The penultimate chapter is finally here. Our heroes...and Vlad Plasmius were able to ward off the Fright Knight's forces for the time being, but the right hand man of the Ghost King has put a barrier over Amity Park, isolating it from the outside world.
The Ghost King Cometh: Part 3
A brown haired, twenty something year old man in a dark blue robe rushes through the halls of a large castle located in the netherworld. Completely gassed, he makes it to his destination, which is a large door that led to a room full of middle aged to elderly women, in purple robes, sitting at a massive round table.
"What is the meaning if this?" a dark haired woman with a white streak across her bangs says as she gets up from her seat. "We are in the middle of a meeting."
"I apologize for barging in head councilwoman," the man explains himself. "But I come with some awful news."
"And what is this "awful news" you speak of?" asks the head councilwoman.
"It's Pariah Dark madam. He has been awakened from his eternal slumber."
The witches begin to look shocked.
"Pariah Dark is free?" asks a strawberry blonde councilwoman.
"Impossible, the only way for him to be awakened is with the Skeleton Key," an elderly councilwoman adds.
"Are you saying someone found it and used it to unlock the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep?" asks a brown haired witch.
Then another elderly witch asks, "What fool would do such a thing, and why?"
"The identity of the perpetrator remains unknown," the man answers.
"Where is Pariah now?" asks the head councilwoman.
"My sources say he remains isolated in his castle, however…" The man pulls out a crystal ball from his robe. "His right hand man, the Fright Knight, was last seen terrorizing the mortal world with an army of soldiers about an hour ago. In a small town called Amity Park."
The crystal ball shows an image of Amity Park being surrounded by an ecto-barrier.
The head council woman sees the situation with a look of fear, "Call in every powerful witch and warlock in existence and tell them to report here immediately. Tell them it's code omega"
"Yes ma'am," the man says as he puts the crystal ball away and leaves the room.
Once he was gone a red haired councilwoman says, "If I could make a suggestion, the last time we fought the Ghost King, we needed the help of the ghosts in order to defeat him. Perhaps we should call upon their aid once again."
The head councilwoman sighs, "We could do that, but our ancestors had to do a lot of convincing in order to get the ghosts on our side. I do believe asking for their help now would be even harder than ever before. We'll have to come up with another plan."
Back at the Fenton residence, Sam, Tucker and Salem are watching a news report on the massive dome blocking the entire town from the outside world. Authorities have attempted to break through the barrier, but their efforts were futile. Downstairs at the lab, Vlad, Maddie and Jack are hard at work with finishing the Ecto-Skeleton.
"This suit is our only hope in breaking through that barrier," says Maddie. "But no one will be able to operate it safely unless we fix the neural receptors."
"Which is why I volunteer to wear the suit," says Jack, who has an ice pack on his head. "If anyone is going to send that ghost back into the Ghost Zone it's me." The ghost hunter/father gets up from his chair but immediately sits back down due to exhaustion.
"Are you crazy Jack?" says Maddie. "It nearly killed you the last time. Just take it easy until we work out the Ecto-Skeleton's kinks."
Danny looks over at Vlad and smirks, "It really grinds your gears doesn't it? How much they love each other?"
Sabrina snickers.
"I have other things to worry about," Vlad says with a scowl. "And so do you."
As Jack walks by, Vlad puts his foot out in front of his former friend, forcing him to trip and fall to the floor.
"And yet I will always have time for that." He then says with a smile as he walks away.
"That slimy…" Sabrina says through gritted teeth. She was about to summon her wand when Danny stops her by putting his hand on his shoulder.
"As much I hate to admit it, he's right," says the halfa. "We have bigger things to worry about. But we'll get our chance, you can count on it."
The young witch nods.
Deciding to leave the adults to their work, Danny, Sabrina and Valerie go upstairs to meet up with the others.
Once they arrive at the living room, Sabrina looks over at Valarie, "How are you feeling?"
Valarie looks down at herself, "It's weird, not too long ago I felt like I just got hit by a freight train. But now, I feel great, like all that pain went away in an instant. Still a little exhausted though..."
Sabrina smiles to herself, knowing that her low level healing spell was enough to help her friend. However, her face falls when she looks down and sees a green ring, with an image of a skull, on Valerie's left hand. She immediately recognizes the piece of jewelry.
