Plasmius grabbed Alex by his ankle before he could lower it from his kick. The ghost suddenly flung him into the air with spectral strength, too high for him to land safely.
"Alex!" three voices cried. Danny raced into the air to catch him. Alex began to fall, and Danny caught him ten feet above the ground. Plasmius laughed as the Specter Deflector around Alex's waist cracked into life, painfully zapping Danny.
The halfa almost dropped Alex, biting his lip to keep from screaming as he got Alex back to safety in seconds.
Danny jumped away from him, hands twitching in pain as the shocks wore off. Plasmius knocked him back with an ecto ball of energy. Tucker, the closest to the blue skinned ghost at the moment, swung his weapon at him. Plasmius vaporized it before the boy could move it two inches. Alex and Sam attacked him with the ring and bat. When Alex got close enough, he grabbed the ghost tightly by the arm, allowing the belt to shock the ghost painfully. Weird, but whatever works.
Tucker ran off to find Danny. Danny was looking pretty beat, and was fighting to stay awake and in his current form.
"I'd kill to have the thermos right about now…" Danny said weakly, getting to his feet as his friend came. Tucker wrapped an arm around him to help him walk. They didn't far when they sound of a dull blast and a cry as Plasmius blasted Alex away from him. The blond landed in front of Tucker and Danny, and Sam ran to help him up.
Plasmius reached into a hidden pocket of his costume, withdrawing a small black orb. Pressing a small button into its surface, he flung it at the four teens. It landed between all of them before releasing a cloud of black mist over them, paralyzing them.
"I have seen enough." Was all that Plasmius said. He waited for the smoke to clear around the kids. It finally did, leaving nay a trace of the four people.
"I wonder how that metal oaf will react to all of this," Plasmius said to himself as he began to phase himself back into his home in Wisconsin.
"He is expecting them, anyway. I told him that much."
F%**)&*$%#$*(&#&+)_&*_$#%&&((_#$#%**)&*)()_%$^^#&#*
The group stumbled as their feet were reunited with solid ground. Alex gaped at the sights around him. The sky, or what appeared to be the sky, was green, and thousands of purple doors hung from thin air. He and the others were on a huge mass of land. The temperature was noticeably colder here, and he held back a shiver.
"What is this place?" Alex asked the others, turning around to face them. Phantom opened his eyes briefly, groaning at what he saw.
"This is the Ghost Zone."
Tucker struggled as Danny slumped against him more, putting more weight on his shoulders.
"Hey, man," he said to the halfa, "Why don't you take it easy? Sam, help me out."
Tucker called to the girl. She guessed correctly at what Tucker was thinking, and set her bat down to free her hands. Together, she and Tucker sat a semi-conscious Danny on the ground to rest against a large stone.
Do some of the humans here form friendships with the ghosts? Alex wondered. It seems that most people here hate the ghosts, because the ghosts are always causing trouble. Except this one? Why is he so different?
He wanted to help them, but he knew that the belt would only make Phantom worse. A noise behind him caught his attention suddenly, and he turned to come face-to-face with a girl dressed in an outfit perfect for any rich girl of the Dark Ages.
"I want to go to the ball!" she wailed. Alex just backed away. She seemed weak, and he didn't want to cause any trouble just yet. He basically no idea as to where he was, anyway.
Sam and Tucker watched with wide eyes. If she were to turn into her dragon form, things could get really ugly. They were silent for almost two whole minutes, not moving an inch. Finally, the ghost flew away, crying. Alex turned back around, smiling weakly.
"This is a pretty weird place."
Sam laughed lightly at the statement along with Tucker. Danny kept quiet, his attention on staying awake.
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Ten minutes later, and the group hadn't moved an inch. Tucker and Sam were quietly talking. Alex was walking around, keeping everyone within eyesight so he wouldn't get separated.
"Sam, why don't you use the Fenton Phones?" Tucker asked, pointing to her ears.
"I would, but they're sort of broken. They can only filter out stuff, so no more sending messages through these."
"Hey," Alex called, walking back to the group. "I think we should get moving-"
He was interrupted by a ring of white light around Phantom's middle. Sam cried out, shaking the ghost boy's shoulders. The light flickered.
"What's happening to him?" Alex demanded with eyes wide. Tucker snapped his fingers at Phantom, trying to wake him as the light returned.
"Come on, don't do this now!" Sam hissed, shaking his shoulders harder. Danny's head lolled and his partially open eyes closed. The white ring split as half of it traveled up his body, the other down.
Alex watched with wide eyes as the black and whit suit vanished, replaced by a pair of blue jeans, a red and white shirt, and red converse shoes. Alex touched the back of his head, where he had cut himself after Plasmius had thrown him. Did he hit his head too hard?
