The eerie howls came again, closer this time. Phantom winced.
Maddie's glare could have melted steel. "Anything else you'd like to help me with? Do you want to shoot me next? Put me out of my misery?"
The ghost's hands knotted into fists and he glared back. "It was a mistake, okay? I'm sorry!"
Maddie threw up her hands and stalked off into the woods, away from the cliffside. She needed a clear view, room to move. And she would make absolutely sure that she was nowhere near the ravine this time.
Phantom trailed after her. "Where are you going? Won't it be harder for us to fight in here?"
"Us? There is no us, ghost. The only reason you're not full of holes right now is that I need to conserve my firepower." Maddie ran her fingers over her belt as she walked, doing a mental check. Two ectoguns short, but she still had a few smaller ones tucked here and there, and there was always her laser staff. "This would've been a lot easier with the thermos," she muttered to herself.
The ghost's eyes widened. "Oh, man, Vla—Plasmius was in that thing."
A spreading oak caught her eye; it was a thick, ancient thing with knobbly branches sweeping skyward. Its shade had carved a mossy gap opening in the thick brush, maybe fifty feet across. Perfect. Maddie ran past it, doubled back, and leapt up to grab one of the branches. She hung by her arms for a moment, then expertly swung herself up and proceeded to climb. "Your point?"
"He's—uh, I guess—well, it doesn't matter. That's probably good for now, but—you dropped it?" The disbelief in Phantom's voice twanged at Maddie's nerves; he was lecturing her on responsibility now? He dragged a gloved hand through his white hair, leaving it sticking up every which way. "How could you drop it, that's like the most important ghost fighting thing ever!"
Maddie grunted as she hoisted herself over a thick limb. "Trust me, if I'd known you'd be so much trouble, I would have zapped you first." The branch was thick enough to kneel on. Maddie slid the laser staff out of her boot and locked the handle in place with a soft snkt.
"Hey! Without me you would have been—" The ghost boy shivered and a cloud of white vapor escaped from his lips. He locked eyes with her.
Adrenaline sizzled through Maddie, making her hyper-aware of the rough bark under her knee, the way Phantom's aura buzzed on a frequency almost beyond human hearing, how the birds and insects were suddenly, completely silent.
"They're here," Phantom whispered.
"Then shut up and vanish, ghost."
He shot her a glare, but did just that, blinking out of existence like a light switched off. Maddie shrugged off the sudden, irrational feeling of loneliness that swept around her. She had ghosts to hunt.
Her perch swayed with the wind. Through a gap in the branches, she caught sight of the blood orange sun bellying fat and hot above the mountain ridge; darkness threatened, only an hour or so away. Danny had to have made his way back by now.
Be safe, she thought, and squeezed the staff's grip.
The tree wasn't a secure hiding place, exactly—ghost creatures weren't bound by the laws of gravity, and even the heaviest of them could easily scale the thirty feet to her branch—but here she was less visible, and could assess the situation and formulate a plan of attack. The Specter Deflector would give her an edge, but if any of the ghosts could create projectiles she might be in trouble. None of them had proven that advanced so far—aside from Phantom, that is. They were feral, primitive, but there were a lot of them. If she acted wisely, she could outsmart and destroy them.
The first three came running low to the ground— flowing with liquid swiftness through the undergrowth. They stood as large as wolves, but looked more like ferrets, with long, sinuous bodies and small heads, the rounded ears pulled back. Beady red eyes glinted like jewels from within the dark green fur of their half-rotted bodies, elongated fangs curving well past narrow muzzles like wicked knives.
Maddie balanced on the branch as they ran on beneath her; she wanted a better idea of their numbers before alerting them to any kind of counterattack.
Hard on the heels of the ferret-ghosts came wolves—five, ten, fifteen in all, massive beasts with dark fur spiking along their backs and long, brushy tails that glowed with unnatural flame. They trotted after the ferrets, long noses to the ground. Maddie shuddered; on their hind legs, they'd be nearly twice her size. She could only hope her doubling back would throw off the scent.
