Author's Note:

Thanks everyone who reviewed my last chapter! I really appreciated all the feedback and look forward to hearing more thoughts! They're so motivating *cries*

Chapter 2: A Word To The Wise

Vlad's brow furrowed in frustration as he massaged his eyes tiredly. Papers were strewn across his grand mahogany desk, some scattered on the floor and others- was that one caught in the ceiling fan? Butter biscuits. A solid 6 months had passed since the G.I.W had raided his property, and things were... Well. Things were going, for Vlad. He had worked tirelessly for the last number of weeks and frankly the situation was deepening by the day.

Vlad had managed to uncover a few discerning things about the nature of the ward. It had started with a decade old university research paper that's record had been conveniently buried from public view and removed from the main database. Upon it's discovery, Vlad had been granted some solid scientific evidence for environmental concerns rooted to the G.I.W bases located throughout the country. This, as he'd discover, was barely scratching the surface of the situation. From here, his case study against the organization sky rocketed in importance and grew in complexity. No longer was this merely about a missing warrant and property damage. Instead, conspiracies were starting to come to life that the billionaire himself were finding absurd and scandalous. If he played his cards right, he'd surely emerge victorious.

To help manage the growing lawsuit, Vlad had hired only the best and most trustworthy employees, human and ghost alike, to gather and decipher information. Yes... Things were beginning to pull together. A light knock on the door to his private study drew the man from his musing.

"Yes?" He called, the door opened and revealed one of his numerous secretaries.

"Mr. Masters, a Dr. D. Faust has requested to see you. He claimed that his business was of utmost importance and should be addressed without delay. Would you like me to decline his request?" She waited expectantly for an answer, notebook in hand to take down any particularly complex orders. Vlad grinned. So his snooping had gotten the attention of that self-serving bastard. Very well.

"No no, please schedule him in at the earliest time. Mr. Faust and I have plenty to talk about. Thank you, Caroline." She nodded, jotting down a few notes before quietly closing the door to his study. Vlad straightened his suit collar, his motivation to destroy that blasted organization rekindling at the idea of watching Faust squirm under his barrage of incriminating evidence.

"So you wish to open a dialogue, Faust..." He mumbled, smile never leaving his face.

Danny stood in the centre of his cell, eyes focused on the left corner of the White Room just above the door. He squinted, tilting his head slightly in thought. It seemed different for some reason. He could have sworn that the door was aligned dead centre in the wall, but it kinda looked like it was shifted a bit to the left... A slight unevenness. Danny fidgeted, bringing his hand up to his face and resting his fingers along his lips, a habit he seemed to have acquired when in deep thought. For a facility that was so keen on neatness, one would expect better.

He could hear the tapping of shoes on the floor, recognizing the softer pattern as a researcher rather than an agent. He watched the door handle, silently willing the person to pass by his cell and head off to some other damned soul. Danny was never known to be lucky, though. The control panel outside the White Room beeped, allowing access for the visitor. The door creaked open, revealing a white-coated woman. She quirked an eyebrow in question at him, likely wondering why he was standing in the middle of his confinement chamber when the boy was usually found sitting in one of the corners. The researcher didn't verbalize her confusion.

"Phantom, your use is required by the Weapons Department." The woman stated numbly, approaching him with an attachment for the ever-present binds on his wrists. She fiddled with the two bracelet-like devices, a beam connecting them and drawing his hands together. The silver collar around his throat connected with his bound wrists, locking Danny into a position of vague resemblance to prayer. By now, the boy had grown used to it, putting up no resistance as he was manhandled and moved around at the hands of the white-coat. She directed him outside of his cell, leading him ahead of her down the glassy white corridor.

Danny was led across the facility, to a wing of the building opposite to where his cell was located while listening to small portions of conversation as they passed agents and researchers alike. Every so often, he could hear their conversations quiet and feel their eyes lock on him, analyzing him as he passed.

"It's that ghost kid. Haven't seen much of that specimen in a few days. I heard it recovered from this year's examination in only 2 weeks. Ghosts sure are weird beings."

