To the story!

*Gasp* Without any lengthy Author Notes? EEP!

*Faints*

"Lunch Lady?" Danny questioned in surprise.

The ghost turned to look at him while smiling serenely, "Yes, hello. Cookie?"

Danny didn't bother to answer, he was a little preoccupied. His mother had just fired an ectoweapon which the Lunch Lady dodged easily. The blast sailed past the ghost and straight at Danny who ducked and rolled out of the way. His head snapped up in surprise at the Lunch Lady, who still looked serene and calm.

At that point, each of the five of them, except Danny, began firing ectoblasts. Danny took the distraction to glance around the clearing. He was utterly shocked. Everywhere, literally, there were blood blossoms. Of course, they were a different kind of blood blossom. These looked like a red, glowing lilac, and completely circled the clearing. Danny's instincts kicked in as he jerked his head backwards slightly to dodge a stray ectoblast. Glancing at the ghost, the Lunch Lady didn't seem bothered by the blossoms in the least. To his surprise, the Lunch Lady lifted her hands above her head. There was no meat in this clearing whatsoever.

Danny jumped backwards away from the ghost when the lilac blood blossoms began to circle her in the place of the normal meat. With a roar from the Lunch Lady, the blossoms made a kind of glowing armor. Danny gaped, the Lunch Lady wasn't fazed by any effect from the flowers. He was beginning to get a dull ache in his head—and he was a safe distance from the flowers, he couldn't imagine what being encased in the flowers would do.

Finally, Danny began sending ectoblasts at the ghost from his ectoweapon. The blasts were completely ineffective against the ectoproof flowers. Tossing his weapon to Sam who caught it while continuing to fire ectoblasts, Danny grabbed a slightly green rock and tossed it at the Lunch Lady. It hit the flowers and didn't make a dent in the surprisingly strong armor.

"Having trouble, dearie?" the Lunch Lady asked kindly. Danny simply scowled. Without warning, the Lunch Lady sent an extended arm formed entirely of blood blossoms at him. He dodged easily, but still felt a slight shock from his close proximity to the flowers. When the Lunch Lady then hastily ran in his direction. He stood still for a moment, allowing her to get close, before kicking up some dirt into her face. Coughing, the Lunch Lady glared, but continued running towards the edge of the clearing. Sam, Tucker, Maddie, and Valerie were still firing shots at the Lunch Lady, but they had no effect against the armor. When she reached the edge of the clearing, she whipped around and threw her arms into the air. The blossoms flew into the air at her command and spread outwards, creating a circle around the group of five. Now armor-less, she laughed.

"Have fun kiddies!" She exclaimed before turning invisible and intangible and sinking into the ground.

The group lowered their weapons. Danny sincerely hoped that blood blossoms were archaic enough that his mom wouldn't know what they were.

"I wonder what the misshapen blood blossom circle is for," Maddie pondered. No such luck.

When she walked out of the circle without a problem, Danny grew extremely nervous. He would have to admit that he couldn't exit the circle in a few moments. How would he explain? His mind whirled at extreme speeds.

Valerie was the next to follow, realizing that waiting for the trio was a lost cause.

When the trio made no move to follow for the next few minutes, Maddie called back, "Come on, kids."

Sam and Tucker glanced at Danny frantically.

"We'll meet you back with our class!" Danny called, hoping he didn't sound too nervous. Apparently his hopes were for naught judging by the looks his friends were sending him.

Thankfully, his mom hadn't heard the note of fear in his voice and called, "Alright, you all better be back soon!"

Danny was grateful for his mother's semi-ignorance. Most mothers probably wouldn't let their kid and his friends be alone in the Ghost Zone. Good thing Maddie didn't fall into the category of 'most mothers.'

"So…" Tucker began, "what are we going to do about," he gestured to the circle of flowers, "this."

"Uh," Danny replied. He walked to the edge of the circle and, palms facing away from him, moved his hands towards the area above the flowers. His hands hit something solid, but there was no shock that accompanied the resistance. Danny glanced at his friends with a questioning look. Moving his foot forward, Danny brushed his foot against the flowers on the ground. He jumped back when the flowers shocked him. Not as badly as real blood blossoms would have, but bad enough that a small amount of red smoke emitted from his shoe. The flowers hadn't budged at all, they stayed where they were as if they were nails hammered into the ground.

"I can't get through," Danny conveyed to his friends. Placing both palms against the invisible wall in front of him, Danny pushed. His hands made it part way out of the circle, as if he had bent the nonexistent wall enough to push out that far. When he removed his hands and put them back in the same place, the wall had corrected the dent.

Frowning in frustration, Danny turned to his friends. Receiving his silent message, they came forward and bent down to the flowers. When they touched them directly, their hands whipped back. A small amount of red smoke drifted upwards from their fingertips.

"What just happened?" Tucker asked in confusion.

"We were shocked when we touched them," Sam replied. She stepped over the circle of flowers.

"Well, obviously, but why," Tucker elaborated.

"Who knows?" Danny replied.

Bending down, Sam attempted to touch the flowers again. Her hand whipped away from them again, emitting red smoke. She hissed slightly.

"Obviously, its not safe to eat them," Sam stated.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

A black combat boot came flying through the air and hit the techno geek in the chest. With an "Oof," he fell onto the dirt in the clearing. Smirking, Sam stepped over the blood blossoms to retrieve her combat boot.

