Nicktoons Unite!
Chapter 2: First Lesson in Pain
It was dark and water was dripping somewhere in a pool. In a dim-lighted cell, the four heroes were starting to wake up.
Timmy staggered to his feet, groaning and clutching his head. "Ugh, what happened?"
Jimmy was next. "I'm not sure," he said slowly standing up. "I don't remember leaving the mansion."
"That mean old Vlad must've knocked us out with his spooky ghost powers!" cowered Spongebob who was still lying on the cement floor.
A deep moan echoed through the cell block. The three boys turned to see a teenager, the same age as Danny, sitting up in one of the cots. He had black hair and blue eyes, and wore a white shirt and blue jeans with red sneakers.
"Where are we?" he asked in the same voice as Danny. He looked over at Jimmy, Timmy and Spongebob who were giving him a strange look. The teen then cringed and looked at himself in a pool of water.
"Whoops, I must've changed back to human form when I was unconscious..." he said sheepishly at the others.
Timmy spoke first. "Wait, you're Danny Phantom? How's that possible?"
"Well..." Danny began, but was interrupted by a loud bang on the cell. The boys turned to see an adult ghost wearing a white suit and a black hat and gloves. He snarled at them with pale, pupiless eyes.
"Keep it down! You'll wake the others!" Then he smiled. "You don't wanna know what happens to noisy kids..."
Danny sneered. "Walker! Ah man, not you again! Well, your prison's not gonna hold me in this time!"
Walker glared. "I did some improvements on my prison after what happened last time. Now, these bars can hold both ghosts AND humans. Even if you do escape my guards will hunt you down mercilessly." The ghost warden began to walk off. "And if you don't quiet down, you're in big trouble..."
Once the ghost was out of earshot, Spongebob whimpered, "Oh no, what do we do now?"
Jimmy thought for a moment. "I've got it! I'll use my laser to cut through the bars!" He then began to fiddle with his watch and pointed it at the cell bars. A bright, sliver of red light shot out of the side of the watch and struck the metal. The other watched in amazement as it cut the bar like a hot knife through butter, shearing it in half.
Once all the bars were cut, the four boys cautiously crawled out. Danny looked around for any sign of prison guards. "The coast is clear, let's go!" he whispered as he got to his feet. The teen began trotting down an hallway with Jimmy, Timmy and Spongebob close behind.
Danny, Jimmy, Timmy and Spongebob were soon deep in one of the halls. They passed several cell blocks containing a multitude of ghost and ghouls. Spongebob yelped as an Ecto-puss tried to reach out through the bars and grab him. The sponge started forward, bumping into Danny. The teen glared at the freaked out Spongebob.
"Dude, keep it down! We don't want any of Walker's guards to find us!" he hissed.
Spongebob was still shaking but nodded and turned to the others with a finger on his lips. Jimmy then turned to Timmy and did the same. Timmy turned and repeated the action, only to come face-to-face with a ghost guard.
"AH! GHOST!" screeched Timmy and skidded behind Danny's legs.
Danny got into a fighting stance. "I've got this! Goin' ghost!" he cried. A white ring suddenly appeared around his torso and split into two, one going up and the other going down. In between these rings the teen's clothing changed into a black and white hazmat suit. Once the rings disappeared, Danny had transformed into Danny Phantom. The three kids looked up at him in awe. "Wow, that's pretty neat!" mused Spongebob.
The ghost kid smiled. "Thanks, and no phone booth required." He then turned to the ghost guard. "You haven't changed a bit since I last saw you. If Walker was doin' some upgrades he should've upgraded your wardrobe; helmets and batons are so 1950s."
"You kids shouldn't be playing around here. It's dangerous." The ghost guard smiled. "Allow me to demonstrate." He then shot a ghost ray at the boys.
This time, the guys were ready; Danny and Jimmy dodged to the right and Timmy and Spongebob lept to the left. A glowing ball of ghost energy formed between Danny's hands. With a toss, the energy ball struck the guard in the belly. Although stunned, it quickly recovered and flew toward the boys at high speed.
