Whoo, chapter five! Now Danny goes to the Ghost Zone. Thanks to everyone who reviewed or voted.
Potterhead2016: Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the reassurance.
Owlcat92: Yeah, I know what you mean. Seeing as there haven't actually been a lot of votes at this point, I may have to just choose for myself. If that does happen, I'll definitely be keeping this in mind.
LooneyAces: Don't worry, I fully plan to write this story to its completion and have zero intentions of dropping it.
PhantomFanForever: Good to know that the fluff was acceptable. I wasn't quite sure how to write it, and I know that the whole guy helping the girl with a weapon thing (or vice versa) is kinda cliché, but I still think it makes for a cute scene. I'll be sure to write some more!
Moyashi: Just as before, I only actually saw your comment now for some reason. The ghosts already know Danny's a halfa, Vlad included seeing as this is post PP (minus Danny revealing his identity). I do agree that them finding out first is cliché, although it makes sense considering they are around him the most. But chances are they won't be the first to find out.
Disclaimer. I don't own it. Butch Hartman does, many thanks to him for a great show!
Enjoy the newest chapter.
The Ghost Zone was, in all appearances, empty. Even though Danny was flying fast enough that everything around him was a blur, he still should have been able to see the telltale blob of a ghost flying past. But he didn't. There were no Ectopi, or annoying parrots. He hadn't even seen the Box Ghost yet. Just the floating purple doors, swirling green 'sky', and the occasional floating island.
Danny had taken a much longer route through the Ghost Zone, doing his best to avoid his enemies. Though now he wasn't sure if he would have faced them anyways. As he flew over Dora's castle, Danny found himself wondering if the same could be said of his allies. If he were to fly down to the dragon princess, would she be there? Would her attendants? Or would he find the castle as empty as everywhere else.
He suddenly found himself flying faster. He hadn't really considered before that the good ghosts could be gone, a thought that he realized now was rather naïve. When the massive, black grandfather clock that served as Clockwork's lair came into view, Danny sped up even further. He landed on the island and stared up at the clock face. The massive cogs surrounding the area were still turning, which meant that Clockwork was at least alive.
Inside the only sound to be heard was the quiet clicking of clock hands ticking away. Danny scanned the area with a well-trained eye, noting the Fenton Thermos sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room. The cap was welded to the base, and the canister as a whole was shaking slightly. There were several outward facing dents on its side, including one that looked suspiciously like a small, grinning face. Danny shuddered and turned away from the thermos, focusing on the rest of the room.
Everything appeared to be in order. Clockwork's screens were playing various scenes from the different realities, flickering between the alternate timelines. Danny spotted a few exchanges from his own reality. Sam sneaking her new ecto-gun past her parents. Tucker walking on the street with his full attention devoted to Sharon, the PDA in his hands. Surprisingly, he never ran into anything. Danny smiled at the images of his two best friends, feeling a wave of guilt over the fact that he had been slowly pushing them away. He realized now that, if he had continued, he probably would have lost them.
"But you didn't," a familiar voice answered from behind the halfa. Danny turned, a grin on his face, as he saw a middle-aged Clockwork hovering behind him.
"Clockwork! You're okay," Danny said.
"Of course, Danny. I'm just as I should be," Clockwork replied, smirking as Danny scowled at his choice of phrase. "I am afraid that I can't help you."
Danny, who had just been preparing to ask Clockwork the first of his questions, closed his mouth and frowned. "But I-"
"Need my help, yes. But I'm afraid I'm not allowed to offer any, not truly. But I can confirm what you already know," Clockwork explained. Danny sighed and nodded. He would take any help he could get, but found that it upset him slightly that Clockwork wasn't able to truly help him.
"Vlad Plasmius was not lying when he said there is a threat in the Ghost Zone, but I cannot tell you what it is. Yes, some of the ghosts have been disappearing. You have noticed the absence of one of your more common foes, Technus?"
Danny nodded, really a pointless action since he knew that Clockwork already knew the answer to that question.
"Is there anything else you can tell me?" Danny asked.
"I'm afraid not," Clockwork replied as his appearance shifted to that of an old man. "I cannot risk altering the timeline from its current path."
Danny shuffled his feet, an interesting action when he wasn't actually touching the ground. He turned to go, acknowledging that Clockwork couldn't give him any more information.
"You know, Daniel. I feel as if Frostbite has been missing you for some time now. He would probably welcome a visit," Clockwork said before Danny could leave. Danny paused, then looked back over his shoulder at the new younger looking ghost.
"Thanks," Danny grinned, and took off flying. He had been so resigned with what little information Clockwork was able to provide, that he had nearly forgotten his intentions to see Frostbite if this very situation did arise. Which, obviously, it did. Danny smirked. Clockwork may have said he couldn't help Danny any more, but that didn't mean he couldn't remind the young halfa of those who could help him.
