God Save The Queen Chapter 36: Meeting the Beast
Dani carried Jonathan back to the castle so she could continue the search for Ira. Based on Plasmius' description, the beast shouldn't be too hard to find. A skinny gray old man with black eyes of crazy/ red eyes of evil wrapped in chains should stick out like a sore thumb compared to the many other denizens of the Ghost Zone. It was when Dani got back to the castle that Jonathan finally started to stir, groggy and disoriented from having a vase dropped on his head. The royal guard shook the cobwebs out of his head, placing his hand to the back of his head to soothe the sharp throbbing pain and looked up at Dani.
"Wh-What happened?" Jonathan asked in confusion. "Did we find Ira? Did he attack us? Are you alright?"
"We didn't find Ira," Dani told him. "But I did get a solid lead about him from a not so trustworthy source."
"Oh come now, we need tips from whoever has come across Ira no matter how untrustworthy they may seem," Jonathan said before Dani told him "It was from Vlad Plasmius and he said that he'd need the help of me, Danny, and Sam to defeat Ira" causing Jonathan to nearly jump out his boots and exclaim "What?!" Quickly composing himself, Jonathan said "Are you mad, your highness?! Why did you accept help from Plasmius?! Might I remind you that this fruit loop tried killing you and your family not too long ago! For all we know, Plasmius could've intentionally freed Ira and is attempting to control him for his own nefarious purposes!"
"I'm not exactly thrilled about working with Plasmius either and I sure as hell don't trust him," Dani assured Jonathan. "But Vlad actually has encountered Ira and was even attacked by him. Out of the three of us, he's the only one who's actually come face to face with Ira and might actually know something about defeating him."
"If he had any information about any potential weaknesses Ira had, then why didn't he tell you about them?" Jonathan asked.
"He did," Dani replied. "Going off what Vlad told me, Ira seemed to show a vulnerability to electricity or at the very least, that was the only method of attack that seemed to affect him or at least slow him down."
"The key phrase of that statement being 'going off what Vlad told you'," Jonathan retorted. "Plasmius has no problems lying and manipulating people to gain their trust and take advantage of them. If Vlad truly needed our help then why'd he attack me and knock me out when the two of us were alone rather than simply asking for your assistance?"
"Would you really have listened to Plasmius or would you have confronted him while telling me to get out of there?" Dani replied causing Jonathan to sheepishly reply "Fair point." "And I don't mean to defend Plasmius in any way, but if Plasmius had ulterior motives then why didn't he just attack me while you were knocked out?"
"I guess you do have a point," Jonathan said. "But all I'm saying is that you should be a bit more hesitant before trusting Plasmius. Even if he is truly sincere in his plea for your help, you should still keep your eyes on him at all times and watch your back"
"I'm already one step ahead of you," Dani said before turn isn't to go look for Ira.
"Wait, where are you going?" Jonathan asked.
"To look for Ira," Dani answered. "He isn't going to capture himself."
"Wait a minute, you can't just go look for Ira by yourself, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into!" Jonathan said, urgently chasing after Dani. "As the head guard of the royal family, I can't allow you to embark on such a dangerous mission by yourself!"
"As the daughter of King Danny and Queen Sam and therefore the Royal Princess, I order you to stand down and let me do this," Dani said, knowing that Jonathan had no choice but to obey his orders.
"Y-Yes ma'am, your highness," Jonathan said reluctantly, bowing down to one knee.
"Don't get too worried about it, I'll be fine" Dani said as she flew off. "The Ghost Zone is so big it's unlikely I'll even cross paths with Ira. And even if I do, I can always come back here if things get out of hand."