Jimmy then stepped forward and took out a purple gun that looked like a massive hairdryer. "Say hello to my lasted invention; the Tornado Blaster!" He then took aim and pulled the trigger. A huge gust of wind blasted from the device and sent the ghoul flying backwards. Jimmy shouted, "Turner! You're up!"
Timmy quickly pulled out some gold stars from his back pocket. "Eat Shooting Stars, dude!" he snarled and flung the stars at the ghost. The guard, though, saw this coming and turned intangible, allowing the stars to pass through him harmlessly. "I can't eat stars; they go right through me." it sneered.
The bucktooth kid stood in shock as the guard lifted his baton to strike. But he was stopped by Spongebob who smacked him with a karate chop. "HI-YAAAAH!" he cried and the guard was flung to the wall, knocked out.
Spongebob posed with his big red gloves. "Nobody messes with my friends!" he stated. The sponge then turned to the others, smiling. "Another bad guy thwarted thanks to KAY-RAH-TAY!"
Jimmy pointed out, "I think the correct pronunciation is 'ka-RAH-tee.'
"Are you kiddn'? Spongebob made it sound awesome, just like his karate chop." Timmy said, doing a quick pose.
"Ah, well..." stammered a blushing Spongebob, but before he could continue, there were sounds of loud shouts down the hallway.
Danny stiffened. "We better keep goin'. This way!" he said, pointing down the opposite side of the hall.
The others nodded and the four began running. Up ahead there was a glowing, white light.
"Wait!" shouted Cosmo. "We're not supposed to go into the light!" But Wanda grabbed him by the ear and continued flying.
The boys soon screeched to a stop when they saw the exit led right to a vertical drop off. The entire space was lit up by working ghosts using welding equipment, sparks bouncing off metal beams high in the air. It looked like a jungle made up of steel trusses.
"Hey! There they are!" The heroes jumped at the loud voice. Danny spun around to see a group of guards heading their way. In a few seconds they would be upon them...
Suddenly Danny gets an idea. "You guys aren't gonna like this..." he started and scooped up Jimmy and Timmy in his arms. "Spongebob, get on my back!"
Spongebob lept onto Danny's shoulders and wrapped his arms around the teen's neck. "What are you gonna do, Danny?" he asked nervously.
Bending his knees, the ghost kid lept off the ledge and began free falling with Jimmy, Timmy and Spongebob screaming. Before they hit the ground, Danny swooped up and over the site.
Timmy held tight to Danny's arm. "Y-you can f-fly?!" stammered the bucktooth kid.
"Yeah, pretty much." the teen shrugged. "Hold tight everyone!" He sped up a little faster and gilded through the construction zone.
"Ooh, I think I'm gonna be sick..." mumbled Cosmo, who had transformed into a pen.
"Not in Timmy's pocket, you're not!" snarled Wanda, in the same form as her husband.
BAM! An ectoplasmic ray shot just above their heads. "We've got company!" warned Jimmy, craning his neck to look behind.
A squad of ghost guards were catching up to them, fast. Thinking quickly, Timmy shouted, "I wish Cosmo and Wanda were anti-ghost guns!"
The fairies poofed out of Timmy's pocket and appeared in his hands as green and pink ray guns. The kid began firing shots behind Danny's shoulder. The rays soon took down the entire squadron, who fell deep into the construction site.
Timmy blew the smoke off of the guns barrels. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" he smirked.
"Wait a minute, your friends can turn into stuff?" asked Spongebob. "Cool!"
Timmy nodded as the two fairies turned back into pens in his pocket. "It'll be way cooler if Cosmo and Wanda were able to poof those bad guys away."
"Sorry, sport," said Wanda, "but right know we can only transform with the limited magic we have between us."
Cosmo then began using his wand to scratch his back again. "Yep, it's still a glorified backscratcher!"
