Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The sky swirled, looking like it was shrouded in an eternal green fog. No sun or moon illuminated the world around, but yet there was an ever present light shining throughout the timeless expanse. A lone child sat perched in the peek of a floating rock dark white streaked hair gently swaying in the ever-present breeze.

The boy observed the sky and distant islands around him for a while, slowing chewing on what he thinks was some sort of pickled meat. He honestly couldn't really tell, but it was definitely earthly in origin, and he couldn't afford to be picky.

The blobs resting nearby suddenly seemed disturbed, scattering and hiding away in the rock crevices. A couple hid inside the black hood of the boys' white hazmat suit. He glanced around warily, quickly packing up the jar he'd been eating from into a worn pinkish backpack.

He reached down to clip a couple of contraptions to the bottom of his boots and was in the middle of slipping a couple of bulky mechanical looking bracelets onto his wrists when he finally heard it. The buzzing that came with ghosts.

Making sure the backpack was secure on his back, he began running towards the edge of the rock. The tech on his shoes and wrists began to whir as he gained speed. Before he could reach the end, he jumped, and electric pulses echoed from his devices, propelling him forward rapidly.

As he jumped from floating rock to floating rock, he heard a rumble and distant howls of laughter. Taking a moment to look over his shoulder, two ghosts could be seen speeding through the air on a motorcycle. He picked up his pace, hoping to find a good hiding place on one of the rocks. Lone ghosts usually spelled trouble, and he was not in the mood for a fight. He ducked into a nook at the edge of a particularly large rock quickly, and seconds later, the motorcycle zoomed right over his head. He hoped desperately that they hadn't seen him.

"Wait, Jonny, did you see a kid over there?!" Shoot. He'd been spotted.

Scrambling onto his feet, he tried to head back the way he came, only to be stopped mid jump, the blobs fleeing from his person. The collar of his suit dug into his neck while his hood was held in the firm grip of the blond ghosts hand.

"Well well, what do we have here a little- wait a second," the ghost lifted him higher while the boy grabbed onto his arm, trying to releive some of the pressure off his neck, "your alive?!"

"Let me go!" The kid yelled.

The ghosts just laughed, "Aw, how cute," the lady cooed, "what's a little human like you doing in the zone?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The boy grumbled, trying to kick at their bike.

"Chill out, kid," the man rolled his eyes, "we ain't gonna hurt yah, names Johnny and this is my girlfriend Kitty," the woman waved at him, "And you are?"

"... Danny." He responded hesitantly.

"Nice to meet'cha, we're on our way to Brycowar right now. We could give you a ride if you want. It'd be wrong to just leave a kid stranded out here."

Danny furrowed his brow unsure, the last stray ghost he'd met had attacked him, yelling something about flesh and haunts. But so far, these two didn't seem to have any intention of harming him. Yet. He looked down at the rocks around him, at the pace he was going it could he days, or weeks, before he made it to another ghost town, and his supplies were dwindling.

"Fine," he answered, "just can you stop holding me by the hood. It's kind of choking me." He let out an exaggerated cough to illustrate the point.

"Right right, babe, could you?" He said, holding Danny out.

Kitty took a hold of him under his arms and placed him in front of her on the bike, "You better hold on tight. We don't ever take it slow."

Danny nodded, slipping his bracelets into his backpack. He hastily hugged Johnny's waist as he heard the motorcycle begin to rev. He felt kitty lean forward as she gripped the back of her boyfriend's long jacket from around danny, firmly sandwiching the kid between the two ghosts.

He briefly wondered if his backpack was uncomfortable for her to be leaning against, but she made no complaint.

And with that, they shot off like a bullet towards what danny could only hope was friendly civilization.

Chapter Text

The ride to Brycowar only took a couple of hours. The ghosts hadn't lied when they said they drove fast. Danny would have flown right off the bike multiple times if it wasn't for Kitty boxing him in. Despite the risk of falling, he found he quite liked it all, the speed was exhilarating, and Danny found most of his previous nervousness seemed to have been metaphorically left in the dust.

Johnny pulled the bike to a stop at the edges of the ghost town, parking it on the edge of a street that led right off a cliffs edge. Kitty got off first, gesturing Danny to do so as well. When he did so, he found his feet flying out from under him, nearly falling flat if Kitty hadn't caught hold of him.

"What was that?" She asked, raising a brow seemingly assuming the fall had been Danny's own clumsiness.

