There are rules in life that every person must follow, stop at the red light, go at green, don't steal, don't break things that aren't yours. There are also people who will look for any opportunity to break those rules. People who took joy in finding and exploiting any loopholes in those rules to get away with the rules everyone else followed.
Walker hated those kinds of people more than anything. Not every ghost knew those rules, but that wasn't a excuse to break them. Every ghost that came into his section of the Ghost Zone had to follow those rules. If leaving that section was all it took to get out of there punishment, then no one would ever obey. That was why leaving for the human world was against the rules.
Walker took pride in his well run prison, and Phantom had made a mockery of it. According to a tip walker had gotten, the halfa had even corrupted a newly formed ghost into disobeying right along side him. His prison couldn't hold Phantom, but it would hold the ghost child just fine.
After all, not knowing the law was no excuse for breaking it.
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They were eating lunch in the school cafeteria exactly two weeks after the battle of Red vs. the football team. The quarter back of said team sent nervous glances at the ghosts, and Red appeared to be interested in only his food, but Danny, Sam and Tucker could see the satisfied smirk that was fixed on his face.
They'd all partnered up for an English assignment on why rules were necessary to make the world work. They had to write on why laws seemed pointless were in effect and what laws they would implement if they had the power.
Tucker and Danny had partnered up and Sam had gotten to Red before Valery, who'd tried to approach the ghost from behind. The techno geek was of the opinion that there were too many laws already while the goth, despite her professed dislike of the system, thought there were some things that there should have been laws again.
"But seriously, what's with the no hats in class rule?" Tucker was saying, patting his own red beret fondly, I mean, just why." It was kinda weird seeing as how the Casper High faculty had given up on trying to get him to stop wearing said hat.
"Or the no food in class rule." Red said, taking a huge bite of his meatloaf.
"Oh yeah!" Tucker and Red high fived across the table.
"Please, any rule that keeps people from eating anymore of that sludge should be eternal." Sam said.
Danny's ghost sense went off and he sighed. "I wish there was an eternal rule against these ghost attacks at school."
"There is." The gruff voice was all the warning they had before one of Walker's prison guards swooped though by, plucking Red from his seat and not even breaking stride before carrying the boy off.
They were out of earshot before Danny had the chance to hear the string off curses his friend let out. Everyone in the cafeteria ran outside to get a good look at the spectacle. Danny ducked under a table and went ghost, but Red was already falling by the time the hero got outside. Something metallic glinted off in the sunlight and slipped back into the boy's sleeve.
Danny caught his friend just in time to hear the tail end of his tirade against the feeing ghost.
"…again and I'll go for your throat, you piece of…" He looked up at Danny, and expression of wide-eyed innocence on his face. "Hey Boss."
"You can at least act scared so people don't know how weird you are." Danny said before flying down to set the ghost on the ground.
As soon as his feet hit the ground, Red dropped to his knees, his breathing getting heavy, one hand clutching his chest. Danny was the only one who saw the small smile before a nurse rushed over to check on him.
"I said scared, not terrified." Danny groaned, going invisible and hiding behind his friends when he returned to his human form. They three off them watched bemusedly while the ghost boy was carted off to the nurses office.
"He's so just doing this to get out of Tetslaf's quiz." Danny said.
Tucker doubled over and coughed exaggeratedly, leaning on Sam. "You know, I'm not feeling so well, don't think I can take the test either." She shrugged him off and he fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and letting out some choking sounds. "Tell my mom I love her."
"Shouldn't we be acting like this is a big deal?" Sam asked.
"I guess." Danny said and they began walking to the nurses office. "Maybe they'll give us the day off if we act traumatized enough."
"Aw man." Tucker moaned, stopping a few doors before the nurses office. "The one place I can't follow."
"See you on the other side Tuck." Danny laughed. He and Sam tried to go inside, but the nurse blocked there path.
"Is he okay?" Sam asked.
"You see, he has this condition, and his brother…" Danny began.
"We have all of that information and his brother's on his way." She smiled gently. "You kids don't have to worry." The school bell rang and the teacher eased them away from the door just when they caught sight of Red on a cot with an oxygen mask pressed to his face, and someone sitting next to him. "I'm sorry, but he can only have one visitor at a time, you have to get to class."
"But who's in there with him?" Danny asked.
"A Miss Valery Gray." The nurse said, looking down at her clipboard. "I can't leave him alone, so move along." She shut the door on them.
