The questions still lingered in Danny's head the rest of the day: Why did he keep getting those random pains? And who was the ghost he had to fight three times? And what was he going to do about Mr. Compton? Danny definitely did not want more ghost hunters to look out for.
The rest of the afternoon dragged on. Aside from the sharp pain he felt after the fancy ghost disappeared and Mr. Compton went off to attack him, nothing else was unusual. He tried to relax the best he could, but considering the recent events, it was pretty difficult to.
The night seemed to drag on and on. Danny got through dinner and any homework he still had to do, and now he just wanted to relax in his bedroom and try his best to figure everything out. At worst, he'd just have to remind himself that he could make it through this time.
Danny didn't know what to do after a while, so a little after 9:00 he went downstairs to say goodnight to his parents. Just as he was about to head up to bed, he was stopped.
"Danny, hold on a second," Jack said as Danny began walking up the stairs. Danny froze and turned around and looked to see what his dad wanted. He saw that his dad had a small device that could fit into anyone's pocket. It was a small gray box, and it had a little latch on the tip of it to open it.
Danny could help but look at the device with confusion. After staring at it for a few seconds, he looked back up at his dad. "What is it?"
"Well, I don't really know what to call it, but I guess you could say the Fenton-Gasser," Jack said, practically improvising what came out of his mouth.
"The Fenton-Gasser?"
"Yup," Jack said proudly. "You see that little thing up at the top that you can slide open?"
"Uh-huh."
"That is only to be opened in the case of an emergency. When opened, it releases a super-thick cloud of vapor that contains toxic chemicals. This time, I made sure those chemicals were only toxic to pure ghosts, so they wouldn't hurt you if you breathed them in."
"This is great, dad," Danny said in a low tone, "but when am I going to use this?"
"Well, you seem to be fighting ghosts a lot. Maybe if you're surrounded by them you could use it to fend them all off? I don't know, use your imagination. After all, that's going to be the last gadget I make."
"I think that's a pretty bad idea," Danny confessed, "but if you say so…"
After that short conversation and putting his dad's final invention in his pocket, Danny turned around and continued heading up the stairs to his room. He walked in through the bedroom door and groaned.
The next morning came quickly. Danny got ready to go to school very quickly and was walking in through the doors in no time. And today, he had one of his least favorite classes first: chemistry.
Danny sat down in the same old classroom as Lancer prepared to set up everything for the lab they were going to do in class that day. Finally, after everything was put together and everyone was seated, Lancer began speaking.
"Students," he said in his neutral, uncaring voice, "today, we are going to be doing a lab that will tell us exactly how many calories are in a single peanut."
"Whoa, slow down," Danny mumbled sarcastically under his breath. He had better things to worry about than finding out how many calories were in a peanut and then having to write a paper on it.
"But first, some safety features," Lancer continued explaining. "Most important of all, there is going to be an open flame in this room during the experiment. So, I'd like everyone to point to the fire extinguisher."
A lot of kids pointed to the fire extinguisher in the back corner of the room, with a few groans and laughs that Lancer was making them do something pointless like that.
"Very good," Lancer praised. "Now, does anyone know why a fire extinguisher puts out a fire?"
One student raised her hand. "It suffocates it?"
"Very good," Lancer said with a way-too-happy smile on his face. "Yes, the gases and steam suffocates the fire so the fire can't get any oxygen, and without any oxygen, the fire will die."
"Wow, learned something new already," Danny growled as he just sat and watched Lancer lecture the entire room.
The experiment started, and the entire class was pretty boring after that. Danny was with Sam and Tucker in a group, and he took that opportunity to tell them what was going on.
"Guys, some really weird things have been happening lately," Danny whispered when no one else was paying attention. The three of them now had lab coats on top of their regular clothes, and were wearing goggles. They were trying carefully to light a burner without accidentally burning themselves.
"What's shaking ya?" Tucker asked.
"You see, I've been feeling these pains more and more," Danny whined. "Remember yesterday how my side suddenly gave in? Well, after you guys left, a weird ghost who looks like a billionaire from nineteenth century England came and attacked me. We were about to fight until my new neighbor Mr. Compton came out with his ghost hunting equipment and broke up the fight. The weird ghost flew away and Mr. Compton followed him, and after a minute or two, I felt another stabbing pain in my back."
"What do you think it is?" Sam asked.
"I don't know," Danny admitted. "That's why I'm asking you guys: to see if you have any idea about why I'm feeling all this pain."
"Like I suggested yesterday, I think it's just stress," Sam inputted. "What else could it be?"
