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 purposes only, no money involved.
Edited by Xbox432
"Alright kids, we're here!" Jack Fenton shouted as the Fenton family pulled up in front of their new home in the family Ghost Assault Vehicle. It was just a small house at the edge of the town of Heatherfield.
"How about you two go explore the town a bit while your father and I unload some things," Maddie said with an encouraging smile back to her two children, Danny and Jazz.
"Whatever," Danny grumbled as he jumped down from the family RV. The black haired teen started walking off without looking back at his parents. He didn't even want to look at them.
"Danny, wait up," Jazz said, as she ran to catch up to him. "Danny please, I'm just as upset as you are about this move, but mom and dad are only trying to do what they think is best..." Jazz started but Danny didn't want to hear it.
"They don't care about us at all. That's why they never asked if we wanted to move away from all of our friends," Danny snapped bitterly. "They just wanted to move because all the Ghosts dried up in Amity Park, so they wanted to go to another city with strange monster reports."
"Danny that's not true..." Jazz said, reaching out a hand to hold her little brother back, but her hand moved straight through him.
"I just don't want to hear it right now," Danny said before disappearing from sight.
Danny was sitting on the top of the tallest building he could find, trying to lose himself in the wind blowing past his ears.
But as he sat there his hand went into the neck of his shirt and drew out a dark green ring on a silver chain. The ring was an ugly thing with a skull engraved on the front of it and a slight glow that pulsed a sickly mixture of green and purple in the shadows around Danny's fingers. The Ring of Rage, the symbol of power in the Ghost Zone which allowed its true owner to draw upon the Ghost Zone's near limitless mystical energy. It was the physical vessel of the Ghost Zone's mystic Heart, the Heart of Darkness.
Frostbite had told him that most world's mystic Hearts would only change hands willingly, but the Ghost Zone was different in that regard. Danny had gained ownership of it the same way anyone would have; by defeating its previous master in single combat.
Once he had learned to control the ring's power, he used it to create a Veil around the Ghost Zone in order to stop the Ghosts from ever invading Earth again. So he had been the reason the Ghosts had stopped appearing and all the portals to the Ghost Zone had closed. Only Ghosts with unique powers or artifacts, such as Wulf's claws or Frostbite's Infinity Map could get through Danny's veil; all the natural portals had been closed.
Secretly, deep inside of his Heart, Danny was glad to be out of Amity Park. After he had used his powers to put an end to all the adventures, Sam and Tucker had been different. It was as if their friendship had required Danny to be constantly risking his life for them. Sam had been especially bad about it. Going as far as to say that Danny had given up what had made him special. Tucker had tried to put on a show of still being interested, but it was still clear that he was distancing himself from Danny. Without Ghosts to fight, Danny was no hero, he was just a freaky little boy with freaky powers.
It made no sense, how was the Ghosts disappearing a bad thing? People were safe. Wasn't that all that mattered? It wasn't like Danny was some kind of masochist who enjoyed being hurt in battle. Maybe that was why he was so unhappy. Because he felt guilty for not missing Amity Park.
It didn't matter, he was done with it all. Done with Ghosts. Done with fighting. Done with his old life. Or at least... that's what he thought. But one mystic Heart always attracts another. For better... or for worse.
Danny stood up and slipped the Ring of Rage back under his shirt. He turned invisible and took a step off the roof and let the air rush past him as he fell towards the ground, only using his powers of flight to regain control just before he would have hit the concrete. He didn't even bother to make sure that no one was around. He emitted a wave of glamour from the Ring of Rage so that anyone who might have seen him returning to the visible spectrum would believe that it was just an ordinary daily occurrence and forget about it.
"I guess I might as well get a feel for the town on foot," Danny mumbled to himself as he walked down the streets.
Within the next hour he had found the middle school he would be attending and the local movie theater. He briefly considered going to a movie, but there were nothing but chick flicks and monster movies, and he wasn't in the mood for a monster movie at the moment.
He was just about to start heading back to his new home, when he passed a poorly lit book store. He stopped and stared hard at it. There didn't seem to be anything strange about it, other than the fact that half the lights in the place must have been broken. But before he knew it he found himself opening the door and walking in. The air was heavy and had an almost hypnotizing quality to it.
