Wisconsin: 11:00pm (2300)
The massive mansion of the late Wisconsin Dairy King looked more like something out of a fast-food joint's lousy attempt at marketing to kids. But in the dark autumn night, it appeared like something out of a Romanian horror movie with Vlad Masters as Count Dracula. The cold rain from southern Canada moved in an hour ago and brought with it a heavy thunderstorm, along with the perfect blanket of cover for Sam and Tucker to close in toward the back of the mansion. The wet grass soon led to mud and, thankfully, for Sam, her goth combat boots gave her an advantage of not sinking into it, unlike Tucker and his sneakers.
"Why rain?!" Tucker exclaims in agony. "I haven't invested in anything waterproof!"
"Tucker!" Sam scolds him. "Danny should have the back door unlocked for us. Once we get inside, your sweet geek stuff will be fine." Sam, like any respectable Goth, adored the rain more than anything. But she was still human, and the constant tapping of rain on your back triggered the primal instincts to find shelter.
They reach the door, and to Tucker's dismay, the door was still locked as the storm began to pick up its pace.
"Clueless, This is Goth; come in," Sam calls Danny over the Fenton Phones.
"Why am I clueless again?" Danny replies.
"Why isn't the door unlocked? How about that?" Sam snaps.
"I thought you loved the rain?" Danny jokes.
"I do when I have an umbrella!"
Danny laughs as the clicking of the lock brightens Tucker's soul as he pushes Sam through the door, nearly trampolining her. Danny catches them both and phases them through the floor to the bottom floor near Vlad's lab. He sets them down gently before returning upstairs to cover their tracks. Once he returns, he quickly hushes them, and they move deeper into the underground lab of his archenemy. From what Tucker and Danny could tell, they were in a chemistry lab where Vlad would work on different concoctions for serums. The beakers and burners made it obvious.
"You sure about this, Danny?" Tucker asks him as they exit the chemistry lab and head down a stairway going deeper into the lab. "We're in the wolf's den..."
"The only way we can be sure Ember isn't lying is to check," Sam says firmly.
"And to find out if Vlad put out a hit on her," Danny interjects. "And if so, then why and who?"
"Right. So break into Vlad's lab and download everything he has." Tucker says at the end of the stairs, and a long hallway begins. "So simple."
"It's not like Vlad was expecting us to barge right up to his front door." Sam remarks on the almost nonexistent security.
"He's so sure of himself," Danny says with disgust at Vlad's arrogance.
The hallways begin to expand, and the voices of two people echo through the stainless steel laboratory walls. Once they reached the end, they saw a cluster of machines, computers, and processors surrounding a massive ghost portal in full operation with the green glow of the ghost zone in its center.
"Status on Expedition 027," Vlad orders his AI Computer system to report.
"027 is en route toward the portal honey, ETA 5 minutes." The AI replies, unnerving Danny as he recognizes the voice of that his mother, Maddie.
"Status on Drone 264."
"Drone 264 is circling-"
A large man with burning green hair steps through the portal. Duffel bag in his right hand and large framed pistol in the other. Skulker, The self-declared greatest hunter in all of the Ghost Zone, keeps a concerned look on his face as he throws the duffel at Masters's feet.
"All I found at the ruins was this Duffel, the bike, and this," Skulker says, throwing Vlad the pistol. "I don't want anything of his in my collection."
"Afraid of a little bad omen?" Vlad replies as he hands the pistol to a nearby robotic arm. "Send it to the smelter to be melted. He won't be needing this anymore."
"I'd rather not be the one he comes for when he turns up," Skulker replies as he checks his database.
"If he found what I believe he did," Vlad explains. "Then he will be there and will never return to this world. Now the question is how did he get there."
"The Elseawarness isn't just another world like my realm or others that you may stumble on," Skulker adds, getting closer to Vlad until they are face to face. "It finds you, and no matter how hard you try, how many ghosts and Drone you send, and all the money in the world, you amass. You will never find it, Plasmius."
"I beg to differ, Skulker," Vlad replies darkly. "I will find it, and if I don't, I will make my right here on Earth, and I will rule it like the King I am destined to be."
He raises his hand and presses it against Skulker's chest. "You're payment will be provided by Drone. Prototype EMP weaponry curtsy of my newly acquired company's skunkworks, Axion Labs. Do try it out against Danial and his friends when you have the chance. It should be evening the odds." Once he finished, he pushed Skulker into the Ghost Zone and turned off the portal. He lets out a long sigh and turns to the holographic Maddie Fenton.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" She asks him.
"Nothing, my dear." He says, changing back into regular Vlad Masters. "Only wondering if my search for this 'New World' will bear fruit. But for now, I must focus on other endeavors."
The hologram hugs him and opens her eyes over his shoulder to see the trio hiding in the shadows. "Hi, Sweetie!" She exclaims, waving.
Vlad turns around to see them as well and quickly transforms back into his ghostly form. He lets out a burst of ecto-energy at the trio, scattering them like cockroaches. "Breaking in, Danial?" Vlad yells to him.
"I shut the door before I came in. I wasn't raised in a barn, you know!" Danny replies as he fires back at Vlad with a burst of his own. Vlad counters and closes in for close-quarters combat, throwing punches and kicks. Sam and Tucker slip by to the closest doorway toward Vlad's Supercomputer.
Vlad throws hard ectoplasmic infused punches at Danny's stomach and faces throwing him into the lab walls. But before Vlad could give the killing blows, Danny phases through the walls and the ceiling into the main floor of the manor. Vlad follows and quickly begins a blistering assault on Danny, giving him no time to recover.
"You might as well be with your idiot Father raising you!" He shouts as he overshot his latest punch allowing Danny to use his momentum against him and throw him through the back door into the mud outside.
