Welcome back!

I know this was a long wait. I'd gotten caught up in the RotTMNT Movie hype, and may or may not have spiraled into Huntlow Fanfic Hell. XD On top of that, this chapter was kind of just a pain to pace out lol. I wanted this done by the fic's two year anniversary (and can you believe this has been going for two years?), but life happens, what can you do.

A bit on the short side compared to other recent chapters, but here ya go!

"Danny, are you sure this is a good idea?"

He and Wes were in Danny's room, the television almost obnoxiously loud. But they weren't watching it, nor were they playing games on it; it only served to hide the duo's true intentions. While from outside the closed door one might think they were engrossed in their leisure activities, they were, in a sense, elsewhere.

Or, at least Danny was, in part. His head was quite literally buried in the floor, emerging from the other side to spy on his parents.

"Relax," he said as he came up. "None of the anti-ghost protocols activate unless they suspect there's a ghost around, and the surprise drill was only a week ago. They aren't gonna notice me."

"Unless they look up, you mean," Wes argued.

"They won't," Danny assured him. "They're way too busy with... whatever they're working on. If you want to get to the Ghost Zone, now is our best chance to sneak past them."

"What about the portal? Isn't it–?"

"Carelessly left open? Always," Danny cut in. "You're the one who wanted to visit Dora's kingdom so bad. We gotta go now. She does not like to be kept waiting."

Well, when he put it that way...

"Alright, alright, I'm coming."

Danny nodded, dipping his head back under to check one last time that the coast was clear. Confirming that it was, he waved Wes down, slipping all the way under. Wes followed him, the two of them flitting by before sneaking through the gaping portal.

The Ghost Zone was just as breathtaking as the first time Wes had visited. Although, this time the backdrop was predominantly shades of purple and fuchsia, with only the sparse clouds providing the expected eerie green. Floating doors had been replaced by sheer cliff faces and twisting, thorned plants.

"This isn't where we got out last time," Wes hummed anxiously.

"The Zone always moves," Danny explained, "and the portal probably does, too. That's what the Infi-Map is for, which Tucker has oh so conveniently digitalized for us."

"Very convenient," Wes agreed plainly.

Danny pulled up his wristwatch— really, why was every bit of unexplainable tech on a watch?— studying it for a moment before pointing. "It's this way, but stay close."

Wes saw a spiny tendril move. He eeped and darted to Danny's side, watching the plant with wary purple eyes. "Right behind you."

The two took flight, with Wes watching their surroundings while Danny kept his eyes glued to the projection that guided them. Wes couldn't help but marvel at every unusual sight they passed by, even as he made sure to keep a respectable distance.

He didn't think he'd ever get sick of the view.

"Huh, that isn't supposed to be there."

Wes was jerked from his musings, startled by Danny's voice. He'd been silent the entire time.

"What isn't?" he dared.

Danny pointed. "That."

Before them stretched a massive cave mouth, almost pitch black save for the stalactites that clung to it like jagged teeth, tipped an eye-piercing blue. The cave itself floated freely in the space around it, attached to nothing at all. A low, almost imperceptible drone seeped from the craggy opening.

Wes wanted nothing to do with it.

"We aren't... going in there, are we?"

"I don't know," Danny hummed. "It isn't on the map, or if it is, it isn't where we are now. It might be a lair."

"A ghost lair? Great," Wes groaned. "Let's go around, then, because I do not want to find out what lives in there."

"Hold on." Danny grabbed Wes's arm before he drifted too far away. "The map wants us to go straight. Trust me, disobeying the map is a really bad idea. Better to fly through a spooky cave for a second than to realize you wandered into a rending vortex."

Lovely. Wes really didn't want to find out what a rending vortex was.

"...Are you sure about this?" he asked timidly.

"No. But if the map is telling us to go this way, then it's gotta be the safest path. Let's go."

Wes faltered, but he let Danny pull him along with little resistance. Whatever was lurking inside that cave, surely Danny would be able to handle it.

The moment they breached the threshold, the hum cut off, drowning the two in silence. The interior was just as dark as the outside would suggest. If it weren't for their ambient auras, the darkness would have been suffocating. The only thing to indicate they weren't in a void was a light smattering of small gemstones on the walls, sparsely spaced and growing near the apparent ceiling. The same deep blue as the rocky growths outside, they did little to penetrate the darkness.

