What shall become of our beloved heroes?
Tucker woke up in a dark, dingy tunnel. Creepsville, he thought. Man, there must be rats down here, because I'm hearing some kind of squeaking. He grabbed his PDA out of his pocket and turned on the built-in LED light. It shone a bright beam of white light down the tunnel. Tucker followed the squeaking noise until he came to a fork in the path. It split into three separate directions: a left, middle, and right path. He shone his light down the left path. A dead end; that was no good. He tried the middle path. More of the same dark, mysterious tunnel. That might work. He focused the light beam on the right path and screamed.
Right in the middle of the path was a gigantic spider's web with the biggest spiders Tucker had ever seen crawling all over it. Tiny red eyes glowed from the top of the room. Bats, he thought. Last but not least, evil, angry-looking venomous snakes glared at Tucker with cold, beady eyes. Okay, definitely notgoing that way! He ran down the middle path as fast as he could.
Suddenly, a loud note, maybe from a pipe organ sounded. Tucker quickly measured it with his PDA. A flat. Tucker was very scared. Was he walking right into the Phantom's clutches all over again? Familiar voices were laughing about something. It was Sam and Danny. He was safe! "Sam, Danny, over here!", Tucker yelled. It's me, Tucker! Down here!" He ran to them. There they were. "Yes! I'm safe!"
"Not yet. We aren't quite out of the woods yet," Sam said. "Hey, wait a second," Danny said. "Wasn't Jaz supposed to be watching you?" "She was until she got this crazy idea to go after the Phantom," Tucker explained. "After that, we split." "Niether of us really know what happened, but four out of five says that the Phantom got her, too," Sam said ruefully.
"Hold the phone," Danny said, suddenly realizing something. "The pipe organ, the Phantom scaring us half to death, the mask... This is like that one stupid play that Lancer made us write a ten-page essay on! Why can't I remember the title?" Hey, I remember that!" Sam said. "He got so mad when you actually did the assignment!" "No, no, no, before that," Danny corrected. "When he read it to us in class?" "Oh yeah!" Tucker remembered. "It was really sad at the end. I actually cried! ME!" "That's...not... THE POINT!" Danny yelled. "Although it was pretty funny when the pages in the book got all soggy because he was crying so much." "Yeah, it was," Sam agreed. "Hey, remember the part when there was this opera on stage and the Phantom..."
"That's it!" Danny exclaimed. "What's it?" Sam and Tucker asked in unison. "That's the title!" Danny yelled. "You're kidding!" Tucker exclaimed. "The title of that play is "Hey, Remember That Part When There Was This Opera On Stage And The Phantom….."? What a long title!" Danny smacked his forehead. He sighed. "No. That's not the title, Tucker," Danny explained. "Sam, rewind what you just said about the opera on stage." "So?" she said. "The Phantom swings down from the balcony, lands on stage during an opera and scares everyone. So what?" "No, Sam", Danny said. "Get rid of all of the words except for 'Phantom' and 'Opera'. What's the connection?"
Sam and Tucker thought about this for a while. "Let me give you a hint.", Danny said, grabbing the rug from the floor and holding it like a cape. He held it in front of his face so it covered his mouth. "Ring any bells?" "Danny, why are you acting like the Phantom of the Opera?" Sam asked.
"Ding, ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!" Danny exclaimed, dropping the carpet. "Danny, what do you mean?" Sam asked. "That's the title of the play! "The Phantom of the Opera'!" Danny exclaimed. "Don't you see? In that play..." "Musical," Sam interrupted. "Whatever", Danny said. "In that musical the Phantom played the pipe organ, scared people half to death and worethat white half mask because of the fire!" "He scared people because of a fire?" Tucker asked. "No, he wears the mask because of the fire," Sam explained.
"Well, then why does he scare people? He could have gone to the hospital or something."
"The play was adapted from a book written in the Victorian era", Sam explained. "There was probably no way they could fix it back then."
"Why would anyone write a story like that?"
"Because the guy who wrote it had a twisted imagination."
"This guy sounds really creepy. I don't think I want to meet him any time soon."
"Tucker, the guy who wrote it is dead."
"Well, then I hope Danny doesn't have to fight him any time soon."
"I don't think that's going to happen any time soon, either."
"Guys, I hate to interrupt such a fascinating conversation," Danny said, "But we really have to work on finding a way out of here,"
Suddenly, a scream echoed through the dark room. "Oh my god, Jaz!", Danny exclaimed. "Guys, we have to go save her. The Phantom could be hurting her, or worse!" Sam and Tucker ran down the dark tunnel as Danny went ghost. He flew over to the tunnel's entrance and hovered there, staring into the dark gloom. "Danny, come on!" Sam yelled. Danny breathed deeply, gathered his courage, and flew into the dark hole that was the entrance of the hallway.
What will Danny encounter in the dark? Meet me in the next epic chapter of "No Way Out" to find out!