Jason in the Ghost Zone

Hello

Sam hated the ghost-zone; most people would think that, being a goth, she liked it by default. They couldn’t have been more wrong if they thought she liked sparkly pink dresses. It was one thing to like horror stories and skull backpacks, and another thing entirely to like something that was the source of all of half your best friends’ problems. It was the source of a sizable amount of the other halves problems as well.
“We’ve got a problem,” Said half best friend said, pushing up his glasses.
“What is it?” She took her eyes of the fight to give him her attention.
In answer he pointed out one of the side windows. There was a ghost scaling the side of one of the islands. She would have wondered how he could even climb an upside down triangle, but ghosts didn’t really follow the laws of physics, least of all in the ghost-zone. He climbed and leapt his way towards them stopping when the nearest island was out of his reach. As they watched him Sam flicked on the ghost shield, just in case. It would drain a bit more power, but in the place that spawned things you fought on a daily basis it was best to be careful. They’d be gone soon anyway, Danny seemed to be finishing up with his baiting of Valery, not long now and he’d be ready to lead her to the portal and they could all get back.
“I think he’s saying something,” Tucker said.
“Huh,” Sam turned her attention back from Dannys fight.
The climbing ghost was waving his arms and jumping up and down. It was weird, but not near as weird as the other things she’d seen. Still, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to just dismiss it.
“We can’t make contact directly.” Tucker said, “Using the external communications systems will get Valerys attention.” The boy squinted out the window, trying to get a better look at the ghost. “I think he may be trying to show us something.”
“Like what?” Sam asked.
“Don’t know.” Tucker got up from he’s seat and moved to the back. “I’ll check quick.”
Sam kept her eyes on Danny up until she heard the door open. “Tucker, what are you doing?” She stood up quickly.
“Saying hello.” Her friend said. The door opened wide and Tucker waved with a smile at the ghost who had got much closer to them than she would have expected while she wasn’t watching.
“Tucker don’t!” She rushed to shut the door a second too late.
“Hey, what’s…”
Tucker didn’t get the chance to finish before the ghost had leaped through the opening, crashing into the bespectacled boy.
“Hello.” The ghost said, smile lighting up his red eyes. It drew back its fist. “Nice to meet you”
***
“Do you know how much trouble this going to be for me!”
Danny just barely dodged the shot she fired from her blaster. This wasn’t going as well for him as the fight at the Nasty Burger had been, as terribly as that gad turned out. Now she was using her board to full effect, zooming around him and firing from all directions. Danny wasn’t confident enough in his aim to fire any of his own ecto-blasts at her, she was going too fast and he didn’t want to risk hitting her.
A frustrated Valery made for a very frustrating fight. She was moving around in every direction but the one he wanted her to move in.
“Come on, I gave you back your suit, doesn’t that make up for a little.” He tried for a charming smile.
“NO!”
He actually had to take a moment to get back the breath he probably didn’t need after that flurry. Now he was thinking it would have maybe been easier to give her the suit after he’d dragged her through the portal, but super heroes didn’t do things like that, so he banished the thought. It would have made her hate him twice as much, and she hated him plenty already.
He sighed, well at least he was caught up enough on his homework that might have been able to take a rest after all of this.
“Danny!” A scream from where he knew he’d left his friends.
Both he and Valery spun in the direction of the call. Forgetting about Valery he sped for their location and arrived just in time to spot Tucker being thrown out the open door. If it had been possible his heart would have stopped.
“What happened?” He set his friend down gently on the nearest island.
“Sam!” Tucker pointed back to the vehicle and Danny took off again, before he could reach her the door slid closed and the windows slid shut.
“SAM!” He screamed, pounding on the metal, ghost-proof hell.
Nonononononono
He screamed as he continued uselessly.
An ecto-blast hit his hand, he’d forgotten about Valery.
“Get away from them ghost!” She said.
“Help me, or go away!” He said, desperately trying to find some way to pry the door open. Sam was in there, all alone with a violent ghost. Valery attacked again and out of frustration he shot an ecto-blast in her direction. Sam was in danger; Tucker was exposed in the ghost-zone, alone.
