After fighting the Lunch Lady, Skulker, a bunch of ghost birds, and the Box Ghost, listening to his parents yelling at him about dissecting him "molecule by molecule" as he fought the ghosts, failing his math test and getting lectured about how he's failing some (ok, most) of his classes, Danny decided to fly around the Ghost Zone to try and relax.
Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw something that seemed out of place. Flying closer, he saw portal out of the Ghost Zone. Curious, he went closer…and got pulled through it.
"What?"
"There's a portal in the basement of the school," Dawn repeated.
"Really?" Giles asked.
"What did it look like?" Willow asked while Xander leaned forward.
Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles and Dawn were sitting in The Magic Box, discussing the portal Dawn found in the high school's basement, while Anya ran the store.
"It was green and kinda swirly," she answered.
"When did you see it?" Giles asked.
Dawn paused.
"Did you skip class to go down to the basement?" Buffy asked.
Dawn shuffled a bit, then said, "I just wanted to check on Spike."
"Dawn," Buffy started, "I told you not to go down there during school."
"Yeah, because there could be some big, evil thing down there, I know," Dawn interrupted. "I just thought you'd like to know," she huffed.
Willow leaned over to touch her shoulder. "We are glad you told us about it," she said.
"So what are we going to do about it?" she asked, excited about helping.
"You are going to do your homework," Buffy jumped in.
Dawn looks over to Xander pleadingly.
"Hey, if Buffy says do your homework, you should do your homework," he said.
She sighed and left.
"Even though we didn't do our homework when something happened," he continued when she was out of earshot.
Buffy glared at him. "There was no one else to do it."
He held up his hands in surrender. "I was just saying," he said quickly, as Giles got up to search the shelves.
"So, what did she want?" Anya said abruptly as she joined them.
"She found a swirly green portal in the basement," Xander answered.
"Are you sure she said swirly and green?" she asked.
"Here," Giles set down a medium stack of books. "Look through those." He picked up a couple and sat down.
Danny looked around. He was in some sort of storage place, if the number of boxes was anything to go by. After deciding to stay invisible, he flew around. Several minutes later, he determined that he was in the basement of someplace. Before he could phase through the floor and find out where in the world he was, he saw someone.
Moving closer, he saw that it was a man with pale hair and a scar over his eyebrow. Suddenly, the man looked in his direction.
Danny froze, then, remembering that he was invisible, moved closer.
"Who's there?" the man asked.
Danny paused.
"I know you're there," the man went on. "I can smell you."
Startled and confused, Danny flew up and phased through the ceiling.
Spike was sitting near his "apartment" in the school's basement when he sensed something. He looked in the direction the feeling came from, and took a deep breath through his nose. Something was there alright.
"Who's there?" he called. Silence. "I know you're there," he continued. "I can smell you."
He heard something like a light wind from the direction he was looking in, and rushed over. Finding nothing, Spike looked around the basement, but couldn't find any evidence of someone having been there, aside from Dawn several hours earlier. Then he saw a swirling green portal.
"I've got to tell Buffy," he said.
He looked out and saw that there was still a little too much sun. He sighed and headed for the sewer entrance.