THE PHANTOM'S REALM
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: PALACE PANDIMONIUM
He knew.
It was the only thing going through Danny Phantom's mind. His father, Jack, knew. Jack knew that Danny Phantom, ghostly superhero extraordinaire, and Danny Fenton, average human teenager were two halves of the same halfa.
In retrospect, in no way should it ever have taken so long for anybody to figure it out. Same build, same face, same mannerisms, same hairstyle, same voice albeit Phantom's had an echo to it. But if Fenton dyed his hair white and wore colored contacts for a day everybody would approach him as if he were Phantom.
And Danny knew it. He knew it was only the matter of time before somebody put it together but he had not expected that somebody to be his father. Sure his father was always smarter than he let on, Danny knew that for a fact, but his mother had always been sharper and more observant. More driven to find answers.
Hell, he almost expected Valerie to know by the end of the trip even before they had crash-landed on a dirt road somewhere. He and his friends always knew Valerie was always only one little step from putting the pieces together, what with her spending so much time with both Phantom and Fenton.
Sure she wanted to 'destroy' Phantom, but Valerie was literally the only person in Casper High who didn't know his secret and was still nice to Fenton. She had never tripped him in the hallway or called him a freak or laughed when he stumbled into the classroom late covered in black and blues. Sure she didn't get along with Sam and Tucker as well as she could've but she still treated them all, Jazz included, a hell of a lot better than anybody else at school.
So knowing his father had caught on, Phantom did the only thing he could; he transformed.
The black and white HAZMAT with the elegant black cape and white-gold crown all disappeared when the rings of light ran up and down his body once more, changing him into his human form with his solid red shirt with a white stripe and blue jeans. His hair went from white to black and his eyes from green to blue.
Now instead of facing the powerful and protective ghost Phantom, Jack was staring right at his shy and unspoken son, Danny.
"Hi Dad."
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"So how powerful is he really? I always knew he held back against me but seeing Phantom fight those two ghosts earlier really showed me how much." Valerie asked Tucker, who was sitting with her in the corner.
In the same room Danny had managed to keep all their unwelcomed guests, Tucker and Valerie managed to get a seat on the loveseat in the far corner of the room, safe to freely whisper about Danny's halfa and Kingly status.
Sam had stomped out a few moments after Phantom and Jack went to the side room after Jazz and Danielle, most likely to scold the eldest Fenton child on her severely poor lying abilities. That girl could do a lot of things, study, invent, build, strategize, dance, write, understand and analyze were only a few, but lying was nowhere close on her list of abilities. It was rated lower than 'witty banter', which hadn't gotten any better even with the help of 'Pun-master Phantom' as Danny dubbed himself.
The A-list were all sitting around the loveseat across from Tuck and Valerie's with Paulina, Star and Sarah sitting on the cushions, Kwan sitting on the left arm, Gary leaning on the back and Dash sitting on the floor with his back against the front.
Mikey, Nathan, Michelle and Nancy were all out in the entrance hallway with Lancer, admiring the artworks that littered the otherwise blank walls.
Jimmy, Steve, Emma and Hailey had opted for another nap and were all fast asleep in sitting positions on the sofa.
Maddie, however, was looking all around the room repeatedly even though she had already done the same maneuver multiple times in search of her fifteen-year-old son who seemed to have disappeared without a trace. She swore that her son could be as elusive as Phantom was normally when he wanted to be. Nobody could find Danny Fenton if he didn't want to be found, was the rumor that had spread around Casper High recently.
"He usually holds a lot back unless he knows they can take it. Like he wouldn't hold back on Plasmius but he holds back on most of his other enemies like Box Ghost or Technus because he knows their power already so he can already gauge how much to use. But new ghosts are always dangerous because we don't know how strong or weak they are so Danny doesn't know how much to hold back or even if he should hold back at all. That's why we keep files of all the Ghosts we fight." Tucker explained in a hushed whisper, careful not to let anyone else hear.
"Why wouldn't he hold back on Plasmius?" Valerie asked the Techno-Geek, who scoffed.
"Because Danny knows that the Fruit Loop could take it anyway and it wouldn't be overkill since Plasmius is more than capable of returning the favor and not holding back against Danny." Tucker told her.
"What do you mean not hold back on Danny? Plasmius doesn't hold back on anyone, I know. I've seen him fight." Valerie replied.
Tucker hesitated. Was she serious? Could she not tell that the few times she had actually witnessed Vlad attack anything that wasn't Danny he wasn't doing the same attacks or using the same amount of power or even being as into the fight as he would've been if it had been Danny fighting.