"Um, hey Val."
Valerie looks at Sabrina, "What's up?"
"That ring, where did you get it?"
Meanwhile, Salem is also looking at that ring with wide eyes.
Valerie looks at her newly acquired possession and begins to lie, "Oh, this? Well, uh, I just found it one day. I thought it looked cool so I figured, finder's keepers you know?"
Sabrina just nods, "Right." She then walks over the Danny. "Can I speak to you in private?"
"Uh, sure," the halfa answers as he follows his friend upstairs.
Salem, Tucker and Sam decide to follow Danny and Sabrina, to which Valerie asks, "And where are you guys going?"
"I, uh, have to go to the bathroom," says Sam.
"And I got a text message from my parents asking me if I'm okay," says Tucker. "I need to call them right away."
The goth and tech geek also leave the room with Salem in tow.
Once everyone gathered in Danny's room, Salem looks straight at Sabrina, "So my eyes AREN'T deceiving me. You and I saw the same thing."
The half-witch nods.
"What are you two talking about? Saw what?" asks Sam.
"The Ring of Rage, the relic that the Fright Knight is looking for, Valarie is wearing it right now," Sabrina explains.
"What?" Danny cuts in. "How the heck did she get her hands on it?"
The platinum blonde looks at the halfa, "Give you one guess."
Danny looks down at the floor and scowls, "Vlad. Which means he must have been the one who freed Pariah Dark in the first place."
"And he's using Valarie to cover his hide," Sabrina finishes. "We need to find a way to get that ring off of her before the Fright Knight sees her with it. Otherwise she's going to be in serious trouble."
"Easier said than done," Salem comments.
"Salem's right," Tucker says as he looks straight at Danny. "How are you gonna convince her to ditch the ring without telling her who you really are? The moment she finds out your Danny Phantom, she'll shoot first and ask questions never."
"And who knows what she will do if she finds out you're a witch," Sam says to Sabrina.
"We'll figure something out," Danny reassures. "In the meantime we need to keep a close watch on her. She's still our friend after all."
"Well…/I don't know about all of that/Hey, I barely even know her," Sam, Tucker and Salem all collectively say.
Danny crosses his arms and scowls at all of them while Sabrina says, "Okay, she's a friend to me and Danny. So do it for us."
The other three look at each other and then look back at their friends, "Fine."
The group all agreed that, while the adults prepare for the Ghost King's inevitable arrival, they should at least do something about the Fright Knight and his forces before they find out about Valerie. But if they have any hope of standing a chance, they are going to need some help. Danny, in his ghost form, and Sabrina arrive at a sporting goods shop to look for a certain bounty hunter.
"Are you sure we'll find him here?" asks Sabrina.
"My dad use to shop here all the time whenever we go fishing," Danny answers. "This place is your one stop shop for hunting equipment. So yeah, if he's anywhere, it's definitely here."
After some searching, Danny and Sabrina see Skulker with his back turned.
The half-witch begins to look suspicious, "Wait, something's not right here…"
"Well what do you know, my hunch was correct," Danny says as he charges at Skulker.
"Wait, Danny, it could be a…" Sabrina begins to say, but as Danny makes an attempt to trap the ghostly bounty hunter into the Fenton Thermos, he begins to fall over. It turns out that it was just a cardboard cutout. Before the halfa could process what was going on, he was met with a metal fist to his face and he flies across the room, slamming into a camping display.
"Yup, trap." Sabrina finishes.
The real Skulker appears and says, "Did you actually think you could sneak up on me?"
While getting his bearings Danny says, "It was worth a shot, but now that you know I'm here…"
The two ghosts fly towards each other but Sabrina steps in between them, "Alright you two, time out."
Danny and Skulker both stop in their tracks.
"Sabrina, what are you doing?" asks Danny.
"Did you forget? We didn't come here to fight." The platinum blonde turns to Skulker. "Look, we just want to talk okay? We don't like you and you don't like us, but I think if there's one thing we can all agree upon is that Pariah Dark is a total jerk. All of you ghosts are here because you're fleeing from him right? Danny and I think we may have a chance at putting him back to sleep."
"Even if you bring up a good point, why should I listen to you, witch?" asks Skulker.
