Last Time:
"What?" Star sounds alarmed. "Don't leave us, Danny."
"Someone has to go after the airheads, Star." Danny says, sounding exhausted. "Sam will keep you safe."
"Dude." Kwan pipes up from where he's peering over Sam's shoulder, "You have cell service in the Ghost Zone?"
"It's a FentonFone." Sam replies drily, "Of course it has service in the Ghost Zone."
Star, like a dog with a squirrel, or a popular teen girl with one source of internet access, was suddenly content with the plan, going as far as to sidle up to Sam with a bat of her lashes. Sam, with both Star and Kwan stuck to her like glitter after a craft project, and Valentine, with his bag held tight against his body, like he has his suit in there, get the class headed in the right direction. Danny kicks off towards Paulina and Dash, who float around each other in circles. She catches up to them easily, cutting smoothly through the air, as Paulina and Dash doggie paddle as if they were swimming.
"Fenton." Paulina greets, pleased, "I knew you would follow and protect me."
She doesn't answer, teeth grinding together so she doesn't call her the stupidest moron in all the dimensions. Dash looks down at her, pale faced, a healthy amount of fear in his face.
"Listen, Paulina, we should catch up with the class." Dash tries, and when Paulina rolls her eyes, he says, "You and I both saw Fenton toss that ghost around. Any ghost she doesn't want to run into, we really don't want to run into."
That's surprisingly logical, considering. Dash and her have a weird relationship in which sometimes he shoves her in lockers and trash cans and writes her name at the top of the boys bathroom Slut List in the third stall from the right, but every day from 2:00 to 3:15 they sit across a table in art class and crack jokes and critique each other's pieces. It's a weird development that happened this year, but she isn't going to question it.
"Hmmph." Paulina huffs, obviously having decided she was ignoring Dash.
"It doesn't matter if we turn back now." Danny sighs as Walker's men shift in the shadows, lurking around the small island rocks around them. "We're all headed for prison, anyways."
"Prison?" Paulina squeals as Walker and his men step into view. "I can't go to prison!"
"You can and you will, little lady." Walker steps into view, cowboy hat low on his brow. "You're breakin' the law, after all."
"Fenton!" Paulina says. "Kick his ass."
Walker laughs, low and deep. "The Girl'll be comin' with y'all."
Danny sighs, and throws Paulina between Dash and her. "I really don't want to be going anywhere but home, Walker. It wasn't my fault, this time!"
"I don't want to hear your excuses." Walker pulls out a long sleek gun and cocks it. Danny just keeps talking.
"See, it was one of those old ghosts! The weird ones, he attacked my class and took us here!"
Walker flinches at the mention of the older ghosts, but aims the gun at Danny. His servants writhe in the shadows. Paulina squeaks and clings to Danny's back, Dash close behind her.
"The Law has still been broken, and someone must pay." He says. Danny throws out an ectosheild just in time to counter the bullet. Paulina shudders, backing away from the sudden flash of ice from her core, awed at the bubble of impenetrable green.
"Fenton?" Dash whispers behind her as Walker steps back.
"Stop that!" Walker commands, "That's breakin' The Law!"
"We're just gonna go." Danny waves her hands toward her parents portal. "And I won't have to stage another prison break, yeah? I know it took so long for you to judge, execute, jury, execute, jail and if necessary; execute everyone for the fourth time."
"You said execute three times." Paulina says, nearly hyperventilating.
"It's my favorite part of the job." Walker muses.
Danny has grabbed Paulina and Dash around the wrists without them noticing, but her cold fingers pull like bands of steel as she floats them further and further from the cluster of ghosts. Dash marks the empty space with mental football field yard lines, they get ten-twenty-fifty-touchdown yards away from the cluster of now laughing ghosts when Danny drops the bubble. She presses a finger to her lips, still dragging them along at a steady pace, but Paulina lets loose a peal of victorious laughter, despite the pale look on Danny's face. It rings across the empty space, and a second later a crack rings out, a widening red stain joining the collection on Fenton's once pristine white shirt.
Paulina's resulting shriek rebounds into the air for seconds after she's done. Fenton lets out an angry sounding snarl, something like what a ghost would make and lets go of the two of them.
"Go that way." Danny points. "There's signs. You can't miss it. Tucker's headed this way in the spectre speeder. He can get you home."