"I overheard my manager mention that it's ecto-signature may be able to be integrated into ghost shield technology. Something about it being a natural deterrent to some classes of ghosts. Think it has any other uses?"

"Haha, did you see it flinch when the cart screeched? Enhanced senses must be pretty shitty in these sorts of environments."

"-and Dr. Faust looked really mad! I heard he's personally going to confront this guy. Could you imagine? What kind of jerk thinks he can topple an organization like the G.I.W?"

"The Weapons Department is working on some new tech. Apparently they just completed the prototype yesterday, but it needs configuring."

Despite the personal jabs by the agents, Danny enjoyed hearing these conversations. Most of the one-sided verbal interaction typically directed at him were commands, so it was refreshing to be treated to events occurring outside of the White Room. However, that last one was a bit worrying. There was no doubt that it had something to do with where he was going. The pit of fear resting in his stomach strengthened as they drew closer to their destination and he unconsciously began to slow his pace. A grunt and sharp push forward by the researcher behind him shook him back into step.

"Keep moving, Phantom. We don't have time for any delays." The woman's voice was devoid of any feeling aside from irritation. Danny made no noise. They stopped outside of the giant titanium doors leading into the main laboratory of the Weapons Department and entered without any formal greeting aside from quick glances by the people working.

"Bring Phantom to dock 8, we have a completed prototype there." A man called over the whir of active machinery. Danny could sense the energy radiating from nearly every surface of the room. The technology here was specifically designed to combat ghosts and had been infused with powerful energy meant to repel ghosts from even touching it. Though he was not in contact with any weapons (yet, at least...) the spectral energy was uncomfortable to the hybrid. It felt as if there was pressure being applied to his body from all angles. Danny squirmed a little in the hold of the woman, but she didn't seem to notice his discomfort. Not that it would matter if she did.

They approached dock 8, a bulky looking suit of armour was floating inside a field of energy on the dock. A group of white coats were there, writing notes and toying with some control panels. What was out of the ordinary, however, was that there was a man dressed in black. Surely he didn't belong to the ward.

"Dr. Faust will be joining us once he finishes some business." Danny cringed. Faust had to be one of the harshest human beings Danny had ever known. The man was never happy with his performance, often pushing him past both his physical and emotional boundaries. The boy was never left in stable conditions after a visit with the CEO and he was quite certain that today wouldn't be an exception.

"We must have everything prepped for his arrival, though. So that means the armour needs to be configured for use later in the trial." The project manager locked eyes with Danny, pointing at the ground by his side. Danny walked to him, standing beside him and peeking up at the man's face through his raven bangs.

"Phantom, attain your ghost form." He commanded. A flash of blue light radiated throughout the room as the rings emerged from his body and expanded from his midsection. The boy now wore his black and white jumpsuit. The manager nodded in approval, then turned to address his team, who were waiting for further instruction.

"We need to configure the machine with spectral energy so it knows which frequency to operate at. Phantom, here-" he gestured to Danny, who was finding his white boots particularly interesting "-is the best specimen choice for weapon configuration because he radiates a more powerful ecto-signature than other specimens in the lab. This will make it easier to draw a sample from his core, while simultaneously spiking the energy properties already present in the prototype." A core sample, huh? Danny wasn't exactly sure what that would entail, but he knew he wasn't leaving this room until every true human was satisfied. That would include Faust, later on...

The manager used a release tool on Danny's cuffs, thankfully allowing his arms to return to his sides. They were starting to go numb.

"Phantom, come." The manager led him to an upright pod, resting on an angle to the wall just a short ways away from dock 8. He looked at his distorted reflection in the glass, realizing it's similarities to the stasis pods, which he had experienced whenever his physical form began to deteriorate after particularly challenging trials and experiments. There were many days Danny just wished they'd allow him to destabilize completely. Danny was never known to be lucky.

The hissing of the pod door being unsealed brought Danny back into the present. Two agents approached behind him, each gripping one of his arms and lifting the small boy into the chamber, pressing his back into position. He lifted his hands, nervously bringing them to his mouth before having them pulled away and pressed back to his sides. A click indicated to him that the bands around his wrists had locked into position. Danny looked desperately at one of the two agents, whose mouth twitched into a slight smirk at the sight of his owlish green eyes.