Thankfully, the Far Frozen was only a couple of hours away at Danny's top flight speed. Both lairs were near the edge of the explored Ghost Zone. What was beyond, Danny had yet to find out, but every time he ventured out he never saw any ghosts, doors, or even floating slabs of rock. He understood that there was a lot of the Ghost Zone that he hadn't explored yet, but believed wholeheartedly that there was nothing past the Far Frozen.
Danny didn't notice when the temperature dropped as he neared the icy landscape. He had been resistant to the cold ever since the lab accident, but after gaining his ice powers, he could barely feel it. Though that also meant he got uncomfortably warm very quickly.
He soared closer to the ground, and after a few minutes of passing over frozen ground and mounds of snow, he entered a cave with walls of ice. Less than a minute into the cave his flight was stopped by a large door. Danny lowered his feet almost to the ground (remaining just an inch or two above the ice), and knocked. The sound echoed around the narrow tunnel, the knock heavier than one would expect from Danny Fenton. But as Phantom, wearing his close fitting jumpsuit, every muscle he had earned over the past year was accentuated and stood out.
The door open, ice scratching against ice, and large beast stood behind it. It was a good three feet taller than Danny, despite him now being around six feet when he stood up straight. Its body was covered in thick, white fur, and it had a right arm made of nice.
Danny smiled up at the ghost, and it returned a wide, toothy grin.
"Great One! We have been awaiting your return for some time."
"Hey, Frostbite," Danny said as he was pulled into a strong hug. "Sorry it's taken me so long to visit."
"Of course, Danny. Come inside, we'll prepare a feast for the occasion! I'm sure you have flown far. Your rooms are, as always, prepared." Frostbite pressed a hand against Danny's back and propelled him forwards. Danny, meanwhile, tried to explain his reason for coming to the Far Frozen so suddenly, but suddenly found that he was being gently pushed through a door that closed behind him, leaving him alone in the suite.
Danny sighed, relenting that he would have to wait to speak to Frostbite. He could venture out and try and find Frostbite, but during every one of his visits Danny had noticed that it could be hard to track down the ruler of the Far Frozen, as he was often occupied with his kingly duties.
At the thought of kingly duties Danny's shoulders dropped and ran a hand through his hair, messing it up further. That wasn't something he needed to worry about right now, but it was something that always nagged on the back of his mind.
That, and one other thing. Danny glanced around the room, noting the bed with black sheets, the large closest, and the door that would lead to the bathroom. In the wall to his right was another door, this one silver, with an elegant DP emblazoned in the middle, a contrast to the logo that Danny had imprinted in his chest, and the black door through which he had been pushed a moment ago. He approached the silver door and gingerly pushed it aside. Inside was smaller room, with another bed and closet, though both of these were just a little smaller than Danny's own. The room looked as if it hadn't been touched in a while.
Danny closed the door and sat down on his own bed. He had managed to stabilize Danielle's ghost and human halves around the middle of summer, and he had only seen her once or twice since then while she was settling at the Far Frozen. It would appear that she had gone off to explore the world once again. Danny just hoped it was the human one, seeing as the Ghost Zone was an especially dangerous place to be at the moment. Although he had yet to confirm that fact.
The teenage halfa just couldn't help but worry about his cousin.
"No," Danny muttered, shaking his head and mentally correcting himself. Dani wasn't his cousin. She was his daughter. A fact that Frostbite had explained to him the last time that Danny had been here, which was also the last time he had seen Danielle. He had been asking Frostbite about Dani's status as his clone, because there was an obvious difference between the two. Danny was a boy, but Dani-with-an-i was not. Obviously quite the flaw in terms of clone-dom. But, since neither the frozen-land king or Danny knew of how exactly Vlad had gone about with the cloning process, seeing as Dani had already been 'born' for a week or two when Danny first met her, neither of them were able to discern hoe exactly Dani had come about. Although, honestly, Danny didn't really care at this point. All that mattered was that Danielle was his daughter, and he had no idea where she was.
He knew she would be safe, being a half-ghost like him, she could protect herself. But Danny worried about what would happen when she developed her own ice powers, or her ghostly wail. Danny's first use of both had been very destructive and out of control.
The teen halfa muttered something about 'rebellious kids' and dropped onto his back. Frostbite had been right. Danny had flown far today, and he was exhausted. It wouldn't hurt to get a couple minutes of sleep, especially since it had to be well past midnight now, and it would take Danny several hours to get back to the Fenton Portal. He contemplated using the Infimap, but decided that he'd rather have it under Frostbite's watchful eye until a direr situation arose. He could do without it for now.
Danny yawned and rolled onto his side, not even bothering to pull himself up to the pillows before changing back to his human form, dropping the last inch onto the bed, and falling into a deep sleep.
