"Jazz's not answering," Danny grumbled, closed the PDA and tossed it back to Tucker. "Where could she be?"
Tucker dived to grab the electronic device before it could fall on the floor. Danny's toss was good but Tucker always feared the worst when it came to his tech gear. As he hid it away in his knapsack he said, "Dude, it's Friday night. Where do you think she is?"
"Well, school's out so there's no homework. And her clubs aren't meeting again till fall..."
"Danny!" Tucker interrupted, "Are you even listening to yourself? Friday night. She's a girl. Where else would she be?"
Danny looked at him blankly. They were sitting inside Maple Cabin after supper, waiting until time for the big rally and awards ceremony later that night. The cabin was hot and stuffy, forcing the others to hang around outside. Danny, needing to make an emergency phone call, had dragged Tucker inside so he could use Tuck's wi-fi PDA.
"She out on a date! That's what I'd be doing if I had someone who would go out with me!" Tucker exclaimed.
"What about T'Keisha?"
"Did you get hit on the head or something today?" Tucker jeered. "Your sister Jazz is not home because she's out on a date. I told you this idea would not work, and it did not. Did you seriously think Jazz was going to drop whatever it is she's doing to sneak out with the Specter Speeder, whip down to Camp, drop off an armload of weapons and get back without your parents noticing?"
"I didn't exactly have any other plan." Danny protested.
"There's one person who will always take your calls, Danny."
"I'm not calling my Dad."
"Your Dad's really not very good about answering calls. Just for your information. I meant your Mom."
"Mom would never come down without Dad."
"Maybe she would. Maybe if you asked."
"I can handle this. Not to boast, but Danny Phantom is a lot more effective than an armful of Blaster."
"From what Sam was telling me, you were getting your butt kicked last night."
"I was not! Well, maybe. But I still got rid of the ghost last night and I can do it again tonight."
"Danny, we need help."
"I'm not calling in my father and be humiliated in front of the whole camp."
"Then call Abigail's old man."
"The Guys in White?"
"Sure. Let it rain on her parade. But they'll handle the ghost before anyone gets hurt."
"What if they spot me and not the Camp Ghost? Knowing them that's exactly the kind of bureaucratic screw-up they'd do."
"Danny, last night I was nearly killed. I am eternally grateful for you saving me and T'Keisha, but you've got to think about tonight. ...'Cause I don't think you want the death of any kid on your hands. We need help. Call your Mom, call Abigail's Dad. Call the Extreme Ghost-Breakers if you have to. Don't try to do this alone."
Danny sat quietly for a moment, not answer Tucker's plea. Then he dug in his pants pocket and pulled out the Fenton Yo-yo he had confiscated from Abigail.
"This is the catch to release the cover," he said, pointing to a microscopic break on the device's rim. "Flip this switch to arm or disarm the Yo-yo. The LED will show when it's armed. Wind it up like a regular yo-yo. It look and acts just like one -- until it strikes ectoplasm, Then it released an extremely powerful stunning shock. So be careful using it around me. I accidentally touched the covering when it was armed and got knocked out for an hour. I was just lucky no one entered the lab while I was unconscious. It's got an eight foot cord so be careful about that. And when it hits a ghost it's going to wobble a bit. That's part of the reason it's not gone beyond the prototype phase."
"Sure, dude." Tucker looked at the Fenton Yo-yo suspiciously. "So this is your plan, a stick of lipstick and a yo-yo?"
Danny bit back a sarcastic reply. He got up and turned away. "I'll be down at the amphitheater," he said over his shoulder as he left.
Mr. Doi's ranch hands were hard at work setting up the amphitheater when Danny got there. They had already set up the four pennants along the row of logs that formed the stands. Danny was tempted to sit down under the green pennant and just wait for the rest of the camp to get there. But if he did that Abigail might sit next to him and nag, or worse, Sam! So he kept walking around the edge of the field.
One man was in the center, stacking up splits of firewood in a neat square, then piled a a few more logs around its sides. He then picked up a small red can and started pouring liquid all over the wood. When the can was empty, he stepped back several feet and pulled out a box of matches. He struck one, waited until it had caught the wood stem good, then threw it on the pile. A massive ball of fire rolled up with a massive whoosh and a wave of heat Danny could feel even at his distance. Did his ears deceive him or did the guy at the fire also call out "Opa!"
