A/N: Sorry for being a bit late this week, but this was a long chapter to edit. Besides that, it's one of my favorites. Probably because most of it is a fight scene. And those of you who've read my other stuff know how much I love my fight scenes. Anyways, I'm also sorry for not responding to reviews. I've actually been more busy since getting home than I was at university. Go figure. I'll try to be more diligent about it, though. Besides that, enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: ML and I don't own any Danny Phantom characters. The rest are ours.

Previously In The Collector: Things went awry when a plot to play a joke on Ryder by stealing and hiding his necklace went downhill. The blame game was won in the end by Vlad. Despite everyone being hurt, stunned, and angry at Vlad, the man didn't feel the satisfaction he wanted. So with himself now purposely alienated, Vlad admits to himself that he's rather confused and frustratingly different than the others, which in this context is proving to be a bad thing.

Chapter 12 War and Peace

Staring straight ahead from his lone spot on a picnic table in a corner, Vlad silently observed the entire room in a depressed sulk. Though the fact remained that Vlad thought of his current emotional condition of melancholy and constant unhappiness as childish and borderline infantile, the man couldn't seem to shake off the feeling. He was stuck with it whether he liked it or not.

It had been two days since the fiasco with Ryder's necklace, and none of the other human occupants in the museum had spoken barely a word to Vlad. Ryder avoided Vlad altogether, and Melody took every chance she got to glare coldly at the man, as if trying her hardest to turn him into a block of ice. Only Danny paid any attention to Vlad, but only when he had to.

Although it was obnoxious not having anyone to actually talk to, that wasn't nearly the cause to Vlad's dismal mood. Past memories and feelings had been dragged up from the old storage cabinet inside Vlad's head lately. These memories were full of bitterness, hurt, rejection, and confusion from a past Vlad never wanted to revisit. Vlad believed these insecurities had been dashed away and rightly gotten over due to the power of time and forgetfulness, but he saw now how mistaken he was. He wasn't over his unforgiving past, and it was frustrating and confusing him.

Vlad liked control over his life and being confident in who he was and what he did. It wasn't that way anymore, though. Not for the first time in his life, the man felt unsure of himself, and he hated every minute of it. He couldn't sleep anymore. He only ate because he knew he had to. As if his mind was on a never ending movie reel, Vlad's brain continuously thought about his past, his pathetic present condition, and the blurry vision of who he was today. It was about to drive him crazy.

Sighing again, Vlad tried to take his mind off his troubles by checking up on everyone in the room. Melody was by herself at another table. The Collector had given her a deck of cards, so she was treating herself to another game of solitaire as she hummed idly to herself.

Eyes shifting upward, Vlad observed Danny listlessly floating on his back in the air, as if trying relive his days as a superhero when he'd fly over Amity Park. The teen was still in human form, but Vlad understood how much Danny probably wanted to experience his ghost side again. It had been weeks since either of them had transformed, and the cold core inside each of them was starting to build up.

At last, Vlad turned his head toward the basket ball court where Ryder was. The man was playing a horrible game of one-on-none, and still Vlad didn't know who was winning. Whether it was dribbling, jumping, or dunking, Ryder obviously didn't know what he was doing...or cared, for that matter. Aloof as a dog, the man continued to play with himself with his ever-present grin.

While Vlad took his time to observe everyone, Danny kept his eyes shut and focused on not bumping into the walls of their prison. He had to admit, even though he was confined in this space and too nervous to change into his ghost form, it felt really good to be flying again. It felt like years since he'd last gotten to actually enjoy a long flight above his town. The memory of it only managed to put a depressed frown on his face.

Danny sighed a little, opening his eyes to peer down at the ground below him. It looked like everyone else was still doing their own things again. It'd been days since they'd all sat down and tried to discuss an escape plan.

All because of me, the teen thought, closing his eyes again to ward off his guilty feelings. He didn't see how he could forgive himself after what he'd done. He'd pretty much single-handedly ruined the slightly cohesive coexistence of their group without even meaning to. Not to mention, his actions had turned Vlad into the museum pariah...

Ryder would totally make a joke about that if he heard, Danny realized, shaking his head with a sardonic smile. He glanced down at the ground again and rolled his eyes when he spotted the man in question. Even though Ryder did his best to stay away from Vlad whenever he could, he still seemed to act like his ordinary insane self. The only time he didn't was when he actually looked at Vlad directly. That always seemed to get the thief to frown and look away sadly.

"Don't think about it," Danny muttered to himself, turning his head away to stare up at the ceiling. He didn't want to think about anyone else at the moment. Vlad was acting weird, Melody was acting weird, and Ryder was acting weirder than normal. The boy knew if he ever tried to figure out what his companions were thinking, he'd just drive himself crazy.

Meanwhile, tired of watching everyone at last, Vlad decided it was time to try and get some sleep. Try was the main word there. He hadn't had a descent hour of shuteye in days, but he still tried to nap when he could. The man knew he needed to keep himself healthy.

As Vlad strolled with his head down back to the men's cabin, he slipped his hands into his pockets. Though he had his head down, he knew Melody was glaring at him the entire time he moved past her. Arriving at the cabin, Vlad closed the door before leaning against it, closing his eyes with a heavy sigh. He knew things were broken between everyone out there, but he had no idea how to fix it.

Opening his eyes at last, Vlad moved away from the door. Before he got to his bed, though, he stopped in surprise. Laying there on the covers was a book. It was the first book Vlad had seen in weeks. It was considerably old by the looks of it. The leather cover was stained and covered with cracks. The crinkly, dilapidated pages seemed to be held to the spine by the last few strands of glue. The elegant title on the front proclaimed in French War and Peace.

