By Nyassa Kaiba
Notes: This is a continuation of a monster cross that I've been roleplaying with my friend ZP Mad Genius. It supposes that a girl named Feralae, in trying to escape her abusive father, accidentally opened a gate between dimensions. For Feralae is a gatekeeper, an order of ancient monks with the power to travel between dimensions. So far she's visited the Teen Titans Dimension and the Code Lyoko dimension.
Feralae's ability to cross between dimensions isn't her only power. She can mimick the powers of the heroes and villains she meets in her travels. There are two conditions to this power, she can mimic ONLY Heroes or Villains that she's met, and she has to know the God or Goddess that is their guardian spirit. For example, Ember's Guardian is the Egyptian Goddess of War, Neith, Danny's is, well… you'll see!
I do not own Danny Phantom, and I do not own the character of ZP. I DO own the character of Feralae. I will warn you at the beginning of the chapter if I have created a made up character.
That out of the way…
Chapter 1
Master and apprentice tumbled their way out of the gate to find themselves in a laboratory. Apprentice swears and looks over at her Master. "ZP, are you okay?"
"I think so, where are we?" The Master asked, rubbing her head. The gate they'd come through closes behind them. "Something tells me I'm not going to like the answer." ZP sighed. After three battles with XANA in a day, and then a fight with Slade and Malchior's double confession of an actual GOOD DEED and the fact that he had a son, she was ready for some peace and quiet. While her apprentice, Feralae, tended to bound into adventure headfirst, with eternal energy, ZP tended to get worn out, Sissy trying to chop your head off tended to do that to you.
"Benten didn't say where she was sending us." Commented Feralae. "Just that the Gatekeeper here would need our help."
"Yeah, but I have no idea who…"
"Hello?" Asked a boy's voice as he poked his head in. "Mom? Dad?" The lights flicked on.
The portal was still open behind them. "Crud, we've been seen, ZP run for it!" Feralae panicked, turning and heading back for it.
"FERALAE!" Hissed ZP urgently. "If we try to go back through without our keys then we won't know WHERE that thing takes us!"
"Oh I can tell you exactly where it goes." Said a smug boy's voice.
Floating in the air in front of them was a boy with white hair, green eyes, and dressed in a black and white body suit with a D on it. "Don't tell me we are where I think we are?" Feralae growled.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Replied ZP, still rubbing her head.
"Uh, hi, you must be Danny Phantom, and I just wanted to let you know that this isn't what it seems like." Feralae said sheepishly. "I'm Feralae, I'm not a ghost, I'm a gatekeeper. Sort of an… interdimensional guardian. ZP and I came looking for the Gatekeeper for this dimension."
"Right, sure, then why did you come out of the Fenton Portal?" Danny asked, smugly.
"I don't know why Benten sent us through your stupid portal. Look, we aren't here to cause trouble…"
"Right. I'll believe that when pigs fly."
"Okay fine Danny Fenton, we'll get out of here." Feralae pulled out her sword and turned to face the portal.
"Feralae, be careful, you're playing with fire there." ZP warned
"HOW DID YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"
"I'm from the Inter, we know everything." Feralae said with a shrug and scratched her head while she studied the portal. "Now… let's see, in order to get this thing to take us to back I need to stick my sword in, but if I do there's no guerentee that it won't suck my key into the ghost zone. Hm…"
"Danny what are you doing down…" A gasp was heard. "Is that a gate key?" Sam demanded, coming into view.
"Uh, yeah, your friend didn't want us to hang around, so I was trying to figure out how Benten managed to hoodwink the Fenton Portal." Replied Feralae, casually as she jerked a thumb at it.
"I've been expecting you." Sam came closer. "I'm Sam, although if you're from the Inter like you said you probably already know that."
"I guessed. I'm Feralae, and ZP there is teaching me how to control my Gatekeeper Powers."
Sam sighed. "I haven't figured out what mine are yet. I wish I did. Danny could sure use some back up. Skulker and Ember have teamed up with a ghost named Black Velvet. I asked Benten to send me some reinforcements, even if it's against the rules."
"They might be after a way into the gates."
"And if they get it, bye bye." Sam agreed. "Well, maybe you can help me ZP. I'm not even sure what I should do with my key." She held up a pendant with a sword shaped key on it.
ZP nodded. "THAT is easy." She replied. "I'll show you once I"ve had some rest. Between a villain confessing his undying love and an evil gatekeeper trying to chop my head off I'm wiped."
"Wait a minute, Gatekeeper powers? Is that anything like ghost powers?" Danny demanded.
"Sort of. A gatekeeper guards the gates between the dimensions." Replied Feralae. "There's a network of us spread out throughout time and space. We each have a different superpower. For example, mine would be…" Feralae sheathed her sword and closed her eyes. "Lets see… something nondestructive… Oh, I've got it now…" She closed her eyes. "ENMA! Judge of the dead! Grant me your strength!"
FEralae's eyes turned bright green. Her hair turned white. Other than that, she was pretty normal looking. "Hey, I did it!" She looked herself over. "Cool! I didn't think I could!"
"How?" Asked Danny, looking her over.
"Easy, I found your guardian spirit and mimicked your power. Not as good as the real thing, but still okay."
"Wild." Sam breathed. Danny's jaw dropped.
"Feralae can you quit fooling around before the Parental figures see you?" Demanded ZP. "I'd hate to have to explain this to Danny's Parents."
"Danny, you deform too okay?" Sam asked. "Sorry if it was a false alarm. I've been expecting them."
Both kids changed back, Feralae by dropping her powers and Danny by his usual energy wave. "Wow, that was weird. I felt… light…" Feralae blinked.
"I know, it was weird for me at first." Danny sighed. "I think we should shut down the portal for now, that way nobody comes through while we're sleeping."
