A/N: My writer's block is still kinda there. I don't know. I don't actually like this chapter, but I can't come up with anything else at this point. Sometimes when you're stuck, you just got to write something to get unstuck. This is the best I could come up with. It's good, just not my best. But I promised you guys a chapter, so here it is. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Danny, Sam, and Tucker are not mine. The rest is just a weird thing called my imagination I try to create in my spare time.
Chapter 22 The Hamster Boat
Screaming incoherently, the five teens plummeted downward into a black abyss. For a brief moment all of them had the frightening thought that the hole they were falling into was bottomless. But that idea was quickly put to rest when their boat smashed into the pool beneath the small waterfall.
The contact of the boat against water forced the teens to the cold ice floor with cries of pain. The ice giving none of them the support they needed, the group all whacked into each other as the boat was shot down a narrow canal at a deathly speed. The waterfall had been nothing compared to the dangers that were ahead.
"We can't survive this!" Theo shouted at Danny over the roar of the rushing water.
"I know, I know!" Danny barked back before being forced into the demigod as the boat crashed into the wall. Gasping, Theo slipped on the ice. Acting fast, Danny grabbed Theo's wrist and prevented him from falling into the magical waters of the Underworld.
"Do something!" Theo demanded as soon as he was safely back on the boat.
Before Danny could respond, the boat blasted into a new tunnel. The floor of the river was hauntingly illuminated by a certain type of rock that produced a dim blue color. But with the entire floor made up of these paranormal rocks, the whole tunnel was alight with the faint blue. The faces of the five kids were lit up from beneath, giving them all the illusion of looking like the ghosts waiting for their boat ride deeper into the Underworld.
It would have been a pretty cool moment except for the fact that now they could see the rocks and whitewaters coming up.
Acing on pure impulse, Danny tapped into his ice powers again. He knew he couldn't just fly his friends out of there. The rules said they had to go back the way they came. They would have to endure the river.
Eyes turning the same color as the glowing waters, Danny focused all his energy on his ice powers. Moving his hands around in swirls and circles, the teen set to work with the walls of the boat around him. Precise and direct in his mastered movements, Danny formed their boat into a giant thick ice ball with him and the others in the hollow inside.
"What are we? Hamsters?" Tucker screamed.
"Do I even want to know what a hamster is?" Theo yelled to no one in particular. He was on his bloody and numb hands and knees, trying to control his body as the ball spun uncontrollably down the river waterway.
"Here come the rocks!" Sam cried in warning.
The ball harshly crashed into the rough and stable boulders, spinning the ice hamster ball in crazy directions. Screaming, the teens in the ball were violently thrown around in their ice prison. Sam and Tucker barely had any control over where they were thrown. It didn't really matter if they did have command over themselves. Danny, Theo, and Rhodes had just as painful rides.
At one point, Rhodes found herself on top of Theo. They ended up staring at each other like idiots. Finally, they just smiled, finding their situation rather humorous. It wasn't every day you could say you came to the Underworld and rode on its rivers in a giant ice ball.
"Might want to keep the hat on a bit tighter," Theo said slyly, pointing at her crooked straw hat that was showing off a bit of her left pointy fox ear.
Rhodes was quick to fix her great mistake before giving the guy a curious look. "You confuse me," she finally stated after a pause for thought.
The ice ball spun again, throwing the two in separate directions.
Rolling head over heels, Theo bumped right into Danny. They gave sharp cries of pain as their bodies smashed into each other. Groaning in discomfort, the two just stayed where they were and rubbed their throbbing heads, mentally getting prepared for the next installment of hurt.
Thankfully, that moment didn't come.
Their ball of ice slowly floated out of the dangerous tunnel and into the large, smooth flowing lake that would take them back to the first shore. The faint glow of the rocks from beneath turned into complete blackness. For a few seconds, the group just laid there in their floating ball, breathing hard.
"Well…that was fun," Theo finally said from out of the darkness.
"I don't know about you," Tucker said, "But I'm all funned out."
"I second that," Sam muttered. The others moaned in agreement, too bruised and beat up to speak.
