#phinal round

“Jack Fenton?” Tali gaped at Danny, who reclined in the stadium seat beside them. “You let Jack Fenton stay while I was gone?”

On Danny’s other side, Jack Fenton, notoriously ineffective ghost hunter, slurped a (hopefully ectoplasm-free) smoothie.

“Yeah.” Danny shrugged.

“Why?”

Danny shrugged again. “He likes violence.”

“That… is a good point,” Tali admitted through gritted teeth. “But he’s still a ghost hunter.”

“Yeah. So am I.”

“You didn’t destroy the entire Denny’s while fighting Technus!”

“Hey, can you keep it down over there?” Jack asked. “I’m trying to watch these ghosts get torn apart molecule by molecule!”

And here is the finalized bracket!! Thanks to everyone who participated!!

The rankings are:

1st place:  @ecto-american 2nd place: @auroraphantasma 3rd place:  @grimgrinningghoul runner up: @half-dead-half-wit

Writer: @dannyphandump

“You can do this, Nick,” Vic said with a (hopefully) comforting pat on the next phighter’s shoulder.

“Yeah.  I’m tough.  I’m cool.  I’m the best dang hot pocket-warmer there ever was!”

“...Not sure why that’s relevant, but okay!”  Vic flashed him a thumbs up.  “Now go out there and kick Aurora’s butt so my security team doesn’t get Vibe Checked halfway across the Zone again!”

The security team had lost G3, Cecilia, and Lori to the cursed Vibe Check.  Tali was going to have to reopen Denny’s job applications again at this rate.  Which would be kind of a let down, since the Denny’s was about to close after this match anyway.

From their place in the VIP box, Tali watched Vic nudge Nick out into the ring.  From the opposite side, Aurora was escorted in by Nero and Rin.

“Man, you guys sure are scared, huh?”  Aurora grinned.  “What do you think I’m going to do, waste my energy Vibe Checking you when Nick is right there?”

Nick gulped.

Tali started to wonder about the ethical implications of sending Nick into the ring against his constant tormenter, where the only rules were “phight until your opponent is incapacitated.”  But it wasn’t like they were going to cancel the Phinal over something as little as fear of permanent trauma.

“Alright frootloops and gentlehoes, phools of all genders, it’s the phight you’ve been waiting for!! Nick aka Ecto-American will face down the terror of the ring, the pillowcase-weilder from Nightmare Valley herself, Auroraphantasma!”

The crowd was split in its cheers, some chanting Nick’s name (and screaming about Hot Pocket Rights), while some chanted “VIBE! CHECK! VIBE! CHECK!” presumably in honor of Aurora.

“No running this time, Nick.”  Aurora grinned, holding her oddly-stabbed pillowcase like a sword.  It was only now that Danny saw it held still that he realized it had a picture of Denny Phantom on the front, the unofficial mascot of the Ghost Denny’s.

“What did they do to you, my poor restaurant-themed kin,” Danny whispered.

“...You’re gonna accept that Denny’s kinned you?”  Tucker asked.

“You know this isn’t the weirdest thing that’s happened.”

“Fair enough.”

“And at risk of causing Nick nightmares for the foreseeable future…” Tali began, “PHIGHT!”

And Phight they did.

Aurora flew in swinging— or rather, teleported in swinging.  Her Denny’s application had warned that she could and would teleport behind you, and she intended to use that power to its fullest.

Nick, however, had experience in dodging the now-predictable attack.  He cartwheeled out of the way, stuffing his own secret weapon into his mouth:  the perfectly-cooked Magic Star Hot Pocket.

“No way,” Tali breathed.  “I thought that hot pocket was only found in legends.”

“...It’s literally just a hot pocket?”  Bug said behind them.  “What’s so special about it?”

“Nick’s been working on the recipe all month,” Tali confided.  “You know his vendetta against Mario Kart?  It’s partially because Mario Kart apparently ruins friendships, but it’s also because he had to play it for weeks straight in order to collect all of the Power Stars he needed to fuel his Hot Pocket.”

“...That’s some serious backstory you just made up there.  Mad props.”  Bug nodded.

“Thanks, I try.”