"Huh. Doesn't look like we're getting a welcoming committee," Danny cracked.

"I feel like that's probably a good thing," Wes hissed.

To his credit, Danny sobered up a bit. "Let's keep going. The sooner we find our way through, the less likely we are to run into whatever lives here."

"If there's a way through," muttered Wes.

"Would you chill out? Of course there's a way through. If there wasn't, the map wouldn't have–"

But even as he pulled up his wrist to demonstrate, the projection glitched and spasmed, landmarks frantically shifting about. Finally, it gave out entirely, leaving only blue static behind.

"...Okay, so the map doesn't work here. Awesome."

Wes turned around.

To his alarm, the entrance was nowhere to be seen. The only evidence of its presence was the stalactites that remained, joining its brethren on the floor. It really did look like a clamped maw now. Whatever the case was, they were sealed in.

"We're trapped!" Wes cried.

"We aren't trapped," Danny reassured him, though he didn't sound too sure himself. "In the Ghost Zone, humans are the ghosts. All we have to do is transform and we'll be out of here in no time."

But as he went to demonstrate, white hair turning black, he walked straight into the wall. He stepped back, wincing and rubbing his sore nose.

"Okay, now I can say we're trapped."

Wes balled his fists in Danny's shirt, speaking through clenched teeth that were almost grinning. "Danny I swear, if you just got us killed I will haunt you for the rest of eternity."

Danny pried Wes's hands off of him, slipping back into his ghost form. "Hey, we're still in good shape. This just means we have to find our way through now. Either we escape on our own, or we find whoever or whatever trapped us and make them let us go."

"...You better be right about this," Wes huffed.

"Really, Wes," Danny scoffed, "when have I ever led you astray?"

Wes gestured around them.

"...Point taken. Let's go."

So they began walking. It was impossible to say where they were going, or how far, or even if they were traveling straight. The only things to guide them were those strange crystals on the walls.

They ran into their first problem when they hit a crossroad.

"Ugh, how do we know which way to go?" Danny groaned. "This place is basically a maze, and we can't even cheat by flying over it!"

"Hold on, I have an idea," Wes announced, holding his hand out palm up. "Usually people who go into weird caves take rope with them, so they can find their way back. But we don't have any rope, so instead, let's use... torches."

Wes let his concentration break, and from his palm bobbed a minuscule ball of light, barely any bigger than his thumbnail. It swayed gently, providing no significant illumination, but it was just bright enough to leave spots behind your eyelids if you stared at it for too long.

"Oh wow," Danny breathed. "How long have you been able to do that?"

"Since the Vlad thing," Wes replied, "but it's finicky. Not enough juice, and it'll fizzle out. Too much, and it'll explode. But I'm thinking, if I leave a trail of these, they should last for at least an hour, and we can use them to figure out where we've already been. We can rule paths out until we find the one that takes us out of here."

Danny smiled. "Good thinking. How long do you think you can keep this up?"

"It'll have to be long enough."

Danny pursed his lips. He didn't know how much charge Wes had, but an answer like that was hardly promising. "Then let's be quick."

And so they picked a path, and they pressed on. Once the first orb was almost out of view, Wes created another, and then another, the buoyant spheres far between but leaving a distinct trail to mark their progress.

As they went, the structure of the cave system became clearer and clearer. There were no dead ends to speak of; rather, it was all a series of interconnected loops. But for every path traversed, the search area was growing smaller and smaller. If they kept up, then they would surely find the way out in no time.

But it was taking its toll. Sixteen detours and five fallbacks later, they were no closer to finding the exit than when they'd started, and Wes was tuckering out quickly. He struggled to make another ball, which wriggled before flickering out of existence with a pop.

"You're wearing out," Danny stated. "You can't keep going like this."

"Sure I can," Wes panted. "I think I've got a couple more left in me."

"Wes, stop." Danny grabbed his hands, the little energy Wes had mustered up squirming back to its source. He stared at Danny, confused, before Danny realized what he did and let go.

"We've already searched pretty much the whole cave system, I think," he said. "There's no point in overworking your core. We'll find another way."

"No. We don't know that we found everything," Wes argued. "There's gotta be a way out somewhere, and this can help us find it."

