"Jack was just trying to plan a surprise for his good ol' friend Vladdy. He...did not expect to discover a secret lab in Vlad's mansion-or a second portal or weaponry to rival theirs or- Was that a hologram of his wife?" - Prompt by Lynse.

I just slapped this one down today because I realized that I was running out of month and that I had only written 1 of the 3 prompts I really wanted to do. Also check out my Tumblr (inky-interest) where I post about writing and where I'm also running a giveaway for my followers.

The door creaked as Jack opened it, arms full with birthday decorations. He kicked it closed behind him, the key already put into a pocket in his jumpsuit. Sure, Vlad might not have handed it to him, but the man hadn't changed in the years since they had met. He still hid it exactly where Jack would've expected him to.

Which was useful, because now Jack could decorate the mansion for the surprise birthday party he was going to throw for his best friend! He knew for a fact that Vlad would be out for several hours – mayoral duties and all that. And while he normally did his best to attend… This was a golden opportunity. He was sure that Vlad would forgive his absence once he saw the party.

He dumped his armful of decorations (carefully) in the entry hall. It would be the most convenient place to access it – he could return to this spot and decorate the separate wings of the mansion. Pleased with this plan, Jack picked up some of his goods and set off.

A few hours of decorating later, Jack had reached a cozy-looking study. He was just hanging up some flags when he accidentally knocked over a small statue. Worried that he had broken one of Vlad's precious items, he approached to inspect it.

And then, with a grinding noise, the wall behind the statue started to open. Jack paused, watching how the wall opened into… a staircase?

Curiosity peaked, Jack crept closer. Why would Vlad have a hidden staircase like this? But just imagine what kind of cool things could be hidden down there?

He eagerly bustled down the stairs, and ended up in an enormous lab. It was much more neatly organized than theirs – a clear sign that Vlad was in control of this one.

Jack had to admit that he was a little confused by the fact that it was hidden. As exciting as this discovery was – his best friend was still into (ghost) science! – he didn't understand why Vlad had kept it a secret. Why hadn't he mentioned it to his friends? To him or Maddie?

Were mayors not allowed to have interests like these? Or was it something to do with his image, as mayor or as billionaire? Jack knew that the town tended to look askew to him and his wife because of their interest. Did Vlad hide it because of that? Was he afraid of being scorned like that?

He walked further into the lab, curious to see what Vlad worked on. What kind of inventions had he stowed down here? Could they work together, perhaps? Secretly, so he didn't have to worry about his reputation?

Now that Jack was away from the staircase, he could see the entire lab. It was far larger than the one underneath FentonWorks. Not entirely surprising, that was.

What was surprising was the invention set in the back wall. It was a familiar sight. A giant metal arch, the insides filled with swirling green; a Ghost Portal. Set in the steel beside it was an Ecto-Filtrator. It… was the exact same as their Ecto-Filtrator.

And, sure. Maybe Vlad had based it on the old design for the Proto-Portal they had made back in college. But the one he and his wife had built for the new Portal was entirely different in design. And somehow, Vlad had made his exactly like theirs. How? He shouldn't have had access to the blueprints. Right?

All along the walls, carefully stored and labeled, was ecto-weaponry. Jack would've been excited about that, except that these seemed to be very much like the FentonWorks weaponry as well. The designs seemed eerily similar. Most guns could've been theirs, except that they were detailed with red instead of green. Seemed to be powered by pink ectoplasm instead of the green they used.

Was this why Vlad had hidden his lab? Because he borrowed their designs – Jack didn't want to think of it as stealing, because surely his best friend didn't so such things – and didn't want them to know? Didn't Vlad realize that they would've forgiven him for such a thing? If he had asked, Jack would've gladly shared the blueprints, even!

Everything in the lab seemed to be directly inspired from the FentonWorks lab, except bigger and more expensive. Everything, except for the giant machines in the back.

They resembled enormous pods – and Jack had no idea what they could've been for. They weren't connected to anything, and were littered with shattered glass and broken machinery and snapped cables. They were clearly salvaged from somewhere, but from where and why, he didn't know. Was Vlad researching the machines for something? And if so, for what?

In his curiosity, his feet had been carrying him ever closer without him noticing. Apparently he passed too close by the main computer, because it turned on. Startled by the sudden activation, Jack backed away a step or two.

And in the empty space he had just cleared, a hologram appeared. See-through and glitchy along the edges, but still clearly recognizable. The auburn hair and violet eyes were a clear giveaway – as was the teal jumpsuit.

Vlad had a hologram made to resemble Maddie. Jack'swife. What the hell?

"Hello darling," the fake Maddie said, her voice so staticky that it was barely recognizable as Maddie's. "How can I help you today?"

