All over Amity Park the people were upset. There were a lot of rumors about the so called guys-in-white and that fenced in area, officially nobody was allowed to enter. And now it was surrounded by worried and shocked onlookers witnessing floating and glowing greatures some people believed to be dead students from the burning school…
Danny was shocked when Vlad opened him that it was him. What does Vlad want from him? Danny had nothing he could give him, or do for him…
"What the hell are you talking about?" Danny asked confused.
"I am talking about your body structure. It's a bit difficult to explain it to someone who hasn't studied para…"
"Come to the point!" Sam screamed angrilly.
"Gosh… how impolite..." Vlad murmured. "I am talking about this."
Suddenly the lights went on. Real lights revealing that it was a much bigger room than they expected. Danny saw that it looked exactly like the room he saw in that vortex in his living-room. And finally he realized that the hole in one wall, seemed to be the place where once a stair was. Forgotten memories shoot back in his head. He was three years old when he opened the big metal-door, walked down and found the portal. The big metal-ring right behind them...
"Oh my gosh, what is that?" Sam asked terrified. The metal-ring woke up more memories in Danny...
...he went closer... a blinking red light... he was just three so he was attracted to that blinking button... he pressed it... than he was flying...
This is the device of his parents that gave him ghost-powers when he was three? How this place survived the fire? How this place could be missed when the ruins up there were demolished?
"You like it?" Vlad asked, raising his arms to point around in the big empty room. "Your father was smarter than I expected when he invented an ectoplasmic forcefield that was able to protect it from the fire. Good for me. Thanks to your little accident your parents were able to research faster..."
"Please let us go!" Danny begged. "It's yours! It's all yours! You can have it!"
"What? Your parents research? It's already all in my basement. No I need you to do me a favour in the ghost-zone..."
Outside meanwhile, people neighter screamed or filmed fascinated the flying creatures circling over the district. Elder citizens recognized some old faces... The guys-in-white (or at least the one who remained after the big attack on thier headquarter) were overwhelmed with the situation. The people only witnessed them shooting with weird guns. The damaged more property than hitting these creatures. Police and other forces arrived. A local TV-station aired the footage of the events all over the country. 22 years after the big fire... Amity Park was in all breaking news again...
In the underground lab, Vlad stopped talking for a moment, looking up. He could feel that his ghost-henchmen tried to leave him and his control...
"We run out of time." Vlad said while he went to the big metal-ring to press some buttons on a control panel.
"You wanna... me doing you a favour... in the world of the death?" Danny asked shocked. "Why me?"
"Because you, Daniel Fenton... might be powerless after your parents 'cured' you, but your body structure is still able to pass threw the ghost-zone without harm."
"And why you can't do it by yourself? I mean... I am not able to turn into a ghost and and..."
"Well... the short version is that I have already attracted so much attention there, that it is not possible for me to get there without attracting the attention of... not worth talking about. But you, a foreign creature with ghostly traits won't attract to much trouble there. Once in the ghost-zone I want you to get me this!" Vlad said showing Danny the picture of a weird looking key.
"What is that? The key to reboot your brain?" Sam said sarcastically.
"Safe your words, Samantha..."
"Samantha?! Nobody calls me that, without..." Sam ranted but Vlad used one of his rays to shoot on her mouth and to close it with ectoplasmic energy.
"HEY! HANDS OFF MY WIFE..." Danny ranted, trying to free himself again. "DON'T HURT HER! SHE IS PREGNANT!"
Sam stopped to bluster and looked on Danny with big eyes. She tried to ask him where he know that? How he figured out? But her mouth was still gagged with ectoplasmic-energy. Danny looked on her and smiled shyly.
"...we went threw this already four times. By now I learned how to see it. I wanted to let you drop the bomb..." Danny said with a smile. He knew it from the very first moment. But Sam was so worried in the last time (health, money, all the other stuff), so Danny gave her time to calm down.