Whenever Vlad fought something on his own, he was powerful yes, but he was holding back. They didn't know why but they did notice the major difference in the way Vlad fought against anything that wasn't Danny and the way Plasmius fought against Phantom. When he fought Phantom he was all around better; his attacks were stronger, he was faster and he seemed to recover quicker and everything.
But the same could be said for Phantom; Phantom seemed to attack with more power and more ability than previously thought possible. And the last two times Plasmius and Phantom went up a number on the Power Scale was in a battle with one another.
"Seriously? You've never noticed the difference in his attitude when he's fighting something that's not Danny? Even when the Ghost King invaded all his attacks were pink with white energy but every time he fights Danny he shoots at least three blasts that are white with pink energy." Tucker recounted.
"What does that mean?" Valerie asked, not having a clue what was going on.
Tucker sighed. For the fact that she's Amity's second line of defense after Phantom, you would think she knew a little more than she did.
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"She's gonna kill me. She actually might kill me." Jazz muttered, shaking her head.
She had dragged Dani off and took her to the library to avoid any further questioning especially after her extremely weak lie to her folks. Now she and Dani were sitting at the same table as before with Kitty and Ember while Johnny wandered around the room.
"What the hell was that?" A new voice shouted, nearly scaring Jazz out of her wits before she regained her composure.
They all turned to see a mildly annoyed Sam walking in through the double doors and taking a seat next to Kitty and across from Jazz. Jazz smiled sheepishly.
"I panicked?" She told the Goth, although it was more of a question. Sam shook her head.
"That has to be the stupidest lie I've ever heard, ever. And I was there before Danny got better with lying." Sam told the redhead.
Jazz flinched. She remembered how bad Danny was at lying when he first got his powers and if she was that bad she was bad.
"Well as long as it bought Danny time and avoided further questioning it wasn't all bad, right?" Kitty attempted to cheer Jazz up. Jazz gave a small smile and Sam sighed.
"Whatever. But inter-dimensional neighbors? Really?" Sam mocked, raising her eyebrows.
"Hey I never said 'inter-dimensional' I said 'dimensional'." Jazz defended her poor lie.
"Same thing." Sam muttered sitting down next to Jazz, putting the redhead between the Goth and Ghost Girl.
"I'm surprised that Phantom actually let you get away with that one. I thought he would've stepped in when he realized how bad you were about to screw up." Ember pointed out.
"I have no doubts he would've stepped in if he realized how bad she actually is. See, Danny doesn't realize he used to suck at lying or that he's gotten better. He's just more used to it. So I don't think he saw that Jazz was lost." Sam told her.
Jazz sighed again. It was true. Her brother had no idea how bad his lies actually were. Seriously? 'Can I use the bathroom' has to be his favorite or at the least his go-to excuse because by now his entire class must think he has a bladder problem with the amount of time he leaves class with that excuse. Or the same old 'I tripped' line he told to Jack and Maddie when he came home late all battered up.
"He's even clueless about that." Kitty quipped as the other girls chuckled.
Dani, who had been quiet until now, spoke.
"Aunt Jazz why did you have to drag me all the way here with you? I would've followed you ya know?" She asked irritably. Jazz blushed in embarrassment.
"Sorry. I was nervous and I didn't want to leave you back there with them. If you were surrounded by regular people you'd have no idea what the hell you'd be doing." The oldest Fenton replied.
That was completely true. While Dani got along fabulously with the other members of Team Phantom and better with most ghosts than her father had at first she would've been completely lost if she had been left alone with normal people. She had hardly had any contact with people since she got back to Amity Park, really. Only ghosts. Which was just fine with her because from what she'd seen and heard she was better off with ghosts anyway. But it didn't change the fact that she was still horrible at people skills in general. Even with ghosts she was more than a little awkward at first.
"Yeah, yeah." Dani muttered, looking at her sore wrist. Everything was silent for a few moments before the blue-haired diva broke it.
"So. What now?"
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"Sir Frostbite?" Dora asked as she and the large yeti walked through the halls.
"Yes?" The friendly ice-ghost questioned, looking down on the beautiful ghostly Princess.
"Do you really think Plasmius could get inside here? This is not only the most heavily guarded city in all of the Ghost Zone but also home of his archenemy and all his allies. Would it really be worth it to try and break in?" She asked.
She was honestly confused. She had agreed he was a major threat and helped call the meeting but that was when she thought he was causing trouble around multiple places also but after asking around she became aware that it was only here. Could Vlad really try and infiltrate such a heavily guarded place?
