9 Chapter 9: Extreme Air Vacuums

I had planned to go straight to Clockworks place, but as soon as I walked through the door, I was met with the sound of explosions coming from the lab. So my trip to see the timekeeper, the wonderful timekeeper of the Infinite Realms, is on pause. No problem, but what's going on downstairs may be a different matter. This explosion didn't sound as big as usual. So it seems that I'll have to make sure whatever they're working on has an unfortunate accident.

What I would do for some Ancients damned peace and quiet in this house.

I crept up the stairs, did some much-needed homework, and played Doom to pass the time. Around sundown came the usual happening of Amity Park. Unlike most places, we don't have a lot of human-on-human crime, making it statistically one of the "safest" places to live. Whoever wrote that bull definitely didn't consult with the dead. Once the sun starts to go down, no matter the season comes a chill is in the air. It brings the sensation of eyes watching you and things crawling up your back. This makes it the perfect place for a ghost, feels like Zone on earth! The veil between life and death is just so thin enough for ambient ectoplasm to flow out, making it part of the top ten most recommended spots for Ghoulish and Ghostly Vacations! ( See page 10 to find out more)

So it didn't come as a surprise when I felt a cool sensation coming up my throat, but I didn't expect anything to come with it. The whole inside of my mouth was covered in frost, and it didn't stop there. In the air are tiny frozen crystals just suspended in the air, refusing to follow gravity. I waved my hand through them, hoping to knock them out of the air, but they refused to move. In fact, they stopped my hand, breaking all kinds of laws of physics; what stays in motion stays in motion unless stopped by an unbalanced force, apparently not anymore. I take a closer look at them, completely disregarding the unknown nearby ghost.

They are stunning.

Each one looks unique, just like a snowflake, soft and warm in my hand. Like before, they have no sign of melting, but what has them staying in the air could be anybody's guess. They also have a bit of a bite, which would make sense because of the cold… which doesn't make sense because I can't feel the cold. My interest peaked once again at that revelation. Would this have something to do with my cores' plasma? But if so, what could it be? Plasma is what makes up the stars, the nebulas, and galaxies! Not whatever gravity-defying effect this is.

The rational thing would be to grab Jazz and a journal to write down some theories, but time is of the essence here. If I go to get Jazz and theorize with her, we may be stuck up here all night, which I'm not opposed to, but what if Maddie or Jack comes in? That would definitely be a problem. I listen to the house, hoping to hear someone or anything that could help me decide, but it's quiet. Too quiet. Exasperated and annoyed, I make my way over to Jazz's room. I knock but get no answer, so I do it again but only receive silence. I open her door, hoping not to walk in on anything, only to find an empty room. I hurry to the bathroom door, careful of squeaky floorboards, hoping to catch her in there, but no luck. With my decision taken from me, I return to Jazz's room, take a spare notebook, leave her a note to come to find me, and squat in my room until she returns.

Better to be safe than vivisected.

That still raises the question of where our- um, Maddie and Jack. The phone hasn't rung, and there haven't been any ghost alarms blaring, so whoever got out must not be causing too much damage. I chew on my lip as I decide my next move. What if they got hurt in that explosion earlier? Or Ancients forbid went into the Realms. Without time to waste, I pull forward my core, doing my best to ignore the uncomfortable feeling flooding through my chest and let go of tangibility. I stick my head through the floor, and when I see no one downstairs, I softly float down and towards the lab. I head towards a window to see the GAV gone and no sign of Jazz's car. I let out a breath of relief, but before I could truly be put at ease, I went to the lab. Everything is covered in a new layer of soot but what really stands out is the latest invention lying innocently on the counter. It's a silver and green helmet with the word FENTON printed on the back. The odds of it being a normal helmet in this house is null and void, so that brings up the question what does it do? I go back onto the tangible spectrum as I look at it in apprehension before sliding it over my head.

Big mistake.

