The Witch Doctor Incident

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Chapter Seven - The Fight

They didn’t bother with stealth. Stealth worked when dealing with two pairs of hunters able to dodge errant ghosts. ‘Stealth’ worked when one could turn himself invisible or out wait an enemy. ‘Stealth’ did not work when herding a group of small children through a castle in the ghost zone.

“Pick a partner and line up,” Thor commanded, causing the kids to jump into action. Immediately they formed a staggering line in the middle of the dorm room. With the odd number of children, two of the oldest boys took the hands of a blond girl, half her air in a ponytail and the other half a stump on the opposite side of her head.

They started off, adults nervously fingering their weapons as Danny led everyone into the first hallway. The children marched blissfully unaware of the danger outside the room. Once they made it down the first staircase Janet sped up to walk next to the half ghost.

“Phantom…Danny…what happened?” she asked in a hushed voice.

“Huh?” he said, glancing in the huntress’ direction.

“Where is Thor’s gear?” she specified. “He doesn’t have the tracker or his weapons and he lost the spare Thermos. What happened?”

“We had a little trouble, nothing big,” he tried to play it off.

“What exactly happened?” Janet demanded, spinning him around as the children walked around them. Jacobs jogged past, trying to keep up with the first couple of kids.

Danny sighed and explained, “A Whisper tagged along with us. We made it halfway down an empty hallway before it triggered a trap that brought down the ceiling on top of us. I managed to phase Thor out of his suit so he wasn’t crushed with everything else.” Tugging out of her grip, he started walking. Eventually he overtook the children and walked next to Eric. Janet stayed in the middle of the group and Thor limpingly brought up the rear. They continued on like this for about two floors.

As they walked along another featureless and blank corridor he coughed, sputtering as a faint blue mist choked him. A hard cough broke it loose and sent a stream of blue swirling out of his mouth. A soft beep occurred at the same time.

“Kid,” Jacobs called out, catching his attention. He held up the group’s only ghost tracker as the screen flashed.

“I sense it,” he said. “Just get ready for it.”

Janet and Thor pushed the children down as they stared at the walls in trepidation, waiting for the Witch Doctor to attack. Danny tensed as he put some distance between himself and the group. The hallway they stood in ran against an outer wall and the ceiling height windows spilled green light around them as they waited for the attack.

It burst out of a wall, yelling as it fired weak ectoblasts at Danny. He took the hit and fired back as Jacobs added his own blasts from his gun, a twin to the one Anderson used. Their combined attack plastered the ghost against the floor and let everyone get a good look.

It was the standard ectogreen, almost featureless except for the squinting eyes as a mouth overflowing with teeth. It pushed itself off the floor and stood proudly.

“You will not make it past me, the Great Hildalgo!” it exclaimed.

“Oh please,” Danny laughed. “That had to be the lamest attack ever and you think you still can stop us?”

It hissed and dove right at the children, causing them to scream. Danny aimed and fired an emerald beam, catching the ghost in the stomach and knocking it back. This time it hit the wall, causing it to crack from the impact of the ghost. It took longer for it to stand back up.

“You cannot defeat the Great Hildalgo! I will pursue you across time itself!”

“Janet, any time you want,” Jacobs called out, having to yell over the ghost’s boasting.

The small click and whine shut the ghost up quick. It couldn’t move out of the path of the blue light that dragged it though the air over everyone’s heads. The light and ghost disappeared leaving Janet standing in the hallway tossing the Thermos in the air nonchalantly.

“Is it gone,” a boy asked nervously. The children stayed huddled together on the ground until the hunters asked them to stand back up. They looked nervous and scared and worried, none realizing till that moment that ghosts were dangerous.

“It’s gone,” Thor soothed. “I know the ghost was scary but we caught it and it will not bother any of you again.” The children nodded but they remained a little closer than before as they began marching. Slowly they made their way down. They did not encounter any ghosts but they vaporized four Whispers as they travelled. It became nerve wracking the longer they walked. Finally Jacobs paused and switched places with Smith only one floor above the courtyard and the speeder.

Janet stopped the group as they reached a blind corner, motioning Danny up into the air. He floated off the ground and hovered above everyone’s heads to get a good view. Tiny gasps erupted below and he looked down to see the wide eyes of the children.

“Are you a ghost?” one brave little boy towards the back asked.