"I honestly do not know. Nobody knows Plasmius better than the Great One does and if he says that Plasmius might try and enter the city then it is not impossible for him to attempt it. But I highly doubt he would succeed. After all, we have very tight security around here." Frostbite replied honestly.
He didn't know much about Plasmius, really. Frostbite knew that he was the one to release the former Ghost King that the Great One defeated but other than that he only knew that the Great One didn't like him and deemed him a bad guy. That was all it took for him to get on Frostbite's list of people not allowed in the Far Frozen. He trusted the Great One's judgment after all.
"Yes I suppose you're right. Sir Phantom would know what Plasmius would try to do better than anyone else." Dora relented, taking Frostbite's word.
It would be rather hard for the eldest halfa to infiltrate the city in such a short amount of time. He was seen haunting the outskirts during the mornings of Sunday and Monday and for him to get past everything that should be keeping him out by Monday afternoon was nearly impossible.
Even if he tried using someone as a host there were Phantom Extractors, designed by Tucker himself, to push any other consciences out of the host body at every main entry point. And everybody's comings and goings were all kept on record in the Palace. The only time in the last few days somebody entered at a non-main entry point was Sir Phantom, who's records were never kept because even the mention of keeping up with the halfa gave ghosts and people alike a headache, and his class.
"Come, Princess. We still have our rounds to finish." Frostbite reminded, gesturing to the hallway.
They and Death had decided to make rounds throughout the Palace grounds to scout for anything out of the ordinary. Originally they were going to go together but Death probably had some stunt in mind and managed to slip away.
Ah, you gotta love that guy.
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"How'd you figure it out?" Danny asked, looking down at his feet.
"I saw you eh, what do you call it? Change forms? Back at the Space Station." Jack told his son.
"That long? I should've known something was up back then. So, what now? Is now the part where you pull out all your Ecto-weapons and tell me to stop overshadowing your son?" Danny asked, backing up slightly.
"Actually. I wanted to talk to you to tell you that it doesn't matter. That you'll be my son always, weather your human, ghost or… something in between." Jack said honestly.
He knew from the moment he saw Danny change what his feelings were. Like he said before, he wouldn't hurt a hair on Phantom's head if he knew it had been Danny. He was more thinking of when to tell Danny he knew rather than thinking of what he was going to say.
"Really? You mean you don't care that I'm half-dead? Or more importantly Danny Phantom?" Danny asked, honestly shocked.
"If by 'care' you mean angry, no. If by 'care' you mean proud, yes. Who would've known? My son, a superhero! You have been following in the Fenton Family footsteps after all!" Jack cried excitedly.
"Dad, calm down! There are still people outside that don't know!" Danny whisper-yelled.
"Right. How many people know, exactly?" Jack asked as quietly as he could. Which was still not very.
"Tucker and Sam have known from the beginning and Jazz figured it out on her own a while ago. Sam's Grandmother has known for a while but I only knew she knew until soon after i became King. All of the Ghosts know by now. Valerie found out when she saw Danielle just now. Now you." Danny said, counting off his fingers.
"So not even your teacher or your other friends knew?" Jack asked, surprised.
To his surprise, Danny scoffed.
"I don't have any other friends in the human world. All of my other friends are Ghosts like the one's you've seen on this trip." Danny told him, glaring at the door.
Jack sighed. He suspected as much after seeing the other kids belittle Danny outside the Palace earlier. But he still found it amazing Danny could manage to keep such a secret for so long with so few people knowing about it. So he decided to change the subject. Slightly enough to get away from the friends topic but still letting Jack ask questions.
"Are there any other, what did that Ghost call you? Halfa? Are there any other halfas?" Jack asked, not knowing the can-of-worms that question hid.
Danny's eyes widened as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, unsure of how to answer that question.
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Valerie's eyes widened at Tucker's revelation. After he had explained more thoroughly about Plasmius' battles against Danny, it did seem like he was fighting harder than he was when it wasn't Danny. But nobody knew why. They couldn't figure out why he wouldn't hold back on Danny like he was obviously doing to majority of his other unfortunate opponents. Unfortunate because sure he was holding back but he was still an exceptionally powerful ghost.
Only now did Valerie completely understand how far she had been over her head. She had always known Vlad was evil, ever since she had witnessed his treatment towards Danielle. He almost killed the girl for Pete's Sake!
Now she realized how much she was outclassed. If she hadn't put together Danny's identity and learned so much about Vlad's true character, she would still be planning to take him on herself. But now. Now she knew she stood no chance if he decided not to hold back. Which she was sure he wouldn't if he found out she was turning on him with his own weaponry.
