Disclaimer: Extreme Ghostbusters © Jeff Kline, Richard Raynis, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Danny Phantom © Butch Hartman. All characters were created by these artists respectively, with the exception of the Erinyes or Furies, which originate in Greco-Roman mythology and have been developed by the author in compliance with the artistic stylings of Butch Hartman.
Extreme Ghostbusters/Danny Phantom: She Who Never Stops
Part 1
"Have any of you guys seen Slimer?"
"Good morning, Janine," Garrett Miller returned pointedly. He wasn't even out of the car yet - he was waiting for someone to pass him his wheelchair.
"We just got here," added Roland Jackson, who was at that very moment unloading the chair from the boot of his blue Mustang. "Has he gone missing?"
"Don't worry, Janine, he'll show up," Kylie Griffin said bracingly.
"Or we might get lucky and he won't," added the fourth and final member of the newly arrived company, Eduardo Rivera.
Janine Melnitz scowled at him, and then said, "We haven't seen him all morning. Egon's getting really worried."
As if on cue, Dr. Egon Spengler appeared at the top of the stairs and started to descend, frowning at the PKE meter in his hand. "The worrying thing," he said, apparently picking up a conversation with Janine where they had left it, "is that I can't pick his PK trail up anywhere. He must have been gone for hours - possibly all night."
Roland began to look worried as well. "That's not like Slimer," he said.
"Well," said Garrett (now out of the car and in his chair), "standing around here talking about it won't find Slimer - we'd better get out there and start look- "
He was interrupted by something suddenly shooting up through the floor, moving so fast that it was indiscernible, and then heading for the wall that led directly to the street outside. It disappeared through the wall before anyone had a chance to get a good look at it; however it was immediately obvious that this wasn't Slimer, the Ghostbusters' little green pet ghost.
"What the -?" Garrett began, but was cut off when the exact same thing happened again.
"They almost look human," Kylie noticed, when a third figure materialised through the floor, only to disappear through the wall seconds later. "If a little cartoon-ish. Come on, guys - we'd better get kitted up."
"But it came from the basement," Egon objected, studying his excited PKE meter as he spoke. "How did they get down there without our noticing?"
"Maybe they were here before you," Eduardo suggested, his upper half concealed behind the door of his locker, as he started pulling on gloves and elbow pads.
"Janine and I have both been in the basement this morning, looking for Slimer," said Egon. "There was nothing there then. Perhaps there's been a leak in the containment unit - I'd better go and check."
"I don't ever remember putting anything like that into the containment unit, Egon," said Kylie. "Do you?"
"I didn't get a very good look at them, Kylie."
"Neither did I, but they were definitely green and purple, and that last one looked sort of like an extremely unrealistic cartoon of femininity - kind of like Jessica Rabbit."
"Hmm… nothing springs to mind," said Egon. "But obviously they must have gotten down there somehow. I'll go and check the containment unit."
He went, while the four younger Ghostbusters climbed into the Ecto-1, Roland heading straight for his usual position behind the wheel.
"Jessica Rabbit, huh?" asked Eduardo, sitting in the front seat between Roland and Kylie, as they started to move.
"If you saw a woman who looked like Jessica Rabbit just walking down the street," said Kylie, "you would freak out."
"Hey, there they are!" Garrett announced suddenly, from the back of the car, causing Roland to slam on the brakes. "They didn't go far, did they?"
The four Ghostbusters piled out of the Ecto-1, and found that they were on a sparsely populated and rapidly emptying street. The three ghosts - all essentially green-skinned, purple-haired Jessica Rabbits, with subtle differences in their exaggeratedly feminine facial features and classical looking costumes - were just floating in the middle of the road, talking in a huddle. They were human in shape, apart from having no legs, instead of which they sported wispy tails that curled away into thinning green smoke.
"I think they're talking English," murmured Kylie.
They all strained their ears, unable to hear entire sentences, but they all caught a few words of English. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary; the most interesting word anyone caught was "portal".
"Who the hell cares what they're saying?" Garrett asked suddenly, and levelled his proton gun on the three apparitions. "Pardon me, ladies, but I'm going to have to ask you to move it along."
With that he released a short burst of proton fire, which caught one of the spectres on her wispy tail. She screamed and took suddenly to the air, wailing, "Not here as well!"
"As well as what?" asked Kylie.
"Don't ask pointless questions - get after them!" said Garrett, nodding towards the other two apparitions as they started flying back in the direction of the firehouse. "Go with her, Eddie. Roland and I will go after their friend in the Ecto-1."
Roland obediently climbed back into the car, while Eduardo and Kylie started after the other two ghosts on foot. Thankfully they were able to keep the ghostly women in sight until they disappeared back inside the firehouse; they were swift flyers, but it was only a short distance.
"Come on," said Kylie, sprinting through the large double doors into the building, and skidding to a halt at Janine's desk. "Janine, is Egon done checking the containment unit?"
"Yes, and it's fine," said Janine. "Your ghosts both flew into the basement."
Kylie started running again, Eduardo hot on her heels, and descended the stairs that led to the basement. She flung the door open dramatically, her proton gun cocked at the ready.
"They've gone," remarked Eduardo.