"Why is Valery there?" Sam asked, her eyes narrowed.
"Because she's obsessed with ghosts." Danny said. "Now we have to take that stupid test, did you study at all?"
"No." Sam sighed and they both walked back to class, heads hung low.
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"Well you've made a miraculous recovery." Tucker glared at Red as he slipped into a booth next to the ghost at the Nasty Burger.
"I have good medicine." Red said, finishing off a milkshake. "How was the test?" He grinned.
"Don't ask." Danny and Sam groaned in unison, taking their own seats.
"Have you been here all day?" Sam asked, eyeing the pile of candy wrappers piled up next to the ghost.
Red shrugged. "They feed me." He glared at an approaching waiter. "But if one more of them calls me Wing's baby brother I'm wringing someone's neck."
Before Danny could ask if he meant Richard or the waiter, she was already there.
"Another sundae for Richie's adorable baby brother."She set down a mountain of caramel and sprinkle capped ice cream and ruffled the ghost's hair. "Do you need anything sweetie?"
"Nuh-uh." Red grunted, his mouth already filled with ice-cream.
"And can I get you kids anything?" She asked, turning her attention to table's other occupants.
They ordered and Danny laughed at the ghost. "You look pretty happy with it."
The effect of Red's glare was ruined by his cheeks bulging with ice cream. "They're using me." Red said, he swallowed before continuing. "It's because that idiot can't control his flirting."
It was Richard who brought them their orders, a huge smile as usual on his face. "I heard you all had a test today, how'd that go?"
All three of them groaned and Red chuckled around the spoon in his mouth.
"That bad, huh?" he shook his head sadly, then grinned again and pulled Red into a one armed hug. "You should have asked my Little Wing for help, he's a little genius."
"Get off me!" Red pushed him away. "Don't you have work to do?"
"My boss never minds when I take some time for you." He pointed at the store manager, who was minding the register and waved, the manager waved back. "He even covers for me."
"Bet he won't cover your hospitals if ya don't go away." Red growled and swatted at his brother with his spoon.
"Hey." Richard ruffled Red's hair roughly, forcing the boy into a crouching position. "Don't bite the hand that get's you free food."
"Wing!" Red growled, unable to push the hand away.
"You still coming over to work on that new bike?" The man laughed and jumped out of the boy's reach.
Red ignored him and went back to his desert. That just prompted another laugh as the man left.
"You should be nicer to your brother, man." Tucker tusked, wagging a finger.
"Yeah, he went through so much to find you." Sam shook her head.
"He's evil." Red pointed his spoon at them. "An evil, over-protective stalker." He stuffed more ice cream into his mouth. "I'm never alone anymore, ever."
"Sounds like Jazz 2.0." Danny laughed.
Red sulked, it seemed like as soon as he finished his ice cream, someone brought him a soda, and the boy accepted the cheek pinching that came with it. Never being alone seemed to have been a good thing for the ghost.
"Doesn't matter, I said I'd meet up with Val when her shifts over." Red said.
"What does that girl want anyway?" Tucker asked, finishing off his fries.
"To hang out." Red shrugged.
"Just be careful around her, it's not exactly a secret that she hates ghosts." Danny warned. "And call right away if she…"
"Jeez, Boss." Red rolled his eyes. "I know what I'm doing, chill."
"Why is he the always the boss?" Tucker asked, crossing his arms. "I wanna be the Boss for once."
"You can be the boss for a whole day when you catch a ghost." Red replied sarcastically.
"I could do that." The geek said. "I could totally do that."
"Sure." Sam said. "Maybe the Box Ghost."
"Gotcha." Tucker grabbed hold of Red's shoulders.
"That doesn't count." Sam half rose from her seat.
"Yeah it does." Tucker said. "You sayin Red isn't good enough?"
"I'm offended." Red said. "Really." He shook his head, then turned to Tucker. "What'll it be, Boss?"
"Your soda." Tucker said. "Those fries are way salty."
Red slid his untouched soda over to Tucker. "I don't think I can fit anything else in my stomach anyway."
Tucker laughed like he'd accomplished some great victory, and was still running a list of commands when they were walking out. "…and my book report, try to make it look like I wrote it, can you do that?"
Red nodded along, though they all knew he wouldn't be doing any of those things. He waved to Valery still in her mascot costume, at the door. As soon as the ghost stepped outside, he was snatched up and carried off at a run.
