Rusty barrelled straight into Melinoe when Jack Fenton opened the front door, nearly knocking her over. He quickly switched to jumping up Danny before returning to trying to lick Melinoe's face. After a few minutes, Danny, Tucker and Melinoe managed to get past Rusty and enter the house. And after a few more minutes, Melinoe managed to calm the dog down.
"So, did you find the ghost yet?" Jack asked with a grin. Danny nodded.
"Yeah. We know now where to find Sam, but we need to go through the Ghost Zone to get her," Danny answered.
"Absolutely not. It's one thing to look for a ghost in Amity Park, it's another to go into the Ghost Zone," Madeline decided, coming out of the kitchen with a stern frown.
"Mom, it's not like I've never been in there," Danny pointed out, surprising Melinoe. Madeline hesitated a moment before shaking her head.
"Going on a short trip through the portal with your father or me is different. We've only mapped a small corner of the Ghost Zone. And I sense that Sam will not be in our map's range," Madeline retorted. Danny and Tucker shared a glance before Danny stepped forward.
"So, you want me to forget that Sam's in there?" Danny ventured. Madeline's stern frown faltered.
"No. But it's probably best to take our time and ensure we can get to Sam and get her and us all out of there safely," Madeline reasoned. Danny hummed, conceding the point.
"Would you wait if me or Jazz were in there?" he challenged. Madeline chewed her lip which caused Danny to nod.
"Sam needs help. I'll take the speeder and we'll bring plenty of weapons," Danny promised.
"Between us, we can protect Mel," Tucker added.
"I don't think it's a good idea for Mel to go. She should stay here with us," Madeline mentioned, glancing at Melinoe. Melinoe scowled defiantly and opened her mouth to argue but Danny beat her to it.
"I promised that she could come mom. She's Sam's daughter, you can't blame her for wanting to help," Danny interjected.
"She's not trained," Madeline began.
"Aw Maddie. You remember how fiery Sam used to be. If Mel's anything like her mother was at her age, the ghosts won't stand a chance. Especially since Danny and Tucker will be there to stop her getting into any real trouble," Jack retorted, despite the fact that he had spent the majority of the conversation playing with Rusty, tossing a baseball he found for the dog to run after, he had obviously been listening.
"Jack, this isn't tagging along on a ghost hunt by the docks. They want to take a child into a ghost dimension, to unchartered regions," Madeline argued.
"We have better tech now than we did back then. If anything, Mel will be safer than Sam ever was. Even in the Ghost Zone. The speeder has a ghost shield," Jack pointed out.
"Exactly. And we'll call back if we need help. You can use the Fenton Magnet to pull the speeder out of the Ghost Zone if we need to get out of there," Danny agreed, flashing his father a grateful smirk. Madeline frowned and opened her mouth to protest.
"My mom's in danger. I want to help find her. Please," Melinoe interjected, forcing Madeline to close her mouth with a sympathetic frown. Madeline sighed in defeat.
"Alright. But you have to be back by dinnertime. And if you're not, I'm pulling the speeder back here. And I want to teach Mel how to defend herself with a couple of weapons," Madeline stipulated.
"Deal. But Tucker chooses the weapons. He knows Mel best and he's like an uncle to Mel," Danny added. Madeline nodded in agreement and gestured for Melinoe and Tucker to follow her.
Melinoe glanced uncertainly at Tucker but he flashed her a reassuring smile before taking the lead after Madeline into the kitchen and through the white door. Melinoe followed Madeline and Tucker and gasped when she started to descend the steps on the other side to a basement lab. It was covered in gleaming metal surfaces and every inch of it was littered with ghost hunting technology. She gulped as she spotted weapons of all kinds, guns, modified household appliances, glowing knives, unrecognisable lumps of mangled metal and wires whirring softly. Madeline crossed the room purposefully and opened a vault door. Tucker hovered outside the vault while Madeline rifled through her weapon store. Melinoe scanned the lab in fascination, spotting a hovering capsule large enough to stand inside and massive hexagonal doors covered in yellow and black stripes.
"Here we are. Which do you think Mel should learn to use?" Madeline announced, pulling out a few weapons from the vault and setting them down on a clear patch of a workbench. Tucker surveyed the weapons. Melinoe watched him push aside a belt and a couple of guns before settling on a bracelet type thing with a small blaster attached to the top and a smaller version of the gun he currently had tucked in his pocket.
Madeline frowned at his choice but didn't argue as she returned the other weapons back to her vault.
"Are you sure you don't want Mel to wear a deflector?" Madeline called from inside the vault.
"Definitely. I er… I've been working on something similar and found a few bugs that cause it to short-circuit and electrocute the wearer rather than the ghosts," Tucker replied.
