"AHHHHH!" Branch screamed out in pure terror as he looked at his own reflection in the mirror. He... he was.. d... dea... "Mom! Dad!" But the sound-proof walls of the basement lab made it impossible for anyone to hear the young troll's screams.
Quickly, he turned, beginning to run for the stairs, but froze when he caught sight of the millions of ghost hunting weapons lining the walls.
He gulped, horrible thoughts suddenly beginning to swirl through his head. He... he was a ghost... his parents hunted ghosts... he couldn't let them see him like this! What was he going to do!?
Poppy...
The thought of his best friend immediately popped into his head. That was it! He needed to find Poppy! She'd know what to do!
—————
"Branch!? Branch, where are you!? Branch!?" Poppy called out as she walked through the halls in search of her best friend. "Where could he be, Synth? Synth?"
She turned, noticing the techno troll she had thought was right behind her was now gone.
"Ugh..." she groaned in anger, thinking she knew exactly where he had snuck off to. "Synth..."
—————
"Come on... come on!" Synth cheered, a huge smile on his face as he focused all of his attention on the video game he was playing. "Almost..."
"Synth!"
He didn't even flinch at the sound of his name being spoken out so harshly, the pink pop troll suddenly standing in the doorway of Branch's bed room.
"We're supposed to be looking for Branch!" she yelled out in anger, placing her hands intimidatingly on her hips to prove that she was mad.
"Yeah, yeah... just a minute Poppy," the techno troll said, keeping his focus locked on the video game. "I've almost killed the phantom king. Just one more hit, and..."
"Guys!" Branch suddenly interrupted, his head popping right out of the television screen like he was a ghost in a horror movie.
"AHHHHH!" Poppy and Synth both screamed out in terror at the sight of him. "GHOST!"
—————
"I can't believe it didn't work..." Thorn sulked as he sat down at the kitchen table, sadly stirring his hot chocolate with his finger.
"We'll figure it out, hon," Árbol assured, gently placing a comforting hand on her husband's shoulder. "We just need to work a little harder. Speaking of hard work... how are you and your friend's doing on that video game competition practice, Branch?"
She turned, realizing her son wasn't there, his hot chocolate she had made for him still sitting on the counter, getting cold.
"Hugh... where is he?" she questioned, looking around in confusion.
"He's probably sulking about having a failure for a father..." Thorn groaned. "I can't even build a simple machine to bring us to the ghost world..."
"You are not a failure," Árbol said sternly. "So what if we can't get into the ghost world? There's still plenty of ghost here for us to hunt and destroy."
"Who are we kidding, Árbol..." Thorn sighed, slamming his face down onto the table. "Leaf was probably right this whole time... there's no such thing as..."
"GHOST!"
Both adults immediately looked up at the sudden shriek, their eyes wide in shock.
"Ghost?" they both questioned in confusion, their eyes finally lighting up in realization. "GHOST!" they shouted out, quickly grabbing their weapons out of their hair before running up to their son's room, ready to destroy this ghost as painfully as possible...
