Disclaimer: Danny Phantom, and its characters and/or ideas are the creation of Butch Hartman. The show does not belong to me nor will it ever

A/N: This fanfiction is back to its updates after being on a six-month long hiatus! The following chapter is a filler, but it's significant to the plot of the story. So, without further ado, here's chapter 10!

10

"Danny? Danny! Are you still there? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Sam questioned desperately, pushing against the restroom's entrance while banging hard on its surface with her fists periodically. Lancer and Tucker were on opposite sides of her, using their own body strength to ram onto the said blocked door with persistence.

The three of them had been attempting to gain entry inside of the restroom for the last ten minutes. They had tried all they could think of in order to reach the other boy, but their efforts were proving to be more difficult than not.

After surviving the initial blast from Skulker's weaponry, Sam had wanted nothing more than to defend the other black haired teen; though, in the end, all she could do was shield herself from the scorching flare that had nearly burned her. She would've been no use to Danny if she had gotten hurt...or worse.

While she had covered her body with the door, she had heard the struggle between the green haired ghoul and her power-failing friend from the other side. To what extent the damage Danny might've taken, she didn't know. What she did know was that the thought of her friend being injured in such a way without available aid to him left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Sam was suddenly broken from her morose thoughts when Tucker turned away from the door, his back hitting the steel with a thud. Releasing an exhaustive huff, the dark skinned male swiftly lifted his beret to wipe sweat from his brow.

"Maybe Skulker recaptured him. It would make sense why we haven't heard anything," he said.

"You shouldn't think like that," the Goth girl reasoned, frowning in contemplation. "He would've needed help from another ghost in order to grab Danny."

"You have to remember, Sam, that Danny's powers are not up to par," Tuck sensibly countered. "Skulker could have taken advantage of his weakness."

Sam abruptly spun around to face the other teen, shooting daggers at him. "I know that, Tuck! You think I would forget that fast about what those GIW losers did to him?"

"Okay, okay! You don't have to bite my head off! I'm just trying to be logical about this!"

Feeling uneasy with the teens' arguing, Lancer spoke over them. "Please, stop yelling. We're not helping Danny with the way we're handling things right now."

"I know!" Sam shouted at the high school teacher before slumping against the door. She then lowered her voice as she gave Edward and Tucker an apologetic glance. "I know. I'm sorry for yelling. I...it's just...I can't lose him again...we just got him back."

Tucker stared at the girl forlornly, understanding exactly how she was feeling. He didn't want to lose his best friend either. And for him, it seemed rather unfair that the two of them only got to spend a certain amount of time with Danny before they were all thrust into a ghostly fight. Even now, the trio had to keep on fighting, keep on hoping—all for Danny's sake. Fearing for his friend and for his sanity, Tucker unconsciously slid down the restroom's door to sit down on the ground Indian style.

Mr. Lancer gave Sam and Tucker sad eyes as he watched the twos' expressions morph into hopelessness. It was apparent that the dire situation was taking its toll on all three of them. There has to be another way to get inside the restroom, he rationalized mentally. Raising his head upward to stare unblinkingly at the mall's ceiling, a thought occurred to him as he pictured the entity they had just had an encounter with.

"Hey, can you recall how this Skulker ghost came inside of the restroom?" Lancer asked Sam, his eyes peering at the female teen curiously.

The dark haired girl appeared confused for a moment before the question registered in her mind. "He had been hiding in the ventilators," she revealed this information almost eagerly.

"So, all we have to do is find an opening to one of the ventilators, and one of us will go in and find the trail to the restroom," the older man finished, secretly feeling happy that he was able to help in some way.

"That's all well and good, but seriously, who would want to go in through one of those vents? It's probably crawling with germs." Tucker complained with a shiver. Sam and Lancer turned their heads to gaze pointedly at him. "What?" He questioned as they continued to stare at him prior to his eyes widening. "No way! No way am I going to be the one to go inside those vents!"

xxx

"I can't believe I'm the one who has to go inside these vents," Tucker mumbled to himself as he crept on his hands and knees through the metal contraption.

Ironically enough, the interior of the ventilator wasn't as grimy as the bespectacled boy imagined it would be. Still, the clutters of dust crammed in some of the corners were an indecent sight within itself. Tucker had had to hold in several sneezes as he trekked on inside of the enclosed space. Reaching another dead end after a second time, the teen cursed underneath his breath before backtracking and heading in the other direction.

Passing a corner he had come across on the left side of him, Tucker then half way smiled in relief as a bright illumination in the distance uncovered one of the public restroom's stalls. He moved closer to the busted opening of the ventilator, spinning his body around so that his feet would touch the ground first as he exited. Once he circled around to face the whole of the lavatory, Tucker's smile fell right off his face as he took in the wreckage.

Two of the four sinks were utterly destroyed, the porcelain shards shattered in different places throughout the room. Pieces of the lavatory's drywall were strewn near the far barricade. In the middle of the room was the broken blind exterior of the ventilator, beneath it was a puddle of dirty water. The inner side of the door was charred on its lower half, some of its steel seeming to be dissolving in the aftermath.

