"Danny, stop it. You're going to give yourself a stroke."
"And what else should I do? Stand still? Accept this…this…ARGH!" Danny snarled to himself, and resumed his rapid pacing. If he'd been alone at the house, he would have transformed and taken off ASAP as soon as he found out that Sam had been taken. But police had surrounded him, and as a result Danny had found himself being dragged along to the hospital as the ambulance took Tucker and his parents there. Not that Danny wasn't concerned about them, he was, but the fact that his mother had been able to walk over to him and his dad and Tucker had been being examined while they were sitting up indicated their injuries were minor. Well, in a sense. Tucker was the least hurt: the ghost has tossed him across the room into Danny's father. His mother had bruised ribs at least, possibly a few cracked or maybe a broken one, and his dad might have a concussion. The Fenton household had suffered the most damage: whatever had taken Sam had also torn apart all the defense and security equipment. So it wasn't like Danny didn't care. But he'd been in the hospital for 90 minutes now, 90 pointless minutes where he wasn't needed, only there more so for the sake that it was against some law or another to leave minors alone in the house after their parents had suffered injury then any actual use. The police had come by and interviewed Jazz about what had happened, but her scrambled recollection, as well as the fact that what had caused the damage clearly wasn't human had had them all but on the verge of outright saying 'I don't think we can do anything here'. For all that had happened, it was still rather hard to report a crime in Amity as 'A ghost did it.'
That had only increased Danny's aggravation, and he longed to go into action. Now, in the waiting room, which was empty (it was a quiet night besides what had happened at Fentonworks), Danny had gone from sitting and wringing his hands to actively stalking around the room. Anything to keep himself from the truth: even though he dearly wanted to go into action, he had no idea where to begin.
Though he thought a good place would be to go into the Ghost Zone and tear everything apart until someone dropped a name, a plan, anything. Anything was better then just sitting here, helpless. When he got his powers, for all the problems that befell him, Danny had never recalled being helpless…at least in a way that he couldn't escape from, given some thought.
"Jazz, are you SURE it wasn't any of my enemies?" Danny asked. "Big, armor…you're sure it wasn't Pariah Dark?"
"No Danny…it wasn't him. He…wasn't a big as Pariah…or maybe he was…it happened so fast, I got so confused…but no…not Pariah…can't remember…"
"Ok then. Give me a description." Danny said.
"…Well, big. Bigger then you Danny. Weightlifter size. And he had armor…full body armor, helmet included…a cloak…he used a…"
And then a blast of chilly air escaped from Danny's mouth. Jazz's eyes went wide: she knew what that meant…
Though of all the 'people' they were expecting, who showed up had to be the last on their list.
"I am the Box Ghost…"
The spirit hadn't even finished phasing through the floor when Danny was transformed and ramming into him, grabbing a fistful of his shirt as he slammed the spirit against the wall.
"THIS. IS. A BAD. TIME." Danny hissed, his eyes glowing bright green as ectoplasmic energy erupted on his free hand.
"AH! NO NO! NO!" The Box Ghost wailed, cringing away from Danny. "I'M JUST THE MESSENGER!"
"Messenger…" Danny growled, honestly considering kicking the heck out of the Box Ghost anyway. In the end he demurred for two reasons: it wasn't like him, and he'd seen the future Box Ghost and he didn't need to give the spirit a grudge to focus on to become that anyway and kick Danny's ass all over Amity Park.
"All right, talk." Danny said, letting go.
"I am the…"
"YOUR INTRODUCTION IS NOT NEEDED!"
"Ah!" The Box Ghost said. "Danny Phantom…I have been given this by a strange unknown spirit. He asked me to bring it to you…"
The Box Ghost was back up on the wall, Danny grabbing him with both hands this time.
"WHO IS HE!" Danny roared.
"AHHHHH! I DON'T KNOW! I'VE NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE! DON'T HURT ME!" The Box Ghost whimpered. Jazz watched in surprise. She'd known Danny could muster the occasional game face, but she'd never realize just how intimidating he could be when he was angry.
"Describe him!"
