A few hours ago, in one of the world's best universities …

The room was completely silent. The clock showed a time of 6:59 p.m. and the second hand was slowly inching itself forwards, for what seemed like an eternity. Hundreds of young men and women sat in neat rows, frantically scratching away at their answer booklets, trying to fill as much information as they could, when suddenly, 2 dreaded words rang out through the hall.

"Time's up!" exclaimed one of the TAs.

"Put down your pens and stop writing!"

The room was filled with the sound of dozens of pens clattering onto the wooden desks, followed by several exhausted sighs and a few dry sobs. Everyone in the hall had got what they had expected. The professor had outdone himself; he created an exam paper almost twice as hard as the sample questions they'd been given.

As the papers were collected, most people gathered up their belongings and what was left of their dreams and quietly trudged out of the exam room. Some muttered vague threats and insults towards the professor as they left, while others accepted their fates and left without another look at the room or their papers. A third group gathered and started forming plans to occupy the exam room in protest, but they were soon ushered out.

Soon, only one person remained in the room. It was the same girl who had been daydreaming earlier. She was an attractive red headed student, a little over 5 and a half feet tall. She sat towards the front of her row and had a faraway look in her eyes. A few seconds later she snapped out of it, got up and walked out of the hall.

Meanwhile, outside the room, 2 young men stood talking. One of them looked like he could substitute for Hercules himself. He had short cropped blond hair and stood well over 6 feet tall, with huge, bulging muscles. His facial features, contradicted the rest of his appearance, making him look kind and caring.

In spite of his physical attributes however, his facial expression betrayed a sense of fear.

"I'm almost 100% sure I failed" he said worriedly to his friend. There was no response.

"Are you even listening, Jon?" he asked, sounding frustrated.

Jonny Quest stirred. He had been leaning against the wall, with an expression not much different from the girl in the exam hall. Jonny had changed quite a bit since his previous adventures. He was taller now, at just a shade over 6 feet tall, but had a wirier build as compared to his friend. His tired eyes suggested that he was on the verge of falling asleep. He straightened himself and folded his arms.

"Sorry Steve, I guess I nearly dozed off" he replied apologetically.

"I realised that" Steve said, looking his friend over. "So Quest, how did you find the exam?".

Jonny took a second to think about his answer. In truth, he had found the exam quite easy, but didn't want to brag about it.

"It was okay" he finally said, before quickly adding, "But it was much harder than the practice questions".

Steve nodded. He knew that Quest was one of the smartest guys in their lecture. If he said it was just "ok", it must have been a really hard exam. Steve felt somewhat relieved about this.

"So, got any plans for the evening?" Steve asked, regaining a bit of his confidence.

"Just meeting up with Jessie" he replied sleepily.

We'll grab a bite to eat and then pack for our flight back". Jonny's deep blue eyes were sunk into his skull. His normally bright face looked forlorn. Steve didn't need to ask what was wrong. He knew Jonny well enough to realise that Jonny was severely tired and even worse – he was bored.

Steve stood awkwardly for a few seconds, before looking at his watch. As he looked up, he saw someone emerge from another exam room exit. He looked towards her and gave a short wave of his hand.

"Alright man, I've got to go" he said. With that, Steve turned and started walking away. "By the way, happy holidays guys!" he called out before stepping out of the building.

Jonny stood by the door. "What's keeping Jessie?" he thought to himself, before leaning back against the wall and shutting his eyes for a second. "Maybe I should check out the exam hall" he thought to himself. Just as he opened his eyes to look for her, he noticed the red head from the exam room standing in front of him. Jessie giggled, as she saw her friend nearly drop asleep right before her eyes.

"Hey, Hotshot" she said softly.

Jonny quickly got off the wall and straightened himself. The last thing he needed was Jessie telling everyone at home about how he now gets most of sleep leaning on walls and pillars.

"Hey, Ace" he replied. His face brightened slightly and he finally felt awake again. "Come on, I'm starving" Jonny said, putting on his jacket. "Let's get out of here".

They walked out of the building into the biting cold weather. Light snowfall had just begun, giving the campus a somewhat relaxing atmosphere.

"So, how was the exam?" Jessie asked, as they walked through the campus grounds.

"Looked like a lot of people found the Intro to Organic Chemistry paper quite tough".

Jonny yawned again. "Intro to Organic Chemistry? My dad gave us enough of an introduction when we were 12."

Memories swelled back into their heads of Dr. Quest and their many past adventures. There was no question that the old man had taught them more than they could ever learn in their first few years of university. All those years of designing Quest World games and watching the doc and his friends' experiments was really paying off.

