Danny and the group entered the portal to see Tucker, Sam, and Ron looking panicked. Ron was pacing and Tucker looked to be trying to get into the security system, probably to see if the cameras picked anything up. They had left the lab so fast that they hadn't realized the mess that the fight had made.
-
Rone was the first to notice them. "Kim, what happened? Your dad said you were here, and I came so we could go to school together, but then I met Sam and Tucker, who said that the Fenton's wouldn't answer, so Sam broke in and-" Ron stopped when Kim put a hand on his shoulders.
-
"It's fine Ron. All of us are fine. We just had a bit of an incident with a ghost dragon that led us to being knighted and Danny being the ambassador of the human realm for the Dragon's realm." Kim told him, which had Sam demanding the story. Danny told it in his new armored ghost form. All three of their jaws were hanging open at the end when he said he had the power to open his own portals.
-
"Since when could you do that?" Sam asked, confused at the sudden powerful ability.
-
"Yesterday I think. I remember sensing a sudden ghost in my room before I fell to exhaustion. I might have to deal with them later." Danny told them. "I just tested it before we left for Dora's realm. Also, watch this." He demonstrated his ability to change his attire. "Cool, right?"
-
"Yeah, yeah. Very cool. When do we meet her, the dragon princess, because I hope it will be sooner than Halloween." Sam asked. Danny told her that they could meet her in a week after his house is made up. Sam accepted that answer.
-
"So you went to a realm where tech couldn't work? Sounds like my nightmare." Tucker shuddered at the thought.
-
"Yeah, but now that Princess Dorathea's in charge, time has started moving again and our tech could work, not that we needed it. Aragon was not well liked." Jazz told him. "Also, now that we have a ghost friend, you and Wade could start making phones so they can contact us. You can also lead a technological revolution there." She added.
-
"Not that I don't want to stop your all's conversations, but is anyone going to explain what happened to Danny and how he is a 'Halfa'?" Maddie asked, reaching her breaking point of not bringing it up, scared of the answer.
-
"Do you remember the portal accident?" Danny then went to explain everything that had happened to him. His parents were weeping after the story's end. "And yesterday, I meditated and saw these glowing orbs…" Danny continued so that he didn't leave off on a sad note. When he finished the second part, he noticed that everyone was listening to him. He then realized that he hadn't told anyone about that yet. At least his parents weren't crying now.
-
"That's a bunch of scattered information, isn't it?" Ron asked, confused and scared at hearing about the Fright Knight.
-
"I'll probably learn more as I keep meditating. I'll keep at it after school." Danny explained, looking at his watch, he saw that it was almost time to go to the mentioned place. "Speaking of, we should probably get ready for school now." He told his friends, who looked deadpanned at him, but nodded.
=
Everyone was in Jazz's car, as they needed to get to school quickly, and took off. Everything was going fine, until Danny's ghost sense went off and Rufus was freaking out staring out the front window. The car stopped and the ghost revealed itself. The ghost had blue skin, black sclera with bright yellow irises. They wore a cone hat with a web design, a ripped and black cloak with red lining over a purple top and gray metal apron on his lower half over black pants. He also had one long sword and one small sword. They pointed a sharpened, long blue finger at Danny.
-
"What does he want with me?" Danny asked himself, already getting out of the car before his friends could stop him. When he got out, Jazz's car was released from whatever was keeping it in place. Danny shifted his eyes to see that they were thin strings. 'Must have been done by spreading his aura and manipulating his ectoplasm' Danny thought as he turned back to the car. "I'll meet you all at school. I can fly faster than you. Although don't blame me for being a little late." He gave a look to his sister, and she nodded and drove off, much to the disagreement of the other passengers.
After Jazz drove off, the ghost flew towards Danny, but he didn't sense any malicious intent and grabbed him and flew into the air. "Not that I don't like a good fly, but I tend to enjoy doing it by myself." He told the samurai, it seemed from what Danny could see. Charybdis and Scylla flying after the two of them, visible.
