"They hit metal hard and with a crack that had Virgil seeing stars. His arm ached fiercely beneath the honeycomb plastic cast. At this rate he was pretty sure he was doing permanent damage to the bone. He could hear Alan getting up next to him, a little frantically, but his little brother wasn't trying to get him to move, so he let his eyes stay shut and focused on regaining his breath again.
"What the hell?" a young voice snapped. "How'd you get in here?"
"Whoa, sorry," Alan responded, turning on the metal. "Sorry for dropping in. Didn't mean to…. are you okay?" Okay, that sounded like someone was hurt, so Virgil made the effort to roll over and prop himself up to see what was going on.
There was a younger kid in front of them, with black hair and blue eyes. His arm was torn up, though, and was dripping blood at an alarmingly fast rate. "I'm fine," the kid stated, blinking at them. The medic in Virgil balked, but the big brother just rolled his eyes. "How'd you get in here?"
"Here being a large, lab-like space with a weird looking portal at the far end of it. Alan gave a sigh, taking a step forward. "You're bleeding," he said, a little uselessly. "Sit down, please."
"I'm fine," the kid insisted, taking a step back. "How'd you get in here?"
Virgil levered himself to his feet with a wince, shaking his head a bit. He wasn't sure what he'd hit it against, but it was definitely complaining. "We're travelers from another world just passing through as we try to get home," he said. "As soon as our device recharges, we'll be on our way."
The kid looked between the two of them, frowning, and then shrugged. "Yeah, okay."
Alan huffed out a laugh. "You know, aside from that one military world place, everyone's been taking that explanation exceptionally well."
"Well don't jinx it for us," Virgil grumbled, taking another step towards the kid. His arm was still bleeding, and the teen was beginning to waver on his feet. "Sit down, please. I'm a medic, I just want to look at your arm."
"He's also a bit of a smother hen, so it's better if you just do as he says," Alan pointed out. "I'm Alan, by the way. What's your name?"
"The kid looked between the two of them, obviously trying to figure out if he could trust them. But then he just sighed and sat down. "Danny."
"Hey Danny, I'm Virgil," Virgil said softly, crouching next to him and setting his duffle bag down. Alan immediately started rifling through it for the first aid kid. Thankfully, Xander had been adamant about restocking the thing before they left. "What did you do to your arm?" Because, upon looking at it, it wasn't just bleeding, but also looking kind of burned.
Danny stared up at them, biting his lip. Virgil sighed, taking the first aid kit and the supplies Alan had already pulled from it. "Dude, we're traveling through worlds. There's very little you could tell me that I wouldn't believe right now. You could flat out say you're a superhero and your best friend's dad is your arch enemy, and I wouldn't really care."
Danny's eyes flashed from blue to green for a split second and then he hesitantly replied with a soft, "I'm a superhero and my dad's best friend is my arch enemy."
Alan blinked at him, not quite having expected Virgil to be so close to correct. "That's rough. Do your parents know?"
Danny winced as Virgil scrubbed gently at his arm. "About the superhero bit or the arch enemy bit?"
"Both," Virgil grunted.
"No," Danny responded, watching dispassionately as the bandages were wrapped around his injury. It would heal by the end of the day, so he wasn't so bothered to be honest. He probably wouldn't have bothered cleaning it at all, which was actually a bad habit he should definitely break at some point.
"That sucks," Alan said.
"Yeah," Danny said faintly, scooting back when Virgil was done with his arm. "Sounds like traveling through worlds would suck too….I mean, it's always a bit rough when I have to go into the 'Zone, I wouldn't want to know what it's like to go to multiple different places."
"Zone?" Virgil murmured, cleaning up his supplies a bit. He was tired and had no idea what time of the day it was here. They looked to be in an underground lab of some sort, if the lack of windows, the stairs leading up in the corner, and the multitude of tables and equipment lying around was any indication. And there was a weird mechanical looking circle against one wall that looked oddly similar to the Stargate.
"Ghost Zone," Danny replied. "It's a portal to the ghost dimension," he said, waving at the mechanical circle. "Usually I wouldn't tell you this, but I just finished fighting a freaking war against my future self and I'm exhausted. You don't want to take over the world or anything do you?"
"Don't have any plans to," Alan shrugged.
"Good, good," Danny nodded, a little haphazardly. Virgil frowned at him; he could recognize signs of exhaustion and shock. Danny seemed to catch the look and frowned back. "I'm fine, you know. Everything will be healed by morning anyway."
"You're not fine, and I'm not just talking physically," Virgil pointed out, sitting back. His thigh throbbed a bit and he shifted his stance. None of them were fine, but this kid looked to be younger than Alan and he was clearly just coming off a rough night. Or week. Or something.
"You need to just sit back and breath for a moment," Alan said, crouching next to Danny again. His voice had gone into that smooth cadence of a rescue-tone, and Virgil found himself relaxing as well. Alan got Danny to put his knees up and rest his head against them, meeting Virgil's eyes with a slightly bewildered look.
Virgil shrugged. He didn't know what to do, exactly, other than get the kid to calm down, which Alan was already working on. They'd fallen into this world just in time to stave off a panic attack, apparently, and that's what they were going to do.
