Hello everyone! Hope you're enjoying the story, still. Just as an advisory, we're coming up on the end of the time in the Tower, so I'm not taking any more floor ideas. Sorry!

Anne Camp: Ellie sort of explained it earlier, before they got to the tower, as being a clone of both Danny and Phantom... Which probably should have tipped them all off that Danny was Phantom, but it didn't. So, yeah, they've had some time to adjust to the clone idea.

DarkFoxKit: I've heard of ace attorney, but I've not actually watched it, or ghost trick. I'll have to try to look them up some time! Thank you for the recommendation.

.3: Yep! Just a little longer now.

Jatynzel: I'm glad to see you're still reading! Thank you!

17: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you're still reading.

fictionaddiction1: Yes, I've got a buffer out to chapter 156, so if I'm going to disappear you should get some warning.

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Chapter 148: From Behind

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"So, Vlad, what about you?" asked Daniel, far too innocently.

"Excuse me?" asked Vlad, who had managed to distract himself from the inanities being spewed by the children.

"What about you? How have you been changed? You've heard how all of us have been changed, so it's only fair if we hear how you're different." Daniel swung his feet back and forth on the stool and tilted his head. There was something desperate in his gaze, a need to be distracted. "Like, why did you change to ghost form right away. You weren't on the last floor, I think."

Vlad thinned his lips. Of course he changed right away. His ghost form actually looked respectable, unlike his human one. He didn't want to talk about this.

Daniel was fidgeting on the bar stool, looking anxious. He glanced at the door.

Vlad sighed. "I am a fugitive," he said, grudgingly.

"What?"

"I'm a fugitive, on Earth. I've been on the run from the law for longer than you've been alive. I rarely return to Earth, nowadays."

"Why?" asked Danny. "What did you do?"

"Why do you assume that I did something? Perhaps I was framed. Perhaps the GIW or other hunters discovered me."

Daniel's eyebrows knit together in worry. "The GIW is after you?"

"No," Vlad admitted.

"Then what happened?"

Vlad's sigh was deeper this time. "I was caught on tape in a high security area in a military facility, where I wasn't supposed to be."

"In human form?"

"Yes."

"Where you weren't supposed to be?"

"Yes, Daniel."

"Then it was something you did."

"Yes, I suppose it was. It's the principle of the thing. It might have been something entirely different."

"But it wasn't. What were you even doing there?"

"Spying on a potential business rival," said Vlad. "Sadly, I did not have full control of my powers at that juncture, and they tended to... malfunction, when I over-strained them."

"Then you shouldn't have been going into 'high security military facilities,'" said Daniel, crossing his arms. "But you're okay? Like, your human form isn't, like, weird or diseased, or anything, right?"

"No, it is not."

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Unbelievably, Spectra got away. Again.

Jazz pinched the bridge of her nose. That was going to be a recurring headache and a massive problem.

On the plus side, however, they had found Ellie, Valerie, Ricky, and Dale, and they knew where Danny was. In theory.

"Alright, who else haven't you found, again?" she asked Ellie.

"Just Paulina and Kwan, but they might have made their way up to the next floor on their own. Maybe. Or they could have run into Danny and the others. Vlad's been traveling with us, by the way."

"And he's been behaving?"

"More or less. I mean, he's still Vlad."

Jazz wrinkled her nose slightly. "Yeah. He's probably going to try to use this to back him up in court."

"Yeah, I know, that crossed my mind, too. I don't know if Danny realizes, he's got other things on his mind, but, you know, we kind of have to get there first. Priorities, you know."

"I get it, I get it," said Jazz. "So, what now? Do we go looking for Paulina and Kwan, or..?"

"We must find Phantom first," said the Captain. "Be warned, the next floor is tricky."

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Issitoq's approval and coin, Spectra decided, wasn't worth it. She wasn't what she would call well-versed in the abilities of the Observants, much less the Head Observant, but her own abilities, her perception, her power, and her skill, told her that if he couldn't reach into the Tower to destroy the brat, he wasn't going to be able to destroy Spectra, either. As long as she stayed in the Tower, that was.

It would be a distinct reduction of the freedom she usually enjoyed, but it was necessary, and she doubted she would have to endure it for long. She didn't have any objections to Phantom's destruction, and she was clever enough to avoid responsibility, but Issitoq? He wasn't exactly being subtle. He would face the wrath of every one of the child's allies, whether he succeeded or not.