"They can't have," Kylie said sharply, making her way down the metal staircase whilst studying her PKE meter. "It looks like they're in that cabinet. That's odd - why would a ghost hide in there?"
She headed over to a tall metal cabinet and pulled open the double doors, holding her gun at the ready. But it wasn't the two ghosts that met her eyes. They had vanished, and Kylie was looking instead at a swirling green vortex.
"What the…?"
Suddenly a familiar childlike scream caught her ears, and Kylie had to jump to one side as something came hurtling out of the portal. It was Slimer, and a few seconds behind him was something else: a white-haired figure dressed in a black jumpsuit. This was as much as Eduardo and Kylie could see before Slimer, still screaming, took his pursuer on a few speedy mid-air laps of the basement.
Finally the person in the jumpsuit stopped and, hovering several inches above the ground, seemed to be trying to catch his breath. This immediately struck Kylie as odd, as this person was definitely a ghost and shouldn't need to breathe. When he stopped flying, his wispy tail was replaced by a pair of legs, with boots the same white as his hair and gloves and the trim on his jumpsuit, whose chest appeared to be sporting some kind of logo.
When he had his breath the ghost took off again, this time flying in the opposite direction round the room, causing Slimer to come to an emergency stop straight in front of him.
"Look," said the ghost, in a voice that sounded to be on the cusp of breaking. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want you to understand that our town isn't an all you can eat buffet!"
Slimer stared at him for a few moments, and then started snivelling and babbling incoherently.
"Oh, don't start that," said his adolescent pursuer. "Why can't you just stay in the -?"
He stopped as Slimer suddenly seemed to see straight past him. He had spotted Kylie, and immediately flew over to her, taking cover behind her head as the ghost boy turned round and started to follow.
"Oh, hi!" said the boy in surprise, coming to an abrupt halt in front of Kylie. "Look, I'm really sorry about just showing up in your lair unannounced like this."
Kylie cocked an eyebrow. "My lair?"
"Only we've been getting a little bit of trouble from your… pet, is it? What exactly is he, anyway - some kind of dog?"
"Um." Kylie turned her head slightly and cut a glance at the cowering Slimer. "Well, he's a ghost."
"Oh, yeah, sure," the ghost boy said. "I mean, we're all ghosts here, right?"
"No," said Kylie.
"What?" The boy blinked his glowing green eyes at her, and then turned round as he suddenly seemed to sense Eduardo behind him. "You mean you guys are alive? Whoa." He turned back to Kylie. "Jeez, I'm sorry, lady. It's just that since you seem to live in the Ghost Zone I just assumed… hey, what are you doing in the Ghost Zone?"
"We're not in any Ghost Zone, kid," Eduardo cut in.
The ghost boy turned around to look at him. "So this is the real world?"
"Yes."
"No way! I never knew there was a Ghost Portal to… to… where are we exactly?"
"New York," said Eduardo.
"Really?" asked the ghost boy. "Do you mind if I go take a look? I'll be right back."
Without waiting for a reply, the boy suddenly seemed to become liquid and his whole body glowed a light blue. His legs disappeared again, and he shot up through the ceiling.
"What the hell was that all about?" demanded Eduardo.
Kylie shook her head. "Seems some kind of Ghost Portal has opened up in this cabinet."
"Why?"
"Well, why not?"
The ghost boy returned, taking on his normal colouring after fazing back down through the ceiling, and said, "Y'know, you might wanna think about changing the calendar in your kitchen - it still says nineteen ninety-seven."
"It is nineteen ninety-seven," said Kylie.
The ghost boy's green eyes widened. "It is? Wow, this is weird." He shot past Kylie, stuck his head into the green vortex and then re-emerged a moment later. "What's a Ghost Portal doing in twentieth-century New York?"
"You tell us," Eduardo said invitingly.
The boy laughed. "How should I know?"
"That's your home in there, isn't it?" said Eduardo.
"Well, no, not really. I only came in here to try and persuade your little friend there to stay in the Ghost Zone. I mean, he's cute an' all, but he's been eating everyone out of house and home."
"Has he really?" asked Kylie, sounding distracted as she went to take a closer look at the vortex. "What is this Ghost Zone, anyway?"
"You've never seen it?"
"This portal never used to be here."
"Didn't it?" asked the ghost boy. "I didn't think it was there before, but then there's still a lot I don't know about the Ghost Zone. Go in and take a look, if you like - the coast was pretty clear when I stuck my head in just now."
Kylie looked about to take the boy up on his offer but Eduardo, spotting what she was about to do, lunged forward with a cry of, "Kylie, wait!" He put a restraining hand on her shoulder, and then turned his gaze onto the ghost boy. "Just who are you, anyway?"
"Oh, sorry," the boy said. "I'm Danny Phantom. Hence the logo," he added, grinning and pointing to his chest. Eduardo squinted at the logo, and could just about make it look like a P forged into the centre of a capital D. "And you are…?"
"Kylie Griffin," said Kylie. "This is Eduardo. We're Ghostbusters - and I really think, Eduardo, that it would be pertinent for us to take a look at this Ghost Zone."
"Kylie, you can't just go walking into another dimension!" said Eduardo. "What if you never find your way back?"
