In a parallel dimension that's entirely made of an eerie green energy where doors floated, two strange creatures floated through the strange world.
These creatures were ghosts. And this was the Ghost Zone, home to all ghosts.
"Amorpho, are you sure this is a good idea?" asked a ghost girl named Lindsey Bates. Lindsey was actually human, but thanks to a mysterious ring, she was able to turn into a ghost.
"Of course, my dear. Trust me." said Amorpho. Amorpho was a ghost with the ability to transform into anyone. He was a sometime friend of Lindsey. And right now, the faceless ghost was going to help Lindsey uncover the mystery of her ring.
"Okay, but shouldn't we have Danny with us? Or Tucker? Or possibly anyone, in case some random ghost tries to hurt me?!" Lindsey asked. Despite slightly getting the hang of her new ghost powers and befriending two friendly ghosts, she had doubts about being at the Ghost Zone.
Last time she was there, an evil Halloween ghost called the Fright Knight kidnapped her and stole her fear factor as part of his plan in making the world live in complete fear. Which also managed to get Danny and Sam, too.
Amorpho sighed. "Those two will only get in the way. I myself am more than capable to assist you. Now, let us find our frozen friend, Frostbite."
"Well, if you believe he knows what's going on, then so do I. Let's hope it gives me the answers I'm looking for that have something to do with this ring," Lindsey replied, looking at the ring that gives her the ghost abilities.
Not much is known about the ring. All Lindsey could get out of is that it was a gift given to her by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, during her first Christmas at her new town she moved into. She had no clue it was a powerful ring to turn her into a ghost until later.
Just then, Lindsey seized flying. Her hands clutched her head.
"What's wrong?!" asked Amorpho.
Lindsey's eyes were screwed shut as he rubbed her head. "I feel weird..." she said numbly. "I'm sensing that someone is...afraid?"
"Nonsense! How does one 'sense' fear?" said Amorpho.
"I think...this is a new power!" Lindsey gasped, now opening her eyes. "And it's coming from Fright Knight's castle!"
"The Fright Knight?!" Amorpho clutched his cane. "What is that Halloween reject up to now?!"
"I don't know, but it can't be good!" said Lindsey. She yelped when Amorpho grabbed her arm and pulled her. "HEY! Where are we going?!"
"To find out what he's up to!" Amorpho snipped.
"But why?! Can't we just leave him alone?!" Lindsey may have defeated the Fright Knight before. But she hardly remembered it. Plus, she had a fear of knights in armor due to a terrible haunted house incident.
"You said yourself that someone is afraid and it's at the Fright Knight's castle, correct? Well, he might have captured another human to steal their fear again or something much worse! Are you really going to let that happen again?" Amorpho remarked.
Lindsey sighed. "No..."
"Then let's go already!" Amorpho pulled Lindsey and flew faster.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Fright Knight's castle, little Nightlight adjusted himself to get a better look at where he was. To him, it seemed like a strange red medieval castle. He also noticed that the sky was black and green with floating rocks around. Wherever he and Lea were, they were definitely not in New York anymore.
Nightlight also found himself lying in what appeared to be garbage. He jumped out and, to his annoyance, discovered that he was tossed into a garbage can by whoever was responsible for this. He didn't even think that this place had a trash can at such an ancient looking place.
"HEEEELP! LET ME GOOOOO!" Lea's screams were heard from inside the castle.
Nightlight jumped in startlement, realizing that his best friend is in trouble! He quickly got out his diamonded-dagger staff and hurried to where the screaming was coming from.
Inside the castle, Lea was tied down to a medieval torture rack in a dark, spooky dungeon. She tried to struggle free, but she couldn't get free. "WHAT'S GOING ON?! WHERE AM I?! SOMEBODY ANSWER ME!"
"SILENCE!" A voice roared through the chamber, making Lea close her mouth. She heard footsteps and a pair of glowing green eyes looking directly at her.
It was at that point Lea saw the most terrifying thing she's ever seen in her life.
It was a knight dressed head to toe in flaming black armor with gray shoulder guards. He wore a cape made of purple flames. In one of his gray flaming gauntlets was a glowing green sword. He even had a white skull at the center of his waist.
"Welcome, child." the Knight bellowed deep within him.
"W-wh-who are you? ...What are you!?" Lea managed to ask in slight fear.
"I am the Fright Knight, and master of your fate." He pointed his sword at Lea. "And you, my dear, shall be my prisoner! To be haunted and tormented for the rest of your days!"
Lea felt faint. "I-I must be dreaming! This can't be real!"
Just then, tiny footsteps were heard. Lea spotted Nightlight charging toward the knight.
Lea gasped with joy when her companion charged at him, weapon drawn. But Nightlight went right through the knight's body.
"Wha-?!" Lea started to tremble. "H-How-?!"
The Fright Knight put his foot onto Nightlight, preventing the puppet to escape. "Not easy fighting a ghost, is it?" He flashed his eyes at Lea.
Lea's heart dropped. "A ghost?..." Her fear sky-rocketed. "A REAL GHOST?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Nightlight struggled to get out of this ghost's hold on him. Not even using his diamonded staff had any effect on him. Especially when trying to stab his armored foot that's keeping the wooden toy down.
The Fright Knight used his power to trap Nightlight in a small green sphere. "Now then..." The ghoulish knight turned to Lea. "let the haunting commence!" He turned into a flock of bats and swarmed at Lea.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Lea screamed, screwing her eyes shut as the bats fluttered around her. "EWW! EWW! BATS! BATS! BATS! GET THEM AWAY! HEEEEEELP!" Lea was on the brink of sheer horror.
