#meda-lean

[snackleggg]

City of splintering hopes: Chapter 4 "Meda-Lean"

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Ao3

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When Danny came out the other side of the cave, back into the Far Frozen, he turned around to confirm yep the bird robot is still following me.

"So why exactly has keeping me safe been 'added as your top objective'?" Danny asked, using air quotes when referencing what the robot had said earlier.

"Because you are a Halfa" It replied. Danny actually paused at that.

He turned around and started making the trek back to the yeti civilisation in the Far Frozen, following the route that Frostbite had led him through.

"Okay but I wasn't born a Halfa. I'm not a citizen of that city or even related to those Halfas in anyway so why did you activate?" Danny asked.

He heard the crunching of snow behind him stop and he also came to a stop to look behind him at the robot. It had it's head tilted to the side again, seemingly a common gesture for it when it was thinking or maybe confused?

"It does not matter if you were not born a Halfa. What matters is you are one now and that was proven by the activation once you stepped into the Hall of the Ancients" It stated and Danny could tell by it's abrupt blink that he was making a face because he did not understand half the things that just- well not 'came out of it's mouth', it didn't have a mouth but that last sentence definitely had him confused beyond all belief.

"Wat" Danny said "Hall of the what now? Activation? What are you talking about?"

"The Hall of the Ancients is the name of the structure atop the capital." It explained "The automatic pairing system was activated by your presence as it sensed you had not been assigned a droid and therefore assigned me to you" the robot finished and Danny needed a second to take all that in.

Instead of facing everything that sentence implied Danny turned back around and continued walking. He soon heard the crunching of snow behind him signalling that the robot bird was following.

"So... it only turned on because it sensed I was a Halfa?" Danny asked after a brief silence.

"Correct. All Halfas are assigned droids to assist and protect them in their everyday lives, especially those who travel outside of the Hidden lands" It explained and Danny was trying to wrap his mind around it. More questions suddenly started popping up into his mind, thankfully he finally had someone who seemed to know what they were talking about.

For some reason Danny felt relieved. The automatic system that the original Halfas left behind had recognised him as a Halfa and that made him feel very validated.

"Why'd it choose you?" Danny asked after briefly mulling over the question. He had seen many of those statues in the alcoves in the walls and there had probably been more he hadn't seen deeper inside the building. So why was this specific droid chosen for him?

"Each droid has a unique personality of sorts, unique responses to certain situations and when you stepped into the building it scanned your core and automatically found the droid best suited to serve and protect you" It replied.

"So there are just a bunch of pre-made droids laying around waiting to be assigned?" Danny asked, he couldn't help the sadness that tainted his voice. Those droids would probably never be activated, Danny sure as hell wasn't letting Vlad get his grubby little hands on one. He shuddered at the very thought of Vlad knowing about the ruins.

"Incorrect" It informed him "Halfa children typically have droids created and assigned for them at the age of 10. All droids in the Hall of the Ancients had already been created and assigned to a Halfa at some point and were all once active. Including myself." the robot said, there was something in it's voice but Danny couldn't place his finger on it.

"Wait so.... how long have you been deactivated for?" He asked.

"It has been roughly 247 years since I was last active" It replied, that strange tone in it's voice again.

"And that was when...." He could piece together what that meant but the droid answered him anyway.

"When Pariah Dark was launching his attack on the Halfas" Danny suddenly recognised the emotion in it's voice. Grief. Sadness. Hesitancy.

Even if it was a robot Danny could only imagine what it was like. Then another thought hit him and he stopped again in his tracks on the path. But only for a moment before he continued. He could sense the robot's worried gaze but Danny wasn't going to bring up what had caused him to stop. He didn't even want to look back at the droid.

Danny couldn't bring himself to ask more questions, not yet. Maybe another time when his core wasn't clenching in sympathy for the droid.

They walked in silence, every once in a while Danny looked back at the robot bird to see it was seemingly surveying it's surroundings. Danny thought back to how he had scanned the landscape around him when he had come through here with Frostbite and he bit back a laugh at the similarity. It didn't take long before the droid snapped it's attention back to him whenever it noticed him glancing.

Finally they made it back to landscape and terrain Danny was familiar with and it wasn't long before Frostbite popped out and greeted him.

"Great One! You have returned!" Frostbite exclaimed and then he took notice of the new face following behind Danny but instead of any number of reactions Danny had expected Frostbite just glanced at it with something akin to nostalgia in his eyes before diverting his attention back to Danny.

"You're injured!" Frostbite shouted, finally taking noticed of his broken nose. The blood, having dried up ages ago, now looked a muddy brown and felt flaky against Danny's skin.

"Yeah, I had a bit of a crash" Danny said, straining the last word as he glanced at the robot bird that simply blinked back at him.

