Bob and Curtis soon arrived at cell 103, where Bob unlocked the door, to reveal the unconscious witch, "grab her, I'll go unlock the other cells," Curtis carefully lifted the unconscious form of the girl onto his broad shoulders whilst Bob bustled around unlocking the cells. Together they released the grey haired man and the raven haired boy, both had ghost restraints on still which Bob did not have a key for.
"Vlad is that you?" The black haired boy asked the grey haired man.
"Hello little badger," he wheezed, "come to gloat at how far an old man has fallen."
"You look even more than half dead."
"Months of captivity will do that to a man Daniel."
"Why are you helping us?" Vlad asked Bob.
"We turned coat, didn't like the conditions they were keeping you in, realised that you actually had emotions, no matter what the big cheese says."
"Thank you, I think I might have finally lost it if you hadn't released me."
"Can I have some help?" Bob said from the fourth door, "this lock's stuck."
Together they managed to open the door, they were immediately assailed by a very angry man in a tweed coat, "Mr Harker, he's helping us," Danny pleaded, "please stop hitting him."
"Sorry, thought you were one of them," Thom said reaching out a hand to help the startled Bob to his feet, just then Curtis lumbered into view, Thom gave a gasp and rushed to his unconscious daughter's side, "oh my baby girl," he cupped her face, "what happened to you?"
Bob gulped, "I'm afraid that's my fault," Thom gave him a death glare, "before we switched sides we were given orders to shock her into unconsciousness. That reminds me, I need to resign," he pulled the communicator off his belt, "hey big boss."
"Are the prisoners secure?" The voice wheezed over the radio.
"They were when we checked on them."
"Good."
"Boss."
"What now?"
"Me and Curtis got to thinking, we don't like shocking little girls into unconsciousness, so we resign, good day and goodbye," he raised the communicator above his head and smashed it onto the ground, the badge from his breast pocket soon followed with Curtis' badge.
"Let's go, um which way is out?" Danny asked.
"Towards the fighting, but we need to get Mr Wizard's wand, so this way," Bob said
"My name is Thom," Thom said, "how about you and I go get my wand," he turned to Curtis, "you get everyone else out of here, because they are in no condition to help."
"Got that Curtis?" Bob asked.
"Yep," the giant said with a toothy grin.
"Good, now get out of here, we've got a wand to find."
"And the Fenton thermos," Danny said remembering something, "the box ghost is still in there."
"Right," Thom said, he then turned on his heel, "time's a wastin," Bob and him then set off down the corridor at a jog.
"Alert, alert, two agents have defected, they are helping the prisoners escape, recapturing the prisoners is our main priority," a voice said over the loudspeakers.
"Didn't take them long," Thom said, they were now about halfway towards the security room with his wand and the Fenton Thermos in, "why is our stuff separate to Janet's?"
"You and Danny are considered more dangerous, so your things are under more security."
"Well, that will probably come back to bite them."
"Why? Janet is younger she won't have as much experience."
"Yes, but Janet is more powerful than I am."
"Why's that?"
"She inherited it from her mother."
"We're here," Bob said, he handed the gun to Thom, "I'll open the door, you shoot everyone, don't worry the gun was designed for ghosts, so it only knocks out humans," Bob started entering the code and Thom took shelter behind the door frame. The code was accepted, but when the door swung open no-one was there, Bob tsked, "either things are going badly upstairs, or someone is going to have hell to pay," he walked over to a panel in the wall, he pressed a part of the panel, which swung open to reveal Thom's wand and Danny's thermos.
"Let's go say hello to your ex-boss," Thom said as he checked his wand, hooking the Thermos on one of his belt loops he walked out the room, "um, which way?"
"This way," Bob said as he started walking down a corridor.
Meanwhile, several floors up Danny, Curtis and Vlad were walking up the never-ending staircases, "how many, gasp more? I've pant lost feeling in my legs," Danny complained.
"Six more flights to the top, the fighting sounds to be a couple floors above us," Vlad said, unlike Danny he was not as out of breath, Danny narrowed his eyes at his arch nemesis.
"How do you know?" He spat.
Vlad pointed at the sign on the wall, "we're on floor B6, which means 6 floors below the ground."
On the next floor Curtis stopped and put Janet down, "she's waking up."
"Uh, where am I?" A drowsy Janet asked, when she saw Curtis looming over her she started.
"Janet," Danny said, "it's okay, he's the one who's breaking us out, he just carried you up like eight flights of stairs."
"Thank you," Janet said before hauling herself to her feet, Curtis smiled and handed her wand, bracelets and book to her, she slid the book into a pocket, put the bracelets on her wrists, she wordlessly cast legilimens to test the wand was working, she slipped into the big guard's head to find his name, "thank you again Curtis."
"How did you?" Danny asked.
"She's a legilimancer, a witch with the ability to read your mind," Vlad said narrowing his eyes. Janet, not knowing who he was tried to slip into his mind, but was quickly repelled by stronger versions of Danny's mental defences, Vlad chuckled, "oh no you don't little badger, you are not the first legilimancer I've met, what did you want in my head?"
