3
Danny really hated to leave the Winchesters in the dark but if he had brought them they only would have weighed him down. Though the extra weight didn't seem to matter to Plasmius, he was flying faster than Danny ever thought possible. He'd seen only one ghost travel that fast; Tucker Phantom. Luckily Plasmius was leaving behind a trail, so Danny had no trouble keeping track of him, it wasn't until he got deeper into the Ghost Zone that he was having trouble.
"Wow," Danny said aloud to himself, "it's so dark here..." Just then he heard a noise, like some kind of growl. It was like a demonic growl. Then he saw it, it was huge, red, and had rows and rows of teeth. "What the hell is that thing..." The creature turned toward Danny and roared loudly, then looked behind him and flew away. Danny didn't want to look behind him, he knew it was a bad idea, but he did anyway. When he turned he saw a creature bigger than he'd ever seen before, it must have been as big as 100,000 elephants put together, for those of you who are failing math, that is a lot of elephants.
Danny screamed and scrambled away, keeping up with the trail just barely, where ever he was, it was too deep into the Ghost Zone for anyone he knows to be hanging around. He flew fast and hard, pushing himself harder than he ever had to before, and then, just like that, the trail was gone. Vlad was nowhere to be seen, and Sam and Tucker's screams had stopped. Danny had lost them, and even worst, he had lost himself. He hadn't a clue where he was.
Danny found a floating rock and sat on it, he didn't know where to go, he didn't know how to get back, he was lost and he didn't know what to do. Just then he was approached by a man, he was walking on air as if there were ground below him. The fact that he was human and not one of these demon things made Danny suspect that the stranger wasn't from around here. The man had messy brown hair, a gruff 5 o'clock shadow, and brown eyes. He was well built for an older man, he looked about the size of the younger Winchester brother, but his eyes were as full of sorrow and sadness as the eldest.
"Well," the man said, sitting next to Danny, who slid over to make room, "Danny Phantom. You're a little far from home aren't you?"
"Yeah," Danny said, running his hand through his hair. "I'm chasing someone who kidnapped my friends and dragged them in here from the human world."
"Oh yes," the man said, nodding. "Your story is very popular where I come from."
"And where is that, exactly?" Danny asked, curious.
"A land far beyond here," the man said, waving his hand out toward the way Danny suspected Plasmius went. "A land of light, a land where everyone is happy and peaceful."
"Heaven?" Danny asked hopefully.
The man looked at Danny and smiled. "Exactly that. We welcomed your parents as heroes, raising such a fantastic child like yourself is worth celebrating."
"Did my parents seem... sad?" Danny asked, sadness welling up inside.
"Sad?" The man said, laughing. "Jack saw the endless miles of fudge and almost fainted!"
Danny smiled, thinking about his dad's love for fudge.
"Danny," the man said, "I'll give you some advice. Don't pity the dead, pity the living, and above all, those who live without love."
Danny sat there for a second, then said, "You stole that from Harry Potter."
"Hey, it's true Isn't it?" the man said.
"Yeah," Danny said. "So, do you know where Vlad went?"
"Well," the man said looking in the direction Vlad had gone, "I say he's trying to get to Purgatory. Ever since Castiel let the Leviathans out its been a bit more peaceful. He's already taken it over, he started there, now he's got an army of Vampires, Wendingos, and every other monster in the world minus ghosts."
"Where's Purgatory?" Danny asked the man.
"Just keep going forward, but I'd wait for my boys to get here before you go. You don't want to go on alone, believe me."
"Wait... your boys? You're..."
The man stuck out his hand for a handshake, "John Winchester, at your service."
"Nice to meet you," Danny said, shaking Winchester's hand.
"Head back to the Ghost Zone, go meet my boys, they have a plan that could work."
"Wait, I'm not in the Ghost Zone?"
"No," John said. "This is Hell. The Ghost Zone is the limbo between Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Earth. Depending on what you've done in your life you could end up in any of the afterlives. If you've been exceptionally good, it's Heaven for you. If you've been evil, Hell. If you've been smack dab in the middle, the limbo you know as the Ghost Zone. And if you're a monster... Purgatory. Now go, Ghost Child, find your friends, and kill that evil ghost."
Danny nodded, he flew in the opposite direction of where Vlad had gone, toward the Ghost Zone...
Dean and Sam brought with them pistols with iron bullets, iron bats and crowbars, shotguns with iron shells. They put the pistols in the back of their jeans, they hooked the melees up to their belt loops, and carried the shotguns.
