A dark-haired, blue eyed boy leaned on the rail of the ferry to watch as they passed a dark and foreboding place. He sighed in irritation as his father proclaimed for the umpteenth time, "Five years! After five years, we're the first people allowed back on the island! Can you just imagine what kind of ghosts we'll find there?"

"Yes, dear," his mother said, also for the umpteenth time. "Jack, honey, at least try to act composed. At least until we get there."

The boy's sister, next to him at the rail, rolled her eyes and muttered something about their father never changing. "Hey, Jazz," Danny said. "I think I'm just going to go sit in the RV for a while."

"Have fun," Jazz replied. "I'm going to spend what little time we have left in the real world out here in the fresh air."

Danny grinned in sympathy. Once they actually reached the dock at Carnate Island, he and his sister would probably be confined to the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle for the duration of their stay to protect them from all the ghosts that were supposed to roam the island.

From the outside, the Fenton Ghost RV looked like some kind of state of the art military attack vehicle, and the interior did little to discourage that notion. Almost every available surface was covered with buttons for the activation of various ghost-hunting weaponries. The Fentons were, after all, the world's leading experts on ghosts.

Danny leaned back in the driver's seat, but his relaxation was interrupted by an especially loud peal of thunder. The weather was supposed to have been clear today; that was the only reason the ferry operators were even willing to consider bringing the Fenton family out here. He glanced out the window to see the ferrymen frantically running around on deck doing things that only made sense to them. He saw the rest of his family running for the relative safety of the RV to escape the torrential downpour that had sprang up from out of nowhere. The ferry rocked in a most troubling manner as previously nonexistent waves became near vertical slopes of water. He thought he saw someone slip overboard, but before he could invoke his ghost powers to try to save them, a flash of lightning hit the boat. Danny was thrown against the roof of the RV; his vision exploded into electric blue light just before everything went dark.

A gentle shushing noise intruded on the comfortable darkness the boy found himself in. He wondered who he was, then he wondered why he cared. He considered moving, but his muscles ached for some reason; he couldn't quite remember why…

Then reality came back into all-too sharp focus and he sat up quickly, ignoring the pain that shot through his head as he did so.

"Mom!" Danny called, standing shakily. "Dad! Jazz! Anybody?" He looked around to take in his shadowed surroundings and noticed the RV lying upside down nearby. Its treads were gone, and its windows shattered, but it was otherwise intact. The ferry and its operators were no where in evidence.

Danny Fenton…a voice whispered suddenly. It spoke into his mind and sent chills down his spine. It was the kind of whispered voice you heard the villain use in horror movies when talking to his victim on the phone.

"Where are you?" Danny demanded with more bravado than he actually felt at being dropped into this situation.

Or should I call you Danny Phantom the voice continued as though he hadn't spoken.You may call me El Fantasma De Plata.I have your family. Come and find them, niño…if you dare…

Danny clenched his hands into fists and yelled, "Fine! I'm going ghost!" It was his battle cry; he almost always yelled it when he invoked his alter ego, and he didn't much appreciate the laughter that echoed through his mind in response. He threw himself into the air and got just high enough to see over the trees when pain shot through his body that rivaled anything he had felt at the hands of some of his worst enemies. He hit the sandy turf of the beach with a muffled, yet painful, thump.

Come now, niño. You didn't think I would make it easy on you, did you Vergonzoso!

Danny sat up again, slowly this time, and looked at his white-gloved hands. The voice had shorted out his powers, but he was still in ghost mode? That didn't make sense. He stood again. "What did you just do?" he asked, but the voice seemed content to let him puzzle his own way through. He jumped into the air and came back down hard.

"Okay," he muttered, nervously running his hands through his hair. "So I can't fly. No big deal; I'll just walk."

He looked furtively around at the nighttime atmosphere. It was chill, not that he could feel it as a ghost. The sky almost looked like a black hole, devoid of stars and moon. It was just cloud covering, but it was still very creepy. Something moved in the brush to his left; he thought he saw a flash of white, but dismissed it as his overactive imagination and set off to find anyone who might still be alive.

After a great deal of trial and error, he discovered that the only powers he had left were his ectoplasmic energy blast and his shield. He'd be able to fight if necessary, but he wouldn't have much of an advantage.

The boat docks appeared ahead, and Danny quickened his pace. Maybe the ferrymen were there, or even his family. At that point, he would have welcomed Plasmius. He started to shift out of ghost mode so as not to alarm anyone and stopped short. He couldn't change back. "Oh, this is just great!" he yelled at the sky. "Can't fly, can't go intangible, and now I can't even go human!"

A clattering noise behind him interrupted his ranting, and he turned hopefully, expecting to see someone. The creatures that stepped into a patch of moonlight that the clouds hadn't found yet made the boy freeze. There were three of them, vaguely human in nature with dark hides the color of dried blood. Their heads were attached to their bodies by some kind of rack, as though they had been chopped off and fitted back like that. Then one of them started to make a noise like a knife being sharpened, and Danny tore his gaze away from their heads to their limbs. Each creature had some kind of blade that replaced their arms at the elbow and legs at the knee. The one in front, larger than the others, also had spikes growing out of its shoulders. It growled in what the boy would have sworn was pleasure as it took a few steps forward.