Frowning, Vlad gingerly picked up the book and opened it to the first page. There was a sticky note there that had been recently written on. It read:

Dear Vlad,

So I saw this and thought of you. No really I actually saw this and my 1st thought was Hey, Vlad would really like that! I should get that for him! So I did cuz I rememmber you saying that you like to read which is really nerdy but you said you liked it so I thought why not. And well I know that your like really mad at me and stuff but I figure that its ok cuz I sorta did steal from you but I felt bad about it but I guess it doesn't really matter that I felt bad about it cuz its steal stealing and that's wrong and stuff. And I've never read this book before but I know its xpensive so I hope that means that its good and also as a side note I had to steal this postit note from Melody and this pen and I didn't really realize how quickly the ink was going to run out so I probably should've stolen another one just in cas-

Once he was done reading the note for the first time, Vlad's eyebrows furrowed together as he looked for a second note before giving up on the useless search and sighing with irritation. Typical Ryder.

Vlad frowned flatly at the far wall for a moment, but soon enough the man's expression softened as he glanced back down at the note and book with almost a look of guilt written on his hard face. It had been a long time since anyone had given him a thoughtful gift such as this one. He'd forgotten how it felt.

So once again, Vlad didn't know what to do.

In the meantime, Ryder was finding himself accompanied by someone on the basketball court. Lumbering up to the human was a ghost of monstrous size. He was dressed in nothing more than a simple faux leopard pelt that strung limply around one massive shoulder before dangling down to his knees in a kind of caveman skirt. The lack of dressing material allowed the ghost to show off all his multitude of well-defined muscles that covered every inch of his body. The ghost's head was shaven, but he wore a thick, black mustache and beard. Dark, cold eyes peered out from a low, sunken brow of hairy eyebrows. The glare he pinned Ryder with was formidable. It was obvious from the start: this ghost meant harm.

For several moments, Ryder didn't even notice the new arrival. He was too focused on attempting to bounce the basketball between his legs like he'd seen the players on television do loads of times. However, he was finding this feat very hard to accomplish. Frowning in frustration, Ryder picked the ball up again and held it in his hands.

"I don't remember this being hard," he mumbled with a put-out look on his face. The thief was just about to try the trick again when he finally felt the eyes of the ghost on him.

Ryder stood completely still as he looked up, up, and up into the ghost's face. After a confused pause, Ryder held the ball out to the ghost and smiled widely. "You wanna play too?" he asked, a hopeful gleam obvious in his eyes.

Ignoring Ryder's offer, the ghost took another giant step forward to close the gap between human and ghost. He pointed a finger down at Ryder, saying in a thick, deep voice that had a hint of a Russian accent to it, "You humans. You all need to know your place."

Ryder was silent for a moment before he asked, sounding mystified, "Is this a black thing?"

Eyebrows coming together in confusion, the ghost took his time in answering, as if thinking about Ryder's question was hard work. "No," he stated simply at last. "No. This is a human thing. Between humans and ghosts. You can't disrespect us in here and believe you can get away with it."

"Oh."

Ryder didn't really know what else he could say. It was only at that moment did he realize just how close the gigantic ghost was standing to him. He also took the time to notice the look on the ghost's face. He'd seen that look before, quite often actually. This guy wanted to hurt him. He had the look that clearly said he wanted to hurt him. How had he missed that? Maybe because it hadn't happened since he'd been brought to this museum.

"Oh, well, that's unfortunate," Ryder began, sounding as aloof as possible. "'Cause I was just gonna- think fast!"

Without hesitation, Ryder threw the basketball up at the ghost's face as a distraction while simultaneously leaping up into the air to plant a strong kick into his gut. Unfortunately, this ghost was made of muscle; Ryder was not. The thief's attack did nothing, and he ended up bouncing off like a ping-pong ball that had been thrown at a brick wall.

The force of the failure sent Ryder to the ground on his back, driving the air from his lungs in the process. He groaned as he looked up at the giant ghost and gasped out, "T-that was an a-accident."

The ghost shook its head, hardly daunted from the basketball hitting his face, even more so the attempted kick to his stomach. Looking down slowly, he spotted Ryder there on the ground, looking winded and vulnerable. Moving with a swiftness that wouldn't normally possess such a monstrously big man, the ghost stepped forward, seized a handful of Ryder's shirt, and lifted the man right off his feet.

Bringing Ryder close to his face, the ghost said in a low grumble, "You are nothing but a pathetic human. I don't want you to disrespect the other ghosts again." Lips curling into an unpleasant, mirthless smile, the ghost added, "And to make sure my point is clear, I will demonstrate what we do to humans like you who fail to understand our rules so that everyone will learn."

His message successfully sent, the ghost swung a beefy fist back before striking Ryder across the face and letting him drop to the ground.

Ryder hit the floor about as hard as the ghost had just hit him. Or maybe it wasn't as hard. Maybe he wasn't even still alive, actually. Maybe that punch had totally just smashed his face into a billion pieces, and he'd died right on the spot because that was definitely what it felt like.

Letting out a low moan of pain, the man blearily lifted his head up from where it had been against the ground. Dazed and confused, Ryder could only stare up at the ceiling as he tried to make his vision stop spinning.

Holy frijoles, he thought as he rolled over onto his stomach to try and push himself back to his feet. Ryder had never been punched that hard before. The entire right side of his face felt swollen up like a watermelon or something. The thief glanced down when he saw red dots appear on the white floor beneath him. Eyebrows furrowing, he lifted up a trembling hand and touched his bottom lip. It was busted right open. Not to mention, it hurt like hell.

