Rara Animis 6
A foot in both worlds
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"Well, it wasn't quite six years..." Skulker groused as he watched the ghostly teen. "Five is still a rather long time to only track prey..."
Ever since Phantom had turned fifteen, the boy had been making the flight between Frostbite's and Pandora's lairs by himself. The pair have put their trust in the boy and his abilities, and as much as Skulker hated to admit it, that trust wasn't misplaced.
The princely brat had grown substantially both in physical size and power. He sported a royal blue tunic cut around mid-thigh, with a black long-sleeved undershirt that showed through. Black, somewhat loose hung trousers, and black leather greave boots. Gleaming silver arm and leg guards spoke of his warrior status with Pandora, while the black with white fur-lined and trimmed cloak, spoke of his time with the Far Frozen.
Ever since Skulker had accosted the boy, Phantom had been seen more and more, and most ghosts and spectres, who didn't hide away in their lairs that is, knew of Pandora's 'little prince'.
"Regal brat..." the hunting ghost observed through his binoculars.
Today though... Today was the day he was going to finally collect his prey. Plasmius had made sure everything would go flawlessly, and the hunter had to agree, it really sounded foolproof. Even if he wasn't going to be the one who ultimately got to keep the prize, he at least could have the satisfaction of finishing it off... capturing the rarity.
He gripped the device in his hand tightly as he watched the boy make his way towards the elemental cross-stone. That was where he would make his move. In order to reach the Far Frozen, one had to circle the outer circumference to the underside, and head through the centre hole and head up.
This cross-stone was one of the few things that were stationary in The Ghost Zone, making it a landmark. This also meant it was something that was predictable in its use, meaning Phantom had to go through this to get to where he was going, with little options outside of using it. Well,unless he wanted to add days to his trip,that is.
All he had to do was get into position, and use this lovely tool Plasmius had given him... a surprise attack, one little prick from the dart... It was almost too simple...
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Phantom whistled out a soft tune as he flew towards the elemental cross-stone. Its sight meant he was about halfway to the Far Frozen. He smiled brightly as he began to near the stone. He was rather excited, Frostbite had said they would be working on creating the crystal ice this week, which was more difficult to manipulate, but also a harder, and clearer substance. It would be fascinating to be able to make ice look more like blue-tinted glass, as well as try and put this new skill against Pandora's fire and truly see the durability...
Yes, that sounded nice... Pandora... Panda was so nice to test things with him... Since when had he been falling? Or was he drifting? Hm... The stone is spinning? It shouldn't do that...
No... No, wait...
It was just him.
As Phantom's world lurched and spun, the teen could just barely hear a voice speak to him. It sounded underwater and far away, yet tickled his ear like it was right next to it. "Too easy," it purred out.
Moments later he felt like he had folded in half on top of something hard, being pulled along. He blinked slowly eyes half-lidded and suddenly the stone was barely the size of his thumb. He blinked again, and the stone was gone completely, and it looked like he was somewhere deep within The Barrens, from what little his muddied brain could gather, that is... That wasn't good...
The third blink rewarded him with a new location entirely. Cold steel reflected under his nose as he groggily came too. He pressed a hand to his head and groaned, peeking out of his half-open eye through a barrier into the world beyond. More metal met his gaze along with machines that looked so much less advanced than anything he was used to from the Far Frozen.
Even the air felt off here... "What... Where...?" He trailed off as his eyes catch sight of the spinning mass of green. A portal? A stable one at that…. But how? Did that mean he was somewhere in the physical realms? Was that why the air felt thin?
"Ah, it seems you've awoken."
Phantom snapped his eyes to the speaker instantly and frowned. Grey hair tied back a pressed suit and cold steel-blue eyes, (what was with all the steel around here?) and a pompous air of superiority. The teen frowned and tilted his head slightly as he appraised this... human? No, a human guise he realized, once he focused on him. "And whom am I addressing?"
"Vlad Masters, my dear boy." The man's low tone made him sound as though he was trying to soothe a crying child. With his hands clasped firmly behind his back he strolled forward, chest puffed confidently.