"Put me down, I said I wasn't going!" Red yelled, struggling in his captor's hold.
"You didn't say anything." Richard laughed and kept running, the ghost tucked under his arm. "You know you'll love it!"
His friends waved Red off. "Don't forget the book report!" Tucker called after them.
"He's not doing the book report." Sam said bemusedly.
"I know." Tucker shrugged. "To him, the Boss it the guy you never listen to, like Danny."
"Hey!"
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Tucker didn't really mind having Red around anymore. Once he's started spending time with Richard he wasn't nearly as intense as before, didn't disappear at odd times, and shared Tuckers love of meat and bad jokes. It was easier to like someone when they didn't just show up in the middle of a fight to show you up, and disappear again, making your best friend spend all day worrying. Cool tech to mess with was a plus too. He'd already made some communicators out of things Richard had given them.
He was actually a little disappointed that the ghost had been carried off.
He and Danny were heading over to the Fenton house to finish up their report on rules when Danny's ghost sense went off again. This time he was ready for it when a ghostly prison guard rushed up to them, and it got blasted by a beam of ecto-energy before it had a chance to get close.
"You won't get out of it this time Phantom!" Another swooped in and this time dragged Tucker with it when it retreated.
"Come on, not cool!" Tucker yelled, to afraid to struggle when he was so high up in the air. "If you drop me in the trash I'm gonna do something."
The retreating ghost was blasted from behind by the furious halfa chasing after it.
"What's with you guys always chasing after my friends!?" Danny yelled at it, coming to a quick stop when it turned around, holding Tucker in front of it like a shield.
"Walker wants the one you took." The ghost said. "He doesn't belong in the human world."
"Does he also want to get stabbed?" Tucker asked.
"Not a chance." Danny growled. "Now let him go."
"No!" Tucker yelled before the ghost had a chance to answer. "You never tell the bad guy to drop a guy they're holding a million miles in the air. They take it literally, you want me to fall to my death?"
"Tucker I can fly." Danny rolled his eyes. "I can catch you."
"Oh yeah… Well in that case." Tucker tried to reach for his shoes.
"Silence!" The ghost ordered. "You will listen to the Wardens command or he'll take this boy as Ahhh!" He practically threw Tucker away from him and cradled the hand to his chest.
"Danny!" Tucker called. The ground rushed up to meet him and he thought that maybe that hadn't been such a good idea.
There was a bright flash behind him, then his friend plucked him out of the air and set him securely on his feet.
"What did you do?" Danny asked. "He was so freaked out he just ran off without even putting up a fight."
"No ghosts are gonna be flying off with Tucker Foley again." Tucker waved his little knife in an arc, letting Danny get a good look at the wavy blade and web-like pattern of glowing blue.
"That's one of Reds knives." Danny said. "Where did you get it?"
"He didn't give you one?" Tucker smirked. The knife had been purposely dulled to make it less dangerous, but Danny didn't have to know that. "Maybe you can borrow Sam's some time and he'll show you some moves."
"Sam too?!" Danny groaned. "Let me see it." He reached for the knife, but Tucker pulled it out of reach.
"No, you never give a weapon to someone who can't use it Danny. That would be irresponsible of me." Tucker grinned.
"You're the most irresponsible guy I know, now hand it over!" Danny made another grab for it.
"Nope."
"Tucker!"
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At Dick's apartment, Jason had to flip up his welding mask and set aside the tool's when he broke into a sneezing fit.
"You coming down with something there Jaybird?" Dick asked, brining over a mug of hot coco.
"Don't ever call me that." Jason said. Little Wing was bad enough, he didn't want any more stupid nicknames added to Dick's list.
Dick laughed and looked over the motherboard Jason was putting together for the bikes onboard computer. He was going to say something when the communicator in Jason's pocket beeped and the boy held up a hand, silencing his brother.
"Red, why does Tucker have a knife?" Danny was practically whining.
"It's so blunt it might as well be a butter knife." Red said. "Burns like heck when it touches a ghost's skin though. I told him it was only for emergencies."
"Oh, yeah, one of Walkers ghosts showed up again…"
"D'ya need help, where are you?" Jason said, getting to his feet.
"No, it's over already." Danny said. "But Red, the knife."
"That knife'll burn you in your ghost form too." Jason sighed and flopped back down on the couch. "Don't ya have a basement full of weapons?"
"Yeah," Danny said. "But they're all Fentonworks."
