Hello! I feel like this chapter is a good time for a reminder that I do not own Danny Phantom. As far as I am aware, DP belongs to Nickelodeon.

DJTimmer: I never mentioned how many times Issitoq could use the hourglass, because I knew that if I did, I'd need him to use it again, or I'd have him use it too few times. If I was writing this as a novel, I'd probably go back and change it once I was done with it, but... it isn't a novel. I have a good-sized buffer, but I don't plan all that far ahead, except for really major plot points.

17: You'll have to wait and see. :)

Black Cat: Yeah, Issitoq knows Danny, and the other half-ghosts, are intelligent, but he doesn't really see them as people. To him, they're just monsters.

Anne Camp: Make Clockwork do what? Sorry, I'm a little confused here... There are a lot of things he could make Clockwork do. The loopholes in Clockwork's contract are that they can't force him to act against Taboo, commit Taboo's against him, or to directly damage (or allow damage to happen to) Time itself. Danny is part of this loophole, because the parent-child fraidship bonds are really important in ghost culture, and screwing with them is covered under Acts of Sacrilege. If they tried to make Clockwork hurt Danny after theirs was established, the contract would be considered broken. Does that make sense? For your other question about the amulet, there is going to be an explanation about why that won't work. (Poor Danny, I'm just terrible to him.)

Potkanka: Hello! Good to see you in the reviews again. Amity Park hadn't been quite so bad, last time we saw it. Since then, there had been a sort of... offstage war of serial escalation between the GIW and the ghosts of Amity Park. Danny's current physical and mental fatigue are keeping him from noticing the whole 'king' thing, but he would probably laugh it off as a ridiculous idea even if he did notice. Who would make him king, after all? He hasn't even graduated high school. Your other questions will be answered in coming chapters! Sorry for being mysterious.

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Chapter 153: Expected Difficulties

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Ah, thought Pandora, upon seeing Daniel turn into a dragon. I had not quite expected that.

She had, however, expected something of the sort. Her old enemy Murphy (the principle, not any of the ghosts, of which there were several) practically required it, not to mention Daniel's rather... extreme luck. Perhaps, though, she shouldn't call it luck, but merely circumstances.

His transformation, despite increasing the firepower available to their side, also disrupted the well-ordered formation of the soldiers he had been traveling with. Pandora had the sinking feeling that there would be other, later, consequences.

She flipped up the lid of her newest box. How many of the creatures here could be called evil? How many were simply wild? No matter. Even reducing the number of non-sapient ghosts by an eighth would be a boon to her men and women.

Her box glistened with power and began to pull in.

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Well, Ellie couldn't say that she hadn't expected this to happen. Really, she was surprised it hadn't happened earlier.

On the plus side: more firepower (literally), and Danny was apparently too intimidating for most of the animal ghosts to attack. On the negative side: Danny wasn't fighting with his usual... Ellie didn't know what to call it. Cunning, maybe-? Strategy? Skill? Some of that might have been because he was currently in an unfamiliar body, but Ellie doubted that. His movements were... Uncontrolled. Too wild. Too... something.

And he was angry.

The atmosphere stirred as ectoplasm began to pull towards the Elysian ship. A good fifth of the animals were caught in the current, and tumbled towards it, as if it were a hundred times stronger for them than for Ellie. Ha! Ellie grinned sharply.

Then she ducked, just barely avoiding a pack of brightly-colored lizards.

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Valerie wished her board wasn't out of commission. She wished she wasn't being carried by this ghost. She wished. Wishes were useless. She couldn't do anything.

And she hated it.

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Jazz was glad she had practiced a lot on the ship. Her spectral hands were proving to be useful in keeping the swarms of ghostly animals away. The others were having more trouble.

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Sam kicked at a tiny, sharp-toothed rabbit. How many of these things were there?!

"Please," begged the Elysian carrying her. "Stop moving! I'm going to drop you."

"No, you're not," growled Sam. It was probably a good thing ghosts didn't need to breathe, or she'd be strangling the poor ghost.

Another rabbit bit her ankle. She kicked it.

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Ellie was having trouble getting close to Danny. For one, he was attacking rather indiscriminately, for another, Danny's classmates kept distracting her with their need to be saved. How they could still be such disasters even under the care of the Elysian soldiers escaped her entirely. They were just complete disasters. She didn't understand.

She had just finished chasing a mean-looking turtle away from Paulina when a movement near Danny caught her eye. She wasn't sure why it caught her eye, there was a lot of movement near Danny, but she swung her head around and over, and saw a huge pack of dogs (wolves?) racing towards Danny.

Crud. Heck.

She zapped an over-sized hedgehog, and zoomed towards Danny, hoping to get to him before the dogs.

