Chapter 6: Reconnaissance


I was floating a above the blackened, bare hills, about fifty yards away from them, invisible. I knew their ghost tracking devices wouldn't pick me up here, not with all the distortion. My ghost sense was going crazy and every now and then I shivered.

The area was a complete wasteland. There used to be trees here, a forest that began almost immediately outside Amity Park with high trees and lots of wildlife. We had gone hiking there, had gone on school trips to find bugs and sometimes I had come there by myself to practice my ghost powers. There was nothing here now, about ten miles out of town, and with nothing I mean not even a tree trunk. It was just bare rock, blackened by some fire that incinerated everything. I could still feel the heat coming from the ground.

Sam was talking to my parents, who were standing next to what used to be the road, but was now a somewhat darker black streak in the landscape. The GAV was standing there too, as were several police cars. And behind the cars, in the distance...

I shivered again, this time not from the cold that my ghost sense caused, invoking my ice powers deep within me. The sky was a swirling green, turning and twisting in that all too familiar way: the ghost zone. We were standing on a rift, a huge portal torn into reality. The magnitude of it was staggering and I didn't dare to think of what might have caused it. But I knew I was looking at the cause of the earthquake.

I turned my attention back to Sam, who was beckoning me to come over. I trusted her, so I turned visible and floated closer to my parents, who looked at me warily. I landed a little bit away from them and walked closer, figuring that they would find that less threatening. My mother was holding an ecto gun and I saw her finger twitch close to the trigger. I gulped, but she wasn't pointing it a me, for now.

"Ghost boy," she said in a disapproving tone.

"H-hi M-Maddie," I stuttered, eying the gun.

She waived her hand behind her, in the direction of the swirling green sky.

"Do you know anything about this?" she asked.

I shook my head. My mother sighed.

"We need you to go in and do a reconnaissance mission," she continued, "Can you do that?"

I nodded in surprise. My mother asking me to do something for them? Then I realized the reason. They didn't dare going in. I was expendable. She must have seen the look on my face because she explained.

"As you may or may not know, normal technology doesn't work in the ghost zone. This is as far as we could get. That's why we built the specter speeder, unfortunately it is out of commission because of the earthquake. If we go on foot, it'll take weeks to search the area and we don't have a lot of manpower because everybody is helping out in the town. Now, we do have this little headset prepared, it is shielded from the ectoplasmic radiation."

She held out her hand and I looked at the small device. It looked like a regular head set, but it had a small camera attached on it and it was slightly glowing green. Quietly I took it from her and put it on my head, adjusting it a little for it to be comfortable. My mother reached over and then stopped, her hand only inches away from my head, staring me in the eyes. Then she shook her head and touched the headset, turning it on. An image appeared on a small screen my father was holding.

One of the policemen approached and said something softly to my mother. She nodded and turned to me again.

"Um, Phantom...," she hesitated, "Thank you. I heard that you've been helping out in town."

I didn't trust my voice, so I just nodded again and started hovering. I turned to Sam, who was looking at me wide eyed, did a mock salute and then I left, quickly picking up speed over the desolate, barren hills, venturing into the portal area.

"Phantom," my mothers voice cracked loudly into my ears and I would have jumped if I hadn't been flying.

"Yeah," I said, turning to look back at them.

"Just testing."

I grumbled something unintelligible and continued on my way. The landscape didn't change for a while, and I quickly lost sight of the people standing on the road. I didn't know where the center of the portal was, but I didn't need to. I could feel it, a huge burst of energy, coming from an area straight ahead, a thundering feeling in my veins. It made my ghost sense go haywire and I had to stop several times to get it under control or I'd freeze over.

"Why are you stopping?" my mother asked.

I didn't answer right away, because my teeth were clattering.

"Phantom?"

"H-h-hold y-your h-horses," I clattered, "I'm f-f-freezing over. G-give me a m-minute."

