First person to correctly guess which episode this is based off of gets a cookie.
Over the course of an entire year, Dan practiced with Skulker and paid for him to create devices. With Phantom repeatedly going in and out of his parents' lab, he couldn't use any of his parents' equipment, so he had to get it recreated by Skulker, and together, they came up with a design all their own: it was a box. At first, it was a small, harmless box, but when it got close to a ghost, it expanded and captured them, completely negating their powers. During the test of the prototype, it went off and latched onto Dan, and that's how Skulker discovered that Dan was only half ghost. Luckily, the power cancelling mechanism in the box malfunctioned, so Dan was able to get out. Of course, Skulker wanted to capture him, but Dan easily subdued him with his growing powers. Under the threat of draining his core of power until he could barely cling to his after-life, they maintained their current relationship.
His junior year of school was going excellently. He hadn't failed a test since the end of freshman year. Jerry and Marie continued to be perfectly pleasant and kind people. The only thing that really annoyed him was that every now and then, he had to attend work parties-galas, more like-and occasionally some important business person would come over to the castle, and all three of them and Jerry and Marie's legal team would have to have dinner with them and their legal team. But Dan could deal with it. The galas and the dinners always had good food, and there was something that he could always look forward to afterwards.
He commissioned a ghost containment device from Skulker that he kept in his bathroom. Jerry and Marie never entered there, and all he had to do was hide the small, thermos-shaped device in one of his drawers so the cleaning staff wouldn't find it. Dan kept a number of small ghosts inside the device, and whenever he got bored or his anxiety heightened, he would bring out one of the ghosts and drain it dry. He found that he could consume ghost energy while he was still in human form, but it would force him to transform. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, but lately he's been noticing that the small ghosts weren't lasting as long in his system as they used to. Part of him wondered why, but the other part of him didn't care. That part of him was glad that he could take from bigger ghosts that would last longer inside of him.
His powers continued to improve. His duplicates got more and more powerful, and he even learned to teleport and possess people-what Skulker called overshadowing. As his powers grew, he became more known in the Ghost Zone. He had to come up with some sort of ghost name. Turns out that the majority of ghosts use names that are different than when they were alive, but Dan was half alive, so the Dan part would be fine, but what about his last name? He didn't want to use Fenton, and he didn't want to use Marie and Jerry's last name and get them haunted-well, more haunted than usual considering that they're living with a half ghost. He spent a little while brainstorming a ghost name with Skulker, who was a lot more excited about it than Dan thought he would be, though it was clear that he was trying to hide it.
"Well, I shoot plasma rays from my hands, so how about 'Plasmius'," Dan suggested, getting approval from Skulker.
Dan Plasmius. He liked it. It matched the threatening appearance of his ghost form.
Sam and Tucker hadn't contacted him in a while, though Jazz continued to text. She would call occasionally, but Dan ignored those calls and said that she just had bad timing. He always said that he was eating, in class, in the shower, et cetera, and those excuses always seemed to work. Every now and then, he would get calls from the prisons that his parents were in. He always answered them with the hope that they would each be his mother, but sometimes he was disappointed to hear his father's voice on the other end of the line. It was an irritation, but all he had to do to keep his annoyance from being heard in his voice is to drain one of the small ghosts he had while Jack was talking. Just enough to keep him calm.
Jack was on the line now, and Dan's ever-increasing irritation was rising by the second. He actually got out of the warm bath he was taking to grab a ghost from the container in the drawer, pinning the phone between his cheek and his shoulder. Jack was doing the usual, babbling on and on about ghosts and asking him if he'd seen the ghost of the Dairy King yet. Dan delivered an "Uh-huh" every now and then to make it seem like he was actually listening. Once he had gotten the ghost, Dan sunk back into the hot water of the tub with the thing trapped in his hand. "No, I haven't seen the Dairy King yet. Sorry," Dan sighed. It wasn't a lie. He hadn't seen or spoken to the Dairy King, but he had sensed a low level ghost floating around the castle. Dan didn't mind. He was only around occasionally, and he didn't bother Dan at all. He held the struggling, little ghost closer to his mouth, his heart beating faster in anticipation of the powered ectoplasm dripping into his core.
"Aw, well that's disappointing. And while ghosts are great, that's not why I called today," Jack said.
"Oh, yeah? What is it?" he wondered, his voice pleasant as he stared at the ghost wriggling in his hand.
"Your mother's and my sentences…" Jack's voice hesitated as Dan opened his mouth, his fangs readily extending when the ghost brushed his lips. "They're up tomorrow."
Dan froze, his grip on the ghost loosening instantly in his shock. He hardly noticed when the thing splashed into the water of the tub with a squeak. "Really?" he breathed.
"I know! It's exciting, isn't it?" Jack laughed. Dan couldn't even respond. "Aw, you're so excited that you can't even speak! Well, you don't have to respond right now, but we'll be seeing you soon, alright? I love you, Son!"
After a beat, the click came from Dan's phone that let him know that Jack had hung up. Dan slowly pulled the phone away from his ear and folded it closed. He put it down on the side of the large tub and sat there simply staring at the wall.
That witless oaf was being let go? His mother never deserved to be locked up in the first place, so it was good that she was being released, but that idiot should stay locked up. He could destroy the world at any moment by tripping. His entire family was in danger whenever he picked up a butter knife. Dan had to get rid of him. Despite wanting to distance himself from Jazz and Uncle Vlad, he still cared for them. He had to get rid of his father before he hurt the rest of their family.
It was easy to plan. A party to celebrate his parent's release. Since Jack thought the Dairy King was floating around this castle, it would be simple to lure them here. Then all he would have to do is overshadow Jack and make them all think he was crazy. Dan wanted to get rid of Jack, but he didn't have the heart to kill him, so he had to get him locked up permanently. A mental hospital seemed fitting. Though ghosts were a well-known thing in Amity Park, to the rest of the world, ghosts were still just a silly thing found in scary movies. If a psychiatric hospital got a hold of Jack, they would never let him go because of his endless blatherings about ghosts.
