Author's note: so terribly sorry for taking so long since my last update. I went out of town, and kinda lost my momentum.

Danny had just spent the greater part of the last several hours flying to Vlad's last known base of operations; even at 112 per the Colorado Rockies were still quite a trip. Tucker had pointed out that Danni was created by Vlad, and Danni herself had said he was after her, so it didn't take rocket science to figure that finding Vlad might be a good idea. Problem was, he was nowhere to be found. Danny did a recon of the ritzy chalet's upper floor, phasing through walls as he went, and when he found nothing he drifted down into the secret underground laboratory. "Hello?" his voice echoed hollowly; most of the lab was still in a total shambles from his last visit.

"Great," Danny muttered sarcastically, "a whole day wasted on nothing." He got ready to take off and head home, but a blinking light caught the corner of his eye. He decided to check it out, just in case it turned out to be something important. As he floated closer he realized it was an intact cloning chamber that had somehow survived the onslaught of his wail. The control panel of the empty pod blinked urgently: "clone complete." "Oh, this can't be good," said Danny.

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"Hey, I want to thank you for looking for Danny the other night." Jazz said. She hugged her books tight to her chest and stared at her feet to avoid the gaze of who she was talking to. Drake leaned down, trying to look her in the eye. "It's no problem, really. I'm glad to do it… for you," he stated earnestly. Jazz blushed and shifted uncomfortably, "Look, I…um…I have to go. I have stuff to go do…" she trailed off without really finishing her thought, then she turned and rushed off. Drake watched her go in silence, then walked slowly over to where he'd parked. Just as he reached his destination, Spike roared up on his own ride. "Deal's on," he stated simply. Drake nodded absently, "Yeah, I'll meet you there." Spike smirked, but said nothing, and rode off.

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Jazz hurried along the sidewalk, a blush still coloring her cheeks and a goofy half-smile plastered across her face. She knew exactly where she was and how to get home from there, so she allowed herself to get lost in her thoughts, not watching where she was going but gazing down at the strip of concrete under her feet. That was why she didn't notice the veritable wall of metal standing in her path until she walked facefirst into it with a solid clank! Before she could recover, a steely cold hand grabbed her and a deep voice growled, "Prey doesn't have the liberty of daydreaming!" She shrieked in surprise, but recovered her wits quickly. "Let me go!" she cried out as she pulled back hard, trying to break that iron grip. She yelped again as a glowing net popped seemingly out of nowhere and wrapped her up. Skulker hoisted his prize into air and gazed at Jazz with a triumphant sneer, "In time, child. You're just the bait for a larger trap." Skulker extended his wings and activated his jets, calmly ignoring Jazz's futile struggles to escape the net, and rocketed off.

Over the diminishing roar of the ascending rockets another motor's throaty growl could be heard: Drake pulled out of a side alley where he had just watched the tail-end of the exchange in the street. He tore off down the road, a determined look in his angry red eyes, in hot pursuit of the rapidly diminishing metallic ghost and it's quarry.

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Danny had finally arrived home after his long flight to and equally long flight back from Colorado, he was exhausted, but he just had to talk the whole thing out with his friends. "I don't get it! He should have been there!" he ranted, pacing the length of his room in agitation. After a few moments of contemplative silence, Sam finally piped up, "Well, maybe it's not Vlad after all?" "Yeah, maybe it's someone else that hates both you and Danni," Tucker added. The three of them stood in silence for a few seconds, contemplating that, then, "Nahh, it's gotta be Vlad." Sam and Tucker said in unison. Danny nodded in agreement, but finally ceased his pacing and gazed absently around his room. His glance landed on a sheet of paper resting on his normally relatively neat desk. He was pretty sure he hadn't left that sheet there, so he went over to investigate.

Danny picked up the note and read in silence for a few seconds, but then Sam and Tucker jumped startled when he suddenly crushed the note into a crumpled wad in his fist, eyes alight with a hot green glow and an expression of pure rage on his face. "It IS Vlad," he practically snarled, "and this time he's got Jazz…"

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