Chapter Nine: Bury the Hatchet
Disclaimer: See chapter One
Well, hello there fellow DP fans, hope you are enjoying this tale and will continue to do so, I have a double helping of story for you today, as I have finished Chapters Nine and Ten. Hey, I know I say this a lot, but I like hearing your guys' thoughts, and I haven't heard anything for a bit.
Anyway on with the show:
After the council meeting disbanded, and the ghosts that made it up went their own ways for the most part, Johnny and Kitty rode Johnny's motorcycle toward the Fenton Portal, with Ember flying next to them as she and Kitty were discussing recent events as Johnny drove. "I still think this is a bad idea," he said to the other two.
"Do you really think Danny would willingly invite us into his home, to talk and this would be a trap? If he is not a devious one, if he wanted to trap us, I am sure Box ghost would have fallen for it and would have mentioned by now," Kitty told her boyfriend.
"To be fair, you have to admit, the fact that he armed and trained the town to fight against our kind and has his special police division, was kind of a devious thing," Johnny said.
"Not like we didn't push him that far to wanting the help," Ember reminded him, then asked, "Can you do me a favor?" Ember asked, "can you ask him if he would be willing to meet with me?"
"We'll see how this goes, I mean he did say that he would be willing to help us all find a job or something so that we are not considered a threat to his town," Kitty said.
"That is all I ask," Ember said, before she bid them goodbye and took off. Soon enough, they had gotten to the outer/ inner door of the Ghost Portal that was indeed open, and Johnny stopped a second as memories of the first time they tried to go through this portal came op.
"Hey, its open, unlike last time," Kitty said, shaking her boyfriend's shoulder.
"Yeah," Johnny was shaken from his thoughts. He revved his bike and launched themselves through the portal, perfectly fine this time. They came out of the portal and into the Fenton Lab. Johnny shut the bike down after putting his kickstand down, and both Jack and Maddie were looking at them as they dismounted the bike.
"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, I am Kitty, that's Johnny, We're here to talk to Danny?" Kitty introduced themselves to Danny's parents.
"We know who you are," Jack said, eyeing Johnny a bit bitterly.
"He's waiting for you upstairs," Maddie said, also eyeing them a bit weirdly.
Both ghosts started to walk up toward the stairs, but as they did so, Jack grabbed Johnny by the outer shoulder and brought in against him, "Now listen son," Jack began and it terrified Johnny.
"Look, Mr. F, I don't have any interest in your daughter, I have my actual girlfriend that, to be honest, probably deserves better than me, as I have my faults, one of which is womanizing," Johnny tried to defend himself before he even knew what Jack was going to say, though realized that he may have said a little too much on that front, as Kitty was between glaring at him for mentioning the womanizing and a bit of a smirk on her face, since that Johnny admitted that she was better than him, she will never let him live that down.
"This is about attempting using her for a body swap," Jack said sternly.
"Ah, well that is a case of Kitty's body had been damaged as the door on the inside of the portal closed and caught a piece of her hair and it disrupted her body, I tried to have shadow keep the portal door open, but he couldn't last long enough for us to make it all the way through. Jazz was the first suitable person I saw when I came out of the portal. I wanted to get Kitty a new body as quick as I could, so that is why I chose her," Johnny said.
"Portal closing? Wait, we were testing the genetic lock, weren't we?" Jack realized it, but was asking Maddie for clarification, who just nodded after a moment of thought. "I could have sworn that I had heard a motorcycle, well fudge, this may have been our fault to begin with," Jack realized.
"It was nothing personal Mr. Fenton," Kitty said.
"Just remember one thing while you are here, we have a Fenton Anti-creep stick with your name on it," Maddie said.
"Huh?" Johnny was really confused.
"She means a baseball bat," Jack said.
"A baseball bat with the name Fenton on it," Maddie reminded him.
"Okay? We'll be heading up now," Johnny didn't know what to make of that, and they two of them headed up the stairs and through the kitchen to the living room, where they found Danny waiting for them.
Turning his head to face them, "Hello you two, thanks for coming, have a seat," he indicated the couch for them to sit on.
"So, kid, what is this about?" Johnny asked as they sat down.
Danny sighed a bit, "I think it is high time we bury the hatchet as among the rogues, aside from maybe Poindexter, that we could likely along very well, and to be honest, the more of you off my back, the better. Sure, I have the APPDGD that I set up, but still."
"Oh, yeah, about your police force, I got speeding ticking from them and then we got tossed in a thermos," Johnny said.
Danny chuckled a bit, "Yeah, I saw that from afar, I had a good laugh at that, as well when Skulker getting blasted in the face by a local that he tried to scare." They spent a little bit of time, burying the hatchet to a point that Danny was enjoying his talk with them, which was good.
"So, whose idea was it to form a council of my rogues gallery?" Danny asked.
"Poindexter, I think, but I believe it was Ember that sold the group on the idea," Kitty said, trying to think.
"Care to elaborate on the hierarchy of the Rogues Gallery for me, I get that Skulker is leader and Box Ghost is the lowest rung of the ladder so to speak," Danny asked of them.
"Well, for the most part the order we were floating in when we met earlier was the order, Skulker is leader, Technus is second in command, then Walker, Ember, Spectra, Desiree, then us, Poindexter, Youngblood, Bertrand, Lunch Lady, lastly, Box Ghost," Johnny said.
"That is what I thought it was, except maybe I thought Spectra and Ember were switched occasionally.
"That is a fair assumption, Spectra sometimes gets a bit high and mighty," Kitty said.