Ryder closed his eyes and attempted to stand up again. He got up to his knees before his spinning head forced him to stop. Moving wasn't a good thing to be doing right now.

"Ok, ok, I learned my lesson," Ryder rasped, lowering his throbbing head as he gave up on walking and went for crawling instead to get away. "That was fun. We should try that again s-sometime."

Without a word, the ghost walked back up to Ryder, swung his foot back, and punted Ryder in the gut, sending the poor thief flying a few feet before landing on his side and rolling to a stop. The ghost didn't waste more time with letting Ryder recoup. He marched over to the defenseless man, ready to dish out more pain.

Gasping and coughing, Ryder rolled onto his side, trying desperately to get up. The ghost was coming towards him. He was going to continue to beat the crap out of him. He had to do something! The thief tried to stand, but shooting pangs jumped through his abdomen the second he tried, forcing him to yell a curse as he was brought back to the floor.

The sound of Ryder's shout of pain jolted Danny out of his thoughtful daze, and he spun around in the air, eyes shooting down to the basketball court. All he saw was a giant ghost bearing down on his friend who was sprawled out on the floor, clutching his stomach tightly as if all his guts were about to fall out.

"Holy crap!" Danny yelped. He didn't hesitate to fly swiftly to the ground and land between Ryder and the advancing ghost. He held his fists up defensively and glared up into the ghost's eyes. He didn't know what the thief had done to make this ghost mad, but he wasn't gonna let him hurt Ryder.

"Back off," Danny ordered in his toughest voice imaginable. He narrowed his eyes as they flashed with a green glow. "Leave Ryder alone."

The ghost stopped, perturbed and confused by Danny's sudden appearance. The group of ghosts at the museum still didn't know what to do with the halfas. They didn't like them because they were human; nonetheless, they were part ghost too, so it wasn't like they could hate their own kind. This new development perplexed the giant ghost, but he was on a mission, and some half ghost kid wasn't going to get in his way of accomplishing that which he set out to do.

"Move," the ghost said, using one massive hand to shove Danny out of his way so he could bend down to grab another handful of Ryder's shirt.

Danny stumbled from the push and nearly fell right to his butt. Somehow, he caught himself and spun to glare back at the ghost. It was then that he noticed how bad Ryder already looked, and the ghost obviously wasn't even near being through with this beating.

I have to stop him, Danny realized as his fists tightened further. He would never stand idly by and let someone - one of his friends - get the crud beat out of him. Even if he was scared of the Collector catching him and forcing him under his power, he wasn't going to let this happen. He couldn't.

Gritting his teeth in a fierce grin, Danny closed his eyes and morphed into his ghost form with a loud cry of, "Goin' ghost!" The familiar and comfortable chill spread through his body as if a tiny ice bomb had exploded inside his veins. Power just seemed to thrum from the tips of his fingers to his toes as his black hair was replaced by white and blue eyes with green. He had never felt so strong before in ghost form. He was so ready to release some of that power.

"No touching, Mongo!" Danny yelled as he threw his hands forward and shot twin ecto-blasts at the ghost just before he was able to grab Ryder again.

The ghost gave an annoyed grunt as the ectoplasm rays slammed into his side and made him take a step to the side. His dark eyes bore into Danny, frustration clearly shown in his expression. It was now obvious that Danny wasn't going to allow the ghost to do any damage to Ryder. So that meant the ghost would have to get rid of Danny first before he could continue his work on the thief.

"Ryder!"

The ghost looked to his side when he heard Melody's scream. The girl came running up to the basketball court, a pale look of fear on her face. It was like Danny and the other ghost weren't there as she raced past them to get to Ryder, but she didn't make it very far. The giant ghost had caught one of her arms with one of his own.

"Hey!" Melody yelled as she was jerked to a stop before she could attend to her friend on the ground. She tried to pull away from the ghost, but his large hand practically engulfed her entire forearm. "Get off me, you fat jerk!" Melody growled viciously, using her anger to hide her growing fear and anxiety. She'd been too focused on Ryder to believe she'd get hurt too, but now she saw how stupid running onto the scene had just been.

Gasping for air that he desperately needed to fill his battered lungs, Ryder looked up at the scene before him. "Mel," he croaked out, painfully attempting to stand up with an arm wrapped around his abdomen. That ghost was touching her. Ryder couldn't let the ghost hurt her to get to him. He couldn't let that happen to his best friend. "G-get off her, King Kong," the thief growled, his voice nothing but a pathetic whimper.

Before Ryder could get up, Danny flew forward, turned intangible, and wrapped his arms around Melody's waist to phase her through the ghost's grip. He easily lifted her up and flew her several feet away so that she'd be safe. "Stay back," he breathlessly told her as he placed her back on the ground. "I can handle this!"

"Y-yeah, but Ryder...," Melody squeaked out, a little too shocked from the sudden flight and ghostly touch for her voice to be in control. As frightened as she currently was, Melody stayed where she had been deposited. She knew now that she'd been stupid to just run into the fight like that. And now that she thought about it, she realized Danny was the best for the current job. He'd fight other ghosts before and won, him being a superhero and all. So Melody anxiously waited off to the side, trying her best to remain calm.

Danny didn't wait for Melody's scathing reply as he leapt back into the air, flying straight for the giant ghost. He cocked his glowing fist back and, without slowing down, plowed his ecto-charged punch right into the ghost's face.

