"Is the target in sight, over."
"Positive, in pursuit now, over."
"Neither of you think this is a little weird?"
"You're supposed to say over, over."
"Fine, he's going to kill you both, over."
"I'm going in for a closer look, over." Danny flew invisibly through the streets of Amity Park his eyes trained on his target while Sam and Tucker followed stealthily at a distance. Danny flew in just close enough to hear what the target was saying.
"Guess it was my fault for eating so much." Red was looking at the various store fronts they walked past.
"I still don't get the deal with that guy." Valery said. "He's way too interested in you."
"Thinks I like the attention."The ghost rolled his eyes. "Like I'm one of his fanboys. Your old man get that promotion?"
"No." Valery sighed and Danny drifted away before he heard what she said next.
"Nothing new, over." The halfa said.
"Guy's, I'm sure he can handle himself for a few hours, you're just looking for an excuse to use your new toys." Sam's voice crackled over Danny's earpiece.
"Do you wanna risk it? Everyone knows she hates ghosts." Danny said. "There has to be a reason she's so persistent and I don't think it's his pretty face, over." They were slowly making their way to the near empty park.
"Wait, I think I see a car pulling up."Tucker said. "And it looks fancy, maybe he was lying about it not being a date."From the sound of his voice, it was obvious the boy was smirking.
"Don't think she'd the king of girl he…" Sam began.
I'm checking it out. "Danny flew closer.
If he didn't know any better he would have thought Red hadn't even noticed the car driving by. Actually knowing better, he could tell that the ghost was more focused on the car than anything, Red was always suspicious of things that stuck out, and things that blended in too well. Danny knew that, but he'd bet Valery didn't. The halfa was mentally gloating over being the obvious better friend when someone stepped out of the car and his blood froze.
"Vlad!"
Before Danny'd screamed out the warning, Red had already gripped the man's arm, twisted until there was a loud 'crack', and then fired off the ecto-blaster at Vlad himself.
"Red wait!" Valery pulled the ghost away, sending his shot into the air.
Danny dove in and tried to fly his friend away from the girl. They'd barely gotten into the air when They were blasted out of it and fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. When he started to stand up Red was shot from behind, then pulled to his feet and dragged away.
"Let go of me you creepy freak!" The ghost twisted out of Vlad's hold and tried to stumbled over to Danny, but the man shot at him some more and carried on until Red was flattened on the ground again.
"Red, it's okay." Valery said, holding her arm's out pleadingly.
Danny ignored her and charged at Vlad. "Listen, I know you're lonely, but get your own friends!"
"Phantom!" Valery tackled Danny, knocking him to the ground. "He doesn't need you anymore, get lost!"
"Well done Miss Gray." Vlad said, picking the now limp ghost up again. "I think it's time I take my boy home now."
"Not on my watch you don't!" Danny blew the girl out of his way with bright ecto-energy beams.
Vlad cried out and threw Red away from him second later, clutching a widening red stripe at his side.
"You little animal!" Vlad growled. Rings appeared and spread out from his middle, leaving Plasmius standing before them. He picked the ghost boy up again and this time slammed him back into the ground. When Danny saw Red's face again it was coated with sticky green ectoplasm.
Danny tried to help him, but was himself blasted away, he went intangible just before he would have been thrown into a car. Red tried the same trick and got out of Vlads hold again, he immediately spun around to deliver a kick to the man's midsection.
Plasmius recovered quickly and grabbed the ghost's leg the ghost's leg, and pulled him closer. He put a charged hand at the back of the boy's head and electrocuted him. Red didn't scream, but bit down on his lower lip so hard it drew out more ectoplasm.
Danny got back to his feet ran at the other halfa again, the knife Red had given him clutched firmly in his hand. Red shook his head, and waved his hand at Danny, surprised, the halfa came to a stop.
"Richard." The ghost croaked out. "Just, go fetch…" Vlad tightened his hold around the ghosts throat and his voice sputtered out.
"Richard?" Plasmius drew Red closer, holding the boy against his chest, one arm still squeezing tightly around his neck while he weakly tried to loosen it. "Don't think he can save you, child." He took out the plasmius maximus again and pressed it against the ghost's head. "I would prefer to not be interrupted though, so you get it the car, Daniel."
Red's struggled increased and he shook his head desperately, tears leaking out the corners of his eyes.