Honestly, he didn't stand a chance.

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Changing floors was one of the strangest things Jazz had ever experienced. That was saying a lot, since she had experienced many, many, strange things. She kind of had to, to become a captain of an Elysian company despite being a living human.

This thought, however, was driven from her mind as her brother collided with her.

"Jazz!" he said. He smiled up at her. "You're here! And you found everyone! Have you come to rescue us?"

"That we have," said Jazz. "We'll still have to travel through the Tower for a while, so we can meet up with Team Beta." She turned to her troops. "Alright, form up and secure this floor."

The thing was, she wasn't the only one who said those last words.

She frowned. "Alright, how many of us think they're in charge?"

Several hands went up.

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Once who was in charge got sorted out (and Danny finished hugging his friends), preparations were made to go to the next floor, such as raiding the restaurant for food and water. The Elysians paid, but made sure the (rather eclectic) staff understood that refusing wasn't really an option. Danny didn't like strong-arming people like that, but if they got stuck on one of the other floors, the humans in their party would need that food, and Danny was just so relieved to have someone else, someone trustworthy, in charge. He felt safer than he had for days.

"The next floor," said one of the Elysians, "alters your history so that you spent a period greater than a year unjustly imprisoned. It tends to be a rather disturbing floor, but do not fear. We," he nodded at his fellow soldiers, "will be unaffected, as we have already experienced such a thing in our long service to Elysium. We will be able to guide you without any problems."

Danny nodded, happy to receive this reassurance. The others looked less convinced. He sighed, letting his head rest on Tucker's shoulder. They were going to get out of this, and everything would be fine.

"I missed you guys," said Danny.

"We missed you, too, dude."

"Thanks for coming for us."

"Hey," said Sam, "you'd come for us. You have come for us before."

Danny nodded. "So, what's with the camera?"

"Long story."

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When they went up the stairs, Danny kept a hold on the hem of Sam's shirt. Sam didn't mind. He had been through a lot, and he occasionally got clingy when stressed. Heck, Sam was feeling a little clingy herself, not great for her image as goth queen of Casper High, but image wasn't impor-

The thought dissolved as they reached the next floor. It was replaced with the memory of a half a year at juvie (she had not been breaking and entering, that had been the ghosts), followed by half a year at a boarding school, followed by blackmailing her parents into letting her go to Casper High again.

So there was more than one kind of unjust imprisonment. Interesting. She'd be glad to be out of here, so she could bleach both juvie and the boarding school from her brain. Yikes.

Her shirt pulled as she stepped forward again, and she turned her head to check on Danny.

She almost swallowed her tongue.

On one hand, she approved of the goth look one-hundred percent. Black turtleneck? A little hipster, but good. Black gloves? Very good. Black jeans? Excellent. Black combat boots? Superb. She was rocking her own pair right now.

The leather eye patch?

Oh, yeah, definitely cool, but what did he do to his eye? And the other scars? They'd be interesting on a fictional character. On her best friend? Not good. How many more did the turtleneck and gloves hide?

"Sam?" he asked, clearly upset. There were tears welling up in his one visible eye.

"Yeah, that's me," said Sam. "What's up?"

He sniffed, then hugged her. His hug was tighter than usual, and colder. Sam patted him on the back, hoping he didn't have any injuries.

"Hey," she said, "it's okay. We're all here, now."

"I missed you so much!" he said.

"I know, I missed you, too."

"You understand why I couldn't come to see you, right?" said Danny, revealing that he was living out a completely different scenario than Sam. "I wanted to, but I couldn't."

"I- um."

Danny pulled away, frowning, and looked around. "Wait, this is, um," he ran his hand through his hair. "This is the Tower. The Crooked Tower. This is the Tower, so... This isn't- That's not what happened. That didn't happen? I don't-" He caught sight of Jazz, who was presently sporting some very short hair, and literally bounced over to her. "Jazz, Jazz, Jazz! You're here!" He grabbed hold of Tucker. "And you're here!" He looked really happy, which was a stark contrast to virtually everyone else in the group, most of whom were taking turns glaring at each other. "I love you guys," he said, leaning heavily into Jazz. He perked up again. "Oh! Ellie! Look! Everyone is here."

Ellie was wearing an old-fashioned striped prison jacket over her normal jumpsuit. "Yep. Sure looks like everyone's here," she said. "Are you okay? What happened to you?"

