Sorry for the delay! My brain decided it was Saturday.

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Chapter 206: The Leaders of Amity Park

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The leaders of the various peoples of Amity Park were as follows:

One Wesley Weston, despite his numerous protests.

Principal Keiko Ishiyama, who had kept the city informed and connected when their beloved mayor had gone into hiding.

Damon Grey, Valerie's father, who had lost a lot of weight since Danny had seen him last, but who had supplied many of the weapons the rebels had used against the GIW.

Mayor Vlad Masters, who was laughably put out regarding Danny's revealed identity. He was there on the premise that at least one elected official should attend.

Inky, an apparently dead cat (Danny still thought it was hilarious how few people realized she was dead), who represented the intelligent animals of Amity Park, living and otherwise.

Colonel Grey, the chosen leader of the newly risen soldiers, and an ancestor of Valerie's.

Sunset, a ghost cowboy the other humanoid ghosts had chosen to represent them. He might also have been a hacker. Danny wasn't really sure. Sometimes ghosts were weird.

Bells-at-Dawn, leader of the Amity Park will-o-the-wisps (who was currently making their affection for Danny known via cuddling).

And, last, but not least, Daniel Janus James Fenton-Phantom, Prince of Ghosts.

Yeah. He hadn't mentioned that last part. Yet.

Also attending was the city council secretary, who knew shorthand and had volunteered to take notes, Adrestia and the Gracious Ones, Wes's parents, Pamela and Jeremy Manson, Maurice and Angela Foley, and the parents of most of the other students.

It was a lot of people for Wes's living room, so the meeting got moved to city hall and picked up a few more random people.

Vlad cleared his throat, his eyes on Danny's 'barrette.' He knew what it was, somehow, Danny guessed, or at least he suspected. "Now that we are all here," said Vlad, voice pitched to carry, "I think our first order of business is—"

"Where are our kids?" shouted one of the parents in the spectator crowd.

"Perhaps Daniel could answer that," said Vlad, only showing a little annoyance at being cut off. The sharpness of his words was directed towards Danny, insinuating that he should be blamed.

"Actually," said Adrestia, "we probably have more information." She gestured at her companions. "When we left Libra a day ago, all of Daniel's classmates were there." She paused for a split second before saying Danny's name.

This led into a discussion of what Libra was, how they got there, and why they were there.

"… Thus, we are looking for jurors and character witnesses for the Fentons' trial. Of course, Mr. Masters already is aware of all this, and I'm sure he'll be happy to coordinate with you to answer any further questions."

All color drained from Vlad's face.

This was said innocently enough, but Danny could see the calculation and the message behind it. Leave Danny alone or else.

"I spoke with him prior to this meeting, you see."

Danny watched Vlad swallow and recover with some amusement, but only some. He didn't really want to out Vlad. Danny knew that he'd be in for some hard times going forward, now that everyone in Amity Park knew he was Phantom, and he didn't want Vlad to have the same problem.

Adrestia finished with her part of the story, Danny picked up the thread, summarizing what had happened to him and his classmates up until they had been forced to part ways. There were a few moments of shock, but, for the most part, no one seemed terribly surprised.

Which, he supposed, was probably the result of fighting a quasi-governmental conspiracy with ghosts and then finding out that the town screw-up was secretly dead and had superpowers. Nothing really surprised you anymore.

Either that, or they were in shock.

"I hope that explains everything," Danny finished, as he reached the point where Pandora took him off to Mattingly to be healed.

"So, you've been healing for, what, a week?" asked Ishiyama. "That was the last time you saw the other children?"

"I mean, I'm not sure exactly how long it's been. Time doesn't always run in straight lines in the Ghost Zone. It doesn't always move properly here, what with all the special anomalies, and I was unconscious for a good bit of it, but… Yes. It's been about that long," finished Danny.

"What about the crown?" asked Wes.

Danny suppressed a cringe. "What crown?"

