Danny was usually fairly quick about waking up after an attack knocked him out, if one ignored his first fight with the Lunch Lady. He and his friends had come to accept that it was because of his powers that he'd always be back on his feet in under an hour.
He had been out for about thirty minutes, and Alex for forty. Sam and Tucker would start worrying about them when they had time to. At the moment, almost all of their attention was focused on getting to the lab. It was slow going, and they had to stop a couple of times for a break.
Currently, they were in the middle of one such break. Tucker was leaning against the wall, relishing in the sixty second long segment of "Tucker time". He chuckled, causing Sam to raise an eyebrow.
"What?" she asked warily. Tucker pointed to Alex and Danny. Both of the boys looked fine, not at all tired like they were.
"Either we're weak, or they weigh too much…"
"What do you mean 'we'?" Sam said, smirking. She reached down for her corner of rug, where the fabric was slightly damp from her holding it for so long. She waited for Tucker to get his corner, and then they lifted the rug back up. "The door we need to get in to is right down there." She said, encouraging her friend forward. "After that is the secret entrance to the lab."
"And the stairs? What about them?"
"They're behind the secret door. We'll probably just have to carry them down ourselves."
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They ended up leaving the rug outside the main door, because there was no way they'd be able to drag both Danny and Alex through on the rug. They set Alex in a chair, and Tucker had Danny's arm draped over his shoulder to keep him up so they wouldn't have to waste time picking him up again. Sam ran over to pull on the golden football on the fireplace mantle. With a grinding click, the fireplace split, revealing the steps leading down to the lab. She ran back over, taking Danny's feet and leading the way down to the lab. Tuckers eyes widened as he took in all of the technology around him. The lab was simple, sort of like the Fenton's in a way, but it was still better. It had the air of someone who actually knew what they were doing firsthand. Sam wasn't as impressed.
"The suit; It isn't here!"
"What?"
"It was right over there!"
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Danny groaned. At first, his friends thought he was voicing his annoyance at the poorly timed absence of the battle suit; then they remembered. Sam set his feet down, motioning for Tucker to lower the halfa a little. Tucker sort of leaned the halfa against a table, so he was sitting on the edge. Danny's eyes opened slowly, squinting at the light of the lab. A little worried, he quickly asked where he was.
"We took you and Alex to one of Vlad's labs. He had the battle suit in here, and we were going to use it to get out of here."
"So, where is it? Where's Alex?"
"We can't find it, and Alex is up in the study. We could only carry one of you down here."
"Hey, Danny, Can you hang here for a second?" Tucker asked. "We'll go and get Alex."
Danny's sudden pleading look screamed that he didn't want to be alone. Shakily, he got to his feet.
"I'm fine. Let me go with you, I don't want to stay here by myself!"
His voice was still hoarse. Sam nodded, allowing her friend to lean on her as they walked up to get Alex. Danny looked surprised when they came out of the fireplace. It slid shut behind them, hiding the stairs they had just left. Lightly, Sam pushed Danny into another chair before going over to Alex with Tucker. They spy was still unconscious, and he showed no signs of waking any time soon. Danny however, felt his strength quickly returning to him. He got to his feet, transforming into his ghost form. Sam and Tucker turned, surprised at his sudden movement. Tucker gave him the thumbs up.
"Awesome! You can carry James Bond here, right?" Tucker asked, pointing to Alex. Danny pretended to flex one of his skinny arms.
"You're kidding, right?"
"Well, no. Don't ghosts have, like, super strength or something?"
"Where did you hear that?" Danny said, raising an eyebrow. He hadn't been planning on ever carrying Alex, only on walking with his own power so his friends wouldn't have to support him and carry the spy at the same time. He wasn't sure if he could do too much just yet. Sheepishly, the other boy answered.
"I read it in a comic book."
Sam slapped her hand to her face.
"Well, I'm not exactly Superman, but I guess ghosts have a little more strength than people do." Danny offered, taking pity on his friend. He flew over to Alex, phasing through the couch to pick the spy up bridal style, taking care to rest the broken hand on Alex's lap. Danny smiled softly to Sam and Tucker. "Guess you two get a break."
Tucker cheered. Danny smirked, walking towards the fireplace to see if he could really walk with Alex. He stopped a few feet away from the fireplace, not wanting to get close to it until he had to. Sam came to the rescue, pulling on the football statue. The fireplace split once more, and the small group entered with Sam leading, Danny in the middle with Alex, and Tucker at the rear. The techno geek watched the door close before actually following his friends down.
Sam was pointing to the portal when he saw her.
"This wasn't here last time; the portal was in another lab when I came here with Alex. Do you think it's a fake?"
"It looks real to me." Danny said, kicking it. "It even has an ecto filter thing."
"Want me to open it? I can hack into the system and open it with my PDA." Tucker offered, waving his beloved PDA around. Danny shrugged.
"I don't know. How long was I out?"
"Half hour." Danny frowned.