"Come, let's get you fixed up then before your travel home" Frostbite insisted, ushering him towards the yeti tribe to get his nose fixed up.

Half an hour later and lots of assuring Frostbite that "I'm fine" "No, I don't have a concussion" "Yes, I will make sure to be careful to avoid faceplanting into anything", Danny was finally given the okay to go home but before he left he had one last thing to ask Frostbite.

"Frosty, why aren't you phased by the sudden stone robot bird following me around?" Danny asked, gesturing to said droid who was still hunched over as it stood behind him. Danny had noticed that the robot bird, while not hunching to the point of meeting his eye level anymore, was still not standing to it's full height. He also noticed that no one in the Far Frozen tribe batted an eye at the stone being.

"Oh! Sorry Great One, you must be confused by our lack of reaction! It's just these stone creatures always accompanied past Halfas. If anything we had been surprised when first meeting you that you did not have one. I had a feeling that you may gain one by visiting the sight of their origin" Frostbite replied thoughtfully, a paw held to his chin as he briefly examined the droid.

Danny felt his eye twitch slightly "And you didn't think to inform me that when entering the remains of a Halfa civilisation that some ancient automatic system would decide to give me some bodyguard assistant?" Danny asked, his tone becoming more hysterical as the absurdness of the situation sunk in.

"I apologise Great One. It had only crossed my mind after you had already entered the cave" Frostbite at least had the decency to look sheepish.

Danny took a deep breath before letting it out and giving a slightly strained smile "it's... okay. At least you didn't mean to leave out that semi important fact" He said.

Finally, finally! Danny started his flight home after one last goodbye to Frostbite. He also quickly discovered that bird like stone beings could apparently fly. The droid flew above Danny, stone wings spread and the occasional flap of them even though he was pretty sure that wasn't necessary but he wasn't about to rain all over the robot bird's parade.

Halfway home he realised that he will definitely not be able to explain a giant stone robot following him around to his parents.

"Hey uh... can you turn invisible?" Danny directed to the robot flying above him. The droid looked down at him, blinking once, before replying "Yes, I can but it is energy consuming so only for short periods of time"

"Cool cool cool coolcoolcoolcool, cause when we get to the portal you're gonna have to turn invisible so my parents don't see you" Danny said, a scenario of what would happen to the droid if his parents saw it played in his mind and he quickly shook it from his head.

"Portal? Are we travelling to the living realm?" The robot bird asked and Danny remembered that this was a robot two centuries and a half out of it's time. He would need to keep as close an eye on it as it was keeping on him.

"Yeah. I kind of live there but my parents don't really know about the whole being a Halfa thing so if you stay out of their sight I would really appreciate it. My sister Jazz is fine though, she knows" Danny dreaded having to explain this to Jazz. 'Hey Jazz! I went to the ancient ruins of the original Halfas like we talked about yesterday! I accidently triggered some automatic pairing system that gave me a robot bodyguard for the foreseeable future!' Yeah, that was not going to be a fun conversation.

"I will be mindful" The droid replied before they fell back into a comfortable silence.

Soon the Fenton ghost portal came into view and they both landed on the floating rock it was positioned on.

"Okay remember, invisible. I'll tell you when you can drop the invisibility. Just stay quiet and try not to touch anything" Danny said, making sure he got across how serious this was to the droid.

The robot bird nodded before disappearing from sight instantly.

Danny turned around and did the same, turning himself invisible as he walked through. He mildly panicked when the thought that the droid wouldn't be able to follow him crossed his mind but the feeling of three claw like stone fingers on his shoulder quickly got rid of those doubts.

As expected, his parents were working in the lab, focused intensely on their newest invention which of course was a blaster of some kind. Danny rolled his eyes, another weapon he would have to dodge.

As Danny walked through the lab it was unnerving to him how quiet the droid was managing to be. No heavy footsteps like when they had been walking through the Far Frozen and the cave. No sound of camera like clicking from blinking. The only indication Danny had that it was there were the cool stone fingers on his shoulder.

They made it up the stairs with out a single noise and as soon as they got through the doors Danny immediately dropped his invisibility.

"You can drop it now" He said when the droid didn't immediately follow his example. After the robot became visible again Danny moved around it to close the door to the lab and he sighed in relief.

Despite the fact that he had left in the morning it was evening now as Danny had spent roughly 7 and a half hours on his little side quest. He let the transformation back to his human form go over him and breathed a little in relief.

He saw in the corner of his eye the droid jerk back a bit and he turned to see it blinking repeatedly at him with that same clicking noise before suddenly stopping.

"Your clothes are different than in your other form" It stated.

"Yeah, what of it?" Danny asked as the droid stared at him, still hunched over but Danny was pretty sure it would hit it's head on the ceiling if it stood at it's full height.

