Being rewritten and completed (June 2014).


School Zone


Maddie Fenton settled back down at the table after chasing her son out of the house, glaring down at her newest invention. It was built at the request of the government. It had been a rather strange request that Maddie didn't understand, but as they were paying extremely well, she didn't bother to question the order.

"Have you come up with a name for it yet?" her husband asked, dropping into a chair on the other side of the table. He had an ecogun dangling loosely in his hand. He set a jar of ectoplasm in the center of the table. It glowed a strange green, casting an unhealthy tinge on everything in the room. When Maddie reached out to tap the vial, the swirling substance inside glowed a bit brighter due to her proximity. It wasn't a real ghost, but it was good enough to test this with.

Maddie shot him a short-tempered look, but then softened it and let out a breath. "I can't even get it to work, Jack."

He scoffed and shrugged. "You will. You're the best at this."

Fighting back a smile, Maddie set the device about a foot from the vial, held her breath and crossed her fingers, then pressed the button.

Her best set of pillars sitting on the table next to her started to growl. The vial glowed brighter than ever – a tiny miniature star trapped in a bottle.

"Damnit!" she snapped, cutting the power supply to the device and getting to her feet. The pair of pliers instantly went still and the jar of ectoplasm dropped back to a normal-level glow.

"You'll get it," Jack said, keeping his ectogun pointed at the pliers just in case. "You still have a half-hour."

Maddie shot a look at the time, then a frazzled look at the large man. "I hope they're late," she whispered as she pulled off the cover of the device again, starting to scan the components. "Maybe it's in this relay switch…"

"Don't worry," Jack told her again, his chest swelling in pride and a huge grin appearing on his face. "I have at least a dozen things set up in the living room. I can keep 'em busy until lunch."

Maddie sent him a grateful look and bent over her creation.


Danny walked slowly down the streets of Amity Park, playing with the Thermos in his hands. He didn't really want to go to some stupid ghost school. He didn't even know where the school was. And, the more he'd gotten time to sit and think about it, the less he really wanted to go.

It was just a question of whether or not the stupid ghost Laws actually applied. He couldn't risk breaking another one of them – not on purpose, anyways. But…

Really? Ghost school?

He shot a glare down at the shiny Thermos, wishing Sam and Tucker were in town for the weekend. They would be great sounding boards. While they didn't know of the Laws (Law number four said that he couldn't tell humans about the Laws), they could probably at least help him hash out whether or not going was logical. There wasn't really anybody to talk to about the situation.

Well… he shot a glare at one of the many billboards scattered around town that showed the mayor's smiling face. There was one person he could talk to. Danny snorted almost as soon as the idea hit his mind, shaking his head and tossing the Thermos into the air and catching it a few times. He would have to be on his death bed to go crawling to the fruitloop for help.

There was also the issue of Danny not wanting to go into the Ghost Zone. He'd somewhat promised the other ghosts that he'd stay out of their world as long as they stayed out of his hair. Besides, his parents were home, no doubt glued to that whatever-it-was they were building on the kitchen table. Getting through his parents' portal was a risky proposition when they were anywhere near home, ever since Jack had installed the 'door open' alarm.

He sighed and kicked at a loose rock. It wasn't like he didn't have time to come up with a plan to avoid going. Years ago, he'd figured out that all ghosts – with the notable exception of one – had no sense of time. Whether he showed up at this school in five minutes or five days, the ghosts wouldn't know or care. The only ghost who could possibly rat him out was the Ember-clone trapped in his Thermos and, from personal experience, Danny knew that time didn't really exist inside the Thermos the same way it did in the outside world.

Eyes alighting on a small fast food joint, Danny grinned and reached for the money stuck in his pocket. An early morning brunch would help his mental acuity and solve his dilemma. Counting eleven dollars remaining in his allowance, Danny headed straight for the door, still tossing the Thermos up and down, already dreaming of cheese-covered fries and a greasy meat patty.

His ghost sense went off a split-second too late. A net came from nowhere and slammed into him, tangling around his arms and legs and sending him toppling to the ground. "Ow," he muttered as the Thermos – which had been in mid-throw when the net appeared – dropped to the ground beside him and rolled a few feet away.

Danny squirmed towards it, the tight nets forcing him to move in a worm-like fashion. He'd almost gotten a hand free when a glowing, silver boot slammed into the Thermos, holding it to the ground.

Looking up the length of the huge body now before him, Danny scowled. "Skulker."

"Whelp," the ghost said, a dangerous note to his voice. "You are late."

That made Danny blink. "Late?" Ghosts had no sense of time, and thus no sense of 'late'. Ghosts simply arrived when they got where they were going.

Skulker leaned over and grabbed the net between Danny's shoulder blades, hauling him up high enough to get his feet off the ground and their eyes to be somewhat on level with each other. "For school," the ghost said, sounding as if he thought Danny were incredibly slow.

Someone down the street yelled out a, "Ghost!"

Danny didn't bother to look. He could hear the normal humans scattering like ants. "What about it?" Danny asked.

"It has started and you are not in attendance," Skulker grated, pushing a few buttons on his arm. Rockets appeared behind him and clicked into position.

Attempting to look annoyed, Danny furiously tried to get his hands free. He couldn't go ghost here, not with all the people watching, some of whom probably had cell phones taping the encounter by now. "Why do you care?"

"I'm being paid to make sure you arrive in one piece." The rockets glowed and Skulker (and thus Danny) rose a few feet into the air.

