Ghostly Gallivants

In the farthest reaches of a strange dimension of green swirls and inky black darkness lies an ancient tower of stone. A strange ticking sound can be heard from within the tower. Gears and clocks lay strewn about the floating island the tower rests upon.

Inside the tower lies a huge clock. As one watches, the clock face spins and the numbers disappear, revealing a strange scene upon the looker.

A light-haired girl races through a forest, her forehead wrinkled and eyebrows lowered as her eyes gleam with the light of one who is being hunted. She stumbles a little and then scrambles back up immediately, looking around her frantically before hurrying on.

The girl comes upon a strange, elliptical portal of swirling, neon green. Curiosity reflects in her ice-blue eyes, and she reaches out with a tentative hand toward the strange portal. Behind her, the trees shake, and she cries out, jumping forward into the portal just as it begins to close.

Bright flashes of neon green and blinding white light fill the clock face, before it clears. The girl lays on the forest floor, but she has changed. Her once caucasian skin is now a dark, earthy green, and her platinum-blond hair has darkened into a warm, chocolatey brown. As she struggles to her feet and turns, the light catches her eyes, and they are reflected as the same brown as her hair. She is also floating in the air, no longer bound by gravity to the earth.

The scene cuts off there, frozen on the image of the changed girl, her eyes filled with wariness but also wonder as she looks at her transformed self.

"This... affliction is spreading, Clockwork!" A stern voice proclaims from the shadows of the tower room.

"Something must be done," another, equally stern voice agrees.

The spirit watching the clock face turns to look towards the voices, revealing its own form. It changes from moment to moment, at one point being a small child, the next an adult, the next elderly, before circling back to its child form. A dark purple cloak covers the spirit, and a red scar runs across one of its eyes. In its hands is a staff, a clock and spires topping the staff.

The spirit sighs. "You have said this before, many times. How many times must I remind you that I know what I am doing?" It asks, its voice weary and ancient, despite its current child-like form.

"And yet, you had no knowledge of the formation of these two new abominations, before it was already too late to prevent it!" One of the voices protests.

"Yes, and you are still unable to find their futures in the main timeline; just as we aren't! If they are unbound by the timeline, they can and will create havoc, Clockwork!" the other voice chimes in.

Clockwork, for that is the spirit's name, sighs again. "I cannot dissuade you of your intents, it seems. But you will see that my words will come true, time and time again. Test them if you must, but leave the other halfas out of it, as they clearly have a place in the timeline."

"Fine, Clockwork, but do not forget that they are your responsibility!" The voices say in unison before their owners disappear from the tower.

Clockwork turns back to the clock face and a wry smile appears on his visage. "All is as it should be."

Ella Phantasma groaned as she woke up, her back sore, as if she had slept funny. The blue-eyed female opened her eyes to see a cavernous, white ceiling above her. She frowned and sat up, only to lay back down immediately, groaning from the pain.

For a moment she continued to lay there, afraid of pulling a muscle as she slowly stretched out her muscles. She then sat up slower and looked around. She had never seen a place like this before. She seemed to be in a large white room, almost completely empty except for her.

About twenty feet away lay another figure, a boy or young man by the look of it. He had blonde hair and his skin was tan. He wore blue jeans and a red shirt with a padded blue vest on top. On his feet were tall black shoes with the word 'Soap'© on them.

Ella immediately noticed that the boy's hair was noticeably darker than her own; her hair was nearly white in its blondeness, but his was darker, more dusty than hers. Ella slowly pushed herself to her feet, dusting off her pale blue t-shirt as she did so. An image of a howling grey wolf dominated her shirt, and she made sure not to tear the fragile material.

She wondered what she was doing in her human form, as the last thing she remembered was flying through the Ghost Zone on her way to Skulker's Island for their weekly training. She looked around the empty room again, wondering what on earth had happened to her. She looked back down at the young male on the floor. Perhaps it had something to do with this boy?

She knelt next to the boy and started to shake his shoulders. "Hey, wake up! Where are we? Did you bring me here?" she asked as she attempted to wake the boy.

