THE PHANTOM'S REALM: ROYAL ORIGINS

CHAPTER TWO: DAY BEFORE BREAK

"Come on, Danny, don't be ridiculous! If you become king you could actually change things in there." Sam insisted as Danny continued staring at the green envelope.

Danny hadn't gone more than ten minutes without glancing at the message from his ghostly mentor since the thing arrived yesterday afternoon. He kept saying he didn't want to be King of the Ghost Zone and that was final, but the others could tell he was considering it since he kept looking back at the letter.

"I don't know, maybe." The hybrid replied, unsure.

"No 'maybe' about it, dude. You could TOTALLY change things. No attacks on the human realm, Walker'd get a whole new rule book and, of course, mini-skirt Friday's!" Tucker encouraged. Danny snorted.

"Trust me Tuck, with the enemies I've made nobody would want to see most of them in a mini-skirt." Danny shot back. "I'm sure the last thing anybody in there would want to see is Technus floating around in a frilly skirt. Me and Skulker almost killed him again when we saw him in a bath towel."

Tucker winced and nodded his agreement rapidly. Sam rolled her eyes.

"Forget him, Danny. He doesn't know the first thing about being in charge. If he did he'd give up on mini-skirt Friday's." Sam said, shooting a small glare at Tucker, who shot Sam a nervous smile.

"Yeah, but I don't know the first thing about being in charge either!" Danny pointed out next. Both Sam and Tucker scoffed, as well as Jazz, who they'd forgotten was there.

"Get real little brother, you've led plenty of times. You're practically in charge of the Ghost Getters-"

"Team Phantom." Sam and Tucker interjected smoothly, but Jazz continued as if she hadn't heard them.

"And let's not forget when you got everybody together to hijack Ember and Youngblood's pirate ship. You're a better leader than you think." Jazz said, finishing with an encouraging smile.

"Okay, but that's people. Ghosts would be a completely different-" Danny started to protest, before Sam cut him off.

"Need reminding of the whole 'Pariah Dark' incident? Where you, you know, brought together almost all of your enemies and they helped you fight your way into that castle. It looked like you'd been doing that for years!" Sam reminded.

"What, fighting ghosts? Feels like years." Danny mumbled sarcastically. Sam rolled her eyes.

"And you wonder why you're Clueless One." She said with a sigh, ignoring Danny's indignant 'Hey!' and continuing. "Not fighting, Danny. Leading."

Danny let out a long sigh before Jazz spoke up again.

"You don't have to decide now, Clockwork said you have until the Solstice. Just promise you'll think about it and not just decide no off the bat." She insisted once more. Danny gave another sigh.

"Fine, I'll think about it. Can we go now, we're gonna be late." He changed the subject. Tucker scoffed.

"We won't be late, we still have, like, twenty minutes. Besides, worst case scenario we fly Air-Phantom and get there with time to spare." Tucker protested, but he walked over to the door to leave anyway.

"Last time that happened we almost got shot out of the sky by Skulker." Danny objected. Sam and Jazz shrugged as they walked past Danny to the door.

"Key word being 'almost'." Jazz said nonchalantly, smiling at her brother, who rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, let's just go. Wouldn't want to be late and get detention on the last day before break, would we?" Danny asked as he ushered the others out of the house, earning their agreement.

Tucker, Sam and Jazz descended down the stairs, taking care not to trip over the snow and ice, and waited for Danny to close the door behind him when they heard a familiar voice cry, "Wait!" to them. Honoring the wish, Danny didn't close the door fully yet as he turned to greet the newcomer.

She stood there, panting from her run, in a light hoodie, black in color, that was unzipped showing a red t-shirt with a white heart on the center of it and a black skirt similar to Sam's but mostly white with black trimming. Her eyes were pure silver, with shoulder-length scarlet-red hair that covered her forehead along with a single strand that curved on the top of her head.

"Izzy? What're you doing here this early?" Danny questioned.

The girl, identified as Izzy, stopped panting to look up and smile at the halfa.

"I wanted to catch you before you left for school. Is it okay if I spend the day with Danielle today?" Izzy asked pleadingly. Jazz shot her a look.

"Don't you have school today?" The elder Fenton inquired.