"I'm still going to beat you on the exam Quest. I always was the better student" Jessie said boastfully. 7 years of growing up still hadn't done much to weaken their rivalry.

"We'll see about that, Ace" he replied, grinning confidently.

Their brief stint of boredom momentarily forgotten, the two friends carried on their merry discussion all the way to the restaurant.

"So, I guess its back to the Compound for us tomorrow" Jonny said, as they were seated at a table.

"It's going to be good to see everybody after such a long time".

Jessie took a good look at her friend. It was only their 2nd year in University, but he had already changed considerably. Just a few months back, he was still the same old Jonny, always getting both of them into trouble and running off into new adventures, inadvertently dragging her along.

This year however, he was different. Physically, he looked like a taller, stronger version of his 14 year old self. He had the same blond hair, same deep blue eyes and the same lopsided facial expression he'd always had. Mentally, he was still pretty much the same guy, if not a slightly smarter and more mature version. But he seemed to have lost quite a bit of energy.

She realised of course, that the same could be said about her. She had also lost her old adventurous spirit. She often found herself sitting around, silently day dreaming about their past adventures like she had been doing after finishing her exam. Friends were always asking her about those days, when she'd be climbing mountains with her family and testing out new scientific equipment while they were busy fretting about SAT scores. Ever since she came to university however, that changed. Jessie now realised that it had been over 2 years since the Quest family's last proper adventure.

"By the way, Hadji can't make it this year" Jonny said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I know, he called me last night" she replied.

Hadji of course, had more important things to think about. The vast majority of universities around the world would pay to have a student like that helping with their research, but due to his mother's failing health, he had decided to remain in Bangalore and continue his studies there, while aiding his mother with the country's affairs, when necessary. It appears that he had a bit too much on his hands at this time of the year to come and visit.

"I guess he won't be around to see me thrash you in Quest World again!" she said playfully, and waited for a response. None came.

Jessie was surprised. Usually Jonny's response to her barbed comments was swift. She looked towards him and saw that although he had been talking to her a few moments ago, he was now lost in thought. In fact, he almost appeared to doze off.

"Jonny … Jonny… Quest, snap out of it!" she said, shaking his arm to try to wake him up.

"Since when did you even get this tired, Quest?" she asked, somewhat annoyed at him.

Jonny blinked a few times, just to make sure he was actually awake before responding.

"It's not that I'm tired Jess, I've just been bored. Anything I've done over the past 1 and a half years has nothing on the stuff we went through a few years back".

Jessie found herself involuntarily nodding. She didn't want to admit it, but Jonny was right. University parties and clubs, while fun for a while, had soon lost their appeal to both, Jonny and Jessie. After years spent chasing monsters and fighting mad scientists in virtual worlds, university life quickly lost its appeal to them.

They tried to keep making it interesting – both were on almost all sports teams available and were excelling at studies, but as compared to life with Dr. Quest and Race Bannon, this was just plain boring.

"I know, Jonny" she replied solemnly. "But maybe your dad has something planned for the holidays!" she said, trying to lift the mood, although she pretty much knew what he would say.

"Come on, Jess. You know as well as I do that dad's too old for those trips. The years are starting to catch up with Race too" he added.

Jessie knew he was right. Dr. Quest, although still quite fit for someone his age, couldn't handle many of the physical hardships of say, a week of exploration in the Amazon, or a hike in the Sahara, otherwise known as the usual Quest family holidays. Race was still the same imposing figure that he always was, but at almost 50, while he was still perfectly capable of defending himself with ease, he couldn't take care of everyone in the Quest family anymore.

"I guess we'll be adventureless for yet another holiday" said Jessie, in a defeated tone. She put her arms on the table and rested her head on them, on the one hand glad to be heading back home, while on the other hand, wishing that they could have just one more great journey, like so many that they'd had before.

Suddenly however, she was hit by another idea. Something which she had barely considered the day before.

"Jonny, you remember Emily Ferguson, the girl who dropped out last year?" she said, with a slight flicker of light in her eyes.

"You mean Prof. Ferguson's daughter?" he asked Jessie, now starting to sound a little interested.

He knew Emily well. Emily considered herself a thrill seeker, someone who wants to discover the limits of the human mind and body. In this regard, Jonny and Jessie considered her somewhat similar to themselves, but that's pretty much where the similarities ended.

The Quests went on most of their adventures to rediscover ancient artifacts and to learn more about the world and how humanity could benefit from it.

Emily went on her adventures for an adrenaline rush.