-
"We're too high to be seen by humans or their video devices." The ghost said and then dropped him.
-
Danny instantly transformed into his standard hazmat suit and energized his hands. "Thanks for the tip. May I know what to call you?" Danny asked the ghost before him.
-
"Good reaction speed. You may call me Aranea. Thank you for asking. What may I call you?" The ghost, now identified as Aranea, asked.
-
"I call this form Danny Phantom, but everyone calls me Phantom." Danny told them. "What is your business with me?" Danny asked, hoping that he didn't have to fight this person. Danny hasn't fought at all since he got his powers.
-
"I wish to teach you. You are the one who opened the portal that released me and the condition for my freedom was that I had to teach whoever released me." Aranea explained, holding his hands in a placating gesture. Danny could sense sincerity in their words.
-
"Like, how to fight? Or everything to do about the Infinite Realms?" Danny asked, hoping he could have him as both.
-
"I can teach you anything you wish. My contract ends on either your death, or the one who trapped me frees me from it." Aranea told the halfa, smirking at the eagerness for knowledge in both the physical and of the world he is now a part of. "You were probably going somewhere with your companions, so I'll give you this to call me when you are ready to train." Aranea pointed a sharp finger at Danny and shot a beam that Danny couldn't dodge at his arm. A spider showed up on the forearm of his suit.
-
"This won't show up on my human form will it?" Danny asked, worried about what people would think about a spider tattoo on his arm.
-
"Not unless you will it to. You could will it away and back any time you want, it will always be there." Aranea explained to the boy, who tried it a couple times.
-
"Thanks." Danny said to the spider samurai. He looked at his watch. "You were right, I need to go. I'll be seeing you." Danny said as he left towards the school
=
Danny neared the school invisibly, just as he saw Jazz's car pull up. He noticed that his seat was still empty, so he phased back in. He scared everyone in the car when he became visible and changed back into a human. Danny checked his arm and saw that he didn't have the spider mark on his forearm. He turned his attention to his friends. "Hey, remember earlier when I said that a ghost was in my room while I was asleep? That was them. He wanted to be my mentor and everything because I released him from a trap. Sounds awesome, right?" Danny rambled to his friends.
-
"Thanks for coming back in time for school, little brother, but don't scare us like that again. Please." Jazz told him after silencing everyone from talking at once. "It is nice that you have a ghost mentor now." She added as she went to park. "Do you know how he stopped the car?" She asked, curious at what happened and hoping whatever it was didn't hurt the car.
-
"I think it was some type of ecto-webbing. I saw some threads on the ground when I got out and he's spider-like up close." Danny explained how he wanted to try and copy it before his first lesson to try and impress Aranea. "I don't want to be in a fight and cause unnecessary collateral damage to my town. I also don't want to get my butt handed to me, or Charybdis and Scylla getting hurt." He told his friends as they all got out of the car.
-
"I understand that, but you have to know it will be an inevitability." Kim told Danny. "You're going to be facing ghosts with powers. There are powerful dragons, and who knows what else. I think it's a good idea to have someone train you how to fight, but you aren't going to stay with him alone. I'm going with you." Kim declared. "I have the ghost gauntlets that your parents made, and I already know how to fight close combat." She explained.
-
Danny shrugged as the group walked in the doors of the school. "Doesn't matter to me. I was planning to have a teaching session of the Infinite Realms first." Danny revealed. "I want to know more about the kingdoms of the realms and how I should interact with them." He explained. The group split off to their lockers and Danny quietly filled in Sidney with what happened that morning.
-
"Amazing. I heard of Aragon and how he sucked eggs. Nobody I met liked him. I never heard of this Aranea before though. Be careful." Sidney warned, invisibly behind Danny. "Do you want to train some of your powers this afternoon? I heard that today's going to be a half-day." He explained, getting a nod from the halfa.
-
'That bully from the day before yesterday is coming this way.' Charybdis and Scylla informed in unison in Danny's mind. Scylla ran off to get Kim cause they knew that Danny wanted to keep his powers a secret to most humans.
