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Chapter 146: Partial
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Danny hid under a table as the cackling ghost in the lab coat shot a spray of ectoblasts across the room. Vlad and Ellie were locked in battle with the surprisingly tenacious ghost. Danny and the other students they had managed to pick up did their best to stay out of it.
Mia squealed.
"Mia! What-?"
"I'm fine! I'm fine!"
"I'll see what colors you have inside!" shouted the ghost, brandishing a scalpel. "We all will! They all will!"
What was it with everyone and vivisection? Just once, could he meet an obsessive scientist who was interested in half-ghost behavior?
Okay, that would probably be equally bad. He'd probably end up in, like, a zoo or something.
The door burst open. Valerie stood in the doorway, suit on, a gleaming red and silver gun in her hands. "Eat ectoblast, ghost!" she screamed, firing into the room.
She might have hit Vlad once. Or twice. In any case, she hit the scientist ghost a lot more.
"Ha!" said Valerie, as the ghost slumped unconscious to the ground after being thrown into a wall.
"That's right! Ha!" echoed Star gleefully, poking her head into the room alongside Mikey. "I told you we could fix it."
"Oh, hi," said Danny, removing himself from his hiding place and brushing shattered glass off his shoulders, and dropping shards intangibly through his hair. "Good timing. Anyone else with you?"
"Nathan and Lester," said Star, waving behind her. "Who have you guys got?"
"Me, Vlad, Ellie, Mia, Ashley, Rebecca, Elliot, Sarah, and Hannah," said Danny, pointing at each person as he went through the list. "So we're missing, um."
"Dash, Dale, Paulina, Tiffanie, Ricky, and Kwan," said Mr Lancer.
"Okay," said Danny. "That shouldn't be too bad. Do you think any of them are together, or..?"
"I saw Paulina go with Kwan," said Lester. He rubbed at his nose, pulling away a long string of snot. "I think I'm coming down with something."
"Ugh, that's not..." Danny trailed off. "Hey, there isn't any, like, infectious disease research going on here, is there?" he asked Prunella.
"Of course there is! But things like that won't leave the floor they were made on. As soon as we move on, if you picked something up here, it will vanish." She cocked her head. "Unless you die, I suppose."
"Brilliant," said Danny. "Just- Just great."
Lester looked pale. "I'm going to die?"
"You would probably come back as a ghost," said Prunella, cheerful.
"No," said Danny, coldly, severely. "That is not going to happen."
"Which part?"
"The dying part. Look, how about- How about, Vlad, you take these guys upstairs, and Ellie, Prunella, and I will look for everyone else? Ellie and I have good immune systems."
"Yours isn't all that shiny right now, considering, uh. You know. How beat up you are, and lack of sleep. Whatever. That stuff is supposed to weaken your immune system, right?" asked Ellie.
"I guess," said Danny. "I was thinking more about, you know."
Ellie frowned. "Didn't you get sick that one time, though? Sam and Tucker told me about it."
"Sort of? But, like, that was just the one time, and you've got to admit, I'm more qualified for looking for people, and with just one of us..."
"Yeah, but with what happened last time we did that..." Ellie trailed off "I think it would be better if it was just me, and Val, maybe. Val, are you up for that?"
"I'm up for anything with this baby," said Valerie, hoisting the gun, a broad grin on her face.
"Hey, what about us?" asked Mia. "I don't want to go! I haven't even been able to see anything! I want a chance to use the labs."
"I- Okay," said Danny. "How about- How about, if you still want a lab when we get out of here, we can, like, visit Method? Or I can show you our lab at home? Just, let's put it on hold for a minute? Get away from the people trying to kill us?"
Mia squinted at him, though Danny was entirely sure if it was out of suspicion or just because she couldn't see. "Ugh, fine."
"Great, so, you guys go with Vlad, and, uh, Vlad..."
Vlad sighed. "Very well, but you are coming with us."
"I can't, I've got to-"
"Go, Danny," said Ellie.
It was Danny's turn to sigh. "Fine."