She was by no means a bad person, but what Jonny and Jessie found disturbing about her was that she was even more reckless than Jonny when he was 14, and twice as cocky. She was so cocky in fact that despite being one of the best students in most of her lectures, she had dropped out after first year, claiming that University was "too easy" for her and that she had nothing left to learn and would strike out on her own. The Quests could only imagine how hard the girl's father, who was one of their professors in the first year, must have taken in.

Jessie nodded her head to acknowledge that they were indeed talking about the same Emily.

Emily considered herself to have quite a bit in common with Jonny and Jessie. However, the differences between them soon overshadowed the similarities and Emily grew apart from Jonny and Jessie.

"She called me yesterday" Jessie continued. "Said something about a big scientific trip she's planned over the holidays and said we might be interested".

Jonny leaned forward. Jessie could tell he was interested.

"What's this trip about?" he asked, a hint of excitement apparent in his voice.

"She hasn't told me yet, but she says she'll let us know over the holidays" replied Jessie.

"But don't build your hopes up too much, Jonny" she added.

"You know Emily's "adventures" aren't anything like our good old times".

Jonny shrugged his shoulders. "Jess, if it's anything remotely similar to our trips with Dad, Race and Hadji, I'm all up for it".

Jessie started feeling as if it were a bad idea to have revealed this news to her friend. "Jonny, maybe it's best if we just forget it" she said, cautiously. "Anything Emily tried to do for fun always ended in trouble".

"Come on Jess, what's the worst that could happen?" Jonny said, leaning back on his chair and placing his hands behind his head. His old cockiness, which they both thought was lost to time, began re-emerging right before their eyes.

"Jonny, be reasonable" Jessie said.

"We should at least wait until we know what she's planned before confirming anything" she added, however, from the look in Jonny's eyes, she knew that even if the trip sounded remotely adventurous, he'd be on the bandwagon in a flash.

"Alright Jess, you win" he said, although it didn't look like he meant it. As far as Jonny was concerned, Jessie was merely delaying the inevitable. He wanted to see his dad and Race and spend some time with them, however, passing up the chance for just one more adventure, something to give him a feel of his old life, was just something he couldn't bear.

"Listen up, Quest" said Jessie. There was a hint of frustration in her voice. "If you decide to go on this trip, you're going to have to go alone". She felt she made her point clear enough. She was now seriously regretting telling him about Emily's call. Couldn't Jonny see that the best case scenario of joining Emily was that they get a short thrill, which would be nothing compared to their escapades in the past and the worst case was that they could get seriously hurt in some kind of botched adrenaline fuelled event?

Unfortunately, Jonny wasn't thinking along those lines. He wanted one, just one more chance to be Jonny Quest, the Adventurer just like in the past, before graduating university. And he knew Jessie well enough to know that she also wanted some more adventure. Living life like a normal kid, even in one of the world's top 10 universities, was nothing compared to what they were used to and this was a chance to have one last hurrah, a final stand while still in university, before they graduate and don't have enough time for adventure, or even worse, before they lose the will to explore altogether.

"Jess" he said, leaning in towards her and holding her hand.

"We both know what always happens. I run headfirst into some kind of problem, you try to stop me, but in the end we always end up facing things together, even when you say you won't follow me. Both of us need this chance to just have some fun. And who knows, we might actually find something interesting. Just like the old days".

Jessie looked into her best friend's eyes and sighed. She knew he was right. Even if she said she wouldn't come, she'd end up following him one way or another to keep an eye on him, just as he'd do the same for her. It was practically an unwritten law of their friendship.

"Jonny, it's not like the old days" Jessie said solemnly.

"Back then, when we got into trouble, we had Dad and Dr. Quest and Hadji to lend us a hand. They won't be there this time. Besides, can you imagine how Dad and Dr. Quest would feel if we hightailed it halfway through the holidays, just to go on a trip with Emily and a bunch of people we barely know?" – She was trying her best to reason with him and this was the last card left to play in her hand. Jessie knew how much Jonny valued his family and spending time with what was left of it. Hopefully this would snap him out it.

Her tactic was successful. Jonny was in two minds. A small voice in his head started speaking to him.

"Just go on the trip Jonny, Race and Dad will manage one holiday alone. Besides, Jessie always winds up following you at the end, she won't let you go alone".

However, another voice spoke up, "Don't listen, Jonny. You know Jessie's right. Dad and Race are the last remaining close family you have, apart from Jessie and Hadji. You can't abandon them halfway through the Christmas Holidays, just to go join some random thrill seeker."

Jonny identified the first voice as his younger side and the second voice as his older persona. And as much as he wanted to be adventurous just one more time, he knew that his older persona now dominated the part of his being that still felt like his young self.