Danny stopped in a single row of shelves and looked up at several books that had strange swirling letters on their spines. Danny felt like he should have known what the characters said, but nothing came to him. He was just starting to reach out for one of the books when a voice jogged him out of his trance.
"Oh, hello. Can I help you with something?" Standing at the end of the book shelf was a girl Danny's age, with blue eyes and straw colored hair worn in twin braids.
"Well uh..." Danny stammered at a loss for what to say. The girl started to giggle at him. "I... I'm not really looking for anything really," Danny said embarrassed. "I don't even know why I came in here. I'm not really one for books, but if felt like this place was calling to me." He started to rub the back of his neck. "I guess that doesn't make any sense, huh."
"Actually it does. I can't remember why I first came here either. But I like it, so I got a part-time job here," the girl said. "I'm Elyon, Elyon Brown."
"Danny Fenton," Danny replied looking around. "So you... work here?"
"Yeah, the store manager, Cedric, he's really nice," Elyon said. The two of them talked for hours before Danny realized that he needed to go home.
"Sorry, I kind of need to go home before my parents drive through the streets in a tank again looking for me," Danny said as he got up to go.
"Wouldn't they just call you? You do have a cell phone, right?" Elyon asked curiously.
"I do, but they don't," Danny chuckled.
"Well then how about we exchange numbers. Maybe we could talk again sometime," Elyon said, smiling sheepishly.
"Um... yeah," Danny said, pulling out his phone and exchanging numbers with the girl. "So I'll see you later." Danny said, trying to hold down a blush as he exited the store. After he turned a corner he put up his invisibility and flew off at full speed before the reality of what had just happened could sink in.
Back at the store Elyon was already punching in the speed dial for her friend Cornelia to tell her all about it.
The Heart of Darkness had met the Heart of Light.
"Hi guys," Will said as she met up with Cornelia and Taranee outside of Heatherfield Middle School. "Ready for another day in the rut of evil?" The leader of the Guardians of the Veil joked. Will was a fairly normal looking girl, average height with plain brown eyes though she was easily spotted by her short crimson hair. No one would have expected her of being one of the magical guardians charged with protecting the world.
"Will, school isn't that bad," Taranee said, rolling her eyes behind her glasses. Taranee was the guardian of fire, though she was the most grounded person on the team usually being the one to drag everyone back to the topic at hand. She had darker skin and short dark hair from her mixed African and Oriental heritage. "If you just put in a little more effort then you wouldn't have such a hard time."
"Speak for yourself, Taranee. For all of us who aren't geniuses school is more deadly than Meridian," Cornelia said, pushing back her long golden hair. Cornelia was the Guardian of Earth and the drama queen of the group. Though to be fair, all of the girls where far too ok with the fact that they all suddenly gained magical powers. Any ordinary person would have freaked out.
"Well, if I don't get my grades up my mom is going to ground me for sure. I really wish that all this Guardian stuff would take a... what's that?" Will changed subjects abruptly as shouts of panic came from near the entrance of the school and a large silver RV that looked like a tank flew around the corner and pulled up to the school with one of the wheels driven up onto the curve. One of the doors opened and a boy jumped out.
He had messy black hair and blue eyes and was wearing a loose T-shirt. He looked extremely embarrassed as a woman dressed in a sky blue jumpsuit stuck her head out of the passenger's window and shouted. "By sweetie! We'll see you after school! Make sure you share the snicker-doodles I packed in your lunch!"
The boy groaned as the people out in front of the school were divided between laughing at his expanse and staring in mute shock at the tank before it drove away.
"Wow, and I thought my parents were embarrassing," Cornelia said, wincing at the sight of the boy walking along towards the school.
"I don't recognize him. And someone with an entrance like that one would be hard to forget," Will said, suddenly glad that her mother was at least not that embarrassing.
"You're right, he must be a new student," Taranee said.
As the boy passed them Will started to feel dizzy. "What the..." she mumbled, putting a hand to her head. The Heart of Kandrakar lit up bright pink to get their attention.
"Will? What are you doing, turn it off before anyone sees it," Cornelia hissed.
"I'm not telling it to do this," Will hissed back as she tried to cover the ornament while the three guardians tried to make a shield around it with their bodies. The glow became brighter and an image appeared inside of the glass orb in the middle of the Heart. It was a hologram of the new boy only with white hair and dark green eyes. Wisps of dark green, purple and black energy flowing out of a spot on his chest.
