"It has been almost three days since the attack on Amity Park."
"School has been canceled due the destruction of Casper High."
"Mr. Lancer was rushed to the hospital but unfortunately passed away some time during the night."
"President Hartman is expected to make a statement later today."
"There are so many questions regarding the mysterious ghost claiming to be the real Danny Phantom and what happened when he was last reported fighting our ghost hero."
"The question is what do we make of all this? Is Danny Phantom still our hero or the cause of this mess?"
"He saved us dozens of times. Of course he is."
"Him and his family brought these ghosts on us in the first place. When will someone tell those crackpots enough is enough? Stop bringing these ghosts into our world!"
If there is one word to describe the aftermath of Dark Danny's rampage it would be…hectic.
Between the destruction that Amity Park had suffered through the evil ghost's actions but the people were left confused, scared and angry and the negative emotions were all circling around one ghost that was at the center of it all: Danny Phantom.
Where was the ghost hero?
That was the big question.
After destroying his former future self Danny had disappeared, leaving rumors to circle around him.
"And he had a flaming crown on his head like that ghost king years ago. Maybe he's the new king of ghosts."
"Yeah right."
"It's true!"
"Ghosts don't have kings! They just go around scaring people and making everyone miserable."
"Well then what about that king Vlad Plasmius unleashed on us?"
"Just another monster. Trust me, there is no such thing as a ghost king."
Xxx
"The Ghost Boy has become the new Ghost King!"
The Observants had all gathered to discuss recent events and needless to say none of them were happy about it.
"I knew he was trouble when we learned of his existence. Clockwork should have destroyed him like we told him."
"The Ancients fought to make sure the Ghost Zone would never have a king again after Pariah Dark. This spits in the face of all the struggles that were made to free us from Pariah's tyranny."
"Despite our opposition, many ghosts will recognize him as king such as Pandora, Frostbite and many other ghosts who remember the ancient laws."
"Those laws are no longer recognized by us."
"They are recognized by the Ghost Zone itself. It promotes struggle while presenting every opportunity for non-naturally born ghosts to reflect on their afterlives. The strongest rule over the weak, no matter if they are noble or evil."
"The Ghost Zone does not decide for us how exist. We have monitored the timelines for threats to us and to our world. We are the only true authority left in the Ghost Zone."
"Not anymore."
The Observants all froze as Danny Phantom himself appeared in their meeting room, floating in the center for all to see.
"It's him!"
"Stop him!"
"Shut up!" Danny barked and everyone was silent. "You don't like me being the new Ghost King? Too bad. This is all your fault to begin with."
"I beg your pardon-" One Observant, the possible leader floated up to face him.
"You took the thermos from Clockwork, thinking you could keep it safe better than he could but two seconds later you released him back into the world and caused everyone to suffer." Danny cut him off. "You set everything leading up to this in motion and I have to clean up the mess. In fact, I am cleaning up everyone's mess."
"You think you can come here and assort you authority on us?" Another Observant asked.
"As a matter of fact, yes." Danny held up his hand to show the Ring of Rage around his index finger. "I have the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage. It doesn't matter if you accept it or not. I am now the Ghost King and I have had it. I have had with the constant battles and danger that has been brought into my life by people too stupid to not bite off more than they can chew. My parents, my friends, Vlad, you guys all had a hand in this!"
His parents created the ghost portal that took his older brother from him, turned him into a half ghost and unleashed the ghosts into Amity Park.
His friends changed for the worst with them not accepting him just wanting to be normal and went as far as to emotionally blackmail him into staying as a hero.
Vlad, another monster created by his parents with just a prototype of the ghost portal who went on to plague Danny's life.
And now the Observants who let loose the evil ghost that may have killed or just crippled Jazz for life.
His life had become a wreck and it been one for a long time.
His childhood spent with his parents arguing over the existence of Santa Claus, nearly getting him killed when they brought kitchen appliances to life with ecto-plasm as part of their wacky experiments.
His parents hadn't cared.
They hadn't even noticed.
Sure, they felt bad for losing Flynn but had that stopped Jack from being a trigger happy glutton who idolized idiots like the Guys in White?
Did it stop Maddie from having no clue of how her and her husband's tendencies embarrassed their children on a weekly basis?
He was the ghost that had saved their lives dozens of times but it didn't matter to them before they knew his identity.
He was just another evil ghost to be hunted, dissected and torn molecule by molecule as his dad enjoyed saying.
A ghost.
Ectoplasmic scum.
And how did things work out after he revealed his identity?
It was good for a time but it just took having an evil version of himself crash the party and they all blamed it on him.
Him, the one who had saved the world.