"Ehem... we have no time for a Fenton-soap-opera..." Vlad interfered. "So here is my offer: You go for me to the ghost-zone and get the skeleton-key for me. And after bringing it to me, I let you and your pregnant wife go and never ever bother you again."
"And where I know that you don't kill us after?" Danny asked angrilly.
"This is not my style. Anywhere, thanks to you I have already enough trouble. You know how difficult it was to keep the guys-in-white away from me and my businesses all the years? No, after you get me my key, I won't have any problems anymore..."
Danny and Sam really doubted that it was really Vlad's key! The room suddenly start to vibrate. Dust rained down from the ceiling and there was loud noise getting louder and louder. It sound like a jackhammer... the police and the also arriving FBI tried to take over, over the 'scene'. The 'ghosts' flew away and the guys-in-white were only able to catch 2 or 3 of the maybe 20. Angry protestors were so mad that they threw stones after the guys-in-white. In the basement meanwhile, Vlad pulled one final lever to let the ghost-portal start working.
With loud squeaking and screaming the huge metal-ring start to work. Danny was shocked, about the fact that this thing was under thier house all the time. The lights start to flicker. The noise was so loud, that even the crowd outside was able to hear it. The ground start to vibrate. The police start to evacuate the onlookers...
Danny felt something, when the green light start to appear. It felt so... warm, so familiar and so... good! It felt like a part of him...
A few seconds later, the noise became less and there was finally a 'stable' gate to the ghost-zone.
"Okay, Daniel... It is configured to the place where you have to get. Once in the ghost-zone... you will..."
"Wait, you send me in there without anyhing?!" Danny asked. "In the Poltergeist movie the mother at least had a rope..."
"You won't need a rope!" Vlad said. "In the ghost-zone you will be able to use your deactivated ghost-powers... You better hurry up. I have no clue how long your former classmates will need to return here. It could be very painful for your wife..."
Sam was finally able to spit out the stuff that stuffed her mouth and start to rant. "PAIN? Listen I gave birth to four babies, without anaesthetic, or painkillers... I don't need a lecture about pain!"
"Okay..." Vlad said unimpressed and opened Danny's handcuffs.
Danny thought about pushing him away as soon as he opened them, take Sam and ran away with her. But this place was sealed off. The only way out was phrasing threw the walls but without ghost-powers (he obviously hadn't anymore) it was impossible. Sam was still handcuffed.
"Danny... don't do it! He is a liar..."
"You have my word that I let you both go, as soon as you retrieved my key, you are free to leave..."
"Under one condition..." Danny said. "You untie her first... and let her go!"
"Danny?!" Sam cried.
"Fine! I let her go...
Danny watched Vlad opening his wife's handcuffs. As soon as her hands were free she jumped up to grab Vlad's throat to strangle him. Unimpressed he used his powers to create a forcefield around Sam to block her attack.
"What a vivacious, self-confident woman!" Vlad said before he suddenly closed his eyes and shaked his head when he felt a brief but strong headache. They ran out of time... "Hurry up and get my key... or I will squeaze her with this forcefield.
Horrified of that thought, Danny went closer to the portal. "Don't hurt her... I... I'll go..."
"DANNY, NO!" Sam screamed.
"I'll be back soon, Sam! Don't worry!" Danny said. He really hoped so. He had actually no clue what to expect over there. But he had no other choise. His life, his wife's life and that of thier 'five' kids depend on this. He would do everything for them. They were his family. Even if it meant to go to the world of the death to get some stupid 'key'.
Danny walked closer to the portal. He could feel the energy. It felt like his body was needing it. Tears ran down his face. He prayed for his children and for Sam that his act now will safe them. Sam continued screaming while Danny arrived the portal... and went threw it...
The feeling was indescribable. When he passed the portal it felt like his body lost all it's weight. Danny felt no ground anymore. He start to float... it was... like in his dream (or memory)... he was able to fly again...
"Wow,... this is so... dejavu..." Danny finally remembered that he was really flying back than. It felt the same as now. His body was surrounded by a faint white glow... this place... "I... I am a ghost..."