The image was only there for two seconds before it disappeared. "Um, what was that?" Taranee asked a little scared.
"I... I think it was a warning," Will said, looking to where the boy was entering the school. "That the new student isn't what he seems."
Danny walked into the school and quickly went to one of the bathrooms. Just like in every school the bathroom was empty and disgusting, as if the condition was a universal law for every school bathroom after elementary school.
He reached into his shirt and pulled out the Ring of Rage that was starting to give off heat, with green and purple flames dancing around it. "What's your problem?" Danny muttered angrily. The flames grew hotter. "Cut it out or I'll flush you down the toilet," he threatened. The flames died a little but an image of a girl in an odd purple and blue outfit with small fairy wings growing out of its back appeared in what was left of the fire.
'Guardians...' The ring whispered.
"I don't know what that is, but I really don't care. So if you don't mind being good so I can get on with my life, I would appreciate it," Danny grumbled. The flames died off completely and Danny slipped the ring back into his shirt. Danny had long since realized that the ring had a bit of a mind of its own but since it couldn't really effect the world around him without his say so, he really didn't care. Most of what the ring wanted him to do was fight. So he was content to ignore it.
Danny went to the office to pick up his schedule, but he was sent into the principal's office instead. 'My first day and I'm already in the principal's office. Great start.'
"Mr. Fenton, I have received your records from your previous school and I wish for you to know that such a lack of attendance will not be tolerated at..." Principle Nickerbocker stammered on. Danny couldn't help his old attendance record. He had been fighting Ghosts all the time, he couldn't do anything about it. But that wasn't something he could tell the gray haired old woman.
The speech lasted so long that the bell to start first period rang. "Um, Mrs. Nickerbocker, shouldn't I be getting to class now?" Danny said, to try and get out of there.
The principle glared at him but nodded and handed him his schedule. Danny sighed and read the list. It didn't take him that long to find his classroom but when he entered all eyes went to him.
"Oh you must be the new student. Daniel is it?" The teacher asked. Danny remembered that the name on the sheet had been Mr. Collins for history. The man had reddish hair and a really thick mustache that looked pretty comical.
"Danny, sir," Danny said trying to be respectful, but he hated it when people called him Daniel.
"Well Danny, you're late. And here at Heatherfield we have a zero tolerance for tardiness," the teacher said lifting up his role sheet.
Danny's eyebrow raised. It was his first day of school and it was the principle's fault he had been late, and he wasn't about to get in trouble for something that wasn't his fault. He called on the power of the Ring of Rage. 'You're going to let me off with just a warning since it is my first day of school.' Danny placed the hypnotic suggestion inside of the teacher's mind.
Mr. Collins paused for a second before say. "I'm going to let you off with just a warning, since it is your first day of school," He said before letting Danny go.
Danny felt a small sting of gilt, using his powers on Humans like that. But the sting of gilt was actually reassuring to him. Normal Ghosts were incapable of feeling guilt or shame. Even the kindest of them never felt bad about their decisions. A Ghost like Poindexter could kill a dozen bullies and not feel like he did anything wrong. Danny's guilt was proof that he was still Human.
The Heart of the Ghost Zone granted him several powers, hypnotic suggestion, the illusions referred to as glamours, and a strong telekinesis were the more useful powers, but he also had the power to manipulate shadows and open and close portals to the Ghost Zone. It had also gave him the power to change his clothes at will, but that was more convenient than useful. He would have had even more powers, but he gave up most of them when he raised the Veil around the Ghost Zone. With his fighting days behind him the powers no longer had a purpose.
His eyes scanned the other kids in the room and stopped when he spotted Elyon waving at him. He went and took the seat next to her. "Good to see we're in the same class," Elyon said smiling.
"It's a small worlds after all," Danny chuckled lightly.
Cornelia's eyes widened from the other side of Elyon at the boy's plural use of the word world. "Cornelia, this is Danny, you know, the boy I told you about the other day that I met at the old book store," Elyon introduced him. "And Danny, this is my best friend Cornelia."
"Nice to meet you," Danny said nodding to the girl.
"Yeah... nice to meet you too," Cornelia said worriedly, as she glanced towards Will who looked equally uncomfortable. The beast in their midst was dating their friend.
