Egad, can I go die now? I need to finish this and then get back on track with 'Shadows Are Supposed to Stay Sleeping'. Crud, I can tell this chapter's going to suck.
Eleven: Let Your Ghost Sense Be Your Guide
"Hold on!" Danny was on his feet and Amethyst looked at him, pausing in the act of beginning her explanation, "You can tell us on the way!"
"The way to where?" Tucker asked apprehensively.
"To wherever the heck they took ZeE!" Danny snapped angrily, "I am not sitting around here when they could be hurting him or…or worse!"
"My parents are going to think I've been kidnapped…" Sam muttered but then a grin split her face, "It should be fun."
Amethyst rolled her eyes and stood up as well, shifting into her fox form.
"Well then, I'm not wasting time arguing with a ticked off halfa," She blinked her violet eyes at Danny, "Are you taking Sam?"
"Yeah," Danny held out his arms and, after much muttering and blushing, was soon floating in the air, intangible, holding Sam, "You ready."
Tucker, clinging to the red fur on the Yokai Fox's back where he rode, nodded and shuddered as the feeling of intangibility swept across his being, closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to see them go through the ceiling. And then they were soaring through the sky, invisible.
"So…" Sam prompted Amethyst to continue her tale, "What about this Yulcifer guy?"
"He's a genius, for one thing," Amethyst's violet eyes blazed suddenly, "But he's not a good genius. Evil genius is a better word for it, indefinitely. He's greedy, cold-hearted, and will do anything to get what he wants with little regard to others."
"Sounds like your typical bad-guy to me…!" Tucker muttered, scowling at the thought.
"I wouldn't say things so quickly, Tucker. This man is a ghost expert; and not of the hunting variety like Danny's parents. He studies them and he knows about the Ghost Zone and the Yokai Ghost pits. He's dangerous."
"I'll say, but how did he find all this out?" Sam asked; Danny hadn't said a word, concentrating too hard on finding ZeE, "I mean, the Yokai aren't exactly the most noticeable ghosts in the Ghost Zone."
"Yeah, I bet half the Ghost Zone doesn't even know you guys exist!" Tucker put in.
"It's true, we don't get out much, not even the non-fighting Yokai dare to venture out of the pits unless there is an emergency. But Yulcifer is cunning. A genius, as I've said. I'm not completely sure how but it seems he managed to find his way into the Ghost Zone, possibly by accident, and fell all the way down to the bottom." Amethyst chuckled but it came out as a high-pitched growl, "Most humans would have been scared witless by the sight of our pits. Bloodstained wastelands, mountains, caves, and deep valleys smeared in blood and dried bones littering the area. Tucker don't you dare throw up on me."
Tucker clapped a hand over his mouth and squeezed his eyes shut. He did seem to be turning a little green. The group veered through the sky, the Yokai Ghost Fox following the halfa.
"Anyway, Yulcifer knows greed when he sees it and when he saw it in a sub-clan of the Yokai Snake; the Cobras, just as insatiable as human world ones; he jumped at the chance for information." Amethyst shook her fox head sadly, ears back, "Even though we fight, in a time of need Yokai would band together to over come the odds if it put all of us in terrible danger. The Yokai Cobras betrayed that trust, the only trust Yokai Ghosts have among one another and sided with Yulcifer for food and the chance to fight. He promised them this much if they would help him and they agreed, aiding him in erecting a barrier over all of the Yokai Ghost pits to keep the rest of us locked inside; unable to interfere. Then he had them round up as many teens as they could in the human world and drag them to that warehouse," Danny flinched, "And injected them Yokai blood and substances that would trigger a Yokai transformation."
"But why's he doing it?" Danny snarled, pulling up short in mid-air, his back to them, Sam still in his arms though she was looking over his shoulder so that her worried gaze locked with Tucker's, "What's he trying to do?"
"From what we; that is the Yokai Wolves and myself, have managed to put together…" She was hesitant to continue, ears flattening even more, and Tucker felt the red fur underneath him bristle with discontentment, "He's trying to become immortal."
