Another Way

Chapter seven: Best Served (2).

Her mother frowned sadly at Mr. Masters. "Vlad, you aren't still mad at Jack for what happened, are you? You know that he didn't mean for anything like that to happen?"

The man's fury turned into something different, something darker that made goozebumps break out on Jazz' spine, despite the warm weather. "Oh, don't worry, Maddie dear. Why, it's all water under the bridge! In fact, I am so glad to have you all with me this weekend that I feel like pulling out my old bottle of Romenée-Conti that I've been saving for a special occasion. It's chilled, of course," he said, his lips pulled up into a faint smirk, "Everyone knows that it's best served cold, after all."

Jazz sat at the ridiculously long dining table, glancing nervously at their host, who was currently talking to her mother about some invention or other.

"It's best served cold, after all."

She shivered.

His sudden talk of expensive wines had seemed odd yesterday, but after spending the evening with the man, and finding that picture in his study, her mind was starting to paint a disturbing picture of the man that she couldn't quite fit with her parents' stories of their old college friend.

She looked between her parents, chatting with their host, and her brother, gazing absentmindedly at his toast, and wondered how none of them had caught the man's allusions to a revenge best served cold. But then again, her brother had been zoned out at the time, and her father never caught any hints, big or small, so perhaps it wasn't such a mystery. She eyed her mother, who was discreetly leaning away from a flirtatious Vlad. Didn't she notice anything? She thought she would know if her mother found Vlad suspicious.

"What's wrong Jazz? You're so quiet." Her brother's voice suddenly interrupted her musings, and she looked from him to the adults at the table. Oh fudge, what do I say?

"Ah. Good morning?" she smiled, a grimace that even she could tell stretched awkwardly across her face. Her father smiled back as her mother looked confused and Master's eyes narrowed at her in what her currently hyper-paranoid brain couldn't help but interpret at suspicion.

Danny smirked cheekily at her. "Morning, Jazz? A bit late, don't you think?"

"I- Well, I just-" she stuttered.

"Wow, now you get lost in your own world even without your nose being in a book? Being teacher's pet is a slippery slope, huh?" He grinned at her, clearly trying to get a rise out of her.

She pursed her lips, but was secretly glad for the distraction. "I was just thinking about my math homework, Danny. You should try it sometime."

Her brother grimaced and her mother lifted an eyebrow at her. "You told me that you were done with your homework before we left, Jazz."

"Uh, well, I… extra credit?" She tried, but even her father was starting to look confused.

"What's up Jazzy-pants? Are you behind on your schoolwork? In that case, your old dad is always here to help!" He offered seriously, but with that glint he always got in his eye when he was thinking of ghosts. He'll probably insist I do a special course on ghosts. Again.

Jazz bit her lip. "Um, I…" She really didn't want to explain her half-formed suspicions to her parents when she herself was half convinced that she was imagining the whole thing. She was especially reluctant seeing as their host was in the room with them.

Said man cocked an eyebrow and send her father an unimpressed look before Jazz could answer her father. "I hardly think Jasmine would benefit from your expertise, Jack."

Jazz tried to suppress her indignation at the little-concealed jab at her father's intelligence, but Jack brightened. "Right! My little princess is a genius, I tell ya'!" He grinned at his daughter who couldn't help but smile back while Danny made gagging noises next to her.

Vlad hummed noncommittally and put down his napkin. "Well, clearly Jasmine will be busy with… homework, but I was wondering what your plans are for the day? The other guests won't be arriving before evening, after all."

Maddie smiled warmly at the two men. "I was thinking you, Jack, and I could catch up today, Vlad. So much has happened these past twenty years that we haven't seen each other."

Masters gazed so longingly at her mother that Jazz couldn't help but want to imitate her brother's gagging noises from before. "Ah, that sounds lovely, Maddie dear, but I'm afraid that I will be busy with preparations for tonight for most of the day."

Her mother looked disappointed at the news. "Oh, of course Vlad. This reunion must be hard work. I suppose we could always test our ghost equipment in a different environment, now that we're out of Amity for once."

Jack grumbled in agreement. "Too bad that there aren't any ghosts in this place."

Masters got an absent look in his eyes as he mumbled, "Hm, I wouldn't say that there are none, Jack."

Jack looked up with a cautious hope in his eyes. "Are you saying what I think you're saying, Vladdie?"

Masters' right eye twitched at the nickname, but otherwise he showed none of his disdain as he smiled conspiratorially. "Well, this place used to belong to the old Dairy King, after all. He was fond of the place, and the nearby farmers claim that he haunts these halls to this very day." He smirked. "Who knows, perhaps you will be able to find him."

"Dairy King?" her dad asked with wide eyes. "He's here?"

"Well, this is the old Dairy Castle, after all. Refurbished, of course. The stables were horrifying to say the least-"

"Just a second, Vlad," her mother spoke up with a frown, "You're a capable ghost hunter. If there was a ghost here, and you knew it, why haven't you caught it yet?"

"I may know the basics of ghost hunting, my dear, but I am far too busy to chase them all day. Especially when the annoyance they cause is negligible." The man answered haughtily.

The table was quiet for a fraction of a second before Jack jumped from the table, toppling his chair in the process and making the eating utensils tremble enough that Danny grabbed his plate of toast, raising it high above his head while shooting the pristine white tablecloth a mistrusting look. "Did you hear that, Mads?!" He exclaimed at his wide-eyed wife. "A real ghost! Here! In Vlad's mansion!" He pulled an ectogun from somewhere on his person, making Jazz eye his skintight suit and decide that shedidn't want to know how. He ran towards the dining room doors with a holler of 'I'll reduce you to ecto-particles!' and exited the room.

For a minute they all listened to his fading footsteps. Jazz noticed that Danny looked unsettled as he put his plate back onto the table, giving it a sullen look, and she silently cursed her father's volatile obsession until she heard her mother clear her throat. She put both of her gloved hands on the table, rising slowly from her chair under the curious looks from her table-companions. She smiled sheepishly at them. "I'll… just make sure he doesn't break anything." She whipped out an ectogun and her gentle expression morphed to something fierce as she raced towards the doors, only to stop with a hand on the frame. "And Danny!" she called, making the raven-haired boy jerk in his seat. "Remember to do your homework!" and then she was gone.

Masters stared at the place she'd last been while Danny slumped back into his seat with a mumbled 'Yeah, right'. Jazz was just about to ask what homework? When their host's voice interrupted the silence.

"Poor woman. Must be exhausting to keep up with that- your father." He mumbled to himself, and Jazz felt the indignation rise again, but before she could retort, her brother snorted.

"Yeah, right. She's just as crazy about ghosts as dad is." He grinned at the silver-haired man.

The man looked more than a little surprised at this revelation. "Truly, my boy?"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, didn't you see her tear off after him just now? She has a much better aim, too," he mumbled the last part as he rubbed his arm with a grimace. Something passed over Masters' face that Jazz couldn't quite place.

The man looked thoughtfully at her brother. "Hm. Perhaps I underestimated her … interest in her hobby." He smiled at them suddenly. "Well, Daniel, since Jasmine will be busy, perhaps you would like to see the grounds around the castle? I have been meaning to take a walk around the premises, but I simply haven't had the opportunity, and with the reunion coming up I may not have any for some time."

Danny nodded. "Sure thing, Vlad."

Vlad? Jazz thought in shock. When did they start using first names? And wasn't he busy today? Wait, wait, if I'm busy and Masters just sent mom and dad off on a wild goose chase, doesn't this mean that Danny will be alone with Masters all day?! She sprung from her chair and grabbed Danny's shoulders, shaking him wildly. "Danny, no! It's a trap!"

Danny looked up at her like she'd gone clinically insane and she realized that she must really look it, judging by how wide her eyes felt. She glanced up at their host, who looked at her with shock that was quickly turning into a piercing look. She shuddered slightly and made herself let go of her defenseless little brother and stand behind his chair, keeping a hand on the top of the backrest. She let off a loud, unsymmetrical laugh as she played nervously with her hair. "T-that's what I always wanted to say. 'It's a trap!'" The grin felt sharp and awkward even to her. Masters' expression had turned incredulous, while Danny glanced wearily at her over his shoulder.

"Hm, yes." The older man said uncertainly, "The fruition of dreams is certainly… perhaps we should retire from the table if you are done, Daniel?" He unsuccessfully tried to hide the hopeful look in his eyes when he turned to her brother.

Said boy grinned at his helpless look, "Yeah, I am. And it's Danny, Vlad, not Daniel."

