Feel free to kick my butt for lack of updates. Finally realized how to finish this thing now. -slapped with dead fish-

Thanks for reviewing Hordak's Pupil, Bored2Deth, princess moon shadow, Le Pecore Nere, FernClaw, Miriam1, theAlyCat, ImmortalPhantom22, AlexCurtis, inukagome15, Nicky-Pickle-25

19. Saving Ryan

It was tense in the vehicle as Sam took control of the wheel and uploaded the coordinates back to Vlad's mansion in Colorado. Danny sat in the back with the others as Horatio kept silent. Natalia and Eric glanced around the Specter Speeder and sighed in tandem, their hands interlaced with one another.

No one wanted to speak, for fear of breaking the tension being created.

Quietly, Danny moved to the front of the Speeder, cracking his fingers slightly and taking a deep breath. Horatio turned around and looked at him, a sort of strange glint in his eyes. The teenager couldn't determine whether it was hatred or anger or fear for his CSI. He opened his mouth to ask the question, but the lieutenant merely gave him a look.

Sam sat back in her own seat, sighing and glancing over at Danny, who once again moved back and looking at the weapons they had. She crossed her arms and swallowed slightly. "Listen, we're all worried about what happened," she told him quietly. "I know it's really something tense in here, but…"

"Something's wrong," Danny mumbled back, grabbing the Specter Deflector and looking down at it for a moment. "I don't get it. Why would Vlad kidnap a CSI? What business does he have with Ryan Wolfe?"

The Goth shrugged, coming up with no good explanation. She wasn't one for doing criminal investigations, like her friends, but even she couldn't argue with Danny's logic. It wasn't odd for Vlad to go after herself and Tucker, but to target Ryan for no apparent reason? Sam's mind tried to wrap around the idea as best as it could, but it came out in a jumbled sort of ball.

She furrowed her brow. "So we have no idea what to do now…"

The hybrid leaned up against the wall, looking at the ceiling. "What are we supposed to do?"

"Save Ryan, take him home, and allow the lab to patch him up, I guess," Sam told him softly. "There's nothing more we really can do after that. It's not like catching ghosts this time around. We have to save someone in the physical flesh." Her hand went on his shoulder. "We can do it, Danny. I promise."

The boy took the girl's hand and looked at her, nodding slowly. There was truth in her words. He allowed his shoulders to sag ever so slightly, putting the Deflector back on the shelf and pushing back his hair with his hand. His feet trudged him to the front of the flying machine again, seeing a large red dot come up on the map. His eyes looked out the window, narrowing in the process. "Looks like we got to Vlad's place a lot faster than I thought," he stated, feeling his blood beginning to simmer.

Horatio merely cocked his head and stared at the log cabin. "How much of that money did he rightfully earn, Danny?"

"Not so much as a cent."

"Thought so."

The CSI lieutenant checked to make sure he had a full magazine once more and holstered the weapon, standing up and fingering his pair of sunglasses. Eric and Natalia had arisen from their chairs as well, leaving an uncomfortable amount of space in the ship for anyone to attempt to move around. Tucker sat in the front seat with Sam, grimacing and holding his hand as best as he could. The girl looked in the front compartment for anything that could help him in the healing process.

The technology extraordinaire winced. "I feel really useless right now."

She smiled tiredly, finding a pillow under the seat finally and taking it out. Gently, she moved the teen's hand onto it and sighed, seeing a landing pad on top of the house empty. Gently as she could, Sam set down the Specter Speeder and pressed a button. The hatch opened, and four people jumped out of the vehicle- Horatio, Eric, Natalia, and a newly transformed Phantom.

Phantom tapped his ear. 'I'll have the Fenton Headset on,' he mouthed to the duo.

Sam nodded once and shooed him, giving the teen a worried smile. 'Be careful,' she mouthed back.

The door was open to the cabin, and the moment Horatio pushed it open, he could tell something was wrong. And it wasn't just in the sense of the heat the room was giving off. He had a bad feeling churning in the pit of his stomach. His finger rested gently on the trigger of his nine-millimeter Glock as he entered another room alone.

It was agreed that the group should split up and go off in search for Wolfe in any way they could. Phantom opted to stick with Natalia, knowing that she was probably more vulnerable to Plasmius's possible rampage than the others. The other two men steadily agreed to the notion. As the woman and the half-ghost quietly snuck down the hall, Natalia could practically hear her heart beating. Her gun was in front of her, ready to shoot anything that floated.

There was a noise. She looked around and pointed her gun around the corner.

Eric gritted his teeth. "'Talia, it's me!"

She winced. "Sorry," she muttered.

Phantom closed his eyes for a moment and allowed Eric to cool down from his little scare before finally opening them and beckoning to the Cuban with his hand. "Come on. The three of us can try and find Ryan. Maybe Horatio can go for Vlad."

