Blue Spirit

authors note: This is one of many ideas that were bugging me, and that I wanted to do. Basically the idea is this...here's the FULL summary.. "what happens when a very angry, troubled teenager on the verge of going to jail for a long time, who has just been released from a previous crime from juvenile hall, meets a famous ghost investigation team after winning an amazing opportunity? Will it be enough to keep him from throwing his life away...or will it make no difference at all?" I don't own the G.A.C folks obviously, nor any "real" locations and such. Only the angry teen, Joey, any mentioned family and such are actually mine, as well as any made up locations. Here goes nothing...no flames if possible please, I'm doing my best...even though I'm a writer second and an artist first!

Blue Spirit Chapter 1: Bastion's Mine

It was an overcast day, the cloud cover turning gray. It seemed to want to rain again, but wasn't doing so yet. The roads were already slick from a previous downpour, so water was kicked up under the tires of a light colored van as it made it's way down the long stretch of road. The red G.A.C logo on the sides stuck out in stark relief against the rest of the van, which was completely white, not including any of the windows. It seemed like they were the only people out on this particular road at the moment, which gave it a creepy feeling.

They were headed to an old abandoned mine, which had no actual name, only being called the Unknown Mine, that had been discovered in the past few years. It was what was inside the shabby wood lined tunnels that mattered most to the inhabitants of the van. They were asked to come investigate it, as there had been many, many reports of unusual things going on, such as invisible hands touching those who went into the mine shafts to make sure they were safe for everyone to enter that needed to. Loud yelling and ghostly echoes of shafts collapsing also were mentioned, except there was no way to explain any of it. This lock down would be one of many that were unique, in that they would be joined by a lucky guest, who won these rare chances to join them.

The front passenger, Zak, looked out his window, as trance music echoed from the headphones over his ears. It was then another person made themselves known, and certainly not in the best way. Out of nowhere a gleaming black motorcycle, with what seemed to be a male driver wearing a flame painted black helmet, came zooming up next to the van, at nearly dangerous speeds for such a rain slicked road. It didn't speed up enough to pass the van, but it had still been going much too fast to appear from seemingly nowhere. The bikes driver turned his head, which gave away that he had indeed seen them, and knew full well he was driving like a maniac to have caught them so fast. The driver then revved the bike up, the front tire just barely lifting off the rain soaked road, before the bike sped ahead of the van, a soft screech heard as he did so. He pulled ahead of the G.A.C van, and sped up impossibly further, to the point where he soon completely disappeared again, as if he'd never been there. But this was no ghost, this was a living breathing being.

"Unbelievable.." Zak mumbled, shaking his head. He looked down to an open folder that was in his lap, which held what little information they had on this first location where they'd have their guest, and what that guests name actually was. That was all they had on their contest winner. Not much longer after the maniac on the motorcycle seemed to disappear, they arrived at their location.
And to Zak's surprise, a very familiar motorcycle was parked not far from the general store that was near the entrance to the mine. It was chained in place very heavily, including the flame marked helmet, the anti-theft measures obvious. It was obvious as to why, the bike seemed extremely new, so naturally the rider wouldn't want it stolen. The van's driver, Nick, got out first, followed by Zak, then the back passenger, Aaron, along with two cameras and one voice recorder for each of them. They had been told back at their motel by the contest guides that they'd be meeting the winner here by this general store, before going to talk to the person who would let them into the mine through a makeshift wood and metal gate. There was no one there for a time except the three of them. That is, until a young man who couldn't have even been 18, or was barely that age, came out of the store with a bottle of fresh water in one hand. He was wearing a set of dark clothing, and a leather riding jacket over his shirt. It was clear he was the insane motorcycle driver from earlier.

Zak took a good look at the teenager, something telling him this was their winner, who was mentioned simply to be male, young, with the name Joseph Lin. The young man before him had very short, spiky hair, dyed a light blue, with his natural black color barely visible at the roots underneath. His skin was the typical pale white of most people, and he stood just slightly shorter than Zak did. His eyes were a dark blue, and seemed to be very angry, besides being obviously narrowed as the younger man walked. His right arm also seemed to have a tattoo of a green snake on it, the head being near the wrist, the rest trailing up until the leather jackets long sleeves. The younger man looked up after a time, and spotted the G.A.C team nearby. He seemed to scoff or exhale sharply, before taking a long drink out of his newly bought bottle of water. He then turned in his path and made his way over.