After school, the Guardians met at the restaurant of Hay Lin's grandmother, the Silver Dragon, along with Caleb, to try to figure out what was going on.
"So let me get this straight, that scrawny little new kid in school is one of Phobos's beasts in disguise?" Irma said sarcastically. The water guardian often sounded like she was joking around even when things were serious. It was a form of coping mechanism for her. She had light brown hair and blue eyes and wore her title as 'class clown' with pride.
"I don't know you guys, isn't making assumptions like this what got us in trouble with Mr. Collins. You thought he was a beast too, remember?" Hay Lin pointed out. The happy go lucky Chinese girl was the first to point out the obvious patterns, being that she had a real passion for art. She wore her hair in two long ponytails that fluttered from her powers as the Guardian of Wind whenever she was excited.
"Yeah, but this time the Heart of Kandrakar reacted just from being in close proximity to him," Taranee pointed out. "I don't think there is any doubt that he isn't what he appears to be. The only real questions are what is he and why is he dating Elyon?"
"I still say the guy is too puny to worry about," Irma said crossing her arms.
"Well they aren't always the same size after they transform," Caleb pointed out. The young rebel leader was only a few months older than the girls with brown hair and eyes, but he had a lot more experience since he grew up in Meridian.
"His family sure looked out of this world," Cornelia said shaking her head. "Who drives around in a tank?"
"Is that even legal?" Will asked Taranee.
"I'm going to go with no, but I'm not sure if it was really a tank," Taranee said shrugging.
"I think we need to keep an eye on him just in case," Caleb said while scratching his chin. "There is always the chance that he has nothing to do with Phobos."
"Yeah, and there is a chance that Blunk is going to take a bath," Irma said rolling her head.
"We can't just wait for something to happen. What if something happens to Elyon?" Cornelia replied, worried about her childhood friend.
"If we can touch him with the Heart of Kandrakar, then he should be forced to take on his true form," Will said pulling out the Heart. "I say that we follow him until we can get him alone and give it a try. Agreed?" Some of the others nodded in agreement. Tomorrow, they would confront the new kid.
"Thanks for helping out, Danny," Elyon said, as they unpacked the last of the new book shipment.
"Don't mention it. I'd much rather be here with you than back home," Danny said shrugging. Elyon had been the only friend he had managed to make so far in Heatherfield. He felt drawn to her for reasons he couldn't quite explain.
"Thank you for all your help," Cedric said, coming out of the back room. He smiled at Elyon but only gave glances at Danny. Cedric was a tall man with long blond hair that he wore in a ponytail that reached halfway down his back. He was dressed in a simple white button up shirt and blue jeans. "But I'm afraid I have to close early today. I hope that I will see you again."
"Of course," Elyon said as she smiled. "Come on Danny, you can walk me home," she said, grabbing onto the boy and pulling him out the door.
"Man Cedric has a cool voice," Danny said as they left. "It's not quite the movie trailer voice kind of low pitch, but it would sure give that guy a run for his money. Like he spent his whole life reading dramatic poetry and just can't stop."
"Yeah, I don't know if it's his real voice or if it's just something that he does for fun. But he's never broken character." Elyon giggled. "That's probably why so many people come for poetry nights."
Back in the book store Cedric watched them leave. He gave a shiver as his eyes passed the boy and onto the girl who was supposed to be his target. Moving through the shelves he came to an old book with a withered binding and the writing of the beast upon its spine.
Cedric reached up and pulled on the book and passed through the injunction point into Meridian. He passed quickly through the labyrinth to where his Prince was waiting for him. As he went his body began to bubble with mystic energy and his form shifted into that of a beast. His true form was a massive serpent-like creature with the upper torso of a reptilian man but with a long snake's body extending out from where his legs should have been.
"Prince Phobosss," Lord Cedric said as he reached his Prince's throne room and bowed before him.
"Lord Cedric, for your sake I hope you bring good news," the dark Prince of Meridian said in a rather bored tone of voice as he looked down on his subject. Phobos was wearing a dark black and purple robe with a hat of a similar making.
"I have identified the Princesssss," Cedric hissed.
"Good, what is her name?" Phobos asked with a grin.