"Of course, my boy, of course." The man waved his hand absently, as if brushing off Danny's comment, as he got out of his chair. "Shall we go then, hm? Jasmine," he turned to her while her brother got up. It took all of her willpower not to push him back down; she settled for sending an unimpressed glare at the billionaire. The man's eyebrow rose infinitesimally. "I hope you have a productive morning. Try not to let yourself become… distracted."

She felt goose bumps rise on her spine as the man left her, Danny trailing after him. "Good job creeping out mom and dad's old college buddy, Jazz." Her brother whispered mischievously on his way out, "Not even I managed that yet!" she blushed furiously and wondered why she was even worried about her cheeky little brother.

Danny's probably right; this is all completely ridiculous. She thought to herself. I am acting like a paranoid child. I should let this go and read up on my teenage psychology. Clearly, I need to brush up on it. She followed behind the two at a distance and watched them walk towards the doors, chatting like long-time friends.

Danny stopped in the door frame, looking back at her. "You sure you don't want to come, Jazz? I'm sure it's more interesting than homework."

She shook her head insistently. "No, you go ahead, Danny. I can't let my grades slip; all those… interruptions back in Amity is making it hard enough to concentrate as it is."

The boy lifted a suspicious eyebrow at her. "You're really not done with your homework? You're never behind, Jazz."

Oh, come on! I'm behind sometimes! Or, I have been, once or twice… she put on a strained smile. "Really! And you'll have to excuse me, I have a psychology presentation to do."

Danny frowned at shared a look with Mr. Masters, who looked back at her with amusement. "I thought you had math work to do, Jasmine?" she stiffened as Danny laughed.

"See you later, Jazz!" he waved at her. The large double-doors slammed shut behind them, leaving Jazz standing alone in the hallway, the echoing clang of the doors reminding her just how big the castle was.

She took a deep breath. This seems like too much of a coincidence. Why is Masters so eager to spend time with Danny? Jazz frowned, wondering why this eccentric billionaire was so attached to her little brother when they'd only met yesterday. This is my chance to figure out what's going on! No staff, no Mr Masters… I'll finally be able to look around without having to look over my shoulder, too! She bit her lip uncertainly. But I can't just go through someone's home looking for evidence of some vague wrong-doing! Maybe I'll just check the study; if there's nothing there, I'll consider this matter over!

Cautiously optimistic that her fears would prove unfounded, Jazz made her way up the grand stairs. She could hear her parents' voices from somewhere in the ground floor of the castle. From time to time, she could hear crashing sounds and her mother's admonishing or excited voice. She doubted that they had found anything, but knowing them, they'd keep themselves occupied for a while.

The light in the study was spilling in through the uncovered windows, making the room seem a lot less ominous than it had last night. The desk was clean and held only a few items and- and-

It's gone, she thought, the hair raising on her neck. The torn picture of him and mom and dad is gone. She quickly checked the whole room; the picture was nowhere to be found. So he didn't just move it. Did he see me in here last night, after all? Or is this coincidental? Regardless, hiding that picture shows that he has something to hide – something to do with my parents. Something to do with that ripped out part of the picture. The part with my father on it.

She looked around the filled bookshelves and quietly tried to pull out one of the drawers of the mahogany desk and frowned. It was locked. That was going to make this a lot harder. I should have seen that coming, she took a deep breath and blew it out in a sigh. What am I looking for, exactly? The only grounds for her suspicions were their host's creepiness; hardly a court-winning argument. Even if her intuition was right on the spot, where would she start looking? What was she even looking for?

She gazed around the study once more before she slumped with a sigh. In for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. She thought, as she rolled up her sleeves and started searching for a key for the drawers. Now, if I were Vlad Masters…

Jack ran around the vast kitchen, checking supply closets and drawers for any sign of the ghost his wife and he were hunting.

Maddie gazed around the vacant kitchen, sparing only cursory glances for open cupboards. "Jack, I don't think he's here."

"Nonsense, Mads!" He smiled excitedly at her. "He's a Dairy King. Where else would he be but the kitchens? Where the cheese is. And the fudge. Does Vladdie have any fudge around?"

"He lived here before Vlad moved in and fixed it up," she corrected him, "he might show up anywhere in the castle, if not the fields."

"But Maddie, where else will he find this much cheese?" Jack exclaimed, opening a fridge full of a vast diversity of cheeses.

Her eyebrow shot up at the sight. "Well, that is a lot of cheese… but that doesn't mean anything, Jack. After all, ghosts don't need-" she finished her sentence with a gasp as a greenish-red spectre manifested right beside Jack. It was wearing a red fur-lined coat and a hat uncannily resembling a cheese wearing its own crown.

"What? What is it, Mads?" He asked, his eyes gleaming with barely contained excitement. The ghost peered at her from under its cheese-shaped hat.

"It's – it's him! Jack, to your right!" she cried, lifting her ecto-gun and wishing she'd had time to pull her ecto-bazooka out of the RV. Her husband turned on the spot and fired at the creature. The shot skimmed the cheese-hat, and the squat ghost waved its ice-cone sceptre around in obvious distress.

"Don't move, ecto-filth!" Maddie roared as she sent a shot in its direction.

The ghost's eyes widened with shock, and it quickly fled through the wall, leaving Maddie's shot to hit the cheeses. To her surprise, they exploded, covering her husband from head to waist.

Jack sputtered and wiped frantically at his face. "I've got Roquefort in places I never wanted to!"

Dismissing the fact that her anti-ghost weapons were able to hurt non-ghosts for the time being, she ran to the doorway, only to lean back to shout, "Not now, Jack, the ghost is getting away!"

He immediately abandoned his attempts at removing the dairy products and lifted his own ecto-gun. "Oh, yeah! Thank you, Mads, I almost forgot!"

They both stumbled out of the kitchen, one less gracefully than the other, their sights set on their prey, which scuttered off the moment it saw them.

"It's heading upstairs!" Maddie barked, setting off up the stairs. Behind her, Jack followed at a more sedate pace, cheese still dripping from his face.

She was nearly flying up to the first floor, taking several steps at a time. Had she been any less athletic than she was, she might have lost sight of the ghost. As it was, she only just noticed it scurrying around a corner, into one of the empty rooms.

She gritted her teeth and ran in, guns nearly blazing, before she caught sight of her daughter, standing behind a luxurious mahogany desk. Not so empty, then.

Then she noticed what she was doing.

"Jazz," the girl started and looked up at her with large, aqua eyes. She quickly withdrew her hands from the drawer she was shuffling through and hid them behind her back, sending her mother a sheepish, innocent smile. "are you snooping through Vlad's things?"

The girl's eyes widened again, as though she hadn't expected her mother to realize what she'd been doing. "What? No! I was just… just looking for the bathroom!" Her smile widened until it was almost painful to look at.

Maddie narrowed her eyes. "Jasmine Fenton, I can see this coming from your brother, but I was expecting better from you…!" She began, but was forced to pause her scolding when Jack came through the doorway, his ecto-gun going off and hitting a bookshelf, causing the inventory to fly off and one bust to shatter. "Jack!" she cried and he stopped shooting, looking around wildly.

"Where is it? Where did it go!?" he bellowed, alternating between pointing his gun at the walls and his family –our weapons aren't supposed to hurt physical objects, what setting did he put them on?! –reminding Maddie that they were still on a hunt.

She spared one look for her wayward daughter. "We'll talk about this later, Jazz." She promised, before turning back to her husband. "It must have phased through the walls to get outside! Come on, Jack, let's get that spiteful spectre!" She ran off before he could answer, but she could hear this enthusiastic whooping from behind her as she ran.

Jazz didn't realize she'd been holding her breath til she let it go. She was going to be in so much trouble…!

She shook her head to clear it and went back to rummaging through the rest of the drawers. She'd already decided to search through Master's study, so getting caught was really only fair – assuming he was innocent, of course. If he wasn't, she'd have a whole slew of different things to worry about.

Nothing under the desk. What did she even expect to find? There was no way-

A whooshing sound interrupted her thoughts and she jumped, staring at the floor-to-ceiling bookcase; or rather, the part that had just swung out on hidden hinges, revealing a laboratory in stainless steel behind it.

Jackpot, a numb part of her mind informed her, but she wasn't in the mood to appreciate pop culture references.

She gulped. A hidden lab? Her father must have turned on some switch when he tried to murder the bookshelf. I have a bad feeling about this…

She re-arranged everything in the drawer, locked it, and left the key in the secret compartment under the desk where she'd found it before carefully making her way to the newly opened hole in the wall. Peeking around the corner, she saw narrow metal stairs leading down. Swallowing, she slowly made her was the stairs, which seemed to lead down to basement level.

