I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.
Danny carried the tired princess down through the frozen castle, but as they moved the air around them seemed to get warmer and warmer. Snow was finding it difficult to stay wake as she instructed Danny as to where the hidden passages were so that they wouldn't run into any more Chess Pieces.
"So these Chess Pieces guys are trying to do some kind of evil take over the world business." Danny asked as Snow explained to him who those people had been. "How original. Though I have to give them props for actually making a club dedicated to it."
Snow giggled. She liked Danny's weird form of humor. She also always tried to put her best foot forward even during hard times, but Danny seemed to be taking it a step further and laughing in the face of tragedy in order to make everything seem alright.
"I suppose you could say that. But they destroyed most of the land of MÄR six years ago before the war games, and I am afraid that they will do it again." Snow said a little sadly, but then she started being a little more up beat. "But a prophecy said that I would find seven fighters who would help me protect everyone. Danny... could... could you... could you stay with me. To protect the world of MÄR."
"World of MÄR huh." Danny said looking out a side window at lush green fields and mountains in the distance. "Well I don't exactly know where I am or how to go back, so I don't see any problem with helping you out. We're friends after all." Danny said grinning.
Snow smiled and placed her head on Danny's back. "Thank you, Danny." She whispered.
As they went down a spiral staircase they ran into another group that was going up the stairs. "Come on Jack, we need to hurry!" A voice shouted and a boy with spiky blond hair and a ponytail came into view nearly running straight into them. Danny hopped back several stairs and regained his footing as he reached into his bag and grabbed another ÄRM.
A boy with black hair who resembled a monkey and a large metal ball with a face on it that the end of a chain that was connected to a hammer rounded the corner after the boy. "Ginta you need to slow..." The monkey boy started but stopped as he saw Danny holding a sword out in front of him with one hand and holding up the princess up on his back with the other.
"Ko... Koyuki?" The boy called Ginta said wide eyed as he looked over Danny's shoulder at Snow.
"Wait for me..." A voice said from behind them and a dog came up the stairs panting for breath. He had a red Santa's hat and huge glasses. Danny was a little surprised by the talking dog and the metal ball with a face on it, but they wouldn't be considered that out of the ordinary in the Ghost Zone.
"Ed!" Snow said excitedly as she looked down at the dog.
"Princess!" The dog said starting to tear up. "You're alright!"
"Yes, Ed. I knew you would come for me." Snow said smiling gratefully.
"Friends of yours?" Danny asked lowering his sword which turned back into a trinket.
"Ed is, but I've never seen these three before." Snow said looking that the others.
"Princess, these brave boys volunteered to help me save you." The dog said gesturing to the other. "This is Ginta and Jack. The ÄRM's name is Babbo."
"Oh, thank you all for coming, but Danny already saved me." Snow said smiling from over Danny's shoulder.
Ginta was still staring a little dazed at Snow's face but he was starting to shake off whatever had shocked him. "Aww, I was looking forward to rescuing a real princess too. Oh well, it's nice to meet you Princess Snow, Danny." Ginta said grinning. He was going to walk forward but the ÄRM in his hand held him back. "What gives Babbo!?" He demanded.
"This boy... I feel like I have seen him somewhere before." Babbo said staring hard at Danny's face. "Do I... know you?"
Danny shrugged to the best of his ability with the Princess still on his back. "Probably not. I'm not exactly from around here if you know what I mean." Danny assumed that the ball didn't. "And I don't think I've ever meet a talking metal ball with a long nose and mustache."
"Not to interrupt but... don't we need to get moving? I mean we have the princess, so shouldn't we get out of here?" The monkey boy, Jack asked.
"Um... right, good thinking servant number two." Babbo said.
"I'm not your servant!" Jack shouted back.
"How have you guys not been caught yet, if you yell so much?" Danny asked as a polite way of telling them to shut up.
They started down the stairs again with Ed in the lead followed by Danny carrying the princess with the others holding up the rear. Ginta, Jack and Babbo were looking at Snow with a dazed look in their eyes as if they were day dreaming. Ed was throwing Danny the occasional glare, as if he disapproved of him caring the princess.