With a roar of anger and pain, the ghost stumbled back a few feet, holding his now hurting face with one hand. A few measly ectoplasm rays weren't something the ghost would have troubled himself over, but now his face was actually hurting. This would not do. It looked like he'd have to show Danny a lesson too.

Standing up straight after the blow, the ghost growled at the half ghost hovering in the air a few yards away, "You will pay for that." Then, with a flash of red gleaming in the ghost's eyes, the ghost duplicated himself once, twice, and more until there were at least twelve massive ghosts standing on the basketball court all facing Danny with scowls on their faces.

Without another word, the group of ghosts charged Danny with loud battle yells.

Oh man...I did not see that coming, Danny thought, shock and horror on his face as the group of giant ghosts tore towards him. His green eyes shot to the side to check on Ryder. He found that the thief had actually managed to get back upright, and he was trying to hobble away. The bad thing was, they really had nowhere to go.

Danny set his face in a grim expression as he focused back on the ghosts. He just needed to get to Ryder and protect him until the Collector realized what was going on and stopped this. He just had to hold out for a rescue. The half-ghost's hands flared up with energy he'd been holding inside for weeks. It was time to let it go.

He fired a strong blast at the closet ghost as he flew forward. He ducked low to avoid a punch from another and had to flip onto his side to dodge yet another angry fist aimed for his head, firing ecto-blasts all the while. Danny phased through the chest of one ghost and came out on the other side to slam a kick into another duplicate's face.

All he could do was shoot and evade as he desperately tried to get back to Ryder's side.

The the weaving, evading, and dodging worked for the first few seconds of battle, but the colossal ghost and his duplicates soon managed to surround Danny. The smaller ghost was at first too quick to get pummeled, but Danny's pesky fly act didn't serve him very well when his luck finally wore off and a mammoth fist whacked into him from the side, driving him downward.

Danny cried out when his side slammed into the ground from the force of the punch. He looked up, eyes wide when he realized he was totally surrounded. Grimacing from the pain of the attack, Danny flipped onto his back and created a dome-like shield around himself. He panted for a moment before flinging his arms outward. The expanding shield rammed into the ghosts and flung them backwards, giving him just enough time to get back to his feet.

The dozen ghosts who were momentarily pushed back by the shield quickly rightened themselves. As they did so, some of them noticed Ryder trying to limp away. Seeing that their main target was escaping, the group broke into two. Most of the ghosts stayed with Danny while two other ghosts rushed off to go take care of Ryder.

Trying a different tactic this time, the multitude of ghosts surrounding Danny tried to grab him as they all lunged forward. A captured target was easier to hit than one who was flying around all erratically, they all figured.

Meanwhile, the two ghosts who had gone after Ryder quickly caught up with the thief. Chuckling darkly to themselves at the weakened state of the human, one of them grabbed Ryder by the arm and twisted it painfully behind his back.

As all this was taking place, Melody had decided that 1 against 12 in a ghost fight wasn't fair. Danny didn't look like he had expected the turn of events to go so drastically poor, so the girl did the smartest thing she could do to help and rushed off to find the one man who actually could.

Flinging herself into the men's cabin, Melody stopped short before she collided into Vlad. Turning sharply around to face Melody, Vlad hid the book he was reading behind his back. He was about to tell her to leave, the cabin being a men's cabin and all, but he swiftly caught the look of distress and fear on her face. Something was terribly wrong.

Back on the battlefield that was the basketball court, Danny's good luck came to an abrupt halt when he felt a large hand grab a chunk of his hair and yank him back when he tried to pull away. Crying out in pain, the teen gritted his teeth and reached up to pry the hand away from his hair. He realized that there was no way he could beat this ghost in strength, but he had other ways to do that.

The teen narrowed his eyes as they flashed blue and coated the hand grabbing him completely in ice. He yanked himself away from the frozen hand and prepared to fly up out of the other ghosts' reach again.

Ryder, on the other hand, was having bigger problems. He couldn't contain a yelping shout of agony when the ghost grabbed him and bent his arm behind him like he was going to snap it in half. He probably was going to snap it in half!

"Ow, ow! Arms don't go that way!" he yelled, struggling uselessly to free himself. "Stop, stop! Please, I learned my lesson! I did! Ah-ow! I promise!"

The thief looked desperately up at the ghost in front of him, tears of pain stinging in the only eye he could see out of. Ryder could just tell that this was the end. He could see it in the ghost's face. He was so going to kill him or just break all the bones in his body. Starting with his arm.

Ryder closed his eye and turned his head away. He didn't want to see this.

Just as the ghost was about to pop Ryder's arm out of its socket and shatter the captured arm's bones, Ryder turned intangible. The ghost let out a surprised yelp of lament and confusion as he lost all grip on the man and Ryder fell back to his knees unharmed. Both of the ghosts standing by Ryder shared looks of bafflement before shrugging and proceeding to grab Ryder again.

Before they could, another ghost materialized between them. With hands on his hips and an evil smirk playing at the corners of his lips, Vlad looked up at the two dumbfounded ghosts with a confidence he hadn't shown in days.

"I would appreciate it if you two would kindly desist beating these people into a pulp, gentlemen," Vlad said with pretense politeness. "I think Mr. Walker, here, gets your point. Giving any more of it would just be redundant and sloppy workmanship, and we don't want any of that, now do we?"

Ryder slowly reopened his eye and looked up at Vlad. Of all people, Vlad was standing in between him and the ghost that was going to kill him. He didn't know what to do or say. He was just so relieved that he wasn't dead and that his arm was still okay, though it was aching like hell.

