Arc II – The Ghost King

Chapter Fourteen

My Town

If Danny had not known beforehand to expect an almost literal hell on Earth, he would have panicked slightly. But as his words rang aloud for few to hear, any panic bowed down to the might of his other self. His bones snapped and his blood crackled as the warmth of humanity fled his body replaced by the chill of death. Ectoplasm awoke and flushed through his veins, overtaking his blood and converting it over. No breath to be heard, no heart to pound, only the electricity of the undead inhabiting the living. This same acidic lightning flushed out the royal blue in his eyes. Staining them electric emerald and destroyed the melatonin within the roots of his hair. The heavy jacket and ripped jeans flashed away into a thick hazmat suit. Danny Phantom burst into belief.

Words vibrated with the lack of a human voice box and the abnormal growling voice of Danny alerted everything – living or dead – of his return. "I'm back, Amity Park! And no one – No one! messes with my town!"

Ghostly skeletons marched towards him, pounding their ethereal feet onto the ground. Oozing of ectoplasm, they chattered amongst themselves for barely a moment. Then they raised their spears into the air wildly and jeered against him. Oddly, Danny recognized their armor. Scratching his head, it clicked. Chiron had spoken of ancient Greek warriors – that's what they were! Oh this would too easy.

For once, he was relieved to have paid attention to a history class. Now, Danny had something to work with.

Roaring, Danny leapt into air, hovering feet above the ground. Thanks to months of both styles of training, Danny charged both hands with ghostly fir. Being more dead than alive in that moment, he barely felt the heat lick his fingertips.

In a blink, the soldiers shuddered down. Toppling on top of each other, they lost all balance and shrieked.

Danny allowed a smirk to flutter on his face.

Mayhem broke loose the next moment. Fiery arrow torn through the hideous air and weapons shot against his skin. Ghosts upon phantoms launched upon him and Danny found himself buried underneath the masses of terrors. His still part human skin broke on impact of weapons and his training had not prepared him for this. Its twin Pandemonium tore into reality next.

Humans raged weapons against the furies that inhabited the underworld and Danny gasped as he heard the familiar cries of Clary and Jack.

"No!" He cried, blasting his deathly aura everywhere.

The ghosts flung against the buildings and humans screamed. Ash and smoke filled his nostrils and screeching, his ears. His hands oddly felt coarse and bloodied. He ventured a glance at his open palms, grimacing at the scratched and ectoplasm mixing with his human blood. Danny released a guttural growl that vibrated in the back of his throat.

"Leave them alone!" Blasting another force of unnatural green energy at the main grouping of ghosts, Danny herded the citizens back to the Fenton Works.

"It's Danny Phantom!"

"Maybe he's here to save us?"

"He's with them! He's a monster!"

Amongst many other such comments that reached his ears, Danny shrugged them off, only making sure that they became safe. He glided above the green shield there at the Fenton's strange house and circled around twice, guiding the people in.

Few ventured outside once he finished his circling, all expect three.

Her voice hitched just before she spoke, "Danny…"

Electric acid green eyes widened and Danny felt his heart ghosting despite it never beating in his Phantom form. The familiar lavender glare made him inwardly whimper. Gods, he missed her. Unclenching his fists, Danny flung himself high into the sky away from the calling voices of his friends. Far away, he darted from Sam and Tucker and Clary. Only, he halted and hovered in the air, glancing down to see platinum blond Jack racing to the others. Danny frowned and surveyed the town and all the destruction taking place.

In his ears the screams of humans and crumbling of buildings echoed and ash spat throughout the air. He had doomed them. His heart sang in his chest and his throat clogged as the chaos enveloped Amity Park.

Allowing a frosty chill to overtake him, Danny floated back down invisibly and huddled behind a pile of rubble. Despite his human blood and the warmth of life washing over him, he felt no true warmth. Frosty and frigid, Danny toddled out of the spot he had landed from and continued forward to four of them still looking skyward.

"Hey guys," Danny raised his hand in greeting, briefly flinching as the icy blaze of Sam's eyes.

His own vision spun and he teetered towards Sam a little more only to find two of her. One step. Two steps. Legs gave out and his drained state collapsed on the cracked pavement.