"Oh, don't worry, you'll find your way back," said Danny. "I go in and out of the Ghost Zone all the time. Come on, I'll show you. You," he added, looking at Slimer, "stay."
With that, he flew into the vortex. Kylie shook Eduardo's hand off her shoulder and followed without a backward glance. Eduardo stared after her in utter bewilderment for all of half a second, and then resignedly stepped into the portal after her.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Roland and Garrett's ghost took them, interestingly enough, to the nearest law firm. They drew up in the Ecto-1 just in time to see her disappear inside. The two men got out of the car and followed her in, ignoring the protestations of the woman on the front desk.
"Hey!" exclaimed Garrett, catching the ghost's attention in the moment before she fazed through the door into one of the offices. "Come away from there - that's none of your goddamn business!"
"It's a divorce hearing," said the ghost, as though this explained everything.
Garrett blinked. "Yeah, so?"
The ghost ignored him and disappeared through the door. Roland looked reluctant to intrude on whatever was going on in there, but nevertheless he stepped forward and tried the door. It was locked.
"Um." He knocked tentatively, and said, "We're Ghostbusters."
Less than a second later the door was flung open to reveal a harassed looking woman in a suit. She jumped to one side, revealing the scene beyond: a woman in her thirties with a smartly dressed man sitting next to her, both staring in amazement at a second man, who was lying on the floor as the purple-haired ghost tore strips out of his expensive suit.
"ADULTERER!" she screamed.
"L-look, please, it's all right - we're handling it," said the male lawyer. "She's… she's getting the house."
"Is that any compensation for the best years of her life, which she has wasted on this man?" roared the ghost.
"I… I suppose not."
"He'll never commit another crime of passion once I'm through with him!" and she looked about to make a start on his boxer shorts.
"Ok, it's not funny anymore," Garrett said urgently, and scraped the top of the ghost's head with a short burst of proton fire. This distracted her just long enough for the divorcee to slink away, and then the spectre cried out in anguish as she found herself caught in two strong proton streams.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
They seemed to be free-floating, which wasn't a nice feeling at all. Eduardo still had a hand on his proton gun, but Kylie's equipment was all strapped up, apparently forgotten. As well as the endless mass of green around them, there were several purple doors just floating in the vortex. A white vehicle about the size of a helicopter, that looked rather like something out of a science fiction movie, hovered nearby.
"Wow!" exclaimed Kylie. "I never knew…"
"Behind every one of these doors is a ghost's lair," Danny said knowingly. "Your door is right behind us. You can see why I thought you were ghosts - I only know of two doors to the real world from here."
"Can we check some of these out?" Kylie asked eagerly.
"Well," said Danny, "we can, but that's not always a very good idea. I don't usually do that unless I'm running away from something. Well, flying, anyway."
"Are we in danger here?" Eduardo asked sharply.
"Not especially right now," said Danny. "Don't worry - I have a ghost sense."
"You have a ghost sense?" Eduardo said dubiously.
"Look, just trust me, I'll know if a ghost gets too close."
"Why has this portal suddenly opened up in our basement?" asked Kylie. "There must be a reason."
"And how do we get rid of it?" added Eduardo.
"Get rid of it?" Kylie turned sharply to look at him. "Don't be ridiculous - imagine all the - "
"Ghosts we'll get coming out of this thing. We've had four already today, Kylie!"
"You have?" asked Danny. "I'm sorry about that. Eduardo's right, Kylie - these things are more trouble than they're worth, to be honest with you. We get ghosts flying out of our Ghost Portal all the time - I've really got my work cut out for me."
"Your work?" queried Kylie.
"I'm kind of a Ghostbuster too."
"But you're a ghost yourself."
"Yeah, well…"
"How old are you?"
"Fourteen."
Kylie blinked. "Is that all? Or do you mean you were fourteen when you died?"
"I…"
"Where are you from?"
"Amity Park," said Danny. "That's in the real world."
"Kylie," said Eduardo. "We need to be getting back."
"I thought you wanted to close the portal," said Kylie. "Danny, can you think of any reason why there might suddenly be a portal to our basement from here?"
"Well… no," said Danny. "Like I said, I only know of two portals to the real world, and they didn't just open up by themselves - they were created."
"Created by people, you mean?"
"Yes."
"Well," said Kylie, "I certainly didn't create any portal. Danny, is there any chance it was someone from your world?"
Danny suddenly looked thoughtful. "I can't imagine why they'd want to do that. Mind you, one of the guys who knows how to create a portal…"
"Yes?" prompted Kylie.
"Well… he's always doing crazy things. He's a little evil."
"Evil?" Kylie raised her eyebrows. "I don't like the sound of that."
"Well," said Danny, "to be honest, I'd kind of like to close the portal too. You guys are cool and everything, but a portal to twentieth-century New York is not supposed to be there. I'd better get back and consult with my associates. You wanna come with?"
"Yes," said Kylie.
"No!" said Eduardo. "Kylie, we… we can't!"
"Sure you can," said Danny. Then, indicating the helicopter-sized vehicle, "I brought the Fenton Spectre Speeder - we'll be there in no time."
"Could you find your way back here?" asked Kylie.
"Oh, yeah, sure, don't worry about that - we've been mapping out the Ghost Zone."