"I forgot to take the boosters off my shoes," he answered, reaching down to unclip the contraptions he'd attached to them, "I can't really fly around the same as you, so I made these to help. Their terrible for normal walking around, though."

Johnny whistled, "That's impressive kid, who taught you?"

"My dad, but it's really not all that good, I mean it wouldn't work at all if gravity was normal here, and even then I need to pair them with the bracelet versions to actually get anywhere." Danny said, ducking his head.

"No, really, kid. It takes some real skill to make something like that. You should be proud," Johnny said, patting his shoulder, "Now how bout we find a place to eat that also serves human food. I'm sure you're starving."

Danny sheepishly grinned, "I might be."

Kitty laughed, "No doubt about it, I think I heard your stomach growling ten times in the past five minutes alone."

With that, they made their way into the town. Danny looked back, unsure about leaving the bike unattended there, but the ghosts didn't seem to worry, so he let the matter be.

~*~

Brycowar was a large and busy town, built on two islands with a large bridge like structure connecting them. The bridge it's self was home to dozens of buildings and stalls and storefronts as it housed the towns main market. Strings of lanterns and tattered flags were strung high up between the buildings.
This was where Danny and his two ghost companions found themselves.

Johnny's hands were already full of bags of different human foods. Danny had no clue that there was so much food to find in the ghost zone. He'd kind of figured that it would require a lot more searching, but apparently, human foods were considered a treat, and some ghosts chose to eat it regularly like they had in life. Sure, they'd passed plenty of ectoplasmic food stalls but there was a lot less variety as ectoplasm was rather bland, or at least that's what Kitty told him when she'd bought a large bottle of some kind of fizzed ectoplasm drink.

Danny was closely following behind Kitty and Johnny, working his way through a potato stuffed fried bread that the vendor had called pirozhki, when someone bumped into him.

"Oh, my apologies," the person said, "I didn't see you there."

The ghost was tall with blue skin and dark hair spiked into horns. His red eyes glanced over Danny rather haughtely before he suddenly grinned.

"How rude of me, to run into you and not even bother introducing myself! You may refer to me as Plasmius," he held out his hand to shake, "May I have your name?"

Danny was about to respond before a hand clamped over his mouth, preventing him from speaking.

"He's not interested, Plas!" Kitty snapped, pulling Danny closer to her.

"Really man?!" Johnny said, having noticed the two lagging behind, "What are you even doing here? You're not one to leave your corner of the zone very often."

"I have some business I needed to attend to out here, not that it matters to you," Plasmius shot a glare at the biker ghost.

"Well, I'm sure it's far more important than trying to mess with a kid, so get!" Kitty hissed, stepping in between Danny and the older ghost.

The ghost rolled his eyes at that, "I hardly doubt you two even know the definition of important business, though I suppose you're right, I'm already running late." And with a dismisive wave of his hand, he left.

"Ugg, what a creep," Kitty scoffed before stepping back from Danny and addressing him with a much softer tone, "you okay, kid?"

He nodded, "Yeah, though I don't see why you're both so worked up, he just asked what my name was. And like you two are hardly any more of strangers than him, and I told you."

Johnny and Kitty glanced at each other concernedly.

"Look, kid, me and Kitty, we don't look for trouble, just happy cruising through life, having fun and all that. But Plasmius is not like that at all. He's conniving and sneaky. He words things in round about ways, hoping to trick others into doing his bidding or making deals with him. Just watch out for him, okay?"

Danny looked between the two of them. They seemed genuinely concerned about the incident with Kitty repeatedly glancing back the way the other ghost left, as if expecting him to make a sudden return.

He nodded and fiddled with his backpack strapps, "Alright."

"Good, let's go find a place to rest for a while then," Johnny said, patting his shoulder.

As they continued on their way, Danny fought the urge to look behind in the direction plasmius had disappeared too.

Chapter Text

The group soon found themselves relaxing in a little hotel just off the main bridge area. A short grey ghost with a bushy mustache and a green doorman outfit seemed to happily run the whole place. When Danny brought up the subject of payment, Johnny had just waved him off, saying that it was helping fulfill the ghost's obsession. Very few things in the zone seemed to require any sort of currency, apparently.

Johnny had gone off to talk to some punkish looking ghosts that had been hanging around the hotel foyer, and Danny had settled onto the bed closer to the door, having unzipped the top half of his jumpsuit, tying the arms securely around his waist, showing off the red tee-shirt underneath. He'd just started fiddling with his boosters when Kitty interrupted him.

