The first time Danny went into the Ghost Zone was when he had been turned into a ghost. He had been standing in the middle of the tunnel when the switch had been turned on. The pain of the transition had been excruciating. It felt like he was being ripped apart atom by atom and rebuilt again - which is pretty much what he figured had happened. The forces tearing a hole in space-time had torn him apart, his individual molecules had been coated with ectoplasm and the ectoplasm had pulled him back together, bringing about the birth of Danny Phantom!

Going through the Portal now only caused a brief, weird twisting sensation, like he'd been caught on the Tilt-a-whirl for a second. When the haze of the portal energies faded away Danny was in an endless realm filled with floating doors. Each door, he knew, lead to a different pocket universe. One even lead back to Earth, not that Danny had ever been able to find it.

To the left the sky of floating doors gradually turned onto floating islands. To the right the floating doors gradually turned first into floating funhouse mirrors, then into windows that looked upon strange dimensions that hurt Danny's head when looked through. Beyond that the windows faded into smears of color just hovered there in space. Reds and yellows, green, purple, tangerine and others that he couldn't name and wasn't sure were colors to be found on Earth. Danny had gone as far as the realm of colors once during his explorations of the Ghost Zone, but had found the place so disturbing that he had turned back and never gone there again.

Danny turned in the direction that lead to the realm of floating islands.

He had, at one time, attempted to map the Ghost Zone but every time he returned things had subtly changed. The realm of floating islands was always off to this side but individual islands might be to the left or right of some central landmark. Or the landmark might be gone entirely, only to return later. There was no gravity in the realm of floating islands except on the islands themselves. The islands always floated same side up. It was as if the island believed in gravity even if no one else did. The idea that the islands were alive or at least believed in things was absolutely crazy. Except that this was the Ghost Zone. Crazy here was normal. What was ectoplasm but thoughts; ghosts but the thoughts of dead people. Why couldn't the Ghost Zone be a place that existed because it thought it existed. Didn't some philosopher on Earth say something like "I think therefore I am?" Danny had come to realize that the only way to deal with the Ghost was, like dealing with adults, was to accept it as it was without trying to understand any of it.

On one of the lower, larger islands was a large building made of logs, stones, with thatch on the roof and the skulls of strange beasts with large, surreal horns and savage tusks. Danny pulled up before the island trying to still his pounding heart. One of his worst enemies lives down there: Skulker the ghost hunter. He had long vowed to nail Danny's hide to his lodge's wall. Danny preferred keeping his hide where it was. Skulker was the sort of ghost who would plan intricate schemes to lure him to the Ghost Zone, where it would be easier to capture him. She was in there, Danny was sure. And he would have to go in to get her.....

Danny hesitated, then realized that the longer he hesitated the more scared he was of busting into Skulker's lair. He realized that if he didn't do this and do it now, he never would. With a gulp of air and grimace and fear, Danny hurled himself toward's the hunting lodge.

He blew open the doors with a blast of ectoplasmic fire and swooped into the large open room at the front of the building.

"Where is she?" he shouted into the echoing room. And as the echoes died away, he realized that no one was there.

The room filled most of the building had a long aisle down the length with tables and benches on either side. Skins of strange beasts were hung on the wall, as well as mounted heads of beasts odd assortments of eyes, horns, fangs and mouths. At the far end, on a low dais was a throne like chair facing the empty hall. A large firepit separated it from the rest of the hall. A table on wheels was pushed next to the throne and a setting of dishes laid out on it. A crumpled napkin on the plate suggested that a meal had just passed.

Danny's lungs were heaving and his stomach threatened to as well.

"Skulker!" he shouted. "Come out!"

Then Danny spotted a doorway off to one side, partially covered by a tapestry. He flew through the opening and into a smaller room filled with various devices, machining tool, shelves and tables. It looked not unlike his parent's lab back in the mortal world. It reminded Danny that Skulker was an inventor as well as hunter. Most of the elaborate gear he used on his expeditions were of his own making.

In fact, next to a central table stood Skulker now -- minus his head. That sat on the table, it's faceplate open. A small chair was inside - empty!

Seeing the bulky physique of his enemy had made Danny's heart leap up his throat for a second, until he'd seen the missing head. Danny was one of the few who knew Skulker's secret.

"What's going on?" a squeaky voice demanded on the corner of the room. There was a door there, opening into what appeared to be some sort of bathroom. Steam was floating to the ceiling while on the floor a small creature looking like a head with tiny feet was waddling towards the body of Skulker.