"The one you were wearing when you got here."

"Speaking of which," said Damon Grey, "how did you get here?"

"Oh," said Danny, latching on to the easier question. "A ghost I know had a tool that lets you see other places. It was broken, but I got it to show me Amity Park, and I saw that fight, that— that battle, you were having with the Guys in White, and, uh. Well. I made a portal and came here."

Silence.

"Why didn't you do that before?" asked Principal Ishiyama, exasperated. "Make a portal to bring everyone home?"

"I didn't know I could," said Danny. "That was the first time I made a portal I meant to make, and only the second time I made a portal, period. Also, I wasn't exactly at my best for most of the time. I'm still not at my best. I had to have multiple surgeries."

"You didn't mention those," said Damon Grey.

"I gave you the abbreviated version," said Danny. "We have been gone for over a month. A lot of stuff happens in a month. I can't tell you everything in an hour."

"What kind of surgeries?" shouted someone in the crowd.

"Ghost surgeries," said Danny.

"Okay, okay, before we get even more of track here," said Wes, raising his hands, "does 'a lot of stuff' cover the crown? Because I really want to know about that."

"Well," said Danny, "it's a long story…"

"The short version, then," said Vlad.

Danny cast hopeful looks at the ghostly representatives, but Inky was just licking her paw, Colonel Grey appeared to be completely lost, which was fair, and Sunset was looking on in interest. No help there. Or anywhere else. He'd have to give a real answer or be suspicious.

He sighed. "Okay, so… You guys remember Pariah Dark?"

"No," said Colonel Grey.

"He was the Ghost King. He stole the whole town a couple years ago. Anyway, I fought him and beat him, but that made him lose the right to be Ghost King, because there are rules for that, apparently, and, um. Well, the Ancients had to choose a new king, and I sort of fit the criteria?"

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The ghosts, of course, were thrilled. Danny supposed it would be like hearing someone from your hometown had become president. The humans were… Danny didn't know what they were. Whatever they were, it was loud, at least.

Vlad… Danny didn't like the look in his eyes.

Ancients. Could Vlad never stop playing games?

Regardless, Danny's revelation had catapulted him into a leadership position, despite the fact that he wasn't at all prepared for one. Not on this scale, not with these problems. For the most part, he was able to divert and delegate responsibilities, but the big things that no one knew how to deal with?

Those were his.

"How long will the shield even stay up?" asked Ishiyama.

That was a good question. Danny didn't feel like it would come down anytime soon, but he didn't really know. He didn't have much of a basis for comparison.

"It's quite stable; it should remain in place indefinitely," said Vlad, surprising Danny. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I used to work with the Fentons, remember?"

"Right," said Danny. "But we still can't just have it up forever."

"What happened to trading with the Ghost Zone?" asked Wes.

"Nothing happened to it. But I kind of think people will want to have contact with the rest of the world at some point, and the Ghost Zone doesn't really have, you know, a big industrial complex." Danny shrugged. He'd been thinking about this. "So, what can we do to make the GIW back off and leave us alone?"

"The government, too," said Wes. "I mean, with all this, we've basically declared war on the government. Not that we had any choice."

"Actually," said Vlad, "the GIW are technically contractors."

Inky meowed.

"Can you folks use that?" asked Sunset. "One thing I've learned, politicians always like to take an out in controversy."

"It would be easier to figure out what to do if we could get a signal through the shield," said Harriet. "Or if we could safely go through the shield and find out what's going on."

"There might be some equipment in the Ops Center that could go through. The Fenton Phones could go through shields, but that only works if someone is outside to talk to you, and I'm sure the GIW would have taken them." Danny ran a hand through his hair. "I can show you the basics of how to operate the Ops Center, but if anything is broken, I don't know if I can fix it." He paused. Actually, the Ops Center might be more of a solution than he first thought. "Speaking of the Ops Center, how do you feel about cross-country chases?"