Kylie nodded, and then turned a determined look onto Eduardo. "I'm going."
"You're going to another dimension in order to close the portal. That's ridiculous, Kylie - how do you intend to get back?"
"That's a good point, actually," said Danny.
"We don't need to do anything rash," said Kylie. "We're just going to investigate, and I think the best place to start would be to look at another portal just like ours. Don't you?"
"No, I don't."
"I'm going," Kylie said again. "Come on, Danny - let's check out this Spectre Speeder of yours. Stay if you want to," she said to Eduardo.
Danny zoomed over to what he had called the Fenton Spectre Speeder, flew into it and drove it right up to Kylie. He opened the door for her, and she climbed inside.
"Are you coming?" Danny called brightly to Eduardo.
Eduardo froze for a couple of seconds, and then realised that he was going to have to go with them. He couldn't let Kylie be lost forever in this Ghost Zone, or in Danny's Amity Park either.
"Great," Danny smiled. "Close the door, Eduardo, would you? So what's with all the guns and stuff?" he asked, as he manoeuvred the Spectre Speeder expertly through the green vortex.
"Ghost catching equipment," said Kylie.
Danny nodded. "Of course."
The journey through the Ghost Zone wasn't long, and ended with Danny landing the Spectre Speeder in what looked like a large basement. Whether it was a basement or something else, the room was filled with all kinds of weird and wonderful gadgets that vaguely piqued Kylie's interest. She thought Roland would have a field day in there, and then wondered why she hadn't thought to tell anyone where they were going. Possibly, she realised, because she knew she would have been stopped.
Kylie, Eduardo and Danny filed out of the Spectre Speeder. Looking behind her, Kylie saw a portal exactly like the one in the back of the cabinet in the firehouse basement, only much larger - a good eight or nine feet in diameter. Danny walked into her line of vision and hit a button, which caused a large metal gate to close over the portal.
"For all the good it does," he laughed awkwardly.
Just then a door clicked open, and Kylie turned her head towards the sound. Standing by the door, at the top of a set of stairs, was an extremely rotund man wearing a jumpsuit in an alarming shade of orange.
"GHOSTS!" the man exclaimed, and started charging down the stairs, grabbing some kind of very big gun on the way. "I'll save you, Danny!"
"Dad, no!" Danny's voice exclaimed, and suddenly a black-haired boy wearing jeans and a white t-shirt stepped in front of Eduardo and Kylie. "They're not ghosts. This is, um, Sam's cousin Kylie and her boyfriend Eduardo, from New York."
"Sam's cousin Kylie, eh?" the man said slowly, his eyes narrowing on them with obvious suspicion. "What are they doing in our basement?"
"They're, um… helping me with homework?"
"Hmm." At last he lowered the gun. "All right then, I'll leave you to it. Give me a shout if you see any ghosts."
"I will, Dad."
The large man left, looking extremely dejected, and the teenage boy turned round with a look of relief in his blue eyes.
"What?" he said, catching Eduardo and Kylie's shocked expressions. Then, "Oh, yeah… I'm not all ghost. I should have warned you about that, sorry."
"You're… alive?" asked Kylie.
"Sure am."
"But how…?"
"I have ghost powers," and just to prove it, Danny turned invisible and then reappeared a second later. "It was kind of a lab accident. Mom and Dad couldn't get their Ghost Portal to work, so I took a look inside, and I sort of bumped into the on/off switch and… and now I have ghost powers."
He was answered with a stunned silence.
"I guess it sounds a little far-fetched."
"So that was your dad, huh?" said Eduardo, thinking it appropriate to change the subject.
"Oh." Danny looked over his shoulder towards the door. "Yeah. Look, don't take it personally - he thinks everyone's a ghost the first time he meets them."
"Why did you say he was my boyfriend?" asked Kylie. "He's not my boyfriend."
"Huh?" said Danny. Then, apparently, he remembered. "Oh, that. Well, why else would you bring him down here to see Sam? I had to tell him something."
"So you said I was this Sam person's cousin."
"It was just the first thing that came into my head. You remind me of my friend Sam."
"Do I?" asked Kylie. "Why?"
"Oh, I don't know - same eyeliner or something," said Danny, smiling slightly. "You'll meet her soon, if we're really going to try and close this portal - she's part of the team. Come on - let's get upstairs and give her a call."
Danny led them up the stairs and out into the hallway, where he picked up the phone and hit a button on the speed dial pad. Kylie and Eduardo stood awkwardly as they were treated to another suspicious look from Danny's father. Then a woman and a teenage girl, both with red hair, wandered into the hallway and spotted them. Presumably these were Danny's mother and sister.
"Um, hi," said Kylie, forcing a smile. "I'm Kylie, this is Eduardo. I'm… Sam's cousin."
The woman looked suspicious for a moment, and Kylie and Eduardo both felt uneasy, not helped by the fact that she too was wearing a jumpsuit - although hers was an inoffensive shade of blue. Then suddenly she broke into a smile, and said warmly, "Well hi! I'm Maddie, Danny's mom. This is my daughter Jazz."
"I didn't know Sam had a cousin," Jazz said sharply.