When she finally reached the end, she found herself in a vast room with linoleum floors and walls. Fluorescent lights lined the high walls and as she walked closer, she could see circuitry running up and down the walls, all leading to a massive screen. It sprung to life as she walked towards it, startling her. As the screen lit up, she noticed a faint humming sound around her. This place… is the circuitry part of the computer? What would Masters use such a big computer for?

Then her mother's face appeared on the plasma screen. "M-mom?!" she sputtered "What are you doing there?"

The violet eyes set on her, the image flickering slightly as it responded without emotion. "I am not your mother. I am my sweetie's personal assistant program." It said 'sweetie' like a fan girl would a celebrity's name.

She walked closer, narrowing her eyes in thought. "You're… a computer program? Why does Vlad Masters have a program of… no way." She paled. "He- he's not that obsessed, is he?"

The image of her mother –no, mom would never look at me that coldly- cocked its head to the side in an inquisitive manner. "Meaning of question unclear. Please specify."

"Uh… Vlad Masters created you, right? He's your… your…" she grimaced. "your 'sweetie', ugh. Why did he make you?" She looked around the room, finding what seemed to be anti-ghost weapons on the many tables and finally noticing the large, oval installation in the wall. Is that… "A Ghost Portal?" she gasped, turning her head back to the screen, "Why is there a Ghost Portal here? Mom and dad only just invented it!"

The computer-generated image peered at her suspiciously. "Only my sweetie is allowed to access such information."

She felt anger –or is it fear? - bubble in her stomach and she clenched her teeth. "Just tell me! Access the information!"

The fake Maddie's expression became hard, eyebrows coming together in a stubborn look that reminded Jazz of her cheeky little brother. "Access denied. Subject not recognized as system administrator." Several slots opened in the wall around the screen, miniature lasers popping out to aim straight at her. "Please stay still for destruction in three… two…"

Her eyes widened. This has got to be a joke! "Wait! You can't d-destroy me, I'm a guest! Mr. Masters invited me himself!" she exclaimed desperately.

The computer seemed to freeze for a moment, the terrifying count-down halted. "Bio-recognition scans initiated." It informed her, as a loading-bar appeared on the screen. It was a few, nerve-wrecking seconds, where Jazz considered legging it for the stairs but kept herself still only because her logical mind told her it was futile. Then the system evidently found the information it was looking for. "Subject identified as; Jasmine Fenton. Lethal actions restricted. Please step away from the computer."

She stepped back with near-tangible relief, eyeing the lasers as they retreated into their holsters.

This is ridiculous! She thought to herself. Why would a man like Vlad Masters care about her parents –revenge?- okay, true, but it was twenty years ago! But a need for revenge is an integral part of the human psyche, and the comparative suffering is-

She groaned and buried her face in her hands. For once, she wished she could turn her brain off. All of her thoughts, the pieces of a puzzle she did not want to see completed, swirled around in her head. She had never thought her family would ever face this kind of problem; she had considered law suits, deaths, injuries, mental breakdowns, but this…

"Jasmine Fenton is not allowed in the laboratory." The cold, computerized voice informed her. She looked up from her hands, trying not to wince at the sight of the AI.

Alright Jasmine. Now is the time to put that brain to good use. I have to know what Masters is planning. If he is even planning anything… his obsession could simply surmount to using mom as a reference for creepy, trigger-happy AI's… yeah, right.

She cleared her throat as she observed the unamused image of her mother. It says I'm not allowed in here, but it didn't shoot me initially and it didn't stop to verify my identity before attempting to … destroy me. I wonder if I can outwit it somehow? Her head hurt a little less at that. Arguing and logic was something she was good at; if the AI's logic was really faulty, or incomplete, perhaps she could wrench some kind of information from it.

"Uh… so, Mr. Masters build you?" she tried, smiling the same awkward smile at the AI that she'd used on her family and host earlier. Just as before, it had no effect, as the image simply frowned again.

"Jasmine Fenton is not privy to that information"

"But I'm a guest! Why wouldn't Mr. Masters want me to meet his personal assistant?"

The fake Maddie blinked "That … sweetie didn't tell me he would bring guests over," it said uncertainly, violet eyes wavering.

Amazing program, she acknowledged dimly, it really acts like a real person. Too bad it's an abomination created by an eccentric creep. "Huh, that's weird. Did he forget?"

The image suddenly smiled fondly, and the similarity to her mother's face almost made Jazz nauseous. "Sweetie does forget things now and then. He isn't blessed with a perfect eidetic memory like I am."

Yeah, maybe that's because you're a computer program and not a real person. Jazz forced the smile to stay on her face, but she felt it wavering with each second she spent in the computer's presence. "Yeah, lucky him that he has you. Where would he be without you?"

"Oh, he would have to make all those scans and calculations for his experiments himself without me! He build me to do those perfectly, after all." It agreed enthusiastically.

So Masters did build it! "So, uh… he really didn't tell you that you'd be having guests over?"

"Hmm… no, he only said that he'd be very busy, what with his plans finally coming fruition soon and all. Especially since he'd have to take that new element into account."

New element? No, that's not important; He is planning something, "Oh, uh, so what will the, uh… fruit of his labours be?"

The image shrugged, "Oh, I don't know the details; I just play my part."

Jazz raised an eyebrow. "Your part? How are you helping him? Ah, b-because he'll need your help, of course!"

She- it- shook its head regretfully. "Oh, not much. I only keep an eye one the monitors."

"Monitors?"

Suddenly, the area of the screen that wasn't taken up by her mother's image filled with those of rooms, doors, and the exterior of the castle. Jazz gasped. He has the whole place monitored! There has to be cameras in every room! She glanced at one of images and winced. Even the bathrooms it seems, ew!

"That… that has to be difficult. To handle so many cameras, I mean."

The image smiled. "Oh, not at all! I am capable of multitasking."

Jazz looked around the room and saw the weapons lining the tables and the conspicuous Ghost Portal in the wall. "I bet. So, when you say he's planning something soon, how, uh, 'soon' do you mean?"

The image frowned pensively. "I really don't know! He's keeping very quiet about it, really."

Jazz groaned in defeat. I'm in a secret underground laboratory underneath a castle belonging to a Vlad Masters, who is an old friend of my family, has a dangerous crush on my mother, hates my father, and is seemingly planning revenge on my family for something that happened years before I was even born. Oh, and ghosts are real. She stared hopelessly at her feet. I… I'm in over my head here, I think.

"Hm. Now that I think about it, sweetie did seem very adamant that I keep anyone from leaving here alive," The AI's pensive voice told her, "but I was instructed to destroy intruders, not 'guests'. Should I destroy you completely or only a little bit?" it grimaced in confusion. "This conundrum is messing with my programming!" as if to prove its words, the image flickered momentarily before stabilizing.

Jazz swallowed, suddenly remembering the lasers hidden in the walls. "Oh, uh, I'll make it easy for you and leave, then!"

"You have still invaded the laboratory-"

"But if I'm not here, then I'm not an intruder! See? It's perfectly logical!" she exclaimed as she quickly made her way towards the stairs. "It'll be like I was never here!"

She didn't wait for an answer as she hurried back up to the study like seven ghosts were after her. As she stumbled out of the concealed door, she could hear a mechanical sound behind her. She turned quickly and backed away until her back met the mahogany desk, sure that something was going to come out of the doorway to get her, but the bookshelf simply turned on its hidden hinges and covered the opening in the wall, as though it had never been there. When everything settled, a toppled-over bust of Vlad Masters righted itself on one of the shelves, giving Jazz a brief glimpse of a dark button before it was covered. Guess that's how you open the door, she noted dizzily.

As the study fell silent, Jazz realized that she was holding her breath and she slowly let it go. She stared out of the window and thought she could make out Danny and Mr. Masters in the distance, walking down one of the dirt roads.

It was as though a veil had been torn from her eyes and as she stood in the suddenly stifling study, pondering the issue of their diabolical host and watching the dust motes settle in the sunlight streaming from the window, she realized that, for once, she didn't have the answers.

"So what's it like, being, you know… rich?" Danny asked the older man. They were walking down a dirt path through the fields near the castle.

The corner of Vlad's mouth twitched. "It is hard work, my boy. It takes an eye for details to keep your investments safe."

"But the pool makes it worth it, right?"

The man chuckled. "Indeed, the perks of being one of the richest people in the world are many."

Danny grinned before looking up at the slowly drifting clouds. I could really go for a flight right about now. The air was completely different from in Amity, and he wondered if flying would feel different here, as well.

They walked on in companionable silence for a few minutes before Danny decided to break it again.

"Say, Vlad?"

"Yes, Daniel?"

"Just Danny. What was it like to work with mom and dad? When you were at university, I mean."

Vlad looked thoughtful. "It was… interesting. I had never had such close friends before, nor had I ever entertained the thought that ghosts may exist. Of course, it ended rather badly…"

Danny winced as the man's expression darkened. He had clearly brought up some uncomfortable memories.

The older man seemed to notice his discomfort as he hurriedly went on, "but I wouldn't trade it for the world, Daniel; for good or evil, it has made the man I am today." He smiled, but it held a hint of something dark, and Danny wondered how being hospitalized with horrible ecto-acne could make Vlad into a successful business man. He also noticed that the other man didn't exactly seem thankful.

Feeling unsettled, he decided to change the subject. He looked around the open fields and grinned. "I don't think I've had this much clean air around since that time we visited Aunt Alicia."

Vlad chuckled. "Ah, your aunt who lives in the wilderness. Yes, Alicia was always … unique. I suppose it is something she and your mother has in common."

"I wouldn't say she lives in the wilderness exactly-" Danny started

"Heads up, Danny-o!" a voice interrupted him. He turned around, only to be nearly trampled by a small-statured ghost, who fortunately remembered to go intangible at their collision. Danny gasped at the uncomfortable experience of being passed through, but was met with a scarier sight at his parents raced towards him with waving ectoguns.

"Oh dear." He heard Vlad mutter, "I didn't expect them to actually find him. He doesn't usually appear until much later in the day."

"Well they found him!" Danny exclaimed as he hid behind Vlad. Hey, as a ghost he preferred not to be in the path of two ghost hunters, so sue him. Vlad glanced at the boy behind him and snorted in amusement.

"I'll tear you apart molecule by molecule!" Danny heard his father yell what was apparently his favourite catch phrase and saw Vlad frown.

The older man called after Danny's parents as they ran past him. "I would appreciate it if you did not commit post-mortem murder on my premises, Jack! … Oh, who am I kidding? He's not listening." The man shook his head in resignation.

"They're just going to capture him, I think." Danny shrugged as he stepped away from Vlad, and stared after his parents chasing the strangely dressed ghosts down the road. Only a couple of weeks ago he was fairly certain ghosts didn't exist, but now they seemed to pop up everywhere he went.

"Yes, they'll 'just' capture him so they can experiment on the poor thing." The older man retorted, and Danny was surprised to see something like disapproval in his eyes.

"You don't think they should experiment on him?" he asked in surprise. "But he's – it's just a ghost. A collection of post-human consciousness, or whatever."

The other man sighed. "Listened to your mother, have you, hm? I admire her intellect, but sometimes her understanding is a bit… narrow. She assumes that they are a simply a collection of memories or emotions, acting not unlike the body of a beheaded chicken. If she were to look closer, she'd realize that they can learn, adapt, and even evolve." He looked at the younger boy seriously. "Regardless of what their true nature is, they are, in essence… alive, I should say. Or close enough for ethical concerns to matter."

Danny could feel his eyes widened. "R-really? I guess I… never thought about it like that."

Vlad smiled warmly at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Son, sometimes another perspective can open doors to a completely different world." The hand squeezed his shoulder and the corner of Danny's mouth quirked up into a half-smile. Maybe, for all the humanity he'd lost, he'd gotten something just as good?

Jazz was pacing around in the entrance hall, nearly digging a groove in the marble floor. She had fallen to obsessively biting her nails when her parents finally stumbled through the large doors.

"Fudge bunnies! How could that ghost shake us so easily, Mads?" Her father grumbled, somehow managing to look both downcast and excited at the same time.

"It's the sun, dear. It's hard to see ghosts in such strong sunlight, and that's not to mention when they go intangible…" her mother replied with frustration.

Jazz ran towards them, waving her arms in both relief and panic. "Mom! Dad! I'm so glad you're here! There's something I have to tell you!"

Her mother looked puzzled and a little concerned at her agitation. "What is it, Jazz?"

A voice drifted in from outside. "Yes, what is so important, Jasmine? Do enlighten us."

Jazz froze in her tracks, her eyes wide at the sight of Vlad Masters entering through the still open doors with her little brother in tow.

"Jazz?" her mother looked between her and Vlad in confusion.

"Uh." Jazz said intelligently.

"Hm. Perhaps a ghost has got her tongue?" Masters mused aloud.

"GHOST! Was there a ghost, Jazzy-pants?!" Her father exclaimed.

"Not now, Jack." Her mother waved him off, "Jazz, what was it you wanted to tell us?"

Her mother looked expectantly at her, but Jazz looked at the two people walking towards them. Danny looked curious, but Masters only gave her an indifferent stare.

He knows, she thought, he knows that I know that he's up to something! She glanced at her mother, who was looking more worried by the second, and back at the man who was now standing behind her. Danny seemed to have caught the odd atmosphere between Jazz and their host, and he looked between them with a lifted eyebrow.

I can't tell them when he's here. I would just provoke him to react, and with the cameras… can I even tell them later, when he's not here? She bit her lip. She'd been outmanoeuvred before she even stepped foot in game. Wait… he wouldn't do anything with all the guests around; even a billionaire can't silence that many people. So if I keep an eye on him the rest of the day…

"Jazz," her mother asked again, making to put a hand on her shoulder.

She snapped back to reality suddenly and stammered out the first excuse she could think of. "I- I- I… I saw the ghost!"

Her mother's concerned features morphed to fierce determination with unparalleled speed as she grabbed her ectogun from her belt.

Her father, too, seemed to forget that anything was amiss, and raised his own weapon eagerly. "I knew that spectre would be back! To the kitchens, Maddie!"

Jazz watched them run off down the hall with a frown. A hand on her shoulder made her start and she spun on her heel, coming face to face with Vlad Masters, who seemed to be sizing her up.

He cleared his throat. "You are certain that everything is… alright, Ms. Fenton?" He asked her, his voice genuine, but his eyes were dark with the unspoken promise that she would regret it if everything wasn't 'alright'.

She glowered at him, but responded through clenched teeth. "Yeah. Everything is fine."

The man smirked, dark satisfaction clear on his face. "Good to know that your productive morning wasn't too… taxing."

"Oh, not taxing at all, Mr. Masters. But it was very informative." The man's eyes narrowed, and she returned the gesture, straightening her back to better stare him down.

The man snorted and straightened his suit. "Good to know. Very well, kids, I need to get back to my work. Perhaps we will see each other later." With a smile to Danny and a last glance to Jazz, he turned and walked away, his footsteps echoing long after he was out of sight.

Danny walked up beside her and lifted an eyebrow. "So, uh… what's your problem with Vlad?"

"Oh," she said softly, still staring after the man. "There's no problem."

Her brother rolled his eyes. "Right, and I'm the king of England."

She smiled drily. "You mean the queen of England?"

He frowned. "What? I, uh… Th-that's not the point."

She sighed at his accusatory stare. "I just think there's something… off about Mr. Masters."

Danny looked surprised. "Really? But you were the one who thought he was a good role model and everything!"

She bit her lip and looked away. "Yeah, well, that was before I met him." She looked imploringly at him. "Danny, I think it's best that you stay away from him."

"What?" he took a step back, staring at her in shock, before his features contorted. "No, I won't stay away from him!"

"But Danny…!"

"No! You just don't like that he likes me more than you!" he accused, pointing a finger in her face.

She felt her concern sour in her stomach. "That's not it at all! But if you're not going to listen to good advice from your older sister, then fine! See if I care!" She turned on her heel and marched down the hallway. Before she turned the corner, she realized that she hadn't heard her brother's footsteps behind her, and she turned around, only to see an empty hallway.

Danny still fuming, even though the guests had long since arrived. He leaned against the buffet table, glaring sourly out at the mass of people that he noted, in the back of his mind, had to consist of way more than his host's old College classmates.

He had always been the ordinary kid in a household of geniuses. People always favored Jazz, if not for her intelligence, then because she simply outshone him in every way. He was a completely ordinary, run-of-the-mill kid, and he knew it. Average grades, no athletic skills to speak of, no eccentric interests – even Tucker and Sam were more interesting than he; him with his extreme talent with any computer, her with her convictions and will to stand out. He never really understood why they liked him so much, but he was always grateful for it, especially the last few weeks.

He was angry at Jazz; she always got the brunt of attention, but apparently couldn't leave it alone when Vlad for some reason preferred him to her. But more than being angry, he was… disappointed.

His gaze slid to the floor. She's been trying so hard to – I don't know, get along with me? Since the accident. But I guess she just wanted to use me for a paper on post traumatic symptoms or something. If there was one thing that had always bothered him with his family of geniuses, it was their tendency to shove everything away for the sake of research. As much as he loved his parents, they spent more time in the basement than with their kids, and never seemed to realize that his bruises had come from bullies, if they noticed them at all. It was part of what made Jazz so antagonistic to their ghost-obsession, although she wasn't much better.

"Daniel? Are you alright, my boy?" a familiar voice asked. He looked up to see Vlad standing beside him.

"Yeah, I'm just… overwhelmed by all the people here." He smiled at him, but he could tell from the man's expression that it hadn't convinced him.

"Hm, is that so." A voice cut in from somewhere in the flock of people, and Vlad turned in its direction, smiling readily. "You'll have to excuse me, Daniel, I have some needy guests to tend to. You know to find me if you… need anything." He waited until Danny nodded minutely before wandered leisurely into the mass.

Danny stared after him, wonderings if he was really that transparent. Or maybe I should stand alone at the buffet table, glaring at the floor.

"Danny!" wow, I'm popular tonight. His parents were walking towards him, his dad nearly bouncing with each step. "There you are, kiddo!"

"Have you seen your sister?" His mother asked him, looking out over the sea of people.

Danny frowned. "No. I haven't seen her," he said, crossing his arms petulantly over his chest.

His mother stopped scanning the crowd to throw him a concerned look. "Is everything alright, Danny?"

"Of course he's alright!" his dad exclaimed, "He's just excited about getting to know his parents' old buddies!"

"Uh, yeah." Danny rolled his eyes and caught a shadow of something on the ceiling. He scanned the chandeliered space with all the paranoia of a half-ghost teenager that was constantly woken up in the middle of the night by ghosts phasing through his ceiling. "Are all these people really from your old college?"

"Sure!" his dad replied, but then he blinked and looked around pensively. "Well, I don't remember our class being this big… maybe their plus ones brought plus ones?"

"Are you sure they didn't bring plus threes?" He took his eyes off the ceiling for a moment.

Big mistake.

A deep, amused voice yelling, "Look out, whelp!" was all the warning he got before solid pain hit his upper back, just below his neck, like needles digging deep into his unprotected skin. The edges of his vision lit up explosive green from the blast, setting his mother's horrified expression in relief before he was thrown across the room and hit the opposite wall face-first.

For a minute, all was a blur, sounds and sights weaving in and out of his consciousness. Then something clicked, and the noises shaped into something recognizable; screams, laughing, and the sound of ectoguns firing.

"Get away from my son, you ecto-scum!" He heard his father yell, followed by his usual haphazard shooting. His concussed mind tried to make sense of the remark, but struggled to put the pieces of the situation together to a coherent whole. They're fighting ghosts? He thought groggily. Where'd the ghosts come from? I didn't see any ghosts, only that ectoblast that hit me…

His eyes flew wide-open at the thought. An ectoblast. There's a ghost in here. He grit his teeth and tried to convince his sore body parts that they should be moving. We're in Wisconsin! Did they really follow me all the way here? Where am I supposed to go to get some peace and quiet?! He managed to get up on his shaking legs, and was absently amazed at his regenerative abilities. He'd noted how quickly his wounds disappeared after his accident, but this was something else.

Looking up, he saw that the hall was in chaos. People were running to and fro, screaming their heads off with their arms raised dramatically in the air. He wondered why they hadn't left, if they were that terrified. In the middle of the hall, he spied his father, ectogun flaring as he shot at something floating in the air. Danny gulped. It was Skulker; the crazy ghost that wanted his pelt earlier that week. And now there was no convenient box-obsessed ghosts to save him.

He mentally shook himself. No, his parents were here; they'd distract Skulker, or maybe even defeat him!

Yeah, that wasn't likely.

"Jack!" he suddenly heard his mother yell from the other side of the room. He found her tugging at the door handles. "I can't get the doors open! They won't budge an inch!" Well, that explains why no one's left.

"Forget it, Maddie! We can take this thing, no problem!" Jack bellowed back, turning his eyes away from the ghost above him. Skulker tried to take advantage of his distraction, but Jack accidentally set off his ectogun and somehow managed to clip the armored ghost.

"Without the RV, Jack?" Maddie replied through gritted teeth as she made her way back to her husband, unceremoniously shoving frantic people out of her way. "You saw what that – that – thing did to Danny! How are we supposed to take it on without my bazooka?!" they both looked in Danny's direction, and he hurriedly made himself invisible. There would be questions he didn't want if he got up that quickly after being bodily thrown across the room.

His dad scratched his head, setting off his blaster again and almost hitting the floating hunter, "Hey, speaking of Danny, Where'd he go?"

His mother looked around frantically, "Danny? Danny, where are you?!" her panic made his stomach clench uncomfortably in guilt, but he couldn't reappear now; not only would they see, but he had to find somewhere to go ghost, and he knew that his parents wouldn't let him out of their sight once they found him.

"Oh, you should worry about him, alright," Skulker's deep voice echoed from the ceiling, "Once I'm done with him there won't be much left of the whelp!" He was immediately bombarded with everything the Fentons could throw at him. "Whoah! I only want his pelt, you can have the leftovers!"

"You're not touching my boy!" his mother declared loudly, before she ran at a table. Without slowing down, she jumped on the table to the wall and set off in a back flip. Everyone in the hall stopped to watch, and time seemed to slow down as the red-haired woman came around to face the glowing, flame-haired spectre. As Skulker watched the inhuman display of agility, she brought up her gun, charged and ready, and aimed it straight at his head.

Skulker's eyes widened. "Oh, fu-" the blast hit him square in the face and send the ghost flipping backwards, rockets on his back desperately trying to hold him steady in the air, before the hunter hit the wall, not far from Danny's site of impact.

Danny found himself grinning. Go, mom! Guess I'm lucky she never got that serious on Phantom.

His mother landed in a crouch and stood up, holding her smoking ectogun up with a scowl on her face. The people in the hall started cheering.

Jack ran over and picked his wife up. "That was amazing, Mads! You got that ecto-garbage real good!"

Maddie let her scowl give way for a smile for a second, before her mask slipped back on, her eyes seeking out the ceiling. "I'm afraid it's not over yet. Jack, look up!"

Despite not being Jack, Danny looked up as well and felt his mouth go dry. Dozens of ghosts were phasing through the ceiling, hovering next to the chandelier like early Halloween decorations. They didn't look all that strong; in fact, he'd fought quite a few of them before. But what they lacked in strength, he was afraid that they made up for in numbers.

As his parents readied themselves for another onslaught Danny dived under one of tables and cried, "Going ghost!" His ghost core sprung to life in a concentrated flash that spread from his midriff to the rest of his body, covering Danny and leaving Phantom behind.

He phased his head through the top of the table and looked around. His parents were already shooting at the incoming ghosts that kept phasing through the ceilings and walls in still greater numbers, and the other people were back to screaming and hiding under tables. When one man saw his head sticking out of the table like a particularly macabre dish and shrieked piercingly, Danny abandoned his hiding spot an flew up into the air. Immediately several ghosts surrounded him. He spied an ectopus he was sure he'd fought only the other day.

His mouth pressed into a thin line as he brought up his fists. "Okay. Let's do this."

Jazz didn't know how long she'd been watching old Packer's reruns when the screaming began. The sound made something cold run down her back, and she wasn't alone, judging from the concerned looks and murmurs of the other people in the theatre. Unlike them, however, she had some idea of what was going on, and she knew it wasn't good.

She threw herself out of her chair, scaring several of the adults around her in the process, and sprinted for the doors. I knew I should have done something! Why did I let it go? She chided herself. Why did I think he wouldn't do anything with all these witnesses around? The man is clearly insane, his laboratory proves that!

She moved through the corridors at a speed she didn't even realize she could reach, until she got the doors to the meeting hall in sight. She grabbed the handle, expecting the doors to open, only to run full-bodied into the wooden door and tumble to the ground.

As she lay groaning on the marble floor the first thought that went through her head was, The doors barely moved, they have to be reinforced, and the second made her eyes widen.

He planned this. Whatever this is.

She already knew, of course; Vlad Masters had been giving her a bad vibe since she met him, and nothing she'd uncovered so far had reassured her. But she'd still hoped that she was wrong; that she was making a problem out of simple eccentric behavior. That Masters suddenly making contact with her family after twenty years was out of a genuine desire for reconciliation, and not for revenge.

But he's still flirting with mom! And he's obsessed with Danny! He wouldn't do anything to hurt them – But he doesn't care about dad.

Jazz realized that she was still lying spread-eagled on the floor and sat up, eyes blank. So, there might be people screaming on the other side of this door, but mom and Danny are probably safe.

Just not her dad.

A fire came back to her eyes. As if she'd just sit down while Masters was having who-knew-what done to her father! She sprung to her feet, determination colouring her features. She turned and ran to Masters's study. If there was any way to get through those doors, it had to be down there. She went into the study, turning to the bookshelf to open the secret door – but found a ghost instead.