"Now hold on Skulker," Sydney Pointdexter suddenly appears with the rest of the ghosts. "Let's hear her out. Maybe it will shed some light on our situation."
The bounty hunter looks down at Sabrina, who is giving him a serious look, and he narrows his eyes, "Fine, I'll hear what you have to say."
"Thank you," the half witch says as she steps away from Danny and Skulker.
However, once she was out of the way, Danny hits Skulker with a massive uppercut, knocking him on his back.
Sabrina gives her friend an angry look.
"What? It's payback," the halfa says with a cocky smile.
Everyone has now gathered around a fake campfire display where the two half breeds explain to the ghosts what they know up until this point. Sam, Tucker and Salem are here too once they realized it was safe to come in.
"Interesting," Skulker says as he rubs his chin in thought. "So the Ghost King doesn't have the Ring of Rage in his possession. Without it, his power is halved."
"And right now, we want to make sure it stays that way," says Danny who is now in his human form.
"Even if he is at 50% strength, Pariah can still pose a great threat," says Skulker.
"We're already preparing for Pariah if he ever shows up," Sabrina explains. "My aunts are looking to recreate the original spell that sealed him away in the first place, while Danny's family are building an armored suit that may be able to keep the Ghost King at bay. On top of that, I'm sure the witch council has already caught wind of all of this and are also doing something about it."
"And while our folks are doing their thing, we need to do ours," Danny cuts in. "The Fright Knight and his army are still out there looking for the ring. We need to end their little search here and now."
"And you need our help," Ember guesses. "And why in Freddy Mercury's name should we help you dipsticks out?"
"Because in case you haven't noticed "one hit wonder", it's not just the human world and the netherworld that's screwed, but your world too," says Sabrina. "Look, I know we all have our difference, but centuries ago witches and ghosts had to put aside theirs to end Pariah Dark's reign. We can make history repeat itself. So what do you say?"
All of the ghosts look at each other and then they begin to laugh as they leave the room.
"I guess that's a no," says Tucker.
Sabrina lowers her head in sadness while Salem says to the ghosts, "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. I bet you won't be doing that when the big cheese himself shows up to enslave us all."
Meanwhile Danny walks up to Sabrina and puts a hand on her shoulder, "Salem's right, they're just being a bunch of cowards. Who needs them anyway? I'm sure we can do just fine without those bozos."
Once their attempt to get the ghosts on their side ended up being a failure, everyone decided to go home and reevaluate what their next move is going to be. After taking both Sabrina and Salem home, Danny was beginning to look troubled.
"Man, Sabrina looked so bummed when the ghosts refused to help us, and I don't blame her. As much as I don't like them, getting help from them doesn't seem like a bad idea. I know I told her that we're better off without them but…even I'm not so sure about that."
The next course of action for the halfa was to have a little private chat with Vlad. Danny knows he had something to do with the current predicament they are in and all he wants is for him to confess for his crimes as well as convince Valarie to give the ring back. Vlad is now outside the Fenton household, leaning against a street light.
"You wanted to talk?" the older halfa asks with a smile.
Danny frowns, "You're putting innocent people in danger. It ends now."
"Oh? So you've figured out my plan have you? Your tiny teen mind was able to piece together my plot?"
"That you woke the Ghost King, stole his ring, gave it to Valarie to hide it and now you're waiting for your chance to steal it back?"
"Well done Daniel, I guess you're a lot smarter than I give you credit for."
"You won't be smiling when the witch council find out what you did. You're gonna be in serious trouble, you know that?"
"I guess I should be worried about that, but I doubt they will believe the words of a small child who is beneath even me."
Danny's blue eyes turn to its neon green color as he gives Vlad an angry look.
"Ooh, there's that temper of yours. Do you really want to do this now? What if somebody sees us?"
The younger halfa then smirks and fires an ectoblast at the nearby street light, dimming the area.
"Oh, drat," Vlad says before being given a massive uppercut out of the ghost shield surrounding the Fenton and Spellman residence.
Danny emerges from the shield as well and "goes ghost". He delivers another punch to Vlad and sends him flying to a nearby billboard.
"A sneak attack?" Vlad says as he transforms into his ghost form. "You're getting more and more like me every day."
"I'm NOTHING like you," says Danny. He then tackles Plasmius and the two land on the Casper High football field.
