The vent opened, and the fourteen-year old halfa and the masked man crawled in through the dirty grates and had climbed their way into Skyler's lab. The entire place was dark and deserted, and even though Danny had only been in there a few days before when Skyler was a normal person like everyone else, the laboratory now looked completely different. Everything now seemed much darker, everything down to the carpet and cement walls. There was a cold presence just standing in it.
Danny and the masked figure were both breathing heavily, but trying to keep their cool. They both saw that the hallways were deserted and that there were no Bhyspawn guarding the halls at all. Something must have grabbed their attention to make them run off or go somewhere else, one would think.
"Okay," Danny whispered once they were safely inside Skyler's lab, "we're going to need to be as sneaky as possible if we're going to find Skyler and finish him off."
"Yes, but you're sure you want to do this?" the masked man replied. Even though there was barely enough light to see in the dark, the man's armor still seemed to shimmer and shine.
"I don't have a choice," Danny said. "If no more people are going to die because of that cloud, then Skyler and Bhyrun are going to have to be the ones to die. Somebody's got to do the job, and unfortunately, that somebody looks like it's going to be you and me."
The masked man smiled, but Danny couldn't really make it out in the dark. There was a long silence of the two just standing in the almost pitch-black laboratory that not only seemed deserted, but lifeless and dead.
"Well, shall we?" the masked stranger asked.
"Yeah."
The two of them started walking down the long, seemingly endless hallways to Skyler's lab. Danny had only been in there a few days before, but he would think it was a completely different building now. It seemed all the scientific equipment was gone and it felt more like a haunted house.
"So, haven't you been in this building before?" the masked man asked.
"Yeah," Danny replied quickly, "but I don't remember it too well. Plus, it's kind of dark in here."
"Well, weren't you here the night Skyler got arrested here?" the masked person asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Then you obviously could see him clearly if you were in the same room as him during his arrest. Do you remember what the room looked like?"
"Yeah," Danny said, trying to recall the events of that night. Even though it had only been less than a week, it felt like an eternity after everything that had happened between him, Skyler and Bhyrun.
"Then, try to lead us into the room where you and Skyler fought!" the masked man said in a bit of an aggressive tone.
Danny gave the guy a bit of an upset glare, but quickly turned away and started leading them towards the large room in the center of the entire laboratory. Every now and then they had to check the corners to make sure there were no Bhyspawn waiting to attack them. After all, Danny wasn't sure whether or not his plan was foolproof to sneak in, and he wasn't sure if the Bhyspawn took the bait.
"You sure don't seem like you know where you're going," the masked man said after Danny continued leading them down the dark lab where danger seemed to lurk around every corner.
For the past five minutes, all Danny had done was successfully get them lost. The lab now seemed more like a maze that never ended. The little light in the entire place made it really hard to see, and the fact that Danny had to be careful to make sure there were no Bhyspawn around only made the two slower.
After what seemed like an endless scavenger hunt, the two finally made it to a place Danny recognized. It was a dead-end except for a single door sticking in the wall, and it was a large one. It led directly into the room where Danny fought Skyler for the first time.
"All right," Danny said with determination filling up his voice, "this is where the book of Skyler's life ends! I'll bet you he's behind that door now, and this time, we're ready for him."
The masked man only nodded.
"All right," Danny said, backing away from the door and got ready to kick it, "On three. One…two…three!"
Danny and the masked man both kicked the door at the same time and the giant door to the main lab flew open. They were now in Skyler's main lab.
But Danny's face deflated in an instant. Skyler wasn't there; the room was completely empty.
Danny made a few stuttering sounds, getting all wound up for the big moment, only to find Skyler wasn't there.
"Do you think he's in some other part of the lab?" the masked man asked.
"I doubt it," Danny said, sounding like he just dropped a winning lottery ticket off a cliff. "If he was somewhere else in the lab, he probably would have found us. Well, it's only a matter of time before those Bhyspawn come."
"Hey? How come you sound so depressed?" the masked man asked.
"I wanted it to be over," Danny said sadly. "I wanted to just fight Skyler and be done with it. After that fight, one of us would end up dead. Either way, the problems would be over for me with that fight."
The masked man seemed to take that remark as a surprise, maybe even an offense.
"Wait a sec-aren't you Danny Phantom, the kid who's shown he can take on school and ghosts at the same time?"
"Who else?" Danny asked.
"You were just full of hope and spirit a moment ago, and just because Skyler isn't in this room, you're going to just give it all up?"
Danny didn't say anything. He just stared down at the floor.