Phantom kept a suspicious eye to the man as he moved to stand in front of his cage, the teen's upper lip curling into a sneer. "Considering I am in here, am I safe to assume I need not bother with introductions?"
"Smart lad," Vlad replied simply. "But I would expect no less from a fellow halfa," he purred out with a charming smile that felt too slimy for Phantom.
Once the man's words gestured in the teen's muddied brain however his sneer deepened, as he flashed his fangs, as well as his eyes. Halfa. That was something he was told he was, sure, but he was also told few people should know about his being so. It was dangerous information, and so if this man knew...
"How," Phantom snapped at him. It wasn't a question but a demand.
"Ah, good. I was concerned you wouldn't know of your own status boy," Vlad purred his wicked smile widening. "Oh, do not worry, I know of this simply due to the fact that we are of the same breed."
"Same breed?" Phantom asked confusion now taking over his expression as his sneer lessened. "You said fellow halfa... What do you mean?" In what way did this man share his status? And what did it really mean to him... to them?
"Of course, surely you can sense it, no?"
"I know you are not what you seem, if that is what you are implying."
"True, but that is the curse of the halfa is it not? Stuck in a world between?" Vlad said, as though trying to placate him.
"I do not share the feeling," Danny huffed, crossing his arms with a frown. Both Pandora and Frostbite were wonderful guardians and he never felt stuck between them.
"Surely you have felt it brewing within your core boy? A bubbling indignation of something beneath? Or can you not sense how your own core grows faster than others of your age? How different your energy feels to them?" Vlad adopted a stricken look. "We are outcasts, my child, always on the outside looking in, never truly a part of them, and always on the sidelines until we're needed. We are like mere novelties to them." He motioned to the portal
"But you and me together? We can understand one another's plight. There are things I can teach you that your current watchers can not. Show you things only another creature like yourself can truly master. You could be my son," he crooned.
The man's eyes seemed to shine with hidden light, and Phantom didn't like the undertones hidden in loneliness and desperation. "Why should I trust the one who sent another to capture me? One who doesn't share the work themselves shall see no glory in the work of others."
Vlad's face dropped and morphed to a sneer before his body changed dropping his human guise in favour of his true form, with a flourish of black rings.
"And?" Phantom raised a brow unsure how he was expected to react to the "reveal". He had seen plenty of other ghosts who could disguise their form into that of a human.
"You… you don't know do you…? not truly anyway." The vampire ghost shook his head before pulling out a box-like metal device with two sparking prongs on the end. He approached with an excited glint in his eye. "Allow me to show you, my dear boy," he cooed before opening the cage door and casually strolling in.
Phantom tensed and tried to ready a blast of plasma, only to find his core almost completely drained. "Wha…?" he all but growled out as he jumped back to avoid the device Vlad was holding. The electricity jumped between the prongs, making the young ghost gulp. He hated lightning and everything that came along with it...
"It seems you're still feeling the effects of the drug. Fascinating isn't it? How a disconnect between core and body can be created? And as such, you're left defenceless." Vlad grinned as he talked down to Phantom.
"Powerless is not defenceless!" Phantom growled as he leaned back and away from the device as Vlad stabbed it forward.
"But if one has no power while your opponent has all of it, things are swayed quite easily," Vlad growled before grinning as Phantom let out a howl of pain. "Of course it is only if you can use that power effectively," Vlad's clone cooed from behind.
Phantom tried to pull away from the white-hot fire of electricity that blasted through him, but his muscles had seized, no longer responding to his command. His form curled, back tense, when abruptly, a sound like glass cracking filled his ears along with his screams. He felt the choker on his neck loosen suddenly, the one he was told to never take off…
A bright flash filled his vision behind his tightly squinted eyes, and at last, the pain eased. He fell to the floor and lay in a heap of writhing and twitching pain. "Hmm… Now, this is interesting…." Vlad hummed out as blackness filled the teen's vision once more. He had a fleeting thought about how warm he felt before nothing.