Once the younger halfa has his foe pinned down, Vlad continues, "Is this why you choose not to have Sabrina by your side? Maybe it's less about protecting her and more like you don't want her to see a side of you that she may not appreciate." Vlad backhands Danny and gets his enemy off of him.
Danny lands where the Fright Knight's sword is located and he glances at it. "I told you to leave her out of this Plasmius. This is between me and you. If you won't confess to what you did, then I'll make you."
The young halfa grabs the sword and Vlad's eyes grow wide with fear, "NO DANIEL, IT'S A SIGNAL!"
"A signal?" Danny says as he pulls the sword from the ground.
As soon as he does that, the barrier surrounding Amity Park began to disappear and in the sky a lot of windows and doors can be seen floating in the air. Danny recognizes this and realizes where the entire town has been transported to.
Meanwhile, in the basement of the Spellman residence, Zelda and Hilda are hard at work finding the right spell to seal away Pariah Dark. They are looking through various spell books as well as searching the deepest parts of the Internet. Suddenly, their mobile phones begin to vibrate. The two witches take a look and find that the witch council had sent out a message warning all witches to be on high alert and to keep their use of magic at a minimum. They also want any powerful witch and/or warlock to attend a mandatory meeting.
"Whelp, looks like the witch council are aware of the situation," says Hilda.
Zelda sighs, "Better late than never I suppose."
As the two witches continue to search and try out different spells, Salem finds Sabrina upstairs leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and looking to the side.
"What's the matter kiddo?" the cat asks.
Sabrina sighs, "You know Salem, when you and I were designing my costume, I kept thinking about how Danny was going to react when he sees that I also want to do the whole superhero thing. I thought he would be thrilled by the idea of me fighting ghosts alongside him, but now I can't help but feel like he wants me as far away from the action as possible, almost like he doesn't want me anywhere near him when he's in Phantom mode."
Salem was silent for a moment, "…Well if I'm gonna be honest with you, I can't really blame the kid. You gave us all quite a scare when that Spectra chick nabbed you and tried to siphon away your magic. If Danny hadn't stopped her then and there, you would have been a goner for sure. Something tells me that close call is still eating at him, and for a boy his age, it's not healthy."
"I'll admit, I was scared out of my mind that night. But it also made me realize that there are more people like Spectra out there who want nothing more than to hurt people, and seeing someone like Danny stepping up and doing something about it, I can't help but be inspired by that. Now Pariah Dark comes along and he's a million times worse than Spectra ever was. There's no way Danny can handle this alone and the witch council are out there somewhere twiddling their thumbs, so I feel like I'm the only one who has a chance at stopping him."
"You? A teenage witch who, if I remember, in an attempt to fix a broken microwave so you can heat up some pizza rolls, you accidently created an army of pizza roll gremlins that wreaked havoc all over Greendale."
"Okay, first of all, that was when I was still getting used to my magic. And second, I was able to undo all of that AND I figured out how to do the repair spell, fixing all the damages as well as the microwave, so it all worked out."
"But it still shows that, compared to most other witches out there, you're still an amateur. What I'm trying to say is, maybe we should leave fighting the Ghost King to the pros. I'm sure your aunts have the situation under control anyway."
The half-witch was silent for a moment until, "Sorry Salem, but you're insane if you think I'm just going to sit around and do nothing while the fate of multiple worlds hangs in the balance. Besides, it's not like we really have a choice, because unfortunately those "other witches" you are talking about are not here and I don't think even my aunts will be enough to stop Pariah. I appreciate you and Danny trying to protect me, but both of you need to realize that you need me, whether you guys like it or not."
Just when Salem was about to argue even further, he looks out the window and gives a look of shock, "What in the world?"
Sabrina also looks outside and sees the barrier surrounding the town is now gone and they are now in some kind of weird dimension. "Oh my God."
"We're in the Ghost Zone?" Danny thought as he looks at his surroundings.
"Danny!" Sabrina calls out as she appears on her broom. The halfa notices that she isn't wearing her costume, and assumes she probably didn't have time to find a good place to change with all the chaos going on. When Sabrina jumps off of her broom and sees what Danny is holding, she begins to look terrified, "Oh no, Danny what did you do?"
