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The school was on lockdown, there had been a ghost attack. The school decided the best course of action for ghost attacks was lockdowns and ghost shields around the classrooms that automatically went up during an attack.
Normally this would’ve been fine but today Mx. Wyther had gone down the hall right beforehand leaving the physics class teacher-less, and Phantom hadn’t shown yet to fight the ghost.
“Maybe he’s in the Ghost Zone and doesn’t know about the attack?” Jake suggested not looking up from his phone.
“Well then we should to find a way to contact him!”
“Or, maybe wait a bit for some ghost hunters to show up? Or maybe he’s just running late?”
“Oh boo, shut up, Danny.”
Jake looked up from his phone, “Hey guys, I just found a thing for summoning a ghost. There’s a weird bit about ‘unveiling hidden aspects’, but other than that it seems legit.”
“I say we should do it. All in favor say ‘aye’.”
A loud chorus of ‘aye’s went around, almost everyone agreed but one.
“Oh, c’mon Danny, what’s the worst that could happen?”
Danny looked at the class like they were dumb. “Uhh for one, you guys could summon the wrong ghost and get possessed or killed. Two, you guys could only halfway succeed and essentially cut Phantom in half. Three, you fail and it explodes. Or four, Phantom’s off fighting some other ghost and you guys summon him here in the middle of him fighting and end up with a pissed off Phantom.”
“Jeez lighten up dude.”
“I don’t know, maybe he’s right…”
“You’re really gonna listen to Fenton? Nah, I say do it anyway.”
“Here take a look and we can do this,” Jake said, sending the link to everyone in the class through a group chat. “I’m gonna do it, if you don’t want to then go sit with Fenton.”
After some improvised components and some more protesting from Danny the group managed to set everything up. The ritual was surprisingly simple once they set everything up, all they had to do now was say a chant until the circle glowed, at which point they were to clasp hands and hum until the targeted ghost appeared.
It took three tries for them to get the chant right, no thanks to Danny interrupting with another excuse for why they shouldn’t do this. Once they got it the circle glowed almost instantly after the first round of chanting, and it only took 5 seconds of humming for there to be a flash from something appearing in the circle and a crash as something fell near where Danny had been hovering over the group.
“Well, fuck.”
There in the circle floated Danny, draped in a cloak that seemed to be made of the night sky and adorned with a flaming black crown. There were a few seconds of calm as everyone tried to make sense of the situation where Danny noticed he was floating, dropped to the ground, and walked right into a barrier as he tried to exit the circle. Someone snorted, and Jake came to his senses first.
“Fenton… would you like to explain why you were summoned from across the room instead of Phantom being summoned from wherever he is?”
“Shit, uhh, can I say no?”
One of the girls, Lizzy, piped up from the back, “I’m pretty sure you’re stuck there unless we let you go soo… how ‘bout you go ahead and explain that and why you have kingly regalia.”
“Fuck.”
“Less swearing, more explaining.”
Danny seemed to contemplate for a sec before sighing and plopping on the ground crisscross. He looked around at their faces before saying: “I don’t suppose you guys would be satisfied with the ecto-contamination theory, would you?”
“Sorry dude, but nope. You gotta give the full truth.”
He winced and proceeded to explain. “Well, see, back when I had that lil shock from my parents’ portal, it wasn’t actually that lil of a shock…”
Lizzy caught on and paused. “Just… how big of a ‘shock’ are we talking here?”
“Try the whole Ghost Zone opening on top of you,” Danny replied grimacing which triggered a round of cringing and sharp inhales from the class.
“That doesn’t explain how you’re alive right now though, Fenton,” butted in Jake.
“Yea well, y’know how if food gets too ecto-contaminated it reanimates? Yeah, uh, the Ghost Zone was certainly enough ectoplasm to revive me, but since it’s y’know ectoplasm and the Ghost Zone, it revived me only halfway. Meaning I’m now half-ghost, half-dead, or half-alive however you want to see it.”
“That’s seriously fucked up dude.”
“Yea, that’s one way of putting it.”
“Hey, wait now, back to my question. What’s with the king outfit?”
Danny seemed to slightly startle at that and look down at himself before heaving a sigh, “I actually was kinda hoping you guys would forget about that…”
“Dude you’re wearing a black crown that’s burning green flames and your cloak looks like you cut it from the night sky, it’s kinda hard to ignore.”
“Y’know what? Fair. Short explanation? You guys remember how that evil Pariah Dark ghost king guy was defeated?” A few nods. “Yea now think about that weird ‘right of conquest’ policy some kingdoms had.”
Jake’s eyes widened, “Dude. You’re the fucking Ghost King?!”
Danny grumbled something that sounded like: “No need to sound so surprised about it.”
“Uh, Danny you’re sixteen, now. You would’ve been fourteen maybe fifteen when that happened. I think we have a right to be surprised,” Lizzy explained with a frown.
There was a crash outside then a: “Come on out whelp, I need your pelt.”
Everyone froze.
“One, that was super fucking creepy. Two, did we really forget the whole reason we did this was because of a ghost attack?”
“I think that’s exactly what happened. Also I can go do what you summoned me for if you just let me out.”
“Oh! Right, sorry.” Lizzy darted forward and wiped away part of the dry erase marker they used, Danny’s cloak and crown winking out of sight. “There you go, now go wrangle your subject.”
Danny just nodded and phased out the door and out of sight.
“Well, that was a really fucked up experience. At least we now know we should probably listen to Fenton when he says not to do something.”