“Yes, but a friendly one,” he admitted with a small smile.

“Enough chatter. All right y’all, I want you to be as quiet as you can. We have to walk through a very large room before we can go downstairs and then outside. I do not want to hear a peep out of any of you, understand?”

She started walking around the corner when from behind came a “Peep!” A couple of kids towards the middle giggled. Janet just shook her head and started forward, edging into the room. Everyone followed in pairs as Danny watched from the ceiling. Finally he flew around the corner and into the next room.

“What is this place,” asked Gabrielle, the redhead girl that asked Danny if they were going home when they first found the children. Janet risked a glance back before she answered, “It’s a training room. See all those rock piles. They used to be walls and targets but some one blasted them up.” The large room, easily bigger than the Casper High Gym, had the standard tall ceilings found in the rest of the castle. Scattered all around were half-demolished walls and piles of rock and debris. They stayed along the nearest wall and headed towards the lone hallway on the other side of the room, everyone falling silent.

The blast came out of nowhere, striking Smithy’s chest and knocking her back. Danny cursed and formed the largest shield possible, green energy protecting the children Thor and Jacobs. He looked down to see Janet picking herself up, her headset knocked cleanly off her head from the force of the blast.

“Mama Nuodov,” one of the children whispered. Danny’s head snapped up to see the Witch Doctor in the middle of the room in her human form. “Children, are you hurt?” she called out worriedly.

“No,” was the chorused answer from below him.

“Come here,” she motioned towards the center of the room. “I’ll take you all back to your room. The mean humans won’t take you away.”

“No, let go!” a little boy screeched as the older kids, wary to begin with, held the smallest back under the shield. Thor, Jacobs, and Smithy all trained their guns on the woman, not moving an inch. She tried again.

“Come here, Mama is worried. I just want you to be safe.” Her innocent act hypnotized the children. Arms loosened and a few took hesitant steps towards the ghost.

“Don’t move,” Danny ordered. “She’s just trying to trick you. She’s not your real mother, any of yours.” The children snapped out of their daze and stopped struggling. Those that had moved forward started to back up towards the hunters and deeper under the shield.

“You pertinacious little brat,” she snarled, eyes flashing red. A couple of kids whimpered as the illusion shattered to reveal the true Witch Doctor. Guns cocked and charged as Danny’s fingertips glowed with stored energy. Janet stepped forward and kicked her headset to Danny’s little redheaded friend who promptly placed it on her own head. Danny sank to the ground next to the huntress. Glancing over his shoulder he whispered, “Run!”

The Witch Doctor let the group leave. Only Smithy and Phantom remained as Thor and Eric led the children out of the room to the awaiting corridors. Their footsteps faded and Nuodov approached. Janet squeezed his hand before starting towards the ghost. Danny chose to hang back, disappearing as soon as the Doctor’s attention fixated on the human hunter.

“I will have to give you humans credit,” she drawled out as she drew closer. “You are the most tenacious group of air sucking intruders I’ve ever had the displeasure knowing.”

“Believe me, the feelings mutual, Bitch.”

Janet swung up and fired three quick rounds of blue energy. Nuodov calmly raised a hand and a simple plate shield blocked the attack. Suddenly, she staggered forward, shawl smouldering from an emerald blast. She tossed away the shawl and stepped to the side to look at her other opponent. Danny hovered, now visible, about ten feet behind her, palms still smoking from the attack.

“Oh, I mustn’t forget about your pet ghost. Tell me, boy, do you enjoy serving humans like a slave?”

“I don’t belong to anyone,” Danny hissed. “I’m helping them because I want to.”

“So you’ll betray your own kind to ‘help’ creatures that would destroy you if given the chance.”

“Hey, we only go after ghosts that deserve it,” Janet protested. “We humans tend to get a little touchy when someone kidnaps children right out of their own beds.”

The ghost shrugged indifferently, unaffected by the anger pouring of both huntress and Danny. “I guess I’ll have to annihilate you two first before rescuing my children.” She floated back a couple of feet before yelling, “Now!”

Above their heads the telltale of grinding of rocks on rocks drown out Smithy’s reply. Danny covered his head as parts of the ceiling collapsed around them, showering the room with dust and debris that blocked the faint torchlight. Janet began coughing and Danny gave up breathing as the dust cloud engulfed them. Sinister shadows formed, surrounding them on all sides as Danny and Janet met up and the Witch Doctor disappeared from their sight. The first shadow hissed and entered the light provided by Danny’s aura and Janet’s suit. Others followed until seven circled them.

