Because you guys have been asking for it, here's the latest chapter. Danny and Sabrina are about face their biggest challenge yet as the king of ghost finally makes his appearance.

Chapter 8: The Ghost King Cometh: Part 1

After narrowly escaping the behemoth upon entering the Ghost Zone and with the Skeleton Key in hand, Vlad makes his way towards a large red castle. With a wide malicious grin on his face, he flies through corridor after corridor until he finally arrives at the throne room, filled with antiques and a sarcophagus where the throne should be.

"Ah, here we are, Pariah's keep. Home of the Fright Knight and before that, the Ghost King himself." Plasmius takes the key and sticks it into a skull where its nose would be. A purple sphere nearby begins to vanish, dropping a ring that was inside. The ring drops onto Vlad's hand. "And I Vlad Plasmius now have his power in the palm of my hand."

He puts the ring on his right ring finger and raises his fist in the air…only to have the ring generate a small spark.

Vlad frowns, "Oh, that's right. The Ring of Rage only works if you're wearing the Crown of Fire." He then looks over at the sarcophagus and puts the Skeleton Key inside the keyhole. Upon turning the key, the eyes on the sarcophagus begins to glow and it opens. "Separately, the ring and the crown are nothing, but together, it unleashes power beyond your wildest dreams."

Once the coffin was fully open, a large figure emerges. This ghost had long glowing green hair, an eyepatch on his pale, scarred face, a helmet with a broken horn on his right side and his wearing what looks to be medieval armor. Upon seeing the new ghost, Plasmius now has a look on his face that says, "I screwed up, didn't I?"

"WHO DARES?" the newly freed ghost bellows.

Vlad decides to suck up to the ghost, "Um, hello, Plasmius, Vlad Plasmius. Can I say that I am a huge fan of your work?"

The ghost sees through this and narrows his eyes at Plasmius.

Seconds later, the roof to the castle explodes and the halfa is seen flying out of it.

The mysterious ghost walks over to a skeleton, holding a large pumpkin with a sword sticking out of it and he pulls the embedded weapon out. The pumpkin also explodes, and a ghost in dark armor and a purple cape emerges from the smoke.

"THE FRIGHT KNIGHT LIVES," the armored ghost shouts.

Suddenly, the sword that was previously embedded in the pumpkin is thrown against a pillar beside him.

"…To serve me," the larger ghost finishes.

The Fright Knight's eyes go wide upon seeing the other ghost and he begins to bow, "King Pariah, y…you're up."

"Yes," Pariah responds. "And perhaps I should remind you, and the intruder, who really rules this place."

Meanwhile, outside of the castle, Vlad had just recovered from the assault from earlier. He whispers to himself, "I've got to get out of here before he…"

But then Pariah appears right in front of him.

"…Finds me."

The Ghost King grabs Vlad, "You have freed me from my sarcophagus, and thus awoken me from the forever sleep." However, after taking one look at Plasmius' freed arm, he notices the Ring of Rage is missing. "YOU'RE NOT THE ONE WHO WOKE ME. YOU'RE A DUPLICATE."

The fake Vlad disappears.

Pariah begins to look around for the real one, "So where…"

But before he could finish, he realizes that he may still be in the castle. And, of course, he was. Vlad is now conversing with the Fright Knight, who is yanking his sword out of the pillar.

"Oh, surely we can make some sort of deal."

This gets the knight's attention, "A deal you say?"

Unfortunately, their conversation comes to an end when Pariah fires a massive ecto-blast in the halfa's direction.

"Call me, we'll talk," he says to the Fright Knight as he makes his escape.

Unfortunately, he didn't make it far as Pariah fires one more ecto-blast that hits Vlad directly. Plasmius is now flying through the Ghost Zone, reverting back to his human form as he does so.

At the Fenton residence, Jack and Maddie are in the lab testing out a part of their "still in devolpment" battle suit. After plugging in the mechanical pants, Maddie presses the button on the waistband and the pants begin to jog in place.

"Excellent," says Jack. "The Fenton Pants are fully operational. Our Ecto-Skeleton is going to kick some serious ghost butt when it's finally completed."

"But the interface is still a tad glitchy honey," Maddie says as she inspects the pants. "We have to work out the kinks before…"

But before she could even finish, the Ghost Portal opens and Vlad is hurled out of it. He lies on the ground unconscious in front of his former colleagues, face covered in bruises and his suit in tatters.

"Oh my God," Maddie says with a shocked look on her face. "Vlad?"

Meanwhile, at Casper High, Danny and Tucker are walking down the hall to their next class.