"Ok," said Danny, in a tone that sounded like he was wrapping up the conversation. "We'll meet you and Tucker at the Nasty Burger as soon as we can. Bye, Sam." He hung up, and then spotted Maddie. "Hi, Mom. This is - "
"We've met," Jazz interrupted.
"Oh, great," said Danny. "Well, we're going to the Nasty Burger now. I'll be back before dinner, Mom."
"Ok, sweetie," trilled Maddie. "Have a good time," and then she disappeared into one of the rooms of the house.
"Danny," said Jazz, crossing the hallway into her brother's personal space. She was a little taller than Danny, and looked about two years older. "What's going on here? Why would Sam's cousin come to our house without Sam?"
"She's not Sam's cousin, Jazz," Danny said wearily. "You remember the little green ghost who was stealing food? He's from New York, in the past - there's a ghost portal to these guys' basement, and they want it closed. All right?"
"Oh." Jazz brightened visibly. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Well," said Danny, "you could give us a ride to the Nasty Burger."
"All right," Jazz agreed readily. Then, to Eduardo and Kylie, she said, "How much do you guys know?"
"They know everything," said Danny. "Well, they know my secret, anyway."
"Me too," Jazz told them, with a smug little smile.
"Come on, let's go," Danny said impatiently. "You guys can just leave your equipment here. Oh, no, wait - that's probably a bad idea, knowing Mom and Dad. We'll take it upstairs and dump it in my room."
This little detour took less than a minute, and soon they were all filing out of the front door.
"I never tell my brother anything," Eduardo remarked to Jazz.
"Oh, Danny didn't tell me," said Jazz, in a voice that was both high-pitched and matter-of-fact, and could very easily get annoying. "I found out for myself after, oh, about his first eight or nine escapades. But I kept it to myself for a very long time - I knew Danny would tell me when he was ready."
"Jazz, come on, they're not interested," said Danny, as he led them over to a car parked in the street - presumably either his parents' car, or Jazz's own.
Kylie turned to take a look at the house before climbing into the car, and couldn't help gaping in surprise at what she saw. It didn't look like a family home from the outside. There was an elaborate astronomy tower, or something of the sort, apparently just dumped on the roof, which bore an equally elaborate sign reading, Fenton Works.
"Is Fenton your last name?" asked Kylie.
"Yes," said Jazz. "Buckle up, everyone - as the driver, I'm responsible if we have an accident and I didn't make sure everyone was wearing their seatbelt."
Danny sat in the front seat next to Jazz, and so Kylie and Eduardo let themselves into the back. As they busied themselves with seatbelts, Kylie said quietly to Eduardo, "Danny Fenton isn't exactly a far cry from Danny Phantom, is it?"
Eduardo shook his head soundlessly.
"But anyway," said Jazz, catching Eduardo's eye in the rear-view mirror, "I was waiting for Danny to tell me himself, but then I had to reveal that I knew when I had to help him defeat an evil version of himself from the future."
"I hate it when that happens," said Eduardo.
Jazz tittered girlishly as she pulled the car into gear. "The Nasty Burger, was it? Really, Danny, you and your friends shouldn't spend all of your free time in that place - I'm sure there are more productive things you could be doing than eating burgers. And it isn't good for you, you know."
"Ah Jazz, come on - it's not like I have a lot of free time," said Danny.
"We probably can't stay long anyway," Kylie cut in. "We need to figure out how to close this portal in our basement."
"Oh yeah, the portal," said Jazz, sounding serious now. "Someone must have opened that portal, guys - they don't just open up on their own." She cut a glance at Danny. "Do they, Danny?"
"Not that I know of," said Danny.
"So I think the first thing you should do is figure out who would want to do that. What's in your basement that somebody might be interested in?"
"Well that's easy," said Kylie. "The containment unit."
"The what?"
"It's where we store all the ghosts we catch. We're Ghostbusters," she added.
"Cool!" exclaimed Jazz. "So is Danny. So am I, when he lets me."
"Jazz…" Danny said irritably.
"And these ghosts in your containment unit - do they stay in there for good?"
"Oh, yes," said Kylie. "We go to great pains to ensure they stay safely locked inside."
"You could really do with one of those, Danny," Jazz said brightly.
"Yeah," said Danny, "I know."
It was barely ten minutes' drive to the Nasty Burger, which turned out to be bigger than either Kylie or Eduardo had expected, and seemed to be the hub of all social activity in Amity Park. Danny, after assuring Jazz that she wasn't needed anymore but thanks all the same, led his two guests through the crowded burger joint and eventually came to a stop at a particular table, at which sat a bespectacled black boy in a yellow sweater and red beret and a girl even more Goth than Kylie. This girl's hair was a shiny and clearly synthetic black; she wore purple tinted contact lenses that matched her lipstick, and sported a disaffected scowl. She smiled, however, when she saw Danny.
"Well, hello there," the bespectacled boy said suavely, his eye immediately falling upon Kylie. "Sam said that Danny would be bringing guests, but she didn't mention that one of them was a beautiful woman."
The girl, presumably Sam, put down a burger overflowing with lettuce and said, "Tucker, come on, she's gotta be like eighteen."
"What's four years?" Tucker said airily.
"Yeah, well, as long as she's in Amity Park she's taken," said Danny. "They have to pretend to be a couple."
