Chapter 2:

Tucker grinned at his two friends, "You know, there is a whole lot more that is supposed to happen before you end up having to take care of a child."

Sam and Danny both glared at him with their faces burning red, "Tucker!"

Dani on the other hand looked at her, new to her, parents with a complicated expression on her face, "I always wanted a family, but I don't think I am ready to call you Mom or Dad yet."

Jazz shook her and laughed a little at the ridiculousness of the situation, "Ha-ha... ha... I don't think they are ready for you to call then that yet either."

Valerie shrugged, "Meh, it is better than having our creepy mayor as the dad figure in your life."

Everyone paused at the image that brought to mind and then nodded, Dani saying, "Got that right, went through that once already and once is too much."

Frostbite chuckled, "Quick recovery once your archnemesis is mentioned."

Danny nodded, "It's Plasmius. I once saw what life would look like if he had no ghost powers and was married to my mom. The guy was still a seriously crazed up fruitloop who attempted to kill both Dad and me. Even getting what he wanted didn't change him. The only thing I saw that changed him for the better was loosing literally everything."

Tucker paused for a second after that, "Do any of you know why he didn't just clone himself or use your mom's DNA to make a son for himself that way?"

Frostbite sighed, "I had my people scan him when he came through here, and I would say it is because his ectoplasm acts more like an infective agent than the passive infusion of the Great One. It is powerful and aggressive, due in no small part to the man himself's nature, and likely destroyed any attempt at cloning using his own DNA once he tried to use the accelerated aging process."

Danny blinked, "That would explain some things."

Dani raised her eyebrow at him, "Like what?"

Danny shrugged, "My evil future self ripped Vlad's ghost half out and fused with it, and despite some similarities to Vlad, he was still obviously me. On top of that, that alternate timeline where Dad was the one who got the powers instead, his ghost form looked like a more rotund version of Vlad than something unique to him."

Frostbite nodded, "Meaning his ghost form is a corrupted version of what he would look like as a ghost instead of actually being his true looks."

Dani sighed, "All very interesting, but we are getting slightly off topic. Will my life change any?"

Danny shook his head, "No, not unless you want it to. I highly doubt Sam or her Grandma are going to kick you out of their home."

Sam nodded, "My parents, maybe, but us no. You can stay in one of our many unused rooms for as long as you want. I mean, Danny certainly doesn't have the room unless he feels like spilling everything to his parents or can suddenly materialize rooms with strange physics out of thin air."

Danny looked at Frostbite and saw the ancient ghost shaking his head, "Yeah, nope. My powers are more for combat than creation."

Tucker raised his eyebrow with a sly smirk on his face, "What about that ice diamond you made for Sam?"

Jazz grinned, "Oh-hoh, giving your girlfriend diamonds already?"

Danny and Sam returned to their earlier red color and sputtered out at the same time, "It wasn't like that!?"

Valerie grinned, "Can't say I'm surprised, I mean, they already have a child together."

Dani piped up, "And I'm it!"

Everyone laughed as Danny and Sam fought to get their blushes under control, and Danny said, "A-any-ways, there is something I would like to ask Frostbite about."

Frostbite chuckled a few more times before keeping his visual amusement to a simple smirk, "Ask away, Great One."

Danny sighed, "Do you know who it was who took the map yet?"

Frostbite shook his head, "No, we do not."

Jazz raised her eyebrow, "Do you not have anything to track it?"

Frostbite grimaced, "Tracking it isn't the issue, it was gone for maybe five minutes and then it was suddenly back in its chest on its pedestal. And asking the map to take us to its last destination causes it to fly to the edges of our land and no further."

Danny scratched the back of his head, "Have you tried asking it to take you to the one who used it?"

Frostbite nodded, "That resulted in it spinning in place and then falling back into its chest."

Sam raised her eyebrow, "That is problematic... maybe that is because the thief isn't in the ghost zone anymore?"

Frostbite shook his head, "That wouldn't affect it because the map can find anyone and anything regardless of what world they are in as long as it is connected to the Ghost Zone."