"Princess, how did you get out of your ice? And how did you get passed the queen's men?" Ed asked after a little while.
"Danny got me out of the ice, and he beat the Chess Pieces too." Snow said blushing a little. "He was really cool." Ed was not happy about the blush.
"Why is Danny here anyways? Were you trying to steal rare ÄRM like Dorothy?" Jack asked scratching his head.
Danny chuckled a little, though he was secretly livid about being accused of being a thief. "Actually, I was just minding my own business back home, when some dimensional gate opened up and I woke up in this place." Danny said surprising the group. "So after a bunch of guys in masks showed up and attacked me for no reason, I did the next logical step in today's events. I went to rescue the nearest princess and agreed to aid her on her quest to save the world." Danny joked. "Good thing there was one in this castle." Ginta and Snow started to laugh.
"You're even crazier than Ginta." Babbo said looking a little scared.
"What about you guys? How did you end up here?" Danny asked.
"We were training for our journey to try to help save MÄR, when I kind of found Ed trying to sleep in the middle of a field a little ways from here. After we woke him up he asked us to help him rescue his princess and we agreed." Ginta said grinning. Babbo and Jack realized that their reasoning wasn't that much different from Danny's. After a moments pause Ginta asked his question. "Danny... are you from another world?"
"Hm? Well, yeah." Danny said a little glad that he wasn't on Earth but still not sure what to think. The others looked shocked except for Snow who had already guessed from the way Danny acted. "At least I've never heard about MÄR or ÄRMs or the Chess Pieces. Though I supposed I could just be in a very different time line or the distant future or past." Danny admitted.
"So your from Earth, like me?" Ginta said grinning widely. Danny stopped and the others stumbled not to run into him.
"You're also from another world, Ginta?" Snow asked curiously.
"Sure am." Ginta said, rubbing his nose smugly.
"Earth huh? No, I'm not from Earth." Danny said, not wanting to think of himself as being from that place. He started to walk again. "I'm from a world that is closely connected to Earth. We call it the GZ."
"Wow! There are even more worlds!" Ginta shouted in excitement. "Is yours full of magic too!? Earth is kind of boring."
"Inside voices." Danny warned and Ginta looked sheepish. "And you don't know much about your own world. There is a lot of magic on Earth. It was just hidden away from the world at large." Danny said causing Ginta's jaw to drop. "As for the GZ... it's a nice place I guess. We have our far share of problems but what world doesn't."
"The entrance is just on the other side of this fake wall." Ed said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. He pushed a hidden switch and the wall slide open. But as he exited he froze in his tracks.
"What's wrong Ed?" Snow asked but as soon as she could see the gate to the outside she understood. Standing there in the gateway was a strange figure with what looked like a tomato for a head with a jack-o-lantern style mouth cut out and hideous yellow eyes. Several spikes were driven into the top of the tomato head around the leaves. He was in a large black straight jacket which tied him to a giant steel cross behind him that was bigger than he was.
"Who is this guy?" Ginta asked, walking forward with Babbo while Jack lagged behind with a shovel.
"That's Halloween." Ed said shaking. "He's one of the Chess Pieces' knight class ÄRM users. This is not good."
"Snow... stay behind me." Danny murmured lower the princess to the ground and pulling out the sword ÄRM.
"Danny?" Snow said worriedly.
"Don't worry Snow. I promised I would protect you, and I will." Danny said seriously as he got ready to fight.
"Huh?" Halloween said, glaring that the group. "What's this, the princess is free and Ian and Loco are nowhere insight? What's going on here?" The tomato man grumbled.
"Sorry, I sent you buddies home. After all, you shouldn't do any heavy physical work while your broken bones are healing." Danny said grinning.
"You're saying that you beat them then?" Halloween asked, then he broken into a fit of laughter that confused the rescue party. "Oh that's a good one! A scrawny little kid like you! You don't even have any magical power!" But the fit of laughter started to die down. "I would love to stand here and joke around all day but I do have my orders. Though I supposed taking the princess would not take too much time." Halloween began to glow red putting everyone back on edge. "Nature ÄRM; Fire Hands!" He shouted.
