THE PHANTOM'S REALM
CHAPTER NINE: INSIDE THE PALACE
Danny swiftly turned around at the sound of the familiar voice and found the ghost-rocker floating at the start of the long hallway he had came out of mere seconds before.
"Thought you'd want a few minutes to yourself after being stuck with your class of morons for the weekend." Ember commented, floating closer.
"I do. I really do. But I can't-" Danny started, but Ember cut him off.
"'Can't leave them here, they need my help' blah, blah, blah. We've heard it all before." Ember smirked.
"Actually I was going to say that I wouldn't leave Sam and Tuck out there with them while I hang out with you guys." Danny finished with a smirk, liking that Ember had been wrong for a change.
"You'd ditch your class if your friends we're out there? Aww, hanging around with Johnny, Kitty and me really had an effect on you, Baby-pop." Ember said, playfully shoving his shoulder.
"Not completely. I'd make sure they weren't in danger and I'd bring them back to Earth but, Damnit they are driving me crazy!" Danny complained, his eyes flashing green from anger before returning to their calm blue.
"Easy there, Baby-pop. It'll all be over soon, right? You said you were going to the Far Frozen for Frostbite, but Frostbite will be here for the meeting so that cuts a step out of your plan, doesn't it? Just ask him for the Infi-map when he gets here." Ember reasoned.
Danny's face brightened immediately and he pulled Ember into a sudden hug, repeatedly saying 'thank you' to her. Ember rolled her eyes as she hugged him back, happily hugging the halfa back.
"Ahem." Came the sound of a fake cough, causing Danny and Ember to break apart instantly and turning their backs to each other.
"Hey, Kitty." They murmured in unison, turning halfway to face the biker-girl.
"Danny, I was on my way to tell you we were waiting in the throne room but I guess you already got the message." Kitty said, winking at Ember, who turned away again to hide her embarrassment.
"Message received." Danny muttered sarcastically. "How long have you been at the palace? I didn't think anyone besides Jazz and Danielle was here when I got here." He continued curiously.
"She teleported us here about 10 minutes ago so we weren't here when you got here." Kitty answered.
"Where's Johnny? Still in the throne room?" Danny guessed and received nods in return. "You girls go back to the throne room and I'll be up later. I gotta go let my class in." Danny said, shaking his head in annoyance.
"Okay, see you later, Phantom." Kitty said as she and Ember waved and phased through the celling.
Danny smiled at them and turned around and walked out of the huge front doors to see Tuck and Sam sitting on the steps while burying their heads in their hands and the others hanging around talking amongst themselves.
"What's the matter with you two?" Danny questioned his friends as he walked down the stairs, earning everyone's attention.
Tucker and Sam instantly shot up and got to Danny's sides, feeling better already.
"Paulina hasn't shut up about how 'Danny Phantom will come save her!'" Tucker quietly mocked to Danny, who chuckled.
"Or how 'Danny Phantom loves her back!'" Sam mocked, not so quietly, leading to Danny and Tucker chuckling and Paulina scowling.
"He does so!" Paulina cried. Tucker and Sam groaned simultaneously while Danny rolled his eyes.
"We were about three seconds away from shoving her back into that carriage and ordering Fred, the driver, to go somewhere." Sam explained, glaring at the Latina girl.
"Somewhere like where?" Danny questioned, afraid of the answer.
"Anywhere that wasn't here." Tucker muttered back. Danny smirked and Sam gestured her hands at Tucker to say 'thank you! Someone who understands!'
"Whatever." Danny said to his friends, before continuing to everyone. "We're allowed in. Everybody lets go!" Danny ordered everyone as he, Tucker and Sam walked up the stairs side-by-side, the others following in one big disoriented group.
LINEBREAK
"For the millionth time, Paulina. No I don't know where Danny Phantom is!" Danny exclaimed at the Latina girl who had asked that question six times in the hour they had been sitting in the living room of the palace.
All the A-List was crammed on one side of the sectional couch that was obsidian black with snow white legs while Mikey, Nathan, their sisters and Valerie were on the other side. Jimmy, Steve, Emma and Hailey sat on the floor, leaning their backs on the couch and the Fentons sat on the love-seat that matched the couch and Lancer stood in the entry-room admiring the artwork.
Danny stood leaning against the wall in the doorway so he could keep an eye on Lancer and everybody else at the same time. Danny felt bad that he had stuck watching the class on Tuck and Sam twice now so he told them to hurry up to the throne room or the library.
Tucker probably went to the throne room to talk to Johnny about bikes again and how well the upgrades Tuck got for Johnny's bike worked while Sam most likely went to have 'girl-time' with Jazz and Dani.
