Chapter 1: Dreaming of Death

Danny looked around, unsure of what was going on. He could have sworn that he had just gotten home, but all around him was darkness. A void of black.

Where were Sam and Tucker at? Were they here? Doing a complete 360, he doesn't see anything. Nothing but darkness. No lights, no sounds, no anything.

So was he here alone, or was this a dream?

"Hello?" The only reply he got back was an echo.

But now there was a problem. The echo didn't stop, it kept going. As it kept going, it got distorted. Instead of his own voice, it sounded like whispers.

Danny whipped his head around, confusion and fear coloring his face, but he relaxed when nothing was there.

Then he heard it again, but it was uncomfortably closer now. He whipped around looking for the source of the sound but found nothing. Then it stopped.

After the whispers came the cold. And god damn was it cold. He huddled his arms together shivering for warmth. His breath left small clouds that dissipated quickly. It almost felt like the cold was coming from him. Then he saw them.

The eyes. A pair of glowing green eyes in the distance. They were unmoving, but he couldn't tell how far they were. He blinked and they were gone. That scared him. He took a step back and looked around. Fear was gripping him, but he stood up to it.

"Who's there?! Come out!" There was no answer. But the echo was back.

He felt like he was on a swivel. Constantly turning and looking around for the eyes, he didn't like- There was a different pair of eyes. Closer this time, much closer. This close he should have been able to see something else, anything, but only the eyes were there.

Danny welled his courage as he shivered. Building as he kept eye contact, before calling: "Who the hell are you?!"

His breathing was getting faster, he needed to calm down. Suddenly there was a whisper, darkly distorted and it felt like it was right behind him.

Danny spun on his heel, doing a 180 as he came into sight of both pairs of eyes right next to each other. They were close, too close. He yelped in fright, falling backwards onto his butt.

He could see them much more clearly. The green eyes glowed brightly, and seemed to move around, swirling in random directions in the iris. The feeling they gave felt as toxic as the eyes looked. He could see bits of black swirling occasionally through it.

Then he broke eye contact, moving to look at the red eyes. He heard more whispers all around him, but he kept eye contact with the red eyes. 'Oh fuck…' He really wished he wasn't though. They felt bloody. They glowed a sinister red and he could see the slitted pupils. The first pair definitely didn't feel human, and this, this shit felt darker.

He sucked his breath in, digging around for courage but finding fear and anxiety instead. He kicked his leg out to get him just a little bit away. Why was it so damn cold?!

Then the whispers stopped, startling Danny. He blinked by accident and they were gone. That wasn't good.

He got up, and turned around eyes scanning the darkness. Nothing.

Danny, with shaky breaths quietly mutters: "Please stay away. Please stay away. Please-"who am I…?"

Oh god, That was in his ear! He once again spun around, ready to attack whatever the hell it was when he froze. Petrified.

The eyes were maybe an inch away, and they were still the only thing in sight, but they overlapped each other. Constantly changing back and forth from radioactive green, to blood red. The pupil dilating to a slit, and then turning back to normal.

That single second Danny spent making eye contact felt like an eternity. He could barely hear it, but the whisper was both quiet and loud at the same time.

"YOU."

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"-Danny awoke with a scream. He pushed his blanket off, trying to get away from it. It took him a couple seconds to calm down, before he sighed. Looking around, he was in his room. Nothing seems out of place, and a quick look around confirmed it.

Just a nightmare. Smothering his face with his hands he mumbles into them: "What the hell was that…"

He's suddenly not so tired anymore. Wondering the time Danny checks the alarm, to see that it's seven in the morning. What a great day to start summer vacation! An awful nightmare and he couldn't even sleep in.

Danny gets up for a shower and quickly heads downstairs afterwards. Noticing nobody around, he looks out through the front window, seeing no vehicles. So nobody's home, that's convenient.

Danny warmed up some leftovers and went to the living room. While he was watching a bit of TV Danny thought about what to do today. His friends were busy with their families, Tucker was on vacation for the next two weeks and Sam won't be back for another week as well. What were his parents doing?

Since the RV was gone, at least one of his parents wasn't here. Going towards and down the basement Danny turns the lights on for the lab. If the lights were off down here, then he was definitely home alone.

It's been awhile since he was last down here and Danny decides to take a peak. They're pretty open about this stuff, so they probably wouldn't mind if he snooped around a bit. Looking around Danny can already see the new editions: A few new weapons hang on the wall, one of them looks suspiciously like a rocket launcher. There's also a gauntlet/wrist guard thing on the bench in front of the weapons.

Picking it up, it's surprisingly heavy, but not unmanageable. He sets it down and turns to the most obvious new edition in the room. A big door about ten feet in height. The open doors gave view to a large tunnel with a lot of lights, nodes and energy emitters.

The large vials of green ectoplasm inside the thing startles Danny out of his stare when memories of the nightmare flash in his mind. His breathing increase a little but he keeps it under control. It's just a nightmare, and that's it.