Hands made of fire appeared out of thin air. "Look out!" Danny shouted and stepped in the path of the fiery hands. He did his best to block them but the common Sword ÄRM shattered under the force of the nature ÄRM's attack. Danny was blasted backwards and into the wall behind the rest of the group.
"No, Danny!" Snow shouted. Jack and Ginta were freaked out but they still rushed the Knight Piece. Another fire hand hit the ground in front of them causing them to go flying as well. "Ginta, Jack, Babbo!" Snow said starting to tear up as the Knight approached her.
Danny shook the stars out of his vision to see Halloween closing in on Snow with his fiery hands. Snow was terrified and trying to back away but she was still too tired to do more than stagger back. She fell to the ground and Halloween started laughing. "Your time running way is over Princess Snow!"
Anger shot up inside of Danny and he called forth the ring of white light to transform him. "Phantom Phrost; Ice Needles!" Halloween leaped backwards and his fire hands fused together into a barrier in front of him to protect him from a dozen icy spikes that had been thrown at him. "Are you ok, Snow?" Snow looked up not recognizing Danny's voice through the echo.
The princess's heart nearly stopped. Standing over her, between her and Halloween, was a figure that anyone in all of MÄR would know on sight. Lean build with strong shoulders and pale skin, and bleached white hair that's bangs grew out almost covering the eyes.
"Pha... Phantom." Ed said looking as if he was about to faint.
"No way." Jack said echoing the statement.
"Phantom." Halloween said wide eyed. "What are... you doing...?"
"I don't know how you know my name. But I promised that I would protect Snow. And I always keep my promises." The Phantom said. But this time Snow recognized his voice through the echo. And this Phantom didn't seem as tall as the one from the old days.
"Da... Danny?" She said surprised. Phantom's head turned to her and rather than the dead purple eyes that were feared throughout the world of MÄR, this Phantom had vivid green eyes that Snow would have never related to being dead.
"Leave this creep to me." Danny said, smiling proudly before turning back to Halloween.
"You... you're not Phantom." The tomato head said, starting to regain his senses. "You might look like him, but you are still just a child. Who are you!?"
"My name is Danny Phantom." Danny said, raising his left hand. "And I wouldn't let you hurt Snow!" He shouted before running forward. "Phantom Phrost; Ice Sword!" Ice grew over Danny's left arm and lengthened into a blade. Danny swung again and again at the tomato headed but his attacks met nothing but empty space.
"Hahaha, you might look like Phantom, and you magic power might have grown! But you are still only at the rook class level! You don't stand a chance against me!" Halloween shouted his fire hands coming down towards Danny. Danny pulled up his ice sword to swot them away but it melted on contact. Danny barely had enough time to dodge the second hand. "Now die, you want-a-be!"
Before the fire hands could reach him Danny reached into his dimensional bag and pulled out the guitar he had gotten from Ember. Using the guitar like a bat he struck the fire hands way. "What!?" Halloween shouted.
"It's a good thing Ember's guitars are fire proof." Danny chuckled though he knew it had been a narrow escape. His ice powers may still exist, but they were far weaker than before. Halloween was pretty strong and surprisingly fast for someone who was tied to a metal cross. Danny wished he had more of his attacks to work with.
But then an idea came to him. If he couldn't use his real attacks, maybe he could simulate one. Swinging the guitar into position and forming a pick out of ice, he turned up the volume all the way on the guitar. "Everyone, cover your ears!" He shouted. "I'm going to rock his world."
Everyone pushed their hands over there ears and Danny played the guitar as fast and as loud as he could. Halloween and Babbo were going insane as they didn't have any hands to put over their own ears. The fire hands fizzled out as the villain lost his concentration. "What a noise!" Ginta shouted as he struggled to keep his head on straight. Ed's more sensitive dog ears caused him to pass out.