In any case Mr. Doi was not amused because he was storming across the field from where he had been directing some men setting up a portable stage. "No!" he shouted. "Unacceptable! Who told you to use gasolene on a bonfire! You could have been killed!"
"Relax, Mr. D," the other man replied. "I know what I was doing. I've used gas to burn out fence-rows dozens of times. I know exactly how far back I have to stand."
"You may think you know what you're doing but I don't, and if I don't know what you're doing, you don't do it! Do you understand?"
"I didn't think..."
"You're not paid to think," Mr. Doi shouted, even though he was now standing next to his employee. "You do what I tell you to do or you don't do anything!"
With a shake of his head Danny walked on, out of range of their conversation. He was surprised by how angry Mr. Doi had gotten over what seemed to him like a little matter. He had always seemed friendly and accessible to the kids but it looked like he was just like every other adult Danny had met: demanding and bossy. It was sad reminder that life as a kid sucked. Or maybe it was just his life?
Danny wandered down to the beach, walked out on the pier and sat down. He pulled off his shoes and dangled his feet in the water. The beach was churned and rutted from the games earlier that day. The pavilions and such had been struck, folded up and taken away. There was a forlorn, abandoned feel to the beach. Oddly it made Danny feel more, not less at home.
The sun was setting in the west, slowing descending behind the ridge of mountains. Rays of golden-red light streaked through some high, thin clouds, sending a rosy tint down on all things. Sunlight reflected off the lake in a long, arrow-straight line from near the shore to the distant edge in a blinding yellow blaze, looking for all the world like a yellow brick road. A road Danny would well have loved to have trod upon, if only to get out of his current situation.
Finally it had gotten dark, so Danny got up, put on his shoes and went back to the amphitheater. The field was crowded with kids. The fire in the pit had burned down to a nice bed of embers, though a few new logs had just been thrown on it. The portable stage was all set up and most of the stable hands sent home. A few remained at a distance, standing beside one of the trucks which had firefighting equipment on it.
Danny found a spot at the back of the rows of logs, at the top of the embankment, and sat down. Moments later Sam appeared at his side. "I'm surprised you're not down there basking in the adulation of the teeming hordes."
"Huh?"
She pointed down to the front of the rows of logs where Tucker and T'Keisha were surrounded by the teammates. "Everyone's impressed with how well they did in the three-legged race."
"I should have listened to the other Sam?" Danny said recalling how he had tripped up the real Sam during their race, causing them to fall down and lose valuable time.
"We still won our heat." Sam said, trying to cheer Danny up. "And you didn't use any ghost powers to do so."
"Don't remind me."
"What? Danny, you didn't. When?"
"The relay. Abigail released the baton before I had a good grip on it. I could feel it sliding out of my hand, and I was so tired of Dash yelling at everybody...so I levitated it a bit to get a better grip on it."
"You cheated"
"I feel awful about it."
"As well you should!" Sam proclaimed. She grabbed Danny's face, turned it this way and that. "You don't look any more evil than normal but Danny, this is how it starts. Cheating on little things leads to cheating on bigger things. I won't let you become Dark Dan."
"I won't become Dark Dan. I gave you my word on it."
"It's a slippy slope, Danny, a slippy slope!"
"Sam, I turned into Dark Dan because I cheated on the C.A.T.s. That was something big. This isn't. Besides, I told you I feel bad having done it. What made me Dark Dan was that I didn't feel bad when I did bad things. I'm not going to change!"
The Goth girl gave him a long, intense stare. After a time she said, "Good. Don't. I like you the way you are."
As always comments like that made Danny uncomfortable. Was she speaking as a friend or should he read something deeper in it? He looked away, casting his eyes over the assembled camp. "I wonder when the Head Ranger is coming down to get this thing started?" he asked.
"She's already here," Sam pointed to a cluster of people near the green pennant. "She's down there congratulating people."
"I've never so wanted a night to be over," Danny said quietly.
"Me, too. I hate the idea of camp being over tomorrow and having to go back to the parental units, but this, I could do without."
"Oh. I brought this for you," Danny said, handing Sam a Fenton Thermos. "I gave Tucker the Fenton Yo-yo; I figured you could use this." The thermos was about eight inches long and three inches wide, made of brushed aluminum. It looked like any other thermos except for a small control panel along one side and that it was packed with electronic gear to suck in and contain a ghost.
