Previous Chapter: Chapter 30

Chapter 36: Impetuous Courage

Danny growled, glaring at the hole where the Architect had disappeared. He was so close! He couldn't let this chance get away from him. He had enough left in him for one more fight. He had to.

Gritting his teeth, Danny forced himself back into Phantom. It took a couple of tries and exhausted him more than he was willing to admit, but he was so close he could taste it. He could practically smell the machine oil and fudge scent that lingered in his house back home.

"Wait!" Robin called but Danny was already up in the air and shooting through the hole in the wall.

Danny climbed above the city's sky line, getting a good view of the buildings and streets below. Just that short climb had him heaving gasps of air from fatigue. It probably wouldn't be smart to stay that high up for too long in case he passed out and turned back into his human self. He scanned the area, looking for the Architect, half thinking he'd lost the lunatic when he spotted him.

There, at the three o'clock position, the Architect's flying platform limping over the lower buildings. Thanks to the damage to the craft, the villain couldn't go much higher than the older buildings in the town. The disadvantage forced him to swerve through a circuitous route to get away, avoiding taller buildings he couldn't clear.

Eyes narrowed and gaze fixed Danny sped toward the craft. It disappeared behind a building for a moment but the column of smoke rising from one engine marked where it was. He dodged around the building, coming out into a hail of fire from the Architect. The sudden attack caught Danny by surprise and he dropped a dozen feet as several lasers hit their mark. He was too tired and too slow to really dodge them.

But he was so close…

Danny dove down and around, trying to find a good place to disable the flying platform, not so it fell out of the sky but to force it to land. Behind him he could hear shouts and he knew at least the flying members of the super hero team were coming after him.

The Architect apparently heard them too, because he looked back past Danny's dodging form, shot a few more lasers off and ran to the controls. The villain jerked the wheel of his platform, trying to maneuver into a narrow alleyway, but the turn was too sharp and the platform was too damaged. It tilted with the strain of the turn, the already smoking engine bursting in another flash of light and smoke before dying entirely.

"Gah!" The Architect cried, as his platform twisted into a spin and listed sharply from one side to the other. The dimensional ray that brought Danny into that world along with all the other equipment on the platform shifted and jolted around, ramming into the lowered railing.

Danny watched in horror as the added weight to the already damaged side tipped the entire platform farther, spilling the machines and computers down over the railing and into the air. "NO!" he screamed, diving for the ray as it dropped with the rest of the machinery.

Despite his best effort, Danny was simply too slow, too tired, too far away to make it. The ray and everything else crashed in the street with a shattering crunch. The delicate machinery splintered apart into a thousand pieces scattering across the pavement and sidewalk. A dozen yards above the ground, Danny felt the rings form around his body. He didn't fight them as they travelled over his form and transformed him into plain Danny Fenton again.

With the loss of flight, Danny careened into the ground, rolling along the pavement till he came to a rest in the middle of destroyed machinery. He hurt everywhere, but he'd had worse crashes and he was too tired to really feel the pain. Laying there, Danny could only feel a sudden emptiness. His mind was blank and had seemed to stop working. Somewhere above him he could hear The Architect still screaming as he spun out of control on his platform. The teen super heroes were also yelling, probably trying to get the lunatic down and arrest him.

Eventually, Danny pushed himself over, slowly moving into a kneeling position. He stared down at the bits of machinery around him, distantly wondering which one belonged to the machine that was going to send him home. It didn't matter now, really. The street was covered in the debris from one side to the other, up and down. He couldn't imagine sorting out all the different pieces and then putting it back together again.

People were slowly coming out of their hiding places, cautiously poking their heads out of doors and alleyways. Half a block away, the teen heroes were arresting The Architect. The cloaked girl set the platform gently to the ground, the craft surrounded by dark power. The other flying girl had the Architect in hand and was snapping restraints on to his wrists but Danny ignored them all. He scooped up some of the loose electronics and stared down at it. There was wetness on his face and he reached up to wipe at it only to stare when his hand came away bloody. He couldn't even summon the energy to care about that.

A roar of engines filled the air and a second later a motor cycle with the primary-colored-kid on it raced into view. A high tech car appeared after it, pulling over as the cyborg guy stepped out and looked around the street. The leader, the primary-colored-kid, hopped off his bike and stormed toward Danny with a narrow glare. Danny saw him coming from the corner of his eye, but didn't bother raising his gaze.

