Scanned a ghost - chapter 3

    Danny’s mind did a little flip when he got his first look at Kiru city, the place looked more like a fortress from afar, up close it was like a walled metropolis. Like something out of a medieval action movie or something, he couldn’t help but think of what his friends would think if they could see this. He knew Sam would probably love it, ‘would be better if the walls were black but that’s just me.’ she would say.

    As they descended for a landing, Najerin noticed how natural this seemed to the boy. It was almost as if the boy had done this before. Odd considering Ren had mentioned he was not a Chaotic player, which would’ve been the only reason for him to even enjoy the feeling.

    They touched down just inside the city gates, Najerin let the boy down just before his feet touched the ground, surprised when Danny landed on his feet with no trouble. Most would stumble when he let them down that way.

    Danny whistled when he saw the towering stone walls, high as small skyscrapers, “that must’ve taken ages to build.”

    “A few decades, for the wall at least.” The blue mage said absently. A few guards in blue uniforms greeted Najerin. Danny noticed all the creatures walking around like people in a mall or in a city. So weird, and yet the fact his ghost sense wasn’t acting up made it refreshingly normal.

    “Are you going to stare all day?” Najerin asked, Danny’s attention snapped back as he realized Najerin had started down the street without him. He rushed to fall in line next to him, his eyes still wandering around taking everything in.

    “I’m taking you to the arsenal first, a player I know sometimes works there in exchange for scans.” The blue creature explained, “And if said player is not there, the creature in charge should be willing to keep an eye on you until I finish making arrangements within the city.”

    Danny nodded, eyes wandering towards a street setup like a sort of strip mall, creatures were selling things like food, clothes, bits of armor, bags, books, scrolls, there was even a stall for household items like from back home. He wondered why these creatures would have the need for those things. he also wondered if they had anything he could use to contact Ren, or maybe try and send a message back home. Let everyone know he was ok. Clockwork may have altered his ghost form, but that didn’t mean he had bothered to arrange for Danny to show up at home before he left or anything.

    They arrived at a square building not far from the wall, a few guards stood outside standing to attention as the pair past them. Danny averted his eyes as he noticed he was getting a few stares from them, a familiar hatred stare like what he used to get from the adults after walker had framed him for kidnapping the mayor a few months ago. Or how dash had looked at him when the most popular girl in school had been ‘dating’ him (really a ghost trying to get her boyfriend jealous)

    Once through the doors Danny suddenly felt a little uneasy as he noticed several weapons resembling rifles, shields and lances stacked neatly along every wall in row after row. Being on the wrong end of a weapon before, these made him a little nervous.

    Najerin noticed a little creature in a dark blue robe scribbling busily on a parchment with a feather quill, muttering to himself. Danny couldn’t help but think the guy looked kinda like a green monk of some sort, complete with a little gem on his forehead. The mage stood behind the creature and cleared his throat.

    The creature groaned, sounding highly annoyed, “This had better be important, I have a lot of work to do after getting that last batch of pyro-blasters cleaned and reorganized. And the cy-lances….”

    As he turned around, he went from being an annoyed little busybody to a blubbering suck up. He gulped, nearly dropping his quill and papers, “Oh, Najerin, my humblest apologies I-I-I thought you m-might’ve been someone else. Happens all the time really, n-not that it ever interferes with my work here I am very organized as you can...”

    “Hello Bodol, I apologize for interrupting your work,”

    The little green creature shook his head violently, “Not at all, not at all, anything for the Overworld’s most powerful and wise mugician. Is there anything you need?”

    Danny rolled his eyes easily recognizing the suck up act, ever since Dash had started doing it to Phantom it had lost most of it's humor. Najerin simply nodded, “An old friend of mine visited me this morning, and I need someone to keep an eye on her companion for a while. Is Tomas here at the moment?”

    Bodol frowned, “Tom? Watch your friend’s companion? With all due respect, shouldn’t you ask a respectable creature to look after him or her?”

    Najerin motioned towards Danny, the boy gave a small wave and a smile. Bodal’s eye twitched slightly at the sight of him.