"Go away," he commanded, disgusted and confused and so many other emotions that he couldn't discern. "Leave me alone."

"Of course sweetcheeks," the hologram replied, before flickering out of sight. Jack sighed, relieved, and sank down into the chair sitting in front of the computer. Maybe… maybe he should take a look. Something was going on here.

The cool hidden underground lab suddenly wasn't as exciting anymore.

On the computer, the files were neatly organized. Another sign that good old Vladdie hadn't changed as much as one might think. Unfortunately, this didn't make the information presented to Jack make any more sense.

A bunch of files were dedicated to Maddie. And another few specifically to the AI version of Maddie he had seen just now – which implied that most of the files were about the real Maddie. Jack briefly wondered what on Earth his friend could've hidden in these – but he skipped past them, nonetheless.

Disgust curled in his stomach. Maybe Vlad wasn't the friend Jack thought he was. To him, or to Maddie.

There are also a lot of files about Phantom. These, at least, should be safe for Jack to explore. The ghost was an interesting one, after all. And had no link to him or his family, besides the fact that they hunted it.

Initially, the files make perfect sense. They were studies – far more in-depth than anything Jack and his wife had ever managed. Phantom was notoriously elusive, and he wondered how Vlad might've acquired the more advanced data.

Phantom's power levels, its abilities and skills, weaknesses and strengths. These were all perfectly normal – they kept the same things logged. The ghost was a powerful one, and knowing one's prey was important for hunters. And while Vlad wasn't a hunter, he might've been compiling the information for other hunters to use.

More curious were the anatomical pointers. Some of the notes were fine – location and strength of the core, ectoplasm density, such things – but others… were not. Skeletal structure, which ghosts shouldn't have, and even organs? Was Vlad somehow ahead of them in research?

Jack did seriously wonder how Vlad had acquired all this information, then. He wasn't a hunter – and he certainly couldn't have caught Phantom. Right?

More curiously, however, was that he kept referring to the ghost as 'Daniel' instead of Phantom. This, Jack definitely didn't get.

Until he reached the part of the file dedicated to Phantom's origin.

From the start, it was a confusing mess of data. It listed all kinds of information about Phantom which Jack couldn't fathom Vlad accessing – and which he highly doubted were true. Additionally, it was all presented in a way which made it seem all the more sketchy.

Even the first note, cause of death, was highly dubious. "Electrocution via Ghost Portal," it stated, which was clear enough – if a little worrying, because it meant that not only was someone trying to mimic their grand invention, they had gotten a kid killed in the process. More confusingly, however, the sentence didn't end there. No, instead, "much like myself" was tacked on. Like Vlad himself had died – or like the files had come from a ghost.

Jack wasn't sure which was better. He ignored it in favor of reading on, hoping to find less confusing information.

Apparently Phantom had only become a ghost a year or two ago. By the time they first encountered him, he would've been barely formed. Supposedly, he had formed immediately upon death – he had died early August that year.

Instead of getting hung up on this, Jack's eye caught on the details on the ghost's identity. Because there, in plain text, it read, "Daniel Fenton". Like his son had died two years ago, and had somehow become Phantom. As if he wouldn't have noticed if his own son had died!

But the file provided picture proof as well. A lot of picture proof. Comparative photos between Danny and Phantom, taken at regular intervals. They did look like perfect mirror images – identical copies, if one ignored the difference in hair and eye color. In the pictures, one could even see them growing up in perfect sync.

And the file continued on. It listed Phantom (Danny?) as a halfa – a half-ghost. A special type of ghost caught in the split between life and death. Not entirely a ghost, but not quite human either.

It was… It was all too much. None of this could be true. Jack refused to believe it.

Something… Something must be wrong with Vlad – clearly had been for a while. He was sorry that he hadn't noticed it before, but for now the best would be to help. He didn't know what had caused it, or how to fix it, but he owed it to his friend. All these files were a clear sign of some mental problem – Jazz's constant rants about psychology had taught him that much, at least.

Because, as convincing as all this was… As much as all of it held up to Vlad's old standards, rigorously collected and sorted information…

Danny could not be Phantom. It was impossible. No matter how similar their appearances were, it simply wasn't physically possible for one to be both ghost and human at the same time.

Still, morbid curiosity drove him to scroll just that little bit further down.

Logs. So many logs. Detailed breakdowns of Danny's DNA – or parts of it, at least. Some clearly human. Other bits seemed otherworldly – tainted by ectoplasm, or so the file said.

More concerning, however, were the carefully kept notes on the various clones that Vlad had made. Of Danny – or Phantom, that wasn't entirely clear. Maybe a mixture of both, which would've explained his faulty belief that the two were one and the same.

