I think I've gotten lazy. It took me a while to get to editing this chapter. ^^' But we're here and I managed to upload it today! Anyways, on to the reviews!

OMNIESENSE95: Flying for ghosts should be that easy, but sadly Andy's subconsciously holding himself back. It's like walking for people, it's easy to do once you learn but if you keep believing you'll never get it then you're most likely going to walk really slow or don't walk at all. (This is not an insult to those who are paralyzed and really can't walk) And it's also because of the ghostly nature, it makes them naturally more aggressive. And uh... I think I'll let you judge what Walker has in store for them.

Rune: I don't plan on getting it at all is what I mean to say. Not the Wii version, not the New 3DS version, but if I'm able to get it then I might. I don't don't want to spend a lot of money just to get a new handheld console right now.

Yeah, that's true. Andy does have better stamina than Danny did when he first got his ghost powers, but he still tires out more quickly than Danny would using these powers. And this will be a big hindrance to him in this chapter.

Danny grabbed Desiree's tail in What You Want when he demanded she changed Tucker back, he also grabbed Technus's tail when he was trying to escape in Identity Crisis, that's when I figured it's possible for them to grab their tails even though it doesn't look like they can. And it WAS pretty clever of Andy to do that since he can't go as fast as Danny can yet.

Why Skulker? Just curious.

CaPTIVITY: Yeah, the twins have a lot of repressed issues they really need to talk to each other about. And thanks for the support!

Calm: I'll let Andy speak.

Andy: Well excuse me for not being bred with these powers and automatically knowing how I should use them! I'd like to see how YOU would handle these powers without being with them for all your life! Hmph!

muney73: Yeah... it's not Mario Party but that game can really bring the worst in people. As for everything else... it's answered in this chapter.

fireclaw239: Sadly not any time soon. We're talking season 3 here.

PrincessDragon96: Heh... it's the latter. ^^' I wanted to focus on Danny and Andy without Sam hanging over them.

You're right about Andy not wanting to use these powers and it doesn't help that Danny keeps making him train, but the fight is also because their ghost side is more naturally aggressive than humans are.

And the character... I'll let you find out in this chapter.

firestar91: I'm not going to answer that question as that would spoil things in future chapters. You'll just have to wait and see for yourself.

Dracoya: Jeez, give me a lot to work with, huh? I didn't think it mattered too much since you can't actually see the action going on. And if it does bug you that much, then just imagine him having a pair of fangs if you want. I wanted to stay true to the picture since he's not my own original design. And would you imagine a dark red hair if I called it brown?

I honestly don't plan on Corrupted Danny on having a 'final form'.

I would tell you my plans for TUE, but then that would involve spoilers and I'm trying my best not to spoil anything. So I can't say if what you say is right or wrong or even close to what I have in mind.

And I know about the show's original plot, it would've been interesting if they used it but I guess we'll never know what it could've been like. I don't watch Harry Potter so half of what you said meant nothing to me, sorry. ^^' But I guess it's interesting how similar they are.

Okay, you know the drill people. Read, review and enjoy. :P

Chapter 13: A Game of Survival

Ugh… my head feels hot… what happened? I groaned as I tried to force my eyes to open. Everything was blurry and it hurts to keep my eyes open, I pushed against my forehead, only to feel my hands were tied together. I quickly tried to blink away the blurriness and could see my hands looked like they were chained together by some… weird glowing ecto handcuff thing. I frowned, I was still in my ghost form if my navy blue and white jumpsuit was any indication. I looked around, squinting slightly to see- my eyesight was still a bit blurry but I can make out we were somewhere dark.

"You awake now?" I suddenly heard my brother's voice.

I blinked and looked up, narrowing my eyes and trying to see him, "Y-yeah… What happened… where are we?"

Danny paused for a moment before speaking up again. "Honestly, I'm not sure- probably a prison of some sort… I just woke up not long ago."

I groaned as I tried sitting up, but didn't have much success. "Ugh… I feel like I was hit by a bolt of lightning while I was on the electric wires."

"Yeah… I… I think Walker had his soldiers tasered us." Danny said, sounding a bit dazed.

When I managed to regain my sight, I could see he was sitting not far away, his hands were chained by that glowing green handcuff too. I looked around- the place was pretty big and spacious, but otherwise, I could see we were in a prison cell.

"Where's Sam?" I quickly asked in concern, trying to sit up once more and failing again.

"I don't know… I haven't seen her since I woke up." Danny said with a sigh, his shoulders slumped.