    “I think one human is perfectly capable of watching another for a few hours, don’t you?” the muge said as-a-matter-o-factly. “Unless you’d be up for the task, since your so efficient…”

    Bodol looked the boy over with some distaste, frowning and turning back to the shelf, “Afraid I’m much too busy right now, so I must sadly decline. Tom is working in the next wing with Oryx, restocking our vlard shards. Unless he’s gotten himself a new scan and left already.”

    Najerin nodded and headed to the next wing. Danny followed, hearing Bodol mutter something that sounded like, “Chaotic players are becoming more pesky all the time, it’s a wonder we get anything done around here.”

    ***8***

    Tom looked up with a smile as he saw Najerin approach, he put the crystal he was holding away and greeted the creature like an old friend, “Hey Najerin, what brings you here?”

    “An important errand and you.”

    Before Tom could ask he noticed the boy standing behind him, scruffy black hair and clear blue eyes stared at him curiously, his red jacket zipped up and hands thrust into his jean pockets. The boy gave him a small smile.

    Tom looked questionably at the tall muge, “Who’s he? Another Chaotic player?”

    The muge looked to the ceiling with a cough, “Actually, no. He is a special case involving an old friend of mine. I was hoping you or another creature could keep an eye on him for me while I run an errand here in town.”

    Tom nodded, “I can show him around the city for a while. But… if he’s not a Chaotic player, then how did he…?”

    “As I said, he is a special case involving an old friend.” The muge said, cutting the player off, “on a separate note I’d like the mystery of his arrival to remain as such.”

    Tom frowned a little in disappointment, basically Najerin was saying who the kid really was and why he was here was for Najerin to know, and for players like him to never find out. Normally he could protest the issue or dig around for the answer like he always did, but this time sneaking around didn’t seem necessary, after all the secret in question wasn’t something that would have clues lying around or in a creature’s conversations like so many times before. That much was obvious.

    He turned to the boy now, feeling a little like he was looking in a mirror, accept his reflection looked thinner and slightly paler and was wearing different clothes. He stuck his hand out with a smile, “I’m Tom majors, and you?”

    The boy grasped his hand in a grip that was stronger than Tom first expected, “Daniel Fenton, but I prefer Danny.”

    Tom flinched a little, man this kid’s hands were cold. Danny let go and shoved both hands into his pockets with an easy going smile, “Sorry, I’ve been told I have bad circulation, so I’m slightly colder than normal, especially my hands.”

    Tom smiled back, “My mom’s always said cold hands often belong to good people.”

    Danny gave a small laugh, “She sounds nice, my mom’s usually going on with my dad about their latest experiments. Sometimes in the kitchen.”

    Tom threw a questioning glance, “Experiments?”

    Danny shrugged as if it was no big deal, “Scientist parents, what you gonna do?”

    Najerin gave a smile addressing the boys, “I’ll be in the palace at sunset, come see me then. Oh and Daniel, try to stay out of trouble.”

    Danny blinked at the advice then shrugged, “I’ve got tom with me, what trouble could we possibly get into?”

    Najerin shook his head and began to leave, “More than you know, you are children after all.”

    8*8

    As the two boys walked the streets chatting away like old friends catching up, a figure watched them from atop a high building, smiling.

    “So that human is a friend of Najerin eh? Nice to know he hasn’t limited himself to just the Overworld and necessities.”

    Ren allowed herself a chuckle as she slid on her mask. Almost instantly her body morphed, golden orange fur covered her body, her ears became large triangles sitting higher on her head, her face became elongated, nose and mouth joining closer in the process, her legs altered until it was more like that of an animal, ending in a sand colored paw, her hands followed suit, her palms thickening into flexible pads, a long tail sprouted at the base of her spine, covered in bottle brush thick fur ending in a black tip. Her clothes altered as well, becoming a long sleeved green tunic and black shorts, the shoes on her feet becoming leather wrappings on her ankles, and as for her mask, it became one with her face, turning it a glossy white from above the eyes to the bottom of her chin, her now black nose twitching.

     With a leap she slipped into a nearby alleyway into the shadows. Humans who could port from their home world to Perim, all with the use of little machines called scanners; that was something to look into. But first things first.

    8*8

    Kaz’s feet were killing him, he couldn’t remember the last time he had to walk so much in his life, not even during a school field trip into the woods when he was in grade school.

