"You're supposed to be dead," was the first thing Juniper Lee said when she saw Manny Rivera and Jake Long standing at her front door, so even though it was perfectly understandable to punch Jake in the face, she still felt bad about it. As if that weren't enough, Jake hadn't just popped in for a visit, be he'd decided to call in the debt she owed him from last summer, and before she even had a chance to object he'd grabbed her and whisked her away to Amity Park with Manny laughing beside them.

With her head still racing from the experience, June followed Jake into the Fenton's lab, and with the sheer volume of people gathered there around Randy and Theresa, she felt that they had probably just walked into something important. "So wait, not only do we have to worry about Vlad's amped up ghost powers," Danny said, pacing the room while they joined the others around him, "but we're also dealing with a deranged magical triangle with a habit of making deals with criminally obsessed fruit-loops?"

"Pretty much," Randy replied, watching as Jake slid down the stairs to join the others in the Fenton's lab, "and according to Dipper, it's only gonna get worse."

"Freaking great." Around the room, Danny took in each of his friend's reactions to the news, and even though Jake said June had volunteered for this, he could tell she was beginning to regret that decision. "Stupid Jake and his stupid debt," she muttered under her breath as she and Manny leaned against the machines lining the room.

"But is that not what war is about?" Dexter asked, finally shattering the silence that had overtaken the lab. "I mean, Vlad is no fool, so do you seriously believe that he is taking days to do what he could do in hours because he wants us to surrender? No, what he wants is for someone to fight back, it is a subconscious need he has to dominate others and therefore validate himself."

"Dex is right," Jimmy cut in, looking at Randy, Jake and Danny "remember when he thought he was getting rid of you three? He didn't just blast you and be done with it, he humiliated you on global television, then pushed you aside like yesterday's garbage."

"Really feeling the love here, Jim," Jake said, his head hung low, "but is there a point to this aside from hurting us emotionally?"

"Right, sorry. Anyway, our point is that Vlad likes the fight. That's why he put up with Danny for so long, and we think that's why he didn't actually blow you guys to pieces. So, from that, we've concluded that he's trying to bait the others into attacking him. He goes into a city, makes a bunch of noise and then jumps on the first thing that comes at him, the guy's basically fishing for you."

"And this helps us, how?"

"If he's fishing…" June said, speaking up for the first time since Jake pulled her away from California, "then what happens when he gets a few sharks on the line?"

Grinning, Dexter's eyes shone with the insanity of a mad scientist. "Ah, Juniper," he said, removing his glasses and staring at her intently, "it's almost as if you can read my mind."

"Ugh," Randy said, throwing his arms up in exasperation, "enough with the metaphors and the secret looks! Do you shoobs have a plan from stopping Vlad or not?"

Tentatively, the two geniuses in the room looked at each other before bringing out eight watch-like devices. "These are new wrist-coms we've devised for you to use in the field; they'll work through ghost interference and thanks to most forms of 'magic' as well. We've already taken the liberty of installing the upgraded system into Valerie's suit since she's on recon duty right now."

"Nice," Jake said, slipping the communicator onto his wrist, "so what next?"

"Next, we're splitting up into three groups which will be Core Control, Stealth and Battlefront." Jimmy began, pulling up a map of an abandoned field, "Dexter, the Fentons, Sam, Tucker, and myself will be Core Control, we'll be using the communicators to monitor energy levels and make sure nothing unexpected happens."

"Next, Dani, Haley, Theresa, Manny, and Juniper will be the stealth team. There's a button on the side of your wrist-coms that'll activate a thin layer of reflective armor, making you pretty much invisible…unless you do something stupid."

Immediately, all eyes fell on Manny. "Oh sure, you rob one little bank seven times and all of sudden you're unstable."

"Anyway," Dexter said, getting back to the main point, "that leaves you three; Randy, Jake, and Danny. Your job is to make Vlad mad. Throw him off his game enough that he stops thinking things through, if you guys can do that, then we should be able to shut him down without getting any more major cities destroyed. Do you think could handle that?"

"Dude, have you not met us?" Danny asked, making a triangle with his finger that connected him with Randy and Jake. "Heck you give us a camera and ten minutes, we can have that fruit-loop absolutely furious by the time he comes to waste us."

"Oh-ho this is gonna be so honkin' bruce!"

"Well, y'know, assuming this won't totally blow up in our faces… again."

"Dude, I'm in a basement lab surrounded by legit super-heroes in a war meeting about trying to shut down a psychopathic ghost, you can't tell me that's not the cheese."

"Wow, you really are one of those 'glass half full' kind of guys, aren't you Cunningham?"

"Yes, yes, we can discuss Randy's disturbingly optimistic views on impending doom later," Dexter called, snapping his fingers as he ascended the stairs, "right now, you have genius to set in motion."

"You heard the man, we've got a few sharks to bait."