"Come on, kid," the masked figure said, "you've shown you can put up with this. You've taken on ghosts time and time again and always won, no matter how high the odds were stacked against you."
"How do you know all this?"
"Listen son," the masked man said in a sympathetic tone, "just because you couldn't find Skyler doesn't mean you won't get him. And you're wrong to say your problems would end after this fight. If you survived the fight and killed Skyler, you would still have Bhyrun to take care of. And if you died in the fight, then your parents and your friends and everyone who knows you…how will they feel? That being said, how can you honestly say this will all be over after this fight?"
Danny stared off for a while, taking in the moral the masked man just taught him. Finally, a smile broke across his face and got just as anxious as before. He was about to say something, until a presence suddenly became known in the room.
"That must be one of the corniest things I've ever heard," said a voice from somewhere in the room. The sudden speak-up caused both Danny and the masked man to jump, and they soon turned towards where they heard the voice coming from.
Standing in a corner of the room was a man who was taller than either of them, and he looked like a regular human, but with dark red and black skin, and he had black M shaped wings. There was some red gas floating around the sides of him.
"Skyler!" Danny yelled.
Skyler had just popped up in the room after the masked man finished making the speech to Danny about why he shouldn't give up. Skyler had a nasty smile across his face, but he looked like he was expecting an attack.
The masked man drew his sword and got ready to strike Skyler with it while Danny walked up in front and looked Skyler in the eye.
"You've tried to kill me, my friends and my family," he said in a low tone full of hatred and spite. "You've turned my two best friends into your minions and now you've tried to do the same to me. You've tortured me with the decision of attacking and killing actual people."
Skyler seemed to be quite amused as Danny was making these comments. It looked like the angrier Danny got, the more delighted Skyler became.
"I'm not holding back this time," Danny warned. He put up his two fists and green ectoplasma energy started surrounding them. "Get ready, Skyler!"
It was like a giant fight had started, and without saying another word, Danny started flying in the air, but for some reason, he didn't seem to be attacking.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the masked man charged in and pointed his sword at Skyler. A small golden light started forming on the tip of it, and a mini bolt of lightning fired from the tip of it. It was then when the masked person's expression turned to determined to concerned.
"Did I make a bad decision doing that?" he asked himself as he fired that bolt of lightning from his sword.
Skyler didn't seem to get hurt by it too much at all, but it looked like he still felt some pain. Instantly, he countered by pointing his hand out and charging what looked like dark maroon rays of electricity from it.
The masked man had to dodge the electricity as best as he could. Danny watched from above as he saw the masked man struggling to avoid getting hit by Skyler's deadly electrical rays. The rays were hitting the stainless steel side walls, creating charred marks on them where those blasts hit.
But after a while, the masked man got tired, and he seemed worn down much quicker than Danny remembered him normally getting tired. When he was getting slower, one of Skyler's blasts hit him dead-on.
The masked man screamed loudly and fell to the ground after being hit by Skyler's electric rays. He fell on the ground in pain as Skyler began chuckling to himself for his victorious hit.
Danny gasped at this and flew downwards as fast as possible. He landed right in front of his injured ally, who seemed to have a hard time getting up.
Meanwhile, Skyler saw Danny's guard was down, so he slowly walked towards one of the drawers in his lab and pulled out one of the sharp needles that he had used the first time he and Danny had fought. Nervously, but gleefully, he began slowly walking towards Danny with the needle in a striking position.
Danny wasn't paying attention to this; he was too busy trying to take care of his wounded ally. Not only did Danny need to make sure that the masked person was okay because it was a person's life that was fading away, but also because the masked man seemed to be his only means of being able to defeat Skyler or Bhyrun.
Danny's back was still facing Skyler, and Skyler was only a few feet away with the long, sharp needle in his hand. When he was within arm's reach of Danny, he thrust the knife into Danny's back with so much force it came out the other side.
Danny gasped, as did the masked man. Both of them seemed to have the same amount of surprise and disbelief on their face.
The entire room went quiet, and all time seemed to go into "Matrix Mode". The room was so deathly quiet, it would deeply disturb anyone who was in the same room. There was heavy breathing, from all three fighters. Danny and the masked man had wide open mouths from what just happened, while Skyler was smiling with the most evil expression anyone could ever imagine.
The most stunned from this was Danny. Skyler had just given him a fatal wound by stabbing him with a needle in a drawer. When Danny saw that the needle and gone right through his entire midsection and came out the other side Skyler stabbed him from, he could only groan. He knew it wouldn't be long.