"Your Ghostly Wail," Plasmius stated later that night. "It's one of your ghost powers. One that I do not have, so I cannot demonstrate it to you."
"But you've got us all here with you." Sam gestured to their group standing in the darkened park. Jazz and Tucker both smiled at him encouragingly.
"How does it work?" Danny asked, looking to Vlad.
"Well, none of us were there when you got your Wail, but it's basically a supersonic scream," Tucker explained.
"You don't use it very often, though because it drains you so much you usually revert back into human form the instant you stop," Sam added.
Danny had stopped looking towards the silent Vlad. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz clearly knew more about the power than he did. "How did I get the power?"
"We're not exactly sure," Jazz said. "But it activated during a moment of extreme emotional stress, that you didn't tell us much about."
"Emotions have a way of directing our powers without our permission sometimes. That's why we need to keep a tight handle on ourselves during stressful times." Vlad explained. "It could trigger the development of a new power, but it could also cause you to use more energy than needed, which could drain you until you revert back into human form, leaving you highly vulnerable. If the trigger for the power was heightened emotions, you're going to have to remember times where you were highly stressed to activate the power at first, but you will also need to use other memories and emotions to help direct the energy from the blast and keep it under control. That way you won't revert back into human form when you no longer need to use it."
Danny nodded, taking in Vlad's words. "When do we go to the Ghost Zone and that red castle?" he wondered. "I want to remember."
"After you learn how to activate and control your Wail," Vlad said. "You won't have to master it, but at least learn to stay in ghost form after you use the power."
"You can do it, Danny. We believe in you," Jazz encouraged.
"Yeah, dude. You've done it before, so you can do it again," Tucker added.
Danny faced a tree, glancing up at the top of it, silhouetted against the starry sky. Could he really fell this entire tree with one scream?
Danny felt more than heard Vlad's approach behind him. Vlad stood there, waiting. "Will it be the same as normal?" Danny wondered. "Reach down inside and bring it out?"
"Yes," Vlad assured. "Though this is obviously different than flying or turning invisible. You have to direct the energy up and into your vocal cords when you bring it out. But if it's all the same to you, I'm going to take a few steps backwards. This is quite a powerful blast, after all."
Danny could hear the smile in his words, and then Vlad's footsteps as he backed away. Danny let out a preparatory breath. "Okay," he sighed, closing his eyes and repeating the process of reaching down into his power.
Feeling the power writhing inside of him like he had just stuck his hand into an angry ocean, he grabbed hold of it. He imagined the same thing as before, pulling it up like he was saving someone from jumping off a cliff. Something swelled in side of his chest. It seemed to crush his lungs, and made it hard to breathe. He pictured the power moving upwards, and the second he did, it happened. The power swiftly moved from his chest and into his throat. He almost choked on it. It strangely reminded him of something. A tall, pale man with a hand around his throat.
His eyes snapped open, his heart suddenly racing. The power in his throat then burst out, forcing him to scream. The scream tore out of his mouth, ripping both his mouth and his throat raw. Large, green rings of ecto energy traveled out of him, bombarding the tree he was facing. It quickly fell, along with the next and the next.
Danny couldn't control his heart. He could feel something. The memory of pain, and it was making him panic.
"Daniel!" Vlad's voice called, though Danny could barely hear it. "Control it! They're your powers! They do what you want them to!"
Danny squeezed his eyes shut again, remembering Vlad's previous words. Think of something to calm him down to control the power. He thought of Jazz and his parents last night watching home movies on the couch. Not much happened, but he could fell how much they cared for him then.
The deafening roar and green ecto energy rings coming from Danny suddenly stopped, leaving Danny void of energy. Danny dropped down to the ground, instantly reverting back into human form.
"Danny!" several voices called.
The boy was dazed, and colors were running together as if he was flying too fast. With the four faces surrounding him, the image seemed vaguely familiar, but he didn't know why.
Danny blinked, straining to settle his eyesight. Eventually, he accomplished that goal, clearly seeing Jazz, Tucker, Sam, and Vlad standing over him. "Woah," he muttered.
Over the next several nights, Danny, his friends, and Vlad traveled to remote locations, allowing Danny to practice his Ghostly Wail. He couldn't practice much since releasing such power all at once was so draining, but as time went on, Danny noticed that he was recovering quicker and quicker. He still couldn't stay in ghost form, but he could transform back almost instantly.
"Come on, guys," he pleaded, changing back into ghost form after releasing another Wail. "Let's go to the red castle now."
"No," Vlad denied. "It's too dangerous for you, right now."
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree," Sam added.
"And if you go there, you might pass out from your memories trying to come back," Jazz reminded.
Danny groaned. "I've been practicing bringing my energy out and containing it. I can even make a ball of ecto energy and even hold it in human form, now. I can handle this," he assured. "I want to remember, and unless we train for months more, I don't think I'm going to get any better than this. And I don't want to wait months."
Tucker finally spoke up. "I think he's right." Vlad, Sam, and Jazz all looked at him incredulously. "For all we know, part of his soul being in that stone orb could be preventing him from unleashing his full power. And the longer we wait, the more attacks he might have, and who knows. One of those attacks might land him in a coma or worse. I think it's too much of a risk to wait."
Sam nodded in consideration. "There are a lot of unknown factors."
It took a while, but eventually Tucker and Danny wore down the reluctant Sam, Vlad, and Jazz. Vlad sighed. "If I'm not able to stop you from going, I'm going to come with you," he agreed. "We'll go tomorrow evening."
"Any change?" Walker demanded as one of his sargents marched into his office.
"None, sir. No one has entered the castle since those three teenagers and Vlad Plasmius left two weeks ago, sir," he responded.
Walker smirked with satisfaction. "Good. Then let's go inside and investigate. Hopefully there's still something left of the place that we can use on that Phantom punk."