I frowned a bit, he sounded tired and defeated. "...Is something wrong? You don't sound like yourself."

Danny chuckled at that, shaking his head sadly. "It's nothing, bro… n-no need to worry about me. I'm the big tough superhero- I have to be fine, don't I?"

"I don't know about that." I said, looking away. "Even though you have ghost powers, you can't just take on such big responsibility. Any person, no matter their age, may not be able to handle it mentally…"

"... Are you… are you saying I'm insane?" he suddenly asked me, glancing up at me.

"No, no, of course not!" I quickly said, wishing my hands weren't tied together right now. "I just mean that you shouldn't take on everything yourself…" I paused. "Um… if we're still in the Ghost Zone, couldn't we just turn human and get out of here?"

"Already tried it." Danny said dryly, shaking his head. "It doesn't work for some reason- I dunno why, but I just can't turn human…"

I frowned at that, he's unable to turn human? I quickly searched for the warm spot in my chest, but to my horror… it wasn't there… I tried to grab it, but it was gone. I had no way to change back either! I opened my eyes and, if my heart was beating right now, it'd be beating really frantically. Wait… I DON'T HAVE A HEARTBEAT IN THIS FORM!?

"Y-you mean we're stuck as ghosts!? D-did Walker kill us!?" I was borderline in hysteria at this point, I didn't want to be stuck as a ghost forever!

Danny quickly shook his head. "N-no, no, no! We're not dead, I still feel partially alive after all! I think he just… locked away our ability to transform for now, that's all! Calm down, Andy!"

I panted, even though I don't think we NEED to breathe either… another thing to worry about. "What's Walker going to do with us now?" And where did he take Sam? Why would he keep a human here anyway?

"You two are finally awake, good." I jumped when I suddenly heard a voice, one I hadn't heard before. "It's about time, the rules are about to be explained."

"Rules?" Danny blinked, looking at me in confusion before glancing back at where the voice came from. "What rules? What're you talking about, who are you?"

"Shh." was all the voice said before going silent.

Before we could speak up again, Walker himself came walking in, and he smirked as he looked into our cell. "Good- looks like all the prisoners are awake and waiting."

The ghost guards suddenly began opening up the jail cells, and all the convicts were coming out of prison. My eyes widened as I looked around in shock- there were so many different types of ghosts, it was hard to keep track of them all! And a lot of them looked downright ugly and mutated. The ghost guards soon opened our own cell, and Danny and I looked at each other before the guards pushed us, forcing us to go into the crowd of convicted ghosts in front of Walker.

Walker's smirk grew as he spread his arms, looking extremely cocky and confident. "Welcome, dear inmates, to the annual Afterlife Chance! As many of you know, this sort of thing happens only once every thousand years- but we certainly try to keep it interesting. This year, the prize for winning the Afterlife Chance is not only freedom from this high-security prison… it's also a chance to escape into the human world!"

All the ghosts around us began roaring, moaning, oohing or just cheering loudly. Danny and I were probably the only ones who didn't know about this 'Afterlife Chance'. But if it's held one every thousand years, that's probably not a big surprise. Ghosts don't really have time or age like the living world does…

"But only the winner is allowed to escape, while the rest must wait another thousand years for a chance of leaving." The warden said, smirking. "You may go in teams or you may fight by yourself, I don't care. The rules, however, you MUST follow or you are automatically disqualified. You may only have teams of three, no more, no less. You will be fighting in a ring, where an audience will watch. You may fight however you wish, but the ring will keep you from flying out of the boundary, because if you go out of bounds, whether in the air or in the water, you lose. I would say no killing is allowed, but then again we don't have lives to be lost."

I felt even more nervous now, glancing around- we have to fight ALL of these guys just for a chance to get away from here? Unlike these other ghosts, my brother and I have a chance of actually DYING here!

"Geez…" Danny gulped beside me, sweatdropping. "I've heard of a fight to the death, but this is ridiculous!"

I frowned even more, I still didn't see Sam anywhere… I hope she's okay. All the ghosts around us cheered, in their own way, again. Walker continued to grin, crossing his arms and speaking up once more. "The Afterlife Chance registration will start in an hour, so if you plan to have a team, I suggest you team up now. Remember, if you are to make a team; you MUST have three or you're disqualified."

As if those words were the trigger, all the ghosts began flying around, trying to find the perfect teammate. I guess not a lot of them were confident enough to fight by themselves… Well, in a world of strong fighting ghosts, it's best to survive in a pack rather than alone.

