Chapter 6: 10:00: The Lonely One
At exactly 10:00 on the dot, the doors in front of Danny opened. "Finally. I was getting impatient," he said as he walked in. The moment he walked in, he nearly slipped.
"Whoa! This floor is like ice!" he cried as he regained his balance. Then he looked at the floor and saw that it really was covered with ice. He looked at the rest of the room.
The room was covered in ice and frost. The walls were composed of several fans stacked against one another. Another pair of metal doors was at the end. Above it, was a clock counting down from fifteen minutes.
Danny shivered. 'It's like a freezer in here. Is Vlad doing what Spectra did with the temperature to throw off my ghost sense? Or is all this cold for something else?' thought Danny.
"Will you be my friend?" asked a voice from behind Danny. Danny turned around sharply and beheld his first opponent.
It was a male ghost with blue skin and blond hair. He was wearing pink and white striped pajamas and one of his eyes was bigger than the other. He had a lonely look on his face
"Klemper? You're my first opponent?" asked Danny. Klemper responded by asking, "Why won't you be my friend?" Danny scoffed and said, "For the hundredth millionth time, you're annoying and clingy and being friends with you would just drive me nuts!"
"Nobody ever wants to be my friend! Why!" cried Klemper as he inhaled and breathed out a cloud of ice. Danny anticipated this and dodged it by flying off. "Big baby," he muttered.
All of a sudden, all the fans on the wall began to start up and blasted out gusts of freezing air and snow. "Whoa!" yelled Danny as he was tossed around by the winds. Just as soon as the winds started they, they stopped sending him flying toward the icy floor. He slid right into the wall.
"Ow!" he said as he rubbed his head. But he didn't have time to lie around because Klemper was about to use his ice breath again. Danny rolled to the side just before the icy breath hit him and froze one of the fans on the wall. Almost as soon as Klemper missed again, the fans started up again. This time, he remained flat on the ground trying to endure the icy blasts from the fans. Suddenly they stopped again.
Danny quickly turned invisible. He remained unseen and kept his eye on the crybaby named Klemper who was looking left and right in search of the human-ghost hybrid he wanted for a friend.
'Never thought I'd have to hide from Klemper. He's probably the least dangerous of my foes. At least the Box Ghost wants to do harm. But what is up with all these fans?' thought Danny. Then it hit him. 'The fans make a blizzard whenever Klemper uses his ice breath. They're synchronized to his special power so he hits even when he misses. Since Klemper lives in a frozen part of the Ghost Zone, he's probably used to the winds. Vlad must've built every room of this gauntlet to give my opponent the advantage. In this case, the room is a giant blizzard machine. But if I can't fly due to these blizzards, I'm going to lose to Klemper. Man, that'll be an embarrassment,' he thought.
Then he gazed at the fan he had been in front of before the last blizzard. The one Klemper hit and froze. "Hmm. I wonder," he said.
Danny turned visible and shouted, "Hey Klemper! How about a deal? If you freeze me, I'll be your friend!" Klemper turned toward Danny with an expression that screamed pure joy. "Oh boy! A friend at last!" yelled Klemper as he inhaled and breathed out his ice breath again.
Danny leapt toward the frozen fan just as the blizzard started up again. He curled up in front of it as he waited for the brief blizzard to be over. Once it was over, he was beaming with pride as he gazed at the frozen fan.
"I knew it! When Klemper blasted this fan, he stopped it from working. I didn't feel anything from this one. So I'll use my opponent's power against him," said Danny as he flew up into the air.
"You missed me, Klemper!" called Danny. Klemper used his ice breath again and Danny dodged it allowing it to freeze more of the fans on the wall. Once the blizzard began to start up, he moved in front of one of the frozen ones and waited it out. Then he began the process again. Soon, the blizzards became less powerful and he was able to continue flying while they were on.
"You keep missing me, Klemper. And one thing I look for in a friend is a good aim. But then again, you have been trying so hard so I'm going to cut you some slack. So come give me a hug, new friend!" called Danny with his arms open wide.
"After all my years of loneliness, I finally have a friend!" cried Klemper happily as he floated toward Danny with his arms open wide ready for a hug. Danny didn't move a bit as the overly friendly ghost grew closer.
But at the last possible moment, Danny reached forward and grabbed Klemper's right arm and swung him around in a circle. "Alley-oop!" yelled Danny as he tossed Klemper upward. As Klemper sailed through the air, Danny put his hands together with the palms facing forward and unleashed a ghost beam. The beam struck Klemper in the back and he howled in pain. Once Danny shut down his beam, Klemper landed in a heap on the ground.
