7/1/24: Minor rewrite for quality and continuity.

Chapter 12: Into the Zone

Danny was with Sam at the garden store when he got the automatic text message from his home ghost security system. He had to read it twice, first because he was surprised the system still worked at all, and second to take in the message.

ALERT: GHOST PORTAL ACTIVATED - Ghost Portal was activated in LAB.

It couldn't have been caused by Heather because she claimed she was going to the movies. Yoltrun left the house hours ago. There shouldn't be anyone home to activate the portal. Something was seriously off.

"Sam, something's wrong. We need to check the portal."

Ten minutes ago...

The trio were in the lab, repairing the Ghost Portal in a spontaneous bout of curiosity with a ratty old manual on one of the shelves.

"Ok, so which wire goes where?" Alex asked.

Ray read through the page in the manual. "The red one goes into the small hole, the blue one into the hole on the side."

"But the red wire doesn't fit!"

"You're putting it into hole number 342! Put it in the small hole!"

"Which one is the small one?"

"The one to the left of 342!"

Heather laughed at the boys as they figured out where to stick the last few wires to finish rewiring the ghost portal in the secret lab. "Who the heck even designed this?" She asked as she screwed some panels back together. It took a few minutes, but they soon figured out the strange cable labeling.

Then, all they needed to do was plug it in.

"And, here we go!" Alex said with glee as he plugged the thick cables together. Unfortunately, all that happened was a spark. "Ray, what happened?"

"One second, let me see..." Ray flipped through the book and found some handwritten notes. "I see. It's in power test mode. You forgot to press the 'on' button on the inside."

"Oh."

Alex went into the portal and was about to press the button when Ray dropped the manual and yelled, "STOP!" Immediately, he unplugged the portal. "Okay, now you're good."

The on button was pressed. Alex backed out of the portal. "What did I do wrong?"

"You were about to get blasted with an insane amount of energy. You could've died!"

"Well, who designed that? That's stupid!"

Ray turned to the first page of the manual. "Heather's grandparents, in 2004."

"Why didn't they just upgrade it?" Alex snatched the manual out of Ray's hands and flipped through it.

"Come on, let's hurry up! My parents could be home any minute!" Heather said. she got up, picked up the cables, and connected them. A bright flash lit up the room and a blast of cold air rushed through. In place of the empty tunnel was swirling green light.

Heather changed into her ghost form. "Ready?" She asked.

"Yes," Alex replied.

"Ray, are the maps loaded up?"

Ray pulled up the maps he took from the computer and painstakingly pulled an all-nighter to make into an app for his phone. "Up and ready."

Heather tied a rope to her two friends and tied it to her belt, their spontaneous plan to ensure they wouldn't get lost.

With that, they entered the Ghost Zone.

Yoltrun was miles away from the city, collecting data. There wasn't much more data he could possibly collect. It was all so repetitive. Whenever a blip showed up on his scanner, meaning a ghost portal is near, it never lasted more than a minute and all the blips weren't in any pattern whatsoever. This time, though, a big blip miles away came up. It had readings showing up on the screen, even with the distance. It was no natural portal.

Even better, though, it was a way to get home. There was no point in staying here with nothing important happening. Even training Phantom's kid was only done out of pity. Without thinking, he flew to the blip at top speed. Coming up on a certain very familiar neighborhood, Yoltrun was not surprised to see that the blip was coming from none other than the Fentons' house. He dove into the secret room as his scanner guided him but this time saw another secret room beyond that. It was clearly a lab, opened up on one of the walls.

He flew to it without thinking, and he slammed right into the ghost shield guarding it. Pausing to reorient himself after that, he didn't even notice Danny Phantom sucking him up in a Fenton Thermos.

Heather flew the trio through to the mysterious green world. Doors floated around, and islands were floating in the distance. She landed on a nearby little floating island made of strange purple rock. She and Alex took in the scenery of the dark green sky and floating islands and doors while Ray took pictures.

"Woah, this is incredible," Heather said.

Alex stepped to the rock's edge and looked down. "It's like it goes on forever. I can't believe it."

Ray took his last couple photos and switched back to the map. "It might as well. The map's notes said this place doesn't really conform to the universe's rules."

Their observations were interrupted by a sudden shout. "You three! Explain why you're here!"

The sudden voice surprised the three. They turned around to see a ghost towering above them with an imposing glare.

Ray was the first to speak. "Who are you?" He meekly asked the ghost.

He was not happy at that question.

"My name's Walker. Know it. Fear it. Obey it. Now, state your names and intentions before I lock you all up for a thousand years!"

Heather stepped forward. "I am Heather, this is Alex and Raymond. We're..." she briefly paused to look back at her friends.

Alex subtly shrugged. Ray looked at Alex with disappointment and Heather just sighed. She had to think fast.

"We were actually... Looking for you! We're new here, and want to know the rules of this place!" It seemed impossible for Walker to believe Heather's little lie. It seemed too obvious.

But, as luck went in the trio's favor, Walker tossed a small book to each of the three. "A book of rules. If you're willing to learn the law, you can stay. And you," he paused, pointing at Heather, "I see you wearing the emblem of Danny Phantom. These two humans are your responsibility; you better keep them in line. Make sure any real-world contraband does not leave their persons." He then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Alex sighed in relief. "Good job, we're safe for now. This book is pretty big, though. I don't know how we will ever read this whole thing in time to travel."

Ray spent a bit of time viewing the terrain and matching it to the map while Alex mumbled about the various rules.

"It appears that we are very far from the well-charted areas," Ray said eventually. "There are a few unique islands, but the closest lair is called Karma's cave, about a mile away. Your call, Heather."

"That sounds interesting," Heather said. "Let's start there. Lead me to Karma's Cave."

"Why did you open the portal?"

Yoltrun was tied to a chair with some glowing white string. He struggled, but couldn't get out. "How many times do I have to tell you! I didn't open it!"

He was desperate to escape. The way home was right in front of him. Danny Phantom and this white string were the only things blocking him.

Okay, remember training. Part 1, scan the area.

"All I did was help you. I let you into my home, protected you when you were hurt, and you break into my lab and activate the portal?" Danny's voice rang with betrayal.

Empty lab tables. A few tools, some computers, nothing useful. "You trapped me outside of your lab. Did you seriously think I could get past that shield?"

"The security system was hacked," Danny said. "I wouldn't be surprised if you hacked the shield too."

Part 2, plan escape. I must get to the ghost zone. I can't escape the string with intangibility, and breaking it is not an option. Only a tiny transformation can help me. Now for part 3. Execute plan.

Danny, too quick to jump to hostility, was unsatisfied with Yoltrun's lack of response. "Fine. If you're not going to talk, maybe some time in the thermos to think will do you good."

When Danny turned around to grab the thermos from the desk behind him, Yoltrun used his shapeshifting to his advantage. While the string didn't let him change his form completely, he was able to soften his body enough to ooze out of the rope in a puddle of ectoplasm. He wasn't fast enough though, and as he reformed, Danny grabbed his tail and threw him into a wall.

Yoltrun gathered all his strength and formed himself into a big green dragon. He knocked Danny to the ground and pulled up one panel of the metal floor, wrapping it around Danny to trap him. He escaped to the Ghost Zone before Danny, out of practice, remembered to turn intangible to escape. He was home, finally, albeit with the loss of an ally. He couldn't go back to the human world now. At least, not yet.