Seven

Valerie wished she were at work.

Unfortunately, America's child labor laws only allowed so many hours available for teenage workers. And since she was up to date on all her homework with the lessened ghost attacks, she had no excuse but to sit down and join her father on his own day off to watch the mayor's announcement.

They sat on the couch, her father leaning forward as Valerie sat up straight, shoulders full of tension. The television was turned to the main news station in the area. Finally, it began:

"Good evening, Amity Park," Vlad Masters said on the broadcast with a smug smile. He was dressed in his usual black suit; it looked even shinier than usual. His white hair had clearly been brushed. "I'm here to talk to you about an issue that has been on the minds of everyone in this town: ghosts. For the past year, Amity Park has been terrorized by these awful specters nearly daily. And yet, there's been a drop off as of late. Perhaps the ghost hunters we have here have scared them off? Sadly, citizens, I am not so optimistic about that possibility. It's at this moment that I must admit that I owe our town . . . hero, Danny Phantom, an apology."

"What?" Valerie said flatly.

"I accused the ghost boy of being the one that encouraged ghosts to come here. And yet despite how many sightings of him there's been lately, the ghosts have been scarce. In fact, I wonder if perhaps I had it backwards. Maybe Phantom's presence is best used as a deterrent."

Oh, he is not. Valerie was tempted to bite her fingernails. She glanced at her father, whose eyebrow was raised and his mouth had tightened.

"As such, I'm willing to make my administration more conciliatory with Danny Phantom—if he accepts, of course. We all know how teenagers are about authority, ghost or not. He may just prove to potentially be our best method to wipe out the ghost threat. And that is where I must pose a theory I have: I think that the lessened ghost attacks will not remain. I don't know when it will change but I believe it will be very soon. And if that happens, I have a plan. I'm not quite ready to share the full plan, citizens, but let me give you a preview."

Masters was joined on the stage by a middle-aged white man in a police uniform. "This is Officer Johnson. He will be one of the first members of the Amity Park PD who will receive elite training in ecto-weaponry. I have received permission from the state government, including our governor, on this matter. It was agreed that it just takes too long and, in many ways, a waste of the tax dollars of good Americans, to call in the Guys in White on every occasion. I am always willing to accept help from my good friends, Jack and Maddie Fenton, but it's always good to have some extra help. Thank you."

The news cut to a commercial break.

Valerie had about had it. She told her father that she had seen enough. He was so pensive that he never even bothered to argue with her.

She took off for her room, hopped on her bed, and, grabbing her cell phone, immediately dialed Danny's number. He picked up as soon as she initiated the call.

"Valerie?"

"Hey, Fenton. Are you seeing this?"

"The Dracula reject we call our mayor pretty much blaming me if anything goes wrong later in Amity Park and arming the cops with ecto weapons? Yeah, sadly, I saw that."

Valerie remembered that Mr. Fenton thought he and Masters were "friends." "Where are you right now?"

"I'm at Tucker's," Danny said. "You didn't think I could stand to stay the night at my parents' place with that on the air?"

"And they're just cool with that on a school night?"

"I told you: they're oblivious. They see what they want to see. We left the Ghost Zone and I told Mom and Dad I was staying at Tucker's for the night. It's no different than we've been doing for years, staying at one house during the day and spending the night at another." He excused himself to speak to someone else, presumably one of his friends. Then he was back. "So, Tucker said he texted you but you haven't settled on a day."

"I've been busy. You know I work."

"Yeah, I do. But I'm going to need your help, Val. We all will. I've found out a lot of stuff since we last talked."

"Tell me."

He gladly obliged.

The information was overwhelming. She wound up interrupting Danny more times than was necessary just to confirm that she'd heard him right. Finally, she laughed.

"What?"

"It's just . . . I never thought that you of all people would end up playing peacemaker."

"I'd resent that remark but you're not wrong," he said. She could hear the smile in his voice. "I mean, I've teamed up with ghosts before, but that was always when they had no other choice. Now, it's pretty much my word against Vlad's. And I'm not popular among ghosts."

"Well, you'll just have to prove it to them."

"Yup. That's why as soon as we figure out how to track the page's ecto-signature, we're going to start hunting."

Wow, he was really in a hurry. Then again, did he really have any other options?

"What can I do to help?"

"Help out with ghost hunting. And if we need you, it'd be cool if you'd come to the Zone to help find some pages. It's always convenient having more humans around to take advantage of phasing. And—this is just if you're willing—maybe talk to some ghosts? Since we really need the help because there's so many? Please?"