Jerry and Marie were reluctant to have Dan's parents in the castle, but Dan promised to have a social worker there. Their reluctance wasn't that they thought Dan would leave them-he was almost eighteen anyways. They just didn't want Dan to get hurt. They did eventually agree under the condition that two social workers attended the party rather than one.
Dan steadily increased his contact with Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Vlad so that he could plan the party. It wouldn't be big with just them, so Dan also invited several acquaintances from school. They would call him their friend, but Dan didn't feel that they were that close yet. He just wanted to make the party bigger to create the most witnesses possible. He wanted Jack to be seen when he overshadowed the man.
The only potential kink in this plan was that he's never actually seen Jack ghost hunt. If he was as incompetent at ghost hunting as he was everything else, it would be easy to execute his plan, but if he was better than Dan thought, he wanted to be prepared to mentally overcome him. It was likely the ghost would want to be paid, so he pulled out a stack of $100 from his drawer and shoved that into his pocket.
Dan had several pictures of his entire family, but only one was on display. He opened the back of the frame and took out the picture, staring at it for a second. For a brief moment, he felt guilty. He missed the way things were in this picture. Simple. No ghosts, a caring mother and a bumbling father, and no superpowers. But it was impossible to go back. To save the rest of his family, he had to get rid of his father.
In one quick movement, Dan tore off the corner of the photo, removing Jack's face. With the torn photo in hand, Dan transformed and took off through the ceiling. Dan teleported about halfway to Amity and then flew the rest of the way. Because he was half human, he could only teleport so far. He couldn't breathe when he teleported. Full ghosts obviously didn't have to worry about that, and Dan couldn't help but admit that he was a little jealous of that fact.
When he finally spotted Fenton Works from the sky, Dan turned invisible and kept an eye out for Phantom. The ghost clearly had some sort of obsession with Amity Park and wanted to protect it from other ghosts. Dan didn't have the time or mental energy to fight the guy right now. Especially since he had to be in and out of the Ghost Zone as quick as possible. His parents would be home and reactivate the ghost defenses any minute. Not to mention that it was almost dinner time, and he didn't want to get caught because he skipped out on dinner.
Dan phased through the walls and floor that separated him from the portal and quickly activated it. He barely waited for the doors to open before he was through them. Rapidly finding Skulker, Dan dropped down onto the island. "Who do you suggest would be a good mental competency test?" he wondered as he landed.
"Skipping the pleasantries today?" Skulker remarked as he tossed a piece of glowing meat to one of his various caged ghosts. He turned to look at Dan. "Why do you ask?"
"My father is being released from prison, and I want to overshadow him," Dan explained as the caged ghost ripped into the glowing meat. "I want to make everyone who sees him think he's crazy so that he gets locked up forever, but I want to get a reading on how mentally competent he is so that I'm prepared to overcome him."
"If your goal is to get rid of your father, why not just kill him?" Skulker suggested. "I assume he's human. Humans are easier to destroy than ghosts."
Dan didn't answer. He didn't want to seem weak in front of Skulker.
At his lack of response, Skulker shrugged. "Your dad, your reasons, I guess." He picked up another piece of glowing meat and tossed it into another cage. "There's this team of three vultures. They're not very powerful individually, but they're somewhat difficult to capture when they work together. They would work well for a test."
Dan nodded. "Where can I find them?"
After tossing another piece of meat into yet another occupied cage, Skulker put his bucket of ghost meat down and came a few steps closer to Dan. Skulker pointed up towards a landmass that was above them and a few miles out. "They usually hang around there," he said. "I don't know what their relationship is, but I think they're nesting there."
"Great. Thanks."
Skulker nodded. "Let me know how it goes!" he shouted as Dan took off again.
Dan quickly arrived at the landmass and scanned the whole thing. It wasn't long until he found a series of three nests in the trees littered with glowing, green feathers. "Hey!" a voice with a thick Russian accent shouted. "What're you doing here?"
Dan turned around to see three vultures flapping their wings as they floated. They all wore fezzes and sunglasses. Dan was curious as to why, but he shoved his curiosity down. He didn't have a lot of time. "I have a job for you," he said.
"What kind of job?" the middle vulture asked, his defined Adam's apple bobbing as he spoke.
Since he spoke first, Dan arbitrarily labeled him as number one. "There's this ghost hunter on Earth, and I want you to test him."
"Test him how?" the one on the left wondered, his buck teeth hanging over his beak.
"I'm planning to overshadow him, so I need to know how mentally capable he is," Dan clarified. "You came recommended."
The third vulture-the only one of them who wasn't wearing sunglasses-finally spoke up. "I think we can do that, but we won't be doing it free of charge."
The first vulture added, "And we need to know what he looks like. We can't go hunting without a target."
Dan pulled out the torn photograph of his father's face and held it out to them. The first vulture took the picture from his hand, holding onto it with his clawed foot. "His name is Jack Fenton," Dan further added, "and he lives in Amity Park."
"Right," the fist vulture said, lowering his foot. "And payment?"
Dan removed the stack of cash from his pocket. "You'll get half of this now, and the other half once the job is done." He cut the stack in half and offered the fifty dollars to them.
"What?" the second vulture exclaimed. "That's barely enough for a week's worth of food these days!"
Dan knew that wasn't accurate, and he didn't have time to haggle with these guys. He shrugged and put the money back into his pocket. "Never mind then. I can always get someone else." He turned around and began to leave.
"Wait, wait, wait!" the first vulture urged, getting Dan to stop where he was. "Make it $150, and we'll do it."
The increase in payment wasn't a problem, so Dan nodded and pulled the stack of fifty back out. "You'll get fifty now and the hundred when it's finished. Deal?"
The first vulture nodded. "Deal."