She turns with a twist, rocketing smoothly towards Walker and his men. Dash and Paulina watch as she grabs the southern ghost by his collar and swings around him in a Phantom-esque move that leaves her standing where he was and sends him crashing into a bunch of rocks. She grapples, briefly, with a second gun wielding ghost before the rest of the spirits jump in. Danny seems to get slammed through all the surfaces twice before hitting something hard enough to knock her out. Then, the ghosts come for Dash and Paulina, who screams and tries unsuccessfully to get away. They are notably gentler with Dash and Paulina, even when snapping silver cuffs around their wrists. One of them grabs Fenton around the ankle and drags her across the ground towards the super max prison rising in the distance.
Paulina cries loudly the whole way there, loud enough that Danny wakes up, head bouncing off a particularly sharp rock before she curls up and the ghost dragging her drops with a pained yelp. She catches up to Paulina and Dash, avoiding the grabbing hands sent her way. Walker waves them off as Danny trots alongside them willingly.
"It's going to be okay, Paulina." Danny says softly. Dash looks assured by that, but Paulina whips around and screams, "You're an IDIOT, Fenton! I want the Ghost Girl."
She continues sobbing after, even as Walker's men burst into mocking laughter. The entrance to the prison takes them through the courtyard, and a cheer goes up from the jump-suited prisoners as Walker throws a cuffed and bruised Danny to the ground, hard enough to make her skid back three feet. Paulina stops crying, staring at the jeering ghosts. Danny rolls to her feet, scowling.
"Would you all shut up, please?" Danny asks, and the yard falls silent as she blows a strand of dark hair out of her face. She marches towards the building, pausing at the front door to smirk back at the trapped spirits, "You all know the drill."
Walker snarls and shoves her through the doorway, an even louder cheer erupting behind them. His hand is an iron bar around her bicep. She tenses, just to mess with him, and he skitters back, drawing his gun. Danny coughs up a mouthful of blood. Dash and Paulina both glance back and forth between the two, Paulina's hands shivering against the metal cuffs out of a mixture of fear and the cold that permeates the ghost zone.
They work their way past a dusty, unmanned front desk and into the winding hallways lined with cell after cell. Danny takes the time to examine the cuffs. Hers are big and bulky, a heavy dark human metal etched with something that glows green and keeps her from shifting out of them. Paulina's seem to be a shiny steel or something of the sort, police grade from what Danny can tell, which isn't much. Dash's, however? Dash's are pink and fluffy. He notices her looking and yanks on them, and Danny hisses put a sharp sound, like she would to tell a dog to stop, and eyes Walker warily. He turns around to eye them right back, and seeing that they're all still mostly contained, continues their hike towards the cell he's put together specifically for Danny.
Not yet. She mouths at Dash, hoping he waits for the signal. He nods, and Danny sighs quietly in relief. At least someone here understands the severity of the situation. She can, has, and probably will start a prison riot in order to escape this place, but the actual staging of the riot is delicate. If she doesn't time it right it won't work.
Walker throws them in a cell. Well, Walker laces his gloved hand in Danny's hair and throws her in a cell while Paulina and Dash are shuffled in behind her. The cell is decorated with various metal contraptions from the human world, from long serrated knives to an ice cream scoop. The metals from their world will stop them from phasing through the walls, but he hasn't been able to collect enough to cover the ceiling or the floor yet. Danny dips her toes beneath the rock ground experimentally.
Paulina has flopped onto the ground, linked wrists over her eyes. She squeaks, "I hate you."
Danny blinks down at her. "Me?"
She sniffs, nods, and says, "Dash, make her sad."
The order is punctuated by a vague, jingling hand wave. Danny sighs, shoulders slumped, resigned to the embarrassment of having Tucker come bail her out again. Dash grits his teeth, knuckles white.
"No." He answers her. She splutters, surprised and upset as Dash continues talking, "As much as I can tell, she's our best bet of getting out of here. You saw what she did with that green shield thing earlier. She's obviously got more tricks up her sleeve, so I think I'll just wait for her to tell me what to do."
Paulina huffs, but one of Walker's men walks by and Danny leaps for the bars.
"Hey!" She shouts, "Hey, you have to feed my friends or they'll die. We're not like you."
The spectre turns around and snarls. It keeps walking, but Danny turns around looking pleased.
"They'll be back with food." She says. "Don't worry, Paulina. I've escaped this place a bazillion times. I'll get us out."
Paulina sniffs, one delicate manicured finger coming up to wipe away a ear before it can fall. She doesn't look at Danny, only focuses on the butcher knife taped to the wall.