How many stories can one girl do? I amaze myself sometimes, and right now is one of those times. I'm no longer sick, thank god, and I am now in the midst of carrying approximately thirty stories for completion. CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Danny Phantom... and I got asked how I do it. Don't ask.

Thanks for the reviews mystery writer5775, Hordak's Pupil, Plushiemon, princess moon shadow, Miriam1, ImmortalPhantom22, Le Pecore Nere

11. Denver Indulgence

"Now what do we do?" Sam groaned under her breath, staring at the bubble and Ryan.

The young CSI pursed his lips in thought, taking a glance around the cabin. "There's got to be a way we can get out of here and not attract so much attention that Plasmius may come running back. But with Tucker's hand broken and our only means of escape through the door on the opposite side of the room..." He shrugged helplessly. "I would throw out a nice suggestion, but I'm kind of helpless to that notion right now."

Tucker grimaced, biting the inside of his mouth to keep from crying out in pain. "God, he really did a number that time on my hand. I never thought of him to bethis bad."

"Heh. I don't think any of us were expecting him to act like an ass for the fiftieth time in our lives," the Goth grumbled. "Breaking your hand..." She glanced concernedly over at the African, who was on the floor, silent tears rolling down his face. "Tucker, we've got to get your hand checked when we get out of here. It could seriously be something bad that might not be able to heal."

The teenage techno-geek stared at her. "Don't make me feel worse than I already do!"

Ryan sighed and leaned against the firm surface of the ectoplasmic bubble. His mind began working furiously as he contemplated a plan to try and escape with his two new allies. Granted, they were kids, but they seemed to know a lot about Plasmius- more than he would ever know about that ghost. Ghosts- they weren't real, right? He felt extremely stupid right then. Yes, they were real, or he was a half ghost.

Not like those ever existed.

Suddenly, he spotted a button nearest to Tucker's cage and smacked himself mentally. It was too easy.

He was also tired of listening to two teenagers arguing with each other about body parts. Finally, he cleared his throat and called out, "Tucker!"

The boy looked at the CSI, embarrassed at the fighting that had occurred only moments before. "Yeah?"

"There's a button next to your cage that I'm pretty sure you can reach with your right hand- the one you didn't break. If you press it, you and Sam can escape and leave me to deal with Plasmius about you got out of here."

Sam's eyes widened. "Are you insane or something?! There's no way we're leaving you here, Ryan! Trust me when I say that Plasmius is one seriously-crazed up fruit loop! He'd do things to you that are worse when he was making a clone of Danny!"

Wait a second. Back up the truck.

Her hand went over her mouth. "Oh, shoot."

Ryan merely raised an eyebrow at this. He didn't speak, nodding to Tucker. Wincing, he crawled over and pressed a button and the gates suddenly rose with a slow speed. Ryan merely kept his eye on Tucker and looked at the control panel for a moment. "Okay. Listen, when you get out of there, I think you only have to hit a button on the right side of this panel. Not that hard- it'll get Sam out, and then you guys can make a bolt for it." He smiled at Sam's frightened look of anger and pain. "I'll be fine! I've had a nail shot in my eye one time. Compared to what Plasmius could do to me, I don't think it would be as bad."

Pop.

The bubble suddenly burst, and Ryan fell to the floor around four inches. He looked at Sam and Tucker stupidly before shaking his head. "Honestly..."

"I should tell you- we have a tendency for not listening to our elders," Sam told him coolly. "It's one of our bad habits. Besides, we're friends of a superhero ghost. We've got to go and help him sometimes. And the only way to do that..." She turned to him slightly, gesturing him. He followed, and they began a short run down the hallway in the cabin. "...is by the art of disobeying."

"I don't understand teenagers," Ryan mumbled, running down the hallway and looking into a room.

Plasmius had taken his gun, and he really wanted it back...

Danny stood up quickly, placing his hands in front of his body defensively. "Natalia, let me explain..."

She shook her head. "I don't need an explanation. I just want an answer."

It hurt the teenager so much at how she sounded. Natalia sounded as if her boyfriend had just broke up with her- hurt, wounded, and saddened. Danny knew what answer she wanted- he wasn't sure if it was good for him to tell yet another person about his secret. Horatio already knew, and he had been surprised. But Natalia- he trusted her right now more than he trusted Horatio.

He bit his lip. "Um..."

"Come on," she told him, sitting down with a new cup of coffee. "I know you and Phantom are the same person now. There's not much you can do about that notion."

Danny groaned. "All right, all right. You can be damn convincing, did you know that?"

She hinted a small smile. "It's my job, Danny."

He shrugged. "My parents are ghost hunters. They were building a ghost portal around a year or so ago, and they decided to show me their new design. My dad was really convinced that it would work this time around. Well, he put in the power switch, and... nothing. There was a small spark, but nothing appeared. My parents just waked away to try and refigure their calculations, and I ended up going in and checking out what the inside looked like.

"Now, I had no idea that if I pushed a button in darkness that the portal would turn on, and I would be zapped by the shock of the portal. Mind you, I thought I was dead when I woke up, and when I ran over to a mirror, my appearance had changed to who you saw as Phantom. I freaked out, couldn't believe anything that had happened to me."

Natalia frowned. "Don't your parents know?"

Danny laughed bitterly. "I can't tell them. They want to rip Danny Phantom apart molecule by molecule. And frankly, I don't feel like getting perhaps shunned and landing on a dissection table."

"You've got to tell them someday, though," she reasoned.

"Now isn't really the time, though."

A sudden shattering of glass and a large frame of a forty year old crashed through the window. Danny dived away from the table, Natalia screaming as her coffee went flying in another direction. Plasmius looked up from the floor, eyes flashing. "Found you, little badger."

Natalia wrinkled her nose. "Oh, god. That's disgusting."

"Plasmius, where are they?!" Danny growled, clenching his fists.

The male looked through the hole in the wall. "If you really want to know, follow the evidence, Daniel. It'll take you straight to them- but by the time you reach them, it'll all ready be too late!" A fierce expression appeared on his face. "They'll be worse off than ghosts!"

He turned intangible, leaving a stunned Danny and Natalia in the lounge.

"My coffee!" she suddenly burst out angrily.

"Found it!" Ryan yelled happily. "Let's go!"

Sighing with relief, the trio began to run again. Tucker's hand was wrapped in a cotton cast with a strip of one of Vlad's business outfits, but it didn't stop him from wincing. "This bites."

"My friend, Alexx Woods, is a medical examiner in Miami. I'm sure she'll be able to take a look at your hand and be able to give you proper attention for it. Might seem like she only deals with the dead, but that's the biggest lie about her." Ryan took a deep breath. "She's the most caring person in the lab"

"That's right, fools. Run."

Ryan turned around, aiming his gun at the shadows. "Plasmius," he hissed. He turned to Sam and Tucker. "You guys run! I'll take care of him!"

"You're not staying here!" Sam told him flatly.

Ryan's eyes were on fire. "GO! Now! It's your only chance to get out of here!"

Tucker finally nodded. "Be careful, Ryan."

Sam merely bit the inside of her mouth and nodding before running after Tucker in the other direction.

Ryan looked towards the darkness. "Out the frying pan and into the oven, I guess..." And with these last words, he rushed back towards the lab.

NO! RYAN, YOU IDIOT! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Next chapter:

Ryan and Plasmius... bad things will happen to our beloved CSI, and Sam and Ryan make a beeline for Miami Florida. Meanwhile, Danny speaks more to Sam Barrish, the lab technician in Audio/Video.

Look for it sometime in the next two weeks! Thanks for reading, and please review!