"Do you know how reckless that was?" the kid stormed stopping before Danny. "You could have gotten someone hurt or killed! You were in no shape to run off-"

"Robin," another voice cut in, Danny recognized it as belonging to the cyborg kid, "Maybe now's not the right time. I mean look at him. I don't think he's listening."

Danny was listening, or rather Danny was hearing, but he wasn't taking anything in even though he understood the words flying around him. His mind seemed to have just stopped at the point of understanding that his chance to get home was gone.

"He's in pretty rough shape," another, softer voice said. The green kid appeared in Danny's periphery.

"It's gone," Danny whispered. He was talking to himself, but the words caught the other teen's attentions. "My one chance to get home…"

"Is he unharmed?"

"No, Star, I don't think so…what I mean is yes, he's hurt. What did you do with the Architect?"

"He is with the police to do the carting away."

Danny only half registered the conversation taking place over his head. The two girls from the group had arrived and stood an arm's length from him. It didn't matter, though, nothing did except the broken pieces of technology fanned out around him. After everything he'd gone through, only to end like this. Danny was so tired, he felt like just laying down where he knelt and never opening his eyes again.

"So what are we going to do with him?"

Do. The word caught Danny's attention. What was he going to do?

"I don't know. He needs help and he's a meta human so he'll need protection if he can't protect himself. We don't want the Hive or anyone else getting their hands on him."

Danny tried to think what Sam would do and it struck him like ice water. She wouldn't give up.

"Can we take him back to the tower? We could look after him there and he did technically help us catch The Architect."

Sam wouldn't give up, so Danny couldn't either. "There's gotta be somethin'," Danny said, words slurring slightly. He struggled to his feet ending all conversation around him. "There's gotta be a natural portal. They're everywhere…there's gotta be a way back."

"Whoa dude," the green kid stepped up palms out in a calming gesture, "Do you think you should be standing right now?"

Danny ignored him and stumbled forward. "Been through too much to stop here… robots …diff'ren dimensions… magic temples …" He was rambling but it didn't matter. His head hurt, eyes burned, body ached, but he couldn't stop. He had to keep going.

"I really think you should just rest."

Danny couldn't tell who said that but he shook his head. "Ya don und'rstan…" Shaking his head proved too much for his sense of balance, though, and Danny toppled over. Hands grabbed him before he could make more painful contact with the ground.

"…needs help…"

"…get him back…care of him there…"

Now Danny could only pick up part of the words said around him he blinked as the voices of the teens descended into a garbled mess. He felt disconnected from everything, like he was in a dream watching himself. At least, the pain didn't register at all.

Danny didn't know what happened. It seemed like one moment he was looking at a crooked view of the street with the destroyed machinery everywhere and the teen heroes gathered around. Then, he blinked and found himself staring at a metal ceiling, the electronic beeps of medical monitors sounding in the background. He blinked again and the scene didn't change.

Taking quick stock of the situation, the first thing Danny registered was that the ceiling was not the same one as in his basement. It was an immense relief to know. The last place he wanted to wake up was strapped to a dissection table with his parents looming over him. The second to last place, was strapped to a table in Vlad's lab and the third to last was a table in a facility run by the GIW.

Danny quickly ruled out the other two, as well. It wasn't Vlad's ceiling either, though he hated the thought that he actually knew what Vlad's ceiling looked like. His hands weren't restrained as they would be with the GIW. Plus, he felt entirely too healthy to be in the hands of the government. That wasn't to say he felt good. He felt like crud, but he felt better than he would if he had just been captured by someone.

Turning his head, Danny saw he was in some kind of infirmary. Thankfully not the kind where they cut you open, but where they patched you back up again. Groaning, he pushed himself up to a sitting position. He was in a medical gown, but something told him he wasn't in a hospital. The room looked too high-tech for a regular hospital.

As Danny sat puzzling over his location, the door slid open revealing the orange haired girl from the fight. "Ah, you are no longer sleeping. I will tell the others." Then she disappeared in a swish of long hair.

Danny blinked at her exit. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and made sure the gown covered him as much as possible. A moment later, the door slid open again and the entire group trooped in beginning with the primary-colored leader.

