4/18/24-Chapter rewritten a bit for quality and continuity.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom. If I did, we would've had more seasons of the show!

Chapter 2: Cold as Ice

The bell rang. The first four classes were over and it was lunch. Heather went to the outdoor seating with Alex following close behind. It was a nice warm late summer day, but Heather was shivering.

"Is there a reason why I'm so cold?" Heather asked Alex. She was wearing her hoodie and was still shivering. They sat at a table half in shade. Alex was in the shade, and Heather was in the sun.

Alex stared at her as if she was a puzzle to figure out. "I swear I just saw your breath. When did you start feeling this cold?"

Heather shrugged. "Well, after break, I felt kinda odd. Like my brain was full of static. Then last class, I got freezing cold. I thought it was just the A/C. But now we're out here and I just feel even colder."

"That is, uh, interesting. Has this happened before?"

"I've had occasional cold flashes my whole life, but they were rare and usually only lasted a few seconds. This is way worse."

Alex stood up. "Come on, let's go for a walk. Getting up and moving will probably warm you right up. But we will have to go inside, cause it is still hot out here and I'll just overheat."

Heather wasn't surprised at Alex's bluntness. It was business as usual for him. The duo went inside and walked around the halls.

Suddenly, a cold breath escaped Heather's mouth and she stopped shivering. "That was weird. The cold is gone." Her eyes suddenly flashed vivid green, making Alex do a double take. "What?" she inquired.

Before she got an answer, a flash of bright green light caught her attention. It was coming from the door to the janitor's closet. The whole edge around the door was glowing.

Heather went up to the door. "Well, this definitely isn't ominous," she joked. "I kinda want to check that out but I also want to walk away and pretend that doesn't exist."

"Well, I'm never gonna stop wondering what the heck that could be, so if you don't open it, I will!" Alex said.

Heather dropped her backpack, and Alex did the same. She slowly opened the door, and she gasped another visible icy breath. In the large closet, it looked like the back wall was unevenly pushed in. A bright swirling green light in a perfect oval replaced most of the wall. As a fan of puzzle games, this green thing reminded her of one of them. Despite the unstable border and little bursts of green lightning flying out of it, the shape and appearance was clear; this was some sort of portal. A breeze sucked into it, and with the room being completely empty, she suspected this portal sucked the contents of the room up into itself. But she could not see into it to see where it lead.

"I wish Ray was here to see this," Heather whispered. Being a total tech geek like his father, Ray was spending the lunch trying to set up a computer club, something he's wanted to do for years.

"I know. He'd love it," Alex said back.

Heather could feel a static-like feeling, almost like an electric current was running through her. It was like the portal was putting out energy, and that energy felt good. She stepped in the closet, almost hypnotized by the swirling green and the cold-but-hot energy shooting through the air.

Alex went into the closet after Heather. He saw her get close to the portal, like she wanted to touch it.

"Heather! No!"

Alex's yell was too late. Heather reached into the portal and stepped into it. Bright green lightning struck her and seemed to hold her in place. It burned and blazed inside of her, blinding her, freezing her, putting her in pain but the pain being so strong it almost numbed itself. It felt like forever and no time at all. She passed out from it before it was even over.

Alex shook her. She woke up and coughed. "What happened?" She asked. "I feel... weird."

Alex helped her up. In a shaky voice, he said, "You should probably check a mirror."

She looked down at her clothes, a gaze of surprise. I need a mirror! She tried standing up, but her legs seemed to miss the ground and she fell flat on her face.

"Heather!" Alex tried to grab her by the arm to lift her up, but his hands went right through her. He tried to hide his surprise, and tried again, this time with success. He lifted her off the ground, she took a few shaky steps to steady herself, put her hood back up to hide her face, then ran off.

Her only thoughts were mirror, mirror, mirror! Alex's face was burnt into her mind. Something happened to her and she had to find out. She crashed through the door of the nearest restroom and looked at herself. She immediately screamed.

Yoltrun was told to go it alone on this one. But with the nature of the situation, he decided he needed backup. He took with him three members of the research team he lead and immediately went to the area the fluctuations came from. It was nearby and didn't take long to get to. He and his crew got to the spot and activated their hazmat suits. But they didn't need to do any scanning and searching. The fluctuation popped up right in front of him. A portal. And seconds later, lots of cleaning supplies and a few mops and brooms flew through, almost hitting the group.

"This is strange. I haven't seen a portal in around thirteen years, at least," Yoltrun said.

One of his squadmates commented. "Commander, this is bad. The humans blocked portals off. Either they turned off protections or something seriously wrong is going on here."

Yoltrun took out a scanner. The portal was very clearly unstable just by looking at it. His scanner told him it was using way more energy than a portal usually uses. "This isn't right. Team, stay back. I'm going to go through. Don't follow me. The boss won't like what I'm doing, but I can't ignore this." He hooked his scanner back to his belt and dashed into it.

"Commander! No!" One of the crew yelled. But it was too late. Yoltrun was through and seemingly in a closet. The door opened, and he barely had enough time to go invisible before two human children peeked through. The girl breathed an icy breath. Yoltrun saw that before. They exchanged words, and despite his unspoken no, don't do it, the girl touched the portal. But instead of going through, the unstable lightning zapped right into her. He saw the familiar white rings of a Halfa transformation. Once the girl got a full dose of portal energy, another green flash blasted her backwards and she passed out as the portal collapsed.

Yoltrun was not ready for this. A normal human or ghost, or even a fully-fledged half ghost would just pass through this portal, even with it's instability. This girl, she was something else.

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