"I…uh…" Danny stammers, but before he had time to explain himself, the Fright Knight's sword immediately gets yanked from his grasp and into the hands of its owner. Right next to the Fright Knight is the Pariah Dark himself.
Sabrina and Vlad look in terror while Danny has a look of confusion.
Sabrina was the first to speak, "Danny…that's him."
"She's right I'm afraid," says Vlad.
"That's them my liege," the Fright Knight points to the three half-breeds. "They have been giving me trouble since I arrived here."
Pariah takes one good look at Danny, Sabrina and Vlad and says, "…Meh." He then fires a red ecto-blast at Danny and Vlad, knocking them back to their human form and rendering them unconscious.
"NO!" Sabrina yells. With the two halfas out of commission, the half witch knows she can't take on both the Ghost King and his army on her own. There was only one trick she had up her sleeve, and the half-witch only had one shot at it. She summons her wand and begins to wave it around.
"Away from these ghosts and leave no trace/send Amity back to its rightful place!"
Unfortunately, her wand was only able to generate a spark.
"Oh come on, don't do this!" Sabrina shouts to her wand. She knew it would be a huge gamble to cast a spell of that magnitude, especially when she hasn't fully mastered it, but she was out of options.
Before Sabrina could do anything else, another red ecto-blast was sent her way and it hits her directly. The young witch is hurled into the air and lands hard on the ground. She lays on her side, unconscious and her body covered in bruises.
Pariah takes a good look at Sabrina, "Is this the witch you told me about?"
"Yes sire," the Fright Knight answers.
The Ghost King walks towards the unconscious platinum blonde, "Witches, I hate witches. They have been a huge thorn in my side for centuries. Once I rule everything, I will make sure each and every one of those magical nuisances are wiped from existence." His right hand starts to glow red and he points it towards Sabrina. "Starting with you little one."
But before Pariah had the chance to finish her off, some pink goo flew into his face. He looks up and sees Valarie flying towards him. The teenage ghost hunter fires her bazooka at both the Ghost King and the Fright Knight, knocking them backwards and she quickly grabs Sabrina and puts her down near Danny and Vlad.
"My God, Sabrina," she says in a disheartened tone, having noticed that the young witch is in the worst shape compared to Danny and Vlad. She looks over at the evil ghosts and scowls, "You jerks are going down." Valarie flies towards Pariah and the Fright Knight and begins firing her wrist gauntlets at them. She got distracted from dodging the ghosts attacks that she flew right into the football goal post. The young ghost hunter lands on her rear but tries to fire another shot from her wrist gauntlets. They start to short circuit, forcing her to pull them off.
That was when the Fright Knight got a good look at her right hand, "THE RING, GIVE IT TO ME!"
Valarie looks at her hand and gets an idea. She takes off the ring, attaches it to one of her missiles and loads her bazooka, "You want it? Go get it." She then launches the ring into the sky.
"YOU FOOL!" Pariah shouts as he flies after it.
While her enemies were distracted this gave Valarie the chance to grab her friends, as well as her mentor, and run. She rushes over to Danny, Sabrina and Vlad, grabs them by the back of their collars and immediately flies away on her jet board. The ghost hunter looks over her shoulder and sees the Fright Knight on her tail. She looks in front of her and sees the ghost shield, which had increased in radius thanks to her father, up ahead. Just when the knight was closing in, Valarie was able to make it through in time. She crash lands while the Fright Knight slams face first into the shield. He then proceeds to attack it continuously with his sword, barely leaving a scratch. As Valarie watches on, she breathes a sigh of relief and walks away, taking her friends and mentor with her.
"THIS. IS. NOT. OVER!" the Fright Knight exclaims as he continues to attack the ghost shield.
"Actually my loyal servant, it is," Pariah says after reappearing before his knight.
The Fright Knight looks behind him and sees that his king has the Ring of Rage in his hand. The Ghost King puts the ring on his left index finger. There was a huge flash of light and a red aura surrounds Pariah.
The Fright Knight watches in awe and begins to bow to his king.
"Come," Pariah spoke. "We have plans to make. It is finally time for me to reclaim what is rightfully mine." The two ghosts walk away, making preparations of what is to come.
Looks like things have become much more dire. However, our heroes may be down but they are not out. Be here next time for the final showdown that will decide the fate of all three worlds.
Be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts on the story so far. Until next time...