And things continue...


Chapter 24: Underground

6:00 PM

Danny was making dinner, hoping it would be ready by the time Sam got home. Although he knew Heather was hanging out with Alex and Ray, he would've expected her to be home by now.

After a little bit, Sam got home. Dinner had just finished cooking, and Heather was nowhere to be seen.

They didn't get to finish dinner, though. A phone call came in from the Anti-Ghost-Portal facility.

"Hey, it's Danny here. What's the problem?"

The person on the other end was Tom, the leader of the site. "Our power failed and the generators aren't starting up. We need your help before things get bad."

"I'm on it. I'll be there as soon as I can."

Danny went straight to his room to pack a backpack of supplies. Sam came in to see what he was doing.

"Where are you heading off to?" Sam asked.

"Greenland. The Anti-Ghost Portal facility is having problems. I need to go fix them."

"I'll come with you. We'll take out the Specter Speeder. Maybe we can get Tucker to come, too."

"Well, Heather isn't home yet. I'll need to call her. Go get the Speeder started up, I'll pack some supplies for a night stay."

Sam nodded and went downstairs.

Danny called Heather's phone, but got no answer. He tried again, but still, no answer. He sent a text, but even after waiting a bit, got no reply. He finished up packing and went downstairs.

"The Speeder is ready. Did you get ahold of Heather?"

Danny shook his head. "I think she forgot to charge her phone again. You might have to stay."

"Danny, we can't have ghosts running rampant all over the world again. We can write a note, it's no trouble."

"I guess that will work. I just hope she doesn't stay out too late."


Tucker was sitting on the couch relaxing and watching TV when he got the call. Problems at the facility. Being the techno-geek (and still being proud of that title) he knew he had to go. Valerie couldn't come because she had to watch over Ray and Alex's sleepover when they eventually arrived.

When he got picked up in the Specter Speeder, Valerie was left alone. She waited for Ray and Alex for nearly an hour. She tried to call Ray, but he didn't answer. Before she got the chance to call Alex's mom to find their whereabouts, a ghost detector beeped. A hidden panel on the wall flipped around to show a radar. Valerie leaped up to see. A ghost was in the area.

She ran to her room and grabbed her old ghost hunting equipment and activated it. She loved the feeling of power she had while wearing it. She hopped out the window and activated her glider, chasing the ghost on her radar all the way to the park.

She didn't see the ghost turn visible until it was too late. A huge, monstrous claw grabbed her from behind. She couldn't get herself free when the ghost dug straight underground.

She managed to get a look at the ghost before they got too deep for any light to shine in. It was a giant purple mole. It dug down deep and made a small cavern. It dropped her in the cavern, but before she could move, it spit a wad of glowing green ectoplasm on her, leaving her trapped. She knew she would be there for a while.


7:00 AM, the next day

Heather was the first to wake up. The strange thing about the ghost zone was that it felt so normal to her. She felt at home, especially in her ghost mode. If her human side wasn't limiting her power, she could survive off of the ghost zone's energy alone, with no need to sleep or eat at all.

One thing she noticed about this house was that there was no kitchen. Of course. Ghosts don't need food. Food for ghosts was more for entertainment than sustenance. She decided to gather fruit from the trees outside. She looked in all of the cabinets in the massive closet for a bowl or something to carry the fruit, but they were all empty. Oh well.

She went outside. She looked up at the sky to see the same swirling green the rest of the ghost zone had. She tried out the sky-changing power she had in this place. She thought of what she wanted the sky to look like, and shot a ghost ray into the air, just like the manual said. In a flash, the sky became a beautiful sunrise.

She tried many fruits, choosing her favorites. Blue and purple fruits were the juiciest, with the tastes being as sweet as candy. Red fruits tasted more like apples and peaches, and orange fruits tasted like tomatoes. Yellow ones were sour, and green ones tasted more like vegetables. Heather picked many and brought them inside.

"Boys, wake up for breakfast!" Heather yelled across the house. She set the fruits on the dining room table. The fact that the house had a dining room but no kitchen confused Heather.

The boys came out of their rooms and sat at the table. Heather told them about the fruits and their flavors.

"Are you sure this stuff's safe to eat?" Alex asked.

"I ate some, and I'm fine. Although, that could be because I'm half ghost," Heather said.

Ray didn't hesitate to grab some blue banana-like fruit. "Can't hurt to try." He took a bite and waited a few seconds. When he didn't drop dead, he ate the rest of it right up. "It's safe. Tastes like candy. Its quite gooey."

Alex took a small bite of a red apple that was a lot more vivid red than Earth apples.

Ray finished up a few more fruits. "Last night, I stayed up a bit late viewing the maps. For fun, though, I checked to see if there was wi-fi here. You wouldn't believe it, but the ghost zone has wi-fi!"

"No way!" Heather said!

"Yes way! The ghost zone has it's own internet, completely separate from our world's. It's pretty primitive, but I got some information on where we need to go. The Hall of Typhon is guarded by monsters from Greek mythology. If you don't provoke them, they might leave you alone. You can't enter without beating up Echidna, a half-snake monster-queen ghost lady. Typhon is inside the hall. He's not gonna give up the artifact without a fight."

"Well, eat up. It looks like we have a long day ahead of us."


Valerie woke up to the sounds of sirens. She was still trapped in the glob of ectoplasm. She fell asleep last night trying to escape, as the ectoplasm seeped into her suit and short-circuited the systems that could've helped her escape. The ectoplasm seemed to have dried out overnight, and when she moved, it basically fell apart. She was free.

Only her suit's backup functions were working. Being free of the ectoplasm seemed to have made the repair function work again. Soon enough, her suit was in working order.

Using the built-in night vision function, she found the tunnel taking her up to the surface.

Outside, the city was in turmoil. Police sirens were blaring. Army helicopters were flying all over. Streets had holes in them. The mole ghost had done it's work. With the ghost shield surrounding the city, it was confined within city limits.

Then Valerie remembered: The kids!

She flew on her hoverboard back home. In front of her house, there was a giant mole hole. Hoping they weren't gone, she ran inside and checked every room of the house. They were gone.

Then, hoping for every chance of finding them, she flew over to Alex's house. Alex's mom, Alice, answered.

Alice opened the door slowly, peeking around outside. It seemed news got around pretty quick, because she seemed terrified.

"Get inside, quickly! The monster might come by!" She hurried Valerie inside and shut the door.

"Are Alex and Raymond here?"

"I thought they were sleeping over at your house!"

"They were going to, but that mole ghost got me and I couldn't escape until this morning. They weren't at my house when I got back. The mole might have got them. Call the police, report them as missing."

Valerie ran outside and turned on her ghost tracker. She had a mole to catch.


School started today, so that sucks. I feel like the end to this chapter is rushed, but in between my preparations for school and creating a minecraft server that's going public soon, I haven't quite been giving my stories the attention they need. Sorry.