Danny and I naturally stuck together, but there are only two of us- we were still one short. "I don't suppose we would find any ghost we've befriended in here, would we?" I asked.

"Considering how little friends we have in the Ghost Zone? Don't bet on it." Danny said with a frown. "I don't think anyone's going to be willing to team up with a couple of rookie kids."

"Well we have to at least try." I said frantically. "Otherwise we'll be stuck here for a thousand years!"

"I know, calm down." Danny said to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Let just ask around, surely out of all the ghosts here, one of them is bound to team up with us."

We quickly began asking around, but it was hard to walk around with these stupid chains binding our arms. "Excuse us? H-hello? We still need one more teammate!"

"Buzz off, weaklings." A giant bear ghost with three arms snapped at us.

"Go away! I'm only teaming up with the strongest ghosts here!" A human-like ghost with blue skin and four arms snapped at us.

"Forget it, we're not teaming up with a couple of rookies!" Two wolf ghosts barked at us before going over to a snake ghost.

"Ugh, this isn't working! Nobody is willing to team up!" Danny snapped, losing his patience.

I was about to reply when that same voice we heard in the prison cell earlier spoke up quietly, catching both of us off-guard. "I'll join you."

Both of us stopped and looked back, seeing a young boy ghost, who looked around our age, with green skin and red irises. Huh- not many ghosts have irises. He had spiky dark brown hair that covered his left eye, and he wore a black hoodie and dark blue pants. He seemed lean like me and Danny, but I could see some muscles on his arms. He also had a black choke collar around his neck. The ghost boy looked almost human like me and Danny, but I could sense he was much stronger than he appears.

"Oh, uh, great." Danny said with a smile, but I felt uneasy. "So uh… I'm Danny and this is my twin brother Andy."

The ghost boy smiled to us before nodding, shifting his weight onto his left leg. "Just call me Dustin. It was my name before I died."

I almost flinched at that, it served to remind me that many ghosts were once living creatures too. "Uh… it's nice to meet you, Dustin."

"Yes, it's nice to meet you two too." Dustin said, smiling slightly. "Guess we're a team."

"Do we need a team name?" Danny asked, crossing his arms curiously.

"That's how procedures usually work around here." Dustin said in boredom, shrugging as he crossed his arms. "I don't care, though- you two can come up with the names. I've been here long enough to know the system, and I've also been here long enough to get sick of it."

Sounds like this kid's been here for a long time, what a morbid thought. "Well uh… guess we could just keep our name simple. Maybe the… Ghost Kids?"

"Why that?" Danny asked me, raising an eyebrow.

"Because we're ghost kids? Pretty fitting." I said with a shrug.

"Andy, don't call us kids just because we seem younger than all the other ghosts." Danny frowned, crossing his arms.

"What? That's what they call YOU usually." I said, looking at him and crossing my arms as well.

"Yeah, and I'd rather not have a title to go with it." My brother said stubbornly.

I frowned, what's up with him? Why is he arguing about something so insignificant? "Does it really matter?"

"Yes, it matters! Because that's what they'll call us!" He pointed out.

"Fine! Then what's your idea?" I asked, starting to lose my patience with his attitude.

"I don't know yet, but it's going to be better than 'Ghost Kids'!" He snapped at me.

"Well excuse me for being true to what we are!" I snapped back, both of us glaring at each other face to face.

"Whoa whoa whoa, cool down you guys. You two had better shape up and be friendly- if we're not in sync then we'll lose." Dustin soon spoke up, putting his hands on our shoulders and giving a small frown.

I frowned as we turned away from each other. What's going on? Danny and I never fought, not like this… I thought turning ghost was helping us be closer, not tear us apart even more. Sam was wrong, this isn't helping us, it's tearing us apart even further.

Suddenly, there was a loud whistle! I cringed and covered my ears, I could see my brother doing the same. When the loud screeching of the whistle faded, we all looked up, seeing Walker again. "Time is up, you all got your partners? I sure hope so, because if not, you're either a loner or you're disqualified. Now, it's time to sign each of you up for registration and we will choose who you will battle."

Great, now how are we going to register with our hands all chained up? Not to mention we still don't have a team name we can agree on. "We have to just use a team name, otherwise we'll be disqualified before we even begin!"

"Stop freaking out." Danny said to me. "I'm thinking. You could help you know, come up with a team name that DOESN'T sound degrading."

"Degrading? How is that degrading!? It's not like I was calling us babies or animals!" I growled.