"I hope this doesn't come off as too forward, but what's up with your hair?" She asked, twirling a finger through her bangs to demonstrate as she placed an old magazine down next to where she sat on the opposite bed.

Danny squinted, pulling his bangs down over his eyes to try and look at them, "I.... I'm honestly not sure. It wasn't like this before I-" he paused for a moment to think, "I didn't notice it changing colors till a couple of days ago."

"Huh," Kitty seemed contemplative, "and how long have you been in the ghost zone now?"

"A few days, maybe a week?" Danny shrugged, "it's hard to keep track of time when there isn't a proper day night cycle." He noticed a few loose wires on his shoes boosters and began rummaging through his backpack for something to help secure them.

Silence fell over the room again as Danny busied himself with his work, and Kitty picked her magazine back up, mostly just fiddling with it as she was lost in thought. Johnny returned about a half hour later, looking excited.

"Hey Babe, I found out there's going to be a concert a few isles from here tomorrow evening, we should check it out," he glanced over towards danny suddenly remembering his existence, "You're invited too kiddo, obviously."

Danny shrugged, not looking up from his work, "I appreciate the offer, but no thanks."

"Ah, d'ya have other plans?" Johnny asked with genuine curiosity.

"Sort of?" Danny waved his hand, "I'm mostly just trying to find a specific, uh, place in the zone, and I was hoping to find info on how to get there from around here."

Kitty spoke up, "If you're looking for whatever natural portal dropped you in the zone, you'd be out of luck. They dissappear pretty quick."

Danny shook his head and put his tools down, "No its not that, I ended up in the zone through... different means."

"A stabilized portal then?" Kitty pushed.

Danny's eyes widened in suprise. He'd been trying to avoid bringing up that it was his parents' portal, having hoped to not attract ghosts to it, but it seemed they had already heard of it.

"Uh yeah, have you heard of it? Do you know where it is?"

Kitty shook her head while Johnny spoke up, "Sorry kid, as far as I know, Plasmius keeps info on his portals location pretty secretive, but I know a guy who occasionally does work for him."

"Not a good idea!" Kitty cut her boyfriend off, "that guy is way too dangerous. Sorry, danny."

Johnny sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "yeahhh, you're probably right. It was dumb to bring him up."

Danny bit his lip, taking a moment to consider this new information. Apparently, the portal they were referring to belonged to that ghost from earlier, was it his parents one, and the ghost just claimed the area it was at, or was it a different portal? And this other guy, knew where this portal was located, but he was also too dangerous for him to talk too, which wasn't a new occurrence during Danny's short stay in the ghost zone so far. Then he had an idea.

"Could you at least tell me about him so I know who to avoid? Also, maybe if I'm lucky, I might find some info from those who've run into him instead."

The ghosts looked at each other as if having a silent conversation. Johnny made some kind of expression that could have been a 'he's got a point' look, and Kitty seemed to begrudgingly give in.

"Fine, His name's Skulker," she let out a sigh and Danny tore off a corner of a magazine and scribbled the name on it so he wouldn't forget, tucking it away in the front pocket of his bag.

"Alright, we better turn in for the night," Johnny said despite there not being any sort of real night in the zone, "kitty and I will have to leave early if we want to make it to that concert in time."

Danny nodded and finished packing away his things so he could use his bed properly. He'd be able to rest easier than he had in a while, having felt he'd finally made some progress in finding a way back home.

As he climbed under the blankets, Kitty spoke up.
"I better not hear about you running off to chase down that ghost later, Danny." Kitty gave him a stern look to emphasize the seriousness of the warning.

"Scouts honor!" Danny nodded solemnly, raising a hand to his heart. Kitty accepted this, and they all soon drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Text

Danny never had made it into the Boy Scouts.

He'd conveniently forgot to inform Kitty of this fact, and now he found himself sneaking behind a green vaguely humanoid shaped blob ghost carrying several large boxes that were slated to be shipped to the one and only Skulker. Now he wasn't exactly planning on talking to the guy, just hide out near him and maybe take a little peek at any things he might have lying around. Possibly find some papers or a map that would help him track down the supposedly owned by plasmius portal, which he still suspected was actually his parents' one. So, did it really count as going against Kitty's guidance? It's not like he'd actually given his word, what with not being a scout at all. Okay. He was just trying to justify this to himself, who really cared about what some stupid ghost said to him anyway. They were all just imprints of post human conceousness, or whatever it was his parents always said, never mine that half the ghosts he'd met so far would have been undistinguishable from humans if it weren't for all the glowing and unnatural colors.

