Chapter Text
“Oh come on, Danny! It’s not like a ghost is gonna pop out and scare you,” Sam teased her friend, encouraging him to take a peak in the so-called ‘Portal to the Ghost Zone’, as his parents had dubbed it.
“Yeah man, you can do it! Unless you’re too chicken?,” Tucker punched Danny’s arm, laughing as he rolled his eyes.
With an exaggerated sigh, Danny pulled on a black and white jumpsuit. “Fine, but only for a second, and not without proper safety gear. Mom and Dad said they can’t get it to function, but there could always be a loose wire waiting to turn me into a ghost.” He laughed with them, pulling the safety goggles over his eyes and finishing with a twirl. “So how do I look?”
Sam lifted her hand to her mouth trying to cover her giggles. Tucker was less polite, snorting loudly and not even trying to hide it. “C'mon guys, you can at least pretend I don’t look like a huge nerd,” He looked over his shoulder at them as he stopped just at the barrier. Taking a wide, dramatic step inside, he suddenly stopped laughing.
“Uhh, hey you okay Danny?,” Tucker glanced at Sam, but she just shrugged before stepping forward and calling out.
“Danny?” No answer. Suddenly he started screaming.
“Danny!” They both shouted at once, but the scream quickly devolved into laughter.
“I’m fine, I’m fine! Just thought you two needed a little scare!” He chuckled. Leaning against the wall, he started to add something, but was cut off by a whirring sound. Sam blinked, looking around for the source. Was it coming from the portal?
A green light started swirling from right behind Danny. It felt like slow motion as she called out his name again, reaching far too slowly to stop whatever was to come.
The screaming started again, but this time it was far too raw to be fake. Sam watched as her best friend’s face contorted in pain and he collapsed to the floor. The light grew brighter and brighter, as she saw Tucker from the corner of her eye sprinting for the failsafe next to them. He wasn’t fast enough though. They watched as his skin quickly blackened from the deadly electricity arcing around him, screams dying as fast as they came. His vocal cords fried with the rest of him, and the green light swallowed his body.
As fast as it started, it was over. They couldn’t see Danny anymore, only the sickening green glow of the machine that hurt him.
Killed him.
There was no denying it. Tucker hit the switch and the lab was back to harsh fluorescence and gray steel. Tucker dry heaved against the wall, while Sam stood frozen. There was no body. Not even a drop of blood or scrap of cloth to prove anyone was in there.
This was one hundred percent their fault. Their idea, their encouragement, their pressure had killed him. He was hesitant to go, even putting on a jumpsuit to protect himself, for all the good that did. What the hell were they gonna do?
—--
Danny felt it all happen in a moment. A whirring sound, a flash of green, and the most excruciating pain he’d ever felt in his life. He thought nothing could beat the time he broke his arm falling off the roof when he was nine, but clearly his younger self had less imagination than he thought. What was that?
Luckily the pain disappeared after only moments, leaving only the bone shaking terror behind. His eyes were closed—when did he close his eyes—and he felt limp yet weightless. Maybe he was in a hospital? Then he was probably on pain medicine which would explain how he felt. This wasn’t what he thought drugs would feel like though.
And the cold. The permeating, icy cold he could feel spreading throughout his body. It was strange though. He knew he was cold, but it wasn’t uncomfortable? It just felt so right to be cold. What drugs do that? He felt weak, and yet also so much stronger than he ever had been.
He finally opened his eyes.
Green. Swirling green vortexes and dots of purple. Strange doors, even stranger land masses. But oh so much green.
Where was he? This made no sense. He was in the lab with Sam and Tucker, and he went into the portal which… shouldn’t have been functioning. He remembers it like it was only moments ago. Was it only moments ago?
Think Danny. This couldn’t be the Ghost Zone, right? Did his parents actually succeed? Holy shit. Holy mother of fucking shit.
Was he dead?
His breathing picked up, and he began spiraling. He was in the portal when it activated. There’s no way the human body could survive the amount of electricity that flowed through him in that moment. There’s no way that pain was anything but death.
Okay, he needed to calm down, assess the situation, and figure out what to do. He put his hand on his neck to feel his pulse and use the rhythm of his heartbeat to slow his breathing. Except there was no pulse. Wait, he wasn’t really breathing was he? There was no heartbeat, no more blood flowing through his veins.
But he was still here, still thinking and conscious. Was he a ghost? That would actually track with his parent’s research, even if he didn’t fully believe it before. He looked down. There was nothing below him.
He did not scream.
Oh, and his jumpsuit was now inverted for some reason? Where there was black, there was once white, and vice versa. Interesting, but not what he needed to focus on right now. He had plenty of time, (potentially infinite? He did not want to think about that yet) to study his body later. He should first try to find someone, anyone who may be around to help him figure out what to do.
There was an island roughly twenty feet to his right. If he could figure out how to get over there, he could calm down a little more. Now how was he about to do that?
Ghosts can fly right? He seemed to be floating, though he wasn’t actively trying to so maybe something else was holding him there? Either way he should try.