They walked back down to the lab where Danny's sister, Jazz she said her name was, was fueling up what she called the "Specter Speeder." She looked up at them with an ugly look and went back to what she was doing.
"What crawled up her ass?" Dean said in an undertone.
"She just lost her parents and her brother is off in a world of ghosts," Sam whispered, "you'd be sour too."
Dean rolled his eyes and go into the Speeder and put his stuff down. He sat down in the seat all the way on the right, no way was he going to sit next to that little bitch. Sam came in and sat with him while they waited for Jazz to finish up. When she finally came into the Speeder and sat in the driver's seat she had mellowed out, she turned on the Specter Speeder and the machine started to rise.
"Hey, Sammy," Dean said, smirking, and when Sam looked over at him he said, "Where we're going, we don't need... roads."
Sam rolled his eyes as Jazz urged the Speeder forward, and they passed through the portal, and what they saw on the other side was the most horrific, most terrible, most ugly thing he had ever seen.
"It's is I, the Boxghost!" Cried the ghost from earlier, he wore blue overalls and wore a blue winter cap.
"Get out of the way!" Jazz shouted.
Boxghost sat there for a second, as if confused, then he yelled, "BEWARE!" and flew away. Jazz rolled her eyes and pressed forward.
"Where the hell are we going?" Dean asked Jazz.
"Well, if anyone can help us find Danny, it's going to be Skulker."
"Skulker?" Sam asked skeptically.
Jazz nodded toward a giant island with a skull on top. "That," she said, "is Skulker's lair. Skulker is the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone. He's hunted my brother more times than I can count, if anyone can help us, it's him." They landed on the island and stepped out of the Speeder and they were met by a robot ghost who smiled at them.
"Hello, sister of the ghost child," the robot said, Dean's eyes widened at the sight on him.
"Hello, Skulker," Jazz said and a face appeared on the ghost's chest and a separate voice came from it.
"That's Skulktech to you missy!" came a voice much like Gilfred Godfrey's.
"Right," Jazz said, waving it off like forgetting the thing's name was an annoying fly. "Listen, my brother just came in here and we need help to find him. Can you help us?"
"You want me to hunt the Ghost Child?" Skulker asked, interested in what Jazz had to say.
"Yes," she said. "He went chasing after Vlad Plasmius, I don't know where they flew off to though."
"Plasmius?" Technus said, laughing. "Oh, there's no finding him!"
"Why not?" Sam asked.
"Because, pretty boy, he's King of Purgatory! No one in Ghost Zone knows how to get to Purgatory from here because nobody wants to know! That place is full of bad apples!"
"Wait," Dean said, "did you say Purgatory?"
"No," Technus said, "I said Big Mac with extra cheese. Of course I said Purgatory! Clean out your ears, stupid!"
"Well then," Dean said turned in a three sixty to get a look at where they were.
"Would Frostbite know?" Jazz asked Skulktech.
"Frostbite," Skulker considered, then he said, "Sure, he knows more about the Ghost Zone, and all the areas around it, more than anyone in this God forsaken land."
"Then it's to Frostbite we go," Jazz said, turning around and heading back to the Speeder, Sam and Dean followed her.
"Who's this Frostbite?" Sam asked her.
"He's a ghost who taught my brother how to use his ice powers, he's also the smartest person in the Ghost Zone. He'll know how to get to Purgatory." They rose into the air and shot toward the Realm of the Far Frozen...
Three hours later Danny arrived upon Skulker's Island, in search of the Winchesters.
"Skulktech," he said, running to meet the Hunter/Inventor. "Skulktech, have you seen two humans floating around here somewhere?"
"Yes, Ghost Child," Skulker answered. "They were with your sister, they are searching for you. Said something about Frostbite."
"Frostbite," Danny said with a sigh. "How long ago was this?"
"By my calculations," Technus said, "it as about three hours ago."
"Three?" Danny exclaimed, he thanked Skulktech quickly and shot off toward the Realm of the Far Frozen. He flew fast and hard, trying to make up for lost time, hoping he could catch up with the Winchesters and Jazz.
"Danny!" Came a familiar voice from behind, Danny turned to see Johnny 13 and his Shadow riding toward him on Johnny's motorcycle.
Danny didn't stop, but he slowed down a bit to let Johnny catch up. "Hey Johnny," Danny said, "What's up?"
"Where ya headed, punk?" Johnny asked.
"Oh, you know, avenging the death of my parents, nothing new."
