Noel, Noel
Chapter Three: In The Zone

"Wake up, Noel. Wake up!"

Noel blinked a couple times before finally snapping back into consciousness. Well, snapping might not have been the best word, as even with his eyes open, Savior's head was still fuzzy. And he was growing mildly nauseous, feeling as though he was weightless and anchored to nothing…

Then he sat up… and flipped all the way over, rolling through the air with no support… He was weightless and anchored to nothing. Suddenly, two hands clasped his shoulders and steadied him, and Savior turned to see Phantom hovering next to him—and behind Danny and all around, there was a void of mismatched colors swirling in a nebula of nothing…

"Where are we, Phantom?" Savior asked, trying to keep his inner ear stable. Even despite his tendency to use the Shimmer to swing through the streets like Spider-Man, Noel was having trouble here. Even when he'd been violating Marvel's copyrights, he'd still felt the effects of gravity.

"This would be the Ghost Zone," Danny said. "Welcome to my enemies' home turf."

Noel flung his arms through the air, twisting a few more times before finally righting himself. "How can you tolerate this?" He started to list a bit more, but Danny stabilized him.

"Never been a problem for me," he said.

Savior muttered a few choice words and then tried to swim forward… "Okay… How do we get out of here, then?"

Danny glanced off into the distance and shrugged. "I can't say. The Ghost Zone is enormous and I have no idea where in it we are. This section isn't on any of what we've mapped so far. In most parts of the Ghost Zone, humans fall as if there was gravity."

"So we're trapped in another dimension with no way out, and the fact that I'm not plummeting endlessly downward is our only consolation."

Danny shook his head. "There's a way out, we just have to find it. But otherwise, yeah, that's the size of it."

Suddenly, a massive blast of green flame slammed into Danny and sent him careening backwards. Savior tried to swim after him and simultaneously look the other way, and ended up only turning end over end, rolling through the Ghost Zone like a cartwheel. But he at least got a spiraling view of their attacker—the same one as before.

"Typical," Noel muttered.

Danny had barely recovered from the attack when he first eyed the Ghost that trashed Amity Park Mall. Danny charged up two energy beams and hurled them at the Ghost, but it deflected them with a scythe that materialized from nowhere.

"Are you sure this isn't Death?" Savior asked from his cart-wheeling position twenty feet from Danny.

The Ghost waved its hands again, and several more portals appeared in fabric of the Ghost Zone. Danny thought about blasting towards them, but several of them began spewing forth objects. Human-world objects, Danny realized, and all of them Christmas decorations.

With a bit of a start, Danny realized that one of them was the famous giant Christmas tree in front of Rockefeller Plaza every year—which caused Danny to wonder what the ho-ho-heck this ghost was up to.

Being the generally non-confrontational (in other words nerdy) guy that Danny was, he tried asking the Ghost first.

"Who are you and what do you want!?" Danny demanded, aiming another double-handed ecto-blast at his foe.

The Ghost 'looked' (as much as something without eyes can be said to do so) directly at Danny, and pointed at the Christmas decorations…

Then promptly demolished them bit by bit with his scythe, including the Rockefeller tree.

"You hate the way the city of New York is decorated?" Savior snarked, finally having made is way to Danny.

The Ghost responded by vaporizing several more Christmas decorations and then blasted off into the infinite realms of the Ghost Zone at mach-ten.

"How fast can you fly?" Savior asked, amazed by the Ghost's speed.

"One-twelve," Danny muttered.

"Rookie," Savior said bitterly.

Danny clinched his fists and turned to Savior, leaning forward and looking the Titan in the eyes. "Rookie!? You don't even know how to keep yourself from turning end over end, here, Noel. You don't know a thing about how to get around in this place, or who is who and what is what. Here, you are the rookie."

Savior leaned back and allowed himself to drift away a bit, giving Danny a bitter smile. "I think you're right," he said. "Remember that from this point on. We all have room to improve, even me—even Batman. The difference is that you take the epithet as a personal insult where I take it as an accurate assessment of my abilities—when and if it is."

Danny didn't stop glaring at the Titan until the smile had vanished. When it did, Danny continued. "It's still Christmas Eve, unless we've been flung into the future or the past. Our best bet is to find some other ghosts—ones that aren't violating the Truce, and see if we can get any information or help from this Ghost that just seems to want to ruin Christmas for everyone."

