Well, my lovely readers, I'm hitting something big here. These next few chapters will be short but should be posted every one-three days because of it. I'm having a hard time with this episode, but it's doable. That's all I need.

There will be probably four parts, maybe three, maybe five. This is a complicated episode.

Some parts may be a bit rushed… just a heads up.

DISCLAIMER: I wish I owned it, but I don't. Are you happy now?

Part two

The room that was once bad wasn't all that bad. If fact, it was quite nice. A circular room with a 20 yard diameter, four beds, a large table with some snacks (ones that the Halfas haven't ever even heard of), lovely crystal lamps, and gracious green drapes hanging from the ceiling.

If only it had a skylight.

"If this is the prison cell," Dani stated, "I wonder what the royal rooms look like." The youngest Halfa walked over to one of the beds, plopped down, then frowned. "You would think, if they can make a room look like this, then they'd at least have some comfortable beds."

"Like it matters," Sokka said distastefully. "We are stuck here, wether we like it or not."

Aang glanced down towards his staff nervously. What was it the king had said? That Danny and his cousin had gone right through the carrier? Pushing that weird thought away, he subconsciously asked, "I wonder what our challenges will be like."

"Well," Katara spoke, "there's no way we'll be sticking around to find out."

Danny smirked. "I like the way you think, Katara. Only problem? How the hell are we gonna get out of here?"

"Well, I don't actually know. But, there's got to be some way out of here."

Dani looked up from her place on the bed and frowned deeply. "You know, I kinda hoped we might be able to stay. The king is a little whacked up in his head, but he's nice. Enough."

The eldest Halfa snorted. "You like it here? You wouldn't even remain at my house, and you like it here? Where we are held prisoner? Where Aang and I'll be out 'to the test?'"

"Yep."

Aang, who wasn't paying the slightest but of attention to the Halfa's side conversation, burst, "The air vent!" His finger was pointing to a hole in the wall that was about a few inches in diameter. What? Did he really think they could get through there? As if.

Actually, Sokka said so, too. "If you think we're all honing to be able to fit through that, you're crazier then that king!"

Aang just smiled wider, much to Danny's confusion. "We can't; but Momo can!"

Suddenly, everyone turned to see the lemur on a bed licking an apple. Danny guessed he'd fall asleep soon, for the lemur looked quite content.

Aang, however, either didn't notice or didn't care; presumably the first one. "Momo, I need you to find Appa and bust us out of here."

Momo glanced up at Aang, eyes pleading 'no.' But, again, Aang didn't notice. He ended up shoving the lemur into it, his eyes still pleading.

But, much to Aang's disappointment, he got stuck. "Go on, boy," Aang encouraged, "Go and get Appa." The lemur didn't budge.

Sokka just glances up from the bed he'd picked with a frown. "Eh, how was Appa going to save us, anyway?"

Aang got really defensive. "Appa is a ten-ton flying byson. I think he could figure something out."

Danny laughed. "You do know you just said the Appa's fat, right? Ten-tons? That can't be healthy."

Aang glared, then remembered his thought from earlier. The best way to get Danny back for that comment was, "What did he mean?"

Danny sat up from his position on the bed. "What did who mean?"

"What did the king mean when he said you and Dani went right through a cart?"

'He meant he saw me use my intangibility, which by the way is one of my many powers I haven't told you about. Oh, and thought you should know Dani and I are from another dimension and were sent here to help you defeat the fire lord person!' As if Danny could tell them that.

"It is another of my abilities." He stated instead, just hoping that they wouldn't—

"And you didn't tell us!" Sokka yelled in outrage. He felt hurt. Betrayed. What else did this sly and cunning and (better than he was) fighter have up his sleeve? What was he hiding?

"Yep. Dani can do it, too." He didn't want to explain anything…

"Oh," Katara said, jumping into the conversation. She had just taken note of something… "You said you travel, right?"

Danny eyed her cautiously, now very, very aware of what might be happening. "Yes."

Katara's eyebrows creased in confusion. "But you said you had a home and Dani never chose to live with you. If that's the case, how can you be traveling?"

'Crud.'

The elder Halfa shifted nervously, not knowing to respond. But Danielle did. "That's our business. Please, leave it at that."

And the subject was dropped.

(I want a fancy design for my line breaks. What'd'ya think of this?)

«{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}»

The next day…

Danny woke up to the sound of a crash. Temporarily, he forgot where he was and stated to panic, but stopped before anyone could notice. Even the Earth guard who had stormed into their 'prison'.

Aang jolted up, his slumber interrupted, and said the first thing that popped into his head. "Sokka? Katara?"

Okay, so it wasn't the first thing in his head. His first thought was 'Go away, mom. And turn off- holly monks! Where are my friends?'

Katara and Sokka had been 'escorted' somewhere special. Dani, well, she was invisibly watching.

Danny groggily sat up, had similar thoughts to Aang's, and rolled off the bed he'd been completely sore from sleeping on.

"Where are my friends?" The Airbender demanded, turning around to face the guard.

The else Halfa sat up with his right hand on his head. He might be a ghost, but that don't mean he isn't subtle to pain. Come to think of it, he wasn't even half-dead. But that thought was for a day when he had his younger cousin and his buddies back. Today, well, he was ready to kick anyone's butt who stood in his way. That included the friggin' king's.

Back to the story, Aang glared at the guard. How dare he say that he'd only free their friends if he completed those stupid challenges! Who did he think he was, the king? Oh, wait… Dammit! He was the king…

«{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}»

The king that day was in purple robes which clashed awfully with his skin color.

"First, Avatar, Danny, what do you think of my new outfit?" The psychotic ruler asked.