She pictured his puppy-dog blue eyes in her face as he asked that question. Stupid Danny Fenton and his charm. That wasn't the only image her brain decided to torture her with. She thought of Danielle, the girl who Valerie had almost gotten killed just because she'd been manipulated by Vlad—and her own prejudices.

" . . . Fine. I'll help you. Whatever it takes to beat Vlad."

"Danny, Jazz, come down to the lab! We've got to show you our newest invention!"

Danny marched down the stairs behind Jazz, a frown plastered across his face. "What is it, Mom, Dad?"

Dad took the lead, pointing them in the direction of a small device that resembled the Fenton Finder. It was shaped like a square with the word Fenton written atop along with an image of a dog. A keyboard adorned its front, as well as a small viewing screen.

"Behold," Dad said, bouncing in place in front of the Fenton Portal, "the Fenton Boohound. You know, like a bloodhound. We considered calling it the Fenton Finder Two but there was no real reason because the other one still works."

"No, dear. We called it that because someone trademarked that already."

"Oh, right."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "And so it does what, exactly?"

Mom smiled. "Why, it tracks ghost objects. That's why we also call it the Object Tracker. It utilizes the same ecto-signatures that ghosts themselves have and instead of using them to find ghosts, we can use it to find their possessions or anything else made of ectoplasm."

"You took my advice," Jazz pointed out.

"We did!" She patted her daughter's shoulder. "We're so happy to see you're finally taking the ghost threat seriously."

"I am." Jazz gave an ironic smile.

"So . . . uh, how does it work?" asked Danny.

It was a good thing that science had become his best subject over the last few months, because otherwise he would not have been able to follow half. While ecto-signatures were straightforward enough to understand, it seemed that Dora had been very right about just how different kinds of ectoplasm could be from each other, which was why Danny struggled to keep an impressed expression off of his face at his parents' accomplishment.

Even more admirable about it was just how fast they'd gotten this done. As soon as Danny had returned from the Ghost Zone with his friends, he'd spoken with Jazz. His sister had taken it into her own hands, slyly walking downstairs; Danny had invisibly spied on the conversation. She'd had Mom and Dad hooked from "Mom, Dad, can I ask you something about ghosts?" Sure, it was based on work they had already done with the Booo-merang and the Fenton Finder but it was still a good addition to their arsenal.

Finally, Danny caved as his face broke into a proud smile. "Mom, Dad, this is amazing."

Mom and Dad rushed over to him, enveloping him in a group hug. Then Dad called Jazz over to join in, which she did.

When they broke apart, their parents' expressions turned serious.

"Now, kids," said their mother, hand on hip, "we know that you think things have been safe because the number of ghost attacks has gone down, but there's no way it'll stay that way. And if they don't attack directly, they can still harm you, including with cursed objects."

Dad nodded. "Because of that, we expect at least one of you keep this on you at all times while we work to create some portable ghost shields. You can take turns."

"Uh, Mom, Dad, doesn't that sound a bit much?" Danny was jubilant on the inside, of course, but when you had a secret then you had to keep up appearances.

Mom and Dad gasped.

"Too much?" Mom sighed. "After everything we've seen over the last year, Danny, this is the least you need. If you don't want to take this, then I could always make you wear Specter Deflectors. . . ."

"No!" Jazz and Danny shouted, then looked at each other, before turning back to their parents.

"I, um, don't think that will be necessary," said Jazz. "We'll take the Tracker. It's fine. Right, Danny?"

"Sure." He nodded three times. "No complaints, with me at all times. Now, uh, if you don't mind, I'm gonna head upstairs to wait for Sam and Tucker at the door. Okay? Bye."

Dashing up the stairs, Danny grinned.

"Alright, we got everything?" Danny asked one last time.

Tucker nodded. "All of the Fenton gadgets, check."

"Extra clothes, food, and water, check," said Sam.

"And Mom and Dad will be busy going downtown to talk to Vlad, so we should be in the clear for a bit." Danny clapped his hands together. "Okay, guys, let's get in."

The next trip to the Ghost Zone was one that Danny promised his friends would be the last one where they would all need to be present for the time being. "I just think, at least for this first time we're gonna try this out, having all of us will make it easier."

"Yeah," Sam said, "that makes sense. Then it'll be our turn."

Tucker adjusted his glasses. "Our next step in superhero sidekicking."

Right. Danny had called them his sidekicks once, back when they were all still learning the ropes. "You're not my sidekicks, you're my team."

Tucker glowed at the compliment while Sam offered a little smile. "And don't you forget it."

This would be the first trip in a while where they had no set destination. Instead, Tucker ran the readings from the journal page into the Object Tracker and it took a minute before a robotic voice began telling them to go certain directions and distances, like a GPS.

