"All right," Danny said. "I guess I'm ready to go to the Esceron base. I'll do whatever you want me to do, just please don't make me do anything dangerous. I don't have many of my powers in case there's an emergency."
"I'm aware," Myrus said. "Luckily, I don't think the Escerons would lay a finger on you. They think you are too important to them to be hurt."
"But wait…" Danny said. "Couldn't you at least give me my powers back for the mission?" Danny said. "I'm really not too comfortable with going in barely able to defend myself."
"Best of luck," Myrus said, completely ignoring what Danny said. Saying this, he fired some energy out of his hand and struck Danny with it. A yellow glow started to surround Danny, and Myrus yelled "Enemy base!"
Saying this, bright lights fired out of the yellow glow, and there were flashes that were almost going fast enough to cause a seizure. After one massive flash, Danny disappeared. All he saw was white, and when he could finally see again, he was in a familiar place.
"This is the Esceron base…" Danny said. "Wow. Myrus apparently has teleportation skills. I wish I had those to get out of Lancer's classes."
He looked around. The hallways still looked dark, the tile was still cold and made a chilling echo as Danny stepped on it as he walked through the base.
"Hello!" Danny yelled loudly. He heard his voice yell loudly through the echoing halls, then listened to it slowly die down after hearing it consecutively for about four times. "Hello!" he called again. Nothing but silence and chilling echoes.
With this empty and eerie surrounding, Danny felt more like he was in a haunted house instead of a base where ghosts plotted in war. There were no sounds of any ghosts, including Raschenda, Vundeter, or even any Esceron grunts that the two might have recruited.
"Raschenda!" Danny yelled as he continued to walk through the dark rooms, looking for any ghosts. "Vundeter? Anybody?"
Danny lost his breath when he felt a cold hand on his shoulder. He gasped and turned around, only to find that it was Raschenda.
"Hello, Danny," Raschenda said in her seductive, almost evil tone. "What brings you to this place? We're usually the ones to drop in on you."
"Uh, I'm here because I have something I want to…uh…tell you and Vundeter."
"Well, let's hear it," Raschenda said. She crossed her arms and fixed her eyes on Danny.
Danny was now pretty nervous. He had to put on the best poker face he could in hopes of tricking Raschenda with whatever he was going to say to convince her that he was siding with the Escerons, even though he really wasn't. But that glare in Raschenda's eyes bothered Danny. She looked like she was expecting a lie and could spot it before he even started telling it.
"Well, uh…I was, actually, uh…saying that I'm going to join you guys in battle and not the Maldums!"
A dark smile seemed to form across Raschenda's face. "Well, well, well," she said in her creepy tone. "It looks like you have made the right decision.
That's what Myrus said, Danny thought to himself. "Uh, yeah. I'm joining with you guys. Those Maldums look like bad news and I really don't trust them."
"Really?" Raschenda said. Danny could tell she was becoming interested in what Danny was saying and that he really needed to keep it cool so she wouldn't get suspicious.
"Really!" Danny insisted pretty loudly. "I'll do anything I can to help you guys beat those Maldums!"
"Splendid," Raschenda said. Her voice seemed to be getting creepier and creepier with every sentence she said.
"Well, now that we're all friends, how about sharing some top secret information with me?" Danny said, trying to make himself sound as innocent as possible.
Raschenda started laughing, and then he knew that she wouldn't say much.
"Dear boy," Raschenda said, "you aren't even officially a solider in our army. You think I'm just going to spill all our battle plans out to you?"
"Well, I thought I was the only one who could really help you," Danny said. He was trying to convince her as best he could that giving him information was the smartest thing she could do. Little did Raschenda know that any information she gave Danny, Danny was going to give to the Maldums. Danny tried his best not to blow his cover or to mention the Maldums at all. He tried to make Raschenda think that giving him, their ultimate "weapon" against the Maldums some information, that would help them out with the strategy that the Escerons needed to use.
"I'm afraid that information is top secret," Raschenda said. "Only Vundeter and I know what it is, and we're not going to tell you any of it."
Danny was going to keep begging her to tell him a little bit of information, but he doubted that it would work. Plus, he thought that would only make himself look more suspicious. He decided to just drop the subject there and instead ask another question: a more personal one.
"Well, can I at least have some of powers back?" Danny said. "I could really use them when I go to help you fight in that war."
"No, we need those powers, too," Raschenda said. "If you got those powers back, then the Maldums could just capture you and extract them. We tried the same thing and failed."
"Come on!" Danny said. "How am I going to be able to fight without any powers? You saw me when we attacked the Maldum base and I was able to turn into my ghost form! I didn't have any offensive powers!"
"Well, your powers will be put to good use in this war. Don't worry."
Saying this, Raschenda walked off. Danny didn't know whether or not he should follow her or if he should look around for any hidden information, or better yet, his powers.
Not passing up the opportunity of being able scavenge the entire Maldum base without someone bothering him or watching him, Danny walked around in every single room he could find, looking for a book or computer or anything that would contain anything that the Escerons were hiding that could prove useful to the Maldums.
After searching in several rooms, Danny was about ready to give up. He was now on the top floor of the base, and that was pretty high up. Danny went through all the long winding passages and staircases that would take him anywhere, but no sign of anything. There was nothing that would help Danny or the Maldums stashed away somewhere in the base. That is, not until Danny checked the very last room on the top floor.
Danny walked in, and there was nothing except a long walkway out to a circular platform in the middle of the room. Other than that, the room was nothing except a giant fall to the bottom of the base.
Danny looked up, and he saw something on the platform in the middle of the room: it was a pillar, and on the pillar was a clear box that had a vial in it. In the vial was a thick, green glowing substance.
"My powers!" Danny yelled.
Danny had just found some more of his powers, but the look of excitement and relief on his face soon turned to fear when he saw what the entire room was like. Walking along a narrow walkway to a platform in the middle of the room didn't look entirely safe, especially since Danny would fall hundreds of feet if he slipped.
"Ya know, it's times like this when I wish I had better coordination," Danny said. He slowly took a step on the walkway, and it turned out to be much wider than he thought it was. At least there wasn't such a huge risk of falling now.
Danny made his way across, careful not to lose his footing or to slip. After what seemed like forever, he finally made his way to the small, circular platform. It was connected to the walkway, but it seemed to be hovering in midair.
Danny tried his best to ignore this. He grabbed the clear box with the vial of his powers in it, hoping he could take the vial out and drink it to get his powers back, just like he did a few days before.
Unfortunately for Danny, the box wasn't budging. It was as if the box had fused to the pillar that was holding it up. There were no doors or any way to open the box to get the vial.
"Oh, great!" Danny said. "Those Escerons knew I'd probably want my powers back and come looking, so they made it impossible to get at by putting it in an enclosed box with no way to open it."
Then, the look of depression on Danny's face soon turned excited but evil at the same time.
"Well, I'll betcha the Escerons forgot I could do this!" Danny said. Saying this, he turned invisible and gave himself the ability to go through solid things. The Escerons apparently failed to take into account that Danny could now use SOME of his powers that he got when they attacked the Maldum base days before.
Danny's arm reached through the clear plastic box and grabbed the vial. He made the vial go invisible and easily slipped it out of the box.
With a wide grin on his face, Danny turned visible again and stared at the vial of his powers in his hand. However, that grin soon turned to a frown of fear and frustration when he looked up.
Standing at the end of the pathway, the only way out of the room, was Vundeter. He was staring at Danny with perhaps the coldest eyes Danny has ever seen Vundeter give him and Vundeter's arms were crossed.
"Drop the vial!" Vundeter commanded.