"He used some kind of distortion effect on me! All I could tell was that he was big!"
Danny thought it over, and then let the Box Ghost go. The spirit crumpled, fumbling in his overalls.
"Here's the message! I was told to bring it to you! That's all I know!" The Box Ghost said, cringing back even as he offered said message, as if he expected another blow.
"…All right. Get out of here." Danny said, taking the message.
"…Danny Phantom…"
"I KNOW I KNOW, BEWARE! GET!"
"…No no."
The Box Ghost floated back up.
"I say 'Beware!' when you and I part company…but this time it has a different meaning. Whoever this strange spirit is, Danny Phantom…he's strong."
"I gathered."
"No! You do not! You have not stood in his presence! Against him, even the might of the box…is nothing." The Box Ghost said. "If you pursue him Danny Phantom…well, now more then ever. Beware."
And with that the Box Ghost is gone.
Danny transformed back to normal in case anyone walked in to see what the racket was. The message was a scroll…a very old looking scroll that Danny had to untie and unravel.
"What's it say?"
"…Mr. Fenton. By now you are all too familiar with the lengths I will go to acquire your attention. Therefore you will listen to my words now, and listen well." Danny said. "On the outskirts of the west side of Amity Park is a large building that once served as the center of justice to a now abolished township, build by a generous and very foolish millionaire of the time who assumed it would make him immortal. It is now abandoned and broken down. You will proceed there posthaste. You will come alone, with no friends, no communications sent, no plans made or put into action, no gear to signal or assist you, or anything else besides your own person. If you do not obey my rules to the letter, I will have no qualms sending your friend back to you…piece…by piece…" Danny said, gritting his teeth even as his fingers clenched on the document. "That's all it says."
"Oh Danny." Jazz said. "I'm…I wish I could have…"
"You couldn't have. None of you could have. But I can do something now." Danny said, as he turned and started leaving the room.
"Danny wait! It could be a trap!"
"It IS a trap. But they're going to find that the reverse holds true as well." Danny said, as he continued to walk.
Jazz dashed in front of him and tried to stop him.
"Danny! You can't go alone! This entity…"
"Is going to REGRET messing with me and mine. Let me go Jazz. Let me go and do what I can do."
Jazz stared into her brother's eyes, amazed at what she saw there. So much emotion…and under it pure steel. Was this the expression he had worn in his final battles with Sizzle, and in his later great battles? If it was…did she have any right, any chance, of standing between Danny and what he felt was right?
"…Ok." Jazz said, and stepped aside.
"Find Tucker. Tell him the truth. Then find Mom and Dad, tell them I went home to wait for word on Sam." Danny said, as he headed for the nearest elevator.
"But Danny…what do I tell them if…you don't come back at all?" Jazz said.
Danny glanced back at Jazz as he went into the open elevator and pressed the button.
"…Not in the plan." Danny said.
And then the door closed, and he was gone.
And a minute later, the door on the roof of the hospital slammed open as Danny sprinted through. He was still dressed in his nice clothes from the now long-forgotten date. Nice clothes that were now wrinkled, splattered with dirt, and generally in need of a cleaning.
Danny tossed off his jacket as he ran for the edge.
"You want me mysterious stranger? Fine! You got me!" Danny thought out loud, as he lifted a fist and clenched it. "And everything that goes with it!"
Danny leapt off the roof.
And the circle blazed to life at his fist, running up his arm and then over his entire body, ending at his head as his hair flashed white, and then Danny Phantom took off, flying across the skies of Amity Park as he headed for his destination.
Valerie had quickly decided that sitting by the phone wasn't for her.
Sitting there with her unease and worry eating at her…no. She needed something else. And that something else was obvious.
Her dad was working late that night, as she had said. Instead of spending time with Danny though, she'd use it to do the other thing she did best, as she now patrolled the skies of Amity Park, hunting for ghosts to bring down.
Problem was there wasn't a single ghost in sight. Not even a whisper.
