AN: Yes, I know, It has been an insanely long time since I posted anything. Life caught me by the handles and wouldn't give me any free time. For those of you who will review, thank you, for those of you who won't review but still read this, I thank you too. Just keep in mind that I wrote this in under an hour, haven't edited it, and have just been asked to do more chores. So expect issues in both the writing style, grammar, and if you are lucky enough, wrong word choice... though I can usually catch that one as I type.
Please leave constructive crit, however if this is too much of a challenge, I do accept the garbage reviews as well. But please no 1337, I can't read it.
Oh and the stupidest thing on FFN to date: I own nothing from Danny Phantom, Billionaire Inc. owns it, as well as Nickelodeon, may the snobs lose a considerable audience when they take Danny off air.
A young black haired man greeted his two best friends as they prepared to work out their last few snags in the programming of the device that would land all of them with PhDs. He walked into the room after the both of them has said their hellos, grabbing his lab coat on the way in.
The college laboratory that the three of them were in was filled with other projects from people that they didn't know, none of them having anything to do with the topic of their studies.
Jack was rechecking his calculations, and Vlad thought briefly that either Maddie or himself should to the final stage checking, but Jack had insisted upon doing so himself. After all Vlad was just part of the electrical portion of the project, the specs and construction go to the other two of the inseparable trio.
"So do you think that it'll work?" Maddie asked Vlad in an almost doubtful manner.
Before Vlad could reply Jack had interrupted and blurted out at almost the top of his lungs "Of course it will Mads! We have to break open to the ghost dimension, I've checked everything, and nothing is incorrect!" Jack then reached for a can of ectopurifier, only getting a can of diet cola, left there by one of the many other students that had landed themselves in Lab 101, without checking on it's contents he then poured the contents into the circular device.
"Honestly Maddie I really don't know. But could I talk to you…" Vlad walked over to be right next to the machine, Maddie right in front of it. She put her hand on the table to lean on it, rather expecting a long conversation.
Her hand brushed up against a minute wire that then connected to another small wire. These two pieces of woven copper thread were just grounding wires, but when touching created an almost insignificant feedback loop to the system.
"Of course Vlad, right after the experiment!" Maddie replied innocently, while reaching out and grabbing Jack's now 'complete' rechecking of the calculations. After a few seconds of looking at the mathematics written on (what else) a napkin from the local burger place.
"Wait Jack, these calculations aren't right." She uttered, but Jack hadn't heard her. She was still in front of the proto portal, as Vlad had named it, thinking that if they could get this one to work then they might get the money to build a bigger one, one that wouldn't just take up one quarter of one table top in an overused, crowded, small lab room in the basement of the condemned building.
"BONSAI!!!!" Jack pushed the button. Jack yelled at the top of his lungs. Jack connected the last wire to the outlet. Jack closed his eyes. Jack caused the energy to spiral into the center of the machine. Jack had poured in the wrong can of liquid. Jack has miscalculated every single time that he 'checked' the work. Jack caused the concentrated beam of green energy to solidify. Jack messed up. Jack put Maddie in danger. Jack destroyed the barrier of the human world and the Ghost world. Jack tripped. Jack fell onto Maddie. Jack made her fall to the ground before the solidified energy shot out. Jack placed the mirror of another project at the exact angle to reflect the oncoming blast. Jack caused the solidified beam of augmented ectoenergy to ricochet across the room. Jack made the proto portal explode. Jack saved Maddie, however unintentionally.
Still, Jack had pressed the button.
Vlad got hit.
Vlad screamed in agony, even through the pain he managed to convey his last truly living thought, that of:
"BOGUS!!!"
Jack looked up from his accidental position on top of Maddie to see his best friend's jet black hair turn blindingly and glowing white. Jack watched as Vlad continued to contort in pain on the floor, his hands over his face. Vlad dropped to the ground, still writhing, a small stream of green still wove through the air from where the proto portal had been trailing to Vlad's still covered face.
Vlad stopped screaming and contorting his body, he put his hands down, and opened his eyes to give Jack the look that he was fine. Both Jack and Maddie gasped when he showed them his face.
Maddie gave Vlad a small compact mirror to look into he saw glowing green pimples all over his face, he focused the mirror on his eyes, and saw that they too were glowing.
He checked his pulse, it wasn't going, he checked his temperature with a handy lab thermometer not even caring if it was healthy or not, it was 107 Fahrenheit, he should be dead, 107 was a corpse's temperature, not a breathing man's temperature.
Vlad did a quick soul search like the trio's spiritual teacher had taught them to do. He found his soul shattered, broken, destroyed, decimated.
Dead.
His stunned mind only came to one conclusion. Jack must feel his horror for causing this. Jack Must DIE. Ghostly instincts opened up like a flower blooming an antifreeze green, he desired to own Maddie, to get her from Jack, at any cost.
And with that, Vlad's world crashed around him.