Tucker scratched his head, "Do temporary portals to worlds not normally connected to the Ghost Zone sometimes open up?"

Frostbite nodded, "Of course, though the chances of the thief specifically shooting for one and sending the map back afterwards are a little ridiculous."

Danny nodded, "You would have to be one seriously crazed up fruitloop to d..." Danny paused and blinked, "You don't think he..."

Sam raised her eyebrow and sighed, "A man with Ghost Powers goes to a world where there are no ghosts, oh yeah, he would."

Dani's eyes narrowed, "Vlad..."

Valerie winced at the thought, "He would be unstoppable."

Tucker nodded, "Yeah, and that would explain the ghost invasion of animals yesterday, they were without their illustrious leader and just went wild cause there was no longer someone holding on to their leash."

Frostbite held up his hands and waved them down, "Hold on a minute, there is always the chance that it isn't him."

Danny raised his eyebrow, "Then get the map and tell it to take you to him."

Frostbite sighed, "And if this is all a ploy to get his hands on the map?"

Tucker pointed out, "It was already taken, what would be the point of bringing it back if the desire was to have it in the first place?"

Danny nodded, "If you are that worried about it I can come along with you and punch him for good measure, even if he isn't the culprit. I need to get him back for making me a dad and then trying to kill Dani, my apparent daughter."

Dani smirked, "Awww, I knew you cared."

Danny turned to her, "Of course I did, even if you were lying about the cousin thing initially I still cared then."

Frostbite held up his Icy hand before Dani could speak, "Sorry to interrupt this, admittedly amusing, father-daughter interaction, but how do you plan to go after him if he is the temporary thief and in another world?"

Danny shrugged, "I don't know; see if Clockwork can help?"

Frostbite shook his head, "I somehow doubt that. Lord Clockwork is the most ancient and reclusive of all Ghosts, and I highly doubt he would help you in any matter... Except then you wouldn't necessarily know what he can do unless you have seen him do it."

Danny grinned, "He has helped me out a couple times before."

Frostbite scratched his head, "Was one of them with Pariah Dark?"

Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz all looked at him with grim faces, and Danny shivered, "Something a lot scarier than him."

Frostbite raised an eyebrow at them, "I am having a hard time thinking of anything scarier than Pariah Dark, but I will take your word for it."

Danny shrugged, "I actually already mentioned him."

Frostbite scratched his head, "You did?"

Danny nodded, "My evil future self. A full ghost version of me that went insane from grief. He quite literally destroyed the earth."

Fristbite tried to imagine it, "... I can't really imagine a version of you that would be that destructive."

Danny sighed, "He was, we got to see some of it thanks to Clockwork."

Frostbite nodded, "I hope Lord Clockwork will help you on this quest, and I shall eagerly await your..."

"Time Out!"

They all froze as Clockwork teleported into the room and gazed at them all with a sad face, "I truly wish I did not have to do this to you all, but it is necassary for the preservation of many worlds."

A blue mist scattered around the six young ones as Clockwork transitioned to his old man form, and outside a similar mist formed around the Specter Speeder. He paused for a moment to gaze at Danny, and then he snapped his fingers.


"Huhhhh!"

The collective yell was a result of six people quite suddenly looking out the windows of the Specter Speeder at a forest. Not too unusual, except they had juat been seated in a laboratory listening to one of their Ghostly allies talking.

Danny shook his head, "Well I guess Clockwork came through for us, could have done it in a more obtrusive way though."

Valerie growled, "I didn't even have time to say goodbye to my dad."

Tucker shrugged, "You get used to it."

Valerie glared at him, "I don't want to get used to it."

Sam shrugged as well, "Not much we can do about it though."

Jazz nodded, "Yeah, keeping a cool he..."

Danny looked at his sister with a raised eyebrow, "Why did you stop?"

Jazz shivered, "Umm... I think there is some kind of ghost outside."

