Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz all had their ears pressed against the outside wall of Maddie and Jack's bedroom. They could hear them whispering about them. They supposed it was the normal things that parents talked about alone: their children's well-being. That mostly seemed to be about their grades at school. Sam and Tucker were there under the guise of a study group to help catch Danny up with the rest of their grade, and they pretended to fall asleep in Danny's room. They overheard both Maddie and Jack call their parents and explain that their study group had turned into an unplanned sleepover, and they were currently listening in on them to see when they fell asleep. Then they could easily take the Specter Speeder into the Ghost Zone without them knowing, but it seemed to be taking forever.
"Shh," a gentle voice whispered, catching their attention. They watched as Vlad Plasmius regained visibility.
"How are we getting past them?" Danny muttered.
Vlad held up a small jar. "I put sleep spores in their water glasses. And don't worry. It's completely harmless," he added at the sight of the group's surprised and somewhat afraid looks. "It will just assure that they'll fall and stay asleep. Shouldn't be too long now."
As if on cue, gentle snoring could be heard through the wall. And just to double check, Danny turned his head intangible and stuck it through the wall. He found his parents deeply asleep on their bed. He pulled his head back out from the wall, and nodded to his friends and sister. "They're out like a light."
Tucker narrowed his eyes, looking more determined than Danny had ever seen him. "Then let's get going."
It wasn't long until the five of them were approaching the red castle floating in the ghost zone. Danny couldn't stop looking around in amazement. The green Ghost Zone was more vast than he thought it would be, and the energy novas gave the illusion that they were flying through space. The ghost energy within him swelled when they entered the Zone, and he couldn't help but morph into his ghost form. But the sight of the lone red castle completely froze all that he felt. There was a pressure forming steadily in his head, and he knew from experience that it was the beginning of a new headache. But he grit his teeth and shoved the pain to the back of his mind, focusing on the task at hand.
"Let's go," Vlad ordered, phasing through the floor of the Speeder.
Tucker opened up the back of the vehicle, and him, Sam, and Jazz got up from their seats. Danny followed Vlad through the floor as his friends and sister dropped out of the back of the Speeder. Tucker closed the doors and locked it up. The three of them floated up to Danny and Vlad, awkwardly swimming through the air.
The group wordlessly glided the rest of the way to the red castle and inside, entering the empty main chamber. "Wow," Danny scoffed. "You weren't kidding when you said this place was empty."
"Shh!" Vlad muttered harshly. "I think there are people here."
Danny concentrated to enhance his hearing as Tucker, Sam, and Jazz quieted. There was someone here. There was a voice coming from down below. He couldn't make out anything they were saying, but the voice was deep and had some sort of accent, but the voice was too faint to identify it.
"Daniel," Vlad quietly called. "Turn invisible and stay with me. The rest of you follow from behind. Move as silently as possible."
Danny nodded and turned himself invisible as Vlad did the same. He took a few steps forward, sensing where Vlad was. The group descended the stairs, the three full humans moving as silently as they could with their ecto weapons. At the bottom of the stairs, a curved, stone doorway greeted them along with almost blinding bright orange firelight.
Danny squinted against it, straining to see what was in the room. What he found was a thin stone bridge and some sort of carved gazebo that had a large rock ball in the center of it and a stone wall at the back. And there were people there. Ghosts. There were maybe fifteen or twenty ghosts in what looked like police body armor, complete with batons. They had green skin and a long green tail where their legs should be. In the gazebo-obelisk was what Tucker called it from the translated papers, right?-standing in front of the stone orb was a tall, paper white ghost in a casual work suit that was just as white as his skin, and now that his voice was clear, Danny could finally identify his accent as southern.
"What're they doing here?" Sam quietly growled behind him.
"I thought they ran off," Jazz added.
"They must be looking for a way to still use this stuff," Tucker suggested.
"The books were untouched, sir!" an unfamiliar voice shouted from behind them.
Danny jumped and turned around, temporarily forgetting that he was invisible. But then his panic renewed when he realized that his friends and sister weren't.
