Lights in the Dark
h the light from the not-moon, the work of collecting all of the backpacks and other debris went quite quickly. One by one, the groups, not finding anything more to pick up, began to drift back.
There were no weapons, unless one counted a baseball bat. It didn't even have the word 'Fenton' written on the side. Danny was relieved.
More worryingly, there wasn't much in the way of food. The assembly had been called after lunch, and even if it hadn't been, most people at Casper High bought the school lunch. A few bags had chips, crackers, cookies, or uneaten vegetables, but even factoring in the bags from people who weren't there, there wasn't enough to keep everyone fed for a day, let alone for however long they were going to be here. Worse, hardly anyone had water.
Danny cautiously raised his hand after the last revelation.
"Do you have something to add, Mr Fent- Danny," Mr Lancer said tiredly, changing his mind on how to address Danny halfway through. Danny supposed that Mr Lancer didn't want to inadvertently set off one of Jack Fenton's infamous, rambling, rants.
"I think that there might be water past those trees at the bottom of the hill." Danny had asked Sam, Tucker, and Jazz whether or not they could see the water. They had said that they could see something beyond the trees, but they couldn't tell if it was water or not. Danny had decided that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for him to be able to see that far, in this light.
Mr Lancer peered towards the base of the hill. "We'll have to look into that. Did anyone else see anything strange? Useful?" Mikey raised his hand. "Mr Erikson?"
"Ricky and I saw a building," said Mikey.
Mr Lancer blinked. "Really? What kind of building? Where?"
"One of those little round buildings, with pillars," said Ricky Marsh. "It's at the top."
"A gazebo?"
"No," said Mikey, shaking his head. "It was made of stone, with walls. It was one of those things you see in really fancy cemeteries."
"Ah. A small tomb then. Odd thing to have in the Ghost Zone."
No one really wanted to go check out the creepy tomb at the top of the hill, and water was a priority, so after gathering the most important items together, they all started down the hill. It took a long time to get to the trees. Longer than Danny thought it should have, but then, they were walking very slowly. The others weren't used to this kind of thing, and Danny was still exhausted. At least it was all downhill.
As the hill started to level out, the class began to slow. Mr Lancer came to a halt several meters from the trees. Conversations that had been subdued before, while they were walking, began to rise in volume until Paulina cried, "We don't have to go in there do we?"
"Can't we wait until the sun comes up?" demanded Lester.
"The sun might never come up here, you doofus," said his twin.
"Maybe we shouldn't all go in?" asked Elliot. "Maybe just, you know, you people who do like, martial arts and stuff."
"Didn't you tell me that you did martial arts last week?" asked Rebecca archly.
"Uhh. No?"
Danny didn't entirely understand what everyone's problem was. The trees weren't any denser than the ones in the parks in and around Amity Park, and it was any darker here than Amity Park at night. The trees weren't even horror movie trees, all gnarled and pale, rotting leaves clinging to dead, skeletal branches. No. These were proper, healthy trees, with leaves and needles still affixed to their limbs. Just right for the beginning of October, although otherwise it was a bit warm.
Yeah. He didn't get it.
"We-" Mr Lancer faltered. "We will split up. I'll ask for volunteers to go through with me and Mrs Fenton, and everyone else will stay here. Who was it who had that yarn?"
"That was me!" said Sarah. Her appearance was almost stereotypically Irish, freckles, red-blonde hair and all. Almost, because she very rarely wore green, and because she could take a tan. She flipped her bag off her shoulder, and pulled out the yarn.
"Now, volunteers?"
It took some time to figure out who was going and who was staying. People kept changing their minds when they saw who else was going and who was staying. Eventually, it wound up being Mr Lancer, Maddie, Danny, Jazz, Sam, Valerie, Dash, Kwan, Ricky and Mikey on the 'going' team, and Jack, Tucker, Paulina, Star, Ashley, Nathan, Lester, Rebecca, Mia, Hannah, Dale, Sarah, and Tiffanie on the 'staying' team. They, meaning Team Phantom, had decided that Tucker should stay on the principle that at least one competent person should be staying. Sam had argued that Danny should stay and rest, but Danny didn't want to let that thing out of sight.
Maddie went first. Then Mr Lancer and Valerie, with Valerie carrying one of her blasters. Jazz, Sam and Danny went last. Everyone else sort of bunched together in the middle.
Mr Lancer paused at the first tree to tie the end of the yarn to a branch. The hope was that they'd be able to follow the yarn back if they got lost. Danny thought that was rather optimistic. If they got attacked by anything, the string would probably snap. Heck, the string might snap if the person holding it tripped, or if they didn't spool it out fast enough, or if there were any animals in the woods who messed with it, or if it got abraded or cut by a rough bit of bark. Or any number of other things. It wasn't like their luck had been spectacular thus far.
On the other hand, Danny's portal hadn't dumped them on Skulker's island, or the Burning Lands, or any one of a number of nasty, simply inconvenient, or uncomfortable places he had visited in the Ghost Zone since he was fourteen. Actually, even places that Danny liked, like the Far Frozen, were too conducive to, well, life. His class would not have appreciated hypothermia. Or freezing to death. Thinking about it that way, they were downright blessed.
It was much darker under the branches of the trees, but Maddie and Mr Lancer insisted that they conserve their batteries, especially on the phones, so only Maddie, Jazz and Lancer had flashlights on. This made the people in the middle bunch up even more.
Danny was squeezed in between Sam and Jazz. At first he wasn't sure why they were walking so close to him, but then he remembered how much he had been flickering earlier, and figured that they were protecting him from view. He was so lucky to have friends who thought about these things.