I heard voices in the background, maybe Sam trying to explain my ice powers to my parents. I didn't care. I tried everything Frostbite had taught me to get it under control, calming myself, focusing, taking control instead of letting it control me. I imagined the images they were receiving were shaking like mad, but I got it under control, finally.

"You OK?"

My mother actually sounded concerned. I smiled.

"Yeah. It's weird though. There's something ahead that contains a lot of power, I mean really a lot of power. I think that's what keeps this portal open. It's messing with my ghost sense."

As soon as I said that, I got hit by a massive ecto beam from behind me. I let out a scream and plummeted to the ground. Thinking of earlier experiences I went intangible, but to my surprise I still hit the ground, hard. I rolled quickly, knowing that whoever had hit me would hit me again on the ground and the ecto blast just missed me. I looked up at the Fright Night, who was hovering above me, seemingly examining me.

And then I felt it. Something... cold, from the ground, little needles pricking into me in my legs, my arms, my back. In fact, every part of me that had touched the black rock that I'd fallen on. My knees buckled and I fell down, grunting in pain. It was the material of the rock, I realized, I shouldn't touch it, it was draining my energy. I tried to hover, but instead transformed back to my human form. I heard cold laughter above me.

"You're doomed, Ghost Child," the Fright Night said and then he left.

"Danny?" Sam's voice sounded over the headset, but I could hardly hear her over the static.

"I'm alright," I said, more out of habit than anything else.

I wondered if they still got the images from the tiny camera and if so, what they thought of the fact that I now looked human. They must have seen me because I had been looking at my hands during the transformation. At least they couldn't see my face.

Then I wondered if the Fright Night was right and I was doomed. Whatever that black stuff was, it was interfering with my ghost powers. But did he really know what it would do to a half ghost? I stood up straight and closed my eyes, concentrating, looking for that cold core inside of me that triggered my ghost form. I didn't have to reach far, it was still there, but it seemed... diminished somehow. I needed to get off this rock.

"Phantom, what happened?" my mother asked, "Can you continue?"

I heard a muffled 'No!' in the background, but decided to ignore that. This was too important, we had to find out what was going on there.

"Yes," I said, "I need to get of this rock though. It's... draining me."

I took a deep breath, balled my fists and reached, pulled, strained myself and I managed to form the two rings around my waist, slowly traveling over my body, transforming me into something that could float. As soon as the transformation finished I did so, trying with all my might to go up higher, away from that black rock.

I had been tired to begin with when I started, but now I felt completely wiped out. It would probably be a smart thing to do to return to my parents and their relative safety, but nobody has ever accused me of being smart. I checked it the headset was still there and continued on my way in the direction of the power source.

"Are you still recording this?" I asked, as I felt myself approach the source of the disruption.

"Yes. What was that white light just now?"

"That was a kind of transformation," I answered truthfully.

"What kind of transformation?"

"I don't want to get into it right now. Maybe I'll explain it to you someday."

"Why did your hands become... human?"

I didn't answer that. The static was getting worse now, a constant hissing and cracking in my ears, very annoying. The headset cracked in my ears again and I could hardly make out what my mother was saying.

"What .. he.. mean ... 'you ... d...med'?"

"I don't know."

I didn't know if they heard me anymore and I started to feel lonely. Even if they hated my guts, my mother's voice in my ears was still some sort of life line, a connection to the real world. The area I was entering now... had nothing to do with reality.

It looked like something from a comic book, with sharp, dark colors, green, purple, black. Sam would have loved this, I thought, but then again, this might be too much even for Sam. Ahead, the sky was still that swirling green from the ghost zone and in fact I knew for certain that I was looking into the ghost zone because I saw a few floating purple doors.

Behind me, the sky was it's normal, cloudy self. I looked briefly at the blackened hills behind me, where there used to be the forest. Before me, there was a huge black plain, going on endlessly. I couldn't see the end of it, where the horizon should be it just sort of merged into the swirling green ghost zone. About half a mile away there was a hole in the ground, and that was the source of everything that had happened here.

I stopped.

"M-mom?" I asked, desperately wanting reassurance and forgetting that I was Phantom.