-
Danny prepared himself for the impact of Dash's hands. As expected, he felt Dash's hands pushing him into his locker, that he reminds himself needs repairs, and 'lightly' holds himself on the sides of the locker, from being shoved inside with his superstrength. "Dash, don't you have class to get to?" I futilely asked, knowing that Dash didn't care about classes and that they still had a few minutes until then. 'I could just use my powers to stop him myself.' I thought to myself. I internally shook my head at that thought. 'Can't let people know about my powers. It would be easy to release myself from inside the locker with intangibility.' Danny decided to go with that path and let go of the sides of the locker.
-
"Mr. Baxter?" A voice sounded from behind the two boys. Danny turned his head to see that it was Mr. Barkin, the new vice principal that came from Middleton High with the students. "Detention for shoving a student in a locker. As well as removal from the football team, if the rumors of this being a widespread event for you." Mr. Barkin told the football player, giving Dash a slip of paper after he let Danny go.
-
Dash glowered at Danny and marched away, probably to scare his other victims into not snitching to Barkin. Danny looked around to find Kim standing there with a smirk on her face. "Thank you, Kim. I could have dealt with that without risking making it worse for the other victims." Danny told her. "I can handle it better than they can. You don't need to help every time Dash tries something." He explained. He could heal much faster since he got his powers, learning about if after his intangibility made him drop some knives on his foot. It healed in a matter of minutes.
-
"I figured, but Scylla came to get me. They wanted me to help you not reveal any part of your secrets." Kim whispered that last part. She looked behind her half-ghost friend and saw a dent on the sides of the locker. "You should ask to fix your locker." She told him somewhat vaguely, meaning both Sidney and the school. Danny nodded and they both went to class.
-
"Sidney told me that today is supposed to be a half day, probably because of the broken wall in the cafeteria." Danny explained to Kim his plan to hang with Sidney on the roof, training some powers to maybe impress Aranea. He really wanted telekinesis and webbing powers.
-
"Ron and I'll be there." Kim told Danny. "Ron and I have been wanting to properly meet Sidney since you told us about him. We didn't really get the chance before." She said as they made it to the classroom.
=
It really was a half-day, just like Sidney said. Jazz drove them all to the Fenton house after all the non-Fentons called their parents about where they would be and what they would do. After everything was settled, everyone hopped on Charybdis or Scylla, and they made their way invisibly back to school to meet with Sidney. When they arrived on the roof, Sidney was already waiting for them.
-
"Hello chums. I don't believe we have ever properly introduced ourselves to each other." Sidney said chipper at the company. "My name is Sidney Poindexter. You can call me Sidney or Sid. I haunt locker 724, or more specifically, the mirror inside it. Also, I know it needs some repairs, you have my go ahead for fixing it up." Sidney looked at Danny after his introduction. Everyone introduced themselves, even Rufus, Charybdis, and Scylla.
-
"Now that everyone has properly introduced themselves, can we get started on the training?" Danny asked impatiently with excitement, which was contagious to the other ghosts. Jazz, Tucker, Sam, and Ron moved to the side to work on homework. Kim stayed with the ghosts to record and scan to study how energy passes through them.
-
"Now to begin, you may not be able to do this on the first try. I have seen plenty of ghosts and spirits learn this power, not from me though. There has to be a much better teacher for this power, but I know you want to impress this Aranea person." Sidney started explaining how he summoned the power of telekinesis for himself and demonstrated it on some rocks that were thrown up there by some kids. "Now you try." He offered.
-
Danny and the two ectopis tried to summon telekinesis. Charybdis got it first, then Scylla soon after. As Charybdis was gloating, Danny was struggling not to shoot ecto-rays from his hands. 'What if I spread my aura to what I want lifted and imagine grabbing it with my hand?' Danny thought and tried that. Slowly but surely, the rock was lifting into the air. Danny could feel his muscles strain and a headache coming on. He had to stop, but he was still proud of himself.
