Updated

Hello!

It's been a while hasn't it? The good news is that I'm back and I've had plenty of time to do some serious plot development for Calliope. I will be editing some chapters, some just need to go, and making Calliope the story that I imagined it would be when I first had the idea. The story will remain mainly the same in essence, but there are many details that weren't workin' for me, and the sequence of events has been condensed and streamlined. With the plot as I currently have it, Calliope will end up being 24-25 chapters. The beginning will be a little faster to fix up, but the later scenes not so much. I'll mark the beginning of each chapter as Updated as I go, and if you are a new reader, I'd suggest just waiting for more updated material instead of continuing to the unedited ones.

Hope you all like the new Calliope!

In Amity Park, the fall sunlight shone down on a man who was waiting. Vladimir Masters had been forced to wait for many things in his life -success, recognition, love- but at the moment, he was simply waiting for a person.

He sat outside an imposing stone building surrounded by stern fences, a business portfolio open in his lap. To any passerby, it was clear the beautiful afternoon was wasted on the man hunched over the paperwork in front of him. Vlad's foot tapped restlessly as he flicked through the stack of papers. His presentation for Axion Labs last week had been flawless, but that didn't stop him from going over the documents at every opportunity, searching for some flaw that would cause the laboratory to decline the proposed contract with Fentonworks. Unfortunately, there were many. Fentonworks was a virtually unknown company, wallowing in serious debt, and run by the two most infamous, though brilliant, inventors in town.

'Well,' He thought idly, pausing as he turned a page, 'One of them is brilliant.'

It wasn't her fault that her husband had revealed to the entire town that their trans dimensional energy research, as well as extensive weapon developments, were motivated by their obsession of ectology. Getting accepted as a sister company by the most advanced security and tech company in the United States, would be the triumph of his very short time in the business world, and a good slap in the face to those who treated anything associated with his company with nothing but disgust. A testament to his brilliance. The contract had to go through.

Vlad suddenly looked down at the chipped wooden bench he sat on with mild disdain. When the contract went through, he would pay to have the benches replaced. Or better, he'd have a private driver. He smiled slightly at the thought.

It wasn't all about the money though. His thoughts inevitably drifted once again to the creators of Fentonworks. Jack Fenton was the same imbecile that he had been in college, but Maddie? She had only become more magnificent with time. The moment he'd met her, just a few short years ago, he had been captivated by how she fiercely tackled any obstacle in her path. Now, at the age of twenty-seven she was already an accomplished inventor, biologist, physicist, and-of all things- a martial artist. Unfortunately, she was also Jack's wife, and the mother of their two children. The worst of it was that she actually seemed happy to be paired with the biggest oaf that had ever walked the planet.

To this day Vlad had no idea how it had all happened. He swallowed, impulsively trying to rid the bad taste in his mouth that always surfaced when he thought too much about it. He suspected that it had something to do with a lab explosion that had landed the two in a hospital with minor injuries their junior year. After that day, Jack and Maddie had taken to making long trips to various "ghost hotspots" all around the state, and before he knew it, they had been engaged and married.

His moments standing at Jack's side as his best man had been the most agonizing of his life. He knew from that moment what had to be done. Maddie needed to recognize her mistake, and that he was the partner she deserved. So, when Maddie had asked him to take over the management of Fentonworks, he had jumped on the task with all of his heart and mind. He knew that when she saw how far he was taking her company, her admiration and love for him would grow. It was inevitable.

Yet, as much as his career and obsession for Maddie motivated him, there was yet another factor that kept him from just giving up and accepting that Jack Fenton, as irritating as he was, had simply won Madeline's heart first and moving on with his life. In fact, it was the reason he was sitting on this blasted, splintery bench.

His prematurely graying hair suddenly brushed across his face as a small breeze swept by, interrupting his train of thought. Vlad automatically pushed it out of his face, only to have the shoulder length hair flop apathetically in front of his face again. When Axion Labs signed the deal with Fentonworks, he decided, he'd go to the best barbershop in town, and finally get a decent haircut. But, in the meantime. . .

He pulled his hair into a low ponytail, using a hair tie that Maddie had given him as a joke nearly a month ago. He had not liked the idea of tying his hair, but one day he'd tried it, and he found he liked how he looked. He seemed older. More impressive.

Now with his hair tied back so it wouldn't get in the way, Vlad carefully resumed jotting notes on the transcript of his presentation. It was hard to concentrate though. Every so often, his cold eyes traced over the iron letters pounded into the stone walls in front of him.

Whipstaff. What a terrible name. Vlad thought disapprovingly. When the contract went through. . .

His train of thought was once again interrupted as a distant bell rang inside the building. Vlad carefully tucked the portfolio into his briefcase and stood. The occupants of the dreary building began streaming out into the yard where Vlad was waiting. He began combing the rush of people for the one he'd been asked to collect.

