A week past and no sign of the other wolf. Jack Sparrow didn't seemed to be worried and used this time to put Danny through his paces. His mastery of his transformation was improving. Through his phrase, Danny no longer felt the unease that his ghost form once made him felt. He had mastered floating and low speed flight. The pirate captain was proud of the boy's progress, but he had much more ahead of him. He could generate energy beams at will, but their power and his aim left much to be desired. Plus Jack didn't even want to guess on his physical abilities. Jack watched Danny standing in the center of the warehouse. He was breathing heavily and facing a stone wall with several burn marks across on it. Danny held out a shaky fist and fired a green beam of energy. It was dim and vanished before it hit the wall.
"Dang it! I've got to do better." Danny tried again, but the beam was weaker than the last.
"Your exhausting yourself, mate." Jack walked up. "Your drawing to much on your own energy and not enough of the energy around you."
"What?"
"Have you ever noticed a temperature drop when a ghost was around?"
"Slightly. I guess it was cold in The Box Ghost's lair."
"Ghost draw energy from their surroundings to help them manifest a physical form. Heat energy is simplest and most abundant energy around. The more energy absorbed, the colder it gets."
"So how do I draw in this energy?"
Jack checked his watch. "Another day. Go home and rest. You collapsing won't help any of us."
"Right." Danny took a step and fell to the floor.
Jack stared down at him as Danny began to snore. "See, I was right."
Danny rubbed his eyes and sat up. He was sitting on a floating rock in the middle of The Ghost Zone. The area around him was filled with other floating rocks ranging from pebble sized to a few that were the size of city blocks. He could see nothing but purple haze past the field of rocks.
"Where am I?"
"You are dreaming young one."
Danny turned his head and spotted a blue human ghost in a red suit and hat. "Why can't anybody talk to me in the real world?"
The ghost tipped his hat. "Fear not little one. The power to enter dreams is very rare. Only two ghosts have the power really. Clockwork and me."
"And you are?"
"Red, at your service. I am head advisor to Lord Plasmus."
Danny jumped to his feet. "What do you want? Plasmus is an evil ghost."
Red held hands up. "Did Jack tell you that? Oh the blindness of youth." He vanished and reappeared next to Danny. "What makes him more trust worthy than my lord?"
Danny jumped and floated in the air. "I'm training to stop a great disaster that is coming. To try and be a hero."
"A noble goal. But I am willing to bet that the truth of this disaster has been kept secret from you." Danny said nothing. He didn't need to. Red smiled. "No, he hasn't. All he has done was give you lack lust training. The disaster will be here sooner than even he realizes. He isn't preparing you, he is hampering you." He held his arms out. "My master on the other hand can give you the same skills in a day that Jack can only give you in a year."
"How?"
"Here in this dream world, time is easy to manipulate. Time can be slowed and you can be trained here. Seconds out there can be hours here. Ghost powers are ninety percent mental. In one day I can make you a god among men."
Danny floated down and landed on the rock. "What is The Great Disaster?"
"No one knows for certain. Not even the great Clockwork. But for some reason it is all connected to you. You will face a test and the results will either bring light to the world or plunge it into eternal darkness."
"The world will end?"
"What?" Red shook his head. "No that is something completely different. Eternal darkness will involve suffering for all until the end of time. The end of the world would actually be preferred."
"Your not filling me full of confidence here."
"This is epically important. Unlike Jack I will not spoon feed you. If you fail, the world, the ghost zone, everything will be doomed." Danny gulped. Red patted his head. "Plasmus is willing to talk to you and help you."
"I don't know. Jack is helping me."
"I understand. But when you ready, the offer stands. Plasmus keeps a small base near the outskirts of the city." A business card appeared in his hand. "Take care." He handed Danny the card and vanished.
Danny woke up and found himself in his room. The business card was in his hand.
The morning found Danny's mind fighting with the issue. He went through the day like a zombie until he was slapped into the real world, literally. Sam helped him up as he rubbed his sore cheek.
"Awake now?"
Danny nodded. "Was that necessary?"
"Yeah, it kind of was."
Tucker patted his friend on the back. "You been out of it all morning. You alright, man."
"Just a lot on my mind." Danny looked around. They were in front of a large building with tinted windows. "Where are we?"
"Axion labs for a fieldtrip. Tucker's been geeking out about it all day."
"So many things to touch." A bit of drool dripped from his mouth. Both Sam and Danny took a slight step back.
Lancer was in front of the small group of teens with a clipboard and whistle. "Alright! I would like this trip to be better than our fieldtrip to the zoo. If you happen to come across any animals, do NOT let them out of their cages."
Dash raised his hand. "But your possum scratches healed so nicely." A small round of laughing issues from the crowd.
Ignoring it, Lance motions towards a dark-skinned man in a suit. "This is Mr. Gray, director of this facility. Give him the same respect as you do me."
"Don't you mean more?" Kwan chuckled.
Lancer sighed, "Good luck!"
"If I can handle a horde of rampaging of rabid lab mice, I can handle a group of teenagers." He turned and waved. "Hey Valerie, honey! It daddy!" In the small group of popular kids, Valerie shrunk back under the snickers and embarrassment.
"I didn't know Valerie's dad worked here." Tucker eyes glimmered. "I wonder if she is seeing anyone."
"Give it up Tuck!" Danny patted his friend on the shoulder. "She is firmly entrenched with the popular kids."
"Right!"
Mr. Gray led the group of teens through the lobby and into a large computer lab. Sam and Danny had to physically restrain Tucker who nearly lost it when he say the seventy inch LCD screen that was connected to the computers that covered the wall. The students only half listened as Mr. Gray moved them into a greenhouse like room. Plants filled the sides of the walkway.
"This is were we work with plants to create new herbs for medical purposes and try to make produce easier to grow and thus add to the world's food supply."
"Couldn't you just make a bigger pizza?" Again Dash got a round of laughing from the group.
Mr. Gray didn't miss a beat. "Actually we are. Tomatoes for the sauce and grains for the bread dough. Even better grass for the cows that provide the milk for the cheese."
The teens grew silent and even Dash couldn't respond. The tour continued down a large flight of stairs. The passed through two security checkpoints and stopped in a large room with a huge metal cylinder that stood from the floor to the ceiling.
"And this is the crown jewel of our lab. The Neutron Generator! Using a secret new substance, this generator can power the entire lab with clean, safe energy. With more research, we hope to power the entire city."
The lights flickered and went out. A loud laugh filled the room and a human ghost appeared above them. He was dressed in blue robes and grasped a long metal staff in his green hand. He wore black sunglasses and had long white hair. He waved his staff and all the doors sealed shut.
"I am Technus, Lord of all that is electronic. You will bow before me?" A pair of security guards ran up and opened fire with their pistols. The bullets disintegrated against an invisible energy field. "Fools, your mortal weapons cannot harm me." A computer ripped itself off of a desk and smashed into the guards. "You are all my prisoners. You will help me disassemble this generator so I can use it for my own evil purposes." He started to laugh.
Danny looked around. He was trapped in the crowd. "Great. I can't go ghost." Technus just kept laughing.