Hello, everyone. I hope you're having a good weekend so far.

Zer Author: Thank you for the review! I'm still working out in my head exactly what their powers will be, if I'm being honest. As for Smith, well, he's not exactly a historical figure, and definitely not John Smith. Remember, not all ghosts were once human. He did show up in this story once before, though, way back during the High Council meeting. I don't know if that helps.

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Chapter 108:

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"No," said Paulina, forcefully. "No," she repeated. "I don't care what you say," she jabbed a finger at Valerie, "or you," she rotated to Hannah. "Phantom has nothing to do with Fenton."

Well, that was somewhat hurtful.

"Paulina," started Valerie, not taking her eyes off of Vlad and Smith, "this isn't the time-"

"Yeah, and it wasn't the time to play twenty questions with Ellie, either!" said Paulina. "You still did it, so what? Now we're stuck here with these two weir-! Um. People. Gentlemen."

"Excuse me," said Vlad, apparently displeased by how Paulina was referring to him.

"She's got a point," said Danny. He might have actually sang it. He wasn't sure. He was just so happy that Paulina had remembered some part of what he had been trying to teach them all, that at least some of his classmates might progress beyond the 'might as well be actively trying to kill themselves' stage. It really helped him ignore the tight ball of anxiety that had formed when he realized where he was and who he was with, as well as the giant weight that Hannah had dropped on his head.

"Get over your stupid crush already," hissed Valerie. "You just like Phantom because you think he looks pretty. Hasn't this at least taught you that appearances-"

"That's not why I like him!" said Paulina, fists clenched. "He saved my life! And he listens to me, and he answers my questions, and he's not all like, oh, because she's pretty she must be stupid." She paused. "He saved you, too," she said, with venom.

"Children," said Vlad.

"Hey, you guys-" started Ellie.

"Your attention please!" shouted Mr Lancer, at teacher volume. Wow. That made Danny's ears hurt. "Please, we are exposed here. We were attacked just an hour ago. If we are all agreed that we aren't going to attack each other we should go and have these arguments somewhere safe."

"I'm not going to attack anybody," said Danny, trying to be helpful.

"Yeah," said Ellie. She drifted backwards, down the path. "C'mon, Cujo."

Danny wobbled as Cujo began to trot long after Ellie. "Good boy, Cujo," he said. Then, quietly, "Ow."

"Are you alright?" asked Mr Lancer.

Danny shrugged. "My ankle hurts a little, I guess."

"A little," repeated Mr Lancer, his voice heavy with disbelief.

"Mhm," said Danny, nodding. "I think these guys are making it not hurt so much. But," he confided, "they're also messing up my thinking a bit. Like a drug." He nodded again. "Friendship is the best drug," he said, trying to communicate the seriousness of the matter to Mr Lancer. Then Danny realized that he was sitting on top of his teacher. He blushed. "I should get off of you," he said. "Sorry." He tried to ease himself off of Mr Lancer, but overbalanced, and nearly fell off of Cujo.

Ellie, however, had been waiting for him to do just that, or something like that, he guessed.

"Thanks, Ellie!" he said, smiling. He blinked. "I think I'm going to have to ask my little friends to come out of my foot."

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Ellie. "Your ankle is really messed up-"

"See, he can't be Phantom. He's too lame!"

"Excuse me," said Danny. "I am not lame. Most of the time. I guess I'm literally lame right now, with my ankle and all, but I don't see how that would stop me from being who I am."

"Danny," said Ellie. "Maybe you should wait until you're feeling better to talk about this."

Vlad flew up alongside them, then, cape fluttering in the wind. "If you would just come with me, you wouldn't have to worry about this, or," and he lowered his voice, "what that Smith might do to your little friends. You do realize he is one of the most powerful ghosts in the Zone, don't you, little badger?"

"I don't think he's going to do anything, though," said Danny. He was now sitting on Cujo, but was keeping himself steady by holding onto Mr Lancer's sleeve.

"I can hear you," said Smith, from behind them.

Vlad blanched (He hid it well. Danny wouldn't have detected it if he didn't know Vlad so well). Danny smiled absently, and started to hum at the little wisps, asking them to come out of his foot and ankle. They complied, singing back to him, and perching on his shoulders. They tickled his neck and cheeks, making him smile. The pain that began to build in his ankle, however, was not as pleasant. Well, he'd experienced worse.

"Danny," said Valerie.

He tensed. He had almost forgotten how he'd gotten here, but now it was back at the forefront of the mind.

"What?" he replied, shortly.

"I'm sorry I shot you," she said.

The other students objected to that statement.

"Why don't you say you're sorry for threatening us all at gunpoint?" asked Nathan.

"Hey, you went along with it," said Lester, defending Valerie. The various dissatisfied arguments only escalated from there. The only common theme was that no one was particularly happy with Valerie, or with being left in the dark, and they didn't really like the idea of going to a weird alternate reality tower. So there was more than one theme, actually.

