Day 9 - Ghost Zone

Summary: The A-listers manage to get themselves trapped in the Ghost Zone. Good thing the Prince is with them! Sadly, said Prince is about two seconds away from having a conniption over the whole thing.

"If this is where ghosts are supposed to live, I'm never gonna die. This place is so boring."

Danny gritted his teeth. Don't snark back, don't snark back, he told himself in a desperate attempt to keep from lashing out at Paulina's comment.

It would be a heck of a lot easier if she and the rest of the A-list cronies would quit making jabs at his kingdom.

"The dead have feelings too, you know," he said, failing to keep the sass out of his voice.

Well. At least he could say he tried.

Ashley sniffed. "I'm with Pauli. You'd think with all those cool powers and stuff, they'd live somewhere more interesting."

"Yeah! I mean why else do they keep trying to take over the world?" Dash added. "Probably 'cause our world is better."

It took every ounce of Danny's self-restraint to stop himself from whirling around with blazing green eyes and dishing out a strongly worded lecture about just how rude they were being at this point.

Except if he did that, they would undoubtedly have questions about the eyes and why he was being so defensive of the ghosts. Not to mention he was still getting a hang of the whole Crown Prince of the Infinite Realms thing, and he didn't know if he could keep from accidentally summoning the crown and ring in such a high-emotion state. So yeah, probably not the smartest idea.

Still though, they needed to shut their mouths before someone overheard them and decided to teach them their own lesson. He liked to think that no ghost would be so stupid as to attack a group of humans, especially with him right there, but ghosts had a bit of a tendency not to think things through, particularly in situations that involved personal matters. And disrespect towards their home definitely constituted a personal matter.

Danny inhaled deeply. "You guys do realize you're basically doing the equivalent of walking into someone else's house and insulting it, right?"

"What? I thought you said those doors led to their homes," Kwan said. He genuinely seemed confused as he looked back and forth.

Don't snark back, don't snark back. "I didn't say it was exactly the same, it's just similar. You - ugh, we are guests here. The least you can do is be civil and not get us attacked!"

"Ay, cállate, loser!" Paulina chided. "Maybe if you hadn't messed us up with that invention, this wouldn't be a problem in the first place!"

Ancients, Danny wished Sam and Tucker were here. Or even Jazz. "Or, and I'm just throwing out options here, if you hadn't been messing with a dangerous weapon you knew nothing about, we wouldn't be in this mess!" he shot back.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and counted to ten. Another deep breath later, he said, "Look. All we have to do is get somewhere safe so we can contact someone to come get us. Once we're there, you guys can say whatever you want, alright? I won't even try and stop you." He felt a little childish as he continued to stomp along the path, but he was at the end of his rope. He'd been trying to guide them through the Realms on foot and without flaunting his secret, though it was much easier said than done. At this point, he couldn't be bothered to maintain his poise.

Dale and Dash jogged to catch up with him, to which he rolled his eyes. The jerks just had to be at the front of the pack.

"What makes you think you can stop us from doing anything, Fen-toenail?" Dash jeered.

"Um, guys?" Star said nervously from behind Danny, though he didn't really register it. He was too busy being mad and trying to keep his crown and ring from manifesting.

"I still don't know why we're even following you in the first place," Dale added, apparently also not having heard Star. "How do we even know you're going the right way? We've been walking for hours! Knowing you, you're probably just leading us in circles."

Danny scoffed. "Trust me, if I could get us out of here and me away from you any sooner, I would. What would I get from keeping you here?"

"Guys," Star said again, this time with more force. The three boys at the front of the group did not notice her still.

"Please! I bet you think this is hilarious! Your stupid little friends are probably watching us right now laughing their butts off!"

What little remained of Danny's patience snapped. He felt his ring fizzle into existence around his middle finger and frost begin to circle his head. Turning on the two football players with his finger pointed at them, he growled, "You wanna know something? I-"

"Danny!" Star screeched as his foot suddenly landed on thin air. Gracelessly, he flailed his arms, trying to regain his footing, but it was too late. He fell off the path and tumbled into the green void. The other A-listers immediately began screaming in horror in harmony with Star.

Even as he fell, Danny managed to roll his eyes. Overdramatic jerks, he thought ruefully, though he was surprisingly pleased to hear Dash's high-pitched shriek emerge out of the cacophony.

Then he remembered he was falling and, to these humans, that wasn't a good thing. Instinctively, he tapped into his core, but in a panic not to use his flight in front of the A-listers and being hyper-aware of the ring and crown that had decided to make themselves known, he unintentionally drew upon his connection with the Realms. His core sang out, and the Realms immediately echoed in kind.

He couldn't help but relax into their fold as they shifted the ambient ectoplasm around him, forming a virtually invisible cushion for him to land in. For a blissful moment, he forgot all about the screaming A-listers still on the path above him and his annoyance towards them. He allowed himself to lose his awareness to the Realms, which were flooding him with the feeling of security. They were all too pleased to show their affection for their Prince, and he was more than happy to return the favor.

Then a particularly forceful cry from Ashley shattered the tranquility.

"What did you do to yourself?" she shouted. She and the others were bent over the edge of the path, staring down at him. He hadn't fallen far - only about 20 yards or so.

"And what the heck is that on your head?" Kwan demanded.

Danny winced. A glance at his hand confirmed it - his regalia was on full display. He didn't need to check for the crown; he could feel its chill wrapped around his head.

Except there was another problem. In his panic, he'd forgotten that with the regalia of the Ghost King (or Prince, in his case) came the display of the bearer's death scar. Clockwork had tried to explain it as a symbol of the King's strength, endurance, and transparency, but Danny still didn't understand it completely. Either way, it didn't change the fact that tradition was tradition, and thus his death scar was in full view. For Pariah Dark, it had been the scar over his one good eye.

Unfortunately for Danny, his lightning scar stood out a lot more than Pariah's.

He smiled shyly as he looked back up at the gaping A-listers. "This prove I know what I'm doing?" he joked, though he sounded unsure of himself.

Paulina promptly fainted.

I kind of decided at the last second to abandon my original idea for today after realizing it might be too similar to what I have going for day 7's prompt, soooo this one was kind of thrown together quickly. Not my best work, but honestly the idea of Danny having to restrain himself from pulling the royalty card on the kids who push him around is hilarious to me.

In case it wasn't obvious, the Ghost King AU is easily my favorite AU and trope. I definitely have more Ghost King Danny planned for the month, though it might appear in slightly different flavors.

This weekend's prompts might come out late too! I'm headed out of town just for a couple days and it'll be hard for me to have a chance to write. No matter what happens though, I'm still holding myself to completing all 31 days at some point or another!