If Vlad had ever found out she was planning on taking him down before, Valerie was certain he wouldn't have hesitated to strike first.
Only now did she realize how dangerous her situation was and that if Danny wasn't aware, he could do nothing to stop it. Since it appeared that he was the only one who was ever capable of holding Vlad off. The Fenton's or Tucker and Sam or Jazz or even herself never warded off Plasmius as much as she hated to admit it.
Danny Phantom was the only thing stopping Vlad Plasmius from taking his plans just one step too far.
And Valerie had almost destroyed the only thing that was keeping him away.
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"Please."
"No."
"Please."
"Not now."
"Please."
"Still no."
"Please."
"Dani, the answer hasn't changed in the last four seconds."
"…Please?"
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"Danielle, my daughter. She's one too." Danny answered after a long pause.
He hated that he still had to lie even after his secret was out. But he couldn't just dump the fact that his old best buddy from college and his imaginative best friend now was one of the only three halfas in existence and the only evil one at that. And trying to kill him and trying to steal his wife away and take in his son as an evil heir wouldn't help the situation any either.
He decided it be best to wait until later to tell his father about Vlad. Besides, he still had his suspicions that Vlad was roaming around the Palace still. There was no wind in the 'Zone in general, let alone indoors. The light fixture in the meeting room shouldn't have moved by itself. And Danny didn't think it did.
So if Vlad was stalking around the Palace grounds it would be best if he didn't accidentally overhear anyone, Jack or Valerie, talking about his newly exposed double life or else the eldest halfa would no doubt be paranoid that his secret was exposed too. And that would make him desperate. And the last thing Danny needed was Vlad, let alone a desperate Vlad.
Jack could tell his son wasn't telling him the whole truth. And it hurt. He had thought now all the secrets could go away; that they wouldn't need them anymore. Still if Danny didn't want to tell him everything just yet, he could respect that. It would be kind of hard to just expect somebody to let go of a years worth of secrets in such a short time.
"Has there ever been a time where you wished that… this," Jack gestured to the Palace around them, "hadn't happened?"
"I told you I got my powers from the Portal Accident, right? Well let me just say that while it was happening was the single most painful thing I've ever experienced in my entire half-life even after fighting the Ghost King. Other than when it was happening and the first month or so afterwards I wouldn't have had it any other way. Now though, I wouldn't trade my powers for the world." Danny said, his icy blue eyes sparkling with happiness.
"Then I guess I wouldn't either." Jack said, bringing Danny into a hug. Danny whole-heartedly (Or half-hearted! Get it? Because he only has half a heart? Anyone? No? Okay.) hugged back, happy that he was one step closer to being accepted by his entire family.
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"PLEASE!"
"No."
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"So kids who wants to learn about GHOSTS!" Jack's voice boomed from the doorway, his large hand slapping Phantom's back.
"As long as Phantom's the one who teaches it, cool!" Dash exclaimed, rushing to sit in front of his hero like a toddler on the ground.
The others soon followed his lead, sitting on the floor in a large crowd with Tucker and Valerie at the back, still whispering. Maddie looked to her husband confused, but Jack nodded reassuringly and Mrs. Fenton too sat down.
Jack sat down beside his wife and looked at Phantom, encouraging him to go on. Lancer, too, found himself excited about learning more about ghosts.
Phantom looked out at his peers with only one thought in mind,
'Where the hell is Sam? If she were here we could've brought them home!'
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"No."
"I didn't even say anything!"
"Yet."
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"Um. So. Who has a question?" Phantom began awkwardly.
Everybody's hand except Tucker and Valerie's shot up instantly. Probably because Tucker knew everything he knew and because Valerie knew what she wanted to ask about wasn't public knowledge yet.
"Yes, Mr. Lancer?" Phantom pointed to his teacher on the far left.
"I was wondering if you designed your grand city, which is very great by the way, after the lost city of Atlantis?" Lancer questioned.
Most of the class groaned at the question. Obviously architecture was the furthest thing from their minds while they were seated in front of their hero.
"Actually, yes. I'm glad someone noticed where it came from. The basic design of separating the city into rings and giving it a center-point came from Atlantis, but the purposes were all our own." Phantom replied easily, smiling at his teachers' expression.
"'Our'? Who else built this place?" Maddie called out, much to the teen's aggravation and Phantom's amusement.
"Well I did. But I had a lot of help, mostly from the Ghost Council and the other higher-ups in the 'Zone. And my friends helped a great deal too." The Ghost Boy replied, satisfying the huntress for now.