"My break started yesterday." Izzy brushed off quickly, causing Tucker to groan.

"Everybody gets out before we do, don't they?" He cried indignantly. Sam elbowed him to be quiet as Izzy only smiled at him, which began to unsettle him after a little bit and he coughed awkwardly.

"Uh, sure. I think she'd like your company anyway." Danny said, opening the door for her. "Make yourself at home, Dani should still be upstairs somewhere. Probably my room, so knock first."

"Sure thing. I'll see you after school." Izzy said, quickly climbing the stairs to stand in the Fenton's doorway.

"Actually, I'll stop by around lunch so if you need anything before then, you know who to call." Danny said, waving to her as she smiled at the group before Danny shut the door.

They could then hear her dashing up the stairs to find Dani.

"Ready?" Sam asked Danny, who sighed a long sigh.

"No, but let's get going anyway." He replied, earning some chuckles before they started to make their way to Casper High.


"So, whaddaya want to do?" Izzy asked as she flopped down on Dani's bed. Dani shrugged, flopping down next to her.

"There's food downstairs?" Dani offered.

"But downstairs is so far!" She complained. Dani only chuckled.


"I still say you shouldn't have shipped us off to school like that. We could've beaten him sooner and we still wouldn't have been late." Sam argued.

"We were blocks from school still and Fright Knight isn't ever easy. If we all fought, we all just would've been late by ten minutes as opposed to me being late by thirty. It's bad enough with me getting in trouble I don't need you all getting in it either." Danny denied with a shake of his head.

"You don't need to take all the responsibility, Danny. We can take care of ourselves." Sam insisted, motioning to Jazz, Tucker and herself. The former two nodded along.

"Not when you shouldn't have to. I'm not going to let you guys make this any harder on yourselves than it has to be, you guys shouldn't miss school, or lose sleep or take time from your own families to track down ghosts that just want to cause a little mayhem or throw me into buildings." Danny shot back.

"So, our help is fine except when you need it, that's when we're supposed to walk away?" Jazz countered.

"Yes." Danny said simply. "I'm the one with freak-powers here, guys. I'll be fine on the fighting aspect."

"It's just everything else you can't do?" Tucker asked rhetorically.

"I've been getting better, it's been two weeks since I got detention." Danny huffed indignantly, before sighing. "Look, I appreciate your help. I really do, I couldn't be doing ANY of this without you because I'd probably be dead in a ditch somewhere, but I don't want you making things worse for yourselves than they have to be. If, from now on, I let you help with the ones before school you'll leave anything after curfew for me." He negotiated.

He could tell they were thinking about it by the looks they were sharing when Jazz finally spoke up.

"Fine, if you let us help in the morning you can deal with everything after curfew." She said. He smiled. "If, you let Valerie handle more on her own during the afternoon." She continued.

"No way, she has school too." Danny denied.

"But if she's leaving anyway, you might as well not. If you sense a ghost and she doesn't move, by all means chase it. But if she reacts too, let her handle it." Sam explained.

"Fine. Deal." Danny agreed reluctantly before opening his locker to switch out his books.

Tucker stood there by his side as Sam crossed the hall to get to her own locker as Jazz waited by her. As Danny was shuffling around in his school bag, his ghost sense went off again. Remembering his earlier promise, he glanced over at Valerie who switched off her beeper that alerted her of a ghost presence and continued digging through her locker.

'Guess she plans on me getting this one.' Danny thought to himself, standing up and using the wall of his open locker for support as he leaned in close to Tucker.

"Looks like Val plans on sitting this one out, I'm gonna-" Danny started in a whisper to Tucker, but he quickly transitioned to a howl of pain when he felt a force snap shut on his hand that was in his open locker.

Danny and Tucker turned to see Dash and Kwan standing there, victorious smirks on their faces. There wasn't any question that Dash had taken great joy in slamming the locker door shut on Danny's hand even as he spoke.

"Whoops, sorry Fen-turd, your hand was in the way!" Dash said annoyingly, before hi-fiving Kwan and strutting away in sync.

Danny's eyes flashed green as he glared at their retreating forms before he sighed and his eyes turned crystal blue, indicating his ice powers were healing his hand. Tucker put a hand on his shoulder.

