Chapter Nine: The First Fight
Grisly attack at Casper High! Ghost Wars start anew! Somewhere in the back of his newshound's brain, Tyler Sanchez Shaw was still writing the marquee. He'd been at his laptop when the attack started, typing out his next scathing review on the restroom smokers who'd been found. Nothing could draw his attention when he was writing. Nothing.
Nothing...except a screaming teenage ghost and her pet ectopuses.
Now, Ty was cringing like an unhappy puppy beneath his table on the quickly cooling quad. Why did it have to be now? This was the last day of school for the year! He didn't want to spend it dead!
And now, the craven, ambitious, annoying little newsboy really hoped for another hero...
Bringing her hands down, Box Lunch sent a rain of government-approved food down upon the hapless teenagers of Casper High. Screams filled the air as edible material of every sort struck people with the force of cannonballs. Half of the screams changed to moans of pain and anguish.
By subtly using their intangibility powers on the group of people around them, Jake and Ellie managed to save a few people from the meteorlike chunks of food. Gina and Alicia ran off, finding cover beneath a nearby table, while the Fenton twins were dragged by their respective best friends to whisper behind a tree.
"What are you waiting for?" Dave whispered with urgency. "Do something!"
"Like what?" Ellie asked.
"I dunno, just fight those things. Or something..." Dave said.
"Fight her?" Jake asked. "Did you see what she did to everyone? We'll be torn to shreds!"
"But you have to do something!" Chrissy said, matching Dave's urgence. "If you don't, then who will? The police aren't equipped to deal with this kind of threat; only the Army has that kind of hardware!"
Jake considered this, knowing Chrissy was right. Ever since the Ghost Wars, naturally occurring ghost portals had been shut wherever they were found. The government demilitarized with its ghost-weaponry, leaving it to special requisition with military forces. Nobody had the capacity to deal with a ghost-related threat anymore.
"Ellie," Jake said after what seemed like an eternity permeated with screams. "She's right. If anyone can do this, we can. We have to."
Ellie paused. Behind her eyes flared green flame. "Got it," she said.
Culminating the trigger thought in their minds, both teens transformed in a burst of haloed light.
They knew their purpose now. The rest was mere detail.
Box Lunch touched down on the quad, examining her handiwork. The two ectopuses her parents had recently bought for her followed obediently. Now, after all these years stuck in the Ghost Zone, they'd actually get to have a bit of fun.
Cackling with glee, the ghostly teen said, "What a joke! I'd heard that the humans were actually equipped to handle ghosts! Not likely; for I am BOX LUNCH! Bow down before my spectral might, lest you be baked, frosted, and hermetically sealed FOR ETERNITY!"
She had begun to cackle again–which succeeded in frightening a lot of people–when a young man's voice came from behind her:
"Box Lunch, was it? Hate to interrupt your villainous rant–and it seemed you had a ireally/i good one going there–but it's time for you to leave. Now."
The self-proclaimed Mistress of All Things Edible and Square wheeled around on her heel, facing two children about her age in piebald hazmat suits. She arched a raven brow in amusement.
"Well, well..." she mused. "And what is this ridiculousness? Two little ghost children wanting to play the heroes? Love to!" She took off into the air once again, gesturing to the green cephalopods. "Waste 'em."
With a roar of nether worldly quality, the ectopuses shot forward, lashing their tentacles like whips at the ghost children. As they did not have time to concentrate on the thought that made them intangible, nor the reflexes to dodge the attack, the green tendrils struck home, sending each ghost child into a separate lunch table.
Once again, Box Lunch cackled. This seemed to infuriate the ghost kids, who leaped up into the air, rushing towards the ghostly animals like comets. The sheer impact of the attack threw the animals back into the glass dome, where they promptly splattered against the glass like burst tomatoes.
Okay, Boxy thought. Time to switch tactics...
As she positioned herself in the center of the dome, the ghostly teen summoned forth all her might and all her power, causing a sea of edible matter to circulate around her in a centripetal orbit. For a second, she felt like the center of the universe. Quickly, the matter compressed around her form, glowing green with her ghostly power. When the process was complete, Box Lunch was gone, and a giant colossus of food stood in her place.
"IT'S LUNCH TIME!" she exclaimed with great relish.
As Ellie hammered into the pulpy mass of ectoplasm that had been an ectopus with her gloved fists, she noticed a rather unusual sound: a wet, stomping noise, like an elephant walking in quicksand. Turning around, she and Jake saw what looked like an enormous four-legged, winged monster–much like a griffin–that appeared to be made out of the collective lunches of the Casper High student body.