"Sure, but, ah, do you think the Camp Ghost will stay in it?"
"Oh, Yeah. Clockwork has Dark Dan in one of these and he's never been able to get out. If the thermos can hold Dark Dan, it can hold anything."
A squeal from loudspeakers set in the portable stage drowned out further conversation. The Head Ranger was standing on the stage, fiddling with the microphone she was holding. "You think after all this years we're learn how to set this thing up," she said once the adjustments were made. "Good evenings Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Camp Sleepy Hollow All-Camp celebration. We've had a glorious week. I hope you've had a great time here at Camp Sleepy Hollow. I hope you will think about coming back again next year."
The Head Ranger went on in a similar strain for a while. Danny quickly grew bored. From where he was sitting Danny could still see a bit of the lake. In the twilight the band of light from the moon shone even more brightly across the water, looking less like a road now than a lane of fire, rippling, shimmering on the small waves on the lake. It danced about almost like a thing alive. In the distance there was a small spot where the moon itself was reflected on the water, looking like a twisting, swirling ball of fire. He watched the play of light on water for a while as the Head Ranger droned on.
Hearing the name Dash Baxter, Danny looked up and saw that the Head Ranger had called all the counselors onto the stage and was individually introducing them. As she spoke Danny could clearly see them all standing in the bright moon light.
But that couldn't be. The moon was hovering over the western edge of the lake, wasn't it?
Danny thought long and carefully. Because of his dream of being an Astronaut Danny had read lots of books on astronomy. He called up an image of the Earth, Sun and Moon in his mind. A full moon was when the moon was directly behind the Earth and the light from the sun bounced back to Earth. That meant that when Point A on the Earth rotated behind the rim of the Earth, causing the Sun to appear to be setting in the West, the moon would appear to be rising -- in the east!
Danny twisted in his seat. Behind him on the eastern horizon was the Moon, looking orange and bloated and low to the ground. Danny could make out the familiar features that resembled the face of a man. But if the Moon was shining in the East, what was shining across the water in the West? Looking at the lake again he could see that the swirling ball of fire was larger, nearer.
"Sam," he said, "here it comes,"
His words were drowned out by a shout from the rows of logs as the Head Ranger announced the winner of the Camp Games. Everyone leap to their feet, applauding. The kids on Team Green started moving down the rows of logs towards the stage. Sam leaned towards him and hollered, "What?"
"There!" Danny pointed. "I've got to go ghost. Warn the others!"
Danny rolled backwards over the log he was sitting and tumbled out the steep hillside in the back. He changed to Danny Phantom before he was half-way down and rocketed to met the ghost of the camper Ben Green before it got close to shore.
As Danny swooped close to the approaching ghost he could see that it was coalescing from an indistinct fireball into a glowing twenty foot headless man walking on top the lake's water. Two flaring pits of glowing fire floated above its shoulders where it's eyes would be -- if it had a head.
Danny floated in front of it and shouted, "Stop! I won't let you harm anybody at this camp!"
The ghost of Ben Green simply kept walking forward, forcing Danny to retreat.
"So much for diplomacy," Danny muttered, gathering up energy for an ecto-blast. The spectral bolt struck the ghost dead center on its chest. Green goo dripped down its waist. While Danny could see that the ghost had hesitated under the impact it was only temporary. After only the slightest hesitation the ghost continued approaching the campfire where hundreds of unsuspecting kids were enjoying their last night of camp.
Danny fired off several more bolts of ectoplasm and while the ghost seemed to stagger after each one, it continued its slow march over the lake. Danny swirled off, flying out and around before coming in at high speed to slam into the ghost. The impact was jarring. The ghost definitely lost its footing for a moment. Danny was equally dazed from the collision. He shook his head to clear it and saw the ghost turning towards him. "Yes!" Danny thought jubilantly. "I've got the ghost's attention!" but before he could see it coming, the ghost had swept a long arm through the air, batting Danny deep into the water.
Danny awoke from his concussion with a cough, spitting out water. He turned intangible for moment and shook off the water, then streaked through the air, catching up with the ghost as it reached the shore.
It was moving fast now.