"You good? I could take you to the nurse." Tucker offered even though he knew Danny would decline.

"No, it's fine. I gotta go anyways." Danny said, moving towards the boys' bathroom. "Bring my stuff to class, though, will you?"

Tucker nodded his understanding and Danny walked into the bathroom and Tucker guessed it was empty because the light came two seconds later followed by the bell. So, Tucker sighed, picked up Danny's schoolbag and made his way to class with Sam, who had seen the whole thing but neither spoke of it on the way. They just shared disheartened glances.


"Ready?" Izzy asked, ready to flick her marble. Dani nodded.

Izzy proceeded to flick her marble but her accuracy was less than she expected and she ended up nailing Dani in the forehead. Dani scowled and flicked a marble back, but she missed and Izzy poked her tongue out and flicked a marble again, hitting Dani's arm.

And it just escalated from there.


"You guys okay? Need anything before I head to lunch with Jazz?" Danny asked as he got ready to leave from his house.

He had kept his promise of stopping by at lunch to check on Dani and Izzy, who were playing something akin to Fantasy Football (probably Dani's idea) but with known ghosts (probably Izzy's idea) on the floor of the living room.

"No I think we're fine now that we know where not to throw the heavy objects." Dani said, shooting a mock glare at Izzy, who had the decency to look away.

"And where is that again?" Danny asked, although he was smiling.

"Walls, floors and Dani." Izzy recited, before scowling. "She acts like I was throwing bowling balls, it was four marbles and she started it!"

"Yeah, and she won't be doing that again either. So, you sure you guys don't want to go to lunch?" Danny asked again.

"We're fine, you said there was stuff in the fridge, right?" Dani said. Danny nodded.

"Alright, call if you need anything. Izzy if you're still here when I get home later, you better watch out, I'm catching up in Doomed." Danny said determinedly before leaving and seeing Tucker, Sam and Jazz outside, waiting.

"Ready?" He asked, before double checking his surrounding and transforming into his ghost form. They nodded.

"Off we go, then." He said, taking Jazz' and Sam's hands, who held Tucker's hand.

The formation looked odd but Danny had more than enough strength to fly them all. And fly he did.


"I wish it was nicer out." Izzy moped, lounging on Dani's bed with said girl.

"Why, what would you do?" Dani asked curiously. Izzy smiled largely.

"Take in the view." She replied happily. Dani snorted.

"You know we're in Amity Park, the only view you'll see is ghosts fighting." The little Phantom shot back. Izzy continued smiling.

"Yeah, I know." She said simply.


"Ah, Chicago. The smell of diesel carried off by the wind is always more pleasant than burned ectoplasm." Tucker quipped as Danny landed them by their favorite diner on the outskirts of Chicago.

They preferred to come out here to eat lunch even on school days than sit in the schools cafeteria anymore. Last time they had lunch at school, Danny ended up on top of a table while Tucker was shoved into a door and Sam had to be physically restrained by Jazz until Principle Ishiyama came in and broke it up, not before giving 'Freak Trio' and Jazz multiple detentions for 'instigating' the incident, which was the lie told by almost everyone in the lunchroom at the time, to save Valerie who attempted to help to be given a detention as well.

Luckily, Mr. Lancer stepped in when he did and compromised for two detentions instead of two weeks worth, and he even cancelled the second one all together because of a 'family emergency involving his sisters kids', as he put it.

"Excuse me for getting hurt saving all our lives all the time." Danny replied, hiding between two parked cars to change back.

Tucker rolled his eyes but didn't reply as they walked into the diner, to be greeted happily by one of their regular waitresses, Angi.

"I was wondering when you were gonna show up, seemed a bit empty in here." Angi joked, leading the four to their regular table.

"Sorry, I had to check on Danielle and Izzy before we left." Danny replied easily, letting Jazz slide into the booth before he did, sitting across from Sam.

"How're they doing? It's been a while since I've seen them." Angi replied, writing down their usual orders as she kept conversation.

"You've met Izzy before?" Sam asked, surprised. Angi laughed.

"Sure, Danny brought the two by a couple days ago for dinner. Those two make quite the pair, I gotta tell you." She said, laughing as she continued to write. Tucker sighed dramatically.