"We probably don't have the time. Here, I'll phase us through."
Danny waited for them to each take hold of one of his shoulders before turning intangible. Jumping up into the air, he took off flying, straight through the portal doors and into the familiar green realm of the Ghost Zone.
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The first thing Vlad Masters saw when he awoke was a set of red eyes. He blinked, foolishly thinking for a moment that he was seeing a reflection of himself in his ghost form. However, these eyes were only red in their irises, rather than the entire eye.
Yassen sighed, walking away from the man to stand a few feet away. He almost smirked.
"The child is certainly strong, stronger than you."
Vlad glared. He got to his feet, brushing dirt from his suit. The blond man had changed his accent, making his voice sound Russian.
"I'm afraid I have no idea what you are talking about."
"I'm talking about Danny Phantom. Do not deny the boy. I know that the two of you have met several times."
"Well now, this is certainly interesting. I take it that you are here for Alex though, yes?"
Yassen shook his head, calmly raising a hand up in front of him. Black energy swirled between his fingers, smoking. Vlad's eyes widened. The ghost ignored this, instead staring at his hand. The energy grew, and he made a fist.
"Who are you?" Vlad demanded, now very unnerved. He gasped, noticing too late what was about to happen.
Yassen opened his fist, pointing the palm towards Masters. The black energy shot towards him, wrapping around his head. Masters suddenly went very still.
"You won't remember meeting me, or seeing Danny. All you need to know is that their two friends came here, alone, to collect Alex." The ghost whispered, staring with an unwavering gaze at the man. Vlad was silent, collapsing to the ground as Yassen removed his power. Moments later, the assassin vanished.
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On a whim, Danny suggested that they start opening random doors in the Zone. His reason for this was that they couldn't go back home until Vlad was taken care of. They weren't ready to deal with him yet, and they needed someplace to stay. Also, they were in a part of the Zone that he had never been in before, so he was sort of lost. All of the doors looked the same though. Shaking his head, he continued flying, asking Sam and Tucker to point out a unique door if they ever saw one.
"If it looks safe, we should try it, right?" he said. Tucker cried out suddenly, pointing to a door some distance away. "Tucker, it's a bathroom door."
"Exactly! Pull over!"
Rolling his eyes, Danny complied, stopping so that Tucker could easily open and enter the door without falling through the ghost zone. The techno geek flung open the door, and a voice instantly yelled from the other side.
"Gir, it's an intruder! Defensive mode!"
"WHEEE-HOO!"
Tucker stared with wide eyes as a small robot began screaming and running around what most certainly wasn't a bathroom. A green boy was yelling at the robot, telling it to shut the door. Tucker saved them the trouble.
"That was no bathroom." He stated flatly as Danny continued flying. "Someone else pick the next door, alright? I'm not having too much luck here."
"Want to try that one over there?" Sam suggested, pointing to a frosted glass door. Everyone agreed that it looked decent, and Danny flew over to it, allowing Sam to open it because it was on her side.
Inside, a man looked up with a curious expression. He had been tinkering with a personal computer before being interrupted, and he carefully set it aside, beckoning the teens inside with his hand. Danny flew just inside the doorway, and Sam and Tucker let go of him.
"Uh, sorry to barge in like this-"
"Do you have a bathroom?" Tucker interrupted the halfa. The man raised an eyebrow, pointing to another door. Tucker ran out, promising that he'd only be gone a moment. Danny blushed.
"Th-that's not why we came by! Anyway, what country is this?"
"The UK, of course. Where did you come from?"
"The Ghost Zone." Danny said lamely, looking embarrassed. This got the man's interest.
"Well, shut that door! We wouldn't want any other ghosts getting in, now would we? Come in, come in!"
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Sam and Danny shuffled into the cramped area. The Goth took an offered seat, and Danny set Alex in the other, standing next to the chairs. The man studied Alex carefully, his eyes narrowed.
"This boy, he isn't dead, is he?" he asked calmly. Danny paled.
"No! He was knocked out by a ghost, not me!" he added the last part for his defense as the man gave him a questioning stare. "We got lost in the Ghost Zone, but we couldn't go back to our homes because it isn't safe there right now. Your door was floating in the Zone, and it was one of the only normal looking ones there. We need a place to stay, for a day at the most." He explained. Sam nodded, backing him up.
The door Tucker had left out of opened once more, and the boy came running back in. He had a panicked expression on his face.
"Danny! They make you pay to use the bathroom! Can you believe it?"
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AN: I'm pretty sure that they don't make people pay to use bathrooms in working places over there, but they do for public places, and I found it sort of funny when I was there.
How were the guest characters? Two of them weren't in for too long, were they? Sadly, they won't be coming back. The third guy will, and his name will be mentioned in the next chapter!
The next chapter will hopefully be posted tomorrow, because I'm leaving for a few days on the day after that. If I get enough reviews (at least more than one, guys!), I may post it… :3