Hiya, back again, sorry it took so long but school keeps getting in the way - damn rude of it in my opinion. I don't know if this will be good news or bad news but this story is going to be at least 10 yes 10! chapters long more thank likely it will be many more. Interpret that how you will but this is going to get big, I hope you can stay with me for that length of time.
As compensation for the amount of timeI made you wait, I've made this chapterridiculously long
Thank you to my reviewers
obi-quiet: Thank you
cakreut12: Is the bunny working or is just randomly mauling you and your loved ones? Lol. Thank you for the review
bakachan: I couldn't agree more. I think we should send round a petition to all Ember fans and get them to sign it to say that we want her to appear in more eppies. I don't care about Technus or Skulker or Kitty and Johnny or Vlad, WE WANT EMBER, WE WANT EMBER! Soz. It's such a shame that they put so much work into the song and then they only play the tiny chorus that makes her sound a bit self-obsessed. They should play the full song on the show and explain it's inspiration. I would love to know where the lyrics came from. She must have one hell of a back story. Anyway, enough with my rant. Thank you for the review and I'm honoured that this is your fav.
Oh, just one more thing. I think that in the ghost zone it's a pretty close knit community where everyone knows just about everyone else and they're mostly friends with each other. That comment will clear itself up as you read I promise.
'blah' are thoughts - usually Ember's
And here we go again.
Chapter 7 - An Evil Shadow
Ember's face developed a frown while her eyes remained closed. "It's no use, I can't do it"
"Sweetie, open your eyes"
"What?" the teen opened her eyes to see that the world was gently bobbing up and down, then she looked at her feet. They were floating a few inches from the ground. A smile crashed onto her lips as she screamed with joy "I'M DOING IT!"
"Well done. I think you may be the best student I've ever had. You learnt that much quicker than anyone else I've taught."
Ember floated for a few seconds, wallowing in the glee she felt from her accomplishment, then a thought occurred to her.
"Spectra, how do I land?"
"Oh, that's the really easy part; just bring your energy back out from underneath your feet, the faster you do it, the faster you'll land."
"Okay" Ember concentrated on the energy within herself and brought it out from underneath her feet. As she did she saw that her feet left the air and made contact with the ground again. "I did it" she said as she beamed a smile at the woman in red while the little green blob just snorted and changed into a giant green eagle.
Spectra smiled as she transformed "Well done, now we can take that tour I promised you can't we?" The black form rose into the sky once again, along with the eagle leaving Ember to figure out how to rise into the air and follow them at speed. She found it wasn't quite as hard as she thought it was and in a few minutes she was easily keeping up with her mentors.
Half an hour of flight brought hem over what appeared to be some kind of communal park, not dissimilar to the one that was in the teen's old hometown. She was so busy contemplating the park she nearly didn't notice when her guides dropped out of the air and landed on what appeared for all intents and purposes, to be grass. She landed next to themwhile they transformed back to whatshe assumed were their human forms.She took the time tolook around from her new vantage point. It still looked uncomfortably like the park in her hometown, where she made her debut as Ember the rock star. She didn't have much time to muse on this new revelation as from behindher something crept up and once again yelled in her ear.
"BEWARE!"
She jumped and whirled in an attempt to catch whoever it was who kept tormenting her but once again all she saw was the green black sky and floating purple doors.
"I am getting sick of that" she said before turning to Spectra, looking for an answer "Who is that guy anyway"
"Who, the one who keeps yelling beware?" the teen nodded "We only know him as the box ghost. Don't worry about him, he's harmless, and more of an annoyance than anything else." She stopped then and looked around until she saw a group of people she seemed to know, she waved at them and one waved back. She grabbed Ember's wrist and started to gently pull her toward the group "Come on, I'll make introductions"
She was pulled over to a group of some very odd looking individuals, but again, she wasn't as surprised as she could have been. She was beginning to learn to expect the unexpected in this mad place.
