This it it! Just the epilogue left!
Review replies;
LightandDarkness Warrior: And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaaaay. Thanks for reading!
SOLmaster: Well, thank goodness for that - I find writing action sequences extremely hard, so it's really rewarding when they work. Thanks for reviewing!
Autobot-Outcast: Nah, Clockwork what get through it, he bends rules for a living. Thanks for the review!
TweenisodeOrange: Yeah, that's a pretty good guess. ;) Thanks very much!
Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Aye, it will be a shame to end it, but all good things is not gold. Or something. Thanks!
Chapter Seventeen: The Beginning
"So what exactly happened, Mr. Fenton?"
Atkinson leaned over the desk in Mr. Lancer's office, his eyes piercing Danny's. Almost as soon as he'd returned to the house, with barely time to let everyone know he wasn't trapped, he was immediately grilled by everyone from Nick Fury to UNIT. All of these officials wanted to know one thing, and all of them got the same answer.
"It's hard to describe," replied Danny, "When I touched that lever, I just had this...surge of power, and I felt like I knew things that I didn't before. It was like me and the Ghost Zone became one."
"And what did you learn?" demanded Atkinson, "What knowledge did you get?"
"...I can't remember much," replied Danny, shrugging, "It all disappeared after we left the Ghost Zone."
Atkinson sat down, nodding curtly.
"You're a poor liar, Mr. Fenton," he grunted.
"I'm not lying," insisted Danny.
Atkinson raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"How did you know so much about the Realm Divide?" asked Danny, "I mean, I know you were watching the Man in the Whi-Romulus, but you can't have gotten that much from him, can you?"
Atkinson gave Danny the ghost of a smirk.
"I'm an intelligence officer," he replied, "I have agents to tell me these things."
He stood up, turning to the window. He tucked his hands behind his back.
"I will tell you, though," he continued, "I've kept a litany of things from you, but I assure you, I kept Dorian in the dark as well. He did not lie to you."
He was quiet for some time.
"You may leave now, Mr. Fenton."
Danny got up quickly, glad to be able to leave.
"Incidentally," said Atkinson, causing Danny to stop just before the door, "You dealt with Romulus – so what about Remus?"
He chuckled to himself as Danny left the room.
Danny stepped out the front doors of the school to be met with rapturous applause. He smiled awkwardly as he walked down the steps, unsure of how to react.
He passed through the crowd outside, drifting through various people offering him congratulations ("Good work, Mr. Fenton...I think you've earned an extension on your homework."), offers ("Mr. Phantom, we think we could use you in UNI-" "No." "Okay, I tried.") and apologies ("You're okay, Fentur-ton.") until he eventually reached what he was looking for.
Jimmy, Timmy, Jenny and Spongebob were standing next to the wall around the corner, away from the crowd. Jimmy was fiddling with the hypercube – he looked up as Danny approached.
"So how's it feel being a hero?" he asked, smirking.
"Hey, come on, you guys are heroes too," replied Danny, grinning, "I mean, if you hadn't come after me..."
"What did you expect?" exclaimed Spongebob, "We're a team!"
"And you," snapped Timmy, "Are never allowed to leave us behind again. Got it?"
Danny's smile faded and he looked at his legs.
"...that's what I wanted to talk to you about," he sighed.
There was a long silence.
"Danny?" asked Jimmy.
"I'm a king," replied Danny, "I took on the emergency powers. I have a duty now."
"But I thought you lost them!" spluttered Jimmy, "I mean, they were only temporary, weren't they?"
"Bonding with the Ghost Zone was temporary," corrected Danny, "But that's not the only thing that happened."
He clicked his fingers. A small ghost portal appeared next to him. He clicked his fingers again and it vanished.
"But...but...you have a life here!" exclaimed Jenny.
"Jimmy, my house got destroyed and everybody knows who I am," snapped Danny, "The only reason the news guys aren't here is because the roads are taken up by army supply trucks. Besides, if I won't be king, who will?"