"Don't we know it." He replied, causing Angi to chuckle harder and his friends to begin.

"Okay guys, I'll be right back with your usual's." She excused herself and left for the kitchen to pass on their 'orders' while Sam turned to Danny.

"You never told us you brought Izzy here, when was that?" Sam asked. Danny shrugged.

"Didn't seem important. There was nothing home except for the emergency ham and something that tried to break out of the fridge and I didn't want to risk running into Dash with Dani and Izzy around, so I took the Speeder and brought them out here. It was only, like, six days ago." Danny explained.

"You know, if you had your own lair in the Ghost Zone you wouldn't have to hide Dani in Amity Park all day." Jazz interjected. Sam saw what she was doing.

"Yeah, and we wouldn't have to worry about your parents finding her all the time either." She continued.

Danny sat there with a hard look on his face and the other three could tell he was contemplating the offer a hell of a lot more than he was before, if for nothing else for Danielle. He sat there, debating within himself.

Angi came back, dropped off their orders and had a small conversation with Jazz before she left to tend to other customers, reluctantly as she enjoyed the Amity teens' presence in the diner and their conversations even more so.

"Hey, did you finish that thing I asked you to work on?" Jazz asked Tucker as they ate, to which Tucker nodded as he continued to eat.

"What thing?" Sam asked curiously. Tucker looked nervously at Jazz, who shook her head and Tucker quickly returned to his sandwich. "Tucker." She continued in a warning tone.

Jazz, thinking quickly, handed a $20 bill to Tucker from across the table and he didn't think twice before taking it and remaining silent. Sam easily replied by reaching into her coat pocket for a $100 bill to buy his answers when Jazz instantly shut her down.

"Keep quiet and I'll pay for your meal." She wagered, looking Sam in the eye. For the first time since she could remember, Sam didn't want to take the challenge and silently wished for the best for Jazz' wallet.

It was only when they were getting ready to leave, and when Tucker had eaten $1,367.95 that Danny spoke again. He looked up from his uneaten lunch and at Tucker, Sam and Jazz.

"I want to be the Ghost King." He said determinedly.


"Go fish," Dani said uninterested. Izzy sighed.

"This was a horrible idea." She said. Dani smiled.

"Know how we can make this better?" She asked her best friend, who smiled as if to say 'I'm listening.'


"Dani, Izzy, we're back. Everything okay-. Whoa, okay." Danny said, walking through his front door and immediately back-stepping causing him to bump into Sam.

"Danny, what's the big id- Whoa." Sam mimicked Danny, stopping in her tracks and causing a chain reaction and Tucker and Jazz stopped as well.

In the center of Danny's living room was a house of cards almost up to the ceiling with Izzy sitting on Dani's shoulders holding a few more cards and trying to place them on top of the already stacked ones.

"Um, hi?" Dani said, waving weakly with her hand that was wrapped around Izzy's leg keeping her stable.

"How are you?" Izzy said, not taking her eyes off the card she was attempting to place.

"Why?" Danny said simply, carefully moving towards the couch as his friends and sister stood by the doorway.

"We got bored with 'Go Fish'." Dani replied, glancing around the room from Danny to Izzy.

Danny only hesitated a moment before he let out a round of chuckles.

"I don't know what I expected the answer to be but that one sure wasn't it, but yet it makes perfect sense." Danny replied, causing Dani to chuckle.

"Hey, hold still." Izzy said, driving her heel a little into Dani's shoulder causing the youngest hybrid to flinch and move her body backwards. "No, stop!" Izzy continued to protest Dani's movements but it was too late.

Dani swiveled back and forth trying to steady herself but with Izzy's wait on top of her she couldn't get her balance back and, sure enough, went top-heavy and Izzy fell right from her shoulders.

One crash later Dani was laying on the floor, Izzy on top of her, moaning, and cards everywhere. Danny, Tucker, Sam and Jazz burst into hysterics as cards came fluttering down on the duo, one landing on Dani's head as she just sighed and didn't bother trying to get up.

"Queens?" Tucker asked, catching one of the cards as it came down. Danny scooped a handful off the ground and hummed as he skimmed over them.

"Go fish." He replied, before dropping the handful with three queens and laughing harder, this time Dani and Izzy joining in.