"You should have called me man," says Tucker. "I could have helped you out against Technus last night so you would have had time to finish your paper."

"He wasn't that much of a hassle," says Danny. "Besides, I already got it done in time to turn it in today. So it's no big deal. Feel bad about the electronics store that got trashed during the fight."

Tucker now scowls, "You should, you know how much I love to shop there."

Danny just chuckles.

The two boys pass through a random male student putting a flyer on the bulletin board. As the student leaves, Danny takes a closer look and sees that it is an announcement for this year's upcoming school dance. Tucker also sees this and turns to his friend.

Upon seeing the look of intrigue on his face, he says, "Oh no, don't tell me you're thinking about going. Remember what happened last year?"

The halfa remembers it not so fondly. He finally got a shot at taking Paulina to the dance, and as a gift, gave her an amulet…and then said amulet ended up being enchanted, with the power to turn anyone who wears it into a dragon. It was all crazy town banana pants from there.

"Yeah, I remember," Danny finally answers. "But…I feel like things will be different this time."

"What, you're gonna ask Paulina out again and hope that things don't go crazy?"

"Actually, I wasn't planning on taking Paulina this year," says Danny. His face now turns beet red. "I…I was thinking about asking Sabrina."

Tucker's face now has a look of surprise, "YOU'RE TAKING SABRINA TO THE DANCE?"

The halfa immediately covers his friend's mouth. However, everyone in the hallway stopped what they were doing and looked in Danny and Tucker's direction.

Danny gives out a nervous smile, "Heh, heh, nothing to see here folks. It's just Tucker shouting out weird things as usual."

The students present all bought it and went back to their usual activities.

Danny removes his hand from Tucker's mouth and scowls, "Jeez, why don't you shout it out to the rooftops while you're at it."

"I'm sorry it's just…wow. I was NOT expecting the words that came out of your mouth just now."

Danny doesn't say anything. He just scratches the back of his head in a nervous fashion and looks away.

"So…why Sabrina of all people? Uh, no offense of course."

Danny lowers his head, "When I first got my powers, right from the get-go, I knew my days of living a normal life were over. The moment I realized I could fly, walk through walls and turn invisible, I was going to be different from everyone else…and it scared me. I kept thinking, "What would happen if people besides my best friends find out what I can do?" It's bad enough people see me as a loser, I don't want to be seen as a freak on top of that. I know I have you and Sam by my side, and you guys support me no matter what, but those insecurities I have always have a way of creeping back up. But then Sabrina came to town. I mean, when we started hanging out, I was already attracted to her. She's funny, down to earth, and so lively. And then the whole thing with Vlad happens and we learn each other's secrets. That was when I realized…Sabrina's just like me. Granted, she's had her magic WAY longer than I had my ghost powers, but she had to deal with the same issues I had to deal with. We both want to use our "special talents" to help people, but we keep what we do a secret because we still want to be able to fit in and be normal. Sabrina and I have SO much in common it's insane. That night at the hospital was a huge turning point for me. That was when I finally started to realize that I was falling for her. When Salem told me that Spectra got a hold of her, and was trying to siphon off her magic, and that by doing that Sabrina would die, for the first time I felt something I had never felt throughout my entire year fighting ghosts…I was afraid. I was afraid that I was going to lose the one person who truly understands me. I was going to lose this amazing, wonderful girl who has such a kind heart, with the most beautiful smile that could light up any room, and an adorable laugh to go with it. And I think Spectra knew that too, which is why she kept taunting me about how she was going to make me watch as she drains Sabrina of her magic, feeding off of my fear and anger as we fought. So yeah, I'm in love with Sabrina Spellman, I will happily admit that until the day I'm fully dead. But you know what REALLY scares me Tuck? I don't know if she feels the same way."

After hearing his friend, pour his heart out from out of the blue, Tucker begins to take in everything he had just said.

After some silence, the tech geek finally spoke, "Wow…and you've been holding all of that in for an entire month?"

Danny nods.

Tucker also nods and then shrugs, "Well hey, if you really feel that way about her, I say go for it."

This surprises the halfa, "So that's it? Just like that I just…ask her to the dance."

The tech geek smirks, "Danny, take it from a ladies man such as myself. There's a strong possibility that Sabrina has it in for you too. You think I haven't seen the way you two look at each other?"

Danny crosses his arms, "The fact that you see yourself as a ladies man makes it hard for me to believe that possibility."

"Hey, we're talking about you right now, not me. But you're right about one thing, you and Sabrina have a lot in common. Both of you got some freaky stuff going on, and you both are so concerned about what other people think of you. But I'm telling you man, the girl is into you. She think I didn't notice, but I be seeing her stealing glances at you during chemistry."