"...Okay, yeah, you're right," Danny agreed. "You're out of juice either way, though. But I've still got plenty of energy, so maybe if you reroute whatever you have left through me, I could amplify it, and–"

He stopped, and in the same moment Wes stilled. Neither of them could say exactly why at first, but then they felt it. The ground beneath them faintly shook, like a train passing by in the distance. Only, the quakes got more and more violent, until they could even hear the walls rumbling. The low drone from the entrance came back with a vengeance, but at this volume, it was easier to hear two distinct, oscillating notes.

It almost sounded like breathing. Frantic, frenzied breathing.

A pursuer.

Danny grabbed Wes's wrist. "Run."

"What? Where?" Wes gasped.

"Doesn't matter, anywhere but here. Run!"

And so they flew. Danny dragged Wes along at lightning fast speeds, rounding corners faster than Wes could keep track of. How they weren't flying into walls face-first, he didn't know.

But it hardly mattered. Whatever was following them was gaining quickly, keeping up with Danny swerve for swerve. It would be only a matter of seconds before it caught them.

Suddenly, as they approached a fork in the path, a second Danny was emerging from the first, shooting off down one side while the original took the other. To Wes's immense relief, their pursuer took off after the duplicate, getting quieter and quieter as it chased down its new victim.

But Danny didn't slow down for a moment. He kept up his frantic pace, booking it down the first unlit path he found. "We need to leave. Now."

"Hold on a second, what was that?!" Wes cried. It was all he could do to keep his tail under him. "What's following us, Danny?!"

"Something Frostbite warned me about once, I think," Danny replied. He rounded another corner. "Something so dangerous, no ghost in their right mind would ever knowingly approach one. And now that it's found us, it won't stop until it catches us."

"Sounds fantastic, but what is it?" Wes insisted. His stomach pooled with dread, even as he waited for an answer to his pressing question.

And then they were almost running into the Phantom duplicate, all three skidding to a halt to keep from ramming into each other. The clone's eyes were wide and fearful. He had already turned around, fully prepared to reroute and lead his pursuer away.

Only to be snared in its massive jaws.

Wes, already being towed away by Danny, averted his gaze before he had a chance to see the duplicate, mutilated almost beyond recognition, poof out of existence. However, the appearance of the creature stayed firmly rooted in his mind.

A bulbous, yellow-green body, large enough to completely fill the cavern around it. No eyes to speak of. A large, cavernous maw, always gnashing its bristling, razor sharp teeth, took up any available space where its face would have been.

Wes supposed it had no reason to need to see. He imagined it would simply eat anything stupid enough to end up in front of it.

Finally, Danny answered his long-awaited question.

"That," he said, "is a Core Reaver. Two guesses as to what it eats."

"I don't think now is the time for jokes, Danny!" Wes squealed.

"I can't focus on getting us out of here if I can't find something to make fun of!" Danny cried, picking yet another path at random. "But we gotta lose this thing before we keep looking for the exit!"

"Well we aren't gonna shake it off if we keep yelling!"

As if to prove his point, the Reaver reared up, lunging from their side as they headed down yet another identical intersection. Unthinking, Danny spun around just long enough to fire a beam at it.

To both his and Wes's utter horror, it barely slowed down. The attack simply flew into its open maw and down its gullet.

But Danny refused to be intimidated. They had to keep moving. Any moment spent standing still was an opportunity to be devoured. "This way!"

He and Wes kept flying, but the Core Reaver was hot on their tails. Now that they were in its sights— so to speak— it was determined to pursue them and swallow them whole.

"Wes, can't you do something?!" Danny cried. "Flash it or something!"

"I can't flash something that doesn't have eyes!" Wes retaliated. "What about your Wail?!"

"We can't phase through these walls! If they collapse, we'll be trapped for good!"

Their situation was getting worse and worse. But they weren't without hope.

"The entrance!" Wes suddenly shouted. "If we follow my trail back, maybe we can figure out how to get out the way we came in!"

It was as good a plan as any. So far, it was all they had. Danny nodded, following the first stream of lights he saw.

But that, too, quickly became a dead end plot. The trail, consistent upon its creation, was now broken, split apart by wide gaps of pitch black at every intersection. It was impossible to tell which way they had come from.

The Core Reaver did mindlessly eat anything put in front of it.

"That stupid thing ate my lights!" Wes wailed. "Now how are we supposed to get out of here?!"