"You're even loopier than I thought if you think I'm letting you get away with him, that's a weapon for halfas Vlad." Danny said, watching Vlad closely for a chance to get at him without hurting Red more.
"Precisely, my dear boy." Vlad ruffled the ghosts hair. "On a halfa it merely drains of all ghostly energy, what do you think it will do to a being composed entirely of that energy?"
Danny's eyes widened in shock. Vlad wouldn't, if he wanted Red badly enough to go through so much trouble then he wouldn't just destroy he, would he? Danny though back to one of his parents rants about ghosts, without their ecto-energy a ghost couldn't maintain their physical forms, they would melt. Red would melt.
"I'll go with you instead." Danny said. "Just put him down, he's just a normal ghost, Vlad, he doesn't have anything to do with this."
"No, Daniel, you have nothing to do with this, but I will be taking you with me regardless. Now get. In. The car." Vlad pressed the sharp points of the plasmius maximus harder into Reds already scraped cheek.
"Danny don't." Red forced the words out. "If you get in that car I swear, I will melt myse…"
"Now, Daniel." Vlad ordered.
Danny swallowed and got into the parked car, doing his best to ignore Red's muffled cries for him to stop. There was a bright flash and Red went silent. A metal sphere was thrown in Danny's lap and the car sped away from the scene of the one-sided fight. He caught Valerie shocked through the window look and pulled her the same rude gesture he knew Red would have before the glass darkened and blocked everything outside from view.
They drove for what felt like hours, Danny cradling the sphere gently in his hands. About as big as his head, clunky and not nearly as convenient as the Fenton thermos. It was one of Skulker's traps, easy enough to break out of for a powerful halfa. He knew Red wouldn't have stopped fighting to get free, it was better that he was in the trap where he couldn't hurt himself doing it.
When the car stopped Danny pulled roughly through the door by a big, muscular ghost and the trap was ripped from his hands.
"Take him to the containment cube." Vlad said, tossing and catching the sphere like a ball.
"Let me calm him down first." Danny begged. If he could just convince Red to stop fighting until help came, then maybe he wouldn't be too badly hurt. Vlad looked like he was going to refuse and Danny's heart sank. "Please."
"Very well." Vlad smirked and twisted the sphere open.
With a flash of light the ghost was perfectly still on the metallic floor. The halfa rushed over to his friends side. "Red?" He gently shook his friend. Red's eyes slowly opened. He looked from Danny, to Vlad. It happened fast, faster than Danny had ever seen Red move before.
One second he was on the floor, and the next he was in front of Vlad, knife buried deep inside the man's chest. Vlad backhanded the ghost, and disappeared, from behind another Vlad pressed the plasmius maximus into Red's neck and activated it.
White fire engulfed the ghosts body, and Red's tortured screams filled the room, his human clothes disintegrating in a moment. Danny wanted to rush over, his first instinct to put out the flames, but he was held in place by the huge ghost, his human form too weak to break away. It was like layers were peeling off the ghost, burning up and disappearing.
Vlad watched, sick fascination plastered all across his face. It ended after minutes that felt like hours and Danny's voice was hoarse from crying out to his friend. Someone dropped to the ground where Red had stood, someone that wasn't a ghost.
The boy's red, yellow and green costume hung from him in tatters, his bright caped stained deep red. Dark hair, shot through with white hung over his badly bruised face.
Vlad kicked the boy over, and blue eyes just barely opened.
"Fascinating."
.
.
.
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, almost the exact same feeling that had driven him to return Gotham after his space mission with the Titans. The communicator was clutched in his hand, ready to call his brother again, the only thing stopping him was how irritated Jason had been after the first dozen times he'd called already. Jason wanted to spend time with his friend, away from school and fighting.
That was good, taking an interest in something normal meant he was healing. Maybe soon he'd trust his friends enough to stop hiding from them, then there was only a small step to trusting himself to do the same.
Dick made himself a bowl of cereal and paced the length on his small kitchen while he ate. A loud knocking interrupted his meal and he checked his security feed. Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley were beating on his door, their eyes shifting nervously down the hall behind them. It took a moment for him to notice the extra weapons they carried.
Dick set down the bowl and opened the door. He didn't even have a chance to ask questions and the answers were being shouted at him by the teen. They talked over each other, making it hard to decipher what either was saying. Something about Jason, Phantom and Valery.
"Stop." He ordered, silencing them instantly. "What happened?"