He turned intangible and flew towards Savior in order to overshadow him—but then found himself right off the Titan like he would a brick wall when solid, a flash of light disorienting him. "Ouch, man, what gives?"

"Did you just try to possess me?" Savior's right eyebrow was raised and the left lowered—Danny read it as confusion and a hint of mistrust.

"I was going to overshadow you to fly us both around instead of watching you struggle like a quadruple-amputee at a swimming competition."

"Listen to me carefully, Phantom," Savior said, his eyes growing fierce. "I do not like to be controlled. I do not like to be possessed, and I do not want you inhabiting my body without my permission. Do you understand?"

Danny hovered back and nodded. For the first time, Savior kind of seemed… like a threat to him.

"How did you block me out?"

Savior reached into his shirt and pulled out a pendant attached to a necklace. "Something Raven gave me—formerly the property of Navan, the man who sold Jinx the Amulet of Roasha. It stops ghosts from possessing me, though I never expected that'd be something I had to worry about from you."

"I'm sorry. I should have warned you first."

"You should have asked permission, Phantom. Maybe in your little microcosm you can possess random people at will, but if you ever want to join the superhero community at large, then things like that can easily be taken as an act of hostility."

"Sorry," Danny repeated.

Savior scowled, but removed the amulet and placed it in his pocket, then detransformed into his normal state. "The Shimmer will be less likely to resist your control if I stay in this body, and if we run into any of your rogue's gallery that the rest of the Titans and I fought during the battle with Sizzle… well, I don't want them to recognize me."

Danny nodded, turned intangible, and possessed Noel; then the two blasted off in the direction the powerful ghost had flown.

After a while of flying, with no Ghost in site, Danny finally began to see some objects and doors that were remotely familiar… And Noel's body suddenly got heavier as they passed over a massive floating island—the one where Aragon and Dorathea's castle rested…

And oddly, very familiar music was emanating up from the hold. Danny flew Savior's body down for a closer look, and as he looked around, it became obvious things had changed for the better—at least on the surface. The homes were no longer medieval thatch-roofed houses but more like Victorian-era buildings, and the streets were no longer patrolled by knights, but by soldiers with guns.

"Still totalitarian, but at least there's some semblance of personal hygiene," Danny thought aloud.

He landed Savior's body near the gate to the castle, and approached the ghost soldiers guarding the entrance.

"Do you have an invitation?" one of them asked him.

Danny stepped out of Noel's body, leaving the Titan to collapse into a heap next to him. "Well, no, but that singing sounds familiar…"

Noel stood up groggily. "It sounds like that Ember McLean ghost…"

The derogatory use of the word ghost drew a glare from the soldier, and then Noel turned and gave him a Shimmer-encased thumbs up to simulate a ghostly aura. "Which is of course my species. I'm not alive in any way, shape, or form. At all."

"Listen," Danny said to the soldier ghost. "There is a ghost out there breaking the Ghost Truce, and I don't know who it is or what I'm up against, but I know it is attacking the human world."

The soldier glanced down, as if thinking deeply for a minute, then spoke. "I will escort you to an audience with Queen Dorathea. This way, please." He hovered off.

"Queen Dorathea?" Savior asked. "She's not related to Pariah Dark is she?"

"Last time I faced Dora, she was a princess under the thumb of her jerky older brother," Danny said. "Things have changed a lot, I guess. Wait, how did you know about Pariah Dark?"

"You think a town disappearing into another dimension doesn't make national news?" Savior responded.

"Good point," Danny said with a shrug.

The soldier ghost finally led them to an area of the castle where the music was getting much louder—and it was most definitely Ember's voice. The song sounded like Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him in a foreign language…

"Do you recognize this?" Danny asked. "It sounds like—"

"It's Adeste Fideles, Danny. The Latin version of the song."

"Strange."

The ghost soldier pushed open a large wooden door at the end of one of the castle's halls, and the three stepped in to what could only be described as a banquet fit for kings—or more accurately, dead kings. Ectoplasmic food topped a table that stretched the length of a the room, and the room itself was as long as a barge and probably just as wide as one.

And it was full of ghosts—Danny Phantom's enemies and allies alike, surrounding the table eating the food and celebrating the season… it seemed.

"Would you look at that!" Skulker bellowed as Danny approached, throwing his cup of lager into the air, but holding onto the handle so only the liquid went airborne. "It's the ghost child!"

All heads in the building immediately turned to see Danny sanding with the soldier at the open door.

Danny blinked. "Um.. hi, guys."

Suddenly, Dorathea was right beside him—except now she wore a crown of a queen instead of the tiara of a princess. "This is a most unexpected pleasure, young Daniel. You were not invited, but verily you are welcome here—especially on the night of the Truce."

"'Verily'?" Savior raised an eyebrow.

"People expect it," explained Dora. "And who might you be?"

"Oh me?" Noel said casually? "I'm new here. Just freshly dead. On… Wednesday. I'm so new to this whole ghost thing I don't even have a complete aura or know how to fly yet."

Dora regarded him suspiciously. "Interesting. Your name is?"

Savior blinked. "Bill. My name is Bill Willingham."

At this, Sidney Poindexter perked up. "Good golly gosh, you mean the famed comic book writer? What a tragedy, your parting. Though it is an honor to meet you."

Danny facepalmed, and elbowed Noel in the side, and the Titan found himself unable to avoid sweatdropping. "He's not that Bill Willingham," Danny said. "No relation at all."

"He may not be related," Skulker said, a sudden edge to his tone. "But his voice sounds familiar."

Ember's eyes perked up as if she'd been thinking the same thing, and Technus 2.0 leaned forward. "The updates to my operating system have damaged the specific foils, but I know this voice print is somewhere in my memory!"

Now Ember stepped forward. "Allow me to shed some light on the situation, boys."

"Oh no." Danny gasped.

Ember pulled out her guitar and jammed out a magic chord that produced a convulsing beam of lavender energy. The magic song slammed into 'Bill' and in a flash, the young man was replaced by Savior, the Teen Titan.

Gasps filled the room, and Skulker leapt atop the table and aimed his weapon directly at Savior. "You! What is this about, human? Has the hunted convinced itself it could become the hunter?" The weapon hummed as an attack charged up.

"Wait!" Danny shouted, interposing himself between Skulker's gun and Savior. "What about the Truce!?"

"The Truce only applies to ghosts, halfa!" Skulker spat. "The living aren't so lucky!"

"But…" Danny protested..

"No buts," Ember said. "Ghosts aren't supposed to haunt the human world this night, I don't see why humans should get to haunt our world."

"We're not here to haunt you," Savior shot back. "A Ghost did attack the human world—one a lot more powerful than any of you. It opened a portal to this ghost world that sucked us in here—Phantom and myself."

"And," Danny added, "I was hoping you could help me take him down. He's incredibly powerful, but I thought that together…"

"Forget it," Skulker said. "The last time we tried to help you smash a ghost violating the Truce, he turned us against each other."

By this time, a crowd had gathered around Danny, both foes he knew and faces he didn't. The ghost warden Walker hovered forward from the crowed and confronted Skulker. "You know the Rules, Skulker. Every ghost honors the Truce."

"If you're so big on the rules, then you help the child hunt the rogue down," Skulker barked. "I'm here to enjoy copious amounts of ecto-turkey and ecto-beer before I continue the hunt. And I will change my mind for nobody. Not even you, warden."

"Ho boy," Danny said, burying his face in his hand. "This won't end well." Any instant now one of the two would shoot first and the Truce would be cancelled.

Dora, however, had other ideas. "Cease this pointless argument," she demanded, inserting herself between the two. "Don't make me use this!" She indicated her amulet, the one that gave her the ability to transform into a dragon. "This is my castle, and you are welcome here only as long as you abide by my rules."

"I like this one," Savior whispered to Danny's ear, indciating Dora.

And on the opposite side, Danny felt someone tugging at his costume. He turned to find Young Blood standing by him, now in some sort of science fiction get up. Wonderful. But the look on his face, instead of his usual arrogant smirk, was one of grave concern. "Hey, landlubber, mind telling me what this Ghost you said was violating the truce looked like?"

Danny opened his mouth to respond, but Savior answered for him. "He was about eight feet tall, wore a cloak like the Grim Reaper, and had a scythe. Like the Grim Reaper. And even though all evidence points to it being the Grim Reaper, Phantom claims that Death is a woman. Go figure."

"Why are you asking?" Danny thought it was relevant, even if he risked another one of Young Blood's practical jokes. He still had no idea who he was up against.

