Opportunity, Part Four

Everyone, I will not be around as often as I used to. Tonight, even as I type this, I need to start updating everything I can….then I need to leave you for awhile. Very sorry-but my life has become extremely complicated-and my work needs to come first now.

Sorry….this chappy is dedicated to TTCyclone though. And all my reviewers. Thanks! Oh, and this chapter also begins with Danny's third person POV, rather then Vlad's upcoming first.

Danny vaguely wished he HAD been selfish and stayed in the theater and slept through the movie.

Or, better yet, sit where he was, head resting on his arms, watching a nearby glass of punch, so completely out of it that he wondered vaguely if he should try and use The Force to tip it over.

After twenty minutes of staring at said glass, a hopping figure wearing a cheese head reminded him that he did not, sadly, know how to use the Force.

Heck, when he was little, he barely knew how to use the Forks.

His thoughts drifted slightly. He suppressed a small sigh, trying to not glance over at the bunny hopping Jack and disapproving Maddie.

Hopefully, they would be heading home soon. Danny really didn't fancy spending all of his Labor Day weekend at some strange billionaire's home.

Whatever Dad said, Vlad didn't seem to be very….warm towards Jack. With the tiny fact that three overstuffed green vultures were busy tracking him….

He reached into his tuxedo's pocket, frowning slightly.

Yes, that was Dad alright. Hair a great deal longer, face much younger….but the same man.

Who'd be going after him? Surely, if they wanted to target a real threat to their race….wouldn't they have gone after Mom, not Dad?

Maybe they got the wrong person. Danny tucked the piece of photo in his pocket once again, and settled his head on his intercrossed arms.

Even if it meant sleeping in the Fenton RV again-which did not sound too jolly to the young hybrid, considering how little room there was and Dad kept snoring-Danny was tired of this place-and weary of the flashing dreams that crept in, almost like a switch varying in off/on mode, on the outskirts of his consciousness.

A sallow ghost with sparkling with red eyes that had DOUBLED his own body into doppelgangers….

A barrage of pink fire-someone let out a shrill laugh-

(*EUIU*%^(*P???

That was the puzzling part. He remembered the sensation of hurting.

Everywhere.

He remembered a sense of vertigo-like his stomach had been ready to drop out of his body.

The earth sinking around him-like he was phasing through the earth. It was warm.

()R)&*(^OYIUT^$??????

The senselessness of it all-then, cold metal encasing his-

IR(&*^%*IO)P(*^%$

Blue-red-eyes, always changing, always burning, either in frost or fire. He could never be sure which. It was rather like watching a pair of 3-D glasses with dilated eyes.

Something black-almost like a glove, as if someone were snubbing him-pressed itself over his flickering eyes, only blindly catching flashes of light….

Something soft.

Weightlessness again.

And then, after the flashes of crimson, Danny found himself yelling wildly in the mixed fray of comforters before bolting into an upright position.

And then Mr. Masters had come in. Rather quickly-his room must've been down the hall. Danny couldn't remember. This place was no smaller then the Taj Mahal.

Mr. Masters….

Danny wasn't exactly sure on what to think about the older hybrid. He accommodated Mom, Jasmine, and him well enough-in fact, he rather suspected that Vlad fussed over him a bit more then the others.

Maybe the man thought he could relate to him because Danny had recognized the whole "Packers" design code of the castle. The boy himself couldn't really identify why Vlad felt that way-but who knew what a billionaire in a space fifty times too big for him thought?

Jack didn't seem to notice any coolness from Vlad-and Vlad indirectly treated him cordially.

But….

Something seemed rather…frosty. Danny could feel it singe slightly in the air.

Jack's warm eyes seemed to melt any suspicion that the man who almost appeared to be hitting on Danny's mother (which seemed rather creepy to Danny, but Jazz took little notice-) might just be a tad annoyed that the Ghost Hunter had accidentally sent the fury of the Ghost Zone straight into his face.

But Vlad seemed perfectly fine now. Even though the man was quite wealthy and successful on his own, the hybrid felt a stir of pity for him.

He preferred small, messy, and somewhat cluttered Fenton Labs' to this enormous place.

It felt like home there.

There were family photos here and there. A fridge that still held up tattered fingerpaints made on Mother's Day some seven or eight years ago by Jazz or Danny.

And here, well….

It was beautiful, make no mistake about that. Tennis Courts, a football field, a STADIUM, for crying out loud, fountains, gardens, long hallways that led to rooms with no purpose at all, rich velvet carpet…..

Swimming pools, Hedge mazes….garages of cars and whatnot…..a personal helicopter….

Or five…..all marked with VM….

But how could you, or how could ANYONE want to live here, all alone when-

"Well, son, you're looking much better!"