"At least they're still moving," said Ellie, voice flat. "I don't know how you deal with them all the time."

"I don't, really," Danny admitted. "Being with them this long is kind of unusual. How've you been, Ellie? How was Africa?"

"Africa was good," said Ellie. "A bit too hot, though. At least in the places I went to. I think I'm going to stick to the temperate zones and the arctic for a while. But I'm going to go back eventually. Seeing all those animals was really cool. Have you ever seen a real live elephant?"

"In the zoo once, I think," said Danny.

"Doesn't count," said Ellie, decisively.

"If you came back to me," said Vlad, "you could have an elephant of your own."

The two Phantoms stared at Plasmius. "You'd buy an elephant?" asked Ellie, finally.

"If it would bring you back home, I would put up with even this..." he trailed off, looking distastefully at Cujo. "Animal."

Ellie scoffed.

"I know you don't believe me, Danielle, but all I have ever wanted is love."

"Sure," said Ellie.

"And, truly, I am here to help. The Bends are not a safe place."

"Didn't stop you from bringing me there."

"You were with me," said Vlad, with some exasperation, "and we only went to the floors that make the least dramatic changes to a person's outlook and personal history."

"Well, you're with us now," said Danny, not wanting to deal with a fight. "And it isn't like we're planning on going through the whole Tower, right?"

"Um," said Ellie. "It depends."

"On what?"

"On were exactly this road goes."

"It goes to the Tower," said Smith. "The twenty-second floor."

"Oh," said Ellie. "Why? How do you know?"

"I made this path."

"Neat," said Ellie. "So, um, Mr Smith-"

"Just Smith."

"Smith. Why are you going to the Tower?"

"I left something there that I must retrieve."

"Cool," said Ellie. "On the twenty-second floor?"

"Yes."

"That's the left/right floor, right?"

"Indeed."

"The what?" asked Danny.

"The floor that finds the most spot in your life where choosing to turn left or right was most important, and then it changes that so that you did the other thing," said Ellie.

"Oh. Okay."

"That's not going to change all that much, though, is it?" asked Mikey.

"For most people? Probably not," said Ellie. "But for some people it changes a lot."

"So," said Mr Lancer, after a moment. "What does that mean for us going through the Tower?"

"Well," said Ellie, blushing green. "Um. There's a casino attached to the Tower on the seventy-seventh floor, and there's a guy there who owes me a boat."

"Owes you a boat."

"Yep," said Ellie, popping the 'p.' "Did you know that ghost ice is really expensive in some parts of the Zone?"

"Yeah," said Danny, slowly. "But why does a guy in a casino owe you a boat?"

"Because she won it from him, duh, Fenton. You can be so dense."

"I don't want to hear that from you," said Danny, fixing Lester with a look. "Did you?" he asked Ellie.

"Yeah."

"Nice," said Danny. "But I think that trying to bring these guys through, what, fifty-five alternate realities might be too much."

"Well, there are bypasses on some of the floors, like, ramps and things built on the outside, so we wouldn't have to go through all fifty-five."

"Okay, but, um. Would we remember the bypasses?" asked Danny.

Ellie shrugged. "With so many of us, the chances should go up, right?"

"I guess," said Danny. "Maybe we should just stay on one floor and wait for someone to come get us. Pandora will be looking for us."

"Come on, when does anything ever go that smoothly for us? We'd better have a back up plan, right?"

"Okay, okay," interrupted Hannah before Danny could respond. "But are you Phantom?"

"I'm Phantom," offered Ellie.

"No, I mean, Fenton. Danny. Are you Phantom?"

The gears of Danny's mind turned slowly as he blinked at Hannah and the rest of the expectant class. "You know," he said, "I think that with this one thing, just this once, I'm going to be a jerk, and not tell you."

"What? But- But you- Just say yes or no!"

"I keep trying to do that with Wes, but does he listen? Noooooo."

"What is wrong with you?"

"Well, for starters, my ankle is screwed up beyond belief. My lower leg looks like a sausage with some toes stuck onto it."

"Nah, it's way too lumpy to be a sausage," said Ellie.

"I didn't say that it was actually a sausage, my leg isn't made out of intestines. It just looks like a sausage. Hey Dash."

Dash's head snapped around so fast that he tripped over his own feet and nearly face planted.

"Woah," said Danny. "Are- are you okay?"

"Uh," squeaked Dash. He actually looked somewhat frightened, which was not ideal.

"I just wanted to say thank you?" said Danny, voice tilting up at the end of the sentence, no longer certain that this was a good idea. "For hitting Spectra? I mean it was kind of-"

"Duh, Wimptonio," and the fear in his eyes was gone, replaced by his usual swagger, "of course I did, 'cause otherwise you'd get your wimpy butt squished."

"You- That- You realize that that had almost none of my name in it, right?"

"Aaaaaand here we have the Digressed Tower," said Ellie, before Danny could go off on a rather ghostly rant about names. "Yay. Look at that."