Blue eyes flew open and Danny found himself in the guestroom of the Fenton's house. In the background, he could hear footsteps and mutterings of conversations. Shivering, he clutched the blankets around him closer and observed the entirety of the room. It was bare, not much to look at, just a normal blue bedroom with a desk and computer, bed, dresser, and a chair. All of which sat on a wooden floor, and on the chair sat an older looking man with long slicked back hair, neatly placed in a ponytail. His silver hair streaked with gray and white but his eyes were frosty chips of ice. For some odd reason, Danny noted that most things bad seemed to have a monochrome theme.

A natural smirk overtook the man's previous stilled expression. "Hello Daniel." The low tone in his voice alerted Danny's sympathetic nervous system. He eyed him carefully.

"Who are you?" Danny barely withheld the growl in his voice, still lowering the octave.

Stranger chuckled. "Why I'm a friend." His words too slick, smoother than ambrosia, for Danny to believe. He briefly was reminded of the Aphrodite children with their smooth talking ways. "A friend of your father's. Thought I'd pop in."

Danny grit his teeth together and this time did nothing to hold back the clear malice in his voice. "Great, maybe you can give him a message for me." And Danny flipped him the bird.

"Come, come, Daniel, you mustn't be like that." The apparent 'friend' of his father's patted his head like a dog. "We're relatives here. Family treats family kindly."

"Sorry, guess I read the wrong version of the family history book, in mine it said, 'fight like your brother stole your sister's daughter who is actually your daughter and that caused the first cycle of seasons'. My mistake, I'll have to get the updated version."

The Stranger laughed. "I see now why you were chosen."

"Really?" Danny bared his teeth. "Why don't you enlighten me."

A grin usurped the smirk and a creepy calm filled the slick voice. "Someday soon you'll find out for yourself, but right now. You have a test to undertake."

"A test?" Raising his thick eyebrows, Danny still kept his shields raised, anticipating the next move.

"But of course, that's why Amity Park is in danger. If you want to know anything about who you truly are, Daniel James Kern, you'll want to consider fighting." The 'family friend' showed off his Vampiric teeth with a nice clean smile and stood up from his chair.

Straightening his back, he waved goodbye to the boy in bed and vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Danny whipped out of bed, landing softly on his feet and turned to look everywhere for a trace of him. Nothing, just the fading smell of smoke remained. Breathing in and then out, Danny straightened up and held his head up high. Cautiously, he exited the room, following the murmurs he had heard earlier.

Everything he heard stopped as he followed the noise down the hall to Jasmine Fenton's room. The incredulous pink room, caused shivers to crawl up his spine. The five of them – including Jazz – sat in a circle around the room discussing many things.

Sam jolted upright and paced towards him and before he knew it his fist held her open palm. Retracting her hand roughly from his tight grasp, Sam growled. "Where have you been!"

"Riding a llama in Neverland, what do you think?" He dryly remarked before his face softened. Lowering his hand, he lightly grabbed both her shoulders and attempted a sad looking smile. "Hey, I'm back now, I'm so sorry I left but I had to. Now I'm here to help and we will figure this out."

The room held silent for a moment, Danny's darkening blue eyes gazing into her amethyst. She moved slightly forward and he met her in the middle, closing the gap by nestling her safe in his arms. He released a breath he didn't realize he was holding, but Danny allowed himself a smile and rested his chin atop her head.

Pushing herself away from him, she flushed bright red. Inwardly, Danny chuckled, but outwardly his smile vanished.

"A-ah, it's not like I missed you or something." Sam fumbled, tumbling over her words. "I mean you did call once which was great. You really should call more often."

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and a mask slipped over his face. "What's going on here, Sam? What's happening?"

Everyone sobered, even his quest companions – Ah, so they knew more than he did. Sam didn't answer; she wasn't quick enough, however Tucker was.

"Dude, we're being attacked by the Ghost King, by Pariah Dark."

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! And Happy Whatever Holiday I missed.

Here is your Christmas present from Me to you, I hope you enjoy it. I will also be putting up a story related poll on my profile either this week or next instead of posting a get-to-know-my-readers question.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year