"Her name isss Elyon Brown," Cedric replied. "And I have earned her trussst. But..." Phobos frowned at the 'but'. "A boy has recently become clossse to her and... the boy makesss me uneasssy."
"The great Lord Cedric is afraid of a Human child?" Phobos joked but his face held a snarl. Cedric gulped as he realized that he was on thin ice.
"He hasn't yet ssshown any aggressssion towardsss me, but my inssstinctssss tell me to be wary of him whenever he entersss the room. I believe he holdsss some form of myssstic energy and that in our attemptsss to draw in the Princessss we caught another myssstic creature asss well," Cedric said grudgingly.
"I don't like unknown factors, Cedric," Phobos said lifting up a hand full of seeing sand. He throw it to the floor and as it stirred together an image of Elyon appeared. "So this is my little sister. She will make an exhalent Princess. For a while anyways," he said before both he and Cedric began to laugh loudly at how wonderfully their plans were falling into place.
But one of the chief guards, Vathek, a large man with blue skin in a heavy trench coat, looked over towards the sand with a different thought in mind. 'I must tell Caleb.' The spy thought. The Light of Meridian had to be protected, no matter what.
"Well, this is it, home sweet home," Elyon said as they stopped in front of the Brown's house. It looked like a fairly normal older two story house.
"Nice place," Danny said as they stood in front of the front gate.
"Yeah, but it is a little big for just a family of three," Elyon replied. "I kind of wish I had a brother or sister."
"I've got one you can have, hope you like people picking at your brains," Danny joked. They laughed for a little bit but then Danny started shifting his feet and rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey, um... I hear the fair is going to be in town tomorrow, and I was wondering if you would like to go... with me," Danny said a bit embarrassed.
"Are you asking me for a date?" Elyon asked grinning.
"Are you saying yes?" Danny countered.
"When are you going to pick me up?" Elyon asked.
"Is tomorrow around seven good?" Danny asked back.
"Yes," Elyon finally said, giving Danny a kiss on the cheek before running inside.
Danny let out a lone exhale before turning to walk home as the sun began to set. He basked in the moment as he went. This was going to be his first date were no evil forces were involved in its set up. Elyon was a cute fun girl and she had said yes without any ghostly power influencing her choice. Danny felt good about himself.
But the sounds of the flapping of wings and whispers on the roof above him dragged him out of his high. "Who's there?" He snapped looked up towards where he had thought he had heard it coming from.
Everything was silent. "I must be going crazy." Danny muttered as he turned to go. "I hadn't sensed any Ghosts since I put up the Veil. I'm safe. Everyone is safe."
But as he passed a dark alley a fire hydrant began to make noise. Danny looked at it in surprise just before it exploded and a stream of water came right at him and pushed him into the alley.
Danny was just trying to get back to his feet when a large gust of wind pushed up against the wall hitting his head hard. Thick vines grew quickly across the wall to hold him in place.
"Hurry up... Will... the Heart..." Danny was having a hard time hearing after the hit to his head. But he saw a girl with dark red hair approach him with a bright pink jewel in her hand. She was dressed in an odd purple and blue costume and Danny could just see the corners of wings poking out behind her back.
"Alright this should work," the girl said as she brought the crystal to Danny's forehead and stared. "Girls, nothing's happening," a voice said, and Danny saw that there were four more of them behind this girl.
"So he isn't a beast in disguise. Oops," a girl with shoulder length light brown hair said shrugging.
"But the Heart was reacting to... what the..." the red haired girl stammered as the crystal glowed brighter. "What's that around his neck?"
Danny could feel the heat underneath his shirt as the Ring of Rage began to heat up as if begging to be found. The girl started to pull the ring out by the chain around Danny's neck.
'No!' Danny's mind shouted and the vines holding his right arm in place froze and shattered, he grabbed the girl's wrist, giving it a sharp twist so that she let out a scream and let go of the ring's chain so that it fell back to his chest. Then Danny threw her to the side.
"What the heck!?" A blond girl shouted.
"You can't have it," Danny said looking up, his eyes turning green. 'I need the ring. I need the power of the Heart of Darkness to maintain the Veil. I can't let it go. I can't be beaten.'
"Hay Lin, keep him against the wall! Cornelia, we need more vines!" The red haired girl shouted. A girl with long ponytails swept her arms and more wind blew against Danny to hold him against the wall but he turned intangible and passed straight through the wall and disappeared from sight.