"How are you feeling?" the kid asked. He didn't sound as hostile as the last time he and Danny had spoken, but he wasn't exactly warm and friendly either.

"Ah, better," Danny said, stomach squirming with awkwardness. One hand reached the back of his head. "Sorry if I caused any trouble earlier, I guess I was a little tired. Not thinking too clearly."

"You can say that again," the green kid muttered from his position near the door.

"Well, you seemed pretty desperate," the leader said, half conciliatory.

"Yeah," Danny said, looking down at his lap. Remembering the broken machine on the ground still hurt. He didn't want to think about it, but now that the memory had come to the fore he couldn't help but think on it.

The leader frowned quiet for a few minutes before he asked, "What happened?"

Danny sighed. "That's a long story." He paused a moment, wondering how much to tell these strangers, he didn't even know their names.

As if reading his mind, the orange haired girl spoke up. "But Robin, should we not do the introducing before the questioning?"

The masked boy huffed but it was a muted gesture. "Fine. What's your name?"

"Danny," Danny said, stopping himself before he said his last name. It probably didn't matter, not now that he was in an entirely new world, but old habits died hard and these people had seen him change. "What's all of yours."

"Glorious to meet you new friend!" the orange haired girl burst leaping forward. "I am called Starfire. From where do you come? What is your favorite color? Do you like it here? And will you be my friend?"

Danny blinked at the girl, taken aback by the barrage of questions. "Uh…" he said, unsure how to answer. He realized he was leaning back and away as she had moved in much closer than he was used to from people.

"Geeze, Star," the green boy spoke up. "You're the one who said names first and questions after. I'm Beast Boy by the way."

"I'm Cyborg," the half robotic boy waved his hand to signal himself.

The cloaked girl Danny had saved before spoke next in a flat monotone. "Raven."

"And I'm Robin," the masked kid said, "We're the Teen Titans. We protect this city from threats."

The words themselves weren't a challenge, but Danny heard something in the tone. Robin didn't trust him. Danny just nodded.

"You were pretty banged up when you first got here, what happened to you before The Architect pulled you here?" Robin asked again.

This is a different dimension, Danny reminded himself, one where people with powers seemed to be relatively normal. There was no reason not to tell them the truth. "I…was accidently sucked into a pocket dimension called the Ghost Zone. I've been lost for at least a week, maybe more…I don't know the days kinda run together..."

"You have been lost for a week already?" Star asked with wide eyes, "That is most unfortunate. Robin we must help him."

"That stinks," Beast Boy said at the same time.

Danny huffed a humorless chuckle. "You have no idea. I'd just gotten done with another chance to get home that didn't pan out when a portal opened and sucked me in, landing me here. The rest you guys know already."

Robin frowned, but he didn't look quite so hostile as before. Maybe he understood Danny had been a little desperate. "This pocket dimension you were in, you say it's called the Ghost Zone?"

Danny nodded. "That's what we call it since it's where ghosts come from, you guys don't know of any places with unusually high ghost activity in them, do you?"

The group stared at him with wide eyes, glancing at each other with bewildered expressions.

"I'll take that as a no," Danny sighed, slumping a little more. What if this dimension didn't have many portals connecting it to the Ghost Zone? What if it didn't have any?

"We picked up the remains of the machines The Architect had with him," Cyborg said, "It'll take a while, but maybe I'll be able to reconstruct the dimensional ray he had. I mean we still have to send those other creatures he brought over to their home dimensions, too." He didn't sound too optimistic, but Danny would take whatever string of hope he could get.

"Could you?" Danny asked, sounding a little desperate even to his own ears. "My family's probably worried sick about me and who knows what the ghosts are doing back home."

"I'll go check my books," Raven said, turning and walking out of the room.

Danny didn't know if that would help him any or not but the others seemed to think it would.

"Hey yeah!" Beast Boy cried, "If anyone can figure out a way into a creepy pocket dimension with ghosts and stuff it'll be Raven. She's good with stuff like that," he added smiling at Danny.

"You can stay here for the mean time," Robin said.

"Thanks," Danny said. These people seemed alright and at least he could take a rest for a little bit after the past week or two. Danny sighed. It was going to take a while to get home, if it ever happened at all.

::THE END::