"Whoa, it's so…" Harry's voice trailed off as he looked around the spectral dimension.
"Green?" Danny offered. Harry nodded. "Ectoplasm has three varieties-red, blue, and green. Green ectoplasm is the most stable form and also the most common, and so the majority of the Ghost Zone is green."
"The other two types are more volatile?"
"It's not that, just…blue is really weak and so it usually enters solution with the green. Red is extremely powerful and unstable, so what little raw red ectoplasm exists is locked away so that no ghosts can imbibe it and get more powerful." Just then, a tall ghost clad in all white approached them.
"You know better than to come 'round these parts, Phantom. I'm gonna have to take you in, now."
"Not today, Walker. My son and I are here to visit my ghostdaughter, Box Lunch." Walker blinked stupidly.
"I see," he finally replied. "I guess I can let you go this time, but if I catch you 'round here again, you and I are gonna have a problem."
"Sir yes sir," Danny rejoined. He mock-saluted and led Harry away from the other ghost.
"Who was that guy?" his son asked.
"His name's Walker, and I guess you could call him the sheriff of the Ghost Zone. He has a huge prison that he'll drag you to if he catches you breaking one of his million and one rules. He gave me one thousand years once upon a time, but I managed to organize a prison break so everyone got out."
"What were you doing?"
"Looking for my dad's anniversary present to my mom."
"And that's against the law?"
"Possession of real-world contraband."
"I see." They approached a square door that said 'fragile' and 'This end up' and took it. They entered a realm that was purple except for all of the various real-world items that were floating around.
"Where are we now?"
"This is where the Box Ghost and Box Lunch live." Danny and Harry flew around the realm for a while. After some time they ran into the Box Ghost, who was frantically flying around and opening every box he passed. He opened one and Box Lunch flew out of it.
"You found me, Daddy!" she squealed with delight.
"You cannot hide in a box from me, for I am the Box Ghost!" The blue specter replied.
"A-hem," Danny coughed and the two of them turned around, startled. The Box Ghost was the first to speak.
"Phantom!" he shouted, "What brings you to the realm of the Box Ghost?"
"I'm just here to check up on my favorite ghostdaughter," he replied as he ruffled Box Lunch's hair. "I also wanted to introduce you to my son, Harry. It's his first time in the Ghost Zone." The two box-themed spirits looked behind Danny and noticed the younger halfa floating there for the very first time.
"Hello, Harry Phantom! I am the Box Ghost!"
"And I am Box Lunch, the daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady! Welcome to the Ghost Zone!"
"Uh…thanks."
"Wait a minute," the Box Ghost said thoughtfully, "it was your party that I crashed last time I was on earth, was it not?"
"It was," Harry replied.
"Did all of the guests tremble in fear of me?"
"Uh…sure. Yeah, they sure were afraid of you." The Box Ghost smirked triumphantly.
"That's right, puny humans. All will fear the awesome might of the Box Ghost!"
"Yeah, everyone fears you," Danny interrupted, "now we have to get back home."
"Come back soon, Danny!" Box Lunch called to the two halfas as they approached the door that lead to the main area of the Ghost Zone.
"I will," he called back, and he and Harry once again were surrounded by swirling green gasses and purple doors. They flew on until they saw a swirling vortex suspended in mid-air.
"Is that the Fenton Portal?" Harry asked.
"Yup. Oh, before we go, hold on a minute." The two of them stopped. "Try going intangible. Harry concentrated but nothing happened.
"It's not working!"
"I know it's not. That's what I was telling you and Jaime before-you can't go intangible or invisible in the Ghost Zone. Now that that's done, c'mon, let's get out of here before Walker comes back." They flew through the vortex and into the basement of FentonWorks.
"See? Thirty minutes, tops." Danny asserted as he looked up at a clock. He and Harry went intangible and flew up through the ceiling. They regained tangibility in front of FentonWorks and flew back home.
Danny phased into his living room and saw Jaime and Sam sitting on the couch. They were looking through a photo album and when they looked up at Danny, he could see that they had been crying.
"Did you find Harry? Is he okay? Where is he?" Sam demanded.