He shook his head.
"I talked to mom and dad," he said, "They're ghost experts, moving to the Ghost Zone would be a massive opportunity for them. So we're gonna move into Pariah's old keep."
"Well, it's gonna need some renovating," muttered Jenny.
"So," muttered Spongebob, "I guess this is goodbye?"
"Goodbye?" scoffed Danny, "Dude, I'm only ever gonna be a portal away. I just won't be able to join up with you guys as much as I used to. I'll always be there for you, if you need me."
"Danny boy!"
Jack raced up to Danny, carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder. When he reached his son, he began to run eagerly on the spot.
"Okay so a lot of our stuff got wrecked but we can rebuilt that," he said excitedly, "I got the ecto-dejecto, half the weapons vault, the Ghost Gabbler – can't forget that – and I brought..."
Maddie walked up behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Jack, let him talk to his friends," she said, "We'll go in a minute."
Danny smiled at his parents and turned to his friends.
"Well, this is it, guys," he said, "I guess I'll see..."
He shook his head.
"...ah, the heck with it!" he blurted, "Hug time!"
He embraced his friends in a tight hug, grinning widely even as he started to tear up.
"We'll miss you, Danny!" exclaimed Spongebob, hugging back.
"Considering that you can make portals now," said Jimmy, "Getting emotional over this farewell would be highly illogical, and..."
He started to cry too.
"...and I've ruined it. Here it comes."
"You're not leaving us out, are you?" demanded Sam, as she, Jazz and Tucker approached and joined the hug.
The hug lasted for several minutes, and by the time it ended, the whole group was cried out and hugged out.
"So," said Danny, stepping back out of the hug, "If you guys ever need a job or something, I could really use some advisors."
"Just call me Special Advisor Foley!" exclaimed Tucker, raising his arm.
"Oh no you don't," snapped Maddie, "No hiring your friends until they finish high school, young man."
"Yes, mom."
Vlad strode into his mansion, the Syndicate dejectedly following after him.
"Well, gentlemen, this matter has been a complete fiasco," said Vlad, walking straight towards the kitchen and pouring himself a glass of water, "But I think we can salvage this."
"Oh, why bother?" grumbled Calamitous, collapsing into a heap against a wall, "We've lost so many times I can't even remember what winning feels like."
"One cannot remember what one has never experienced," sneered Vlad.
Calamitous glared at him.
"But I have a theory," continued Vlad, "We need to branch out. The four of us are not enough."
"Then what do we do?" asked Crocker, "Does it involve..."
"It does not involve fairy god parents in any way, shape or form."
"...oh."
"No, we need to franchise," explained Vlad, "To hire every opportunist and like-minded individual in the multiverse and bring them into our fold. We need to treat the Syndicate like a business, with employees and everything."
"Aw, that sounds hard," moaned Plankton.
"Yes, but it will be rewarding," grinned Vlad, "I've heard a lot about an enemy of the robot – Vexus, I believe – we can start there. Who's with me?"
Calamitous climbed to his feet, dusting himself off. He grinned nastily as he thought over Vlad's plan.
"Well then," he sneered, "Let's..."
"Franchise?" suggested Crocker.
"The pause was for dramatic effect, you dunce!" snapped Calamitous.
He shook his head.
"In any case," he snarled, "The Syndicate is back."
He laughed manically, unaware of the rest of the Syndicate backing away awkwardly at the outburst.
"So," asked Steve, "How're you doing?"
He and Tony were in the infirmary aboard the helicarrier. Tony was in a bed, several bandages wrapped around his limps, but he was recovering.
"I'm fine," replied Tony, "Nothing really hurt but my ego...actually, no, nothing hurt at all. Nothing can hurt my ego."
"So, the RERE guys sent a fruit basket," grinned Steve.
"How many hidden cameras?"
"Four, but I took them out."
Tony sighed contentedly and lay back.