Going up to the control desk Danny sees a stack of papers and starts looking through. Getting the gist of it Danny gets bored shortly after and tosses the papers back onto the desk.

"So it's not working? I wonder why?" Everything seems to be plugged in and looking at the schematics, he doesn't understand a damn thing. It says there's a switch on the inside that must be activated first? Why? Is that not the purpose of the control console?... Let's see, by the… spectrometer... and the ectoplasma coils?

When did they even finish this thing? Is that why they've been cooped up down here the last three months? They always spent a lot of time down here before, but they barely left recently. This was the first time the RV has left in a month. Maybe it's in the final stages? Danny looks around the portal, and finds that there's a bunch of tools nearby the thing as well.

While Danny may not know what a spectrometer is, it probably wouldn't hurt to take a gander at where those coils are. Pausing on his course of action, Danny decides wearing a protection suit would be smart.

The silver protection suit fits a little too snug. This was probably his Mom's, since his Dad's was way too big for him. The helmet didn't fit either, and with no replacements going without seemed to be the only option.

The blueprints said this was a portal to the… ghost zone was it? What kind of name was that? Wasn't it called the underworld?

While looking for the switch Danny was thinking, could they really have made a portal? That's some advanced stuff if so, but how could someone like his dad make something so complicated. He wasn't stupid, but he wasn't smart either… it was probably mom who made it.

Danny stopped in thought, 'While they make impressive inventions, the idea that they could actually make a portal is too wild.'

"Ha, There you are! And if the coils are here, then the switch is here!" *click*

Nothing happened, and although he was excited for a second, he should have been expecting this. The notes said it wasn't working after all, they probably already tried this.

It happened too fast.

The coils lit up even brighter than they were already glowing. The toxic green making Danny take a step back, and then it turned on.

The portal opened with Danny still inside it. Immediately he felt it. Ectoplasmic energy danced along and through his body. The most pain he's ever experienced in his whole life, hands down. Like his molecules were being torn apart. He tried screaming, but nothing came out. He toppled onto the ground, his insides were melting, he could feel it. He was going to die. No. He didn't want to die. He couldn't move, his head hurt, his body hurt, why?

As quick as it came, it stopped. The coils blew out, sending shrapnel at Danny. Nothing stabbed into him, but a few did fly past and cut him. Not that he felt it anyway. Nor did he notice that his blood was pouring out of his orifices. Red blood with glowing green came out like tears from his eye. His ringing ears burned his mind with the pain, adding onto what he already felt. The blood dripping from his ears went unnoticed as he coughed out green and red blood.

How long was he in the portal while it was active?

There was a silver lining though. He could feel the pain receding. This was temporary. That thought gave Danny hope, and he focused on trying to endure it. 1 hour passed, it lessened but not much. At the 2 hour mark Danny was losing hope. Why did it hurt so damn much?

At the third hour Danny passed out, too tired and drained from having a damn portal open inside of him. Or inside of it. Semantics didn't matter, because the pain had lessened enough for him to get away from it for a little bit. He gladly welcomed the comforting darkness; He would much rather have another one of those nightmares than deal with what he felt right now.

"Ohhhhhhh…it hurts... so-" *COUGH* Talking wasn't the best idea, and the coming coughing fit hurt, but it eventually made him feel a little better. His throat was sore, but breathing was easier than before. What was he coughing up? Was he lying down? Where?

Danny couldn't open his eyes at first, they were crusted over. How long was he out? Going to scratch his eyes, it comes off after a few seconds and it makes Danny moan in discomfort when he finds his eyes hurt too, they hurt to open, and everything still hurt, damn it.

But it was bearable. He could deal with it. Unmoving and staring at the ceiling, eventually Danny recalls what just happened, and before he can realize what's about to come next, Danny sits up and violently throws up everything he's eaten recently.

In a projectile stream he spews it all over the floor and a bit on the wall. That made him feel better, even if he was dry heaving a bit still. Danny takes stock of what he sees and his eyes widen when he notices his vomit glowing an oh-so familiar green. It looks like he was bleeding. His blood also had glowing green in it. That probably wasn't good.

Deciding he needs to get up and clean this up he braces for a second before trying to get up. It took a few tries, but minutes later he eventually gets up while groaning in discomfort. It was starting to feel less like agonizing pain and more like he tried to play full-contact football with Dash. Something he was forced to do in the past.

With shaky steps Danny gets out of the damn portal and makes his way to the control console and noticed there was a key under some of the papers. It was turned to the 'ON' position and Danny lightly smacks his face, dragging it down at how stupid he was to not check.

"Who the fuck left this on…" Danny mumbles. "Dad…" Danny paused, the image of his father popping up in his mind. That stupid, moronic, dumb as door nails son of a...

Then again, he did push the 'ON' button when he was in the portal.

Danny feels some extra weight in his gloves and starts unzipping them. When he pulls the glove off blood pours out of it, and he takes notice that the blood also has chunks of green goo in it too. "I'm gonna be… sick again." What was happening? That was a lot of blood and… ectoplasm? He didn't want to think about it right now.

