OMG! Today was so cool! And boring… At school, our grade had an 80's day, so we had to dress like they did in the 80's. (I won some gum for wearing awesome stuff :D) But some of the activities sucked… Still fun though!

I had some time before we go out to eat, so I feel like writing. I've been through this chapter in my head during the boring parts of today. :D

DISCLAIMER: Yah. I've already said this, and I'll say it again. I don't own DP or ROTG.

Phantom Spirit

Chapter 3: Failed Ceremony

"Danny!"

Danny shot around, thinking the girl had just called out his name. But when he turned, he saw it wasn't the dark girl.

"Hey Jack," he called to the floating teen just feet from him, trying to refrain from laughing. "What's so funny?"

"I know I'm against scaring kids," Jack started in between chuckles, "but do you do that a lot? 'Cause that was funny!"

Danny smiled at the complement, flicking his hand to signal the coyote and owl to leave. "Yah, heheh. That kid is really fun to scare."

The winter spirit landed on the floor and put his hands up in a mocking way. "Please! I don't taste good!"

Danny laughed. "Nothing's gonna happen! Just get to Sam's!" he mocked with him.

The boy's laughed for a while. When Danny finally stopped, he asked, "Anyways, why are you here? You can't be spreading snow days. It's not winter yet."

"Yah yah, I know, mom," Jack teased. "I came for you. We need you at the pole."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "The guardians need me? A newbie spirit?" He thought for a moment. "Am I on the Naughty List?"

Jack laughed, feeling like he's heard that before. "After what I just saw, I wouldn't be surprised." The Halloween spirit smirked at his victory in scaring a teen. A gullible teen, yes, but a teen none the less. "That's not the reason we need you though. That you'll have to find out. Come on!"

Jack hopped into the air and took off to the North Pole, Danny not far behind.

X.X.X.X.X

Jack opened the window into North's workshop. "Ladies first," he said with a smirk.

Danny pushed him in before stepping in himself. "Well, it looks like you're a lady then." Jack got off the floor and chuckled before leading him farther in the toy shop. Danny was amazed at the room he was in. A giant globe stood in the middle with handles around it so you won't fall. Yetis ran to and fro, fixing toys and herding elves out of the room. He was about to ask Jack why the elves weren't making the toys, when they passed a few of the little guys. Two of them were rolling the third in fabric, making him an elf burrito.

The raven haired teen smiled at the stupidity of the small people. {I have nothing against small people!}

"Ah! There he is!" Danny looked up from his musing. Sure enough, in a decent sized room, there stood the 4 other guardians, Jack now joining him. On the far left stood a small, golden man that seemed like he could fall asleep at any moment. He seemed to be made of sand, so Danny thought him as the Sandman. Next to him was what looked like a mix between a hummingbird and a woman. She looked very excited to see him, along with the three mini-hers flying beside her head. He thought her as the Tooth Fairy, considering she was the only girl there.

Next to her was the man that had spoken to him in the first place. He was tall and large in dark red suspenders and a red shirt with the sleeves rolled up, reveling two tattoos on both arms. One read "Naughty" and the other "Nice." Just by his white beard, he could tell this was Santa or North as his friends say. Then there was everyone's favorite rabbit. An over-sized, grey bunny with dark grey patterns all across his body. In Danny's eyes, and Jack's, the Easter Bunny had anger issues! Then of course there was Jack.

Danny took a few steps into the room so he was closer to the Big Five. "So," he said, flicking an elf's bell hat as he offered cookies. "Why am I here, exactly?"

"Good question," Bunny mumbled just loud enough for Danny to hear.

"What was that, Kangaroo?"

Bunny rolled his eyes and continued polishing his boomerangs. "Yah heard what I said."

North didn't seem to mind their little argument. "You are here because you are now G-" Danny couldn't hear the rest of his sentence as yetis and elves started blowing into all kinds of horns. An elf had a tiny tuba wrapped around his little body while others had trombones. Yetis held trumpets while two held a pretty big book; a few were even banging on drums. He felt a tug at hid cloak as he was trying to block out the sound. He looked down to some elves holding a red pillow with strange looking red shoes with bells on the tips on top. Another elf pointed at the shoes, then the end of his cloak where his feet were hidden.

Ignoring the elves, he looked around the loud room. Sandy and Tooth looked excited at… whatever this was, while Bunny just leaned against the wall playing with his boomerang. Jack was smiling at him while leaning against his staff.