It annoyed Valerie. She needed distraction. She hated being alone with her thoughts in times like these, as she scanned the skies with her high-tech goggles. She'd take anything, even a pawn…
And then life rewarded her, as off in the distance she saw it. The ghost boy, the Phantom.
"Well well." Valerie said. "Wonder what…hey." Valerie said, as she almost lost the spectre. He was moving insanely fast, so fast that if Valerie kept still she'd lose him within seconds.
"Hey, where you going?" Valerie said to herself, as she started to follow, though she held back a considerable distance. The ghost boy flying off like he had the demons of hell snapping at his heels had to have an interesting reason, one she'd have a better chance of learning, and quite possibly stopping, as long as she held back.
Shouldn't be hard. The Phantom hadn't even noticed her, as he flew on, Valerie in pursuit.
Danny thought he might have some trouble finding the place. In the end it was no trouble: the building the message had led to was literally in the middle of nowhere. The wood buildings and dirt roads that had led to it had long ago been torn down and faded away, but the large stone structure had remained, perhaps because people had thought they might yet find another use for it. And when they had not, it had faded away in its own sense, still standing due to its design but not longer used for its other design.
It was, as Danny realized, a giant courthouse. He was amazed he'd never seen it before: it was massive, even larger then the general courthouses that small cities like Amity usually had. It must have had enough rooms to try twenty cases a day and house a hundred prisoners. Danny wondered who had built it, just what had driven him to make it so large, how he'd never heard of it before…and how strange it was that Amity Park had all these old abandoned structures lying around either in, around, or at the outskirts of town. Like the town was destined to become what it had become: a battleground.
Danny didn't much care, as he floated down. A giant stone statue of Justice, blind and holding the scales, stood in front of the staircase of the building, the stone in its long process of crumbling to dust with nothing to maintain it. Danny stared at the statue for a second, and then flew past it, up the stairs, and through the shattered front doors.
The inside was an utter wreck, endlessly vandalized and used by squatters over the decades. That, and the great number of rooms, made Danny wonder if he could ever find Sam.
Well, best way to start was to actually start.
"SAMMMMMMMMMMMM!" He called, his voice echoing down the hallways. "SAM! SAM!"
"Danny!"
Danny was a bit taken aback. Not only as she replied, she was close. Hell, she was right in front of him.
Through some twisted doors of course. Danny blew them open and flew in.
He entered into what had to be the primary courtroom. A room he shouldn't have been able to see so well, considering the only light was the moon. But a strange light infused the place anyway, a light with a source Danny couldn't place. But he'd figure that out later.
What lay before him was a giant room filled with broken and rotting wooden benches, balconies overhead for more spectators that had never come, and at the front the wooden structure of the bench, the site where the judge himself sat, the jurisdictional seal on the wall behind it long since scratched off…above which floated an orb containing Samantha Manson.
"Sam!" Danny yelled, flying right up to the orb. Sam was on her knees within it: it appeared to be composed of some kind of greenish glass. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine…"
"I'll get you out of here!" Danny said, as he started pounding on the sphere.
"Don't bother."
The new voice was calm, rich…and cold, and Danny whirled around as the form stepped off the edge of the balcony he had been standing on, slowly floating down to the ground in a billow of black, gold and green cloak, the figure stepping lightly as he landed.
Jazz had been right: he was huge, nearly two heads taller then Danny and nearly twice as wide at the shoulders. His whole body was covered in armor, from his neck to his feet, the armor a golden-green color with its own faint hint of black. The helmet the figure wore looked a tad bit strange though: it looked more like a headdress, long pillars of metal (or whatever it was made of) standing on either side of the form's head…like ears.
The figure, strangely enough, looked human. Indeed, one could almost swear there was an aspect of pretty-boy on the figure's face: it was flawless. In terms of no damage, anyway. The cold, humorless expression the figure, or man, or spirit, Danny wasn't sure, wore almost eliminated his good looks. If he had hair, Danny couldn't see it. He carried a tall staff, on which twin objects swung…and on his back, he carried several more weapons. Talk about being armed to the teeth.
Danny's eyes flashed green, as he clenched his fists.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Greetings, Daniel Fenton, he who walks in two worlds…"
"I SAID WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!"
