Chapter 1
Present Day
"We have to do something about the influx of ghosts we've received," the head Observant said.
"And we will, but there's also a reason this is happening," Danny said. He was tired. Since his coronation five year ago, he and Valerie have stayed in the Zone, rebuilding it. The first thing he did was make this council, which consisted of the head Observant, Clockwork, Frostbite, Wulf, Dora, Valerie, and himself. He had asked Dani, but she said no. She was still on her trip around the world, and while she had been to every continent, she liked to go back and visit her favorite countries. Her favorite was Japan for Pokemon, but her favorite cuisine was from Vietnam.
"There's been an alien invasion," Clockwork said.
"I'm sorry, what?" Danny asked. His eyes were wide, and in all his years spending time with ghosts, he never expected the idea of aliens to come up. He most certainly wasn't jealous about the idea of aliens, which are from space. He most certainly wasn't thinking about the fifteen bucks Tucker now owed him.
"Do you know who Thor is?" Clockwork asked. Danny shook his head. "He is the Norse God of Thunder, son of Odin, and half-brother to Loki, the God of Mischief."
"Well, what does that have to do with anything?"
"Loki is the one who led the attack, Daniel. For this." Clockwork banged his staff on the floor once and an image of a glowing, blue cube flickered to life in the middle of the table.
"This is the Tesseract. It holds great, cosmic power, which is, evidently, what Loki wanted."
"Why was I not notified about this?" Danny asked. He almost sounded angry. His duty wasn't just to the Ghost Zone, after all. It was to Earth as well. Sure, he hadn't been there in a while, but nothing has happened. For once everything was going pretty much perfect on the side of catastrophic disasters.
"Because you weren't needed," Clockwork continued. "A band of heroes came together and defeated Loki and his alien army."
"Band of heroes?" Danny asked. "What are they called?"
"The Avengers."
Danny nodded, thinking for a moment. There was no way he could be in the Zone and with Earth at all times. And if there were now superheroes out there, maybe he could befriend them. Ghosts and humans had never really gotten along before, but maybe if the world saw that Danny was able to make friends with them, that would change. There could be an alliance of sorts between worlds. Hell, maybe even ghosts and humans could live in peace together.
"Oh, no," Valerie said next to him. "He's got an idea."
"Yeah, but not a bad one," Danny defended himself. "What if...What if we befriend them?" He asked.
"I beg your pardon?!" the Observant said. "Why would we want to be friends with them? They're just a bunch of filthy humans."
"Did you forget you were talking to two of them?" Danny asked. His voice was low, and cold and he stared down the Observant. Nobody batted an eye, except for the Observant.
"N-no, my king. I apologize. However, I still stand by my belief. This cannot end well for either world."
"I don't know," Frostbite said. "I'm rather curious as to see where this goes. Maybe we can achieve peace between humans and ghosts. Who not better to lead the charge than one who is both?"
Danny swelled up inside. Frostbite had been one of his mentors for the longest time, and to have any kind of validation from him assured Danny that this was the right thing to do.
"How would we do this, though?" Dora asked. "Plus, aren't there government organizations who were made to get rid of ghosts? Experiment on us?"
"I would start out with a peace message to the President, probably. If there's a new team of heroes out there he's probably got them in his back pocket. Plus, America has a big footprint in the world. Whether or not that footprint is a good thing doesn't matter right now. What matters is, if we get the United States government to make a peace treaty, we could probably get the other countries to do so as well."
"Are you sure about this?" Wulf asked in his usual Esperanto. Danny nodded, and Wulf smiled at him, nodding as well.
"I do not think there is anything we can say or do to stop him from reaching out," Clockwork said, "But nevertheless, we should take a vote."
"Those in favor of trying to befriend the humans," Danny said. He, Valerie, Frostbite, Wulf, and Clockwork raised their hands. Dora and the Observant did not.
"I will make contact with them tonight," Danny said. "Meeting adjourned."
"Do you honestly think this is the right thing?" Valerie asked him later.
"I think we have to try. I can't be here and on Earth all the time. Hell, I haven't even seen Earth since the war. If they need me, and I can help, then that makes all of this diplomacy worth it. I just...I just can't help it."
"You feel guilty, don't you?" Valerie asked.
"Yeah, a little," Danny said. "When I first became king, I promised myself I would protect the Zone and Earth and I haven't even tried to go back. And I know it's because we've been busy with the rebuilding, but...An entire alien invasion by some mythological god? I should have known about it, at least."
"I understand, Danny. I just don't want you to beat yourself up about it. Besides, any one of them could have let you know, and they chose not to. This isn't one hundred percent your fault, y'know."
"Yeah, I know. And I know that I can't change the past. But I can change the future."
Valerie smiled at him before fixing his crown and kissing him.
"Go get 'em, Tiger."
Danny nodded at her, gave her one last kiss on the cheek, and went into his study.
Tucker had been a life saver, technologically speaking, during the beginning of the rebuilding. He made a lot of normal devices compatible with the Ghost Zone so that they could communicate back and forth, wherever he was at in the Zone and wherever they were on Earth. He would be using his webcam to send this important message.
He sighed, drumming his fingers on his desk for a moment before finally opening his laptop.
"Let's do this."