“Gremlins,” Janet growled, coughing after an accidental deep breath.

“Let’s see how many of my pets your pet ghost can destroy while protection you, Human,” Nuodov spat out and her creatures yipped and hissed in response.

“Danny, can you get rid of just my suit?” Janet whispered. Pressing his back against hers as the demons approached, he reached out, his fingers clutching a loose sleeve. As petit as Janet was even the smallest ectosuit billowed around her, only held up by a tightly cinched belt. With a tug he phased the entire outfit off her and threw it right into the nearest goblin, toppling it over.

He only blinked and then the creatures rushed to attack. Like a nightmare revisited, they came with jagged teeth and sharp claws, grabbing and slashing and biting at every chance. The first fight against the gremlins was tricky enough. Now he was hurt, tired, and trying to perform the same feat all while keeping an eye on Smithy. Her gun shot of burst after burst of blue energy, each bolt strong enough to push the monsters back and dissolve an inch or two of gray flesh but not packing the punch needed to kill them.

After the initial rush, the gremlins teamed up to separate hunter and halfa. Four creatures worked on wearing Danny down while the other three (include the one he nailed with the suit, knocking off an ear) harassed Janet. He was forced to kick and punch his attackers, saving his energy blasts for Janet’s. After a dozen ineffective shots of her own she cursed and threw the spent gun to the side. Danny heard the snicker of metal on metal as he finally disintegrated one of his gremlins. He glanced behind his shoulder and almost facefaulted in shock.

“What the hell are you doing?” he gasped out before turning his attention to a demon that thought his shirt and shoulder made a good snack. He tossed the gremlin to the ground as Janet took up the proper stance.

“What?” she asked, letting out an amused chuckle at his expression. In her hands she held a glowing blade the length of a short sword. She slashed at the attacking gremlins, biting into the bloodless flesh and causing more than one to hiss in pain.

Danny shot at two of his gremlins, dissolving one and knocking back the other, giving him a chance to retort. “You’ve carried a Sword the entire time!”

“Yes, why?”

“Why do half of the female figures in my life have to be obsessed with weapons?” he laughed, tension easing as he fell into the rhythm of the fight. Janet snorted and returned to fighting. She let out a shout as her sword sliced a gremlin in half right through its chest. It shrieked and slowly crumbled around the blade.

“I got one,” she yelled, ecstatic as Danny destroyed two more. With the others previously hit, Nuodov was down to three panicking creations. One Danny pulverized with his white ectoblasts, a second fell apart soon after and Janet dispatched the final one, not killing it but slicing off its legs and knocking it out of the fight.

Clapping mocked them from out of the dust cloud as Janet panted in exhaustion and Danny held his aching stomach. The fog settled to the floor revealing Nuodov a good distance away. “I must congratulate you. This is the first time my gremlins have failed so spectacularly, and to a single human and an injured ghost.” She picked her way around piles of rock, her skirt swirling up dust before it fell back to hover at knee level.

Janet and Danny fell into defensive stances as she closed in, never giving the pair a clear shot. The Huntress sheathed her sword and pulled a small ectogun from a thigh holster. Danny let green energy surround his hands as they waited for her to weave out of the debris and into firing range. She was too far away for the hunter or half ghost to hear the low chant that sent ribbons of ectoplasm snaking around the piles and into the floor. She stopped half behind the last debris pile and shouted a strange word.

Janet whirled around as with a roar the snakes coalesced into one pillar of glowing red ecto towering above their heads. Danny fired at Nuodov as she shouted out a command to the thing. The Witch Doctor ducked below his barrage, smiling as the pillar of energy struck Janet. It then plowed into Danny and sent him flying through the air towards the edge of the room. He hit the wall hard. Stunned he laid still for a moment as footsteps approached until he got his bearings.

Danny struggled up, bracing his back against the cold stone wall. He lifted his head to meet Nuodov’s burning gaze inches from his own wide green eyes. “It’s over boy,” she spoke softly as she pulled a long knife out of the folds of her skirt. The dark blade glittered in the light of their combined auras as she raised it before plunging it into his chest.

Chapter Eight