After a few minutes of the group getting their wits back, a light appeared up ahead in the river. Danny and Theo melted off the upper half the ice globe with a few well placed fire and ectoplasm balls. Once the team didn't have an ice wall blocking their vision, they saw the shore with the millions of ghosts standing and waiting. The current was taking them right toward the shore.
"Are you two able to move yet?" Danny asked Sam and Tucker while they were waiting anxiously to get their ice boat to shore.
"I can move my arm!" Tucker said with uncanny excitement. He waved it around to show off his marvelous ability.
Danny and Theo sighed at the pitiful sight. If they couldn't move, that meant Danny and Theo would have to carry the two all the way up the hole in the earth that was the only entrance and exit of the Underworld. It was going to be a lot of work running the whole way with some dead weight latched onto their backs.
After a few painful minutes of just waiting on the slow current, the boat finally knocked against solid ground. Careful not to touch the mystic waters, Theo and Danny unloaded the paralyzed pair of mortals from the boat. Rhodes helped to keep the boat from rocking and doing what she could to lend a hand.
Picking up a body, Danny and Theo walked as quickly as they could through the throng of waiting ghosts. They only made it a few steps when suddenly a figure came flying out of nowhere. It whacked right into Theo, sending the demigod, mortal, and surprise attacker to the ground.
"I got them! I got them!" Charon yelled in giddy triumph as he held the ring of keys he had stolen up high. "I got th-."
The old man got cut off as Theo plowed right into his stomach, knocking the little guy right off his feet. They went rolling, yelling incoherently at each other and fighting for possession of the keys. They were like animals, kicking and biting where they could. The others just stared in shock for a moment, too surprised to act.
"Let. Go!" Theo growled through clenched teeth, finally getting a good kick in. His foot violently colliding with the Charon's head, the demigod knocked the guy's skull right off. The vertebrae snapped like a twig would. The head tumbled off the neck and landed behind the body with a sickening thud.
Theo let out a loud yelp of horror at this sight. The rest of the group screamed and backed up in fear. Getting to his feet, Theo quickly joined his team, holding the set of keys tightly.
The head on the floor suddenly opened his eyes. The group screamed in union again, totally freaked at the sight of a living severed head. The crazy eyes of the old man glared at the team of teens before saying, "Curse you brats! You will regret doing that!"
"Um…let's get out of here before he finds his head," Danny said to the rest of the group. "That's creepy with at least five E's."
"Agreed," the team said in union.
As Charon's head yelled at his body that was running around like crazy to find him, the teens switched into high gear and took off as quickly as possible to the stairs. They flew up them, not caring if they fell or not. The picture of Charon with his head getting knocked off was all the reminder they needed to make them go a bit faster.
They made good timing at going up the hole. It was hard for the boys because everything was up hill and they didn't have the time to stop or slow down. They had less than 45 minutes to get to the top. They knew that they were going to cut it very close.
"Small break!" Theo gasped about half way up. The three that were running skidded to stops. Sweat pored off of his and Danny's faces. As they gasped for air, Rhodes looked up and down to calculate their distance and pace. She guessed they had around 15 minutes left. If they kept going at the same pace, they were going to make it. Adjusting her sweat laden straw hat, the Kitsune frowned at the group.
A low rumble disturbed the teens out of their break. Looking down with wearisome eyes, the group saw that the end of the rock pathway they were on was starting to fade into the wall at a drastic rate. The boys didn't need any more encouragement. They ran like the devil himself was on their tails…which wasn't far from the truth. It looked like Hades wanted them to lose this challenge either dead or alive.
"Faster, guys!" Rhodes urged the boys when she saw them start to tire out and drop a bit behind. She looked back to see the fading pathway catching up with them. She needed to make them go faster or they were going to fall!
Slowing her pace till she was behind them, the Kitsune said to Theo and Danny, "Both of you need to stay in front of me. Now move!"
Instead of complaining, the boys urged their weakening bodies to go faster. Using his flying abilities in between steps, the ghost boy pulled ahead of the other two. By the time they were near to finishing, the three were sprinting to stay ahead of the fading pathway.
