Chapter 2
It had been several weeks since the portal accident and since the Dursleys had dragged Crystal back with them to Privet Drive. During the last three days she spent in Amity Park, Crystal had worked hard to make sure she wouldn't accidentally transform in front of the Dursleys. She also did her best to control the powers she gained from becoming a half-ghost.
Sam had somehow managed to get Crystal a small cellphone, which she was able to hide from the Dursleys. Crystal focused all her efforts on turning it invisible when the Dursleys searched her and her bag after they returned to the house.
Vernon threw her back into the cupboard with her bags, then slammed the door closed and locked it, telling her that since she had gotten plenty of food while in Amity Park, she wouldn’t be getting any more for a week.
Crystal glared at the locked cupboard door before realizing something: she now had ghost powers. If she could utilize them, she could steal food and water without the Dursleys knowing. She would still have to be careful; she couldn’t risk letting the Dursleys discover her powers.
She had no doubt that they would turn her over to ghost hunters or scientists to dissect her. The thought made her shudder, and she refused to let that happen.
Three weeks had passed since she got her ghost powers, and she was beginning to wonder just how oblivious the Dursleys were for not noticing something was off. She didn’t have complete control over her powers yet, so sometimes she would turn invisible for a second or start sinking through the ground before noticing and frantically pulling herself back up. Fortunately, she hadn’t dropped anything breakable yet because she was always extra careful to focus on staying tangible whenever handling fragile objects.
She had heard from Sam that Danny kept breaking several school beakers to the point that he wasn’t allowed to handle them in science class anymore. This made her wonder how bad their school was if they didn’t question why someone good at science suddenly started breaking so many beakers.
Sam passed on Crystal’s advice to focus hard on staying tangible whenever holding something fragile, and she received a thank-you from Danny. After that, Sam sent her both Danny's and Tucker’s numbers so she could message them if she needed to talk—for ghost-related matters with Danny, and for technical help with Tucker.
Crystal made sure to use her phone only in the cupboard late at night when everyone else was asleep, and she hid it behind a loose brick during the day. She didn’t want to risk the Dursleys finding it and punishing her for having it.
Whenever Crystal had free time over the next year, she snuck away to the woods near Privet Drive to practice her powers. After a while, she no longer turned invisible or intangible unintentionally, and she could transform on command. She even managed to convince Danny over a phone call—made in the woods—that yelling "Going Ghost" before transforming was a stupid idea.
As she asked him during the call, was he trying to get caught? Luckily, he wasn’t completely clueless and told her he would stop doing it. He also taught her about ecto-blasts and a few other powers he had learned while fighting the ghosts that came through the portal.
Crystal then spent some time trying to learn about these ecto-blasts when she discovered something that Danny, Sam, and Tucker must have forgotten to mention.
She was strong—like super strong.
Crystal had tried to move a log out of the way so she could practice, but she accidentally shoved it, sending it flying. She tried doing it in her human form but found that she wasn’t nearly as strong as a human as she was as a ghost.
She grabbed a notebook and pen she had managed to sneakily swipe from Dudley without him noticing and started to write down all the powers she and Danny had figured out so far.
They could both transform into ghost or human form at will, although if they were in ghost form and were seriously injured or tired, they would revert to human form, according to Danny.
She didn’t want to know how he figured that out.
They could both fly, something Crystal loved doing late at night to feel the wind in her hair.
Sometimes when flying in ghost form, their legs would turn into a spectral tail. It freaked Crystal out the first time it happened.
They could turn invisible and intangible at will, although at first it was kind of finicky.
Crystal still didn’t know how no one in Amity Park or Privet Drive noticed that anything was weird.
And now it seemed they could send these ecto-blasts from their hands. Danny said he had even sent them with just one finger a few times and was able to use them in human form, just like with invisibility and intangibility.
Crystal wondered if they could shoot ecto-blasts from any other parts of their body besides their hands.
She hummed before writing down "Super Strength" and "Super Durability." Danny never seemed to get more than a few scratches and burns from being thrown through walls, so it stood to reason that they would both be more durable than the average human.
Thinking on that, Crystal also wrote down "Super Healing." Any bad wounds Danny did happen to get were healed hours later. Crystal needed to test this stuff out, but she had no clue how.
Shoving the notebook and pen into her bag, she stood up and stretched before jumping into the air, turning invisible as she started flying back home.
As she was flying, she noticed there was a robbery going on. She was going to ignore it when she noticed the children being held hostage and froze. She flew to the roof of the building across the street and set her bag down. It was the only thing that would let people recognize her if she went through with this.
Did she want to do this? She was only six, going on seven in a few months. Was she really thinking of going against someone with a gun? She gulped as she stared at the robbers.
Danny would do it; he would swoop in and save the day, but she wasn't Danny! He was older and stronger and knew how to use these powers much better than she did in a combat setting.
Crystal shook before gulping again. She was going to do it, with no regrets. If she ignored this and later learned someone had died, she would feel guilty and would have let Danny down. She refused to do that, so she jumped into the air and flew down at the robber.