Danny was about to teach them not to mess with a phantom.
"Where did he go?" Cornelia asked.
Hay Lin screamed as an arm moved out of the ground, grabbing onto her ankle and pulled her down into the ground up to her waist.
"Hay Lin!" Taranee shouted in surprise.
"Don't worry, I'll get her out," Cornelia said as she used her power over Earth to dig her teammate out of the ground.
"I don't know who you people are," Danny said, grabbing all their attention. Green wisps with some purple were flickering around his body from the green ring around his neck. "But if you're looking for a fight, you've got one. I'm going Ghost," he whispered the last part and a white ring appeared around his waist.
As it passed over his body, his skin darkened and his hair turned a snowy white. His clothes changed into a short sleeved black fighter's uniform with a white sash over his left shoulder that tied around his waist.
"This does not look good," Irma said as the dark green and purple energy moved around the ring on the boy's chest.
"Taranee, Hay Lin!" Will shouted. Taranee began to send a jet of flames at the boy and Hay Lin used her power over air to feed it oxygen and make it stronger.
Danny rushed towards the flames and pushed out a large amount of his ice powers to protect himself from the flames. Then as he pushed out the other side he kneed Taranee in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her.
Hay Lin flew up and caught Taranee as the Fire Guardian was left gasping for breath.
"You'll pay for that, buddy!" Irma shouted angrily as she shot a large amount of water from her hands. Danny tried to just turn intangible to let the water pass through him but the magic inside of the water hit him full force and he was pushed back against a building wall again.
Danny put up a shield of green energy to protect himself but the water wouldn't let up. So he called on the power of the Heart of Darkness and took control of the shadows in the alley.
Three long black cables made of pure darkness flew from an area behind a garbage bin and wrapped themselves around the Water Guardian, one holding her hands together and the other two pulling on her feet to bring her back down to earth. "Help!" Irma shouted as she struggled against the binds.
"On it!" Will called back as she flew down next to Irma and held out the Heart of Kandrakar. The light from the Heart slowly destroyed the shadows.
Cornelia had summoned thick fifty foot vines to try to attack the boy, but she couldn't get a hit as he moved through the air, dodging every swing. Until a stream of fire pushed him back down as Taranee recovered from her earlier hit.
"Keep it up. There are five of use and just one of him," Will pointed out as she finished freeing Irma. Will flew up to him and sent out a blast of bright pink energy from the Heart of Kandrakar. But Danny dodged it and threw an energy shot of his own to knock the Guardian out, sending her spinning through the air and into the street.
Will shook her head as she tried to get rid of the blur in her vision. But as her sight returned she saw Danny systematically taking down one guardian after another. Cornelia and Hay Lin were frozen to the ground while Irma and Taranee were being bound together in a strange sticky green substance.
As she was trying to figure out what to do she heard a loud car horn as turned her head to see a truck speeding at her. She was still too dizzy from the earlier hit to move out of the way. But coils made of shadows moved out of the ground and wrapped themselves around her, obscuring her sight. The next thing she knew she was back in the alley, on her knees and surrounded by her knocked out friends. The shadows let go of her.
"You alright?" Danny said looking down at her with suspicion in his green eyes. He was clearly still on guard.
"You... you saved me? But why? I thought you worked for Phobos," Will said, confused and slightly scared.
"I don't know why you attacked me. But I doubt it's a good enough reason to die for," Danny said but then he frowned. "What a minute... aren't you in my history class?" He said confused then his eyes scanned the rest of the girls and spotted Cornelia. "And that's Elyon's friend, Corny or something."
"Cornelia," Will snorted.
A looked of understanding momentarily crossed Danny's face. But then he was back on guard. "I'm going now. But next time you choose to attack me out of the blue, I won't go so easy on you," he said before shrinking away into the shadows and disappearing from sight.
"Ok... what just happened?" Will asked herself as she scratched her head. But she got to work freeing her friends. The beast had been more than they had bargained for.
'The Heart... Kandrakar... I want to consume... their Heart...' The Ring of Rage whispered to Danny. 'Feed me it's power... and I will grant... strength beyond measure.' It tried to tempt him.