"So what's going on? Besides the bad guy team up?"
"Sleep over." Sam replied. "We're going to use it as an opportunity to figure out our next move. HEY TUCKER!" She shouted down the stairs.
"Yeah?"
"We've got visitors!" She called as Tucker poked his head around the door and saw ZP and Feralae. "No, they aren't ghosts, so calm down."
"That's good, I heard the portal going off." Tucker sighed in relief.
"Feralae, ZP, this is Tucker, our resident techno geek."
Feralae nodded. "Nice ta meetcha."
Sam led both groups down to the living room. "We're lucky Danny's folks are out." She was saying. "Jazz too. Sit, all of you."
Then she closed her eyes, took out her key, and changed, or her outfit did. She was wearing a simple black, blue and gold body suit. "Bet you two can't change your outfits huh?" She smirked at the other two Gatekeepers. At the same time her key transformed into a saber. "And this is my gatekey." She held it up.
"Now, may I teach her ZP?" Asked Feralae. "Here."
"Where's the Ghost Zone keeper?" Asked ZP. "Somehow I don't think I'm going to like the answer."
"Right here." A ghost with pale blue skin, black hair that looked like devil's horns and tiny fangs in his smile came forward. He DID wear a gate key, but as a sword.
"Plasmius!" Growled Danny angrily.
"Plasmius is the gatekeeper for the ghosts?" Feralae asked with a growl. "Couldn't Benten have found somebody better?"
"They don't COME better than I do child."
"Another evil gatekeeper." ZP sighed disgustedly. "I don't know why I bother. Especially after Sissy nearly chopped my head off in the Code Lyoko dimension."
"If you're so good then why do you go after Danny so much?" Feralae asked him.
"Don't give him your real name, Malchior almost killed you with it." ZP pointed out.
"Okay, but I haven't come up with a TAG name yet!" Feralae said, alarmed.
"Then hurry up!" ZP growled.
"Okay, how about Hexa?"
"Too ghostlike." ZP commented.
"Okay… hm… Alanna?"
"We've already met an Alanna remember?"
"Himiko?"
"No mythological names remember?" ZP asked. "It offends the gods."
"But Himiko was a queen not a goddess." Protested Feralae.
"Pick another name." ZP growled.
"Ostara?"
"Ostara sounds good. Plasmius, this is Ostara." ZP introduced her. "And I'm ZP."
"A pleasure I'm sure." Plasmius was obviously hoping to have gotten Feralae's real name.
"Well fe… I mean Ostara. Would you like something to eat?" Danny asked. "Plasmius you know where everything is, if you're hungry grab something." That last was said curtly.
Vlad growled and stormed off to the kitchens, walking through walls to get there.
"So what IS he doing here?" Asked Feralae as she followed Danny and Sam to the kitchen.
"He just showed up tonight." Danny replied. "I don't know why."
"I do, Benten probably told him that some other gatekeepers were coming tonight to figure out what to do about that team up." Sam replied. "And if there's ever anything that he thinks he can gain by doing, Vlad does it."
"That's probably what happened." Feralae sighed.
"Who's Benten?" Asked Danny, curious as they walked into the kitchen.
"She's the goddess that guards the interdimensional gates." Replied Plasmius. "She's known on Earth in Japanese Mythology. The Japanese worshiped her as a Goddess of the Arts and a Goddess of Good Luck."
"And she runs these interdimensional portals?" Danny asked. "Weird. Here I thought she was a myth."
"She also takes the form of a dragon." Feralae commented. "A huge white dragon that can't leave the portal rooms."
"I've seen her in human form." ZP added as she searched for some herbal tea. "She's actually kinda pretty in that form, but I think the dragon form is more of a show of power."
"She's a Goddess, of course she's going to show power." Plasmius growled, still offended by Danny's brusque dismissal earlier.
Sam sighed. "I think I saw her one time, in a dream." She explained. "When I became a gatekeeper I dreamed that a huge white dragon with blue markings and golden eyes gave me a sword, and when I woke up the sword was lying next to me on the pillow, sheathed and wrapped in felt. She appeared a lot of different times after that, each time teaching me something different."
"Well of course, the Fenton Portal is the gate to this world, and if she didn't want anybody knowing about your abilities then she'd have used dreams instead." Said Vlad with a snort.
"I didn't ASK you." Sam growled.
"He got it right though." ZP told her. "Benten wants as few people knowing about the gates as possible. And if Danny's parents had known what they'd done. How were you able to ask her for help?"
"Well, that's the odd part. Last night, after we'd fought the team up, I thought about how much I wanted help to fight them. I wished for help for Danny. I guess Benten heard me." Sam sighed.
"Tea's ready." ZP said as she handed Sam a cup of herbal tea. "Raven's special blend." She said with a chuckle. "I asked her to make some for me before we left. Have some Vlad." She handed the mug to the senior Gatekeeper. "And you Danny, and Ostara." She handed each of them a mug.
"mmm…" Feralae sighed as she sipped. "Ouch, hot… but its still good."
Plasmius had gone human again and was sipping on the tea. "It's good though." He commented. "My compliments to the chef."
ZP chuckled. "I'll tell Raven that a ghost man liked her work."
"Who is this… Raven?" Asked Plasmius.
"A teen titan. She wouldn't like you though, she doesn't like villains."
"Me? A villain?" Vlad demanded. "Why ZP…"
"She's right, you ARE a villain. And only the fact that my parents trust you is keeping me from kicking your butt." Danny growled.
Feralae laughed. "Come on, we need to figure out what we're going to do against Sam's problem, and how to teach her to open the gates."
"Right, on topic." Agreed ZP.
"I'm glad you'll help me." Sam sighed in relief. "Right, here's how it happened."