"The hell you so worked up about, ghost? It's not like anything we can do will kill you." The other agent knocked him in the arm, gathering his partner's attention.

"It's just a residual emotion from when it was alive." Danny bit the inside of his cheek, fighting the urge to tell them they were wrong. He knew better than to do that, though. The agents slammed the pod door, sealing it shut along with any chance of escape.

Danny's breathing accelerated as he listened to the machine begin to come alive. His eyes searched the inner pod, trying to gather some sense as to what will be happening. His panicked search was ended when a particularly loud noise announced the arrival of a translucent red liquid, which poured into the chamber from small openings at the base of the pod. Danny's eyes widened at the sight of the steadily climbing fluid. He looked up quickly, silently pleading with the white-coated men who stood around the exterior observing him. To them, all was going well.

Danny returned his attention to the liquid, watching powerlessly as it began engulfing him. At first the viscous substance felt rather cold, but by the time it reached his knees he knew otherwise. His typically cold core quickly became irritated, feeling as if someone had released a swarm of bees in his chest. Soon he was submerged up to his collar, his head tilting as far upwards as possible in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable. It took everything he had in him to avoid crying out, teeth clenched tight on the insides of his cheek and trying his damnedest to direct the intense burning sensation away from his agitated inner ice core. It grew harder and harder to breath, the substance close to engulfing his face. With one final gasp at the available air, Danny squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath.

A solid 5 minutes passed by, and Danny had yet to inhale the viscous liquid or open his eyes. Though his ghost form didn't require nearly the amount of oxygen his human form did, the hybrid could only combat the natural urge to breath for so long. He bit harder on the inside of his cheek, a coppery taste having filled his mouth long ago. The swarm of angry bees in his irritated core had steadily increased in intensity, the burning sensation reaching every point of his body and bubbling up into his throat.

Precious air began escaping his nose and the edges of his mouth, and finally the child submitted to the screaming need to breath. Red liquid flooded his senses, body convulsing slightly as he choked and swallowed the foul substance. Danny's eyes flew open habitually, instantly regretting the action as they burned and watered. Despite this horror, he could still make out the distorted whitish blobs observing him and bustling about the lab, not giving a second glance to the thrashing form in the mounted pod.

Danny was unsure how much of the liquid he had breathed and swallowed. All he knew was that it felt like fire. He didn't fight when the urge to vomit rushed over him like a tidal wave, body arching slightly as his stomach and lungs rejected the fluid violently. A bluish liquid rushed from his mouth, spreading into the red without mixing together. A decent amount of the mysterious substance had left his body, not that Danny was lucid enough to notice this. His blurry vision faded in and out, sounds from the machinery coming and going from his senses. When had he started crying? Oh well.

A resounding alarm marked the end of the torture, the liquid from the pod draining and being collected into canisters mounted along the wall on either side of the nightmarish chamber. The front of the pod unsealed, allowing two agents to pry it open and casually fiddle with his binds. Danny sputtered, chest heaving as his body tried desperately to expel the fiery liquids that now leaked from his mouth and nose. Panic stricken and exhausted, Danny reverted back to his human form, slumping forward the moment his binds released him and dropping from the pod to the pristine white floor of the lab. The two agents backed up, watching as he writhed and coughed up a slurry of multicoloured liquid.

"The provided sample should be enough to configure the prototype, maybe even the final suit if we're efficient. After all, the catalyst we used is quite expensive, don't want to use it all in one place. " The project manager commented with a grin, taking a few steps back to avoid the puddle of fluids slowly expanding from the small shuddering form. The man frowned. He'd have to send someone to clean this mess up.

Danny took a few wet sounding gasps, weakly hanging his head between his shaky arms and allowing the viscous substance to leave his body. Blinking rapidly in an attempt to clear his vision, the last thing the boy saw was the sullied floor approaching his face, blacking out in a soaking heap the minute his head hit the tile.