"Our Spectre Deflector has been tried and tested for years Tucker," Madeline pointed out, standing in the vault doorway.
"Better safe than sorry. Besides, in the Ghost Zone, it might start attacking the ectoplasm in the air which would short circuit it faster," Tucker decided. Madeline nodded, conceding the point and returned to the lab.
"Fair enough. Okay, Mel. This is a standard ecto-blaster, and this is our patented Fenton Wrist Ray. They're pretty easy to use but I'll run through a quick lesson so you know what to do or what to expect if you have to use it in the Ghost Zone," Madeline began, picking up the weapons Tucker picked out for the teen.
For the next twenty minutes, Madeline taught Melinoe how to fire both weapons and even putting up a couple of ghost shaped targets for target practice. Once both Melinoe and Madeline were comfortable with the teen's ability, Madeline popped upstairs to fetch her son.
"This is really bringing back memories," Tucker muttered with a tender smile at the lab, leaning casually against a bench.
"Memories?" Melinoe prompted, clipping the gun to her hip.
"We, Me, Danny and your mom used to train like this when we were younger. Your mom actually liked using the wrist ray herself," Tucker admitted, nodding to the weapon on Melinoe's wrist.
"But Danny's mom said she wasn't comfortable with you and Danny going ghost hunting," Melinoe recalled.
"We may have practiced in secret… a lot. Danny's dad can be… obsessed with ghosts sometimes. Danny grew up trying to convince his parents that he wasn't interested in their work to avoid getting dragged along for every ghost hunt or whatever. But when ghosts started attacking Amity Park, Danny kinda realised that he needed to be able to defend himself and we tagged along. We got pretty good. At least good enough to hold our own if we needed to. Danny's parents' work inspired a lot of my inventions and definitely my career choice. I grew up getting random lessons in how Fenton tech worked. I've always loved technology so when I graduated from college with my degree in engineering and computing, I decided to take a job in Axion Labs to develop ghost defences and soon got promoted to head the division," Tucker explained.
"If Danny is good at ghost hunting and he's out of work a lot, why not join his parents?" Melinoe pointed out.
"He wants a life outside Fentonworks," Tucker answered with a shrug.
Before Melinoe could think of a response Danny and Madeline were descending the stairs from the kitchen.
"And if you run out of fuel, if you can catch a ghost there's a backup generator with an ecto-convertor," Madeline added.
"I know mom. Dad told me," Danny retorted with a bored eye roll.
"And there's a distress beacon in the speeder. If you get in trouble, hit that and it'll send a signal straight back to us and we'll activate the magnet," Madeline resumed as though her son hadn't spoken.
"I remember," Danny interjected.
"The ghost shield will drain your fuel reserves so only use it if you can't fly away," Madeline continued. By now, both adults had joined Tucker and Melinoe in the lab and were standing beside the floating capsule Melinoe noticed earlier. Danny dropped his hands onto Madeline's shoulders and flashed her a reassuring smile.
"Mom! Calm down and relax. I've flown the speeder before. I've flown the speeder in the Ghost Zone. I've grown up hearing what to watch out for when dealing with ghosts. We'll be fine and we'll be back by dinnertime," Danny assured. Madeline opened her mouth before pausing with a frown.
"When have you flown the speeder in the Ghost Zone?" Madeline asked with a dangerous edge to her voice. Danny blinked before chuckling nervously, retracting his hands to rub the back of his neck and signal to Tucker and Melinoe behind his back to get in. Tucker sniggered before steering the teen into the strange vehicle.
"Dad let me once. It was ages ago," Danny offered.
"He did what!?" Madeline shouted in alarm.
"It was fine mom. Open, empty patch of Ghost Zone. No ghosts in sight," Danny interjected with a wince.
"How old were you?" Madeline insisted with a scowl.
"Old enough to drive," Danny answered evasively, edging towards the speeder.
"You were sixteen!" Madeline exclaimed.
"I think I was older actually," Danny attempted before darting into the speeder and slamming the door.
"You have not heard the last of this Danny! You or your father!" Madeline yelled after them as Danny steered the speeder forward and positioned it to go through the hexagonal doors.
"I guessed as much," Danny mumbled with a grimace before he hit a button on the dash and the doors eased themselves open revealing a swirling glowing green disk beyond. Melinoe glanced at Tucker who was turning red with suppressed laughter before turning back to face the portal. Suddenly they were speeding towards the portal.
"Don't drive too fast!" Melinoe heard Madeline call after them just as they disappeared through the green swirling portal.
Melinoe gasped at the world beyond the portal in awe. For as far as the eye could see, she saw green dotted with purple. In the distance dark shapes loomed through the thick gas clouds. The eerie sight was rudely interrupted though when Tucker finally burst out laughing and Danny threw an annoyed scowl at him.
