Dan's stomach roiled as he was yanked through the portal and dragged feet first through the Ghost Zone via the green chain constructs restraining him. Thankfully the pain from the blood blossoms had faded into more of an ache, but the flush covering his cheeks remained courtesy of Ember's boisterous laughter that followed after him as he disappeared off to a séance in who-knows-where. No matter who you were nor how powerful, if you were unlucky enough to be entangled by the Chains of Séance, then there was nothing you could do. One minute you could be haunting some lair and the next, you'd be popping up in a kid's bedroom or a circus tent.
"This better not be another slumber party or hipster hangout!" Dan groused as he took a sudden right and headed towards another triangular portal which flickered against a very pink backdrop that made him bedroom beyond that he emerged into was stereotypical of a young child—middle school maybe—with cutesy plushies lining the bed and band posters wallpapering the four walls. A cork noticeboard held more snapshots of young children intermittently broken up by chicken scratch engraved on to sticky notes and other scraps of paper. At his feet lay an assortment of rumpled sleeping bags and ravaged sweet wrappers where five little pairs of eyes stared up at him in a combination of wonder and fear.
Dan ignored the shocked gasps and screams below him, instead far more focused on unravelling himself from the blasted chains which had thankfully loosened some on the journey over, but were still being a pain in the ass. "Eurgh!" He groaned low in his throat and violently shook the chains in irritation as he unwittingly recreated the stereotypical image of every ghost or ghoul ever created. His temperature dropped too in his irritation, but he paid no mind to the frost now collecting on the windows nor the thundering of footsteps fleeing from the room as he gave up with trying to shake the chains off and just straight up blasted them in his attempt to get free. Normally Dan would've been more aware of his surroundings, but he was just so tired & achy and wanted nothing more than to go back to Amity and sleep for a week.
"I hate séances!" Dan groused as he rubbed at his sore wrists, stepping over the shattered chains that now lay littered amongst the abandoned sleeping bags and towards the far wall which overlooked the street. The edges of the city's forest could be seen brushing against the starry sky and a single trail of smoke danced upwards from some place further into the trees. "Well, at least I'm still within Arcadia this time and my lair'd not too far from here! Yes! Finally some good luck! But, ugh! Going this way means more flowers!…Whatever, let's just get this over with so I can go to sleep!"
"…You just had to be a smart ass and take a short cut through the woods, didn't you?" Dan sassed to himself as he passed the knotted oak tree with the gnarled branches again. He'd been drunkenly stumbling around in circles for a while now and was quite utterly and absolutely lost, not to mention tired, cranky and slightly loopy. "You could've flown home or gotten a lift from one of the campers at the bonfire, but no! You had to go and be a dumbass!"
Pausing beneath the aforementioned tree for the umpteenth time that night, Dan tried to regain his breath between his harsh coughs. Whilst the pain from the blood blossoms may have passed, that didn't mean they were done causing damage to him. The bone-rattling cough still persisted, bringing forth bouts of phlegm, ectoplasm and the occasional sprinkling of blood. Added to that was a kind of exhaustion that felt heavy in his weightless limbs, pulling him towards the earth and making him rather loopy. Despite his complaints, the ghost boy retained enough of his mind to know that he'd surely have a hard time flying right now with the blood blossoms still poisoning his system and would likely do so until they were fully purged. "That'll be a fun process. Not"Dan deadpanned down at his green & red speckled shirt. "Ugh, guess I'll go back to the campsite and try again"
With that said, Dan spun on his heel and U-turned it back to the campsite he had passed several times before. The bonfire had died down by this point, leaving it no more than flickering embers dancing over the burnt logs and a few skid marks littered the dirt where the campers had made their escape; the ghost stories having apparently been too much for them. The only traces that people had ever been there were the empty solo cups littered about an acoustic guitar leant up against one of the weathered logs.