"This is too weird," he muttered, sinking to his knees. A hand covered his eyes. When he moved the hand seconds later and opened his eyes, the scene hadn't changed.
His phone suddenly chirped in his pocket.
(!NEW MESSAGE!)
Alex got his phone out to check the message. Once again, it was from his shoes.
"How can you even get service here?!" Tucker cried out. His phone was in its own vegetable state, as far as sending and receiving messages went. Alex ignored him, reading his phone. A map appeared on the screen in third dimension. His shoes had scanned the entire mass of land, instead of the thirteen-foot radius limit. Even though it was a mess-up, due to their otherworldly location, Alex was grateful.
"Do either of you know where we are?" Alex asked, showing them the phone's screen. Sam and Tucker examined the screen for a few seconds. They had seen the beginnings of map Danny had been working on before. This (could it be called an island?) shape was one of the first. Danny had scribbled "Skulker" under the drawing.
This was bad.
The old map was from weeks ago, but they knew the place couldn't change that drastically in that amount of time.
"Skulker lives here," Tucker finally said. Alex looked confused.
"What's a skulker?"
"That would be me," a deep voice said from within the trees. Sam and Tucker were immediately on their feet, blocking Danny. Alex slowly got to his feet as a large metal man with flaming green hair stepped out into the open.
"I am Skulker! Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!"
"Are you a ghost, then? You look like a rocker version of the Tin Man."
"…" Ghost Zone's greatest hunter was stunned into silence. Tucker, despite the scene, began laughing,
"Haha! That was a good one, Alex!"
"What do you want, Skulker?" Sam asked the ghost, jabbing Tucker in his side to shut him up.
"What I really want is to have the ghost child's pelt-"
"That's not normal." Alex muttered.
"But I can't kill him now. I'm on orders to instead test the abilities of this witty child."
"No can do there, Iron Man." Alex drawled, "We're on a tight schedule; got to get back to Amity Park before dinner."
The area became silent as Skulker grinned a shark's grin, raising his arm. Sam and Tucker stiffened in front of Danny, not knowing what to expect. A gun folded out of the armor of Skulker's arm, aimed at them. Alex aimed a closed fist at the ghost, shooting him with an ecto blast from his ring and knocking him back as it fired off a shot. Skulker's aim could have been better, but he ended up getting his targets. Sam and Tucker were knocked back. Skulker walked over to Danny, picking up by the collar of his shirt.
Sam weakly crawled to the bat she had placed on the ground, picking it up and throwing it at Skulker. He responded by shooting her again, knocking her back a few feet.
Turning to Alex, Skulker held Danny out slightly.
"You have three hours. I will remain in the area, and I'll have another on watch to monitor your moves. If you get to the ghost child before the time limit ends, you win. If you get caught up or can't get to him in time, you loose, and I can have the pleasure of killing him."
Skulker laughed before flying off, taking Danny with him.
"Damn it!" Alex hissed, "Are the two of you okay?"
"We're alive. Did he take Danny?" Tucker asked, getting up and helping Sam to her feet.
"What was up with Danny?" Alex asked, not answering Tuckers question. "Is he some super hero or something?"
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"You already saw, so I guess we can tell you. Danny's parents made this machine about a year ago, called the Ghost Portal. It was supposed to connect out world and the ghost world, except that they couldn't get it to work. They gave up on it for a while, and Danny invited us to go and check it out when they weren't at home. We didn't want to look inside the thing, so he went in alone. He must have stepped on something, or hit a switch, because the whole thing lit up with a huge amount of ecto energy, with Danny inside." Sam explained with a somber expression in her eyes. Tucker nodded and told the rest,
"After a second or two the light was too bright and we had to look away. We could still hear Danny inside, screaming. When the bright lights went away, only swirling green stuff was left. We ran inside to find Danny. It was more of a short hallway, with a door on the other end that opened to the ghost zone. We found Danny in front of it, and we carried him back to the lab. The suit he had been wearing, and his hair, had reversed in color."
"Over time, he's been able to use different powers, like any normal ghost. I think there's still more he can learn though." Sam added.
"So he's half ghost?"
"Pretty much."
"Don't his parents know? I mean, weren't they surprised when their portal was suddenly working?"
"By the time they had gotten back, Danny was already awake. He was in his room because he had almost no control over his powers then. Sam and I told them that we just plugged the portal in, and that Danny was upstairs studying."
"And they believed you?"
"Mm-hm. Hey, promise to not tell them, okay? Danny doesn't want them to know."
"I promise."
"Guys," Sam said suddenly "We don't have much time. Skulker said that others will be here, and we don't even know where to look for Danny."
"Let's go then!"
Tucker and Alex went with Sam, armed again with the bat, into the thick foliage of the island.
If he's half ghost, then he's half dead.