Danny hesitated. "Seriously? You guys are really into this school thing." A glint of silver caught his eye just a Skulker started to ascend. "Wait! My Thermos."

"You're not bringing that thing to school," Skulker grated.

"It's got a ghost in it," Danny shot back.

That made Skulker hesitate. "The ghost that was sent to show you the way to school this morning?"

Danny shrugged – a move that didn't quite work since his body was firmly trussed in Skulker's nets.

Skulker dropped back to the ground and grabbed the Thermos, holding it gingerly in his hands. "You should learn a few manners," the ghost muttered, the rockets blasting loudly as he flew up towards the clouds.

The second Danny was able to catch his breath and Skulker's upwards direction had slowed enough for him to breathe properly again, he quipped, "Sucking a ghost into a Thermos is bad manners now?"

The robotic ghost shot him a glare. "No, Whelp. Trapping one of the few ghosts that wanted to help you is bad manners."

Danny almost felt chastened. Almost. "You're helping me."

Skulker – not pausing his flight – held out an arm for Danny's inspection. There was a new weapon proudly on display. Danny figured it probably shot out nets. "I am being paid," Skulker informed him.

With a roll of his eyes, Danny glanced downwards. They were more than far enough away from the town to prevent them from being seen by the humans. In a flare of light, he was a ghost again. No less trapped... but at least a ghost. "Yeah? Who's paying you?" Danny experimentally pushed against the net with his arms, sending waves of energy into them. The net seemed to simply absorb what he threw at it, not giving way under pressure.

Skulker chuckled. "Two guesses."

Danny scowled and picked up his pace with his attempts to get free. He didn't need two guesses. Few beings could afford Skulker's prices – and only one of those had any interest in Danny's future. If Vlad Masters wanted Danny to attend this school badly enough to hand Skulker a new weapon, Danny definitely wanted nothing to do with it. Laws broken or otherwise, going along with Vlad's plans always led to the worst possible outcome. "Yeah, now I'm not going anywhere near that school."

"You have little choice in the matter."

"Says you," Danny squirmed and wormed, even attempted to fly while trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. No matter what he did, the net absorbed all his efforts and left him with nothing but a headache and an extremely tired feeling.

So involved with getting away, Danny didn't notice that Skulker had descended back into Amity Park and had come to almost a dead stop in front of an old building. "You can stop fighting," Skulker said, tossing Danny to the ground. "You are here. Allow the ghost child out of your device."

Wincing when his back hit a rock on the sidewalk, Danny groused, "It's called a Thermos, dip-head." He tried to stretch and move to a slightly more comfortable position. "Besides, I'm still wrapped up in your stupid net, if you haven't noticed."

"You will not run," Skulker demanded, the ground shaking when the huge ghost slammed his feet into the concrete. A few button presses on his arm and the net went loose around Danny's body. As Danny sat up and shook off the glowing ropes, the ghost tossed the Thermos into Danny's lap. "Or I will destroy you. Release her."

Danny glanced around. They were in the oldest section of town, out on the west side near where Circus Gothica had set up shop. It was rundown and abandoned by everyone who didn't feel like running foul of a street gang. A place Danny rarely came, even when chasing ghosts. "We're here?" He blinked up at Skulker in confusion. "What could possibly be here?"

"The school." Skulker slowly wound the net up into a bundle in his arms and placed it into a compartment in his chest.

"Wait," Danny said, getting to his feet. "The ghost school is in the human world?"

Skulker gestured towards the derelict building behind them.

Danny spun around, staring at the ancient restaurant. An Italian place, it seemed. Feeling himself getting pale, he quietly asked, "And how many ghosts attend this school?"

Skulker snickered, apparently able to follow Danny's line of thought. "Thousands. All the recently deceased are behind that door, waiting for you."

"Oh, God," Danny breathed. Thousands of ghosts at his doorstep, held in check only by the protection of a few Laws. And the second Danny broke even one of those Laws, even if he didn't mean to, the ghosts would be free to…

To…

His knees felt like they were made of rubber. The cold Thermos digging into the palm of his hand was one of the few things still pinning his spiraling mind in one place.

With a horrible feeling of dread, Danny pressed his finger on the release button of the Thermos. In a swirl of bluish light and greenish gas, the young ghost girl appeared. Still looking creepily like a miniature Ember, the girl spun around in circles. When her eyes caught on the door to the school, she giggled and trotted right through the doors without a care in the world.

Danny could feel Skulker's presence behind his shoulder, acting like a bodyguard if he should attempt to bolt.

Thousands of ghosts? He had zero desire to walk through those doors.

But the thought of what would happen if he didn't made him shudder and twitch. Very slowly, his feet moved forwards. He phased through the doors and into a room that was swirling with horribly bright green light.


A large man wearing white and going by the moniker of Agent L stared down at the small screen of his tracking device as he walked down the derelict street. He didn't bother to look up. He was vast and muscular – not an ounce of fat on him – and what few people were on the street around him simply got out of his way.

There was a blip on the radar up ahead. And not a small blip. Agent L wasn't the smartest grape in the bunch, but he knew that the bigger the blip, the worse the ghost. This particular blip was huge.

He paused as he walked around the edge of a building covered heavily in graffiti, then finally looked up. According to the tracker, the blip was straight ahead. It was an old building on the west edge of town. The sign above the door, at some point, had read 'Zambezi's Italian Fine Dining'.

Agent L stood there a long moment watching the building, before marking it down on his map and turning to head back to his car. This was something Agent B would be very interested in.


To be continued...