"Okay," she said, "this fight has officially become weird..."
The monster charged, narrowly missing the ghost twins. Its charge, however, was enough to spiderweb the glass of the dome, sending the ectopuses back into the center of the quad, where their pulpy masses regained original form.
"Sis!" Jake called from quite a distance away. Ellie flew to meet him, ignoring the three recuperating ghosts behind her. "This isn't working," he said. "We'll have to change strategies. I'll fight the monster, you fight the ectopuses; got it?"
"Why do iI/i have to fight those things?" she complained. "Why can't you do that?"
Jake was about to retort, when three simultaneous roars reminded them of the problem at hand.
"We'll argue later." He turned to face the ectopuses. "Right now, we have work to do. I'll take the ugly one." With that, each charged to fight a different set of ghosts.
Jake flew straight into an ectopus, only to be ensnared by the other's tentacles. As it slammed him through a lunch table, he saw Ty Shaw's face uncomfortably close to his. Grimacing, Jake shot away from the annoying newshound, taking the ectopus along with him. It was amazing how light these creatures were in comparison to their strength. Taking advantage of this, he swing the monster in an enormous arc to meet its kin, splattering both into a giant ball of goo that wriggled in pain.
Meanwhile, Ellie was doing her best to dodge the swipes of the food-monster's french-fry claws. As she continued to give ground, the golem stalked forward, deliberate as a logger. Each step was a blow, as each blow was a step.
Then, she got an idea. Using the cracked dome as a springboard, she launched herself at the creature, delivering a powerful kick to its temple. It lurched back, and Ellie searched for the place she saw Box Lunch disappear.
"Do you remember being born?" she asked above the creature's roaring.
"No, you fool!" replied Boxy from somewhere inside the mass of food. "Of course I don't–"
"Then it went something like this!"
Reaching into the mass of edible material, Ellie soon found what–or, rather, who–she was looking for. With one giant yank, she pulled Box Lunch, headfirst by her pigtails, out of her self-created 'body.' As the teenage ghost screeched, Ellie gestured to her brother to meet her at the top of the school roof.
"You and I are going to have a little talk," she said, gripping the ghost by the straps of her pants.
Boxy growled, reaching inside the pocket of her suspenders. From there, she withdrew a condiment packet, much like those given out at restaurants. She gripped it tightly in her hand, which started to glow. Ellie wondered what was going on.
Oh no... she thought.
The ghost threw the packet at her captor, whereupon it exploded in a massive fireball. Ellie went intangible to avoid most of the blast, but was still knocked back until she skidded into the ground.
"HAHA!" Box Lunch laughed from above. "Sorry I don't have time to gossip, but my pets and I have an appointment coming up! And you..." She charged another packet in her hand.
"You have appointments with Old Man Winter!"
She hurled the glowing packet at the cracked section of the dome, where it exploded like a grenade. Glass, then snow and freezing air rained down upon the students. The downdraft was enough to render Jake and Ellie flightless for a few seconds; long enough for Box Lunch and the ectopuses to make their escape into the blizzard, the former laughing maniacally above the roaring wind.
As injured students lurched, hobbled, or ran into the safety of the school depending on their injury, Jake and Ellie dropped behind a nearby tree, changing back into human form, exhausted from the entire ordeal.
"That...was...fun..." Jake panted.
"Depends on...what you think...is fun..." Ellie replied.
Dear Diary,
Something happened today. Something big.
According to my history book (which I haven't read in over a week), the last recorded ghost sighting was at Chicago about fifteen years ago, at the end of the Ghost Wars. After that, the UN started to search out portals to the Ghost Zone and shut them artificially. They were never supposed to escape.
But Box Lunch? Ha! There's a name that'll strike fear into the hearts of millions! At least it was only someone like that and two ghost brutes. But still, the fight was hard. Grandma taught me a bit about Judo, Aikido, and Karate when I was eight, but even that wasn't really effective against those monsters. I might have to rethink my strategy.
But that's not why I'm writing. The reason why I'm writing is that I think I've found what we can do with these powers: fight evil ghosts. The police, government, and Army are still trying to figure out where she came from, and by the time they udo/u figure it out, the entire planet'll probably be overrun.
Me and my brother, that's another story. We can take this fight to them before any of the authorities can. We can stop them. We have a more level playing field. All we need is more control over these haywire abilities. That's all.
On the bright side, at least we have the break to train. No Thor, no Gina, no Ty; nobody who hates us! I'm looking forward to being a hero!
As soon as I get my room cleaned up...