Static.

There was really no need to go any further, I could see perfectly well from up here. I hung still in the air, trying to stop the overwhelming coldness that not only came from that black pit in the middle of the plain, but also from inside me. My teeth started clattering again.

More static in my ears. Somebody was trying to say something, but I couldn't hear them. Slowly, I moved forward, while struggling to keep from freezing over.

"I-I don't know if you're still hearing me," I said, "I hope you do. I'm gonna take a look a that hole."

The static in my ears increased and I could make out faint, voice like sounds as if they were answering me. I floated slowly in the direction of the hole, feeling a sort of pulling sensation. I was going faster and faster and I realized with a shock that the thing was pulling me in.

I definitely didn't want that, so I started to pull back, first a little and then more, to no avail. I felt like I was on some kind of 'tractor beam', like you see in those science fiction movies, pulling me harder and harder as I neared that hole.

For a moment I felt helpless, then I did the only thing I could do. I reached out and thought of warmth, of breathing, of heartbeat. The two rings appeared instantly and when the transformation was almost complete I crashed into the ground, tumbling a few times until I came to a stop against a black rock which was conveniently placed in my way.

I laid there for a moment, stunned. Then the stinging started again, the feeling of being bled. I scrambled to my feet and started wiping the black dust off my hands and face, more frantically when I realized at what rate I was losing power. I had to get out of there fast before I wouldn't be able to get out at all. I turned and looked at the hole, only fifty yards away from me.

Just a quick look. To see what was down there.

I ran forward, going as fast as I could on the uneven ground, painfully aware of all the cuts and scrapes all over my body. The hole neared. My heart was pounding in my chest at a rate that couldn't be healthy. No sound came from the headset.

About three feet from the edge of the hole, I came to a complete stop. This was it. I would take a look, hope that they were recording it and then get the hell out of there again. The idea to have to run for a mile to get a sufficient distance from the hole to be able to transform again almost sent me into a panic, but I managed to suppress it. First things first.

I stepped closer to the edge of the hole. It was perfectly round, about fifteen feet across. And bottomless.


I made it. Don't ask me how, I honestly don't know, but I managed to get back to George with a bowl of water, only half filled because I spilled the other half somewhere along the way. I was gasping and wheezing, and at one point I had tripped and fallen down on my hands and knees. I had sat there for a while, waiting for the stabbing pain to subside and vaguely wondering if George had been right and I had managed to pierce my lung with one of my broken ribs. When after a while – a long while, I think – I was still alive, I scrambled to my feet again and tracked back to the barrel of water that was standing near the end of the tunnel. Luckily I hadn't come far when I had stumbled.

I drank some water and this time looked around. Before, I had been in a hurry to get back to George, but hurrying holding a bowl of water in one hand and a torch in the other while having trouble keeping upright even when leaning against the wall hadn't worked too well. So I rested.

The end of the tunnel almost seemed clean compared to where we were sitting. Not much had come down here. Just a big rock. I stared at it for a while, sipping the water, letting it soothe my dry throat. From under the rock, I could see feet sticking out. Somebody got crushed.

I shuffled closer and carefully placed my bowl on the floor. I examined his boots. Not really my size, maybe a little too big. But they didn't have holes in them. I grabbed a boot and pulled. Bad move.

Immediately pain seared through my chest as my ribs shifted. I let out a strangled cry and collapsed on the floor, hugging my chest. Breathing hurt. With each gasp I felt the stabbing pain of my cracked ribs pushing into my lungs. Yet I had to breathe.

I laid very still. A long time passed, long being relative. It could have been five minutes or five hours, but when in agony five minutes can feel like five hours. Still, it was a long time. The pain subsided somewhat. I felt a coppery taste in my mouth and something trickle down my chin. I resisted the urge to cough. Instead, I pushed myself up on my feet again, leaning against the wall for support. Taking shoes from a dead man was bad. I got it. Slowly, I turned, grabbed the bowl and the torch once more and made my way back to George.