A/N: Hiya, everybody-ee! How are y'all? I'm doing great and I hope you like this next chapter. Things are pretty much full steam ahead for Vlad and it also looks like things are going according to his plans…or are they? Hmmm…. While you're mulling that over, don't forget that I don't own anything but my OCs and this story-yep: dirt poor! *permission to groan* Okay, enough mulling! Here is Chapter 26. Enjoy.
Gold Tested in Fire-Chapter 26—Level Five Ghosts—Relating to a Cocoon
Danny whimpered softly at the painful first memory that surfaced when he awakened. He had failed once again! What was happening to him? Was this really real, especially when he couldn't even defeat Technus? He unconsciously furrowed his brow as he searched his fatigued mind. No, this couldn't be real. This was just one of those many lame tests cooked up by the Observants.
He sighed. So what if this was just another stupid test? He should be defeating all of these ghosts! But so far…Suddenly, he swept the thought away. He didn't want to think about it anymore, especially when he could feel that what was now his 'regular' headache stepped into the forefront again. Maybe he just needed more sleep. He did feel sort of tired; but not really. He frowned. He couldn't understand why he was both tired enough to sleep and yet, once again, driven to be awake for some reason.
The boy sighed again when he decided he was too tired to think about that as well anymore. He finally opened his eyes. And when he did blink them open, he groaned in frustration when all he saw was blackness yet again. What was it with the Observants and all this blackness? But then he sighed a bit in relief. At least he could tell that he recovered enough from his fight with Technus that he was in his ghost form again since he was seeing with his ghostly eyes— even though they couldn't penetrate all of this bleakness.
Danny could also tell that he was lying on his back. But he was not lying on his cot; he was lying on something hard. And there was something…else. He really couldn't move. It felt like there was something tight around him—in fact, all around him. Not only that, but it was also hard for him to breathe, though when he did, it felt as if…
His stomach tightened with the sensation and he immediately threw away the next discomforting thought about that feeling. After all, he was breathing—even if it was still very difficult for him to do.
The teen tried to move again and growled with frustration when that only confirmed that he was as tightly bound as he first thought. Still again, he reflexively wrestled against what felt like cloth-like bands. And as his breathing increased with his struggle, he reeled even more at the musky and moldy smell that had been there from the start but suddenly seemed to stab at his olfactory sense. It smelled…rotten!
But struggle as he might, Danny still couldn't break free! He tried to go intangible, only to realize that he couldn't even do that!
Now grunting with determination, the teen began to try to twist out of his bindings; however, he then met resistance not only from the bindings but from outside of the bindings!
"What is this?" he uttered but his voice was muffled.
He jolted when a sudden thought surfaced. His voice! Technus had used that stupid dream catcher he had made on him when he was using his Ghostly wail! Did the techno-ghost permanently damage his vocal cords?
Danny grunted out loud again and actually relaxed a bit. His throat felt fine. His voice sounded differently because he just realized that he was actually just gagged!
He rolled his eyes at that thought. As if being gagged was good news!
Nevertheless, he wriggled his bound body more vigorously and each time he bumped into something hard. And it was then that he knew he was in some kind of box. Only that, this box followed the outward curves of his body, as if he were in some kind of…tomb!
He then fought harder in more determination not only from his bounds but also from his growing panic and dread.
"This is just another test, that's all!" he tried to assure himself as well as keep his head together. "The Observants are just trying to trick me just like those other times…this isn't real."
His brain was suddenly flooded with the memories of all of his other tests so far. And one in particular still haunted his mind and psyche enough for his resolve to flounder: "Foolish child, don't you know that this is all real?" the tree taunted just before Danny remembered it wrenching its mouth open and its vines pulling him toward it.
"Can the Observants do that? Make all of this real? Sure, they have no time here, but could they manipulate all of existence at will here, then?" he continued to ask himself, trying to figure out what this test was all about.
But, of course, he didn't have the answers, but the seed of doubt had been planted in his increasingly stressed mind.
Still, he tried to make some sense of his current situation. "I must be hallucinating or dreaming again…" he then concluded, trying to infuse rationality back into his panicking brain. "This can't be real!"
The words finally resounded in his brain; and Danny stopped moving. He concentrated in throwing out the panic that was racing up his spine. He had to steel himself and think this through.
"You can do this, Fenton," he tried to reassure himself. "You've done it before, like you've done over and over again when you were in a tight situation." He rolled his eyes and slightly groaned before half-smirking at his unintentional pun.