Danny groaned. Their options were dwindling, and fast. They couldn't fight it. They couldn't outrun it. They couldn't turn human and slip away. They couldn't even figure out where they started. Unless a miracle happened, they were well and truly stuck. All they could do was keep flying and buy time to come up with a better idea.

...Actually, where did it go?

Wes was wondering the same thing. The Reaver, practically nibbling at their heels seconds before, was now nowhere to be seen. "...Did we lose it?"

It wasn't likely. Danny could still hear it nearby. But maybe, just maybe, they had beat it around enough corners that it wasn't sure which route they'd taken. If they were lucky, maybe they could take a second to regroup.

A pointless hope. No sooner had he thought that than the Reaver had squeezed its way down their tunnel, forcing them to retreat once again. "Nope, no we did not!"

Danny didn't know how much longer he could do this. He could fly for hours, under calmer circumstances. But running for his life, flying at full speed with no breaks, all while lugging around a passenger, no less? He was wearing out fast. If they didn't come up with something soon, they were done for.

But, for once, that looked to be changing.

"Danny, slow down for a second!" Wes called.

Danny gawked. "Are you crazy?! That thing'll eat us alive if it catches us!"

"I know, but look!"

So he did. He didn't dare to stop, but he slowed down just enough to see whatever it was Wes wanted him to see.

At first, he saw nothing. Darkness yawned behind him, with no Core Reaver in sight. But then he saw it, all the way at the end of the corridor, still tailing them, albeit its fangs gnashing with far less fervor than before.

Before, it was outpacing them, matching them turn for turn, if it didn't simply cut them off. But now it was Danny who looked to have the speed advantage. If this kept up, there was a good chance he could outrun it and lose it for good.

"Are we finally tiring it out?" he dared to ask, cracking a relieved smile.

"I don't think it's tired, though," Wes replied. Before Danny could ask him what he meant, he lowered his tail to rub against the ground, sparks flying up like he was striking flint. He then used that energy to leave behind a singular orb of light, much like the ones he'd used to light their way. The Reaver crunched down on it, shuddered, and then resumed the chase.

"I think my wisps are weakening it!" Wes declared.

"Oh, is that what you're calling those?" Danny had to ask.

Wes shrugged. "It was either that or fairy lights, and I like the sound of wisps better."

"Whatever they are, I think you're right," Danny said, getting them back on track. "Somehow, your lights are slowing it down! Do you think you can make more of those?"

"Not right now," Wes replied, pouting. "I'm almost out of juice, so I need to let my tail do its thing before I can make more."

But they didn't have that kind of time. Danny would tire long before Wes developed a sufficient charge, and there was a distinct possibility that the Reaver would recover and strike. They needed a solution, and fast.

"...Unless," Wes continued, "we use your idea from earlier?"

Danny racked his brain, struggling to recall what Wes was referring to. But the moment he remembered, he smirked. "Use my core energy to amplify yours? Are you sure that's gonna work? I'm wearing a little thin over here."

"You've said it yourself, core energy is different from the usual stuff," Wes reasoned. "Besides, I've seen what your ice can do. You're basically brimming with it."

Well. Couldn't argue with that.

"...Alright, it's worth a shot," Danny said.

In all honesty, his initial suggestion had been a shot in the dark. Electricity wasn't his to control; he could redirect it, but there was no telling if he could actually add his own reserves to it on the way through. He certainly couldn't do anything without an outside source. His energy probably wasn't compatible with Wes's at all.

But he had to try. Their lives depended on it.

"Gather up what you have," Danny instructed, "then give me a heads up and zap me. I'll add what I can, and give it back. Got it?"

Wes nodded. "Got it."

Ignoring the distant sounds of the Reaver's snapping jaws, Wes closed his eyes, tapping into his core. It thrummed weakly, the pulses only marginally strengthening as his tail flinted the ground. But it was enough for a small shock. "Ready?"

Danny grimaced. "Ready."

Ancients, he hoped this worked.

What Wes injected him with wasn't much; Danny doubted it would have done much more than briefly stun him had it been intended as an attack. He concentrated, focusing his efforts on circulating the current throughout his body, over and over. And on every circuit, he parted with fractions of his own power, willing it to merge with the foreign energy. He could feel the current go from a tingling trickle, to a raging levin, its power still growing as Danny's core continued to contribute to it.

It was working!

