EXPLOSION!
Problem Solved.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or other relating characters.
Chapter Two: Graduation Part Two; Keeping Up With The Ghosts
"Please give a special round of applause to Danielle Fenton, this year's Valedictorian." Mr. Lancer's voice blared through the speakers.
Dani prepared herself to receive her diploma and, as stated, she was the Valedictorian. That could only mean thing for her.
Time to put on a show!
With great precision, Dani launched herself into a series of flips up to the podium. She accepted her diploma from Mr. Lancer, faced the audience, gave a bow, and threw herself into another set of flips back to her seat.
Dani turned to Danny. "That is how you celebrate!"
"You showoff." Danny rolled his eyes at her.
"Whatever." Dani turned to the bleachers, skimming through them until she saw a little hand waving at her. Dani waved back and flashed the girl a smile.
How Dani envied Ember so for having a daughter as adorable as Victoria.
A few weeks after the defeat of Pariah, Skulker and Ember finally tied the knot.
Something about being separated so many times during that nightmare made them realize that they did want to spend their eternal after-life together.
Two months later, Ember gave birth to a daughter, Victoria Lena McLain, but everyone called her 'Viki' for short.
Ember was not the only one to be blessed with a child.
Three days after Victoria's birth, Box Lunch was born.
Those were the three most peaceful days the Ghost Zone had ever seen. Many similar days followed after, as there was a baby boom.
The place wasn't crawling with children, but there was a higher than average birthrate.
It wasn't just the baby boom that led to the few months of peace.
Ghosts everywhere were picking up the pieces of the mess Pariah had left behind. They didn't have time for their rivalries or petty arguments.
Unfortunately, the peace was short lived, and within four months after the defeat, everything returned to the way it had been before the nightmare.
Dani had still maintained her friendship with Box Ghost and Lunch Lady and, as in the previous timeline; she was named her God Mother.
Box Lunch had the same appearance as before, but Viki was really a sight to behold.
Viki had her parents' flaming hair, but her father's hair color all let down in a straight green mass reaching her waist. She had her mother's pale white skin with a rather lithe figure. She usually wore a black tank top with matching black pants.
Dani loved the two children dearly, always volunteering to baby-sit for them, but she rarely got to baby-sit Viki seeing as Spectra was her God Mother.
Only because of Spectra's full hospital ward was Viki with Dani.
Spectra had briefly mentioned something about a flu spreading through the Ghost Zone before dropping the little girl off.
Viki was very friendly, allowing her to make friends easily. She, Box Lunch, and Evella could always be found playing together.
Dani found it rather interesting to see the ghosts become parents.
The first time she saw Box Ghost dote on his daughter, she had almost broken into a fit of laughter. For one, he was speaking softly to her, not his usual screaming-in-an-attempt-to-look-more-intimidating.
Even Skulker and Ember's parenting skills could be seen in Viki's personality.
Viki may have been playful, but she was also very clever and cunning, having gained these skills by learning to hunt from her father, but as a child she did not quite understand how to use the skills properly.
Ember sat on the couch, guitar in her lap as she absent mindedly tuned and fiddled with the strings.
Youngblood had arrived earlier in the day to play with Viki, and the two children were currently outside of the layer playing whatever games children played nowadays.
As Ember continued to pull and twang the strings, she heard screaming coming from outside. At once, she dropped her guitar and ran outside to see what was wrong.
Much to her relief, it wasn't Viki who was screaming, rather, it was Youngblood who was hanging upside down from a tree, swinging directly over a spike trap.
"Viki! You're insane! Let me down!" Youngblood swung around, trying to grab the rope that was tied around his foot.
Viki only laughed in response and she threatened to cut the rope right there, leading to Youngblood's inevitable fall into the spike trap.
"Victoria Lena McClain!" Ember's authoritative voice sounded.
Viki stopped her laughter immediately. She knew she was in trouble when her mother called her by her full name. "Yes, Mommy?" She asked nervously.
"What do you think you are doing, young lady?"
"I'm playing." She answered sheepishly.
"What is that, then?" Ember pointed to the traps the little girl had set up.
"Daddy showed me how to do this!" Viki completely forgot about being in trouble to show off her newly acquired skill.
Ember let out a sigh. She was going to have to talk to her husband about the things he was teaching Viki.
As good as Viki was with setting up hunting traps of sorts, she actually had not enjoyed hunting at first.
The very first time she had seen her father bring home a hunt, she had burst into tears.
It took hours of consolation from Skulker to get her to stop crying. They had to convince her that the animal was not dead (Not an easy task seeing as there was ectoplasm all over its fur) and that Skulker had not harmed it in anyway.
Luckily, she had been two at the time and could not relate that night's dinner to her father's hunt.
As she grew she became more accepting of hunting (much to Skulker's relief).
It wasn't until her father began teaching her how to hunt that she discovered her hidden talent. Everything seemed to come to her naturally. She knew how to stay hidden, how to suppress her ectoplasmic signature, and how to properly skin, handle, and dispose of her prey.
Of course, Skulker was ecstatic, but Ember begged to differ.
