I'm sorry everybody, I thought I had the rest of this story posted so, late again!

Disclaimer: My only intellectual property found in this fanfiction is well . . . nothing!

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Luiz4200: Laughs. Sorry, next chapter is the epilogue, not this one! I hope you enjoy it all the same.

:)

Keep Learning, Phantom

The king had been defeated - by a mere halfa boy with clumsy control over his powers at that.

The halfa had walked through the victory doors, with the traitorous humans along. The shock wave paralyzed the spectral audience.

Danny stumbled forward, and asked, "So, can we go now, or what?"

"Come on, let's get out of here. I've had more than enough dealing with ghosts for more than a lifetime. No offense." said Tucker.

Danny smiled, empathizing with the comment, "I know how you feel. By the way, " he added, surveying the area surrounding the castle, "I'm seeing the Ghost Zone, but no Amity Park. Any clue how to get home?"

Jack smiled. "Danny, look! There's the Fenton Ghost Portal! Maybe Amity is back in the Real World?"

"What do we do with them?" Sam asked, gesturing toward the befuddled skeletons, who were clueless as to what to do next. "We can't just leave them like that."

"Oh, right!" Danny exclaimed. "Hey, you skeletons! I don't care what you do as long as you leave humans alone. So, do whatever you like, as long as you keep your distance from the Human World. Got it?"

The skeletons stayed silent, but after a brief pause, some of them started to nod, showing their comprehension.

Danny didn't say another word to the skeletons. Instead, he smiled at those he'd been snatched from his home with. "Let's go, guys!" he said to his companions.

With that, he grabbed his companions, and flew off. New as flight was to him, it didn't seem natural when he was doing it purposely. But he had to admit, it did feel great to be flying home after defeating the oppressive king!

Back in Amity Park . . .

Things were running as they had since Pariah Dark took over. Children were in bed at the late hour, and adults were quietly murmuring about the government. A few skeletons roamed the streets, doing the work of the king's police force, and wishing that they weren't stuck on patrol duty.

The sky was the usual green dreariness of the Ghost Zone, the dreariness that never changed from night to day.

Nobody would've guessed that up in the Ghost King's castle, where most of the skeletons were, a clumsy young halfa would be facing off against Pariah Dark. Said halfa was about to lock Dark in the Sarcophagus of Forever sleep.

When the lid was being closed, deep ghostly magic was at work, moving Amity Park back into its own dimension. It was the same magic that had sucked the city into the Ghost Zone in the first place at work then.

The skeletons around the streets saw the sky change. In place of the Ghost Zone's eerie surroundings, a black starry sky appeared, promising the city that it was back on Earth, and that it would see the sun rise again.

They trembled, fearing their leader's fury. All of them knew better than to be the bearer of bad news. Worse, none of them could explain how Amity Park had escaped from the Ghost Zone, so they couldn't choose any particular skeleton to be the unfortunate messenger.

They slowly crept back to the Ghost Zone, with their tails between their legs. On their return to the Ghost Zone, they saw the young halfa and a group of his loved ones flying toward the Fenton Portal.

They heard a member of the departing group say, "Hey Danny, I don't think any of these skeletons heard you. They weren't at the castle, after all."

The boy frowned, processing that statement. "I think you're right, Tuck."

"Hey! You guys!" Danny shouted. "Your buddies at the castle," he gestured to the castle, "can tell you what's going on. Make sure they tell you to leave humans alone!"

They flew off, disappearing through the portal.

"Home! Finally! I couldn't have taken much more of the Ghost Zone." said Tucker. "I think we deserve some serious chill time after going through that. Don't you guys think so?"

Sounds of agreement from the teenagers filled the room, as cheered Tucker's remark.

"Yeah, that's right!" Danny cried.

"Absolutely!" Sam added.

Then, Jack gave a huge grin to his son. "Way to go Danny!" he exclaimed, "I am so proud!"

Maddie leaned over and gently embraced her son. "Both of us are, our little hero!"

Danny himself wore a small smile. "Yeah, I guess I am," he said.

Then he sighed. "But hero or not, I still feel like a freak."

"You're not a freak Danny!" Sam protested. "You're just unique, and you need to learn to accept yourself the way you are!"

Looking over at her half-ghost friend, she saw him shivering. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Danny told her. "I'm just a little cold."

"How can you be cold?" she demanded. "It's 75° (Fahrenheit) in here!"

"No clue," he replied, only to see ice starting to form around his arms, which he'd wrapped around himself in an attempt to conserve body heat.

"Ice?" he asked. "See, this is what I was talking about. I AM STILL A FREAK!"

"And we still love you," Maddie said gently. "We're still going to help you with your powers. You know you can learn to control them. Sweetie, you just defeated the most powerful ghost Amity Park has ever seen with them. I know you can learn this ice power too."

"Thanks," he mumbled, "But if I hadn't activated the Ghost Portal, none of this would've ever happened in the first place."

"Dude! Stop being such a pessimist!" Tucker told him. "Let's forget about you being a freak and go back to the party we were having before the skeleton dudes crashed in on us! I said we needed to chill, and the party your folks set up seems like a pretty good way to do it!"

"Go on Danny, you can't say you haven't earned it!" Jack prodded.

Danny smiled. "Okay," he agreed. "But first, could I have a little help getting this ice off my arms? It's making them frozen solid!"

In a tower, in a portion of the Ghost Zone still unknown to Danny and his friends, Clockwork sighed.

"The skeletons will leave them alone. But there will be other ghosts. Some will be intrigued by the young halfa, and come to fight him. Others will come to take over his world."

The Master of Time was right. Even as he spake, the first of the 'other ghosts' he was referring to were learning about the boy Daniel's improvement. They were learning how he was now using his ghost powers better in a fight. They were more interested in defeating him then, than they where when they had last seen him.

Unfortunately for the teen, his improvement, and his defeat of the Ghost King, had made him more of a challenge. Being more of a challenge would encourage more ghosts to fight him. Even though a few ghosts would avoid fighting ghosts that are a challenge, there would be many more ambitious ghosts who would seek a fight with those challenging ghosts.

Luckily, Daniel's parents were still helping him practice control over his powers, letting him learn how to use the new as well as the ones he'd mastered. For example, after they learned of their son's ice powers, they started thinking about a way to help him learn how to use them.

They'd resumed the party before they did anything else, however, and the children had their first chance in months to act like children.

Currently, the Fentons were in their lab, with tubs of hot water. Danny was trying to turn the hot water into solid ice. His parents were egging him on, applauding with every success.

It was good that Danny was still learning how to use his powers. He'd need them in order to become the effective ghostly ghost hunter who would someday earn himself the nickname, 'the Phantom'.

Such a great future lay ahead of Danny Fenton, if time continued in the way Clockwork expected it to.

That's all for this story, except for the epilogue. (It is in the same style I did the prologue in. I'm sorry, but, it's really short.)