He stopped a few feet from Zak, and finished his water, crumpling the bottle and shoving it into one jacket pocket. He shifted slightly to one foot, then the other, before standing straight. He opened his mouth, and a mature, voice came forth, showing he was past that fun stage of life when his voice would crack.

"You must be the...Ghost...Adventures Crew correct..?" The tone was smooth, but seemed to have a sarcastic, almost cold under-tone to it. "I'm Joey...the...winner..of the..contest of yours" The more he spoke the colder and angrier he sounded. It was hard to tell if he really was, or if he always sounded the way he did right now. His entire frame, which was lean and hard, built for speed or athletics, was tense. His left ear revealed itself to have a gold stud type earring in it when he turned his head slightly to his right. Zak wasn't sure what to make of him, but he shook himself, then answered Joey.

"Yes, that's us. Welcome to the incoming lock down in the Unknown Mine. You'll be going with us for the interviews and the pre-lock down walk through, as well as the lock down itself" He explained, as the teens face remained in it's free of emotion expression. The eyes were the only to show any emotion at all, and it seemed to still be a deep seated anger. The youngest man present nodded, one sharp tilt of his head, before turning to go to his motorcycle briefly. He pulled off his leather jacket, and stuffed it into a side container on his bike, locking that back up tightly. When he turned, the front of his black shirt had the words "The Ghost Seeker" in green across the front, and it was designed to seem like the letters were dripping acid. The snake tattoo actually took up the entire length of his right arm, the tail tip ending directly over his shoulder.
The young man arched a dark eyebrow, and motioned with a hand, as if to say "well...? we going to get this going or what?". Nearby their guide into the mine was patiently waiting. She was a short, plump, but friendly looking woman. Zak was the one to go an actually talk to her, as Aaron and Nick held their cameras up to film everything.

Joey stood off to the other side of the woman at this point. She did turn for all of a second to talk to him, but one look at a particularly fierce scowl on the young mans face made her think twice about doing so. She continued on with her "tour" of the mine tunnels and entrance calmly, despite being shaken by the young mans expression. Joey reached into his pants pocket, one of many on his black pants, and pulled out an unusual looking set of goggles. One side sported what looked almost like an antenna. He slipped them up onto his head, the lens part resting up on his hair for the time being. He would be using them later. He'd made them himself, hand-made night vision goggles perhaps. It was hard to tell what they were for exactly.

At one point in the tour as it was, Joey stopped dead in his tracks, and turned his head slightly to one side, to listen for something. He wasn't the only one, as one of the others pulled out his voice recorder, and began asking questions. Obviously no response was heard right there, but when they played the recording back, a voice stood out amongst all the white noise. It was heard to tell if it was male or female, but it said one word "Anger". Zak asked what it meant, but there was nothing further after that point.

They finished the tour not long after that. It was time to be locked in not long after that, so they opted to just stay in the main tunnel's entrance, just inside the makeshift wood and metal gate. Eventually Zak looked out and told the plump little lady it was time to lock them in. She nodded, and carefully did just that. Once that was done, Zak went over the X's they put down in different important spots in the mine shafts. Joey leaned against one wall, while he waited for it to go dark, and slid the goggles down over his eyes so he could see in what would become pitch black lighting. It didn't take long for it to go completely dark, leaving them with only night vision to see what they were doing at all. Joey's boots made next to no noise as he walked, despite being steel-toed under the black leather and rather heavy in weight.

He turned his head just slightly side to side as they walked further into the main tunnel, to where it split into several smaller shafts. When they reached the split from one large tunnel into several smaller, he stopped, and the three older men kept walking a bit further before they noticed he'd stopped.

The side of his mouth went up until his teeth on that side were visible, as if he was snarling at something only he could see. He lifted an arm and pointed down the mine shaft he was facing.

"Down there. I know I saw something pass back and forth down this shaft...I think it's saying come and find me...without actually saying it.." he scowled further. 'And it's pissing me off more than I already am' he added to himself inside his head. He lifted a slim hand to the goggles on his head, pressing a previously unseen button on the side that sported the antenna like addition. It changed the goggles slightly, to add some hot and cold vision over the night vision. "I'll go down this tunnel...it wants me...well it's going to get me"

Since they had planned for each of them to take a different tunnel, Zak agreed, with a small amount of hesitation. He took the one to the left of the one Joey had already started down, Nick took the one left of that, and Aaron took the one to the left of that.