After a brief discussion of the date they would test Jack, Dan took off. He raced through the Zone until he went through the portal. He closed it quickly and then turned invisible. He phased through the ceilings and walls until he was outside again.
Right then and there, both a car and a taxi pulled up to the house. The car slipped into the driveway, and the taxi stopped on the street outside the house. Jazz and Vlad came out of the car, and his parents came out of the taxi.
Dan froze at seeing his mother for the first time in three years. She looked different, and it wasn't a good different. Her eyes were sad.
"Jazzy-pants!" Jack shouted as Jazz ran up to them. Jack fully embraced her, and Dan rolled his eyes.
It was almost dinner, and he didn't want to get caught. Dan concentrated briefly and teleported away.
Vlad arbitrarily glance behind him. Some part of him seemed to sense that something had vanished, but he quickly dismissed it. If it was a ghost, his ghost sense would have gone off. He looked back at Jazz, Maddie, and Jack as they reunited, silently watching. He didn't want to interrupt them.
It took a while-not that Vlad blamed them-but eventually they let go. "Hey," Jazz sniffed, wiping her eyes with her thumb. "Danny has made plans for you, us, Sam, and Tucker to see him out in Wisconsin."
"Really?" Maddie exclaimed. "That would be great!"
"Yeah?" Jazz gasped, still catching her breath from all the happy tears. "It'll be a party in the castle he lives in."
"The castle of the Dairy King himself?" Jack yelled. "Danny was enough of an incentive to go, but now there's no way I'm skipping out!"
The three of them went inside the house, and Vlad followed them, unsure if he should interrupt their happy reunion with business. They asked Jazz how college was and how Danny was doing. "College is great! Classes are fine, and my last exam went fine. As far as I know, Danny's good, too, but he told me that he likes to be called 'Dan' now."
"Dan? He never corrected me when I called him," Jack said.
"Me neither," Maddie agreed. "Why would he change his nickname?"
"Well, he's almost eighteen. It's not unusual for kids to go through changes like that close to adulthood," Jazz explained. "Sometimes they want to move on from their old lives and start new. Everything in his life changed so suddenly that his change in nickname didn't surprise me."
All four of them sat in the kitchen together and ordered pizza for dinner. They had a pleasant night together for the first time in three years. Jazz stayed the night in her old room and managed to talk her parents out of calling Danny by reminding them of how late it was. Jack and Maddie couldn't wait to get into their own bed. Vlad felt terrible, but he held them back anyways. This was too important.
"What is it, Vlad?" Maddie asked.
"It's the lab."
The three of them raced down to the lab and clicked on the light. Jack and Maddie checked everything repeatedly. "I can't remember the exact numbers, but it only appears that a couple or syringes are missing," Maddie pointed out.
"You're right," Vlad agreed.
"What's up, Vladdie?" Jack wondered. "You wouldn't have mentioned it if you didn't think it was important."
"Every now and then when I would come and check out the Ghost Zone, the portal would already be open," Vlad clarified. "And since that started, ghost activity in Amity has been increasing."
"So either there's a human in Amity that knows about the portal or a ghost figured out how to open it from the other side," Jack reasoned.
"That's possible, but…" Vlad trailed off.
"What?" Maddie wondered.
"Danny got hurt by accidentally activating your ghost portal," Vlad slowly began. "Our proto-portal accidentally activated and blasted me with ghost energy making me a half ghost, right?"
"Are you implying that Danny is a half ghost?" Maddie scoffed.
"It makes sense."
"No it doesn't. If Danny became a half ghost that day, he would have told us," Jack countered.
"Are you sure?" Vlad cautioned.
"Of course we are! We love him!" Jack insisted.
"The only thing you guys ever talked about was how much you wanted to dissect ghosts and how evil they are," Vlad reminded. "He might have been intimidated into staying silent."
Maddie waved a dismissive hand. "The portal back then was too unstable," she pointed out. "This one is much more contained. I'm sure that Danny is fine and still completely human."
The two weeks flew by. It was too risky for Dan to return to Amity and use the portal. Because of that, he couldn't get a hold of sufficient ghosts. The small ghosts he kept in his bathroom were gone. He couldn't take his mind off the anxiety that made his entire body as taut as a wire. He wasn't sure if that was because of the lack of ghost energy or the fact that he was actually inviting his father to come to the castle.
Jazz told him that they were on their way two days before the party. They were driving, so they were set to arrive the afternoon the day before it began. He had one day to prepare, and the fact that Fenton Works was now empty wouldn't leave his mind. The portal was unguarded. Dan had been feeling terribly sick the past few days, and the only thing he could think about was the world of ghosts just waiting to be drained.
Dan fetched the thermos-like device from his drawer that night and transformed. He teleported almost all the way to Amity, and when he arrived, he was about to phase through the roof when a pain in his chest made him cry out. Dan crash landed onto the roof. He laid there on his side, his chest aching. Something inside of his chest, his core, was spasming. He could barely breathe, but just as soon as the episode started, it stopped.
Dan took a relieved breath and sat up, putting a hand to his chest. "What was that?" he muttered to himself.
He caught his breath relatively quickly, and once he did, he was fine. Dan shrugged, taking a mental note to figure it out later.
Dan didn't waste any more time and dove through the roof and floors until he reached the basement lab. He opened the portal and raced inside. He hardly waited. The first ghost he found was a green-skinned, white-haired lady in a hairnet and an apron, but he hardly cared. Some sort of primal instinct was driving him, now. He was barely thinking.
He charged towards the lady, readying a pair of pink blasts in his hands. He fired one ahead of her, scaring her. She instinctively jumped and turned towards him, but when she spotted Dan racing towards her, she turned back around. Dan fired his second blast and increased his speed. The second blast made the lady hesitate, and that was all the opening Dan needed. He grabbed her and didn't wait. His teeth automatically dug into her neck, and the powered ectoplasm flowed freely into his mouth. His core swelled with the power contained inside. He would have sighed with relief if his mouth wasn't already occupied. He hardly noticed the ghost's struggles in his arms as they slowed. He drained it faster and faster, continuing to press the ghost further into him in an instinctive attempt to get more. He was pressing her close so hard that when she disappeared from existence, his hand went straight into his teeth.