"Geez… At this point, we should just call ourselves Team Discord with the way you two are acting." Dustin said quietly, rolling his eyes.

I gotta calm down, I don't want to argue with my brother… "Okay look, I'm sorry- I didn't mean to be insulting when I suggested that name."

Danny sighed, glancing away. "I'm sorry too, I guess I was a little sensitive about it since you kept acting like you're older than me."

"So then… what should we be called?" I asked.

Danny thought for a minute before he said, "Well…" he looked at me, glancing down at his chest before he smiled, probably getting an idea. "Hey, I'm called Danny Phantom and you… now that you're like me, bro, you're Andy Phantom." I almost cringed at that, I hadn't thought about calling myself Andy PHANTOM. "And together, we are Phantoms. That could be our title, The Phantoms."

"The Phantoms?" I raised an eyebrow. "But isn't that kinda like us being called The Humans to the ghosts?"

"I don't care, it's what we are bro." Danny said, that stupid grin never leaving his face.

"What about Dustin? I don't think he wants to be a Phantom." I said, pointing to the other ghost boy on our three ghost team.

"Hey, from what I can tell all three of us are speed ghosts, so it fits." Dustin said with a shrug. "Other than that, I don't care- you could call us Dog Slobber if you wanted."

"Alright then, we are Phantoms it is." Danny said, smiling. I sighed, but decided not to argue this time.

So now we're all sitting in a line, waiting for the papers to be passed out so we can sign up our team and our team names. I'll skip the boring details. After everyone was done, we were to go to another prison called the 'Waiting Room', there we are to wait until we are called to fight in the arena.

As I waited, though, I couldn't help but occasionally glance at Dustin, and he seemed to notice, raising an eyebrow and looking back at me. "...What is it? Do I have something on my face?"

"Uh… I was just wondering…" I hesitated. I remember Mom used to tell us that many ghosts find it insulting if you were to ask them how they died, but I was really curious, and so far these ghosts had disproved a lot of theories, my brother and I are living- well half living- proof their theories aren't always right. "Um…"

Dustin gave me a knowing smirk, making me a little uneasy- did he know what I wanted to ask? "Heh… you wanted to know how I died, right?" I blinked, surprised- how did he know? "You'd better work on your poker face, you know- the curiosity was written all over your face."

"Uh… s-sorry." I apologized, feeling a bit hot from embarrassment- was I that easy to read?

"So how DID you die?" Danny asked, crossing his arms and tilting his head.

"Hey, don't ask bluntly, that's rude." I said to him, frowning.

Dustin chuckled at that, shaking his head. "Boy, you two must be really new… it's actually common to exchange stories about how people died." He smirked, leaning against the wall and pointing a thumb at… Is that the Box Ghost over there? "Such as that sorry sap over there."

"Box Ghost? He's been locked up here again?" Danny frowned, looking over at the guy. "Geez, how did he always escape the portal if he gets locked up here?"

That's kind of funny to think about actually, the Box Ghost didn't seem too bright and tries too hard to be scary, and yet he's able to always escape into our world.

Dustin smirked, shrugging. "Eh, he usually follows the jailbreaks that plague this place- the rat manages to escape by being unnoticed, like all rodents. Anyways, Boxy over there ended up dying in an industrial accident- he got covered and smothered in boxes."

"And yet he becomes obsessed with the very things that killed him?" Danny frowned curiously.

"It does seem rather odd, maybe it was all he had in his lifetime?" I said with a thoughtful glance at the guy. I would've thought someone as cocky sounding as the Box Ghost would fight alone, but I see two others with him. One of them was the Lunch Lady Danny told me about, and the other is a ghost I don't think I've ever seen. It looked like a janitor ghost, he even had a uniform and a mop and everything.

"Nah." Dustin shook his head, though, getting our attention back on him. "Most ghosts actually get powers or become obsessed with what killed them… Anyways, I'm getting off-track. You wanted to know how I died, right?"

"If it's not too painful to relive." I said quietly, not wanting to be annoying.

"Sure, it's not like we have anywhere else to go." Danny said with a shrug. I glared at him in slight irritation, did he really have to be so tactless?

Dustin chuckled, shaking his head in amusement. "Nah, it's not painful to remember… It wasn't a big deal, really." He closed his eyes, his expression darkening a bit as he spoke. "I was the heir of my parents' company- expected everything to be given to me on a silver platter. Then… well… I got caught up in a robbery- I ended up being a temporary hostage."

"Did the robbers kill you?" My brother asked curiously, leaning forwards.

