"Amity Park, currently under a government quarantine," Dave, a small, chubby fellow that Sean would compare to a mole, clicked his tongue. "Apparently, the ghosts were moving en masse."
"Why?"
"Some ghostly knight prattling on about conquering the realm. Running from him, maybe? Not sure why, given that he came here and demanded that humanity surrender."
"He probably wants to rule everything, I'd guess. What happened to Danny?"
"Danny Phantom. Sorry," Dave sniffs, "I meant Daniel Fenton. I always knew there was something off about that kid, Sean–"
"–Dave."
Dave turns a petulant gaze on the barmaster before returning to the matter at hand, "He's missing. The Fright Knight - that's the ghost he fought - took him back to the Ghost Zone. Given that he's a ghost himself, I doubt he's dead."
"Sam?"
"Samantha Manson?" His nose quivers. "Hmm, well, my source wasn't able to say much before he was cut off again, but last I heard, the Fentons and Mansons were in the hands of the GIW," he grimaced.
Dave hates ghosts, but he hates the government - and anything related to it - even more. He lives like a vagabond to avoid as much regulation as possible, and it was sheer luck that he'd been remotely nearby.
"Do you think I can get in?"
"Doubtful. They've got everywhere locked down, but…if my contact comes back online, I—oh?" He bobbles to his laptop and taps away, "Speak of the devil! Back again! Good showing, my compadre!"
A flurry of furious typing later, he giggles.
"Oh? Another video?"
ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzBREAKzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZ
It's a face everyone knows - Mayor Tucker Foley of Amity Park, one of the heroes who saved the Earth from the Disasteroid. It's on every video hosting website, re-uploading itself faster than any agency can take it down.
"Hello, citizens of the United States, as well as the people of the world," he begins. "I assume many of you have seen the video of Phantom." He takes a breath and clenches his trembling fingers.
"It's true. Daniel Fenton is the true identity of Danny Phantom. He is a 'halfa', both human and ghost. This was the result of an accident that occurred when he, Sam Manson, and myself were messing around in his parent's lab without permission."
He tells the story, the story of a terrified high school freshman who found himself with unworldly powers. Who found himself straddling the boundary between worlds. The young man who found himself bound by a ghostly obsession.
The young man who, at the end of the day, just wants to protect those he cares about and marry the girl he loves. The half-ghost who carries the most human wish a man can have.
"Right now, we are locked in Amity Park. The amount of effort it's taken to tell you this much is far beyond what is right. Danny is missing. His family was imprisoned by the Guys in White, a government agency that oversees ghost activity.
"He's missing, but I know…" His gaze hardens. "I know that Danny isn't dead, but we can't leave him to fight on his own. The GIW cannot handle this threat - they can barely handle the Box Ghost," he snorts.
"The Infinite and Mortal realms mirror each other, as we should all know from the Disasteroid crisis. One cannot exist without the other. We the People have to reclaim Amity Park. Maybe you don't like ghosts. Maybe you view Danny as an aberration. Fine. However, that's something that can be discussed later in a civil manner.
"The current situation is tyranny and nothing short of it. So act…come to Amity Park, write to your politicians if you can't. Show them that we're not sheep to be pushed around. Turn around and nip at their heels instead!"
ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzBREAKzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZ
Again, huh?
Danny wonders to himself as he is forced before the grotesque throne again. The Fright Knight has repeated this farce over the past few days. Danny is pulled before the throne, told to surrender, he refuses, and he returns to the prison.
Rinse and repeat.
He stands in silence, not quite mourning as he looks up at the empty husk upon the throne.
"You know about parallel universes, Vlad?" He questions before sighing with a self-deprecating smirk. "Who do I think I'm asking?"
In another time, it could've been me.
"It makes me wonder…is there one where we were all happy? You, Mom, Dad, Jazz, Dani, and I?"
"What is he going on about?" Ramirez frowns.
"Odd, he usually just says 'I'm not surrendering' and goes back," Kovich growled.
"Do you surrender, Phantom?"
"I don't make that decision," Danny answers the Fright Knight dismissively. He returns his gaze to Vlad. "Thinking about it, Dani wouldn't be here if things were different, would she? Or maybe she was always meant to be here, one way or another."
"So you do not surrender?" The Fright Knight repeats.
"Guess not," Danny shrugs.
"Take him back to the dungeon," he orders the pirates.
"Why not kill him?" Ramirez groans, taking Danny by the arms again.
"He doesn't want a martyr," Kovich explained, "If the kid surrenders, the entire ghost zone will fall into Fright Knight's hands."
The darkness of the dungeon obscures their vision, and neither pirate notices that which lurks in the shadows. Danny closes his eyes as takes the final step into the dungeon, his expression soon hidden behind a blinding flash of light.
A/N: Hey! Sorry for the delay! I went on vacation, got COVID on my way home, was out for a couple of weeks with that, and then last-minute decided to enter the Kindle Vellys competition with "A Wizard's Songbird"! (And I mean LAST MINUTE) literally decided to enter the day before the competition started, so I don't think I'm going to win any prizes but, oh well! I wrote 20k+ words in a few weeks time so less grueling than NaNoWriMo. I may be a pantser-leaning-plantser but I literally was having to just wing it (and be okay with actually putting the writing out there as opposed to NaNoWordVomit) so it was soo much more tiring. My proofreading was literally reading it aloud to a family member lol.