Dan hissed as his fangs pierced his glove and hand. He pulled his hand away to find the small, green-leaking cut, but it healed itself as he watched. He knew he had enhanced regenerative abilities, but they were never that fast. An interesting effect.
His core was hammering, and his breath was short. He needed more.
Dan spent that entire night hunting, draining ghosts dry until he felt satisfied. Once he was finished, he used the thermos-shaped device he commissioned from Skulker to capture several smaller ghosts and then left the Zone.
Dan woke up the next morning quite late. Marie had to wake him up. Good thing it was a weekend. He hadn't drained that many ghosts in one sitting before. The results were amazing. After the initial high wore off, a calm and almost lazy feeling took him over as if he had eaten too much at Thanksgiving dinner.
Once Marie had left his room, he checked his phone. He was greeted by a series of missed calls and texts from his parents, sister, friends, and Vlad, though the calls were mostly from his parents. He arbitrarily sent a group text to them all saying that he had overslept and was about to take a shower, which was the first full truth he's said to any of them in a while.
After his shower, he got dressed, ate breakfast and then returned to his room to get the little homework he had completed, but what he found was a trio of vultures floating in his room. "What?" he demanded.
"We tried to do what you asked, but we were interrupted by an interloper," the first vulture explained.
"What interloper?" Dan spat.
"Some fancy-pants ghost man in a lab coat," the vulture clarified.
Dan sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Phantom," he muttered to himself. He looked back up at the group of ghosts with a shrug. "Sorry, but I guess you don't get the rest of your payment."
"What?" all three of them exclaimed.
"We did everything that you asked!" the first one justified. "So what if we were interfered with!"
Dan sighed in annoyance. "Well, he will be coming here today, so if you want more payment, do it tonight. But I will be reducing your payment."
The first vulture protested, pointing at Dan with one of his sharp talons. "Now, hold on a second, mister-"
Dan glared at them, deliberately extending his fangs and turning his eyes red in threat.
The first vulture faltered and dropped his complaint. "Fine," he said, his voice still sharp. "We'll stick around here."
The team of vultures turned intangible and drifted through the walls. Dan rolled his eyes and entered his room's study.
A couple of hours passed, and Dan finally completed the work he needed. And even though they were a little late, a text from Jazz dinged on his phone that said they were pulling up to the castle.
A second later, the sound of the heavy front door scraping open reached his sensitive hearing. His mother was here. Unfortunately, that also meant that Jack was here, too. But he could power through it. He just had to remember what he was going to do tomorrow night.
Dan got to his feet and slipped his phone into his pocket. He left his room and quickly ended up on the landing at the top of the stairs above the castle's foyer. He leaned forward and rested his arms on the railing as his parents, sister, two friends and Vlad entered through the doors. They were greeted by Jerry, Marie and the two social workers they informed of the event. They came in with their overnight bags, introducing themselves as they placed them on the floor. Marie turned around with her mouth open when she spotted Dan at the top of the stairs. "I was just about to call you," she said.
Dan's family and friend's looked up. At seeing him, they all smiled. Dan stood back up and went down the stairs. "It's great to see you all," he greeted.
The second that he reached the bottom of the stairs, Jazz embraced him with a suffocating hug. Dan hugged her back. "You got taller," she laughed as she backed away.
"And you filled out," Tucker noticed.
Dan chuckled. "Hey, man." The two high-fived each other.
Maddie looked to the two social workers in the room and asked, "May we give our son a hug?"
One of them nodded.
Maddie instantly took her son into her arms, and Dan readily hugged her back. He had been consumed with contempt for his father that he hardly missed his mother, but her presence opened those doors, and the calm, rested feeling that had been with him all day cracked. Once his mother let go, Jack roughly grabbed him. Dan managed to suppress an irritated growl by thinking of last night and this morning. When Jack finally released him, Dan walked up to Uncle Vlad, and the two high-fived. Vlad was always weird about hugs, not that Dan minded.
The group spent the day in the castle simply hanging out and catching up. Dan managed to keep a perfectly pleasant demeanor for the most part, but he struggled to hold onto it as time went on. After dinner, they all decided to settle down with popcorn in the theater room, but before the film started playing, Sam asked to speak to him.
Dan got up and followed her to the doorway where she stopped and turned to him. She kept her voice low but didn't hesitate to ask, "What on Earth is wrong with you?"
Dan stopped. "What?" he whispered. "Nothing. I'm fine."
"No, you're not," Sam stated. "We hardly talk anymore, and you changed your nickname. You've clearly been exercising too much, and compared to usual, Danny, you've been quiet."
"I nearly died, Sam," Dan sighed, coming up with an explanation on the fly. "You and Tucker were there when it happened. Jazz, too. My parents built the machine that nearly killed me. When I was in Amity, I could barely look at any of you without thinking of it. It hurt, Sam. I know I'm being a little awkward right now, but I can't get the accident out of my head."
Sam's tense shoulders slumped, and her eyebrows creased in sympathy. "I'm sorry, Danny-Dan. Sorry." Dan shrugged it off. "It was just such a sudden change. And you know that it wasn't your father's fault, right? He wasn't even there."
Dan nodded, straining to bite back a counter argument. "I know that, cognitively, but that doesn't change how it feels."
Sam put a hand on his shoulder. "You know you can talk to me, right?" she confirmed.
"I know."
"Okay." Sam pulled him into a gentle hug.
Dan's heart clenched as he slowly wrapped his arms around her. He wasn't sure how he should feel. He didn't regret cutting himself off from her, but now that she was here, he realized how much he had missed her.