The first thing that hit her were the eyes; a solid, glowing red, and yet there was no doubt that they were fixed on her.

It smirked, showing off its fangs very purposely. The blue skin of its face crinkled in mirth, and Jazz shivered. This wasn't the average ghost that appeared in Amity; this wasn't one of those small, destructive ghosts that don't actually care about your existence unless you smack it upside down the head with a Fenton Works Anti-Creep stick. This was the real deal, a malignant spectre. She swallowed.

"Why, Jasmine Fenton. What are you doing here, of all places?" the spectre asked, making her jump. Its voice echoed unnaturally in the study.

"I – I – What are you doing in Mr. Masters study?" she heard herself asking. Stupid, Jazz, it's a malevolent entity, you do not question its motives, you run, although that is a very good question…

One of the spectre's eyebrows rose in bemusement. "Oh, I was just… passing by. Furthermore, I believe I asked you first, my girl."

"Uh," Her eyes shifted over the walls around them, hoping for some inexplicable escape. Masters had all kinds of anti-ghost equipment behind that bookshelf; why hasn't he got any up here?! When the spectre moved closer to her, she took a step backwards, her eyes widening, heart beating fast, too fast, because there was a ghost right there, and she didn't know what it wanted, and her family was in danger-

Dad! I can't panic now, he needs my help. She stared at the spectre that watched her with unconcealed amusement. I'm the daughter of ghost hunters. The Fentons have a long history of ghost hunting. I won't lose my cool to this, this…

"Ghost got your tongue, Jasmine?" The spectre asked, and suddenly another question entered her mind.

"Why do you know my name?" she asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. It knew her name, it was in Masters's manor…

The spectre smirked. "Who doesn't know of the ghost hunting Fentons? Of course I have to know my enemy, hmm?" it said, but Jazz didn't get the feeling that it feared them. At all. "Ah, but I suppose I have you at a disadvantage; I know your name, but you do not know mine." He threw out an arm, his cape waving theatrically around him. "My name is Plasmius. Vlad Plasmius. A pleasure."

'Vlad'? He said his name is Vlad? What did that mean? Why would he have the same name as their host? Looking closer, she noticed that though their colours were completely different, the length of their hair, the shape of their faces… they were nearly identical.

"I can't say it's a pleasure to meet you, but I appreciate the manners," her mouth was on autopilot. The spectre and Mr. Masters were structurally similar, had the same name… and the same… behavior.

The spectre, Plasmius, laughed. "Oh, I understand! No doubt I would be … uncomfortable… if I was in your position." His teeth glinted. "But I am not."

"Uncomfortable, or in my position?" She asked, because if the ghost hadn't killed her already, then it was either playing with her (like a cat with a mouse), or it wanted something else from her.

Plasmius frowned. "In your… never mind that. It is inconsequential. Tell me, Jasmine, why are you in this room?"

"I- I was running from – from whatever is in the hall." She lied, unable to think of a good excuse.

"Hmm, I see. Are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with the laboratory that you found earlier?"

Jazz started and her heartbeat picked up again. It knew? Not just about the laboratory, but about her being there? That settles it.

"You're working with Masters!" She gasped. Masters used to study ghosthunting with her parents. How could he be working with a ghost? Had he really fallen that far? Or was there something else going on?

The ghost looked surprised for a moment, before the smug look shifted back onto its face. It seemed to be its default expression. "I suppose that is one way to look at it."

One way? That means that there's another way to look at it! Mom once told me that some 'ghostly objects' could do all kinds of things to humans and the living world… what if he's not really a ghost, but some kind of… mirror image? What Masters would be like if he was a ghost? But for them to work together…

"What are you and Masters doing to my family?!"

The spectre humph'ed, its eyes dark red and somehow sparkling with electricity. "Something that will not concern you, Jasmine, if you are as smart as you seem. Keep what you saw to yourself, and your family will make it out of this alive. More or less." It smirked again. "For now, I can tell you that you will find what you seek in the laboratory below. Well, I have battles to observe and plans to execute… ta!" it flew backwards, phasing through the wall as it went. The last she saw of it was that smirk being swallowed up by the wall.

She shivered. She knew that Masters and Plasmius were somehow connected, in some strange, supernatural way, which meant that they had to have a common goal, a common… obsession.

And she could already tell what Masters was obsessed about.

Danny couldn't remember how many ectopuses and their friends he'd knocked out of the game by this point. There didn't seem to be an end to them. At a lull in their advance, he floated to the floor, almost absentmindedly, and leaned on his knees, panting out of habit. He was vaguely aware that he didn't actually need to breathe, but felt too exhausted to think too deeply on it. He watched a Chinese woman screaming and running from a strange parrot-looking ghost

A blast from an ectogun missed his nose by a hairsbreadth. Literally. He stared as a single hair floated to the ground, before he jumped, turning in the air to face his attacker, fists up and ready, only to fall away when he saw his mother standing with her ectogun pointed at him.

"What are you doing here, Ghost Boy?" she snarled, goggles glinting an eerie red.

"Mu- uh Maddie! I was fighting the ghosts! We're on the same side here!" He assured her, holding up his hands placatingly.

"You don't fool me, ghost! Even if we were fighting the same enemy, that doesn't explain why you are here. You followed us, didn't you?!" her lenses were positively flaring now.

"What? No, I didn't! I mean, I did, but not really-"

"You're in league with that mechanical ghost, aren't you! What did you do to Danny?!" He realized that her tone was more than a little panicked and could have kicked himself if his mother wasn't pointing a gun at him.

She saw me- Danny -ram into a wall, only to seemingly disappear from the room altogether. She's probably convinced I ate him or something. He shook his head insistently. "No, I swear, I didn't have anything to do with-" a shot from her gun blasted right into his chest, sending him sprawling into a nearby table.

He looked up to see her looming above him with the most terrifying expression he'd ever seen on his mother's face. "Don't you dare lie to me, ecto-scum. This isn't the first time you've gone for Danny!"

He felt his anger flaring and he flew up into the air, eyes glowing fiercely. "I'm telling you, it's a misunderstanding! I didn't-"

"The doors are open!" A piercing voice interrupted him. A simultaneous cry of joy from every non-Fenton person in the room rose up, and suddenly a tidal wave of bodies were forcing him and his mother away from each other.

Maddie tried to hold him in her sights, but even without his aid, the crowd was doing a good enough job of hiding him from sight, allowing him to turn intangible. He could hear her yelling behind him.

"Get away! You're obstructing my view, get out of-!"

He flew into a nearby room before turning tangible and sighing in relief. Now that his parents had access to the RV, they could handle the small-fry ghosts on their own; he could change back into his human form, and hopefully his mother would lay off wanting to shoot his ghost-self when she saw that her son was alive and well.

Yeah, right. She'd probably declare him a bigger threat. He ran a hand over his face and closed his eyes. Mom, Dad, Sam, Tucker…He knew that they weren't speaking of him, to him when they ranted about ghosts, or insulted the Ghost Kid… but at the same time they were talking to him. He was the Ghost Boy.

A green-lit blast sent him spinning and flipping back in the air and interrupting his musings. He righted himself and resigned himself to face the new threat, which was sporting dimmed, flamy hair and multiple weapons-

"Skulker?" he gasped, "Didn't my mom whoop your butt earlier?"

The hunter rubbed his dented and bruised head. The area between his eyes looked seared and scorched. "I admit, that woman packs a mean punch. I may have actually met someone greater than the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!" He looked nervous for a second and sent a glance at the door, as if he feared Maddie Fenton would come charging through it in her RV. Then his eyes focused on Danny again and his face took on its usual cocky exterior. "Fortunately, she is not my prey. It is you, Ghost Child!"

Danny felt a twitch beginning in his left eye. "What is your deal? Why are you hunting me?!"

Skulker snorted. "I told you already, whelp. I am a hunter of rare species, and you are the only of your kind whose skin I can place in front of my fireplace."

The ghost brought out his full arsenal. "Your sire may have destroyed the weapon my new employer gave me to neutralize you, but I won't need it to defeat a scrawny specimen like you!"

Danny felt a spark of something that started to override his fear. He could feel anger spreading through his limbs like liquid fire, burning through his veins. If he could have seen himself, he would have noticed a marked increase in the ghostly glow around him and seen his neon green eyes flash with an inner energy.

"Yeah? Well, I'm not going down so easy!" he yelled, feeling the energy in his limbs pool in his palms. Instinctively, he knew that it would be coming out one way or another, so he aimed his right palm at his mechanical foe.

Skulker only had a second to realize what was going to happen before an ectoblast hit him square in the chest, throwing him back for the second time that night. Luckily for him, on account of this being Danny's first ectoblast, it was not only weak, but also threw the boy himself into a bookshelf.