As if in silent agreement, the trio continued down the hallway, adrenaline pumping through their systems. Natalia glanced around warily, nodding her head in one door's direction. Phantom pushed it open quietly, wincing at the small creaks. His other hand glowed with green energy; he aimed it inside as it finished its turn. Both CSIs pointed their weapons inside the room and gave guarded glances at one another.

It was way too quiet in there.

Phantom moved forward some more before finally stopping at the end of the room. His hand shot over his mouth in disgust and fear. "Oh, my god…"

Eric and Natalia holstered their weapons, staring at the slumped figure in the tube. Ryan looked terrible. He had new scars, old wounds, and blood was now slowly dripping from his forehead. His eyes were closed, as if death had already taken him. A monitor on the wall next to him, however, proved otherwise. He was alive, but barely so.

Eric shook his head. "Wolfe…"

"We have to get him out of there!" Natalia whispered frantically.

Phantom's look of concentration intensified. "Working on it, working on it!"

Finally, the teenager's glowing hand slammed into the glass of the chamber. The shattering was enough to definitely make Vlad come running, but nothing happened after several tense seconds. Phantom let out a breath held for a long moment before finally kneeling down next to the man and scooping his arms underneath his body. Natalia winced as he lifted the body. "Please be careful with him."

He smiled genuinely and nodded. "I will. Promise."

"Oh, is that right?"

Phantom turned to the doorway and saw Plasmius standing there- or leaning in the doorway. His hand glowed bright magenta. "No one is leaving this room alive," he growled angrily.

The teenager narrowed his eyes as Natalia and Eric whipped out their weapons. "Wanna bet, fruit loop?"

"It's you who won't be getting out alive," a cool voice behind the bachelor chimed in.

Plasmius froze. He turned his head slightly and gave a cocky grin in Horatio's direction, who now stood behind him with a gun aimed for his head. "Remember, Horatio. I'm half ghost. You can't shoot me with your regular bullets. And with that… you won't make this much of a challenge at all, will you?"

"Get away from the door!" Eric growled.

The hybrid's hands flared as he suddenly whirled around and grabbed Horatio's Glock with one hand. Blood red stared into ice blue with hate. "You can't shoot me."

Horatio glared right back. "I will."

It was with this moment that the lieutenant gritted his teeth and yanked the weapon from his foe's fingers. An instant later, he ran down the hallway, and the bachelor seized the opportunity to chase him down. The hallway rained with red fire as he shot ghost rays in the CSI's direction, snarling all the while.

Phantom glanced at Natalia and Eric, jerking his head towards the ceiling. "The Specter Speeder is right over our heads, I think. I'm going to phase through the roof and get Ryan inside while Plasmius is distracted. Then I'll come back and grab you two."

Without another thought, the half-ghost turned intangible and flew through the ceiling. Three seconds later, he was on the rooftop to the cabin and making his way to the Specter Speeder as quickly as possible. Sam's eyes widened form the window as she opened the door once more. "That took you fifteen minutes!"

"Complain later. I have an almost-dead CSI here!"

The girl's jaw dropped. "No. Shoot, all right. There's a bed in the back apparently. I'll use it to lay him down and make sure we get him back."

Phantom nodded, stepping inside and allowing Sam to put down the bed. Tucker watched from the front, looking worried. "Damn. Is he going to be all right?"

"I dunno," Phantom admitted. "But I gotta go back for Eric and Natalia, okay? Gimmie two minutes."

When he had finally set down Ryan, the ghost teen turned intangible once more and phased through the roof. He saw Eric and Natalia still aiming their guns towards the door and took a deep breath, grabbing them both by the hands and phasing through the roof with them as well. He reached the rooftop in record time, turning visible with the two and pointing to the Specter Speeder. "Hurry up. Sam and Tucker can get you back to Miami with Ryan. I have to go help Horatio get rid of Vlad for a while."

Natalia blinked. "But…"

"Go! I'll be fine. It's not the first time I've faced Vlad with someone, and it won't be the last."

Eric took the female by the hand, pulling her to the vehicle. She nodded and ran inside, the door shutting behind her. Sam gave thumbs up to Phantom, wishing him good luck. He nodded and turned intangible once more.

Moments later, he landed on the floor inside the house once more and saw the ghost rays continue down the hall. Plasmius suddenly passed the room in a fury, his hands glowing. "Horatio, I know you're still here!" he shouted fiercely.

With this, he bolted down the hallway once more, not even noticing Danny in the other room with broken glass.

There was a sigh behind the teenager, and Horatio stepped out of the shadow, the gun still in hand. There was a sort of fiery twinkle in his eyes. "Let's stop a killer, Phantom."

The teen grinned, cracking his fingers and allowing his hands to alight with emerald energy. "After you, Horatio."

So... I'm not going to promise anything but four more chapters left in this fic right now. Yep, it's ending soon. But hey- sequels are good, aren't they?