As promised Spectra introduced all of them to her as she pointed them out. The one with the trench coat, the white hair and the sunglasses was called Technus. There was the lunch lady she had meet previously who was called Deloris. Two of the group looked like they were a couple. She was dressed in red,had green hair and red eyes, while he had a long grey coat, blonde hair and green eyes, they were Johnny 13 and Kitten. The woman with the curtain of black hair, red eyes and clothes that looked like they jumped strait form the pages of Arabian Nights was named Desiree and the one with the high tech metal suit and green flames for hair 'wow, flames are a bit of a recurring theme in this place' was named Skulker. She already knew the self-proclaimed Box Ghost and Bertrand. Hello's and welcomes were exchanged and for the first time since she had come here, in fact for the first timein at least a year , she felt accepted and welcome.
"What's that on your back?" Desiree asked Ember when she spotted the guitar
"This?" she swung the guitar back round so it was in position for her to play if she wanted. "It's my guitar"
"Are you any good?" Johnny asked, rather bluntly.
"Am I any good?" Ember took two steps back, took a plectrum from the holder that she had added to her guitar shortly after receiving it, and began to perform.
Three and a half minutes later, she stopped and looked at the speechless crowd that had gathered since she had begun. She smiled, embarrassed, and the whole crowd cheered, clapped and those who knew it chanted her name. It was then that she felt it, it felt like a strong breeze had lifted her hair up, and she felt…powerful. As if that little ball inside of her had grown. She closed her eyes and revelled in the feeling while the crowd began to shrink away from her and disperse. She found that the effect stopped as the crowed quietened but she could swear that her hair felt a bit longer when she brought her hand up to the ponytail and inspected it's new length.
"Ember?" a mystery voice interrupted her thoughts. She opened her eyes and focused on the person in front of her. It was the girl with the green hair. "Are you okay?"
"Yea, in fact I feel better than okay, I feel…stronger, more powerful…I don't know why" After her statement Spectra smiled and decided that now would be a good time to give her new charge her next lesson about being Undead.
"Sweetie, do you know what that was?" Spectra asked by way of getting the teen's attention.
Ember turned to the woman who had instructed her since she had arrived "No"
"Unless I'm very much mistaken, that was your powers manifesting"
"My powers?" Ember asked confused, wondering what she meant by powers. She had used that word often since she had started instructing the teen.
By way of an answer, Spectra formed an ectoplasmic blast in her hand.
"So...can the rest of you do that?"
Almost everyone else in the group formed their own blast in their palm.
"Could I?"
"Of course you can, you just need a little more training" Spectra answered for the group, stopping them from teasing her or making her feel bad.
"Is that the only power you guys have or do you all have your own or something?" judging by the looks on their faces she could tell she was about to regret what she had just said. The first person to speak was the man in the long grey trench coat and white hair.
"I AM TECHNUS, MASTER OF ALL THINGS TECHNOLOGICAL AND BEEPING, MANIPULATOR OF MACHINES, LORD OF ALL GADGETRY, WIZARD OF INTEGRATED CIRCUITRY, MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY AND DESTROYER OF WORLDS!"
When the rant had finished everyone gave him a funny look and turned their attention to the next person to clear their throat and begin. It was the man in the suit.
"I am Skulker, the greatest hunter in all of the Ghost Zone. Do not annoy me whelp, or your pelt will adorn the foot of my bed."
Ember took him at his word and made a mental note to give this guy a wide birth in future.
The one named Desiree spoke next "I am Desiree, I grant the hearts desire"
"So you're a genie then?"
There was a long pause in which a strange look crossed the face of the woman. Then she finally spoke, her voice laced with what sounded like annoyance "I am a genie only in the fact that I grant wishes. I am a free woman, I am not bound or governed by any lamp or the rules of a genie. I may grant as many wishes as I please and may give whatever a person's heart desires."
Ember decided that she had gotten far too many peoples back up since she had arrived, she resolved to think about what she was going to say to the next one before she actually spoke.
The lunch lady named Deloris was the next to speak
"Well dearie…I CONTROL LUNCH, THERE WILL BE NO CHANGING OF THE MENU AND THERE WILL BE MEAT!"
The teenager just blinked her wide eyes and turned hr attention to the next person.