"Be quiet you impudent child." The figure snapped.
"I'LL SHOW YOU IMPUDENT!" Danny snarled, and blasted at the figure, snapping out his fist.
It hit dead in the center of the figure's chest.
And Danny stopped dead, as the impact shot all the way up his arm. The figure hadn't budged, and he felt like he'd shattered every bone up to his shoulder.
The figure struck him with his staff, and Danny flew backwards, hitting the ground, bouncing off it, and landing on his face.
"Danny!" Sam cried out.
"Are you done expressing your juvenile outrage? I assure you, I will put something behind my next blow." The figure said.
"Bastard…" Danny said as he got up.
"Be silent, Daniel Fenton. You were brought here for an important reason and your anger is not needed."
"Then you shouldn't have beat up my family and kidnapped my best friend. That kind of results in a LOT of anger!" Danny yelled, and fired a twin-handed ecto-blast.
It exploded on the figure. Again, he didn't budge. Indeed, his armor remained spotless, as if Danny hadn't attacked at all.
"That was unfortunate, as I only needed you. But in order to bring you to me, certain ill-fated circumstances became inevitable. If your parents had just let me through instead of insisting to fight…"
"If you actually knew anything about me, you'd know this wasn't inevitable!"
"It was necessary. Now fall silent."
"It's never necessary! If you needed me, you come to ME! You don't go after the people I care about!" Danny snapped, even as a small part of him started to grow extremely worried. He'd put a considerable amount of effort behind both the punch and the blast and the figure had weathered both like an ant was attacking him.
"The only way for your weak, self-absorbed, ignorant little species to understand what is truly important is to show them just what harm will come to what is important to THEM if they do not follow what is needed! Arggrrr! I despite the mindset of mortals!" The figure growled. "If your concern so blinds you child, then know that your friend will not be harmed. Not if you listen."
"Listen to what?" Danny growled.
"As I was saying." The figure said. "Greetings, Daniel Fenton. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Anubis, the Spirit of Judgment."
"…The Egyptian god?" Danny said, his anger briefly cooling with confusion.
"No. I am not the one that the ancient Egyptians worshiped. Over the millennia I have had many names, undergone many changes to my form…this is merely my latest, taken from their mythology. I am older then the Egyptians and their gods." Anubis said. And Danny finally realized just what the headdress/helmet was: long ears, like a jackal, as Anubis was usually portrayed. He also saw just what was placed at the end of Anubis' staff: the scales of judgment, just like the kind the statue of Justice had carried outside.
"…The spirit of judgment." Danny said.
"Indeed. I am as above the apparitions you normally battle as man is above a fish in the ocean. They merely exist in a strange state between life and death, often desiring little then they wanted in life…I exist for a far more important reason. To bring judgment."
"I gathered. One problem." Danny said. "If you're the spirit of judgment, how come I never heard of you? And considering the number of near-death experiences I've been through, I'd have thought I've had gotten an inkling."
"Ah child, if you were not so eager to engage me in battle you would see the truth before you. You are, foolishness aside, a being of virtue. Should your path never change, ours would never cross. When your time comes, there are others to deal with you. I…am charged with a far more grave task."
"And what does that have to do with me?" Danny asked. "Oh, and smashing up my home and hurting my family?"
"An unfortunate result from an unfortunate situation, which I would come to if you didn't stop blabbering about your self-justified indignation." Anubis said.
And then he was suddenly gone.
Sam yelped in surprise, and Danny whirled to find Anubis next to her.
"Hey! Leave her alone!"
"She's not important, a means to an end. What matters is you, Danny Fenton, and what you have done."
"What did I do?"
"…Nothing you could have prevented, I suppose…but something you must yet answer to." Anubis said, as he raised his staff. "The beings you battle, who exist in the realm known as the Ghost Zone…they come from many places. Some are the remains of living beings whose mortal form has failed, yet their mind lives on. Others are creations of many beliefs, desires, emotions, and sins, fused with spiritual power to create whole new beings. Some are both. Some are neither."