A third round of animals passed by, these more ragtag and spread out; she caught a glimpse of the massive, lumbering shoulders of some oversized beast, curving green horns jutting out of a great, black, furry head, its leonine haunches dappled with patches of rot and flesh. She heard the scrabble of a dozen more in the underbrush.
Maybe thirty ghosts in all, a real pack. Maddie took a deep breath, careful and silent, as her heart rate spiked—so many. They had her scent; it was only a matter of time until they found her. She'd have no chance of getting back to the GAV before then. She was on her own.
At least Phantom's foolishness had drawn the pack away from the campsite. Danny would be safe for now… if he had made it back. If he wasn't lying somewhere in the woods, exposed, injured and alone. Maddie clenched her teeth and pulled the staff closer to herself; she couldn't think about that kind of thing, not now.
She had to eliminate the ghosts. For Danny's sake, if nothing else. It was nothing she couldn't handle if she was careful. Their guard was down; they were tracking, not fighting. She would just drop down behind the stragglers and start picking them off one by one...
"Eat ectoblast, pelt-face!"
Maddie watched open-mouthed as Phantom reappeared in front of the wolves and all her plans fell to pieces.
"This was a bad idea," Danny panted.
Luckily, Mom was too far off to say I told you so.
He flung another ectoblast, scorching the pelt of the nearest wolf circling around him. Dark green fur flashed in the corner of his eye. He flung up an arm on reflex, phasing. Danny felt the beast's jaws snap shut inside his now-intangible neck. The tingling, half-there sensation sent goosebumps up his arms.
Shooting into the treetops, he came face to face with a ferret launching itself from a nearby branch—yellow-white fangs slashed at his chest. Danny backpedaled, but not before it had given him another gash on his arm.
Danny cried out. He darted up and in, catching the thing by the back of its head. He gritted his teeth and twisted until something popped and snapped under his fingers. Gross. He gagged a little at the sight of the backwards head, waiting for the glow to fade from the red eyes.
A blow from behind knocked him out of the tree. As he fell, the ferret hissed and glared at him from its now awkwardly dangling neck. Its powerful tail lashed. Whatever Vlad had done to them, he'd made them ten times meaner...and about a hundred times tougher.
Danny slammed back-first into the ground. He groaned; as a ghost he didn't need to breathe and couldn't have the wind knocked out of him, but it didn't keep it from hurting.
The ferret-ghost tried to pounce, but it seemed to have lost all direction with its head askew and it smashed itself into a tree. Green sludge and clumps of fur melted off the lower branches. Danny shuddered. And Sam thought ferrets were cute.
One down. That left him with—Danny's eyes widened. He tried to scramble to his feet— but the wolves were already on top of him. The world became a tangle of sharp claws and twisting bodies with red, slitted eyes over lolling purple tongues. Yellowed fangs tore at his jumpsuit and the flesh beneath.
Yanking himself intangible, he sank into the forest floor. One of them had got its teeth in and came along, growling. Its fangs buried themselves in his shoulder. Danny screamed. White lights popped in his vision—he felt as much as heard the tear of muscles and skin.
He pushed at the thing blindly and dragged them up, shooting past the pack and the splattered remains of the ferret, up into the darkening sky.
Danny dropped the intangibility. The weight of the wolf returned, dragging at his shoulder until he was sure it would be torn completely off. A yell that was half-scream tore out of his throat. He gathered ectoplasm in his fist and released the blast into the wolf's soft underbelly.
The monster yelped, losing its grip. It snarled and writhed, but it was an animal type and not advanced enough to know levitation See? I knew you said that the ghosts couldn't fly... It dropped like a stone to the forest below, cracking branches as it fell, finally hitting the ground with a very satisfying thud.
Ectoplasm seeped out of the pile of fur and vanished into the ground. Grass hissed, withering under the toxic fluid.
Danny wrapped his fingers around the ragged punctures in his shoulder, wincing, then looked around. He was just beneath the tree canopy, hoving midair. The remaining wolves circled below.