"Valery sold Red out." Tucker blurted out. "Danny knew she was up to something, so we followed…"
"Then Vlad showed up, and he took them. We couldn't go to the Fenton's because, if they knew Red was a ghost…" Sam clutched her large blaster tightly.
"Okay, okay." Dick set them both down on his sofa, his own heart beating a mile a minute. They were worried, this was bad, but he couldn't let them see that, had to keep them calm. "I need you to tell me everything you know about this Vlad. What he wants, how I can beat him and where to find him, can you do that for me?"
His little brother had been taken by another madman.
Dick sped after the oddly named tracking device through streets he hadn't traveled before, then into open wilderness. The motorcycle autocorrected any bad turns he made in his haste, tires gripping the road as tightly as he was going to grip that man's throat.
He'd wanted to call Bruce, first thing he'd heard, but he planned on taking care of it long before the man ever arrived. Nightwing would be more than enough to deal with this half-ghost that thought he could mess with the youngest member of the bat-family and get away with it. It was his first solo mission in what felt like years, the equipment he'd taken from the teens felt heavier for his unfamiliarity with them.
They'd been left at his apartment, kept safe behind his security system, their own weapons ready incase they were targeted next. Jason wouldn't forgive him if Nightwing let something happened to them while on mission because he didn't have the focus to keep an eye on them.
By nightfall a structure had become visible in the otherwise empty expanse of land he'd been traveling through. It was small, box-like, maybe the size of Dicks bedroom. Circling above it were the three vultures that had tried to make off with Jason and his friends weeks ago.
Nightwing hid his motorcycle behind some ancient, leafless trees and crept closer, blending into the shadows of the uneven ground. He tied a wingding to the end of a line on a fishing rod called the Fenton fisher. The birds didn't notice him, they were bickering amongst themselves, though they were too far away for Nightwing to hear what they said.
The wingding flew in an arc, circling all three of them in one motion. With one sharp tug he pulled all three screaming birds from the sky. They struggled in their tight binding for a minute before Nightwing leaped out of the shadows, landing on top of them.
"He there." He said, a grin on his face. "I'm looking for someone, you wouldn't mind giving a guy some directions, right?"
"No, no." All three shook their heads. "Where are you going friend?"
"I just need to know how to get to mister Vlad Plasmius, he's somewhere in there isn't he?" Nightwing said, a wingding spinning in his hands.
"He's busy, come back later." One of them said and the blade was instantly at it's neck.
"I hear these really hurt when they cut, wanna see?" Nightwing asked, bending in closely.
"Third door on the left, you can find him on the cameras!" A bird blurted out.
"Thanks." Nigtwing said, the grin spreading over his face again. All three were sucked into the Fenton thermos and he moved on.
The security on the doors was old, nothing like the stuff he was used to, and it only took minutes for him to be in. Inside there was blood on the floor. Dick swallowed stepped over it, it could have belonged to anyone and there was no time for an analysis. It didn't take long for him to find the trap door that opened on some stairs leading down into what had to be the true facility.
He moved silently, checking every door he came by, there were indeed, security monitors in the third room on the left. He pulled the green blob watching them into the thermos from behind and took it's seat. Their were only cameras in the suspiciously empty halls. He tinkered with the control panel, trying to find anything inside the rooms, but found nothing.
If Sam and Tucker had been right, then this had to have been one of the places where this Vlad Plasmius conducted experiments on ghosts. One off the doors on the monitor read generator room, and that was Nightwing's next destination.
Inside that room he was actually mildly surprised to find that it really was the source of the facilities power. This wasn't an infiltration at all. He shut the generator down and broke some parts off it for good measure. The facility was plunged into darkness and Nightwing activated his night-vision lenses.
They'd definitely know something was wrong now, but he, like his mentor, operated best under the cover of darkness. Taking advantage of the confusion and paranoia of knowing there was someone there without knowing where was one of the first things he'd learned.
Things were still too quiet through, he was expecting some kind of response, no security detail could be that incompetent. He'd just come to the hesitant conclusion that there was no more security when a beam of light shot through the darkness. Nightwing got out of the way in time to avoid being hit, but his eyes couldn't escape the bright glare. He hurriedly clicked off the night-vision and had to blink away some spots in his vision before he could see his glowing opponent.
"A human?" A large ghost with fiery green hair laughed. "I thought this would be hard."
Nightwing let himself appear disoriented while the host marched up to him. "Yeah? And you are?"