Danny looks to the side and blushes, "Well, now that I think about it, after we were done visiting you at the hospital a few weeks back, she did give me a small pep talk that I shouldn't let Spectra get to me…and she kissed me." Then the halfa immediately looks back at his friend, "On the cheek of course. But I just thought it was her way of saying thanks for saving her life."

Tucker shook his head, "If she wanted to thank you, she could have just said it. Look Danny, whatever feelings you have for Sabrina, I can guarantee you that the feeling is 100% mutual."

"…You really think so?"

"Well there's only one way to find out right?"

"And if she says no?"

"She won't, you're a great guy Danny. She would be crazy to reject someone like you."

After a few seconds of silence, Danny finally smiles, "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to see if she's at least interested in going."

"Taking baby steps I see. Smart."

"Thanks for listening Tucker, you're the best," Danny says with a smile as the two boys bro fist.

"If things don't work out, it's her loss, not yours," says Tucker.

Meanwhile, Sabrina and Valerie are also walking down the hall on the upper floor of the school and Valerie sees the flyers as well.

She turns to the platinum blonde, "So, you hear about the dance coming up?"

Sabrina smiles and rolls her eyes, "I'm pretty sure I got the hint from all the flyers on the walls and lockers."

"So are you gonna go?"

"I don't really have anyone to go with."

Valerie smirks, "Not yet anyway. You'll probably change your mind once Danny gets the courage to ask you."

The half-witch stops in her tracks and looks at her friend with wide eyes, "W…Why do you think Danny would want to take me to the dance? We're…just friends."

Now it was Valerie's turn to roll her eyes, "Come on honey, you think I didn't notice all the vibes you two have been giving out whenever you're both within a five mile radius from each other? And it's so obvious too, I'm sure the whole school can see it."

Sabrina tries to say something that would change the subject, but nothing was coming up. She then lowers her head in defeat, "You know something Val? I think you're right. I think I do have feelings for him. When I first moved here, I was kinda nervous. I was afraid of what people would think about me when they first see me. What if they didn't like me? What if everyone in this school thought I was some weirdo? But then I met Danny. Right off the bat, he was the nicest, most caring person I've ever met. Ever since he helped me out at the Nasty Burger, I wanted to learn more about him. And when I did, I realize that he and I have a lot more in common than I thought. We just…get each other you know?"

Valerie still smiles, "And it took you a whole month to finally realize that?"

Sabrina glares at her, "Don't judge me."

The former A-lister puts her hands up in defense, "Girl, nobody's judging you. And you shouldn't feel ashamed about how you feel. Danny is a great guy. To be honest, I wish all the girls in this school see him the way you do. Do yourself a favor and act on those feelings. No use just standing there twiddling your thumbs."

After some silence, Sabrina begins to say, "But what if…"

"What if he doesn't feel the same way? Believe me when I say that he does. You said it yourself, you two get each other…whatever that means. And Danny is the kind of guy who melts whenever a pretty girl is put in front of him. And honey, you are beauty personified. You probably had him mesmerized the moment you walked into Lancer's homeroom for the first time."

Sabrina looks in the opposite direction, nervously holding her left arm as she does so, "Well…I guess I could see if he's interested in going to the dance."

Valerie shrugs, "It's a start. You're getting nowhere just waiting around. Lord knows he ain't waiting for you."

The half-witch chuckles and turns to her friend, "Thanks for hearing me out Val."

"No problem, just go and get your man…or I may have to steal him from you." With a wink Valerie walks away.

As she is leaving, Sabrina's smile then turns to confusion. "Wait…what do you mean by that?"

Once school had ended for the day, Danny decided to just head on home. Sabrina was able to catch up with him and the two are now walking home together. As the halfa is strolling through the neighborhood with the half-witch in tow, he begins to strategize in his head how he is going to approach asking her to the dance, thinking what would be the right thing to say.

"Hey Sabrina, I hear the school dance is coming up. I was wondering if you and I could go together…No that sounds a little too forceful…So Sabrina, are you interested in going to the school dance with me? *sigh* Why is this so hard? I didn't have a problem asking Paulina out numerous times, so clearly I can handle being rejected. But then again, I didn't have to worry about friendships being on the line. One thing's for sure, when I do figure out the right way to ask Sabrina, I hope to God my pants don't become intangible and fall down on me. That would be bad for both of us."

Sabrina eventually makes him lose his train of thought, "Danny?"

Danny looks over to his friend, "Yeah?"

"Are you okay? You've been awfully quiet ever since we left the school."