Who saved all their lives.
The one risked his life for them by taking on the Ghost King, Vlad and all the other ghosts that had slipped out from under their roof.
It was clear to him now they even if his parents loved him and Jazz, they cared more about hunting ghosts to the point that they hadn't bothered to notice the very ghost they had been hunting was their own son.
Even his sister was guilty somewhat in that regard but she had at least admitted to being guilty of that and apologized for it.
That was more than the others had done.
His school life was just him trying to be normal and being bullied by kids who thought of him as a freak for who his parents were: the town crackpots.
His friends, they had been the only source of comfort in those trying times and in the blink of an eye they were gone, replaced by horrible people who hurt and manipulated him along with the rest of Amity Park.
Tucker caused irreparable damage to the city that was still being rebuilt when Dark Danny had attacked just for the sake of his own vision of a tech filled future without caring for the homes he destroyed and the lives he ruined.
Sam had emotionally manipulated and blackmailed him at times, causing him problems without admitting it or even apologizing while considering herself some kind of environmental freedom fighter. Only when she didn't get her way she tried to force it on everyone else and almost revealed Danny's secret to a total stranger and dumped for not sticking up for Tucker when he tried to make Danny into his bodyguard and intimidate the people of Amity Park like a tyrant.
How had they changed so badly without him being able to see it?
They only liked him for his powers.
That was it.
That was all.
When he didn't have them anymore they just didn't want to be around him.
Without his power he wouldn't be important to them.
Who were they to decide if he should keep his powers or not?
Who were they to decide who he should be as a hero or just an ordinary person?
Who were they to decide if he was a menace after all the damage and mayhem they have caused?
Who were they to decide what he should do with his life?
"Now see here-GAH!" The Observant choked mid-sentence as Danny grabbed him and lifted him up to his face.
"You don't get to speak." Danny said, glaring at the single eyed being in disgust. "All the chaos happening in the Ghost Zone, you allowed it to happen. All the times ghosts invaded my town, you sat by and let it happen. You let my future happen and tried to have Clockwork clean up your mess just as you had me clean up all the other messes when ghosts were attacking."
The Observants all tried to flee at this point but Danny created not one, not two, not three but dozens of duplicates of himself that shot out and grabbed each and every Observant before they could escape.
"W-Wait!" The one still trapped in Danny's grip chocked. "If you really seek to become the new Ghost King there is something you should know. We aren't the only ones who have played a role in your life like you have accused us. Do you still wonder what happened to that ghost clone and the huntress woman?"
Danny glanced at the Observant. "You know what happened to them? Clockwork didn't know."
"Why? Because he told you so? As it occurred to you that he might have lied?" The Observant argued, ceasing to struggle against the hand holding him.
Danny narrowed his eyes. "Talk."
"They were taken to another universe, another form of reality that is separate from the Ghost Zone and your world. A parallel Earth." The Observant explained. "Only it has its own brand of dangers that made many of us feel that if they discovered us and our world it would lead to great danger for both the Ghost Zone and your Earth."
"And Clockwork knew?" Danny gritted his teeth as his eyes flared.
"Of course he knew! We Observants and Clockwork are both capable of observing the time stream and thus we learned what happened when the girl and the huntress were removed from this world. The gift is being able to see the timeline of this or any world. The Ghost Zone is the Infinite Realm because it can lead to almost anywhere, formed from the afterlives of different realms." The Observant explained. "The Greek and Roman Gods as you would know from meeting Pandora. In fact the Ghost Zone borders closely to Tartarus as well. We were able to peer into this new parallel Earth thanks to the few seconds the portals that took the girl, the Huntress, Skulker and even Plasmius."
"Plasmius?" Danny's eyes went wide. "He's in this same world as them?!"
"Of course!" The Observant answered.
"Where?!"
"I don't know."
Danny narrowed his eyes and chocked the Observant. "Where?!"
"I DON'T KNOW! IT WAS SEALED WHEN THE PORTALS CLOSED! WE SAW GREAT DANGERS THERE AND LEFT IT BEST ALONE!" The Observant squealed. "WE DIDN'T WANT THE DANGERS THERE SPILLING INTO THIS WORLD, ESPECIALLY SINCE WE FELT SOME WOULD BE AS DANGEROUS AS YOUR FORMER FUTURE SELF!"
Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing.
Clockwork knew where Dani and Valerie was…the whole time?!
He lied to him?!
Letting go of the Observant Danny let out floated up and took a deep breath…
"WWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Then let out an enraged Ghostly Wail that brought the entire fortress down.
Xxx
Clockwork knew it was coming.
After all he was the Ghost of Time so he could see into the future.
