Danny finished off the last of the mainliners and became tangible again, then tried to tug his hand free of Ed's grasp. If the situation had been less dire, he might have laughed at the man. Maybe he was just used to his fearless parents, but a ghost hunter who was terrified of the paranormal seemed very bizarre. At some point along the way, between a pack of slayers and a triggerman that had somehow gotten itself stuck in the narrow tunnel, Ed had grabbed the boy's hand and refused to let go. He now had it clasped in a death's grip.
"Um, they're gone," Danny informed him. "Dude, you're making my hand go numb."
The man's grip loosed ever so slightly, and he looked up. "You're a ghost."
"Thanks for the update," the ghost boy replied dryly. "Look, you can hold on to my shoulder if you want, but I really need my hand back." After several moments, he rolled his eyes and added, "Because it's very difficult to fight one-handed, and if more of those mauler captains show up, being intangible is not going to help either of us." Several more seconds went by before the older man actually complied.
"Weak!" Creeper exclaimed, startling a shout out of Ed. "Even the little boy's stronger than you, you weak little PUSSY! Men should be strong! Tough! And those who aren't…" He trailed off, giggling mysteriously.
The travelers had barely gone two steps when four knives burst out at them from a side tunnel. Danny shoved Ed back and flinched as one of the blades passed harmlessly through his white belt. He looked back to see Creeper close his coat over the bladed appendages, a manic grin on his face. There was a set of bars separating the two; as Creeper turned to walk away, Danny tried to go intangible and follow him and slammed straight into them.
"Darn it!" he muttered, rubbing his nose. As soon as his enemy was out of sight, he could pass through with no problem.
"That's weird," Ed mentioned, still breathless from his near-death experience. "It's like their presence cancels out your ability to faze-shift."
"I don't think that's it." Danny sighed and shook his head. "It's more like they're making the walls so I can't faze through them." He narrowed his eyes, then grabbed Ed and pulled him through the bars. He'd been thinking ever since he first met the spirits of Carnate, and the sight of Creeper walking away had finally convinced him to theorize aloud. "I don't think Creeper's a ghost."
Ed raised an eyebrow. "Then he's a very old man."
"No, I don't think he's alive. I just don't think he's really dead. Or Copperfield." Or Killjoy, Horace, and Haight, he added silently.
"Well, come on, Phantom. You should know better than anyone. Either you're alive, or you're dead. There's no in between."
Danny couldn't help but grin. The man was half right, anyway; he did know better than anyone. "But what if there is?" he persisted, growing serious again. "What if there's some force that's creating these monsters? What if it keeps things from moving on properly?" He let that sink in while he tried to remember what Silver had said all those weeks ago. "Silver told me, a while back, that everything that ever died over on Carnate Island was still alive in some twisted form. And the same thing has happened here."
Ed listened with the patience of someone used to inane babbling, then shook his head stubbornly. "There is no in between," he said again. Danny gave an exasperated huff and let it drop. The man had a harder head than Jack.
A silver metal slayer appeared ahead. By the lack of a reaction, Danny correctly assumed that he was the only one who could see Silver. She flipped one knife in a lazy wave and strutted off to the right. Against his better judgment, the boy followed.
The barking of maulers echoed from somewhere very far away. Three bloated copses lay in a pool of tinted red water. Danny yelped as Ed gasped and clutched at him; he shoved the man away a bit harder than he intended to. The buzzing noise in his head had grown louder, and Silver still refused to actually speak. It was grating on his already strained nerves, and the fact that it reminded him of desperate sobbing didn't help.
Creeper breathed, but didn't show himself. Occasionally, he giggled. Ed's nails were digging into the boy's arm by the time a collapsed section of roadway led them back to the relatively fresh air of the upper world. He collapsed gratefully to the wet pavement, but Danny's eyes were fixed on the three people across the blocked cul-de-sac.
Silver had left her body somewhere, as usual, and was sitting on the roof of someone's porch. Below her stood Creeper; his foul mood at not being able to affect her astral form dissipated at the sight of Danny and Ed. Behind him, lying slumped in a wicker chair was the unconscious form of Maddie.
I kept him off her for you, amante, Silver said. Now, he's your problem. And with that, she vanished.
"Stupid whore," Creeper muttered. He strode forward a few steps and stroked the front of his coat. "They really just…just PISS me off! Women are worthless!" He stopped to pant, but Danny interrupted him before he could go on.
"Leave us alone, and let us go!" he demanded.
The ex-pimp took a few more steps forward and snickered as Ed retreated back into the sewer slightly. "If you want her back…COME AND GET HER!" He threw open his coat, and Danny lunged back to avoid the…
It wasn't what he originally thought, although whether it was better or worse was still up for debate. Growing out of Creeper's chest were four scantily clad, emaciated, deformed prostitutes with their arms melted against their sides and knives that stuck out of their mouths. They stretched out to reach him, glassy eyes desperate and pleading. Danny stared, horrified, for a few seconds too long and was nearly impaled again.
