The projector clicked on. It was showing the news, but something was wrong. It didn't seem to be coming from a dedicated camera, but rather a bug. The bugged person moved forwards smoothly, gliding around a bend and revealing a large room.
In the room were seven people. Valerie Grey, Jasmine Fenton, Jack Fenton, Samantha Manson, Tucker Foley, the female Phantom look-alike, and Danny Phantom himself. The humans and clone were in clear tubes, made of reinforced and (In Dani's case) ghost-proof plexiglass, while the Ghost Boy was chained to the wall with ectoranium cuffs and chains, a curtain separating him from the others in the room.
"Now Daniel," the viewers jumped when the camera-carrying person spoke: 'That's the Wisconsin Ghost', "I have tried many times to break you, but never successfully."
Phantom raised his head, "Whatever you're planning, Plasmius, it's not going to work."
"Oh, it may." Everyone could hear the vampiric smirk in Plasmius's voice, "You see, this time, I will not simply attack your public image or self-esteem. No, this time, I am destroying the very things you hold dear.
The curtain rose, and the viewers watched Phantom's face as the other six occupants of the room were revealed. It melted rapidly from emotion to emotion: confusion, dawning understanding, shock, anger, and finally fear.
There was clinking and screeching of rusted metal as Phantom thrashed and struggled against his bonds, "Let them go!" he shouted furiously, "it's me you want, let them go!"
"Now Daniel," Plasmius turned, and the camera was pointing at what appeared to be a control panel, "If I let them go, then what would be the point of catching them in the first place?"
He chuckled softly and warned Phantom, "These levers are essentially specter deflectors. You touch them in your ghost form, you get the shock of you afterlife." Then added to himself, "Which includes me." A second later, a ring of black light went over the camera.
When he had transformed, Plasmius reached up to a lever labeled 'useless abomination' and yanked it down. A crackle of electricity filled the air, quickly drowned out by a shriek of agony, revealed to be the Phantom look-alike when Plasmius turned back to the room.
He laughed at the sight of the ten-year-old getting tortured, "Oh, the wonders of technology." His voice had lost the echoing quality of his ghost half and seemed very familiar to the viewers.
The screaming stopped and all that was left of the clone was a puddle of green ectoplasm.
Phantom cried out in rage and seemed to flicker. An image of a stronger, more mature Phantom appeared. Then it was gone.
The room was filled with silence for a few seconds then Plasmius broke it, malicious pleasure running through his voice, "I've wanted to do that since I made her."
There was a loud clunk from one of the containment tubes and everyone turned their attention to Tucker Foley. He waved frantically at Phantom and smacked his PDA against the plexiglass again.
Phantom finally turned towards him and he started signing in rapid-fire ASL, and a viewer that knew sign language translated, "It's broadcasting." Tucker looked at Phantom to see if he got it, then signed some more at the halfa's confused look, "The spy camera is connected and broadcasting." Realization dawned on Phantom's face and he nodded at Tucker.
"But, Vlad," Phantom's eyes locked directly on the camera, the viewers reading the message there screaming 'HELP ME!', "What would the world say if they learned that you killed Danny Phantom's ten-year-old daughter?"
Vlad snorted but was prevented from saying anything by Phantom talking again, "After all, if the GIW learned that the Mayor of Amity Park is actually a dangerous, child-killing halfa scum…"
"Well the only way they could know that is if one of you eight tell them, and that's not going to happen, because they," Vlad gestured to the still-occupied containment cells, "Are never going to leave alive, and you are going to become my apprentice."
Phantom growled at him and strained against the cuffs again, but it was in vain as Vlad turned back to the control panel and yanked down on the lever labeled 'Annoying Moron.' There was no scream this time. Though the subject was strong, no human could possibly take the voltage it required to melt a fully stabilized ghost, halfa or not, so the only warning the viewers got of Jack Fenton's death was his daughter's scream of denial.
Once again, Phantom's form flickered, turning red-eyed, with a white blaze as his hair.
Vlad seemed not to notice, moving on to the next lever, this one labeled 'Perfect Leverage.' With a simple click, Jazz and Danny's remaining parent was reduced to a body on the floor of her cage.
The teens in the containment tubes saw the flicker this time, trading horrified expressions.
Vlad evidently gave up on dramatics, as he flipped two more levers in rapid succession, 'Bothersome Techno-geek' and 'Useless Pawn' touched down and the two dating teens slumped to the floor.
Turning to his remaining captives, Vlad paused as he caught a short glance of the 'alternate Phantom' that had flickered into existence for longer than it had before. He brushed it off as his imagination, and smirked at the restrained halfa, "Say your last goodbyes, Daniel."
The 'Goth Girlfriend' lever hit home, and all the bases for Phantom's obsession were gone.
In that instant, his core imploded on itself, rejecting the fact that it had failed to PROTECT, as it had always striven to. Phantom's very being burst afire with pain and loss. The fire consumed all, until nothing was left save Rage. So Rage he did.
The rusty chains snapped like grass stalks as Phantom lunged for the object of his hatred, bringing fire and death with him as his hair burst aflame and his eyes shot blood-red.
Phantom connected, and the camera gave out, leaving the audience in various states of shock and loss.