There were quite a ways in, maybe a quarter of a mile, when Danny's ghost sense went off. He tensed, shivering. It was good to know that his ghost sense was functional, but the fact that it made him so cold was not. It hadn't chilled him that much since before he got his ice powers under control. He didn't know what it meant, but he wasn't happy about it.
"What's wrong?" muttered Sam, leaning slightly closer to Danny.
"Just got a chill," he said, using their code for his ghost sense. He was scanning the trees as they walked, looking for whoever had set off his ghost sense. Beside him, Jazz and Sam were doing the same. Danny was so intent on looking, that he tripped over a tree root, and would have face-planted if Sam and Jazz hadn't caught him. All the others turned to look back at them. Danny blushed, taking up his stay visible chant again, and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Freaking klutz gonna get us all killed," muttered Dash.
"It isn't like you're any better," said Ricky. Danny blinked. The curly-haired boy was usually pretty timid. Then again, he and Mikey had come into the woods. Danny allowed himself a tiny smile. Sometimes crises did good things.
Then his ghost sense went off again. That meant that the ghost was still nearby.
"Mr Marsh, Mr Baxter," said Mr Lancer. "Please, consider the situation."
There was a tense moment. Danny chose to ignore it. He was still looking for the ghost.
He only saw it after they started moving again, and when he did he almost staggered in relief. He did lean into Jazz a little. It was a will'o-the-wisp, a blue-green dot of light about the size of his thumb. Harmless, to both ghosts and humans. Well, as long as the humans in question didn't follow them into a swamp or whatever. They tended to live in other ghost's territories, whether that territory was a realm, a lair, or a haunt, for protection.
There was a clan of them living in Amity Park. They were nice. Friendly. Helpful. Useful, too. They liked to eat popcorn and cotton candy. Their language was a bit strange, combining color, brightness, pitch, and tone. It had taken Danny forever to learn, and he still couldn't really speak it, seeing as he couldn't change color, and, sadly, his vocal cords, while quite remarkable, couldn't handle trombone sounds.
The presence of the wisp was good for other reasons. It meant that if there was a stronger ghost here, that is, stronger than a wisp, then that ghost wasn't terribly territorial (Danny still wasn't entirely convinced that this was his lair).
The thing was, that where there was one wisp, there were others. Danny's ghost sense went off again and again and again, as little lights flitted between the branches.
(Danny didn't get why the people up ahead weren't noticing. Sam and Jazz weren't seeing as many as he was, but they were still seeing them. He supposed that this was just another example of Amity Park obliviousness.)
Danny was freezing from the inside out. He had retreated into his hoodie, pulling the hood down, tucking his hands into his sleeves, and crossing his arms. He was breathing heavily, trying to use the slightly warmer air to thaw himself. Sam and Jazz were now even closer to him, their arms touching his, sharing their warmth.
There was something in the air, though. Something familiar, but distinct from the green-gold scent of the early-fall woods. Something sweet.
"Apples?" he asked, faintly. The cold had done away with all the progress his voice had made in the past couple of hours. He began to look more closely at the trees. Food was a problem. If there was food here, it would be helpful. "That's an apple tree," he said, pointing.
"What's wrong?" asked Jazz.
"That's an apple tree," he repeated. "It has apples."
Jazz shone her flashlight at the tree, revealing red-cheeked apples hanging among the green leaves like so many rubies. "Oh? Oh! Mr Lancer! There are apples on these trees."
"Wonderful work Miss Fenton!" Mr Lancer said, turning. Danny squinted when the the teacher's flashlight's beam passed over his eyes.
"Actually, it was-"
"Finally, food!" shouted Dash, practically throwing himself at the tree. Jeez, he was loud.
"Wait!" shouted Maddie, even louder. Danny flinched hard. Supernaturally good senses were not always comfortable. (At least, that was what he blamed his flinch on.)
"What?" demanded Dash petulantly.
"It might not be safe," said Maddie. "Remember, we aren't in the human world any more. We're in the Ghost Zone. We don't know if these are safe to eat. They could be ectocontaminated."
"Mom," said Jazz, incredulously, "almost all of the food we eat is ectocontaminated."
"No it isn't," said Maddie, defensively.
"We haven't used the meat drawer in the fridge since it got taken over by animate hot dogs."
"That's different than this," protested Maddie. "Those apple could be made of ectoplasm. They could be actively poisonous. They could be here to act as food chains. Besides, we never expected you to eat those hot dogs."
"We ate the turkey, Mom, what about the turkey?" asked Jazz. "We had to re-kill that with a broom."
"Food chains?" interrupted Ricky, somewhat desperately.
"We haven't had any proof," said Maddie, "but some accounts suggest that by eating a ghost's food, you can become bound to it or its realm."
"I thought that was fairies," said Mikey.
Maddie sniffed. "Those stories are clearly about ghosts. If you look back far enough in any-"
This was when the will'o-the-wisps decided to swarm the group.
Everything happened remarkably quickly after that.
The Fenton Mortifier came up, to train on the swarm. Valerie raised her weapon, too, but Danny hardly noticed. Danny was too focused on that thing and how oh, Ancients, she was going to use it again.
(The will'o-the-wisps weren't Dead. They were Deathless. They had never died. But Danny wasn't thinking about that, and even if he had been, Danny had no desire to find out how they were affected by that thing.)
Whatever had broken in Danny earlier had sharp edges.
A wooden spear shot from the apple tree, impaling the silvery gun. Maddie screamed, falling back, just in time for the spear, still connected to the tree, to pulse once, shattering the gun. Danny registered a splash of red against the teal of his mother's jumpsuit, and it couldn't be. That was too much blood.
Then the energy from all the wisps hit him like a train.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone