The Secret Trio

Chapter 14

The journey thus far was almost completely silent. The speeder's engine had its usual low rumble, mingled with the fumbling through the bag of potions by Trixie, Spud, and Lao Shi. They worked to figure out which were necessary to bring and which to leave behind. Sam and Tucker were up front driving and navigating. Tucker seemed to be plugging his PDA into some slot in the Speeder with all sorts of cords and buttons that Howard, who was watching, did not recognize.

Howard turned his head back to the potion bag and then he withheld a sigh and used his hands to support his head, elbows leaning against his thighs. The boy had a deep-set frown, and his legs idly swung back and forth as he sat on a bench in the back of the speeder. The bench was nailed to the sides, a green seat cushion beneath his rump. His eyes locked onto the cold steel floor of the speeder.

Feeling uncomfortable, Howard looked backed up and peered out a round side window, revealing to him the Ghost Zone in all its glory. He couldn't help but have his jaw drop again, as it did when he left Clockwork's tower. Beautiful, yet...creepy. Howard watched blobs of green ectoplasm rise, contract, and fall among darkness for a few moments, until a green glob with a mouth and eyes flew by. It looked at Howard straight in the eyes and screeched horribly.

He yelped and immediately recoiled from the window to his seat and shuddered. He didn't like this place; he didn't like this place at all. He crossed his arms and again looked to the others, who didn't seem to have even noticed what happened. A thought crossed his mind to mention it, but he decided against it when Sam looked out, saw the ghost, rolled her eyes, and chose to ignore it. Howard returned to his silent vigil, swinging his feet and this time twiddling his thumbs. The frown returned to his face, this time more deep-set.

The boy had no idea how in the world all of them could seem so calm! His best friend for life, forever, the one he shared every single one of his classes with was kidnapped! Not just his best friend, but two of whom were now his friends as well. Not just that; they were best friends to many of the occupants of that speeder.

Finally he let a deep sigh that had been held in for quite some time. Seeking some sort of distraction from his terror, he looked towards Jake's friends and grandfather. They were almost done with picking out all the potions they'd need for whatever would happen in the citadel. Howard then looked at Jake's grandfather, and he raised an eyebrow. He hadn't met him until now, and they had hardly said a thing at all to each other upon meeting. He cleared his throat. "Uh, sir? Are you Jake's grandfather?"

Lao Shi looked over to Howard. "Yes." he said simply, and then turned his head back to his work, utterly disinterested in talking. Howard turned away and said nothing more, but sent one final look over to the man. Finally, Tucker stood up and came in the back, tapping on his PDA.

"Alright, everyone, I've downloaded a map of the place into the Speeder. This is how we're going to get in." Tucker clicked a few buttons on the side of the Speeder, and a hologram of the castle appeared in the middle of the back. Trixie, Spud, Lao Shi, and Howard gathered around. Howard in particular gazed at it in fascination, and as he waved a hand through the side, the inside rooms became visible. He retracted his hand in surprise. The walls of the hologram closed up again, and it glowed slightly.

Tucker spoke again. "Danny's parents upgraded this Speeder recently, so I managed to pull this up. Clockwork was generous enough to show us where our friends are being kept, so I looked around the layout and I found a way in through some vents." He knelt down to the bottom of the hologram and pointed out a vent on the left side of the castle. He poked it and the vent system became clear. "This will lead us down the vents of their prison. It should be large enough for us to crawl through. From there, we need to figure out a way to find and defeat William the Forgotten. Danny can probably phase through and quietly scout the place to find him. Then we all launch a surprise attack. Together, we should be able to stop him once and for all." Tucker proudly grinned and folded his arms. "A presentation by Foley."