Tsubaki noticed.
"Maka, stop!" she yelped.
The unexpected outburst by her friend seemed to give Maka second thoughts, and she hesitated, bringing the blade to an abrupt halt inches before it would have decapitated Danny. The ghost boy breathed a nervous sigh of relief.
"What…?" she demanded. "Don't tell me you believe him?"
Rather than answer, Tsubaki motioned towards Black*Star, whose twisted grin was still plastered to his face. He straightened up robotically as if on cue to Tsubaki's gesture, and, without warning, leapt at Maka. She swung the scythe forward to protect herself, but found to her dismay that Soul had suddenly become unwieldy and heavy. Before she had time to register what was going on, the scythe was swinging back at her with twice the force, giving her only several seconds to pull herself together and dodge. Even so, Soul struck her directly in the shoulder. There was a spray of blood, and Maka staggered backwards, eyes dull with a haunted expression.
"Maka!" Tsubaki screamed frantically; Liz, the closest to Maka, rushed forward and caught her as she fell.
With fresh determination, Danny scrambled up from the ground and lunged at Soul. But the scythe morphed back into his human form and leapt limberly backwards away from Danny, landing next to Black*Star.
Appearing to spontaneously jerk backwards, the two boys stood up straighter in a moment of unnatural synchronization and looked off into the night as if they were dogs perking up to the sound of a whistle. Before Danny or anyone else could react, Soul and Black*Star jumped from the roof of the building and disappeared into darkness, eyes flashing red as they went.
Giving up on the chase for the time being, Danny turned to Maka. Liz supported her while Patty dabbed the blood from her wound.
"How bad is it?" Tsubaki finally broke the stunned silence by asking.
Maka shrugged awkwardly. "It's really nothing," she muttered. "It's just a shallow thing. It doesn't hurt that badly. I just… I was so surprised that Soul… turned against me like that."
Tsubaki shook her head. "Soul didn't turn against you," she reminded Maka. "He's possessed by… something. So is Black*Star…"
"I guess you're right," Maka agreed with a sigh. She then turned to Danny apologetically. "I'm… sorry I nearly… you know. I just felt…"
Danny interrupted her. "It's fine. It's… really fine." Except for the fact that you nearly killed me and I was scared out of my mind, Danny thought grudgingly to himself, but decided to let it pass for now. There were other, more pressing things to worry about. "I have to go after Black*Star and Soul as soon as possible. There's something possessing them. I mean, I know that's obvious, but it appears to be a really powerful ghost that has a grudge against me. Therefore, I feel like it's my duty to deal with this."
Maka stood up, all sheepishness gone. "No, I'm going too. This ghost is hurting my friends and it's my business too." When her friends regarded her with concern, she brushed them off. "I'm really not hurt. I'll lead the way." Before anyone could argue, Maka was off, Tsubaki and Blair following close behind her.
Both Liz and Patty transformed into guns, and Kid, who had been oddly reticent throughout the entire incident, now turned to Danny. "I was possessed earlier, wasn't I?" His face looked grim.
Danny nodded a little awkwardly. "Yeah… it's nothing –"
"No," Kid interrupted, voice displaying no emotion. His eyes glowed with a fierce energy, and Danny took a nervous step backwards. "It is not nothing. I refuse to be used." He leapt off the roof of the building, created his flying skateboard once again, and landed lightly on top of it. "Come on. You're dawdling." With that, Kid took off, and Danny, feeling rather muddled, took off after him.
The wind whipped Danny's hair against his face as he flew, following his instincts to lead him to the ghost. A feeling of nausea and a growing sense of dread was plaguing him, and he gave an involuntary shudder. The shadows on the buildings looked like dark cloaks threatening to engulf him, and the grinning moon above him, lighting up the alleyways with its shifting yellow light, made Death City seem all the more disconcerting.