Nevertheless he did wince when he saw the fist.
POW!
The time ghost was slammed into the wall and the very hand that punched him grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up.
It was even more annoying that in that moment he was in his elderly form, thus making it a little more.
"You lied to me."
It was not shouted in anger.
It was not said through grit teeth.
It was a fact, pure and simple.
"I did." Clockwork said, morphing into his child form. "Because if I had told the truth, you would have gone after them."
"Of course I would have!" Danny threw Clockwork to the ground. "Danielle was like a little sister to me even if she was a clone!"
Clockwork floated off the ground, shifting back into his adult form. "And in doing so, you would have brought great danger to the Ghost Zone and your Earth."
"I know, the Observants showed me. A world filled with monsters, even led by hybrids that were half human but changed…Like me along with aliens, demons and all sorts of beings that would have come here and likely destroyed everything." Danny narrowed his eyes that flashed with deadly green fire. "And yet, I find myself not caring about that as much as I care about you had the gall to lie to me after everything we've been through. If you couldn't trust me with the truth why did you bother to give me a chance in the first place instead of just killing me like the Observants wanted?"
"It was not just you I had to consider, Daniel. You friends, your family, your people. If those creatures were unleashed on Earth, you would have been blamed. Your friends and family would share in that blame, making you wanted criminals in the eyes of the Earth even if you had saved it. I looked and saw the many futures surrounding and none of them lived and in the end…This came about again." Clockwork said, showing a future of Dark Danny, born through a different chain of events, laughing amidst what could only be described as hell on Earth. "I interfered once to give you a chance and was barred from interfering again. I was charged with making sure that future would never come to chance, whatever the necessity."
"So you just kept your mouth shut and watched as my life fell apart." Danny growled, his fists glowing.
"I am sorry for how things turned out, Daniel but you cannot blame me for those. I am the Ghost of Time, not the Ghost of Choices. I did not make your friends change for the worse and turn their backs on you, they did. I did not make the Observants take the Thermos holding your dark self, they did. And your parents actions regarding you, Jasmine and Flynn, that was simply because that's who they are." Clockwork explained, returning to his child form. "And that is not me stating facts to you. It is just sad because you and I both know that you and so many others deserved better. Your brother, your sister, Danielle, Miss Gray and her father. I do not say these things to hurt you but if they do, I know that."
Clockwork had a sympathetic look on his face now as he morphed into his elder form. "I can only do what I must to try and find a future that is the best out of so many futures where things go wrong in so many ways. It is not a good job and it is sometimes not about being right. It's about doing what we can to make things as good as possible in a world such as ours."
Danny was silent for a moment. "Tell me where she is?"
"I can-"
"You owe me this much, Clockwork." Danny harshly said. "She's in a world with Valerie, Skulker and Vlad. Haven't I earned the right to know after everything I've been through?"
"It's not that simple. There are other powers at work, trying to keep this world from spilling its problems over into others, including ours. The cosmos itself is working to prevent any more attempts by the people in this world from taking others. I cannot see into it anymore and thus I cannot open a portal." Clockwork answered.
Danny reached and grabbed the time ghost by the neck again just as he returned to an adult. "If you're lying to me again…"
"I am not this time. Whoever took her has shielded her from my sight. They likely have technology aimed for fighting ghosts and hiding from them as well." Clockwork reassured. "Between that and the cosmos itself struggling to correct the problem…It's more or less cut from us."
Danny glared and dropped the Time Ghost on the ground, turning away.
"Danny…" Clockwork called out as he floated back up. "What will you do?"
Danny stopped at the door. "…It occurs to me now that all the problems in my life can be traced back to ghosts in a way. Whether it was ghosts attacking, Vlad, my parents obsessed with hunting ghosts…all of it back to you and your kind. So now I have to work to fix the problem and it starts by finally taking control of my life."
Clockwork watched as Danny Phantom, or rather what used to be Danny Phantom fly out of his lair.
He was not the hero of Amity Park anymore.
He was…The Phantom King.
Xxx
"Is your son available to make a statement?"
"Can he explain what has happened?"
"Will the families of those who were killed be compensated?"
Reporters had crowded around Fenton Works, demanding answers for the attack, who was responsible and what would be done. Jack and Maddie just watched from the inside, glaring at the people who wouldn't leave them alone.
Why couldn't they leave them alone?
Hadn't they suffered enough?
SMASH!
The sound of something breaking from downstairs was an obvious no.
"Can't these people learn?" Jack grabbed a Fenton blaster and marched into the lab. "All right, you punks, you have three seconds to…Danny?"
