Me: Time for chapter 9!

Danny: Yay!

Me: Ugh, I started school again today.

Danny: :(

Me: Some of my teachers are nice, some aren't. I guess it's OK though. So anyway, there will be fewer updates from now on, but I'll try my best, OK?

Danny: The mocktail competition will be open until chapter 12, where Hayden and I will announce the results. You have until then to leave a review!

Me: Replies time!

The monkey girl: Ha ha ha. I have to agree with Danny on that one, you set the challenge XD

342n: Awww thanks :) I haven't tried you're mocktail yet, but it looks nice! Did you know that lemon is an anagram of melon? How cool is that?

GhostGirl46: Thanks for reviewing. Don't worry about the mocktail recipe, you might think of

one eventually!

Phanfan925: Uh oh… thanks for reviewing!

Lolxxx: I'm afraid the routine will cease when the story is over, but that hopefully won't be for a while yet!

Rosewaver: I can assure you that Vlad has something evil in mind. There are a lot of twists to come in this fic. I don't think I'm even close to the climax yet – I have so many things planned for this! I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thanks for your lovely long review!

Ghostfinder: I will thanks :)

Jordylilly777: thanks thanks thanks! You could just make one up, you don't need to have a recipe book or anything ;)

Unknown-nin345: Awww thanks!

EXILE, Chapter 9

(Normal P.O.V)

"So you've hired the Ghost Boy's parent to kill him?" Skulker asked Vlad after the millionaire had gone over the plans with him.

"Not to kill him, you idiot – to bring him to me!" He said, frustrated.

Skulker hesitated too long before he answered.

Vlad saw the confused look on his face and asked, "You were going to kill him, weren't you?"

"Yes," Skulker said quietly. He may have been bigger than Vlad in his suit, but the man was far more powerful. Skulker only had the basic powers of a ghost – intangibility, invisibility and flight. Plus he was tiny. He needed to rely on his machines, whereas Vlad didn't.

"Well, just make sure you don't when you go out looking for him again," Vlad carried on, saying no more on the subject, "I found it quite interesting when Maddie told me that she knew Danny's secret, didn't you?"

Skulker nodded, surprised that Vlad was dismissing his mistake so quickly, and said "I wonder how she found out?"

Vlad shrugged, "I have absolutely no idea. Anyway Skulker, you best head out now – I think Maddie and Jack are already ahead of you in this bounty-hunting contest."

Skulker nodded again, turning intangible and taking off through the ceiling of Vlad's lab.

(Danny's P.O.V)

"Quick Frostbite, what do I do?" I looked around, wondering how close my parents were right now.

"That's up to you, great one. You must choose to hide, or face them. It's a decision that you must make alone." Frostbite replied simply.

There was a loud crash as the front door was knocked down. It looked like I didn't really have an option.

"Phantom, we know you're here!" I heard my mum call.

Me and Frostbite remained silent. The longer it took them to find me, the longer amount of time I would have to work out how to defeat them without seriously hurting them. I knew they hated me, but I still for some reason wouldn't be able to stand seeing them hurt with me being the cause.

"Show your face, ghost!" Dad shouted, still in the front room, "We know you took our daughter and our son, now give them back or we'll rip you apart, molecule by molecule!"

"No, Jack!" I heard Mum say urgently to Dad, "we need to give him to Vlad alive." She paused, then corrected herself, "well, not alive, but, you know."

I heard Dad sigh I guessed that he was agreeing with her. But what did he mean when he said 'we know you took our daughter and our son'? I could assume that Jazz had disappeared, maybe to look for me, but what were they talking about when they said son? And what about Vlad? What part did he have to play in this? The thoughts whirred around in my head, and I didn't hear Frostbite until he repeated what he had just said.

"Great one, I suggest facing them. They're your parents; maybe you can convince them that you're not as bad as they think."

"OK, Frostbite. I'll try." I stepped out of the kitchen and into the room where they were looking for me.

They noticed me almost instantly. Dad picked up his ecto-foamer and shot randomly in my direction, using up a fair amount of ammo. One shot hit my leg and burned my shin. I winced and paused for a second, but I tried not to let my parents see my pain. So much for convincing.

I fired back at them with an ice ray, freezing Dad's ecto-foamer. He dropped it hastily before the cold affected his hands and made them numb. I tried my best to aim for their arms and legs – not major organs, but I accidently hit my mum in the stomach as she jumped out the way in surprise, trying to avoid my attack on her right arm.

This angered her even more and she launched a net at me. It got tangled around my leg, but I kicked it off quickly before she could active the electric pulse that flowed through the wires. She narrowed her eyes and fired again, but this time she shot at me with an ecto-pistol.

It went through my shoulder and came out the other side, so at least it was a clean bullet wound. Ectoplasm leaked from the hole and I held my shoulder, fighting back tears. Dad sent a shot of ecto-foam flying towards me while I wasn't concentrating and it hit my forehead. I cried out and fell onto my knees.

"He's weakened! Get 'im, Maddie!" Jack shouted from somewhere. I was finding it hard to see because the foam was running down my face, some of it getting in my eyes, and stinging my skin.

I felt a net surround me once more and an electric pulse hit me shortly after, causing me to yell again, which eventually died down to a pathetic-sounding whimper as the pain increased.

I hated it even more so, because I wasn't supposed to be so weak and easy to beat. I had been fighting much stronger ghosts in the past, and now I couldn't even beat two humans? Maybe it was because those two humans were my parents after all. Had some part inside me forgiven them for my exile?

(Sam's P.O.V)

"We don't have long, so there's no time for mistakes," I said as I fumbled for the key to Valerie's cell.

"I know, I know. Just get me out of here before the guards come back!" I heard her say as I found the correct one and put it quickly in the lock. The door swung open, squeaking slightly because of its poorly oiled hinges, and Valerie zoomed out to join me, Jazz, Tucker and Wulf.

"Which way?" I heard Tucker ask Wulf. The animal ghost pointed with his huge, bandaged paws to a corridor on our right.

He then led the way and we followed hurriedly, eyes open for any sign of guards or security cameras. Although I highly doubted that there were any cameras. After all they were real world items and Walker said himself that owning real world items were against the rules.

"What happens if someone sees us?" Jazz asked nervously.

"We run or get caught," I replied, peeking through the cells as we ran past them. Sad-looking ghosts sat inside them, most of them not even noticing us. The ones that did looked at us with blank faces and glazed-over eyes. I put a finger to my lip and signalled for them to stay quiet, but they didn't seem to react. They looked utterly defeated.

"It's this way," Wulf led us down another corridor.

Tucker checked his watch, "we have about eight mintues."

Suddenly someone grabbed my arm. "Sam, did you hear that?" Valerie asked in an urgent whisper.

"Hear what?" I asked.

"Someone's talking – listen," she replied quietly.

Sure enough, we could hear voices coming from not far away, round the corner.

"Quick, I have another way!" Wulf led us down an opposite corridor, as far away from the voices as possible. It was lucky in a way that Wulf had spent most of his time in Walker's jail – he knew his way around really well and he knew the timetables of the guards and when the food came.

We just had to hope that he knew his way around well, or we'd be dead.

Me: It's not short; the writing's just clumped up!

Danny: Thanks for reading everybody :) Hope you enjoyed it!

Me: Again, for the mocktail, you don't need to know one, just mix up some drinks and see if it tastes nice.

Danny: And the Tron/Phantom challenge is still open – we haven't had any replies for that yet!

Me: Thanks guys, and give those two things a try!