5- Ghoul

Unity took the king's hand. "Do you want me to come?"

"Of course." Infinity replied. He turned to Ghoul, who was itching for more details. "Ghoul you stay here."

"WHAT? WHY?" The prince squealed.

"This is grown up stuff, stay here and go on your mobilizer."

"But I'm actually interested in this star-bender stuff!"

"STAY. HERE." The king ordered. Ghoul's face dropped into a moody teen frown as his parent's left him out in the sanctum. "Fucking lame." He whispered.

"Language!" Was the last thing the prince heard before the door was shut on him.

It wasn't fair. His parent's drag him out to nowhere, forcing him to get excited about meeting a random, now he is and they leave him out!? The prince just huffed and plopped beside the VAT. He took a look at the meglo. 90%. Only another five years and if we're lucky it'll be 92%.

The prince quickly got bored of his device. Normally it kept him occupied no matter what, but now after hearing about ANOTHER horrible thing his grandpa did, he was desperate to know what was happening now.

One thing that was weird about how his parent's left was how similar their facial expressions were to another time long ago. It was his father's coronation and he had just completed a tower of blocks similar to the castle. He tried showing his parents as they past, but they simply ignored him and knocked his tower over as they stormed to their room. As pissed as the prince was back then, he was also scared. He had never seen his dads in such distress before.

Now those faces of fear have returned and Ghoul is once again left in the dark with nothing to do. He turned to the VAT and stared at the floating pendant in the water. "I wonder if you know how to float..." Ghoul thought out loud. He stood up and contemplated for a minute. "Well, it would be an embarrassing first impression if I didn't know how to float and you did." Ghoul thought of a horrible scenario of his new friend taunting him over his lack of flight skills. "And you've been in here for a long while, in THIS state. If anything, I should teach YOU how to float!"

Ghoul began hopping up and down rhythmically. Every third hop he seemed to lift higher and higher off the ground. "C'mon...." He muttered. This same tactic worked the last time, it had to work again. At the last hop, he crouched low to the ground before springing back up in the air. He felt completely weightless as he drifted mid-air, he glanced down at his feet, it was as if they weren't there. The soul-bender gasped in delight as he realized his trick worked, and he was floating once again. Ghoul laughed as he kicked his feet around, trying to swim through the air. He made it to a wall as positioned himself with his feet and back against it, facing the other side of the room. His palms pressed against the steel wall as he prepared to launch. "In three, two, one..."

Ghoul stretched his legs out and catapulted himself to the opposite wall. He repeated to same action over and over, landing and launching in different places. At one point he was at the ceiling. He laughed loudly as he leaped to one corner like a frog. The teen began building more power in his launches, zooming faster and faster across parts of the sanctum. "WEEEE!" He exclaimed, just barely skirting past Magnet's meglo-mobilizer. They were like mobilizers, but bigger with more functions. Once again, created by the great Glarsow.

Ghoul was almost confident that he needed a challenge now. He began swerving past equipment on the desk. He ducked and dodged against other thing in the lab like they were objects set up as obstacles. He was soaring now, very loosely in control. "Uhh okay, let's slow down a bit-"

Suddenly, Ghoul swerved trying to miss a anatomy mannequin and ended up crashing into the VAT. The impact cracked the glass as it leaked. The pod itself began swaying. "Oh no," Ghoul panicked. "Oh no no no no no, don't-!"

CRAAAAAASSSHHH!!!

The VAT lay on the ground, glass smashed and sprayed everywhere. Plasma was spilt all over, layering the glass like glue. Ghoul got up from his spot, cut and drenched in fluid. He looked around and took in his latest screw-up. "Oh no! Oh no!" He scrambled up from the ground before slipping on something else. He looked over and saw the pendant, still attached to the meglo, right by his feet. The room next door was scarily silent apart from Unity consoling Infinity about something.

Realistically, he should have owned up to his mistake. But looking from his point of view, he is screwed, even if he's honest. Maybe if he ran far enough he and his friend could start a humble life somewhere and leave this mess behind. He snatched the star pendant, ripping the chords off and pressed the 'emergency exit' button of the door, and as quickly as it slid open, Ghoul had slipped out.

The teenager ran- well, thanks to the plasma, more of slid- down the corridor with the pendant clutched in hand. He was abruptly stopped when somebody yanked on his trench-coat collar. A water-bender appeared in front of him, eyes stern and ready to attack. "Kid, you shouldn't have that thing."

"Look, I normally don't play this card, but...I'm the prince of the north and my parents are here to take this. I'm just carrying it for them!"

"What you're holding is a priceless history relic, it could reform at any moment so stop being stubborn and give it here!"

Ghoul wiped his free hand on the plasma dripping from his coat until his palm was full of goo. "Plasma slap!"

The prince smacked the water-bender with a hand full of plasma and continued on his way. He heard from behind him: "Get that kid!" And soon three other men in lab coats were on his tail.

The prince dashed several corners of the building, the more adults he passed, the more were on his tail. Every room he had time to stop and open were either filled with people that ended up chasing him, or plain locked. A whole crown were onto him to now. Though he was far enough to hide, he couldn't find a place to do just that. He passed this plain wood door and stopped to look it up and down. "Ugh, should I even bother?"

"This way!" one voice said.