In what seemed like no time at all, Danny felt a hand pressing lightly on his shoulder, and his eyes snapped open, instantly alert. Frostbite stood above him, smiling.
"The feast is ready, Great One. We would be honoured if you joined our table," Frostbite stepped away from the bed as Danny sat up, nodding slowly.
"How long have I been asleep for?" He asked, quickly rubbing his eyes.
"I would think around an hour, Great One. I understand that there are probably things you must do back in the human realm, so the feast will be brief."
Danny nodded again and followed Frostbite out of his room and down the halls, not even having to take note of the route he was already so familiar with. In the grand hall, there was a long table filled with other yetis. There were two empty seats at the head of the table for the halfa and Frostbite. Once they sat down, the feast commenced.
Some of the food, in respect to Danny's human half, was human. But most of it was for ghosts, meaning it consisted mainly of ectoplasmic energy. Most of these foods being strange fruits that seemed to grow green. Danny, showing his own respect, accepted some of the human food, but did mostly eat the Ghost Zone fruits. While human food was adequate, and he did eat it most of the time, food from the Ghost Zone was better for regaining energy. In desperate situations, Danny would resort to the ghost method of eating done by those with high power levels. Feeding off the emotions of those around them, negative ones being the strongest and most rejuvenating. But he didn't do that often.
As Frostbite had promised, the feast was brief, and Danny requested to see the yeti king in private before heading back to the human realm.
"I'm sorry to say, but this visit wasn't exactly a recreational one," Danny said. Frostbite nodded in understanding. "I spoke to Vlad yesterday, and he told me that… that something was going on here. Something bad. I went to see Clockwork, but he wasn't allowed to tell me anything. I know now that ghosts have been disappearing, and I just need to know. Who, or what, is behind all this?"
Frostbite frowned. He, being an observant ruler, and taken note of all the strange things that were happening in recent weeks. "Something is wrong, anyone can see that much. But I'm afraid that I do not know what the cause of these events are. Ghosts have been going missing. Among their numbers being your foes, Spectra and Technus, as well as Pandora."
Danny's eyes widened at that. Pandora was a powerful ghost, and protected important artifacts, including her box. Not only was it disturbing that something had managed to capture, or possibly kill her (if that's what you could call ending a ghosts existence), but now her box would be unguarded and free to be taken by anyone. Though, Danny guessed, they would have to get through her maze first.
Then he realized something. If his allies were disappearing too, then that could mean…
"What about Danielle?" Danny asked quickly, voice taut with worry.
"We have been in contact with the young Phantom in recent days, Great One, and have requested her return to our realm as soon as possible. She will be safe," Frostbite reassured Danny, and he found himself relaxing. But only a little. A lot of things could happen in a few days, and Dani could have been taken already. Frostbite tried to reassure Danny again, before deciding that there would be no helping him in this.
"We will contact you as soon as we hear from her again," Frostbite said.
Or as soon as you don't, Danny wanted to retort, but held back.
"I need to find out what's the cause of this," Danny said, steeling his gaze.
"Of course, Great One, but do not put yourself at risk. There will no doubt be a great battle ahead, and we will need you when the time comes. Allow me and my men to search for the cause, while you prepare yourself for what is to come."
"Do you think we could use the help of humans?" Danny suddenly asked, realization dawning on him.
Frostbite pondered the question for a moment before answering. "If properly trained, we could use their help. We have no idea what we will be facing, Great One, and humans can be resourceful at times."
"Okay. I need to go back now." Frostbite nodded in understanding. "But I'll be in touch, and I know exactly which humans we can get help from."
"May cold winds be at your back," Frostbite stated in traditional Far Frozen farewell.
"And pure snows to welcome you home," Danny replied just as traditionally, before transforming and heading off. He left Frostbite and made his way back to the entrance, flying through the halls and out the door. The sentries, which hadn't been posted when Danny first arrived, waved their goodbyes and closed the door behind him.
Danny once again flew as fast as he could, and found himself fretting over how little sleep he would be getting that night. By the time he got home, it would probably be a few hours until sunrise, and then he would have to do his morning patrol (he wouldn't let a decrease in ghost activity lower his guard) and go to school.
He was still deep in thought when he suddenly found himself out of what little breath he needed as he went careening towards a nearby slab of rock, thudding painfully against the ground. Danny shook his head and glanced up, noticing a familiar metal suit not to high above where he had been moments ago.
"Skulker," Danny frowned. "Don't you ever other prey to catch? You know, prey that you can actually catch?"
"The thrill is in the hunt, ghost child. And when the hunt is done, your pelt will adorn my walls," Skulker replied.
"Listen, Skulker, I'm not in the mood for this right now," Danny said as he rose, charging up an ecto-blast.
