Scanned a Ghost - Chapter 1

    She wafted through a zone covered in green, she wore a simple tunic and vest both different shades of the same color, her baggy black pants had a tear in them showing a gash underneath bleeding red, her knee high boots kicked at the air as she flew, hooded short cloak flapping behind her, her face covered by a simple white mask in the shape of a fox. Her hands gripped a large bundle tightly, her pale hands turning whiter at the grip she had. She flew onwards, her pursuers closely behind her. A ghost in white tux carrying a bullhorn flanked by specters in swat team uniforms.

    “By authority of Sheriff Walker, you are under arrest for violation of ghost zone law section seven; no real world items are permitted in the ghost zone.”

    She ignored them, searching, a pair of real fox ears pricked from under the hood listening. A door opened to her right glowing blue; her ears shivered. There!

    She kicked turning herself towards it and willing herself to go faster. Her pursuers shooting at her like mad. A stray shot landed in her arm, hurting her. She let out a yelp veering too far to the right, slamming into a passing ghost in black and white clothes.

    She stared at him a moment before kicking off of him, the kid gave a yelp of surprise turning to see who had jumped him, “Hey, watch it!”

    She didn’t answer she redirected herself for the door, the ghosts behind her splitting off in two directions now. She was so close.

    *

    Danny phantom had just come from the Dark Age’s section of the ghost zone. Behind him Dora, or Dorothea, one of the area’s princesses, waved him off. He aimed himself for home expecting to have a smooth flight.

    “Thanks again Dora, so long.” He called.

    The princess ghost gave the cage in her hand a rattle, a small ghost inside shaped like a bear shivered at the sight of her. Even more so as she turned into a dragon form, bellowing, “Now about your crimes in my domain.”

    The bear-like ghost shivered again.

    Danny glided off, eyes open for trouble. Otherwise he was relaxed, “A job well done, a dangerous ghost captured and successfully dropped in the capable hands of Dragon princess Dora. And not a villain in sight, Not bad for a Saturday.”

    Something slammed into him, knocking the wind out of his human half, he blinked to see who it was yelling out, “Hey, watch it!”

    The figure, a hooded girl in old looking clothes didn’t answer; instead she kicked off of him headed upwards. Danny went flying back a bit, he glared at her, “Hey what do I look like a doormat?”

    That’s when he noticed the several ghosts chasing her, all of them belonging to Walker, the self-dictated sheriff of the ghost zone, and not a very good one to boot. The mob was headed by walker himself. The ghost shot a glance at him and pointed.

    “You! Get him too he still owes a thousand years of imprisonment.”

    The group split off in two. Danny flew upwards dodging ecto-blasts that were now aimed at him. He fired a few shots of his own energy back, “Great just what I need, Walker and his goons with a cell waiting.”

    He reached for his cold core, blasting a ray of ecto infused ice. Several of the ghosts were frozen solid as a result, but others were still coming. He glanced up at the figure, she wasn’t even trying to fight back; she flew onwards allowing two more shots to grazed her. She faltered.

    “Ok, hit me once shame on you, hit walker’s bad side and you can’t be all bad yourself.” he flew up towards her. The ghosts behind him followed, joining back with the group. Another shot was about to hit her, Danny threw up a shield flying behind her, “Hey are you alright?”

    The girl didn’t answer, she floated before the door glowing with blue energy and held up her hand, the door turned yellow and opened with a simple touch. She turned behind her and gave a howl. Long and rusty sounds pierced through the ghost zone with such energy they formed ripples of thin air. The ghosts covered their ears, halting their attacks but not their now pained pursuit. Danny covered his own ears in pain, the sound wasn’t very loud but it made his ears ring like crazy, rattling him down to the base of his skull. The girl turned and fled into the door quickly.

    Danny turned to see her leave, the sound stopped but his head still hurt. The ghosts looked dazed as well, but now they could attack again. They began firing their ecto guns wildly, only now they had no aim at all, they just fired at whatever they could see, some even hit each other.

    A shot grazed Danny’s arm, he knew he couldn’t stay here. if he did Walker’s ghosts would recover faster than he could and slap him in a cell, and knowing walker he would add some things so he couldn’t use his human half to escape like last time.

    He glanced at the open, still glowing yellow door, it was fading. With a hurried kick he flew straight at it, hoping it wasn’t going to be one of those time travel portals again. The door closed behind him, but he didn’t notice, he ended up too busy trying to hold onto his lunch.

    Wherever he was it was spinning with every color you could think of in every pattern and then some, sucking him through like a vacuum sucks up dirt, and with no control of where he was going. He felt his stomach churn, his body felt went numb, and darkness was tugging at him. What in the world was going on?