"I am an information retrieval droid. Though my objectives have been updated for your safety as top priority I still must gather as much information as possible on everything around me" It stated. Danny made a mental note never to let it onto the internet unsupervised.

"Oh well, like I said earlier I wasn't born a Halfa. I kind of half died? Or maybe I died fully but was half brought back to life? Either way I died, whether half or fully, and those clothes were just the ones I died in" Danny shrugged.

The droid looked at him for another second before seemingly accepting that answer and turning it's attention to their surroundings.

"Right, if you're going to be following me around you should know the layout of the house" Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. The droid nodded absentmindedly, Danny could see it's thin pupils moving around rapidly, trying to take in as much information about the surroundings as possible no doubt.

"Well this is the kitchen. We eat food in here but you don't have a mouth and are a robot so I don't think you'll find yourself in here too often. You already saw the lab, in the basement. Don't go down there unless I'm with you because my parents are down there like 70% of the time" Danny said as he gestured around and then to the door behind them.

Danny started moving into the living room and the droid followed him, he noted that the sound of it's heavy footsteps had returned.

"Living room, we'll pass through here alot to get to the front door so if my parents are ever in here you'll have to turn invisible and be quiet" Danny said, again making a sweeping motion with his arm to show the room. It was weird, he kind of felt like he was showing around a secret roommate.

They went up the stairs. Danny quickly explained that the droid should never ever follow him into the bathroom. An off handed comment to avoid his parents room and the stairs that led to the Ops center. He also pointed out Jazz's room before ending the tour with his own room.

"Since you insist on being around me all the time you'll be spending alot of time in here" Danny said after he closed the door to his room.

The droid was looking around with great interest, examining the books he had on his shelf and all the different space themed things scattered around his room. Danny felt a little embarrassed and could feel his face heating up even though he knew the robot was most likely analysing everything so it could get a better understanding of the Halfa it had been paired with.

Then a thought hit Danny.

"This might be an awkward question to ask now but uh-" the droid turned to face him as he fumbled with something he should've asked from the start "Do you um, have a name I could call you?" Danny asked. He was getting a little tired referring to it as 'the droid' and 'the robot bird' in his head.

"Why yes, you may call me Meda-Lean" They said and Danny blinked.

"Medalean? Or wait- Meda Lean" Danny corrected himself and Meda-Lean nodded.

"Can I call ya Meds for short? Y'know like a nickname?" Danny asked.

"Yes, you may call me 'Meds'." Meds confirmed and the way their eyes seemed to half close gave the impression that if they had a mouth they would be smiling.

----

A stone statue stood tall in a ravaged battlefield. The land was empty and quiet until suddenly the statue moved. The grey stone fell apart revealing a ghost. A rumour that the worlds, both the living and the dead, had forgotten.

The tall figure stood and stretched out two large metallic wings from his back, being careful not to jostle the bow and bag of arrows also resting on his back. Despite not needing to breath he took in a deep breath before releasing it as a loud sigh that echoed throughout the long abandoned battlefield.

"I smell Halfa"

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I'll be tagging all content do to with this story with the tag City of splintering hopes so if guys want to you can follow the story easier. You can also use that tag for any questions or content you guys make of the story!

[snackleggg]

City of splintering hopes: Chapter 3 "Carvings in the walls"

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Ao3

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As Danny flew through the city he became more and more amazed.

It was obvious the place had been abandoned for a long long time but even so there was no sign of decay, everything seemingly perfectly persevered. Of course there was rubble, entire blocks of buildings that was nothing but collapsed stone but for the most part the ancient city was intact.

He landed down in one of the streets. And took stock of his surroundings.

The stone buildings wooden doors all shut, apart from the rubble and rocks the streets were almost pristinely clean.

From flying over head Danny had noticed that the whole city was built in a very organised system. Rows of houses that led upwards encircling around the large island, every once in a while there was a break in the autonomous rock with what Danny thinks were once well kept parks, now overgrown and spilling out into the streets.

In the center of the city, at the very top of the upwards hill of the island was a very large immaculate building. Danny wouldn't call it a castle per say but the architecture did remind him of ancient Greek and Roman architecture when building lavish housing for emperors.

There were a lot of narrow alleys between houses and buildings that may have been storage or served some other purpose, Danny couldn't tell. There were the standard 'roads' which were paths of stone in regular intervals between buildings, being connected together through the city like a huge grid that wrapped perfectly around the entire island. And then there were very open places, places which crowds may have once gathered or, from the looks of the marks on the ground, merchant stalls may have once been.

All in all it was a very human city.

He had never seen anything like it in the Ghost Zone. The longer he spent there the more sure he was that this was where Halfas had once lived.

He slowly began making his way to the center building, going up stairs and slopes as the ground started curving upwards.

Something else he noticed were common carvings in the walls, most just looked like normal graffiti but every time he came to one of those big open spaces that would have been able to hold lots of people at once the carvings were much more professional, deliberate.

