On the day of Danny's statue unveiling, he had never been more on top of the world. His parents knew his secret, he was a hero the world over, and most importantly…he had Sam.
"You know," Danny said as he flew Sam over the town, "I never thought that it'd end up like this…"
"Oh I don't know, you the big hero, me comfortable in your arms, Paulina far, far away …I think we're both right where we want to be."
Laughing, Danny landed on top of city hall and phased into the mayor's office just as Tucker walked in from delivering his speech.
"Dude, where the heck have you been?" Tucker said, rushing to hug Danny, "The whole town's crazy over you!"
"Yeah, but it still feels weird you know? No more slacking off as Danny Fenton, more of just us hanging out, no more bending the rules, now… I'm just another hero with the world on his shoulders."
"Actually, if you look at the statue the world's in your hand"
"Wow… that seems kind of super-villain-y."
"And leading an army of ghosts to the turn the planet intangible wasn't?"
"…Good Point."
The three of them laughed for a while and were genuinely enjoying the moment of peace. However, that changed when Tucker got an urgent message telling him to turn on the news.
"What is it Tuck?"
"It's a message from my…friends… but it's a special message for an extremely special situation."
"Special?" Sam questioned, "Special, how, exactly?"
Answering her question with a flick of his wrist, Tucker turned on the television in the mayor's office that was always tuned to the World News Network, this time illuminated by a very familiar, very bad face.
"Vlad…"
Turning up the volume, the trio of friends listened intently to what the reporters had to say;
Breaking news from Canada today as we go live to a shot of a starved Vlad Masters, multi-millionaire who just last week was revealed to be an evil psychopathic ghost calling himself "Vlad Plasmius." However, sources are telling me that this man, although not denying his ghost half, is claiming to have no memory of revealing himself or of even being on the grid the last two months, citing his disappearance a week before "Phantom Planet" even began. More on this later.
Tucker turned off the tv and watched Danny's reaction with a careful curiosity. "So…what do you guys think?"
"I think," Danny said as morphed into Phantom, "that that lunatic has some serious explaining to do. C'mon, we're going a little trip."
Bursting through the doors of city hall, Danny weaved his way through a tsunami of camera flashes and autograph hounds. However while flying over the crowd, he caught a glimpse of two unmistakable faces that led him into the mass of his adoring fans. Quickly making himself invisible to the crowd, he blended in between the two boys who were quite a distance from their home cities.
"What are you two doing here?"
"What? Just because we aren't officially a team anymore means we can't come out and support our friend who saved the world?" Jake said.
"Besides," Randy cut in, "School was closed today and we have tickets from the Mayor of Amity Park himself."
Danny was unsure of whether to thank Tucker or strangle him at the moment, but he was sure he'd decide soon enough. "All right, but you guys need to get out of here as soon as you can, Plasmius is back and if I know him like I think I do, that fruit-loop is up to something seriously twisted."
Taking off once again, Danny left Randy and Jake among the crowd of people assembled at the base of his statue, his only lingering message to them being "Get to Fenton-Works."
"Well," Randy said as he and Jake began the walk from city hall to the Fenton's house, "glad to see that fame hasn't changed him."
"C'mon man, it's not like that. Remember, it was because of Plasmius' meddling that we even got together in the first place…and that's when he was playing safe." Jake paused to get his bearings, it had only been a few weeks since he had been there, but the city seemed so much… different.
"So, what's your point?"
"My point," Jake continued, "Scarf-for-brains, is that who knows what he's capable of now that he has no reason to hold back? He's literally got nothing but time on his hands and an axe to bury after that whole Ghostlock fiasco."
"Jake, come on man, you saw how he looked when they found him in the desert, Vlad's done, dude."
"Oh come now, Randall…"
Randy and Jake turned at the sound of the voice to see a dark figure hovering on the streets behind them, his cape billowing in the wind.
"Haven't you learned by now that you shouldn't believe everything you see on television?"
"Plasmius…"
"Ah, so you've heard of me." Vlad said as he fired a ghost ray into the center of Randy's chest, knocking him unconscious. "But let me just say the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."
Watching as his friend hit the ground unconscious, Jake charged Vlad, summoning his flames in preparation for transformation.
"Dragon U-"
"Now, now," Vlad said, scattering white powder all over Jake, "We'll have none of that 'dragon' business here will we? Had enough of that with that other idiot fire-breather, bless his hearts."
Walking over to where Jake had fallen, Vlad grabbed him by the hair as he struggled against the poisoning effects of the dust. "Although, having Maxwell did allow me to study white cinnabar poisoning in person, and it is a nifty little trick for stopping rapscallions like you."
Dropping him back on the cement, Vlad walked away laughing.
"Isn't it?"
"Wha-wah-what do you want fro-fro-from us?" Jake stammered out.
"I want what everyone wants, Jacob" Vlad said as he slung the boys over his shoulders, "one more chance …"
"And that my dear boys, is exactly what I'm going to get."
