Author's Note
I hope this is entertaining. I split it into two parts, since it's rather a bit long for just a oneshot.
Lightning Rod; An Ethical Nightmare
Part 1 of 2
-MoonlightUmbreon-
It was a bad day in Amity Park.
However, 'bad' didn't seem to be the right descriptor. If anything, a storm like this was barely short of a hurricane.
Lightning, shot off in so many different directions at once, illuminated the dark black clouds as it tore through them in great flashes. Rain poured down in gallons, clogging up drains with all the litter it had steadily washed into them. Wind howled in one of the biggest gales Amity Park had seen in years. It all combined into something that, the citizens had decided, was far worse than any ghost attack.
FentonWorks had been taking a fair thrashing from the storm, mainly due to the Emergency Op Centre giving the wind more to push against. Not even the eccentric Maddie and Jack Fenton could take their eyes off of this unholy force.
The Fenton parents had been spending their day doing their best to strengthen the foundations of the house, and had been trying to board the windows up as best they could - without being blown away. During the worse parts of the storm, the whole family sheltered inside the basement. The sound of the Op Centre creaking on the roof was never a good sign.
However, there was one thing they didn't even think to safeguard against at a time like this.
The Fenton Ghost Portal was wide open...
And nobody was doing anything about it.
Mayor Vlad Masters, living in the richer section of the town, wasn't having nearly as many problems with the weather as everyone else.
This was because he simply wasn't there to witness the roof of his mansion become completely torn off, or to witness countless expensive artworks become destroyed in the weather. Right now, he was, and had been for the last few days, stranded in the Ghost Zone.
Something had happened that he'd never expected. Sure, he'd known that many ghosts feared him because of his power and his ability to use it effectively. But he'd always thought that it was a grudging respect, rather than a growing plot to have him taken out once and for all.
He'd been fighting constantly for over fifty hours; ghosts had been attacking him not one at a time, but all at once. He'd lost far too much energy to duplicate himself and make his escape, leaving him right in the middle of one of the biggest ghost brawls he'd ever experienced.
Even the ever-optimistic Vlad Plasmius had to admit that he probably wasn't coming out of this. He'd been holding his own for so long against so many ghosts, but his efforts had been futile, as it seemed that there were twice as many for every group he defeated.
He was ragged around the edges, just about ready to completely give up and the ghosts still were attacking unrelentlessly. All of the pain aching through his body, the frustration, the sorrow, they combined into one.
He could feel the result pushing towards the palm of his hand - one of his last reserves of ectoplasmic energy. It wasn't just the strange tingling of an ectoblast - this energy burned with a vicious pink flame.
As a last ditch effort, he knew he'd have to give it his best. The Fenton Ghost Portal was only a little way away, and if he managed to move the right ghosts out of the road, he might just have been able to make it through.
This new kind of ectoblast flared as it was shot from his hand, the rebound feeling more like a cannonball than an energy shot.
The wall of ghosts it was aimed at suddenly weren't even there anymore. They drifted off, barely keeping form, unmoving.
Though quite taken aback by the sudden appearance of this power in his time of need, Vlad still didn't waste any time in getting out as fast as he could. He flew, possibly faster than he'd ever flown before, straight in the direction of the open portal doors.
Just before he burst through, he reverted back to Masters. It wasn't so much because he didn't want to be seen by the Fentons as the Wisconsin Ghost, but more because he simply lacked the energy to hold his ghost form any longer.
Danny, tired from boarding up some of the upstairs windows on the inside, stumbled down to the lab where he could rest. The basement, in many ways, was built like a bomb shelter. It couldn't survive a blast from the inside, like a filtrator explosion, but it was certainly built for defence against outside attacks.
The small, teenage half-ghost stopped dead when he saw his archenemy lying on the floor, just next to the portal lever, unconscious. His sharp black business suit was torn up, his hair askew, and he graced cuts, bruises, scars and scrapes over every inch of his body.
"...Vlad?!"
The Mayor of Amity Park didn't answer. Danny looked around for any evidence of what had happened, eventually coming to the conclusion that Vlad had gone into the Ghost Zone and been attacked in the process, forcing him to make an escape through their portal. It looked like he'd managed to close it and prevent the ghosts from coming through just before he'd passed out...
Vladimir Masters, multi-billionaire mayor of Amity Park, awoke on top of the Fenton's dissection table.
With an agonised groan, he rolled over and clutched a particularly painful part on his side. He'd been bludgeoned in that location more than several times, and he could tell that it had already become a massive bruise.
But that didn't really matter, when you put things in perspective. There were parts of him bandaged up, and his suit completely blood-soaked. He was quite hungry, and his head was spinning, just to add to the trouble.
Vlad had been so busy recognising what was wrong with him that he hadn't noticed that the Fentons had been watching over him. Maddie and Jack were attempting to inject him with something, and Jazz appeared to be doing her best to make him comfortable. Danny, however, was nowhere to be found.
Jack grinned broadly, making excited waving motions with his arms. And then, totally contrary to all feasible forms of logic, grabbed Vlad around the shoulders and hugged him, managing to hit all the wrong cuts and bruises in the process. It stole the breath out of Vlad's mouth, made his eyes pop, and otherwise rendered him helpless to the unforgiving grasp of his old college buddy.
"Glad to have you back, V-man!"
"...J-J-Jack..." he whimpered in reply, wanting desperately to phase through the ghost hunter, but not daring. It was only Maddie who saved him, telling her husband sharply that he was only causing Vlad more pain, despite his well-meaning attempt to comfort him. Jack put him down, a sheepish smile covering his face.
"Sorry... just glad to know you're alright. We didn't know whether you'd actually wake up or not."