Nevertheless, that was enough to calm him and help him to focus. He closed his eyes again and tried to get a hold of his breathing, though it was hard to do in this stifling air.
Then he heard something. But the sound was muffled even though the boy guessed it was directly above his face. He strained to determine what that noise was, and more importantly, what was making it.
With his eyes still closed and his brow wrinkled, the half-ghost concentrated on using his keen ghostly hearing. Then he heard several sounds this time. Some of them sounded like…he wasn't sure. But as crazy as it seemed to him, he had to say what came close to describing it was as if slow-moving egg shells were being dragged against wood. Not only that, every once in a while he could hear what had to be some kind of tiny rigid flapping sounds since the stagnant air moved very slightly above his face with each flap. And then there were several faint yet rhythmical click-clacks. Though he thought the analogy was weird, he had to guess that they sounded like several tiny porcelain feet tapping against wood.
He had no idea what was making that sound.
But then, Danny opened his eyes when he felt a slight change in pressure on his chest, on his outstretched, bound legs and finally on his gagged mouth! He could feel the weight of several circular-like things the size of small mice at those points. However, within a second he knew that those 'circles' on him had to be alive because he could feel their weight shift before they exerted a new pressure on nearby every point on his body. They were moving!
The thing sitting on his gagged mouth, however, remained stationery for the most part. But the others.…he was now certain that they were moving because he could feel tiny needle-like projections pressing up and down through his bindings as if they were blazing a path toward his neck and head.
Danny could feel the sweat of anxiety slide down his wrapped neck as the unknown things crept closer to it.
The boy, however, wasn't about to wait for any 'moment of truth' in their reaching his neck. He forced out a muffled yell while struggling even harder against his bindings and the hard case entombing him. He could immediately tell by their sound that the things that had been on him flitted off of him in reaction.
But where did they go?
He didn't have any time to think about it, however, for all of the sudden, the lid of the box he was in flew off its base on its own power and light filtered in, momentarily blinding his unbound eyes, while the sudden rush of air stirred up the dust that had been within and on top of his box.
Danny coughed on the dust, though his cough was stifled by his gag. But then, he felt a sudden chill rush over him as he felt his form begin to dematerialize, as if he was being torn apart, molecule-by-molecule!
His muffled scream echoed through the room at the strange, terrifying sensation.
A moment later, the boy was reforming and he felt his bindings partially loosen. In fact, he could now move his lower jaw, neck, arms and legs and he now could feel solid ground under his feet.
But, his moment of relief was short-lived when he felt his knees unwittingly buckle under him. He fell prostrate, while his arms were unwittingly pulled upward by some force so they were now flying outstretched over his head before they, too, firmly slammed into the ground.
Before he could attempt to get back up, however, a booming voice announced, "I did not give you permission to rise in my presence, slave!"
Slave?
The word shot through the boy's brain as surely as it had been an arrow.
"Slave?" Danny finally growled out in protest, now more determined to get up off from his face-down position.
"Yes, slave. My slave for all eternity! And I now give you permission to rise," the bold voice pronounced, just as he waved the instrument in his hand.
Danny suddenly jolted. That force holding him down was gone! And just as he pulled himself up to a stand, Danny hitched in his gasp. He had really hoped he hadn't been right about recognizing that voice. But he now knew he was. And even though the ghost in front of him looked differently than the last time they met, Danny was sure who that ghost was by the smirk on his face.
Danny growled indignantly.
So what if the ghost's appearance had changed? He was still just as much of a jerk.
The former mummy ghost was now wearing a multicolored gold-striped Nemes headdress which covered his entire head and nape of the neck and fell just below the back of his shoulders. Two large cobras in ready-strike position—called the Uraeus—accented the Egyptian crown and seemed to be growing out of the ghost's forehead. Finally, the headdress had two large flaps which hung behind the ears and draped the front of his shoulders, which made Hotep-Ra's head looked bigger than it was.
The older ghost no longer had his face partially hidden under sloppily wrapped bandages, either. In fact, both of his green beady eyes were visible and were thickly outlined in the black khol substance just like all the eyes of Egyptians depicted on those ancient hieroglyphics the boy had seen in his history books. His long black tightly woven goatee was now fully exposed, too, and curled upward.
