Night Wind

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: Butch Hartman does; I don't.

Bit of family humor for you. My mother called me up out of the blue while I'm visiting with my grandfather to bring her some of the spaghetti that my grandmother (different set of grandparents) is making for lunch. *shakes head* I will never understand that woman.

Dark Stars

"She was bound to have found it sooner or later."

"Clockwork, you can't let the girl..."

"Will you two, just shut up and listen for once!" The Time Master exploded, crimson eyes flashing a malevolent ruby. "Everything I set up is about to come crashing down. Watch and see."

I walked back into the room to find Mr. Masters with a gun pointed at his head by my very level-headed mother. "Uh, Uncle Vlad...?"

"You found the book?" he asked, turning his head slightly in my direction. It registered then that Uncle Vlad was a weird freaky looking vampire with a translucent light about him.

I put it down carefully on the table next to my father, who guided me to a chair. "The Ryu Kingdom's history is quite fascinating."

"Yes," Vlad drly commented as Mom released him. "I am half of one, courtesy of a mistake of your father's when we were in college and my own stupidity. Maddie, Jack, the information I promised."

The book Jack picked up had a sepia cover with creamy yellowed pages. It was obviously one of the rarest editions of an early paranormal investigator named Abraham Loki. Idly flipping through it, one paragraph caught his eye. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "Listen to this."

I found myself trapped in a realm of green light and purple mist. Floating indigo doors and islands as large as Atlantis drift past me in the darkness. I can see some form of a dark city ahead, dimly lit by a glow.

"But what did he find?" Maddie asked, looking at Jazz, who just shrugged.

"He found the Night Wind," Vlad replied, collapsing into a chair. Maddie had placed the gun on a table between them, easily within reach if need be. "Finding that book was a very harrowing adventure; it cost me dearly to purchase it from its owner."

"Did Abraham Loki ever escape from the Night Wind?" Jack queried, flipping through the book.

"Look in the seventh chapter," Vlad replied.

"Okay," Jack said, fingers turning the pages rapidly. His eyes brightened as he scan a few sentences. "Hey, I found Danny boy!"

"Read it," Maddie ordered.

A lone sentry guards the audience chamber of the queen of the dark city. He is a solitary youth in his early teens with eyes bright as green glass and hair purer than winter snow. He wears a tunic and trousers dark as midnight with white stripes on the sleeves. He is simply addressed as Phantom, for he has no name.

"Danny Phantom!" Maddie hissed. "But-"

"They are one and the same, Mom," Jazz told her. "I saw him transform once; he saved my life."

"Then he is a half-ghost," Jack said, staring at Vlad. "He is like you. Cool, my son is a half-ghost hybrid."

"No, Jack," Vlad curtly replied. "He is one of the Night Wind. He may be able to take human form in order to walk in the sun, but he was never human. Someone up there has been meddling with you and the boy."

"Pay up, Clockwork!"

"Here."

"He believes himself to be Ryu, but still has his Night Wind memories," Vlad continued. "He may not have been fully converted yet. Danielle is lost to me, but I will make every effort to save her and Daniel."

"I'm going to assume you have a working portal?" Maddie demanded. Vlad's guilty face answered for him. "Thought so," she added. "Jazz, stay here; we'll be back before dinner time."

"That is so cliche," her daughter replied. "Just bring Danielle and Danny home safe, Mom and Dad. Uncle Vlad, I'll personally make your life a living hell if you don't take care of my parents."

"I'll bank you on it," Vlad promised, rising to his feet. He shifted to his human form. "Let's go."