Power Hungry

Hiking

The Ghost Bus, as people had taken to calling it, puttered along.

Paulina whined. "So, like, when is something interesting going to happen?"

Mrs. Fenton, who had been studying the GPS' current course, answered her. "Just a couple more hours until we reach our first destination, If you want, you can go upstairs and sleep."

"And risk messing up my hair if we run into the Ghost Boy! As if." Paulina crossed her arms and stared out the window. Maddie rolled her eyes and spared a glance at the students on the bus, lingering just a second longer on Danny.

The boy in question was sitting in the back bench seat, playing Go Fish with Sam and Tucker. Though the trio had a calm demeanor to the onlookers, inside they were alert to everything going on in and around the bus.

Danny spoke quietly in Esperanto. "It just seems too quiet, ya know? It's putting me on edge more than if there were some ghosts around."

Still in Esperanto, Sam replied, "Danny, you're just being paranoid. This is one of the lesser inhabited areas anyway. Of course there aren't many ghosts."

"Yeah, dude," Tucker spoke up, the trio still amazed he had somehow beat them in their game. "The first stop is just an island. It's so small that no ghosts actually live there. Trust me, Danny, both Frostbite and I programmed locations specifically for this trip into the GPS."

The mention of Frostbite's intervention helped to somewhat calm Danny for the moment. Somewhat. Deciding that nothing interesting could happen during the rest of the drive, the trio headed upstairs for some rest to prepare for whatever laid ahead.

---

A hike.

After hours of traveling, they arrived at their destination to learn that they were going on a hike.

"Nothing bad can come out of this, right?" Danny seemed to wince, waiting for karma to burst in and smack his words in the face.

In the distance, where the Populars stood talking, Paulina shrieked about her shoes. "I'm not so sure dealing with Paulina can be constituted as good, Danny." Sam crossed her arms and looked in the crowd's direction. Danny chuckled softly and placed a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder.

"I know what you mean, Sam. But at the moment it's preferable over our other options."

"If you say so." Sam shrugged and the trio moved to go listen to the adults talking about the hike.

---

The hike took two and a half hours to reach the top of the mountain, the whole time Paulina and Star were whining about their feet, and Dash and Kwan were fawning over them.

"Alright kids, this is where we will stop." As if they were magic words, the group of teenagers collectively crumpled to the ground, exhausted. Maddie Fenton looked at her watch. "It's about time for lunch. We'll sit and eat for an hour and then start heading back down, okay?" The mass grumbled, but the unzipping of backpacks echoed throughout the green realm.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker sat in a small circle, eating. Sam was munching on some carrot sticks with homemade hummus her mother had packed, and Tucker was eating an overstuffed roast beef sandwich. Danny was meticulously picking through a bag of Smartfood Popcorn, staring into the distance.

Tucker waved a hand in Danny's face. "You okay, man? You're zoning out." Danny blinked and jumped at seeing Tucker in his face.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I was just trying to see if I could sense any ghosts around, y'know? Never hurts to be cautious."  As if on cue, a blue mist poured from his mouth. Danny's eyes flashed green in annoyance. "Oh no."

Danny and his friends heard shrieking and looked around to see his family and class surrounded by ghosts in guards uniforms. Two more guards appeared and pushed Sam and Tucker into the bunch. Danny took up a defensive position, fists raised.

"Hello, Ghost Child." Walker seemed to appear in front of Danny, cutting him off from his friends. "Bringing humans into the Ghost Zone is prohibited, as you well know."

"These people are under my protection, Walker. If you touch them, then you are going against me. And is that something you really want to do?"

The Warden ghost seemed to ponder for a moment before answering, "You are still going against the law, Ghost Child! For that, you must be punished." An electric shock from Walker's baton snaked out and into Danny, pulsing with energy. Danny screamed out in pain, hearing the cries from his friends and family as he fell unconscious. Tucker's words from earlier seemed to flash through his mind; we're visiting safe locations!