Danielle didn't plan to be out for too long. She planned on only search for Ira for about thirty minutes, maybe an hour at most, before returning to the castle and waiting for Danny and Sam to get out of school so she could get their help in dealing with the situation. After all, it was only another hour and a half before they got out. Unfortunately for the ghost princess, fate had other plans. Only fifteen minutes after she started her search, Dani found herself on a desert esque island that she hadn't ever seen before. At this point, Dani had gotten used to discovering new areas of the Ghost Zone, but she couldn't help but feel she had stumbled upon this dusty desert island for a reason. Could the beastly Ira possibly be hiding out here? There was only one way to find out so Dani landed down on the island and began looking around. The desert island looked like a movie setting, with green cacti and large sand dunes stretching across the land. The island was also somewhat reminiscent of old western movie settings with a couple of cow skulls lying about, scorpions skittering across the sand, and rattlesnakes slithering around in the sand. Other than the aforementioned ghost animals, there was no other sign of life around. Still, Dani wasn't prepared to give up so easily and continued trekking across the desert. After about five minutes, Dani heard what sounded like snarling in the distance and followed in the direction of the noise to find its source. Dani half expected the noise to be coming from another desert animal such as perhaps a wildcat. Instead however, Dani ended up stumbling upon the wild ghost itself, Ira. Ira looked just as Plasmius had described him, having pale chalky grey skin, a skeletal yet muscular build, and wild, flowing, unkempt black hair that ran past his shoulders. Dani stood motionless for a couple of seconds, having second thoughts about coming out on this search alone and wondering if it would be a good idea to approach Ira. Currently, Ira was sitting cross legged near a cactus and appeared to be eating something. Dani found that strange since if she recalled correctly, ghosts had no need to eat. If Dani had the Fenton thermos on her, she could've simply captured the beast without even being seen by it. Cursing her lack of foresight, Dani moved in to make an attempt at capturing Ira. She tried sneaking up on him, accidentally stepped on an unseen, dry twig, blowing her cover.
"Uh oh," Dani said to herself as the beast turned around, revealing his manic eyes.
Green ectoplasm dripped from the savage's glistening fangs and down his bare torso as Dani got a glimpse at what Ira had been snacking on. Lying motionless on the ground in front of Ira was a ghost jackal. The poor animal had its stomach ripped open and its entire body was covered in slash and bite marks. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that the jackal's skull had been cracked as well and one of its hind legs was bent at a sickening angle. Dani gasped at the sight before quickly remembering what she should really be focused on, turning to Ira. Upon seeing Danielle, Ira bared its fangs and hissed before standing to his feet and staring her down. Dani barely had time to react before the creature sprang, pouncing at her with vicious intent. Dani ducked to the left, causing Ira to fly over her head and crash spine first into a cactus. Showing no signs of pain or even mild irritation, Ira quickly pulled himself from the cactus, leaving dozens, if not hundreds of sharp spines lodged in his bare back and attacked Danielle a second time, swinging wildly with lefts and rights. Because of the brute's sloppiness, Danielle was able to easily dodge most of his attacks before hitting Ira in the chin with a big kick to the face. Ira grunted, staggering back a couple of steps before once again charging at Dani.
"So, I take it you're the big bad monster that everyone's been so scared of," Dani said, making sure not to take Ira too lightly while taunting him. Ira didn't utter a word and kept trying to attack Dani, this time by stretching his arms to great lengths and wrapping them around Dani like ropes. This caught the young ghost princess off guard, allowing Ira to lift her up and slam her into the ground repeatedly, leaving Dani dazed and confused. "Wow, didn't see that coming"
Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, Dani resisted Ira's grip and planted herself firmly on the ground. She started spinning around rapidly in circles, using Ira's stretchy arms against him, swinging the barbaric ghost around like a spinning top. Ira let out a rather quiet irritated scream that sounded more like he was groaning before foolishly releasing his grasp on Dani, sending him flying over the horizon and crashing headfirst into a large rock, the impact causing the rock to crumble into pieces. Dani quickly followed after him, wondering if perhaps she could neutralize him long enough for him to be captured. Not any time soon apparently as Ira was up and about by the time Dani arrive on the scene and in fact surprised her by using his head as a battering ram, flying headfirst into her chest. The blow knocked nearly all of the air out of Dani's lung and she took a moment to gasp for breath. The attack seemed to take just as much out of Ira as it did Danielle as he rapidly shook his head while looking cross eyed and groggy. Ira shook off the effects of his head butt soon afterwards and went after Dani again, trying to hit the girl with an overhead double fisted punch from above, but Dani moved out of the way in he nick of time, resulting in Ira smashing another rock to bits. While Ira was temporarily distracted, Dani turned invisible to avoid detection and took a few seconds to recover. Dani had no way of knowing that Ira could track her with his sense of smell and was shocked when she felt his sharp teeth sink into her right arm. Hissing in pain, Dani threw her elbow backwards as hard as she could, striking Ira in the left eye and causing him to back off slightly. Dani followed up with a blast to Ira's neck, sending the latter blasting off again.