In Joey's part of the tunnels, he wasn't seeing anything yet, but he growled to himself, knowing full well something was here. "Come out...I know you want to! Hell..you know you do...or you wouldn't have been taunting me! Try me...I'll face you head on!" He was provoking whatever was here, but he didn't care. He wanted to piss whatever it was off, or to draw it out. "Give me some excitement...give yourself some...you must be awful lonely down here by yourself! With no one to pick on or both..come.." he was cut off when something slammed into the back of his head.

That hit, which felt solid, but may or may not have been, drove the teen to one knee, and nearly knocked his self made goggles off his head. He was seeing double for a brief time, before he was able to stand back up again. "Oh...I see...you have to do it from behind...well..tell me your name so I can call you on it!" No one but him knew this, but he'd also put a voice recorder into the goggles on the left side, opposite of where the antenna piece was. He waited in silence, but then it came. He heard a voice whisper "Bastion..."

"Bastion huh? That was a good hit...but it's cowardly to attack me from behind...you can do better than that to let me know you are here..." He spun around as a loud tapping and scratching noise came from the side of the shaft. He caught the barest glimpse of a figure, before he was struck again, this time from the side he saw it coming from. This time his head hit the side of the mineshaft, and everything went black. Not because his goggles were shattered or damaged, but because his head hit hard enough when it bounced of the stone walls to knock him completely out cold. As a result, he wasn't able to see what happened next. The figure of a young man, about his own age, appeared next to his right hand, which was out in front of him. The full body spirit looked down at him, a misty energy appearing around his body at the edges, before he disappeared again.

Down the hall next to him, Zak was talking, asking questions. He was asking for answers to questions, or for a sign that anything was there. He didn't get much, but a brief tapping sound did occur. He tried one more time before turning around to leave the tunnel, when he caught the following on the small voice recorder in his hand, and it seemed like it was possibly female. "Hurt...shaft" He wasn't sure what to make of it, but it was better than nothing at all. Something was here. He politely thanked whoever spoke, and said if they had anymore to say it would be welcome, and that he wasn't there to cause any harm to anyone who might still be there in the mine. He went back to where the main tunnel split, and found his two friends, Nick and Aaron, had already done the same. Joey however didn't show. After waiting for what seemed like long enough, Zak went down the tunnel where the youngest of them had gone down. He soon tripped on something. "What the hell?" was what he exclaimed, before pointing his night vision camera down, and saw a familiar black boot, which appeared light colored thanks to the night vision. Following it, he soon was faced with the unconscious body of their guest investigator, Joey.
"Shit..!" came the expletive. Especially after the visible dark liquid on the back of the younger mans head. It was probably not a good idea to move him, but Zak put the younger mans arm over his shoulders and lifted him up, half dragging half walking him back to the part of the mine they'd turned into their base as they called it. There was nowhere to put the younger man but the floor unfortunately, so that was all he could do once he got the teen there. Using a flashlight, he took a closer look at the young man's head, and found a small cut on the back of his head, which stained the blue hair there a slight shade of red with the blood that slowly oozed out of it, as it was clotting now. That meant he'd been there like he was for who knows how long.

"Joey..hey..Joey!" Zak shook the teen slightly, by the shoulder. The teen stirred with a pained groan, his eyelids fluttering before sliding open part of the way. He mumbled something that sounded like it might be rather unpleasant, before sitting up. He then went almost white, his skin going pale in the face quickly. Due to the nature of the injury, what happened next was not at all surprising. He ran for a nearby makeshift trash-can, reintroducing whatever he'd eaten plus the water he'd had earlier to the world. After a few seconds of dry-heaving, it was done. He shakily stood up, and looked like he just wanted to collapse again. But he didn't, which was a surprise. Rubbing the back of his head with a hearty flinch, he groaned again, but that turned into an angry growl rather quickly.

"Bastion...you asshole!" he growled out between clenched teeth. It was almost unheard by the others by him, but when Zak's attention focused on him, he knew they'd heard his angry sentence. "What? I said a curse word..so? That...bastard...hit me twice..." The fist that belonged to Joey's tattooed arm clenched so tight his knuckles went white. He took one step and then wobbled so much he ended up on one knee, thanks to the room spinning around him. He glared at the three with him anytime they tried to get near him, eventually getting himself back up to his feet.

"Don't...help me...I don't need it" He growled, blinking heavily for a few seconds. Zak frowned, not understanding where the younger man's anger was coming from at all. He seemed to have an awful lot of it.