Danny threw himself on the ambulating head. Seizing it in his two hands he gave it a rough shaking and demanded, "Where is she?"

"Unhand me, mortal!" the creature cried in its tiny voice. "You will rue the day you laid hand on the mighty Skulker!"

The secret, which only Danny and a few others knew, was that what they thought was the well-toned and powerful Skulker was a bionic device, a robot operated by a weak and tiny creature, the one he held in his hands now.

"Don't play games with me, Skulker," Danny shouted into its tiny ears. "I know you got her and I want her released -- unharmed -- now!"

"What do you mean? I don't have anyone, child!" Skulker squeaked.

"The red-head: Abigail Farley Smithe-Hyde. The girl you stole from the mortal realm." As he shouted Danny squeeze tighter and tighter. Skulker was beginning to change color by the time Danny had stopped talking.

"Can't breathe!" the little creature wheezed. "I don't know who you mean. I haven't kidnaped anyone from the mortal realm."

Danny looked at Skulker in disbelieve. "This isn't some elaborate scheme to lure me into the Ghost Zone?"

"No!" Skulker gasped.

"This can't be right," Danny muttered, dropping Skulker to the floor. "If you didn't take her, who did?"

The tiny creature made a dash for the table. A ladder built into one leg lead up from the floor. It was reaching for the first rung when Danny fired an energy bolt, singing its fingers. "uh uh uh!" he chided, then grabbed the ghost up again.

"If you didn't kidnap her, who did?"

"How would I know?"

"You know everything that goes on in the Ghost Zone. That's what makes you the great hunter that you are."

The ghost swelled a bit at the praise, "Knowledge is power" as one of your Earth philosophers once said. "But my spies have revealed none making a foray to Earth, let along of a kidnaping...."

"Someone has her. I want her back," Danny shouted desperately, squeezing the creature again in his anger.

"Wait! Wait!" Skulker gasped. "There have been reports of an Abductor wandering out from the blackest depths of the Ghost Zone. All fear the Abductors and avoid them so knowledge of their movements is spotty. But they have been know to steal humans from the mortal realm to torment for their pleasure."

"Does this 'Abductor' look like a giant frog with bat wings?" Danny asked.

"No. But that sounds like one of their hounds. No one is sure what an abductor looks like since none have escaped from their clutches."

"Where is this 'Abductor'?" Danny demanded.

"Far away, east and up of here, near the vale of hanging doors."

"Where, precisely!"

"Directions are meaningless in the Ghost Zone, you know that," Skulker gasped around Danny's tightening fingers.

"You can do better than that!"

"OK, I have a tracking device on my suit. It's keyed to mortals. Once you get within a few miles of her it will guide you the rest of the way." The creature pointed to a small oblong device mounted on the left hand sleeve of his bionic armor. Danny pulled it out of its socket and looked at it more closely. Controls were few and obvious. It pointed, as Skulker had said, to the east and up.

"OK," Danny said. "Thanks." He started walking out of the room, carrying the little creature with him.

"Hey," it squeaked. "Where are you taking me? Let me go. You got what you need."

"I'll let you go, just not too close to that suit of yours." He tossed Skulker onto the throne chair, levitated into the air and streaked through the broken doors. He wasn't sure that Skulker wouldn't give chase but figured that by the time he got back to his body and mounted in it, Danny would have more than enough of a head start.

***

Hours later Danny floated down to the floating island indicated by the tracking device. He could make out the large clearing in the middle that had appeared in his dreams. He was a little surprised that Skulker had not tricked him with the device and more than a little thankful that this whole nightmare would soon be over. He walked softly towards the fallen tree he knew Abigail had been hiding in. He called out softly, "Abigail?"

***

The next thing he knew, Danny was laying on the ground, looking up into a swirling mass of tree limbs. He squeezed his eyes tightly closed in hopes to stemming the rising nausea. His head hurt like a million brain-freezes compressed into one. A groan escaped as he tried to move his leaden arms.

"Oh, my God, are you all right!" a girl shouted, or seemed to, into his ear. Rough hands jerked him up causing nova level pain to explode through his head. The overhead tree branches swirled harshly almost causing him to vomit. A ratty mat of red-hair fell over his face, an odor of B.O. and halitosis sweep over him.

"Abby?"

"Thank god, you're all right!" she choked. For once failing to correct him on the correct form of her name. "I have never been so glad to see a ghost in all my life! Is Danny Fenton with you?"