Maddie followed after her husband, both of them watching as their son stood in the middle of a lab with ghosts smashing all of their equipment. "What is going on here?!"
One of the ghosts, the Fight Knight turned to Jack and Maddie and raised his sword but Danny raised one hand and the Halloween ghost stood down.
"Glad to see you two are home. It makes things easier." Danny said, coming up the stairs.
"Danny, what is going on?" Maddie asked her son who walked past her without so much as a glance.
"I believe what I am about to say at this press conference will answer your question." Danny said as he walked up to the front door and opened it.
The crowd outside was silent as Danny stepped out, looking slightly menacing in his Ghost King form. He looked around across the crowd and leaned forward slightly.
"Would someone like to take my statement?" He asked, arms folding behind his back.
A reporter hesitantly approached and held a microphone out to Danny.
"Thank you. Now, you all know who I am, you all know what I have done for the last decade and you know that the ghost responsible for the recent attacks was in some form…me. Well he was but he is no longer me and to make him pay for his transgressions, I destroyed him. You can all relax a bit now that he is gone forever." Danny began in a reassuring town. "And as you can see from my current appearance, I have taken on a new job rather than just being the world's greatest hero."
Xxx
"I wear the Crown of Fire and the Ring of Rage which actually symbolizes me as the new Ghost King."
Damon calmly watched the broadcast.
Xxx
"Yes there was one before but to get what I needed to stop my former self, I defeated him in combat and took his crown and ring as my prize. And since I can use both, my powers are even stronger than before."
Far from Amity Park, former Mayor Tucker Foley watched in stunned shock to see his former best friend as the new ghost king.
Xxx
"But that doesn't mean the attacks from other ghosts will stop now, do they? They didn't stop when I defeated the previous Ghost King. They didn't stop when I saved the world from the Disasteroid and they won't stop now. But now there is something different."
Sam just stared at the TV in her new private garden.
Xxx
"Me." Danny said, hovering off the ground by a few inches. "As the new Ghost King, I now make this statement to every person in both worlds. Yes, this broadcast is even being shown in the Ghost Zone thanks to the work of an old friend of mine, Technus."
Xxx
Inside the Ghost King's castle, Technus was smiling a bit while being guarded by a dozen skeleton soldiers.
Walker was scowling in his office, seeing the punk's broadcast in the form of giant holographic screens that ensured everyone in the Ghost Zone could see and hear his speech.
Ember was watching curiously from her lair with Kitty and Spectra over as guests.
The Box Ghost floated in front one of the screens.
Frostbite and his tribe had gathered to look at the image hovering above their realm.
Pandora stepped out of her castle to see what Danny had to say.
"My first declaration as King of all ghost is this, any and all ghosts are now forbidden from traveling to Earth. Any ghosts that refuse my command will be hunted by the Fright Knight and given a gentle reminder of why he is known as the Ghost of Halloween."
Xxx
The Fright Knight nodded, eager to hunt down any ghosts who disobey his new master's orders.
Xxx
"My second declaration is that from this point forward, the Earth and the Ghost Zone will no longer be allowed have any form of communication with each other. As we speak, my ghosts are searching for and destroying and all ghost equipment, including ghost portals." Danny continued, ignoring the 'What?!' that came from inside the house. "It was opening a portal to the Ghost Zone that caused this all to begin. The creation of Vlad Plasmius, the abduction of my older brother when he was so young nobody knew he existed because of my parents' neglect and their continued wish to tear open a portal into the world of ghosts, the release of Pariah Dark, the Disasteroid and of course…Me. This tampering with another world led to everything that has happened up to now and I decree…No More."
Ghost rose up from the ground, scaring the people but they did not attack anyone. Instead they flew around Fenton Works, disassembling the Fenton's equipment.
"No more ghost portals, no more ghost hunting, and no more incidents where someone is given ghost powers." Danny decreed, his voice loud and commanding like that of a king's. "From this day, until the end of says there will be no form connection between Earth and the Ghost Zone aside from the one that exists to keep both worlds alive. If one world is destroyed, the other will follow despite the beliefs of some ghost hunters who think themselves smarter than everyone else."
The crowd broke into hushed whispers as they listened to Danny's words.
"As King of the ghosts, I take my leave and ensure that such tragedies will never happen again. Be sure to heed my warnings carefully. If ghosts and humans cannot live together in peace we will live separate from each other. We will not seek conflict with you as long as you do not seek conflict with us." Danny said, his eyes flaring and frightening many people. "Thank you for hearing what I had to say."