    He’d been walking around Broken edge for hours, going so far as to miss a match in the dromes for a peek at this ghost thing he’d heard about. Several players hadn’t believed poor shaken up bruiser when he ported back to Chaotic, eventually his friends were able to convince him it might’ve been a prank by some creature. But Kaz, who had overheard the whole thing thought otherwise.

    See he had seen some strange things with his friends before, a Mepidian ghost named Owaiki, a creature frozen in ice for earth’s equal of five thousand years, a whole location hidden by a mirage and guarded by a friendly creature who could shapeshift, but Bruiser’s story had struck a chord of interest with him. And he intended to scope out the place for any sign of it. so far nothing.

    He pulled out a small notebook with a hastily drawn map of broken edge and a small pencil, he X out another spot and picked another direction, pulling out his scanner’s creature detector. Nobody there.

    He headed off, “A creature that appeared in a fog, doesn’t show up on the detectors, has clawed hands, orange eyes, a semi-clear shapeless body and whispers things. shouldn’t be hard to find right?”

    He kicked at a stone frustrated, “Yeah that’s what thought hours ago.”

    He kicked another one into the bushes, this time hearing a yelp, “Ow!”

    Kaz froze, glancing at his little red device, the thing was still set for creature detection and…it now showed a distinct orange dot showing there was one close by. Close enough to be whoever had been hit with the rock he had kicked. His expression flashed disappointment as he turned to see a girl with white hair and large black wings rubbing one eye. She looked up almost frightened, her expression instantly hardened into anger as her unbruised eye glared at him.

    “Didn’t your mother teach you to be careful, you could’ve taken an eye out with a stunt like that.” She growled.

    Kaz held his hands up, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there, honest mistake really.”

    The girl’s hardened expression faded, her wings folded behind her to where she almost looked like a normal human girl, “Well as long as you’re sorry. right?”

    Kaz nodded, his mind whirring as he realized something, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. Are you on a mission for Maxxor?”

    The winged girl frowned, “Never heard of him. And if for anyone, I’m on a mission to find my way back home.”

    “Home… where?”

    The girl blinked her eyes, checking if she could still see out of the hurting one, “In the mountains where else?”

    Now it was Kaz’s turn to frown, “you know there are a lot of mountains in Perim, you’ll have to be more specific if you ask anybody for directions.”

    The girl flinched, she looked at him with fearful confusion written all over her face, “Perim?”

    “Yeah, that’s what this whole place is called.” Kaz held up his hands gesturing everything around them. The girl blinked, her face nearly unreadable, mouth opened and closed several times before she sank to her knees facing the ground and shivering. Kaz heard a soft gasping, surprise and confusion crossed his face as he realized she was crying, he had never seen a creature do that before. he’d seen them get scared or worried but to actually cry…

    “Um, hey are you ok?”

    The girl sobbed louder, “N-no, I… I don’t belong here.”

    Kaz was considering patting her or something, not being familiar with this kind of distress in a creature from any of the Perim tribes. He barely reached out his hand to touch her shaking shoulders when…

    {Replace…}

    Both of them froze at the sound of the voice, so far away yet sound so close.

    {Replace…}

    As a thought struck him, Kaz checked his scanner; according to it they were completely alone.

    {Replace soon…breaking…must replace…who?}

    It sounded closer, the winged girl shivered, wrapping her wings around herself, “We need to get out of here, now.”

    Kaz stood up shaking his head, “Not till I get a good look at this thing. I came all the way out here looking for whatever this thing is and I’m not leaving until I see it.”

    The girl gripped his arm, tugging him away, “are you crazy? Why? What good would it do to just see this thing?”

    Kaz held up his scanner, the air was growing cold, “If I can scan it, maybe I can find out more about it, see what it really is.”

    {Do you hear it children?...we must…replace…you… }

    The winged girl shivered, clutching him tightly around his waist and opening her wings, “I don’t want to know what that means.”

    Kaz gulped as a white mass with orange eyes formed in front of them, the air was now so cold he could see his own breath. The white blob reached out to him, crying out in a female voice, {Replace….Come….replace…}

    Kaz held up his scanner, and pressed a button, the little device hummed as the thing came closer. He felt it grip his arm, bright orange eyes right up to his face staring into his own brown ones behind red tinged glasses.

    Behind him the girl flapped her wings hard, pulling the human up into the air, “You got your look, now let’s get out of here.”