"Why?" asked Sam.
"Because I told my dad they were a couple."
"Danny, why don't you do the introductions?" said Kylie, eager to get things moving.
"What? Oh, yeah, sure," said Danny. "My friends Tucker Foley and Sam Manson. Guys, this is Kylie Griffin and Eduardo, um… I don't think they told me his last name."
"Rivera," Eduardo provided, as Danny took a seat beside Sam.
"Hey!" Tucker exclaimed suddenly, apparently seeing something that had been hitherto concealed by Danny. "Is Paulina checking you out?"
"What?" said Eduardo, and swivelled round at the waist to find that he was indeed being watched by a dark-skinned girl in skimpy clothes and her slightly less pretty blond friend.
The two girls exchanged a few words, giggled annoyingly, and then the dark-skinned one raised her arm in a wave and shouted, "Hey, chico! Hace un dia precisio, si?"
Eduardo, sounding slightly amused, called back, "Si, senorita! Bonito!"
"Who are you calling bonito?" Tucker demanded, as Eduardo turned back to face them.
"The weather," said Eduardo. "She said it's a beautiful day."
"She's only fifteen, you know," said Danny, almost accusingly.
"Look, guys," said Eduardo, "don't worry - I'm not interested or anything."
"What? Why not?" asked Danny. "Are you blind or something?"
"Well she's a little young."
"And superficial," said Sam, "and spoilt, and shallow, and nauseating, and - "
"I'm gonna go get us something to eat," said Eduardo. "Does anybody want anything?"
Danny proceeded to order a very heavy sounding burger, with fries; Tucker said there was always room for another cheeseburger, while Sam insisted that she was "all set" with her veggie burger - although she seemed to have lost her appetite for it since the Paulina incident. When prompted for her reply, Kylie said, "Just get me anything."
"Oh, Sam, by the way," said Danny, when Eduardo was at the counter trying to remember the order, "Kylie's your cousin."
Sam cut a glance at Kylie, and then said, "Gothicism doesn't run in families, you know."
"Yeah, well, it was the first thing that flew into my head," said Danny. "And besides, my parents don't know that."
"Um, guys," said Kylie. "Maybe we could start talking about this portal?"
"Oh, yeah, the portal," said Danny. "Tell me more about this containment unit, Kylie. Does it have a lot of ghosts in it?"
"Yes, hundreds, probably."
"Dangerous ghosts?"
"Extremely."
"Any number of people could want to crack into that," said Danny. "What about Freakshow? If he had hundreds of dangerous ghosts at his command…"
"Freakshow's in jail," said Sam.
"Maybe he opened the portal from in jail."
"Who's Freakshow?" asked Kylie.
"A crazy guy," said Sam. "He was the ringmaster of Circus Gothika, which I thought was incredibly cool until I found out that all of his acts were enslaved ghosts that he'd been using to steal for him. He did try to kill me a couple of times, but I think he's more interested in money than harming people. I think it's more likely to be Skulker."
"He's a ghost who goes around in this hi-tech body armour collecting things," Tucker explained, before Kylie had time to ask. "Rare things, and that includes rare ghosts."
"Like ghost/human hybrids," Danny added dryly.
"But this is all just speculation," said Sam. "We can't exactly go up to all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone and say, 'Excuse me, but have you opened a -?'"
"Ah man," said Danny, catching sight of Eduardo as he approached their table, flanked by Paulina and her friend, both of whom were carrying Styrofoam beverage holders. "I don't get it. Do you see the attraction, Sam?"
Sam shrugged. "He's all right, if you like that sort of thing."
"I was into eighteen-year-old guys when I was fifteen," said Kylie. "It's probably just because he's someone a bit different."
"Oh," said the blonde, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she saw whom she was bringing drinks too. "You're with these losers?"
Eduardo looked at her sharply. "That's my girlfriend's cousin and her friends you're talking about, Star."
"Is she your girlfriend?" asked Paulina, looking dubiously at Kylie.
"Yes," said Eduardo. "There's nothing sexier than a Goth girl in New York."
"Well, there is in Amity Park," said Paulina. "Come on, Star, let's go," and the two girls turned and stalked away.
"What a pair of little bitches!" exclaimed Kylie. "How can anyone be so openly rude?"
"They're not that bad," said Danny, who had his chin in his hand and was gazing dreamily at Paulina's retreating back view.
"How can you say that?" asked Kylie, indignantly. Then, imitating the blond girl's voice, she said, " 'Oh, you're with these losers?' What have you three ever done to her?"
"Whoa, Kylie!" Tucker was staring at her, amazed. "You sounded exactly like Star!"
Kylie had no answer, but they all became distracted anyway when a wispy blue line suddenly snaked out of Danny's mouth for no apparent reason.
"Oh no!" he exclaimed, just as the Nasty Burger clientele all erupted into screams. "These guys again? I'm going ghost!"
Danny then ducked underneath the table; a white flash erupted around them, and suddenly Danny Phantom was zooming through the air towards the exit, where Paulina and Star had been cornered by two purple-haired female ghosts.
"Didn't anyone notice that?" murmured Eduardo.
Kylie shrugged her shoulders, and then said to Tucker and Sam, "You've met them before, then?"