At the last second, Rhodes tripped over a loose rock and hit the ground hard, a sharp cry coming from her. A second later the rocks under her vanished and she was plummeting into the dark abyss. Blackness seemed to engulf her. The only thing she could do was scream.
"Rhodes!" Theo screamed in desperation after the falling girl, his right hand stretched out as if to catch her. Danny was already there to save. He shoved Theo with Tucker on his back to the dirt ground where he had put Sam down. Theo sat on his butt next to Danny's friends, wide eyed in fear for the Kitsune's life.
Danny forced himself to fly faster. He shot downward at break neck speed. The wind blasted harshly into his face, making tears come to his eyes. But the boy didn't dare take them off his target falling ahead of him.
Flying up underneath the girl, Danny switched his direction of flight suddenly. Grabbing the "kid" bridal style, the ghost boy shot back upward, his goal now the bright circle above that was somehow getting smaller. Heart racing faster, Danny realized that Hades was making the hole close up on him! He was going to be buried alive!
"Hold on!" Danny commanded Rhodes sharply without even glancing at her. He felt her small hands clasp tighter onto him as he sped up. Going faster than he knew he could, Danny clenched his teeth together to keep the apprehension of possible defeat inside him.
With little time to spare, Danny blasted out of the tiny hole in the ground. Seeing that everyone was safe, Theo threw the ring of keys into the closing hole right as it shrunk into nothing. Danny slowed his pace as he dropped back down toward the barren earth that used to be the entrance to the Underworld.
Rhodes fell to her hands and knees the second she was placed down on solid ground. Gasping for a steady breath, the girl tried to get over the fact that she wasn't going to die. She was alive! She had really thought that she was going to die. It was strange, the feeling of a second chance.
"Uh…Rhodes…you're hat," Theo mumbled to her, his voice hesitant.
Looking up, Rhodes found the whole group staring at her with wide eyes of shock, jaws slack.
"What?" she whispered in fear and confusion.
Danny and his friends didn't respond. They were too shocked at this new revealing to speak or even change their frozen expressions. Rhodes turned here confused, violet eyes to Theo for answers. He looked distraught, his hands grasping onto strands of his hair, a grimace on his face.
Something was wrong. But what?
Slowly bringing a hand up to her exposed ears, the fox spirit was overcome with fear. Feeling that her straw hat, her comforting disguise, was gone, Rhodes's eyes widened. Her furry red pointy ears were stiff to her touch. Her long, auburn colored hair was falling out of her braid. The howling wind swept her hair in its delicate hands, blowing it out of its braid completely and into her fear-stricken face.
"Oh my gods, no!" she whispered in disbelief to herself.
"Dude, you're not a dude!" Tucker finally said, stating the obvious as usual. "Why didn't you tell us you were a girl…or part animal for that part?"
Rhodes scrambled to her unsteady feet, backing away from the group like an animal cornered by a hunter. The group, now coming off their first initial shock, tried to calm the now scared fox spirit. They didn't understand what was going on, but they did have the right to ask their questions.
"Wait, Rhodes, calm down," Danny ventured, trying to sound reassuring. "We're just a bit confused. Why did you disguise yourself like that? Don't you trust us?"
Rhodes was quiet for a moment, looking at each of the teens while breathing hard. She backed up some more while whispering harshly, "I don't trust anyone! You weren't supposed to find out!"
"Hold on, hold on," Danny said, calmly, seeing that the girl was ready to take off any second now. He personally liked the "kid". She had been creepy, but now he understood why. He didn't want to make her run away.
"Please, Rhodes, these guys won't do you harm," Theo said. "Trust me."
"I trust no one!" Rhodes repeated, backing up some more, as if they were going to pounce on her and eat her flesh.
Theo frowned, hating himself for his bad choice of words. He just wanted Rhodes to calm down. Her privacy and comfort had suddenly been stolen from her at a very vulnerable time in her life. For so many years she had hidden herself from the rest of the world, afraid and knowing of its cruelty and wickedness. Her mind had been warped and morphed into one of a perpetually mistrustful being. She was emotionally unstable.