She didn't.

The dogs surrounded Danny, barking and howling, seemingly not caring that Danny was many, many times larger than they were. Was that Cujo in there, trying to keep them back? She thought she could see him, but she couldn't be sure.

Danny started to fall.

It was a fall, Ellie could tell, even though from her perspective he was falling sideways, in the odd manner of the Ghost Zone. The way he was moving showed her as much.

Then, to her increasing concern, Danny began to shrink. She couldn't see him behind all the dogs. Energized by her worry, Ellie put on another burst of speed. She broke through the pack of dogs, to find Danny, human again, draped over Cujo's back, being licked by the dogs. Who were, to a one, wagging their tails furiously.

"How do you do that?" she demanded, ectoblast fading from her hand.

Danny shrugged as a large, winged dog licked his face. "They're Cujo's friends," he offered. "I think."

"Okay," said Ellie, examining his face. He looked awful, sweaty and exhausted. "Let's see if your new friends will help us get you to that ship."

"Uh-huh." Danny groaned. "I think I ate something that didn't agree with me."

"You think?"

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It turned out that riding Cujo was a good idea. Who would have thought? Danny had thought. That's who.

He buried his face in Cujo's fur, one hand on his stomach. It felt hot, which was bad. His core had inched up, closer to his heart, trying to get away from the source of the heat, even as it drank in the amulet's shed power. He should have known that a dragon amulet would be hot, would run on hot ectoplasm, would be imbued with fire. He wanted it out, out, out. He wanted it gone. He shivered, trying to shake off the heat.

If he wasn't a child ghost- If he, his core, just could stop pulling the amulet's power and heat in, then maybe he could have some relief. But he couldn't and he felt awful, and he wanted to stop being sick, just for a little bit.

He was highly aware of the battle happening around him. He was even more aware of his inability to do anything about it.

Breathe, breathe, he reminded himself. The air of the Zone tended to be cool. He could shed heat by breathing it out.

Cujo abruptly stopped. Danny tumbled over Cujo's ears, and hit wooden boards. Ah. He was on the ship. That was good. He sat up.

His classmates were also touching down on the deck, the Elysians urging them towards the hatches, and relative safety below decks. That was good, too. They didn't seem to know what to make of all the dogs, however. That was okay. Neither did Danny.

Danny waved weakly at Pandora, who scooped him up with a lower arm. "It looks like you've gotten into a bit of trouble."

"Yeah." Danny leaned against Pandora's side as Cujo tried to lick his feet. "I don't suppose Frostbite or Dr. Iceclaw came with you?"

"Dr. Iceclaw did. We had not yet gotten word from the Far Frozen when we left Elysium."

"Oh," said Danny.

"Let's get you to h-"

There was a large, angry shriek from beyond the ship. Not all of the bounty hunters had fled or been defeated, there was still a sizable contingent of them, and it appeared that one of them was rather upset about the prospect of Danny escaping.

"My bounty!" wailed the ghost.

Danny flinched into Pandora's side. His ears- or maybe his brain- was still recovering from the silent floor of the Tower.

(At least, that's what he wanted to tell himself. Truthfully, he had run out of the energy to be brave.)

(Pandora was too warm, too. She had dark fire for hair.)

The screaming ghost began to grow in size. How was it that so many ghosts could do that? Walker, Pandora, Pariah Dark, Nocturne, Cujo... Those were just the ones he could think of off the top of his head. It was annoying. Sure, when he had to fight someone like that, it gave him a bigger target, but it was hard to defend people against something the size of a skyscraper.

Ah. And this ghost was also on fire. Why was there so much fire, right now? Couldn't they get some air conditioning in here?

Pandora cursed in Greek, and handed Danny off to a ghost he recognized, but couldn't immediately name.

She lifted up, off of the deck, and began to grow. Soon, she equaled the size of the other ghost. Both of them radiated heat, and lightning sparked from Pandora's limbs.

The ghost brandished his sword, which glowed sun-bright against the dim green backdrop of the Ghost Zone. "I am Surtr! Doom of Gods! King of the Fire Mountains! You shall not escape me!"

"Grand names for a common murderer," growled Pandora, voice low and loud enough to make Danny's bones vibrate, "and falsely taken, too."

The ghosts collided in a flurry of spear jabs and sword slashes. The remaining mercenaries went for Pandora's sides, but the Elysians held them off.

"Think you, that I have never been to Muspell?" demanded Pandora. The giant ghosts tumbled through the void, and into the Egyptian ship, cracking its mast and setting it on fire.

Danny winced as the other ship spun. He hoped nothing important had broken.

A couple of mercenaries attempted to attack the Elysian ship in Pandora's absence. They quickly became studded with arrows.