The rest of Hotep-Ra's attire also befitted that of a pharaoh. He had a semicircular flat necklace inlayed in rows of gold, ruby and sapphire around his neck that were so wide that it looked almost like a shawl draping over his shoulders. Other than the necklace, the Egyptian ghost's grey-skinned chest was bare, except for a purple royal apron-like drape called a shendyt which had been placed at the ghost's right hip and wrapped around his body, back to front. A golden arm band and a thick gold bracelet also adorned each of his bare muscular arms. Finally, he was wearing a white linen kilt-like garment girded by a thick linen purple belt, golden bands around his ankles and simple leather sandals on his feet.
But what really caught Danny's attention was that the ghost was holding the golden sacred scepter of the Pharaoh King Duulaman. The large blue scarab-shape jewel nestled between the upper horns of the staff glowed brightly enough that its blue hue was crowning the entire upper part of the scepter.
That definitely wasn't good news.
Nevertheless, Danny hissed, "Nobody should be anybody's slave, Hotep-Ra! I thought you of all ghosts would understand that."
"But that was before I had the chance to be the master of a highly-prized slave," the Egyptian ghost replied before he raised his scepter and waved it at the boy.
The blue force emanating from the scepter pushed Danny back down unwittingly into a kneeling position.
Even as he struggled to counter the force, Danny squared his jaw and defiantly said, "I will never obey you, jerk!"
Hotep-Ra laughed darkly before commanding through his gritted teeth, "You have no choice in the matter, dog! And you will speak with respect to me from this time onward. Now that I have reclaimed the sacred scepter, I have total power over you and this dominion!"
Danny struggled to stand again, but during his effort, his eyes finally drifted downward toward the upper part of one his partly bent thighs that he had managed to move enough so that he was in a partial kneeling position.
He startled at the sight and gasped in dread.
That leg…the upper part of it was wrapped in yellowing bandages….mummy-like bandages! But there was something even more shocking. The bandages were torn in some places and there was no flesh under them…only bones!
He anxiously lifted his arms and was only minimally relieved that his hands were whole and human under the loose strips of rotting cloth that hung around them. And that was because even though his hands had flesh, their skin tone was no longer their normal flesh color….they were blue!
Now horrified, Danny frantically inspected the rest of himself. There were cloth-like bandages lightly bound over his nose and more tightly around his forehead and scalp, completely hiding his head and hair under the strands of mummy bindings. And the rest of his body was clad similarly, except for random areas where they were torn, revealing either blue flesh or bone under them.
That was too much!
Reflexively, Danny grabbed those bandages in panic and began to pry them off.
Hotep-Ra responded through his laughter, "I would not do that if I were you, slave!"
Danny glared at him and grabbed an even larger handful of the cloth on his face and pulled with even more determination. But the sound of the decayed cloth tearing away from his nose suddenly sent as much chills down his spine as would fingernails down a chalkboard.
He gasped when his hands, still in front of his nose, all of the sudden crumbled into dust! The rest of his body also sloughed to dust a moment later before a small whirlwind herded the debris together and shoved it backwards.
A terrified heartbeat later, the boy knew by the decayed smell and the solid barricade and retightened bindings which kept him from moving that he was back in that sarcophagus in which he first found himself!
"Oh, no! This can't be possible!" Danny screamed to himself, now even more upset when his words were gagged once more. He violently contorted his fully bound body, trying to force the lid off of his small tomb by drawing his seemingly large single knee upward and pressing into it.
He stopped when he heard a muffled laugh which seemed to be hovering right over the facial part of the sarcophagus.
"Foolish, slave! You have no powers here unless the sacred scepter and I will you to have them—which I don't!"
Once again, the tomb's lid flew off on its own and Danny felt the uncontrollable sensation of his body disintegrating again into dust before rapidly reforming. He was fully prostrate once more before Hotep-Ra, who was now sitting lazily upon his Egyptian throne; his purple cloak now thrown just as lazily upon it and the golden scepter still glowing blue.
"How can this be happening?" Danny demandingly yelled in spite of the fact that Hotep-Ra's power held his face and body firmly to the cold stone ground.
Using the power of his scepter to shove the boy harder into the ground to make sure he meant business in having the younger ghost stay put, the mummy-turned-ghost-Pharaoh smugly said, "I suppose that a special new slave needs special training. After all, I intend to have you at the center of my entertainment from now on. And considering how so much inferior you are to me in intellect, let me make this clear and simple."
Danny defiantly growled and tried to rise from his position, only to be shoved handedly back onto the ground by the same unseen force.
"Let me refresh your memory, slave," Hotep-Ra continued with glee. "Your last encounter was with the ghost called 'Technus', is this not the truth?"