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Phantom blinked awake again, hating the way his head pounded with a steady thumping throb… Actually… He placed a hand to his core and let out a little gasp, breath caught in his throat. Wait breath? He only needed to take in air every so often or to talk, but why was his body… He furrowed his brow suddenly realizing he was on a plush surface and in a different room then the lab he had woken in before.
He coughed, forcing his attention back inward in confusion. Right… keep the breathing thing going.
He quickly gave himself a once over and instantly noticed the change of clothes. A pair of black slacks with a smooth texture and a white button-up shirt with a light feel. His greave boots had been replaced with sleek black shoes, left by the bedside table.
What had happened to the clothes he was wearing? Had that man replaced them while he was unconscious? "Ugh… Don't think too hard on that…" he shuddered at the fleeting thought that crossed his mind. "Creep..." he huffed out.
He carefully pulled himself off the bed and put on the shoes in the room, his whole body ached and his core… he stopped mid-loop in his shoe tying. His core… "I...I can't feel it?!" he gasped out frantically scrabbling at his chest.
The hum was gone, replaced by a steady ka-thump that pulsed in time with his head. "What did he do to me?!" the teen whispered fearfully. His eyes darted around the room hoping to gain some sort of context but came up empty, apart from a travelling cloak that looked almost like his own, but with... reversed colours? He approached it and shook his head trying to calm his frayed nerves, the ka-thump in his chest picking up pace, as did his breathing.
He stared down at his pale (too pale, too pale!) pinkish (the colour was wrong, wrong, wrong!) hands as he reached for the cloak. It felt the same as his… but it was still wrong, wrong, wrong! He felt warm still, too… too hot! Wasn't it? He should be… shouldn't he? This wasn't right! None of this was right!
He quickly placed the cloak around his shoulders, before dashing towards the door. He fell to the ground with a crash as he rebounded from the force. "Phase-proof?" He groaned, rubbing his sore nose, before shifting to glare at the wooden exit.
No, not phase proof… he just simply hadn't turned intangible, his foggy panicked brain managed to supply. His core was so far out of energy it was non-existent at the moment… That had to be it right? But if that was true shouldn't he have had his form absorbed into it? Turned into nothing more than a pebble of sorts? Exposed. His very being on display for all to see?
He shook his head again, not liking that train of thought. For whatever that creepy psycho did to him, he was thankful it wasn't that, at least… Small positives, that was what you were supposed to do when in a bad situation, right? It certainly didn't bring any sort of comfort, though…
With a small huff, he closed his eyes to once again try to calm himself, taking deep lungfuls of air, letting his instincts guide him. Feeling a little better his eyes snapped open and he moved over to examine the wooden door. His eye caught movement off to the side and he jumped back to face the figure, albeit awkwardly. (since when did he feel so heavy?)
He stared into the blue eyes of his opponent for a moment before blinking watching in wonder as it copied the actions he made. "A-A mirror?" He gulped moving closer to examine it.
He looked into the full body length mirror, mouth open as he examined himself, stumbling forward on autopilot to have a closer look. He too had a colour swap, it seemed. White to black hair, just like his cloak, green eyes to blue, and green-tinted skin to a more pink and pale shade. At least his fangs still seemed to be there… even if they were much less pronounced now.
"You don't know do you?" Vlad's voice echoed into his head as he stared at himself. A memory of the man revealing his ghost's form from the human guise… A guise that was far more convincing than it should have been… Almost perfect due to the fact it had human needs and physiology, but with a ghostly feel...
A hand came up to clutch his core- his beating heart where his core should be. It was there… it was real, just like how warm he was feeling. Humans had a high temperature, after all, right?
This… This is what a halfa was? A foot in both worlds indeed...
Danny started to shake a bit, hugging himself with the cloak. His mind raced as his eyes roamed over his reflection finally settling on the cracked jewel in the choker necklace he was given so long ago. A spiderweb pattern frayed out from the center of the slightly glowing gem and as Danny brought his fingers to the jewel he could feel the energy it was trying and failing to contain within.