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"Look, I know that no one wants to evacuate," said Danny, "but it would take a lot of strain off of our resources here, wouldn't it?"

"A lot of people aren't comfortable going into the Ghost Zone," said Ishiyama.

"Yeah, I'm not saying everybody should evacuate, I don't think that Harmony can take that many, but some people should. Especially kids." Danny would feel a lot better if they did go. Shield or not, Amity Park was in a precarious position.

"But, through the Ghost Zone?"

Danny shrugged. "I think Inky might know a shortcut."

"The cat?"

"Yeah."

Inky meowed.

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"Also, uh, this is awkward," Danny rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, "but I'm sometimes a little bit precognitive, but only when I'm, you know, knocked out, and I think that the GIW is going to try to use Freakshow."

"Who?"

"Well, do any of you remember when the Circus Gothica came through town a couple years ago?"

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"I don't know if I'm comfortable with you calling it a militia, that's all," said Mrs. Manson, who still had not left.

"But," said Danny, "that's what it is. A militia. I mean, I guess you could call it a military, too." He looked at Mr. Grey and the Colonel. "Or an army? I don't know. It still needs to be organized, doesn't it?"

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"Is there anyway we can go through the shield? Could you change it to make it one-way?"

"I don't know. It could already be one-way," said Danny. "Or it might let ectoplasm through or let people from Amity Park through or any number of weird things. Has anyone tested it?"

"What do you mean, you don't know?" asked Mr. Grey, brows furrowed. "Didn't you make it?"

"Sort of? It's complicated. Amity Park is my haunt, and there's a lot of ectoplasm in it, and it responds to my feelings, sometimes."

"There's more to it than that," said Sunset, coming to his rescue. "But we don't have time to hash that out tonight. Let's move on."

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Adrestia whistled, loud and high, breaking up the conversations in the room. "If we're all done with this, we need to bring Daniel back, as well as jurors and anyone who has volunteered as a character witness."

"Can you take that many people?" asked Danny.

"Oh, yeah, no problem. Our ghostly volunteers are more than enough for our human ones," said Adrestia, "and you don't need to be carried."

"So, you got people to agree to come," asked Danny, a little dubiously. He wasn't sure he liked his parents' chances if the jury was made of all ghosts, or if all the character witnesses were ghosts. For reasons apparent to even the most casual acquaintance, the Fentons were not popular among ghosts, particularly the ghosts of Amity Park.

"Oh, yeah, loads," said Tess.

"Do you really have to go?" asked Ishiyama. She sounded strained. "We need you here."

"Yeah. I can't delay this trial. Can I?" Danny asked Adrestia, hopefully.

"No," said Adrestia. "Not after it was accelerated like this because of the humans."

Danny made a face. "I didn't think so." He hid a yawn. It had been a long day. "You should be able to contact me, now, though. Sunset, you know where Libra is, right."

"Not precisely. But I know people who do."

"See?"

"Can't you do that thing, where you're in two places at once?" asked Wes.

"Nope. Too far. I can do something like twenty miles when I only have two, but that's it." He turned to Adrestia. "There's actually a couple more things I need to do before I go. Maybe you can gather up your volunteers, and I'll meet you at the portal?"

Adrestia and the Gracious Ones regarded him with an air of consideration.

"You three go," said Adrestia. "I'll keep an eye on Phantom." The Gracious ones nodded and flew away.

"You don't need to keep an eye on me," complained Danny.

"Yes, we do. Last time people weren't keeping an eye on you, you got kidnapped."

"Fine, fine," said Danny. "But I'm going to have to be four people to get everything done."

"That's alright. I'll just stay with your main body."

"Main body?" asked Danny. To the best of his knowledge, he didn't really have a main body when he was duplicated. All the duplicates were equally him. It had once been explained to him as teleporting but not all the way, having one's core be in two places at once. He didn't understand it, but then he had yet to master teleportation.

"Oh, no," said Adrestia. "You're one of those."