As the tomato head began to sway, Danny stopped playing and rushed him, using the guitar as a bat he hit the Knight in his tomato head and sent him flying. Halloween bounced a few times before coming to a stop.
"You shouldn't underestimate me." Danny said grinning. "I may not be that strong right now, but I am resourceful as hell and have taken down bigger guys than you before."
But the smile fell off of Danny's face as Halloween began to laugh again. "So that's it, that is how you defeated Ian and Loco. You simply out played them." Halloween jumped back to his feet, no sign of damage anywhere on him. "Unfortunately for you, the difference in our power is to great for you to hope to beat me with simple trickery."
"Don't you dare think that you've seen everything in my bag of tricks." Danny said smugly as he reached back to his dimensional bag, but all that was in it was some useless Weapon ÄRM that might as well have been rocks, the magical story book and several dozen bins with some left over cake from his deathday party. 'Oh man I'm out of tricks.' Danny inwardly chuckled as he was starting to wonder how he was going to get out of this one.
"Guys, something's happening to Ed!" Jack shouted. They all looked at Ed, who had fainted for the noise attack. He was sprawled out on the ground glowing like a firefly. With a puff of smoke the dog's body disappeared and a much larger figure was standing in it's place.
"Good night." A deep voice said from inside the smoke. As it cleared the group could see a tall man with dark brown hair that was just starting to grey pulled back in a ponytail. This new guy had two small scars under one eye and was wearing a brown trench coat. "And good morning." He said grinning as he started to walk forward.
"You..." Halloween said his voice full of venom. "Allen."
"Wrong! I'm Ed now." The new man said.
"Ed!" Snow shouted in relief.
Ed walked over to Danny and placed a hand on his head. "Good job holding him, kid. I'll take it from here."
Danny's brain was still in jet lag along with Ginta, Jack and Babbo's. Halloween shot his fire hands at them but this new Ed just lifted up one hand. "Dimension ÄRM; Air Hammer!" The rings on his hand glowed and space seemed to bend as the fire hands were blasted out of existence. "It's been six years, Halloween. We ended in a stall mate back then. I wonder who is on top now?" Ed said cracking his knuckles.
Halloween started to laugh again. "As much as I would love to finish our unsettled score, I have orders to hurry. And if I spend too much time here than I will end up displeasing the true Phantom. Just be glad that the Princess and Babbo has dropped on our priority list." The tomato headed villain said. "But this has not been a waste of time. I am sure Phantom will be interested to hear about his young look alike." Beams of light appeared around Halloween. "Until next time, Allan." And like that he was gone.
"He ran off." Ginta said angrily. "Get back here you chess jerk, we weren't done yet!" He shouted, stamping around like a child throwing a hissy fit.
Ed looked down at Danny a serious expression on his face. "So... you're Phantom, are you?" He said, his voice held more curiosity than threat.
The white ring appeared around Danny's waste and traveled across his body. Snow was a bit relieved when she saw his hair return to black and the color returning to his skin. But she was a little disappointed when his eyes had returned to the original blue. The vivid green eyes had fascinated her and made her feel safe. "It's a nickname that I picked up. Why, what's wrong with it?"
Ed face was hard. "That name holds bad memories for the world of MÄR. But right now that is not important." He crossed his arms. "Tell me kid, are you serious about helping Snow?"
Danny nodded. "Sure. I already promised that I would. And I never go back on my promises." Danny said looking up at the human Ed.
A smiled broke across Ed's face. "Well then, that will do until we reach Pelika." He glanced at Princess Snow and snickered. "After all, the princess has taken a liking to you."
Danny and Snow flushed bright red. "E...ed, don't say things like that!" Snow shouted in embarrassment.
"Oh? But I thought he was your prince charming who woke you up? You even let him carry you." Ed teased. "Have you given him his thank you kiss yet?"
"That... that was an accident!" Danny insisted and Ed broke into even more laughter, saying that the dog inside of him wouldn't be happy about that. Danny was embarrassed beyond belief, but more than that he was happy. It had been a while since he could go out and help people. He felt like a real hero again. Like a true Phantom.