He stepped back unable to keep eye contact with himself. This couldn't be right, could it? The children he used to play with when he was little all did comment on how he grew so fast… did-did this have something to do with it? He was mimicking a human growth pattern? If that was the case then…
A noise came from outside the room and the teen hissed out a curse as he tried, and failed, to turn invisible. He set his jaw, clenching his fists as he braced into a defensive stance. And sure enough, as soon as the door opened, revealing the smug Vlad, Danny bolted forward tackling the man around the middle.
Vlad let out a yell of surprise as he was caught off guard from the shoulder to his gut, knocking him back and consequently down the stairs. With that Danny ran sneering as he saw the man right himself and gracefully float to the ground as the teen bolted past along the upper ledge. The man glared and suddenly was a ghost once more.
"Now, now. Is that any way to repay my hospitality?" he chastised, flying up to try to cut Danny off.
Muscles screamed in protest as Danny grabbed the railing on the balcony ledge and threw himself over it, rolling forward as he hit the ground below. "Huh.. never thought I would have a use for ol' Frostbites more physical lessons…" he mused aloud as he headed towards the nearest doorway. He headed for the next door and skidded to a halt, shoes squeaking, as he fought his built momentum and turned to head down an adjacent hallway.
Danny weaved, dodged and jumped as clones of Vlad started cutting him off and turning him back into a waiting group of others with waiting grins. Vlad had the upper hand, fully and absolutely, and he knew it. Danny didn't need the smug grin the man wore to tell him that. Danny panted as he ran, an odd sensation to say the least and it accompanied the burning in his chest as he gulped in large volumes of air.
"What's the matter, boy? Not used to being confined in the physical plane?" Vlad teased popping up in front once again. Danny rolled to the side to dodge him, springing up and kept moving, all in one fluid motion.
This place was a maze! And Vlad was enjoying the chase, that was obvious. Danny hissed as he pulled in between a pair of bookshelves in a library and held his breath. He watched with some slight satisfaction as four Vlads flew by every which way. He waited there a bit regaining some of his energy though every time he saw a new Vlad, the frown on his blue face seemed to deepen.
At least he'd managed to give the creep the slip for now. He could feel the pulsing energy beneath his feet of the portal. He had to get back to that lab and get home... He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, hoping to feel where the other ghost was, a sense he had worked tirelessly to develop...
Although… Danny's eyes snapped open and he glared at the book that was directly in front of his nose for no other reason then he needed a target for his ire. He couldn't feel anything that would help to indicate the other's location. The portal was overpowering it, great, that is if he even had any power for the ability to sense the subtle ecto-signatures anymore in the first place. He frowned at that thought.
Stealth was never his strong suit, but by ancients, he had to try. It was with this thought in mind that the teen bolted as silently as he could from his temporary hiding spot and headed to where he could feel the portal the strongest. With a frown, he looked about the area trying to gain some sort of clue as to where he should be headed.
"Ah, there you are my boy," Vlad's voice purred over his shoulder. "If you're done with this little game of yours I would like to make you an offer."
Danny jumped and whirled around into the defensive. He decided to humour the man and so he asked. "Is that so?" He kept his defensive position but tried to make his words to sound curious, and forced himself not to sneer.
Vlad smiled showing off his own set of fangs. "But of course, why wouldn't I want to offer to share a kinship with the only other creature like me in existence? I can teach you things your current guardians can only dream of," he cooed
"Like what? Pandora and Frostbite are two of the best warriors of the realms, what could you possibly have over them?" he asked once again feigning interest.
"Plenty. Most notably, how to live amongst humans."
That gave the teen pause. "Live among them? How do they not notice?"
"Humans are ignorant to several things, my dear boy, however; Phantom is not a name that is befitting a human. Perhaps we could choose you a new one?"
"No, I quite like my name," Danny shot back with a glare.
"A human named human would be just as uncreative," Vlad huffed with a roll of his eyes.
Danny sneered back, civilities be damned. He'd use his arrogance against him, petty revenge or otherwise. "Like you are one to talk… And for the record? I decline. Creep."