The man let a pained smile come to his face as he wrapped his arm back around his midsection to fight down the throbbing in his ribs. "Vlad," he whispered shakily, relief evident in the weak tone of his voice. Ryder honestly felt like crying from how happy he felt at not being alone in this anymore.

The thief let his eyes drift to the ghost as he peered around Vlad's side and nodded quickly. "Y-yeah, sloppy's the worst," he readily agreed. Ryder paused as he suddenly realized something. "Vlad...Vlad, I think I'm gonna puke...or pass out. Or both. I don't know yet."

Glancing down at Ryder with forehead creased in unsavory contemplation, Vlad said, "Mmm. Delightfully expressive on your bodily updates as always, I see. Just stay down, Ryder. You've caused enough trouble for one day, and I'd prefer it if you refrained from vomiting on my feet. Much obliged."

"You can't tell me what to do," the giant ghost suddenly said, cutting off further conversation between Vlad and Ryder.

"Took you that much time to come up with that sentence, did it?" Vlad said to the ghost. When the ghost didn't respond at first, Vlad shook his head, a look of fake sympathy crossing his face as he said, "I know. Thinking is hard."

"I know a mocker when I see one," the other massive ghost growled out, tone one of annoyance.

"Oh, that's good," Vlad said, grinning despite himself. "It's very good to know your eyesight works properly, gentlemen."

Whether the two ghosts knew what Vlad meant or not, it didn't matter. They weren't going to take any more jokes or scoffing from one over-confident man. Simultaneously, they attacked Vlad by lunging at him. Predicting this move long before it had even been conceived, Vlad slightly bent his knees and formed a shield above himself and Ryder. The two giants slammed into the shield before reeling in confused frustration.

Vlad didn't give the giant ghosts a chance to recoup. He shot off the ground, swung his glowing fist back, and punched one of the unfortunate ghosts in the face with a ruthless battle yell. The gigantic ghost fell to its side, stunned and wounded. Turning sharply around, Vlad conjured up a quick, powerful ball of ectoplasm and brutally shoved it at the second ghost. The energy ball took the ghost right off his feet. He soared through the air a few yards before dematerializing.

Glancing over to the skirmish going on between the other 10 ghosts and Danny, Vlad decided the teen could use some help. Concentrating hard, the man split himself in two to lighten the load of work that needed to be done. His other half swiftly flew over to assist the superhero who was currently getting his butt kicked.

Throwing a barrage of ectoplasm rays at the present ghost pummeling Danny into the ground, Vlad arrived on the scene just as the ghost stumbled to the side and let the teen go. Forming a shield around both of them to let Danny recoup, Vlad smirked down at the boy as he stated, "1 against 12 isn't the best of odds, Daniel, though I shouldn't blame you. You never were great at math."

Danny slowly shook his head as he looked back up at Vlad and wiped a bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. "If I wasn't so happy to see you, I'd say something back to that," the teen replied, flashing a tired grin. He floated back to his feet and grimaced when the bruises along his body ached. Vlad was right. Fighting 12 ghosts at once hadn't been one of his best ideas. He was definitely gonna feel that in the morning.

The boy peered out of Vlad's shield at the increasingly agitated looking ghosts glaring in at them before peeking back up at Vlad. "How about I take that one on the left, and you deal with the rest?" Danny suggested, quirking his eyebrow cheekily. Before Vlad could answer, Danny quickly added, "And is Ryder ok? I was trying to get to him, but I got a little...um, sidetracked."

"The last time I saw him, he told me he was happy and was going to barf," Vlad replied blandly. "He's fine."

Looking around at the congregation of massive ghosts waiting for them outside the shield, Vlad managed a grim smile as he duplicated himself again. Making sure Danny was alright and ready to go, the man let his shield dissipate before having both his forms attack the nearest ghosts with blasts of rosy, ectoplasm energy.

One Vlad went high, and the other went low, blasting and punching at whatever limbs they could get at. Bewildered by this strategy and the swiftness at which is was executed, the giant ghosts were slow at first at even toughing Vlad, his clone, and Danny. Though the two adversaries rarely worked together, Vlad had to admit it was slightly comfortable fighting by the teen's side. He was the only person Vlad could trust in a battle to get the job done.

Eventually, though, one Vlad got his ankle caught in a tight, enveloping fist. The ghost violently swung the clone over its head before smashing him to the ground. Another ghost was right there to finish the clone off with a brutish stomp to the clone's chest. Instantly, the second Vlad dematerialized.

Danny could only grimace as he caught the brutal end of one of Vlad's clones. He pulled his eyes back to the fight just in time to swiftly fly to the ground to duck a punch aimed for his head. His feet thunked to the floor, but he didn't pause. Instead, he threw himself forward, slid between a giant ghost's legs, and shot a powerful ecto-blast into his back.

The attack was strong enough to make the clone disappear, and Danny grinned as he leapt back into the air to go for another. The next opponent found him by body slamming him from the side, taking the teen completely by surprise. Danny spun out of control for a moment before he righted himself, planted his feet against the wall, and jumped back at the ghost that had its fist pulled back to clobber him with.

Danny got there first and slammed both of his open palms into the ghost's chest. Ice leapt from his hands and covered the duplicate, freezing him whole within moments. The half-ghost smirked a little as that clone disappeared as well, just like the last one.

"That's two for me, Vlad!" Danny yelled, flying back into the air with a grin. "Beat that!"