The two broke apart after a while, and then they went back to join the others.
After the movie was over, they all went to bed. Dan's parents both gave him big hugs goodnight. The social workers were allowed to stay the night, too. Dan spent the night in anticipation, pacing his room. It wasn't till his ghost sense went off that he calmed down. The ghosts felt familiar. It was those three vultures. With a little concentration, Dan remotely located where they were within the house.
Dan morphed and turned invisible. He found the three quickly. "Hey! What gives?" the first vulture exclaimed in reaction to something that Dan couldn't see. He didn't sense any other ghost in the house except for that Dairy King. What could they be complaining about?
Another ghost intangibly popped up through the floor, one that Dan instantly recognized. Phantom. He faced the vultures and smirked. "Hi, guys. Remember me?" he said, his voice sarcastic as he slammed a fist into the palm of his other hand.
What was Phantom doing here? And why didn't Dan sense his presence? Either way, he was an anomaly that could interfere with his plan to lock Jack up. He had to subdue him.
Dan regained visibility, and the three vultures screamed in either surprise or fear. He wasn't sure which. The three ghosts all disappeared in separate directions, flying through the walls.
"Okay. That was almost too easy," Phantom muttered, lowering his fist.
"Bright ghost," Dan said, making Phantom jump and turn around.
Phantom glided slightly closer to Dan as he remarked, "Oh, well. I was aiming for the birds, but you'll do."
Dan raised an incredulous eyebrow.
Phantom threw a wild punch towards Dan, but he easily caught it. Dan threw the ghost, slamming him into the wall. The stone cracked under the sudden impact. Phantom slid down the wall, dropping onto a decorative table that sat in the hall.
"Woah, fast," the ghost breathed. "Alright. Better stop fooling around."
Phantom slowly got into a crouch and then launched himself towards Dan. Dan reached out and grabbed Phantom around the throat, holding him up to eye level. Phantom grabbed at his hand, but it didn't affect Dan. He threw the ghost down on the ground, looking down at him. Dan raised his hands in a big, dramatic shrug. "My vultures were supposed to bring the big idiot to me, but you'll do," he mocked. He crossed his arms. "Vladdie Phantom, right?"
"You...you know me?" Phantom stuttered.
Dan had to contain the damage. This wasn't technically his house, and he didn't want to destroy the place. He could only clean up so much destruction, and he didn't want the party being called off because Jerry and Marie thought there was a robber in the castle.
"Of course I know you," Dan said, intangibly backing up and phasing through the wall behind him and into the study beyond.
Of course, Phantom followed after him. Once he arrived, Dan finally got to mock him. When Dan officially discovered his powers, he couldn't believe that any ghost would use their powers the way Phantom did. "You're the ghost who uses his powers for 'good'. How quaint," Dan dismissed, rapidly approaching him. "Aren't you going to try to shove me into your ridiculous thermos?"
Phantom backed off, floating slightly below him, now. "I...I don't want to fight you," the black-haired ghost said.
"No, no you don't," Dan assured.
Dan raised his hand and sent a pink ectoplasmic ray towards Phantom, catching him in the stomach. The blast sent Phantom careening backwards. He bounced along a table and ended up crashing into one of the bookshelves, throwing several books onto the floor.
Phantom instantly got up and took off into the air. "Get away!" he shouted, sending a green ectoplasmic ray towards Dan.
Dan easily conjured a pink shield to block it. The blast crashed into the shield, leaving Dan unharmed. "Ah, a green ectoplasmic energy blast," Dan noted.
Phantom glared at him and rapidly fired a series of four blasts that each collided with Dan's shield. Dan rolled his eyes. "So low-level." For how long Phantom has been around, Dan expected him to be more powerful. Did the ghost not practice his powers at all?
Phantom looked down at his green-glowing hands. His expression was hard, but his eyes were afraid.
Looking to end the fight quickly, Dan mockingly wondered, "Tell me, ghost, can you do this yet?"
Dan produced three duplicates around Phantom, leaving him one gap which he automatically backed through. "No," he said, his voice shaking. "I can't. How are you doing all this?"
"Lots of practice," Dan and his duplicates answered, each of their hands glowing pink with readied blasts. "Which you, unfortunately, have no time for."
Dan and his duplicates each sent their blasts towards Phantom. The combined, four-way blast was so powerful that when Phantom dropped to the ground, he was smoking. Phantom looked up at him, his eyes afraid.
Phantom has been around so long that his core must contain a lot of power even if he hadn't unlocked it yet. Dan raised his hand towards Phantom, his core suddenly craving the power of the other ghost. He threw several blasts at Phantom, continuing his bombardment even after the ghost got up in an attempt to fight back. Dan easily blocked Phantom's stray, unfocused blasts and sent one last pink blast to his stomach that sent him flying backwards. The ghost managed to turn intangible at the last second to slip through the wall.
Dan followed after the ghost and found him lying on the ground, struggling to keep his eyes open. When they finally closed, a white ring appeared around his waist. The ring split in half, and each half traveled in opposite directions. When they completed their journey who was left behind wasn't Phantom.
"Ph-Phantom is…Uncle Vlad?" Dan muttered.
Dan was too late. Jack had already hurt another member of his family. Twenty years ago by the look of it. Dan hadn't revealed himself to Phantom, so he picked Vlad up and carried him to the guest room he had chosen that night. He put him in his bed and put the blankets over him. With any luck, Vlad would think that it was just a dream, though he doubted it.
Dan morphed himself back into his human form as he watched the unconscious Vlad. Why wasn't he more powerful in his ghost form? If Vlad is a half ghost like Dan, shouldn't he have the energy absorption ability, too? Not to mention that he would have had to go through a lot of pain to become this way, and it was most likely Jack's fault. Why was Vlad still friends with him? And what made him a half ghost? Dan knew that they worked on ghost devices in college together, but which one of them made Vlad like Dan?
And most importantly, why couldn't Dan sense him? Dan got closer to Vlad, concentrating on his ghost sense. The closer he got, the more a faint cold in his core grew. It wasn't powerful enough to make that old blue mist come out of his mouth at all. Either Phantom wasn't nearly as powerful as he appeared to be or Vlad's human half was interfering with his ghost sense. If the second one was the case, it was good for Dan. It meant that Vlad wouldn't sense him either.
Vlad suddenly twitched and muttered, "No." Dan immediately backed away, debating on whether he should leave or not. Another "no" came from Vlad, but it was much louder than before. "Get away!" he shouted, suddenly sitting up and throwing the blankets off. He looked around, confused. "Huh? What happened?" he wondered.
This was Dan's chance to see how much the man remembered. "I was going to ask you the same question, Uncle Vlad," he said, making Vlad jump and look at him. "I heard you down the hall."
After a beat, Vlad stuttered in answer, "I-I must have been worn out from the long car trip and had a weird dream. Sorry if I scared you, Danny-Dan."
Dan waved a dismissive hand. "What's a little scare between us, right? I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
Vlad nodded. "I'm alright. And come to think of it, should you even be in here? Wouldn't those social workers disapprove?" he pointed out.
"They're only here to make sure that my parents don't hurt me, considering what they were arrested for. You weren't involved in that, so…" Dan reminded.
"Alright, then. You should probably head back to bed."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Dan agreed. "See you in the morning."
Dan didn't wait for a response and left Vlad's room, quietly closing the door behind him. He was still unsure how much Vlad remembered, and he didn't know whose side he was on either. He didn't want to hurt Vlad, especially if he was the only other person like Dan in the world, so he would give him an ultimatum. End his friendship with Jack or be imprisoned by Skulker for the rest of his life.
Once Dan got back to the library he and Phantom had fought in, he took out his phone and dialed Skulker. It took a few rings, but eventually he did pick up. "What?" the ghost groaned. "Are half ghosts nocturnal or something? It's three in the morning."
"I might have a half ghost for you."
Skulker found his way out of the Ghost Zone and to Wisconsin fairly quickly. Dan found him looking around in the hallway near his room after breakfast. "Get in here," Dan ordered, getting Skulker's attention. "There's a pair of ghost hunters in here." He opened the door to his room. "Do you want to get captured?"
Skulker floated into Dan's room and closed the door behind him. "What did you mean last night when you said that you might have a half ghost for me?" Skulker demanded.
"He's an honorary family member, so I don't want to see him hurt," Dan explained. "We will capture him here tonight, and I will give him an ultimatum. If he makes the wrong choice, feel free to hunt and capture him. Keep him forever in a cage for all I care. Just don't kill him."
"'Honorary family member'?" Skulker repeated.
"He's a friend of my parents from their college days," Dan clarified. "They just stayed close. So do you want to hear my plan, or not?"
He and Skulker couldn't spend much time preparing due to Dan still having to hang around with his family and friends, but after a few hours, the people Dan knew from school and Jerry and Marie's galas arrived. They had all apparently invited their own people to the party, and he didn't mind. The more witnesses the better. When the sun started to set, the caterer that Jerry had insisted on arrived and began serving dinner, and music started to play, indicating that the party had officially started.
Dan mingled here and there, greeting the people he knew from school and the galas, and they introduced him to their friends, but eventually, he spotted Vlad. He was standing alone, a look of concentration contorting his face. Now was his chance.
Dan casually walked up to him. "Hey, Uncle Vlad," he greeted.
The concentration left his face, and he looked down at Dan. "Hey. Did you still manage to get to sleep last night?"
Dan nodded. "Yeah. The only problem is that I was so scatterbrained this morning that I left the present I got for my parents in my room? Can you go get it? Please?"
"Of course."
"Great!" Dan thanked. "My room is just up one flight of stairs. Turn left and it's the third door down on the right side of the hall."
Vlad nodded and walked off. Dan watched him, a thankful smile on his face in case Vlad turned around. Once Vlad turned the corner, though, the smile dropped. Dan scanned the room for his mother as some 80s song came on over the speakers. He found his mother standing with her arms crossed, her mouth pulled down in annoyance as she watched Jack jump up and down to the beat of the song.
Vlad found Dan's room quite easily. He found the door unlocked and entered, he felt somewhat guilty for entering his room when he wasn't there, but his mind wasn't really on what he was doing. He couldn't stop thinking about that ghost from last night. He kept circling back to the same few questions: Who was he? Why didn't his ghost sense go off when he got close to him, and how was he so powerful?
He had heard of a new ghost in the Ghost Zone that had gained power too rapidly to be natural. Many ghosts were afraid of him, and several other well-known ghosts like the Lunch Lady had gone missing. Vlad wondered if the incidents were related.
Vlad glanced around Dan's large room, even checked the study and closet but didn't find any gift. "Strange," he muttered to himself.
He was about to leave and tell Dan that he couldn't find it when he spotted something on the bedside table. He approached it and picked up the family picture. Why was Jack's face torn off? "Wait."
Vlad saved the picture from the other night and pulled it out of his pocket. He placed it on top of the glass where Jack's face was torn off, and sure enough, it was a perfect fit.
The picture those vultures were carrying came from this frame? Did that mean Danny ordered a ghostly hit on his own father?
A sudden heat poured into his back: his ghost sense. Vlad instantly transformed, ready to face whatever ghost was here.
"Interesting transformation," a deep voice praised.
Something struck Vlad in the back and shoved him into the wall. Vlad grunted with the impact and tried to get up. The second he attempted to move, the net shocked him, making him cry out.
He looked up to try and find the source of the net. A ghost extracted itself from the shadows. Vlad recognized the ghost, but he never personally delt with him. "Skulker?" he said. "What are you doing here?"
"What I usually do," Skulker answered. "Hunting the rare and unique."