-
"It's really tough to do that." Danny said as he wiped some sweat off his brow. "Could you explain how you do it?" He asked the monochrome ghost.
-
Sidney rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I just focus my energies on the object I want to move, wrap it together, and move it where I want it to go." He explained to the halfa.
-
"Okay, let me try it that way. I used my aura that time." Danny said before attempting telekinesis again. He held his hands to make a circle with his thumbs and index fingers and pushed his energy towards the stone. All that accomplished was an ecto-ray. 'One more try.' Danny thought to himself as he tried again. This time he tried the aura technique to include the stone before pushing his energy through it to the stone and wrapping it. When Danny tried to lift the stone this time, the stone lifted easily through the air. "I did it! I did it!" Danny pumped his fist in triumph.
-
"Yeah you did." Kim told Danny as she was still recording. "Did you get that Wade?" She asked her computer kid.
-
"Yeah, Kim. I'll analyze this before I send it to the Fentons'." Wade told the redheaded girl. "With their Ecto-tech, they could improve the construction infrastructure if they could figure out how to incorporate telekinesis into their tech."
-
"Awesome." Danny said to Wade as he was still floating the stone around himself. "They may still want to scan it themselves, though." He told the computer genius before floating the stone in his hand.
-
"While Wade is doing that, we should get started on our homework." Kim told the raven-haired boy. "We don't want the others to beat us in test scores." She smirked at that as she hung up on Wade.
-
Danny shook his head. "I want to try one more thing." He told the redhead. "I doubt I'll accomplish it." He said as he got ready to try to copy the webbing Aranea used on Jazz's car. Danny crouched down and laid a hand on the ground and spread out his aura thinly on the ground. He then tried to make thin little cords come up but was only able to raise all of his aura. He tried again, but using a similar technique as the telekinesis. Danny thinly spread his aura on the ground and used his energy to make tendrils form from the aura. This time it was a half success. He managed to make one large tendril in front of himself. "Amazing. I could certainly do better, but this could definitely work." He said, mostly to himself.
-
"Good. Now, let's work on our homework." Kim told the halfa exasperatedly. "You have a ghost teacher now to teach you about your ghost powers." She reminded him.
-
Danny nodded and followed Kim to their friends. 'I can't wait to show Aranea that I can sorta use his move.' Danny thought to himself as he got to work on his homework.
=
After finishing their homework and saying goodbye to Sidney, the group rode Scylla and Charybdis invisibly back to Fenton Works. When they phased in, Jack and Maddie were waiting for them. They had scanning devices in hand and were looking eager.
-
"Wade sent the data of you, Sidney, Scylla, and Charybdis using telekinesis and we wanted to get our own scans." Maddie told the group, raising her scanner. "Especially since our tech is specially designed to scan ghostly energy." She finished.
-
"Yeah Danno. You had to know that we would scan it for ourselves." Jack backed up his wife.
-
"He did." Kim defended her ghostly friend.
-
"Good. Now, show us what you got." Maddie said as she activated her ecto-scanner.
-
Danny floated a cup around the living room and into his hand. "That's about all I can do right now with telekinesis." He told his parents, who just smiled with a glimmer in their eyes.
-
"That's perfectly fine Sweetheart! This is more data we have achieved than since we started." Maddie told her son.
-
"Danny, if you discover any more powers, please let us scan them." Jack pleaded with his half-ghost son.
-
Danny smiled at his accepting parents. "Of course. Actually, I found a ghost that is willing to be my teacher about anything ghost related. Their name is Aranea. I could see if they'll let me record our sessions, or have you be part of them." Danny told them and got a hug in return.
-
"We would love that Honey." Maddie told her son.
-
"Yeah. Talk to this Aranea and let us know the answer." Jack said to his raven-haired kid.
-
"How about I call them now?" Danny says as he reveals his spider tattoo to his parents. "We can ask them about the hierarchy of the Ghost Zone."
