His back hurt.

He had done nothing prior to waking to cause it to hurt, so he couldn't fathom why it hurt as if he had fallen and landed on it. Speaking of landing, what was he lying on? He hadn't been lying on anything prior to waking either, and this certainly wasn't his bed. Too cold, too hard, with no soft silken blanket. Tiny little rocks dug into his shoulder blades as he shuffled his limbs and a breeze chilled the bare skin of his face, prompting him to slowly open his eyes and look up into a sky dotted with patches of dark grey. There wasn't a hint of blue to be seen past the clouds.

Still in the process of waking, he slid up to his elbows and looked to either side of him. One side was a vast plain of fog, but the other revealed a short rusting rail, beyond which were still grey waters. He pushed himself to his knees to better survey his surroundings, his expression steadily becoming one of apprehension. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know how he had gotten here, and that was a bad combination, even if it wasn't one he had actually encountered before. If he could just recall what he had been doing before waking here…

Aha! He snapped his fingers, rising to his feet. He'd secured Dani's trust. Momentarily, at least; Daniel had apparently had a little pep talk with her before she was due to sacrifice herself for his whims. His attempted clone had destabilized and melted before his eyes, provoking a murderous rage. And then… ah, right. He'd lost. Slammed into his equipment by a rogue vehicle and then punched into unconsciousness by Dani. One of Danny's comrades had wrapped the Specter Deflector around his waist at first opportunity, so he hadn't been able to defend himself. After his last encounter with the Specter Deflector, he'd already figured out how to remove it, so he'd driven home through the fog to retrieve the required equipment and—

And he'd woken up here.

Without the Specter Deflector, he noted.

A frown creased his brow. That didn't tell him anything, except perhaps that he had been in an accident. He didn't feel as if he had been in an accident, though. There was no evidence of injury except for his sore back, and there was a distinct lack of broken vehicle on the road he had awoken. There was no vehicles at all, in fact. Not a single one behind or ahead or in what little of the distance he could see. It was slightly nerve-wracking to realize he couldn't hear anything either. Other than his own shallow breathing, nothing. Not even the sound of the wind.

"This is ridiculous," he said, just to make some noise. He didn't like how eerily quiet it was, and he was unusually grateful for the gravel crunching underfoot as he made his way towards the vague outline of a building. Maybe he'd be able to find some town residents willing to lend him use of their phone. Or if not that, at least figure out where he was.

It was out of fear of being observed from the shadows that he didn't turn into Plasmius and simply fly to the building. For all he knew, this was a set-up by speculators to catch a transformation on camera and present it to the world. He took this opportunity to feel himself up and down, checking his pockets to see if anything had been thieved. His wallet hadn't been touched, thankfully, though he couldn't find his cell phone or car keys.

When he finally reached the building, it was a relief. He felt as if he'd been walking for far longer than was reasonable. He stepped up to it, regarding its decrepit appearance with a look of distaste. It was clearly your standard neighborhood house, but a heavily neglected one. He circled around to the windows and they were too dusty on both the inside and out for him to make out anything more than a few indiscernible blobs. There was a gentle flickering coming from far within the room he was looking into, so he knew the place had to be inhabited. Perhaps by a homeless man, or someone living government paycheck to government paycheck, impervious to the disgust of their neighbors. It was with this in mind that Vlad stomped around to the front door to knock. He spied a graveyard in the distance, heavily shrouded in fog, but paid it no mind; houses near graveyards ought to have been the cheapest on the market. No wonder this lowlife was occupying one.

"Hello?" He rapped his knuckles on the surprisingly sturdy door. He'd expected it to rattle, but it held steady against his knocking. "I'm after a phone, or the name of this town. Either one will do." He paused to allow an answer, but none came. "Hello? This is Vlad Masters. You might have heard of me. I can offer a generous 'thank you' if you help me."

Again, no answers. Vlad could feel himself bristling, tempted to turn intangible and demand answers from the house occupant.

"Look, if you don't answer me right now—!"

"You shouldn't be doing that."

Vlad almost dove out of his skin. Or, more accurately, he dove into the door, smacking his chin on the wood in his desperation to escape whoever had spoken to him.

"Oh, oh fudge buckets." He grimaced as he wrenched himself away from the door and around to face his unexpected (and frankly, unwanted) company. What sort of maniac went around scaring the wits out of people with unconventional greetings during this sort of ominous weather? He'd been about ready to float through the door in his fright.

"Sorry," the person belatedly amended. He'd expected a thuggish looking teenager. Instead, he was presented with a pretty young lady who had beautiful, curly light blue hair that gathered around her shoulders and such pretty hazel eyes. He wasn't usually one for atypical hair colours, but this woman exuded appeal.

Vlad smiled one of his broad, charming smiles. "It's quite alright, my dear. I was just going to inquire after the name of this town, but now that you're here…"

"Oh, this is Silent Hill." She returned the smile, hers being significantly more pleasant. "It's pretty deserted, though. I'm just here to take photos."

So he'd wandered into an uninhabited (for the most part) town. Figures.