"Cease your reign of terror, Fright Knight!" said a voice.
Nightlight, whom was trying to escape out of another sphered imprisonment, turned his head at where the voice was coming from.
Lea, on the other hand, was too busy screaming and closing her eyes from the bats to know who said that.
Amorpho and Lindsey arrived on the scene. The Fright Knight returned to his armored self. "Ah, Amorpho." He saw Lindsey beside Amorpho, trying not to look scared.
"Okay, just like we planned." Amorpho grabbed Lindsey and threw her at the knight.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!" Lindsey screamed as she slammed into the Fright Knight. With the diversion in motion, Amorpho used his cane to cut Lea free of her bindings and swept her into his arms. He flew his way out of the castle.
Luckily, after that move on Fright Knight, Nightlight managed to free himself out of his power and hurried plus leaped to grab onto Amorpho's long coat tails for a lift before taking off completely.
Once the Fright Knight got to his feet, he watched Lindsey stagger to her feet. "Amorpho's lucky he doesn't have a mouth for me to punch..." She took one look at the Fright Knight, gasped, and jumped back. "A-Alright, F-F-Fright Knight! What are you up to?!" she demanded, though it was hard to sound tough when you're terrified.
"Do not fret, child." the Fright Knight replied, oddly calm. "I was merely using that human as bait to bring you here to me."
While that was happening, Lea kept her eyes closed and covered them with her hands, still horrified about what's happening.
"Please be Jack, please be Jack, please be Jack, please be Jack, please be Jack, PLEASE BE JACK!" she pleaded rapidly, hoping it's the Guardian of Fun rescuing her from that creepy ghost knight and not another terrifying phantom or evil creature.
Lea felt herself set gently on solid ground. She opened her eyes and, much to her horror, the one who saved her wasn't Jack.
The figure appeared to be a sleek body that has no mouth or nose. He wore large red glasses, a fedora hat, a suit with long coat tails, a red tie, and a red sash, and carried a black straight cane with a white skull on top.
"A FACELESS GHOST! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The blonde teen ran for her life, away from Amorpho. "Jack, Kate, North, Bunny, Tooth, Sandy, any Guardian, help me!" Lea shouted quickly at the top of her lungs. "Where are the Guardians of Childhood when I need them?! I WANT OUT OF THIS NIGHTMARE!"
Amorpho flew in front of Lea, blocking her way. "Stop right there!"
Lea stared in horror at the ghost. She couldn't take it anymore. Her eyes rolled back and she fainted.
The faceless ghost exhaled an exasperated sigh. "Humans..." He picked up Lea's limp body and carried her to a certain location in the Ghost Zone.
Back in a more pleasant world, Katherine returned to work on recording any important events from any dimensional characters. She soon discovered that a new book glowing on and off, as if it was a vibrating phone.
"Okay, that's a new record. It looks like this book has been activated since last night," Katherine deduced, noticing a few pages were already formed.
When she checked what it was about, Kate's eyes were wide in complete shock. "No..."
"Hey, Kate!"
"GYAAAAH!" Katherine shrieked as she jumped, her hand clutched her chest when seeing who it was. "JACK! Don't do that!"
"Again, sorry. But this is an emergency," Jack explained, concern shown through both his face and tone of voice. "I was about to pick Lea up for this fun snow day I had planned for her but found out that she was not in her room. And if that's not weird enough, Nightlight's gone missing, too, while her backpack and hockey stick are still lying around. I know Lea long enough that she would never leave without her stuff. I came to ask if you know where she is."
Katherine gulped. "Unfortunately, I do."
She handed Jack the book she was reading. Jack's eyes grew when he read the pages. "Oh, no..."
"Lea has been captured by a bad medieval ghost called the Fright Knight, and now is stuck in the one dimension that's only seen in the Forbidden Section; the Ghost Zone," Katherine explained, clutching her fists while looking down gravely.
Kailash honked in fear when Kate said that.
"Ghost Zone?!" said Jack. "Like, real ghosts?! You were serious about that!?"
Katherine nodded her head. "Yes. It is a parallel dimension to the human realm that is home to all ghosts. Where all matter and energy there is composed entirely of ectoplasm. It coexists with another dimensional Earth. I hoped to never go back to that place, but it would seem that I don't have any other choice. I must prepare myself,"
The Guardian of Imagination hurried to one of the rooms at her place and changed into her yellow fur-coat and black combat boots.
"I'm coming too." said Jack.
Katherine shook her head. "No, Jack. The Ghost Zone is too dangerous. Even for a spirit like you."
"Lea needs me, from what I've read so far. And there's no way I'm going to let you go there by yourself," Jack clarified, placing the book down. "If this Ghost Zone place is as bad as you describe it, then you're going to need all the help in rescuing her. Besides, I may be still new with all this Guardian business, but I've learned pretty quickly that it's better to face evil together as a team than on my own."
Katherine pondered over Jack's reasoning. She knew that what the Spirit of Winter said is true. It's better than facing a threat when being solo. And who knows what danger will happen there when finding Lea?
"Very well. Let's go!" said Katherine, already holding her hair back into a low ponytail and getting the book with her mission to place in a satchel bag for her travels. "Be ready, Jack Frost. For this is a world beyond anything you and the other Guardians have seen," she warned, already grabbing her snow globe. "You must stay close to me. I'm the only one who can navigate through the place and know exactly who and what we're up against."
Jack shrugged. "Gee, you make it sound like a walk in the park."
Katherine rolled her eyes, as she tossed the snowglobe. A portal opened and the two Guardians stepped inside.
They only hoped that they were not too late.