The carvings depicted lots of things. Little stories Danny had no cultural context for, writings in a language that looked vaguely like ghost speak written down but just different enough that Danny couldn't actually read it, like it was the same language but a different dialect.

The most common things carved into the walls, he noted, were birds. Lots of different kinds of birds. Two birds that showed up the most though were crows and owls. That made an ominous sort of sense for a people that lived on the border between life and death.

Finally the compact buildings opened up as he nearly reached the top of the island. There were overgrown fields of strange Ghost Zone plants around the center building, it was obviously important, sacred maybe even.

Not for the first time Danny considered turning around, going home, it was obvious he wasn't going to learn anything from this so why risk accidentally disrespecting a race of people who deserve peace? But again his core seemed to disagree as it tugged at him to go forward.

Danny sighed.

He stood on the steps just before entering the open front of the building, again reminding him of Roman architecture by the pillars and open outside hallways. From the top of the large island now he could see far out into these "Hidden lands".

Unlike the rest of the Ghost Zone there weren't any doors floating in the abyss, not even any random debris. Not a ghost was floating in sight, it was quiet and Danny realised he might be the only living, so to speak, thing here. The quiet was just so suffocating, so absent of just anything.

Ghost were naturally very quiet but even they gave off the smallest sounds of existence. Their cores hummed in a consistent way that other ghosts recognised almost unconsciously. Even the Ghost Zone itself seemed to have this hum to it, a never ending rhythm that nobody else noticed because it was just the constant. Like how nobody on earth noticed the world was turning.

But here even that hum was quiet, as if the Ghost Zone itself was holding it's breath.

Danny was still distracted by the strangeness of the "Hidden lands" to really take note of it when he took a step forward off of the steps leading up to the building to properly stand infront of it and under the overhanging roof.

He did take note of it though when the area around where his foot was started glowing a bright yellow, almost white, light. He jumped back, startled as the light moved forwards quickly in a line. The line lead down the side of the open hallway and as Danny leaned over to see where it was going he noticed something about the walls of the building.

There were large openings and inside the alcoves were strange statues. Bird like statues, except also not. They stood on two long legs with three sharp talon like toes, lines almost like joints scattered across the legs with the most noticeable being where the knee would be on a normal creature. The torso of the statues was an upside down trapizium shape, thin towards the bottom but consistently broadening in a slanting line all the way up to the shoulders.

There was a symbol on the torso, Danny had seen that symbol appear quite frequently carved above every door and on the overhang of the building before he had passed under it. Was it the symbol of these people perhaps? Did it have some meaning Danny would never have the context for?

The arms, similar to the legs, were very long. They had the same strange joint like lines as the legs with the line of where the elbow would be being the most pronounced. They didn't have any hands, instead three long claw like fingers at the end of each arm that had their own joint lines. There was also something else about the arms but pinned against the statue's side Danny couldn't tell what.

The bird similarities came from the head. Each head of each statues was a little different while their bodies were virtually the same. All of them either had beaks or someone kind of carving in their semi flat faces to imitate a beak. Their lifeless and empty round eyes stared ahead unseeingly. All of them had some kind of crown of what looked to be stone feathers carved towards the back of their heads.

Danny examined the strange statues closely, then he looked at the glowing line in the ground that still led down the open sided hallway.

Sighing, Danny followed the line. It had obviously been triggered when he stepped up onto the level of the building which must have meant something. Suddenly Danny's mind jumped to the thought of boobytraps but he shook his head of that notion. An ancient civilisation could never really guess when they were about to fall, let alone have the forethought to install boobytraps for people they could only guess would come to the ruins of their civilisation in the far future. It was one of the things that Danny always found unrealistic in tv shows or movies.

Eventually the glowing line turned inwards towards the wall and split off into two parts that surrounded the outline of one of the alcoves that held the strange statues.

Danny stopped infront of the statue and stared at it. Why had that glowing line appeared and why did it lead to this statue? It didn't appear any different from all the rest.

Then the tall statue that was easily twice Danny's height, it's eyes started to glow and then it blinked.

It blinked before tilting it's head downwards to meet Danny's gaze. Now with the eyes glowing that same light yellow-ish colour as the line that had led him there Danny could see the eyes had thin pupils that ran from the top of the circular eyes to the bottom, distantly in the back of Danny's mind they reminded him of a cat's eyes. More at the forefront of his brain Danny internally screamed 'RUN' before physically turning back to the direction he had come from and bolting.

Another far away part of Danny's brain tried to remind him he could literally fly but he disregarded that as he was currently using all his brain cells on focusing on running and not looking back.

He reached the stairs and started taking them two at a time, still not remembering his powers of flight, his feet hurt from how hard they were hitting against the sturdy stone. Then, in a classic Danny Fenton way, he tripped.

