Jason in the Ghost Zone

Portal Ghost

Is everything alright at home? Are you not getting along with your parents for some reason?
Really? Lancer had picked a good time to start having suspicions like that. With Dannys luck he would have expected something like that to come up in the middle of a crisis where it would have been impossible to deal with properly. As it was, all he’d had to do was smile nervously, say everything was fine, it was just hard to sleep lately with all the ghost attacks, nightmares you know.
It really wasn’t out of character for poor Danny Fenton who ran at first sight from any ghost. Lancer had nodded, it must have been hard on the unfortunate boy, his parents were often in the thick of things, no wonder he couldn’t sleep. Danny had gotten out of it with just a note for his parents and an appointment with the school counselor. The note was read, and then discarded. They couldn’t really do anything about the ghost attacks anyway. That was Danny Phantoms job.
The job he was busy with right now. It wasn’t a strong ghost, just a few smacks into the fight and it was already hiding. If he could have left it he would have. The spongy white thing had just popped up right in front of him while he’d been spacing out at Nasty Burger pretending to listen to his friends’ conversation. It had attacked first, but hadn’t done any damage; it had been like getting hit with a pillow.
Even from this ghost had scared little Daniel Fenton run, just in time for Phantom to swoop in and save the day. He really would have just left it alone is not for the fact that it had popped up out of its own portal, not the one in the Fenton basement. What if it decided to bring someone else along next time? Danny was searching through the now empty kitchen when she showed up.
Valery Grey, The Red Huntress, someone he really wasn’t feeling up to dealing with. She charged for him without even sparing a glance for the little portal ghost.
“Phantom!” Her greeting was followed by an ecto-blast to his back. It wasn’t hard to dodge when he’d gotten a warning.
“Listen, can we do this later?” He flew up and as far away from her as he could get without leaving the kitchen. “That little suckers probably going to cause some damage if we keep at this for too long.”
“More damage than this?” She waved her arm in a gesture that encompassed the whole of the restaurant. Danny peered through the wide door into the dinning area. Tables were toppled; there were scorch marks on the walls and floors, which were also covered in food. She fired at him again. “All of this will be fixed with pay-cuts, ghost!”
He really doubted that she’d appreciate an apology, or that she’d have come after him with any less passion if they’d met at any other location. Was Phantom even supposed to know that she worked here?
“Okay but listen, that thing can…” He had to duck behind a counter to avoid another of her attacks.
“Quiet!” At least she was on foot instead of zipping around on that hover bike of hers. Yay for enclosed spaces, right?
Danny peeked over the edge just in time to see the little ghost pop up behind her. “Hey look out!” he called, pointing at it.
“I’m not stupid enough for something like that to work.” She didn’t turn, and she didn’t see the ghost opening up the swirly green portal.
Danny flinched at her scream and as soon as she was gone he transformed back into his human form and ran out to find his friends. He wasn’t sure why exactly the ghost had taken her, and she could handle herself for a while in the ghostzone, but Danny didn’t want to take the chance. He’d have to go in and look for her.
***
Jason was bored, extremely bored, so bored he contemplated jumping off his island to see if he could fly again, but only bored to contemplate it, not to actually do it. Not yet anyway. Mr. Ugly hadn’t come back yet and neither had the Box Ghost, leaving the boy with only weird little things that could hardly speak to amuse him, if he could have chased after them it wouldn’t have been so bad, but all he could do was watch them float past every now and them.
He sat with his legs crossed; chin resting on his left palm as he peered over the floating islands edge. Was there even a ground here, or did it just go down forever? Maybe if he jumped he’d fall for long enough that he’d eventually get the hang of floating again. In his lap sat the hat, his right hand feeling for any seams in the fabric, there weren’t any. Humming tunelessly he fixed his gaze on one of the floating doors in the distance. If he could get to one of them and see where the little things kept disappearing to…
There was a pooping sound behind him that caught his attention. Curiously he looked over his shoulder to find the source, another little creature; this one was white with beady little glowing red eyes. It looked like an evil floating marshmallow. Jason laughed a little and walked over to it, but went silent when he noticed what it had brought with it. There was someone dangling over the edge of his island. Turning just in time to see the marshmallow entering one of the doors he sighed. The person was covered head to toe in some kind of red armor and wasn’t floating away.
He knelt down to get a closer look. “Are you okay?” He asked.