The boy's eyes opened slowly, a blue shimmer glistening from their pupils. "Ungh..." He moaned. "Where... where am I?" He muttered to himself. He looked around him in confusion. Gaining sight of the female next to him, he sat up. "I... I don't remember what happened..." He put his hand to his head. It hurt to try to remember. Unbeknownst to the boy, his family was from a long line of halfies, and he didn't know anything about it. He developed amnesia when he was young, in part because his parents didn't want him to know about his halfie heritage. "All I know is that there was a flash of white light, and then poof." He shook his head. "And even that's a blur." He sighed.

Ella frowned down at the boy, noting the boy's blue eye color. Similar to hers, but again a little darker, much like his hair was darker than hers.

"So, you don't know where we are either..." she mumbled. She looked around the empty room again, wondering how they had gotten here.

She stood up and offered her hand to the boy to help him to his feet.

He gladly accepted. "I... I must be dreaming... I mean I WANT to be dreaming, but I'm probably not." He said as he got up. "But to answer your question, no I don't know why we're here." He sighed. He wasn't very much the popular type, to one's dismay, as one would think from his getup or his Soap Shoes, which weren't sold in stores around Amity Park. For those one would have to buy them online. Or come with them TO Amity Park. Perhaps he transferred from somewhere else?

Ella helped the boy to his feet and frowned as he muttered about the situation needing to be some sort of dream he was having.

"This is no dream," she warned the boy sternly. "This is really happening; though what 'this' is, I'm not sure yet. But we'd best be on our toes. There is no telling what might pop out at us," she stated warily.

The boy seemed to be human, but then at the moment, so did she. Appearances were deceiving, and there was no telling if she could actually trust this seemingly innocuous boy.

Ella looked around the cavernous room once more, just as a beeping filled the room and a glowing blue door suddenly appeared on the wall several feet from the pair.

"Approach the portal, Halfas," a loud voice ordered, seemingly coming from nowhere.

Ella scowled and looked around, unable to pinpoint the source of the voice. "And why should we listen to you? Who are you? Where are we? Why have you brought us here?"

"That information is strictly need-to-know," the voice informed them stiffly.

"Well tough nuts! I'm not moving until I get an explanation!" Ella snapped, looking towards the boy to see if he agreed with her.

The boy did not understand. "Halfie? What?" He said in confusion. "What the heck is a halfie?" For all he knew, he was only a normal human being who had been sucked into some weird adventure that he didn't even plan for. So he didn't understand anything about the whole ghost idea. When he saw Ella not moving, he hid behind her. "Meep..."

Ella had to roll her eyes as the boy stammered for a second before simply hiding behind her. She sighed in frustration.

"Look, we just want a little expla-"

She was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a strange ghost in the middle of the room. It wore a long flowing white cloak; and its head was completely taken up by a single large eye. Its arms were skinny and folded across its chest in a gesture of impatience; its skin a typical ghostly green.

"You are being judged for your right for continued survival in the timeline, halfas!" it spoke sternly and impatiently, despite having no visible mouth for the words to come from.

"Creatures like you have no place in the timeline; and indeed cannot be found in the timeline. We wanted to destroy you before you could destroy the timeline completely, but the Master of Time spoke on your behalf. You are being given a chance to prove that you belong to Existence! If you cannot pass the tests; you will be eliminated. Now, proceed through the portal to the first test. No more excuses or questions!" The ghost -an Observant, Ella recognized- snapped.

Ella rolled her eyes. "Fine!" she snapped back in exasperation. She turned to her companion -who was apparently a halfa like herself. "Come on then; let's get into the portal before ol' One-eye over there has a Core Attack." she stated, rolling her eyes.

"Uh... okay..." He said, still confused about the whole Halfa/ghost thing. Still scared, he came out from behind her and stood by her. He gulped. "I hope I don't die..." He thought. "This makes absolutely no sense. I don't remember anything about my earlier life..." He grasped his head with one hand. It hurt him to try remembering. "Yeah, let's just.. get this over with..."