Thinking quickly, he finally responds, "Sorry, it's just…Lancer sure likes to bombard us with a lot of homework huh?"

Sabrina chuckles, "Yeah, no kidding." Then she blushes. "If it makes you feel any better, maybe I can come over and we can tackle it together. I can do more than just help you fight ghosts you know."

Danny smiles, "Sure, why not? I gotta warn you though, homework is hands down my most dangerous foe yet."

Sabrina laughs, "I'm pretty sure it's every 15 year old's dangerous foe."

The two teens finally approach the Fenton residence, but when Danny opens the door, he is greeted with his parents and Jazz in the living room, taking care of a man who is sitting on their couch…That man being Vlad Masters. Vlad is covered in a blanket and is playing chess with Jack. Jazz is reading book while Maddie is pouring some hot tea into the older halfa's tea cup.

Sabrina is seeing all of this and thought, "Aw man, seriously? This tool again?"

Upon seeing Danny, Vlad greets him, "Well hello Daniel."

Danny walks towards him with a scowl on his face, "What are you doing here?"

Maddie, with a similar scowl on her face, looks at Vlad and says, "That's what I'd like to know."

Vlad shrugs, "Well I was just passing by, and I notice that neat suit of armor you have in your lab. So I figured I'd take it and use it to kill your father."

Everyone looks at the older halfa in shock for several seconds, until he and Jack start laughing, with the ghost hunter/father thinking his old friend is just joking around.

Jack, Maddie and Jazz all leave the room leaving Danny, Sabrina and Vlad alone in the living room. Vlad has an evil smirk while the two teens are staring daggers at him.

Danny was the first to speak, "I don't know what you're planning Plasmius…"

"Danny," Sabrina interrupts, with a deadpanned look on her face. "He just told us."

"Oh, right."

"That's right," says Vlad. "And if any of you brats spill the beans, I won't hesitate to tell everyone YOUR secrets."

Sabrina's eyes go wide, "You know that I'm…"

"I do," Vlad confirms. He then walks towards the platinum blonde and takes out his hand. "It's nice to finally meet you face to face Sabrina, I don't think we've been properly introduced…"

Sabrina conjures up her wand, "Come any closer and people will start asking why there's suddenly a ficus tree in the middle of the living room."

Vlad retracts his hand and grins, "Ooh, I like her. You've picked a good one my boy."

Before the conversation could continue any further, there was a sudden alarm-esque sound coming from a bust resembling Jack. The rest of the Fenton family run back into the living room and Jack flips the head of the bust open, revealing a button. Upon pressing the button, a small portrait on the wall becomes a radar detecting ghostly activity.

"It's the Ecto-exodus alarm," the pudgy ghost hunter announces.

"The ecto-what?" Sabrina asks.

"The Ecto-exodus alarm," Maddie explains. "It's an alarm we set up to detect the mother of all paranormal threats…we're talking a massive ghost invasion."

Sabrina looks back at the screen and sees hundreds, if not thousands, of ghosts being detected and are headed towards the Fenton Portal. The half-witch looks over at Danny, "I take it this isn't something that happens regularly."

The halfa shakes his head, "I need to get to the lab."

"Go, I'll cover for you and catch up later."

"Thanks."

Unknown to the two of them, Jazz is watching the two younger teens whispering to each other.

"Okay, so she knows," she thought to herself. Then she smiles. "And it seems like she still accepted him. Maybe there's some hope for you yet little brother."She then sees Danny make a beeline to the lab.

Jack and Maddie were about to follow suit, but with a wave of her hand, Sabrina made Jack trip and fall flat on his face.

Meanwhile Jazz throws her book on the ground and slides it in front of Maddie, making her trip as well. "Oops," the elder Fenton sibling says nonchalantly.

Sabrina turns to Jazz with a look of suspicion, with the older girl just shrugging.

"She can't possibly…No, that's absurd."

As all of this is happening, Vlad manages to slink away and he leaves the Fenton household without anyone noticing.

Danny arrives at the lab, and immediately "goes ghost" in front of the portal. He gets into a fighting stance, ready for the army of uninvited guests to finally show up. However, instead of an army…

"BEWARE."

The Box Ghost jumps out of the portal.

Danny lowers his guard upon seeing him and laughs, "Really? If he's the big threat then…"

Suddenly, a laser is shot out of the portal, hitting the halfa in the chest. As Danny lands on his back, he sees Skulker also emerging.

"Yeah, okay, that's more like it."

The bounty hunter looks back at the portal, "I told you there was a way out from here."

Soon other ghosts, including villains Danny has fought in the past, are all coming out and exiting the lab.