Danny began firing his blasts at the door, he had to save her.
***
“I just want to say hello.”
If it hadn’t just thrown her friend out into the ghost-zone Sam would have believed that. Trying to keep calm she took a deep breath. Why was she shaking so much, she’d seen Danny catch Tucker, could hear him banging down the door.
“Hello.” She pressed herself against the console, as far from the ghost as she could get. She’d damaged it when she’d fallen against it, scraping her arm on one of the sharp bits that had broken off.
The ghost boy pulled back a fist and she curled in on herself. “Don’t.” She tried shielding her face.
“Don’t what?” He said.
She opened her eyes not even knowing when they’d closed, and found him standing way too close.
“Please,” she said. She could hear Danny screaming, blasting at the door. He couldn’t het in, she had no weapons, and she’d never been so scared of a ghost before. This one was too real. She could see faint creases in his skin, stitches in his clothes. It was too real, like he wasn’t even a ghost, somehow she felt he wasn’t. He wasn’t.
“You don’t want to.” He said. It wasn’t a question, and almost sounded like he wasn’t talking to her at all.
She shook her head, hope filling her chest. He took a step away from her, confusion filling his face, followed by what, even in the dim light she could make out as horror.
“He didn’t fly.” The ghost said, leaping for one of the blacked out windows. He bashed it with his fist. “How do you do this!” He turned to Sam. “Open the door!” He said, his lips trembling.
“It’s broken.” Sam said. She waved her arm at the broken console.
His eyed widened and he punched the door before moving over to where she stood.
Sam backed away from him quickly, accidentally brushing her hurt arm against the seat. She hissed at the sudden pain, taking his attention away from where he was messing with the controls.
“I hurt you.” He said, a hand coming to his mouth. “That boy, he, I…”
“Our friend got him.” Sam said, she didn’t want him panicking and getting violent again.
“I’m sorry.” He said softly. She took a step towards him, but he jumped away from her like she was the dangerous one. It only lasted a moment before he took off his hat and threw it away from him, but in that moment she saw something she’d take time to convince herself was real.
“Relax.” It took all her courage to say that one word.
“I didn’t mean to.” She knew he wasn’t talking to her. “I didn’t.”
***
He couldn’t stand tat damn hat! He couldn’t stand the voices crawling into his head.
Did you push him?
No he whispered. He’d fallen, he’d fallen, and he’d deserved it, he’d been terrified and deserved it. It wasn’t Jason’s fault, he didn’t need to feel any remorse. He hadn’t wanted to touch any part of that filth, he shouldn’t have been expected to. It wasn’t his fault, that man hadn’t deserved to be saved, not after what…
But he had hurt people too. He’d thrown a boy out of a plane, hurt a girl. Kids weren’t supposed to be afraid of… of him.
He looked up. “I didn’t mean to.” This he said to the girl this time and tried for a smile. He could fix this, the hat was back on his head but he could fix it.
“I’m sorry.” He smiled, “haven’t been here very long. My name’s… uh.” He trailed off, forgetting what he’d been meaning to say. This hadn’t happened in a while. It didn’t matter; he wasn’t supposed to give away information like that in the field anyway. The girl was looking at him strangely now, at least she didn’t look afraid anymore, but he kept his distance just in case. “Who are you?” He didn’t hold out a hand to shake, better not to spook her,
“Sam.” She said after a moment. “My name is Sam.”
“Yeah, cute name. I’m sorry about scaring you and your friend earlier, you sure he’s okay.”
She nodded slowly.
“It’s just I’m not exactly… I’m not from around here. Not sure how things work yet.”
Something like pity, no pity exactly filled her features, not quite burying her fear, even under the fake smile. He hated fake smiles like that, but he squashed down the anger. He wasn’t angry, he was in complete control of himself.
“D-Do you know where here is?” She asked.