Danny groaned. His friends obviously didn't have any greater idea about why he was getting these random sharp pains than he did. He thought they'd be natural, but he got some inkling that told him he wasn't "just feeling" those weird pains.
The day finally ended, and Danny was once again walking home from school. When he and his friends went their separate ways during the walk back, Danny got a nasty surprise. A ghost popped up from under the sidewalk and was right in front of Danny's face. It let out a hissing sound, trying to intimidate him.
"Okay, you really need some mints," Danny cracked at the ghost. He dropped his bag and instantly went into Ghost-Mode. He started by firing a regular blast of energy at the ghost, and it hit the ghost right on.
The ghost got knocked backwards, but it was up again in no time. It started forming a blast of energy between its two hands, but it was so slow that Danny could form another ball of ectoplasma in the time it took for the ghost to charge up its attack. Taking the opportunity, Danny fired it at the ghost and ruined the entire process of it attacking.
"Okay, are you here to fight, or did you have a death wish?" Danny asked, "because I am not in any mood to put up with ghosts that waste my time like you do."
Danny started charging up one more ball of ectoplasma in his hand to fire at the ghost, who was staring at Danny with fear in its eyes.
Just as Danny was about to give the finishing blast, he suddenly felt a blast of ectoplasma it his wrist.
"Ow!" he shrieked, gripping his wrist. He looked up and saw the ghost get away. He stared angrily as he saw it escape without serious injury, then just let out a painful breath and looked at his wrist. He then looked to the side and saw a girl ghost standing there.
The girl ghost looked like she was sorry for something. She seemed beautiful and had very pale skin. She had a thin structure and was wearing very soft, light clothes.
"I'm so sorry," she said in a foreign accent. "I was aiming for the other ghost. I am so sorry to have hit you."
"Uh…it's really no big deal," Danny lied, trying not to make her feel bad.
"My name is Aria," the ghost said. "I've been looking all over for someone like you."
"You have?" Danny asked with surprise. A smile was even starting to spread across his face. "What for?"
"There is something very terrible going on in the Ghost Zone," Aria gently said. Her voice was actually almost soothing.
"Like what? Is a ghost bothering you? Because if there is, I'm gonna teach him a lesson in respect he'll never forget."
"Please, come with me into the Ghost Zone. I want to show you what's going on," Aria sad in a low voice.
The entire street became quiet. Danny put two fingers on his chin and pondered what he should do. He was a bit doubtful of this ghost. After all, he only met her less than a minute ago.
"I'm not going to regret this, am I?" Danny asked, concerned about whether or not following Aria into the Ghost Zone would be the smartest decision.
"Please," Aria softly begged. "I need your help."
"All right," Danny said, finally agreeing.
Aria's face lit up with excitement. "Thank you!" she exclaimed breathlessly. "Do you know of any way we can get into the Ghost Zone close to here?"
"Yeah, my dad actually has a portal around here," Danny said. He led Aria inside and down into the basement, doing his absolute best to stay quiet just in case anyone was home. The last thing his parents would want to see would be Danny leading a girl ghost around the house, especially since they now knew his secret.
When they were in the basement, Danny went over to the ghost portal and hit all the buttons he had to press to open it. Instantly, the massive metal doors started opening, revealing a swirling green spiral within the portal.
"Splendid," Aria said with a smile on her face. She gently turned her heads toward Danny.
"Well, shall we?" she asked.
Danny nodded his head, and then both of them jumped through the portal. A split second later, they were in another world, another dimension. Aria floated in front of him, about to fill him in.
"I think it's best you let me lead the way," Aria suggested. "I doubt you know what I want to show you."
Danny agreed, and then let Aria lead the way. Danny followed Aria as she led him to some unknown location where a bunch of terrible things were happening, but he tried to pay very close attention to where he was going. After all, it could be a trap. Or, he would have to remember the way back to the ghost portal.
Danny tried his best to follow Aria while still taking in everything around him as he flew through the long, dark abyss. He knew he was getting himself into something by following Aria to where she claimed trouble was, but he had no idea what that something was.
"Here we are," Aria finally said after a somewhat long flight. Danny looked around, and all he saw was a floating island in the middle of nowhere. There was a very large forest on the island, but the thing standing out the most was a giant mansion that was looming over that forest.
Danny stared at the massive building on the floating island. "This is where all the problems are?" he asked, trying to make sure he understood everything.
"Yes," Aria softly responded.
So, Danny now knew that the center of Aria's problems (as well as possibly other ghosts' problems) was a giant mansion in an isolated area of the Ghost Zone with a dense patch of woods behind it. And he was staring right at it, ready to take on whatever challenges awaited him in that mansion.
