Chapter 11
DP
Amity Park, Indiana
Jazz, Tucker, and Valerie strapped on their jumpsuits, Valerie's old red one, an orange one for Tucker, and a blue one for Jazz. They made one last check of their weapons: Ghost Gauntlets, Jack o' Nine Tails, ecto-rifles, ecto-handguns, Jazz had her Mother's old Ecto-Staff, Tucker had the Ecto-bazooka, while Valerie had her hover board ready to go. Jazz had long ago moved into her old home, and had kept it well maintained. They went into the Lab and got onboard the Specter Speeder and Jazz pressed a button. The Ghost Portal opened up and Jazz drove the Specter Speeder in.
The Specter Speeder flew through the ephemeral ectoplasmic ether of the Ghost Zone. It was empty though, too empty. "This is not good," Tucker said as he checked the radar. Danny told him years ago that he gave Clockwork the Staff of Solomon. Danny didn't think he needed it; Solomon Kane and all its previous wielders had been normal humans, not half-ghosts. The problem was, the Staff wasn't of Earth, or the Ghost Zone according to Danny, it was completely supernatural in origin according to Sir Integra, meaning that they couldn't track it by normal means; they had to try to track Clockwork's Tower instead. Luckily, Clockwork still had the Fenton Thermos that held Dark Danny, Danny's evil future self from an alternate reality; they were trying to track Clockwork's Tower by it now.
"Where are all the ghosts?" Valerie wondered. This wasn't right; they should have encountered a ghost by now, at least one. "We can't deal with that now, we need to focus on getting the Staff of Solomon, then we can worry about the ghosts," Jazz said. "Come on Jazz, you know this isn't right, what if Vlad's done something? He's been hiding for over twenty years, who knows what plans he's got up his sleeve?" Tucker told her. Jazz sighed, "Fine, we'll take a small detour, two hours, but that's it! We can't spend all our time looking for ghosts." Jazz swung the Specter Speeder to the side near an island and landed the Specter Speeder on it.
The three humans stepped out of the Specter Speeder and looked around. Then Jazz looked, and saw the only landmark there. "Oh my God!" Tucker yelled when he saw it, "Its Dora's Castle!" The ghostly castle was in ruins, and was still smoking. Valerie got on her hover board and said, "Stay here, I'll take a quick look around." Valerie took off and flew over the smoking ruins. When did this happen!? How come we never heard of this before? Valerie wasn't friends with ghosts, but she knew that not all of them were evil. Danny, Sam, and Tucker told her that Dora was one of the good ones, a friend. Maybe that's why Vlad did this, if he did this…
She flew down and activated the UV sight on her helmet. "Hello!" Valerie yelled. She heard feet shuffling and turned towards the noise. "It's okay, I'm here to help," Valerie yelled. One tall ghost with blue skin and one black eye wearing the tattered robes of a friar walked forward, "Are thou…human?" "Yes, I am," Valerie told the Friar. "Reveal thy face! The last that shewed themselves had eyes that burned with Hellish fire!" the Friar yelled, he was practically screaming in fear. "Okay, okay, calm down," Valerie said as she slowly raised her hands and took off her mask, so he could see her face. The Friar visibly relaxed then cupped his hands and yodeled loudly. Ten ghostly children all walked forward, no more.
"What happened here?" Valerie asked. The Friar looked at her and said, "We are all that remains. There were thirty of them, all of them looked Human, but their eyes burned with Hellfire. Their might was greater than we suspected, and then Prince Aragon appeared and attacked the Castle. Princess Dora flew forward and they battled for days, at last Dora smote his eyes, then clawed out his heart and destroyed it. We believed 'twas the end, many of the fiends had been destroyed, the rest all fled. But then, he appeared. The one called Plasmius. Princess Dora was too weak from her battle with her brother, and was no match against Plasmius. He slew her then took her necklace, and Prince Aragon's. He laid waste to the Castle, we only survived by hiding."