Suddenly, the boys' stomach dropped as Danny began descending. Soon he landed on a platform with a steel door in the front. Jimmy and Timmy jumped down from Danny's arms but Spongebob was too scared to let go.
"Spongebob, we're on the ground. You can let go now," he said.
"Nah, I'm good," replied a nervous sponge. Danny rolled his eyes and went intangible, making Spongebob loose his grip and fall to the ground with a squeak.
Jimmy rushed over to the door and tugged at the handle. It didn't move an inch. "It's locked," he grumbled.
"Allow me," Danny said with a smile. He walked over to the door and gave it a strong kick. The metal door popped backwards and fell to the floor with a big dent on its front.
Jimmy inspected the damage. "Thanks, I guess..." he said, still stunned. Timmy mused behind him, "Way cool."
Spongebob pointed up ahead. "Look! That must be the exit, right?"
Danny began santauring towards the exit. "Yep, it sure is. Now let's get outta here before-"
BAM! A sudden noise in front of Danny caused him to fall on his behind. Looking up, he saw the cold face of the ghost warden.
"Thought you could leave without anyone noticing, eh?" sneered Walker, "That's against the rules. You know what happens to prisoners who break my rules?"
Spongebob nervously answered. "You give them a time out and sit them in a corner?"
Walker smiled. "So close, but no. I teach them a lesson in pain." He then took out a long, white whip and snapped it.
"Here we go," whispered Danny as he stood up.
The ghost warden whipped his weapon at the ghost hero. Danny tried to dodge it by flying up, but it was too late; the whip wrapped around the boy's ankle and flung him to the ground. When Danny tried to get up, Walker pressed a button on the whip's handle. Almost immediately, electricity arched around the whip and shocked Danny.
"AAAHHHHHH!" the ghost boy screamed in pain.
Jimmy, Timmy and Spongebob gasped as they watched the torture. The genius was first to react; he took out his Tornado Blaster and blasted the warden. Walker lost his grip on the whip handle and the electricity mercifully sputtered out.
Danny kicked the rope off of his ankle and rushed to Jimmy, who was still holding the weapon. "Thanks, dude." Danny said.
Jimmy turned to the teen. "No problem. You ok?"
"A little static electricity never stopped me," responded Danny.
"Heads up, guys! He comin' to!" Timmy warned. Sure enough, Walker had regained his strength and lunged at them. This time, Spongebob stepped in front and took out a bubble wand. Taking a deep breath, he blew several bubbles in the ghost's face. The liquid stung the eyes of the warden who veered off to the right, straight towards Timmy. "I wish you guys were ghost-hunting equipment again!" cried the bucktooth kid. Cosmo and Wanda transformed into a net and dart, respectively.
With a quick swing, Timmy caught the ghost in the net and Wanda shot over and struck Walker in the leg. The ghost batted the fairy dart away and sneered, "It's gonna take more than just a couple of..." Walker eyes started to flutter and then he fell on his front, unconscious.
Wanda transformed back to her normal self. "A sleep dart never fails." she stated.
"Yay! Now I know what to cure my insomnia with!" Cosmo said and turned his behind toward her. "Me next!"
Wanda slapped her forehead and turned to the others. "We better get outta here; the sleep dart's effect won't last long."
"Say no more, Wanda." Danny said as he picked up Jimmy and Timmy again. Spongebob nervously climbed onto the teen's back once more. "Follow me."
Danny shot out of the prison with the three boys (and two fairies) in tow. Outside, green energy flowed in the background and rocky islands floated ominously. There were many doors that hung close by, hovering with a mysterious force.
Jimmy looked at his surroundings. "Where are we?"
"This is the Ghost Zone, where all ghosts come from, at least in my world." Danny explained as he flew over the spooky environment.
"How are we gonna get outta here?" asked Spongebob, clinging to the ghost teen's neck.
"Don't worry; Vlad's not the only one with a Ghost Portal." Danny said. The teen then began making his way to the other side of the zone.