Chapter 12: Revealed
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon.
Danny Phantom circled the school bus that, like every other bus Casper schools had, was now outfitted to transform into a ghost proof bus that could hover. Vlad, acting as mayor, had decided to use his old rival/friend's building ability to protect the children on their daily commute to and from school. He had also asked for a set of ghost shields to cover every school. Danny was going to check those after he finished here. It was more important to him that the buses were safe since he'd caught one going over the guardrails on a bridge just last week. It had been full of elementary school children. The ghost that had done it was now sitting in Skulker's old cell in the royal dungeons. Danny had wanted his head. It had already taken more than a little begging for Danny to show mercy and release Skulker. In fact it was only Sam threatening to ban him from the castle for a week that had convinced him to release Skulker.
Danny had preceded to threatened Skulker before releasing him into Walker's authority. Danny hadn't appreciated the way Skulker had been touching Ember, and he made sure Skulker knew it. Danny shot a blast from his hand and was pleased when it bounced off without denting the bus.
"It's good, that was about fifty percent of my power and that's more than just about every ghost that exist in the zone. Anyway, let's go check on those shields."
Jack Fenton popped up from behind the bus, "Awe, Come on Mr. Phantom, give it your full power."
"No," Danny said, "There are very few ghosts who have more than half my power. And all of them are allies."
Danny casually glanced at the watch he had taken to wearing at Sam's assistance. He almost cursed as he saw the time. He bowed his head and began to say a quick prayer.
"What is it Phantom?"
"Simply put, I kinda promised my wife I would be home by thirty minutes ago."
Jack walked over and clapped a hand on Danny's shoulder, in a grave voice he said, "Young man, you better run."
Danny grinned and saluted, "I'll check the shields tomorrow."
Then he flew off to fly into the Fenton Portal.
When he got home, Sam was waiting on him with the angriest expression he'd seen yet. She was even tapping her foot. Danny gulped.
"Honey, I'm home," He awkwardly joked.
Sam just shook her head with a sigh.
"Dani needs help with her astrology homework. Tucker said he picked up a weird frequency on Sharian last night. Our parents are here, but I already went over the schedule with the other leaders so you don't have to worry about that. Jazz said she needed to see you in her lab a little after dinner, so she probably fell asleep in the lab again. Valerie had to go to her house, apparently her father had some upgrades he wanted to run by her, and Ember followed, so you'll have to take Jazz there after you finish everything."
Danny nodded with a slight frown, he was lucky he had Sam. He knew there was plenty of other work she had done for him, but had left off the list. He decided to go to Dani. He hadn't spent nearly enough time with her these recent weeks. With the upcoming trip he barely had enough time to leave the zone and slip into bed before his alarm went off.
Danny found his namesake frowning at the table in frustration and he looked over her shoulder recognizing the ridiculously hard astrology work usually assigned to freshman this time of year.
He pointed at a question farther up the page, "This one is wrong."
Dani jumped up at his voice, "Daddy."
Danny laughed as he was attacked with a hug. He stumbled a little and realized Dani was taller, it was just an inch, but she had grown, and he had missed it. He put her down, mostly out of guilt.
"Have you done a full power test recently?"
Dani shook her head, "Uncle Dan said we should wait for you to be free."
Danny shook his head with a smile, "Where is Dan anyway."
"He said something about talking to Nikke for a bit."
Danny smiled, Nikke was the heir, it took awhile for everyone to be able to talk to him. Since he had often talked to what Danny believed was an actual imaginary friend, he only knew silent mostly nonverbal ways of communicating. As it was, he was still more likely to silently watch than to contribute to the conversation, but Danny had hope for him. He was intelligent, kind, and Danny could tell he would grow to be very powerful. They were all sorta waiting now for Jazz to figure out how to turn him tangible.
"Well, that's cool I guess I mean you are in the castle, you're pretty safe here. As it is I believe I have at least a few hours that could be spent with my favorite daughter."
Dani stuck a tongue out at him, "I'm your only daughter."
"Exactly."
They laughed and Danny sat down to help Dani with her homework.
"Wait how are you so bad at this, neither you mother or I struggled this much."
Dani pushed him so hard he actually almost fell off the chair he was in and he laughed.
A few hours later Danny stretched with a yawn happy he could help Dani with all her homework. He glanced at the clock and decided now would be the perfect time to go check in on Jazz and Tucker.
"Come on my little Rose, let's get you back to uncle Dan."
Dani whined from where her head was resting on the table. She had begun to complain of a headache near the end of their work and Danny could sympathize. He himself often got minor headaches when doing his homework and before she became a hafta Sam had complain of sporadic migraines.