Sam drove the Speeder, though she said either of the others were welcome to take the controls if they wanted. Danny had chosen to ride inside with his friends this time.

"Let's hope this works," Danny said. If he couldn't walk the walk, his alliances would end before they had begun.

The Speeder soared through the Zone, taking the requisite turns advised by the Tracker. Outside, many ghosts were in a similar hurry, twisting through the air, sometimes circling specific doors or landmarks. So distracted were these ghosts, they left the three humans alone. The three friends spent some time like this, while also discussing school and their worries over Vlad's impending announcement.

"I'm still amazed he hasn't sent more ghosts," Danny told them.

"He's probably waiting for something," said Sam.

"Yeah, but what?"

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Knowing Vlad, it's probably for you to actually do something impressive so he can knock you down."

That was what he was afraid of. What if Vlad was waiting for Danny to find a page? What if everything he'd done so far was just another way that Danny had played right into the fruitloop's hands?

"Dude, I know what you're thinking. It's not your fault."

"Yeah, Danny, you're not responsible for Vlad's awful life choices."

He knew that. He really did. But it was so easy to sometimes feel like anything that went wrong was his fault. "You're right."

They passed many familiar places on the way: their usual enemies' lairs, the Carnivorous Cavern, the River of Revulsion, even the Realm of the Far Frozen. Rarely had they gone so deep into the Zone without having gotten lost.

Danny took in the green ectoplasm, black void, the drifting purple doors, and the floating chunks of rock that surrounded them. From here on out, nothing would be familiar other than the most basic Ghost Zone characteristics—and maybe not even that.

They were truly heading into new territory with this page hunt.

An island with wispy blue forest shimmered into their vision, then disappeared again as if it had never been there. Then they saw a purple river flooding down from the heavens before it, too, vanished into thin air.

"You think they just turned invisible or is it some kind of ghost magic?" asked Tucker.

"Maybe they appeared somewhere else? I mean, he was talking about natural portals but Frostbite did say that the Ghost Zone shifts all the time." Danny shrugged.

Sam was taking pictures with her phone one handed. "Maybe they're still there and they're just not supposed to be seen with human eyes."

Testing the theory, Danny Fenton became Danny Phantom, then he peered out the window of the Speeder. He shook his head. No, they were truly gone.

"Man, this place somehow keeps getting more confusing," Tucker proclaimed, taking note of everything on his PDA. "What even are the rules?"

"First rule of the Ghost Zone," Danny deadpanned, "the dead do whatever they want and break every law of physics and so does their world."

Eventually, the Tracker announced that an object that shared a similar signature was up ahead.

Danny and his friends looked straight ahead.

They stared at the monster ghost that floated there. It was red, roaring, had sharp teeth and claws, and the Tracker insisted that the page could only be there. Not behind it, not beside it, and not a short distance away.

"You've got to be kidding me."

They left the Specter Speeder hovering in the air, a light shining down on them, as Danny transformed and grabbed his friends and flew over to the ghost. He set them on the nearby green staircase; unlike others he'd seen in the Zone, this one spiraled up, nearly reaching the nearby islands and doors as they drifted in the air. After guaranteeing they were okay, he ascended, his fists lit with green spheres of plasma.

"Hey, ugly! We don't want to hurt you, but you're going to need to hold still."

The ghost roared. Red beams surged toward him. Danny summoned a green ecto-shield just in time. The attack bounced off the barrier, leaving Danny unharmed.

A green blast of Sam's wristray hit the monster dead center. It cried out in pain, though not fast enough.

Danny concentrated, reaching for the deep cold within him. It responded, and a frigid aura manifested. He shot the ice beam, not holding back. Within an instant the ghost was frozen solid. Then, Danny hit it with an ectoblast; the ice shattered into dozens of small pieces, several piercing the ghost, setting off another round of roars. Then, with one final manipulation of sparking ecto-energy, he fried the ghost. It shook and howled at the pain, then fell unconscious on a nearby rock.

Yeah, might have overdone it, he admitted. Well, if he did, they had ghost-friendly first aid in the Specter Speeder.

Then he flew back over to his friends.

"Might as well have just used a Specter Deflector," Tucker said as Danny transported them to the rock. The other two hopped down from his arms.

Danny glared at him. "Do you want to fight the ghost?"

"Maybe."

Sam shook her head, chuckling. "Don't encourage him, Danny."

"No, I think I get it," Danny said, smiling himself. "Maybe we should look for Desiree immediately, make a second coming of Tucker Phantom?"