"Quiet. None of this would have happened if you hadn't started glowing. I bet you wanted this," Danny growled angrily as he hit the ring against a lamppost in order to shut it up. "Why can't my life just be normal?" He had the strangest feeling that he had been the bad guy.
Vathek moved as quickly as he could through the back alleys of the village at the foot of Phobos's castle. The place was as bleak as it got, Phobos used the roots of the massive dark tree that snaked its way through the land in order to drain the very life force of Meridian in order to fuel his magic. The magic he used to keep them under his heel.
But there was still hope. The Light of Meridian, the true heir to the throne, had been found. And she had the power to unite the people and overthrow her wicked brother. That is, if he didn't get to her first and drain away her powers to feed his own.
This was the reason why Vathek was running from shadow to shadow, doing his best to hide his large blue body underneath a dirty brown cloak.
The streets were crawling with the castle guard who were all looking for him in particular. His status as a spy was figured out the moment he broke duty and fled the palace in order to pass on the information about the Princess to Caleb. But there was no time for regrets, he needed to find a portal between worlds and fast, which meant he needed to find a Passling.
Straying his ears to hear over the few people who moved around in the market place, Vathek heard what he was looking for. "Goods for trade! Goods for trade!" He glanced out of the alley and spotted Blunk the Passling.
If you ever asked someone what a Passling was, the first thing they would tell you would be 'smelly', as Passlings usually lived in a garbage dump and took pride in their natural odor and never took baths. But if pressed to say something else, they might tell you how Passlings are thieves by nature. Their small toad-like bodies with long arms and long sticky fingers let them sneak around, grabbing anything that looked useful to them, which was almost everything.
But Passlings did have a useful skill. They could smell the changes in the air that accrue around portals between worlds, allowing them to seek out the portals and steal things from Earth that they would then trade on Meridian.
Most of the stuff that they stole was just garbage that wouldn't be missed and the Passlings never had a clue what it was that they took, but the people of Meridian were fascinated by the more culturally advanced world and often traded information for goods.
Vathek was in luck. This particular passing was known to be an informant of the Guardians and of the Rebels. He wouldn't just be able to help him find a portal, but also help him find the rebel leader.
"I'm coming Caleb," he mumbled before moving in on the Passling as discretely as possible.
"Hachu!" Hay Lin sneezed, sending a gust of wind through the basement of the Silver Dragon restaurant. She and Cornelia where huddled up in blankets near a radiator as they tried to warm up.
"I need a bath, a long LONG bath," Irma grumbled as she pulled a bit of the sticky green substance out of her hair and shuddered. "I can't believe he beat all of us. I mean, we're the Guardians of the Veil. How could we lose so badly to one kid?"
"I feel like there should be a glass houses statement somewhere in there, but you're right, he creamed all of us," Will agreed, secretly glad that she had gotten away so scot free. All of the other girls had been pretty roughed up by their brief encounter with their new classmate. It was their first experience at having a total loss while all together and with their full Guardian powers.
"You girls will learn that there are lots of great powers out there in the worlds, just be happy that the damage was so little this time," Yan Lin said as she brought Hay Lin and Cornelia some duck soup from the kitchens. The elderly woman was Hay Lin's grandmother and had been the Guardian of Air before Hay Lin. She was a little hunched over with age but was still livelier than most people half her age. The girls had often used the basement to hold their meetings.
"But why did he let us go? I mean, he took us out hard and then just left us, why?" Taranee asked the retired Guardian of Air.
"Well, why did he attack you in the first place?" Yan Lin asked them, as she handed Hay Lin her soup.
"Well... actually we attacked him because the Heart of Kandrakar was reacting to him," Hay Lin admitted to her grandmother, more than a little embarrassed. She blew lightly over the steaming soup, instantly cooling it several degrees.
"He's been getting close to my friend Elyon. I can't let him hurt her," Cornelia said stubbornly. But she gave a sneeze and pulled her blankets even more tightly around her.
"I'm not sure if he would... I mean, he didn't finish us off," Will said, then rubbed her arm as she thought back to those last moments in the alley. "He... even saved me from being hit by a truck." He hadn't seemed mad or aggressive. He had acted in a defensive manner. They had attacked him, and he had resisted.
"He did?" Irma asked surprised. "So is he working for Phobos or not?"