Dani shook her head as everyone turned to look, "That is no ghost. It is more of a..."

Danny blinked and his voice echoed as his green eyes burned brightly, "Void in the world..."

Standing there staring at them was a large shadowy wolf-man thing with bone white armor, spikes everywhere and glowing amber eye. It was looking at them almost like it didn't quite know what to make of them, and from the woods around them there was coming a lot of smaller versions of the same creature.

To Danny and Dani, however, they could feel a sense of overpowering wrongness coming from these creatures. Said wrongness was putting their ghostly instincts on edge. It was almost like...

Danny shivered, "... They have no soul... They are like ghosts with no soul."

That caused a slight jolt of fear and confusion to go through the rest of the speeder's occupants, and unfortunately that seemed to be the signal those creatures were waiting for. All of them turned their gaze towards the speeder and charged.

Danny phased out of the speeder and yelled back, "Tucker, get that thing in the air. I'll hold them off."

Dani phased out after him, "Don't think you are doing it alone."

Danny grinned, "Wouldn't dream o..."

GRRRRRRROWOOOOOOOOHHHH!

The biggest wolf-man didn't give Danny time to finish and launched itself at him with a growling howl that echoed through the woods. Danny in turn encased his fist in ectoplasm and gave a flying punch to the beast's head almost as hard as he possibly could. The beast's head shattered under his punch and Danny watched out of the corner of his eye as Dani lopped the heads off of four little ones using her blade shaped ectoblasts that she kicked from her feet. Tucker had the Speeder's weapons online and those took care of the rest of the pack of beasts in about a second in a flash of light of many different as multiple different weapons of the Fenton Arsenal unloaded their elemental fury.

Danny scratched his head as he watched them dissolve into the air with puffs of dark smoke, "Huh... I thought these things would be tougher for some reason."

Sam's voice came out of the Speeder's speakers, "Yeah well, it seems like where one is there is more. The ship's ghost radar is picking up a whole lot of these things coming our way from the south."

Danny sighed, "Meaning that they are some what ghostly in nature, but I have never heard of soulless ghosts before... How many are there?"

Tuckers voice squeaked out, "...Incalculable... It also seems like we have a human settlement of some sort three or four miles to the north of us."

Danny shook his head and then turned around, "Val, you are out here with me and Dani. Jazz, Sam, and Tucker, keep all weapons firing once that mob of monsters hits us."

Valerie flew out of the side door of the speeder, "You know I like a good fight as much as the next girl..."

BAHRUUUUUUUHHHHAAAAAA!

RRRROOOOOOAARRRR!

Valerie point out in the woods, "... But why are we not flying away from the stampeding shadow animals?"

Danny pointed back in the direction of the human settlement, "Because given their reaction to us, I doubt these shadow animals will give that town behind us a chance if we die."

Valerie nodded and then grinned, "I thought you were already dead?"

Danny mockingly rolled his eyes and then coated his fists in ectoplasm, "Only half-way, Val."

Valerie rolled her eyes, "Right."

RRREEEEEEAAAHHHHHHHEEEE!

Coming like a flood out of the woods were hundreds of shadowy beasts. Most were only about the relative size of an adult human, and they varied wildly in the shapes they took, from small boars and wolf-men to things that looked like snakes with two muscular legs. The really big ones though were impressive to look at, and a little intimidating. There were massive scorpions, birds, elephants, lions, bears, griffons, snakes, and it even looked like a couple dragons were winging there way towards them.

The teens in the Specter Speeder opened fire the moment they saw the bone white armor appear from the tree line. The ectoplasmic weapons destroyed large swaths of small beasts within the shadowy horde, and Danny, Valerie, and Dani all took flight towards the larger beasts that only obtained minor injuries from the onslaught and started throwing as many explosives, ectoblasts, punches, and ice beams as possible.

Inside the Specter Speeder Tucker took one look at the radar and sighed as he thumbed the button for the Fenton Ectoblaze Missiles, "This is going to be a long day... I hope we have enough heavy ordinance."