With that he turned around, his cape making a whooshing sound as he did and seemed to knock several reporters down. He hovered back into the Fenton Works, moving past his stunned parents and floated up to his sister's room, phasing through the door to check in on his sister. She was still unconscious, seemingly sleeping peacefully in her bed as Danny entered.
He stood over her, a solemn look on his face as he placed a hand on her cheek. "Goodbye Jazz…I have one last gift for you from Frostbite and Technus."
He raised his hand and she was lifted up, turning over so her back was facing Danny.
"I was told this would not hurt and you would be kept unconscious until it was done. Live a normal life that neither me nor Flynn could have Jazz. Be better than me, than our parents." He said as brought out a rather large syringe that he inserted into her spin.
Just as Maddie and Jack made it up the stairs Danny phased out of her room and back down into the basement.
"Wait!" Maddie shouted, running down to the basement. "Danny, stop! You don't know what you're doing!"
Danny stood on front of the Ghost Portal, looking over his shoulder at her. "I know exactly what I am doing. It's what the two of you should have done at the very beginning, right when you injured Vlad and saw what you had done."
"This is our life's work! It made you who you are!" Maddie argued.
"And it endangered the world. It unleashed monsters that nearly killed me and so many people and I never did a thing about it." Danny rebuked. "You don't get to argue with me after all the damage you have done to your own family."
Jack rushed in with his wife. "Don't talk to us like that! We're scientists! This is what we do!"
"No, you're kids pretending to be Saturday morning cartoon characters in a show about hunting monsters. But ghosts were never monsters. Sure, some were evil but not all of them but that didn't matter to you when you were hunting me." Danny snapped. "This ruined my brother's life when he just a little kid. And then it forced me to become something in between living and dead, something that had to take the brunt of everyone's stupidity but now I am done. I am ending…It…All!"
Jack raised his Fenton Bazooka, aiming at Danny. "You're not touching my life's work you crazy ghost! Give back our son!"
His eye flashing, Danny let out a frustrated and angered shout as he fired a ghost beam that destroyed the Bazooka…
And blasted itself through Jack's ribs.
"JACK!" Maddie screamed, running over to her husband, kneeling down to get a better look at the wounds.
Danny seemed stunned for a second, actually horrified at what he done to his father, feeling heartache before his new, cold persona as the Phantom King took over. He stepped back and raised his hands, scorching the portal as he stepped through it and released a final blast that completely destroyed it along with the rest of the lab.
There was nothing left now.
The equipment along with the schematics had all been destroyed, meaning it would take years to build another and even then it was likely the Phantom King would just destroy it again. Maddie could only hold her husband's head on her lap, with only question in her mind:
Where did it all go wrong?
Xxx
(Credits: The World I Know by Collective Soul)
Has our conscience shown?
Has the sweet breeze blown?
Has all the kindness gone?
Hope still lingers on
I drink myself of newfound pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why
Are we listening
To hymns of offering?
Have we eyes to see
That love is gathering?
All the words that I've been reading
Have now started the act of bleeding into one
Into one
So I walk up on high and I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself while the tears roll down
'Cause it's the world I know, it's the world I know
I drink myself of newfound pity
Sitting alone in New York City
And I don't know why, I don't know why
So I walk up on high and I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself while the tears roll down
'Cause it's the world I know, it's the world I know
Yeah, I walk up on high and I step to the edge
To see my world below
And I laugh at myself while the tears roll down
'Cause it's the world I know, it's the world I know
(Credits: The World I Know by Collective Soul Ends)
Xxx
Ghosts from all over the Ghost Zone had gathered in Pariah's Keep, many of them being Danny's former enemies and some being his allies.
None of that mattered as the Fright Knight led them into the Grand Hall where the Phantom King was waiting with the ghost dog Cujo sitting by his side.
Skeleton guards stood at attention as the ghosts were led in and stopped before the throne.
"All hail the Phantom King!" The Fright Knight said, bowing.
Many were reluctant to bow to a former enemy but the threat of the Fright Knight and the guards pointing their swords and spears at them convinced them to bend the knee rather quickly.
"Rise." The Phantom King said from his throne. "You all know me. Pretty well, actually. That is why you are here now. Unlike the former king, Pariah Dark I don't aim to conquer aimlessly but I have a vision for how the Ghost Zone will now be under my authority and I will be counting all of you to help me make that vision a reality. You can agree and we will work together to change the world in a way it never has been before or you can hold on to past grudges and see how long that will last."
The Fright Knight raised his Soul Shredder as a warning, stopping anyone from outright refusing.
"So," The Phantom King smiled. "Will you hear me out?"
Xxx
DANNY PHANTOM WILL RETURN IN GRIMMFALL: REIGN OF THE PHANTOM KING