Danny looked around. This place was greepy and astonishing at the same time. He saw colors he never saw before. There was no ground, no sky, no walls... only some doors in the far distance. Much farther away he saw something that looked like a floating island... And than he saw it: The key Vlad was talking about. It was a few steps away, in a big glass-cube... suddenly there was a load roar...
"What the hell was that?" Sam screamed in the lab. Threw the open portal they were able to hear everything, too. But they were not able to see anything.
Danny could hear the roar, too while he 'swam' closer to the glass-cube. But he saw nothing. He just focused on the key. That was the only way to safe them. He felt so good... his sick and weakened body felt so strong here. It was like this was his target he reached after so many years. He understood why his parents tried to reach this place. It gave him power... his parents took them from him, to protect him, but now it was affecting him again. Suddenly his low blood-pressure wasn't anymore. But Danny didn't mention that his black hairs slowly turned white...
"What was that?" Sam asked again. "Answer, Masters! What was that roar?"
Vlad turned around with a creepy smile on his face. "Well... that was the reason I can't go back there anymore without to attract attention. Looks like your husband is still more ghost than everyone thought..."
"Ehm... What...?" suddenly Danny's voice came threw the portal. He could hear them, too.
"You better hurry up, Daniel!" Vlad said calmly, but also very creepy.
Danny turned around again and continued 'swimming' to the cube. This place was not too cold and not too hot. It felt like it was perfect for him. It took around a minute for Danny to reach the cube with the green glowing key inside. The cube was locked. Danny mentioned that he had to take the whole cube with him. He tried to lift it up, it was not very heavy... when something suddenly big black eyes with glowing red pupils appeared right in front of him...
The monster start to roar. It was so loud that even Sam freezed in fear.
"Oh, I propably should had mentioned Behemoth!" Vlad said unimpressed while they could hear Danny start to scream in horror.
The monster appeared out of nowhere. It was bigger than a truck, had glowing red pupils in that Danny was able to see himself like in a mirror and four wide arms with long and sharp claws snapping for Danny. With a loud scream Danny used his legs to push himself away from the socket the glass cube was standing on, to escape from the monster.
An army of ghosts suddenly appeared from all sides. Various creatures, of all shapes and colors start to hunt him. Danny lost grip for the cube with the key inside and tried to escape. He had to find a place to hide. But where? This was a nearly infinite space of nothing. Exept for these doors or that floating island. Danny screamed for help! He saw the vortex he came threw a minute ago, and tried to reach it again.
"Danny! Danny!" Sam's voice echoed threw the vortex. But Danny was not able to respond. Instead he could feel how someone or something shoot him with some kind of energy beam. Hit hit him and Danny was thrown threw the space...
Vlad could feel it. He could feel that he slowly lost more and more control over Danny's and Sam's dead classmates. He actually didn't care for Danny or Sam, but he really hoped that Danny was sucessful... He ran out of time...
Danny floated uncontrolled threw the space and was not able to stop or to grab somewhere. The ghosts that were chasing him (Danny guessed around 10 or more), still shoot at him. Some of thier shoots hit him... they did not really hurt but they were really unpleasant. Danny smashed against something. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a weird forest like area. Danny tried to hide behind the trees... that was his only chance to survive this horror-trip. But before he was able to hide... he found two weird, big, green glowing eggs.
Danny felt something inside this 'cocoons'. He saw a shaddow in each one... they were so familiar. Danny was still chased but he had that urgent need to take a closer look at these things. As soon as he got closer, the 'shadows' inside more and more looked like human-bodies. And as soon as he reached them, he knew that there were really human-bodies inside...
Danny let out a horrified scream when he stared into his father's wide opened eyes and his horrified face. That was his father! That was his father in that cocoon! In fear Danny shied away and crashed into the other cocoon, only to see his mother inside. Her face as full of fear than his father's! But Danny's loud scream attracted the attention of the ghosts that were chasing him...
"MOM?! DAD?!" Danny screamed shocked. There was no doubt... that were his parents... and they looked exactly like in 1982... Thier hair, thier clouthes, thier faces...