"Man, Plasmius wasn't exaggerating when he said Ira fought like an animal," Dani noted as she tended to her bleeding arm. Ira's fangs hadn't sunk in too deeply and Dani's healing factor should've been capable of healing what was relatively minor damage in no time at all. "Now how am I going to stop this thing, if that's even possible?"
Ira was back into the fray soon afterwards, showing no signs of slowing down in the slightest. Dani then remembered how Vlad mentioned Ira seemed to show a weakness to electricity
"The only problem is, I don't know how to generate any electric attacks," Dani thought to herself as Ira got closer. "Well I guess now's a good time to learn." Dani closed her eyes and started to concentrate on generating electricity. Even a relatively small shock should get Ira to back off some. As every second passed, Ira came nearer and nearer with Dani having no results. Finally, when Ira was mere inches from her face, Dani felt a small ball of electricity form in her hands. Dani tossed the electric ball right in Ira's face, causing the beast to shriek and shrink back. The attack didn't keep him down for long as Ira charged at Dani, hitting her with a kick to back of the head.
"Darn it, my electric attack was so weak it barely even phased him," Dani thought to herself as she dodged a sloppy right hand from Ira and countered with a stiff kick to Ira's chest, knocking the ghost back a couple of meters. "According to Plasmius, that's his only obvious weakness, but I can't capitalize on it due to my inexperience with electrokinesis." Dani was just quick enough to dodge and deflect a volley of ectoblasts when Ira unexpectedly switched his strategy from striking to blasting. "I'm going to have to find some other way to hurt him, but how?" Dani asked herself before forming a devilish smirk on her face as she got an idea. Forming two icicles in her hands, Dani used them to stab Ira right in the eyes. The beast shrieked in agony and staggered backwards, grabbing at his eyes. While Ira was tending to his injured eyes, Dani tied him up tight with ectoplasmic goo. Ira struggled on the ground, thrashing and hissing like a rabid animal for a couple of minutes, biting at Dani as she approached him.
"Hmm, that was easier than I thought," Dani said as she prepared to take Ira back to his tomb.
Ira wasn't prepared to go down without a fight however and broke free of the ectoplasm binding him, catching Dani by surprise and biting her in the shoulder. Dani hissed in pain before being grabbed by her arm and flung her into the air.
"And that explains why," Dani said as she corrected herself in midair and launched an ice ball at Ira in an attempt to freeze him in place. The ice ball hit Ira head on in his chest, causing ice to slowly expand over Ira's entire body. Ira looked around in confusion, hissing and growling as he tried in vain to prevent the ice from completely enveloping him. It was no use however as pretty soon, Ira was completely encased in an ice crystal that was at least 4 inches thick. For a few moments, Dani's attack seemed to work as Ira struggled trying to break out of the thick ice encasing him. He couldn't move any of his limbs as Dani was about to find out, that didn't make him any less dangerous. With a loud mighty howl, Ira managed to blow a huge hole through the ice, allowing him slight movement of his head and neck. A few centimeters of wiggle room was all Ira needed as with two quick head jerks to the left and right, Ira freed his head completely. Dani tried keeping him contained with an ectoblast to the face, but Ira shook it off and used a pair of eyebeams to weaken the ice encasing the rest of his body. When the ice was weakened significantly enough, Ira shattered through it, sending shards of ice everywhere. At this point, Dani was starting to get a little tired from constantly fighting the implacable ghost, wondering just what she had to do to keep him stunned for even a couple of minutes. She didn't have time to think for very long as Ira quickly closed any gap between them, launching himself at the younger halfa. Dani moved out of the way and positioned herself in front of a very tall, very large cactus, waiting for Ira to charge once again. Needless to say, Ira took the bait hook, line, and sinker as Dani rolled out of the way at the last possible second, causing Ira to collide head on into the cactus and briefly get himself stuck on the cactus' spines.
