Chapter 2

That's My Baby Boy!

Summary: Ember McLain takes a trip to Amity Park and gets more than she's asked for.


It was past one in the morning when Ember McLain happened upon the sight of a portal opening. Of course, most habitants of the Infinite Realms had by now agreed to use Central Time, the same as they have in Amity Park. It did make sense logically seeing as how the town had become the "Ghost Capital of the World" or whatever the hell those people are calling it now, Ember thought. The ghost took a quick glance around and poked her head through the portal.

The other side of the portal opened in an intersection with not a car nor civilian in sight, it seemed like just a random town. The place reminded Ember a bit of her old home town, the thought of which left a bitter taste in her mouth. However, it only took a couple seconds, and two flying ectopuses, to realize that this was in fact the infamous Amity Park.

With a shrug Ember stepped the rest of the way through the portal, carrying her plain purple, electric guitar on her back for the time being. She stood, tapping the toe of her metal boot on the solid concrete sidewalk.

If there was anything Ember had learned the past year after she'd died it was that the afterlife was boring as hell. Well, she thought, if it could even be called an AFTERlife. It's more like a second life or something. If she were being honest with herself, she'd say she couldn't understand in the slightest what she had become. What it actually meant to be a ghost…Had she been asked what a ghost was when she was still human and alive, well she would've said it was and evil, vengeful spirit of a person who'd died, totally intent on wreaking havoc. Now though…she couldn't understand. She didn't feel the need for vengeance, her death had been her own fault. She knew the word evil didn't exactly fit her, rebellious and reckless maybe, but not evil. The most chaos she had ever created was back in her teenage years, which if she was being totally honest with herself, she hadn't completely grown out of, physically, yes, but not really mentally. So, if she hadn't been right about ghosts before, then what are they really? What are WE really?

Shaking herself from her stupor, Ember took to the skies, vaguely aware that she should look out for the assortment of ghost hunters this town had to offer. For some reason she wasn't that worried though, as she frankly felt pretty invincible in that moment.

After a bit of wandering aimlessly the ghost's eyes fell upon a begrudgingly familiar face, the hunter, who had on multiple occasions tried to make conversation with Ember.

She paused midair for a moment before deciding to try and avoid the hunter's ghost. Apparently, it was a pointless idea however, when something started beeping from his mechanical suit...body? Whatever the hell it was.

The hunter immediately turned around to face the pop singer's ghost. Skulker visibly startled when he realized who it was, almost dropping whatever device he had been tinkering with. "Ember! I, well I was just running an errand for my employer. Always busy these days, you know, being the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter and all."

Ember almost scoffed at his ego, and that was saying something for a pop star who's only original song is about herself. "Oh, well if you're so busy I guess I'll be on my way now."

Skulker stood for a moment before his mechanical eyes widened just a smidgen, "Wait, no! I mean, I am very busy, but I'll always have time for you."

Ember's eyes narrowed, "That was about the cheesiest pickup line I have ever heard."

"My apologies, but it is true that-"

"Listen tin can. I am not looking for any significant other right now so you might as well stop. Ok? I'm going now and don't follow me, like I know you've done before." With that Ember flew off once again into the night sky of Amity Park, not even bothering to see his reaction. That was a little harsher than I needed to be, she thought, but he seriously does need to stop.

Suddenly something in the distance caught Ember's eye. It was a strangely bright light coming from a residential area, seemingly orange and maybe green? She was still trying to figure out how colors actually worked now. Ever since she'd been formed as a ghost, nothing looked like the color she knew it should be. She looked at those bright lights for a moment, and knew she'd had nothing better to do. With a shrug of her shoulders she flew towards the light.

When she came into viewing distance she read the sign on the oddly shaped house and groaned. FentonWorks, of course. The couple that lived there had quite the reputation in the Ghost Zone, mostly known for how high end all their equipment is. The ghosts all knew that the Fentons weren't that great at actually catching any ghosts, but if they did, may the lord have mercy on their soul. There were rumors floating around in the Zone that once the ghost of a little girl got caught by them and no one ever saw her again. Some ghosts even said that the ones who were in Amity at the time could hear her screams. Although Ember didn't really believe that last one. She suddenly wondered how she knew all of this, when she herself had only become a ghost about a year ago. Guess I was really just searching for a social life, she figured, remembering all the times she had tried to find other ghosts like herself to talk to. And that worked out just swell didn't it?

Now if Ember were anything but reckless, she would've turned the other way and never looked back at that house. But that wasn't the case. She had the urge to know what all the fuss was about, maybe even go back and be able to tell some of the very few...acquaintances she had made what was really going on inside there. Plus, it would probably make her seem really cool if she had actually gone into some famous ghost hunters' house and made it out without a scratch. She made up her mind and flew in for a closer look.

Now, Ember wasn't stupid so she did keep herself invisible and most of the time intangible as well. Once she got inside she was honestly a little surprised no alarms were signaled just by her presence in the house.

This looks surprisingly like a normal house, she thought, looking around a bit. A kitchen, a living room with cozy looking sofas, that she was almost tempted to lay back and take a nap on, and some stairs leading to a second story. Everything was normal except one thing. A door with heavy locks on it and bold warnings painted all over it. Floating over to the door she tried to phase through it, if only to get a peek, but was quickly forced back to tangibility. Of course they would've made their whole lab, or whatever, ghost proof.

Ember would have continued her attempts to get into that lab if it hadn't been for the noise she suddenly heard coming from upstairs. She hadn't heard such a thing in quite some time, so obviously, she had to find where it was coming from. Floating up the stairs she came upon a door cracked open with that horrid noise coming from inside.

When she entered the dark room, she found a nightlight projecting little blue stars all over the ceiling, giving just enough light to see what was in the room. Just as she had expected, she found a crib hosting a tiny, squirming human baby that looked to be just a month, maybe two months old, she didn't really know enough about babies to be sure.

The baby was whining as Ember let down her invisibility. She had never really liked young kids that much back when she was alive, but this child was just a bit too adorable for her not to smile. Ember reached her ghostly hand out and the baby suddenly held quite an interest in her pinky finger. She even surprised herself when she found she was laughing quietly as the baby attempted to bite her finger.

Ember unexpectedly remembered an old lullaby she had heard years ago and began humming it softly to the baby, which at this point had calmed down and was almost falling back asleep.

Of course, later she would regret not paying more attention to her surroundings as the door to the baby's room suddenly swung open. She'd looked up with a startled look upon her face when the door made a loud banging noise, just in time to see a woman with short red hair, looking to be in her late twenties, maybe early thirties, picking up a metallic looking object from the dresser by the doorway. The woman pointed the object at her and- oh, wow, that's a gun.

"Get away from my son, spectral freak!"

Ember was in a daze and didn't move fast enough, prompting the woman to fire her weapon and- oh, wow, that's an ECTOgun.

She'd tried to block the blast but all she had managed was to get her right arm burnt as it felt like acid was eating away at it. A noise to her left caught half of her attention. The baby was crying louder than ever now. Despite that fact, the shot had definitely gotten it's point across to Ember because the next moment she fled the house, never looking back.

As she clutched her injured arm close to her chest she made one very important note to self:

Stay away from the Fentons.


A/N: THIS CHAPTER HAS NOW BEEN REVISED!

My apologies the last chapter was so incredibly short, but this is more like the length coming chapters will be. Thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you have time and I'll be happy to reply!