"Why you-?! I don't think you understand how this works boy! This wasn't a request!" Vlad growled out and lunged, hands charged with ecto-energy. Danny jumped back from the attack only to be tackled from above and intangibly thrown through the floor by a clone. "It's a demand!"
Danny blinked as the lower floor crashed into his already sore back causing him to let out a hiss of pain. So that plan hadn't worked out the best… Danny barely managed to roll away as the angered Vlad set loose another burst aiming for his chest.
His muscles screamed in protest as he dodged another blast only to get a punch in the gut. Danny coiled inward gasping as the air was forced from his lungs.
He took a second to notice they were back in the lab, the swirling portal only a little bit away now, it was surely within reach… Danny raised his head grimacing up at the elder halfa who's fury was barely contained by the fire in his eyes.
"I will tell you again boy. Join me," he hissed through gritted teeth pink energy gathering around his shaking fists.
"Get thrown in oblivion, you creep!" Danny spat back with a wheeze.
Vlad's eyes narrowed and he launched forward again. Danny prepares for another gut punch only to have his cry of pain cut short by the crushing of his windpipe and the burning of his flesh.
Not good, not good! He needed a way out of this crazed ghost's grasp, and soon! He didn't want to imagine what else this guy would do to him if he was knocked out again…
Danny claws feebly at the strong locked arms of the elder with one hand while he feels about behind him with the other. Feeling something solid, but unsure what it is he quickly brings it down on Vlad's head. The reaction was instant and as Plasmius backs away, Danny gulps in greedy lungfuls of air.
The elder hybrid lets out a scream of agony as he gets zapped by the very machine he'd used on Danny earlier. With a grunt and a weak ray of plasma, the device explodes just as dark purple-black fiery rings appear at the man's waist. He falls to his knees glaring at the teen.
"What… what did you say about power? Well… I believe I have just evened out the odds, hmm?" Danny huffed as he spoke wincing as he pulled up the cloak to hide the ugly purple and red bruise and burn on his neck, in a perfect imprint of Vlad's hands on his throat.
"Well played little badger…" Vlad panted, trying to stand up to regain some semblance of dignity, and failing.
"Once again I refuse… Fruitloop…" Danny grimaced as he trudged his way to the portal. The teen gave one last sneer to Vlad before jumping through… and immediately he regretted his decision, as he began falling, having forgotten that he could no longer fly.
Danny flailed about before smacking into a rock and collapsing onto it. He rolled flat onto his back with all the grace of a drunken toddler and stared up at the swirling green sky panting.
Everything was hurting and he could feel the throb of his heart everywhere as a result. From wiggling his toes to blinking, every move caused a new twinge of pain to ripple through him, and yet… he laughed.
"Pandora was right… I am still a fledge…" he managed out with a self-deprecating smile.
He laid like that for a while, unsure how much time passed, but when Vlad hadn't continued to pursue him, he didn't feel the need to move. This was a far more, and different, tired than he had ever felt during training, that much was certain.
With a grunt, he heaved himself into a sitting position and looked around. Still in the barrens at least, but with his core as good as gone he couldn't sense where he needed to go.
He hauled himself to aching feet and jumped to a larger rock that his current one was passing. He grunts again as he lands feeling his knees knock, but unable to force himself to roll.
Now heading in a, hopefully, upward trajectory, the teen looks out again hoping to catch sight of… well .. anything that could serve as a landmark.
Of course not. Just abyss… and rocks. "The barrens are truly an apt name," he sighed out.
Eyes once again rove the landscape as he hears an odd whirring sound, and it was getting louder. Definitely mechanical, that much was certain as the sound builds closer, closer… he moved into a defensive stance ready to try and flee somehow, or fight if necessary.
Danny narrows his eyes at the shape nearing him. It was one he recognized after all…
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Cross-posted on AO3
Hope you enjoyed this chapter ^^ Things are being set into motion now. Any guesses as to who Danny saw at the end there?
Also shout-out of thanks to my beta: FiveRivers!And Please R&R