But instead of faceplanting he found his face hovering just a few inches from face planting on the stairs and he was hyper aware of the fact that he hadn't used his powers to catch his fall. In fact he hadn't caught his fall but two sandy pale stone arms encircling his midsection told him exactly who had.

Danny turned his head slowly to get a look at the statue-come-to-life that was holding him like one might pick up a small kitten.

The statue's glowing eyes stared down at him, blinked with a small clicking sound as if they were the lenses of a camera taking a picture, then the statues-come-to-life tilted it's head before going "You should be careful when going down stairs" in a monotone yet also seemingly amused voice.

Danny wanted to shriek, to pull his hair out, to do something because the statues-come-to-life that didn't have any visible mouth just spoke. Instead of any of those things Danny's body did the first thing it thought of doing, twisting around awkwardly to hold one of each of the stone arms before pushing them apart, letting him fall to the awaiting stairs.

Thankfully this time he remembered 'Oh right, ghost powers' and before he could hit the ground he flew away, quickly.

His legs formed into as wispy tail behind him to let him go faster because he needed to get out of here.

He soon flew out of the city limits and towards the cave opening in the side of the mountains. All he could think about was going, go, get out, thanks for the cool clues to Halfa past but I think I'll pass.

Then when Danny was just about to get to the cave entrance, barely 15 feet away, a certain bird statue-come-to-life landed infront of him. Of course this time his brain worked, he would go intangible and phase right through the thing, it was too late to slow down anyway. Except that wasn't what happened because instead of going through the statue he just crashed face first into it's chest at full speed.

Danny heard a crack as his face became acquainted with the symbol carved into the statue's torso and he silently said goodbye to his 1 whole week of no injuries streak because before the pain even blossomed on his face he knew he had broken his nose. All he could hope for was that he didn't break anything else along with it.

The statue didn't even move an inch, not even a flinch. Danny was reminded of the saying an unstoppable force meets an immovable object only in this case Danny wasn't as unstoppable as he liked to think.

Before he could fall the rest of the way to the ground he could feel his arms suddenly pinned against his body as three long claw like fingers held him above the ground and at a literal arms length of the statue creature. Danny tried going intangible but it seemed that didn't work on this creature as his nose had unfortunately come to know.

Then he was being gently set down on the ground and he found himself staring eye level with the statue as it hunched over awkwardly to look him in the eye. Another part of Danny was reminded of those 'How to talk to short people' memes and he almost snorted at the mental comparison before stopping from the sudden pain of moving any of his facial muscles.

"You are hurt" said the voice of the statue-creature-thing.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious" Danny deadpanned, his voice sounding off and a little ridiculous from the unfortunate fate of his nose.

The weird bird statue tilted it's head to the side and blinked it's eyes again, the clicking sound the blink made echoing in the silence.

"What is your name?" It finally said after a brief pause.

"Danny Phantom. What are you?" Danny asked stepping around he statue-come-to-life to examine it from all sides. He could now see from it's arms that it had stone feathers, again hitting Danny with it's strange resemblance to a bird.

The creature's gaze followed Danny as he went around it, thankfully it's head didn't do some creepy 360 or even a 180, just turning around to the other side to see Danny when he left it's view from one side.

"I am an information retrieval droid, model K-18" it answered monotonely.

"So you're... a robot?" Danny asked as he stopped infront of it again.

The bird statue blinked once more before replying "Precisely". Despite the monotone voice it still somehow managed to inject some emotion into it's words.

"Well, you scared the shit out of me coming to life out of nowhere like that" Danny commented dryly. His face hurt and so did his feet, he just wanted to go home and curl up in bed and never doing anything ever again.

The robot bird jerked it's head back a bit when Danny swore, Danny confirmed it specifically reacted to the swear when it said in a repreemanding way "Language"

Again Danny almost snorted before remembering the broken nose dilemma and he sighed.

"Okay, I'm officially too tired to deal with this. Bye!" He said, walking around the robot and towards the cave entrance.

He heard the sound of heavy stone footsteps behind him and he turned around to see the robot bird following him.

"What?" Danny asked a little snappily.

"I am coming with you" It stated matter-of-factly.

Danny was so exasperated. He didn't want to deal with this.

"No, you're not" Danny said.

"Yes, I am" It replied as if it was the most simple thing in the world to understand.

"No. You are not" Danny insisted.

Another blink from the bird statue "I insist on accompanying you Danny Phantom" it said and Danny just knew there was no getting around this. This weird statue robot bird thing was going to follow him whether he liked it or not.

A tired sigh escaped Danny as he assessed the stone being infront of him "Why?" He asked.

"Because it is my duty to keep you safe. It has been officially added as my top objective" The bird robot said and Danny once again felt like pulling his hair out.