Regardless of the Magic Star Hot Pocket’s origins, it did its job: making Nick completely invulnerable to all attacks.  Including the dreaded Vibe Check.

“You have no power over me, Aurora!”  Nick called, grinning with the rainbow remnants of the hot pocket smeared across his mouth.  “I sacrificed my sanity to Mario Kart for this!”

“Yeah, well, we’ll see how invincible you really are!”  Aurora challenged back.  She geared up to swing her pillow case, holding it back like charging up Ness’s Baseball Bat attack in Super Smash Bros.  She began to glow as the power collected in her crucified pillow case. **

She just had to wait for Nick’s star power to wear off… but she did have less stamina than the fattest cat in the world.

“This is… oddly anticlimactic.”  Bug said, resting their chin in their palm.

“Shh, they’re having a stare down,” Tucker said.

“Which would be a lot more intimidating if the Mario star music wasn’t playing in the background,” Sam countered.

Tali didn’t care; they were on the edge of their seat, staring just as intently to see which phighter would break first.  Nick began to sweat, not daring to try to strike Aurora while her pillowcase was charged.  Even star power could only take him so far.  He needed to wait for the right moment…

“Agh, enough of this!”  Aurora shouted, throwing her speared pillowcase like a javalin.

The fabric image of Denny Phantom flew through the air.  Came into contact with Nick’s chest— 

And was flung back just as forcefully, effectively Vibe Checking Aurora straight out of the ring.

“VIBE CHEEEEEEEECCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!”  She called as she flew out of the stadium, past the Denny’s, into the ghost zone version of the moon.  A tiny explosion could be seen on it.

“That… where did that moon come from?”  Danny asked.

Tali shrugged.  “Aurora’s desire to be dramatic.”

“And dramatic it was,” Bug admitted.  “Probably not as much flair as my win last year, but A for effort.”

Tali grinned before raising their kazoo to play the Mortal Kombat theme, while Lexx beatboxed in the Danny Phantom theme over it from across the stadium.

“And there you have it, pholks!  Auroraphantasma is unable to battle and is our second place winner!  Ecto-american wins the first prize!!”

Vic stepped into the ring to hand the shell-shocked Nick the trophy (which someone should design, because Tali had no idea how to describe it).

“I… I won?”

“You won.”  Vic said, offering her hand for a fist bump.  “Any words you’d like to give the crowd on your victory?

Nick bumped knuckles with enthusiasm.  

PHINAL PROMPT

A contemplative hush hung over the stadium as Bug returned to perform their heartfelt (corefelt?) rendition of Danny Boy.  Tears were shed. Tissues were exchanged.  The previous year’s trophy was placed on a pedestal at the far end of the ring.

“It’s been a good year, and you’ve been a good weapon,” Bug said to the trophy before joining Tali in the VIP box.

Tali, meanwhile, was still drying her eyes on her coatsleeve.  “Thanks for that song, Bug.  The only thing that could’ve made it more touching is a sick kazoo baseline.”

“...Thanks?  I guess?”

Bug settled in to the seat reserved for last year’s winner.  Danny, Sam, and Tucker sat in front of them, though Tucker, at least, would’ve preferred to be behind where he didn’t have to worry about Bug tossing popcorn onto his beret. (They scored twelve pieces before Tucker noticed.)  (Vic, who was sitting by Bug, began plucking the pieces off and eating them.  Normally she wouldn’t do this, but after downing [READACTED] number of ecto lattes, some of her sense of personal space was inhibited.)

Tali spoke into their magical kazoo while the arena was still relatively quiet.

“Welcome one, welcome all, to the PHINAL ROUND of the 2020 Phandom Phight Club!  Thank you all for coming out from your respective corners of the ghost zone, whether from the distant Far Frozen or Pariah’s Keep, the terrifying Nightmare Valley or Carnivorous Outskirts, we hope you’ve felt welcome in our Denny’s this month.  We wouldn’t be here without all of your interest, support, love, affection, and most of all, poopposts! So extra special thanks to all our phighters who came and put their memes to the test.”

Applause sounded from the audience, as well as a few confused whispers of “poopposts”?