The ghost he was trailing suddenly stopped by what looked like some sort of small moving van partially filled with boxes and pallets of wire. Danny ducked into a shadowed doorway and cautiously peeked out and watched the ghost place the boxes in the vehicle and close the trunks door. When the ghost walked around the other side of the van to get to the driver's seat, Danny sprinted over to the van and slipped in through the closed door. He wasn't sure how it worked, but he'd found out that he could intangibley go through obstacles while ghosts couldn't some time before his run in with the biker couple. Maybe it had something to do with ectoplasm fusing with every substance in the zone? He'd have to bring it up to his parents when he got home. For now, he made himself comfortable behind some of the boxes at the very back, furthest from the door. It wasn't long until the engine started rumbling and the car was moving.

~*~

The van jolted, startling Danny awake. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but it sure had made the time pass quickly. It felt like he'd only been in there a few minutes instead of several hours. Some muffled voices came from outside, a click, and then the creak of the van door sliding up. Danny peeked between a few boxes and saw a large robot with a green mohawk talking  to the ghost that had been driving the truck. He rolled backward through the wall of the trunk into a standing position on the outside. After glancing back to make sure he was still out of the line of sight of the specters. He quietly slipped into into the dense foliage of the forested island they were on now.

It took about half an hour for the two to finish unpacking the supplies and for the van to drive away (fly away?). Skulker picked up at least half the boxes in one go and started tracking up the narrow road to the skull shaped building peeking out above the trees. Danny waited a minute then started following behind, picking his way carefully through the brush. There was one particular moment where he'd accidentally stepped on a dry stick that made a sharp snap sound. He'd held his breath, watching the ghost ahead pause in its tracks. He gave a sigh of relief when it turned out he was just shifting the boxes into a more secure hold before walking on. After a bit of a hike, they reached the oddly shaped building, and Danny watched skulker go inside. About 10 minutes had passed before the ghost left again, this time heading back in the direction of where the last of the boxes were. Once Skulker was thourally out of sight, danny rushed over to the doors. He was surprised to notice them locked through some electronic system it seemed considering the small tablet screen embedded near the handles. With a smirk, Danny phased through the door. What barrier were locks in the ghost zone when you weren't even a ghost?

He found himself in a spacious entry room with stairs leading up and down. He couldn't see what was upstairs, but the downstairs was only a few steps below with the door wide open. It seemed to be a work room of sorts with shelves of boxes and a board with mounted guns. Hesitantly, danny made his way down. There was a desk in the far corner that had loose papers and filing drawers to the side. He turned to examine the back wall and felt his heart beat quicken. It was covered in mounted heads of animals and strange creatures, some looking eerily humanoid. There were also full-bodied stuffed alien like creatures on wooden stands pushed up into the corners. A desk sat in the center with some strange pink pelt on it that looked to be in the process of stuffing.

Danny shuddered and hurried over to the desk that had the papers instead, making sure to give the back wall a wide berth. There was something seriously wrong about all that stuff over there. Not that he himself was against hunting, his aunt had dragged him out on a hunting trip a couple summers ago, though they thankfully hadn't caught anything, Danny got squeamish around blood and hadn't been very excited about the idea of killing. It was probably the humanoid ones that were freaking him out, but for all he knew, they were some sort of ghost chimpanzees instead so he ignored the nagging feeling of wrongness in favor of looking over the documents that were laying out.

They seemed to be mostly receipts, probably for the packages that he'd hidden with. Carefully, he peeked under some, trying his best to keep them as in place as possible, and found some unopened letters. No address or names indicating who they came from, just a fancy wax seal with a swirly cursive VM. He left them be since they were sealed and went over to the filing cabinet instead.

Immediately, he felt overwhelmed by folders full of dates and strange names. A good half of them were written in some foreign language or code that was unrecognizable. He shook his head, trying to focus on the task at hand again, and scanned over the lables, trying to spot anything that seemed to even vaugly hint towards plasmius.

He was on the third drawer when he spotted it, a folder labled '1997-V.Plasmius'. With a triumphant grin, He snatched it up and shut the drawer. Before he could open it, there was the woosh of an automatic door opening.