-
"Daniel James Fenton! Who told you you could get a tattoo?" Maddie said as she grabbed her son's arm.
-
"Aranea just blasted it on. It doesn't show if I don't want it to. Watch." Danny demonstrated his ability to show and hide his spider mark. "I can use it to call them." He tried to tell his parents
-
"You heard him Mads. This Aranea didn't give a choice about the tattoo." Jack tried to calm his wife down. "Now, let's find out what the Ghost Zone hierarchy is." He said with a glimmer in his eyes.
-
"I want to find that out too." Kim and the others said in near unison.
-
"Okay. He didn't really tell me how to activate it, but here it goes." Danny said as he put his thumb on the body of the spider tattoo and put some energy into it.
-
Almost instantaneously, a portal opened up and Aranea came out of it. "I didn't expect you to call me so soon. What would you like to learn right now?" They asked.
-
"We would like to know about the power hierarchy of the infinite realms please." Danny told the spider ghost as he and his parents sat with the others.
-
"Very well." Aranea started his explanation. "There are ten pieces of the hierarchy that are the most basic." He said. "Primordials, Elements, Sources, Royalty, The Elders Council, Nobles, Champions, Guardians, Spirits, and Ghosts." He listed them out.
"Ghosts and Spirits are nearly identical in the way of a power range. They can often be mistaken for each other by humans. Ghosts are the physical manifestations of souls from other dimensions. While Spirits are physical manifestations of the Realms themself, children of the Realms as it were." Jazz was writing all of this down with her mother.
"Ghosts achieve their forms according to how they die. Sometimes the more powerful ones will acquire a signature ability that another ghost cannot accomplish. Those abilities are formed through their obsession. Obsessions are important to ghosts and spirits alike. If one does not have a good control of their obsession, their mental state takes a toll, and it could lead to them going mad. I do not know if this applies to half ghosts though, as they are rare." Danny sat up straighter at hearing that
"Guardians are beings or beasts that guard powerful artifacts or hold challenges. These artifacts can be dangerous, and the Guardians help keep the number of wrong hands from getting them low. The challenges allow the ghost or spirit to achieve knowledge or power that they couldn't achieve before. I would be careful when approaching Guardians as they don't have much patience if their time is being wasted." Everyone nodded at hearing that.
"Champions are the ghosts or spirits that receive this title by accomplishing a challenge or acquiring an artifact through a Guardian's challenge. These Champions can be just about anyone. I don't believe humans are exempt from acquiring the title." Aranea looked at Kim as he said that last part.
"Nobles are Champions or Spirits who own territory within the Realms. These territories and titles are only given by the Elders Council. You already contacted a noble this morning haven't you?" Aranea asked and received nods in answer. "That's good as they can be a great help when you need knowledge of the Realms, but you have me now." He said almost smugly.
"The Elder's Council is the congregation of the oldest Ghosts, Spirits and Champions that took down Pariah Dark and his Family. Unfortunately, they could only put Pariah in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep after taking away his Ring of Rage. The Elders on the council are Frostbite of the Far Frozen, Pandora of the Labyrinth, Pyracine of the Fiery Fields, Archivist of the Library of Knowledge, Misery of the Nightmare Chasms, Andros of the Cultivation Hills, Cretaceous of the Prehistoric Pastures, Nymphadora of the Flying Forests, Sirius of the Stellar Constellations, and previously Dorathea and Aragon's mother of the Formerly Time Locked Lands. She was Theophina of the Dragon's Den." Everyone gasped at that revelation.
Aranea didn't give time for questions. "The Royalty is currently Pariah Dark and his Fright Knight. As the rest were wiped out by The Elder's Council. While Pariah Dark is trapped in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, Fright Knight is trapped to his sword in a pumpkin, earning him the title of Spirit of Halloween from the more modern Ghosts and Spirits when people started to associate pumpkins with that holiday." There were a couple of chuckles from Ron and Tucker at that last bit of knowledge.