"I'm not going to be able to get rid of you even if I tried aren't I?" Danny stated more than asked.

"That is correct Danny Phantom" It nodded, as if Danny finally understood.

"Just call me Danny" He said before turning back around towards the cave. The only indication that the bird robot was still following being it's heavy footsteps behind him.

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I'll be tagging all content do to with this story with the tag City of splintering hopes so if guys want to you can follow the story easier. You can also use that tag for any questions or content you guys make of the story!

[snackleggg]

City of splintering hopes: Chapter 5 "Like pokemon cards"

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Ao3

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Danny had briefly gone downstairs to get something to eat before trudging back up to his room and proceeding to pass out on his bed. The day had worn him out and he made the executive decision to tell Jazz, Sam and Tucker about his new bodyguard in the morning.

Of course nothing can ever go Danny's way for long as he finds himself waking up at 4am curtesy of his ghost sense.

Danny practically rolled off the bed, transforming and floating before he hit the floor. The little detail of his new roommate had slipped to the back of his sleepy mind. So as he made his way around the city to look for the ghost that had inadvertently woken him up he didn't spare a single thought on Meda-Lean who had been going through his collection of astronomy books before he had fallen asleep.

He found his search leading him to the docks unsurprisingly.

Before he saw him Danny heard Box ghost monologuing and probably scaring the late night workers.

"Beware! For I am the Box ghost and- ACK" Box ghost's routinely tirade was interrupted when Danny fired an ecto-blast at his face.

"Ah! There you are ghost child! Come to try to stop my cardboard fury!?" Box ghost exclaimed. Danny just rolled his eyes, his usual banter just on the tip of his tongue when suddenly something whipped past him and slammed Box ghost into the ground so hard Danny winced in sympathy.

As the brief upheaved dust settled Danny caught sight of a familiar stone being.

"Meds, what the heck!? Where did you come from!?" Danny asked as he floated down towards the two. Box ghost was pretty out of it from the hard hit he had taken and Danny couldn't blame him. The concrete beneath the two had newly formed cracks spider webbing out from where Meda-Lean had slammed the poor ghost into the ground, hard.

Danny was once again reminded that for whatever reason ghosts couldn't go intangible through Meds. 'Maybe it has to do with the stone they're made out of?' Danny thought before focusing back on the matter at hand.

Meda-Lean was still pinning Box ghost against the ground despite him obviously being in no condition to escape after that quick, and frankly brutal, attack. The joint lines throughout his arms and legs were fucking glowing and if that wasn't the most ominous thing Danny had seen in a while he didn't know what was.

"Meds, seriously you can get off him now" Danny tried to placate them as he landed and took out the Fenton thermos.

There was another moment of unresponsiveness from the droid before Danny heard the tell-tale clicking sounds of them blinking and then they were pulling away from Box ghost. The glow present throughout the lines across their body disappearing but Danny could practically feel how they kept their eyes trained on Box ghost as he uncapped the thermos and it sucked the unfortunate ghost in.

Turning around to face them Danny was suddenly struck with how freaking tall they were.

It had been something he had barely taken notice of when he first approached the, at the time, deactivated statue. Then the detail had slipped to the back of his mind as he found that Meds was always seemingly hunching over even when they didn't need to. Now though, the robot stood at their full height which was easily a little over 10 feet.

Danny was used to everyone around him being taller than him, he was used to his enemies being large and strong and intimidating but that didn't mean that the effect was ever diminished everytime he encountered someone too tall or big to be human. Meds blinked down at the momentarily stunned Danny before hunching over again to meet him at eye level, a ridiculous looking thing since Danny was only 5'5.

"Are you hurt Danny?" They asked, genuine concern seeping into their voice.

"I uh, n-no" Danny managed to stutter out. He still didn't know how they had followed him without him noticing but he started to understand their hostile behaviour towards Box ghost when Danny remember the fact that they were pretty much his personal bodyguard now.

"Good" They said, tilting their head to the side a bit and half closing their eyes to signify that if they had a mouth they would be smiling.

"Let's just... go home" Danny said and his stone companion silently agreed as they both took off into the air towards Fentonworks.

Danny found himself once again passed out on his bed but this time it wasn't a ghost waking him up but the insistent ringing of his phone.

He grabbed it as he turned over onto his back and held the phone above his face. The sunlight streaming in through the sliver of window that wasn't covered by the curtains told him it was morning. The time on his phone told him it was 11am.

11am and he was getting a call from Tucker. Danny wasn't even aware the other boy had the capacity to wake up before noon on a Sunday.

"Hey Tuck" Danny spoke into the phone as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Danny! You didn't call us yesterday, we were worried you go caught up in something" Tucker's voice said from the phone and Danny could hear Sam mumbling something in the background so he knew that Tucker had probably been dragged out of bed by their mutual friend.