    He slammed into something, something soft, he managed to glimpse long white hair before passing out.

    *

    The girl felt her weight return. The light around her began to fade; she flipped herself so she was going feet first and slid out of the portal. Below her she could see a huge lake a small castle sitting on a peninsula of rock overlooking the east side, above her the world  darkened sky shined with stars in patterns not found on earth.

    She judged the distance and reached into herself and called on the dark. Shadows around her moved, gathering and hardening into a vast blanket beneath her. Gravity had a hold of her now as she dropped out of the sky and into the black net. She concentrated as she lowered herself slowly; the ground was still a ways off.

    She had barely started her descent when something raced past her, fire ripped through the dark net beneath her causing her to drop faster. She quickly focused on the spots holding her up, glancing at where the flame had come from, down on the swampy shore of the lake a tall creature resembling a catfish on two thick legs glared up at her. His hands held a flame ready to throw at the being in the sky. He threw back his arm to throw.

    She scoffed as she set her power into the darkness, casting a shadow so large it blotted out the stars behind her. She sent it at the creature with a thrust of her hand, there was a whoosh and three things happened.

    First; her shadow surrounded the creature, snuffing out the attack as it did. The fish face flinching as he suddenly saw nothing but blackness around him.

    Second; the portal behind her closed, spitting out a shape as it did. The girl’s eyes widened as she realized it was a young boy, alive and unconscious.

    And finally; something slammed into her from the side, moving fast. Her eyes landed on a figure flying through the air, he looked like an owl of sorts dressed in white robes and a string of green beads around his neck. He glared at her as he fired wind from his hands crying out, “Wind slam!”

    The girl raised her hand hardening the shadow around her, the current of wind dissipated. She didn’t have time for this; she turned her attention to the figure falling through the air, sending another shadow to catch him. The owl creature used this to attack her again. Green fist shapes raced towards her and the two stowaways, she moved the shadow sending the boy harmlessly out of the way, but got hit herself. The bundle in her hand dropped from her grip.

    She reached out to grab it with another shadow, but there was a torrent of water that slammed into her from nowhere. The fish creature had attacked her again; the darkness that had surrounded him was gone. The bird creature aimed another wind attack at her, causing her to lose her grip on the shadows supporting her. She began to fall, she screamed out at the creature that dared attack her with the same rippling sound she had used on the ghosts before. Both clutched their heads trying to block the resonating sound in their heads. The girl stopped, turning her attention herself and to the figure falling out of the sky. A black net catching them both and lowering them at a safe pace, they landed in the long grass far from each other. The girl lowered her hood revealing long braided brown hair. She got up to reach the two in the grass. A flame caught her off guard singeing her as it stopped her path. She turned with narrow eyes to see the fish creature coming towards her. He smiled spitting out a stream of boiling water. She ducked out of harm but still ended up soaked with mud.

    “You’re an interesting Overworlder, but not very strong are you?” he said in a bubbling growl.

    The girl stood straight, “So you are not an Overworlder of Perim?”

    “There you are intruder.” The owl creature was back, landing with a loud thump, he turned to see the fish creature and hissed, “Nauthalax, I should’ve known you’d be here too, filthy underworlder.”

    The girl stood still as the two creatures eyed each other, disgust painted all over their faces. The girl slowly called upon her powers and began wrapping the shadows around herself so she disappeared from sight. Not much sooner after she had done this the creatures attacked each other.

    One with fire, the other with wind.

    The battle between them gave her enough cover to flee for it, headed for where her portal stowaway lay. She found him near a patch of reeds still out for the count. He looked to be a human of around fifteen or sixteen with raven black hair and pale skin, he wore a pair of jeans, red tennis shoes and a grey shirt with black trim to it and a red jacket marked with the common figure of a ghost colored in black; from the look of it he was unarmed. She reached for him, noticing a second figure laying not too far from him. This one was a girl, possibly the same age wearing a long red tunic with a dark grey overcoat, black leggings and ankle reach boots, she even had a bag of some kind strapped to her back, her hair was silver as moonlight held back by a leather strap and a short braid reaching her shoulders, but the most striking thing about the girl was the pair of black raven wings folded awkwardly behind her.

    The masked girl reached her power out to them, feeling their energies, now her curiosity reversed, the girl felt like most creatures she had come across before. She had an aura that wasn’t human but it wasn’t overly powerful either. However, she did seem to have something about her that was close to magic.

    The boy however was brimming with a feel that was human and yet not, an otherworldly sort of power that made her wonder if her own abilities were mistaken and he wasn’t human at all..