Danny, squeezed his eyes shout for a moment, opened them and tried to make a swift glance down his body. He seemed to be seeing double, but at least each image of his body was dressed in a black jumpsuit. He hadn't chance from Danny Phantom to Danny Fenton in front of her. "No it's easier for me to enter the Ghost Zone alone." he said.

"Sorry I hit you. I thought you were that thing that's been chasing me. Here, let me get you some water." She dropped his head with a thud into the ground. Danny groaned in pain and slowly leveraged himself into a sitting position. Florence Nightingale she wasn't; more like Calamity Jane.

Abigail was back in a moment with a handful of green leaves dripping water. She pressed them to his face, and that felt real good.

Danny felt the back of his head and discovered a large sticky swelling there. It actually felt the size of an egg. He always thought when people said they had a goose egg on their head it was poetic license or something. While waiting for his head to stop throbbing he asked, "What happened? How did you get here?"

"What is this place?" she asked in return.

"The Ghost Zone." Danny grunted.

"Really?" Abigail looked around. "It really exists? Is it all like this?"

"It gets weirder elsewhere. How--"

"It must have been a week ago, though it seems like forever. It was Take Your Daughter To Work Day and I had talked The Lump into taking me with him to the Guys in White headquarters. He doesn't want me to have anything to do with the GIW but I whined and pleaded until he gave in. Turns out, for a special agent, he spends a awful lot of time filling in forms, writing reports, proofreading reports, and reading reports from other agents. I was getting bored so I asked if I could go to the commissary to grab a bite. Actually I was going to sneak off to the research labs to see what they had going on there.

"There was no one in the lab when I got there. I knew it was their lunch hours since I had researched their work schedule before going in. They had a lot of neat stuff there. I would've loved to ask what they all did but I'd never have gotten in if anyone had been there.

"I saw one strange machine in a room by itself. It was about the size of a desk, had a lot of old vacuum tubes sticking out of it, knobs, dials. It looked like some kind of old ham radio. There was even a microphone and headphones hooked to the front and a goofy, lop-sided circular antenna on top.

"Sounds like Beaucoup Buck's Ghost Zone Radio," Danny whispered.

"Really! But I thought you blew that up?"

"I did. Maybe he had another one stored away somewhere. Or maybe the Guys in White were trying to reconstruct it. But it's not a Portal, I don't see how you could have gotten here through that? You didn't stick your head into the antenna and accidentally turn the machine on?"

Abigail was struck for a moment by the oddly specific question the Phantom ghost had asked, then dismissed it as she went on with her story. "I put on the headphones and listened for a moment but didn't hear anything. So I bent over the microphone and called out "Hello?" a couple times. The machine was on because the vacuum tubes were glowing. Nothing happened so I took off the headphones and bent over the antenna -- but I did not touch anything. I know better than to do that, thank you very much!"

Danny didn't feel like correcting her that by putting on the headphones and speaking into the microphone she had 'touched' the Ghost Zone Radio for all practical purposes.

"...That's when these weird tentacles erupted out of the center of the antenna, grabbed me and pulled into this freakish place. I broke free of whatever it was that had yanked me through and ran like hell. It would follow me for a while, go away and come back later. I ran off the end of one of these crazy islands and fell to this one. It sends those ugly flying frogs after me but so far they haven't been able to find me." She stopped and looked at Danny for a moment. "So how did you find me so easily?"

Danny had been feeling the back of his head. The knot there had started to subside. As a ghost he had incredible recuperative powers. A blow like that in his human phase would have laid him up for days. "Let's get out of here first. I'll fill you in on my end of this while we're flying back to the portal."

"You can't just poof me back to Earth?"

"If only."

Danny stood up and walked around a bit to check out how well he felt.

"Do you remember which island you fell off of? We've got to go back there. There must be a rip in the continuum. I think I can push you through the portal, even if it's not a normal portal."

"Can't we go back the way you came in. I don't want to go anywhere near that thing that dragged me through.

"Skulker said it was an 'Abductor' and it's something even other ghosts are afraid of. It would be easier to take you back to the portal I used but harder to explain why you showed up there and not where you disappeared. I - uh - Fenton has enough troubles already without that."

"Like what?"

"You father thinks I - he kidnaped you."

"What?"

"Danny Fenton called your father's cell phone when you weren't answering yours."

"Danny called my dad? Oh, man that was a mistake!"

"Yes, we know that -- now!"

"And my dad is investigating my disappearance?"

"Yeah!"

"I didn't know he cared."

"He's your father!"

"He never acts like it."

"Well, he's involved. He's got the FBI investigating the Fentons. If you show up anywhere near them he'll never believe that they had nothing to do with this."