"Let him finish." I hissed at him, frowning slightly.

Dustin took a deep breath, letting it out as I noticed his fist clenching slightly. "No… that might have made it easier, actually. What happened was… the robbery was stopped by some cops. They came in, guns blazing… and one of their bullets hit me right in the chest."

He paused, taking a shuddering breath with his eyes still closed. "Thing is… I didn't die right away. I was just bleeding there on the tile… but even after the robbers were arrested, nobody thought to check and see if I was still alive. They all thought I was dead… even as I struggled to breathe right in front of them."

Both my brother and I just sat and listened in silence. Dustin looked like he was far away, almost as if he was reliving the very moment he died… It was sad… how nobody bothered to see if he was alive... "Still… it's sort of ironic, you know?" The ghost boy sighed, his body sagging against the wall. "I had my whole life planned out. I was going to live the good life, without any worries or cares… and all it took to end it was a single piece of metal and some extremely bad luck…"

"That's… really sad… I'm sorry you had to die so young." I said softly, unsure of what else to say.

"I guess it really was just bad luck." Danny said with a frown.

Dustin shook his head, quickly opening his eyes and looking at both of us with a slightly strained grin. "Well, uh, t-that was a long time ago anyways… But what about you? How did you two die? I'll bet it was pretty gruesome if two twins happened to die at the same time in the same place."

Danny and I both paused at that, unsure of what to say. "...E-er, well…" Danny started, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "The thing is… we… uh…"

"How did you know we died at the same time and same place?" I asked quickly, buying us some time to think.

Dustin raised an eyebrow, shrugging as he scratched his head idly. "Well… isn't it obvious? You two look almost exactly alike. Only twins who died at the exact same time and in the same way end up looking so similar- otherwise they'd look very different from each other. It happens very rarely, hence why we never see twins around here."

"Well, I guess that would explain why twins are almost never seen here." I said quietly, before thinking of an idea. "We died… because of a lab accident. We walked into a place we shouldn't and died of a painful electrocution."

"Uh… yeah. It felt like an eternity when we were being electrocuted to death." Danny said, nodding with me. "Sad thing is our own family didn't even know we died."

I looked at Danny as painful memories of after the first accident flashed across my head. I looked down and in shame, but of course only Jazz and I figured it out, by accident.

"Geez… sounds painful- explains the suits, too." Dustin said sympathetically, glancing at both of us before he grinned. "Anyways, I think it's time for us to figure out a plan of attack. Most ghosts use this time for that purpose anyways, and it's better to know what we're doing now rather than on the battlefield. Are you both used to your powers yet?"

Danny shrugged, "I've only had about six months of training, but I can handle my own, it's my brother I'm worried about. He uh… didn't really train after we died..."

I frowned and looked away, muttering quietly, "... I barely even know how to fly."

"W-wait, seriously?" Dustin blinked, wincing slightly. "Geez… that's going to be tough to deal with. You know how to attack, though, right?"

"If by attack, you mean getting in combat with fists and feet flying? … Barely. I'm mostly good with something like a long, tough stick." I said, sighing. "I was pretty good with it as a human…"

"Of course…" Dustin groaned slightly, rubbing his forehead. "Well… I suppose I could teach you a little trick I know to give you a slight edge. It's not gonna be too useful until you get good with it, though…"

I raised an eyebrow, glancing at him curiously. "What is it?"

"Can you use the Plasma Ray yet?" Dustin asked me, looking at me hopefully.

"Errr… well… I've used it a few times, but I don't remember how." I said sheepishly, feeling like an idiot student with a teacher disappointed in him.

"Oh c'mon…" Dustin groaned, clearly resisting the urge to facepalm. "Well… let's start with trying to use it then."

"How?" Danny suddenly asked, frowning curiously. "We're kinda chained up here." he held up his arms, which were still tied together.

"Oh right, they'll release us from these chains after our first battle…" Dustin said with a thoughtful frown.

"First battle? Will we even survive it?" I gulped, trying not to panic.

"Yes, yes- just follow what I tell you and you'll do fine." Dustin said, giving me a grin. "Now then, you know what your core feels like normally, right?"

I nodded, shrugging. "Yeah, it's cold but sometimes it gets really hot sporadically."

"Really? Mine never gets hot, sometimes it gets colder." My brother said with a confused look.

"... Uh… there's nothing wrong with my core is there?" I asked, feeling uneasy. Ghosts are usually cold, so why do I feel hot sometimes? It's not a 'malfunction' or a 'glitch' is it?

Dustin shook his head, smirking. "Nah, it's just that all cores have elements to them. My guess is that you both have ice and fire cores, respectively- it'll take a while for them to mature, though." Then he cleared his throat, frowning. "Anyways… if you can feel your core, you can fire out your Plasma Ray- you just have to push the energy out through the place you want it to fire from, namely the hands or maybe the eyes. And if you keep yourself focused enough, you can use that energy to create various objects."

Wait, what was that about ice and fire cores? I blinked and looked at Danny, he only shrugged, not knowing what he meant either. I looked back and decided to forget about it and try to listen about how to use Ghost Rays. "Okay… I wish I could try that now, but I don't think I can with these ghost proof handcuffs on."

"Just be sure to keep it in mind when we have to battle, bro." Danny said, shrugging. "Maybe if we're lucky we'll get someone weak first."

"Team Phantoms!" A guard suddenly called us. "You're called to the ring." The guard held out a glowing white key, which I'm guessing he'll use to unlock our bindings.

Dustin quickly pushed off of the wall, stretching his back a bit. "Well then, guess we're up. Andy, try not to get completely destroyed out there."

I winced and frowned- ouch, I think he just damaged my pride. The guard just held the key over our glowing handcuffs, it shot out some light and disbanded the handcuffs. Huh, at least it's easy to use.

"What team are we going up against?" Danny asked the guard as it stayed in front of us, to lead us to the ring.

The guard didn't respond, but Dustin smirked, nudging me and subtly pointing towards the Box Ghost, the Lunch Lady and the janitor ghost I had noticed earlier. "My guess is they're our opponents- they're being lead out at the same time after all."

"Guess luck's on our side bro." Danny whispered to me. "The Box Ghost is a joke."

"What about the Lunch Lady? And we don't know anything about the janitor." I pointed out, frowning. "I mean, the Box Ghost would have to team up with strong ghosts if he's really that weak..

"Don't freak out before we even get to the ring." Danny frowned at me.

I could already hear a loud crowd ahead of us, and I gulped- I also have a small amount of stage fright…

Dustin grinned, though, continuing to walk forwards without even pausing when he heard the crowd begin to roar. "Well then, looks like it's showtime."

As soon as we walked out into the glowing green light, there was a huge arena, and an even bigger crowd surrounding it. There was a barrier around the arena, probably to prevent convicts from escaping and the audience from getting into the arena. Ghosts do seem naturally more aggressive than humans after all… I shyly scooted behind my brother.

Danny smiled reassuringly at me, shrugging. "C'mon bro, cheer up- I'm sure we'll be fine…"

"You know, I don't feel so good, maybe we can try the next match." I quickly said, suddenly feeling very insecure and weak.

"Don't chicken out now Andy." Dustin said, crossing his arms cockily. "These guys aren't that strong, just keep your head and let instincts help you fight."

"I'm not an animal!" I huffed.

"What I mean is ghosts have natural instincts to help them in the afterlife- and fighting is one of them." Dustin explained, shrugging. "You two must be new to death if you didn't know that."

I grumbled but didn't reply that. We soon heard a loud voice booming across the arena, must be the announcer.

"AAAAND ON THIS CORNER WE HAVE THE FAST, YET INEXPERIENCED TEAM PHANTOMS! I TELL YA, THEY ARE TOO YOUNG AND-"

"Shut up and do your job, Technus, or you'll go back into prison again." I heard Walker's voice threaten.

"The announcer guy is Technus?" My brother cringed. I only remember seeing Technus once, and that was during that time he and a few other ghosts ambushed me.

"Walker likes using ghosts that likes to talk as the announcer." Dustin shrugged. "Trust me, I've seen plenty worse ghosts as the announcer…"

"Figures…" Danny grumbled. I didn't know Technus that much, but I'm guessing he's a talker.

"Alright, anyways… IN THE OTHER CORNER IS THE TRIO OF SCHOOL STAFFS! TEAM WORKERS!" Technus announced.

As if on cue, a giant, familiar meat monster popped out of nowhere, roaring, "IT'S LUNCH TIME!"

The janitor ghost floated up and was twirling his mop around, making cleaning water appear out of nowhere.

"BEWARE!" Box Ghost shouted, floating above her. "FOR COLD STORAGE MEAT, SOAPY CLEAN WATER AND BOXES HAVE BECOME ONE DEADLY ASSAULT WEAPONS!"

"Geez, I don't know which of them is the most vocal- the annoying shouting Box Ghost or the screaming, roaring Lunch Lady." Danny grumbled.