"Eh, you could say something like that" Danny said as he sat up straighter and looked around the room, Meds wasn't anywhere in his immediate sight which worried him "It wasn't the usual kind of caught up though, uh. It'll be easier to explain in person, can you guys come over?" Danny asked as he swung his feet over the side of the bed and sat up, ready to go find the droid.

"Sure man, you better tell us all the details!" Tucker answered and Danny couldn't help the sudden yelp that escape him as he finally found where Meda-Lean was.

"What is it? Is everything okay?" Sam's concerned voice said over the phone.

"Uh- what? Yes! Everything is fine! Just uh, slipped. You know how clumsy I can be" Danny said as he glared at the.... what would he even call that? Nest? Overhang? It was a small platform created just above his door. From the sheen of the opaque yellowish surface Danny could tell it was some kind of energy construct, like one of his shields only sturdier looking. There was only about 2 feet of space between the platform and the ceiling yet there was Meda-Lean, who had somehow managed to tuck their long limbs in and fit into the tiny corner space. They were so tightly packed in that the only thing letting Danny know it was Meda-Lean was the fact that the droid's head was poking out, their yellow glowing eyes with their thin pupils blinking at him for a few seconds.

"Okay, sure. Well be over in a bit" Sam said, Tucker exclaims about her giving his phone back in the background, before hanging up.

Danny continued to glare at Meds as he lowered his phone.

"Did you sleep well?" They asked, as if they weren't sitting atop a platform above his door like some weird guard dog owl. Danny realised suddenly that's probably exactly what they were and what they were trying to accomplish.

"You could've told me you were going to make some weird perch for yourself in my room" Danny said, completely side stepping the question.

Meds just blinked at Danny before suddenly unfurling themselves from the tight space they somehow fit into and climbing down from the platform surprisingly gracefully.

"Who were you speaking to?" They asked. It seemed that Danny and them were still on completely different wave lengths but that didn't surprise him.

"My friends. They're coming over and I'm going to introduce you to them. Please for Ancients sake, stay in here until I come back" Danny pleaded as he walked around Meds to the door.

"I must insist on accompanying you incase of a threat" Meds said as they turned to face Danny who was now opening the door to go do his morning routine.

"No, I'll still be in the house and I promise I won't be gone for more than a few minutes. Stay here and don't make any loud noises" Danny said sternly while pointing at the droid.

Meds just blinked but didn't protest anymore so Danny took that as an affirmative and left for the bathroom and then a brief breakfast.

The doorbell had rung by the time he had finished his breakfast and he answered it to Sam's raised eyebrow and Tucker holding a Fenton thermos that Danny knew probably held any ghosts that had caused trouble yesterday while he had been out. That reminded him that he would need to release the Box ghost back into the zone, but later. Now he knew he would have to go through a long explanation to satisfy his friends.

He quickly ushered them up to his room but stopped before he opened the door.

"I just want to let you guys know now, there is someone in my room" Danny said, hand firmly on the handle.

"A ghost?" Tucker said at the same time as Sam went "Does this have to with the 'not usual kind of caught up'?".

"No and yes" Danny answered "Not a ghost, does have to do with a little situation that happened yesterday" Danny said, shooting them one last warning glance before opening the door.

He wasn't really surprised to find Meds not in their immediate sight. Danny sighed as he closed the door behind his friends.

"Um, are they like super small or something?" Tucker asked as Sam examined his room for the not-a-ghost-guest.

"Nope" Danny said, popping the p, "They're probably hiding up in their perch" Danny had decided that was what he was going to be calling Meds little platform, their perch.

"Wha-" Sam started as she turned around to face Danny but then she went pale as she caught sight of what was above Danny's door.

"Yep" Danny sighed and he moved to be standing next to his two friends as he looked back up to where Meds had curled back up onto the small platform, their head again sticking out to look at the new comers.

"Sam, Tucker, this is Meds. Meds these are my best friends Sam and Tucker" Danny introduced them, as if it was completely normal for a large stone robot to be laying up on an energy platform above his door. What had his half life come to?

Tucker, finally taking notice of the new occupant, was staring at Meds with wide disbelieving eyes. Meds came down from their perch once again and both Sam and Tucker took a step back at the surprising height.

"It is nice to meet you, I am Meda-Lean" Meds said, head tilted to the side as their thin pupils bounced between the two.

"Are- are you a... robot?" Tucker whispered, almost as if he was afraid that what he was witnessing wasn't real.

"I am an information retrieval droid, so by your classification yes I would be considered a 'robot'." Meds answered and Tucker looked like he had literal stars in his eyes.

Sam not-so-gently grabbed Danny's shoulder to turn him around and face her.

"What. The. Hell. Happened?" She said, face serious and drawn into a frown. Danny could tell she was restraining herself from just throwing him out the window then and there, probably because that wouldn't garner her any answers.