Danny startled at the comment. Of course, he remembered, but how could Hotep-Ra know that? Even more dread suddenly seized him, threatening to suck all hope out of him and he shuddered. Still, he said nothing.
"I see I have indeed captured your attention, slave. That is wise of you to give it," Hotep-Ra said, quite satisfied with himself. "And you know that your encounter with that lower ghost ended with your defeat. But it was more than that! It ended with your….death!"
Once again, Danny felt his stomach lurch, even as he tried to deny the words.
"No!" he muttered, though the floor right in front of his mouth muffled his word.
Nevertheless, Hotep-Ra heard the boy and flashed his uneven-toothed grin. "It is true. Why else would your flesh be a ghostly blue and part of you already rotted away? Only in my dominion will a ghost be presented this way if I will it! Which, in your case, Danny Phantom, I do!"
He readily continued, "And since I have the scepter, I was able to overcome Technus and lay claim to your lifeless body as my slave even as your body became a fully ghostly one!"
Though Danny squished his eyes together with a desperate desire to squish out the Egyptian ghost's words out of his mind, the boy couldn't deny it. He saw those bones and how blue his skin was himself. And maybe now that he was a full ghost, maybe he couldn't use any of his powers anymore because he once was a hybrid. Either that, or his having been a hybrid now interfered with his ability to use whatever ghostly powers he could have used if he had been a full ghost in the first place instead of a half-ghost!
The boy began to pant with his panic; but then, a spark a hope twinkled in his mind. Wait a minute! This couldn't be right!
This time he purposely pushed his nose harder into the ground and snorted. Dust blew up and he coughed! He was breathing! And then he stopped and concentrated, straining to listen. He breathed in more in relief. He could actually feel that his heart was beating! But, wait. How could he be alive and have blue skin and bones?
He suddenly didn't want to think about that. Instead, he hurriedly convinced himself that what he was seeing must have been some kind of trick that Hotep-Ra had the Duulaman's scepter conjure up.
But if he was still alive, then that meant it was possible that he still had his powers!
Recharged with that idea, Danny pulled against the force still holding him prostrate. But before the boy had put much more effort into it, Hotep-Ra waved his wand and released the power restraining the teen.
Danny shouted in surprise as he inadvertently rolled onto his back after being unexpectedly freed.
But Danny quickly pulled himself upward and was happy to see that he was hovering!
"I thought you said I had no power here, jerk," Danny said through gritted teeth as he charged up green energy into his hands.
"Only that which I will allow," Hotep-Ra smugly said as he waved his scepter again.
In an instant, Danny's emerald energy dissipated.
Danny jolted in shock at the sight; but before he could react, Hotep-Ra raised up his staff once more.
A large blue beam shot out from it and slammed right into the mummified boy.
Danny screamed at the jolt before his eyesight and mind blurred.
When Danny's head and vision finally cleared, he was lying in the middle of an arena. He pulled himself up and the first thing he saw was a large empty throne-like chair. He quickly turned around and scanned all around him. The arena was empty as well.
"What now?" the boy mentally groaned.
Suddenly, a large blue cloud of ghostly energy engulfed the large throne-like chair and a moment later, Pharaoh Hotep-Ra I appeared upon it.
"Let the game begin!" he announced with an already triumphant tone as he waved his gold-and-blue glowing wand.
In an instant, a blue beam filled the arena's stand and it filled to capacity with Egyptian subjects. Right afterward, a large black cloud shot out from behind the stands to Danny's left. The crowd gasped and everyone turned toward the phenomenon.
Danny also took the cue from the crowd and jerked to his left. The black blob sharply changed its direction and charged right at him!
As the black cloud neared, Danny could actually hear humming and clicking—too familiar humming and clicking—coming from out of it. But in no time his keen ghostly eyes could see that the cloud was actually a swarm of black Egyptian beetles known as scarabs.
Ignoring the sudden creepy hunch that some of those scarabs must have been in the sarcophagus with him earlier, Danny reflexively filled his hands with his emerald ectoplasmic energy and shot two large beams forward.
The rays sliced the cloud in half. The left half veered away but the right half continued to make a bee line to the young hybrid.
Danny steeled himself, planted his feet firmly into the ground, and poured more of his energy into the smaller black cloud headed right to him.
It evaporated on contact.
But it didn't end there.
After the second small cloud had pulled away from the boy's force, it radically changed course and increased its speed until it was now at the boy's rear.