"And…and how is doing what he's done to Danny and ZeE going to help him achieve that?" Sam's lilac eyes flashed as she thought about how she could strangle the man who had harmed her friend, "Couldn't he just, I dunno, look for the Holy Grail?"
"I think…I think he's trying to summon Zodiac, the Yokai Ghost Chimera of the Twelve and that could very well destroy the Earth."
"What-?" Danny swore loudly and green energy spiraled off his body, his green eyes glowing such a brilliant green they were almost white with rage, "Why didn't you say that before! Now I have to hurry!"
"But Danny!" Tucker's nerves were all the more on edge from Amethyst's constant whimpering noises and high-pitched growls, "We don't even know where-!"
"The park!" Sam pulled herself into a more upright position by throwing her arms around Danny's neck and hoisting herself upwards, "It's got wide open spaces but enough coverage so that if you needed to stay hidden for a time then it wouldn't be a problem! If I was going to summon something to destroy the Earth that's where I would do it!"
"Sam, I know I've said it before but you are such a frigging genius!" And the halfa kissed her full on the mouth.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The Yokai Fox bucked slightly and Tucker squeaked, almost losing his glasses, "Come on! We don't have time for kissing! Gah!" And she plowed right into them, sending Danny spinning, "Move halfa!"
Danny's and Sam's face were identical shades of red as they headed towards the park. It took them a while to get to the park and then a little more time to find where Yulcifer was planning his twisted summoning. And by the time they landed in the trees and moved towards the open space before them it was dark out.
"Yeah, that's a summoning circle alright," Sam whispered, "And a big one too."
"Zodiac is said to be big enough to swallow the heavens," Amethyst, in her human guise, whispered back, "But it's probable that he is just very, very, very, big."
"Comforting thought." Tucker muttered.
"There's ZeE!" Danny pointed at one of the eleven cages placed in a circle around the diagram burned into the grass; the usually eccentric hacker was slouched forward, his forehead on his knees, looking for all the world like a defeated warrior, "Where's his computer?"
"I think it's still back at Sam's house." Tucker replied, "Why?"
"It'll make him move." Danny crouched low, shaking white hair from his face, ready to spring, when someone grabbed his arm.
"Wait, halfa," Amethyst crouched beside him, "Yulcifer has no doubt set up traps in order to catch ghosts like myself and you, sort of. But my point is that there is no way you're getting in there like you are."
Danny starred at her for a moment and then, his face set in a grim frown, nodded and flashed back into human form before their eyes. Straightening up, he turned his crystal blue eyes on Sam and Tucker who both nodded. They were ready.
But before anyone could move a sweet melody rang out over the park, making all of them look back towards the summon circle. There didn't seem to be anyone around except the other teens in the cages and all of them were unexpectedly drowsy looking.
"That…that song…!" Amethyst's eyes were wide with realization and horror, "That's a ghost lullaby! Don't listen to it!" And she whirled about to face three very dazed looking human teenagers, "Sam? Danny? Tucker?"
"So…pretty…" Danny murmured, walking forward rather drunkenly, slouching slightly, a ditzy smile on his face, "Must…get…closer…"
"Danny, no!"
"Wwwwooooowwwww…" Sam giggled, a sound that was odd coming from the Goth and started moving forward as well.
"Sam! Snap out of it!" Amethyst grabbed her arm and the Goth shook her head, blinking, coming out of the hypnotic daze, "Don't listen to the song! It's a ghost lullaby, meant to hypnotize humans and lure them to their deaths!" She saw someone stagger forward at the edge of her vision, "Tucker!" She grabbed his arm as well and he snapped out of the mesmerizing trance induced by the music.
"Wh-what?" The dark skinned boy looked around, pushing his glasses up his nose with a free hand, "Where's Danny going?"