“We’d also like to thank our new announcers from this year!  Nick won’t be announcing this round, as his full energy is being devoted to avoiding the dreaded Vibe Check from Aurora.  He is currently being guarded by our security team, but let’s give him a round of applause anyway, along with our other announcers, Luma, Matsu, and Bug!”

More cheers rang out, with a few scattered audience members waving tiny crabs, wearing horribly-colored apparel, saying nice things about themselves, or eating hot pockets in honor of the announcers.

“And let’s not forget the hard work of Mod Vic, either!  She made the Phighter IDs that get you into the ring, and also helps wrangle rowdy anons, and kept me from making an idiot of myself while I had the Ghost Flu.  So thanks Vic, you’re the most not-precious of us all.”

“She’s precious,” Bug said with a smirk, causing Vic to cross her arms.

“At least Tali believes me.  ...I think.”

“Alright, now that we’ve gone through all the mushy stuff: What you’re actually here for!  Ectoplasm, guts, and straight up brawling!  We’ll start with our 3rd place phight, and then move on to the PHINALE!!!”

“Three exclamation points,” Vic said to herself.  “Can no one else hear that?”

“And yet you ignore the ph,” Danny shook his head.  “That stopped being phunny, like, phorever ago.”

Writer: @dannyphandump

“Stepping up into the ring we have the one, the only, the litle creacher themself, Grimgrinningghoul!” 

The 80s remix of Numb blared, annoying most likely everyone except Tali, who headbanged so hard their glasses flew off.

“Ahem.”  They coughed into the kazoo, making the crowd wince, and finally replaced their glasses.  “And the opponent!  The friendly neighborhood gremoblin, who could also be considered a cryptid in his own right, it’s Half-Dead-Half-Wit!”

Ninja (half-dead-half-wit) joined PJ (grimgrinningghoul) in the ring.  Since the Fenton Wash&Dry had flopped last round, Ninja had reverted back to his original weapon: dank memes.  He had a few that had been specially brewed before the match, incidentally using the Wash&Dry as a sort of cooking pot.  The energy they radiated was cursed enough to make PJ step back a little before the match even began.

“PHIGHT!”

Ninja whipped out his memes like throwing stars, but PJ managed to dodge with a tiny “meep!”  Being a litle creacher did have its advantages— like speed, and being a difficult target to hit with a distance weapon.  Ninja would have to step up his game.

He pulled Danny’s least favorite image from his pocket— the one where his face was dead-eyed and soulless, staring right into one’s core.  It was an meme, but a classic for a reason.  Ninja stretched it into a long rectangle, rolled it into a tube, and then weilded it like a baseball bat.

“It’s over, PJ!  I have the high memes!”

“Hmmm, that’s a pretty convincing argument,” PJ nodded.  But PJ had withstood a Vibe Check from Aurora— even if they’d lost, it lent a great deal to their endurance and stamina.  As well to their ability to face intimidation.

They faced down the meme-bat bravely— and went intangible as the weapon tried to strike.

“What?”  Ninja gasped.  “But the chaotic energy of my memes— they were supposed to be phase-proof!  I even homebrewed them myself…”

“Ah, well, it was worth a shot.”  PJ smiled consolingly before pulling out their trusty Fenton Ghost Caller.  With a kazoo addition to the 80s Numb remix, blob ghosts began melting up from the ground to come to their aid.

“Back off!  I’ll swat you like gnats!”  Ninja threatened, swinging the meme-bat wide.

But it wasn’t enough.  The sheer numbers of the blob ghosts—fueled by both the Fenton Ghost Caller and the undeniable urge to headbang to Linkin Park— were too much for Ninja.  He disappeared under the tide of green blobs.

“No… my memes… my… dankness....!”

“Nothing’s more dank than being Numb inside.”  PJ dabbed.

The Phinal Round is here!! For this round, the submissions will be done anonymously. They will not be posted publicly; they will just be put directly into the Phinal Round voting form.  After voting has closed, you are free to post your submission to your own blog and we will reblog it here.  ALL MEDIA TYPES ARE ALLOWED.

Please only submit a post if you are one of the 2 finalists or 2 semifinalists (for 3rd place).