"I AM THE BOX GHOST! I AM MASTER OF ALL THINGS CORREGATED AND SQUARE…" Right about there Ember stopped listening, this was the third time she had meet him and she was already bored of him. Unnoticed by anyone he finished his rant and the group's attention fell onto the next person
Spectra took the podium next.
"I know you already know Bertrand and I, we work in a partnership to suck the misery from humans to keep us looking young"
"You look pretty good to me, how do you get the misery then?"
"We go back to the human world and steal it, mostly from teenagers"
"You can go back!" Ember was incredulous "I had no idea, how long has it been since you went back?"
"I have no idea, it's got to be a few years at least"
"YEARS! How have you managed to stay looking that young then?" she clapped her hands over her mouth as she realised she had once again spoke before she thought. Spectra didn't seem too bothered though, she just smiled before she continued
"In the Ghost Zone time doesn't exist, you could believe you have only been here for what you think is a few months while in the living world it could have been 50 years. While we are here we stay permanently young, when we enter the living world time catches up with us and drains our energy so we have to replenish it"
"So how long have you been here?"
"I honestly have no idea sweetie, but long enough to greet all of the poor souls you see before you"
Ember's jaw fell, she looked at the genie/ghost and her outfit and thought about how many hundreds of years it must have been since she arrived, never mind any of the rest of them.
"How many people have you greeted here?"
"All of them"
"As in all of the people in this group?"
"No, no, I mean all of the people in the Ghost Zone"
There was a stunned silence for a considerable amount of time while the teen processed the information.
"So would that make you…"
"…The oldest ghost here? Yes it does, I have greeted and initially trained all of the spirits in this realm. I help them to discover their powers, then release them. They flourish on their own after that. You my dear, unless I am mistaken, are like me. You feed on emotions, and in your case, I think it's adoration. When people love you, worship you and chant your name, you will probably find that you will grow more powerful"
"Yea, I felt that when I sang for you guys, afterwards, when everyone was cheering, I felt stronger, I think."
"And your hair went mad" the blonde in the long coat standing next to the motorbike finally spoke.
Ember ignored the comment for now and instead decided to ask about his powers, since he and his girlfriend were the only two to not identify themselves
"So what can you guys do then?"
The woman answered first "I can't actually use my own body, I died in a fire and my body was totally cremated, so I use my powers, and my clothes, to take over other peoples bodies and use them as my own."
"I didn't think a ghost needed their body"
"They need it long enough to re-materialise here. After that it doesn't matter what happens to it." The boy answered again.
"Okay, you're the only one who hasn't spilled yet, so come on, what's your power?" Ember asked the boy
"It's easier to show you, Shadow, demo"
She thought he was playing a joke on her because he threw his arm out in what looked like a pretty pathetic gesture. She quickly changed her mind when a black form rose up from beneath him, formed a face complete with fangs and flew at her. She didn't even have time to turn away before it flew strait threw her, and the guitar on her back. She heard a sickly wine and felt what felt like sparks on her shoulder before she spun it back round to inspect it. It looked like it had aged a hundred years in an instant and was very obviously broken, most likely beyond repair.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY GUITAR!"
End of chapter
A/N: FRIGGIN' PLOT BUNNIES. I can't get a moments peace, they refuse to stop biting me no matter how much repellent I put on, or how many cats I set on them. Whatever kind of traps or cages I put out. They still find a way into the computer room to nibble at me, even when I'm an hour away from my computer at school!
Does anyone want a couple? They reproduce so fast and nibble so often that you'll be turning out chapters like it's going out of fashion.
A/N 2: Aren't I evil? What's happened to her guitar, does it ever get fixed, what will she do to Johnny if she can't? these answers and more coming later…
I wanted the lunch lady to have a name, and Deloris suits her. Lol I hope no-body minds, if you do, tell me and I will change it back to an anonymous ghost. I hope you liked it. Gotta go now, my first exam is on the 19th and I haven't ever looked at my revision yet, the updates may get more erratic until the 6th of June but after that I'll be relatively free. Until January anyway when I have to go through this dog and pony show again.
AWW! Damn BUNNIES!
May the Angels bless you and keep you safe, no matter what your faith or beliefs.