Jack would've considered that the reason why they were all listed as destabilized. All had broken down over their contrary existence – an existence not physically possible.

Except that, apparently, a single clone had survived. Slightly younger than Danny, and female. There was no name listed for her – just like there had been no names for the others. And somehow, she had survived.

Jack would've scoffed, laughed it off… but there were, once again, photos. Of a girl who looked so much like Danny that it was scary. And of a girl who looked just like Phantom, but younger. Different in the same way she was different from Danny.

And a video, which showed her shifting from one into the other in a sharp burst of light. Bright rings which swept away one girl and replaced her with the other.

So maybe there was some sort of truth to Danny being Phantom. Or Vlad had become incredibly competent with video editing – which Jack highly doubted. If he had gone this crazy, surely he couldn't fake such convincing footage?

More concerning, however, was what Vlad apparently thought of this clone. She was the only survivor of an act he shouldn't have tried – creating new life was morally wrong, and he highly doubted that either his son or Phantom (or were they one and the same?) had consented to it.

But Vlad seemed intent on figuring out why this one clone had survived. And to do so, he wanted to catch her.

He wanted to kill her, just to find out why she hadn't died sooner.

It was… It was disgusting. No matter what had gone wrong with Vlad, no matter how much of this was real or fake or imagined – the intent was still there. Even if the girl– ghost– halfa wasn't real, Vlad still wanted to kill her. Wanted to kill a living being he had created, because of what? Because she wasn't a perfect copy of Danny? Because she had somehow survived when his 'good' clones hadn't?

Why did he even want to clone Danny? Phantom or not, what could Vlad possibly achieve from having a clone of Jack's son?

He didn't know what to think. He didn't know what the truth was – behind Phantom, behind Vlad, behind the lab and all its contents and–

Pushing himself away from the desk, Jack stood up. He wanted to get away from it all. Wanted to deny it – but at the same time, he wanted to help. Wanted to figure it out.

He didn't know how long he stood there, intending to leave, trying to decide what to do–

A sound like shattering glass snapped him out of his reverie. He whipped around to see Phantom – the ghost was hovering next to one of the tables in the lab. Its – his – eyes were wide with shock. At his feet laid broken glass, like he had accidentally knocked a beaker over.

"D– Jack," he said. Now that Jack was listening for it, he could clearly hear the hesitation, the correction. Phantom had been about to call him Dad.

God, this really was his son. Or derived from him somehow, but… that didn't seem right. His gut said that the first was correct – and Vlad's files seemed to imply the same.

"Danny," he greeted back. Phantom – Danny – seemed confused by the words. And, perhaps, also by his non-violent approach. And how sad was that, that his own son looked at him with genuine fear?

He took his eyes off of the ghost of his son. Or half-ghost, if Vlad's notes were to be believed. He doesn't know anymore. Some of them seemed to be right, but others… they were too disgusting and scary to imagine.

"What are you doing here?" Danny asked him, cautiously. Jack continued to look around the lab, eyes roving over the entire room. Scanning it for any signs of the horrible things Vlad might've done. The ways he might've hurt Jack's son.

"I could ask you the same thing," he countered, shooting Danny a glance over his shoulder. The half-ghost fidgeted, unsure.

Then Jack's eyes land on the broken down pods. Knowing what he did now, he could figure out what they were for. Cloning pods. One used to grow the clones – there had surely been more, but only one had been brought here by Vlad.

The other had been used to torture Danny, to somehow obtain the missing DNA samples.

And now that he had started thinking about it, he couldn't help but worry… What had happened to the female clone? Because if Vlad was right about Danny being Phantom, and the pods were real enough… did that mean that the girl was also real?

Did Jack have a daughter out there, illegally cloned from his son? A baby girl, who had grown up in a lab without a name, watching her siblings melt and die?

"Is she safe?" he burst out, startling Danny – and himself, a little.

The sudden question seemed to confuse the half-ghost, since he frowned at Jack. "Who?"

"The female clone." He turned to face his son properly. "The notes said that Vlad tried to hurt her, melt her down. What happened to her? Is she safe?"

"Oh, uh. I stabilized her fully, and then she left to travel the world." Then the ghost fidgeted even more, slowly approaching him. "What, um. What else did the notes say?"

"A lot." Jack scratched his cheek, offering a hopefully soothing smile. "Most of them bad things. Terrible things that Vlad has done, or wanted to do. He has a hologram of Maddie, can you believe that? Your mother!"

Danny stiffened, eyes widening even further. The glow from his green eyes cast flickering lights on the shiny surfaces of the lab. For once, Phantom's eyes seemed kind and lively – Jack wondered how he had never noticed it before.

"You know?" he stuttered, looking at Jack. "And you… don't mind?"