"Now I see why everyone is so afraid of you," Dani said, shielding herself in an ecto bubble.
The juggernaut of a ghost wasn't kept down for very long, but this time after he got up, didn't even try to attack Dani. Instead he grumbled incoherently as he turned to face Dani again. The expression on his face looked like a strange mix of disappointment, a little surprise, frustration, and apathy. Ira huffed and turned his back to Dani, preparing to fly away, giving off the impression of a child who had just been beaten in his favorite game and didn't want to play anymore/ a wild predator that was surprised and frustrated that its prey had managed to escape it/ a kid who was simply bored of playing with his toys and was off to go do something else. Dani didn't know how to feel or what to do about the situation. Part of her mind was relieved at the thought of no longer having to fight the savage monster and was telling her to let Ira go wherever he was headed, while another part of her mind was telling her not to let Ira get away so easily and to go after him. Ultimately, Dani listened to the latter part of her mind and gave chase after Ira.
"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Dani asked as she went after Ira. "I don't recall saying that you could leave just yet."
Ira didn't utter a single word or even growl in response, and instead with one strong, swift punch to the jaw, sent Dani spiraling into the ground. The blow was so strong that the impact nearly broke Dani's neck. Sprawled out on the ground, Dani watched as Ira took off into the sky, fading in and out of consciousness and finally having an idea of just what made the creature was so fearsome. Danielle blinked, trying to recover from the barbaric blow as her head felt like it was spinning in all directions. When Dani finally did regain her composure, she had the sudden realization that Ira had likely been toying with her the entire time. The beast of a ghost could've easily defeated her with a single punch had he wanted to, but like a true predator decided to play with his prey until he got bored. With Ira long gone, Dani decided to return to the castle and tell recount what just happened to Jonathan. As Dani turned to leave, she got a better idea and decided to seek help from the Master of Time himself, Clockwork. Being the oldest being in existence, Clockwork had to have some useful information on the master. Perhaps, he had even helped in originally sealing Ira away. Flying as fast as she could with a dizzy head, Dani headed for the Clock Tower.
In the Next Chapter:
When Dani arrived at the Clock Tower, she found that it was deathly quiet. Normally, Clockwork's domain would be filled with the sound of constantly ticking clocks and occasionally bells ringing. The lack of noise only served to make Dani even more tense. Did Ira's escape have some sort of effect on the Master of Time? Was even he intimidated by the savage specter? Apparently not as Dani found Clockwork staring nonchalantly into a time warp ball.
"Come in, Danielle, I've been expecting your arrival," Clockwork, changing from his adult form to his child form as continued staring into the time warp ball. The Time Master made a small grunt of intrigue at what was taking place inside said time warp ball before turning to address Dani. "So I take it you're here because of Ira's recent escape?"
"I see you've heard the news too," Dani said, nodding her head in response to Clockwork's question.
"Are you kidding me; the Observants almost drove me mad this morning with their constant demands regarding Ira," Clockwork said, switching into his elderly form. "It's amazing that two supposedly omnipotent beings can question the Master of Time, the only person who knows for certain how events will play out."
Kicking off 2017 with a bang (or a pop if you're more cynical). So Danielle's finally come face to face with the fearsome monster everyone's been talking about and panicking over. Without giving too much away, Dani will find out later on that Ira isn't as fearsome as made out to be, but still shouldn't be taken lightly. In the meantime, how can our heroine hope to overcome this brute of a ghost with incredible strength but the mind of a savage, rabid animal? What kind of advice will Clockwork give Dani on how to overcome this newest challenge? Will Dani be able to master the Ghost Stinger ability in time to defeat Ira? All these questions and more will be answered in the next chapter of God Save The Queen. I've been your gracious host Timothy D and as always peace out and have a happy new year!
Next update will be January 28th.