Closing his eyes, Danny focused on his body, feeling for anything different. At first he felt nothing at all, not even the feeling of his clothes on his skin, which was disorienting and terrifying, but a faint pulse in his chest had him suddenly confused. Did he have a heart still? What was that?
He focused on the feeling, meditating with it the way Jazz taught him. Oh god, Jazz. His parents, his friends, his loved ones. He was never going to see them again. Or at least not until they died. That was gonna mess him up, but it wasn’t the priority. He compartmentalized it for later.
Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and focused on moving. He imagined he was riding the currents of an ocean, letting himself move with it, and it worked! He was flying!
Danny made his way carefully over to the island, speeding up only for the last few feet. Once he made it there, he practically collapsed on the sweet, sweet ground. Laying on his back, he let himself rest for just a moment. Or two, or maybe he’d take a nap. That sounded nice.
His consciousness drifted and he fell into a dreamless slumber.
—--
A shout of greeting startled Danny awake. Opening his eyes, he was met with a green pair of eyes staring at him from only a foot away. He shrieked and backed away—wait he was floating now, right. He’s a ghost.
Taking in the hulking man(?) in front of him, he only managed to clock the steely gray skin, flaming green mohawk, and arsenal of weapons before the man started talking. “You are quite a strange one. I’ve never seen a fresh ice core form so far from where it should. What are you doing out here?” he asked.
Danny was immediately confused. (Ice core? What is that? And who is this guy?)
Clearing his throat, he nervously answered, “Sorry I have no idea. I woke up here and I think I’m dead? And I don’t know what an ice core is or where I should be right now. I kinda thought the afterlife was gonna be a little more… clear? Who are you anyway?”
He laughed before introducing himself. “I am the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter: Skulker! I hunt rare and unique creatures, and you seem to fit the bill. What should I call you, prey?”
In shock at the bluntness, and now scared of becoming a trophy for this strange ghost, Danny quipped out of reflex. “Sorry, I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
This seemed to be the wrong response, as Skulker went to grab his throat immediately. Clearly he wasn’t joking, so Danny quickly dodged with years of honed reflex from avoiding Dash. There was no time to think, and he was in flight mode faster than the hunter could process.
He zipped off as fast as he could, looking back and realizing his legs were gone. That was certainly strange, but it seemed this new tail(?) of his made for quicker movement, so he focused on the more pressing matter. He didn’t know if he could be hurt, but he also didn’t want to know what would happen when Skulker caught up to him, so he flew as fast as he could.
He barely managed to dodge around another island, but then smacked right into a door he didn’t see, and he didn’t think was there a moment ago. The split second he stopped allowed Skulker to gain ground, so in a moment of insanity, or possibly genius, he let himself fall. Danny didn’t know if there really was gravity here or if it was just in his head, but it felt real enough that butterflies formed in his stomach the same way they always did when riding the drop tower at an amusement park.
It felt amazing, and he found himself laughing as the bulky hunter face planted into the door he himself did only moments ago. His giggles stopped when those piercing, green eyes turned to stare into his very soul. It took less than a moment for him to fly off again. The hunt continued for what felt like hours, dodging weapons being thrown at him and around the sparse scenery. He managed to snag a knife that sailed just past his head in what felt like an action scene from a movie, but Danny felt a whole lot less cool when he realized Skulker was almost to him and screamed. He managed to shake him by throwing his safety goggles as hard as he could, but only because Skulker went after it, saying something about needing the whole collection.
The endless expanse of nothing but green and purple was starting to grate on him, and despite not being physically exhausted, he was drained mentally. Somehow they had yet to run into a single other soul, and he was starting to suspect that it was carefully planned on Skulker’s part. He had acted like he had just found Danny when he woke, but it was entirely possible he knew this was coming, and liked the chase. The shouts of “I love it when my prey is clever”, and “This is the best hunt I’ve had in ages” were added evidence. He didn’t know if all ghosts were like this, but he certainly hoped his afterlife would be more peaceful.
Finally, he spotted a unique feature sitting on a floating island. A… cardboard box. Strange. He flew up to it and was about to grab it when something, or should he say someone popped out.
“Beware! I am the Box Ghost, and—”
Danny quickly cut him off, hopeful and relieved to see a new person, but also nervous he would be just as much of a pain in the ass. “Listen I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but this guy Skulker is chasing me, and I need help. Please,” he pleading, staring into the Box Ghost’s red eyes.
After a moment, he nodded. “Skulker doesn’t respect me. I don’t know who you are, but the enemy of the enemy of boxes is my friend.” He pulled Danny’s arm and shoved him into the (surprisingly cozy) cardboard box, before shutting it. A weird feeling washed over him, and he heard Skulker fly by before the feeling went away. When the flaps were pulled back open, the strange ghost offered him a hand, which he gladly took. Finally he had someone on his side.
“I’m Danny. I think I’m dead, and I have no idea what’s going on,” he introduced himself with a lopsided smile.
The other ghost laughed, and shook his hand. “I’m the Box Ghost, I’m definitely dead, and I think I can answer a few questions.”