"The only fruit basket I need has red hair cameras and is probably gonna be pretty cheesed off at me breaking all my bones again," he said.
"Occupational hazard," shrugged Steve.
"What, the broken bones or the irate partner?" replied Tony.
"Well obvious it's the bo..."
Steve trailed off.
"Walked right into that one, Cap," smirked Tony.
"Yes I did, Mr. Stark, yes I did," muttered Steve.
"Alright, Nicktoons, fall in!"
Jimmy walked into his lab, and the assembled Nicktoons sloppily raised to attention. It was a few days after the battle in Amity Park, and the Nicktoon leader was eager to get everything back to some form of normalcy. He strode over to his group, Goddard at his heels.
"Right," he said, slightly officiously, "As you know, our ranks changed up a bit lately. Danny is currently off being a responsible king or something, so we needed someone to fill his place. I'd also like to take this opportunity to welcome a new member to the main team."
He raised a ruler in his hand, holding it against his shoulder.
"Alright, guys, sound off," he barked, "Name and job."
"Timmy Turner," grunted Timmy, "Guy with holograms. Look, Jimmy, do we have to-"
"Spongebob Squarepants!" called Spongebob, "Bubble and amateur karate specialist, sir!"
"Danielle Fenton!" shouted Dani, "Acting gho-I mean, full-time ghost!"
All eyes turned to the fifth member of the team.
"Jenny Wakeman!" called Jenny, "Tech specialist!"
"Glad to have you, Jenny," grinned Jimmy, "Fall out!"
Timmy rolled his eyes as the group spread out, gravitating towards the chairs in front of the VOX screen.
"Alright," said Jimmy, "We got a mission from one of our contacts – you might know him as King Danny. You guys may remember that Napoleon got away from us at the end of the battle? Well, we found him, and he's trying to take over a restaurant in Dimmsdale called the Moscow Musketeer. We're gonna take him in."
"You guys up for that?" asked Timmy, looking up.
There was a poof and Cosmo, Wanda and Poof appeared next to him.
"Right behind you, sport," nodded Wanda.
"Following you is our job!" exclaimed Cosmo, brightly.
"Poof!" squeaked Poof.
"Well, you heard 'em," shrugged Timmy, "Let's go."
"You wanna do the honours, Jen?" asked Dani.
Jenny looked over to Jimmy, who shrugged.
"Alright," grinned Jenny, "Nicktoons, Unite!"
She pressed a button on her recaller and a portal opened next to them. The group ran inside, leaving Goddard and the lab in silence.
The three ghosts watched the empty lab through the vortex-window. As Goddard curled up next to a chair and went to sleep, the younger ones turned to the other, much more ancient one.
"Well, Phantom," asked Clockwork, shifting into his old form, "What do you think?"
Danny smiled, putting an arm around Sam's shoulder.
"They're gonna be fine," he grinned.
AN: Hang on a minute, where's Tak?! :P
A few things I want to clear up before we go on to the epilogue;
- Danny's not going to stay in the Ghost Zone and never return and be stuck there or shun Earth like most King!Danny plots seem to go. In fact, I'd liken it more to a more mythical version of going to college. He can see his friends whenever he likes, but sometimes the workload gets in the way. Since he's not available all the time, somebody needs to do his job on the Nicktoon team, and who else but Dani? (Well, maybe Tucker, but he's lacking in ghost powers.)
- What the Man in the White Suit said is true, and things like the Ghost Portal (Danny's and Vlad's) won't work anymore. However, the Realm Divide has given Danny the powers to make his own portals, and theoretically new portals could be made.
- While I am ending this for now at least, I wanted to keep a few things open for new stories set in this universe, hence the whole Remus thing, Napoleon still being around and the Syndicate branching out. For now, however, the main series is over.
- If anyone has any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. If I've learned anything from writing, the 'lots of speculation from everyone' style of writing isn't satisfying, whereas answering questions is quite fun.
That's all for now, and I hope to have an epilogue ready tomorrow! :D