Phantom Falls

Chapter 6

Danny checked the clock. 11:32. Stan was snoring in his living room armchair, and the twins were surely asleep by now. No one would miss him.

He concentrated, and in the blink of an eye his hair was white, his eyes were green, and he was wearing the black jumpsuit of his ghost form. He floated off the ground and stretched. Then he zoomed out of the shack like the walls weren't even there.

Danny flew through the woods, looking for the place where they had met Bill. It all looked a bit different in the dark. He soared over the strange river and headed towards a slightly lighter section of forest.

He landed in a small clearing, though not the one they had stopped at earlier. He took a few steps forward, looking around.

"Hey, hey, hey! What do you want?" A face poked down from the tree branch above him.

He jumped back. "Uh, sorry. I..." but he trailed off, taking in the creature before him.

"What?" the small man dropped to the ground and glared up at Danny from a height of not twelve inches. He had a short brown beard and was wearing a red pointed hat. "What's your problem, kid? Never seen a gnome before?"

"I, well, uh..." Danny stared at the tiny creature.

"What are you doing out here at this hour? And what exactly are you, may I ask?" The gnome crossed his arms. "I was about to take my nightly squirrel bath."

Danny decided not to ask. "I'm..." he thought for a moment. He didn't want word getting to Dipper and Mabel about his ghostly investigations. He decided to go by his alternate name. "The name's Phantom."

"Oh, so you're some sort of ghost?"

"Uh, yeah." Danny tried to say it without hesitation.

"Okay then. Let's start over. Hi! I'm Jeff, leader of the gnomes." Jeff waved up at Danny. "And let me make this perfectly clear. Don't go bothering us a night again, or I'll have to imprison you, phantom or not."

"And how would you do that?" Danny said, laughing. "You're barely a foot tall."

"Listen to me, ghost kid. You don't want to-" But Danny had picked Jeff up and hung him by the back of his shirt on the nearest tree branch. No more time for chit chat.

"That's it!" Jeff shouted. "Gnomes of the forest, attack!"

An eruption of tiny men converged on Danny. He collapsed to the ground under their sheer numbers and within seconds was tied down like Gulliver. "Hey, what are you-? Get off me!"

"SHMEBULOCK!" A gnome with a haphazard gray beard was gnawing on Danny's leg.

"Stand down!" Jeff said. He had gotten off the branch and approached Danny's head.

"Shmebulock..." The crazy little man got off Danny and wandered into the trees.

"Like I said, don't mess with us. The gnomes are a powerful race! We-"

Danny rolled his eyes and went intangible, sinking into the ground.

"Hey! I'm not done with you yet!" Jeff called as Danny flew away, invisible.

He kept flying. Apparently there was more weird stuff going on here than he had anticipated. He would have to be more careful.

He continued to look for the place where they had met the demon. He flew into a cave full of loud noises, terrible smells and hairy man-beasts and was blown straight out again. He narrowly avoided being snapped up by a lake monster, and was forced to do some fancy flying to get away from something that looked like a cross between a gremlin and a goblin.

He touched down behind a large pine tree, hands on his knees, hoping that he had shaken the thing off. How was he supposed to know that it would become stronger if he shot ice at it?

Danny was breathing heavily as he peeked around the tree. The thing was gone. He sighed and slid down the trunk, sitting on the ground. This whole place was wrong, and a ton more complicated than he had bargained for.

"Bit different from your cozy little Amity Park, isn't it Deadman?" The high-pitched nasal tone of voice rang out just above Danny.

He shot to his feet, fists raised defensively. "There you are, demon! I've got some questions for you!"

Bill laughed. "Listen, Phantom. I gave you a break in front of those kids, but you've gotta do better than that if you want information."

"How did you know?" Danny asked. "About my ghost half, I mean."

"Oh, I know lots of things, Deadman. I've been through your little Ghost Zone and back. I recognized you at once. Thought you might turn up here sooner or later." Bill smirked. Or at least Danny thought so, it was kind of hard to tell.

"Look, I don't know what exactly you are, but I'm just going to get this over with, okay?" Danny shot into the air and fired a ray of green energy from his hand. Bill moved to the side, watching Danny amusedly.

"You wanna play, kid?" Bill pointed his finger at Danny, who barely missed the laser beam.

Okay, this might be difficult.

Danny shot more energy blasts at Bill, who avoided them almost lazily. When Bill shot back, his laser went right through Danny's shield and grazed his arm.

"Ah!" Danny grabbed his arm in surprise.

"That was a warning shot, kid. Don't go biting off more than you can chew."

"You know what?" Danny said as he fired another blast, which Bill didn't bother to dodge. The ray was absorbed into him with no effect, and Danny fumbled while taking out his thermos. "How did you-?"

Bill laughed. "I told you kid, you're not in Amity Park anymore."

Danny uncapped his thermos and pushed the on button. Blue light shot out of the end at Bill, but nothing happened. The demon mimed yawning as the light washed over him.

"What? That was supposed to- you should've been-" Danny stuttered. This was completely new to him. No ghost of any kind was able to stay out of the thermos.

"Kid, if you're gonna keep this up, I'll have to make things difficult." Bill rolled his eye.

"What do you want?"

"Me? Oh, nothing much. I think I'm just gonna sit back and watch all this play out. When those kids find out-!"

"They aren't going to." Danny said, teeth clenched. "And why are you even talking to me if you don't want anything from me?"

"You came looking for me, Deadman. And trust me, you'll want to talk again sooner or later. You have no idea what you're up against. I'll be here if you need me! Remember, YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS CRUEL HOAX BY THE LIZARD OVERLORDS BURY ALL YOUR GOLD WATCH OUT FOR THE GLOW CLOUD BYEEEEE!"

Before Danny could demand anything else from him, Bill had vanished in a flash of light.

Danny heard a gasp behind him.