"I'm okay," said Danny, brightly.

"I think she means," started Jazz, "you're a lot different now than you usually are. Where were you unjustly imprisoned, and why?"

Danny started. He looked down at his feet. "We don't talk about that," he muttered.

"Okay," said Jazz. "No worries. We won't talk about that. Right guys?"

Whatever had happened to Jazz, her glare had become a lot more effective. Everyone nodded, even Ricky, who appeared to be going through some kind of extreme grunge-punk phase, and had about three times as many piercings as Sam.

"Good," said Jazz.

Danny sniffed and leaned into Jazz. "I'm so glad you're here."

"Yeah, me too."

Sam's lips twitched up. Same old Danny, same old Jazz, no matter that they had been in jail or whatever for over a year. Her face fell as she realized that Danny's imprisonment almost definitely was in the 'or whatever' category. Judging by how he was acting... And the fact he was missing an eye... Yeah. Sam really didn't want to think about it.

She looked around the room. It was darker than the lower floor. The lights were flickering and fluorescent. The walls were concrete and covered in graffiti. It looked like a prison. A stereotypical prison. Appropriate.

Oddly, it reminded her more of the boarding school than juvie.

There was just one door out of the room other than the one they had come in through. Sam frowned. It would be a good place to stage an ambush. Yes, the room directly off the stairs would have been just as good, if not better, but it looked like the Elysians had the same idea. They were heavily guarding both doors.

"What's wrong?" asked Danny.

Sam jumped. She hadn't heard Danny getting closer. He could be so quiet sometimes. He was standing on the balls of his feet, staring up into her face, and just slightly too far into her personal space.

"Just worried we might get attacked," said Sam.

"Don't- You don't- You don't need to worry," said Danny, bouncing, "I'll protect you."

"That's our job today," said the Elysian captain. "You need not worry, mimaalesuulsei."

Danny turned his wide, one-eyed gaze to the captain. "Yes I do," he said very seriously.

The captain smiled. Danny hid himself behind Sam and started mumbling to himself under his breath.

"Hey, come on," said Jazz, "let's get over to the side. Just in case." She took hold of Danny by the shoulders, and gently lead him away, towards the wall.

Sam glanced around the room again, this time focusing on the other people in it. Specifically, her classmates. She had to wonder what had happened, for none of them to be making fun of Danny for saying that he would protect her. Normally Dash and Dale especially would be laughing at the idea that a 'wimp' like Danny could protect anyone.

Maybe they hadn't noticed. Maybe they were too tired, too worn down to object. Maybe they had finally gotten it through their thick heads that Danny wasn't a wimp, and was actually quite a bit tougher than any of them. It wasn't like Danny had been keeping that particular thing a secret. He had stopped trying even before they got out of his lair.

Sam followed Jazz and Danny to the wall, and made sure her weapons were free.

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The surgeon wasn't what he would call a great tactical thinker, but he wasn't an idiot. He wasn't going to just go and attack Phantom with no plan! That would be the highest form of insanity, and the surgeon liked to stay comfortably in the middle levels. He would treat himself to maniacal laughter only on special occasions.

Therefore, he had a plan. A number of plans, actually. Or perhaps he should say it was one plan with many steps. That was worth thinking about.

In any case, the first thing he did on entering the Tower was use the floor's superior facilities to create a few minions. No one would miss those limbs. Really, no one. They would be too busy being his minions!

The surgeon indulged in a bit of laughter.

He wouldn't be attacking from the front, either. That was stupid! And predictable! Predictable was bad! The unexpected would always be victorious, and in this case, unexpected would be attacking up the stairs! Attacking from behind! With his army of minions!

Well. Small company of minions. But they had backwards hands and odd numbers of limbs and eyes! Gloriously unexpected! Beautiful! Especially the stitches. All the nice, thick stitches, more than on baseballs. Wonderful!

They could have been better, of course. The quality of the facilities was excellent, the best that the surgeon could ask for, but the materials were so-so. Everyone on this floor was- had been, the surgeon corrected himself- Obsessed with science. They didn't get out very much. They had poor eyesight. Their bones were... eh. But he made do.

He wouldn't have to for much longer, though. That was the beauty of this. In just a little bit, he'd be able to get his hands on some grade-A material. Liminals! Real ones! The surgeon could barely contain his excitement.