"You want the long version or the short version?" Danny asked, already tired with this whole situation. He could see out of the corner of his eye Tucker walking around Meds, examining them from all sides.

"Danny." Sam ground out between her gritted teeth.

"I went to the ruins like we talked about. Apparently when I walked up to some important building an automatic system that the Halfas left behind sensed that I was a Halfa, scanned my core, then assigned me a personal bodyguard" Danny said with a deadpan stare. He gestured over to Meds when he finished, sure that Sam could piece together the rest.

"Personal bodyguard!?" Tucker exclaimed, still staring at Meda-Lean in awe while they just blinked blankly at him.

"Ye" Danny shrugged.

Meds decided this was an optimum time to pitch into the conversation "Indeed, It has been officially added as my top objective to keep Danny safe" They said.

Sam snorted as she finally released her death grip on Danny's poor shoulder "Well he definitely needs it, if you're even half good at your job that'll make protecting Amity alot easier" She said, taking in the strange appearance of the droid.

"Trust me, they are. I think Box ghost might think twice next time he wants to reek havoc. Meds here definitely made a first impression last night, as in they left an impression of Box ghost in the ground" Danny said, remembering the glowing lines and frightening speed at which the stone being moved.

"Wait but couldn't Box ghost just phase though them?" Tucker asked and Danny shook his head.

"Nope, whatever Meds is made out of ghosts can't phase through it. Trust me, I found that out pretty quick" Danny replied, a hand coming up to his nose. He winced remembering the large crack sound it made on impact.

"You know Danny, this sounds suspiciously like you've just gained another guardian" Sam commented.

"That is indeed a term that is frequently used to describe my kind" Meds said, looking between Sam and Tucker with a blink.

"Dude! Another one? I swear, Frostbite, Clockwork, Pandora, and now this guy?" Tucker all but yelled.

"I'm collecting them, like pokemon cards" Danny nodded wisely and Sam put a hand to her mouth to stifle the laughter garnered by the comparison.

"Well, if you're some sort of information robot as well as being a bodyguard then does that mean you can tell Danny about the other Halfas?" Tucker asked and Meds nodded.

"I have all information to do with Halfas ever available. All Danny has to do is ask and I will answer" Meds said. Danny was kind of glad he had the droid. He would finally be able to learn about what people like him had been like, even if he would never get to meet them he still wanted to understand them. He wanted to walk through the streets and see the carvings adorned on the walls and know what they meant, what their significance was. He wanted to maybe somehow document the existence of these people so that they could never truly die, never truly be forgotten.

"You said your name was Meda-Lean? Well Meds just doesn't sit right with me so I'm gonna call you Lean" Tucker said, interrupting Danny's swirling thoughts.

"Hey! Meds is a good nickname!" Danny protested. Tucker put his hands up in a placating manner.

"I never said it wasn't, I just think Lean rolls off the tongue better" Tucker defended.

"You may call me what you wish, I do not mind 'Lean' or 'Meds' as they are both just shortenings of my name" Meds said, they sounded like a parent trying to stop their children from fighting.

"Lean it is! At least for me" Tucker said with a smirk and Danny rolled his eyes.

"Anyway, if you two are done, we want the long version of what happened Danny" Sam spoke up, sitting down on his desk chair.

"Yeah! No details left out" Tucker agreed as he also sat down but on the bed. Meds decided to follow the other two's lead and sat down cross legged on the floor.

Danny sighed before sitting next to Tucker and beginning recounting his journey in detail.

----

The sound of metal clinking against eachother was the only thing heard in the silence. Sharp metallic wings carried the ghost with pitch black skin above the ancient city. The smell was a day or so old but still fresh.

He landed harshly infront of the Hall of the Ancients. A sneer found it's way on his face as the musty smell of the unique stone and machinery of the guardians clouded his senses.

He took his bow and drew back a spear like metal arrow before releasing. The sound of one of the inactive guardians being pierced by his weapon did nothing to sooth his anger.

The tall figure took back his arrow from the guardian that would not never wake again. He walked down the hall, a rough callosed hand trailing against the stone wall filled with the dreadful machines before he came to an abrupt stop.

One of the alcoves was empty.

"I'll find you yet, little Halfa" The figure practically growled. Only silence answered his words.

~~~

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I'll be tagging all content do to with this story with the tag City of splintering hopes so if guys want to you can follow the story easier. You can also use that tag for any questions or content you guys make of the story!

[snackleggg]

Procrastinated writing chapter 5, did a quick concept of what Meda-Lean looks like from a front view. I might tweak some details about it later on cause I'm not satisfied but yeah have the tall boi.

Their eyes usually also have a slight glow but I was too lazy to add that. I apologies that their face looks weird from front view, it looks more baby from the normal 3/4 view I swear