"Well the janitor seems quiet." I commented.

"But he's no picnic, ever heard of the phrase silent but deadly?" Dustin said, shifting his stance into a battle-ready one.

"I hate this." I gulped, cautiously glancing at the ghosts we were about to fight.

"And watching over the battle will be the referee, ghost of rules and Warden himself, Walker! NOW LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!" Technus shouted as the crowds roared with excitement, and the bell rang.

Almost instantly, the Box Ghost began tossing boxes at us, making all three of us quickly jump away from each other! "YAHAHAHA! YEEEEES! BEWARE MY PAINFUL BOXES!" the ghost cackled, continuing to make boxes fly towards each of us.

I remember getting crushed by those boxes, not a good experience… I got hit in the forehead by a stray box and I yelped as I hit the ground. Facing up, I could see my brother flying at the Box Ghost himself, turning intangible and making the boxes go right through him. ...Why didn't I think of that!?

Nearby, I noticed Dustin squaring off with the janitor ghost, summoning two small swords without hilts. "So, looks like we're choosing our opponents quickly, huh?" he remarked dryly, spinning both blades easily. The janitor didn't say anything, just swiping at him with his mop, which Dustin quickly blocked. "Yep- still didn't expect you to say much…"

I quickly stood up as I heard Technus commenting on every move we make, which is rather annoying since he's pointing out that I looked confused… Danny's fighting the Box Ghost, Dustin is taking care of that janitor's ghost, so… I gulped, seeing the huge meat monster stomping up towards me. "Uh… hi?" I squeaked, beginning to back up.

The Lunch Lady just grinned, a bit of spoiled meat dripping out of her mouth. Where did she get that meat, anyway? It's not like ghosts need to eat! "Looks like somebody's hungry! IT'S TIME FOR MYSTERY MEAT SUNDAY!"

"Uh… t-technically it's Saturday- waah!" I almost got smashed by a pile of meat! I flipped over and yelped when I almost fell out of bounds! There was green water down there… that really didn't look healthy. "H-hey, careful with that stuff! That's going to be even more of a health hazard than it already is!" ...Wait… I'M BEING WITTY AGAIN!

The Lunch Lady growled at my comment, glaring at me angrily. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!? My food is ALWAYS good! YOU'LL PAY FOR INSULTING MY DELICIOUS MEAT!"

I quickly shut my eyes and felt my body turn tingly. I heard a loud splat and blinked when I noticed that I had phased through her meat. Hey, I managed to turn intangible! I walked out of her fist and glared. "Do you know how wrong that sounded? That's just disgusting." I gave a punch at her meat arm as hard as I could, I was surprised to see I managed to severe the meat hand from the arm… wow, these ghost powers are STRONG.

Lunch Lady gave a loud roar as I heard metal clashing with strong wood. For a split second I saw Dustin slashing through the janitor ghost, both of them almost fight like perfect samurais.

"TEAM PHANTOM IS GIVING TEAM WORKERS THE BOOT!" I heard Technus shouting.

But it wasn't over yet, Lunch Lady had the meat hand I severed come to life into smaller meat monsters. I gulped, feeling deja vu- I guess this was that giant meat monster that attacked Amity Park a while back. If only I had the Fenton Rod, I could easily beat these guys up!

As I was struggling to avoid these little monsters, I could hear my brother making a witty remark while a big splash followed."Sorry, but it looks like your boxes are all soggy, Box Ghost!"

I heard the crowd cheering loudly in the background as I grabbed one of the meat monsters and threw it at the other three, causing a big splat before I turned to the Lunch Lady and kicked one of the meat right into her big glowing green eyes. "Hey Lunch Lady! It's nice to MEAT you! Now go have a nice sizzling meat party with the boiling water!"

"W-WHA!?" The Lunch Lady was teetering right on the edge of the arena, one of the biggest flaws of being so huge. "Why you little brat…!"

I walked over to her before using my foot to push her back- while not much, it was enough to cause all the meat to fall into the green glowing water below, and she screamed as she lost her meat suit and floated there, out of bounds.

"She's out!" Walker shouted. "That just leaves the janitor now."

"Oooh! If the janitor gets out, Team Phantom will win and advance to the next round!" Technus shouted.

I glanced over at Dustin, who smirked once he heard Technus say that. "Good- now I can finally stop playing around with this joker…" All of a sudden, I noticed his blades get a lot sharper, and he hastily cut through the janitor's mop, slamming the butt of his swords into the ghost's head and sending him flying into the water!

