By some sheer force of good luck, Alex managed to lead the motorcycle out the front door. Ignoring the slight misstep in the living room with the couch, the task had been a complete success. Now it was time for the next step: figuring out where to go with the bike. The most obvious place would have to be either Vlad's castle, or his mountain chalet. None of them knew where exactly the chalet was though, so they had only one chance.
"We should go back for the thermos," Tucker pointed out. "It's still in that warehouse, but it has the box ghost in it."
"Whatever, we'll just leave him in there! Let's go!" Sam practically yelled.
"Oh, slight problem," Alex said. "The bike can't hold all of us, unless someone rides on the handlebars or something, which is not happening!" he added the last part when he saw the looks in their eyes. Everyone wanted to be there to help save Danny. "Look, someone has to stay here! We can't have too many people go anyway because then they would be more people to look out for. If there are less of us, we can put more focus into helping Danny.
"And both of you know that he has a hero complex! If we get him out, but are still fighting, he'll try to save all of us by giving himself up." Alex finished, raising a hand for effect. The group fell silent, everyone staring each other down.
"So, who stays?" Sam asked, glaring at Alex and almost daring him to tell her to stay. Alex took a moment, absently scratching the skin around the cast on his hand. Tucker sighed, hugging Sam.
"Tuck! What are you doing?" the Goth sputtered, blushing.
"This is for good luck. You should be the one who goes." The boy said, pulling away and patting her on the shoulder. "Just promise me that you'll get Danny back without getting too hurt yourself, kay?"
"Tucker, are you sure?" Sam said; voice suddenly hoarse. He nodded.
"It's for the best. Besides, I'll only be a call away, right? If you run into any tech problems, give me a buzz."
"Thanks Tucker, I owe you."
The techno geek waved, backing up to the porch step of Fenton Works, smiling the whole time. Alex and Sam gave one final wave before taking off into the sky in a roar of power. Tucker continued to wave until they were gone from sight, then his smile fell.
"They had better make it back," he said, tearing his gaze from the sky and walking away.
Alex stopped the bike a few inches from the ground outside the warehouse, and Sam jumped off, running inside the building to get the thermos. She had to use the guitar to break a hole in and enter, but she could care less about that. In under a minute, she was back on the bike, thermos in hand.
"Let's go to the castle," she called to Alex over a gust of wind as they took off. "At this speed, we'll be there in an hour."
"Fine by me; just tell me where to go."
They made it to the castle in forty minutes. Sam jumped off, rubbing some warmth back into her arms, and walking with Alex to go and hide the bike in some bushes. She left the thermos behind. They had landed in a garden, on the side of the large home. At the spy's suggestion, they would be entering the place through a window. Alex picked up a rock the size of his fist, guessed its weight, and chucked it at the nearest window. Immediately, he grabbed Sam by the arm, jumping into another bush. They waited for what seemed like over a minute in that bush, crouching and peering through the foliage. Alex nodded.
"Coast seems to be clear. I'll lead."
He leapt silently from the bush, scuttling over to the side of the castle, waiting a moment, then jumping up and pulling himself through the window without ripping his guts out on the sharp glass. Sam tensed up, waiting for some sort of signal. She repeated the spy's actions when he waved a hand out to her. Once inside, they waited again, hiding in the shadow of a doorway. Alex's phone beeped, and he quickly answered it, receiving a scan of the area. As they began to walk around more, the map changed, adjusting to his every move.
"The bastard has too many labs!" Alex muttered angrily under his breath. "Come on, the first lab is coming up, and it's the largest."
They took off at a silent sprint, turning into a large room, a study, and splitting up to look for an entrance to the lab. Alex began pulling random book in and out of the shelves, and Sam fiddled with the items on the mantle over the fireplace. By pulling on a football statue, she discovered that the fireplace was the door to the lab.
"That's so cheap. What is this, Indiana Jones?" Alex called from across the room.
"Who cares? At least we got in." Sam said, already halfway down the stairs. Alex sighed, running after her. "I don't believe it!" Sam yelled.
The ecto skeleton, used by Danny to fight the ghost king, was leaning against the wall. Besides the thin layer of dust over the glass dome, it seemed fine. Vlad had stolen it and repaired it here. Alex wanted to use it, but was stopped by Sam.
"The suit was unstable, and I doubt that Vlad managed to fix that problem. It nearly killed Danny when he used it. Besides, if it's been with Vlad all this time, then we can be sure that Vlad has added something to it. He's not here anyway, so let's go."
And so it went on. They checked every possible inch of the castle, Vlad wasn't there. Sam leaned against a wall, breathing heavily in frustration. "There must be some underground lab or something, one that is only accessible with ghost powers. I don't see where else he could hide, besides inside the walls!"
"I did pick up some faint readings on a room deep underground, but you're right about getting there. We need a ghost, or a shovel."
"Well, I'll be glad to lend a hand!" a short old man dressed as a king called from overhead, floating down to meet them.
"Who are you?" Alex demanded. The ghost chuckled.
"I'm the Dairy King, kiddo! Usually though, I'd never join in a fight, but the tides have changed. Kings just don't have the power that they used to don'tcha know?"
The teens were silent, not really knowing what to say. The ghost only laughed again, swooping down to grab their arms and phase them through the floor before they could protest. He deposited them a dizzying moment later.
The king waved cheerily before vanishing in a cheese scented cloud. Alex coughed, waving the smoke from his eyes and looking around.
"Well, that was convenient," Sam said, looking around with wide eyes. Alex gasped, running to a table.
