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"It's empty today," Tucker commented, looking around the park. The trio had decided to go on night patrol considering it was a Saturday and they didn't feel like going to bed early. They thought of keeping themselves occupied till they could finally sleep and were going to have a sleepover at Sam's house.
However, the horror movie they had watched had surely been terrifying, and they regretted watching it at night. But they hadn't known it would scare them so easily! They fought ghosts on a daily basis and had come across dangerous ones, so it didn't seem like one movie would do damage.
"Yeah… I don't like it," Danny said, staring wearily at a rusting bush. But what jumped out of it had only been a wild rabbit, scavenging for food. He shook his head, feeling himself get paranoid.
Jazz had also joined and she was assigned to a different part of the neighbourhood so Danny was confused when he saw her running towards them. With the Fenton thermos on her hand, she grinned and finally reached the trio, panting a little.
"Did you get into a ghost fight?" Danny asked nervously, still not keen on the idea of letting his sister hunt ghosts alone. But she had insisted and kept telling him that she could defend herself that he had to reluctantly agree. Still, he made sure to send her to a place where ghosts barely showed up, just to be safe.
"I did! And you won't believe who it was," Jazz smiled proudly at herself and Danny fought the urge to curse. Maybe he shouldn't have given her that spot, but how was he supposed to know ghosts would show up there? None bothered to float around the city hall, mainly because Vlad was there. And although Danny hated to admit it, the man was powerful. He held a good reputation in the ghost zone and no one dared to set foot near his house, except for Skulker and a few of his assistants. That was why there weren't any ghosts at Wisconsin, despite him having a ghost portal.
While Danny was busy with his own thoughts, Jazz noted the worried expression on his brother's face and rolled her eyes. "Danny, I'm fine and capable of hunting with you guys. I even proved it to you guys now," she said, shaking the cylindrical container.
"Not that I care who you catch, but, who was it?" Sam asked, a bit curious.
The 16-year old girl grinned. "Vlad Masters."
"What?!" the trio yelled in unison, eyes wide like saucers.
"Shh, keep your voices down," she shushed them, looking around the park uneasily. Even though it was late at night and she didn't think anybody would take a midnight stroll, one can never be too careful.
"Jazz, are you serious?" the half-ghost asked, hoping his sister was joking. But she continued to stare at him with a proud and serious look that made mentally scream. "Shit…"
"Why did you do it?" Tucker whispered and Sam interrupted. "Was he terrorizing someone again?"
"No, he was making some sort of sketchy deal with a bunch of ghosts so I eavesdropped. But he noticed me, and I kinda panicked. Since he was in his ghost form, the Fenton thermos sucked him in easily," Jazz explained and Danny groaned.
"Plasmius is so gonna hate me for this, he'll think I sent you on purpose to listen and capture him," Danny sighed. He already had a complicated relationship with Vlad, and this made things 10x worse.
"Jazz, do you realize what you've done?" Tucker looked at her with uncertainty. "When Vlad gets out, he won't be happy."
"Tucker's right," the half-ghost said. "We trap ghosts in here in order to let them out in the ghost zone, However, there's no point in trapping Vlad, it's not like we can also drop him off there. And besides, he didn't give us a good reason to do so, he's been minding his business for a while now. Mayoral stuff has been keeping him busy and I got to admit, he's not half bad at his job, for now. I'm still not happy with the previous rules he set on us last time."
"Yeah, trapping Vlad will only give us unnecessary problems. We're just glad he forgot about us for a solid three weeks. But now, he'll think you trapped him on purpose to annoy him," the goth stated, growing weary. If there was one thing the trio knew, it was to not play pranks on the billionaire. It caused them terrible consequences the last time Danny did, and as the motto said, don't bite off more than you can chew.
"You guys are acting as if you're actually afraid of the man," Jazz frowned, causing Danny to roll his eyes.
"We're not afraid of him, Jazz. We know him more than you do, and trust me, Vlad is not someone you can mess around with. Take it from me, I've triggered him countless times and gotten away with it too. But there were times where he was just too much to handle," Danny paused. "What I'm saying is, we don't want more problems than we can handle. We'll let him do whatever he wants as long as he's not hurting anyone, and if we do suspect him of planning something 'evil', we'll be quick to act on it."
The girl sighed. She understood what the trio was saying and she knew they were right about everything. It was just a bummer that she had Vlad right on her fingertips and she couldn't do anything to him, like inflicting pain for all the stuff he had done to her family, especially Danny.
Plasmius was always up to something and always managed to screw people's lives up. However, Danny was also there to foil his plans and that's what worried her the most. She didn't want her baby brother to end up anywhere near the man; it was her job to protect him, and she wanted to prove that.
"So what now?" Jazz asked. They couldn't release him now, he was likely fuming by being contained forcefully.
"Well for starters, we'll have to-" Danny felt a cool mist escape his mouth and he groaned again in frustration. "Now? Seriously?"
The boy looked around and then glared upon spying the three annoying birds that worked for Plasmius land on a tree nearby. "What are you ghosts doing here?"
"Ah, fancypants ghostboy, ve didn't expect you to be here," the leader started.
"I didn't either," he rolled his eyes. "But for once I'm glad it's just you guys. We have a gift."
'We do?' Tucker mouthed confused, causing the three birds to look at each other curiously. Danny decided to clarify. "We have what you're looking for. Jazz, give it to them."
"What?!" the girl exclaimed, clutching the thermos closely. "I'm not giving anything to those weird looking birds!"
"Ve're ecto-americans!" one of them corrected and all three birds flew to the ginger girl, stretching their beaks to grasp it. "Give it to us, girly!"