"Well, you're not hunting me," Vlad defied, bracing for the pain.
Vlad sent out a small blast of energy that cut the net holding him. Finally released, he launched himself towards Skulker, who stepped quickly to the side. Landing on the ground, Vlad readied a green blast as Skulker tossed something towards him. Vlad glanced at the black, green-glowing box, confused. As second later, the box expanded, wrapping around him.
Vlad instantly attempted to turn intangible and phase out of the box, but nothing happened. He tried again and again, but he received the same results of nothing. He looked back up at Skulker who smirked at him and pressed a button on the wrist of his suit. Vlad screamed at the sudden burning pain as the box rocked from side to side. When the pain gratefully ended, he found himself human again.
Skulker grabbed Vlad by the hair, holding him in place. He lowered his hand near Vlad's throat, and a glowing green sword extended out of his wrist. Vlad laughed awkwardly. "Nice blade."
"You like it?" Skulker wondered. "I've had some upgrades."
Skulker brought the glowing sword ever closer to Vlad's throat, making his heart beat faster with how dangerously sharp it looked.
"Stop it!" Dan ordered as he entered the room. "I didn't ask you to kill him. Your work is done here."
"But-" Dan cut him off by holding up the $200 he asked for the use of his device and capturing service. "Fine then." Skulker retracted his sword and snatched the money from Dan's hand. "But you better keep your word."
Dan nodded as Skulker extended his mechanical wings and took off intangibly through the ceiling.
"Skulker...this box...Dan, I don't understand," Vlad said from his prone position.
"Of course not. We haven't properly spoken in-what? A year?" Dan pointed out. "And why would you suspect me at all of being that powerful ghost from last night when my human form is nowhere near that tall and not even in college yet." He approached the box that Vlad was stuck in. Thank goodness he and Skulker had perfected the design a few months ago. "I sent those vultures from last night to test my father's skills. Imagine my surprise when I find you: the first human-ghost hybrid that his foolishness created."
"Ghost from last night?" Vlad repeated.
Deciding to finally end Vlad's confusion, Dan called forth his ghost half, the black transformation rings around his waist changing his casual suit into the black and white jumpsuit of his ghost form.
Vlad glared at him. "I'm goin' ghost!" he cried, only to look around in confusion when nothing happened.
"You have a battle cry, hilarious," Dan laughed. "I assume it was Jack's idea. And to answer your unspoken question, the reason you can't 'go ghost', is this." He gestured to the box that Vlad was trapped in. "A spectral energy neutralizer that was designed by Skulker and paid for by me. As long as you're contained within that box, you're as human as my idiot father."
"Let me out!" Vlad demanded.
"Why?" Dan wondered, turning his back on Vlad. "So you can go back to stumbling through your life of superheroics with barely working powers? Powers, by the way, that I have been perfecting and training in nonstop for three full years. I know it doesn't sound like much compared to your twenty years, but" He turned back to Vlad and summoned green energy, forming a shield in front of him. "clearly, I am already more powerful than you, so obviously, there is some secret about these powers of ours that I know and you don't." Dan dropped the shield and summoned two duplicates on either side of him. "I can train you and teach you everything I know." The duplicates went back inside of him. "And all you'd have to do is renounce your friendship with my idiot father."
"Wow," Vlad breathed. "These powers have clearly turned you into what your father would call 'one seriously crazed-up Fruit Loop'. That is never going to happen."
"Yes, well," Dan sighed. "Once Jack is out of the way, we'll see how you feel."
Dan waved his hand and teleported out of the room, leaving Vlad alone with his thoughts. He was disappointed by Vlad's choice, but he didn't want to turn him over to Skulker. He saw how those creatures were kept. They were physically healthy, but their spaces were so cramped that it couldn't be enjoyable to stay there.
He shook his head to banish those thoughts as he invisibly arrived in the main room where the party was being held. He floated there, watching Jack for a moment. One of the social workers was making small talk with him, and he was clearly bored. After a moment, the social worker had had enough and demanded, "Am I boring you, Jack?"
Jack lifted up his head. "Frankly, yes."
For all his father's faults, at least he spoke his mind. And that was exactly what was going to keep him locked up.
Dan turned intangible and floated into Jack's body, his sudden entrance making the man drop his cup. Jack's consciousness struggled against him, but he was easy to subdue.
Fully in control of Jack's body, Dan said, straining to keep his amused anticipation out of his voice, "So what do you say we liven up this shindig?"
"What?" the social worker wondered.
Dan picked her up and threw her across the room. She crashed into the punch table, tipping it over. Dan's ghostly strength was influencing the situation, but Jack was stronger than he looked.
"Jack!" an easily recognizable voice scolded. "What's the matter with you?"
Dan turned around. "Why Maddie didn't you know I'd turn on you? That I'm a danger to all of you?"
A sudden surge in Jack's consciousness threw him off. Jack managed to fight past Dan and take control again. He grabbed Maddie's shoulders and whispered to her, the strain of the mental battle clearly heard in his voice. "Ghost. Overpowering me. Run." Finally shoving Jack's mind back down, Dan took back control, but the struggle between them caused Dan's ghostly aura to expand around Jack as he managed to deliver one last, "Run!" as they began to float in the air.
Dan didn't care what he had to do. He just had to make Jack look like he was a danger to himself and others. He threw tables, made people scatter. He couldn't deny that he was enjoying it, but he still didn't want to actually hurt anyone, so he never targeted people. He just made it look like he was by throwing various things-tables, chairs, plates, food-near them. "If you live to tell the tale remember to say that big, old, fat, Jack Fenton did this to you!" he shouted.
"Guess again little boy!" Vlad's voice countered.
Dan looked towards the source and found Vlad in ghost form racing towards him. He turned intangible at the last second and plunged through Jack's body. Vlad somehow latched onto Dan's ghost form and pushed him out of Jack's body. The pair of them remained intangible and went through the nearby wall and into one of the living rooms. Jack's final declaration managed to reach Dan's sensitive hearing: "Nobody uses Jack Fenton as a human meat puppet!"