Danny groaned as he brushed the antique books off his head and glanced dazedly up at the ghost hunter. Skulker was shaking his head and patting his chest. He looked down at the hybrid in surprise. "I wasn't expecting that, Whelp. You seem more capable than the last time we met." He grinned maniacally. "Only more reason to skin you now!" he shouted, as he shot a barrage of blasts at Danny.

Said ghost boy gasped and jumped out of the book pile only a fraction of a second before the pages and leather covers were massacred. He ran down the length of the room, Skulkers fire following him the whole way.

When he came by a table, he threw himself beneath it and held his arms protectively over his head as Skulker's miniature cannons shot off pieces of the heavy-and-surely-expensive table.

"You can't hide from me forever, Whelp!" Skulker promised him, never letting up his fire.

"I wasn't planning on it," Danny muttered as he turned invisible and intangible and slipped through the floor. Without his sight, he had to rely on his ghost sense to reappear behind the ghost, his newfound ectoblasts ready to fire in his hands.

"Come out and play, Ghost Child!" Skulker was telling the unoccupied hidey-table when Danny moved up close behind him, until they were only an arm's length apart. The near proximity to an armed ghost that wanted to kill and skin him had his human instincts screaming at him to run, but his ghostly instincts told him that he had to make a point if he wanted to escape Skulker, and to make it stick.

"Sure thing, Skulker. I have a great game we can play." He said, and Skulker froze only for a second before he whipped around, cannons blazing, ready to end him - but he was much too slow.

"It's called ectoball. And you're the ball!" He quipped as he shot the ghost in the chest with both palms lit green.

Skulker toppled several bookshelves in his fall, one falling on top of the other, burying him completely. Danny landed, taking a stance with his palms held out towards the pile. "I know that can't have knocked you out, Skulker!" he told the mountain of paper, but nothing changed. He waited for several seconds, only to realize that Skulker was more than able to replicate his trick.

He turned on the spot, his hazmat-suit heels scratching the polished floor, just in time to dodge a strike from Skulker, who hovered not two meters behind him.

"Well done, Ghost Child," he praised, as he brushed leftover bits of no-doubt priceless leafs of paper off his armor. "I see that you may yet be a challenge. It shall be a great victory to claim your pelt!"

Danny jumped into the air, scowling at the ghost. "Not so tough now, Ghost Zone's worst hunter!"

The ghost's eyebrow twitched at the taunt, its face contorting in wrath. "You'll pay for that, insolent whelp." His cannons charged up again, but this time Danny was ready, and his anger made him forget his hesitation.

He swayed and twisted in the air, narrowly avoiding the shots from the many small cannons in Skulker's suit. The ghost looked almost impressed when Danny got close enough to rip off two of them and kick him in the chest. However, he clearly didn't claim the title of the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone for nothing, for as he was kicked to the ground, he launched a small missile at the boy.

The force from the explosion made both of their heads ring, and when Danny came to, he was lying on the ground, close to his foe. They noticed each other and got up at the same time, ready to continue where they left off, when an ear sundering crash made them both cringe and turn to the source of the noise.

Danny could feel his jaw slacken at the sight of the RV, parked in a gaping whole in the wall. Bricks and pieces of plaster were still falling and drizzling from the torn wall, the room full of mortar dust.

He could see his father behind the wheel, grinning like a child on Christmas eve at the sight of Skulker and him, and his mother, who was already getting out of the reinforced Fenton Family Assault Vehicle (and how fitting the name suddenly seemed) heedless of the falling debris, only to drop into a roll and come up in a crouch, her ecto-Bazooka steadied against the floor and ready to be fired.

"I knew you were up to no good, Ghost Boy! You and that mechanical ghost are working together!" she accused him, aiming her monstrosity of an anti-ghost weapon straight at him. "Now tell me what you did to Danny, or else!"

The sight of the ecto-Bazooka made his ectoplasm run cold (or colder, at any rate) and he felt the energy in his palms shrivel up and die out. "N-no, we weren't, we aren't! We're fighting each other, right, Skulker?" he glanced at the other ghost, only to see him phasing through the floor.

"You're on your own with that one, whelp." He grinned before his flame-hair disappeared under the floorboards.

Danny gulped as he turned his eyes back to his irate mother. "It-it's not what it looks like! I know where Danny is but – I mean, I don't know where Danny us!"

"You're not getting away with this, Ghost Boy!" his father had joined them now, brandishing a bigger, two-handed version of the ectogun. "We'll blow you to smithereens!"

Danny's head swirled as his mother turned to scold his father "No, we have to get him to tell us where Danny is first!"

"Oh, right! We'll blow him to smithereens afterwards, right?"

He couldn't take this.

Without a backwards look, he turned and zoomed through the air, phasing through the ceiling as he ignored the surprised cries from his parents. He didn't notice the presence that followed him through the concrete and stone.

He phased back into existence on the floor above and leaned against an old mahogany desk. He buried his face in his hands.

He sighed. They think I'm a kidnapper too, now. This just keeps getting better.

"Ghost Boy? What are you doing here?" an inquisitive voice said.

He looked up sharply at the sound and found his sister standing with a surprised expression that quickly grew suspicious … in an opening in the wall. The bookshelf had been pushed to the side. Was it a secret room?

"Jazz?" He asked disorientedly. What was going on here? Why couldn't things just stay nice and simple?

She narrowed her eyes. "You know my name. Are you in cahoots with Masters, too?"

His eyes grew wide. "Cahoots with Vlad? What are you talking about?"

Something in his face must have seemed sincere, because her anger drained away, leaving her looking puzzled. "You're not. But you know my name and you can't be here by coincidence…" They both jump at a loud crash followed by their father's whooping voice. "Dad!" Jazz gasped and dashed from the room, evidently forgetting about the ghost she was interrogating.

Danny blinked as her red hair disappeared around the doorway. "That was weird." He said aloud, scratching the back of his head.

"Indeed, Miss Fenton is an unusual young woman"

Danny jumped at turned. "Argh, would you people stop sneaking up behind me?!"

Vlad lifted an eyebrow, looking more amused than shocked at the presence of a ghost in his mansion. "Perhaps it is you who need to be more aware of your surroundings, hmm?" He was standing by the window, looking completely unaffected by the chaos the rest of the estate was experiencing.

They looked at each for a few moments before Danny realized that Vlad was neither screaming nor trying to tear him apart, molecule by molecule. "Uh, aren't you going to, I don't know… shoot me or something?"

The eyebrow rose again. "Shoot you? Whatever for, my dear boy? Surely I have no reason to do so?"

Danny grimaced. "Well, no, but everyone else is shooting at me, so why aren't you? I mean, it's your house."

The older man chuckled at that. "Why would I hurt any passing ghost, just for being in my mansion? As far as I can tell, you have nothing to do with the mayhem my other guests have caused. In fact, I should be thanking you for helping the Fentons drive them off."

That completely rational statement almost boggled Danny's mind. "Really? You're not mad?" he couldn't help grinning when the billionaire simply smiled patiently at him. "I think this is the first time I've been thanked for helping someone."

Vlad gazed out the window, expression suddenly tired. "Indeed, people are selfish and… oblivious to the plight of others." He closed his eyes. "…especially to those of non-humans."

The non-human boy didn't know what to say to that. He shuffled his feet on the plush carpet and snuck glances at his pensive host.

Vlad blinked and turned back to face him. "I'm sorry, my boy. Old memories, you see. They never quite leave you." He smirked and moved closer to Danny. "Fortunately, they also give me… insight that other people do not have." He placed a hand on his shoulder. "and I am glad that you were here tonight, son."

Danny blinked away the moistness in his eyes. He was not crying just because his parents' old, ex-ghost hunter college friend understood him better than anyone else in his hometown did. "You… you don't think ghosts are evil?"

He smiled like they were sharing a secret. "I think – no, I know that we are who we decide to be, son. Nothing more, nothing less."

Danny felt something tight uncoil in his stomach. "… Thank you, Vl- Mr. Masters."

"Please, call me Vlad. You just saved my old college friends, after all." With those words he winked and stepped towards the door. "If you don't mind, I have some damage control to do. You are welcome in my castle any time, 'Ghost Boy'."

Danny waited until he couldn't hear his steps before he found that core of heat in his chest and let himself change back into his human self.

He leaned back against the desk. He would show his parents that he was all right. He just needed a minute.

Jazz ran down the stairs to where she'd heard her parents voices. The Ghost Boy's presence puzzled her greatly, but she had more pressing concerns at the moment.