"Do you like my collection?" Creeper laughed. He strode forward egotistically, letting his prostitutes do the work just like all pimps everywhere.
"You're sick and disgusting, Creeper!" Danny accused. He couldn't attack; he couldn't bring himself to hurt the women, even if they were part of his enemy. Even as they lunged out to kill him, they silently begged for his help. The pimp simply laughed and sped up his advance.
Unnoticed, Ed found a hiding place behind some little kid's tire fort to watch the one-sided fight. He couldn't believe the ghost boy wasn't attacking. Creeper was a dangerous malefactor, and he didn't honestly believe Danny would win. But why did the boy refuse to even try?
He shrugged. It wasn't really his place to dictate what the boy should or should not do. He spared a moment to regret that Maddie wasn't going to survive, then climbed over a pile of fallen bricks to freedom.
"He's the only person who ever beat me, you know?" Silver mentioned idly. "In fact, he's the first person who even got close enough to see me in five years."
The image of Danny and Creeper's battle shimmered like a Hollywood dream montage. Ignoring Silver, she crept forward, one hand clasped unconsciously over her heart. She didn't understand why Danny didn't fight, and quietly willed him to do so.
"So young…when he first came to my island, I just thought it would make an interesting change of pace. I didn't really expect him to get past the first round of slayers, but he surprised me with those powers."
The image winked out. She whirled around angrily and demanded, "Bring him back!" Her tormentor didn't seem to hear.
"By the time he found his way to me, I knew," the psychic continued, a dreamy look in her frozen eyes. "I knew he was the one, the one I've been waiting for all this time. I took so many lives, and I'm still so lonely. When I take his, I won't be anymore. I can feel it. He'll be part of me."
"You leave my son alone!"
Again, Silver didn't even seem to know she had said anything. Instead, she contrived to look worried and muttered, "Hurry up and beat him, amante…"
Creeper panted excitedly as one of his prostitutes finally caught Danny across the arm. It wasn't very deep and healed almost immediately, but it did reinforce the notion that those things could hurt him if he didn't avoid them. The boy floated into the air to avoid falling back into the sewer and hovered there, a few feet out of Creeper's reach. He paid no attention to the half-disappointed and half-angry ranting while he tried to think.
He could just fly over, grab his mother, and get away. It would be easy to escape, but it also meant that Creeper could follow them. He wanted this to be the end.
"You're weak like a little girl!" Creeper taunted in a sing-song voice.
Hurry up and beat him, amante…
But he couldn't, not without hurting the unfortunate women. Their eyes begged for him to help them, save them, but he didn't know how. They were part of Creeper, and he couldn't hurt one without hurting the other.
An image flashed across his mind, though for once, it was a memory of his own making. It was the dream image of a woman with those same pleading eyes as she quietly prayed for death. Creeper hid behind his women, forced them to fight for him, exploited them, and denied them any peace. He knew what he had to do, but that didn't make it any easier.
Danny shook his head and sighed miserably. "It's over, Creeper," he yelled as he charged and threw an ectoplasmic energy blast.
The big man cried out in surprise as he was thrown backwards. He smiled and started to get back to his feet, but he never got the chance. Dodging through the waving blades, Danny slammed into him hard enough to carry them both through a wall. Something slashed across his back; he barely noticed as he rained punches on his foe. "No one hurts my mom," he said angrily, emphasizing each word with another blow.
Creeper shrieked as he tried to defend himself against the ghost boy's attack. After the first few minutes of their fight, he had come to the conclusion that Danny was too weak to fight back. Then this started. He finally caught the boy around the neck and threw him off.
Danny charged another blast and froze as a dozen maddened eyes appeared in the darkness behind Creeper. The pimp leered and opened his mouth, but whatever he had been about to say died on his lips as hands reached to grab him and dozens of voices whispered the word, "Revenge..."
"Hey! No!" he exclaimed. "You're MY whores! MINE! You don't turn on me!" Danny dropped his fist and watched as the four prostitutes turned to impale their master while his other victims reached out to pull him screaming into the darkness.
Take a life and you make it part of yourself, Silver whispered. A dangerous thing to do when the lives you take despise you. You reminded the exploited ones that they still have power. Well done.
Danny turned away. A few rottweilers had gathered to growl menacingly as he went to check on Maddie. Doubtless, Copperfield and his maulers weren't far behind. Calls for Ed to come out elicited no response. He transformed into a human and then back to ghost to repair a little of the damage he had taken, then carried his mother to the relative safety of a nearby roof.