"I'll tell him that they weren't involved."

"He wouldn't listen to you. Does he listen to you now?"

"I'll make him listen."

Danny shook his head. And was amazed to find that he didn't experience the blinding pain of just a few minutes before when he did it.

"But if I show up in the Guys in White's headquarter after all this times what will I tell them?"

"Be radical. Try telling them the truth"

"I am not a liar."

Danny looked at her disbelievingly, then started wandering around the large clearing where she had first fallen from the sky. Looking up he could make out the maze of broken branches where she had plummeted through. Most had sprung back in place since so it was hard for him to gauge just where she had hit or at what angle she had come through the canopy.

"Looking the way you look," he explained, "your story of being seized by some kind of tentacled monster and dragged into the Ghost Zone for a week would be very believable.

"What do you mean by that?" Abigail demanded. Danny ignored her.

"Is this where you landed?" he asked. "We can only hope that by backtracking your fall we can find the island you first fell off of. Just take my hand and I'll be able to fly you out of here."

But the instant their hands touched Danny's vision flickered and suddenly he was looking at himself through shorter eyes. With a gasp they let go at the same instant, jumping back.

As soon as their hands lost contact Danny's vision returned. He looked puzzled for a second, then motioned Abigail to come close and briefly touched her hand. Again his vision switched to her perspective. He closed his eyes but his vision didn't stop. Instead he could clearly see himself closing his eyes. He let go of her hand again and scowled.

"I take it this is not something that usually happens with ghosts," Abigail asked.

"No," Danny muttered, deep in thought. This would explain why he had been having those weird dreams. He wasn't dreaming, but seeing through her eyes. Telepathy, just as he had thought. But why was it happening now? He'd touched her in the past, hand-shakes, brushing past each other when they had been in Chicago on that ghost hunting expedition, and nothing had happened then. Was it because she was now in the ghost zone, a mortal among ghosts just as he was half ghost and half-mortal?

"I - that is - Fenton said he'd been having strange dreams, that's why he thought you might be in trouble. This must be what he was talking about."

"I was trying to contact him. Staring at this picture I have of him. Hoping that he could read my mind."

"Ever dream you were seeing things through his eyes?"

"Like just now, between us? Kinda - maybe - I don't know."

There was something weird going on and Danny needed to find out what. He'd planned to carry Abigail back to where she first came through but as long as their vision swapped like that, it would be hard, perhaps impossible to do. Something had to be causing this telepathy. It had never happened to him before so something had to be different. Something had to be the cause of this.

Danny looked at the girl closely then started walking around her. She turned with him. "Hold still for a moment," he told her.

Danny wasn't sure what he was looking for. What he saw as a slender girl of medium height, bright red, somewhat kinky hair, now matted into an unspeakable mess, white t-shirt, stained with multiple layers of dirt, ripped in a couple places, snagged in dozens more, white shorts with rolled up cuffs equally stained and abused, sneakers that were more brown than white with anklet socks with only a few shreds of lacy remaining. Her arms and legs were scratched all over the place. Her face, set in a unpleasant, demanding moue, was hollow and even more faded than usual. Wait! Under her hair there was something, a bump on her shoulder that wasn't natural.

Danny reached over and pulled back Abigail's hair. He poked the small swelling at the base of her neck.

"What is it?" Abigail demanded, unable to see what he was looking at.

Danny jumped back with a gasp when the lump suddenly opened and an eye stared back at him. Abigail craned her neck around enough to finally see what it was and screamed. She clutched at her shoulder and tore the lump off, throwing it to the ground, where it continued to blink and glare at them before starting to wiggle away. Danny fired a long, hot blast of ecto-plasm at it until there was nothing left by a deep charred hole in the ground. Then he turned and caught Abigail as she started to faint. As he held her up, Danny realized that this time there was no mysterious exchange to visions.

"My god, that thing was living on me! -- all this time! I think I'm going to hurl," but Abigail didn't. After a moment she was strong enough to stand on her own.

"What was that?" Danny asked.

"It looked like one of the eyes on the creature that has been hounding me."

"The flying frog?"

"No, the other thing. I only saw it once briefly. It looked like a giant hairball, all tentacles and eyes . And the eyes were on the tentacles! Just looking at it gave me the shivers. I think it radiates some kind of terror field because I could tell when it was near and when it left by the amount of dread I was feeling."

She looked at the burned hole were Danny had incinerated it and abruptly buried her head against his shoulder. "Oh, God," she said between sniffles, "I thought I had lost that thing, but all along it knew exactly where I was. That eye was spying for it. It was just stringing me along to make me even more scared."