"Plenty of times," said Sam. "Danny was trying to deal with them when your little green food thief showed up. Hey, wait a minute - there's one missing."
"They got into our place earlier," said Kylie, watching as Danny threw some green balls of energy at one of the apparitions, while Paulina gazed on in obvious admiration. "Eduardo and I followed two of them here, but one of them broke away - it could be that our two colleagues tracked her down and trapped her."
The conversation was interrupted as Danny suddenly hurtled towards them, apparently having been thrown. As he approached the table he took on his watery blue form, and fazed safely through the half-eaten burgers and solid tabletop. He emerged again a second later, and shot back towards the ghost who had started harassing Star.
"DANNY!" Sam exclaimed suddenly, and pointed towards a father and his young daughter. They were cowering underneath the other ghost, which had suddenly grown an extra six or seven feet in height. "I think that one means business!"
Danny took in the situation at a glance, and flew over to the ghost just as her eyes started to glow red. He positioned himself between her and the man and child, directly in the line of fire that suddenly shot from the ghost's eyes. Kylie and Eduardo were both worried for a moment, but Danny had the situation well under control. He spread his hands and shielded himself with a green force field, which successfully deflected the fire.
"He's pretty good," remarked Eduardo.
"Mmmm," Sam said distractedly, watching the action with her chin in her hand.
Kylie and Eduardo both blinked in surprise as Danny suddenly produced something that looked very much like a thermos from somewhere inside his jumpsuit. He twisted off the lid and pointed it at the ghost, who was rapidly sucked into the thermos by a glowing green light.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Eduardo.
Star, meanwhile, didn't appear to be having too much trouble with her ghost. All eyes now turned to her as the ghost said, "Ooh, I like your shoes!"
"Um… thanks!" beamed Star.
"They're real pretty," the demon went on, and then suddenly her eyes started to glow red too as she rasped, in menacing tones, "Now hand them over."
"What? No way!" squeaked Star. "These cost my dad eighty-five dollars!"
"Eighty-five dollars for shoes?" said Sam. "Talk about a stupid spoilt whore!"
Star screamed as the demon started to grow rapidly taller.
"STAR!" exclaimed Danny. Then, "I mean, WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS!" and he covered the distance to the door in under a second. A moment later, the second ghost was being sucked into his thermos.
"What is that?" asked Kylie, peering at the thermos in Danny's hand as he approached their table.
"This?" Danny looked down at the thermos. "This is the Fenton Thermos. I'll show you in a minute, but first I'd better go someplace and change back because - AAAHH!"
This exclamation was in response to a sudden burst of crimson laser fire that narrowly missed Danny's left foot. Finding it a bit difficult to keep up with all of this, Eduardo and Kylie both turned in the direction of what sounded like an engine noise, and saw a female figure wearing a skin-tight red battle suit and helmet, hovering in the doorway on what looked extraordinarily like a jet-propelled surf board.
"I got you now, Ghost Boy!" an angry voice proclaimed from somewhere inside the helmet, which completely concealed its wearer's face.
"Oh, please, this isn't a good time!" Danny said desperately. "I… I just saved that nice man and his little girl! Didn't you see me? Hey!" as he had to duck another laser.
"Don't give me any more of your bullshit, Ghost Boy! We are gonna finish this right here, right now!"
"Oh no we are not," muttered Danny, and suddenly shot upwards towards the ceiling, taking on his intangible form.
"Hey!" yelled the woman on the flying board, and immediately took to the sky outside.
"Sorry about this," Sam said wearily to Eduardo and Kylie. "It's all go today, huh?"
"Who the hell was that?" Eduardo asked incredulously.
"Oh, just someone who wants to waste Danny," said Sam.
"Why would anyone want to waste Danny?" asked Kylie. "He saves lives - we all just saw him save that man and his daughter, and that anorexic blond piece of fluff."
"I know," said Sam, "it's ridiculous. People around here are prejudiced towards ghosts. Danny finally managed to persuade most of the kids in town that he was on their side after helping us all escape from a ghost pirate ship - long story - but there are some people who just won't accept it. Especially her," she added darkly.
"How come," Eduardo said slowly, "people don't realise that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom are the same person? I mean, it is pretty obvious, especially if he goes under tables to change every time."
"Well," said Sam, "almost everybody in this town is actually pretty stupid. Apart from the three of us, there are only two people around here with a shred of common sense. One of them is Jazz, who I'm guessing you've met, and she figured out Danny's secret for herself pretty fast."
"And the other?" asked Kylie.
Sam tilted her head towards the window just as Danny flew past, ducking an assault of nasty looking circular saws, and said, "Blinded by her own sick obsession."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"Janine," said Roland, nursing a full ghost trap as he approached Janine's desk. "We got her, but we couldn't get Eduardo or Kylie on the radio. Do you know where they -?" He stopped short when he noticed the expression on Janine's face. "Are you ok?"
"We have a slight emergency," said Janine. "Come with me."
She led them down to the basement, where Egon appeared to be closely examining something in the back of a little-used cabinet. He was wearing a proton pack, though it was not at all obvious why.
"What's going on?" asked Garrett, following Janine to where Egon stood, while Roland started emptying the ghost trap into the containment unit.
