Portals

Met

Dan hated to admit it, but he was lost.
He had spun around the deadbeat town for an entire night but couldn't find hide or hair of any ghost anything. He once took down a ghost-free zone in Tokyo and could still catch whiffs of the goings in Amity Park, but here there was absolutely nothing.

He landed on the roof of an apartment complex, puzzled. No Amity Park aura anywhere, but there was a weird aura within five miles of where he stood that made him want to puff out red smoke like some demented train engine. And a familiar scent, one with less Packers fanaticism and more human. No way.

He jerked his head toward Danny Fenton stood, but knew it was a bad idea. Even with the ghostly wail, it would be a hard battle he'd probably lose. Ghost powers had a puberty too, and while Dan had mastered a power every year or so, there was no telling what Danny had in his arsenal now. Curse this existence outside the timeline; it was rather nice knowing what was going to happen next.

He started pacing back and forth about the roof; green and red haze trailed after him and swirled in his footsteps like some twisted shadow. He could try taking on Danny now, or he could try to avoid his past self for as long as possible and try to extend his freedom. But that wasn't how Dan acted. He paused, the ectosmoke spinning dizzily around him. No, it wasn't how he acted, but he did know how to act.

He launched off the roof, but had to go intangible as he whipped toward his destination. Sure, it would be fun to terrorize these ignorant people but that would definitely attract Danny's attention. So he had to fly under the radar.

He growled at himself. He could have sworn that the stupid puns had been ripped out of him alongside his human self. He'd wash out his mouth with ectoplasm when he landed.

The strange aura got closer and closer. It was centered over a. . . high school? It looked nothing like Casper High, especially the giant gaping hole in the side of it. Through the shredded brick wall he could see toppled desks. No, nothing like his old haunt.

There it was again!

He snarled as he charged into the building, intangible, and found where the aura was centered. He hovered over the koi mosaic, pondering his options again. He could force the strange creature down there to make him a portal home and never do it again. But that never worked. It would probably open another portal the moment he wasn't there to threaten him anymore. Danny would probably come flying and trap him in one of those cursed Fenton thermoses. If he was never sucked into one again it would be to soon.

But no. The creature could create portals between dimensions. And earlier that day he had felt something powerful coming from the city that was no doubt from him. This was quite possibly his only chance to destroy Danny once and for all, and he wasn't about to let it slip through his fingers.

He plunged into the koi mosaic headfirst.

***

"Danny? Danny!"

The half-ghost turned towards Randy, his cheek twitching. "What, Cunningham?"

"You can't just run off like that. You don't know where you're going."

"Then you can't ditch me either." Danny put a hand on the Fenton Thermos that still hung at his waist. He was honestly surprised that it was still there, and even more so that no one had questioned him about it yet. "I need to get home. I don't care how."

"We don't even know how you got here to begin with."

"A green ghost."

"A-- what?"

"A green ghost. Or man. I'm not sure what he was. But he was arguing with a mouse and chained inside a cave under the high school."

"He was what? Arguing with a mouse?"

"Is that really the most important thing I just said?"

"Well, uh, I think you ran into the Sorcerer."

"The who?"

"The Sorcerer. He's this really, really, bad guy who was trapped under the school by the original Ninja eight hundred years ago." Randy glanced around before continuing. "He makes the stank monsters."

"What, so like that pink thing that was actually a possessed woman?" Danny purposely left out the fact that he had met her earlier. "So what did the toilet paper have to do with anything?"

"That's the 'object they hold most dear,' because stank works the best on people that have been embarrassed or shot down."

"That makes sense." So it had been his fault. "So destroy whatever it is, take down the creature. Sounds simple enough. He's your Ghost Zone."

"My what?"

"Oh, the Ghost Zone. An alternate dimension where ghosts come from. That was the last place I was before ending up in the Magician's cavern."

"Oh, uh, okay. Yeah, sure." Randy paled a bit. This kid was heroing on a whole different level. "And it's the Sorcerer. Not Magician."

"Close enough," Danny grunted.

"I'm telling you, Grave Puncher 8 is the better game. Better graphics!" Howard was saying.

"I don't care if the thing is in an alternate reality engine. If it doesn't have a valid plot, I'm out. It will always be Grave Puncher 4."

The sound of a female voice made both boys turn on their heels. Howard was being towered by a girl with a sheet of red-tipped black hair that stretched past her shoulders. It was like watching a bulldog barking at a Doberman; the image was completed by the girl's all-black getup. Danny was reminded a bit of Sam.

"Who's she?"

"No clue," Randy muttered back.

The girl turned and almost crashed right into the two boys. She backed up, startled, then smiled at Randy. "Oh. Hi, Randy."

"Hi," the ninja coughed out, a bit worried.

"And, um, I don't know you," she said, turning to Danny. "Sorry about that; I'm Kassady."

"Danny," he replied. "I'm new."

"And you already know the Randy Cunningham of ShoobTube fame. Lucky you." She laughed and nudged the half-ghost. Randy let out a breath he didn't know he was holding when he heard that. So she knew him for a good (good?) reason. Thank cheese.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around. You go to Norrisville High, right?"

"You do?" Randy butt in.

"Well, yeah, of course. It's my second year there." Kassady started to walk towards the crosswalk, waving at them over her leather-coated shoulder. "See you!"

Both teen heroes were more than a little dumbstruck, watching her wake disappear in the crowd. Howard stood off to the side with his arms crossed, shaking his head. "She has no taste in video games."

"At least she knows video games," Danny snapped at him in disbelief before he realized something. "And you two told me that ShoobTube wasn't real!"

Randy shrugged helplessly. "Whoops?"

"So what about the robots?"

"They're real too."

"What?"

"Long story. But the shoob that makes everything around here goes by McFist and he has a deal with the Sorcerer to destroy the Ninja."

"So--"

"He has his lead engineer build robots and stuff for him. The guy-- Viceroy-- isn't that bad; he just has a chronic case of wrong place, wrong time."

"So someone who could easily join our side given the right reasons," Danny mused.

Randy grinned at him. "I like the way you think, Fenton."