"Not any more it won't." Danny said confidently.

"But with it's eye gone, the beast will come looking for us itself!" Abigail pushed herself back and looked Danny in the face. "You don't want to meet it. Believe me, you do not want to meet it!"

"Then let's get out of here," Danny said, reaching for her hand. Abigail ran off instead, crossing the clearing to where Danny had regained consciousness. She picked up a thick stick that was lying there and shoved it through her belt.

"Little slugger," she explained when she had returned. "I don't feel safe without it." It was a tree branch about three feet long and a couple inches thick, with a lump on one end. Was that blood spotting the lump? Was it his? Involuntarily his hand went to the back of his head. The lump there was all but gone. "Really," he said. "Just try not to brain any more friends." Danny took her hand and levitating her with him into the air and through the breaks in the canopy where she'd fallen a week before.

***

Danny tried guess which of the floating islands overhead Abigail had fallen from. From their angle of ascent through the broken branches it seemed like only one island was large enough for her to have run as far as she did and still fall to this island. It was a longs ways off. Danny built up speed until the wind was whipping through their hair. He told the red-haired girl some of what happen been happening since she had disappeared. It was hard to retell events so that it sounded like someone else had told them to him first but Danny was determined to keep his secret from the girl. While Abigail seemed both happy and trusting to see Danny Phantom, the ghost boy, he wasn't sure how long she would continue to feel that way about if once they got back to the mortal realm.

She talked, too, about how she had survived the week in the ghost zone, mostly finding water in small puddles and otherwise starving. Danny mentioned she seemed relatively unfazed by getting transported into another dimension and being attacked by strange and apparently quite horrible monsters but Abigail seemed to just laugh it off. It was something exciting! An adventure! But mentioning the eye that had glued itself to her shoulder sent deep shivers through her body. Danny wondered if she weren't in some sort of denial now and only later come to see how frightening and dangerous this all had been.

They were near the island they thought Abigail had first come through when a scream like a rusty gate opening sounded behind them. Danny spun around and saw a green monster closing in on them. He recognized the frog-like body and bat wings of the monster that had chased Abigail once before. He dodged to one side, awkwardly with Abigail extended on one hand. As the horror passed a long, red tongue flicked out and struck Danny across the shoulders. A terrific charge of electricity surged through his body. For a moment his concentration faltered and he and Abigail plummeted back the way they came. The girl's scream brought Danny back to consciousness. He checked their fall then looked around for the giant frog-thing. It was flapping its way towards them.

"You didn't mention it's electric tongue!" Danny accused.

"It never used it the other time," she shouted back, "How was I to know!"

Danny fired a blast of energy at it but his attack bounced off its hide. "Oh, Man!" he groaned. "It's fire-proof, too!" Danny dodged again and fired another blast of energy. It, too, bounced off the monster's hide but seemed to irritate it slightly since it veered away out of range.

As the monster turned back towards them Danny pulled Abigail close and told her to climb on to his back. This freed up both his hands and placed her weight closer to his.

The bat-frog flicked his tongue at Danny again. He threw up a barrier that kept it from shocking him. A stream of ecto-plasm along its side drove it off but didn't appear to damage it.

"Doesn't this thing have any weaknesses?" He cursed.

Abigail's hot, noxious breath blew over his ear. "It's got a weak skull," she shouted. "Get me close and I'll bash it's rotten brains out!" She fumbled to pull the stick from her belt.

Why not, Danny thought, and rolled around and gave chase to the beast.

It wasn't expecting to be chased.

Danny was soaring past its head before the frog-monster realized it was being attacked.

Abigail clamped her legs around Danny's waist, grasped the stick with both hands and swung.

There was a loud pop and the beast went limp. It's wings stilled, the frog-bat dropped out of the sky, leaving the two humans alone in the sky. Abigail screamed "Yeahhhhhh!" into Danny's ear.

Danny winced, both from the deafening scream and the bad breath. He righted himself, found the island they had been heading towards. 'Who knew,' he thought to himself, 'that the worst part of being stranded in the Ghost Zone for a week was the lack of a tooth brush!'

Their joy was short-lived. Just as they got near enough to the floating island to see the roots of trees growing through the rock and hanging in the sky, a wave of unbearable gloom washed over them. Abigail gasped and pointed. A large, black splotch had moved out from behind the island. It was hard to make out its shape because all parts of it were so dark. It roiled and squirmed constantly like it didn't have a body so much as was an absence in space and time.