Vlad went with a punch that was delivered to his side. He fell onto his shoulder, rolled with the momentum, and came back upright with both hands blazing. Thrusting his palms out at the ghost who'd just hit him, Vlad took that brute out before pushing off the ground and nailing a hard punch to the head of the unsuspecting ghost that had been standing behind his recently fallen buddy. With another well aimed blast, Vlad finished a third ghost off with ease.

"My count so far is four," Vlad called back to Danny with a competitive grin. "Though that's probably not fair since there were three of-!" Vlad noticed the monstrous shadow that had surrounded him suddenly. Deftly, he threw himself into a backwards somersault to avoid the descending fists that had been aimed to smash him like a bug.

Coming up behind the ghost, Vlad threw a few rays at the giant before he was stopped by a hand grabbing his leg. Vlad was heaved up like a rag doll before being unceremoniously flung into the wall. Before he could get his head on straight, the motion was repeated, but this time a neat, little crater had been created in the hard surface.

Giving a small groan, Vlad gritted his teeth through the pain and released a surge of electric energy onto the ghost who was preparing Vlad for another swing against the wall. White electric energy cracked down the ghost's arm and speedily raced with brilliantly, deadly sparks all across its body. The ghost seized up before releasing a roar of pain and dematerializing.

Dropping to the ground, Vlad rolled his now sore shoulders with a grimace before muttering to himself, "And that's five."

Danny paused in mid-air when he heard Vlad's reply as he did mental calculations. "Wait, how many are left then?" he asked, eyebrows furrowing as he tried to think it out. Math was hard when he was focusing on other things. That was his excuse, anyway.

However, a swift punch to the side of his head that sent him crashing face-first to the ground answered his question. Shaking stars from his vision, Danny muttered to himself, "Ok, ug, at least one."

Just as he was about to roll out of the way, a large foot crashed down on his back and shoved him further into the floor. Danny growled breathlessly, gritting his teeth as the foot tried its best to crush him into dust. Forget this, the teen thought as he turned himself intangible and phased through the ghost's foot completely.

He continued to phase through the ghost's leg and ended up behind him. He grabbed the ghost's head in both hands. Two ecto-blasts later, there was one less ghost jerk to deal with. Panting slightly, Danny put his hands on his knees and grumbled, "I really gotta get a math tutor."

Vlad suddenly skidded backwards on his feet past Danny after a hit from one of the last two gargantuan ghosts. Soon as the man came to a halt, he stepped forward with a thrust of both his hands, releasing a powerful ecto-ray at the culprit who'd recently batted him as a sort of retribution. With a strained yelp, that ghost was the last to vanish on the basketball court.

The one remaining ghost now realized he was badly defeated. He baulked the two halfas, his slow mind trying to discern what he should do next at a snail's pace. He'd never lost a fight before, and he didn't understand that his first defeat came from the hands of two puny half humans. It didn't make any sense.

Vlad made up the ghost's mind for him. With a smirk, Vlad fired a small shot at the ghost's chest. It was just enough power to frighten the apparition. Uttering an uncharacteristically girly yelp, the ghost jumped back, turned, and hightailed it out of there.

The smirk was still on Vlad's lips as he dusted himself off and asked Danny, "Are you alright? Oh, why am I asking? You're fine. If anything, this fight was probably cathartic for you."

Danny grimaced as he straightened out his back, but he smiled back at Vlad anyway. "If cathartic means fun, then yeah, that was kinda fun," he answered, chuckling despite himself. He was sore, but it was a nice sore. He hadn't gotten to fight another ghost in so long, and he had to admit that it was very refreshing to be able to get out all his frustrations just like that.

The teen ran a hand through his white hair as he looked over at the other end of the basketball court where Ryder and Melody were. Just before he floated towards them, he glanced over his shoulder and shot Vlad his own smirk. "Thanks for asking, V-Man."

That said, Danny flew across the court and landed beside Melody who was kneeling beside Ryder. The man was either unconscious or rapidly on his way in that direction. Danny couldn't help but wince at the sorry state of Ryder's face. He was almost unrecognizable at this point.

Danny leaned over Ryder and hesitantly asked, "Hey, can you hear me?"

The thief's left eye cracked open as he let out a grunting moan and squirmed a little on the ground. "Nngh, my ribs," he gasped out between his short and sharp breaths. Ryder's dazed eye finally landed on the people above him, and his eyebrows furrowed. "I don't remember you guys being in prison with me," he mumbled, his words sounding like nothing but garbled nonsense. "I thought I got out...Did I dream that? That's...that's probably-ugggg my face. Who-who threw that car at my face?"

"Make sure he stays awake," Vlad said as he landed beside Danny and Melody. "He could have a bad concussion. He'll have to go to the Infirmary, unfortunately. Where are those guards when you actually need them?"

"They're on their way," Melody said, voice shaky but more in control than it was before. "While you guys were fighting, I got ahold of one. He's getting a group together right now."

Snorting in aversion, Vlad leaned down over Ryder's head. He snapped his fingers a few times to try and get the man's attention before saying with calm sternness, "Ryder? Ryder, you need to stay awake. Understand? You're not allowed to fall asleep. It's too dangerous. Just...keep talking. You enjoy that."

Ryder painfully shook his head and squeezed his eye shut. "Nooo, no, I don't wanna talk," he whined. He tried to cover his face with his arms to block out everyone, but yelped when he tried to move his right arm. He quickly let it drop back to the ground. "Oooh, ow, ow, ow. That hurts too. What happened? Who the hell threw that car? Mmmm. My face, my face hurts."