Danny gulped and forced his legs to move backwards for each step the creature took towards him. Its two companions started forward as well; one of them trailed a bladed arm against the ground, evoking the squeal of metal against concrete. Suddenly, the large one dropped to all fours and charged forward.

Remembering at the last possible second that he could not go intangible, Danny threw himself out of the way and was nearly skewered by a second creature. He threw up his shield as the third lunged toward him, and it bounced off harmlessly. They circled him after that and tested for openings while he tried to figure out how to get away. He couldn't keep his shield up forever, but if he lowered it, he was dead. He couldn't use his energy blast and maintain the shield simultaneously, and he would only be able to get two of the creatures with it anyway. Unfortunately, those were his only options at the moment.

An idea began to form as he looked for a way out. He drew his shield closer until it was right up against his palms. The creatures, predictably, moved forward in eager response. As soon as they were right against the shield, Danny shoved outwards and successfully knocked them away. Without pausing to see what they were doing, he started running.

He could hear them behind him, coming closer. He turned and fired an ectoplasmic energy blast at the closest creature and was rewarded by its pained scream. Suddenly, something very large erupted from the ground in front of him, and he dodged to the side accordingly. The fence that surrounded the docks was just a few feet away; Danny threw himself at it as high as he could and scrambled the rest of the way over. From there, he climbed some boxes to the roof of a small office and turned to see his pursuers.

The thing that had jumped in front of him looked vaguely humanoid, only much, much larger. It stood hunched over and what looked like battery of rifles was attached to its back. The three creatures had stopped to fight this gun monster; the battle was not going in their favor.

"Don't leave me!" a voice cried suddenly. Danny whirled around to see a girl standing at the edge of the dock, her hand outstretched as though reaching for something. Her snow white hair hung loosely down to her waist, and she wore a white dress with heavy iron chains draped around her. Her tone was plaintive, desperate. "Please, come back!"

Danny glanced over his shoulder to make sure the monsters were still preoccupied with each other, then slid down the roof and approached the girl. "Um…Miss?" he began.

She lowered her arm and turned, and Danny could see that her eyes were the color of ice cubes. "They're gone," she informed him in a monotone voice. "I'm all alone now." Suddenly, she vanished as though she had never been, and Danny stumbled backwards. If it was a ghost, then his ghost sense could be added to the list of powers that no longer worked. Somehow, though, it felt like something else.

Where she had been standing was a small journal of some sort. Hoping for some kind of clue as to what was going on, Danny picked it up and flipped through it. The first page contained an introduction by a former prisoner named of Clem. On turning the page, the boy was greeted by the likeness of the creatures he had just been running from. Below the sketch, Clem wrote a small passage describing the creatures. He called them Slayers, a fitting name, and theorized that they represented decapitation.

On the next page, Danny was shown the Marksman. Again, there was a short description of the creature currently laying waste to three slayers, as well as an explanation of their existence, in memory of the execution at Fort Maleson.

After reading through it carefully, Danny tossed it onto a crate. It wouldn't save his life, but it did help to have something to call these creatures. He glanced around the corner of the building to see the marksman shuffling around aimlessly. Clem had called it the "reincarnation of a military firing squad"; it wore a blindfold over its eyes, yet it could see just fine. At least, there was only one.

Danny leaned out and fired an energy blast at it, then ducked back as it roared and began firing in his general direction. Once it stopped, Danny fired another blast at it, evoking the same response. This went on for some time, but at last, the creature gave an anguished howl and fell to the ground. A long time went by during which nothing moved. Finally, Danny crept out of his hiding place; still no response from the marksman. Emboldened, he walked around to the gate and left to continue on his way.

Well done…

"Where are you?" Danny shouted. There was still fear, but mostly there was anger. He huffed at the lack of a response.

Carnate was a quiet place. There were no birds, no insects; just the occasional growls, roars, and screams from the monsters. With nothing better to occupy his attention, he found his mind wandering. He was afraid for his family. The voice hadn't said anything about hurting them, but that didn't mean it wouldn't.

He stopped suddenly as someone appeared in the road ahead. "Jazz?" he called. She turned to look at him blankly. He yelled joyously and ran towards her.

"Danny," she whispered. "Save yourself."

He skidded to a stop as the image of his sister vanished. "No!" He glared up at the sky, having arbitrarily designated it as the location of the voice. "Bring her back!"

"But she was never here…" said a low voice. Danny whirled around, but there was nothing to see.

"Who are you?" he demanded as he turned slowly to look for the speaker. "What's going on?"

"…Temper…temper…" It was the voice of a man who had been gasping for air for so long that it was second nature. He spoke in a leisurely drawl that did nothing to hide the breathless sound of his voice. "…All will be revealed…in due time…"

Danny opened his mouth to demand once again to know what was going on or at least be told what condition his family was in. He was interrupted by a clattering noise that signaled the arrival of more slayers. Knowing he couldn't run forever, he turned to fight, but part of his mind stayed on what he had just heard. Was this all in his head?

I'm going to go ahead tell you all, El Fantasma and the girl in white are my original characters. There is one or two others that I'll tell you about when we get to them. Everything else is taken from the game in some way, more or less. Also...

niño child

vergonzoso shameful