"If- If she knew… How old we were… when- when we first came in h-here," Tucker choked out between breathless laughs. Danny's annoyed scowl deepened.
"If you tell her, I'm telling her that you're the one who crashed their systems in senior year," Danny threatened. Tucker sobered instantly with a look of pure betrayal.
"You wouldn't! That wasn't my fault!" Tucker exclaimed fearfully.
"Really? Whose bright idea was it to hack in and use all the energy in the building, including the portal, to send a supercharged attack at Technus?" Danny retorted with a raised eyebrow.
"Aw come on dude. I'll stop. Just don't tell your parents that was me," Tucker pleaded.
"Do I want to know?" Melinoe wondered.
"No," Danny and Tucker answered together. Melinoe blinked at both men before dropping her remaining questions and gazing out of the strange vehicle to the stranger world outside.
"How old were you then when you first came into the Ghost Zone?" Melinoe asked. Tucker opened his mouth to answer but promptly closed it again with a glare from Danny.
"Old enough. Let's get a little deeper and I'll let out Box- I mean Rosie," Danny concluded.
Melinoe stared in wonder at the Ghost Zone while Danny navigated with a bored expression and Tucker pulled out his ecto-blaster and checked over the weapon casually. Melinoe blinked as she spotted a glowing blue skinned person floating in the world outside. She glanced at Tucker, who hadn't looked up from his gun, and then glanced at Danny, who either hadn't seen the ghost or wasn't bothered by the apparition's appearance. As they flew away from the portal entrance, which Danny closed behind them, the purple dots and dark shapes grew and Melinoe was able to discern what they were. The purple dots were truly doors, doors of all kinds. Big doors. Little doors. Double doors. Metal doors. Wooden doors. She blinked when she spotted a doorway filled with a beaded curtain.
"What are those?" she whispered to herself, but Danny heard her.
"Ghost lairs. Ghosts live in one of two places in here. A lair or a realm. A lair is kinda like a house in our world. It's usually only occupied by one ghost but there are instances where a small group, like a family, live in a lair together. These doors are well their front doors. Most doors reflect a little of the ghost's personality. Also, the colour changes. Light purple, the owner is home. Dark purple and they're not. It's considered extremely rude by ghosts to enter a lair without permission and if you're found uninvited in a ghost lair, it is the ghost's right to get you out however they see fit," Danny explained knowingly.
"How do you know that?" Melinoe prodded.
"I'm the son of ghost hunters Mel. I've learnt a lot over the years," Danny replied with a shrug.
Melinoe turned back to the window and focused on the looming dark shapes beyond the purple doors. They were chunks of rock. Some floating rocks were occupied by buildings, but others were occupied by vegetation and a few were bare, just boulders floating in the Ghost Zone.
"Those are realms. Well the ones with anything on them are. Realms are like islands or countries in the Ghost Zone. Anyone can go there and look around if they follow customs the residents have. There are laws that span the entire Ghost Zone but not many. Sometimes realms are inhabited by a lot of humanoid ghosts. But sometimes they're inhabited by animal-type ghosts. Depending on the ghosts, realms can be safe to visit or dangerous to even go near. Barren islands are unclaimed realms. Usually because they're in a bad location or the ghosts who used to live there have all faded," Danny resumed, nodding towards the approaching islands. Melinoe glanced at him in surprise before nodding silently in understanding. She was starting to see why Tucker called Danny in to help her find her mother. The guy really knew his stuff when it came to ghosts. But, with a glance to Tucker who wasn't even listening, she couldn't help but wonder why Tucker hadn't called in Danny's parents instead. If Danny knew this, it stood to reason that Danny's parents would know more, especially if Danny had rebelled against his parents' profession for most of his childhood. There was only so much Danny could absorb from his parents without actively paying attention.
"We're probably deep enough now to let out Rosie. Hopefully, she's not too peeved," Danny muttered as he stopped the speeder beside a barren boulder and pressed a button before standing up. As he walked to the hatch, he unclipped his thermos and Tucker got to his feet calmly, holding his gun loosely in his hand. The inventor trailed behind the man and once Danny took off the thermos lid, Tucker lifted his gun ready, aiming over his friend's shoulder at the dazed ghost girl outside.
"What was that for!?" she yelled angrily, recovering quickly to glare at Danny, her red eyes glowing dangerously.
"Your protection. In order to get into the Ghost Zone, we had to go through a ghost hunter's lab. You're welcome," Danny answered stiffly. Rosie blinked at him before she glanced around herself and blinked again in surprise when she found herself in the Ghost Zone.