Tucker scoffed. "Who needs ghost powers?" He hugged his PDA and tapped his pants pockets. "I have all the stuff I need right here."

Danny rolled his eyes.

"I saw that!"

That was the worst part about the ghostly glow—everyone could always see your facial expressions, even in dark places like their current location: deep in the Ghost Zone.

Whatever, Danny thought, saying aloud, "Ghost fight's over." That was the easy part.

"So . . . we have to get it from inside the ghost?" said Tucker, looking ill.

Danny felt no better. Even while a ghost, things like this made his insides twist. "I guess."

"Not it," said Sam instantly.

"Aw, man."

Danny took pity on Tucker and turned human again, keeping the ghost intangible while Tucker had to reach inside it. His eyes flicked to the Tracker again. Not very helpful now that they were so close, so they just had to search. Eventually, Tucker, who looked green at this point, fished out a sheet of crumpled paper that sparkled in the dark green around them.

His friend had had enough experience with phasing to be able to get any gross things from the ghost off of the paper. Now as clean as it was likely to get, the journal page began to flare with a bright golden glow.

Tucker's eyes gleamed the color of the page. "Wow, guys. Are you seeing this? It's incredible! There's a whole city and this really awesome portal to what looks like the future? Like, our future? Like, it's in space? This is so cool, man!"

Sam pointed behind them. "That's great, Tuck, but we've got another problem!"

Danny turned. Indeed, the glowing page had attracted attention from some ghosts on a not so distant island. If he looked hard enough, he saw skeleton ghosts stirring from their graves in the graveyards far below them. And the ghostly wailing and shrieking that had previously been drowned out by their Fenton Phones was growing louder, blaring from every direction.

"Sam's right, Tuck, come on." He grabbed the page.

Everything around him was replaced by sights he would have struggled to describe had it not been for Tucker already putting them into words. The city—as far as he could tell, the floating island, which was far larger than the usual one, covered by dozens of buildings, was indeed some sort of ghost city—and a natural portal that opened to reveal something that looked like a far more advanced form of the ISS stood out to him.

Danny felt the sights calling out to him. He wanted to respond. He stepped closer.

He turned to Tucker, who was just as in awe. "Dude, do you think we can touch it?"

"We totally should," said Tucker.

Sam cleared her throat, grabbing both of them by the backs of their shirts. Out of surprise, the page dropped out of their hands.

They voiced their complaints but as their senses returned to normal, they calmed down. Danny immediately went ghost again, then grabbed the page before it could float away.

"Huh," he noted. "It seems to only work on bare hands. Guess we should wear gloves when dealing with these."

They got back in the Specter Speeder, not even able to celebrate their accomplishment because they had two troubles to deal with: both the ghosts who were on their way to them, and that they were more than likely going to be in huge trouble if they missed curfew again.

Danny took the controls this time. The ship took off at topspeed. Sam and Tucker sat up in their seats, weapons ready to attack or take control if necessary. The Speeder executed loops that almost made Tucker lose his mid-day snack, it swerved to the side more than once, and, at one point, they had to activate the weapons to make a shot at one especially determined ghost.

It took a little while for them to lose their tails, but the relief was small. Instead, they focused on getting home.

"I feel like that page drained my ghost powers," Danny said as he switched seats with Sam. He still had enough power for a fight but he felt far more winded than usual after that much exercise.

"Yeah," Tucker agreed, yawning. "I know it's kind of late, but I'm beat all of a sudden."

"Maybe that's the way it's supposed to tempt you? Like that whole thing Frostbite mentioned about being proven worthy?" Sam suggested.

"What does worthy of Elsewhereness mean? Selflessness?"

Sam shrugged one shoulder as the other controlled the Speeder. "Maybe. I wouldn't be surprised if it might also be about focusing on the whole and not just one single piece."

Tucker had grabbed some winter gloves that they occasionally kept in the glove compartment of the Speeder. He gripped the page. "I tried to look things up from the notes I got from the other page but nothing came up online. You have any idea how to read this thing?" He held it up.

Sam shook her head.

Danny was just as baffled. He could not recognize a single symbol written or drawn on it. "What am I looking at? Some kind of pictograms?" He, too, had seen the other page but he had hoped that that had just been what one page looked like. Apparently not.

"You're the ghost," Tucker said, like Danny had somehow forgotten. "Maybe it's the written language they use?" He shoved the page in a plastic bag with the Fenton name printed across the front.

Danny rolled his eyes. "If they have a language of their own, I imagine they've updated it for the Latin alphabet." Then he looked closer. "Wait. I don't know if I'm hallucinating or not but I think someone scribbled something but I still have no idea what it says or even what kind of alphabet that is."