Meeting Theo and the others like him had opened up a little of Rhodes. For some brief moments while she was with them, she had trusted and given herself to them. That act alone was stepping out of her comfort zone. With some given time, she could have changed her train of thought and had revealed her true identity to them. But this force had driven her mind over the edge of any reason.
The question now was how far was going to be her fall.
"Rhodes, you know us," Sam said, a strange sense of compassion in her voice. Danny rarely heard her talk to another person that way. Usually she saved it for her plants. "We would never hurt you," Sam continued. "Like Danny said, we're just confused."
"You're all lying!" Rhodes screamed, tears were threatening to escape her eyes, but she was strong enough to will them away. She took some hasty steps away from the group, horrified when seeing Danny and Theo take steps toward her. "Stay back!" she commanded.
"Whoa! Calm down!" Tucker shouted back. "You're blowing this way out of proportion."
"No!" Rhodes bellowed, at the tip of her breaking point. "I should have never met any of you," she sobbed, the tears running like small rivers down her flushed cheeks. The Kitsune paused, struggling with her internal tormenting emotions as the group before her watched the girl with pity and aching hearts.
"I'm sorry!" she screamed finally, shaking her head from side to side as if to force the emotions away. Her tears were left dangling in the air, little diamonds that hovered for a fleeting moment until dropping to a barren ground. After her disclaimer, the girl took off into a sprint away from the only ones in her life she could have called friends.
Taking it upon himself to set the mess straight, Theo started forward to chase after the girl he had somehow come to care about. He had only taken a few steps when he realized he had nothing to say to this girl. No one could say anything to her to make right what she was going through. She needed to settle this by herself. She trusted them. She didn't know it yet, but she would come back to them. Theo knew she would.
"Isn't anyone going to go after her?" Tucker asked. "That girl needs help!"
Danny sighed, saying, "I don't think we can help her, Tuck. But I think she's resourceful enough to find us if she ever changed her mind." He expressed an ironic, bitter smile before saying to himself, "Her name meant roses. It was so obvious. Funny how we were so blind."
"I already knew," Sam stated dryly.
The boys raised their eyebrows, turning their skeptical eyes to the single girl in the group now. She smiled slyly back up at them, knowing their doubt. "We girls," she said, her smile widening, "We have this thing called common sense."
Rolling their eyes with groans, the boys all looked off; ashamed at how badly they had seen Rhodes's true identity. And with Sam telling them she had known of it from the start wasn't doing any good to their pride. It was like a sledge hammer to their high self esteem.
"It took awhile for me to figure it out," Sam explained. "But after some close observation, like with the way she walked and her eating habits that didn't match the one's of a blinder gone wild, she kind of gave it away. I guess girls are more observant than guys in that area." She grinned again before adding, "Don't feel too bad, boys."
"Why didn't you tell us you knew she was really a girl?" Danny asked in wonder.
"Same reason why I didn't," Theo muttered, staring at the dirt ground before him. He didn't lift his eyes to meet the others'. "It was her own secret, her own life. She had all the right to keep it from us. We barely even knew each other."
"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Tucker said, deeply confused now, "You're telling me you knew she was an animal girl too?"
"I didn't know she was half fox," Sam quickly corrected. "I had no clue till that hat came off."
"We accidentally bumped into each other the other day while she had her hat off while hunting," Theo explained with a heavy sigh. "She didn't want me to tell you guys. I guess I just never found the need to."
The four looked at each other silently, keeping their thoughts to themselves.
"Well," Danny said, running a hand through his white hair. He flashed back into his human form before concluding solemnly, "I think we should get on our way to Mount Olympus. We have two days to get there, and I'm sure Zeus and his wife is anxious to see us."
A/N: Okay, so this fan fic is getting on its way to being done. I'm thinking at least three or four more chapters. That means…new fic soon! Yay! This fic has shown me how fun Danny Phantom fics can be, so I'm working on the plot for a new one…one rated T. Oh yes. It will be an awesome fic. A detailed summary will be posted in the next chapter, which will be in two weeks. Till then, have a flipping awesome Thanksgiving. Hope your schools give you enough time to enjoy a holiday. See you guys in two weeks!