Smoky green auras flickered—a pattern of light and dark that didn't quite fit the amber sunlight sending its last rays through the leaves. It was getting dark; Mom would have trouble seeing, unless she'd brought her—
A chill that had nothing to do with his ghost form ran down Danny's spine. Mom. He'd lost track of her in all the chaos; he needed to be protecting her, not fooling around. The Specter Deflector might keep the ghosts from mauling her, but they could wear her down. It didn't take a deathblow for someone to bleed to death. Humans were vulnerable like that.
A flash of blue-white light and an animal howl drew his attention to a nearby copse of hardwoods. That had to be her; she was still fighting, at least. He glanced below and, to his dismay, saw the other ghosts had heard it too; they'd turned away from him and slunk into the underbrush in the direction of the noise.
Danny let his legs dissolve into a ghostly tail and shot ahead. If Mom wasn't in trouble yet, she would be soon.
Maddie pressed herself into the roots of the oak, tossing aside the grenade pin. She squeezed the gash in her arm to slow the blood flow, hissing at the added pain. It felt like a hot iron had been pressed into her arm.
A boar had slashed its ugly, serrated tusk into the upper part of her arm. She'd been lucky; it had been trying to rip open her stomach. A snakelike creature had coiled arund her ankle, only to be fried by the specter deflector. The electroshock grenade had cleared out another dozen and spooked the rest into a temporary retreat.
She could see them weaving in and out of the brambles and shrubs just beyond the oak's spreading branches, their eyes restless embers that smoldered in the gathering shadows. The fading daylight made them bolder. They'd be back again, and soon.
Maddie rested her head against the rough bark and tried to steady her breathing. No sense in wasting energy on worrying. She wouldn't leave these things to go after her son. It was that simple. She just had to last longer than they did.
Something green moved in the corner of her eye. She whirled, flicking up the point of her staff—to come face to face with Phantom, floating above her just out of range. Maddie let out a few ragged breaths, then lowered the staff a few inches. He looked somewhat worse for wear, black jumpsuit half shredded, bright ectoplasm beading on the scratches littering his neck, arms and torso.
"Phantom," she clipped out between breaths.
Some part of her that wasn't buzzing with adrenaline—or outraged at him for starting this battle in the first place—was genuinely curious to see what he'd do. Join his kind in attacking her, or... continue the strange pattern of behavior he'd displayed thus far. She kept her weapon raised.
"You okay?" He asked breathlessly. "I saw some—" His eyes fell on her wound.
An odd expression flashed over the ghost's face—his eyes widened, mouth pulled down, brows rose—the word that came to Maddie's mind was 'vulnerable.' Then his eyes hardened and he landed lightly on the ground in front of her, so close that the Specter Deflector crackled in warning.
He turned his back on her, eyeing the horde that was gathering in a whirling green tide at the edge of the underbrush. The sun had nearly set; shadows stretched long between the trees, distorting weirdly over the glowing ghosts and throwing bars of darkness at their feet. Maddie stared at the messy white hair on the back of Phantom's head, nonplussed. At this range she could behead him in half a second. What was he thinking?
A handful of the ghosts, catching sight of new prey, broke off and darted toward them. White-green foam frothed on yellow fangs. Maddie tensed. Phantom spread out his hands, planting his feet and standing firm between her and the oncoming ghosts.
"Stay behind me. And, uh, cover your ears."
"What are you—"
Phantom sucked in a huge breath, and screamed.
The staff dropped from her hands as Maddie clapped her hands over her ears on reflex.
Phantom's voice hit the ghostly creatures like a physical force, bowling them over and then shredding their bodies as they scrambled over each other in an attempt to escape. Trees groaned and splintered. Leaves fled from the branches. a furrow ground into the dirt, starting a few feet in front of them and gouging a shallow trench thirty yards long.
The cry—or wail, or whatever it was—went on unnaturally long. The air grew thick with ectoplasmic energy. The Specter Deflector buzzed angrily, sending crackling sparks along the surface of her jumpsuit. Finally the powerful voice trailed away, leaving Phantom panting and leaning his hands on his knees.
Maddie gaped. She'd had no idea that Phantom was capable of such large-scale destruction. The ghost pack was gone. Completely obliterated. Only a few wisps of greenish smoke amid the blasted-apart trees and churned up earth indicated that anything had been there at all.