"It's okay, Sam, relax; Harry's fine. My guess was correct, Skulker had been sent to kidnap him by Plasmius. It appears that Vlad wanted him to take my place as his apprentice."
"Plasmius? I knew he hadn't given up evil! He's the same crazed-up, cat-needing fruit loop he always was!"
"I know," Danny groaned, "And he played me for a sap all these years. I honestly thought he had turned over a new leaf, but I guess he proved that I'm as gullible as my dad."
"You're not gullible," Sam consoled him. "You just see the best in people, and that's really admirable."
"There isn't a 'best' anywhere in Vlad."
"True." She paused. "I guess you are a little gullible."
"Not helping."
"Not lying. So where's Harry?"
"Took you long enough to realize I hadn't come back!" a disembodied voice said from Danny's left. Harry flickered into visibility and changed back into his human form in a flash of green light, and Sam ran over to him and wrapped him in a tight bear hug.
"Mom…can't breathe…"
"Sorry." She let go of him. "So what happened, young man?"
"As everyone was leaving orientation Skulker came and sucked me into a Fenton Thermos. When he let me out I was in a cage in Vlad's underground lab. He asked me to join him and when I refused he made the cage give me an electric shock. An hour later, he came to me with the same question and I pretended to accept so that he would let me out. As soon as he took down the cage, I tried to escape but he activated a ghost shield that kept me inside. I tried to fight him, but he was so powerful, all I could do was dodge for a little bit. I was about to get the snot beaten out of me but then Dad showed up and fought Vlad. Man, it was totally wicked! Dad took out one of Vlad's seven clones and then shot the original with an eye blast, then used his Ghostly Wail on him. That made Vlad go unconscious and slip back into human mode. Then we came home."
"You had enough energy to fly home from Wisconsin after fighting Plasmius?"
"Nah, Dad and I went through the Ghost Zone. It only took about half an hour."
"What? You were weak from your fight," she turned on Danny, "and you had to have been weak from using the Wail. What if you ran into one of your enemies? What if you ran into Walker?"
"We did run into Walker. But I used the excuse that we were visiting Box Lunch so he let us go," Danny replied.
"Yeah," Harry interrupted, "We saw where the Box Ghost lives with his daughter. Their lair was all purple and had a bunch of real-world items."
"Still it was really dangerous, and you both could have been killed, and…" she sighed. "But you're safe now, and that's all that matters. C'mon, you're dad and I are going to make dinner, then we're going to eat and go to bed, and hopefully we'll wake up and everything will be back to normal.
After they ate Harry and Jaime went upstairs, and Danny and Sam went over to their favorite spot on the couch to snuggle together and talk.
"Well, here's to a life spent dodging Vlad and trying to defend the ones we love from his nefarious plots," said Sam as she rested her head in the crook of Danny's neck.
"Yeah," her love replied, "but it's like you said before dinner-for us, that's just life getting back to normal."
"I guess so," she paused and chuckled a bit. "I suppose that that's as normal as life is going to get for a family of Fentons."
"Or Phantoms," he added.
THE END
Whoo! You know, when I started writing this, I thought that there was no end in sight. Then I got discouraged because a simple fluffy fic turned into a GX. But I guess it all turned out okay in the end. I suppose I could do an epilogue if you really want me to, but unless I get a cascade of reviews it's not likely to happen.
Thank you Sleep Warrior, GoingGhost, AirGirl Phantom, Rayne 4 EVR, dplover101, Catmedium, Hakkyou Kuusou, and all the rest of you for being such loyal reviewers. You guys rock! Seriously, I mean it, a good review really makes my day. Like today at lunch, I was depressed because I hadjust found out that I didn't get the grade I wanted on my SAT that I took in early April, but then I went online and read a couple of really good reviews and my whole outlook brightened. Don't underestimate yourselves-that little purple button can work wonders.
But anyway, enough of my boring you with dumb anecdotes. You all have bigger and better things you can be doing with your lives than reading my annoying drivel, and by bigger and better things I meaning other fanfics. So I won't keep you anymore.
ta
-Ghostboy814