"Your point?"
"The reason they exist, in their pocket realm your father discovered, the realm that infused you with your powers and granted you your destiny, is because in the end they mean little. In the end, if they lived in the first place, they accomplished nothing of notice. So they exist."
"That's interesting. Your point?"
"BE SILENT!" Anubis roared, and slammed his staff down, causing the whole building to shake. "The number of mortal humans who I have deemed to speak to can be counted on one hand! If you continue to infuriate me with your twaddle, I will leave you and your precious 'family' to their fate!"
"What? What fate?"
"You may find out by falling SILENT." Anubis ordered. Danny, despite part of him not wanting to, bit his tongue. He supposed that if this was an ancient spiritual embodiment of judgment he shouldn't be surprised it was a control freak with a gigantic ego.
"I need not interfere with your breed boy, and the spirits in your ghost zone are beneath my notice. My task is for the remainder. There are more realms then this and what you call the Ghost Zone, many more. Over time, there have been many mortals, on many planes, who have committed acts of atrocious evil, and in more then a few, sought out forbidden powers and darkness to extend their time, to escape the final judgment of death. For those who have done such horrors, in their death, and sometimes in their attempt to escape it, I come. I bring them down, and I pronounce the sentence that their lives and actions have wrought them, and then I pass it down. If I did not do so, these beings may actually defy death, and the cruelties that these beings could commit in such a state are beyond even my comprehension. For countless centuries I have done this, granted the power to do so…"
"By who?"
"That is not your concern boy, and even if I deemed your worthy to know, your weak mind could never grasp the knowledge."
"So…what? You were sent by God?"
"MY ORIGIN IS NOT YOUR CONCERN!" Anubis blasted. "As I have said, I have done this for eons. And in all this time, I have encountered few problems, and none I could not handle myself. Until now."
Danny crossed his arms, trying to play it cool, when in reality part of his head was screaming this was way too big for him, and that he would do better to just listen to the spirit, or better yet dash his brains against a wall before he crossed over to something beyond him.
"Ok. So because you're ticked about a problem, you decided to pick a fight with me…"
"I have not come to FIGHT you boy. I have come because for once, I cannot succeed in my task! And that is because of you!"
"Look dude, as I said I have never met you before."
"It is not my hand that brought about this situation! It is yours, and what you did to the soul of Haley Ann Roxx!"
At the mention of that name, every bit of defiant anger in Danny died, snuffed out like a candle, replaced, at least temporary, by cold fear.
"…Sizzle." Danny whispered.
Valerie was completely, utterly lost.
She'd seen the Phantom go into the giant courthouse, and she'd waited a minute and then flown over it, hunting for her own way in. The whole building was riddled with holes, and Valerie quickly found an entrance in the roof and quietly lowered herself down.
Valerie had been loathe to turn on her flashlight and play Doom 3 through the hallways and possibly tip the ghost kid off, but much to her surprise the building was lit up, though Valerie couldn't place just WHERE and HOW. She could, however, hear muffled voices in the next room, but she couldn't make out what they were saying…and then the whole building shook, nearly scaring her to death, as she disengaged her jet sled even as she threw herself flat on the ground, yanking out her ectogrenade launcher.
When no attack came, she slowly got to her feet and crept towards the voices.
There were plenty of hiding places for Valerie to sneak into the room and keep out of sight…thought what she saw didn't make any sense to her. There was the Phantom…and some giant guy in armor Valerie didn't recognize, but could instantly tell was one bad mutha. And nearby, floating in an orb…was that Sam Manson? Danny's friend, the girl she'd beat out for Danny's affections? What in the hell was SHE doing here?
The big guy in armor was babbling on now about evil people and how he had to judge them because they were so evil they wouldn't even follow the rules of life or something like that, or something, Valerie was, as mentioned, completely lost. She'd walked into the middle of a movie. A foreign movie. While blindfolded.
But when Danny said the name Sizzle…suddenly things got a little bit clearer.
If it involved that terrible entity…one that had taken control of Valerie herself, though she didn't remember the fact, just waking up with the injuries…then Valerie was definitely interested.