Flashes of light showed that Abigail was firing her lipstick-blaster at it. But the distance was too great, she was missing as often as not. "Save your shots until its close enough to have an effect!" Danny groused to himself. He swung to one side to stay of out of Girl in White action while showering on the ghost a continuous stream of ecto-blasts. A Snap! Bang! indicated that Tucker had moved in and was wielding the Fenton Yo-Yo. Vaguely Danny could see that the crowd of kids was only slowly becoming aware of the ghost in their midst. People were standing around, frozen in their tracks. "Run!" Danny yelled. "Get away from here!" but it was doubtful anyone could hear him over the growing screams of frightened campers.
Where the ghost was going, what it was attacking had been impossible for Danny to figure out. Suddenly, like rolling thunder a sound burst into the air "B-u-u-u-u-l-l-l-l-i-e-e"
"How can it talk when it doesn't have a mouth?" Danny wondered then a cold chill ran down his back. He knew who the ghost was going after, who had riled the late Ben Green into a murderous rage.
Danny swooped towards the reviewing stand where the Head Ranger had been greeting the counselors from the Green Team. She still clutched the trophy she was about to present to them. Standing at the front of the group of counselors was tall, blond, football star Dash Baxter. A bully at camp, a bully at school. Surely a bully for life. Ben Green had been bullied into committing suicide. And now would not be stopped in getting even with those who had caused his death.
Dash was a creep but Danny couldn't leave him to the Ghost. He streaked towards the reviewing stand, arms outstretched to push Dash off the stage before the Ghost could reach it.
But as he swept over the top of the platform everything turned topsy-turvy. The Ghost had reached down and thrown the stage into the air. Danny tried to orient himself, find the heavy platform and grab it before it crashed down on anyone. He found it, put his shoulder into it but was driven deep into the ground. Danny went intangible and flew through the wreckage of the platform to find the ghost hesitating. Abigail and Tucker were attacking it but it seemed to be scanning the stands for something. At least it's shoulders moved back and forth. Suddenly it floated towards the top of the small amphitheater and grabbed something there. "Soulmate" seemed to rumble through the air and then the ghost was gone, moving with a speed Danny could barely track.. He looked to where the ghost had grabbed someone. It was where he remembered leaving Sam.
He flew up to the top row of the amphitheater and looked around, unable to believe what he had seen. She wasn't on the ground by the log seat. She wasn't anywhere on the back slope behind the amphitheater. Sam was nowhere to be seen.
The ghost had kidnaped Sam!
Then Danny gasped. There was something shiny a row down. He swopped down and picked up a battered metal cylinder. The cover of the control panel fell off as he lifted up. It was the Fenton Thermos. Trampled when the campers scattered. He hit the 'open' button but nothing happened.
Danny threw it down in disgust.
Tucker ran up to him. "What's going on?" he asked.
"The ghost kidnaped Sam." Danny said as if disbelieving it himself. "And the thermos is kaput."
"Sam! Where did he go?"
"Probably to that old abandoned cabin we found. I'll fly up there, get up there as fast as you can."
"I'll borrow the Head Ranger's Jeep."
"Tucker, you don't know how to drive!"
"Come on, I mastered Simpson's Road Rage in under a week. How hard can driving a car be?"
"Whatever. Look, Dash is under that pile of rubbish. We've got to get him out."
"Why?"
But Danny Phantom had already run over and grabbed a corner and strained to raise it. A moment later Sid and the other Sam were there helping him. They were helping a white hair, green eyed ghost in a black jumpsuit, not Danny Fenton. They did it because it was the right thing to do.
After a minute of struggling they flipped it over. Dash, the Head Ranger and a couple of the Games judges were laying under it. "See to them," Danny shouted then rocketed west towards the mountains and the cabin where Ben Green had laid anchored to this world for fifty years after his death.
As Danny neared the ridge where the cabin lay he had to slow down and look for landmarks. Since he hadn't seen the cabin from the air before he was forced to find the hiking trail that lead up to the camping area and from there the trail that lead to the abandoned cabin group. As he burst through the last of the trees into the clearing he saw the ghost waiting for him, Sam clutched and struggling on one gigantic hand.
"Leave me alone!" The headless ghost roared.
"Let my friend go!" Danny answered.