"Fine, I'll give you a freaking knife." It was hard to believe someone so good at protecting an entire town could be so childish, it really wasn't that great of a knife, it just looked cool. If Dick had heard that train of thought he would have laughed at the irony of it when Jason was sitting arranging his the marsh mallows on his coco into a smiley face. "Was that all?"
"Okay, fine, yes I'll call if she shoots me… Goodbye Danny." It was times like that Jason remembered why he'd left the Ghost Zone in the first place. The kid was still such a, well a kid. His ghost powers were ten times as good as any weapon. The ghost looked at his hand and watched it fade in and out, that was new, and he hadn't even gotten hang of the intangibility yet.
If he's stayed in the Ghost Zone where he was supposed to be, like that Ghost earlier had said, would he really have been flying already?
"You need exercise." Dick pulled the limp teen off the sofa, derailing his train of thought completely.
"I'll get exercise later." Jason tried to pull away. "Let me go."
"I'll show you some of my tricks, you always loved that, maybe I can teach you something." Dick said, ignoring Jason's protests.
"Why would I care about some pansy circus tricks?" Jason was still trying to free himself when they stepped out onto the building rooftop.
"Bruce can't do most of them." Dick said. "You know you wanna show him up."
Jason ran to the edge and looked over at the view of the city, then up at the half finished scaffolding that might have been the unfinished plans for an expansion. "Are we even supposed to be up here?"
"People only ever come up here to make out." Dick said, lifting himself onto the scaffolding and swinging to the top. "I'll race you."
"You cheat!" Jason climbed up after him, the feeling of familiarity creeping up on him again. "Hey, can you show me the quadruple somersault?" He asked.
Dick laughed. "There's not enough room for that up here. When we have a better training ground I'll do you one better and teach it to you."
"You're not kidding?" The ghost said skeptically, he had only a vague idea of what that meant, but he knew it was huge.
"Cross my heart Jaybird." Dick said.
"Don't call me that!" Jason shook his fist at the man.
"Okay, okay." Dick did a back flip and landed on the railing in a one armed handstand. "Can you still do this?"
"I didn't know I ever could." Jason said, eyeing the rusty structure doubtfully.
"Give it a try." Dick shifted his weight to another hand, when Jason didn't move the acrobat made a pouty face. "Come on Jay, I'll love you forever. You don't have to if you're too scared."
Jason growled and backed up a bit. If Dick could do it, then so could he, no question. He launched himself into the air and repeated Dick's movements. As soon as he was in the air, his body took over and his arms were supporting his waiting on the railing.
He wanted to laugh and cry out his excitement, but instead kept his face as neutral as he could. "This isn't so hard." Slowly he shifted his balance to one arm and raised the other, he held the position for a few seconds, then his wrist gave out and he tipped over the scaffolding. Before he could panic, instinct took hold again and he twisted in the air, landing on his feet nearer to the ground.
"You okay?" Dick was next to him a moment later, sounding genuinely worried.
"I meant to do that." Jason said, showing his shaking hands into his hoody pockets. "I have to leave soon."
"No, you don't." Dick playfully shoved Jason back to the scaffolding. "Let's give it another try."
"I don't need to try again." Jason tried to move toward the door, but was pushed back again.
"It's a great party trick; the ladies will be all over you." Dick stood in front of the door, arms spread out to block it.
"I have better things to worry about than impressing girls." Jason tried to push past, but Dick was immovable. The boy backed up a bit then charged forward to tackle Dick out of the way. He was caught mid-leap and thrown back. The acrobat was still at the door, a cocky grin on his face.
"Dick, I'm going to kill you." Jason yelled and charged forward again with the same result.
Over the next half an hour, all of his attempts to get past the man were fruitless and Jason ended up unmoving and winded on his back.
"Give up already, Little Wing?" Dick laughed, he was still at the door, but now was breathing heavily as well.
"I hate you." Jason groaned and scraped himself into a sitting position.
Dick walked over and pulled him to his feet. "You should clean up before your big date."
"You have no idea how far it is from a date." Jason said, and followed Dick back to the apartment. "You're such a moron." Dick opened the door. "And a cheat." Jason collapsed onto the sofa. "You're a cheating moron."
"Or am I a moronic cheat?" Dick gave him a glass of water. "You needed it, look how out of shape you are, tired after a little game like that." He shook his head. "Don't be such a sore loser you little brat."