"Danny," called out Tucker as he sauntered through the restroom, peeking in each stall as he did so. "Are you here? Say something if you're here."

Seeing that Danny was nowhere to be found, Tucker bowed his head in defeat before making his way back to the ventilator. There was no sense in trying to use the steel door since the barrier was more than likely useless. Memorizing the route inside of the vent, the techno geek then sidled to the opposite side. Sam was right beside the breach as he awkwardly departed from the ventilator.

Any hope Sam might've had crashed as she took a good look at the melancholy appearance on Tuck's face. "He's not there anymore," he informed.

With a frustrated cry, the Manson girl kicked the wall she had been standing near before she stalked away in her anger. Lancer, whom had been waiting for the teens a foot away, watched her for a brief second previous to chasing after her. Tucker wasn't too far behind as he called out Sam's name. The two males ceased their pursuit when Sam halted her steps minutes later and sluggishly sat down on a lone wooden bench.

Bringing her hands to her face in her anguish, the black headed girl said in a muffled voice. "We lost him...again."

"You can't keep blaming yourself, Sam," Tucker stated, sitting next to the distraught girl while squeezing her shoulder with his hand in comfort. "It's not your fault. It's his."

Staring at the teenagers for a long while, Lancer then came to stand in front of them to ask, "Who is this 'Vlad' person?"

Both Sam and Tucker snapped their heads up to look at the balding man. Edward felt uncomfortable with such looks aimed at him, especially when Sam narrowed her eyes in her usual mistrust. The seconds seemed to tick by leisurely as the trio remained in their forced silence.

Finally, the quiet was disrupted as Sam muttered, "You wouldn't believe us if we told you."

"I would," Lancer insisted, taking a step closer. "I've seen enough to believe anything at this point. I know you don't like me very much, but I want to help Danny as much as you do. He's a good kid, and I believe in him. He makes me feel...normal, I guess. I know that sound strange considering his circumstance, but he does. You see, I've never been well received by my colleagues at work. Most of them think I'm nothing more than a bumbling fool. But Danny isn't like that; he treated me as though I mattered. I think I owe him my full support, at the very least."

The two teens gave the man expressions of pure surprise on their countenances. Whatever they had expected him to say obviously hadn't been something that touching and honest. Tucker was the one to take the initiative when Sam still appeared unsure.

"I'm sure you've heard of Vlad Masters, right? The current mayor of Amity Park?"

Lancer's eyes enlarged in slight recognition. "You mean the multimillionaire, the guy who owns those separate companies? What does he have to do with Danny?"

Sam snorted. "He's Danny's godfather."

"So...does that mean he knows about Danny's condition—?"

"Of course, he knows," Sam interrupted, glaring at nothing in particular, "and he has been using this 'condition' to his advantage."

"H-How do you mean?"

"You have to understand, Danny never wanted any of this. He didn't ask to become a half ghost. He didn't ask to become a hero, but Danny's never been the one to turn a blind eye when a person is in need either."

Tucker took over the explanation as the other teen's eyes settled downward. "Danny's parents were friends with Vlad in college. The three of them had constructed a ghost-like portal prototype, a model to otherworldly dimensions."

"Danny told me his parents had been supernatural scientists," the middle aged man injected with a nod.

"Yeah, and just like with Danny, Vlad was accidentally exposed to ectoplasm, causing him to become a half ghost. He blamed Danny's father because the man had spilled soda or something on their device."

"Y-You're a...ghost...!"

"A half ghost." Danny corrected him. "I'm one of the only two in existence."

"Vlad's the one who's behind all this," Mr. Lancer concluded, having remembered his conversation with Danny mere hours prior.

Sam spoke over Tucker as she said, "Vlad Masters is a sleazy, manipulative creep with half of the world wrapped around his finger."

"He's also a major fruitloop who was unrequitedly in love with Danny's mom," Tucker needlessly pointed out with a disgusted shudder.

"What does he want Danny for, exactly?" asked Edward.

"He used to want Danny as his successor slash son, but now I think it's more than that. I think Vlad wants revenge against Danny for rejecting him so many times," the male teenager explained in aversion.

"And now, because of us, he's gone again," Sam barked, tears outlining her eyes. "We're back to square one while Vlad is out there doing who-knows-what to Danny."

"There has to be another way to help him," Lancer became adamant as he witnessed the defeated look on the others' faces again. "Don't you know anyone who can help us get him back?"

Sam shook her head, yet Tucker's look of despondency changed into consideration. After a long pause, he murmured in uncertainty. "I know of someone who may be of help to us...but I don't think Sam's going to like it..."

All he could register, all he could even think about was the excruciating pain.

Danny let out another scream as bolts of electrical charge circulated throughout his body, his limbs quivering in agony as he remained strapped down on the metal gurney. His vision was blurry and distorted, but there was no doubt in his mind that the agents hovering over him wore looks of sadistic glee. Panting through his mouth, the black haired boy braced himself for more of the intended suffering.

Inwardly, he began to believe that wishing and praying for the torture to stop was becoming less and less of a luxury.