Which left him here playing the babysitter for everybody else. Danny glanced at the clock that read 'six o'clock'.
'Great, only another four or five hours before I can get everyone to bed.' Danny thought bitterly.
He wanted nothing more than to have his class leave. He got enough of them during the week he didn't need this on the weekends too. It was already Sunday so there was no chance of spending the weekend watching horror movies with the rest of Team Phantom, Ember, Kitty and Johnny.
Ember, Kitty and Johnny weren't exactly members of Team Phantom like everyone else, but they helped out often enough to be like, extended members or something. But they were close enough to be counted by Danny in his little family which consisted of Tucker, Sam, Jazz, Danielle, Ember, Kitty, Johnny and Grandma Ida.
Yes, Sam's grandmother. Ida figured out rather quickly that Sam wasn't home at night when the trio started spending the night at the Palace in Phantom City. Sam tried to pretend like she had no idea what Ida was talking about, but Ida was relentless and threatened to withhold freshly baked cookies if Sam didn't at least tell her the location.
Danny had been mad at first but when he heard about the cookies, he and Tucker agreed it was worth it. So they came clean about everything, figuring that if Ida would let Sam continue to stay in Phantom City if she knew that Danny was Phantom and was also there with her, which worked surprisingly well.
Ida was hardly fazed about Danny's duel identity and merely said that he should have told her earlier because she would have make cookies more often. Grandma Ida's cookies made pretty much anything better. So Danny had no problem accepting Ida into their little family and neither did anybody else.
If not for Ida, the only adult figure they had would have been Clockwork and according to Jazz that was awkward for her, Tucker and Sam to seek out the ancient Ghost for help and get cryptic answers in return. They weren't used to it like Danny and Danielle were.
'After this nightmare is over, I have to ask Grandma Ida to make us more cookies.' Danny thought dryly as he stood there and watched everyone marvel at the inside of his palace. Not that they knew that.
LINEBREAK
"Good to know my work didn't go to waste." Tucker commented after Johnny told him how much he loved the upgrades on his bike.
Tucker and Johnny were sitting on a bench on the left side of the room while Ember was sitting on Danny's throne, with her feet hanging off the armrest, and Kitty was floating beside her.
"Boys." Kitty said dryly, rolling her eyes in sync with Ember. Kitty smirked. "What are you rolling your eyes for? Phantom down there is hardly a boy. He's more grown up than most of America." Kitty teased, laughing when Ember turned away to hide her blush.
"Can-it, Kitty!" Ember commanded with as much venom as she could, which wasn't much seeing as most of her voice showed her embarrassment.
"Where is he anyway?" Ember asked suddenly, noticing Phantom's absence.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kitty said sarcastically to Ember, earning an elbow to the side from the blue-haired diva.
"Downstairs with the class." Tucker explained, rubbing his temples at the mention of the class.
"Why aren't you with him?" Johnny questioned the techno-geek.
"He felt bad for leaving me and Sam on our own with them, so he let us have some time off. You guys want to come to the library with me and hang out with Sam, Jazz and Danielle?" Tucker replied, walking to the large doors.
"Sure." Kitty replied for everyone, as they all left the throne room for the library.
"FOR THE TENTH TIME, I DON'T KNOW WHERE DANNY PHANTOM IS!" They heard Danny's voice echo all the way from the living room. He sounded mad.
"That just sounds brutal." Johnny muttered, staring sadly at the stairs where they heard Danny. Tucker and the girls nodded in agreement.
LINEBREAK
"Don't lose you cool too much, little brother, your eyes glow bright green when you get too angry." Jazz whispered to herself, as if hoping Danny could hear it too.
She, Sam and Dani had heard Danny yelling too and they could all agree that first, he was talking to Paulina, second he's answered that question before and third, he wouldn't feel as bad about leaving them here as he would have yesterday.
"If he was any angrier that could've turned into a Wail." Dani noted, receiving nods in agreement.
"I feel bad for him. You two at least had each other, he's stuck down there with people who don't appreciate him and people who want to kill him by himself." Johnny reasoned as he, Tucker, Ember and Kitty came into the room.
They all sat around the table with Sam, Jazz and Dani on the left and Johnny, Ember and Kitty on the right while Tucker sat at the head of the table.
"I know what your saying but Danny told us repeatedly that he wanted us to have a break. We were against it at first too. Weren't we, Sam?" Tucker reasoned, looking to the Goth for back up.
"We were. But he insisted it would be fine." Sam vouched for Tucker, who nodded in affirmation.
"Yeah, see? I didn't want to leave him there but you know Danny. He doesn't give up on anything." Tucker reminded, and received various nods in agreement.
The silence was filled with the ringing of someone's phone and everyone looked at the source; Sam.