She took a long, quick step back from the ghost in front of her, staff raised in defense.
He shuddered, still leaning on his knees. His aura flickered and shuddered, then seemed to it , narrowing into a bright, thin line that ringed his waist. It hovered there, slowly expanding into a halo.
Then the white glow contracted, vanishing into the ghost's chest, and he was flung back. Maddie sidestepped and he collided with the tree behind them. Phantom slid down the trunk and dropped to his hands and knees. He retched, splashing clearish green fluid on the forest floor.
Phantom groaned and rolled over on his side. Whatever that… backlash had been, it was over. Phantom's aura had vanished almost entirely. Without it, he looked oddly exposed and corporeal. He wouldn't be fighting anyone for a while, not in that state.
Maddie deactivated the laser staff with an expert flick and tucked it away in her belt. She bent and retrieved an ectogun from the forest floor; it was damaged, a ragged tear through the metal casing with a few sizzling wires poking out. She deactivated it and pocketed that, too.
"Did I get all of them?"
She rested her fingertips deliberately on the holster of her ectogun as she turned to regard him. The ghost was sitting on his knees, leaning on one hand as he wiped his mouth with the other. He was pale, sweaty, breathless, but alert, glancing around for further threats.
Maddie glanced at the empty woods; twilight had crept in some time during the fight; the trees were a dark network of leaves and branches against a velvet blue sky. Any ecto-entity not using invisibility would shine out like a beacon in this environment. Somehow, she didn't think these particular ghosts were intelligent enough to master something so intentional. There was something… off about them. They were feral, but focused on their prey with a surreal kind of intensity.
"If you didn't, the rest are scared off," she responded, touching the weapon at her belt again; her ghost hunting instincts told her they couldn't be gone for good. "For now."
"Good," he muttered, rolling to his feet. He wiped ineffectively at the oozy green wounds on his shoulder. It left a greenish smear across the front of his jumpsuit, adding to his general dishevelment. He gave her a tired smile. "That's about all of the chew toy treatment I can stand."
It felt… weird was the best word, how casual and friendly Phantom was with her. She was supposedly his enemy; he, one of her most dangerous foes. It made Maddie's skin crawl.
"What do we do now?"
"We?" she echoed, incredulous. He was still harping on that?
"Let me guess: No we, right? Geez, thanks for the gratitude."
"Don't act like you've given me any reason to trust you, ghost." Her eyes narrowed. He'd been acting in his own interests, that's all.
"I saved your life! Again!"
"After directly endangering it!" Anxiety sharpened her wrath, making the words sharp and vicious. She'd been taken away from her son; that was an unforgivable offense. "That's the second time today, unless you want to pretend that your little feud with the Wisconsin Ghost wasn't what pulled me into this in the first place!"
Maddie had promised Danny a ghost-free weekend with her, and now she wasn't even around to protect him. Her son was alone, helpless, in ghost-infested woods. Her only hope was that he'd had the good sense to lock himself in the GAV with the ghost shields up until she got back. Or better yet, call for help.
The ghost boy looked stricken at that. His shoulders drooped. "Sorry," he mumbled.
Maddie paused, taken aback at the grudging admission.
"Even you must see that your actions are only causing more harm," she said, not as sternly as she'd meant to. "If really did have any concern for my well-being, then you wouldn't insist on interfering."
The ghost boy seemed to deflate, sinking into the ground ever so slightly. He said nothing.
After a long moment, she holstered her gun and turned away. "Don't follow me."
tbc...
A/N:
Wow, that's the most continuous action I've ever written in my life.
My deepest thanks to Cordria for her beta work on this chapter! Her stories were a major reason I joined this fandom in the first place, so it's super cool to be working with her! (and guys if you haven't read her DP fics holy moley get over there now)
And thank you, dear readers, for your reviews and feedback! Especially DareIask, Miss Frizzle, and DPfangirl (though uh, you might wanna consider decaf...). I'm glad you're enjoying this story!
Till next time!
-Hj