"Uncle Vlad!" A small boy streaked towards him, shoes untied, dark hair sticking in every direction, and, somehow, with every single pocked of the enormous backpack that dwarfed him hanging open. Vlad braced himself, but still staggered as he was tackled in an enthusiastic hug. Twisting awkwardly, Vlad looked down at the bright blue eyes shining happily up at him from under a mess of dark hair. He raised an eyebrow.

"Daniel," His voice was stern, "what have I told you about waiting inside the gate?" The boy immediately released his hold on Vlad's waist.

"It's not safe outside the gate because there are cars and maybe bigfoots" The boy recited, looking up at him expectantly. Vlad was a little taken back by the end of that sentence, and forced himself not to smile.

"That's right." Vlad said seriously. Daniel wasn't fooled by Vlad's serious face and giggled, immediately undoing his attempt to stay serious. He laughed, and Daniel launched himself into his now open arms. Vlad had to admit that Daniel's hugs were among the few things he didn't mind him inheriting from his father.

"How was school, little badger? Did you have fun?" Vlad ruffled the boy's messy hair as he set him back on the ground and set about getting his shoes tied and backpack zipped.

"Yeah! I drew a spaceship! I told Kwan that mom and dad are building a spaceship, but he didn't believe me. He says only astronauts have spaceships." Daniel pouted at this. Vlad could only guess what he meant about his parents building a spaceship. Maybe the prototype ghost portal? He supposed that the inside looked similar to a spaceship.

"Well, I guess that means if you become an astronaut, then you can have your own spaceship." Vlad reasoned, bending to take Daniel's hand as he turned to leave the schoolyard.

"Yeah!" Daniel started tugging Vlad along, eager to get home. "I better start building it! Do you think mom and dad will let me use their stuff?"

"I'm sure they would love to help you build a spaceship."

Vlad doubted Jack Fenton would even blink if asked to build a space shuttle. It was actually a pretty realistic request given his other projects. Still, for a man who believed in ghosts, he was surprisingly good at bringing his whims to life. Except for the Fenton Toaster. That had been a nightmare.

The two began their daily trek to Fenton Works. Daniel was a little blur, his worn converse flapping against the pavement as he ran from thing to thing. Vlad frowned at the flapping soles. When the contract went through, he decided, he'd buy Daniel new shoes. Destroyed shoes or not, now that the leaves had fallen in huge drifts, there was nothing Vlad could do to dissuade Daniel from stomping through as many piles as he could. Vlad was content to watch him explore, only occasionally pulling him back when he got a little too close to the curb. Daniel chattered as they walked, happily describing a game that he had learned in his gym class. Something caught Vlad's attention as he watched the boy demonstrate, prompting him to interrupt.

"Daniel, what's happened to your hands?" Vlad gently grabbed the boy's wrists and turned his palms up. Bruises were forming on the heels of his scraped-up hands.

"Uh," Daniel's face screwed up as he obviously tried to come up with a lie.

"Daniel." Vlad said sternly. Chastised, Daniel blurted the truth.

"Dash pushed me off the swings again." He looked around nervously, checking to see that there was no one near.

"Again? As in, this has happened more than once?" Vlad's face tightened in a scowl.

"Yeah," Danny shrugged, absently rubbing his leg with his other foot, "I'm okay though. I'm not a baby." His normally cheerful voice twisted with anxiety.

"Of course you're not a baby Daniel, but that doesn't mean you can't tell someone when you get hurt. Did you tell your teacher what happened?" Vlad could guess the answer from the boy's red face, but he wanted to hear him say it.

"I'm not a tattle tale!" Daniel protested, scowling.

Vlad sighed. He let go of Daniel's hands and knelt down so he could look him in the eye.

"Daniel, I'm very worried that this is the first time you told me someone was being unkind to you. It's wrong for them to hurt you, or to call you a baby. You're not." Vlad's eyes crinkled affectionately. "You're brave, you're funny, and you're smart. Your parents and I love you very much, so you need to tell us when you're having trouble. Do you understand?"

"Okay, Uncle Vlad."

He wasn't entirely convinced Daniel did understand, but he nodded and stood. He'd have to make some inquiries about this Dash character. He sounded unpleasant, especially if he was giving Daniel a hard time. Daniel! The child was the most kind hearted person Vlad have ever met, if a little too shy and serious sometimes.

"All right, Daniel," He clapped his hands together, "Did you learn any new letters today?" Immediately the boy's embarrassment vanished and they began walking again, Daniel pointing out letters he knew as they went. Before long a familiar building appeared in the distance. It was hard to miss as the roof was covered in a metal skeleton that held the currently in-construction OPCENTER. Vlad had to suppress a sigh just looking at the metal monstrosity. It was no wonder the entire town thought its inhabitants were insane.

