Even if being chased by a twenty-foot tall red ectoplasmic monster from the terrifying depths of the Ghost Zone, Danny should have known better than to escape into a natural portal. Those things were less likely to provide any sort of cover and more likely to lead to an alternate version of reality complete with a monster twice as terrifying.

Nevertheless, Danny had found himself rather out of options. He boosted himself that bit more and jumped right in.

Immediately, he came out the other side just barely skidding along the dirt ground of what looked to be a jungle, rather menacingly lit in the last few rays of the evening sun. All around him were buzzing, chirping, squawking sounds of the wildlife.

Safe. Danny breathed a sigh of relief before standing up, breaking off a large branch and wedging that halfway between this side of the portal and his, so as to prevent it from closing. Then he straightened and looked around with an air of curiosity.

"Might as well look around." Danny decided out loud. "It's not every day one of these natural portals actually looks pretty cool."

First, Danny flew up and away, far above the tallest trees. He saw that the jungle he had landed in was little more than an island, surrounded on all sides by water that stretched beyond the horizon. One side - the side he had landed on - was ended in a cliff, the other in a beach. In the middle was what looked to be a walled off complex.

Interesting, Danny thought. It was worth a look, so he touched down inside the walls.

The evening had rapidly turned into a moonless night, so Danny lit a bright ectoplasmic fire in his right hand. It was instantly clear to him from the mossy, crumbling exterior that the place was abandoned. The remains of a double door were in front of him at the end of a concrete path, so with a growing apprehension he took a step forward.

A short, soft whirring noise from off to the left gave Danny pause. He cast a light into the bushes but what had been there had already left. Ignoring the hairs rising on his back, pleading with him to turn back to safety, Danny continued.

It was just noise. He could deal with whatever came his way. Didn't he want to see what was inside?

Danny reached the entrance, and slowly extended his hand into the pitch-blackness beyond. It illuminated the remains of what appeared on first glance to be a ruined toyshop; stained and torn pink wallpaper decorated the decaying walls, knocked-over train sets and smashed puppet were strewn across the floor. The strong, repugnant scent of oil was coupled with large black stains on the floor, and – the creepiest detail of all – what appeared to be black lines, in sets of four, scratched deeply into the walls.

"Whoa!" If Danny hadn't been feeling sketched out before, he sure as hell was now. After taking a moment to breathe, he ventured forth into the room.

He'd come this far. Why turn back now?

As Danny sneaked towards the centre of the room, carefully avoiding the puddles of oil, he thought he heard that whirring sound again, like a machine. Once again he quickly turned to face the sound of the noise, his ghostly heart skipping a beat, and once again there was nothing there.

As he stood still, silent for a few seconds after the imagined noise, Danny became aware of a very real, persistent beeping coming from a far corner of the room. He floated over to the location of the sound and looked down.

What he saw was first mistaken for a hunk of rusted scrap metal leaning against the wall. Upon closer inspection, however, it was clear that the metal had a strikingly human form; two legs, torso, two arms and a head were stretched out in a rather limp pose in the corner.

Danny's eyes widened; had he stumbled across some sort of terminator robot? Whatever it was, it must have been sitting here a long time to have rusted up so terribly. It was definitely the source of the incessant beeping, and when Danny leaned down and moved the robot to the side a flap swung open at the back.

The inside was not rusted at all, and appeared to be for a battery to plug in. Reading the small print, it was specifically an AA battery.

Danny had AA batteries at home!

Cautiously, Danny tried picking up the robot. It was quite heavy – certainly unmanageable in his human form – but not anything Danny Phantom couldn't carry. A childish excitement took him over; if he could get this thing to activate, what would happen? Would it speak his language? What happened in this toy shop?

Just as he was lifting the robot fireman-style over his shoulder, something crashed to the floor in a sudden cacophony. Danny whirled around in alarm and this time had the fright of his life.

This thing was very obviously a robot, all of its external wiring exposed. Pieces of grey flesh hung like cloth from parts of its body, and it wore a tattered red cape. One of its eyes and nose was still covered in skin, and the other eye was missing. Its feet scratched the floor as it limped awkwardly forwards, and its mouth, a mere opening without lips, opened. Whatever it was going to say, the voice box had been damaged so severely that nothing but a distorted banshee scream escaped it.

Danny couldn't help a scream of his own, though that was drowned out by the horrifying robot. He took a step towards the door and slipped on oil, landing on his face. Still holding the rusting robot he had found, Danny scrambled up and came face to face with another of these zombie-like automatons. He had just enough time to register this one as a little chubbier than the last before it screeched and made a grab for him.

Turning himself invisible, Danny watched his attacker tumble to the floor. He flew out of that toy shop as fast as he could and returned to the portal, where he set down the robot he had been carrying and gave himself a moment to recover his breath.

"Zombie... zombie robots." Danny wiped his brow, chucking a little to himself. " Of course zombie robots. That makes so much sense."

He looked back at the rusted robot he had taken with him. It didn't look like those ones that attacked him. It was completely metal whilst those other ones seemed to formerly have a human-like skin. With a little bit of luck – and Tucker's expertise – it wouldn't act like them either.

Danny straightened, and the Cluster watched him pick up the robot once more and dive through the portal. He forgot to remove the branch from both sides of the portal so that it could close.

Back in the Ghost Zone, whatever had been attacking Danny appeared to be long gone. Breathing a sigh of relief as he made his way home, he fished out his phone and pulled up Tucker's number.