The forest had been unusually lively that night, something which Dan had attributed to the bonfire party going on around the campsite. Several large flashes lit up the canopies, which had led the albino to assume that the teenagers had somehow gotten their mitts on some fireworks outside of the regular firework-selling holidays. The screams, he had thought were due to the ridiculous ghost stories that were spread amongst friends (Apparently the local legend was something called the Billycraggle, which was said to consist of the body of a man, the legs of a billy goat with ram horns on their head and smelt of cafeteria meat for some reason. The meat thing had Dan thinking of the Lunch Lady, but he'd never heard of her haunting this far west). So if anyone asked, he'd blame his unbecoming state on the fact that he was not functioning on all cylinders.
"Right, let's try this again" Dan tiredly clapped his hands as he tried to situate himself. "The street is over…there and the canal is over…there, which means north should be that way, right? Or is it over there? Ugh! This would be so much easier if I could fly! Right, no, shut up! You can do this! Worst comes to worst, you can just sleep in the woods. It's not like you haven't done that before, anyway. Now—Jesus!"
"I am not the Jesus. Who is this Jesus?" Aja puzzled, head titled in question after she dropped from the dark sky like a bat in all her blue glory. Dan, who had practically jumped sky high at the sudden appearance of the junior, was far more focused on try to calm his core than to answer the curious question. Particularly as her brother appeared in much the same manner not seconds later, although far less graceful.
"…What gloober invented trees?" Krel grumbled as he got to his feet. Clearly there was something that Dan was missing here. "Daniel? What are youdoing here?"
"…It's raining teenagers" Dan blinked, looking back and forth between the two blue aliens before glancing down at his hands to see if all of his fingers were there. It was this trick that Jazz had taught him when he was younger—if you had more or less fingers & toes than normal, then you were dreaming. "What did those flowers do to me?"
A thunderous roar and rampaging footsteps suddenly sounded from behind Dan, pulling him from his thoughts as Krel cocked his…glowing protractor? And Aja fell into a defensive position that mirrored her brother without the weapon. "That serator would come in handy right about now" Aja despaired, searching for a weapon that she could use. Dan in the meantime, was terrified that the GIW had found him and were coming full force to hunt him down. Or perhaps it was Walker? Or Plasmius? Or Dark Danny? Or…y'know he had a lot more enemies than he had previously thought, what with the job change.
"Aha!" Aja smiled going for the guitar propped up nearby. "Time to shred!"
"Heh" Dan chuckled, a small smile pulling at his lips. He had to admit, of all the (bad) puns he had said over the years, that one wasn't the worse.
"No, no, no, no!" Krel suddenly surged forward to snatch the instrument from his sister and sit it aside where he could later retrieve, granted that they all survived this encounter with whatever it was. "I've been wanting to play one of those!"
"You can't have the serator and the guitar!"
The sibling spat was quickly cut short however, by the appearance of three robotic-looking creatures that had Dan marvelling over their designs. Aliens and cyborgs?! So cool!
"Oh! The guitar!" Krel despaired as the rock it was leant against disintegrated upon impact with whatever laser weaponry was being used.
Lasers too?! So cool! So cool! So cool! Dan drooled, eyes sparkling as he paid no mind to the bullets of light streaking around him. He was half-dead, drunk and poisoned anyway, what were a couple of bullet wounds gonna do?
"Three against two" The hound taunted (apparently Dan didn't count) as he swung his whip at Aja, who danced around it as much as she could before Krel intervened. "You don't stand a chance"
"AH!" Krel decreed with a battle cry as he threw up a shimmering blue shield between himself, his sister and the enemy.
Through his drunken haze, Dan got the memo that he should be either fleeing or fighting and his fists ignited in recognition, but he never got the chance to attack when he was suddenly thrown over a blue shoulder and hauled up one of the large oak trees bordering the camp site. "Are you okay?" Aja queried, apparently having taken his motionless state as fear which was fine by Dan as it was much less embarrassing. She propped up against a curved branch in the canopy, making sure that he was nestled in between the one above and the one below before she sat back, worried about her brother.