"Jack's right..." Maddie frowned, lightly brushing her fingers over Vlad's forehead. "It really is a miracle you survived. We were about to call an ambulance, but our scanner indicated that your collapsed lung – it was just... it was fixing itself. That was just a minute before you woke up. I've never seen something so absurd happen at just the right time."
"I guess we'll never know..." Vlad stated weakly. His consciousness wasn't going to hold together for too much longer – he could already feel it petering out. With one last effort, he gave the woman he loved a small, slightly longing smile, and then succumbed to the peaceful, quiet, painless, and most importantly, Jack-free oblivion.
However, he found himself woken up in the middle of the night by the awful creaking sounds, originating from the roof. The sound of thunder roaring just added to the effect.
He did, on the other hand, feel much better than he did. In fact, it was like most of his wounds had already healed properly. That was quite a possibility – being a half ghost granted Vlad insane healing speeds, for which he was eternally grateful for. Especially after a beating like that; really, he should have been dead, and he knew it.
Slowly, he got up from his hard bed, knowing he'd have to regain the energy he'd lost from somewhere. And, right in front of him, the laboratory offered the answer. Long ago he'd learned that ecto filtrators, when new, were a great power source for a ghost. Without hesitation Vlad approached the shelf where they were kept, popped open one of the tubes, stuck his finger in it, and allowed it to absorb into his ghost half. He could feel the lost reserves of energy restoring, and, even though he hadn't noticed it before, his hungry stomach refilling.
"V-man?"
The call echoed through the basement, causing Vlad to nearly drop the filtrator altogether. He stayed still, like a statue, hoping to God that Jack wouldn't notice him and would just walk away. Vlad had been so sure that there was no one in the lab, but obviously he hadn't looked properly.
Jack sounded increasingly concerned the further he approached. "What are you doing with that filtrator...?"
"I'm, uh, checking, Jack. Just checking to see that nothing contaminated it. After I was thrown out of the Ghost Zone, one of the ghosts followed me out and had a bit of a fiddle with it."
"...With your bare finger?"
"You see-"
"Don't lie." Jack cut him off, although softly, and gulped. "We're such great friends – we shouldn't lie to each other. Vlad, I found out your secret. No one else knows – I just – when I took a blood test, I looked, and... your blood cells are infused with ectoplasm. That's why you healed so quickly... you're half ghost."
Vlad stood there, stunned. He could feel those bright, angry red eyes surfacing to the top, but pushed them back as far as he could. There was no way of convincing someone otherwise after something like this, so he really didn't know what to do. He stuttered a few times, before closing his mouth and deciding not to say anything. It hadn't been part of his anticipations.
There was a very awkward silence that followed, where neither party had any idea of what to do next. Eventually, Jack shuffled his feet and patted Vlad on the back.
"It was the accident with the proto-portal, wasn't it?"
Vlad began to chew on his lip, trying to get his thoughts straight. The only option his brain was giving him was 'Kill Jack', but he didn't want to do that. Not now, anyway. There'd be time for Jack-killing later.
"Yes, but there hasn't been any other affects, thankfully. However, the ectoplasm in my blood means that I need to replenish it occasionally. That's all. I forgave you for this quite a while ago."
"Actually, it has affected you more than I think you know. While I was watching you, when you were unconscious, parts of you shifted out of phase at random, and you healing so quickly..."
That's it! He knows too much! Vlad thought, gritting his teeth. Something would have to be done about Jack in case he told anyone; especially Maddie, which would most-likely happen. Vlad's thoughts looped like a mantra, always coming back to the core issue – the need to have Jack dead.
"Fine, Jack... you're such a good friend, after all... as long as you will not say anything – to anyone, I'll show you what that accident did to me."
Jack stumbled backwards in terrified amazement when he saw his old college buddy turn into none other than the Wisconsin Ghost. He'd known the billionaire was half ghost, but he didn't know he had an entirely different ghost form. And, nonetheless, this one...
"You turned me into a monster, Jack Fenton. You stole the love of my life while I was rotting away in hospital. And then you rubbed my nose in it each and every time I attempted to have you assassinated!"
"V-man..."
"Don't you dare call me that!" Vlad spat, smacking Jack over the face with a gloved hand. The strength of it sent Jack careening across the laboratory, knocking several beakers clean off the table behind him. Vlad glared at him, eyes aglow. And in one of the most menacing voices imaginable, he whispered, "Jack Addison Fenton, fear me, for I will tear you apart, piece by piece, just as you tore apart my own hopes and dreams."
Jack said nothing, only able to stare at his old college buddy's rage. It burned in Vlad's eyes, nearly tangible enough to leap out and grab him. Jack couldn't work out whether he was scared or sad, or a mixture between the two...
Horrifyingly strong pink ectoplasmic power encircled Vlad's two hands, crackling and sparking, even smouldering. It flickered like a flame, and yet, it looked almost as if it was alive at the same time.
Vlad was just about to aim and fire at a terrified Jack, with every intention of killing and, possibly, even disintegrating him. However, whether what happened next was a stroke of good or bad luck for him was up for debate. Danny had been roused in his sleep, having heard Vlad's yelling, and had proceeded to invisibly phase down into the basement as Phantom. Jazz had been up in the kitchen pouring herself some cocoa, and had come down the stairs to check up on what all the commotion was about.
Danny nearly dropped his invisibility and fell out of the air when he saw what Vlad's glowing palms were aimed at. Without even thinking, he dived at Vlad and tackled him to the ground, throwing his aim off.
Unfortunately, Vlad had already began the process of firing the deadly ray. And instead of hitting Jack –
A mug of cocoa rolled down the rest of the stairs, spilling its contents over the laboratory floor.