Danny grimaced again, looking over to Melody and Vlad worriedly. That ghost had managed to hurt him and Vlad when they were in ghost form. It came as no surprise to him that Ryder wasn't doing so good considering he was just a human. He swallowed a little and said softly, "It's ok, dude. The guards'll be here soon. Don't worry."

Ryder kept shaking his head, gasping for each breath he took. "I d-didn't do anything. Tell the W-Warden that, please. It wasn't me. I was ju-just doing...something. I don't know what, but I was-was doing it," the man babbled, panting, cringing, and sobbing a little as he spoke.

Danny stood back up straight and shook his head as he rubbed the back of his neck. He swallowed hard to keep himself calm as he looked towards the door that the guards needed to come through. It was hard to see Ryder so hurt and confused. "Those stupid guards better get here soon," he muttered under his breath.

"No!" Vlad suddenly yelled, shaking Ryder's shoulder forcefully as the man closed his one good eye as if about to fall asleep. "No, no, no. Stay awake." There was a collective sigh of relief when Ryder opened his eye again. Smiling down wryly at the man, Vlad said, "I'm not letting you drift away that easily, Mr. Walker."

After five long, worrisome minutes, the guards did come. They trudged into the room unenthusiastically. Not trusting the ghosts to do the job properly, Danny and Vlad carefully lifted Ryder up onto the stretcher themselves. Melody stood off to the side, braiding and unbraiding her hair in anxiety.

Just before the group carried the wounded man off, Vlad leaned over Ryder once again with a set of orders. "Remember," he told Ryder, "your mission for the day is to stay awake. You're useless to everyone if you sleep. Got that?"

Though he was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to do the exact opposite of what Vlad was saying, Ryder nodded back quickly. "Ok, ok," he agreed, pain aching in his voice. "Don't sleep. I won't. I won't. I promise."

The group stepped back to let the guards leave the room, sharing anxious glances the entire time. It didn't help that the second the doors closed behind the guards they could hear someone shouting. And he did not sound pleased. "Three guesses who that is," Danny mumbled out of the side of his mouth to Vlad and Melody.

No sooner had he spoken did the doors open again and a very angry looking Curator stormed inside. His eyes were glowing much brighter than normal, and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides as his gaze landed on the three remaining humans in the room.

"Don't move," the Curator rumbled before anyone could even think of doing such a thing. The ghost turned his eyes quickly away from them and raised his voice to yell, "I want every ghost in front of me NOW!"

It didn't take long for his order to be met with the appearance of all the ghosts present as displays in the museum. They lined up in front of the Collector just as he had asked, each holding a different expression on their face. Most looked nervous yet a few held twinges of annoyance.

Furious glare sliding across each face in front of him, the Curator ordered, "Sit down." Once everyone had been forced to sit on the floor, the Collector pointed steadily at Vlad and demanded, "What happened here? I know you had something to do with this."

Scowling up at the Curator, Vlad answered in a forcibly even tone, "I don't know exactly what happened because I wasn't around when it happened. All I know is that Mr. Walker was innocently playing basketball by himself, a ghost came up to him and instigated a fight, and because your guards weren't there to stop it, Danny and I interceded for Ryder." He paused before saying with a sneer, "If anything, you should be thanking us. If it wasn't for Danny and I, your precious set of thieves would be one short right now."

Grinding his teeth noticeably, the Curator matched Vlad's glare without even seeming to try. The look wasn't even directed at him, but Danny winced anyway. He thought about lightly suggesting to Vlad to cool it, but figured it wouldn't be worth it anyway. The guy was in Vlad-mode.

"My guards," the Collector began, speaking through his clenched teeth, "will receive their own punishment for allowing this to happen. You may count on that. As for the rest of you..."

The Curator turned to loom over the ghosts on the ground, somehow managing to cast a much bigger shadow across the ground than should've been possible. "There will be no more fighting. The next ghost who even thinks of fighting will be removed immediately from my museum. Do not so much as touch another human again. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes, Curator," the ghosts instantly replied, their voices filled with fear at the thought of having to leave the museum. Unlike the humans, none of the ghosts actually wanted to have to leave. This place was their home.

Looking somewhat satisfied, the Curator turned back to the humans, his distaste made clear in the disapproving scowl on his face. "I am...thankful that you and Mr. Fenton protected Mr. Walker," the ghost began grudgingly though it was obvious he meant every word. "However, the next one of you to participate in a brawl will not enjoy the consequences I have in mind."

The Collector blew out a sigh and massaged his temple as he waved a hand at the ghosts to his left, releasing them from his power so that they could leave. They did so without looking back. The ghost took a moment to collect his thoughts and calm his anger before he opened his eyes and looked at the humans in front of him.

"This business of attempting to escape is becoming increasingly bothersome. I will not tolerate another...escape plan or whatever you call them," he said tersely but with a stern note in his voice.

Although Vlad wanted to say something feisty just to spite the Collector and make him angry, he knew when to keep his mouth shut. Defying the Curator when he was alone was one thing. Vlad could look after himself. But in front of everyone else was something different. He didn't want to push things too far.

Vlad didn't have to look at either Danny or Melody to know they were glancing nervously at him, as if fearful he'd say something wrong and get them all punished. To keep everyone momentarily safe, he simply sat back with a rebellious glare and said nothing as he nicely demonstrated his self control.

Satisfied by the lack of rude responses, the Collector straightened up and let out a tense sigh. That had gone better than expected. Maybe they were finally learning. He certainly hoped so.

Danny unwillingly cleared his throat to get the ghost's attention and hesitantly asked, "Is Ryder gonna be ok?"