"Er, yeah, I—" Dan rasped, sounding hoarse from all the coughing he had done throughout the evening. But it was not over, not by a long shot as he quickly fell into another series of hacking coughs that he tried to direct into the crook of his elbow.
When he was done, he used the hem of his shirt to wipe away the mess he had coughed up, pulling a face of disgust when he saw what had come out of him. It was a wonder he was still standing, to be honest, though it was a close thing. Glancing up, he found both Tarrons staring back at him whilst the enemy rammed at the tree in an attempt to knock it down."So… these are the aforementioned bounty hunters, I take it?"
"Yes, they are the Zeron Brotherhood" Aja nodded dourly. "Honourless hunters with countless kills to their name"
"And now they're hunting you?"
"Yes"
"I gotta say, I'm kinda glad it's not who I thought it was"
"How can you be glad? They are trying to kill us!" Krel cried as he hung on for dear life.
"Eh, death's not so bad" Dan shrugged. "I mean, the dying part's pretty gross, sure, but the death bit's pretty good, better even"
"Then what has you so scared of those Guys in White?" Aja recalled the hunters searching for the ghost boy. "What's worse than death?"
"Hehe…" Dan giggled nervously, instead turning his attention to the three below and tried to ignore how his forced laughter had turned slightly hysterical. Before more could be exchanged between the three however, they were thrown from the tree as it suddenly toppled and sent them flying every which way. As Dan fell, all he could think was This was not what I meant when I said I wish I could fly home!
Dan wasn't sure how much time had passed when he arose from the ground, phasing through the dirt as if he were a zombie rising from its coffin. On either side of him sat the large oak tree from whence they had fallen from, but it now sported a large gaping hole in the middle that was smoking around the edges. Next to him, Luug sat proudly puffing up his chest as he admired his work and the two Tarron siblings blinked wide-eyed at him from where they sat cradled in each others arms a stone's throw away.
"What?" Dan puzzled, head titled as he tried to figure out why the two teens were suddenly so afraid of him. They'd seen him to worse than this, so why was the phasing thing tripping them up? Sure, it might've looked odd, but that was still nothing compared to kicking away a creature thrice your height & weight or blasting bolts of green from his hands. Hell! They'd even seen him phase before! So why?
The sound of a weapon cocking in his ear appeared to be his answer and a strange heat tickled at the back of his neck, making him turn. Green orbs came in contact with the barrel of the gun which was hovering dangerously close to his forehead. Whilst he had thought these hunters were like Skulker and only focused on their aforementioned kills, then he was sorely mistaken; as backed up by the Tarron's explanation and the heat emanating from the weapon. Absently he registered the protests from the teens at his back and the growls from the alien dog at his side, but the ghost boy had other priorities in that moment.
Instead, Dan threw his head back and wailed. It was a horrible screeching sound that grated on the ears and echoed throughout the darkened woods as if the dead was crying out their misery. The thing was, the wail had been more out of surprise of having the strange weapon shoved into his face than anything else; but in his inebriated state, the ghost boy found that it was more than enough for his Ghostly Wail to take effect. All around him, hands were slapped over their respective ears in an attempt to block out the noise, but it was no use.
Woodland creatures fled at the noise and Luug tried to bury his head in his paws as the sound waves pulsated from Dan's mouth. In turn, the Zeron Brotherhood were pushed from their feet and sent flying backwards towards the remnants of the bonfire as the halfa felt himself become lost in the sound. He'd only lost control a couple of times before (mostly when he had first acquired the power and once when Dani, his clone-turned-cousin, had been hurt) and he knew from experience the kind of backlash that would come from the attack—not a particularly smart move in his condition, but it's not like he had been planning on using the double-edged sword.