"There is nothing wrong with asking for it...besides...you won't be able to do anything to help with the investigation of this mine with a head injury..I can't let you go back into the smaller shafts like this..." said Zak. He turned to his two friends.

"You two go back to the shaft where we found Joey, and see if you get anything more about this Bastion being mentioned" Nick and Aaron nodded, and checked their gear to be sure nothing drained it trying to appear, before turning and heading back into the largest mineshaft nearby, while Zak stayed behind for the time being. Joey was shifting from foot to foot, in an angry manner, which was nothing new. He was grinding his teeth together, and he was anxious to go provoke the spirit called "Bastion" into another face off...and this time he'd give it hell for the cowardly knock out. Or the knock out he considered cowardly. But he also knew he had to listen to the seasoned investigators, at least...for now. He eventually paced in a circle for a time, much like a caged animal, before coughing and sitting down right where he stopped. Folding his arms over his chest he waited. A startled shout from one of the distant mine shafts made him jump, and soon Aaron ran in, all out of breath and excited..or scared..it was hard to tell exactly.

"Dude...you have to hear this...seriously!" He held up his voice recorder, and hit the play button with his thumb.

"Find...hurt...in shaft...Bastion..." It was a broken sentence, but the meaning of it was quite clear after a moments though.

"So that's what the voice I heard before meant when it said hurt..shaft...it was talking about Joey..!" came the response from Zak. "Wait...this one also mentioned Bastion...that name..if that's what it is...had been said in evp's several times already...!"

"And that's the damned thing that knocked me out in that mine shaft!" growled Joey, giving his sore head another careful rub. "At least...I'm pretty sure it was...I was hit after I heard that name..." He got up from where he was sitting, and was able to stand without the room spinning finally. He was itching to just run back into the shaft where he was knocked out, but he couldn't get in trouble again, regardless of how small it was. He was always in enough trouble as it is. Nick came into the room next, and said he hadn't caught anything. After a check of the time, it was soon realized they'd been in there longer than they'd expected, and it was almost time to leave. They packed up their gear, and went to wait for the lady from before to open the makeshift gate. Soon after the gate was unlocked and slid open. Joey went out last, looking over his left shoulder once, and narrowing his eyes as he caught the barest hint of a figure standing where they had been waiting before, before the "gate" was slid shut and locked back up again. He could have sworn he heard a man laughing as it was closed. He hated the ghost called "Bastion" already.

Turning back around, he walked a brisk walk towards his motorcycle, hands shoved into his pants pockets. He wasn't looking up at first, but when he did, he walked faster, passing Zak, Nick, and Aaron.

"HEY! Get away from my bike!" he half-shouted, to a couple of other guys standing far too close to it, and looking at it too much for his liking. "Take a picture...it will last longer!" When they didn't, he moved closer and repeated himself. One of the guys standing there sneered at him, and said who is gonna make him move.

"Who will make me move twerp? You? I doubt it. This is a nice bike. I could use this to replace the old one I trashed last month...just try and stop me from breaking the chains on it!" That was a huge mistake to make. Still hyped on adrenaline leftover from being knocked out by Bastion, the annoying spirit back in the Unknown Mine, and despite the throbbing ache at the back of his head, Joey reacted in a surprising manner. Before anyone could do anything to stop the teenager, Joey slammed his right fist into the man's face, knocking him back into his friend.

"I said...get...away...from...my bike!" the teen growled, his hand not even hurting a bit, due to past fights. He had controlled his volatile anger the entire night until now, but he finally had enough.

His annoyance and anger towards Bastion was showing through in his reaction to the morons by his bike. The idiot's friend made a move towards Joey, and an all out fight broke out after a few seconds. The sound of the scuffle got the investigator's attention from where they were putting their gear into the back of their white van when Joey was shoved against his motorcycle.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Hey!" Despite it being something they really shouldn't interfere in, Zak ran over and pushed his way between Joey and the idiot's friend, as said idiot continued to groan from where he was laid out by Joey's punch. Joey was strong, but not strong enough to get by Zak. He yelled over Zak's shoulder.

"Take that IDIOT friend of yours and get away from my motorcycle..I swear!" The idiot's friend coughed, and dragged his friend up and into their battered old pick-up, which he then drove off at a fast rate, at least as fast as the old truck could go. Joey's shirt was dirty, but he showed no outward signs that he'd been hit at all. He broke away from Zak, and checked his bike where he'd been shoved into it. Thankfully it wasn't damage other than some scuffs which he cleaned with the edge of his t-shirt. He pulled the chain key from his pocket and was starting to unlocked the chains that kept his bike in place, when Zak came up behind him.

