Friends on the Other Side

"I'd prefer not to test that," I agreed.

I wouldn't have had to worry about that if she let me help her use her powers, but that was beating a dead horse at this point. She wouldn't agree to a crash course on that right now, and I really didn't want to think about what would happen if I distracted her to the point where she accidentally went go.

I grabbed onto her hand.

Susan nodded, before making sure she was holding on as tightly as she dared to. Summoning up the energy in the way she'd been taught, she felt herself gently float into the air as she became as close to a ghost as she could become. Turning in the direction of the closest planetoid, she willed herself forward.

This was an experience.

I had flown before. Nikko had carried me in the air more times than I could count, usually in ways meant to terrify me to make up for when I terrified her. This was different. It was more like I was floating through the air with close to no support. Instead of a dragon-like teenager holding me bridal style, I had a ghostly one holding my hand as she guided me forward. I wasn't entirely sure what I had expected, but this was taking me by surprise.

Susan let out a sigh of relief as they approached the second planetoid. It wasn't the biggest hop between planets but she was never sure of her form even for tiny moments in time. It seemed like things had worked out at least for this first jump. If there was some slippage here, that would be fine since there'd be solid ground to hit. Unfortunately the Demon In Charge was nowhere to be found. Trying not to think too much about what might happen and make things worse, Susan glided over to the next planetoid. With a sigh of relief she detected the familiar aura.

"Okay she's here," Susan supplied, before they began to descend. She just about it made it to the surface in time. Almost as soon as their feet had touched solid ground, Susan's hand slipped straight through and out. Her concentration had worked for just about long enough.

I staggered a little bit as we landed, but hid my staggering as well as I could. Our timing was perfect—The Phantom lost her tangibility as soon as we landed.

"That was..." I paused. "...interesting."

Susan smiled at him. "Sorry if it wasn't the most pleasant experience, I'm still learning how to do that with any kind of reasonable efficiency."

I shrugged.

"I've had worst flights before," I said, thinking back to the one time Nikko had plummeted with me in tow because she was mad at me for making her think I was Toga and obsessed with her. Those were good times.

"I'm not going to ask," said Susan. "So shall we, Kaitlyn should be pretty close by and we can get your problem all sorted out?"

I blinked.

"We're looking for a demon named Kaitlyn?" I asked, incredulous. With a name like that, she could have been one of the snot-nosed agents that worked in one of the ghost hunting agencies back on my Earth. Not an all powerful demon that could apparently get me home. "How old is she?"

"Uhh...1219 or something," said Susan, frowning. "She's one of the younger ones...what about her name is strange? It's a very common name. Maybe it's different where you're from."

I stared.

"It's a common name where I'm from, too," I replied, "but, where I'm from, it's a much newer one. I thought you were about to bring me to a teenager."

Not that teenagers couldn't get things done when they needed to. But the teenagers I knew especially well had a tendency to make things go wrong before they went right, and I didn't want to be stuck here any longer than I had to be.

"Ohh makes sense," said Susan, before letting out a small laugh," I guess technically Kaitlyn is a teenager anyway."

I tried—and failed—to figure out when a demon over a thousand years old would count as something other than a teenager, but decided that a demon teenager was probably a bit more capable than a human one.

(I didn't see the irony in being so wary of teenagers when I looked like one myself.)

"That's not really all that comforting," I pointed out, but quickly switched gears. "What does she look like?"

"Okay.." said Susan, trailing not entirely sure what to make of that, before she decided focusing on the second part of the question was a better idea. "Oh she's like a foot taller than me, dark brown hair, her eyes are...this really mesmerizing kaleidoscope of colors..and she's right over there." Susan let out a quick sigh of relief. If she could blush, she was pretty sure she'd be a tomato, she hadn't meant to get that detailed about the eyes.

She pointed towards where Kaitlyn, probably having heard this new disturbance to her domain was walking over. She smiled in that direction and gave the demon a friendly wave.

I raised an eyebrow when The Phantom described what Kaitlyn looked like and when she greeted her. I barely knew The Phantom, but I did know other teenage girls. I knew how to tell when they had crushes.

Not that I'd ever understand the feeling.

I acknowledged the demon with a nod of my head and slipped my hands into my pockets.