"Sounds like her," Danny said, then changed the subject a bit, "a few months ago, I had a run in with Amorpho, or rather I went looking for him, and he told that you guys, as in the group were somewhat well known in the Zone, from what I hear."
"For one reason or another, Skulker and Walker for obvious reasons, as for others, most of us, stories circulate about our run ins with you and whatever we attempted to do, word spreads, and since we have run ins with you on a regular basis, they hear a lot about us," Kitty explained.
"Does the council have any sort of legal authority over the Zone?" Danny asked, considering the facts of the anarchy pf the realms system and that, besides the Observants, they seem to be the only organized group that decides anything.
"Only over the members, Walker has been trying to get some kind of official authority for the council, but the Observants keep denying him," Johnny answered. Danny just nodded his head.
Jazz had come down the stairs and saw the two ghosts in the living room, "You!" she shouted, recognizing both of them.
Johnny rubbed the back of his head, "Hey kit-, I mean Jazz," he caught himself, as he was about to call her kitten, which was what he called her when he was going to make her Kitty's vessel. His slip up did not go unnoticed by Kitty, whose brow just raised in question.
Jazz dashed across the room and socked the male ghost in the face, Kitty got a little angry about it, "Hey, don't you dare hurt Johnny," she said getting protective.
Johnny told her to stand down, "Kitty relax, I had that one coming, for the fact that she was to be your vessel."
"Oh, right," Kitty calmed down as she recalled that fact that in order to get Jazz to wear Kitty's stuff, he had to 'date' her.
"That reminds me, Kitty, who are you possessing, or rather what poor soul are you body melded with?" Danny asked recalling the first incident with these two.
"Actually, I guess fortunately, I was able to get myself pulled together soon after that whole ordeal, without needing someone's body to take over," Kitty answered.
"Good," Danny said. Jazz walked away, still a bit pissed at seeing Johnny and Kitty. Danny turned the conversation back to what they had been discussing before. "So, what is Shadow's deal? Is he a part of you? Holder of your abilities, his own ghost that serves you? And if so, how did that happen?" Danny asked.
"That is a complicated question, best way to describe him is the physical form of my bad luck that that I had in life, made physical when we became ghosts, how that happened, I will not get into," Johnny said, as he noticed that Kitty was a bit uncomfortable with this discussion.
"I see," Danny let the matter rest for now, but made a mental note to ask them about it later. " I was wondering if he was his own ghost, that would explain why he didn't seem to have aged when I saw you guys in the future," Danny said, not really thinking about what he said.
"Future? What happens to us in the future?" Kitty asked.
"Well, I can't say, as the future I am thinking of no longer exists, well, then again, it may somewhat come to pass as Dan still exists," Danny said, somewhat to himself.
"Your evil counterpart? Clockwork briefly mentioned him at the Council Meeting," Johnny said, then recalled that he probably should have mentioned that Clockwork had been there, he definitely realized it by Kitty's look of 'what are you doing?'
"What was he doing there?" Danny asked, now intrigued by this information.
Kitty sighed, "Sorry Danny, but he told us not to mention why he was there to you, safe to say he has plans in motion, but Johnny is right, he did mention him briefly. So what does he do to us?"
"Long story short, Johnny is crippled and in a wheelchair, you, I don't know what he did to you, you just seemed like an older woman that hit me in the head with a purse," both ghosts were both horrified and confused about their futures.
"And everyone else?" Kitty asked when she had found her voice again.
"Skulker and Technus teamed up, like fusion and became a new, deadlier ghost," as the halfa said that, both the regular ghosts shivered at the thought of that combo, "Box Ghost got buff, had a kid too, with Lunch Lady."
"Not a surprise, at least on the kid, those two have been in an on-off relationship for a bit now," Johnny said.
"Ember let herself go, after my evil self, used his Ghost Wail, the most powerful weapon in our arsenal, to destroy her vocal chords," Kitty took that a bit personally as Ember was her friend.
"Oh, by the way, before I forget, Ember said she wanted a chat with you as well, probably about wanting to go legit or something," Kitty told Danny, who considered for a moment.
"Tell her that I will consider it," Danny responded, trying to work out in his head what to do with her, "anyway, that is who I met when I was stuck in the ghost zone ten years from now."
"Anyone mention the others when you say us," Kitty asked, a bit weakly.
"Dan himself confirmed his evil deeds when he, along with the Time Master and Frostbite visited. Walker was out of commission, take that as you will. Poindexter, Youngblood, Bertrand, Lunch Lady, were gone, like wiped from existence," Danny said to their horror, and continued. "Spectra was his girlfriend for a time, not surprising to me, but they broke up after Dan destroyed Ember's vocal chords, as for Desiree, all he did was smile a wicked, evil smile, that conveyed enough information." Kitty felt like she was going to be sick and Johnny was nearly there with her. No one spoke for a good few minutes.
"how did this happen, how did he come to be?" Johnny asked, voice shaky.
"Born of utter folly, pure evil incarnate, he was born from a merger of Phantom and Plasmius, and was evil from the beginning. His first act was to murder my human half in a way that Future Vlad told me was better left unsaid," Danny told them, as he paced the room, his voice full of bitterness and anger, as the topic of his evil self, tended to do to him.
They continued to chat for a bit longer. Eventually, Danny bid them adieu, and they went their own ways. When the ghosts had left, Danny had gone up to his room to start to read a book about ghosts that will help him figure out how he was going to approach his book, starting to gather information about how much wrong or incomplete information about the Ghost Zone was out there.
Well there you have it everyone. I will say that some of this was not my intention, like Danny telling Johnny and Kitty about the dark future, that will be an interesting development that has now changed future chapters, but I am okay with it.
On the next one, and I will see you there.