"Oh. Well, um… I guess that's okay. But don't do that again. It's horrible in there," Rosie relented, shuddering when she pointed at the thermos sitting innocently in Danny's relaxed hand. Danny nodded.
"As long as you stay in the Ghost Zone, I won't need to use it on you again," Danny agreed. Rosie pursed her lips before peering into the speeder.
"Is that girl with you?" she asked.
"Yeah, Mel's here," Danny confirmed, stepping to the side so that Rosie could see the human teen sitting in a chair behind him. Rosie spotted Melinoe easily and nodded to herself.
"Okay, I guess we should head to the orphanage then. Um… I don't really know where I am though," Rosie admitted. Danny nodded once before he lifted his free hand and vaguely pointed off into the distance at a looming shape of a building.
"That's Walker's prison. Over there, Skulker's island. That way is the Far Frozen and that way Dora's kingdom of Aragon. Clockwork's is in that direction. Pandora's that way," Danny told the ghost, waving in numerous directions as he spoke. Melinoe stared wide-eyed at Danny's back. That was a lot of landmarks, especially if his parents had only mapped out a small corner of the Ghost Zone.
"Oh. Thanks, I know my way now," Rosie muttered as she faced away from what Danny called Walker's prison and in the vague direction towards Clockwork's and some kingdom called Aragon.
"We'll follow in the speeder. Just lead the way," Danny threw over his shoulder as he walked back to the speeder's controls and Tucker stepped forward to slam the hatch shut, nodding briefly to the ghost. Rosie hesitated a moment before flying off into the Ghost Zone and Danny pressed a couple of buttons and eased the speeder away from the boulder and after the small ghost girl.
Tucker dropped back into his seat, however unlike before, he didn't fiddle with his weapon and instead watched the Ghost Zone outside intently. Danny kept the speeder a comfortable distance from Rosie, close enough that there was no danger of them losing sight of the ghost, but far enough that he had enough time to react if Rosie changed direction abruptly. Melinoe peered into the strange world around them, staring in wonderment at the islands and doors whizzing by before gasping when she spotted a small group of ghosts drifting towards them. She glanced at Danny, this time he had noticed the ghosts and his shoulders were tense. Melinoe flicked her gaze back to the approaching ghosts but they lazily changed direction and angled their little group towards a nearby island instead of the speeder.
"Was that Ember?" Tucker commented.
"Nah, just her band. They're not too bad as long as she's not with them," Danny answered before returning his attention to the ghost they were following.
"Are we going to discuss a plan once we get to Rosie's orphanage?" Melinoe asked. Tucker frowned to himself and nodded.
"Probably a good idea to at least have something to work with. Danny?" Tucker agreed before turning expectantly to the man driving. Melinoe frowned at the inventor, confused why Tucker constantly looked to Danny like the man was some sort of all-knowing leader rather than the unemployed man Melinoe saw.
"I need to see how things are before I can even think up any real plan. But I think it's best that Mel stays in the speeder," Danny began.
"What!?" Melinoe exclaimed.
"Leto wants you Mel, I'm not taking you into her lair," Danny decided.
"What if it's the only way for us to get in?" Melinoe protested stubbornly.
"Leto will let me in," Danny replied.
"You don't know that," Melinoe disagreed.
"Actually, I do. I know how to talk to ghosts, especially the angry vengeful ones. Besides, I've been trying to find Leto all these years to try and talk her down and out of her vow for revenge," Danny reasoned.
"You said I could help save my mom," Melinoe reminded him with a scowl. Danny hesitated a moment before glancing over his shoulder at her.
"You have helped. Without you there, I doubt I could have convinced Rosie to agree to lead us to her orphanage. You helped everyone realise that Sam was missing. But you can't come with me into the final fight. You have twenty minutes of training under your belt, I've got something like twenty years of experience fighting ghosts and a lifetime learning about their powers and customs. You can't come in with me to the orphanage," Danny retorted firmly.
Melinoe slumped angrily in her seat, Tucker glanced between his friend and the teen before settling his bespectacled gaze on the man driving.
"So, any other points on your checklist of a plan?" Tucker prompted. Danny sighed and shrugged, turning around a boulder as Rosie did in front of them.
"Not really. Depends on how big Leto's lair is. If it's small, then it's probably fine if I go it alone, but if it's really big then I might need help looking for Sam," Danny replied. Melinoe opened her mouth to interject.
"But only Tucker is coming with me," Danny added, seemingly reading Melinoe's mind without even looking over his shoulder. Melinoe huffed loudly, crossing her arms and glared out the window at the ghostly world outside unseeingly.
So, the beginnings of a plan, but will the rescue go according to plan?
Let me know what you guys think of the story so far or what you think might happen.
Until the next chapter.