The armored ghost floated down the stairs, his hand cupping his mouth to amplify his voice. The second his glowing red eyes landed on Tucker, Sam, and Jazz, he froze. "Intruders!" he bellowed, charging at them.
Danny didn't even think or stop to process what he was doing with his powers. He just put his hand out, pleading that he would be able to save his friends and sister. His invisibility dropped without his permission as a bright green ray exploded out of his hand, striking the armored ghost in the chest.
"Daniel!" Vlad gasped next to him. "Regain invisibility at once."
Sam raised her gun as the ghost that Danny had struck stumbled backwards. She fired to keep him off balance as Jazz brought up her Fenton Thermos. She activated it and sucked the ghost inside.
"Danny Phantom," the same southern voice that was shouting orders before greeted, though there was a note of mocking surprise contained in it. Danny turned towards the white ghost as Vlad regained visibility and the ghost continued. "I know you might not remember me, but my name is Walker. The warden around these parts."
"You mean, the Ghost Zone has a law system? Seems a bit too chaotic," Danny pointed out. "You might want to do a bit more policing."
Walker scoffed. "Well, a certain someone is the one who threw this ordered Zone into chaos." He gritted his teeth and growled with threat, "Get them. Bring Phantom here alive."
The armored ghosts launched themselves towards them, and Vlad shouted an order at the top of his lungs. "Get out of the bottleneck!"
The group separated. Vlad and Danny took to the air, and those who were human in the group split: Sam and Tucker to the right and Jazz to the left. They skirted the ghosts, blasting at them as they rushed through the now open doorway. Danny didn't know how he managed to create that blast earlier, but he called upon the same emotions and put his hand out. Another green ray launched from his hand as the ghosts finally registered that the group had separated.
Some of the ghosts darted upwards towards Vlad and Danny while others went to the sides, forcing the three friends into another bottleneck on the narrow stone bridge. As the ghosts came up towards Danny, he couldn't concentrate enough to form another blast. They were coming at him too fast. He had to resort to throwing punches just to keep them at bay. It wasn't long before he noticed that he had gotten separated from Vlad. Something grabbed him from behind and wrapped around him. It was a pair of arms, and they were holding a steel baton in front of him, pinning him in place.
Danny instinctively bucked, almost like he was a horse attempting to throw his rider. As he repeatedly tried to dislodge the ghost's hold he remembered what it felt like when he first transformed in that hospital room. That surge of energy. He was already transformed, but he brought forth that energy once more, forcing more of it to the surface. His hands glowed green, and that hue was quickly spreading to the rest of his body. Danny suppressed his panic and let the energy build until his entire body was glowing a bright, almost lime green. He thrust the energy outwards, delivering a wide ring of ectoplasmic power to every ghost nearby.
The ghosts were forced away and didn't move after Danny's blast. Then all of the ghosts were suddenly caught in a white ray and dragged away. Jazz sealed the thermos again, and she raised her weapon, preparing to fire again, but a ghost came up behind her with his baton raised. "No!" Danny exclaimed and rushed forward.
Something hot struck him in the back, and he cried out in pain. With the break in his concentration, he couldn't remain afloat and crashed hard down onto the stone bridge. A large hand grabbed his hair, yanking him upwards.
"Daniel!" Vlad called.
As the hand yanked more and more on Danny's hair as it pulled him up and off the ground, he finally saw the face of who had him: Walker. He also watched as Vlad charged towards them both. A war cry reached his ears, and he glanced towards it as best as he could, finding Sam running at them along the bridge, her gun raised. Pink and green rays bombarded Walker, but after a brief moment, he raised a hand. His hand glowed purple, and he swiped his hand in a large arc, sending out a wave of violet energy. The wave struck Sam in the chest and Vlad in the stomach, forcing them both rapidly away. Sam and Vlad slammed their backs into the wall. Sam cried out in pain and slid to the floor by the entrance of the chamber. Vlad slid down below the flames, and neither of them got back up.
"No!" Danny shouted again, struggling in Walker's grasp.