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The Elysians weren't picky about whether or not the scientists they fought had come in with Spectra or not. Jazz understood this, there was no way for them to tell who was who, and the scientists would not be permanently harmed by their experiences regardless. Ghosts were remarkably elastic, and the Elysians didn't even get close to destroying them.
It was still disturbing to watch, even for Jazz, who was used to seeing Danny's fights with ghosts. Danny typically did not beat ghosts into unconsciousness, preferring to capture them or chase them away, and when he did, it wasn't to this degree.
Tucker and Sam seemed less bothered. Jazz wasn't sure if this was because they were excellent at hiding their emotions, as they all had to be with how many secrets they kept, or if they had encountered this kind of violence more often. Either was possible.
Tucker retrieved an arrow from where it had hit a wall, still grumbling about the circuits, and how he wanted to test them. Sam had almost fallen to temptation in a bizarrely themed botany lab that had been host to, among other things, a plaque reading 'Botany Bay.'
Jazz didn't think she had been affected, but then, she wouldn't be, according to her understanding of the Digressed Tower's rules. She was already highly passionate about a science. But then, Tucker was too, so... Did a fascination with electronics not count? Or was this simply Tucker's normal personality? It was embarrassing that she couldn't tell for certain. Perhaps she had been changed.
"Hey, am I acting normally?" she asked.
Sam gave her a look. "Define 'normally.'"
"You know. Like I always do."
"I guess? I don't know you that well."
"Yes you do. We spend a lot of time together, ever since I joined the team."
"The what?"
"The team. Team Phantom."
"What are you talking about?"
"You know what? Never mind."
"Wait," said Tucker. "Do you really not remember?"
"That is what this place does," said the captain. "What you know and what you don't know will change. Your best friends may become strangers to you."
Jazz shook off the feeling of unease that had settled over her. They had reached the next door, and one of the Elysians stood poised to open it. Others were positioned to storm the room. Jazz, Sam, and Tucker were ushered to the back, away from anything nasty that could emerge.
The door was pulled open, and the Elysians rushed in. "Humans!" shouted one, causing Jazz to perk up.
Then, more alarmingly, "Spectra!"
There was the sound of fighting.
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With resignation, Ellie turned toward the sounds of battle. Sure, humans weren't likely to throw ectoblasts at each other, but (and here she glanced at Valerie) it wasn't impossible. Add that fact to Murphy's law, and the tendency of Danny's classmates to maximize how much trouble they were in, and it was almost certain that they were at least tangentially involved in the fight.
She sighed.
"Let's go check it out."
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Danny reminded himself not to get angry, not to feel frustrated. He didn't want to randomly turn into a giant dragon in one of these cramped, chemical-filled labs. It was perfectly reasonable for Ellie to insist that he go up with the others, as injured and mentally drained as he was. It was probably for the best, anyway. He could make sure that Vlad didn't suck everyone's blood, or something.
It wasn't working.
He hummed a quick request to the wisps. Paused mentally, and gave them a headcount. Good. All of them were still there, at least. Unless this floor had made them forget some of them. But he couldn't dwell on that. He would work himself into a conniption, which was definitely contraindicated at this point.
The wisps hummed back, something about wanting to try out new techniques. Well, the floor would affect them too, he supposed. He cautioned them against trying anything too extreme.
He looked up to find Vlad shooting odd glances at him as they walked. Drifted, in Vlad's case. "You speak that remarkably well," said Vlad. "I hadn't quite realized before. Who taught you?"
"The ones back home, mostly," said Danny. "What does this next floor do?" He was beginning to hate that question. How many times had he asked it?
"It changes your social status. It's largely harmless, though somewhat unpleasant."
"Wait," said Danny, remembering something from social studies. "Your social status where? On Earth? The Ghost Zone? Canada?"
"In every place you have a social status," said Vlad.
"Oh," said Danny. "That sounds... complicated." It did. His social status in the Ghost Zone was vastly different from his social status in Amity Park, and it further varied from Realm to Realm. Then there were the questions of how much, and in what way. He didn't want to think about it. It was giving him a headache.
"It can be, yes," said Vlad.
"Yeah? What happens to you, then?"
"A story for another time, I think."
Translation: Vlad was embarrassed.
"Does that mean that I'd be unpopular?" asked Paulina. They had found her and Kwan in a very suspicious, but thankfully abandoned, medical lab, on their way to the stairs.
Vlad gave her a sidelong look. "I suppose."
Paulina took in a deep breath, as if to argue, protest, or complain, but let it all out in a plaintive sigh, and slumped, losing her perfect posture. "Fine," she said. "I give up. Let it happen. You can all laugh at me, then leave me."
"What are you talking about?" asked Star. "We'll be unpopular, too, probably. Right, Mikey?"
In a display of either good taste or distraction, no one commented on the inclusion of Mikey.
"But you'll see," said Paulina, "and when we get back home, you won't want to be seen with me anymore."
"We wouldn't be very good friends if we did that," said Star. "I mean, I won't say that I don't get mad at you sometimes, but we're still friends, and ditching you over something that happened in another universe would be pretty stupid. Back me up here, you two."
"Yeah," said Mikey, uncertainly.
"Duh!" said Kwan, with more force.
Paulina shook her head.
"Ah ha!" said Vlad. "Here are the stairs!" Apparently, billionaire half-ghosts didn't deal well with teenage drama. Several of the teenagers glared at him.
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Jazz only caught Spectra's tail end, disappearing through the far door. One of the Elysians threw the door open to follow, but she was already gone. The Elysian cursed in Greek.
"Whatever she said to you," said Jazz, hoping to head off later issues, "it isn't true. She just finds what hurts and twists the knife." She looked around the room. "There were people..? Oh," she said as she caught sight of Dash and Tiffanie. Dash was crying, Tiffanie was pale-faced and shaking.
"It was my fault he left," said Tiffanie.
"What did I do?" asked Dash.
"Um," said Jazz. This was, perhaps, a little beyond her present level of expertise.
She looked at Sam and Tucker. Perhaps they would know..? But they were giving her looks in return that clearly said, 'Don't look at us.' Helpful.
"Are either of you hurt?" she asked, choosing not to go into what Spectra said that had traumatized them. Studies she had recently read indicated that forcing someone to talk about an incident could be counterproductive.
"I've hurt..."
"You're hurt?"
"I've hurt people," said Dash. "It was just a thing to do. It wasn't supposed to matter. I didn't want-"
"Maybe we can save the mental breakdowns for later?" said Sam, rather sharply. "Where is everyone else?"
Jazz gave Sam a look, but either she didn't see the look, or didn't understand the look due to universe changes.
That was an odd thing to think.
"Hey," said Jazz, returning her attention to Dash, "it's okay to make mistakes, that's how we learn and grow. Now that you know, um, what you know, you can move on, and make amends." She really hoped she wasn't doing more damage.
"I can't make amends," said Dash, tearfully. "He'll forgive me."
Jazz blinked. Had she misheard? "Isn't that what you want?"
"Not if he doesn't have any choice!"
"Are you talking about Danny?"
"... Yes."
"Then, trust me, he has a choice. I don't think he's forgiven me for burning a hole in one of his NASA posters, yet, and I'm his sister."
Dash looked up, and Jazz wondered if that was the tack she should have taken.
"I mean, Danny's more forgiving than most people I know, but he's not a saint," she tried, "and it isn't as if anyone is going to force him to forgive you."
"Are you sure?" asked Dash, voice hushed.
"Positive," said Jazz. "Spectra lies. Don't let her get under your skin." She paused. "But it really would be a good thing if you could tell us where Danny and the others are. Can you do that?"
"No," said Dash. "We, uh, we sorta ditched them. Tiff wanted to see if they had any sociology stuff set up, and I wanted to see if I could get some nitroglycerin going..."
Jazz made a face. "Right. Well. How about you two get up, and we can start trying to find them?"