It was nice to see her daughter but she hoped that her daughter would pick up a hobby that wasn't so…bloody.
Ember tried to get her daughter into music, but it wasn't as easy as she thought it would be.
Viki did develop many of her mother's musical abilities, but she did not enjoy using them as much as she enjoyed using her hunting capabilities. She could sing a lullaby so soft that it put anyone who listened to sleep. She could play the flute so nicely that it would attract animals (Of course Viki would pounce as soon as they got close enough).
Nonetheless, her mother kept pushing her to use her musical abilities for purposes other than hunting.
The other ghosts weren't doing too bad themselves.
Spectra, Kitty, and Ember welcomed Desiree and Dani into their little circle of friends.
At first, they had to practically drag Desiree to any outing, but with time Desiree warmed up to the idea of having friends and stopped viewing herself as a burden to the group.
Desiree may have developed her first friendship, but her previous schizoid behaviors were still a little hard to shake off.
The girls still had to convince her that her presence was not a 'burden' nor was she being a 'bother' to them.
Dani herself had no problem fitting into the circle of friends, having already known the ghost girls intimately before the battle.
Kitty and Johnny were still in their on-off relationship, but Kitty always kept him in line.
The two still visited Amity Park regularly for entertainment, but Johnny was a little more cautious around Kitty.
He knew how angry she could get.
Unfortunately, that didn't stop him from oogling the local girls.
Spectra and Bertrand still continued their medical practice.
It was mostly Bertrand though, with Spectra working for Vlad.
When she wasn't needed at the Axion Labs, she would go back and help him out.
Now was one of those rare instances in which she had no choice but to help. This happened every few years. An old strain of a ghostly virus would spread, causing wide-spread sickness.
Spectra had been working in the medical field for centuries, having long ago gained immunity to the virus, but other ghosts were still prone to it, leading to the overcrowded clinic.
Even with this great new opportunity, Spectra still seemed to down little by little every day.
It was then that the girls took it upon themselves to approach her.
"Spectra, what's wrong? You seem upset lately." Ember asked.
After some negotiating it was decided that Dani and Ember would be the ones to approach Spectra.
They concluded that the best time to approach Spectra was when she was working in the research facility at Axion Labs. It was a clever tactic because she couldn't phase out of the room and she couldn't claim to be busy.
"Spectra?" Dani called into the laboratory with Ember in tow.
"I'm back here!" Her voice echoed throughout the sleek room.
The two girls walked to the source and waited for her to finish up her business.
Spectra finally pulled her goggles off, snapped her rubber gloves off, and removed her lab coat. "This is strange. You don't normally come visit me when I'm working."
"We didn't have any other choice." Ember's voice was firm. Spectra was not going to wiggle her way out of this again. "Why have you been so upset? Don't try and hide it! We can see right through you."
Spectra simply turned away. "It's not important."
"Spectra, of course it's important." Dani took a gentler approach when dealing with the older woman. For all she knew, it could have been something incredibly personal. "You're not depressed are you?"
Spectra burst into laughter at this. "You guys are hilarious, but it's nothing like that! It's just that delivering all these kids has made me realize how much I want one. Unfortunately, I'm sterile and can't have one of my own."
It was that little discussion that had prompted Ember to make Spectra Viki's God Mother.
Spectra had indeed been delivering many children, most for people residing in Aragon's kingdom.
The Dragon ghost had opened his doors to any ghosts who needed a place to live. After all, he couldn't rule a kingdom with no subjects.
Many ghosts accepted the invitation willingly.
How could they resist? They were being offered a home, in a once prosperous kingdom, being protected by a man who helped take Pariah Dark down.
As with all wars, a baby boom soon followed. Not to say that everyone was having children, but there were at least a few dozen children born along with the newly formed children ghosts of humans who had passed on before they could reach maturity.
As the kingdom filled, the land soon resembled its former glory.
Aragon had been a tad reluctant at first, but little by little, he allowed technology to flow into the large island.
He himself had never been able to get the hang of it, but his subjects and sister had no problem adjusting to the movement of time.
In fact, it wasn't unusual to see Aragon wander his castle at night with a candle when a light switch was within his fingertips.
As often as she tried, Dora simply couldn't teach her brother how to use electricity, let alone all the new appliances located in the castle. Again and again she would demonstrate, but he didn't understand.
When Tucker had gifted Alasdair a computer on his birthday, it took an entire day to teach Aragon how to turn it on.
Eventually, Dora gave up. Besides, Aragon did not really need to know how to use any of the fancy new gadgets. He had people who would do that for him.
Sure enough, Aragon's kingdom continued to exceed in economic terms and Aragon was a smart man. He knew how to use this to his advantage.
First, he invited Ghostwriter to take up a residence in his kingdom.
Ghostwriter had been surprised when he received the invitation, from Aragon himself, none the less. Why would the man suddenly have an interest in him?
Aragon told the librarian that he needed someone who can tutor the new children being added to his kingdom. That and he needed a library as the last had burned down.
Ghostwriter turned the invitation down multiple times, preparing to remain in his desolate corner of the Ghost Zone, but was won over by his own true calling.