"Yes. Sizzle, as she called herself. A pyrokinetic man-hating woman who became an insane pyrokinetic ghost…"
"Whoa wait, hold on! There's a hole here! You claim that the people in the Ghost Zone are 'harmless', well I don't know how you would consider Pariah Dark 'harmless' but that's beside the point! Haley, Sizzle, she did all kinds of bad things before she died! Why didn't you judge her then? How did she get into the Ghost Zone, which let her get OUT of the Ghost Zone!"
"Haley's crimes, several dozen murders, pale in comparison to what the usual dictator or mad general or pathetic mortal who believes he is so much more is doing. And a fragile fire controller is not worth noticing when a sorcerer is tampering with chaos magic far beyond his ken in an attempt to be immortal, never realizing what he is letting into this world, or how stubbornly they will cling to it! At the time, she was beneath my notice…and in this act of overlooking, she was able to return to your plane. You know what she did."
"She used ancient Sumerian dark magic to become a god. Where were YOU then?"
"I was there…but my powers are limited to judgment. I could not interfere…not until she had crossed a line…a line you stopped her from crossing. But her intent was there. That, I could, I had to…still judge."
Danny, strangely, found himself sighing a bit.
"You never got to. …I destroyed her. Wiped her completely out of existence. I didn't want to but I had to. And if you're going to judge ME for THAT, Anubis, then you either have worse intelligence then the recent CIA or you are a hypocrite of the highest degree."
"I am not here to judge YOU, child…though I pronounce your assumption foolish. Just because you found nothing…does not mean there was nothing."
The icy fear was back. Danny hated it, hated that in such a situation just mentioning Sizzle's name could invoke such a reaction in him…but she had been, as Savior put it, pure chaos force, and that left marks on people.
"…Multiple sorcerers scanned it. They went over every single rock there was. They did it multiple times…"
"You struck her down child. But some things are impossible to obliterate." Anubis said. He briefly looked amused. "You humans are capable of emotion, but you have no idea how small your perception of emotion is. So many of you think you have the greatest love of all time…when you could love a million years and not even come close to the intensity of a second of existence's higher loves. But some of you…you slip your bonds. You go past yourself. In virtue…and in vice. Some consciousnesses can cling to existence through belief and devotion. And some…can remain, no matter what happens, because of rage, of vengeance…of black, indestructible hate. Sizzle did not cease to exist child. Shards of her remained. Your sorcerers did not find her because I did first. I gathered her up…and I prepared her for judgment. And it is the results of that that I have brought you here. You…and her."
And Anubis reached into his cloak and withdrew it.
And the all too-familiar shriek rang through the building.
All the strength immediately went out of Danny's knees, and he collapsed. In whatever dimensional pocket Anubis had been keeping this other orb, the orb that now floated in front of him, the wherever place that had kept away the noise, it was gone now. And the horrifyingly familiar screech tore into his ears, of rage and pain and terrible, inhuman loathing.
There she was, smaller and broken down but still all too recognizable. Sizzle, thrashing and snarling in the same kind of orb, albeit somewhat smaller, that Sam was trapped in, like a rabid animal tied to a stake, as Danny stared at her. No. Not again. He couldn't go through this again. He'd used up all his miracles last time. He couldn't…
"YOU!" Sizzle screamed, and went into a torrential blast of insults that all tumbled over each other and merged into an incomprehensible mess of inhuman anger and violent desire.
"I'LL BURN YOU BOY! BURN IT ALL! YOU'LL NEVER BE RID OF ME…!"
"BE SILENT YOU INFERNAL WITCH!" Anubis bellowed, and held out his hand. Inside the orb, some kind of energy pulsed and then tore into Sizzle, ripping her form to pieces even as she shrieked once more. But there was no anger in that scream, only pain, terrible pain…pain that echoed in the screams of the memories Danny had taken from Sizzle, of a burden he had tried to relieve her from…only to realize that despite all her horrific anger that came from it, beneath it was an even greater need to cling to it, because without the pain and the rage it brought, she had no reason to exist.