Was that real? Were that really his parents in this cocoons? Or was this a trap to distract him? Tears ran down his face. He hadn't seen them in 22 years. He didn't even have a photo of them, instead the one Vlad gave him a few days ago. Both looked like they were running away from something in fear before they were suddenly freezed… And suddenly Danny felt another beam hitting his back and that one smashed him against his parents cocoons… He was trapped!
Danny turned around to see the ghosts that were chasing him the whole time. And he was not able to move anymore. His hands and his legs were struck in green slime that became harder and harder.
"Please... no! He forced me! He's holding my wife hostage..." Danny wailed. Thinking that it would turn that ghost-crowd merciful. "Vlad forced me..."
"VLAD?!" a voice screamed shocked and Danny could feel the ghost's shying away from him. Danny opened his eyes and saw that the ghosts, really moved away from him quickly. Why? Did he said something wrong? Before he could continue thinking about a new ghost appeared just in front of him.
Danny was terrified. The ghost was floating closer to him. He wore a violet robe with a cape. In his chest was something that looked like a clock-mechanism. His face was pale blue and he had a scar across his left eye. Both glowing red...
"You..." the ghost said calmly. Suddenly the 'adult' ghost, turned into a child. "I remember you..."
"Please, don't... I leave... I promise..." Danny yelled before he could feel that the slime that glued him to the cocoons disappeared and he was floating free now.
"...you were such a little boy back then... so small... 35 years have passed..." the ghost continued calmly and went much closer. "I knew this day will come. From the first day I saw you..."
"No, please... I have nothing to do with it!" Danny was still terrified.
"You don't remember me, don't you?" the ghost, that suddenly turned from a child into an old-man and than into an adult again. "But I remember you... You don't have to be afraid of me! My name is Clockwork! I am on your side..."
"He has my wife! What are my parents doing here? What are you? Why you turn into a child?" and a lot of more questions Danny asked wildly. He was still overwhelmed by the whole situation.
"I know Danny!" the ghost respond. "Your parents told me everything..."
Suddenly Danny became silent and decided to listen to this so called 'Clockwork'. And his story was pretty 'informative'...
In the former lab, Vlad became more and more impatient. Sam became more and more terrified. Something was wrong. Danny was in there so long. She feared the worst...
"Your dear husband should better hurry up!" Vlad said mad, but Sam could also hear a pinch of worry in his voice. He was looking up to the ceilling.
"Why... Why is this dammed key so important for you? It is not yours, isn't it? You plan something evil with it, admit it! That's why you use Danny for your dirty plans!"
"All respect, Samantha... you are very smart." Vlad said while he could see that Sam was able to break threw his forcefield and ran to the portal...
"DANNY! GET OUT..." she screamed. But as soon as she reached the portal, she was pushed away by the energy violently. She screamed when the ectoplasmic energy shoot on her and she fell on the ground violently. In panic she hold her stomach... She feared that her baby got hurt and burst out in tears... Vlad was still unimpressed.
"What a insurrection?!" he murmured before he could feel that sharp headache again...
He lost them... he couldn't feel his 'henchmen' anymore. They were too far away. It was a mistake to let them go upstairs alone. He had to get the key. His life was depending on it...
"YOU F*** SON OF A *" Sam began to scream when suddenly a shadow appeared in the portal and Danny's voice echoed threw the room.
"I GOT IT..."
"Finally!" Vlad said still calm but already upset.
Danny came out of the portal. He breathed hardly. Holding something, shaped like a cube that was covered with a black slightly glowing cloth. Sam was shocked about her husband's condition... His black hair became snow-white (real white and not grey), his pale skin became darker like after a long sunbath, his whole body seemed to be surrounded by a faint white glow. At least he found something to cover his 'lower parts' as he was wearing some kind of cloth now...
"You spend a lot of time there..." Vlad said with a wide creepy grin and took the covered cube. "Oh... looks like you finally turning back into your true self..."