As a final attempt, Aragon sent a letter to Ghostwriter lamenting the illiteracy rate of the new kingdom.
As soon as Ghostwriter saw the number, he moved his library to its new location in the Dragon Kingdom.
With the first part of his plan achieved, Aragon could move on to the second phase.
He knew that with Ghostwriter here, Samantha would be sure to visit.
Aragon had gotten wind of Samantha's recent practice of law and knew she would visit Ghostwriter's library over her own town's library because of the larger selection of books.
If everything went according to plan, Aragon would just 'happen' to stroll into the library that day (even though he had one in his own in the castle) and 'coincidentally' bump into Samantha. At that point he would invite her to dinner or to a simple excursion, most of which she turned down.
Sometimes, he would visit the human world just to see Samantha, which annoyed her to no ends.
She would be studying in her bedroom or in Danny's office, when Aragon would phase into the room uninvited and unannounced.
Once, he even phased into the room while Danny and Sam were making out, but chose not to leave, instead opting to clear his throat and announce his presence.
His sudden intrusion caused the two to scream in surprise.
It was no surprise to Aragon to see the two in such an intimate position. He knew of their relationship, but chose to ignore it.
Even after all these years of being rejected, Aragon never lost hope. He would continue to pursue the woman of his dreams regardless of the warnings Danny would give him to back off.
Speaking of bachelors, Dan was certainly living the life. Not to say he was living like a slob, but he was living without too many responsibilities.
He mostly hung around the Axion Labs building (with Dani to be more precise) and ran an occasion errand for Vlad, similar to the ones Skulker would, when he was bored.
Dan had been registered as the buildings security guard for legal purposes. At first, it had just been a title so the other human employees outside of the halfa circle could not kick him out of the building for loitering, but as the Axion Labs' success continued to grow, the GiW began to get a little suspicious of them.
Vlad had made a point of refusing to sell and ghost hunting products to them because he did not trust their judgment with the matter. He thought them to be very inexperienced, and knew of their many attempts at destroying the Ghost Zone and for that the GiW declared DALV a 'suspicious' enterprise.
Normally, this would have been a devastating blow to the DALV's many assets, but the GiW were a top secret operation. That, and the fact that people outside Amity Park did not really believe in ghosts, so word of this declaration did not go far.
Legally, the GiW could not shut down Axion Labs on those terms alone, so they had to resort to unorthodox methods.
Dan would constantly find them trying to break into the building or trying to 'inspect' shipments heading to the company, leaving Dan with no choice but to resort to unorthodox methods himself. He would give them a little ruffing, not too much, but if they caught him in a bad mood, someone might walk away with a black eye, or a broken arm.
Because of the two incredibly irritating government officials, before any tests were conducted, the entire team would have to search the building, top to bottom, for any planted bugs and cameras. They couldn't have the GiW knowing that they were cooperating with actual ghosts.
Dan's problem spread to teenagers as the experiments sometime yielded bad results.
An occasional bright, radioactive green colored explosion would emit from the building, attracting many interested teens.
Rumors soon circulated throughout the city that one could find actual ghosts in the building, leaving Dan to keep them out, but he didn't mind this.
With the teenagers he wouldn't use violence; instead, he would scare them into staying away.
He would mostly make his eyes glow an ominous red and fly towards the teens (which usually sent them packing), but on occasion, he would fire a miniature ecto-blast at their feet or over their heads.
Vlad wasn't too happy about this, but it got the job done.
When he wasn't chasing people away, Dan was either bothering Spectra or somewhere in the Ghost Zone looking for a fight.
The end of the day was Dani's favorite part.
After an exhausting day of school, they would spend about two hours working with Vlad and then head to Dan's place.
There, the teens would make dinner, eat, and socialize.
Dani loved it because it was the one time of the day where they could hang out without having to worry about anything. No ghosts, no school work, no bullies, and no having to hide her secret.
When they finished, they would clean up, Dani would see them off, and they would meet up later that night for more ghost hunting.
Some would complain that such a lifestyle would be monotonous, but Dani wouldn't have it any other way. She had spent months constantly traveling, running, wondering if she would be able to find food that night, and hated every minute of it.
This was so much better.
Staying with Dan was actually pretty nice. She took the other room in the flat, finally having a place to call her own.
Of course she was spending more time with the older ghost now, much to Danny's dismay.
It seemed like Danny had never gotten over his general dislike for his older evil self. He would constantly invite Dani to sleep over so she wouldn't have to stay with Dan.
Dani laughed his worry off.
Some things never change.
"And now, I present to you this year's graduating class." Mr. Lancer smiled as all the parents in the bleachers stood up to cheer on their children.
The graduates stood up and threw their caps into the air, joyous shrieks filling the air as they embraced their newfound freedom.
The two teenage halfas hugged in their moment of sheer elation.
Graduation. Last year, this guy back flipped to the podium, took his diploma, and back flipped back. You should have heard how loud the audience cheered him. It's where I got the idea for Dani's little show.
Anyways, now that we've been caught up, the story can start! Yayz!
Review Please!