(Were those Tucker's?)

The Elysian jumped through a hatch, put Danny down, then flew back up, battle ready. The ship shook. Danny sat down on the floor.

He wasn't sure if he felt more relief or fear. Ancients, he was tired, and he was scared, and he really should go back up and try to help, but he was just... done.

"Danny?" asked Mikey, his nervous and pale face seeming to hover in Danny's blurred vision. "Are you okay?"

"No," said Danny. "Not really. Can you, can you, um." He blinked, hard.

The hatch overhead opened again, and Sam slid down the ladder.

"Danny!" she said. "You look awful."

"I know," said Danny. He looked up at the hatch. "I should probably move."

"Yeah," said Sam. She looped his arm over her shoulder, and started walking him away. "I've got you."

"Can someone find Dr. Iceclaw? I think I really need him."

"Yeah. Let's see if we can."

"Where's everyone?" asked Danny.

"What do you mean?"

"Tucker and Jazz and Ellie, and, you know. Everyone not right here." He hoped his woefully inaccurate hand wave illustrated his point sufficiently.

"I think Jazz, Ellie, and Tucker are up there fighting. Most everyone else went down a different hatches or doors or whatever."

"Oh, good. They should be careful, though."

"Yep. I'm sure they are."

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If it was Danny doing this, Jazz would probably tell him to be more careful. But it wasn't as if she'd gotten herself into this position on purpose. It had been entirely unintentional! Really. Honestly.

Although, Danny didn't get into these situations on purpose, either.

One of Jazz's spectral hands dissolved under pressure from the attacking- Well. Jazz wasn't sure what it was, exactly. Some kind of mutant, rabid pig-creature with fangs. It charged her, but fell to the side with an arrow in its eye.

"Be careful!" called Tucker, already stringing another arrow to his bow.

"Yeah!" yelled Jazz, strengthening her hold on her other hands.

She gestured, and a spiny creature (a sea urchin?) went flying, just in time for her to use the free hand catch a sparking, half-invisible eel. She felt her left hand go numb. Oh, heck, she hadn't expected that, and she almost lost hold of her other hands and the creatures they were stopping. She used one of the other animals to bludgeon the eel until it went limp. That was harder than it looked, with both animals fighting. Thank goodness only relatively small ghosts were getting past the Elysians.

There was a shout, and 'Sutr's' sword came whirling towards the ship. Whoever was piloting the ship apparently saw it, too, because the ship suddenly veered left and up. This took the rigging into the path of a confused, but heretofore not particularly hostile giant snake.

Meanwhile, the ship shuddered and tilted as the sword scraped the bottom. In the way of ghost ships, it quickly adapted to its new 'down' and the feeling of being tilted disappeared. Several of the animal ghosts had been slammed into the deck as the ship maneuvered, and Jazz had lost more than half her hands in the impact.

She couldn't bring them all back. She was flagging, and the air felt thin.

A miniature goat jumped at her, and she reacted by making a wall of hands, and- Falling mast!Dodge, dodge, dodge- Gosh darn it, Tucker, get out of the way!

She yanked him out of the way by the collar of his shirt, tearing the fabric.

The falling timber kicked up a lot of dust, and Tucker started coughing. That could have been the fact that Jazz had almost strangled him, though.

"Are you two alright?" asked someone with an echoing voice.

One of the Elysians?

"I'm fine!" said Jazz.

"Yeah, fine," wheezed Tucker. "Crud, my bow..."

"You should get below," said the Elysian, drawing closer, and shooting another couple of ghostly animals with her ectoblasts. "There's a hatch that way." She pointed with her lower left hand, as she charged the other three with ectoplasm.

Tucker scrambled over a pile of fallen ropes, careful not to put his foot through any loops.

"Hey," he said, "we're not on fire, are we? That sword looked pretty hot."

The Elysian's face fell, eyes widening. "Oh, dear." She sped off.

Tucker grimaced, and wiped dust and dirt from his face- Or tried to, anyway. "That doesn't sound good," he observed.

There was more creaking from above, and both Tucker and Jazz looked up, bracing themselves to jump out of their way. The giant snake was still up there, tangled in the rigging.

"You need to get downstairs," said Jazz.

"Me?" said Tucker. "What about you?"

"I think I might be able to do something about that," said Jazz, looking at the snake in the rigging. She stretched out both her real hands and her spectral ones. The later flickered as they reached the extent of her range, which, wasn't very far beyond her real fingertips.

"Jazz-"

"I know, I know," said Jazz.

Another beam creaked and swung wildly overhead, and a stray ectoblast came close to Jazz's ear. "Come on," said Tucker, "let's get out of here."