"Uh, guys, can we focus here?" Danny pleaded.

"Right," Sam replied as the smirk dissolved from her face.

"What are we going to do?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know," Danny replied.

"We'll figure something out," Sam assured.

"Says the one who's not half ghost."

"Do you want our help, or not?"

"Guys," Tucker interrupted, "let's think about this.

"Do you think there's a way to neutralize the effects of the Blood Blossoms?" Sam wondered.

Tucker and Danny shrugged hopelessly. Sam stepped over the blossoms to look around.

"Of course, without knowing the components of the flower, we wouldn't be able to neutralize it," Sam muttered. "It is an electric current…"

"Electric current?" Tucker repeated. He added sarcastically, "Why don't we just use a switch then?"

Sam snapped her fingers. "Of course! The only way that an electrical current works is in a circuit. The blood blossoms have to be in a circle to work, so why don't we just interrupt the circle?"

Sam began to walk around the circle, scrutinizing the ground.

"What are you looking for?" Tucker questioned.

"A substitute insulator," she replied. A rustle was suddenly heard in the bushes. All three whipped around to stare intently at them.

"What are you three still doing here?" Maddie questioned them, emerging from the bushes, followed closely by the rest of their class.

"Experimenting," Sam replied quickly, frantically continuing to scan the ground.

"Well, I'm afraid we have to end the experiment here, we are heading to the other side of the island to see if we can find another natural path. We think we may have spotted one that is somewhat far away, but we should get to it pretty soon," Maddie relayed to them.

Danny stiffened. Too bad he couldn't get to the natural path if he didn't get out of the circle of blood blossoms.

"Come on," Maddie ordered. She crossed the clearing with the class trailing behind. Danny was glad to see Paulina emerge from the bushes, finally awake. The last to exit the bushes was Jack, who looked very disappointed. Maddie had probably told him that they fought a ghost while they were exploring.

Sam suddenly bent down, straightened and dashed over to the circle of blood blossoms. In her hands she held a grey-green, softly glowing material. Bending down at the edge of the circle, careful not to touch the lilac shaped blood blossoms, Sam dumped the soft material in between two blood blossoms. She spread the material over the two lilacs, and created a gap in the electrical current. Racing back to where she had found the material, she got more of it. She dumped it on the two blossoms next to the two she already covered. The gap was large enough that the electrical current should be broken. Danny walked to the edge of the circle, behind his dad and, once his dad had passed over the blood blossom circle, pressed his hand against the open air above the blossoms. He hoped that he would feel no resistance.

Unfortunately, his hand came against a solid force.

He glanced despairingly at Sam, who was scrutinizing the material on the ground.

"Come on, kids," Maddie called.

"One minute!" Tucker replied as Sam raced to find something.

When Sam returned, she was holding a glowing red vine. She put one end of it by the blood blossom closest to the material she had dumped, but not covered by it. She then took the vine, turned it so that it curled in a 'U' shape and ran back into the trees. She came back with several more of these vines and laid them out to circle back around the lilacs, not in the direction of the place where she dumped the material, and connected the end of the last vine to the blood blossom on the other side of the material, leaving a spot in the circle without any blood blossoms—the place where the material was dumped, covering some of the lilacs.

She gestured Danny over. He placed his hands in front of him, prepared to meet the invisible force created by the blood blossoms. However, he met no such force, and his hands passed easily over the spot where the material Sam dumped was. Stepping over it, Danny smiled at Sam.

"What is it?" Danny asked, pointing at the mushy pile covering some of the lilacs.

"Clay," Sam replied cheerfully. "It broke the current enough that the electricity flowed through the vines instead of the covered lilacs."

"Thanks," Danny said sincerely.

"Uh, guys, we should get going," Tucker said, gesturing in the direction that their class had gone.

"Right," Danny and Sam replied in unison.

Hurrying towards the group, the caught up to them when they reached the other side of the floating island. The class was staring at an approaching shape—another natural path.

"Get ready kids," Maddie ordered. "We're going to have to jump onto the path as the island floats by it. We may have only a few seconds to do this."

Gathering at the edge of the island, the class got ready. When the path passed under them, Maddie jumped first, followed by the class. However, Sam, Tucker, and Danny, who were in the back, didn't jump on in time.

The class stared openmouthed at the floating island, unsure of what to do.

Racing along the edge of the island, the trio attempted to reach a spot where they could jump onto the path the island continued to float by. When they finally reached a spot where they thought they could make it, the island lurched horribly and spun away from the natural path. The class screamed.

When the island's spinning slowed, Danny looked to see the lizard again, hovering near his class, his scaled face turned upward in an evil grin. Danny cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Don't worry about us! We'll catch up to you eventually!"

But Danny knew that it wasn't the class who should be assured. Danny was likely far more nervous than they were. He was worried because he wouldn't be able to protect them. They were on their own. The lizard had disappeared by now and all that Danny could do was look hopelessly at his class as they drifted away from his sight.

Somewhere, someone was whispering maniacally, "This couldn't be more perfect."

MWAHAHAHAHA!

I know. Short chapter. But I'm going to post it within a few hours of the previous chapter! Aren't you happy!

Who is the mysterious "someone" and what are they planning…?

REVIEW! :D