Happy Easter to everyone! :D I'm already back with a new chapter! I'm sorry to say it isn't TUE, but don't worry, it's already far in the works! :) This will be a quick filler chapter, it's way shorter than my usual chapters, but I felt it was needed to wrap up last chapter.
Thanks to the following people for favoriting/following this story since last chapter: dst 08000, Desert Dragon2000, 09gemgg, Karlo666, mikaela2015, Darth1Bane, and Lady Valkyria.
And thanks to dst 08000 for following and faving me as an author! :D Thanks so much!
ABOUT REVIEWS: Thank you to these people for reviewing: Invader Johnny, RedHeadsRock1010, Kimera20, Commander M2, mikaela2015, vampireharry the 2, Brenne, memmek10k, angelvan105, and Jacobfrit112097. I will not be responding separately, because all the reviews were pretty similar in saying "great chapter!" or something along those lines. THANK YOU FOR THE FEEDBACK! :D I love reading my reviews, especially since sometimes I'm worried people won't like the chapter or whatever. So from now and on I will just be doing review shout-outs, unless you have a specific question or something. Or I can PM you, espiecially if I know an update isn't coming very soon.
All I can say is thank you to everyone who reads this cringy fanfic, I had no idea it would gain so much support. Right now it is almost at 10,000 VIEWS! HOLY MOTHER OF CRAP WHAT? xDDD Thanks so much to everyone, really! It makes me so happy. Thank you. :')
NOW FOR THE CHAPTER! TUE should be posted in about a week, I'm guessing. Updates will be much faster from now and on. I'll try to be better about having a set deadline...
Disclaimer: The characters belong to Butch Hartman
Checkmate!
"Focus. And just relax, it should come naturally."
The white-haired floating figure's eyebrows furrowed, eyes shut in concentration.
"Picture our fight with Pariah, when you summoned it. And keep breathing deeply. You've got it."
A minute or so passed, with no change from either ghost.
Finally the younger one growled in frustration, his emerald green eyes flitting open. "I can't do it! I don't understand, how could I do it before and not now?"
"Sometimes powers do that; often you develop one in a dire situation to assist you, like during the fight, and then it disappears for a while after. Perhaps in another week or two you will gain the ability again."
Danny sighed, obviously irritated at his failure to access his newly found ice powers.
"Or, we could search for a benevolent ice-wielder to help you. I do not have that particular power. It may be difficult for me to teach something I don't know how to do myself." Vlad explained sheepishly.
"I do remember a tribe of ghost yetis with ice powers, that my friends and I found once..." the boy remembered, "but it would be too weird to have someone other than you showing me a power!"
The billionaire chuckled, secretly feeling proud that Danny didn't want to be taught by anyone other than the man himself.
It had been just a week since the fight with Pariah Dark. Since then, the two half-ghost's lives had returned to somewhat normal; the ghosts had gratefully returned to their homes in the Ghost Zone, and school and work resumed as usual for the people of Amity Park.
Several news crews had broadcasted the strange occurrence, when Amity had disappeared off the face of the Earth for more than six hours (they meant it as disappearing electronically, and communications halting for that long. Other parts of the U.S. weren't aware that Amity had physically been gone for that time). No one could figure out the truth, however. The explanations ranged from a city-wide power malfunction to an alien invasion, but only the citizens of Amity knew that it was actually ghosts behind the incident.
Once both halfas had left Pariah's Keep, the other ghosts took care of the two power-holding artifacts by locking them back up. The Ghost Zone was kingless again, at least for the time being. For the past few hundred years, it had been in a state of anarchy without a supreme ruler to unite the Zone. However, the ghosts seemed to be doing just fine without a dictator; the different regions of the Ghost Zone simply arranged themselves as they saw fit. So, the Zone would likely be without a ruler for many years to come.
And to top it off, Valerie, the former Red Huntress, had been allowed to keep her suit again. It was the least Vlad could do for her, since she willingly agreed to ally with him against the Ghost King. After the experience, she seemed to trust ghosts a bit more, since they had fought beside her and even saved her a few times during the fight. Maybe her times of revenge on ghosts was over... though Vlad doubted it. Possibly after another team-up she would realize her misconceptions about ghosts.
Vlad halted his thoughts to suggest something to his disappointed student.
"I have an idea. How about we try a different type of training today?"
"Sure, what do you have in mind?"
"See, the point of the game is to kill the other player's king."
The two halfas, in their human forms, sat facing each other at a small square table, both looking down at the chess board in front of them. The black and white pieces were strewn about, not yet set up on the checkered board. Eleanor the ghost cat looked on curiously from a nearby armchair, her yellow eyes lazily following the movements of her owner.
"Now to explain the pieces. This is the rook." The older explained, holding up the piece. "It can move forward and back and side to side, but not diagonally. The rooks go on the corners of the board." He placed the black rook and its counterpart into their places on his side of the board.
The boy nodded, signifying his understanding.