"When was this fight with your other self?" Virgil asked calmly, needing just a little more information. Other future selves didn't seem like much of a stretch anymore. Neither did ghosts. Or anything else, really. He vaguely wondered if this Ghost Zone could connect to their own world but let that thought go. It wasn't likely; they had no evidence of ghosts in their own world and trying to use it to get home faster would probably just lead to even bigger complications. They didn't need any more complications.
"What?" Danny asked, glancing up. He sounded calmer, but his eyes were still flipping between blue and green in a way that was utterly unnerving. "Oh..oh. Yeah, no, that was last week. I just haven't really had time to relax since then and just got some really…weird news and…" he waved his bandaged arm. "This is from something else. Just a little skirmish."
"I think you need a vacation," Alan muttered.
A door slammed upstairs and Danny went rigid. "Shit. Mom and Dad," he muttered. He reached out and grabbed both Alan and Virgil by their arms. "They can't know you're here."
What followed was the strangest sensation as Danny, who was apparently a heck of a lot stronger than he looked, pulled them both up and through the wall. They ended up in the small alley beside the house, Virgil and Alan both gaping as they stared first at Danny, and then at the wall they'd just gone through. (Not to mention the ceiling the boy had had to fly them through as well to get above ground.)
"Sorry, sorry," Danny said, rubbing at the back of his neck. "My parents are um…they're scientists and they wouldn't leave you alone if they knew you'd just dropped in from nowhere. They're uh…not the most ethical at times and…well…"
"What the heck?" Alan muttered. "How did you…?"
"Superhero," Danny replied, pointing at his own chest. "I have ghost powers."
"How did you get ghost powers?" Virgil asked, frowning.
Danny shrugged. "There was an accident. I sort of died."
"That led to some blank, semi-horrified stares for a moment. "How do you sort of die?" Alan asked a bit faintly. Even the concept seemed particularly macabre.
Danny shrugged again, glancing around. "Well, I'm certainly alive now," he pointed out. "Mostly." At their still blank stares he just sighed. "Look, I don't know how it works," he said. "There was an accident. It hurt a whole lot more than I'd ever like to remember. And then I got ghost powers." He started walking towards the front of the house.
Virgil and Alan exchanged looks, but ended up following. They both shuffled their duffle bags around to be more comfortable, thankful that they'd been able to grab them before Danny had removed them from the lab.
The sun was just rising here in wherever they were. That was a little annoying, considering they'd left the Hellmouth just as the sun was beginning to set. They'd lost an entire night's worth of rest. Again. Cleveland hadn't exactly been good for keeping a good sleeping schedule after all.
"Where are we going?" Alan asked, quickening his pace so he could catch up to Danny. They probably looked a little out of place here, in their uniforms and boots. The raptor teeth necklaces were rather prominent, and HEMERA would stick out no matter where they ended up.
"I'm thinking you can probably stay with my friend Sam. Her parents are out of town right now, so if you sneak in through her window then you can just hide out there," Danny explained.
"And how old is this Sam?" Virgil asked, stopping the three of them from continuing. The streets were just beginning to wake up, with people coming out to grab newspapers, and the early morning commuters starting their drives.
"She's fifteen," Danny said, blinking up at him.
Virgil frowned, raising one eyebrow. "You want me, a grown man, to climb through the bedroom window of a teenage girl. Do you see why I have a problem with that?"
There was a long pause and then Danny was making a rather perturbed face and Alan was snickering. "Good golly," Danny grumbled. "I didn't even think about that."
"Clearly," Virgil stated, rolling his eyes. "What day is it?" he asked, watching absently as the park across the street started getting more and more crowded.
"Saturday," Danny mumbled, obviously trying to think of what else they could do. His name was called by someone in the park and his head shot up. "Ah shoot," he groaned, "I totally forgot." He motioned Alan and Virgil forward and quickly crossed the street. "School makeup day. We're doing community service by cleaning the park."
"School makeup?" Alan asked, blinking at the dark boy in the turtleneck and funny hat that was practically bouncing up in down while waving at them.
Danny rolled his eyes. "Look, being a superhero is hard. School sometimes gets pushed aside. I need all the credit I can get." He pointed them to a bench. "Wait here for a moment," he said, running towards the waving boy.
Virgil dropped onto the bench with a sigh, rubbing at his face. Alan sat down next to him, gently setting aside his bag. "So…this is weird."
"That is a rather large understatement," Virgil muttered. "Danny seems oddly okay with us having just dropped in. There's no reason for him to even try helping us."
Alan shrugged. "You heard him, he's a superhero," he said. "If I've learned anything about heroes during all this crap, it's that they're hardwired to help everyone they can, regardless of how they meet."
"That seems exhausting," Virgil said, stretching his arms out in front of him with a yawn.
Alan rolled his eyes, slumping against his big brother even as he stroked HEMERA's scales. "Everything's exhausting at this point," he grumbled, watching Danny and his friend talk animatedly. "With any luck we won't be here long enough for anything bad to happen."
Virgil huffed. "Well now you just jinxed us," he said with only a little humor.
In the background, someone screamed./p