.

.

.

Chapter 250: To Prepare (Forward Motion)

.

Before Sam had left Amity Park for the Ghost Zone and the Ring Ceremony, she had sat down with several of her constituents.

"You and Paulina are in charge of our group while I'm gone," said Sam.

"What? With her? Why?"

Valerie and Paulina glared balefully at one another. The whole ordeal in the Ghost Zone meant that they weren't enemies, that they didn't hate each other, but they weren't exactly friends with each other, either. Or with Sam.

"Because you cover each other's weaknesses. Paulina, you have charisma and leadership skills and you never bought into the prejudice against ghost and, Valerie, you're practical and grounded, and your dad just got voted into office, so you have a voice there. You balance each other out. Plus, if I gave it to either one of you, the group would probably tear itself apart."

"Aren't you supposed to be a diplomat now, Manson?"

"Yeah, but not to you guys. Look. It isn't like our group is official, or anything, and if you don't want to do this, you can always just walk away, but I think we're doing good work, and I don't want everything to be in the hands of the adults again by the time I get back. I thought about giving it to Mia, but she's a bit of a pushover, sometimes, and she and Sarah are just figuring things out. You know what I mean?"

Paulina sighed. "Romance," she said with a sigh. "If only…" She sniffed, slightly. "But I suppose I must concede to the two of you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your rivalry!" said Paulina, as if that were obvious. "Over Danny!"

"We don't have a rivalry," said Sam.

"How harsh, you don't even recognize her as you opponent in love? She even dated him, remember?"

"Paulina," Valerie and Sam started at the same time.

"You go first," said Sam.

Valerie nodded, then sighed. "Paulina. Danny and I might have dated, but I also tried to shoot him. Multiple times. Plus, we broke up. No one is competing for Danny."

"Additionally," said Sam, "we've all got other things on our plate right now. It isn't the time to get into a relationship."

"It's always time to get into a relationship."

"Why don't you get into a relationship, then?" asked Valerie, annoyed.

Paulina sighed. "I would, but, well—" she waved a hand "—the boys our age are all pretty evenly divided between meatheads and the nervous nerd squad, you know?"

"Yeah, that's kind of why none of them are here right now," said Sam.

"They're just not my type," said Paulina, "and dating older boys is a problem because they always think they're so much better, and it would be weird to date an underclassman…"

"Well," said Sam. "This conversation is officially beyond me." She stood up. "This is everyone's contact information."

"I already have all that," said Paulina, turning her nose up, slightly. "What kind of queen bee do you take me for? I helped you get most of that."

"It's for Valerie."

"Oh, well. Go on, then."

"Thanks," said Sam, dryly. "Now, this is an outline of my plans for the next couple of weeks, as well as a list of things our group might be suited for, especially given who's going to be away."

Valerie snagged the folder before Paulina could. "You want me to be a gopher for the robotics club?"

Sam sighed. "They're working on getting surveillance and early warning systems up, and you can get places they can't with your hoverboard, and you can get there faster. Plus, Wes will be gone, so they need the extra help."

"You want to help with surveillance?"

"I know, I know, under other circumstances I might be protesting, but it isn't like they're putting stuff in people's houses, and if people get past the shield, we need to know. We're sort of at war, here."

"Still, what was that quote you liked?" Paulina waggled her fingers. "Don't give up freedom for security?"

"I don't think that applies in this situation. Unless you want the shield gone, and all of us to be arrested."

"Yeah," said Valerie. "Whether or not the shield's there, we're still stuck, and it's good to assume you're being watched whenever you're in public, anyway."

Paulina sighed. "Whatever."

"Uh huh," said Sam. "Anyway, I think that's everything. I have to go now. If you have any questions, get them to me before tomorrow, okay? You know where I live."

.

.

.

Valerie sat on her hoverboard, far above the city, one hand over her head, skimming the underside of the shield. "No changes," she said.

"Okay, great," said Mikey over her earpiece. "Can you pan the camera for us? Give us a sweep of the inside perimeter."

Valerie adjusted the strap of the camera and rotated slowly. "Getting what you need?"

"Yeah," said Mikey. "Star, you're recording the stream, right?" There was a beat of silence.

"If you guys aren't recording, I'm going to be real annoyed."