"Sources are Beings that grant Ghosts or Spirits their core types. The cores are Fire, Ice, Water, Nature, Air, Light, and Dark. Ghosts and Spirits don't usually know their core type until it manifests in said Ghost or Spirit. But I can see that you have two for whatever reason. Maybe Halfas always gets two cores." Danny put a hand on his chest and wondered what his cores were.
"Elements are the physical manifestations of the elemental natural phenomenon that make up the Infinite Realms. That is all I really know about them. That and that they don't usually make appearances or interfere with conflicts. Primordials are the eldest and the first of the Elements. One of them, Clockwork, is the one who put me in the trap that Phantom released me from. Clockwork is the Primordial of Time and has the most appearances than most of the Elements." Aranea finished his lesson.
"That is all I know about the Hierarchy of the Infinite Realms. It may have changed slightly though, as I don't know how long I was trapped for." Aranea said to the group of people before them. "Is that all you wanted to know today?" They asked Danny.
-
"Could you possibly tell me the technique that you used to make the webbing that stopped my sister's car? I figured that it was a combination of spreading out my aura and pushing my energy through it. I managed something like it earlier, but it wasn't the webbing that you used." Danny rambled to the spider samurai.
-
"You are right. That is my technique for 'webbing' as you call it." Aranea smiled at his protege. "May I see what you have accomplished?" He asked, stepping back to give Danny some room to work.
-
Danny leaned down to touch the floor and thinly spread his aura. Maddie was quick to get her scanner ready. Danny moved his aura in front of the couch he was sitting on and then pushed his energy through it. He raised his energy through the aura on the floor and made another tendril, thinner this time as he knew what to do this time.
-
"Fascinating. I didn't expect it to resemble my technique so closely. What you call 'Webbing' was a Champion's ability of mine. With training, you could definitely achieve what I am able to do without going through the challenge that I did." Aranea explained and Danny and his friends pumped their fists in excitement.
-
"Awesome! I can't believe I almost circumvented a Guardian's Challenge. I can't wait to perfect it. That is all for today. I think we need some time to let the information you gave settle in our minds." Danny dismissed his teacher.
-
"Very well Master Phantom. Till next time then." Aranea then left in another portal of his.
-
"I don't like how he called me 'Master' but that was a lot to learn at once. I for one can't wait to find out what my cores are." Danny said as he got off of the couch and stretched his body. "What do you all want to learn about next time?" Danny asked as he turned to look at his friends and family.
-
Nobody gave an answer, so Kim spoke up. "Do you think Dorathea knows that her mom was part of The Elder's Council and does she get to be a part of it now?" She asked just as she got a call from Wade.
-
As Kim spoke with Wade, Danny thought about how to go about bringing up that bit of information. 'Surely she should know, but what if Aragon kept that knowledge from her.' Danny thought as he contemplated if he should go visit now.
-
"Sorry to run, but Ron and I need to go Investigate the theft of an excavation laser." Kim apologized and grabbed her things.
-
"That's fine Kim, text me when you want to go check to see if Dorathea knows about her mom." Danny told her as she made her way to the door with Ron following right after her.
-
"I have to go do some tutoring right now." Jazz told her family as she followed the two heroes out of the house.
-
"I'm going to try and make some schematics for the ghost phones, maybe Wade can help." Tucker said as he got up from the couch and made his way out.
-
"I'm gonna do some research to try to find something about all of the Infinite Realms with the names Aranea gave us." Sam left quickly.
-
Everyone left Danny to his parents, who were excited to have a talk with their son. "So, Danny, mind telling us why you didn't want to tell us about your powers before the Dorathea incident?" Maddie asked as she moved next to Danny, Jack moved to his other side.
-
"All I will say is 'Molecule by Molecule'. I'm going on patrol to find more animal ghosts. Scylla, Charybdis, stay here to guard the house just in case of villains like that Drakken fellow comes here." Danny said as he transformed and flew out of the house invisible.
-
Jack and Maddie sat there, ashamed of their previous behavior towards ghosts.