The only reply he got was a red beam of light flying for his face. With a short scream he tumbled back, hitting his head on the hard packed ground. “Hey!” He yelled indignantly, was everyone here going to attack him on sight or what?
“Stay back ghost!” The voice was a little distorted, but he could tell it was a girl.
“Did you hit you’re head or something?” He asked as he rubbed his, there wasn’t a bump at least. “Or did you maybe escape from an asylum?” People in weird clothes that randomly attacked people belonged in asylums as far as he knew.
“No!” She reached for something on her wrist.
Bad news! A sense for danger he hadn’t really registered before now kicked in. Bending over the end he snatched the object away from her. To his surprise her suit disappeared, leaving a totally normal girl hanging over the edge of a cliff.
“Do you want some help?” He asked after a little thought.
“Give that back!” She shot him a green eyed glare that would have melted him if it was really as poisonous as it looked.
“Will you shoot me again?” He raised an eyebrow and waved the watch around.
She opened her mouth to reply, but lost her grip. Jason’s hand reflexively reached out to catch her before she’d even had the chance to scream. He was surprised at how light she was. The hat chimed and he swept it off his head when he reached down with his other hand to pull her up. He backed away when he noticed her shaking, and not with fear.
“Where is it?” She fixed him with that glare of hers again.
He chuckled; she couldn’t glare half as hard as it would take to faze him. It took him a moment to get past his amusement and process her question. “I think I dropped it.”
“What?!” She charged at him again, but it was easy to sidestep the kick she sent his way.
“It’s not my fault! Would you prefer to have fallen?” He tried to take her seriously, but couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out as he dodged her attacks. He’d been so bored a few minutes ago, it was fun being around someone that couldn’t fly away. He tripped her, then bent over so his face was close to hers. “I can’t say I’d be grateful if I were you though…”
With a grunt she was back on her feet faster than he’d expected, she sent a high kick his way. He ducked under it then gave her leg a little push to set her of balance, knocking her down to the ground again. When she twisted around to look at him again his laughter was cut short. There was a thin trail of blood trickling from her nose.
“Crap. Sorry.” He took a step back. “I’m guessing you really needed that.” He took off the hat and tossed it her way.” You can use that for the blood.” He looked over the edge and saw her watch a few islands below him. “I’ll get it back.”
“I’ll get it myself!” Her voice was a little muffled by the hat she held over her face.
Jason lifted his hands in a show of surrender. He felt like by hurting her he’d broken some kind of rule he could just barely remember. Violent, Angry. He heard whispers at the back of his mind. It made him feel guilty and he wasn’t even sure why. The girl was looking over the edge at her watch, it was too far down for her to just jump, would she be able to climb down to be nearer like he could have?
“Just let me do it.” He slipped over the edge and made his way as close to the next island as he could get before falling the rest of the way. The impact didn’t hurt his legs as much as he was sure it should have. It was only when he’d gotten the watch that he realized he now had no way of getting back up.
Last time he’d flown, but he had no idea how to repeat that. He looked up to find her watching him. He sighed and reached for the pointed tip of one of the islands drifting lazily above him. This was going to take some time.
***
Valery watched the ghost as he climbed and dropped his way down the three islands between him and her armor. She’d been furious when he’d brushed off her attacks the way he had, not even using his ghost powers, mocking her with his laughter the whole time. Then he’d given her a bloody nose and suddenly his whole demeanor had changed. She vindictively pressed the hat as hard against her nose as she could without hurting herself, letting her blood soak into the cold fabric.
The ghost looked back up at her and she barely heard the curse he let out. She chuckled when he tried to reach the little island nearest him. She caught herself and straitened out her expression before her heard her. She couldn’t let her self be caught off guard by a ghost. He was a ghost and could have simply flown there and back, could have finished her off in an instant, but he chose to toy with her.
Crossing her arms she watched him more closely, she’d get her armor back from him, then she’d teach him that not all humans were unable to defend themselves from his kind.
***
Meanwhile in the Fenton basement, Danny and his friends were planning for there excursion into the ghostzone.
They’d decided that it would be easiest for Danny to lure her out as Phantom, and then lead her to the portal opening with some help from Sam and Tucker. His two best friends would be close by in-case of an emergency, but out of Valery’s sight. It would raise way to many questions if she saw them.
With a sigh and a quick look around to make sure his parents weren’t back from the store yet, Danny transformed and flew into the portal. He really hoped Valery hadn’t taken somewhere too dangerous.