"Skulker, the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone." He fired of another beam, which Nightwing dodged. "You've made your final human mistake."
Nightwing waited for Skulker to get closer before he launched himself forward, the Fenton fisher ready. He stabbed the attached wingding deep into the ghost's robotic suit and wrapped the line tightly around it.
He knelt over the robot and pulled back his metal clad fist. "I'm Nightwing, the universes most ticked off big brother, now where's your boss?" Skulker laughed and Nightwing smashed his fist into the ghosts face, there was a hollow crack. "That's new." He said and felt around the bottom of the head and pulled up when he felt an opening. The ghost's robotic head was tossed aside and Nightwing picked up the little green blob inside.
"Let me go!" It yelled in its tiny voice. "You'll pay for this!"
"That's adorable." Nightwing smirked. "I know someone who'd love something like you as a pet, then again, she might just turn you into a snack too." He shook the mini ghost. "Come on, you don't want that and I don't want to play search and destroy all night."
Nightwing heard a scream down the hall and sucked the useless ghost into the thermos. He wanted to run, but surprise might have been the only advantage he'd have in the next confrontation, so he forced himself to sacrifice speed for silence.
There were some flickers of light underneath a door and Nightwing eased it open. The room was filled with monitors and what looked like surgical equipment. In the center was a gasping figure hooked up to an I.V and strapped onto a steel table.
He would have been harder to recognize if not for the tattered Robin uniform he wore.
"Robin." Nightwing hurried to cut through the leather straps around his little brother's bloody wrists, The boy's watery blue eyes were fixed on his older brother, cracked lips moving wordlessly. Nightwing pulled him up and tipped a flask of some medicated water into his mouth.
Robin's breathing sped up and he curled in on himself. "She sold me out." He whispered, tears dripping down his cheeks.
"You don't know that." Nightwing said as he took out roles of gauze and some disinfectant.
"I do, and she, she had a freaking smoke while he was…" He had to pause to catch his breath again.
Crap. Nightwing did his best to keep calm and carry on dressing the boy's many wounds. That was something he'd hoped he'd be there when that little piece of information crawled out from the back of his brother's mind. It made too much sense that he'd remembered now of all times, under such similar circumstances.
"Valery too." Robin whimpered. "She, she helped him catch me, set it up, all of it. I should have seen it coming, shouldn't have let her get close. I'm so, so stupid." He sobbed.
"Listen here." Nightwing peeled off his mask and looked the boy in the eyes. "That wasn't your fault. All I'm saying now, is that wasn't your fault. When we've gotten you and your friend out of this you can break down over it, but right now there isn't time." He wiped the blood and tears off robin's face and carefully applied the disinfectant before taping cotton gauze pads over them. "Put this on and hurry."
The boy held the red and gold in his hands, tracing a finger over the symbol and crossed belts at the chest. He pressed the mask against his eyes first . When he looked up his face was blank. "I think I saw where they took Phantom, it shouldn't take long to find him."
"Leaving already?" A tall man appeared at the doorway. "I'm afraid I must insist you stay a while longer."
"You're the one that did this?" Nightwing's fists were clenched at his sides so tightly it was almost painful.
"And you're the Richard they called for, I must say I'm impressed you got this far." He gestured at Robin. "Fascinating, isn't it, how he was able to retain all of that ecto…" several small disks attached themselves to his chest, shocking him into silence, they beeped rapidly and exploded, knocking the man through the wall of the adjacent room.
Nightwing put the disk launcher back into its compartment, and Robin, now fully dressed in the new, not-quite Robin suit was rushing past him, not even sparing a glance at the gaping hole. Before chasing after he took a moment to clip the specter-deflector around the waist of the barely conscience Plasmius and break the locking mechanism.
"Robin!" He called and ran towards the sounds of doors being kicked in.
.
.
.
Phantom was still somewhere in the building, maybe he was fine, maybe he wasn't, Jason didn't let himself thin on that. He kicked in every door down the hall he'd seen them drag Phantom down. They were all filled with more medical equipment and green stained surgical tables. In some he found cages of ghostly animals, Jason paused at those.
Plasmius needed those animals for his research, and Jason was cognizant enough to know that he didn't want that research going anywhere, so he broke the cages, freeing the animals to escape. Someone was calling for him to slow down, but he couldn't, if he slowed down enough he'd think. All he could afford to think about was the mission, or else he wouldn't be able to complete it.
