Danny Phantom - The Next Chapter

A Ghost Kingdom

Danny adjusted the ice pack on his head and sipped at his gatorade, trying to muster up the effort to stand. He had returned back to himself midair in Vlad's arms which was enough to startle both of them. One free fall later and an emergency rescue and the three of them had staggered back to FentonWorks to bandage their wounds and try to come up with the next course of action. One that would preferably not get everyone killed.

Naturally when they had returned they had gotten an ear-full from everyone else for flying off on their own without reinforcements but all three of the were too exhausted to turn it into an argument.

'Here,' Sam said quietly, offering him a bread roll which he nibbled at half-heartedly. In truth, his mind was miles away as he tried to think of something, anything, that would give them the upper hand. He flicked the Ring of Rage absently on the table in front of him, watching the light of the Crown of Fire that sat next to it dance along its surface.

His parents' voices could be heard up the stairs to the lab, raised in agitation as they spoke with whatever government officials they could get in touch with about what had happened. The capital had gone into high alert as the military had been called in to prepare for what had to be an imminent invasion.

'What are you thinking about?' Sam asked quietly, jolting him out of his reverie.

'How are we going to fix this?' he replied, tucking the ring away back into his belt. 'Even with you guys helping, we don't stand a chance against that many of them.'

'Have some faith,' Jazz reassured him, 'Mom and Dad have pretty much perfected their new ghost bomb thing, right? If they can set it up wherever these ghosts are going to be, it'll get rid of their powers for good, right?'

Danny hummed noncommittedly. Right now the ENP had a range of a couple of yards, and that was pushing it to the max. They'd need a lot more power if they were going to get rid of all the new half ghosts, power that they were struggling to find. Right now the best idea any of them had was mounting it to the RV and using the Ecto-Converter with either his or Dani's powers as a source. Which would put them in the firing line as well.

'We need an army...' Dani mused and Danny's eyes drifted back to the Crown of Fire.

'I'm such an idiot,' he suddenly snapped, jumping to his feet. He swayed slightly at the sudden movement but didn't let that stop him as he put on the Crown and raced down to the lab.

The others hurried after him and his parents looked up in alarm at the herd of teenagers suddenly charging into the lab.

'Hi, sorry to interrupt,' Danny cut in, glancing at the screen. He paused, gaping in surprise. That was the US President there who looked just as surprised to see him.

'Ah, Danny Phantom,' he greeted him, 'Nice to finally meet you.'

Danny blinked out of his shock. 'Uh, yeah. Same here. Sorry I have to go.'

He raced to the portal, ignoring Jazz's and his parents' looks of shock at brushing off the President as he powered it up.

'What are you doing?' Tucker asked worriedly, 'You're still wiped out. You can't go after them yourself.'

'I wasn't going to,' he replied as the doors hissed open to show the swirling green surface. 'I just remembered that being King of the Ghost Zone has its perks. Including an army of ghosts on standby that I sent to the Ghost Zone.'

'Didn't you tell them to never come back?' Valerie asked.

'We'll I'm revoking that order,' Danny replied, transforming with more effort than he would have liked.

'I'm coming too,' Dani declared, moving to his side. 'You might be king but the other ghosts still don't really like you.'

'Where's the Spectre Speeder?' Sam demanded, 'We're going too.'