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Lost
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Opening his eyes to a green sky wasn't terribly unusual, and Danny was feeling more dazed than usual this morning, so he decided to keep staring. That ectoplasmic swirl looked a bit like a dragon, one of those Asian ones. How nice.
Another thing that was sadly common for Danny was waking up in the Ghost Zone with no idea how he had gotten there. He wondered if it was Skulker again. If so, he could wait. It could be bad if it wasn't Skulker, though.
Maybe he should get up.
Actually, he should have done that from the beginning. But he felt so... scattered.
A teal-edged shadow inserted itself between Danny and the sky. "Danny! Thank goodness we found you!"
The scattered feeling was gone. Apparently, adrenaline and dismay were pretty good at pulling him together.
"Mom?" he asked, digging his fingers into the ground below him to give himself the leverage he needed to sit up. "What's going on? Why're you here?" Because, really, his mother, of all people, should not be in the Ghost Zone. Ever.
Maddie helped him up and started rubbing his back. Oh, he really was out of it.
"I'll explain in a bit, sweetie. Jack! I found him!"
Oh, no. His dad was here, too?
"Danny!" yelled Jack, and, a moment later, so did Jazz.
Danny winced. Was his whole family here?
"Are you alright?" asked Maddie. "You were closest to the explosion, that's probably going to have some side effects."
"Explosion?" asked Danny, blinking and scanning his surroundings. They were surrounded by low, rolling hills covered in grey-purple grass. It felt arid. The grass was dry, the soil, sandy. Jack and Jazz came up over one of them, jogging. It looked like they were having a bit of trouble with gravity, like it wasn't quite as strong as usual.
Danny thought about that for a minute and decided that was right. Gravity was lower here than on Earth. Which meant that someone controlled this area and was enforcing their will on it, otherwise gravity would be whatever was expected.
That was... information. Neither good nor bad. At the moment. So long as Danny's parents didn't run into this person and start shooting.
"A ghost tried to steal our portable portal invention," explained Maddie. "We were trying to do a deep clean of the lab, so we were all down there. Jack and I tried to fight the ghost off, of course-"
"But that darn specter just wouldn't quit!" finished Jack. "It kept attacking you, too, Danny! That cowardly ghost, when I get my hands on it..." Jack trailed of, grumbling and making crumpling gestures with his large hands.
"You don't remember?" asked Maddie.
"No," said Danny, rubbing his eyes with the inside of his shirt collar. He didn't. "I think the last thing I remember is going to bed."
Maddie nodded. "Can I see your eyes?" she asked.
Danny looked up at her, trying not to blink.
"You might have a concussion," said Maddie. "Do you feel dizzy? Out of focus?"
"Maybe a bit," said Danny.
Maddie frowned. "Normally I'd have you rest," she said, "but we can't do that here. We need to find a portal and get home."
"Yeah," said Danny. "So we are in the Ghost Zone?"
"I'm afraid so," said Maddie.
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Despite Maddie's fears, Danny didn't have any trouble walking, although he seconded her opinion on the concussion. His head hurt when he moved too fast.
More worryingly, he didn't recognize this part of the Zone. These arid hills weren't a place he'd been to before, nor were they instantly recognizable as a place he'd heard of.
That was troubling.
He knew his parents were worried, too. They kept having whispered conversations about how likely it was that they'd find a portal. If Jack was whispering...
Well, it wasn't good.
Danny really didn't want to reveal his secret, or even that he knew more about the Ghost Zone than he should, but if they didn't find a portal soon, he would. He wasn't about to let his family starve or die of thirst. As a ghost, there were options available to him that just weren't there for humans.
He just had to build himself up to it.
Jazz was making all sorts of faces at him as they walked. She was probably trying to convince him to... something. He didn't know. It was annoying and distracting.
Danny followed Jack and Maddie into the next valley, and they were surrounded. Just like that, in the space of a blink. He sucked air in through his teeth, assessing the ghosts around them.
They were... odd. Even for ghosts. Too tall. Elongated. Their skin was orange, dusted with darker, red-brown spots. They wore tunics. Their tails were long, and wrapped around the stomachs of the seahorse-like creatures that they rode.
Wow. They were really far from the places in the Zone Danny usually went to, weren't they?
His parents' hands twitched towards their weapons.
"Wait!" hissed Danny. "They aren't attacking." He still didn't like how the ghosts were watching them, with their solid yellow eyes.
"Yet," said Maddie, grimly.
"Well, maybe they won't if we don't attack first," said Jazz. "I don't think we can take all of them, Mom."
One of the ghosts nudged their mount forward, and began to speak.
Danny blinked. He knew that language! Sort of.
"Pray," he said. "Slower?"
"Danny?" said Jack, surprised. "What language is that?"
Danny shrugged.
"What business have you living in our lands?" repeated the ghost with a faint edge of condescension. "You, who have paid no price."
"We are..." Danny wracked his brain for the right words. "Not knowing the place that we are?" He tried to mime out being lost with his hands. "They want to know what we're doing here," he said to his family. "I just told them that we're lost."
"How came you to be here?" asked the ghost.
"It was a... uhm... It was a... door? In the air. We would like... a door again, and not make you angry." Danny was not fluent in this particular ghost language.
"You, who have paid no price? What would you give us for this?"
Danny looked around. He didn't really have anything with him, and he rather doubted that his parents would be enthusiastic about paying a ghost. "I can make you the cold?" offered Danny. He suspected it might not be common here, considering how dry and hot it was.
"Ice? Show us."
Danny glanced at his parents.
"What does it want?" asked Maddie.
"Nothing bad," said Danny. "Just... Don't freak out, okay?" He held up his hands, and let a small diamond of ghost ice form between them.
The ghosts began to whisper among themselves.
"Hm," said the spokesman. "We will accept this. One for each, and we shall take you to a portal."
"For each of us or each of you?"
"Each of us," said the ghost, smiling.
"Danny, what's going on?" asked Maddie. "How did you do that?" There was a touch of suspicion in her eyes.
"It's, um, a long story," said Danny. "But it isn't anything bad, and Jazz knows about it. I'm not overshadowed, promise." Not the best way to explain things, but Danny didn't want to get too far into the details while negotiating. He flashed a nervous smile. "They said that they can show us a portal, I just need to make them some of these." He waved the crystal. "Good deal, right?"
The ghost made a sort of clicking sound. "The crystals, for your payment," they said.
"Right," said Danny, putting his hands together. He glanced at his parents again, and winced at their expressions.
So much for this going well.
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I don't currently intend to continue this one.