Valerie led the Friar and the ghost children out of the castle and to the Specter Speeder. The Friar repeated his story to Jazz and Tucker and Tucker swallowed, "Plasmius has their necklaces. On top of vampires, and that pure evil vampire-ghost bastard, we gotta fight two dragons as well." "We gotta get to Clockwork's Tower now!" Valerie yelled. "What about them," Tucker said, gesturing to the Friar and ghost children. The ghost children all looked at them, some with three eyes, some with two, some with one. All of them looked scared and hopeful as they looked to Jazz. "You gotta go in the back, we'll take you to Clockwork's Tower, maybe Clockwork will know what to do with you," she told them. The eleven ghosts all squeezed themselves into the Specter Speeder, then Jazz, Valerie, and Tucker all climbed in and took off, heading even faster for Clockwork's Tower.
The Radar said they were a dozen miles away, they could see it growing closer, when all of a sudden the Specter Speeder was hit by something, hard. The ghosts screamed and the Friar yelled, "It's one of Them!" Jazz looked out her window and saw her, a female vampire on a jetpack, shooting at the Specter Speeder with a large ecto-bazooka. "Tucker, I'm activating the weapons systems, you need to shoot that vampire!" Jazz told Tucker. She then pressed a few buttons and a screen and joystick appeared in front of Tucker as a laser came out of the bottom of the Specter Speeder. Tucker quickly took aim and fired, but the vampire managed to dodge most of his fire, but at least it was stopping her from firing off more blasts of her own. "She's too fast!" Tucker yelled. "Focus Tucker!" Valerie told him, and Tucker blasted at the vampire a few more times. "Does this thing go full-auto!?" Tucker asked.
Jazz looked around and saw a blue button. "Full-Auto Activated!" her Father's voice sounded. "ALRIGHT!" Tucker yelled as he maneuvered the joystick faster, and the vampire was hit about a dozen times, disintegrating her. "Man, Vlad's been planning for a lot of things," Valerie said as they finally reached Clockwork's Tower. The humans and ghosts all departed from the Specter Speeder and went in. The large doors opened for them and they saw Clockwork in his old man form that soon turned into a young man. "That was certainly exciting," Clockwork said. "You must be Clockwork, we need your help, we need the Staff of Solomon, and we were hoping that you could help take care of them," Jazz told the Ghost of Time as she gestured to the Friar and ghost children.
"Very well. Give me a second, Time Out," Clockwork said. Then the Staff of Solomon was in the hand that didn't hold his own Clock Staff. The staff looked like dark wood with a cat's head carved on top and a sharpened end on the bottom, with many strange symbols carved al around the staff. "Your journey out of the Ghost Zone should be peaceful. However, Vlad will not be defeated easily. With every great victory come great losses," Clockwork said as he handed Jazz the Staff of Solomon. "We'll be careful," Jazz said, and then the humans left Clockwork's Tower and got in the Specter Speeder. They all breathed a sigh of relief when they finally left the Ghost Zone. "Alright, I'll call Sam," Jazz said as she handed the Staff of Solomon to Tucker.
Sam picked up at the first ring. "We got the Staff," Jazz told her sister-in-law. Sam sighed, "Finally, some good news." "Where's Danny?" Jazz asked. Sam didn't answer for a few seconds then said, "He's undergoing an operation. I don't know exactly what they're doing, but they said that if everything works, Danny will be ready to fight Vlad soon, and will be even stronger than before." Jazz didn't like all the doubt she heard in Sam's tone. "Sam, what is happening to my brother?" Jazz asked. "I don't know. Sir Integra Hellsing made a deal with these other vampire hunters from the Vatican. They're operating on him now. All I know is what I told you. Jazz, I don't know any more than that," Sam told her. Jazz's heart skipped a beat, but she said out loud, "Okay. We're coming to you soon." Jazz hung up and told Valerie and Tucker, "We're heading back to Michigan."