Alex and Tucker shared an awkward glance. Sam had managed to calm Danny a little. She continued to hold his hand, stroking it softly with her thumb. Danny kept his eyes tightly shut, and his other hand continued to hide half of his face. Exhaling, he opened his free eye to see his jeans. Bits of dried blood were all over, dried to a ugly brown color. Danny's lip trembled, and he shut his eye again.

The phone went off in the kitchen, creating the only noise in the house. Its cries went ignored, until Tucker finally gave in and went to answer it.

Yassen calmly walked past him, cradling the phone in his hand before pushing a button and holding it to his ear.

"Hey there," he began, speaking once again in a British accent. He made sure to lighten his voice to make himself sound younger.

"Hello. I was wondering where you went off to. I take it that you are back at Amity Park, little Houdini?"

"It's called hitchhiking. What do you want? Did you miss me too much, Masters?"

Alex's eyes widened as he picked up the conversation. Yassen was pretending to be him, and Vlad was falling for it! He went to the kitchen, leaning against the doorway to get a better view of the scene. Tucker had seated himself at the table, and was doubled over in a silent fit of giggles.

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about that?" Yassen spat angrily into the phone. "Well, we're not afraid of some old cod like you! Yeah, even he's not! What, the bloke comes down with a possible case of bibliophobia, and is terrified of a guy like you? Where's the logic in that? Oh, don't give me that rubbish! No, he's not here!"

Yassen ended the call by slamming the phone back into its cradle. He glanced over to his small audience with a raised eyebrow. Tucker burst out in laughter, and Alex was smirking.

"Vlad Masters is under the vague impression that Danny and his friends have fled. Don't take this as a chance to hide out here though; he'll come by to check anyway."

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Sam adjusted the guitar on her shoulders, separating from Danny for a moment to loop the guitar off and set it on the ground. Danny had opened his eye again when he felt Sam leave, and turned his head to watch her. The hand covering his other eye dropped to his side, and opened his other eye. Sam smiled at him, squeezing his hand lightly. He gave a wobbly smile in return.

"Hey, Sam," he said quietly. She turned to face him. Danny brought the hand holding hers to his chest, then wrapped his other arm around her, pulling her into a hug.

"Thank you. For everything, I mean."

Sam smiled, resting her head against his shoulder again and returning the hug. Danny turned his head, looking out to the window to the sun in the sky. Its light washed across his exhausted face, setting his skin in a false glow that almost seemed to mask the fact that everything would soon change, with terrifying force.

He closed his eyes, shutting the warm light away, and turned his head back towards raven silk.

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Yassen left as soon as he had finished his small speech, leaving the two boys to wipe the tears of laughter away and to sit and think. Alex did most of the thinking, while Tucker continued to chuckle.

"Vlad is pretty stupid," Tucker laughed. Alex shrugged.

"He must think he's got everything planned out, and that things are going the way he wants them to go." He said flatly, killing the mood. "He's not stupid; he just has tunnel vision over this whole thing."

Alex walked over to pick up the ghost costume from earlier. In a brief moment, when Tucker had been looking the other way at the clock, Alex doubled over, clutching his stomach. He coughed harshly, getting the attention of the boy.

"Alex?" he asked uncertainly. The boy straightened up, smiling in embarrassment. He distracted Tucker by holding the costume up towards the tech guy until only his head was visible. With a smirk, he tossed it to him. Tucker caught it easily, looking at it then the spy with a confused look. Alex gestured to the costume with his hand, smiling a Cheshire smile.

"What do you think? Some alterations, color change, whatever. Who do you think one of us could pretend to be?" He nodded to the living room, and Tucker understood perfectly. He burst out into a fresh set of laughter, flinging the costume back at the spy.

"Man, that'd be perfect!" he cried out. "Just don't make it too good or, you know, Sam could get jealous."

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Danny and Sam looked up at the sound of laughter. They shared a glance, blushed, and got to their feet to see what was going on. Both were pleased that Danny didn't stumble as he got to his feet.

"Hey, Tuck," Danny called, poking his head into the kitchen. "What's going on?"

Alex quickly explained how they were planning to redress the costume to make it resemble Danny. The halfa pulled a face, rubbing his neck. Sam smiled weakly. Knowing that there was more to be explained before everyone understood, Alex plunged into his idea.

"We all know that camp starts tomorrow. Vlad will be here to check that some of us haven't run away, according to Yassen's phone call-"

"He called Vlad?" Danny demanded. Alex waved a hand, shaking his head.

"Not at all, Vlad called, and Yassen pretended to be me. Anyway, it worked, and Vlad bought it. Anyway, I have an idea. When the camp is going on, one of us, most likely me, will be dressed up as Danny, and will be hiding outside in plain sight. We'll act like we came back to Fenton Works to get something, but we're too scared to go in."

"We don't really need a whole costume," Sam cut in. "Danny has a stash of his 'trademark' shirt upstairs. We could pass it off with a wig or some hair dye."

Everyone stared at her. She shrugged, trying to pass it off as no big deal.

"Seriously, and don't act like its some huge secret Danny," she teased, "You almost always wear the same style shirt. If you think about it, it may work. Alex is too tall, but I guess you could slouch or something. Really though, are any of you decent at sewing anything?" she raised an eyebrow as she finished, and the boys stared at their feet guiltily. "Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean that I could do that."

"I could try," Alex offered, and then decided against it. They didn't have that kind of time. Every minute was starting to count. "Right. Where do we get the dye? I don't know about you, but a wig seems like a horrible idea."

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The Goth ran out solo to the nearest store that stocked dye. Despite the rumor, she wasn't one to color her hair to get it black, even though neither of her parents naturally sported the color. Her grandmother once had raven hair, and only lost it to the ages.

Sam threw the dye box and other hair tools onto the counter tossing a wad of cash after it. The man behind the counter sneered at her in her hurried state, assuming that she was just another poser. Sam glared briefly at him, running back out and down the street towards Fenton Works with the purchased items in her arms.

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Danny quickly opened the door, snapping it shut after the girl. She continued on past him to the bathroom.

"You were only gone fifteen minutes, where did you go?" he asked after her. She didn't answer, instead getting Alex and leading him into the bathroom. She clicked the door shut. Slightly panicky, the halfa ran up to the door. "H-hey!"

"Danny, I can't work if you and Tucker are hovering over my shoulder. Don't even think of using your powers to barge in!" she warned through the door. There was a tone of voice present that told that she was smiling, amused at Danny's actions. She shook her head as she heard his retreating footsteps. Alex draped a towel over his shoulders, sitting on the sink counter as he waited for Sam to begin.

"I don't really know how to do any of this, so I hope that you do." He said sheepishly, checking the dye box, noting that the dye was only a temporary one. Sam nodded; taking the box and ripping it open, taking out the equipment.

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The dying process went by quickly, and Alex exited the bathroom afterwards with raven hair. Sam stayed behind for a moment to clean away any evidence of the event.

Alex went to the guys, wanting to see what they thought. Tucker gave the thumbs up, and Danny nodded, looking uncomfortable.

"You look almost exactly like me," he finally said. "I don't know if that's a good thing or not." He chuckled half heartily.

The only things that kept the disguise from being perfect were Alex's brown eyes, and the lack of the trademark shirt. He could easily mask his accent and keep up an American one. The spy left the room when the halfa decided to lend him a shirt. Alex ran up to get one, secretly not wanting Danny to move around too much in case he was still wounded.

Danny allowed his face to fall into an annoyed frown when the spy left.

"I don't get why he'd want to do all of this just for a few minutes of a distraction. It's not like him at all."

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AN: What's up with Alex? _