"We are, we are," promised Mikey. "Sorry, the older kids are just out manning the drones…"

"Glad I'm lower on the pecking order than the drones."

"You're not, you're not, uh… Can you pop the camera over the shield for a minute? Set it to record on the card, because the stream will cut out—"

"I know, I know," grumbled Valerie. "Give me some credit, here."

Honestly, now that the initial trouble was over, and starvation didn't seem like an immediate issue, thanks to the Ghost Zone trade, part of Valerie was itching for a fight. But the ghosts had been largely peaceful, or at least keeping their battles to places she couldn't see, and she didn't have the authority to break up human fights.

She was a teenager on a hoverboard. Not the police. Even the police were hardly the police, right now. Everyone had so many other things to do, as long as no one was actively looting or attacking each other, no one was terribly interested in enforcing the law.

Such as it was. The newly elected government of Amity Park had yet to establish a constitution, let alone laws.

Valerie sighed, and pulled the camera back down. "I'm coming back in."

.

.

.

"There are more than the last time we checked," said Mayor Ishiyama, gesturing loosely with the projector remote. "We're getting progressively more and more surrounded. If it weren't for the shield…"

"Speaking of the shield," said Damon Grey, "is there any news on, well, how long it's going to last?"

Vlad Masters (who had been pouting ever since the election) rolled his eyes. "It will last as long as Daniel does, or until he decides to take it down. It's not going anywhere."

"There's no other way to destroy it?" pressed Ishiyama, looking to the ghosts on the council. The other ghosts.

It had recently reached her ears, courtesy of certain ghosts and trial attendees, that Vlad Masters might not be entirely human. She wasn't sure how much faith to put in them. Masters had been in Amity Park for much of the time the trial was occurring, and it wasn't unheard of for ghosts to be able to take on the appearance of someone else.

Then again, there was the example of Danny… of Phantom.

If one person was like that, what prevented there from being another? Especially given that Vlad Masters knew the Fentons from college. Whatever had happened to Danny could have easily happened to him.

But they couldn't confront him about it, didn't dare. Even with the ghost traders and the accelerated plant growth, they needed his resources. He hadn't revealed how he had been getting things through the increasingly heavy military presence around the shield, including himself, and he'd obviously tried to be subtle about it, but he had to get supplies into circulation somehow, and people talked.

"I suppose," said Vlad, "a sufficiently forceful ectoplasmic assault could break or crack it. As we had a missile dropped on us, I can't imagine any purely physical force would suffice. Otherwise, the only way to disable it would be to severely injure Daniel – and I'm not sure that would have an immediate effect."

"There's not much chance of that happening," said Mr. Holiday. "He should be quite safe where he is in the Ghost Zone."

Ishiyama nodded and decided not to ask for clarification. She had a hard enough time wrapping her head around Danny Fenton being Phantom, let alone the Ghost King. Or prince. All of his communications had been rather insistent on him being prince, rather than king.

She would just have to trust that none of the ghosts particularly wanted to assassinate him, because there was nothing she could do to influence Danny's wellbeing. Whether or not the shield failed from that end was well and truly out of her hands.

"Right," she said, finally. "Let's move on to other topics…"

.

.

.

Danny's hand still felt weird and wet, but apparently that was part of the charm of the ceremony, a reminder of what it meant, of what it changed. Nothing to worry about.

Jokes on them. Danny worried about everything.

Especially his younger siblings, for whom a party of this magnitude was a first. He was less worried about Ellie, she was well-traveled, but Damien and Dmitri were not.

Dmitri had only been fully formed for a month, which was way too short a time to be subjected to this sort of chaos, even if he was in a sort of 'limited chaos, VIPs only' sort of area. But then, Dmitri had also latched on to Sojourn (first with his teeth, then more socially), so he wanted to go with Sojourn when the diplomatic party to the US left, which meant that Dmitri desperately needed the practice.

Danny took a pause between two groups of exalted dignitaries (They were getting into religious figures, now. The last one had been a former pope who wanted Danny's help funding an expedition to find capital-G-God.) to look back at his immediate friends and family.