Daniel, thankfully, did not notice Vlad's dislike of the enormous boxy building, and pulled even faster now that his home was in sight. The small boy ran up the steps, but knew better than to open the door alone. He fidgeted impatiently as Vlad carefully disactivated no less than 7 security codes. Failure to do so would have sent them both flying off the porch, encased in a gooey mixture that could only be melted off by an obscure brand of window cleaner. It had happened before, and was the reason that no one delivered mail to the Fenton household for the last three years.

Finally, the door opened and Daniel attempted to get past him and run towards his favorite part of the house: the lab. Vlad had become more than adept at snagging the five-year-old before he could get too far though, and did so without even looking away from the door he was relocking. Jack and Maddie had been down in the lab since early that morning, and if they hadn't resurfaced yet, it was because they were still working, and the lab was no playground. Daniel squirmed and complained about wanting to see the spaceship, but Vlad towed him off to the kitchen instead. He pouted as Vlad firmly sat him down at the kitchen table, but stayed put.

"Jasmine!" Vlad yelled, rifling through the cupboards, "Daniel's here! Come and get something to eat!" He was not as fond of Daniel's sister, she was turning out to be impertinent and bossy, but Maddie would be upset if Jasmine hadn't eaten anything. The girl had already arrived from school nearly an hour before, and had vanished to her room with a book under her arm without a word to him. Talk about ingratitude. His call yielded no results, and Vlad didn't try again. He had done his part, now he could focus on distracting Daniel long enough that he could get down to the lab himself and check up on Maddie. She worked herself just as hard as he did, and he got worried when she spent days on end in the lab. He knew that Jack was always working alongside her, but the man wasn't exactly the most observant. Maddie needed him, not Jack.

"Daniel?" He had an idea. The boy was trying to poke his straw into his juicebox with little success, his tongue sticking out in concentration. He looked up expectantly, probably hoping his Uncle would offer to help him. "Why don't you take your juice and some cookies up to Jasmine's room? She can help you get it open, and you can tell her about what you played today." A sunny smile spread across his face at the idea of eating upstairs, which his mother did not allow.

"Okay!" Vlad watched with satisfaction as Daniel quickly vanished upstairs, loaded with snacks. He quickly slipped out of the kitchen, and zipped himself into a generic white hazmat suit that hung next to the basement door. He did not take as much care as he should have in closing the door behind him as he descended to the lab, a decision which would haunt him for years. He wove around cluttered tables, barely sparing a glance at the gaping alcove designed to hold a functioning ''ghost ''portal. Jack and Maddie had been in the control room for the device for the last few hours. Probably trying to figure out why the energy readings from the portal were wrong again.

Vlad already knew their little project was doomed to failure. Honestly, a ghost portal? Ghosts didn't exist, let alone an entire dimension of them. Their future was in weapon development, as much as the couple didn't want to admit it. It was their ingenious shield technology that was going to seal the contract with Axion, not claims that intelligent life existed in a parallel dimension.

Still, as long as they were focused on their magnum opus, they would need him to manage Fenton Works, and look after Daniel. As well as Jasmine, he supposed, but she was already surprisingly independent at seven years old. That's why he'd fiddled around with the ectofiltrator again this morning. It was always so satisfying to hear them argue about the continually unstable energy readings and malfunctioning equipment. Who knows, maybe the continued failure of all their efforts would cause a big enough rift between them that they'd separate? It was an idle daydream, but one Vlad didn't mind indulging.

Jack and Maddie's voices met him as he pushed open the door into the small control room. They were both facing a large monitor, its green glow bathing their frowning faces.

"I just don't get it, Jack, the readings yesterday were very unstable, but they look perfect now. I'm not sure what's changed, but I still think we should wait to see if the stability lasts a few more hours, just to be sure it's not some fluke." Maddie bit her lip as her eyes swept over the graphs of data on the screen. Vlad said nothing, hardly paying attention to what she was saying as he soaked in the sight of her. Only Maddie could make a hazmat suit attractive. Her husband shrugged his huge shoulders amiably.

"I dunno, Mads. This may be our best shot at punching through into the ghost dimension. I say we go for it!"

"I suppose," she said hesitantly, "We've just been having all those problems with our equipment frying. We shouldn't try to open a full rift yet. Maybe a test run, to see if we can sustain a small tear. If the equipment seems to be handling it, and the readings are good, we can push further. I don't want a repeat of what happened in college."

"Is everything alright?" Vlad interrupted, their conversation suddenly registering. What did she mean the readings were perfect? He had reconfigured the filtrator at random, there was no way the device could be working correctly. The couple jumped at his unexpected voice.

"VLADDY!" Jack rushed across the room to greet him, "You're just in time, V-man! We're going to do our first test run on the portal! Today's the day we punch a hole into the spook's own dimension!" Vlad impatiently extricated himself from Jack's crushing grip as Maddie spoke.