"Either Vlad is a fool, or this is a trap," he said, picking up a familiar black book. Sam snatched the book away, closely examining it.
"It's the real one, you can tell. I think this was supposed to be a trap, but we got here too early. Look," she gloated, pointing to a locked ghost portal. "He's probably in there."
"There has to be some sort of catch! This is too easy!" Alex snapped, taking the book back and walking around. The walls were made of metal, and there were no air vents to be seen that were larger than a dinner plate located on the walls inches away from the ceiling. The ceiling and floor were seamless; there was no way to pry open a hole and escape. He ran over to the portal, shaking the lock.
"Sam, were trapped." Alex called, shaking his head. A clatter met their ears, and both heads turned just in time to see an air vent slide open. A stream of water began to trickle out, dribbling down the wall and pooling on the floor. "Hey, try and open the portal!" Alex yelled, running over himself to try and rip his way to freedom. Sam sighed angrily, pulling him away and blasting at the door with the guitar and creating a large dent in the metal.
Some hidden sensor picked up the teens attacks, and turned up the volume. Water began pouring into the enclosed room, quickly filling it up over their ankles in under a minute. Alex was running around, knocking tables over in search of some sort of possible trap door of drainage system. A voice in the back of his head chided him, saying that it was pointless. Desperately, he began yelling at the top of his lungs,
"Oi! Dairy King! Dairy King!"
The water level had risen to reach Alex's hips. It was worse for Sam because she was slightly shorter than him. She swam over to an overturned table, climbing on top to continue attacking the door.
"Alex! He isn't coming! We'll have to try something else." She barked. Alex nodded, scrambling up onto her table, flipping through the Black Peacock. If he could find a way to get Danny out, he'd take that chance. Then again, Danny could be injured and unable to use his powers. He'd have to look for something else, something with water, or teleportation. He frantically scanned the pages, wincing as the water lapped at his knees.
"Did you find a way out yet, Alex? I can't get the portal to open." Sam asked, shivering. Alex said nothing, scanning the pages. "Alex? I can't even get a shot at the portal anymore! Please tell me there's something in that that can get us out!"
"There is! Here, stay close to me." Alex yelled over the water, taking her by the arm and pulling her towards him. "Hang on to me, don't let go!"
Sam quickly slung the guitar over her back, wrapping her arms around Alex's shoulders. Alex read the page one last time before holding one of his hands by his side, waving it up in the air with a flourish. Feeling foolish, he shouted the spell:
"Ho! Ho, and away to fairy land!"
A crack sounded, followed by a cloud of smoke, and then they were gone.
Danny awoke to the sound of some blade being sharpened. His mind was moving at a sluggish pace, and he calmly looked around, ignoring the discomfort he felt against his back.
He was surrounded by dozens of cow corpses, all hanging from meat hooks. It was cold, even colder than before, in this new room. His feet had the sudden urge to walk around and explore the place.
"Why can't I move?" he thought, looking down. His feet were moving alright- over air. He wasn't touching the ground. His arms wouldn't move either; they were bound to his sides with thick rope. The gears in his mind gave a heave, and he began thinking more clearly.
First off, he was tied up. That was bad. Second, he was suspended by a meat hook in a meat locker. Third, someone somewhere was sharpening a blade.
"Hey! What's going on?" the halfa yelled, struggling to free his arms. "Hey! Someone help me!"
The room grew silent as the machine sharpening the blade whirred down. Danny hung there, breathing heavily. The machine started up again, then cut off seconds later as whoever had been using it turned it off and walked away, towards the ghost boy. Danny began to squirm again, eyes wide as he guessed where the person was.
"W-who's there? I'm not scared of you! Show yourself!" he called, but his voice betrayed him. The mystery person pushed past some cow carcasses. "So, you're finally awake," she said. It was the woman from earlier.
"What's going on?"
The woman didn't answer. Instead, she calmly walked towards Danny, lifting the item in her hands. It was a large meat cleaver, and it was very sharp. With a swift wave of an arm, she swung the weapon out, nicking Danny on his thigh. Danny cried out as green blood blossomed from the wound.
"Ow! Why are you doing this?"
"Why?" the woman mocked, looking up into his eyes with a crazed expression. "Well, I'm doing this because I want to."
Danny felt his blood run cold. The woman's voice was slowly deepening in tone, too deep for a normal woman. She stepped back, pulling her hair off of her head as she did so.
"What?" Danny yelled, "You're a man?"
The man laughed, throwing the wig aside before spreading his arms out.
"Guilty as charged!" he stopped to laugh again, and then turned serious. "Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Barry and this here is my butcher shop."
AN: And so, the mystery woman, er, man, is revealed! Thanks to all who guessed! His name is Barry, aka Barry the Chopper (Chopper= Chop Chop, get it? Haha… ok, moving on), from Fullmetal Alchemist. I based him off the version from the old anime, so I'm not sure how close I was to the manga version because I stopped reading FMA for some reason a while back. This won't be some alt. world thing where Danny meets Ed and Al though; I just borrowed the scene and Barry. The last two lines spoken from Barry are directly from the dubbed version of the anime, so they're not mine.
"Ho and away to fairy land!" is from an awesome book, The Book of Dead Days, by Marcus Sedgwick. Try as I might, I couldn't find a spell online, like I did for the last chapter of whatever, that would fit the problem at hand. ^^;
Think it was too easy for Sam and Alex to get the book? Just wait; they aren't out of the woods yet!