His eyes skimmed past Fright Knight, standing loyally and patiently at his shoulder, and the other Ancients. They landed briefly on Dora and Sydney, who were attempting to teach each other dances that were popular in their respective times. Dan was having a glaring contest with one of the many wisps that swarmed the island – Danny was pretty sure he saw Bells-at-Dawn, leader of the Amity Wisps, and Oboe-Strings-Two-Blues, leader of the Refuge wisps, among them – for some reason (one that was destined to be a draw, because wisps didn't have eyes and Dan didn't need to blink). Ellie and Pandora were drinking something that was probably watered-down wine (Pandora was Greek, after all; Danny just hoped Ellie wouldn't drink too much). Damien, Jazz, Dmitri, and Sojourn were in a little cluster together, near the side of the island, pointing at things down below.

Both were in ghost form. Damien looked excited and enthusiastic. Dmitri was holding tightly to Sojourn's arm and looked somewhat spooked.

(Danny couldn't resist the pun. Sue him.)

Dmitri and Damien could have probably been confused with one another from a distance, but Dmitri was both shorter and less skinny, even when in his full-size form. He was also greener. His hair and skin both had a distinct tint to them that might have been written off as a result of the ambient ectoplasmic glow but wasn't.

Up close… Well, Dmitri was missing an eye and Damien wasn't, so that would probably prevent most confusion.

In human form, Dmitri looked a lot like Jazz. His hair was red, and his eye color was just a little closer to hers than Danny's.

(Danny had to wonder if Vlad had tried to sneak some extra DNA into Dmitri's makeup, possibly as a stabilizing agent. He might have to find out, eventually, if only for the sake of Dmitri's health, but he really did not want to know.)

Deciding everything was fine, Danny returned to the never-ending line of dignitaries.

(And immediately regretted it.)

.

.

.

"Okay," said Danny, finally settling down next to Clockwork. Fright Knight was now chasing off the other important people who wanted to meet him, citing Danny's fatigue. "Hi."

"Hello, Daniel."

"That was certainly something."

"It always is," agreed Clockwork. "Yours went much better than Pariah's if it means anything to you."

"It did?"

"Indeed."

"Cool," said Danny. "So, the weird not-water water." He waved his hand, which no longer felt very wet, but still felt sort of wet. "What's up with that?"

"Ah, it's a bit of a test," said Clockwork. "Part of an augury, of sorts."

"Isn't that kind of redundant, seeing that you exist and all?"

"Mm. Somewhat, I suppose. But, to answer your question, once the King, or Prince, in your case, accepts the Ring and the Ring takes its name and forging in full, there are three options for how the ceremony can end. The first is that the King rides out the pain of the forging. The second is that the King removes the Ring. The third is what you did, dousing the Ring in the water or the well."

"I suppose the other ways are bad omens?"

"Not quite. They are more considered indicators of the personality of the King. Those that endure the pain are strong and stout of will. Those who remove it are quick to identify threats and react. Those who douse the ring are clever and willing to take risks. The way the water from that particular well stays is a sign for those who were not present at the actual Ceremony, or those who could not see the Ceremony directly. There was quite a crowd, after all."

Danny laughed nervously and looked down at the crowd that was still there. "I'm kind of dreading when you guys get around to planning out the 'official' coronation party, after all of this. This is kind of… big."

Clockwork hummed, the noise almost edging into a purr. "It won't be so terrible, Daniel. After all, we really are rushing through these celebrations. The official coronation will have more structure. You won't be swarmed by so many people. You might even be able to use it as a diplomatic event."

"What, you mean, like, invite the president over? Or the president of China? Or the Queen of Britain? I kind of feel like they'll reject invitations to the afterlife."

"Perhaps. But they may choose to send representatives. In any case, there are Realms here with which you are not well acquainted, such as the Burning Lands and the Exalted East."

"That's true," admitted Danny. He'd never even heard of the Exalted East.

"You should probably think about spending some time in the Drowned Quarter, as well. No one reasonably would expect you to linger in the Burning Lands – your core temperature would make the experience extremely uncomfortable – but other places may start sending you invitations."

"Yeah," said Danny, remembering the pile of letters on his desk in his room. "I think some of them have already. I can't really go, though. Even this is an exception." He waved his hand at the party. "I promised Libra I'd stay until the GIW trials were over." He sighed. "It's taking forever just to debate whether or not I should be able to use them in a prisoner exchange."

"I'm sure it will work out," said Clockwork, reassuringly.

"Are you just saying that, or can you see it?" asked Danny.

Clockwork, true to form, shrugged.