Portals

Realized

"He knows you're here." The Sorcerer folded his arms, glaring at Dan. The ghost was sitting cross legged on the cavern ceiling.

"Of course he does. He followed me in the first place." Dan wiggled a little doll of Kassady Speilhart on a stalactite. She was nothing but a puppet in his hands, and there was something oddly satisfying about that.

"You came here, to me, knowing your past self was right on your stupid ghost tail?" The Sorcerer rose, stank flickering around his chaos balls.

"Eh," Dan shrugged. "He's not a problem." Lie. "Like your Ninja."

"The Ninja is the biggest problem we have!" The Sorcerer roared. "And if this little Dale Ghost—"

Dan sighed. "Danny Phantom."

"Danny Phantom. If he is working with the Ninja like you think, then that problem is now a catastrophe."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Dan smiled and stuck the doll into his pocket. "Phankasm should give them enough trouble, plus I haven't lost my abilities. You make a monster or ten, I overshadow a few people, and we'll have enough chaos to take over the entire world."

"Are you sure?" Behind the Sorcerer, the rat squeaked. The green man glared at it. "Oh, would you shut up?"

More squeaking.

The Sorcerer sighed and jabbed a thumb at the rodent. "He doesn't think it's that easy."

"Of course it's that easy. You have me on your side." Dan clicked his fingers.

Nothing happened.

He frowned, floated upwards and spread his arms, plasma arcing between his hands. Then the green sparks froze, contorted wildly, then vanished altogether. The ghost frowned. "What the—"

He tried again, this time just shooting a plasma beam. It made it a few feet off his fingertips, then flickered out of existence.

The Sorcerer and rat exchanged glances as Dan struggled to keep his palm glowing green for more than a few seconds.

The rat squeaked.

The Sorcerer shrugged. "I know he's crazy, but he's our best ticket out of here."

"I can't do it!" Dan shouted, throwing up his arms. "I can't make a stupid plasma beam. What the heck is wrong with me?" He spun to glare at the Sorcerer, grabbing at his back. "Did you put some of that gross goop that Phankasm can make on me when I wasn't looking?"

The Sorcerer shook his head. "Phankasm is a mixture of your essence and my magic. She is what she is." He shrugged. "Maybe you're not as good as you thought you were."

"I know I can do this much. I learned how to do this a month after I first got my powers." He held up his hands and grunted. This time there wasn't even a glow. "What the heck is—" he paused and turned towards the Sorcerer. "The mist from the Ghost Zone. It rots here."

The Sorcerer shrugged, the chains around his wrists rattling. "The stuff from the portal? Yeah, it does."

"So this dimension is toxic to things originating from the Ghost Zone," Dan whispered as he landed on the Sorcerer's rock outcropping. "I originate from the Ghost Zone."

"Right."

Dan raced forward and grabbed the skeletal green man by the front of his robe. The rat skittered into the shadows as Dan shook the Sorcerer. "You need to open that portal. I need to go back to the Ghost Zone right now!"

"No way. Not until you get me out of here."

"I promise, old man, I will put a hole in you." Dan raised a hand.

"Who're you calling old? I'm not the powerless ghost in the cave." The Sorcerer's gaze darted between Dan's frenzied features and the clawed hand that probably was a lot scarier when it was glowing green.

Dan's anger faded. He let go and stepped back, then flew into an outcropping higher up in the cave that he had made his own. He huddled back until he had curled up in a corner, then wrapped his dirty cape around his shivering frame.

He couldn't free the Sorcerer. There was a reason people say that it's lonely at the top. There's only room for one. The Sorcerer was obviously a for to be reckoned with. The man could open portals between dimensions, for pete's sake. As much as Dan hated to admit it, if the Ninja hadn't defeated him, the ghost as he stood now, the one who destroyed his entire dimension with his Ghostly Wail and all, would probably be relegated to a second lieutenant or something.

He would die before releasing the Sorcerer.

But he knew what happens when powers are taken. Danny Phantom got shot with the Fenton Weasel once, and by the end of an hour he was Danny Fenton again without ever transforming back on purpose. But Dan had no human half to revert to.

He raised one finger to his eyes and tried to make it glow. It backfired like a car, showering his face with hot green sparks.

What happens when a ghost can't exist anymore?

Easy. He doesn't.

Dan was going to disappear.