As a child, he thought he'd never change. He still felt like the same person, but now better understood the responsibilities resting on his shoulders as Dr. Quest's son and as an adult.

Jonny looked up at the ceiling. "Damn you, maturity" he muttered softly, before facing Jess again.

"Alright Jess, you win" he said in a defeated tone.

"Thanks for listening to me, Jonny" she replied. Jessie was pleasantly surprised. She had never seen her friend back down from any chance of adventure before, apart from a few cases which even Jonny's juvenile self knew he couldn't handle.

"Maybe this new found maturity he always talks about is an actual real thing" she thought to herself. However, a part of her also felt saddened by the fact that they had both backed down. She had somewhat expected to convince herself to ignore Emily's invitation, but somewhere deep inside herself, Jessie actually wanted Jonny to be defiant, just so that his defiance could rub onto her and they could both make the trip.

As she looked at her defeated friend however, she knew that they'd both never be the same carefree kids again. But at least they had their families and they still had each other. Not to mention, there was a bright side of going back home as well.

"Bet you won't beat any of my Quest World high scores this time, Hotshot" she said, trying to change the subject.

Her ploy had succeeded. Jonny's eyes lit up. "We'll see about that, Ace" he said confidently. His classic grin was back up on his face, as they looked towards each other.

"At least some things never change" both of them thought to themselves.

They carried on throughout dinner, comparing various stats and records and got down to talking about other reasons why it'd be good to go back home.

A while later, they were out of the restaurant, walking back towards their residences...

Meanwhile, there was some activity at the old mansion…

His eyes flickered open as they tried to catch any light available in the vicinity. His head hurt severely, almost as if he had been thrown with extreme force into a brick wall. Slowly, Danny started to stir. As his pupils widened to catch any light nearby, his blurry vision finally started to clear, ever so slightly.

He was still trying to remember what had happened earlier. He raised his head slightly and could now see his hands and feet in front of him, there didn't appear to be any sign of injury on his body, apart from his aching skull.

His head was throbbing heavily and seemed like it was swelling severely, he felt like he'd been out for days and had just woken up from a coma – but whatever happened, at least he was alive.

"Time to get up" he thought to himself, as he attempted to raise his strong arms and lift himself up – but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't lift his arms.

Danny was now starting to panic – "Have I broken both my arms?" he thought, as his heart rate started to increase drastically.

He decided to sit up, to get himself in a position to better examine his arms and hopefully stand up. This would be easy for Danny. He was after all the strongest man in his group. Paul may have been the best fighter, but if any feats of physical strength were required, Danny would be the first one they would turn to.

Danny tried to use his immense chest muscles to force his upper body up. He gave a sudden push – but his body didn't respond.

Danny was terrified and as he tried again and again to force up some part of his body, several damning thoughts passed through his mind.

"Am I paralyzed?" he thought repeatedly, as his body continuously failed to respond.

"But I can still move my head" he thought, quickly ruling out that scenario.

"Is this some form of sleep paralysis?" he thought, as the throbbing in his head worsened. Danny's struggling was making to difference. He was completely and absolutely helpless, there was nothing he could do but turn and twist his neck.

Suddenly, a soft, ice cold breeze went past Danny's left ear. He stopped struggling.

The wind almost seemed to cause some form of déjà vu, as Danny's memories started flooding back to him.

He remembered when he first felt such a sensation. He had felt a similar phenomenon on his face when the team had first entered the ancient mansion they were supposed to have been investigating. He had felt the exact same occurrence when the first teammate, Amy had disappeared and he had felt the exact same cold breeze when he and Liz had been separated from the others, in the basement.

Danny stopped struggling. He had no idea what this thing was that had been causing him so much suffering, but whatever it was, surely it mustn't have been able to take out every single member on the team – Paul was one of the toughest guys he had ever met. Even Joe, Liz and Amy, despite their utter uselessness in Danny's eyes, must be able to help him get out. Obviously Rich must have called for help by now.

Maybe if I call out to them they might hear me, Danny thought hopefully. He had never been a religious man, but still decided to say a small prayer. Anything was worth a shot at this point.

Danny then opened his mouth, hoping that he would be able to call for help.

His lips were dry and his voice hoarse, but somehow, he managed to force a loud scream out of his mouth.

His voice echoed through the place where he was held, but there was no response. He knew that if no one could get to him, he'd soon die.

What do you guys think so far? The last part, about Danny's thoughts is supposed to be the intro to the next chapter, but haven't been able to work on that yet. Sorry of you found Jessie and Jonny's intros to be a bit boring, it'll get a lot more exciting for them soon...