"Your folks are dead?" 13 asked. "Bogus, man. Need a flyin' buddy?"
"You can tag along if you want," Danny said, flying through the Ghost Zone at top speeds.
"So, who was it?" Johnny asked.
Danny looked at Johnny and sighed, he needed someone to talk to. So he told Johnny everything, starting with Dark Dan Phantom's return. He told him about the time travel, about Dan Phantom, about Vlad's ghost half being separated from his human half. About how Plasmius came back and took control of Vlad so that the ghost had all the power. Then he told 13 about Vlad's killing his parents. Johnny seemed like he genuinely cared when Danny looked at him.
"Whoa," Johnny said, "brutal, kid. And these Hunter fellows are going to help you find and stop Plasmius?"
"Exactly," Danny said, his mood had soured after recounting his adventure's from the last few days.
"Well," Johnny said, "I'll help ya as much as I can."
Danny looked at Johnny and smiled, he never thought he'd have a friend in the Ghost Zone, much less Johnny 13 of all people. They flew along, talking all the while, learning more about each other as if they were on a leisurely bike ride in the park. It was good to talk, it got Danny's mind off of things from the past, and possible things in the future...
"I'm sorry humans," Frostbite said solemnly. "I couldn't tell you where Purgatory is, for I haven't a clue where it is."
Jazz and the Winchesters sighed and turned to leave when Frostbite caught them.
"Hold on," Frostbite said, jogging to meet them. "Scouts have reported Danny Phantom on his way here with someone on a motorized bicycle."
"Johnny 13?" Jazz muttered.
"Who?" Dean asked, interested. Any ghost who was bad ass enough to drive on a motorcycle was okay with him.
"Just an old... friend," Jazz said, turning back to Frostbite. "So is it cool if we stay here?"
"Look around," Frostbite said seriously, "everything here is cool."
"Uh," Jazz didn't know how to reply to that, so instead she and the Winchester went back to the Speeder to wait for Danny.
Dean and Sam sat in the back of the Speeder and talked in hush voices.
"What d'you think of this place?" Sam asked Dean.
"It's fricken creepy," Dean said, holding the pistol he had brought with him. "You really think this iron crap is gunna work?"
"I don't know," Sam said, "but it's all we got. We've never had to work with something as screwed up as this."
Dean sighed, Sammy was right, this was hands down the most screwed up thing they ever done. Dean would even put this before the Angels and Demon shit they went through a few years back. Dean sighed, he wondered what his father would think about this place. Would he think it was a hunting ground open for business, or a place for the wicked to rest? Dean didn't think his dad would be the kind to "get 'em where they sleep."
Sam looked out the window to this strange and desolate world, as weird as it was he couldn't help but feel like he's been in a similar place before. Immediately he knew where he'd seen a similar place and he didn't like the thought, just thinking about what it had been like in the cage with Lucifer and Michael caused Sam's head to hurt. He shook his head, he had to get his head out of it, last time he started freaking out about Hell he started seeing Lucifer.
Sam pressed his thumb on the scar on his hand, causing it to hurt a little bit. Dean caught this and looked up at him. "You seein' the Devil, Sammy?"
"No," Sam said, "just... thinking about old times."
"Well get your head out of the six feet of dirt it's in and let's focus on this ghost thing, eh?"
"Alright," Sam said, knowing Dean was right, he needed to focus on the job. He just hoped that he didn't see Lucifer, because being in here could convince him of the reality of it...
Danny and 13 could see the Realm of Far Frozen coming closer, and Danny had a shot of happiness at the sight of the Specter Speeder, and he let himself relax a little bit as they approached. He landed next to the Speeder and walked in to find the Winchesters on one side and Jazz behind the wheel, alone.
"Hey kid," Dean said, standing. Jazz's head snapped around at the sound of Dean greeting someone new, and when she saw Danny she jumped over the seat and nearly tackled him.
"Danny!" Jazz said, hugging her brother. "Where the hell did you go?"
"Jazz, I'm sorry," Danny said. "Vlad took Tucker and Sam, I had to try to get them back. I lost them in Hell."
"Whoa, wait," Dean said, shaking his head violently. "Did you just say Hell?"
"Yeah," Danny replied.
"We're going to Hell?" Sam asked. And Dean quickly added, "Again?"
"Again?" Danny asked.
"Long story," Dean said.
"Let's just get going before we lose this Vlad guy's trail," Sam said.
"Right," Danny said. "Let's get on the road then."
Dean smirked, "Talk about going on the 'Highway to Hell', huh?"