Portals

Fooled

The creature Dan was seeking lived in such deplorable conditions. The ghost pulled up as he reached the cavern, grimacing as he heard the foul dripping of water hitting stone somewhere. Oh, he hoped this was worth it.

He swept up his silver cape as he landed, taking a few steps toward the rocky plateau the creature had been chained to. "Hello?"

"What's this?" The green man made a shuffling sound and a moment later his head appeared over the edge of the rock outcropping. "You again? How are you here? How did you get out the first time?"

"Never mind that. I was hoping to speak with you about something."

Something started squeaking rather violently and the green beady-eyes man spun around, hissing. "Can't you see that I'm trying to have a conversation with a real person here? Shut up, rat!"

Dan raised an eyebrow at the last bit but managed to get his face under control by the time that the green creature turned again. "Wait. You are a real person, aren't you?"

"Are you?" Dan shot back.

"I was, once."

"Then my answer is the same. I was once human." The ghost floated up to the plateau to speak face to face with the green skinned man. To his sorrow the creature didn't look impressed at all. But the feeling faded away when he saw the golden chains wrapped around his wrists. Gold, not green or the like, and definitely not ghost proof. He could have the creature out of his chains and prison quicker than Tucker could down a Nasty Burger.

He bit his lip. That kind of thinking wasn't good for him.

"Well, I was going to ask. You do have power, don't you?"

"More than you could ever imagine." One of the Chaos Pearls at his waist flashed and spat out a tendril of stank. "I am called the Sorcerer."

"Dan Phantom, a pleasure to be of acquaintance." Then he got a whiff of the stank and began to cough, the red fumes of his ghost sense blurring his ashen features. "What- what is that?"

"This?" The Sorcerer frowned at the green wisp and sniffed it. "Uh, perfectly good stank, if a bit stale."

"Stank? What's stank? Ugh, it smells like the Ghost Zone, but... it doesn't. Like it went bad. Can the Ghost Zone go bad?"

"Hold on, start again." The Sorcerer stared at Dan, who was still caught in the throes of his coughing fit. "What is the Ghost Zone?"

"An alternate dimension. For those who have passed on but choose to keep living."

"Ugh. Creepy."

"It is rather strange," Dan admitted. "But I never died." He let himself start floating again, this time a little higher. "I am the most powerful ghost there is, because I was once half human!"

"So you're a ghost. Fine." The Sorcerer narrowed his eyes. "But half human too? So what, you were half dead? How does that work?"

"Uh..." Dan blinked. "The blast technically blended my DNA with ectoplasm, and I'm what resulted. Oh, forget it, it's too complicated to explain. Just know that I'm a ghost." He let an ectoplasmic ray bud up in his hand, casting a green glow on the cavern above him. "And I'm your ticket out of here."

"Oh really? How do you plan on doing that?"

"Oh..." the ghost drifted over to a column that had formed on one end of the cavern, illuminating it with some more ectoplasm. "Just a little something called intangibility." He stuck his hand through the cave formation.

The Sorcerer started clapping, getting to his feet for the first time. The chains rattled as he continued his standing ovation. "I think you and I are going to be very good friends," he paused. "I'm sorry, what was your name again?"