But instead of laughing, Young Blood began sweating, and motioned with his thumb. Danny followed the gaze to the entrance of the banquet room...

Where the Ghost stood, glaring that sightless glare directly at Danny.

Behind him, Danny realized the argument between Skulker and Walker had only escalated and that Dora was unable to rein it in—even more ghosts had joined the verbal assault. "Guys!" Danny shouted.

The argument continued, even as the Ghost inched closer to Danny, pointing at him with a bony finger.

"GUYS!" Danny shouted again. Savior just seemed to be trying to stare down the Ghost as if to figure him out… Or something.

The Ghost inched ever closer, finally drawing the attention of a few of those not directly involved in the argument…

Danny whirled around, charging up a slight burst of Ghostly Wail and trying one last time. "GUYS!"

All the ghosts whirled around to find out what the halfa wanted, and then saw the unwanted intruder. "Sweet merciful…!" Dora blurted.

"Blast him!" called Technus.

Several of the ghosts gathered around the table opened fire with various weapons or energy beams, sending the Ghost careening back into the wall of the castle with an impact that made the whole structure shake. But it peeled itself off the wall and returned fire, blowing Richard Rose and Penelope Spectra away with a massive green fireball, then turning and blasting forward at supersonic speeds and grabbing Ember's guitar. It jerked it from her hand and then smashed the punk rocker into the wall with her own instrument.

Wulf lunged forward to strike it, but the Ghost just waved its wrist and a portal opened inside of Danny's feral ally, warping him away…

"How powerful is this thing?" Danny blurted, glancing at Savior…

Who was still staring blankly at the wall, his eyes glazed-over. "Savior!" Danny waved a hand in front of his face and got no response. He touched Noel's shoulder only to have the Titan collapse onto the floor of the castle... Danny instantly tried to check the pulse of the unconscious hero, and found it there, but faint…What is going on here?

The invader, meanwhile, was still cutting a swath of destruction through the banquet room. Skulker blasted it with some powerful arm mounted canon, and it flew back to the edge of the table… and stopped, doing nothing but staring at the rest of the ghosts.

Dorathea stepped forward, looking indignant and, Danny noticed, slightly afraid. "What do you want, traitor!? Why have you come here on the day of the Truce? Why have you assaulted us? Does your infernal occupation not give you enough to do!?"

The Ghost said nothing, continuing to stare the group down… for a few seconds. Then it raised its bony hand, wreathed in flames, and pointed it directly at Danny.

"Me!?" Danny shouted. "What did I do…?"

The Ghost did not respond. It simply vanished into another fiery portal, leaving a mess in the banquet hall and many questions unanswered. Though there was one on the tip of everybody's tongue—and everybody who wanted to know knew who to ask.

Danny stepped forward to Dorathea. "Dora—Queen Dorathea. You seem to know who that was. Do you care to tell us?" Danny's voice wasn't as polite as it could have been, but Dora did not take offense.

"I know who that was, for it is a legend passed down in this part of the Ghost Zone. His true name is long forgotten, likely even by him. We know him as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come."

That statement drew a few gasps from the audience, but none of them said what Danny was thinking. So Danny did. "Isn't he a Charles Dickens character?"

"Charles Dickens is a name I'm not familiar with, but I assure you no living man would have record of this being if they had not met him first hand—or known someone who did. He is an outcast, cursed forever to meddle in the affairs of the living by she who collects the Dead."

"You mean the girl with the ankh?" Danny realized aloud.

Dora nodded.

"So what does the Ghost want with me? I may not like Christmas, but I'm a superhero. I'm not some misanthropist old man. Don't ask me how I know the word misanthropist."

"Honestly, I have no idea what the Ghost hopes to gain by all this, or what is motives are."

Suddenly, a voice Danny was all to happy to hear spoke.

"I do." Savior said, standing up and joining Danny's side. "I read his mind… I know what he wants…"

"What?" Danny asked, hardly able to conceal his relief that Noel wasn't dead. (He'd hate to bring that news to Raven.) "What does he want?"

Noel gave a bitter chuckle than Danny recognized all to well. "What do all the rogue super beings want? He's trying to destroy the universe."

End Note: It took me a good ten minutes to figure out how to word that last line by Noel without it sounding cliche or corny. Please don't laugh at me.