"Good. Then that means we can keep the witty remarks to the minimum so I, the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone, can finally attain my prize!" Skulker roared, then flew towards Danny.
"Wow, attain. Such a big word, I'm proud of you," Danny smirked as he fired off a now fully charged blast. Skulker swerved and avoided it, a large gun sliding out from his shoulder. Danny jumped from the slab of rock he had been standing on as Skulker fired. A moment later it was nothing but drifting pebbles.
"I think you need to work on your aim, Skulker. I'm over here," Danny dodged around the hunter sothat he was hovering behind him, and grabbed the metal head. Before he could punch the weak spot, Skulker swivelled around and knocked Danny aside, then reached out and grabbed his shoulder. Danny winced as he felt a sharp pain where Skulker grabbed him, then turned intangible and slid from his grip. More guns rose from various locations among Skulker's suit, and they all fired at once. Danny did his best to dodge, but found that he wasn't able to miss all of them as a harpoon-like spear soared past and ripped through his upper arm, opening a large gash. Danny hissed as the green ectoplasm started to flow from the wound.
He was too tired to fight properly despite the short reprieve he had been given at Frostbite's. He would have to finish this off quickly. For a moment, he was considering using his ghostly wail, then shook his head. That was too powerful, how knows what it could destroy. And it was just too similar to him. He wouldn't use it unless he had to. Danny resigned to his normal method of attack, charging up his fists with ectoplasmic energy. He remained at a distance, where dodging would be easier, and did his best to stay behind Skulker. After a few blasts hit the weak part on his neck, Skulker's head flew off and Danny want to catch it. He reached inside and grabbed and the small green blob from within.
"I am the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter! I will have your pelt!" The tiny Skulker shrieked.
"Yeah, whatever," Danny muttered.
"You have won this time, Ghost Child. But know this, I have done what was asked of me, and I will return," Skulker said, then he bit Danny's finger and quickly flew away, abandoning his suit.
"Ow!" Danny cried out in surprise and rubbed the now sore area. Did ghosts do that? Biting? He hadn't actually seen that happen so far besides when the parrots attack him, or when Bertrand had turned into a panther. Danny glanced at his shoulder and hissed. The wound was bad. It would take more than a few hours to heal, and his arm would no doubt be stiff and sore for the next day or two.
He continued on his way to the Fenton portal, although not as quickly seeing as he had used a lot of what little energy he had regained on his fight with Skulker, and was now bleeding profusely. By the time he reached the portal, the blood had stopped, but his whole arm was numb and he could still feel the prick in his shoulder from when Skulker had grabbed him.
Danny stumbled through the portal, turning human as soon as the door closed behind him, and made his way upstairs. In his dresser, behind a false back in his drawer, was an elaborate array of medical supplies that would challenge even the most prepared first-aid kit. Danny grabbed the supplies he would need and made his way to the bathroom, being as quite as he could and locking the door behind him. He cleaned the wound quickly and disinfected it, before eying it carefully. He would need stitches.
After muttering a few choice obscenities common in the Ghost Zone, Danny grabbed the needle and thread, steeled his nerves, and started to sew the wound shut. He would never be able to get used to the sensation of a needle tugging at his skin, but knew that he couldn't take any drugs to numb the area, or else he might not be as careful as he was now. The stitches were far from perfect, but he had slowly gained experience over time and could now manage to at least sew it straight.
The only problem was when he had a wound on his back and couldn't sew it. He had quite a few nasty scars that had taken much longer to heal because of that half, convincing his parents that he was sick and couldn't go to school whenever that happened. That meant that, along with his unexplained absences and late arrivals, he had also racked up a fair number of sick days. Although those days were justified, seeing as he could only lie on his stomach all day and give the wounds time to heal. If it was bad, around three days or so.
Danny cleaned up any blood that was on the counter and gathered up his supplies, mopping up any blood that had dripped onto the floor with his already ruined shirt. He noticed that, unlike usual, his blood wasn't fully blood after changing back. There were hints of green ectoplasm mixed in.
"That's new," Danny muttered as he tossed the shirt under his bed and returned the supplies to their hiding spot. He cast a quick glance at his bedroom mirror, noting that in his reflection his eyes were still green, before crawling into bed, careful to stay on his left side, and quickly falling asleep. His eyes had been closed for around twenty minutes when the alarm on his clock sounded that it was time for his morning patrol.
Yay, chapter 5 is done. And it turned out a bit longer than I expected, almost 4000 words! Finally we got to see a little more action in this chapter, I hope it was at least decent. I'm not totally sure on how good (or bad) the quality of my fight scenes are seeing as I haven't written very many in the past with my previous works (not fanfictions, but just other writing stuff).
Anywho, see you guys next time!