“Not a clue kid. We should get find away to open this door though. Do you mind if I… “He gestured at the console and she nodded shakily. “Right.” He gave a nod of his own and inspected the damage. Some broken whatever that plasticy material was, and some wires. He smiled, he could do this. Somehow he knew that he could, maybe he couldn’t memorize those chemicals one hundred percent, but he was good with cars, and this was just a really advanced car. “You don’t have any tools back here, do ya?” He asked over his shoulder.
“Just under the console.” She said, pointing.
“Thanks.” He dug poked his head underneath, not as dark as he’d thought it would have been. There was a feint red light that he couldn’t find the source of, but helped him find the little box quickly. “And if you can find a way to calm your friend down that would be great. This could take a while.”
She nodded and moved towards the door as he got to work.
***
“Danny!”
He almost didn’t hear her on the other side, the doors were so thick.
“Sam, are you okay?” He yelled.
“I’m fine.” Came the reply. “And Tucker?”
Danny spun around to get a look at his other friend who pointed a few islands down. “He’s okay. What happened Sam?”
“This other gh-guy thought he could fly. Just a misunderstanding” She said. “He’s trying to get the door open now.”
“What did he look like.” Danny asked, but something told him he knew.
“Uh.” It was almost a minute before he got an answer. “Black and white suit, a pointy hat.” She said at last and Danny dragged a hand over his face.
Frustration almost filled the spot in his chest that relief had freed up. Just that kid, of course he wouldn’t be able to understand the different between ghosts and humans yet. Danny regretted leaving him alone now even more now, poor kid probably had no idea what was going on in this strange place. Tucker was yelling now, jumping up and down, waving his arms to get Dannys attention. A quick look around showed nothing dangerous, and for being in the ghost-zone his ghost sense hadn’t picked up much the whole time.
Tucker wasn’t in trouble, but Sam might be very quickly if she said something to make the ghost go flip his mood again. Danny couldn’t leave her alone but Tucker was getting more insistent.
“Just don’t call him a joker okay,” Danny said, “I gotta check something.”
He waited for Sam’s affirmative before leaving to go check what Tucker wanted.
“What’s going on?” Tucker asked as soon as Danny was close enough to hear.
“It’s okay, for now but we have to get those doors open.” Danny said. “Anything you can do?”
“Not from here.” Tucker pulled out his PDA. “Whatever it is needs to be fixed manually. I you get me close enough to talk though I might be able to relay some instructions.”
Danny picked Tucker up and flew him over to his other friend. He was glad that neither of them were fazed by the things that happened, neither of them could do what they could, but still they tried to help him. Even as a headache started building from listening to Tucker yelling through the door so close to his ear, Danny was grateful.
He didn’t even think about what Tucker had been trying to show him before.
***
Valery groaned, as far as days went, she could think of only two that were worse than what she’d been through on this one. All she wanted to do was get home and go to bed. But here she sat in the ghost-zone, alone with nothing but a busted up suit, her gun had fallen over the edge of the island, into the foggy depths below. Now she was really stuck with no way home.
She’d fallen far enough before her mode of transportation had broken down that she couldn’t even see Phantom anymore, the spec that had been him had disappeared behind one of the islands after he’d blasted her out of the sky. She hadn’t been expecting such a strong attack from him, but she would have tried to stop him either way.
It had been a Fentonworks vehicle that Phantom had been trying to demolish, and there had most certainly been someone inside. She knew that It would take the ghost-boy forever to break through, but whoever was inside must have been terrified. It was times like these that she hardened her resolve to never fall for the tricks of ghosts, no matter how harmless they seemed. The Fentons were probably looking for there equipment and it would be ruined by the time they found it.
Oh, the Fentons, Valery could have slapped herself. They had a working portal into the ghost-zone and the means to travel it. Well not as competent as she herself was she knew that they could in fact handle themselves pretty well. She checked her pockets, relieved to find that her cell was undamaged.
Her benefactor had given her one that worked even in the ghost-zone.
***
The pointy hated boy had to pause his work for a moment, the feeling that something terrible was starting. Light-years away someone else felt the same and decided to end his current task as fast as possible