Author's Note:

Hello, and welcome to Thrilling Tales from the Cutting Room Floor. Those who know me know that my editing style is to cut down rather than build up; some of those cut pieces, while perhaps not suitable for their original purpose, I would still like to have see the light of day. Thus, this collection. This will not impact the publishing schedule for anything else I have on the go, of course. Most of this content was already written to some extent, and I either thought wouldn't stand on its own as a multi-part story, or was a scene intended for inclusion in another story. The deleted scenes in particular will of course make very little sense in isolation of the relevant work, so I'll be sure to mark them separately.

To start us off, here is a deleted scene from Disconnected chapter 15. It fills in some of the blank space between Phantom jump-starting the Specter Speeder and their arrival in the Ghost Zone later in the chapter. It is mostly fluff, which is why it was cut, but I think it says something about Phantom's relationship with each of the Fenton parents, and perhaps reveals a bit of detail behind Danny's duplication powers. Without further ado,

We Have Liftoff – 12/01/2017

Now, this I could get used to.

Not the part where my life was still being threatened, directly and indirectly, by both my parents; dad's legendary driving skills seemed to have carried over to powered flight. But there was no denying that this Specter Speeder thing was probably their greatest invention, even if it was the one with perhaps the least commercial appeal.

First flight blew my mind, but it terrified my neighbors and the engines overheated into puddles of molten metal. Still much better than Fentonworks' other product, the Ghost Portal, which kills people and lets angry ghosts invade our town. Overall, 2 out of 5 stars, would probably just buy a hatchback next time.

Yeah, that probably wouldn't work out. Besides, this felt more like strapping yourself onto a Saturn V than a family SUV. Dad looked giddy as he carefully bumped up the thrust until we were slowly rising off the ground. I was reflecting that it was too bad Danny wasn't here because he'd really love this. He'd nerd out and start quoting Robert Goddard at me. I smiled a bit at the thought until I remembered that this was a rescue mission.

"Jack, the main flight system is a go. Get ready to take over the reaction control system, I'm cutting RP-1 and LOx in 3... 2... 1." I was quite glad mom had agreed to put down the gun for this part. I had no idea what half of that meant, but it sounded like a two-handed sort of job.

I could tell when she had done... Whatever it was, though. Abruptly the dull roar of the rockets on the other side of the hull was cut off and replaced by a quiet humming. I thought I could see a faint spectral light surrounding the entire vehicle, pulsing slightly in time with the engine. It was a strange, weightless feeling. Not unlike flying as a ghost, although obviously I was firmly rooted to the seat.

...and then dad moved the steering wheel, and we nearly rolled over into the wall. "Ha! That's right, we switched the yaw and roll controls, didn't we?"

"...Yaw control has always been on the pedals."

There followed more bickering, but not enough to fully distract from the task at hand, so I thought I'd just leave them to it. I hadn't felt anything else from Danny's mind, which I supposed was good, but I could feel a vague... Tugging? Like someone had grabbed me by the shirt and was very weakly trying to drag me over to the portal. I concentrated on it for a while. It... Felt like Danny, somehow. It was like that dorky laugh of his was calling out through space.

Very suddenly, the feeling got stronger. More vivid, too, like it was pointing me in one direction. It actually felt like I had to stop myself from being physically pulled. I opened my eyes and quickly realized from the pervasive secondary colors that we weren't in Kansas.

So this was that ghost zone he had talked about. I had poked through his memories of the experience a bit, but it was quite another thing to see it with your own eyes.

Dad, of course, continued to sound like a kid in a candy store. "Core temperatures are holding steady. Ectoplasm reserves are at 61% and climbing." We shared a smile before he added, "Well, navigator, where to?"

"Oh, uh... Starboard? No, the other one. Port." Unfortunately, that caused him to turn left. "No, the other... Just... spin around to the right. To the 4 o'clock. And then... Point a bit down?"

"You don't seem particularly familiar with your home plane, ghost."

"Fancy that. It's almost like I was telling the truth when I said I've never been here before, huh?"

Mom's eyes narrowed. "Watch it."

...I may have overstepped a bit there. And as we flew along toward my other half, the strain to stay separated was only growing; manageable, but still noticeable. This little field trip really couldn't end soon enough.