"My what... What... why I am glowing...?" Danny asked shocked.
Sam could hear it. She could hear it in his voice... Danny only pretended to be shocked. She was sure... What is he planning?
"...I've got your stupid piece! And now... you let us go!" Danny yelled while he ran to Sam to look after her. She was still sitting on the ground.
"Hmm... Sure..." Vlad said. "Only to let you two immediately tell everyone my secret. You think I am so stupid...
When Vlad pulled the cloth off the cube while talking he was suddenly devoured by a weird blob... He transformed immediately into his ghost-form to fight the creature that came out of the cube Danny brought. Well knowing what it was...
"YOU TALKED TO CLOCKWORK!"
"You think I am so stupid to trust that you let us free!" Danny yelled back and lift Sam from the ground. Before she could ask why Danny was suddenly able to lift her that easily she saw some bright flashes shooting out of the portal, devouring Vlad. Latter screamed in pain when he was pulled into the portal...
"Danny... what's happening..."
"Trust me!" where the last words Sam heared from Danny. What followed was litteraly the hell on earth!
Upstairs, the people who tried to break threw the concrete layer mentioned that the ground start to break open violently. All people start to run away from the place like they know what happens next. And they should be right!
Sam could feel that Danny pushed her into the corner and threw down a table to protect her from the following explosion. Sam screamed in fear. Danny screamed, too. But in pain… when he was sucked back into the portal, too just seconds before it exploded…
The shockwave of the explosion was so strong, that nearly every window in the district shattered. The thick layer of concrete that was once filled over the Fenton's basement was thrown up in the air and broke apart. Like meteors, the huge rocks ,one as big as a car, one as big as a bus and some even bigger, flew threw the air and were going to crash all over the neighbourhood. The people all over ran away. Sam who was still under the table screamed in fear when the portal exploded and blasted the ceiling away.
Sam screamed again. For help, for Danny for anyone only hoping that he or she hears her and helps her to get out of here. People could hear her screams but nobody was able to reach her…
A concrete rock, as big as a car crashed onto the parking-lot of a nearby supermarket. Smaller pieces rained on the neighbourhood, damaging roofs, cars and other stuff. People hid in basements. After just a few seconds everything was over and all over the city, the people could see now a huge black cloud rising up from the fenced-in area in Fairview. It really looked like a volcano. Just without Lava, but the only plausible explanaition was a volcano...
Sam could feel the heat of fire getting closer and closer. That was it now… she survived the big fire 22 years ago just to burn today in this secret basement, in which nobody will ever find her. Danny was gone and nowhere to be seen and she was going to pull her unborn baby with her to death. The kids… what happens now with the kids? Will the guys-in-white let them free again? Jazz will take care of them but that depends on thier freedom. Mentally she said farewell to them. Tears ran down her face when she saw thier faces in her mind. How will they deal with thier parents beeing gone? Sam felt that she ran out of air. In a couple of seconds she will loose consciouness and than it will be over. At least she could say that she had a good life with a loving family, a good husband and four wonderful kids and that she did some really good things. While Sam closed her eyes and said a final goodbye to her family, she suddenly felt that someone was grabbling her and she was lifting from the ground. The heat became less and she heared voices…
"…she's alive… Quick…"
Sam opened her eyes again and saw that she was alive. A fire fighter was carrying her away from the smoking crater. How did she survive? And where is Danny?
"DANNY!" Sam screamed worried, while the fire fighter placed her on the stretcher and two paramedics took care of her.
That was the moment, she realized that not the guys in white were in charge here now. She saw FBI, police, fire trucks… two guys-in-white were just arrested while two others were interrogated. Does it mean now that thier family was safe now? But where is Danny? Sam looked back on the crater and hoped to see something in the smoke. The glowing green light was gone. So the portal was neighter closed nor destroyed. She really hoped that Vlad was at the other side and never comes back. Just Danny had to come back. Maybe these powers safed him?
Suddenly she saw a shadow appearing in the smoke….
Please Review and keep well.