"The knights go beside the rooks. They can move in a L shape in any direction, which means three spaces in one direction and one space to either side." He showed a possible move of the knight to give an example. "And knights can go over other pieces while moving."
"That's a bit strange, but okay." The boy responded, fingering his white chess pieces, not yet placing them down.
"Next is the bishop. It can move in any direction diagonally. It goes beside both of the knights, like this." He placed the two bishops in their places. "And then comes the king and queen. The king goes on his own color, and the queen goes on the space beside."
Danny nodded once more, antsy to start playing the game.
"The king can move only one space at a time in any direction, making it the slowest, most vulnerable piece. On the other hand, the queen is by far the best piece because it can move in any direction as many spaces as you want, though it can't move over another piece. Only the knights can do that."
Looking only a little confused, Danny nodded yet again.
"And lastly, the pawns line up in front. They can move two spaces forward at first, but then only one space at a time as they cross the board. Also, they can only take out another piece by moving one space diagonally forward." He showed another example, this time of how a pawn could kill an enemy piece. "And the pawns can resurrect one of your lost pieces if they reach your opponent's side of the board. And that's how a chess board is set up." Vlad said with a smile.
"Cool." The younger half-ghost grinned, and began setting up his own side of the board. "Okay... so the castle-things-"
"Rooks."
The boy shot the man an annoyed look. "-go first on the corners, and then the horses-"
"You mean knights."
Danny glared, causing the billionaire across from him to laugh a little.
"All right, I'll let you continue."
"Thanks. So then the bishops (see, Fruitloop, I remembered the name of that one!) are next, and then the king and queen go down, the king on its own color." The white king was placed on the white square. "And last the little pieces-"
"Pawns."
"Are you done correcting everything I say?" Danny asked in annoyance, continuing to put down all of the white pawns in their places.
"Never. It's my job, Little Badger."
The boy rolled his eyes. "Whatever, can we just play now?"
"Sure. White always goes first."
Danny looked down to study the board, frowning at his pieces. Finally he moved a pawn forward two spaces.
The two halfas continued taking their turns, intense concentration on both of their faces.
After several minutes, Vlad spoke up. "Check. Oh, I forgot to say this earlier, when you are one move from killing the opponent's king, you say 'check.' And if the king cannot move to avoid getting killed, you say 'checkmate,' which means the game is over."
"That may have been important to tell me earlier, you know." Danny said with a sassy sigh, quickly moving his king a space to the side.
"Sorry. Must have slipped my mind." Vlad apologized, not sounding sorry at all, and he moved one of his black pieces to the other side of the board.
The younger half-ghost rolled his eyes, moving another piece. It was obvious that he was losing, but it was his first game after all.
Vlad moved his queen with a smile, "Checkmate!"
"What?" Danny studied the board in astonishment, seeing the meticulous setup of the man's pieces that trapped the white king. "Aww. How did you do that?"
"It just takes practice and strategy, Daniel. Plus I've been playing the game since college, so I have many years of experience."
The boy scoffed, "I don't think I'll ever beat you, then."
"Maybe someday. You're already getting close to being able to beat me in a real fight."
Danny shook his head modestly, "No way, I'm nowhere near close to doing that!"
Vlad shook his head, smiling proudly. "You underestimate yourself, Badger. You fought off Pariah Dark, unlimited power and all!"
"Yeah, with your help! There's no way I could have beaten him alone."
"Maybe not now, but in the future I don't doubt that you'll be powerful enough and then some."
"Yeah yeah, let's stop talking about this." Danny suggested, still looking embarrassed. "Do you want to play again?"
"Checkmate."
"Ugh, again? Will you let me at least have a chance, Fruitloop?" Danny asked in exasperation.
Vlad grinned, "Oh come on, let an old man have a bit of fun every once in a while!"
"I let you have plenty of fun." The boy argued with an eye roll. "Losing this game so many times is having an effect on my self-confidence."
"Stop being so dramatic, Daniel." The man sighed, "Okay fine, I'll go easy on you this time. Go ahead and set it up again." Vlad laid back with his hands rested behind his head, not touching his own pieces.
"What, do I have to set up the whole board now?"
"Consider it payment for me letting you win the next game."
Danny smiled and began setting up the board again. "All right, deal!"
I'm sure you had an idea of what this was gonna be from the title. I hoped you liked this chill, short little chapter! :D Please let me know if there are any plot holes I failed to address from last chapter. I know I ended it pretty quickly, and I didn't have a chance to explain stuff that happened right afterwards.
ALSO, I'll be posting a chapter of Of Fruitloops And Badgers today too! If you haven't checked out that one-shot series yet, I recommend it! It may not be completely necessary to read in order to understand this story, but I added a teaser for The Ultimate Enemy already! BEWARE THE ANGST! And I'm about to post another chapter with Danny getting fangs. Spoilers! xD I think at least some of you would read that, right? ...Right?
Anyway thanks for reading and stay tuned for TUE and more updates from OFAB! :)