"Your name."
"Vlad Masters."
"You are also Vlad Plasmius."
A shocked Vlad stared at the little girl, "what makes you say that?"
"First off you must be a halfa, seeing as you appear human, but are wearing the same collar as Danny, which suggests it's an inhibitor collar of some kind, however the fact I'm not wearing one suggests to me that they are specifically for ghosts. Because you are halfa that means you are Plasmius, because there are only three halfas, and I have met all of them. But that wasn't you was it, or you would know me."
Vlad smirked, "very astute, no that wasn't me you faced, that was a doppelganger made by the science division here, it has my powers, but stronger, however, it has to recharge off me after every fight, it had the job of finding and bringing in Daniel."
"Where's Dad?" Janet asked.
"Mr Wizard went with Bob to face the big boss," Curtis said, Janet smiled and nodded.
"Let's get going," Janet said, "if we stay here much longer they're probably going to catch up," they got up and started walking up the stairs again, with Janet sticking close to Vlad as she carefully and subtly disarmed his mental defences, whilst simultaneously checking for any guards, "all the guards appear to be fighting."
"Who are they fighting?" Danny asked, Janet checked by jumping into the mind of one of the agents, she knocked him out as she left.
"Sam, Tucker, someone with ginger hair and Dani."
"That'll be Jazz, so they're staging a jailbreak, well, let's go help," Danny said starting up the stairs again.
Thom and Bob stood before a blank wall, like everything else in the base it was metal, "are you sure the boss' office is behind this wall?"
"Yes, this is it, you have to know the code to get in," as Bob said this the wall slid open, to reveal a dimly lit passageway, "or he's expecting you."
"He knows we're here, so there's no need for stealth," Thom said he cautiously walked forward, checking where he was stepping for pressure plates, as he walked through the passageway he noticed that there was more and more magic. "Why would he need magic, or does he just not feel the need to remove it from the room that he thought no wizard would ever go to?" Thom mused as he walked, relishing the feeling of his magic returning.
"Pardon?"
"Why is there magic in here, but nowhere else in this base?" Bob shrugged.
"There is magic here, Thom Harker," a voice wheezed in the darkness, the voice had a British accent, "because I don't relish the feeling of being weak without it," they rounded the corner to enter into a large, rectangular office space, with only a desk and a chair as furnishings, the desk and chair had been pushed to the wall. At the far end of the room stood a short man in a white suit with a hood that covered his face with a white veil.
"Who are you?"
"I am the Director of the Guys in White."
"Well, you're under arrest."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are," the Director drew a wand from inside his coat, "Well, that explains the magic in the corridor. You're a wizard, why are you doing this?"
"Revenge, I am training the agents to help me catch the wizards who murdered my family and crippled me."
"So, that's it, you want to catch the death eaters, so do most people, but they'd kill you."
"Defend yourself Auror, we're going to duel right here, right now."
Thom sighed and drew his own wand, "very well, I accept your challenge."
"Good," the Director purred, "the terms of the challenge are that we will duel without seconds until one of us is unconscious, unable to stand, or gives up, there is to be no physical contact and neither of us can use the three unforgivable curses."
"I accept the terms."
"Take your position and bow," Thom walked to a point opposite the Director, "Mr Kippins, can you referee? We just agreed the three rules."
"Okay?" Bob said hesitantly, he walked to a point halfway between the two, both of them then cast shield charms on Bob to protect from stray spells, both Thom and the Director bow deeply to each other and then turn to Bob, "begin, I guess."
Thom launched the first volley of spells at the Director, "protego," the spells fizzled out on the shield, "stupify," the Director returns, Thom non-verbally cast the shield charm, "aqua eructo," a torrent of water shot at the Director, "conjuro ignis," the torrent was met with a column of fire, which evaporated the water leaving the room full of steam. "Aere purgaro," the Director cast, clearing all the steam, "colloshoo," Thom cast, the Director being unable to dodge was now stuck to the floor, "finite incantatem," the Director cast releasing himself from the floor. "Confringo," the Director dived to the side to avoid the spell, which destroyed part of the wall behind him, "slugulus eructo," Thom raised his shield to block the jinx.
"The slug jinx, really? What are we third years?"
"Says the man who put my under the gum shoe jinx."
"It would have prevented you dodging."
"And the slugs would have distracted you."
"Expelliarmus," the Director cast, catching Thom off guard he was disarmed and hit back into the wall, "incarcerous," Thom was bound by a thick rope that appeared from the Director's wand, "I expected more from an Auror, especially you Thom Harker. Stupify." Thom slumped into unconsciousness, "Mr Kippins, bring him along, I have prisoners to reclaim."
A/N If you think Thom went down too easily, just remember he's tired, and weakened from being in the magic-less cells, meanwhile the director has been in his office, which is full of magic.