Getting out of the protection suit was an awful ordeal. He set out a large tarp that was in one of the storage bins on the other side of the room. He grabbed some paper towels and went through with wiping as much blood as he can off himself before he went upstairs, in the nude, and hopped in the shower.

The shower hit the spot, relaxing him a bit, and making the aches and pains go away just a little. It wasn't terrible anymore, just dull soreness and the occasional spike of pain somewhere in his body. After the shower Danny quickly made his way to his room and changed, grabbed a mop and bucket from the closet, and went back towards the basement. When Danny goes by the kitchen he sees a note on the dining room table that he missed before. Going to pick it up Danny reads aloud:

"Hey sweety, me and your Dad will be gone for a few days to visit Uncle Vlad. Jazz will be back tomorrow afternoon. We made some food in the fridge and left you sixty dollars for if you and your friends want any takeout. Be safe!

-Love Mom."

Great. Really. "Fan-fucking-tastic." So that's what they were doing.

That mess wasn't going to clean itself up, so Danny tossed the note back onto the table at went back downstairs. Danny walks back into the lab and takes in the scene before him. A majority of the blood that wasn't on the tarp seems to have dried, but the pile of clothes still looked pretty wet and he could see chunks of meatloaf in his vomit. Crinkling his nose in disgust at the sight, Danny is thankful that there isn't a smell yet.

Deciding it's better to just dispose of the suit and tarp Danny goes back upstairs, grabs a few garbage bags and goes back to the lab. After stuffing all the more physical evidence into the garbage bags Danny gets to work on mopping up the rest of the blood and vomit. The blood may not have smelled much, but it stuck to the floor. In a few cases he had to use a sponge and scrub it out. The vomit was gross, but it came out easily and a bit of bleach and air freshener got rid of the smell. He also picked up the metal fragments that almost shredded him.

Two hours later Danny looks over his work and is pleased to say the lab was looking much cleaner. He took the liberty of cleaning up the lab a bit. He would need an excuse for why he mopped down here after all, though it's a tad out of character. The place looked like a sty anyway and with the cleaner work space it might make up for Danny busting the coils. Probably not, but maybe.

Turning around to bring the bucket back upstairs, Danny suddenly doubles over. Hunching over Danny gasps, his core throwing pangs of pain through his body. It hurt so much. Danny fell to his knees and screamed. Ectoplasm started bubbling out of his body. His back had two streams constantly emitting some, it bubbled up and down like a lava lamp. The dull ache that was the pain from earlier reared its ugly self back up in full agony.

Danny opened his eyes to stare at the ground and see the saliva drool out his mouth in bated gasps. He's barely able to process that he can see himself crying tears of ectoplasm and blood. "ARRRGHHHAAA" The pain suddenly doubled, and Danny started seeing green.

He brought his hand up to wipe the blood from his eyes, but was stopped when he saw his hand had started spewing ectoplasm out as well. It was bubbling, and slowly creeped up his arm. He shut his eyes and straightened his back as he turned over onto his back and it arched up in agony as he let loose another agonizing scream. He could feel it coming through his eyes, his chest, his back, everywhere.

Slowly a black color replaced his clothes, the ectoplasm changing it to a black protection suit, form fitting to his body. The boots, gloves and belt stayed the same silver color, while everything else stayed black. It took about five minutes, and every second of it was so painful. Danny just wanted it to stop. And to his surprise it does.

The pain starts clearing away remarkably quick, giving way to energy. Newfound strength has Danny pushing himself into a sitting position quickly after. Though a little sore Danny is grateful for the relief, but there are still some waves of pain that keep pulsing through his body.

He gradually opened his eyes and wiped off the blood. It was glowing a solid green. Where was the red? Suddenly Danny saw his clothes. He was wearing a black protection suit now? Danny blinks in surprise when he sees that he's wearing silver gloves and boots.

Getting up he runs to the mirror and looks upon his new form. His eyes go wide with disbelief. Has was positively glowing. Literally. He had snow white hair, and the same glowing green eyes that he saw from his nightmare. Danny shivered, thinking it might have been more than just a dream.

He touched his face, and the mirror followed suit. Then his hand went through his face, and he quickly yanked it out with a startled yelp. The hand turned back to normal. Flexing it, the hand seemed fine. He tried to remember the feeling it had, and lo and behold his hand went see through again. "Woah!" Then it stopped. Trying to do it again, nothing happened.

Slowly his cloak of ectoplasm started to dissipate. Bit by bit it disappeared into nothingness until all that remained was the normal sight he was used to. Not glowing seemed pretty normal.

His eyes were the last thing to turn back, flickering between the glowing green and his piercing blue before they finally settled on blue.

Danny backed up a couple steps still staring at the mirror. "What the fuck just happened?" He whispered.

Snapping out of his stupor Danny turns to where he had been laying and saw that there was more blood on the ground. "Real great! I just cleaned the floor too!"