He broke into another room and found not one, but several Phantoms, all suspended in some sort of green fluid, he released all of them and kept moving. Nightwing could look them over and see if any were the original, Jason would keep going in case none were. He heard Nightwing stop at that door, then slam it loudly.
The final door in the hallway he had a hard time busting open. Nightwing caught up to him and took his place at a control panel. Jason watched him work, it took not even a minute of typing in a small wrist computer for the door to slide open. Both of them rushed in to find Phantom, trapped in a cubic device that left only his head visible.
"What's going on out there?" Danny asked, panic clear on his face.
"It's fine." Jason said, smiling kind of hurt his scraped cheeks, but he tried anyway. "Do you know how to open this?"
"There's a button on the front. Red are you okay, what did he…?" Danny began, but a curt shake of the head from Nightwing silenced him. Danny fell out of the device and quickly got to his feet.
"You okay to move?" Jason asked, pulling the other boy to his feet.
"I can't go ghost for a while, but sure." Danny said.
"Great." Nightwing swung the boy onto his back and took off running, Jason following close behind. "Let's get out of here before Dracula wakes up."
Jason's lungs were heaving by the time they broke out into the pale moonlight outside, his limbs feeling like they were going to fall off if he used them much longer. He leaned against a dry tree to catch his breath while Nightwing loaded Danny onto the motorcycle.
There, mission accomplished. Jason sank to his knees and let his control go as arms reached for him.
.
.
.
What's wrong with him?!" Danny's terrified eyes were fixed on the masked boy being supported in Richards arms.
"He's having a panic attack." Nightwing held the boy in front of him and started the ignition. "Hold on." He told Danny and they sped away from the research facility. The boy had more questions to ask, but they were going too fast for anything to get through.
By the time they got back to the city the sky was starting to light up, luckily the roads were almost empty, so it didn't take much longer for them to reach the apartment. They bypassed the front entrance and went up the fire escape instead. Danny made way more noise on the way up than Nightwing had thought he would, probably waking some people a few hours early.
Nightwing deactivated the locks on the door and stepped inside. Sam and Tucker were in the kitchen, weapons at the ready. He told them they'd done good job and went into his room with Robin and shut the door.
Jason pulled off his mask and curled into a ball on Dick's messy bed, his breathing already starting to slow down after the long ride.
Nightwing sat down next to him, a hand on his shaking shoulder. "How much did you remember?"
"Everything." Jason whispered, fresh tears spilled from his eyes, soaking the dressings on his face as he stared straight ahead. "I know why I didn't want to remember."
"I'm sorry." Dick wanted to pull the boy into a hug, but he had the feeling Jason wouldn't appreciate the gesture right then.
"Why? It's my own fault." Jason chuckled darkly. "I never listened to Bruce, he told me to wait and I didn't, he told me to stop being Robin, and I ran away with the suit." He buried his face in his knees, hugging them tightly to himself.
"Jason, you can't…"
"My own mother did that to me, for money, and he warned me. Wonder what Valery got, more fancy toys to shoot down ghosts, because I was stupid and I always know better, don't I? They'll all do it to me wont they." His body was wracked with sobs. "Friends, family. I wish I could say I wish I'd just die, but even that didn't, make it go away!" He pressed his fists to his mouth to muffle the screams that escaped his hoarse throat. "What do I have to do, let myself get melted into a puddle of…"
Dick pulled Jason's hands away and slapped him hard enough to pull off the gauze on one cheek.
"That's. Not. True." Dick took hold of the boy's shoulders and shook him. "You say you remembered everything? You're not stupid enough to think what that woman did meant anything! Who she was, doesn't mean anything!" Dick yelled. "You were trying to help her, because that's what Robin does, he helps people and she took advantage of that. It wasn't because you deserved it, it was because she was scum."
He took hold of both sides of Jason's face and forced the boy to look at him.
"Valery made you think she was your friend, and you could see she didn't have anymore, so you wanted to help, because that's what Robin does." He repeated it again, painfully aware of the tears soaking his hands. "Robin helps people, and you were a great Robin, Jason, you've helped so many people. Robin's not selfish, Jason Peter Todd isn't selfish, and doing what you're talking about would be very, very selfish."
"You have to promise me you won't ever, ever do something to hurt yourself like that."His eyes burned with unshed tears. "Can you promise me that, Little Wing?"