"What I want to know is what is he?" Taranee said crossing her arms. "When Will first touched him with the Heart of Kandrakar, nothing happen. It wasn't until she tried to take that weird ring that he suddenly freaked out on us and transformed."
"And he didn't exactly transform into a monster. He just changed clothes and colors. He didn't grow fifty feet and sprout wings or anything," Will added. In fact, his transformation had been not unlike their own.
"A ring... what ring?" Yan Lin asked the girls with some curiosity. "It could be a mystic artifact."
"It looked a little like this, only green." Hay Lin said showing her grandmother a drawing of the object that she had drawn on her hand. Will looked over to see that it was a fairly actuate drawing of the skull on the face of the ring.
Yan Lin took one look at it and her eyes widened for the first time that day. "The Ring of Rage," the old woman gasped.
"Oh wow, it even came with its own evil name," Irma commented drily, having no more clue what that was than the rest of them.
"Could you please remember that we are new at this job? What exactly is the Ring of Rage?" Will asked the former Guardian.
Yan Lin took a few seconds to decide where to begin before finally starting. "You know how Earth and Meridian are different worlds on separate plains of existence, correct?" The girls all nodded. "Well there are an endless number of other worlds besides just those two, such as Kandrakar."
"So Kandrakar is a real place?" Cornelia said, looking to the Heart of Kandrakar. Will brought her hand to the Heart. It all made sense, if there were two worlds, why not more.
"And here I thought it was just a cool name," Irma said shrugging.
"Every world has its own mystic Heart that is the source of the world's magic. Such as the Heart of Kandrakar that Will now holds." Yan Lin explained. "The Ring of Rage is the mystic Heart of yet another world, known as Tartarus."
"Tartarus? As in the deepest pit of the underworld that the Gods banished the Titans too in Greek Mythology?" Taranee asked.
"I thought that was nothing more than a story," Hay Lin said in surprise.
"You all should know better than anyone that myths are often based of facts," Yan Lin said with a slight smile. The girls thought back to the legend of the four dragons which was the history of their own powers. "In fact, most of the legends in Greek mythology stem from this world. Though it has been renamed, the Ghost Zone."
"You've got to be kidding me. Ghosts, really? Are you sure you took your meds this morning," Cornelia asked, earning herself an elbow in the ribs for insulting Hay Lin's grandmother.
"So... Danny is like the Guardian of Tartarus?" Will asked, feeling a little hopeful. The thought that the strange new boy was like them was comforting, it would have explained the understanding look that he had given her before he left. "Then there is no way he works for Phobos."
"In a way, yes," Yan Lin said, but then a frown crossed her face. "But in so many other ways, no. He may not work for Phobos, but he may still be even more dangerous."
"Of course he is, otherwise this would all be too easy," Irma grumbled.
"What do you mean, Grandma?" Hay Lin asked.
"Tartarus is nothing like Kandrakar. It is a world of conflict and destruction. The creatures known as Ghosts are brutal and violent, with no sense of empathy or regret. Willing to kill in order to gain power or fulfill their desires. And their Heart is the same way. Which is why it is often referred to as the Heart of Darkness," Yan Lin said crossly. "Where in all other worlds, the right to wield the mystic Heart's power can only be given willingly, Tartarus is different. Its Heart can only be taken by force, defeating the possessor in battle and taking it from him. And whoever holds the right to the Heart of Darkness is known as the King of Ghosts."
"So he doesn't work for the Prince of an Evil City, he is just the King of an Evil Universe," Taranee said miserably.
"I don't know..." Will said hesitantly. "He didn't seem all that evil."
"Will, you were the one that said we should attack him and force him to show his true form," Hay Lin pointed out.
"Yeah, well I..." Will stammered, trying to think of an excuse. She had been the one that had wanted to reveal his true form and then ship him back to Meridian, thinking that he was one of Phobos's beasts in disguise. But something had changed.
"Does any of that matter? We still don't know what any of this has to do with Elyon," Cornelia snapped at the rest of them.
"I think I might have a clue." Caleb said from the stairs as they all looked to the young rebel leader. "I just got word from Vathek, they've found out the identity of Phobos's sister. Her name... is Elyon Brown."
"That's... not possible," Cornelia stammered as she slowly went into shock. Her best friend, who she had known for all of her life, was the younger sister of her worst enemy.