Danny hadn't heard Wes. Wes hadn't gotten through to him. The duck haunted Wes' waking mind. Until he forgot.
Wes opened The Curse of St-. He appeared in the bar Faust had mourned- last night? the night before that? Wes didn't know.
He ordered a sandwich from the woman behind the counter. He wasn't hungry, but he didn't know what else to do to relieve him of the feeling he had. His head was telling him to do something but he didn't know what.
"On the house, stranger. For what you did with the fire. You saved my son." She smiled at him, and he smiled back. She turned to help another early patron.
. * . * .
Danny and Amorpho flew over various habitats in the Ghost Zone. They landed near where sat the portal which had had a vast increase in traffic recently.
The Fenton Ghost Portal.
"It's gone!" observed Danny, for it was. He had used it enough times to know where it was in the Ghost Zone. And he trusted Amorpho to not lead him astray. The portal to his parent's lab- and Amity Park- was gone.
"We'll have to find another one," said Amorpho, who sported the form of a floating porcelain doll (which did nothing to calm Danny's nerves). "But where?"
"We'll ask Frostbite! He knows tons about the Ghost Zone."
. * . * .
"Oh, I am nothing compared to you, Mayor of Amity Park!" cried Vlad Plasmius, in mock defeat.
"You go, Mr. Mayor!" cheered Dash, who watched as Vlad beat himself up.
You've gotta be kidding me," woed Sam.
"Did you say something?" asked Dash, who was rooting for his mayor, Vlad Masters, in the fight between Masters and Plasmius.
"No."
Vlad sucker-punched Plamsius, who went down with far too much drama and far too little reality, in Sam's opinion.
One of Vlad's clones had flown toward them, bearing the Ring of Rage. In classic supervillain fashion, he had announced his plans in broad daylight- or whatever the Ghost Zone equivalent to daylight was.
"I, Vlad Plasmius, have acquired the Ring of Rage! You will give me the Crown of Fire and grant me eternal might else I will destroy you!" Laying it on thick.
And Vlad had started a mock battle with himself. Sam did not try to intervene, because she knew it would be pointless. Vlad would win either way because Vlad was the only combatant.
But Dash didn't know that. Sam sighed.
. * . * .
Kitty floated near the ceiling, watching her prey. Her hiding place lay on the tiles and her prey sat nearby and she watched.
She knew where they were. She knew who Chariot really was. She knew they had to get out. But she didn't know how.
She was just as trapped as her prey.
. * . * .
Frostbite sent them to the ruins.
"It is the most stable portal to Amity Park, for it is notoriously hard to get into," Frostbite had said before sending them on their way. "Many have tried, most have failed. The rest have refused to say what it is they saw."
What Danny and Amorpho beheld was not a smoldering pile of broken buildings as they had expected, but a writhing mass of stone and metal. It moved like it was alive (and, considering its locale, the Ghost Zone, it very well could be). As they entered it through a hole in its side, they felt they had invaded some great beast. The walls breathed, in, out, in, out. A ghastly wind rushed past them, cold and draining.
"I am sorry to do this, fellow shapeshifter," began Amorpho. "But I must leave you. I am not inclined to this type of adventure. My forte is in small-scale pranks. I leave this mission to you, Danny Phantom."
Danny was sad to see him go, but it was what it was. Now that he was alone, he could traverse the Ruins in his human form, without fear of leaving his companion in the dust, as Amorpho could not pass through ecto-matter in the Zone like a human could.
Alone, Danny ventured on.