"You really don't want to be my friend?" asked Klemper weakly as he turned his head toward Danny. "Uh how can I put this Klemper? Duh!" yelled Danny as he whipped out the Fenton Thermos and aimed it at Klemper. The Thermos' energy beam shot out and sucked Klemper right into it.
Danny capped the Thermos and gazed at the clock. There were ten minutes left. 'Well, guess I have to wait for a bit until my next fight. But still, I should have beaten Klemper in less time than it took if it weren't for this blizzard machine. I'd better not underestimate anything in this complex. Sure hope Sam's all right," said Danny as he leaned against the wall and waited for the next room to open.
Meanwhile, Vlad and his associates had watched Danny's triumph over Klemper on the television screen in front of the camera. Vlad turned to the camera, which was now being manned by the Fright Knight, with a wicked grin.
"Danny Phantom defeats Klemper, ladies and gentlemen of the Ghost Zone. Who could've seen that coming? Stay tuned because in ten minutes, the next battle will commence. And keep those bets coming!" he announced.
"That was quite an entertaining battle, wasn't it, Fright Knight?" asked Vlad as he stepped off-camera toward his henchman. "Indeed. With all your technology, even the weakest ghosts can become worthy adversaries. But be that as it may, Klemper still lost whereas we could have made things simpler having the ghost child battle someone more powerful in the first place," said the Fright Knight.
"Someone more powerful, eh? Like say, you?" asked Vlad. "Well, I don't like to brag but…," began the Fright Knight before Vlad interrupted. "I'm saving the more powerful and competent challengers for later in the game, Fright Knight. I know very well with that Soul Shredder of yours, you could take him out with one hit. But where's the fun in that? This plan is about many things, one of which is making Daniel suffer pain and defeat like no other. So we're going to do things my way," said Vlad.
"But really my lord, was it necessary to pit him against Klemper? We could have saved time by putting him in the machine in the first place," said the Fright Knight. "Because that'd be too easy and I get a kick out of watching him battle. Besides, the more Daniel fights, the more exhausted he will be so that even if he manages to reach here, he'll be in no shape to rescue his precious girlfriend. He really has no hope of winning anyway not with the caliber of his enemies that we've convinced to join in this gauntlet. Now resume work on the machine," said Vlad. "Yes, of course," said the Fright Knight as he flew off.
Vlad walked by his machine which had grown bigger in the last while. They had built a large metal lantern shape around Sam who was still chained in the middle of it. There was a flat surface on top of the lantern structure and the Fright Knight was beginning to attach long metal beams to it.
Vlad stopped at a desk where Poindexter was sitting and answering several ringing telephones. Nearby was a machine with a circular hole in which an ethereal purple light was shining: a Ghost Portal designed by Vlad. Out of it flew one of Vlad's vultures who placed a wad of bills into a large bag.
"Hello? You want to bet on who? Okay," Poindexter said as he wrote something down on a notepad before hanging up. He then wrote up something on a piece of paper and added to a stack of similar papers. The vulture picked them up and flew back into the portal.
"How are the bets coming along, Poindexter?" asked Vlad. "We've accumulated over five thousand in bets, Mr. Plasmius. And they're still coming in fast," said Poindexter.
"Did any poor fool bet on Klemper?" asked Vlad. "No. And given the odds you showed through the television, I can't blame them," said the nerdy ghost. "So they're not all idiots out there in the Ghost Zone. Has anyone bet on me?" asked Vlad. "A few have. But they're mostly betting on the Fright Knight and the other later competitors," said Poindexter. "I'm insulted!" growled Vlad.
"Let's face it, Mr. Plasmius. You're not quite as famous in the Ghost Zone as the younger halfa is aside from the fact that you're known as the fool who let the Ghost King out," said Poindexter.
That comment got Vlad even angrier. But his anger was brief and it soon subsided. "It doesn't matter really if anyone bets on me. In the end, I'll end up winning all the prizes," said Vlad as he walked away.
"Sir, most of this plan makes sense. But due to that machine that you're building, it's leading me to believe that this is more that just causing the halfa agony or making money. I believe there's something more that you haven't told me," said Poindexter. Vlad responded by chuckling and saying, "That's for me to know, Poindexter and you to find out at the stroke of midnight."