"Never! She understands me!"
"No I don't!" Sam hollered back. "I don't understand a thing about you."
"You see the darkness!"
"It's just a pose." Sam shouted.
Danny tried to think of some way to get Sam away from the ghost. It was clear that only his Ghostly Wail had the power to damage the ghost but he couldn't use it while it still held on to Sam. Or even while she was anywhere close to the camp ghost. The Ghostly Wail was a concentrated, focused blast of energy but the blowback could be deadly to anyone without an ectoplasm infrastructure. And with the ghost weakened Sam could suck it into the thermo...if she still had a thermos?
Danny charged head on at the ghost, dodging past a swinging hand and grabbing at Sam. He caught hold of a hand but just as quickly had it jerked away from him as the ghost turned its solidified body away. Danny spun around and flew back firing energy bolts at the ghost. He aimed one carefully at the hand holding Sam. The skin bubbled for a moment before the ghost jerked it away. But for a moment it had loosened its hold on Sam. The black haired girl had doubled up and planted one of her Doc Marten boots against the fingers of the ghost's hand and was pushing with all her might. Danny returned, buzzed in close to the empty space where the ghosts head would be. It swatted at him impatiently and in the moment Sam slipped out of its other hand and fell to the ground. She started to sprint away then stopped and turned, looking around at the abandoned camp site thoughtfully.
"Sam! Run! Go! I'll take care of the ghost." Danny shouted.
"It's here," she called back. "It's got to be here."
"What?"
"It's skull. What's holding it to our world. We've got to find and destroy it. It's the only way to defeat the ghost."
"I can handle it," Danny insisted.
"Danny, you're barely annoying it. Just keep it occupied while I think."
With a quick 'be careful' Danny left to battle the ghost. Sam tried to visualize how the cluster of cabins would have looked fifty years ago. The clearing would have been neatly mowed, there would have been a row of four or five cabins. The trees would have been a lot smaller, almost saplings at the time... Where could one had hidden a head in all that and not have it found? It couldn't have been hidden in the hollow of a tree because most of the trees wouldn't had made hollows back them and in any case the police would have look into obvious places like that.
Vaguely Sam saw Danny being hurled across the clearing, smashing into one of the tottering ruins, causing it to collapse upon him. He was up and out of the wreckage in an instant and rocketing back at the ghost.
Sam also ruled out a hole dug just any ol' where. The turned-over dirt would have been obvious to the police. She looked at the one remaining standing cabin, the one where Ben Green had ended his life. Like the cabins down below it was set a couple feet above the ground on stone pillars, with an open crawl space underneath. Perhaps the head had been buried there! She took a step in the direction of the cabin then stopped, realizing the error in her thinking. The police would have looked under there was well. It was too obvious a place. There had to be some place where fresh dirt would be expected or could be covered up in a way that wasn't obvious.
Suddenly she was jerked up into the air. "Rats!" she muttered. The ghost had grabbed her again while she had been deep in thought. She struggled to get out of its hand again but for the moment it was holding on tight. She saw Danny buzzing around the ghost, still firing ecto-blasts at it, but not as frequently as before and the blasts didn't look as intense. Her friend, she realized, was near-exhausted. He couldn't go on much longer like this. And she didn't like the sound of the ghost calling her a 'soulmate.' She didn't intend to by any ghost's puppy. She had to find the missing skull and destroy it. But where could it be? "Think! Think!" she cried, hitting herself on the head in frustration.
Then she noticed it. A patch of ground that was naked of grass, flowers or weeds. A circle seemingly too unholy for life. Oh course! Who would think to look there and the disturbed earth would have been covered up by normal activities before Green's death would have been noticed. All she had to do was get free again...
Danny was slammed into another tree and slowly picked himself up off the ground. He had to pause to catch his breath. He tried to think of something he could do that he hadn't tried already. But he'd already tried hitting the ghost with everything he could think of. And Sam was waving at him to come rescue her. Then he heard the grinding gears of a truck coming up the trail. A moment later the Head Ranger's jeep pulled into view, with the other Sam at the wheel, Tucker with beside him and Abigail, Sid and Aetheria squeezed into the back.
