Danny flew through the sky quickly and soon reached the mountain.
"Hey!" Nova shouted. Danny frowned and turned to the blue glowing hero.
"Shh! I don't want to alert those ghosts or villains if they're nearby. What are you doing here?" Danny hissed as Nova drew closer. Nova bit his lip and rubbed the back of his helmet.
"Er, we thought you might want some back up," Nova mumbled. Danny raised an eyebrow.
"I don't and I can tell that was a lie. You want to make sure I don't join those ghosts," Danny accused. Nova backed up slightly.
"Are you angry?" Nova asked nervously.
"Of course I am. But I can't blame you. Most people don't trust me because I'm a ghost," Danny admitted. Nova hovered in the same place, unsure if Danny would allow him any closer. Danny rolled his eyes.
"I'm not going to attack you. Relax. I can work with people that don't trust me. I've worked with people that have tried to kill me before," Danny revealed. Nova frowned in confusion.
"Kill? You're already dead, aren't you?" Nova pointed out nervously. Danny blinked before nodding.
"Yeah, I am. But I can still be destroyed. The Fentons are constantly threatening to rip me apart "molecule by molecule". If that doesn't kill a ghost, then I don't know what does," Danny quoted.
Nova's eyes widened in surprise. Danny shrugged. He turned back to the mountain and floated closer.
"If you're going to insist on following me, try to stay quiet and out of sight," Danny called back softly. Nova nodded mutely and trailed behind Danny. Danny and Nova floated lower to the mountain and landed softly on the rocky terrain.
"How much control do you think Nick has over this place? How much can you normally alter your training programmes?" Danny asked quietly. Nova shrugged. He never really paid attention to the whole tech side of the training sessions. He just liked blasting the LMDs apart or laying the smack down on one of the robots.
"I guess they normally have full control. I'm not really interested in tech," Nova replied. Danny bit his lip.
"Wish Tuck was here, he'd be able to tell," Danny muttered to himself.
"Why do you ask?" Nova ventured.
"Because that'll tell me how much control Technus could have. He's the ghost of technology. Anything electrical and beeping, he controls. At least that's how he put it. So, I'm wondering how much he could use against us. He wasn't a great video game player until he got trapped in Doomed but with a little help, he got pretty good. He almost beat the game. I was only in time because I knew the game so well and could use my powers to get through the levels faster," Danny answered. Nova bobbed his head slightly.
"Well our normal training sessions are in places like this and having LMDs thrown at us. But I don't know what is or isn't possible to do," Nova replied.
Danny and Nova walked quietly across the rocky ground and suddenly they heard voices.
"Can't you work faster?" Ember grumbled.
"This isn't as easy as it looks," Technus retorted.
"Well, just keep it maintained and I'll hack into the files we need," Doctor Octopus hissed. Danny and Nova peered past a large boulder. They saw the ghosts and villains crowded around a flickering computer screen that was conjured by Technus and powered by Electro and being used by Doctor Octopus. Ember, Johnny 13, Skulker, Sandman, Beetle, Scorpion, Spectra and Bertrand were either watching, looking bored, or fiddling with their equipment.
"What exactly are you looking for? Can't we, you know, just press some button and shut down this place and go wherever we want?" Johnny 13 moaned.
"No! If we want to regain our freedom, we need to know who Spiderman and his team are. That way we can threaten them and get our revenge. And you obviously are not intelligent enough to understand that SH.I.E.L.D. isn't just going to give up when we press this imaginary button to shut them down," Doctor Octopus sneered. Johnny 13 scowled.
"You think you're smarter than me? Why don't you prove that in a fight?!" Johnny 13 snarled.
"Calm yourself Johnny. As soon as we help them, they'll help us remember. We're ghosts. Those "heroes" don't stand chance. But we can't attack ghost hunters and they can," Spectra reminded the biker.
Danny narrowed his eyes at the ghosts. Nova didn't understand why the ghosts would want to attack ghost hunters.
"I would rather just go after dipstick by ourselves," Ember mumbled.
"We tried that. Tons. Skulker's right, the only way to get that punk is to attack those humans," Johnny 13 decided. Skulker nodded but seemed distracted.
"Sandman, would you mind spreading yourself," Skulker requested. Sandman frowned but didn't object. Nova glanced at Danny.
"I think we should go," Danny muttered and slowly floated off the ground and started to back away.
"Why?" Nova whispered.
"Skulker is a hunter. He might know we're here," Danny answered. Nova understood instantly and floated into air and rushed to follow Danny but they were too late. Sand erupted from the ground and melted around their ankles.
They cried out in alarm and blasted the sand tendrils away. They floated higher into the sky and began to fly away.
"The hunt is on, whelp!" Skulker exclaimed gleefully and charged after them with the other ghosts, bar Technus who was still conjuring the computer out of the digital world. Johnny 13's shadow and Bertrand chased Nova and Skulker, Ember and Spectra followed Danny. The living villains remained with Doctor Octopus in case the heroes attempted to stop them.
Nova dove away from the shadow and noticed the biker driving below in mid-air over the tree canopy. Bertrand shapeshifted into a massive wasp the size of a tank and charged at him, stinger first. Nova yelped in alarm and twisted away. The shadow lunged forward and grabbed the hero's arms. Nova suddenly recalled Danny's explanation of his ghostly enemies. The shadow was weak against light. Well, Nova could provide plenty of light, super nova level. He intensified his glow until the shadow shrieked in pain and faded away, merging back with his owner. Nova laughed.
"That all you can take! You're no match for me!" Nova gloated, not watching where Bertrand was until a massive wasp attacked him again.
While Nova was chased by Bertrand the giant wasp, Danny dodged missiles from Skulker and musical blasts of energy from Ember. Spectra had disappeared. He occasionally fired a ghost ray behind him but rarely hit anything and when he did manage it, the other assailant covered them while they recovered. It was infuriating and Danny was beginning to tire. He zoomed over the canopy, hoping that Spiderman and his remaining team members hadn't moved too far away from where he left them. He dropped down into the clearing they'd arrived in and sped off in the direction they'd headed in. He duplicated himself and sent it ahead of himself in case Ember and Skulker caught him. He had to alert them to what was happening and the danger that Nova had been captured.
Danny and his duplicate flew as fast as possible through the forest swerving around trees and going intangibly through others. Suddenly he was tackled from the side and pinned against a tree. He gasped in surprise and blinked away the black spots as his head banged into the hard bark behind him. He looked up and scowled angrily at Spectra in her shadow form.
"Hello freak. Figured out yet what you are?" Spectre greeted him with an evil and greedy grin. Danny narrowed his eyes at her and struggled, hoping to throw her off him. But it was no use. She had him pinned in such a way that he couldn't get enough room to force her away from him. He focused on his duplicate, ignoring how Ember and Skulker joined them and congratulated Spectra in catching him.
And things go from bad to worse.
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Until the next chapter.