A sense of dejavu hit Jason, hard. They'd had a similar conversation before, in the cave. Dick had been there, and they'd been sparring, the first time Dick paid attention to him as something other than the kid Bruce had… He kept using tricks that Jason had never seen before, he the boy couldn't get a hit it. Jason had gotten angry, calling him a cheat. 'You're just a sore loser, brat.'
Jason clutched the cool glass, the new memories flooding his mind. Dick could always do everything better, always and he was… But Dick had said he'd show Jason how to do the somersault, and he wasn't across the country anymore. It was fine, Jason could practice, could get better…
"… better follow in his footsteps…" The glass in his hand shattered, Jason didn't feel it. "That looked like it hurt." He could hear the voice as clearly as if it were right in front of him, he was back there, in that cold warehouse and everything hurt. He couldn't breathe. Where was Bruce? He wasn't coming, because Jason had been stupid and gone ahead without him.
Jason wanted to scream, and maybe he did. The Joker was gone, but he'd left a bomb, and Jason had to get to the door. It was so far away; he tried to stand, but collapsed on his face, on his broken ribs and his punctured lung. He cried that he was sorry, that he'd tried to get out before it had gone off and he just hand been…
Freezing cold washed over him; he was being rocked back and forth, shivering not just from the cold. There was a voice there with him.
"…not alone. Safe here with me, he can't get you here, he's locked away where he can't get you. I'm here and he won't get you ever again…" The words carried on, repeating that he was safe, he had to breathe, he wasn't alone, he was safe.
Robin clutched onto the front of Nightwing's shirt, doubled over with his head between his knees and shivering from more than just the freezing water that had been dumped over him. Nightwing was rubbing soothing circles on his back and gently running a hand though his hair. The boy's eyes were wide, but focused where no one else could see.
"The Joker got me." He said hoarsely. A glass was pressed against his lips and he swallowed the liquid flowing into his mouth while the tears came.
"You got him back, Jason." Nightwing tucked the boy's head into the crook of his neck and held him close. "You kicked him right in the teeth, because he thought you were gone and you're still here. Now he's locked away, and you have a cool superpower."
"Ima haunt him." Jason sobbed into Dicks shirt. "Throw all his stuff against the walls, and blood, and that scary…" He sobbed again. "…that scary, cheesy ghost scream."
"Maybe you'll develop a Freddy Kruger power." Dick said. "Make him dream about rainbows."
Jason chuckled weakly and pulled away from Dick, burying his face in his hands and trying to breath. It was dark outside, how many hours had he been sitting there screaming? It was hard to care, he was just so tired, didn't want to pretend he wasn't.
"Can I stay here tonight?" He asked. "Just crash on your sofa for, just tonight."
"My sofa is your sofa." Dick said. "You can crash on it whenever you want. We'll have a sleepover, order a ton of pizza."
Jason nodded numbly.
"You want me to call your friend, tell her you're not feeling well?"
Jason nodded again and tipped over resting his head against the armrest.
"Sit tight, okay, I'll be back soon." Dick gently ruffled the boy's hair and stood to make the call.
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"What do you mean sick?" Valery asked. "He said he was faking."
"Yeah well, karma hit him hard on this one, you see all the ice-creams and milkshakes he out away today, I'm surprised he could talk at all." The guy on the other end of the line laughed.
"I want to talk to him." She didn't trust that guy at all. Just showing up out of nowhere, saying he was Red's brother just when his real father, a very rich father, started looking for him. She'd been suspicious even before her benefactor had expressed his worries about the situation.
A few weeks ago Red had been terrified of Richard, now they were inseparable.
There wasn't even a pause on the line. "He's not feeling up to it, call back tomorrow and…"
"Let me talk to Red!" She yelled. "Or I'll find where you are and drag him away from you."
There was a scuffle on the other side and she heard the man mutter something about over protective girlfriends before she heard the ghost's scratchy voice.
"Val, my throats killing me right now." He sounded tired, like he'd just woken up. "Can we hang out tomorrow sometime? Richard said he'd cover your shift if ya want."
"You want me to bring you something from, the, you know." She wondered if ghosts had things like pajamas, and if she'd even be able to find anything in the Ghost Zone.
Red chuckled hoarsely. "I'm good, later." There was a click and the line went dead.
She waited a minute, and then dialed another number.
"Mister Masters? He's not coming tonight… yes Sir."