As soon as I put it on, a screen comes to life with the word 'Analyzing Data,' and different semantics runs in the background. Unfortunately, it went by too fast for me to read it. Still, it only took a moment to finish whatever it was doing before it let out a high pitch beep. Metal panels ran down from the helmet until they reached the bottom of my neck, trapping my head inside. It clasped around my throat like a collar, and a pressurized stream of air forced its way out from the clasp. All of the oxygen from inside the helmet was escaping leaving me nothing but carbon dioxide. I tried breaking the clasp, but it didn't make a difference, no matter how much I pulled or squeezed. I rush over to a mirror, hoping to get a better look, and immediately notice the screws all along the collar. I scurry over to the toolbox, searching for a screwdriver when I hear the front door slam.

" No spook makes a fool out of Jack Fenton! When I catch them, I'll... I'll… hey Madds, what were we going to do again?" The walls are too thick to hear Maddie reply but apparently, whatever she said made him happy as he yelled about more fudge. I finally found the right screwdriver and started working on the screws. I had only gotten a few off when the door to the lab flew open, and a still-steaming Maddie came down the stairs. I had just enough time to turn invisible so she would not notice me. It didn't take long for her to notice that her precious helmet had gone missing as she let out a string of curses so strong that it could give a ghost a heart attack.

" Honey, come here for a moment!" she yells in a sickeningly sweet voice towards the kitchen. A moment passes before Jack makes his way down with a tray full of fudge. Once she sees him, she starts her line of questioning, " have you seen the helmet? I thought you left it down here?" He gives her a bewildered look, " I left it right here on the counter," pointing to where the helmet initially was, " or at least that's where I left it." Then, she gives him a tongue-lashing about remembering where to leave inventions.

I have to say, I totally agree.

What would happen if, let's say, an impressionable young boy came down the stairs and put it on? Let us say they would have a private haunting for the foreseeable future. But wait! Does me living here already count as a haunting? I mean… I take and move stuff around the house, cause cold spots, and set off inventions... You know what? This is a problem for Future Danny, NOT DAN, BUT D-A-N-N-Y, just to be clear. As Jazz would say, " this is a stereotypical type of child neglect," not that she would be wrong. Somehow the blame gets put on me as Jack suggests, "maybe Danno came down to do some chores and put the helmet in the weapons locker!" She walks over to the computer- Oh no, the cameras! Okay, new plan: Get Maddie and Jack out of the Lab!

She takes a seat at the desk and lets out a loud snort, " when was the last time you saw Danny come down here without being reminded? I bet it was that ghost scum that came out of the portal!" I finish prying the metal plating and start letting myself out of the helmet as she once again stands and then heads toward the weapons lock up. Jack follows her like a lost puppy, and I take her place by the computer. I have enough off of the helmet for some air to get through, so that becomes a secondary problem as I rush to fudge the lab footage. After doing it so often, it doesn't take too long, but you never know when they are going to come back. I don't know how they would react to seeing the keyboard and mouse moving on their own, and truthfully id rather not risk it. Once my presence is erased from the footage, I put on a ten-second time delay before it starts recording live again. I use this time to gather the pieces of the helmet and escape back to my bedroom.

Once I'm back up, I drop the invisibility thanking Pandoras' box and Clockwork for my escape. I place the metal on my desk and turn around to see a heavily confused Jazz sitting on my bed. Her eyes are wide, and her lips parted in disbelief, but the expression doesn't last long as she shakes her head and asks with a laugh in her voice, " is this what you needed me for?" and hands me the note I had left not too long ago. My hand reflexively goes to the back of my neck as my face reddens, " ahh, not exactly," and show her the crystals, which are still suspended in the air. We go over my initial findings once again, with the only difference being that the crystals are freezing to the touch for her, which isn't too surprising, but better to be positive than think my reaction is universal.

