Author's Note: I own nothing!

22 Ripped From Reality

"The sword is sunk, your die now cast!" The Fright Knight was addressing Plasmius. He was the only one still standing, though Dani was pulling herself to her feet. She knew she'd be nursing a sore back for a while. "The sword removed, shall signal fast! Make reappear the ring thou hast, or this next day shall be your last!" He snarled out his ultimatum before vanishing in a swirl of acrid green smoke. The remaining skeletons had fallen completely still, like statues. Dani swore, sinking into the ground as the people overlooking the field began to get to their feet. Vlad followed suit, vanishing from sight.

Vince groaned, glancing around. He was alone for now, though the sound of footsteps nearby told him that it wouldn't stay that way for long. He retracted his suit and lay in the stands for another minute. He was sore everywhere. He'd twisted his ankle and banged his head against the metal stands when he'd been thrown through the air. He blinked as a closer set of footsteps raced up the stands. A head of black hair hovered over him before Dani Fenton came into focus.

"Vince are you ok?" She asked reaching out a hand to him. He frowned, but took her hand.

"Well, you're blurry but yeah I think so." Dani pulled him to his feet and slung his arm over her shoulder. She was stronger than he'd ever given her credit for. Everything happened pretty fast after that. The next thing he knew he was sitting on an unfamiliar bed, his father next to him. There was a nurse here too, checking him over. He had a mild concussion and a lot of bruising but nothing major. He frowned at his father.

"Where are we?" He asked. His father nodded.

"You did sort of pass out on the way over here. We're at Fenton Works. The city's cut off from Elmerton, and anything else so a bunch of people have offered to house those of us who live outside city limits for as long as needed." There was a tap on the door. In the doorway stood Dani Fenton. She looked a little grim.

"Sorry to interrupt."

"Not at all." Damon said with a slight smile. Vince was glad that his father liked Dani. She smiled lightly at him before turning back to Damon.

"You're an engineer right?"

"I am."

"Mom and dad are having problems figuring out how to expand the ghost shield and work on the suit, they are looking for people who can maybe help." Dani said stepping all the way into the room. Damon nodded.

"Not a bad idea. I'll go see if I can help them out." Damon said rising and leaving the room. Vince sat up wincing slightly.

"What's going on outside?" He asked as Dani perched on the edge of the bed.

"Of the dome? No idea. A few teams from the police have been trying to force their way through but no luck so far. We can't reach anyone outside by normal means of communication either. We don't know if anyone knows what's going on or not. Outside the house? Surprisingly not much. All of the skeletons just stopped moving when the shield went up. They'll attack if provoked, but otherwise, nothing. It's like they're waiting on something." Dani shook her head.

"What are we doing about it?" Vince asked his hand coming up to rub his head which was still aching. Dani's eyes locked on the ring resting on his finger.

"Where did you get that?" She asked, seeming to have not heard his question. He shrugged.

"Family heirloom." He felt bad lying to Dani. "What are we doing about the ghosts?" He asked again and Dani shook her head.

"Mom and dad are working on a solution, but we need to figure out which ghost is behind this." That was only half a lie. Dani already knew who was behind this. Sam and Tanya were in Sam's greenhouse trying to find a pumpkin big enough to house the sword. Dani had a bad feeling there was more to this madness than just the Fright Knight though. She already knew that the ghost king was out and about now, but she wasn't exactly sure what that would mean for Amity. From what Wynona and the others had said the Ghost King wasn't exactly friendly. "Hopefully they can get the shield expanded soon. For now the police have released a statement advising everyone to stay inside. Not much else we can do." She said as the nurse from earlier entered the room.

"Hello Vincent, I'm Angelica Foley. I'm a nurse at Amity Hospital. You seem to be doing pretty well. You've got mild concussion though, so I'm going to be checking on you every hour or so." She said and Vince nodded. Dani stood.

"You haven't seen Vlad have you Mrs. Foley?" She asked and Angelica nodded.

"He was in the living room last I saw him."

"Cool, I need to go talk to him. I'll check back in in a bit Vince." She left before he could ask what she wanted to talk to Vlad about.

Dev frowned. He was at the school, trying to figure out the source of the shield that was holding the town captive. It hadn't been hard to find. Everyone had seen the initial blast go up, though most everyone was staying inside as per the orders from City Hall. Not everyone was though. Kyle handed Dev a cup of coffee, if one could call it that it was basically caffeine filled tar, purloined from the currently abandoned teacher lounge. But for now it would do.

"So what do we know?" Kyle asked sipping from his mug and pulling a face at the flavor of the sludge in the cup.

"Know is a strong word. We figure the sword is what's causing it. But we're not sure we can remove it." Dev explained swirling the contents of his cup. "Sie and a few others are at the shield itself, trying to force though. They broke two bulldozers already. We need to figure out how to bring the shield down from here. But I don't know how." Dev finished taking a reluctant swig of the coffee. Kyle shook his head and opened his mouth to speak. Before he could a blast of wind sailed past them and a boom sounded across the football field. Dev pulled Kyle behind him as the two of them ducked behind the stands. Peering around the stands Dev spotted Dani Phantom facing off against a ghost he didn't recognize. The best word he had for this ghost was vampiric. Neither of them looked particularly happy.

"Literally all of this is your fault! You woke up the Ghost King to steal his powers. And now you can't admit that you fucked up! And worst of all you dropped all your fuck ups on my doorstep! You're literally using my friend to hide your mistakes until its safe for you to steal it back!" She was shouting at the ghost.

"Danielle."

"Don't you 'Danielle' me Vlad! You are the biggest asshole I've ever fucking met!" She struck out at him, sending him flying into the sword embedded in the ground. The force of the ghost, Vlad, slamming into the sword sent the sword falling to the ground, a small amount of dirt flying into the air as both crashed to the ground.

"Danielle what have you done?" Vlad said pulling himself to his feet. "You little fool, the sword is a signal!"

"A signal of what!" The ground shook as Dani spoke. A sound like shattering glass filled the air and everyone present looked around for what might be causing it. The noise grew louder before any of them thought to look up. The bright red dome around Amity Park was shattering but as the pieces came crashing to the ground, shattering into red dust the sky beyond was not the regular blue or even dark black of night. Instead it swirled in shades of green. Doors were visible floating here and there. A voice boomed across the field as a figure swirled into existence from a plume of bright red flames.

"Of surrender!" The figure was gigantic. He stood at least eight feet tall, wearing head to toe black armor. His skin was bone white and his single eye gleamed green as he looked down on the two ghosts in front of him. Kyle grabbed Dev's hand.

"We need to go." He whispered directly in Dev's ear. Screams were already echoing from the town and the skeletal soldiers were starting to move again. Two screams echoed from the football field. Dev turned back and his heart dropped. The eight foot tall man's eye was smoking and he stood over, not Phantom and the other ghost but Dani Fenton and a man Dev didn't recognize. Both were smoking slightly and looked to be out cold. The giant man picked them both up in one hand laughing lightly.

"They're ghosts and human? How quaint!"

"Fuck." Dev breathed. He tightened his grip on Kyle's hand as a green shield bloomed from the middle of town. He recognized it too, it was the Fenton's ghost shield and it was spreading over the town. If they could get under it they'd be safe. It wasn't going to be easy though.