"Eduardo and Kylie came down here and never came back up again," Egon said. "We can only deduce that they have disappeared into this," and he stepped aside to reveal the green vortex in the back of the cabinet.
"What?" said Garrett. "What the hell is that?"
"It appears to be a trans-dimensional portal."
"Well what did they go blundering into a trans-dimensional portal for?"
"Maybe they were forced," said Janine.
"The question is," said Roland, as he approached, "how do we get them back?"
"Well we have to go in there!" said Garrett, and starting heading for the portal.
"What? No!" exclaimed Roland, grabbing onto the back of Garrett's chair. "Didn't you just point out the folly of blundering into a trans-dimensional portal?"
"But it'll take us to them," Garrett argued.
"Not necessarily," said Egon. "Of course somebody's going to have to go in after them, but no one's walking in there unprepared."
"Who was walking?" retorted Garrett.
"The amount of psycho-kinetic energy coming from this portal," said Egon, "is absolutely… even I'm having trouble believing it. Oh, hello, Slimer," he said distractedly, when he noticed the little green ghoul hovering around his ears. "I'm very reluctant to let either of you… not now, Slimer, we've lost Eduardo and Kylie."
Slimer made a few whining noises and pointed at the portal.
"Yes, they're in there, we know," Egon said shortly.
Slimer made a few more noises, and then suddenly decided to fly into the portal.
"SLIMER!" exclaimed Egon.
Slimer re-emerged a moment later, grinning widely and babbling something that almost sounded like, "perfectly safe".
"Yes, well… I'm not so sure," said Egon.
"We could send Slimer to get them," Garrett said brightly.
"Yeah!" said Slimer, his grin widening.
"I think that would be extraordinarily unwise," said Egon.
"Well," said Janine, "he does seem pretty confident, and he obviously feels quite comfortable flying in and out of that portal."
"Yeah, yeah!" enthused Slimer and, just to prove Janine's point, he flew straight back in again. This time, however, when he returned seconds later, he didn't look happy at all. He was screaming, with his arms stretched out in front of him to propel his speed.
"Slimer, what did I tell you?" Egon scolded, and un-holstered his proton gun. "What's coming?"
Slimer stopped in mid-air and started flapping his arms frantically. He then screamed and zoomed off again as a large green vulture flew out of the portal. Garrett, Roland and Egon all levelled their proton guns on the vulture, while Janine quietly wished she'd brought a weapon herself.
"Ah jeez, that smarts!" the bird exclaimed, flying frantically towards the ceiling as somebody's proton stream caught its tail.
"It can talk!" said Egon, shutting off his proton stream in his surprise.
Roland and Garrett were both getting ready for another attack, but found themselves distracted when a silent green explosion filled the room - and then suddenly Egon and Janine were both lying face-down on the floor.
"What the -?" Garrett spun his chair round, and found himself looking at two more ghostly green vultures. "What have you done to them?"
"Oh, they're just knocked out, they'll be fine," one of the vultures said, as their singed companion landed between them in front of the portal. The ghostly trio then proceeded to have a quiet little chat, surprising Garrett and Roland so much that it didn't occur to them to shoot. Then one of the vultures turned to them and said, very politely, "We've been sent to ask you to accompany us to Wisconsin."
"Please," another vulture added.
Garrett and Roland both blinked. They certainly hadn't expected that. Then Roland at last found his voice, and said, "Wisconsin?"
"Through there," said the vulture that had issued the invitation.
"That portal leads to Wisconsin?" Garrett asked dubiously.
"Well, yeah, sorta," said the vulture. "Will you?"
"Um." Garrett cut a glance at Roland. "Can we just have a moment to talk about it?"
"Oh, yeah, sure," said the vulture. "Look, I really am sorry about those two, but we don't want them to come to Wisconsin with us and they were - "
"Look, don't worry about it," said Garrett.
"If you're sure they're all right," added Roland.
"Yeah, they're fine," the vulture assured him. "They'll be a little groggy when they wake up, but we wouldn't do anything to hurt them."
"We thought if we did, you wouldn't come to Wisconsin," another vulture added.
Garrett favoured them with a withering look, before retreating to the other end of the basement and beckoning Roland to follow.
"Should we enquire as to why they want us to go to Wisconsin with them?" asked Roland, in a low voice, stooping to Garrett's ear level.
"Maybe we'd be better off not knowing," murmured Garrett. "The bottom line is that we have to go to Wisconsin with them - they've probably got Ky and Eddie."
"You're right," said Roland, "and even if they personally don't have them, we know they went into that portal. I mean, I'm finding it a bit hard to believe that it's a trans-dimensional portal to Wisconsin, but… we've got no choice, really, have we?"
"Right," said Garrett, and started steering his chair back towards the vultures. "We'll go to Wisconsin with you. But we'd like to leave our boss a note, if we may."
"If you like," said the most talkative vulture. "It's no skin off our beaks."
Minutes later Roland was scribbling a note on a Post-it, leaning it against Garrett's back and saying, "This is completely insane."
"I know," said Garrett, "but let's just go with it. Ok," he addressed the vultures, as Roland set the Post-it on the floor next to Egon's head. "Let's go to Wisconsin."
To be continued…