Vlad absently tapped his index finger on the arm of his chair, his eyes watching the flames of the grand fireplace lap at the stone encasing them. The grandfather clock overlooking his personal library chimed the hour, the deep tone reverberating around the room and echoing off into nothingness, leaving him in silence. 'Knock knock knock'. Short lived silence.

"Yes?" he called, the fireplace crackling.

"Mr. Masters? Dr. Faust is here for his scheduled appointment." His secretary informed through the closed, carved wooden doors. 'Right on time..." Vlad thought.

"Excellent. Please send him in." The door creaked open, the secretary whispering a polite goodbye to the visitor before scuttling off, leaving Vlad to his business. Vlad stood and faced the door, a look of well practised politeness on his face as he crossed the room to greet his guest.

"Ah, Mr. Faust! Good afternoon. I assume you are doing well?" They shook hands, Vlad smirking at Faust's stoney expression.

"If we could skip the pleasantries, Mr. Masters, I would greatly appreciate it. We're both busy men, certainly you understand." Faust said coldly, getting right to the point. Vlad's grin became much more genuine.

"Very well, Faust. I assume you're here to discuss the... Information, I have acquired as of late concerning your little ward?" Vlad resumed his spot in front of the fireplace, gesturing for his guest to join him more comfortably.

"... Indeed. I'm not sure you realize exactly what you're getting into, Masters. You're tampering with the wrong industry and I do not appreciate it." Faust's voice held a warning tone to it, but Vlad was not a man who was easily deterred.

"Oh I assure you~ I know exactly what I'm doing. Your company will not be the first that I've bulldozed. Please do consider it my payment for the debt I owe you, seeing as you bulldozed my home back in Amity Park." Since the raid that had happened months prior, Vlad had been driven to relocate back to his mansion in Wisconsin as he waited for his property to be rebuilt, taking a temporary leave from his mayoral position to pursue his latest goals of destruction- or business...

"Oh that petty raid... I sent that group for a reason, Masters. The powerful ecto-signature that frequents your home has been of interest to me for a while now. It's odd how it... Jumps, between your properties, hmm?" The shift in topic had sent a wave of discomfort through Vlad... Something in Faust's voice was discerning to him, which was certainly a feeling that was difficult to evoke in the seasoned businessman. So that bastard had been monitoring him... Vlad narrowed his eyes, he knew a threat when he heard one.

"Mr. Faust, if you would be so kind as to enlighten me on what exactly it is you're suggesting?" Faust's indifferent expression cracked as he smiled at Vlad's false ignorance.

"I will just say, Mr. Masters, that you are not the only man who can collect information that is otherwise difficult to attain. I'm not dim, sir, I can draw connections as well as you can." Vlad skillfully concealed the urge to simply kill the man and toss his body into the Ghost Zone. Nobody would have to know...

"I understand your game clearly, Faust. However, I have much more up my sleeve than you could possibly imagine. I have no intention of ceasing this pursuit, not until your empire has crumbled and your name becomes nothing more than dust to the wind." Vlad's tone grew slightly harsher as he spoke, eliciting a glare from his guest who stood abruptly.

"I will offer you this only one time, Mr. Masters. If you do not accept, I can not assure you of what will happen in the future." Faust started, adjusting his pearly white jacket and tie as he regarded his opponent critically. "I will reimburse your property, and I will swear to sever all monitoring of your homes for the next 2 years. Only, if you agree to quit this childish plot for revenge and back down now." Vlad stood, his eyes locking with Faust's as he allowed the proposal to play through his mind. So Faust really did view him as a threat... This assurance was all he needed to make his decision. If Faust was afraid of him, then he had a chance.

"I apologize, but I must decline your offer." Faust hesitated, quickly concealing his surprise and rage. He had been certain Masters would agree... Especially after the previous revelation. Faust's expression hardened as he spun on his heel, showing himself out. Before crossing the threshold of the library, he stopped, growling over his shoulder at the smug billionaire.

"A word to the wise, Mr. Masters. I have never been the type to cower when confronted with a challenge, and I assure you, I do not play nice." Faust left Vlad staring after him, his smile returning to his face once his opponent disappeared down the shadowed hall.

"Game on, Mr. Faust."

Author's End Note:

And the plot thickens~ Thanks for reading!