Danny heard the humming and clicking coming at him a bit too late this time and the force of several hundred scarabs drove themselves into him. They quickly engulfed the boy and began to feast on his mummy bindings and whatever skin and bones that were exposed.
The teen screamed at the countless painful bites that seemed to be tearing his body apart as the seconds past.
Now desperate, Danny concentrated and felt his temperature drop precipitously in a nanosecond before a deep blue aura of very cold energy formed all around him. He could already feel his pain lessen since the aura was acting like a shield at this point.
But he had no more time to think about it. With one quick and loud grunt, Danny willed his cold energy outward. In an instant, all the scarabs were not only repelled, but were encased in ice. The new grotesque-looking icicles dropped to the ground and shattered on impact.
Danny panted with the effort but still reflexively scanned all around him in case there was more trouble.
He hadn't even noticed yet that the crowd in the arena had hushed in awe at the display of Danny's power.
When the boy turned back to the Egyptian ghost, his and Hotep-Ra's eyes locked onto each other.
Without blinking, Danny tightened his jaw and frowned in anger in response to the older ghost's smug smile. He fisted his hands tightly and held them in ready position.
"Very entertaining, slave!" Hotep-Ra beamed while flashing his ugly teeth once more.
As if on cue, the crowd immediately erupted in cheers. But a moment later, they gasped. They saw what Danny hadn't noticed yet.
The boy's body, though still draped with loose-fitting cloth bands, was glowing intensely with the same blue hue just before he destroyed the second swarm of scarabs. In the next moment, however, the aura melded from blue to a dark green and was now pulsating with even more brightness!
Hotep-Ra's face fell when he realized that the boy's power was unexpectedly surging! He had to do something about it!
With a quick flick of his wrist, the Egyptian ghost reactivated Duulaman's sacred scepter.
Danny gasped when he felt the same power that had earlier forced him to the ground grab a hold of him.
But this time, the boy was determined to resist the ancient energy.
"I will never be anybody's slave," Danny defiantly hissed through gritted teeth just as his eyes flared a solid green.
Still, Hotep-Ra wasn't going to give in that easily. The ancient power he held in his hands was immeasurable. He aimed the scepter right at the boy and a large blue beam of energy instantly shot out.
Blue and green energy violently slammed into each other and a line of aquamarine energy immediately formed between the forces.
Danny yelled at the punch but only concentrated harder to counter the scepter's power.
However, much to the boy's chagrin, a moment later a new wave of cold lightning-like pain attacked his spine—again! He could already feel his energy draining from that cursed sabotage of his own body!
"Not this time!" Danny mentally grunted, determined to defy himself this time.
He dug deep, desperately searching for his inner strength to counter both his own and the scepter's blows. His body shook under the strain.
In the meantime, Hotep-Ra couldn't believe what he was seeing. Not only was the boy able to counter his power, but there were greenish-blue sparks bouncing off the two fighting balls of energy! Nevertheless, the ghost commanded even more of the ancient power to attack the boy.
Danny struggled under the counter surge of the scepter. Still, he was able to stay it off.
But then, the cloth bindings around his arms began to shear. Danny purposely ignored them as he focused all of his strength onto this one task.
He felt the cloth began to tear under the antagonizing forces and a moment later, one of his bindings popped under the stress.
Danny gasped at what happened next.
He suddenly felt that very uncomfortable rush as his body melded into dust; and before he could utter a frustrated yelp, he was back and tightly bound again within his sarcophagus!
Even as he reflexively struggled anew, Danny could hear Hotep-Ra's hideous yet muffled laugh from outside of his tomb. "Fool! You did this to yourself! Now, I will leave you until I have the urge to be entertained by you again!"
"NOOOOO!" Danny was finally able to cry, even if the word was stifled by the mummy-cloth gagging him….
Vlad was enthralled with the scene unfolding in front of him. He had never seen that much power coming from Daniel until now. He unwittingly coughed again on the fumes made by the overloaded circuits and wires connected to his control board.
He had, of course, ordered his computer to enhance and quicken the program shortly after he had first caught a whiff of the acrid smell.
Vlad finally relaxed now that he was satisfied that Daniel had been successfully returned to delta sleep. He knew that Maddie would have a lot of data to analyze from this encounter. In fact, he had a feeling that it would unlock even more of the secret of Daniel's powers.
Suddenly encouraged and pleased at the thought, he slightly chuckled, "My, Maddie, don't you think that the mummy outfit suited Daniel?! I was growing quite fond of it on him."