"What was that about?" the older man said. Joey scoffed or exhaled sharply, and shoved the chains into a side holder attached to the back of his bike. "Well...?"

"I don't like IDIOT'S like them near my motorcycle. Hell, I don't like ANYONE near my bike. That's it. He pushed his luck too fucking far when he threatened to steal it to replace his own trashed piece of crap" The teen forcefully shoved his helmet on, flinching as the back hit the sore spot on his head. He swung his leg over until he was straddling the bike. "Now back to the hotel or whatever to sleep and such right? I'm assuming I'm at the same one as you guys.." he was being particularly rude right now, but he did admire the three of them regardless of that. That was why he was allowed to enter the "contest" as it was. It was some peoples hope it would keep him out the trouble he was headed straight into. His volatile temper, something he did get from family, as his family had a history of people with horrible tempers, didn't help matters at all.

Zak sighed, but nodded. "We'll be looking over everything we recorded tomorrow...you can help with that if you want" he stepped back from Joey's motorcycle, as the teen gave one curt nod and revved it up. Joey slid down the helmet's visor, then revved the bike up one more time, before peeling out of where he'd been parked, dust and dirt sent flying up in the air behind him as he did so. Zak watched him leave, then got into the driver's seat of the van, going the same way, to the same place possibly. After a few minutes, he noticed he'd caught up to the younger man , thanks to a slow moving semi truck in front of him.

Soon enough they got back to the Best Western they were staying at, and it turns out Joey had been right, as he too pulled into the parking lot in front of the building. The younger man slid off his bike and chained it up good again, just like near the mine. Only this place had metal poles deeply embedded into the asphalt, so it made it even harder to steal. He removed the helmet and put it under one arm, before going into the hotel/motel, whatever it was.

Heading up a couple of flights of stairs, Joey walked down a hallway once he got to his floor and went into his room, which was number 317. He had no idea he was right next to Zak, and across from Nick and Aaron, who had rooms on the other side. Zak and the others however knew where he was, as they'd arrived to their rooms right after him, and saw him close the door behind him with the heel of one foot.

Inside his room, Joey toss his helmet onto one of the two chairs, then fell back onto the king sized bed, arms spread out, looking at the ceiling. He slid his eyes shut, as a single tear worked it's way down his cheek.

"Mother...I miss you...I don't think I'll ever stop that...maybe I'll find you someday..." That was part of the reason for his interest in the paranormal, but not the only one. He also just loved the stuff period. Despite how rude he was being, and angry, he was enjoying every second of this. After a few minutes of laying as he was, a noise startled him and he shot up into a sitting position. For a split second he thought he saw the ghost from the mine, but that was impossible. A ghost like that couldn't move from where he was trapped..it just didn't happen. "I need sleep...I was in that tunnel too long.." he shook his head and went right back down to the way he was before, after removing his shirt due to being hot that is.

The next time he heard a sound was because it was actually around dinner time, and it was a knock at his rooms door. Sitting up and stretching, wincing when some bones creaked noisily, he got up and smoothed his spiky hair out a little so it wasn't as messy.

"Huh...thought I put the do not disturb thing up...guess I forgot..." He yawned, and looked through the peephole to see who it was. It turned out to be Zak and the other two. He unlocked it and opened it just enough to be able to see them. "yeah?" he mumbled, partly from still being half asleep. He took awhile to wake up fully.

"We're going to get something to eat if you want to join in at the diner next door to this place" said Zak, and Joey nodded just slightly.

"Yeah...I guess I could use food...real food...one minute..." He stifled another yawn and shut the door. When he turned around, he had to stifle a surprised shout. He was certainly awake now. In front of him by the rooms window was the spirit from the mine, Bastion. Joey frowned. "What are you doing here? I thought ghosts couldn't move from where they were trapped..."

There was no answer, as Bastion only looked at him briefly before fading out of view. Joey growled low to himself.

"I hate it when these things do that..bah!" He tied the laces to his footwear then moved towards the door, grabbing his coat as he exited the room he was staying in. he didn't see Bastion reappear behind him as the door quietly shut.

"...be careful...things won't always be so easy..." was all the ghost whispered, before disappearing, again. Too bad Joey wasn't there to hear the words, which may or may not have been a warning, and may be the reason Bastion was able to leave the mine he was "found" in.

end chapter 1.