"It's my grandma." Sam explained as she answered the phone.
"Hey Grandma! What's up?" Sam answered casually.
"Just checking up on you, Sammy. How's the field trip going? Did anybody attack yet?" Ida asked over the phone.
Sam sighed and put her on speaker and put the phone in the center of the table so everyone could talk.
"Our bus crashed and we had to lead everybody. Danny took us to Mars and Venus' place to stay last night and we left earlier today." Sam explained.
"And we had to pass the museum and we're twelve different kinds of lucky nothing besides Phantom being King came out there." Tucker followed up.
"But Danny got told that there was a meeting in Phantom City about Vlad. So naturally we had to change course to here." Sam continued.
"The kicker is the meeting isn't 'till tomorrow so we have to entertain the class until we can leave afterwards. We're gonna wait 'till Frostbite shows up and ask him for the Infi-Map to get them out of here." Tucker finished up finally. Ida sighed over the phone.
"I also called to tell you that I haven't seen Vlad in town for a few days and I was wondering if he followed you kids in. Guess I have my answer." Ida replied.
Ida was completely informed. She knew about Danny's triple identities, Vlad's triple identities, Danielle's creation, all their enemies, their Royal titles and that Ember, Kitty and Johnny were good now.
She always covered for Sam being out late, she allows Ember and Kitty in Sam's mansion and makes sure everybody has cookies. Ida always offers advice on anything she can and helps the Team in anyway she can.
Like calling them in sick for school when Danny has to fly to Rome for a stray Ghost or signing for Tucker's new equipment that a fifteen year-old shouldn't be able to get. Everybody loved Grandma Ida.
"Thanks Grandma. Is everything okay back there?" Tucker asked.
Yes, she was 'Grandma' to everyone; even Ember, Kitty and Johnny called her 'Grandma'.
"Everything's fine. No Ghosts have even attacked in the past few days. I think they realize Danny's not here and since they only come to mess with him anyway, they aren't even bothering." Ida told them.
Tucker and Sam nodded, then remembered Ida couldn't see them and replied verbally with 'Yeah' and 'Sounds right' respectively.
"Thanks for the info. Grandma. Talk you soon." Sam said after.
"Tell Danny to take care and have him call me tomorrow to tell me about what happened in the meeting." Ida ordered, before the line went dead.
"I love grandma Ida." Everyone said in unison and they all laughed afterwards.
"She makes the best cookies." Tucker added after, earning more laughs.
LINEBREAK
Danny sighed. Now Paulina had everyone talking about Phantom. Now all he heard was 'when will Phantom show up?' 'Does Phantom really live here?' and 'Is Phantom here right now?' He really wished Dora stayed with him and didn't decide to head to help Clockwork set up the meeting room. Dora had left right after he got to the library and talked to Jazz and Danielle and he was regretting letting her go.
Danny, still leaning on the wall, looked at the clock again. This time it read seven-thirty. Not moving fast enough, Danny thought.
"Hey, Danny! How you doing?"
Danny turned to see Tucker and Sam walking down the stairs and he immediately brightened up. He pushed off the wall and met them at the stairs, Tucker and Sam taking their places on either side of Danny again.
"Hey, Fenton! How come the Geek and Goth got to go upstairs but we can't?" Dash asked, annoyed.
"Yeah, like, who put you in charge anyway?" Paulina chimed in.
"Come now, leave Daniel alone. I'm sure he has his reasons." Steve spoke up, surprising everybody there, even his best friend, Jimmy.
"Um, thanks?" Danny said back, confused by Steve's behavior. He had acted strange on the carriage too.
"So what do we do now?" Maddie asked, speaking up for the first time in a while.
"How about go to bed?" Sam suggested angrily, hoping to get rid of Paulina for the time being.
"It's only, like, seven-thirty? No way." Star answered. The trio sighed in annoyance.
"Sir P- Danny?" Everyone turned to see Dora's head poking in the room from the hallway, her red eyes focusing on Danny, trying to ignore everyone else.
"Tuck, come with me. Sam, watch them." Danny ordered. Danny and Tucker ignored Sam's protest and walked out of the room to meet Dora in the hallway.
"Yes, Dora?" Danny answered politely.
"Frostbite has just arrived. I thought you'd like to know that." Dora said knowingly.
Dora realized the meeting intruded on Sir Phantom's plan to lead his class to the Far Frozen to receive help from Frostbite and his tribe, so she figured maybe he'd want to speak to Frostbite anyway. Besides they made it here sooner than they'd have made it all the way to the Far Frozen. It was called the Far Frozen for a reason.
"I would like to know that. Thank you, Princess Dora. Do you know where he is?" Danny praised, looking around a bit, as it Frostbite would be there.