" It's got to be because of the plasma, right?" she nods slowly in thought. " Have you tried doing the scary eyes and see if there is anything extra ~SpOoKy~" First off, my eyes are not scary, and second, I have no idea how, but she managed to say the squiggles out loud. Ignoring her weird vocal abilities, I do as she suggests and flood my eyes with ectoplasm. The crystals are sharper like this; I'm able to see every detail. Not only that, but different hues of light going through them are breathtaking. There are so many colors I've never seen before. My amazement must be showing as Jazz cuts in, asking, " so what do you see?"

"It's just… wow, there aren't really words to explain it. It's like a mini aurora borealis, but with even more colors." A look of jealousy passes on her face before simply disappearing, " do you think I'd be able to see it if we put it under a microscope?" I needed a moment to think about it before replying, " if you mean seeing it exactly as I do, I'll have to say no. Some of these colors I've never seen before, they have to be out of the human range of vision. But I think If you put it under, you would still see the aurora, either way, Jazz, it's beautiful." I notice something else besides the colors, though, and I can't help but think of how they were created. I force out ectoplasm, similarly to how I would be powering up an ectoblast, but let it coat my hand. I put my hand up to the crystals and watch as the ectoplasm goes around the crystals themselves. When I brush up against them, the colors get even stronger. I didn't notice how much until Jazz let out a gasp, " Danny, what did you do? Oh my… is this what you were seeing." I look at her confused, and she goes on, " whatever you were doing made the colors come out. Look, they're even reflecting on the walls." I took a look and sure enough, she was right.

" I think I know what's going on." I can't say it didn't hurt a little when she sounded surprised, " really?" I turned back to the crystals and put them in a small ecto-shield, and, after a couple moments, fell out of their place in the air and crashed into the bottom of the shield. I handle them tenderly as I explain, " When my ghost sense goes off, I get a rush of ectoplasm from my core which normally comes out as cold air," she nods in understanding, " but now, with my core adapting to plasma, some of that ectoplasm came out with it. Plasma makes up a lot of things and can be very dangerous when forced out, which is what happened when my ghost sense went off." I waited for any questions, just to make sure she understood what I was getting at, but all she gives is her crunched up processing face ™, "sorry but I'm a little lost, what exactly happened?"

" Think of it like this, when an aurora borealis is made, it comes from solar wind hitting the earth's magnetic field. That wind comes from the sun's plasma exploding out of the sun, just like the plasma exploding out of my core. That plasma hit particles from both inside my body and in the air creating a show of colors. But because it wasn't just plasma ectoplasm but ice, it caused the plasm hitting the particles to freeze on their way out, capturing both the plasma and the particles inside," I release the shield and show her one of the crystals, " creating this."

She gives the crystal an appraising look, " okay, that makes sense, but why was it stuck in the air?" I rub the back of my neck, embarrassed, " I'm not too sure about why but my guess is all of the extra ectoplasm that came out" She purses her lips, " You just gave a detailed explanation on how you created a miniature aurora borealis, but you don't know how it stayed there?" I throw my hands up in disbelief, huffing, " I'm not a genius, Jazz, I don't know everything!" She looks like she wants to argue but eventually lets it go.

After a thorough cleaning, we spent the rest of the night looking at the crystals and trying to see how bright the colors could get. All was going well until, " Hey, Danny, what happened to that ghost who came out? The one that caused your sense to go off?"

" Ah shit, I knew I forgot something."

Without prompting, I grab a thermos and rush out the window. It's been hours since my ghost sense went off; whoever came out could be anywhere. Could have been captured by anyone. Well, at least I can take Maddie and Jack out of the running for potential captures. After all, he wouldn't say, " No spook makes a fool out of Jack Fenton," if one of them had made a lucky shot. The possibility of the GIW having grabbed them is probably low. We would have heard Vlad's head explode from the rising cost of property damage, which leaves only Val in the running, with the assumption that they got caught, which isn't a guarantee. There are quite a few ghosts that still give her some trouble.

This is going to be trouble, I can feel it.