"Of course not," he soothed, stepping closer to his son. He went slow, careful not to startle the boy. "You're my son, Danny. Ghost, boy, or something in-between."

Then suddenly Danny launched himself at Jack. Chilly cold arms wrapped around him, and in turn his big arms folded around his son. His son, who fit into his arms like he had always done.

A scoff interrupted the moment before they could truly cherish it. They broke apart to see the villainous Wisconsin Ghost hovering in the lab, in front of the Portal. Its arms were crossed, red eyes empty yet somehow still conveying a glare.

"Vlad," Danny snapped at the ghost, and suddenly all the dots connected for Jack. This was his best friend?

But it made perfect sense. If Vlad's files were to be believed, Danny had become a halfa thanks to his accident with the Ghost Portal. Vlad, too, had had an accident with a Portal – even if his had been the Proto-Portal. The larger amount of ectoplasm must account for the sickness, for the more… ghostly appearance.

And it explained Vlad's behavior. The ectoplasm made him more volatile, more ghostly. It must've brought down hell upon his mind – and that was without the outside influence of people hating ghosts. It didn't excuse his behavior, but, well. If they knew the problem, they could help Vlad. Could fix this – could fix him.

He realized that he had missed part of the conversation between Vlad and Danny. But it was impossible to miss the impending fight between the two, so he stepped forward to break it up.

"Wait," Jack said, holding up his hands. And miraculously, both half-ghosts halted. He turned to face Vlad – his best friend, whom he had hurt beyond words.

"Vlad. I'm… I'm so sorry for what I've done to you." He saw Vlad's eyes widen, but he wasn't sure with what emotion. His face was surprisingly hard to read like this. "I'm sorry for the accident with the Portal, and I'm sorry for unintentionally threatening you with my hatred of ghosts. I'm sorry for all the time we – I – made you feel unsafe, or unwelcome, or hated because of something you can't control."

Then his eyes hardened, and he made sure to keep his eyes locked with his best friend – or the man that once was his best friend. "But that doesn't excuse anything you have done. It doesn't excuse what you've done to me, or to my family. It doesn't excuse what you continue to do."

Vlad snarled in response, baring his pointed fangs. "What makes you think that I care at all about what you think of me!" Pink ectoplasm sparked around his hands, forming into coiling clouds of active ectoplasm. "What makes you think that I care about your opinion?!"

The ghost shot off, launching himself at Jack with startling speeds. He flinched back a step, throwing up his arms in a feeble attempt to defend himself–

But Danny collided with Vlad before the man reached him, and he was thrown into a wall instead. A fight broke out between the two half-ghosts, Vlad immediately ignoring Jack in favor of the bigger threat.

It made feel Jack feel sick, but he didn't focus on it. He might not have brought any weaponry, but he didn't need to – the lab was well-stocked with ecto-weaponry. And as much as he hated their similarity with the FentonWorks weapons, it was a boon for the moment. They all seemed to work exactly like the guns he was used to.

His eye caught on Vlad as he charged another ball of volatile ectoplasm. Below him, Danny was picking himself off of the floor. He was unable to defend himself.

Jack blindly reached for a weapon, aimed, and shot.

The explosion blew Vlad back, and his attack dissipated. He hit the wall with a dull thud, head banging against it. Then he collapsed on the floor, his head bent down. A black ring formed around his waist, then split in two and swept over him.

Vlad Masters remained where the Wisconsin Ghost had sat, moments before. A perfect mimicry of the transformation Jack had seen on the screen, an eternity ago.

He stepped closer, bending down over his former best friend. Danny, who had finally picked himself off of the ground, hovered close to him.

"Don't hurt my son," he hissed, inches away from Vlad's face.

"Stay away from my family," he warned. "From me, from my wife. From my beautiful daughter Jazz and my wonderful son Danny. And from my newest daughter," he paused, scrambling for a name.

Quietly, Danny added, "Danielle." Jack didn't question the name – he trusted his son's judgment.

"And from my newest daughter, Danielle, whom I haven't met yet but who I will protect anyway."

His enormous hands curled around Vlad's shoulders as he shook the man, driving the point home. "And if you even dare to hurt any of them, I will make the remainder of your life hell. Remember that, Vlad Masters."

Then he straightened up, nodding once at Danny. The boys eyes flitted between him and Vlad, uncertain.

Jack strode towards the staircase. After a short moment of hesitation, Danny followed him.

"So," Jack said as they climbed the stairs. Or as he climbed the stairs while Danny floated over them. "Do you have any way of contacting this Danielle?"

Danny remained silent for a moment longer. Then, quietly, he asked, "Why?"

Shooting him a grin, Jack offered, "Well, she's a Fenton. And us Fentons, we stick together. No matter what."