"KNOCK OUT!" Walker whistled loudly.

"You've heard it folks! Team Phantom has won the battle!" Technus shouted, and I had to cover my ears from the loud cheering.

Next thing I knew, a guard was pushing us back into the waiting room, but at least they didn't put those handcuffs back on us. I wonder why we're still unable to go human, though… it would be easy to escape if we could.

When we sat down, Dustin suddenly began scolding us, crossing his arms angrily. "What was with you two? You've been ghosts for six whole months- why were you both giving such a sloppy performance?"

"...What?" Danny blinked, clearly caught off-guard. "But we won, how was that sloppy!?"

I cringed and looked down, it was mostly my own fault since I got beaten so easily back there.

The other ghost boy kept frowning as he shook his head. "No, we got LUCKY- those were the weakest ghosts here, they are a joke, and even then your brother here barely managed to beat that Lunch Lady. If she hadn't gotten too careless, then she would've easily knocked him out of the arena. Our formation is terrible too- we got split the second the battle started."

Dustin sighed, rubbing his forehead. "We'll need to train… if we run into someone else, we can't rely on luck to push us through or we'll be crushed instantly. Thankfully, the good thing about fighting the weakest ghosts is that it gives us the most time to train."

"Do we even have time to train? This tournament goes on for the same day, right? Which means we won't have time to train for long." I said with a frown.

"Better than nothing, at least." Dustin retorted, leaning against the wall. "We need to work on teamwork, that and you need to learn how to fight better." He pointed at me in particular, still frowning slightly.

I looked away, sighing sadly. "... I'm just not used to it…"

"Tough." Dustin suddenly poked my forehead, making me blink. "It's either this or we wait for the next jailbreak attempt- and frankly, that won't be happening for quite a bit longer, if nothing happens this time."

"Hey, don't be mad at my brother." Danny suddenly said with a frown, moving the other ghost away from me. "Look, Andy just needs to learn how to use the basic ghost powers and he should be good, like how to use intangibility and the Ghost Ray faster. Flying may take longer for him to learn though…"

"That's not going to be good enough…" Dustin sighed, glancing away. "This is a tournament- the opponents are going to be the most powerful in the Ghost Zone. If we ever expect to win, we'll need to have tricks other than the ordinary moveset any ghost has. So as it is, it's more of a case of two competent ghosts and a trash heap… not a good combination."

"What!?" I glared at Dustin quickly, feeling my eyes glowing angrily. "I'm not trash!"

"Hey, he's not trash! He just hasn't gotten used to these powers!" Danny defended me, crossing his arms.

"Oh yeah?" Dustin replied, raising an eyebrow. "Well, you both got your powers at the exact same time- and yet you're doing much better than your brother. Andy has no excuse to not be used to his powers, so don't try to defend him like he got them just yesterday!"

It was more like a few days ago, not even a week… but I don't think I should tell him that. "So what are you saying? That I'm too incompetent to use ghost powers at all?"

"If you hadn't been able to use them effectively for six months, you're about as useful as boxes without the Box Ghost." He answered bluntly.

"You can't just- Andy only had these powers for-" Danny was about to say before I held up my hand to stop him.

"I don't have to explain myself to you. How I use these powers is my business. And if we lose, we can always break out of here." I snapped, defiantly.

"Right- thing is, that isn't exactly easy to do." Dustin snapped, narrowing his eyes angrily at me. "I've been trying to escape here for a good few hundred years, and believe me, I've been using every jailbreak I can do my advantage- with no luck, I might add."

Before I could reply to that, our team was called again. "Team Phantom, you're up."

I've learned, unlike humans, that ghosts don't need to rest as long after a big fight- they can keep going on and on. They only need ectoplasm for energy, which is obviously an abundant source here in the Ghost Zone. So it's no wonder this tournament can keep going without a pause for respite… this is going to be a long day.

Okay, I feel like I should get this out of the way right now. For those of you who watched The Legend of Korra, this tournament was inspired from season 1's tournament. I was watching it at the time when I was writing this chapter and thought it would be a good idea to try it out with Danny and Andy. And Dustin, yes he's an original character but he's a tribute to my co-writer Key2DestNE. Think of him as someone who is like Andy but without as much kindness. He thinks a lot but in a more cold logic kind of way, wanting things to go his way rather than for others, hence why he's so hard on Andy for being such an amateur. I hope this arc doesn't disappoint. I am DarkFoxKit and I look forward to hearing from you!