This 'class session' was briefly interrupted by a crash from down the hallway and Cheryl sticking her head out, looking sorrowfully at Phantom a few moments later.
"King Phantom I apologize for the interruption but it seems something happened to our oven. It looks impossible to repair. I would go out and get another now but it's my turn to watch over Mr. 13." Cheryl explained.
Odd, Phantom thought, what would've just damaged an oven out of the blue. He sighed and turned to Tucker.
"You! Waaaay in the back! You look tech-savvy. Could you please take a look?" Phantom said, stressing look.
Tucker, gratefully, got the message to watch out for whatever caused the damage in the first place and made a break into the kitchen.
Luckily there were no protests from the A-List since they probably were content with sitting here with him.
"Now. Where were we?" Phantom asked.
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Vlad smacked himself in the face once. Then twice. Then a third time for good measure. And a fourth just because he was that upset.
He didn't mean it, honest. He was floating there, trying to eavesdrop on Daniel from the kitchen. He was hoping on getting a lot of good information and he allowed his guard to slip. Rookie mistake number two; always be ready.
So he paid the price and was almost discovered. How, you ask? Because he wasn't ready for the ovens ding and not only Ecto-blasted the poor thing into seven different pieces he ruined the cookies inside. How could he have been so stupid?! His cover was almost blown once in that blasted kitchen why had he returned!?
So he smacked himself a fifth time. This time with a stick. Wait. That… that wasn't him.
He looked up to see bright red eyes staring at his form.
"Well, well, well. What have we got here?" Death's voice echoed through the empty halls, filled with a no mercy tone and …eagerness?
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"Why? Why did it have to be the cookies?!" Tucker cried, falling to his knees once he reached the kitchen.
Whatever the hell had happened, it broke the oven into multiple pieces and ruined a perfectly good batch of cookies.
"It should have been me instead!" He told the air around him, holding a burnt cookie in his hand.
Finally he sighed, looked down at the ruined dessert.
"Wouldn't have been as good as Grandma Ida's cookies anyway." He muttered, before shrugging and taking a bite. He spit it out instantly after, with wide eyes and started wiping his tongue off.
"And yet still better than Danny's."
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"HOORAY!" Dani cried in happiness.
"Dani, I'm serious. This is the only one." Jazz said, sitting down.
"Yeah. I've got more important matters." Sam said, pointing down and indicating about the class.
"Well this isn't my style. I think I'll go see how Baby-Pop's doin'." Ember said, phasing through the floor.
"And I've gotta go help Cheryl. No one should have to monitor Johnny on their own. I should know." Kitty said, leaving the library the normal way.
"So, what'll it be?" Jazz asked her niece, getting comfortable on the ground.
"The classic of course! The Little Mermaid 2!" Dani cried, turning off the lights as the famous 'Disney' logo appeared on the east wall of the library.
"Sometimes I think she has way too much of her father in her. But in times like these I feel like there isn't enough." Sam muttered as they all settled in.
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"-And those are all my powers." Phantom finished, almost as if out of breath.
While everyone else was wide-eyed at the long list, Phantom picked up his buzzing Phantom Phones and put on in his ear.
"Phantom, here." He said into it.
"Frostbite, Dora, Phantom. It's Death and we got a major Code-Red over here in the side hallway. Plasmius is here. I repeat, PLASMIUS IS HERE." Death cried, before all they heard was static.
Phantom stood there before everyone and let his hand fall from his ear limply to his side. His blood had ran cold and his Ectoplasm even colder. All he did was shake his head and whisper in disbelief,
"No."
And there we have it! Chapter 13 is over! What'd you think? Gave you another long one so be happy!
I would've updated sooner but my parents took me to Colorado to visit my aunt and uncle with my brother and I wasn't informed of anything until we were at the airport so I didn't have my computer for almost a week.
Recap; Danny and Jack have some father/son bonding, Valerie mulls over some thoughts, Sam giving Jazz a piece of her mind, Dani is reveled to be quite possibly the biggest Disney fan ever, the class learns stuff and my favorite Vlad is FINALLY discovered.
Next; A Danny/Vlad confrontation, some D/E fluff (because there's just not enough :/) some Dani/Ember bonding and Tucker and Sam trying to control the class in the middle of a Danny Phantom fight. Pfft good luck to them.
In case you didn't get it, the 'errands' were more jobs than actual errands. Jazz and Sam try to control Danielle, Danielle tries to get some down-time and Tucker and Danny have to explain A LOT of stuff.
Oh and I almost forgot to tell you that yes, Wizards in Phantom City will be updated next!
See you all next time! Don't forget to review!