The computer generated image of the love of his life emotionlessly replied, "The test subject's attire was precisely fitted with the specifications of Program 289-5 Beta as calculated, sir. I do not compute the relevance of your comment to the proper execution and the significant results of Program 289-5 Beta, sir."
Even as the man grew more sober with his computer's comment, he still smirked as he said, "As always, your logic is flawless, Maddie."
"You did design me to be as perfect as you, sir," the hologram uttered with a slight gush. "And you programmed me to keep Program 289-5 Beta in sync with the master plan's timeline."
Vlad studied her more intently as she continued, "Protocol dictates to check the test subject's mental health according to standard parameters. The monitors indicate that the readings of the emotional center of his brain, which you know is called his Amygdala, have not only been high, but have become more unstable as a result of this program, and that would support the hypothesis that…."
"That we may be finally breaking Daniel!" Vlad excitedly finished the sentence for her.
"Strong correlation for that, sir," Maddie confirmed.
Vlad smiled a bit before he paused in thought again. He still had to maintain a methodical frame of mind in all of this, even if it seemed his plan was finally coming to fruition.
He finally said, "But I think we still need to be sure before we conclude that your hypothesis is valid and before we have to use Program 289-9 Zeta again. After all, I want to push the boy over his limit."
"That would be a logical procedure, sir."
"Okay, then, Maddie, go ahead and activate Program 289-6 Epsilon," he casually replied.
"Executed sir," she simply replied after she had placed the commands in the queue.
LEVEL 1 GHOSTS
289-level 1—Omegas—shapeless ghosts and brainless ones. Also known as Malfortas. Simple nuisances but very easily defeated.
LEVEL 2 GHOSTS—still nuisances, and still very easy to defeat, but require some alertness to defeat. They usually have more intellect (more or less) or have slightly higher powers than the Malfortas.
289-level 2-Iotas—Derek and Sarah—truephan's original characters from her story, TrueHeart
289-level 2-Theta—Dairy King.
289-level 2-Eta—?— Will appear in a later chapter.
289-level 2-Zeta—Klemper (and friend Chilly-Billy)
289-level 2-Epsilons—Box Ghost and Box Lunch
289-level 2-Deltas—Norbert, Ruben and Willie, Vlad's three fez-wearing vulture cronies
289-level 2-Gamma–Cujo
289-level 2-Betas—Mutant Animals from the episode, Maternal Instincts
289- level 2-Alphas—All other ghost animals in the Ghost Zone
LEVEL THREE GHOSTS—easily defeated, but are a bit more aggressive, intelligent and/or conniving than ghosts of lower levels of power.
289-level 3-Zeta—Lunch Lady
289-level 3-Epsilon—Youngblood and his skeleton sidekick
289-level 3-Delta—Sydney Poindexter
289-level 3-Gammas—the Circus Gothica ghosts from 'Control Freaks': Lydia, Tom the dwarf, Elastica and Goliath (the strongman ghost)
289-level 3-Beta—Kitty
289-level 3-Alpha—Bullet
LEVEL FOUR GHOSTS—not too much power. Easily defeated, May be difficult only because of their own weapons or special abilities. If they had no weapons, would be moderately easy to defeat. Or they may have good powers, but aren't too bright.
289-level 4-Zeta—Amorpho
289-level 4-Epsilon—Razilo—truephan's OC from her story, TrueHeart
289-level 4-Delta—Johnny 13
289-level 4-Gamma—Ember McLain
289-level 4-Beta—Bertrand
289-level 4-Alpha—Wulf
LEVEL FIVE GHOSTS —Moderately easy to defeat. The ghosts have special abilities, and are more powerful than lower leveled ghosts, but their powers have major flaws and once those flaws are discovered, they can easily be defeated.
289-level 5-Gamma—Johnny 13's friend, Shadow
289-level 5-Beta—Technus
289-level 5-Alpha—Hotep-Ra
Well, dear readers, you can see from the countdown that we're already through with the Level 5 ghosts. Why? Well, because, honestly, from here on out, it will be harder and harder to put the stronger ghosts into a particular category. But, my illustrious panel and I still managed to do that because, well, that was our goal! So, if you haven't seen your fav ghost yet, don't fret. You will see them sooner or later!
I sure hope you liked this chapter. It was another try at writing horror for me, though I know it wasn't in the same league as the really gory stuff other writers have done. But that's okay. I can only handle so much horror anyways! And speaking of 'anyways', hope you throw your thoughts my way. I would love to hear them. And, as always, thank you so much for your support!
truephan