Dan would have laughed if he wasn't so preoccupied. When the two broke apart, Vlad threw a punch at Dan who drifted upwards to dodge it. He dropped down on Vlad's other side and delivered a hard kick to his back, throwing him away.
"Vlad, stop," Dan ordered. "Think about the things I could show you, the doors I could open for you. You, Vladdie Phantom, and I, Dan Plasmius. Together we could do anything."
"Forget it, Danny," Vlad snapped. "You've changed too much. At this point, not even the money of your rich, adoptive parents could convince any of us to be on your side." Vlad threw two twin blasts of green energy towards Dan, as if emphasizing his point.
Dan stretched out his hand and caught the energy, temporarily passing it through his core. His core trembled as it passed, wanting to hang onto the energy, but he didn't let it stay. He passed the energy to his other hand and returned it towards Vlad, who conjured a green dome around him that blocked the blast.
"I know who you are," Vlad reminded. "I'll tell you mother. I'll tell everyone."
"And so will I," Dan shrugged. "Honestly, Vlad, if you expose me, you expose yourself."
A honking sounded, and a second later, the Fenton Family RV crashed through the wall. Vlad managed to jump out of the way, and Dan glided upwards, landing on top of the vehicle. Before he dodged, Dan saw that Jack was the one driving with his mother next to him. He couldn't believe that that oaf would deliberately drive through a wall, putting his mother's life in danger.
"Mind if I borrow you?" he mockingly wondered, intangibly reaching through the RV's roof and grabbing his mother by the arms.
He pulled her out of there and kept her close. His ghost form looked plenty more adult than his human form, so he was aware of how it looked, but he would do anything to get her away from Jack's mistakes. "Let go of me!" she protested, struggling against him with a hardened glare.
"Never again," he breathed.
Jack burst from the RV, shouting, "Maddie!" He raced towards Dan, but he was too high up to reach.
The RV suddenly activated and pulled a U-turn and charged towards Dan, too. "Jack! Look out!" his mother warned. "The RV!"
Jack jumped out of the way just in time, much to Dan's disappointment. Injury wasn't the way he wanted to lock Jack up, but it would still do.
When the RV stopped, its turret rose from the roof. A green energy beam shot towards Dan, but with a wave of his hand, he caught the beam and absorbed it into his core. After that failed, a ray of green lightning was shot next. Dan simply turned intangible to avoid it. He couldn't see anyone in the driver's seat. The only person in the vehicle was that social worker who was bracing herself against the door on her side. Vlad must be the one firing at him.
The next thing shot was unexpected. When the glowing, green goop hit him, he couldn't phase through it. The force of the blast shoved him backwards, making him drop his mother. When he landed on the floor, he tried to pull himself out of the stuff, but it was as thick and clingy as tar. When he looked over at the RV, he found Jack holding his mother. "Jack! You did it!" she exclaimed.
"It was nothing, Maddie," he dismissed. He put her down and instructed, "You make sure Henrietta's okay while I finish this."
Maddie ran off towards the RV, and Jack marched up to Dan, still stuck in the goo. Jack grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up and out of the goop. "How's it going, Danny?" he wondered.
Dan laughed sardonically. "You overshadowed Jack. Oh, I'm so scared. Now, what's next? A card trick?"
"Listen to me," Vlad warned. "I swear that I will walk out of Jack right now and expose us both unless you agree to a truce."
"You're bluffing," Dan challenged.
"No, I'm not," Vlad insisted, pulling Dan closer in threat. "Jack and Maddie will accept me. No matter what you think. But if I expose you, well…" He laughed lightly, "what will you mom think of you?"
Dan couldn't help but grimace at the thought of what his ghost-hating mother might think of him.
Vlad put Dan down. "You'll be miserable without your friends of family, and you will never have them back unless you agree to a truce."
"Using your opponent's weaknesses against him. I guess I am teaching you something, aren't I," Dan pointed out. "Very well. Truce. Eventually, you will join me by choice. You and my mother. But for now…" Dan cleared his throat and then jumped dramatically into the air, shouting, "Curse you, Jack Fenton! Your world-renowned expertise of all things ghost has defeated me! Until next time."
Dan then teleported slowly away, making it appear that he dissolved. He reappeared in the bathroom near the main part of the party. He morphed back into his human form and exited.
"Dan!" two voices shouted. Dan easily recognized them as Jerry and Marie. He was then squished into two simultaneous hugs.
"We were so worried about you!" Marie explained, the two of them finally releasing him.
"Was it really a ghost?" Jerry wondered.
Dan shrugged. "Maybe. Ghosts are really common in Amity Park, but I didn't think they came here."
"Really? Jerry exclaimed. "We're haunted?" He glanced around him in fear, looking as if he thought the very walls of the castle were possessed.
"We can't be. Ghosts can't be real," Marie countered.
Another two voices called for Dan, and he turned in response, finding Sam and Tucker racing towards him. "Did you see that?" Sam wondered.
"I didn't think ghosts were around here," Tucker added.
The two social workers entered the room in a heated argument, and Jack and Maddie followed. Dan battled hard to keep his disgust at their hand holding from being shown on his face.
Eventually, they reached the group, Jack extracted himself from Maddie and walked up to Jerry and Marie. "I, uh..I'm sorry for tonight. A ghost overshadowed me, and had control of my body. Either way, I'm still very sorry."
"In all honesty, I'm not sure if I should accept your apology," Marie said. "I'm not sure I believe in ghosts."
"Well, we're both professional ghost hunters," Maddie chimed in. "We can assure you that they are very real."
Marie simply nodded. "If it's all the same to you, though, I would like to ask you to please, leave our house."
Jack nodded. "We understand. We'll pack our things."