Noticing that the others had stopped, Danny lighted down next to them. They were standing in front of a gray abandoned warehouse whose wooden door was creaking in the wind, slightly ajar. The glass in every window was shattered, and a web of cracks laced along the concrete walls of the building. But what unnerved Danny the most was that he could sense a powerful and repellent pulsating aura exuding from the building. He knew, without a doubt, that this was the place where the mysterious unknown ghost had created his base. A wisp of blue smoke escaped on his breath, confirming this.
"I had a feeling you'd be here," said a voice, making Danny jump. The group turned around to see Stein leaning against the building, the shadows accentuating the stitches on his face. "I sensed the energy of this place from a long while away."
"We have to save Soul and Black*Star," Maka interrupted. "Come on! There's no time for talking."
"…Very well," Stein replied finally, giving Danny what appeared to be a brief apologetic glance. "Lead the way, then."
Maka nodded determinedly and ran into the building, where she was immediately swallowed by darkness. Stein, Tsubaki, Blair, and finally Kid followed, nodding at Danny as he entered the building. Finally, the ghost boy sucked up as much stamina as he could to banish his sickness caused by the aura, and followed his friends.
Danny created a swirling ball of bright ectoplasm in his palm to light his way, but as the building was illuminated, he perceived that something was wrong. He could see nothing in the empty room besides a decrepit spiral staircase leading to the second floor; his friends were nowhere. The warehouse was stiflingly silent. He felt suddenly cold, and realized a split second before the attack that it was a trap.
Something rammed Danny in the back of his neck, and he coughed, blindly shooting a plasma beam behind him as he staggered forward. There was a shrill yell that made him aware he had hit his target, and he ducked quickly, narrowly avoiding a second blow. Spinning around to see his attacker, Danny saw it was Maka, eyes glowing unnaturally red and expression murderous.
In that moment, Danny grasped that it was impossible for him to fire back and risk hurting Maka, no matter how possessed she was. He took off at a sprint, but was nevertheless clipped in the shoulder by a flying kick from Tsubaki, equally as mad. The force of the kick threw him to the ground, and he scrambled to his feet, panting heavily, before being nailed twice in the back by two bullets from Patty and Liz. He turned around to see Kid, eyes blazing with the same evil that had seized his soul that night at his mansion. Danny backed up, desperate not to hurt anyone, but finding himself at a major disadvantage.
He felt the prick of a sharp blade on his back, and he whipped around to see Stein towering over him, a knife in each hand. "I'm going to dissect you now, just like I wanted to before, ghost boy." Danny yelped and fled, and the jab of Stein's knives sliced empty air.
"Pump-pumpkin, pumpkin, death and destruction," crooned a voice that seemed both terrifyingly sweet and mechanically deadly.
Not Blair too!
A deafening roar filled the warehouse as the walls exploded. Danny was blown backward off his feet and slammed into the wall, seeing a flash of light as his vision blurred. He could hear parts of the walls and ceiling crumbling down around him, and yelped as a chunk of concrete smashed into his wrist, putting out his ectoplasmic lantern in his surprise. After the noise stopped and silence resumed its eerie creaking, thick cloud of smoke and dust had covered even the darkness.
Danny desperately got to his feet once again and dashed for the hazy outline of the spiral staircase he had spotted earlier. He could sense that the ghostly power he was looking for resided on the second floor, and he needed to get there before the dust settled and his possessed friends came back to finish him off.
Panting, he limped up the stairs as quickly as he could. Each step creaked, and he expected the sound to alert someone to his presence and come after him. But no one attacked him as he stepped onto the second floor, this one made of wood rather than concrete. The room was empty except for one large glass window at the far end that overlooked Death City. Unlike on the first floor, there were no sounds of creaking. It was utterly silent.
A dark figure, clad in a black cloak, stood with his back to Danny, facing the window and watching the stars. Danny knew immediately from the overwhelming energy radiating forward that this was the ghost he had been searching for.
"I knew you would find me eventually," the silhouette stated calmly, without turning around. Danny flinched. "I've been waiting for you. Now we can settle this."