"You sure you don't want to stay for dinner?" Dani asked as she and Izzy stood by the door. Izzy chuckled and exasperatedly threw an arm over Dani's shoulders.

"Not when there's a dinner at home on the table. I'm not supposed to waste food." She replied, before continuing. "But I'll tell dad in advanced this time that I'll eat here tomorrow."

Dani smiled and shoved Izzy's hand off, muttering about not being forgiven for the marbles earlier before Izzy rolled her eyes and left with a quick goodbye to Danny and Dani and a wave to all.

When the door shut, Jazz shot to her feet and grabbed Dani by the shoulders.

"Come on Dani, time for the surprise. Tucker, you have the thing?" Jazz asked, directing Dani towards the stairs.

Tucker nodded and produced a pair of high-tech earmuffs from his schoolbag and passed them on to Jazz as she passed by. Subsequently, Jazz ushered Dani up the stairs with mild protests from the younger to slow down.

"What was that about?" Danny asked curiously. Sam shrugged.

"Important enough for Jazz to pay for Tuck's lunch. Even I wouldn't attempt that." Sam said, leaving Danny wide-eyed and shocked.

Tucker only shrugged.


"Introducing…. Christmas Dani!" Jazz said, prancing down the stairs a half hour later.

Dani came down moments later, in ghost form, grumbling a bit at the makeover. Her ghost form looked more like a Christmas suit than a HAZMAT suit, with all the black on her jumpsuit now being emerald green and the white turning Christmas red and with shoes that curved up and inward. On top of her head instead of her red beanie was an emerald green Christmas hat, ears with a slight point and a somewhat-grinning Dani.

"Can I have my hundred bucks now?" Dani asked quickly. Jazz rolled her eyes.

"You bribed our sister into dressing like an elf for Christmas? Seriously?" Danny asked, torn between laughing and feeling sorry for his clone, who he had just realized was definitely more like a sister than a clone.

"Um, yes?" Jazz asked, sort of sorry but not really. Danny turned to Tucker.

"And you were in on it?" He asked, shocked. Tucker rapidly shook his head.

"I didn't know anything more than building the earmuffs, man, I swear! I was promised weekly Nasty Burger for my silence!" Tucker cried, dropping to his knees in a show of over-exaggeration.

"And you bribed one of my best friends?" Danny questioned his sister again, who blushed this time.

"Maybe?" She replied. Danny sighed and rolled his eyes.

"What am I even going to do with you people?" He asked expectantly.

"Love us forever and ever?" Tucker supplied nervously. Danny rolled his eyes.

"Now, now, little brother. Now it's your turn for a Christmas suit." Jazz said, looking over his form. Danny straight-out denied her request.

"No, no way! I had ghosts to fight and I refuse to do it looking like a Christmas Elf. I have enemies that are better dressed." Danny negated, to Jazz and Dani's disappointment.

"Aw, come on! Even I kind of like the outfit. It was just the part of getting it that I didn't like." Dani tried to convince him, but he shut her down again.

"Oh, no way not a chance on Earth or the Ghost Zone you'll get me into one of those. I have to have some dignity when I'm being thrown into buildings." Danny said, crossing his arms.

"At least wear a Santa hat, then." Dani insisted.

"I won't wear a Santa hat." Danny resisted stubbornly.

"Yes you will."

"No I won't."

"Yes you will."

"No I won't."

"Yes you will."

"No I won't."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"No!" Dani cried suddenly.

"Yes!" Danny replied without thinking.

"Fine you win go ahead and wear a Santa hat!" Dani shot back before turning around and sitting down triumphantly, while Sam, Tucker and Jazz tried and failed to hold in giggles.

"Shit." Danny said once he realized what had happened.

Hello there, readers! Sorry for the delay, but I've been pretty busy with school and family and my other stories and whatnot, but here's your second chapter!

I hope I did as well as I think I did, I don't know how you guys will like this one. How did you all like Izzy? She'll reoccur here and there to add some more personality to Danielle for the time being so let me know about her.

Ad pretty much any questions/comments you have feel free to ask and always ALWAYS review, I like to know how I did. Whether it's positive or negative, leave the review and I'll appreciate it a lot so thanks.

So, until next time guys!