"Hey! Don't go near her!" Danny didn't like the way the ghosts approached his sister and was about to interrupt the commotion when the thermos got thrown and started shooting it's neon beam. And that's how the other half-ghost got sucked in, cursing under his breath.
"Danny!" the three remaining teens exclaimed in horror, watching their friend get pulled right into the cylindrical container. They wanted to quickly grab the thermos and release their friend, even Plasmius. But before they could get anywhere near it, one of the three ghostly birds snatched it from the sky and flew off, leaving behind three crushed teens.
They tried calling the birds back, threatening and even begging them for an answer, but nothing worked. They were already gone, and so was Danny.
"Jazz, wait!" Sam yelled, catching up to the angry girl who had gone down to her parent's lab.
"Where are you going?" she asked upon seeing her climb into the Specter Speeder.
"To find Danny," Jazz sternly replied as Tucker also tried climbing in.
"We'll come too!"
"No, you both need to stay here and call me when you see those damn birds," she said, flipping the switches to activate the ghost detector.
"Jazz, that's ridiculous!" the goth exclaimed. "You know we're the most capable of helping him-"
"No," she refused again and looked at the two teens, causing them to flinch by her hard stare. "I was the one who did this. I stupidly brought Vlad and his goons, and fought with them too, trapping Danny."
"Jazz, you can't beat yourself up for that-"
"Don't you see? My baby brother is in danger because of me! I couldn't do anything to help him, and I instead made things worse. I need to fix it," she said, turning the engine on.
"Wait-" the two teens couldn't say anything else to the determined girl as she flew off, looking for her brother.
Sam and Tucker sighed and both decided to go look for him around the area rather than moping around. "Do you know who she reminds me of?" the goth asked.
"Who?"
"Danny. They're both so stubborn!"
"Ow," Danny rubbed his head, eyes closed from the pain of the impact. He felt like he had been run over by a train, and he couldn't even remember what really happened!
He blinked a few times, adjusting to the brightness as he looked around. Studying his surroundings, he did a double-take at who also seemed to be stuck in the same situation as him.
"What… What are you doing here?" he asked, staring at the annoyed man seated in a corner.
"Wouldn't you like to know," Vlad answered bitterly, still in his ghost form as he tried to look for a way out. But his actions deemed useless.
"Huh..." Danny whispered to himself, hoping to recall any memories of how he ended up getting locked in white space. "I don't remember how I came here."
"Well, isn't that interesting," the man sarcastically said. "I'm sure I'd love to hear the story of how after you brought me here, you decided to join the party as well."
'Locking him up? Why would I stuff Plasmius in the Fenton thermos… no, I didn't do that… but then… I was on patrol, I never even got close to him.'
While Danny was lost in his own daze, Vlad ignored the younger halfa's weird behaviour and looked around, wishing someone would let him out. He'd been here for 15 minutes now and he was already starting to lose it! He should be taking a hot shower right now and getting ready to sleep. But then these nosy teenagers had to stick their noses in where they didn't belong and trap him here. Oh, they were going to regret it-
"Jazz!" Danny exclaimed, now wide awake with his memories restored. "I was accidentally sucked in here."
"No shit, I didn't suppose you'd come here for the fun of it just to hang out with 'Uncle Vlad'. Honestly, do you even have a few working cells in there, boy?" Vlad snapped, causing the boy to shoot him an icy glare.
"Hey! Can you stop acting like a jerk and make yourself useful? I now have a headache because of you," Danny growled.
"Don't you think I already tried? It's hopeless, we're stuck here until one of your friends let us out."
"I don't think they have it right now," Danny sighed, leaning over the blank 'wall'."Something must've happened, they don't usually take this long."
"Usually?" the man grinned. So this happened more than once? He would've laughed if it weren't for his current predicament. "So we're going to have to wait?"
"I guess so," Danny answered, sitting back down and huddling his knees together, using them as a headrest. Really, he was worried about them more than himself. Eventually, the container would have to open on its own and they'll be let out. But he was anxious about leaving his friends and sister alone, and although they could take care of themselves, he was still left unsure.
Danny raised an eyebrow upon seeing the man stare at him with a creepy grin. Had he gone loopy again?
"What are you smiling about?" he hotly said, sending another frown to the man, causing his smirk to only grow bigger.
"Nothing, dear boy," he said as he got closer. "I just thought that since we'll be here for a while, we should probably make the best of it. And what's better than spending quality time together?
"That's a terrible idea. Just go do your own thing while I try to think of a way out so that we don't have to spend two hours together," Danny said, taking a few steps away from the guy. "We both know that your version of 'quality time' will be badmouthing my dad and goggling over my mom."
"That's where you are wrong. I just want for us to 'hang in' as you folks say, little badger," he grinned. Danny, however, cringed at Vlad's attempt of sounding 'hip' and sighed.
"Yeah, well, I'd rather we not interact with each other at all to avoid your intense mood swings," the boy replied, recalling how the older halfa was just fuming 5 minutes ago.
"But we need to kill time. Say, why don't we talk about…" and after that, Danny ignored the man's ranting and instead prayed that a miracle would happen and he would be released from this hellhole.
"Guys, where are you?" Danny whispered, looking up at the ceiling with a pleading stare. How was he supposed to survive another minute with the fruitloop?
"Those birds either want themselves to be found, or they're just stupid," Jazz mumbled to herself, staring at the huge mansion located in Wisconsin. Their hiding place was Vlad's house?
"Probably the latter," she answered her own question and took a step at the mansion with a determined look on her face. "I'm coming to get you, little brother."