"Well, Dora should be able to read it," said Sam brightly. "And I think you can see but we can't because you're a ghost."

"Makes sense." After all, Sojourn supposedly wrote this millenia ago. Why would they want a human reading their journal? "And, yeah, true about Dora. I just hope we don't have to find the whole stupid journal just to keep it out of Vlad's hands." Danny felt worn out just thinking about it.

"Maybe a stupid idea," Tucker said, twirling his stylus, "but while we're out, maybe you could ask the Box Ghost?"

Danny wanted to shoot down the idea immediately. Yet it would at least give him an idea what a normal ghost's reaction to the page's contents would be.

"Might as well."

"YOU HAVE FOUND A PAGE?" the Box Ghost exclaimed.

"Yup," Danny said, holding up its translucent bag. "As you can see, I am going to deliver for the other ghosts. Now I just have one question: Do you have any idea what this thing says?"

The Box Ghost touched the ground, grabbing hold of the bag. He pointed to one of the images: a spider with what looked like a keyhole on its back. "The clue!"

Danny took a closer look. "Mind clearing that up for me?"

"I don't decide these things, ghost child! All I know is what any ghost does. And the pages are supposed to point the way there." He turned it to its other side. An eye sat in the center, and there was an arrow beside it, pointed downwards.

Yeah, that did not clear it up for Danny. "So it looks real?"

The ghost nodded enthusiastically. "I have longed my entire afterlife to see one of these. How did you get it ? And so fast?"

Danny smirked. "Just some good new Fenton tech." Then his expression turned serious. "All right, Boxy, I lived up to my end of the bargain. Now I have a task for you."

The Box Ghost raised an eyebrow.

"I need you to go back to the Ghost Zone and tell this to everyone you can."

The Box Ghost fell back onto a wooden crate, laughing hysterically. This lasted for a few minutes. Then he stopped, floating back up into the air with a frown. "Wait. You're serious. You really want to put a target like that on your head, Phantom?"

He shrugged. "Plasmius already has me at the top of his hit list. Couldn't get any worse since he's page hunting too. So yeah. Go ahead."

A moment passed before the Box Ghost gave him a solemn nod. "I won't let you down, Danny Phantom."

Never before had Danny considered having such a serious conversation with his most annoying enemy. But this was a time of change, a time for a new game, which meant new strategies, new relationships. This was just one example of what may happen.

As he led the Box Ghost back to his home, then opened the genetic lock to let him inside the Fenton Ghost Portal, his thoughts turned to Vlad, to this new game.

Vlad already had a head start. He may even have figured out how to get more pages before Danny and his friends had even found their first. He had the media in his pocket, he had the power of the office of Amity Park mayor, he had money, and, unfortunately, he had Jack Fenton's trust.

On the other hand, Vlad, as Clockwork had pointed out, did not have real friends. Any allies he was recruiting would turn on him at the first available opportunity. Also, he was arrogant enough that it was not out of the question he would overlook something small if it didn't seem impressive enough to him.

Danny morphed back into his human form, took in a breath, then exhaled. He'd dropped the page off at Tucker's, where it had been moved to a safe case. Sam had already made plans to visit Skulk and Lurk in the morning to try to find anything about some of the journal pages. And they had begun making a schedule for patrol and page hunting.

The game had begun.

Your move, Vlad, he said to himself as he sauntered up the stairs, head held high. He didn't know much about chess but if there was one thing he had picked up, it was that a pawn didn't have to stay that way—it could, with effort, be promoted to a more powerful role.

Vlad had remarked, after Pariah Dark had been sealed, that he'd used two fourteen-year-old pawns and turned a knight to take down the Ghost King.

Well, Danny thought with a smirk, no one said those pawns—or any others he recruited—could not become something more.

The Box Ghost and Dora were just the start.

Author's Note: Once again, I must mention that a fair amount of the ideas from chapter six onward came from users on the Danny Phantom Discord I occasionally visit. Specifically for this chapter, someone there suggested one of the pages being hidden in a monster ghost.

This is the last of the pre-written chapters but I am working on the fic so I do believe at least one or two more will happen while my muse is kind. This chapter is what I consider the end of "Part 1" as I'm using the three act structure. "Part 2" starts after this and will be when I get to go deeper into my interpretation of the characters and the lore as well as things actually happening.

I will remind readers that I lack a beta reader. All flaws are my own and all feedback is welcomed.

Regarding what comes next: current outline says that next is the "Ghost Gathering," both of the good guy side, and, to a lesser extent, the bad guy side. Ghosts coming up include a pop rocker, a high school nerd, a cafeteria worker, among others.