Danny kicked out and grabbed at Walker's hand in his hair. Walker suddenly sent a painful current of ecto energy coursing through Danny's body, making him cry out. He struggled to maintain consciousness, but he did manage to.
"Oh, quit your whining," Walker scolded, dragging Danny backwards.
The heels of Danny's boots scrapped against the dirty stone, leaving thin trails in the dust. Walker raised Danny upwards and launched him. Danny's back was slammed into a stone wall, forcing all of the air from his lungs. Danny slid to the floor, coughing vigorously as he strained to get his air back.
"Now we don't have to wait and see if we can still affect you. We can just experiment on you here," Walker announced.
Danny finally managed to stop coughing and looked up at Walker through his blurred vision. A large, red, stone ball was blocking most of his line of sight. Danny braced himself against the wall behind him and got unsteadily to his feet.
"And if you refuse to cooperate…" Walker trailed off, gesturing behind him.
Danny looked towards that direction and found three of the ghosts in body armor supporting an unconscious Sam, and holding a struggling Tucker and Jazz. They had knives to all three of their throats.
When Vlad's back struck the stone wall, all of the air had instantly gone out of his lungs. Walker's blast was so disruptive that he couldn't maintain his altitude and slid down the wall. He flipped himself around and used all of his strength to force his fingertips past the stone. He dug into the wall as he slid further and further down. His hands burned as the rock crumbled away beneath the tips of his fingers. He braced his feet against the wall, straining to slow his momentum. The air around him got hotter and hotter, and the properties of his heated ghost core naturally activated, shielding him from the heat.
Eventually, he managed to grind to a stop, the flames licking at the edge of his cape. He glanced down, the fires blinding him with their heat and light. He couldn't tell how much further down it was or what was at the bottom causing the fires to burn.
He took a moment, clinging to the wall as he assessed the situation. He concentrated, enhancing his hearing more than it already was in an attempt to hear what was going on above, but he couldn't hear anything over the roar of the flames around him. They were so hot, that even he-with his heated ghost core-was starting to sweat.
Vlad removed his fingers from the wall, turned invisible and steadily glided upwards. Once he could see over the tips of the flames, he found Jasmine and Daniel's two friends being held down by three of Walker's goons and guarded by more, blades held threateningly at the three teens' throats. But Daniel. He was unsteadily leaning against the wall of the obelisk. He had to get away from there.
"You wouldn't," Danny said. "You're a policeman. Wouldn't taking another's life in threat count as murder?"
"My laws don't apply to humans, Ghost Kid," Walker reminded.
Danny looked up at Walker, a challenge in his eyes. He could sense how dangerous this situation was, and he didn't know how to get out of it. He needed to see just how far this Walker guy was willing to go.
"Don't try me," Walker growled.
The white ghost turned his head back towards his guards and sharply waved one forward. The ghost that was holding Tucker stowed his knife, shoved the teenager forward onto the narrow bridge. He used his baton and whacked at the back of Tucker's knees. Tucker yelled in pain as he dropped into a kneeling position. The ghost swat Tucker on the back of his head with his baton, knocking off the boy's red beret. Tucker fell forward onto his stomach as his beret was sent straight down into the fires below. Tucker screamed again as the ghost grabbed his hair and pulled his head upwards, exposing his throat.
"No," Danny breathed. Hardly believing what he was seeing. He had only met Tucker, what? About a month ago? But he couldn't lose him. He was his friend.
The ghost brought his knife back out again pressing it into Tucker's throat.
"Stop it," Danny ordered, looking pointedly at Walker. "Call him off." He stood up a little straighter. "Now."
Walker looked back at Danny and smirked. "I'm going to prove a point to you, Ghost Kid," he spat. "You're in the Ghost Zone, and you're a ghost. You've committed enough infractions against the law to be sentenced to destruction, and I'm going to make it as slow as possible."
The white ghost turned back to the ghost holding Tucker down and nodded.
Danny didn't even register that he was screaming. He just opened his mouth and screamed.