Chapter 4

A young boy ran through the base, opening every entry looking as if he was on a mission. This boy looked no older than eleven, and he wore a red Gatsby hat and a yellow turtleneck with glasses over his teal eyes. In his hand he was holding a small, blocky device. He held it as if it was the most valuable thing he had ever seen, and he plowed through the makeshift shelter until he found what he was looking for. Throwing aside the old curtain he looked at the two startled faces. One of the occupants was a girl the same age as the boy with black shoulder length hair and violet colored eyes. She wore a black baggy t-shirt and the same gray cargo pants the boy wore, but instead of sneakers she wore black, steel-toed combat boots. The other occupant was a man with green skin and white hair. His eyes were covered with black lenses and he wore a black trench coat and black cargo pants with steel-toed combat boots. They were surrounded with various electronics, some broken and others not. They both jumped when the boy barged in, panting with exhaustion.

"Tucker, I know you updated Sherri, but now isn't the time to gush about your precious PDA." The girl said, exasperated. She rolled her eyes and she and the man turned back to the screen they were examining. The newly deemed Tucker huffed in indignation.

"No, I came with important news, Sam. Like actually important." He responded seriously. Hearing his tone of voice, Sam and Technus turned to face the boy. Tucker took this a cue to continue.

"I was updating Sherri's tracking systems, and you know that I put an ATL-"

"ATL?" Sam interrupted. Tucker rolled his eyes.

"Attempt to Locate, can also be called APB, All-Points Bulletin, or a BOLO, Be on the Lookout." He said, some condescending sarcasm bled into his voice. "Anyway, I had put an ATL on Sherri when we started the search," he said giving a knowing look to the other two, "it tracks the unique ecto-signature of a Halfa, it was a precaution, I never expected it to work. But, when I was updating the tracker, it pinged." The other two straightened in surprise.

"How do you know it's not Plasmius?" Technus asked. Sad realization dawned on both the kid's faces and they glance at each other before turning to the ghost.

"I forgot to tell you. When you were captured, Plasmius led a rescue mission. Only one of them came back, and it wasn't Vlad." There was a moment of shocked silence that followed the information.

"I see." Technus responded evenly. "Where is the boy. We need him here and safe until he can fight Pariah and take his rightful place as the royal heir." Tucker glanced down at the device in his hand. He hesitated.

"He's in a place called 'Happy Harbor', but maybe we should observe for awhile, you know, understand the situation before charging head-first." He suggested. Technus pondered this. The ghost nodded and turned to walk out of the room.

"I'll take to Skulker and see who we can send." And he stalked out of the room in search of the hunter, leaving Sam and Tucker alone.

"Do you really think it's him?" Sam asked. Tucker glanced down at the device again before he looked back over to his friend. His face hardened slightly.

"I do." He answered confidently. Or as confidently as he could considering he wasn't actually sure himself, but he didn't want his doubts to affect Sam. Fake it 'til you make it, they say.

"Do you think he will remember us?" Some of the fake-confidence drained from the boy and he hesitated once more.

The two had met Danny about two years prior. They looked at each other, getting lost in the memory of meeting one of their best friend.

Sam and Tucker had been fighting in the alley that was in between the forest and the abandoned building they were staying in temporarily. A harsh rustling of leaves and heavy breathing cut into their arguing. When the two nine-year olds looked over to the source of the sound and what they saw shocked them.

A boy, about the same age as them, was stumbling through the trees, not looking forward but rather frantically looking back behind him as if he was being chased. The state of the boy was frightening to the other two kids. He was wearing a white t-shirt and gray sweatpants with no shoes and was covered in dirt, blood, and some type of green substance. He was thin and frail. His spiky hair, under the various liquids, was a gray or white, and he had twigs tangled in his hair. His overall look painted a picture of chaos and desperation.

Tucker let out a harsh puff of breath in horror and the boy's head snapped to them so fast that it gave Sam whiplash just by watching it. The boy froze, only a few yards in front of the two, giving them a good opportunity to study his face.

Even though he was obviously malnourished, his face was rounded, giving him a soft and innocent look, but his dull green eyes were lit with unadulterated fear and horror. He had a bleeding cut on his left cheekbone and above his right eye. The left side of his face was dark purple with the odd hue of dark green that was almost unnoticeable, and despite the severity of the contusion it wasn't swelling at all. His neck was red and there was bruising that looked suspiciously hand-shaped. The skin on his wrists were burned and raw.

The sound of distant barks and snapping twigs brought them back to the present. The boy looked back to the direction he came and took a stumbling step away. He let out a heartbreaking whimper of fear and the other two immediately rushed to the boys side. It was obvious that he was running from whatever caused the sound, and given the boy's current state, he didn't seem like much of a threat anyway. Tucker grabbed his left elbow, mindful of the bruises, burns, and bleeding cuts marring his skin and Sam grabbed Tucker's other hand and dragged them both into the building and activated the lock that Tucker had made. They waited until the barking faded before letting out a breath of relief. The two turned to the injured boy to see he was glowing slightly in the dark warehouse and he was huddled against the wall, watching them in fear.

Sam slowly knelt in front of the boy and attempted to calm him down and was only somewhat successful. Tucker handed her the medical kit they had made over the years and started cleaning the wounds as best she could while he was cowering and flinching away from every move she made.

"My name's Sam, that's Tucker. What's your name?"She asked quietly, patiently as the boy seemed to struggle with the words.

"D-Dan-ny." He managed to stutter slowly as if he had to think about each of the syllables individually.

They had known Danny for about two months and became fast friends. They let him lean on them as he struggled with coping with the previous five years of torture. They turned into his support system and they took it upon themselves to try and help him. They had made a lot of progress, gotten him to smile and talk more. They found out about what he was and that he didn't know a lot of English and so they taught him everything they knew (Which, to be fair, wasn't a whole lot seeing as they hadn't gone to school in a few years). They learned that he was practically a genius, and they were happy. Until he was taken. They didn't know how, but one day when they got back from "borrowing" food and money, he was gone and there was blood smeared over the abandoned furniture that littered the warehouse they had claimed temporarily. They had looked everywhere, and that was when they stumbled upon the problem in the Ghost Zone. The ghosts and them had a common objective, to find and protect Danny, so they decided to team up and the two became part of a rebellion. Soon, the two saw the ghosts' causes and genuinely wanted to help, however even two years later, they wanted to protect their friend and that is their top priority. No exceptions.

And the first step was to carefully extract Danny from the situation he was in so they can lock him in a room and never let him get hurt again. Figuratively speaking, of course.