    The girl frowned as she slipped towards the boy’s side, his skin was colder than it should be, but he was breathing and unhurt so far as she could tell. Good. She carefully picked him up, flinching as a fire attack from the battling creatures came a little close. She eased him up onto her back carefully and wrapped him in her shadow to keep him from slipping off. She moved to tend to the other one.

    The winged one didn’t stay asleep long; as soon as she was touched by the gentle fingers her eyes snapped open revealing a brilliant gold color, staring madly around her. Scooting back when she saw the masked figure before her.

    She held out a hand to the winged girl speaking softly, “You need to get out of here, can you fly with those wings?”

    The raven winged girl stared at her a moment; the masked girl frowned underneath, Something about this Tengu caught her attention. There was something clinging to this girl, a second aura on top of her own that didn’t quite seem to match up and yet fit perfectly, like a puzzle piece of a different picture. The girl made a mental note to find out more about this girl when she could, that aura could mean she wasn’t from here either.

    The raven winged girl looked around a bit, a shot of green hummed past exploding as it hit the ground. Both girls were thrown back as a result. The masked one having to bring up a shadow net to cushion the fall, the winged one simply took off into the air with a yelp. She circled once and flew off as the owl man chased after her.

    The masked girl checked the boy’s positioning on her back. Looks like the fall didn’t hurt him, that was good. She then reached her powers out, ‘feeling’ for the fish face. She found him swimming under the lake, great. Just great. She felt out the winged girl, she was flying out west, and quickly too. She was going to have to find out about her later.

    The girl rushed off towards the castle with bursting speed, the boy on her back moaned.

    “Just don’t get sick kid, I’ll explain everything later.”

    *

    Danny felt queasy, downright sick to his stomach. He knew he had passed out at some point and he knew he had fallen. With dull surprise he realized he wasn’t hurt, something had grabbed him and lowered him to the ground. He lay there awhile, too sick to get up. His eyes fluttered open a moment, he was surrounded by long grass and the smell of wet earth, it was nighttime, and he could tell from the dark and moonlight on the ground. But he noticed something else. A figure lying just across from him, a girl with white hair and…were those wings? He heard something, voices and something like an explosion.  Now footsteps, someone was there. Someone with a simple white fox mask, the girl he had followed…from where again? His head was spinning; the girl picked him up onto her back gently.

    “You need to get out of here, can you fly with those wings?” The masked girl was saying, Danny heard another explosion, he felt himself get thrown back, and land on something airy, he felt a shiver of cold through his body. His eyes opened a little seeing the winged girl fly off in the light of what may have been a firework, the wet ground soon snuffed it out.

    The girl carrying him shifted him into a more comfortable position on her back, he then felt like there was something probing around him, he got the distinct impression that he was on military radar somehow. Maybe like his parent’s ghost tracker.

    His parents, how long had he been out? It had to be late, his parents would be worried. His sister could cover for him no problem, but sooner or later they were going to ask questions. He groaned aloud, right after they ‘killed’ him.

    The girl heard him, she was moving now, fast. She sounded worried, “Just don’t get sick kid, I’ll explain everything later.”

    Sick? Oh yeah, his head was still spinning, how could he have forgotten that? Darkness soon filled his mind, calm, refreshingly still darkness. He sank against the girl’s shoulders, falling asleep and hoping he wasn’t going to throw up.

    *

    A great blue skinned creature in dark blue robes was sitting in his study reading, clear brown eyes looking over a pointed humanoid nose and long white beard at the large book in his hands. On the desk he had out several sheets of paper on which he occasionally would scribble something relative to his work. Outside the door he heard a loud knocking, a female voice called out, “Najerin, I know you're there, let me inside quick!”

    The old man of a creature jerked his head up, eyes widening. That voice, was familiar…where had he heard it before?

    He stood up from his desk and proceeded through the hallways towards the large wooden front doors of his home. With a touch of his mugician’s power they opened to reveal a human youth with a chestnut braid reaching her shoulders, her boots covered in mud and her face turning red, her white mask was shoved onto her head like a hat. A black haired boy was on her back out cold and looking pale in the face.

    The girl smiled as she panted out a greeting, “You… look good Kid… it’s been a while hasn’t it?”

    Najerin’s eyes were wide with surprise and disbelief, he returned the smile and ushered the pair inside, “Welcome to Lake Ken-I-Po, old friend. Come in and tell me where you have gone this time?”

    The girl gave a small laugh, “Old? You’re the one who looks his age Kid.”

    Najerin smiled, shaking his head as he let them in and closed the door.