Alas, he needed to be wary of Wes's limits. As a young ghost, his core could very easily become overwhelmed, especially in the face of Danny's abundant power. He couldn't afford to give Wes an overload.

With a heave, Danny returned the borrowed energy, and Wes gasped. The current seared through his veins like liquid nitrogen, before settling under his skin in a familiar thrum. If one could call what the energy did settling. His core was not prepared to go from empty, to nearly brimming. It raged within and around him, nipping at his nerves and prickling his skin. His aura jittered as he struggled to contain it, snapping and sparking and dancing along his limbs.

It was too much. He needed it out. Now.

Wes put his hands together, concentrating the rampant energy between his palms. It stuttered in protest, wriggling as if to escape his grasp, but he kept it reeled in, putting more and more power into the budding wisp. With each surge, it grew, until it had nearly filled the space between his hands. When it looked almost prime to explode, Wes threw it, watching with bated breath as the Core Reaver swallowed it whole.

Nothing happened. If anything, the Reaver seemed pleased, its monstrous maw splitting in a way that almost looked like a mad grin.

Danny groaned. "No way..." That was their last idea. They really were doomed.

But Wes wasn't nearly as perturbed. Even as spent as he was from his stunt, he was smirking. "Give it a second."

Danny, confused, chanced a glance back, and slowed at the sight behind him. In the moments after swallowing the enormous wisp, the Reaver had stopped, its engorged "cheeks" swilling as it savored its latest meal.

And then it gagged.

The Reaver scooted back, its body convulsing in a way that had to be painful. It hacked and coughed, letting loose an ear-splitting, warbling wail from a mouth brimming with bright blue energy. It was less like the thing was getting attacked from the inside out, and more like it was struggling to choke the morsel down.

Finally, the Reaver yawned wide, and then turned itself inside out, the energy it was previously overflowing with fizzling out. Although, the act caused it no harm; its insides were identical to its outsides, and the motion had caused the beast to face the opposite direction. It raced off, crying the whole way.

Danny and Wes glanced about as the crystals above them flickered weakly, slipping the two in and out of darkness. Even the walls had become blurry. Danny rested his palm against one, and was surprised to find that it passed through easily.

"Transform," he urged. "I think this is our chance!"

Wes didn't need to be told twice. Maintaining his ghost form was quickly becoming a chore, so he wasted no time in changing back. Danny did the same, and the two of them immediately fell through the floor. Once they were out, Danny transformed yet again, steering them both as far away as he could before he ran out of steam.

Only when the cave was out of sight did either boy relax, finding a floating chunk of rock to hunker down on to catch their breath. They both doubled over, hands on their knees.

"...That is... the last time I take you up on your map-reading skills," Wes panted.

"Well how was I supposed to know that was a Core Reaver cave?!" Danny protested. "I thought they were supposed to be at the Catastronimbus Belt!"

Wes wasn't even going to ask.

"Told you we shoulda gone around," he muttered.

Danny knew he couldn't argue with that; Wes had had a bad feeling going in. "Next time I'll listen to you."

The two were silent for a long while. Having caught his breath, Wes sat down. Danny remained standing.

"...So how did you know how to beat it?" Danny eventually asked.

Wes perked up at the question. "Oh. Well, you said it eats core energy, so I thought maybe if I gave it enough-"

"Tell me the truth," Danny drawled.

Wes sighed. "...I got the idea from Pac-Man."

Danny barked a laugh. "I knew it."

"Shut up, it worked, didn't it?!" Wes retorted, flushing with indignation.

"Yeah, yeah, let's get going before the Ghost Zone shifts too much. Then we'll really be lost."

Wes groaned. "Please tell me your map isn't totally busted."

Danny chuckled. "Now that we're out of there it isn't. You still up for the rest of that trip?"

Wes rose to his feet, patting down his knees, all traces of his prior exhaustion gone. "Of course I am. I can't wait to tell Dorathea all about this!"

Have I spent nearly two years waiting for the opportunity to write a chapter that was just one big Pac-Man joke? Nooooooo don't be silly I never even sketched concepts out haha

Anyway I slapped together a Photoshop drawing of the Core Reaver in like ten minutes about a week ago, go check out my Tumblr if you're interested (bigjbonk).

I've got a few different ideas for what I wanna do next. Not sure which I'll do yet, but one way or another, things are gonna be moving forward!