"I'm glad you're here, Vlad." She absentmindedly began pulling her long, curly hair into a quick knot. "Did you find Danny okay?" Vlad's irritation immediately faded at the mention of her son, replaced by the familiar butterflies in his stomach as Maddie smiled at him.

"Yes, I did. He's upstairs. He is very excited to start building his own space shuttle." Maddie smiled fondly, her loosely bound hair almost immediately escaping its knot as she shook her head regretfully. Jack, who had not been phased at all by Vlad's irritation, broke in on the conversation as he lumbered across the small space to his wife's side.

"He always was more interested in aliens than ghosts. We'll win him over eventually," Jack assured her, pecking her on the cheek, "Especially when we get this portal up and running!" They both took their places at the control board once more.

Vlad leaned disinterestedly against the bulletproof glass window that overlooked the lab, watching as the portal lights flashed to life on the adjacent wall. Its striped doors had swiftly closed to protect the rest of the building from the radioactive energy about to course through it. Maybe if he was lucky the thing would explode and they'd have to start from scratch . . . again. A deep hum began to fill the room as the portal began to activate, making it difficult to hear anything. Vlad pulled away from the window as it began to vibrate as well.

"Jack, open the feed so we can see what's happening!" Maddie ordered excitedly, nearly shouting to be heard. The lights overhead flickered wildly as the portal began draining power from the rest of the house. If they weren't careful, they were going to black out the whole neighborhood. Vlad frowned at the thought.

We're going to need that Axion contract just to pay for the energy bill.

Jack's large hands darted with surprising agility over the controls, and a large screen started powering on on the opposite wall. Even more noise flooded the room as the display began channeling the sounds of the machine shuddering to life from the inside. Suddenly, over the dull roar of the portal combining electricity and what Jack swore was ectoplasm, an unexpected sound crackled over the speakers.

"Mommy!"

The terrified cry shattered the excitement in the room, and they all froze. As one, they turned to the display. The camera inside the portal finally connected, revealing the fuzzy image of a small shape pounding on the doors that had so suddenly shut behind him.

No.

It couldn't be. It wasn't possible!

Maddie's scream shattered the numb shock that had fallen over them and they all jolted to life again. "JACK! Power down the portal!"

The terrified parents leapt to the controls. The control room door, though made of reinforced metal, may as well have been made of paper for all the effort it took Vlad to shove it open. He crashed through the lab. Tables and equipment flew. Sliding to a stop, he pounded a code into the small control panel next to the flashing portal.

Nothing.

An emergency siren split the air.

Cursing, Vlad darted over and dug his fingers into the groove between the doors before his logic caught up. What was he doing? He'd never open the door like that!

He turned. There had to be something! Immediately his gaze fell on the ridiculously large weapon Jack had christened the Fenton Cannon lying on the floor just a few paces away. He turned back to the portal doors.

"Daniel!" He pounded on the unforgiving metal, screaming to be heard over the now shrieking siren. "Daniel! Listen to me, I need you to back up! BACK UP! Get as far away from the doors as you can!" He desperately hoped Daniel could hear him, because whatever Jack and Maddie were doing to power down the portal clearly wasn't working.

The large bulb lights that framed the portal began to blow out, showering him with broken glass. He yelled in pain and ducked away as the lab was plunged into near darkness. He recovered quickly, but it the darkness cost him precious seconds to find what he needed. Vlad darted forward and snatched the clunky weapon from its work table, clumsily aiming it at the portal doors.

Jack Fenton if this works, I will never complain about any of your inventions ever again. He pulled the trigger.

BANG

The lab briefly flared with light as the blast erupted from the gun, throwing him backwards. Blinking away spots, he looked towards the portal. A huge crater had been punched into the steel; a dark gap now visible between the warped doors. Vlad scrambled to his feet, tossing away the weapon

Even as he ran he knew it was too late. Time seemed to slow as he shoved aside a smoking door, his palms screaming in protest at coming in contact with the hot metal. Electricity arced through the darkness. A swirling mass of green energy was tearing itself into existence at the far end of the tunnel.

Daniel's small form was silhouetted against the glowing sphere. His frightened eyes locked on to Vlad's, shining a phosphorescent green as they reflected the eerie light. All of Vlad's senses shut down as he jumped forward, wrapping himself around the child. In the split second before the energy exploded, there was silence.

There are no words to describe the pain Vlad felt as the energy enveloped them both, their screams lost in the explosion that ripped through the lab. He could do nothing as Daniel dissolved in his arms, ripped from existence in the torrent of energy. He could do nothing as the explosion rocked the house, killing Jack, Maddie and Jasmine instantly. It would be days before he was found in the ruins of Fenton Works, only alive because he was now half dead.

Thoughts? Questions? Not too different so far is it?

See you soon!