The halfa uses this distraction to his advantage and grabs Skulker by the leg and drags him outside as well. He throws him and now the two ghosts are floating in mid-air. Danny was about to throw a punch when a giant hand with claws stops him. He looks up and sees that the hand belongs to Princess Dorthea in her dragon form, with Sydney Pointdexter riding on her back.

"I know this sounds a little fishy, but Skulker isn't the bully here," says the nerd.

Danny is now confused, "What are you talking about?"

As the dragon let's go of the halfa, Skulker was next to speak, "What we are doing is none of your business Whelp." He then grins. "But since we're out here…"

A majority of the ghosts who are still present begin to surround Danny. As the halfa prepares himself for the fight of his life, he notices the ghosts are now just standing there.

"I…I can't move," says Ember.

Sabrina finally shows up on her broom, wand in hand, and hovers next to Danny. She looks over at her friend, "Did I miss anything?"

Danny just smiles, "I'm just glad you showed up when you did."

Upon seeing the platinum blonde, all of the ghosts gasp while Sydney yells, "AAAH, A WITCH!"

They now begin to talk among themselves, wondering why a witch is here in Amity Park.

Skulker growls, "That's right, the Whelp has allied himself with a witch."

Ember angrily glances over at the bounty hunter, "and you KNEW ABOUT THIS!?"

Skulker looks back at the rocker nervously, "I…was going to tell you eventually."

"Was that before or after you said, "Hey guys, let's retreat to the human world using the whelp's portal"? Oh man, we are so screwed."

"Hold on a minute," Sabrina cuts in. "Retreating? Retreating from what?"

Ember rolls her eyes, "The Ghost King."

"The Ghost King?" Sabrina repeats. Then it dawns on her what the rocker ghost was talking about and her eyes grew wide in fear, "Oh no, you don't mean…"

"Well I don't see anybody else going by that title. Do you?"

"But…he's been sealed away for centuries. Only the Skeleton Key can free him. How did he get out?"

Ember scoffs, "You're guess is as good as mine freckles."

Meanwhile, Skulker realizes that the young witch's anxiety is weakening the hold she has on him and the other ghosts. So he slowly raises his left arm and fires his wrist laser at the wand.

Sabrina notices her wand getting blasted away, "Hey." She then flies down to grab it.

Realizing that they are now free, the ghosts begin to fly away in different directions.

"Hey, wait," Danny shouts, but the ghosts were already gone.

The halfa soon grounds himself and changes back to his human form. "Great, as if Plasmius wasn't bad enough."

He then sees Sabrina just standing there, her wand in one hand, her broom on the other and with a hunted look in her eyes.

Danny rushes over to his friend with a look of concern, "Hey, are you alright?"

Sabrina doesn't say anything.

This worries the halfa even further. This was just like that night at the abandoned hospital when she was held captive by Spectra. Whenever she's like this, something is troubling her.

It was at this moment that Danny recollects what they were just told, "Ember said something about a "Ghost King". You know what she's talking about?"

Sabrina nods, "I do. First we need to head back to my place. My aunts and I will explain everything there."

Danny nods in understanding. He still has a lot of questions, but he knows all of them will be answered once they reach Sabrina's house.

About a few blocks away, Valerie, who was running errands for her dad, is seeing all of these ghosts fly by. With a worried look in her eyes, she says to herself,

"Whoa, I've never seen so many ghosts flying around like this." Her look of worry now becomes a look of determination, "Somebody's gotta do something about it, and it might as well be me." She runs to a nearby ally with her backpack in hand.

Meanwhile, Vlad sees Valerie walking by and immediately recognizes her as the girl who has a serious grudge against Danny. He had secretly supplied her with some ghost hunting equipment to help on her mission to hunt down the younger halfa. As Vlad continues to watch the girl, an idea springs into his head and he grins mischievously.

Inside the alley, Valerie unzips her backpack and was about to reach for her suit.

"Getting ready to hunt some ghosts are we Valerie?" a random voice asks.

The young ghost hunter turns around and sees Vlad standing there with a smile on his face. "Y…you know me?"

The halfa raises his hands in defense, "Not to worry little one, I'm just here to talk. I'll leave you to put on your suit and when you're done, meet me outside."

As Vlad walks away, Valerie looks on in confusion for a moment, but then does what she is told and pulls out her suit.

And just when Danny and Sabrina are starting to admit their feelings for each other too. Looks like acting on those feelings will have to wait as a massive threat is looming on the horizon. Be here next time as the Spellmans inform Danny on what they're dealing with.

Make sure to leave a comment with your thoughts on the story so far. Until next time...