North took the book from the yetis and tried to find the page. Taking one last look around the room, Danny held two fingers in his mouth and blew.

Nobody seemed to notice his whistle through the entire ruckus, not even Bunny. But Jack noticed the gesture. His eyes widened and he tried to quiet the people in the room, but was a tad too late.

The windows in the room burst open, creating a loud BANG when they hit the wall. Black, smoky looking fog leaked in through the now open windows, rushing around feet like a river. Everyone shushed as the mist flowed past their feet. It all gathered by Danny and started taking shape.

A cougar stood on his right, claws out and teeth bared. On his left stood a stallion, the mane and tail flickering like flames. Trotting around his head was, naturally, Midnight. The last figure was one of his newest shadow animals that didn't yet know when he was calling for him, or stronger animals. It was a little wolf pup named Star, no bigger than his shins. He usually hung around Midnight when she was free or he was bored.

Danny would have smirked at the shocked expressions around the room, had the circumstances been different.

"What the hell was that?" Danny asked.

"What was-?" North stumbled over his words. "What do you mean 'What was that?' That was a ceremony that takes forever!"

"I don't even know what the occasion is!" Danny threw his hands in the air. "Your little orchestra here interrupted before you could finish your sentence!" He snapped his fingers. The cougar dashed to the elves still carrying the pillow and brought back one of the shoes. Danny patted his head and took the shoe. "And what the hell is this?!" He held up the shoe. "Who do you think I am?! Tinkerbell? Another one of your elves?!" He dropped the shoe so Star batted it back towards the elves.

The Guardians stared at the boy, North even let the book fall through his hands in his shock, until Jack face palmed and walked over to Danny. "Yah know, you get more and more like me each day!"

"You're no better, Winter!" Danny said, making Jack stop in his tracks. "You could've told me what to expect! If I'm 'So like you,' than you could have expected I wouldn't like this!"

Bunny shook himself and hopped forward a bit. "See! I told you! He's nuttin' but trouble! He pranks, causes chaos, and scares people! He's like a mixture of Jack and Pitch!"

The cougar jumped forward till it was a foot away from the over-sized bunny, growling as it stalked closer. Bunny yelped and hopped back behind North.

"Never, compare me to Pitch, Kangaroo," Danny all but growled. "Pitch brings fear and nightmares, I scare people."

The Pooka poked his head around North. "I don't see the difference. Does anyone else?"

"Scaring my way is fun for many people. Scaring Pitch's way scars people for life to the point where they are scared to do something."

Jack broke out of his shocked trance and walked closer to his friend. "It's just a Guardian ceremony, Danny. MiM wants you to be a Guardian." Danny stared at him, for it was now his turn to be shocked. "And, I'm sorry for not telling you. Guess this wasn't the way I'd thought you'd react."

They sat in silence for a few moments, Danny still staring off into space. His eyes widened when he realized what was going on. "Oh… Uh, heheh." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Sorry I overreacted there a bit…" He clicked his tongue twice and the horse and cougar melted to the floor, the mist flowing out the window.

North clapped his hands together. "Good! Now that that was settled, let's get back t-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, grandpa!" Danny said. "Just because we figured this all out, doesn't mean I want to be a Guardian!"

"So… You don't?" Tooth asked, floating forward a bit.

The Halloween spirit thought for a moment. He'd be protecting people who couldn't even see him. He'd be riding the world of threats to beings who didn't even know he existed. To people who wouldn't repay him or be grateful to him…

"I just don't want this huge celebration… I'll think on it, okay?"

The Big Five looked at each other, sharing a silent conversation. Jack looked back to Danny. "Fine. We'll talk about this later."

Danny sighed. "Thanks." A green blob phased through the ceiling and up to the teen. "Oh! Sorry guys," he said, looking back to the others in the room. "I got some work to do. Halloween's coming up soon so… yah. Bye!" He looked back at the ghost and started to float up, whispering, "I told you! You go to Montana!" before phasing through the ceiling with the ghost and Star and Midnight.

XD That was fun. Hope the wolf pup satisfied a few of you. I know one requested the wolf puppy, and at least one preferred a wolf to the coyote last chapter. I would have, but I want Danny to have one of each animal (Almost at least. I don't know ALL the animals in the world :D).

So review, follow, favorite, all that good stuff. God, I feel like I'm forgetting to mention something… I'm gonna be thinking of this all night…

~BloodBlossom88