Danny picked her up carefully and walked to Nikke's room. Dan took one look at her and grimace sympathetically.
"I got it from here Danny," Dan said while reaching out for Dani.
Danny carefully handed her over then floated out, "Sorry from interrupting your conversation with Nikke. I just need to go talk to Jazz, fly her home, and visit Tucker and I didn't want her to suffer a trip to her room alone."
"I understand," A quiet voice near the center of the room stated.
As Danny turned and left the room, he heard Dan ask Dani what homework assignment she had gotten stuck on. Danny cautiously entered his sister's lab. He saw her still bent over a microscope. Danny shook his head and gently landed on his feet, loud enough to be heard. Jazz's head turned around to take in her brother.
"Sam said you had an update for me?"
Jazz eagerly bounced up from her chair and grabbed Danny's arm. She pulled him over to the microscoped.
"I was really tired earlier and got Ember to grab me a coffee. She was really sweet about it even grabbed one for Valerie. Thanks by the way for revealing us to the rest of the world, I finally got some decent coffee."
Danny gave his sister a concerned look and looked around for the cause of her hyperness, "Please tell me you didn't mix five hour energy with an espresso coffee."
"Nope," Jazz claimed, but when Danny breathed in relief, Jazz added, "I mixed a six hour energy drink with an espresso and two cans of Monster."
Danny choked and reached out with the link to Sam, replaying the conversation for her. Danny felt Sam's shock too.
Danny started to ask Jazz to take a seat when she interrupted him, "Anyway I found it."
"Found what" Danny asked almost frantically.
Jazz pushed him at to the microscope. Danny looked curious about what made Jazz so happy. He noticed an ectoplasmic ghost cell. He knew it belonged to Nikke and he was confused.
"What am I looking at Jazz?"
"Danny, this is my regular microscope there is no ghost lense on it."
Danny turned and grabbed Jazz in an excited hug, "Can you make it work for Nikke."
Jazz nodded her head eagerly, "I have a few more calculations so I can know how much I'll need to give him, I might need to do another test to ensure I know the right mixture, and it might take a few treatments, but yes, I figured it out."
Danny was so full of happiness he struggled to find a way to express it. Sam's arrival gave him an outlet as he pulled her into a passionate kiss.
When they pulled away, Sam asked, "What was that?"
Danny pointed to Jazz and panted, "Asked her after you check her over."
An hour later Danny dragged Jazz away from her lab, preventing her from working through the night. When he dropped Jazz off with a concerned Ember and barely awake Valerie, Danny decided to see what frequency Tucker had picked up on Sharon. Danny flew to Tucker's parents' house and he was completely unsurprised to see Tucker still awake, after all it wasn't pass midnight yet.
"Sam said you picked up a weird frequency on Sharon?"
Tucker startled, then sighed, "Damn Danny make some noise. But yeah, I picked up a new ghost frequency near the Void, which isn't really a surprise. I mean I'd hate it if one of the ghosts felt the need to move on, but it happens. The problem is I've picked up this frequency before. When we were first found Nikke and I thought it was his because they're so similar. Then in the castle where I again thought it was Nikke. After I programmed Nikke's into Sharon, it would randomly appear intermittently throughout the castle still identifying as unknown, but since we were so focused on Nikke I decided to ignore it. Only now that it's back near the Void, the signal is stronger."
"But that's not possible," Danny impatiently said, "Every time a ghost goes into the Void or even gets near it they get weaker. For some reason the Void actively negates the zone's ability to basically nourish a ghost. So any ghost that gets near it loses power, even I do."
Tucker growled and ran a hand through his dreads, "You think I don't know that Danny I do, but I'm telling you it increased in power and at the rate its power is increasing, you might not be able to take it down."
Both of their eyes widened when Tucker reveal this piece of information.
"Tucker at the rate it's increasing in power how long until it has enough power to challenge me?"
Tucker typed in a few calculations and the computer pulled up a date. Both of them felt a few pieces fall into place when they saw the date. It was the day before the mid year field trip the Ghost 101 was taking to the zone.
Danny was shaking in anger as he attempted to calmly ask Tucker the question that was burning inside him.
"You said it was in the castle. What are the chances it overhear our planning for the trip and is going to attack while they are here."
"I think you know the answer to that Danny."
"Fuck," Danny cursed then he slammed his hand into the table next to him with his full strength.
It cracked.
This has been an amazing journey everyone, but i am sad to reveal it will be finished in two more chapters thank you everyone who has read have a great Christmas and eagerly await an update on new years.