"It is… nice?" Danny said, unsure on whether or not to blurt out the truth. Today, he felt like being difficult. But that wouldn't help his friends.

Aang just stated blankly at the man, showing no expression.

Danny suddenly felt very anxious. Why? He just wanted to get his friends away from the crazy king. He also felt like saying… "What the hell? We both know those robes are hideous."

The guards were shocked by the sudden outburst, as well as the king. Aang stomped promptly on the Halfa's foot, making him pull it up and grab it.

"You look fine." Aang said, hoping to push down Danny's rudeness. Where had that come from?

"Excellent! But, may I ask what the word 'hell' means? I've never heard someone use it," the king inquired.

Danny was in no mood for this. But, yet, he found it amusing he didn't know why hell was… and Danny was in no mood to tell him. It'd only raise more questions.

"None of your business."

The king eyed Danny, wanting an answer.

Then Danny realized what was going on. Or, he thought he did.

"Hell is a place the dead go. Only, it's a place where bad dead spirits go. It is also a cuss word which means the same as 'heck.' Satisfied?"

The king, now even more curious as to whom the boy was, just nodded and smiled. "Congratulations! You've just passed the first test!" He announced, rubbing his hands together.

"Really!" Aang said, not asked. If the challenges were tests then this souls be a bit easy… then he realized he hadn't gone to school in a hundred years. Drat.

The king smiled sheepishly, "Well, not one of the deadly tests." As he said it, he waved his bony finger around.

Danny was getting annoyed. He wanted his cousin back! You go a year without seeing her, she appears, then is kidnapped! Never, ever mess with an angry phantom. And the king was just about to meet Danny Phantom. Well, once the challenges started, anyways.

Aang ran up angrily to the king yelling, "We don't have time for your crazy games!"

"Psychotic." Danny added. Aang didn't notice.

"Give us our friends back!"

Suddenly, a girly giggle was heard from behind Danny, and all eyes drifted towards the smaller Halfa who had appeared out of nowhere.

"I would've just punched him, Aang. But your way works, I guess."

The king, who had know that the guards weren't able to catch that girl and snap a shabby ring on her finger, was, once again, very surprised. Sure, he had known that the two kids shared the same secret. He just thought that they could only do that one trick… now he really wanted to find out who these children were.

But his old buddy was his biggest concern.

"Thank you for joining us," he said. "Guards? If you'd please," he gestured over to the girl who's smile was gone and was replaced by a slight frown.

"But we haven't even had breakfast!"

They ignored her, simply slipping on a ring and revealed the other two. Their friends were being forced to wear those same rings.

After the crummy description of what the rings were and how they worked, the pair headed off for their first deadly challenge.

'This had better be worth it,' Danny thought angrily.

Neither Halfa noticed how, now that intangibility was exposed, Dani could just phase the group out of the harmful rings. They really need to work on their logic.

«{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}»

It was a key. That was their first test. To achieve a damn key from a waterfall. Did I mention that the waterfall was in a cave? And that the bottom of the cave was covered in spikes? Yeah, that's kind of important.

The pair stood on a rock, facing the pouring water. The geminite was halfway up their arms by now… neither realized they could just phase out.

The king let out an evil, yet playful, laugh. "It seems I've lost my lunch box key and I'm hungry." He pointed to the waterfall, where a gleam of light was being reflected. "Oh, there it is! Would you mind fetching it for me?"

If glares could freeze, the waterfall would be a giant popsicle now. Oh, wait, Danny's glares could freeze. Well, guess that explains why there was a patch of frozen spikes before them.

Sweet. Danny could work with this. Turning each rock tip into a cube of ice, that was big enough for Danny to balance on, he began to stumble towards the waterfall.

And, again, the king was impressed by Danny's abilities. But, again, he was more focused on the Avatar.

Aang leapt off the sides of the rock pilers, doing impressive acrobatics along the way.

Danny, noting how Aang could handle this one, just focused on glaring at the king.

Aang, as you all know, reached up and grabbed hold of a ladder that was leading up to the key. Struggling, he tried to grab hold of the second bar, and, unfortunately, failed.

When the male Halfa saw his friend falling from the waterfall, he instinctively was about to fly and save him. But, he thought better of it. Within a millisecond, Phantom appeared, catching Aang in his arms.

Danny, now using his ice powers to a full extent, as in to make deep ice paths, sprinted to his duplicate.

"Thanks, Phantom." He said, though he noted how weird it was, talking to himself. His duplicate nodded, said something like a 'you're welcome', and set Aang on a block of ice then he vanished.

Phantom had made another public appearance.

The rock was up to their friends' shoulders, making Danny desperately nervous. He didn't want to lose anybody. He couldn't lose anybody. That's why he's here; to help. To protect. And that meant he thought logically.

"Danielle," he called. "Just phase out of the rock!"

The youngest Halfa mentally face palmed at her cluelessness. Well, it was a trait that Danny was famous for… and she was his clone… hmmmm, it wasn't that much of a surprise.

But Danielle was shocked. Not only could she not phase out of the dumb rock, she realized what it was. Ectoranium. So, this was where the rock had been formed. Interesting, yet, very upsetting.

"It's Ectoranium, Danny! I can't!"

"What? Where the heck did these people get Ectorainum?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

«{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}~§~{*}»

Ohhhh… cliffy. Sorry, I just had to end it there. Who knows? Why aren't they being shocked by the ghost-repellent rock? How do the boys get the key? And, what will the king do about the mysterious character that assisted his old friend in the test?

X X

O

I want some suggestions on future episodes! If there is one in specific you want me to do, PM me or review. I READ ALL REVIEWS!