But soon enough, all he could hear was the wail and the echoing voices of the dead that came with it. Sometimes he wondered if this is where the tales of banshees came from, wailing ghosts that couldn't stop calling for death. His vision blurred, first at the edges and then completely until he could not discern colours, shapes or even the dimensions of the things around him. Everything shook and pulsated with the force of the wail; although Dan was not quite sure how he knew that, only that he did. Perhaps it was some kind of echolocation? All that he really knew was that the rings of sound echoing out of his gob was all encompassing and binding him to the noise. He was not quite sure if he could stop, not on his own at least.
There were voices too, he'd just now noticed, but he was not quite sure if they were those of the dead that he'd grown up hearing or the panicked sound of his companions as they tried to stay upright and shut him up. All that he knew was that he wanted to close his mouth; to stop this endless wailing brought on by emotion and inebriation. He had no idea how long he had been lost in the noise by this point; it could've been hours, days or even years. What if I never stop wailing?
All that he knew was one moment he had been blinking dumbly at the Tarron siblings from between a fallen tree and the next, he was lost in the sound of his Ghostly Wail. But the sound faltered for a moment, stuttering when he felt something wet & warm slobbered at his face and covered it in drool. Cujo? Is that you? Dan wanted to call out to his beloved ghost dog, wanted to reach out and hold him close, but his limbs weren't responding to his commands; nothing really was. More drool was added to the pile and hands grabbed at his form, pulling him from the ground and back against a wall of warmth that beat in time with his core.
Like a child calming down from a nightmare, Dan's vision eventually cleared and his mouth finally snapped shut as the wails subsided into nothing. Tears had beaded in his eyes and he blinked them away as he tried to regain his bearings whilst also fighting the urge to pass out. "Daniel?" Krel slowly dropped his hands from his ears from where he had been frozen, looking both unsure, horrified and worried all at once as Aja cradled the ghost boy in her arms. "What was that?"
"Are—are you okay?" Aja asked from above him, her voice reverberating through him. Dan didn't have an answer for the siblings—couldn't answer really—because he suddenly ripped himself free from Aja's loose hold and collapsed onto all fours as he coughed & retched on to the ground. Ectoplasm, blood and phlegm fell from his lips in a worrying mess of colour that had him concerned, even inebriated as he was. Shit. This really is going to kill me, isn't it?
Hands grappled to hold him upright and out of the puddle forming beneath him. As he returned to leaning back against Aja's chest with her core thrumming pleasantly in his ear and the siblings' worried faces swimming above him; he noted that Vex had arrived at some point and was valiantly fighting off all three of the bounty hunters with moves that spoke of experience. His bellowed war cry—"VARVATOS VEX PROTECTS THE TARRON FAMILY WITH HIS LIFE!" —sounded quiet in Dan's ears and the halfa knew he wouldn't be able to stay conscious for much longer.
It didn't take long for the blurry edges of his vision to be replaced with dark dots as he sucked in lungfuls of air that felt just as painful as they must've looked if Luug's reaction was anything to go by. Dan wasn't quite up to date with the psychology of alien dogs, but he was rather surprised to see how expressive this one was; of course, he really shouldn't have been considering how Cujo behaved. The prune-like canine sat nestled in Krel's grasp with an equally worried look nestled in his features, mindless of the blood dripping from his ears. Dan's heart pinged with guilt at that; he hadn't meant to hurt anyone (well, maybe the bounty hunters) with his wail, but that didn't excuse the fact.
"Quickly!" Vex cried as he scooped up the children (human & Akiridion alike) before fleeing from the scene with Luug on his heels. Dan barely registered being picked up or smooshed against somebody else; only that the thrumming he had heard coming from Aja's core echoed by the much larger core belonging to Vex was slowly lulling him off to sleep. A voice in the back of his mind which sounded suspiciously like Tucker told him he probably shouldn't be doing that, but as a sad and mournful howl followed them out of the woods, Dan knew no more.