Aetheria hopped out of the Jeep before it had some to a stop. She was holding a baseball bat in one hand and a tennis racket in the other. Danny wondered where she could have found them. She dropped the racket and sprinted towards the towering ghost, swinging the bat like a pro. She clobbered the ghost several times on his ectoplasmic leg before it finally noticed her, and brushed her away like a mosquito. Aetheria fell into a pile of brush but scrambled out after a moment, somewhat bloody from the prickly vegetation. She charged back at the ghost.
Abigail and Tucker were attacking the ghost with their weapons. Abigail was using her lipstick blaster sparingly now, taking time to aim for best advantage. Danny suspected the lipstick was about exhausted and she was trying to make the best use of what she had left. Tucker was circling around the ghost, throwing out the Yo-Yo from time to time. The length of the string made it a bit awkward to use but every time it hit the ghost there would be a smart Crack--Bang! before the Yo-Yo would recoil back to Tucker's waiting hand. The ghost would jump with each impact, then swing at the African-American kid but Tucker was able to keep just out of his reach.
Sid had found an ax in the back of the Jeep and charged at the ghost with that. It struck the ghosts leg with a solid Thwack, but the ghost seemed to ignore it. The other Sam raced over to the recently collapsed cabin and pulled out a length of 2x4 with which he also attacked the ghost.
Suddenly Danny realized that the wind was starting to rise, to whip and swirl around the ghost. The attacks of so many people was causing the ghost to lose its temper, but whether this was a good sign or bad, Danny wasn't sure. Debris picked up by the wind was striking the attackers making it hard to them to keep close and fight the ghost. Danny heard Sam call out to Tucker. "Get me out of here. I know where it is!" Danny swung around to the side away from Sam and pressed a hard attack. The ghost turned on him as he had hoped. There came a Crack-Bang followed by a grunt as Sam felt to the ground. Danny tried to see where she was going but had to dodge the ghost just then. He felt fingers close around his legs and saw that the ghost had grabbed him with its free hand, the hand that had been holding Sam. The ghost flung him away with a force that made Danny all but blackout. He was well over the valley before he could stop his momentum. As he flew back he could see the ghost sweeping Sid, the other Sam and Aetheria away with a mighty brush of its oversized hands. They scattered like bowling pins into the brush surrounding the abandoned clearing.
Abigail had moved close to where Sam, on her knees, was scratching at the ground with a short piece of plank. Tucker was also nearby, using the Fenton Yo-Yo to keep the ghost at bay. Danny slammed into the ghost's waist, trying to pick it up and carry it away from his friends. He was able to force the ghost across the width of the clearing but was unable to pick it off the ground. Whatever was anchoring the ghost to this spot was literally anchoring it.
Tucker ran across the clearing and flung the Yo-Yo in the ghost's face. The Yo-Yo smacked back into his hand. Then he ran off to one side and threw it again. Danny could see that Tucker was trying to keep the ghost penned up on this side of the clearing while Sam continued digging with her make-shift shovel. Danny swung somewhat behind Tucker and launched fireballs from there, keeping the ghost distracted and focused away from the center of the clearing where Sam was digging up the fire pit. Suddenly it seemed so obvious to hide the missing head there, where nightly bonfires would cover up the disturbed soil.
Danny was hanging just out of reach of the ghost, tossing ecto-blasts just often enough to keep it's attention focused on him. Tucker continued using the Fenton Yo-Yo to effect. Between the two of them it looked like the ghost was beginning to tire. Danny, of course, was well past 'tired.' Only fear for the safety of his friends kept him going. A brush of wind against his clothes told him that he had drifted in too close to the ghost. Danny glided back a pace just as Tucker launched the Yo-Yo. It exploded with a massive Zap-Boom! knocking Tucker a dozen feet away.
"Tuck!" Danny screamed and darted towards his friend. He was relieved to find that Tucker was breathing gently, though his face was reddened from the blast and starting to bleed.
He turned back to the ghost, which had started stalking back across the clearing towards Sam and Abigail. The red-head had held off using her lipstick-blaster while the ghost was on the far side of the clearing but now as it moved towards them again, she fired blast after blast at it. The ghost staggered under it impact but continued its relentless approach.
Abruptly the blaster cut out in mid-shot. Abigail pressed the trigger again and again but it had stopped working. She threw it at the approaching ghost and caught up a log lying near-by. She waved it menacing at the ghost but it just muttered a rumble of thunder that sounded like feigh, and a gust of wind swirling all about them caught her up and threw her into the brush.