"You need not worry child. She is safely locked away in there, sealed from this realm. She cannot get out…yet." Anubis said, looking at the shattered form that now lay at the bottom of the orb. "Disgusting. Not even human while alive, and somehow degenerated even more upon death. An exceptional woman, in all the wrong ways. Her actions brought me to judge her, and judge her I did…but therein lies the problem: she will not move on."
"…What?" Danny said.
"Some spirits don't KNOW how to move, and my duty is to heel those who refuse to move on, a task I have never failed in…until her. Until Sizzle. Every attempt I have made, every ritual I know, it cannot bring her to what she has earned. She had held onto this plane with more tenacity and obstinacy then I have ever seen. For a while, I did not know why…until I looked into how her end came about. And discovered you. And what you are Danny."
"What?"
"Humility is fine child, but it will not help you here. Sizzle cannot be sent to her due because of you. Because of her hatred for you."
There was that ice again.
"I have seen many hates, ghost child. Some directed at me, some at others, some at themselves…I have judged beings who have spent centuries feeding and cultivating their antipathy. I have judged them all. Yet this creature, this…THING!"
Sizzle was back together and screaming again, cursing Anubis and Danny alternatively until Anubis 'shocked' her into silence again. Danny could almost swear he heard her weeping as she collapsed once more…but that might have just been him.
"She defies me! She defies my power, my station, my very being! And the reason she can defy me is because of her total, utter, absolute, staggering, unbelievable, unimaginableHATE for you. I almost pity you, ghost child. You have earned an enmity to rank among the worst of all times."
"…Heh. Good to know." Danny said in a small voice. He had to say something: otherwise he would start screaming himself, quite possibly never to stop.
"It grows worse child."
"How could it get any worse?"
"I would not have involved you. I watched you many times, but I always decided against it. Until I discovered what two others plan to do."
"What?"
"You know one. Vlad Masters, aka Vlad Plasimus, your nemesis in many ways, mortal and god. He had recruited a terrible being, a dark sorcerer who, like me, has had many names. He goes by Zylvain Rasputin these days, and there will come a time when I will have to battle him. But for now, on this world, his mastery of dark magic and powers is among the greatest. I keep Sizzle in this orb as I try to bring judgment upon her…but I cannot, because she in indelibly connected to you. And Vlad, with Zylvain, seeks to circumnavigate my power and do the unthinkable: return Sizzle to this plane with a new form, to wreck whatever vengeance she wishes. To bring about her own fiery judgment on those she has believed has wronged her."
"What…but…you're an ancient judgment spirit! Can't you stop them?"
"I CANNOT BE DENIED!" Sizzle screamed. "THIS WORLD IS MINE! IT WILL BE-ARGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sizzle screamed as Anubis silenced her once more.
"Zylvain commands much forbidden knowledge. With what he knows, they understand my power too well. It is mighty and terrible, but only within the circles I walk. If they remove her from them…then I can do nothing. It is why I did not want to interfere with you, a mortal. But I no longer have a choice. The only way to end their threat, and Sizzle's, is to bring judgment upon her! And as I have discovered…I can only do that with you. It is why I attacked your home, harmed your family, and took your other friend with me. You needed to know how important this is, important enough that I WILL do you harm if you defy it. Because only you, child, can do it."
"…Do what?"
"…Do you still not understand?" Anubis said, as he floated the Sizzle orb up a bit and stepped back a few steps. "If we do not judge her, she will be unleashed once more. And I myself cannot judge her, because she is connected to you. YOU must do it."
"…Judge her?" Danny said, in utter disbelief, because the picture he was getting…letting Sizzle free was unthinkable, but the alternative…
"Yes, Danny Phantom. I can lay the groundwork, and guide your hand, but only you can pass the judgment!" Anubis said, as he raised his hands. Green fire exploded everywhere, covering the room and forming arcane symbols along the walls and floor. "You, Danny Phantom, must grant Haley Ann Roxx the punishment for her crimes, the punishment she had earned! Only you, Danny Phantom, can condemn her to Hell!"
To Be Continued