"Are you sure it's deserted?" He glanced back to the house, specifically at the window, squinting in as best he could. He was sure he'd seen a light.

"Yeah, absolutely deserted. Except for you and I and maaaybe a few stragglers." Her hair cascaded over his collarbones as she tilted her head in a display of puppy-like curiosity. "Why?"

"Oh, I thought I'd seen someone in the window, is all." It was possible he'd seen a reflection in the window, dirty though it was. Or maybe it had been a product of his paranoia. It wouldn't be the first time he'd seen things in the dark that weren't actually there. It'd happen to him quite often in his youth, while he was getting used to being half ghost.

The lady had turned to look at the window as well. "Do you want to go inside and check?"

Was that a hint of exploratory excitement in her voice? Vlad's smile drooped into something almost fond. "I'm sure there are more interesting things for you to be doing. It is just a house, after all." And it would probably be an absolute disaster to traverse. "I'm Vlad Masters, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasures all mine," the woman replied, extending a hand. "I'm Renee."

"Renee," Vlad repeated thoughtfully. A lovely name for a lovely woman. He grasped the proffered hand, giving it a gentle shake. "Well, Renee, would it be at all possible for me to borrow your cell phone?"

"Of course, Mr. Masters."

Mr. Masters. Immediate respect. Oh, he liked that.

She delved into her back pocket to retrieve the phone, passing it over once it was found. With a grateful smile, Vlad flipped it open and pressed in the number for the Fenton household. He held it up against his ear to listen to it ring with some relief. For a moment there, he'd though he would have to play investigator with no Watson to provide helpful, as well as unhelpful commentary; Danny wasn't exactly 'detective assistant' material, being fourteen and all, but he would have to do.

Renee gave him his privacy by leaving to meander through the graveyard. He watched her tire of walking and seat herself on one of the tombstones while the ringing continued, going on and on, longer than he thought it possible for a phone to ring without being transferred to voice mail.

And then, the sound ceased. There was distant shallow breathing on the other line.

"Jack?" he asked slowly, wondering if the lumbering oaf of a man had managed to knock the phone off its receiver while flailing around with one of his inventions. There was a whispered response, unintelligible. He pressed the phone harder against his ear in a hopeless attempt to decipher what was being said to him.

"Jack? Daniel? Maddie?" There may have been some trouble taking place in the Fenton household, as it so often did, but it couldn't be worse than his own situation. He sounded especially exasperated as he spoke again, "Jasmine? Daniel? Pick up the phone, for goodness sake!"

A high pitched electronic screech abruptly overlapped the heavy breathing, eliciting a startled yelp from Vlad. He almost dropped the phone, catching it against his jaw just before it fell. The screech had ceased by the time he had pressed the phone back against his ear, replaced by the steady beep, beep, beep of a phone off the hook. Funny, he hadn't thought cell phones could do that. When he drew the phone away from his ear to press redial, he noticed an absence of bars beneath the little 'signal' in the corner of the screen.

Renee had returned, reaching out to touch his elbow in concern. He gave a little jump when she did. "Mr. Masters? Vlad? Are you okay?"

"Just— just fine, yes." Shaken, but fine. He closed the phone and returned it to her. "I was unable to make my call for help. Bad signal."

Renee lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Yeah, I thought that might be the case. This place is pretty far off the map."

At least one of them seemed to be aware of their location in relation to geographics. He stepped off the porch of the house and into the yellowed grass that surrounded the graveyard. "I called to Amity Park. Is this far from there?"

"Amity Park…" her lips pouted out as she thumbed through her memory bank. "…Doesn't ring a bell. I don't even think I've heard of the place."

"Really?" Well, that was surprising. He'd thought it would become a worldwide sensation after the discovery of Danny Phantom. "You aren't privy to the 'Danny Phantom' phenomenon?"

"Danny Phantom?" she repeated, sounding incredulous. "What's that, a superhero name? Sounds ridiculous."

Vlad couldn't prevent the wide, toothy smile that broke out over his face. "I rather like you, Renee, enough that I'm willing to have you be my escort." He set the tips of his fingers together. "Would you kindly lead me to the exit? Or, if that isn't advisable, a map that will assist me in finding my way home would also be acceptable."

"Sorry my GPS isn't accessible. That would be a lot easier than finding a map." Renee worried her bottom lip with her teeth. "There's probably one in the town center you could use. No one has ransacked this place because of all the 'hauntings' it's presumed to have."

Hauntings, huh? Nothing Vlad hadn't seen on a daily basis, as well as participated in. "Utter nonsense." He set a hand on her upper back to get them moving along. "Lead the way, my dear."

"It's not the way you're trying to lead me, for starters." Most people would have found his coercion rude, but Renee only laughed, ducking away so she could gesture him in the right direction. "The road's just up here." Her thin fingers found his forearm to help him along. "If all else fails, we could always take my boat back to civilization! It's a days ride, but I should have enough in stock to feed and hydrate two people."

Already Vlad was starting to feel a little better about his predicament. He gave the window one last glance, trying to squint past the glass, before shaking his head and allowing himself to be directed towards the heart of the town.