"Crap! The halfa!" Amethyst let go of Tucker to grab at Danny who was a few feet a head of her but as soon as she did, the techie slipped right back into the trance and started forward again, "Darn it all!"
Using her free hand, the Yokai Ghost Fox slipped her necklace (liberated from Danny when they had met up again) over her head, shoved it into Sam's hands, let go of the Goth and grabbed Tucker who shook himself back into reality again. Then, she forced Sam and Tucker to hold each other's hands, something that made them both wince and blush.
"The Yokai Ghost powers saturated into that gem will keep you two from feeling the effects of the ghost lullaby! Stay here and don't move! I'm going after Danny!" In her agitation, Amethyst's fox ears and tail had popped out, "I'm sorry for this…"
"Apologies later!" Sam cried, "Go after him now! He's almost into the circle!"
Amethyst whirled and jumped towards the halfa but it was too late. The toe of Danny's shoe edged into the summoning circle and a brilliant, neon green light lit up around the entire circle, casting them all into an unearthly sheen. All Sam and Tucker could do was cling to one another as they watched Amethyst rush towards the summon circle only to get blasted backwards by an explosion of light, skidding across the ground to land at their feet.
Danny meanwhile, still seemed to have no idea what it was he was doing. He was standing in the one spot in the circle that did not have a cage on it, completely oblivious the beams of light shooting out from the ground around him. Until one blasted him right through his chest, nearly knocking him off his feet. He shouted in pain as it evaporated into the air, digging his fingers into his black hair, sagging forward, unable to fall to the ground due to some invisible force. Another beam pierce through him and he screamed again.
"Danny!"
"Halfa!"
"Danny!"
Their cries were useless and any attempts to get closer were met with eruptions of light that knocked them back again. One more beam of light shot through Danny again, right through the heart, and it jerked him clean off his feet, sending him spiraling into the air, the light still splintering through him. Beams of light were shooting through the other twelve teens as well. Screams filled the air and then, all at once like millions of people simultaneously tearing pieces of paper apart, there was a horrible ripping sound.
Danny slammed into the ground and didn't move, the other kids in the cages slumped to the floor, glassy eyed, and, for a split second or two, the twisting, ghostly shapes of twelve different animals hung in the air before getting sucked into the center of the circle and vanishing from view.
"Danny!" Sam screamed and started to run forward but the ground shook and she fell only to rise again and rush towards the boy, Amethyst and Tucker close on her heels, "Danny get up!"
"Sam, we have to hide!" Amethyst scooped up Danny as easily as picking a flower and started back towards the trees, losing her balance every so often as she went because of the tremors, "This could go on for hours until Zodiac finally awakes!"
The trio managed to stumble back into the woods and get a reasonable distance away where they would be safe but still be able to watch out for the Yokai Ghost Chimera. There, Amethyst lay Danny out spread eagle on the grass and stood to the side, letting the Goth and the techie in closer. Danny's eyes were closed and he hadn't moved an inch. Tucker put a two fingers to side of his friend's neck and, after a moment, his eyes widened and filled with tears.
"Th-th-there's no pulse! Th-there's nothing!" He pumped a fist on Danny's chest, wiping tears from behind his glasses, "Come on, Danny, breathe, man! Breathe!"
But the teen did not move.
"Danny, you moron, wake up!" Sam pushed Tucker aside and performed a few quick rounds of CPR but there was no response, "You idiot, you just kissed me! You can't go and die now!" She whirled Amethyst, "Bring him back! You can heal him, can't you?"
"I cannot heal death." Amethyst was curled on the grass, fighting the tears; she had already lost so much, "I cannot heal death…"
"Don't you dare go, Danny! Don't you dare leave us!"
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Wow, long chapter for the last one. Just kidding, it's not the end. I would never end it like that. But that was still a lot of information and I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while but I had ACT's and MME's to do and then OM competition and then I've had play practice after school every day this week so…yeah…busy, busy, busy.
Anyway, thanks for waiting patiently for this chapter and I hope I can get the next one up soon! Please review!