"HEY, PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!" Everyone looked up, shocked. No one had any time to react to the glowing girl with snow-white hair and glowing blue eyes before she kicked one of the robbers in the face. She then dodged the bullets the other robber shot at her, turning intangible and invisible before flying behind him.
He was looking around frantically and spun around when he felt something tap his shoulder. He spun around to see glowing blue eyes before he was knocked out by a punch to his face.
Crystal stared at the two robbers, a bit surprised it was that easy, and looked up at the cops outside.
". . . To be fair, I did not expect that to be so easy." She then saluted the cops, turned invisible, and flew up to her bag and grabbed it before going home.
Crystal landed in her cupboard and turned back into her human form before she started to shake as her adrenaline started to die down. She just did that; what was she thinking? She could have died—she was already half-dead. She muffled a giggle in her hands when that thought popped into her head.
It took her an hour to calm down enough to fall asleep.
The next day, while she was making breakfast for the Dursleys, she heard the news and gulped slightly.
"Now, last night two men tried to rob Family Video. They held a family with two children hostage. Surprisingly, just when it looked like one of the robbers was about to shoot one of the children, someone intervened."
"It's the strangest thing, Rebecca. The person who saved the family seemed to be a literal real-life ghost!" The man laughed. "She looked about seven years old, with snow-white hair, pale skin, and glowing blue eyes. She also seemed to give off a slight glow in the video. Here, watch."
The news then showed the video of Crystal beating up the robbers in her ghost form before leaving quickly, before the cops or anyone could speak to her.
"Now, I don't know about you, but this looks like a real-life—or real-dead—ghost just saved this family. Don't you think, Steve?"
"I don't know what I think, Rebecca. I've been hearing some weird things about this town called Amity Park having ghost attacks, but I never believed them! This doesn't seem to be an attack either. It seems like we have our very own ghostly hero here in England!"
Crystal gulped. She didn't know she was being recorded last night, though she should have expected it. Security cameras were becoming a popular way to keep an eye on places lately.
She listened as her aunt and uncle started ranting about this new "freak" and how she should have left it to the normal police. Crystal stopped herself from shaking her head. Didn't they hear? Apparently, if she hadn't intervened, one of the kids there would have been shot!
She turned her head slightly surprised when she heard Dudley say that he thought she was cool and asked why his parents didn't like the ghost girl when it was clear she had saved lives. His parents' responses were that the ghost was a freak, and Dudley just looked confused.
His parents were going out that night and, for some reason, had decided to leave the two children home alone for the night.
Dudley walked up to Crystal while she was doing the dishes for a dinner that she wasn't allowed to eat.
"How did you do it?" She turned to look at him confused. "Do what?"
"Get those powers! They are so cool." Crystal's eyes widened. "How do you know?" Dudley shrugged. "I saw you start sinking through the floor one time. You looked panicked, so I took pity and didn't tell Dad. So, how did you get them and why are people calling you a ghost? How did you change your hair and eyes like that?"
Crystal hesitated before sighing. "If I explain, you can't tell anyone—not Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Marge, or your friends, okay?" He nodded, agreeing not to tell a soul.
She took him to the living room and sat on the couch with him. "You know, while we were in Amity Park, I was being babysat by those three teens?"
"Yeah, what's that have to do with you having powers?"
"I'm getting to it. Hold on!" "Fine." Dudley crossed his arms with a pout.
"One of their parents was a ghost hunter and built a portal to the ghost realm in their basement lab—"
"That's so cool!" She smiled a bit. "Yeah, it didn't work at first, though. Sam, the girl, tried to convince Danny, the ghost hunter's son, to go in and check out why it didn't work. I put on a jumpsuit and snuck into the portal while they were distracted."
"That sounds dangerous, Crystal." She startled slightly. Dudley never really called her by name. "It was. There were wires on the floor, and I tripped on one near the back. That got the teens' attention. Danny put on another jumpsuit and rushed in after me to try and get me out, but he accidentally hit a button on the side of the portal. I guess it was an 'on' button—"
"Wait, these people put the 'on' button on the inside of the portal? Even I know that's stupid." Dudley looked so confused at how someone managed to do that.
"Yeah, anyway, he accidentally pushed the button, and the portal started powering on. He still tried to get to me and get us both out before it turned on all the way. Sadly, he was too late. He managed to scoop me up and get a few feet to the entrance before we were blasted by electricity and ectoplasm. I don't know how, but something happened and both I and Danny got these powers."
"Whoa, what can you do?"
Crystal smiled. She was glad she and her cousin were getting along. She ran to her cupboard, grabbed the bag, and rushed back over to show him the notebook. Luckily, he hadn't realized she stole it from him.
"I can transform into ghost form and fly in it. I can't fly as a human, though; I've tried. I can turn invisible and intangible, which means I can go through things."
"Cool!"
"Yeah! I'm also super strong as a ghost. I can also shoot these ecto-blasts with my fingers and hands. I haven't got a handle on it yet, but apparently, it's super powerful if I want it to be!"
"I promise I won't tell Mom and Dad. I think what you did last night is really cool—just like Superman!" Crystal laughed and went to finish the dishes. Maybe she and her cousin could be friends when the adults weren't around.