It hadn't taken her long to find the mechanism for opening the doors; despite noting that she wasn't her 'master', the AI lead through the system surprisingly willingly. It was almost as if it didn't matter to Mr. Masters that the doors were opened. That's what scares me the most, she admitted to herself, that all of this is pointless, and he's already… but her dad had to be fine, because she could hear him yelling now; in fact, her mother was yelling, too.

"Danny! What did you do to our son, you ectoplasmic waste?!"

Danny? Her little brother was missing or hurt, not her father? Was she mistaken in believing that Masters was after her father and wouldn't hurt her brother? Did he deliberately trick her? She could feel her palms start to sweat.

She skidded to a stop at the end of the stairs, just as her parents came around a corner. They both looked relieved to see her.

"Jazzy-pants, you're alright!" her dad said as he almost crushed her ribcage in a bruising hug.

"Argh, yes, I'm fine, dad," she tried to squirm out of his arms, but was unsuccessful.

She felt a hand on her arm and looked down at her mother. She looked hopeful with a hint of desperation. "Jazz, have you seen your brother?"

"Danny? No, I haven't seen him. I thought he was with you two?" and Mr. Masters.

Her mom frowned. "He was. But then we were attacked by that foul Ghost Boy and his companions; one of them shot Danny with something. He was thrown straight into a wall." She bit her lip and then looked up the stairs, scowling. "When we looked, we couldn't find him. The Ghost Boy, or one of those other ghosts, must have taken him."

"The Ghost Boy took him?" Jazz eyed her mother skeptically, "Are you sure you didn't just miss him in the hall? There are a lot of people in this castle." She'd met the ghost just minutes ago, and he didn't look like he was up for kidnapping anyone.

Her mom started up the stairs. "Yes, I'm sure, Jazz. The room was locked; there was no way anyone was getting out, unless they were a ghost." Her dad put her down to hurry after his wife. "Which means a ghost must have taken him, and the Ghost Boy already attacked your brother once."

"And he had the gall to say that he didn't. Ghosts!" Her dad added.

That's probably because he didn't take Danny, Jazz thought. After a brief hesitation, she followed them. But if the Ghost Boy didn't take Danny, then who did? Who would possibly have anything to-?

Her heart skipped a beat. Vlad Plasmius. Vlad Masters. Was that the reason the ghost didn't care if she unlocked the doors? Because it already had what it came for; her brother?

I have to warn them! "Mom!"

The woman glanced over her shoulder, the red lenses of her goggles reminding her uncomfortably of the red eyed ghost she'd met earlier. "What is it, Jazz?"

"Keep what you saw to yourself, and your family will make it out of this alive. More or less."

The words dried out on her tongue. I don't know where Danny is, but I know that Plasmius didn't want me telling anyone about him. Will I do more harm than good by telling mom? She shook herself. If Plasmius really took Danny, I don't think there's much we can do, but if he doesn't show up soon, then I'll tell mom and dad what their old college-buddy has been doing behind their backs!

They rounded a corner and ran into another person, the resulting collision sending them all sprawling to the floor. Her mother was the first one on her feet, firing her ectogun instinctively at the possible threat.

Jazz heard a grunt followed by her mother's surprised voice saying "Vlad?"

She froze in the middle of rubbing her sore head, and looked up slowly; there he was, the man that was (most likely) the mastermind behind all of this. He was holding his stomach with a pained look on his face, her mother looking torn between guilt and suspicion. She had evidently shot him with her anti-ghost weapon.

Those aren't supposed to hurt humans. She thought, numbly.

Suddenly her mother's expression cleared up, like she'd remembered something vital. "Oh, I'm sorry, Vlad! Jack must have set the weapons up wrong before we left." She shot an admonishing look at her husband. "I noticed it earlier, but in all of the excitement with the Dairy King, I must have forgotten."

Her father looked sheepish. "Sorry, Vladdie. Good thing Maddie sets hers to stun, huh?" he was suddenly all smiles and slapped the still recovering man on the back, sending him sprawling to the floor once again.

Jazz didn't feel any sympathy for him. Not only was he clearly responsible for her brother being missing, but him having the same name as a malevolent ghost with whom he also shared an uncanny resemblance, added to the fact that he just reacted to a shot from a gun that isn't supposed to be able to hurt anything but ghosts – she didn't know what it meant, but she was certain that it wasn't good.

Masters had barely gotten back on his feet, still rubbing his sore stomach, before she sprung to her feet, spitting at the man, "Where's Danny!?" at her parents shocked faces and the billionaire's pointed look, she remembered herself. "Uh, I-I mean, have you seen my brother, Mr. Masters?"

The man took the time to brush himself off before placing his hands behind his back and sending her a worried and utterly faked look of concern. "No, I'm afraid I haven't seen young Daniel. Don't tell me he was lost in the fray?"

"I'm afraid so, Vladdie," her dad told his traitorous friend. "We saw the ghost that took him fly up here, but he seems to have disappeared."

Mr. Masters' eyes widened in feigned shock. "My, that is terrible! Allow me to help, Jack; I'll turn every brick in the castle if it means finding Maddie's son!"

"That- that won't be necessary." A voice said from behind Masters.

Jazz and her parents turned to look behind the man and to her relief found Danny standing in the opening to the study where she'd met both Plasmius and the Ghost Boy.

Huh. Guess that's the traffic center for all unnatural activity in this castle.

"Danny!" her mother cried and ran to his side to check him over. "Are you okay? The Ghost Boy didn't hurt you?"

"Ghost Boy?" Danny looked confused for a moment before comprehension seemed to dawn on him. "Oh! Uh, no, he just dropped me off up here. I think he was making sure Sk- that other ghost couldn't hurt me."

Their father put a hand on Danny's shoulder. His knees almost buckled. "No Way, Danny-o! Ghosts only care about destroying things. It doesn't give a lick about you!"

Danny looked heartbroken at that, though the wall plaster sprinkled all over him did a good enough job of hiding it that their parents didn't see.

Hey, I would have seen him if the Ghost Boy dropped him off up here! Why is he lying – and how did he end up in there?

Mr. Masters clapped his hands together, making them all jump in surprise. "Well, it seems this night has been ruined. Fortunately, the guest rooms seem more or less intact, so you can rest up before you head home tomorrow."

Her mother looked contrite. "Oh, I'm sorry, Vlad. This ghost invasion really did a number on your castle, didn't it? I'm afraid we probably brought it here from Amity."

Masters waved it off. "Perish the thought, Maddie dear. I would never fault you for the actions of others, be they ghost or human."

She smiled a little before it fell away. "Still, I don't feel right about this, Vlad. Isn't there something we can do?"

Vlad seemed to think about it for a second, before his face lit up. "Yes, I do believe there is. After this fiasco, I believe I will need some anti-ghost measures. Perhaps you could help me in that regard?"

Her father broke in before her mother could answer. "That's great, Vladdie! It'll be the old gang together again! The Ghosteketeers!"

Vlad took a step back when the blustering man tried to throw an arm around his shoulders. He brushed his suit absently, walking up beside her brother, who still looked downcast, throwing an arm around him. Jazz felt her bristles rise already; she wanted nothing more than to pull him away from her little brother, but a look from him reminded her that she couldn't. Yet.

Satisfied that she was going to hold her tongue, Vlad turned an eerie smile at her father. "The past is gone, Jack, but I am sure that the three of us will make some equally life-changing discoveries."

That ominous statement concluded their second and final night at Vlad Masters castle. They would be going home tomorrow, but Jazz knew that nothing would be the same again.

Much later, Jack Fenton sat in their laboratory at Fenton Works, tinkering with the defective ectoguns that his wife had insisted he fix – apparently they were doing harm to humans as well as ghosts. At worst, they should leave a stinging feeling, and some burned ectoplasm behind, but their guns had both knocked over objects and sucker punched Vlad.

Comparing the wiring of the guns, Jack frowned in confusion. His gun was defective, clearly, but Maddie's was not. So how did she hurt Vladdie?

His eyes widened in realization. Her gun was only supposed to hurt ghosts, and it hurt Vlad. He thought in shock. Which means that Vlad is being possessed by a ghost… and there is only one ghost who could do such a thing!

The ghost kid is controlling Vlad!

Author's Note: Ah, Jack. So close, and yet, so far ;) I always imagined that Jack was the sort of genius to think of the things that no one else would - such as the existence of ghosts - but too quick to jump slightly silly conclusion - like Jazz being a ghost for some random reason.

I think I had most of this finished only a couple of months after my last update, but the school happened. Additionally, I think I lost the original file like three times. I couldn't even remember what the story was about at the end XD

What do you think of the fight scenes and the story in general? Is it too slow-paced, too quick-paced, anything you can think of?

Please review; even a few words help me a lot!