixing his head.
"Well, maybe you should ask a girl before you take her schematics. How did you do that by the way?"
"With the schematic-o-matic. It was designed to instantly replace lost blue prints for broken machines."
"What happens when the schematic-o-matic breaks?" Jenny asked, calming down some. Phantom's face told her that he had never considered that possibility.
"We'll just avoid that." he gently placed the schematic-o-matic down and started looking at the schematics. "Probably should work on getting you airborne."
"I can still fly."
"Yes, but can you land?"
"Oh, right."
"My guess is that something's wrong with your stabilizers." Phantom grabbed a nearby drill and got to work on one of Jenny's pigtails.
"How did you get to be so smart?" Jenny asked earnestly.
"You'd be surprised how clearly you think without human emotions." he replied without looking up from his work.
"So, are you saying you've tried thinking with human emotions?"
"You ask a lot of questions, you know that?" Phantom was sounding a little irritated.
"Sorry," Jenny shrunk back a bit, "but can you blame me? We hardly know anything about you. I don't think even Betty knows how you survived the invasion."
"Survive? I didn't survive."
Jenny's face reflected her confusion, "But, you had to survive. I mean, you're still here, right?"
Phantom put down his screwdriver with a little more force than necessary. "How many times do I have to tell you people? I. Am. A. Ghost!"
"So, you're...dead? But wait, if that's so, why aren't there more ghosts around. I mean...the whole planet-"
"I had ghost powers before the invasion." Phantom said as he lifted Jenny's pig-tail off her head, sounding a bit more annoyed. "If it wasn't for the first Fenton Portal, I wouldn't have gotten them in the first place."
"So, why are you building another portal? Are you trying to give someone else ghost powers?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" he yelled, "I don't know why I'm building another portal, other than I need to do something just to keep my mind off it." he shook his head and buried his face in his hands.
"Keep your mind off what?" Jenny asked in a caring way.
"It's all my fault, and I don't even feel sorry about it. They're all gone and I don't even miss them! My family, my friends, all dead. It's like I'm some sort of heartless monster."
For a moment Jenny didn't know what to say. After all, she was programmed to fight giant monsters, not offer advice to super-teens.
"W-well, I'm sure it wasn't your fault. If anything, it was mine. I'm a crime-fighting robot for goodness sake!"
"Did you know about it three days in advance?"
"Well, no, but how could anyone?"
"Clockwork. Ghost master of time. He told me that the world was going to end. I thought I could handle it alone. I was wrong, and the whole world paid the price. And you know what the worst part about it is? I don't even regret it! I'm just another filthy, miserable ghost!"
For a minute or two, Jenny thought, "When I first saw you, you were trying to steal weapons and a ship. Why?"
"Why? Because I wanted to get even, just like any other ghost."
"No, I think you were trying to make things right. I may not know much about ghosts, but I don't think they'd be too interested in that."
"Yeah? Well what about my family? I can remember how much I loved them but when I think that they're all gone; nothing." Phantom turned back to the robot's equipment and started working vigorously.
"You should consider yourself lucky to have known your family so well. I had eight sisters and I barely saw them at all, my mom just kept them locked up in the basement." This last statement earned a very confused look from Phantom. "What? They were prototypes, she just turned then off and put them in storage. Did you think the 9 in XJ9 was just for show?"
Phantom's reply came in a deadpan, mechanical way "That's what the 10,000 in the Fenton Dislodger 10,000 is for."
For a few seconds Jenny stared at the ghost boy, the broke out in laughter. She even caught Phantom chuckling a little, which she quickly pointed out. "See? You're not as bad as you think you are. But you know what would really convince me you're not a monster?"
"What's that?"
"If you, maybe, let me, I dunno, have a few upgrades."
"Sure, why not."
This answer made the robot very exited, as she dashed over to give Phantom a shockingly powerful hug, "Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she quickly let go and turned to her schematics, "Okay, so, first of all, here's what I was thinking, it may sound weird at first but trust me, it's going to look fabulous!"
For the next few hours Phantom and Jenny worked on the 'upgrades' and fixed as many bugs as the could on the way. Then, just as they were working on the finishing touches, an incredibly loud alarm went off in the ship. Betty was in trouble.

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