"In the meeting room. Let's go." Dora said, turning around and starting to walk away.
Danny and Tucker hurried after her. First to see Frostbite, second so they didn't have to sit with the class.
LINEBREAK
"Ah, Great One! So good to see you again!" Frostbite cheered, pulling the halfa into a very hairy hug.
Danny didn't mind the hug. He liked Frostbite a lot and he and his tribe practically worshiped him. So Danny was going to do everything he could to earn the praise Frostbite gave him. After he released Danny, Frostbite turned to Tucker.
"Hey, Frostbite! How's it going?" Tucker greeted, jumping at the yeti's arms and allowing Frostbite to give him a bear hug like he had Danny.
After all the hugging, Frostbite sat down in one of the chairs as Clockwork departed to his room. Danny and Tucker stood side-by-side in front of Frostbite while Dora stood on Danny's other side, wanting to here the conversation.
"I assume you've heard of my, ahem, predicament?" Danny started, unsure. Frostbite chuckled.
"By now word has gotten around that you and your humans have been wandering the Ghost Zone, yes. I heard one rumor that said you were coming to me, yes?" Frostbite replied. Tucker nodded.
"We were going to go to the Far Frozen from Dora's but we came here instead for the meeting. We wanted to ask if we could use the Infi-Map." Tucker supplied, almost pleading.
"Of course. I'd be happy to be of service." Frostbite answered, holding out the familiar scroll. Danny instantly pulled it into his grasp and the duo hugged Frostbite's arms saying "thank you" multiple times.
"Not a problem, Great One." Frostbite informed him, after they let go of his arms.
"You have no idea how much this will help me out. Thank you so much." Danny said again, sighing with relief.
"Why don't you go back out there and see if you can send them home now so that way you can have the meeting in peace, Sir Phantom?" Dora suggested, pointing down the hallway.
"Great idea, Dora! You're the best too!" Danny cheered, hugging her. Dora rolled her eyes and hugged both Danny and Tucker as Danny continued, "Let's go, Tuck!"
"Right behind ya, dude!" Tucker said, equally happy and he and Danny raced back to the 'living' room.
Dora and Frostbite chuckled.
"He's different than all the other King's we've had. Isn't he?" Dora asked seriously. Frostbite chuckled some more.
"And that is why so many of us favor him." Frostbite answered.
It was true; most Ghosts favored Danny as King, halfa or not. Things ran more smoothly than they ever did before with Phantom as King.
"Yeah. I'm so glad Sir Phantom agreed to take the crown." Dora reminisced.
"You, me and so many others." Frostbite reminded with a smile.
LINEBREAK
Danny and Tucker skidded to a halt once they reached the living room and froze. Everyone was knocked out cold except Sam who was walking over to them angrily.
"What did you do to them?" Danny asked, surprised.
"I told Cheryl, the maid, to bring them all water with sleeping pills in them." Sam said simply, like it was no big deal.
"What? Sam! You drugged our class!" Danny scolded.
"It won't hurt them. They'll just be asleep until eight or nine a.m. tomorrow. It's your fault anyway. You knew I couldn't handle being alone with them as well as you can." Sam explained. Danny sighed.
"But we got the Infi-Map! We could have sent them home tonight!" Tucker exclaimed, disappointed.
"Well now I feel stupid. Maybe they'll wake up? I'm pretty sure there was only one pill in each drink." Sam said guiltily.
"But we pack Ghost-medicine here. One of those will knock any human out-cold." Danny reminded and earned sighs in return.
"Sorry, Danny." Sam apologized, which doesn't happen very often.
"It's fine. Guess we'll just send them home with this tomorrow." Danny said, gesturing to the Infi-Map in his hand. Tucker and Sam nodded.
"Let's go back to the library. The others are up there." Tucker suggested. Sam nodded.
"Yeah, okay." Danny agreed. He set the infi-map down on the coffee table in the room and followed Tucker and Sam down the hallway without looking back.
But if he did, he would have seen Steve open his eyes and begin to stand up.
Awesome cliffhanger? I think so.
I still own nothing about Danny Phantom.
Okay so next I'll update chapter 9 of 'Wizards in Phantom City' so stay ready for that!
Who was waiting for Grandma Ida to be introduced? I wanted to do it last chapter but it would have been a little forced, so I waited. Also do you think I wrote her well enough? I've never written in her perspective before. How am I doing?
What do you guy think is going on with Steve? Why is he acting weird? And why did he wake up so soon? Feel free to leave your guess in the reviews.
Another thing; don't forget to review! I read everyone's review and try to understand your preferences to write better for you guys so don't worry about posting ranting reviews or giving negative feedback.
Until next time, TheIceRaven out!