Jason didn't answer, his eyes turned away from his brother, and Dick wanted to scream. To even think of doing something like that, it was so far removed from the Jason he remembered that he couldn't even put it into words.
"What the heck, Jason!" Dick yelled. "Sheila Haywood wasn't your family, Valery Gray wasn't your friend, they never were. They were cowardly, pathetic, selfish people. Now you're thinking of making yourself disappear, for them?! I'm your family, Jason, were family, me and you and Bruce and Babs and Alfred, why would you hurt us like that? You're friends are waiting outside that door, are you going to hurt them? Answer me Jason!"
"I don't want to!" He cried. "I don't want to. I just want to go to sleep Dick. I'm so weak, I can't even go a day without breaking down. I don't want to do this anymore, every time it gets better it gets worse." He sobbed. "I already died, can't I just rest now?"
"Stay here." Dick ordered and marched out of the room, ignoring the teenagers watching him anxiously he ripped of the door of the medicine cabinet in his bathroom and went back to Jason.
"What's this for?" Jason asked.
"Look." Dick pushed Jason's face near the mirrored surface to make him look at his reflection. "Does that look dead to you?"
The boy stared at his own bruised, tear stained face in awe. Setting the mirror aside he pulled off his gloves and looked closely at the darker skin of his hands.
"You didn't let The freaking Joker kill you." Dick said, brushing a hand over his little brother's white streaked dark hair. "Are you going to let this do you in? Aren't we all worth more than Sheila Haywood and Valery can live for us, can't you?"
"I want to see Bruce," Jason said softly, "and Babs, and Alfie. I miss them." He let Dick pull him into a hug and cried into his brother's chest. "I want to tell them I miss them. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I made all of you work so hard, and then I…"
"It's not your fault Little Wing." Dick said, holding him tightly. "And your friends, are you okay to see them yet?"
Jason shook his head but pulled away from Dick and stood up, wiping the tears from his eyes. He walked to the door and turned the handle.
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.
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Danny was watching the door anxiously, waiting for any sign that his friend would be okay. Sam and Tucker sat on either side of him, all three of them were watching over the back of the sofa. He didn't know what Vlad had done after he was dragged away, but what had happened before was horrifying enough.
Red had survived whatever the plasmius maximus had done to him, and been well enough to find and free Danny. Then he'd just stopped, and Richard had locked them both in that room. A brief moment of hope was shattered when Richard left the room only to storm back into it and shut the door again.
Danny was left to explain to his friends what had happened, and he knew next to nothing about it. No, he didn't know why Red looked so different, or how Richard had beaten Vlad. He didn't know why Vlad had taken Red or what he'd done to him.
He didn't know if Red was going to be okay.
The door opened again and all three teens leaned closer in expectation. Red appeared, in his red and black body suit, Richard hovering close behind.
"You guys are still here?" The boy asked, a small smile on his lips. "Doncha have school in like an hour?"
"Red!" His friends rushed forward, all of them pulling him into a tight group hug.
"Hey my ribs!" The ghost struggled in their hold.
"Dude you're alive!" Tucker said, his eyes suspiciously wet. "Well, not really but…"
"The way Danny was talking we thought you were going to melt down or something." Sam smiled.
"Hey." Danny scratched the back of his neck with an embarrassed grin. "I almost thought you did, what happened, are you okay?"
"I'd say it wasn't worse than dying, but I can't say I know how that feels anymore." Red laughed, brushing aside a small lock of black hair.
"So what, you're not a ghost anymore?" Tuckers face scrunched up in confusion.
"I dunno what I am." Red said. "But I know what I aint, and I aint a dead guy." He yawned, "But seriously, you guys need to get to get to school before you blow whatever cover you came up with."
"And what are you going to do?" Sam asked, her arms crossed. "Sit around all day."
"Come on, we wanna hear how your bro beat Plasmius." Tucker threw an arm around Red's shoulder.
"I need a nap." Red said. "Besides, I gotta get some stitches. I'll be here when ya get back." He grinned.
For some reason Danny had the feeling those words meant a lot more than they let on.
"Okay, lets get outta here guys." Danny said.
"Yeah, pretty boy needs his sleep." Tucker laughed.
"Richard the pretty one, I'm the badass." Red called as they were leaving.
"Seeya pretty boy." Sam waved as she headed out.
Just before he closed the door, Danny saw Red practically fold into Richard. The man's lips moved and Red nodded. Then the wooden barrier shut completely, hiding the brothers from view.