The Curator's eyebrows furrowed deeply in concern, and he glanced over his shoulder as if he could see the Infirmary from this room. "Yes...yes, he should be fine," he agreed without sounding very confident. "I will watch over him tonight and return him here in the morning. Until then..." The ghost turned back to face the humans and spread his hands as he said, "Please, try to stay out of trouble. I don't want any of you hurt, do you understand? I don't want any of you to have to stay in the Infirmary. If you have anymore problems with the other ghosts, please, do not hesitate to tell me. I will solve the problem immediately."

The ghost nodded a little, mostly to himself, as he glanced down at the floor. He took in another deep breath and lifted his head up. "I will be making daily visits from now on to check up on you all," he announced. "If there are anymore problems, I will know of them."

This time Melody piped up, her voice resounding with indignation. "But we didn't do anything wrong!" she said. Indicating the ghosts that had been dismissed with a sweep of her hand, she continued, "And you already ordered the other ghosts to leave us alone. They have to obey you. There won't be any more problems, so there's really no point to you showing up each day."

Pausing, Melody caught Vlad's incredulous glance before adding sweetly to the Curator, "That's just my logical opinion, sir. We don't want to waste your time. I mean, we've been behaving good these past few days. Not a single escape attempt. Why should we get punished for something we didn't do?"

The Curator looked down at Melody, struggling to keep up a stern face. It was very hard for him to contain a smile when one of his displays was actually showing him the respect that he deserved. "Well..." he began, glancing at Danny out of the corner of his eye. The teen caught the ghost's look and quickly put on the most innocent kid face that he could manage.

Letting out a sigh, the Curator shook his head and laughed a little. "Alright," he relented, tense shoulders sagging as he gave the three humans a caring look. "I suppose you're right. You did protect Mr. Walker, and you have behaved well recently." His gaze drifted to Vlad, his hard expression returning momentarily. "For the most part, that is."

The ghost ran a hand across the top of his head as he murmured, "You may stand, if you wish. I will return to the Infirmary to keep an eye on your...friend. Good night."

That said, the Curator nodded to the three humans and turned on his heel to exit the room. Only when Danny was sure the ghost was really gone did he jump back to his feet and grin down at Melody. "You're awesome, Miss Ice Queen," he said, holding out a hand to help her to her feet.

Taking Danny's hand as if she really was a queen and he was her loyal subject, Melody gracefully got back to her feet, saying theatrically with a graceful bow, "I know. I am the best in the kingdom."

Catching a raised eyebrow from Vlad who was getting to his feet next to her, the girl quickly muttered, "Shit. I sounded like Ryder. He hasn't even been gone for two minutes."

Chuckling with a shake of his head, Vlad said as he dusted off his hands, "I'm surprised that actually worked."

"It wouldn't have worked for you because you don't have a pretty face," Melody pointed out with a snarky grin. "As I've said before: the Collector isn't some evil bad guy with a diabolical plan. He cares for his collection. And until he stops caring, I'm totally using that to my advantage."

"She has a point," Danny agreed as he transformed back into his human half and rubbed a kink out of his sore neck. He smiled cheerfully up at Vlad and finished, "She does have a prettier face." Before Vlad could comment on that, Danny gave the man a playful punch to the arm and added, his smile growing wider, "Thanks for the save, by the way. Took you long enough!"

Looking down at Danny and his goofy, childish smile as he teased him in his usual irritating way, Vlad decided right then and there that it wasn't practical to stay refined and distant from the teen or any of the other humans. The man had been so caught up trying to keep his image and smothered in his stubbornness and pride, but now he saw it was rather useless and, quite honestly, difficult to keep going the way he was heading. It was safe to say he needed this group in not just escaping, but staying sane as well. So, with a little hesitation, Vlad put on a smile.

Turning back into his human form, the man said teasingly, "I wasn't going to help at first. Honestly, I was enjoying the show too much. But then again, I couldn't let you have all the fun."

Encouraged by Vlad's response, Danny laughed and shook his head. "That sounds about right," he agreed. "I've heard watching me get my butt kicked is really entertaining. Too bad you didn't have a video camera. You could've sold the film to the Ghost Zone's Funniest Home Videos or something."

Even though Danny was really worried about Ryder's condition, he couldn't help but smile at the fact that Vlad was acting differently. Differently in a good way. The guy had helped him and Ryder out when they really needed it, and that meant a lot to Danny, more than Vlad probably knew. He honestly felt that things would start getting better after this. He felt like their group would be whole again once Ryder came back, and that was when they'd start making their escape plans. Ironically enough, a fight had started their group's internal conflict and another fight had fixed it.

Suddenly losing her smile, Melody glanced at the door where Ryder had been carried away. Her friend was one of the only people she had and fully trusted here in the museum. To lose him would to lose everything for Melody. Though she tried to keep this emotion hidden, it was pretty obvious she was beyond worried for Ryder as she wrapped her arms around her midriff as if to keep herself together.

"I really hope he'll be okay," she said quietly.

"He'll be fine," Vlad reassured her with a flippant wave of his hand. Although he wasn't personally as sure about this statement, Vlad saw the girl needed some kind of positive response. Why else would she have stated her fears?

"I'm actually more worried about the Curator," Vlad said with a wicked grin. "He said he would keep watch over Ryder until tomorrow morning. And if I know the ghost well enough, I would say he is in for a very long, obnoxious night."

A/N: Yay for action and the dysfunctional team semi getting back together! Boo for poor Ryder getting his butt royally kicked. That guy has the worst luck...though I have to admit he brings it upon himself half the time. Ha ha! Well, I'll see your readers next week! Have a good one!