"No, no! He must've went that way!" said another.

"Keep looking before he accidentally crushes that pendant!" a third exclaimed.

The prince tried the handle. It was open. "Alright Ghoul," He said to himself. "Whoever is behind this door, remember they're not as scary as the twenty-something adults that suddenly want to grant your death wish."

With a final nod of reassurance, he pulled the door open and stepped in, locking it behind him.

The room was pitch dark with a musty, yet fresh smell. Ghoul felt the walls until he found a light switch. The room erupted with brightness then dimmed enough so he could see where he was. A janitor's closet. The smell was the bleach, amongst other cleaning products that stank up the place. He didn't think his situation could get worse, but the universe just loves proving him wrong.

Ghoul felt a tingle coming from the pendant. Something rubbing his fingers as he held it. He dropped it on the floor and backed up instantly. The shooting star lay facing up until a ripple of gold came from underneath it for a split-second. Then, a sphere of golden clay emerged from the same place, engulfing the pendant as it expanded to life-sized ball. It grew out arms and legs on either side, shrinking and growing in certain places to form a normal figure. Near the head the gold turned to a daffodil color for the hair, which formed into curly locks that tumbled down to the back. A silk, box-pleated skirt grew out from the waist as flounced sleeves grew out of the shoulder. And right in the center of the stomach, was the pendant, shiny and new. When the eyes opened, the iris was golden and star-shaped. They were also staring right at Ghoul.

"Hi! My name's Shimmer! What's yours?" The star-bender extended her hand to his and Ghoul responded by gagging loudly. "DID YOU JUST BIRTH IN FRONT OF ME?"

"Yup!" The girl paid no mind to Ghoul's foolish behavior. "I thought everybody did that."

"Not in front of people!" Ghoul turned his head away in case he was going to throw up. The star-bender approached him and slapped her hand on his back all chummy-like. "Oh relax, it wasn't graphic!"

"But right in front of me! You were...are right in front of me!" Ghoul suddenly realized that he was talking to the same bender that was in that VAT. The one grandpa wanted killed. The one that was...half-xode.

Ghoul took Shimmer's hands and inspected them. She paid no mind and just giggled. "Your hands are soggy!"

Their were no traces of xode, no purple veins. Even when Ghoul looked at her face he just saw pure bender innocence.

"So am I just gonna have to guess your name?" Shimmer said cocking an eyebrow. Before Ghoul could respond she was already throwing rapid fire guesses. "Timmy! Tommy! Tim! Tom! Timothy! Tomithy! Thomas! Thimas! Oh wait-" she opened up Ghoul's coat to reveal his soul-bender pendant right in his chest. The pendant looked like a classic ghost you'd see in the movies. A sheet, no feet, arms out and wailing dramatically. It was the color of him, turquoise, with a white outline that colored the eyes and mouth of the pendant as well. Shimmer's also had a white outline. "You're a soul-bender!" She cried with joy. "I LOVE soul-benders. Oh that must mean your name's all spooky! Ok um- lemme think- Is it spooky?!"

"I'll tell you my name!" Ghoul snapped in hopes of getting the girl to shut up. "Just don't laugh okay?"

Shimmer covered her mouth and shook her head "Oh I would NEVER laugh at someone's name! It surely can't be that bad!"

"It isn't. It's just whenever I go by this name I get laughed at. Even by my own parents!"

Shimmer brought her finger up to her chin, as if deep in thought. "Parents...did I have a pair of those?"

"My name is Ghoul."

Shimmer squealed in delight and brought Ghoul in for a tight hug. "GHOUL! That's so cute!"

As they embraced, Ghoul noticed his feet were off the ground again, but it wasn't him. "You can float?" He gasped.

"Well yeah!" Shimmer said, dropping the prince but remaining in mid-air herself. "Who can't at this age? And that name isn't so bad!"

"It's not the name I go by though."

"What is?"

Ghoul hesitated, then said. "My real name is Ghoul The Soulless."

The moment was ruined by Shimmer's unrelenting cackle. "THE SOULLESS!" She wheezed. She wasn't even trying to hide it.

Ghoul tried hiding the pink in his cheeks. "HEY! It was the only name that could fit my cold aura. Like this trench coat!"

He immediately wished for those words back as Shimmer began flying around him, inspecting and tugging on the coat. "Fancy leather! I loooove leather!"

"Hey! It's vintage! Be careful!"

"I AM being careful! If its vintage why should it matter weather or not it looks new anyway?"

The two played tug-of-war over Ghoul's coat once Shimmer got it off him. Shimmer would occasionally lift Ghoul off the ground from his end of the leather and Ghoul at some point sprayed detergent at Shimmer to get her to stop. Some it got in her eyes and she shrieked. As Ghoul put his coat back on he heard voices from outside the closet. Immediately he clasped his hand over Shimmer's mouth and gestured the 'shhh' sound with his free one. The voices outside were scarily familiar. And right then Ghoul knew he was dead.

"He's not down here." Magnet said.

"He has to be, he wasn't in the other hall!" Unity replied.

"Well he's clearly not in this one either is he?" Magnet snapped.

"Magnet," Infinity spoke up. "I just wanted to say sorry again. I promise once we find Ghoul and the pendant we'll leave and forget this stupid plan altogether."