The Other Halfa

XI. Ghost-Kids vs Skulker, Round 1

Back at the lab, Lina had managed to free herself from Skulker, who was busy trying to hit Danny. She pulled a half loop and quickly flew towards him, her fist aimed for his cheek.

"This won't work on me again, Ghost child," he said and grabbed Danny by the leg before he swung him.

Using him as a bat to hit Lina with him and then released him. It caused the duo to fall with force on one of the laboratory tables and break it in the process while resulting in a loud crash.

"Ouch," the duo said, wincing at the pain of the impact.

Lina had it the worst since her body shielded Danny from the majority of the impact and it was his weight that added extra force as she crashed on the table.

Skulker waited no time and headed towards them with a speed that they could barely match.

Lina noticed him first and she acted on instinct, pushing  Danny out of the way before Skulker's fist collided with her stomach and caused the wall behind her to crack from the force.

"Lina!" Danny shouted, his eyes glowing green with anger as he charged to fight the ghost hunter and help his adopted sister. Only for the ghost to lift his hand and backslap him, treating him like a mere fly. Danny crashed on the floor on his back, and as he stood up, he saw Skulker holding a barely conscious Lina by the neck. "What are you doing?" he asked, trying to lift his tired body as Skulker moved towards him with big strides.

"Bringing you back to my world, where I can put you on display" he held up his cage that was filled with trapped ghosts, which levitated midair. He then grabbed the ghost boy by the neck and lifted him in the air.

"What?!"

The cage disappeared, and Skulker pressed a button on his wrist with his knuckles, turning on the nearby Ghost Portal. "Ha! At last. *Starts walking towards the portal* Time to put you in your cage."

"Noooo!"

Sam suddenly slid between Skulker and the portal, holding her arms out to block him. "No, Danny is right. Cages are wrong. How do you think Sampson feels being in a cage?"

The ghost hunter was now confused and looked at the short teen girl. "But—"

"He's a beautiful animal and deserves to roam free!"

"I..."

"Should be ashamed."

While he was occupied and distracted by Sam, Danny glanced at Lina who had managed to regain her senses. Giving a knowing look, the ghost girl gathered her strength and the duo kicked their opponent across the room in a combined effort.

He headed towards Tucker, who yelled out of fear before running away. However, as he did so, he dropped his PDA and Skulker landed right next to it.

He picked it up. "That technology: so sleek, so...advanced *Looks at the old control panel on the wrist, then back at PDA* Hmm, I wonder..."

Testing his theory, he yanked the busted, outdated control panel off of his armour and dropped it on the floor, then replaced its slot with the PDA. The PDA began to spark, and the dangling wires waved around.

Tucker stood up behind Skulker. "Hey, I got three more payments on that!"

He only received a loud smack from the ghost, which focused once again on his wrist. "Marvelous"

The dangling wires connected to the PDA ad caused Skulker to glow. Danny flew at him, but Skulker fired a new ecto-blaster from his wrist back at him. Danny ended up hitting the wall, with his arms and legs bound by ectoplasm.

"Way to go, Tucker. You just made the bad guy worse" Sam commented.

"How was I supposed to know my PDA was ghost compatible?" he defended himself.

"Say goodbye to this world, child," Skulker said, pointing his wrist at Danny. Lina's eyes flashed a bright red as she flew fast towards him, hoping to stop him in time. To everyone's surprise, the PDA beeped, and the ghost looked at it. "Fly to the library? Get a book on the eating habits of the purple-back gorilla?" His jetpack suddenly popped out and turned on, blasting him towards the ceiling. "No, stop. The hunt is not over!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He phased through the ceiling and invisibly passed up through the living room. Jack, climbing the stairs with the others, turned around as if he heard Skulker, frowned and kept walking.

Skulker phased completely out of Fenton Works.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back in the lab, the ectoplasmic binds on Danny disappeared, and Lina landed by his side, leaving a sigh of relief.

"That was close" she sat on the floor, feeling drained as she turned back to human.

"What happened?" Sam asked, helping Danny to get up.

"Who cares? At least I got a minute to relax and figure this out" the boy replied, only for the universe to quickly tell him otherwise.

"Danny, Lina, where are you? Somebody here wants to meet you" Maddie was heard shouting, making the two halfa widen their eyes.

"D'oh! My room!"

Grabbing Lina by the wrist, he flew up and phased into his room before also transforming into his human self.

Right on time, a second later, the door to his room opened by his mother. "Danny, this is Connie, from Genius Magazine"

"Don't you people ever knock?" Danny said and quickly shut the door, hoping they didn't see an exhausted and beat-up Lina barely standing in the middle of the room. The boy leaned against the door. "Jazz is going to kill me for that."

"Brooding? Messy? Reclusive? Now those are the signs of a true genius. Oh! If only he were a woman. What about Lina?" Connie said, turning to the two parents.

"This way," Maddie said, leading her to the room next to Danny's whose door was closed.

The kids from inside the room heard them, and Lina quickly rushed through the wall, phasing in her room before turning solid again. The doorknob started to turn, and she quickly jumped on the bed, turned her back on the door and pretended she was asleep.

"Lina, dear," the female scientist said as they opened the door, only to see Lina 'sleeping'. "Are you asleep? *no reply* I presume so. I am sorry about that, Connie."

The reporter looked at the sleeping girl for a moment and then at her room. "It is okay. Judging by her room, I cannot see any signs of a true genius."

Lina frowned but kept the action, waiting until the door closed before turning to face the ceiling. She grabbed the pillow and covered her face with it before leaving out a deep sigh.