Good update, everyone! Here's Danny.

x.x

Mr. Lancer's voice circled around the inside of Danny's head, becoming less and less coherent with each pass. The teacher was gesticulating with a whiteboard marker… was he declaring something about themes? Danny slumped forward as though a few extra inches would make the difference between sleep-muddled confusion and understanding. His elbow came down on a slip of paper and slid forward.

Unbalanced and lethargic, Danny barely stopped himself from crashing head-first into the tabletop. He glared at the piece of paper through low-lidded eyes. A hangman.

- -E-A- -/-I- -/- -U- - -E- -

Yeah, that was beyond him at the moment.

Tucker pulled the paper from under his arm with a sorry that could have contained a touch more honesty. Danny's eyes tracked the paper as his friend held it up to his glasses. He squinted and pouted at it. His eyes widened and he sent an 'are you an idiot?' look over Danny's head.

Danny had clearly missed something. He hid his head in his arms and felt his eyes close. The hangman dangled in front of his eyelids.

He rocked to the side when Sam leaned into him. She pinched the paper from Tucker.

"Guys," Danny moaned, eyes flickering open, "I'm actually trying to concentrate!"

Sam was too busy filling in the hangman with M-E-A-T-/-I-S-/-M-U-R-D-E-R to pay any attention, but Tucker gave him a consoling (if condescending) pat on the back. "Late night?"

"Mmhhf." Danny sat back, staring blearily towards Mr. Lancer.

At about one am, the Box Ghost had led him on around or through every apparatus in the Fenton Laboratory until Danny had caught it in the Fenton Ghost Weasel. It had still been cooing in wonder at being trapped in a rectangular container when Danny had hurled it – Weasel and all – through the ghost portal. The debacle had lasted long enough for his sheets to cool, and his bed had been uninviting when he'd finally returned to it.

There was a sudden silence in the room, which was nice. It left Danny's ears unprepared for the shrieks of terror that filled the classroom a second later. Danny flinched, and sat bolt upright. A ghost portal was opening where Mr. Lancer had stood a moment ago. Mr. Lancer himself was rushing for the door.

"Well, it looks like sleep's going to have to wait. So's class, for that matter," Tucker commented.

The rest of the class herded Mr. Lancer out before them in a stampede. Danny didn't even get up from his desk. He pulled out the thermos and pointed it right at the portal. Who knew – maybe he'd be able to get out of this without any fighting? His heart was racing. At least he was alert now.

A wide black nose appeared through the portal, followed by huge canine body. Black fur sprouted out from patched, lime-green clothing. The creature strode through the portal on its hind legs, the arm-like forelimbs hanging forward at the elbow like a velocitator. Danny checked the wolf's neck. There was no control collar. He relaxed, and let the thermos drop to his desk with a metal clank.

"Uh – Saluton!" He greeted a touch shrilly, a thrill running through his body as his harried mind searched for words to ask why Wulf was here. "Kiu – no," he stumbled. "Vi estas kun mi – mi-j," he tried to turn the question into a statement with his tone. Wulf shook his head in confusion.

"Kio okazas?" Tucker said - knowing Tucker, that was probably good Esperanto. Wulf didn't look his way. His pupilless green eyes were fixed on Danny.

"Friend," he grunted, "Friend help." The rows of desks didn't stop Wulf from reaching Danny, the ghost phased right through them. He cocked his head, towering over Danny.

"You want our help?" Sam asked. And then in Esperanto: "Ĉu vi deziras – er – helpon?"

Wulf nodded, and grabbed Danny's arm. He pulled Danny back to the portal. Danny yelped and flailed as Sam and Tucker grabbed at him. They missed, and Danny found himself pulled through the portal and into the Ghost Zone.

Wulf blocked the portal as it – and Danny's chance of getting back to class on time – shrinked into nothingness. "What was that for?" he demanded, pulling the ghost transformation over himself. The world darkened and Wulf's ghostly glow brightened as the transformation took hold.

"One help," Wulf responded calmly, holding up a retracted claw that was currently stubby and small. "One Danny. Danny-friend help."

Danny crossed his arms. He was mostly awake now thanks to Wulf, but his eyes were itching with crankiness. "Alright, so only I can help. You could have said that!"

A short, deep chuckled burbled up from Wulf's huge chest. He squinted at Danny and gave him said something in Esperanto that Danny didn't catch a word of. From the tone of it, he was saying something like There's a small problem with that – like the fact that you can't understand what I'm saying right now.

"Fine, I'll help you." Danny whined, throwing his arms up. "But let's make this quick."

Wulf led Danny to his lair: a very human room. It was arching and airy, sterile and grey. The only break from the blankness was a painting of six oddly-dressed humans. The foremost was a black-haired and black-clothed boy, a red 'S' on his shirt. Wulf put a paw on Danny's shoulder, looming over him again.

"Thankyou… Friend," he said, his fangs flashing in the white light of the lair.

Danny felt awkwardness crawling up his spine. "Yeah, yeah, Wulf, you're welcome," he muttered.

Wulf wrapped his furry arms around Danny in a hug. Danny wriggled uncomfortably. The wolf's chest was pressed hard against his cheek and his eyelashes caught against wolf's lime-green shirt with every blink. He patted Wulf's side awkwardly where he could reach, his cheeks turning pink.

Wulf freed him smiled down at him, and then over at the picture of the people. "Two Friends Help Wulf's old friends!" he told it. Wulf's claws extended into foot-long knives and he slashed at the air. He tore a Wulf-sized portal into the zone and hopped through.

"Here we go," Danny told himself. He banished his nerves and dived into the portal after Wulf.

x.x

Esperanto: Esperanto is dodgy, but I didn't get help with it because I figured Danny and Sam's Esperanto is very dodgy.

Danny: You are with mes?

Tucker: What's happening?

Sam: Do you want help?