As Danny knew it would, it all came back to him. He flew in between Sam and the ghost and drove it back with a flurry of ecto-plasm fireballs. Sam, he could see from a quick glance, had dug down several feet. Dirt was piled up around her, sheets of it sieving off the mounds from the roaring wind.
For several minutes Danny held the ghost at bay with a relentless bombardment of ecto-blasts and fireballs. "Hurry up, Sam!" he whispered. "Find that skull! I don't think I can last much longer!"
Sam didn't reply. She probably never heard his whispered words above the roar of the Camp Ghost's cyclone. She continued frantically scrapping in the hole she had made.
"I gotta to do," Danny finally thought. "I don't have any else left." He took a deep breath and reach way down within himself and brought a sound up from the depth of his soul, a yodeling, screaming wail that visibly shattered the air in its passage. Trees behind the ghost exploded into a million minute splinters, then were sweep away by the force of Danny's Ghostly Wail.
The ghost struck, directly by the wail, wavered, faded, decoalesced into a vague ball of fire than seemed on the verge of going out entirely. It was flickering badly as Danny's Wail came to an end and, utterly drained, he converted to Danny Fenton and fell to the ground.
Through eyelids that felt like they weighed a ton Danny watched as the ghost slowly pulled itself back together. He had given his best -- and it was not enough. "Sorry, Sam" he whispered and dropped his head to the ground.
But just as darkness was piling on Danny he heard Sam cry out "Found it!" There was some scuffling in the ground then it seemed like the ghost was screaming "No-o-o-o-o!"
It exploded into a tornado of blasting wind. Danny forced his head off the ground and looked towards the fire pit. Sam, covered in ashes and dirt was climbing out, gripping a small white object Danny knew had to be the skull. The winds from the ghost tried to rip it from her hands but she gripped it too tightly.
Suddenly she gasped and sank to her knees as the ghost bore down on her. St. Elmos Fire crackled over her body. Danny tried to get up, tried to help her but strain as he might his muscles were too weak to move.
"Get out of my head! Get out of my head!" he heard her scream. Suddenly she flopped around to where the ring of small stones had lined the fire pit. She grabbed one and brought it done on the skull. There was a dull shock! Again and again she beat on the skull while the ghost screamed and raged above her. Debris from around the clearing began to rain down on her. But still she beat at the skull.
Danny finally found enough strength to begin crawling to her. "I'm coming, Sam!" he called but the words were more a croak than a shout.
Painfully he pulled himself another foot forward. Then Crack! The skull exploded into powdery white fragments. Sam slumped over, too exhausted to do anything more.
"No-o-o-o-o--o!" The ghost screamed. Behind it a hole opened in the space-time continuum. A gateway into the Ghost Zone. A gateway only Danny could see because of his ghost senses. A tremendous force swelled out of the hole and pulled on the Camp Ghost. Slow but inexorable it pulled the ghost through into the afterlife.
Danny felt the Ghost Zone pulling after him as well. So strong was the force pulling the Camp Ghost through that it was carrying everything near it as well.
Danny finally reached Sam and grabbed her hand. He dug into the ground with the other. He had hoped that Sam, being a mortal, would be unaffected by the hole into the Ghost Zone but he could feel her body shifting, slithering towards the opening. Danny forced his fingers deeper into the ground and pulled Sam back towards him. Just as he thought his arm would be pulled from its socket the portal closed. Abruptly the winds stopped howling, the pull on his arms stopped, the roaring cry of the ghost stopped. The silence was deafening.
Danny crawled over to Sam and picked her up. She looked at him dazedly for an instant, murmured something that sounded like "I don't want to die." and passed out. Danny shouted her name a couple times, panicking because he feared she had died, but finally noticed that she was still breathing.
"I got to get her to a hospital," he thought, then realized he didn't know where one was. He tried to stand up but didn't have the strength to get off his knees. He knew he didn't have the strength to go ghost whether, even if he did know where a hospital was. But he had to do something for Sam. He had to.
In the distance he heard the roar of an engine. A truck was coming up the trail. The Head Ranger had followed the others to this abandoned campsite. Tears of joy were running down his face as truck doors slammed open...