"I don't have time for this Plasmius!" Danny shouts as he phases through the door to meet Vlad. "What was that about with Skulker?"
"I could ask you the same thing, Danial." He replies. "What brought you here to my home? Are you here to finally renounce Jack?"
"I came here to find out what happened to Ember Mclain," Danny says as he charges his energy beams. "The only person I know that would outright kill someone would be you."
"Outright?" Vlad laughs. "No. I kill who I have to. And for Ember? No, she was a pawn, yes, but not a loose end."
"I don't believe you, Plasmius," Danny says, firing at him. Vlad dodges the attack and throws mud in Danny's face to blind him.
"You know I wouldn't do the dirty work myself. A king never has to lift a finger when he has soldiers to do his bidding." Vlad responds as he fires back at Danny, throwing him into the mud. "But Ms. Mclain isn't someone I would waste my resources on. She's nothing but a welp like the rest of those second-rate ghosts you call 'enemies'."
"You had someone leave her for dead in the ghost zone with six slugs of iron in her stomach!" Danny shouts as he fires back at him with more energy beams.
"Iron? Left for dead?" Vlad questions as he throws up an energy shield. "Such crude forms of Alchemy. As for leaving her for dead, there is only one person I know who would, and he is no longer with us."
"WHO?" Danny shouts as he runs toward him.
"It doesn't matter, Danial," Vlad replies, phasing through Danny. "What matters is where he went and what he found when he got there."
"How do I know you are not lying?" Danny shouts as he shoots him in the legs with his ice powers, freezing him to the mud. "You've lied to get your fortune, Lied to get your power, and lied to the world about who you are. Who should I believe you?"
"Because Danial," Vlad explains. "The only person I would outright kill would be your Father."
Vlad fires a powerful blast throwing Danny through the back door, sending him skating across the floor. Vlad quickly phases through the ice and, with breakneck speed, flies over and phases him and Danny through the floor back to the lab. Danny was drained from the brutal attack and tried to get to his feet as Vlad activated his ghost portal.
"Unlike the dirty mercenary who you're looking for, I didn't attempt to kill Ember," Vlad explains as he types on a computer. "Which is rare for him. Usually, he kills without discrimination. Unlike him, I kill with discrimination, and Jack is one of those people I would enjoy killing for what he did to me. But I won't simply kill him, Danial."
The portal opened, revealing the dark green swirling vortex leading to the ghost zone. "No, I don't want to kill him. I want to make him suffer. I want to take everything he gained over the last 20 years. I want the life he took from me. That Danial is what I want. I want to take his wife, his life, and I want to turn you against him. And once I do that, he will beg for me to put him out of his misery. The very misery I went through when he gave me the worse case of ecto acne ever recorded. Now ask yourself this, Danial, Why would I kill a wannabee pop star? Pure hatred? No. I would rather keep the ghosts alive and living in fear of my wrath. Remember, you can win loyal through trust or fear."
"You're a fucking lunatic." Danny curses at him.
Vlad smirks and takes Danny by the collar. "This grid point I selected leads toward the edge of the Ghost Zone toward a little place I like to call 'Valley of Horror.' If I remember correctly, you haven't mapped the Ghost Zone out completely. A well-deserved punishment for breaking, don't you think?"
A large beam of energy throws Vlad into the portal, and it closes quickly. In the darkness, he could see the smirk of Sam and Tucker tapping on his PDA. "You ok?" She asks him.
"Thanks," Danny replies as he looks over to see the Maddie AI standing by the portal. "And thanks, Mom."
"I hacked his system and the AI while you two were fighting," Tucker replies.
"Ugh, wish you had hit him with that thing before," Danny says, grabbing his side.
"Better late than never, right?" Sam replied as she helped carry him to the Supercomputer.
Tucker ordered the AI to open any files they saw as essential and found nothing current on contracting Ember. As for the Identity of the mercenary who nearly killed her... All that was found was a note with one word on it: Loose end.
"No pictures. No description. Nothing. The guy is a ghost in more than one sense of the word." Tucker remarks as he searches through the files.
"Vlad asked about a Drone. 264 maybe?" Danny remembers. "Check on the status of that any and any other. Skulker and Vlad mentioned something about something called the 'Elseawareness' and some kind of ruins."
Tucker types into the keyboard for Drones and finds 8 of them. With only two with live feeds. One was circling over a large wooded area and another over some ruins somewhere in the ghost zone.
"Look! It's Johnny's bike!" Sam points out.
"Weird," Danny remarks. "Johnny wouldn't be caught dead without it. He's practically married to it. See if you can get a better look at the site.
Tucker zooms into the area around the bike to see a small fire set up with a sleeping mat. It was a small camp that looked like it had been abandoned for some time. The ruins appeared to be something out of Ancient Rome with large columns of marble and large limestone buildings.
"I don't recognize this place," Danny says. "Move the camera around to see if there is anything we can use as a reference."
As soon as Danny finished his sentence, something cut the feed, and the status of the Drone was Red.
"It's gone, Danny," Tucker tells him as a green blip shows up on his PDA. "Download completed. I got whatever free files."
"We need to get out of here. Who knows if Vlad has a way to get back here." Danny replies, phasing his friends through the ceiling and taking them back home.
Amity Park: 7:00 am
Ember sits on the roof of the Fenton Works, enjoying the sight of Autumn taking over the city. She lays back and gazes up at the beautiful blue skies. It was peaceful, and that's something she wanted deep down inside, Some peace in her life.
"Hello?" Jazz's voice echoed from inside the Fenton command center. "Hi, Danny. Did you find anything at Vlad's?"
Ember's ears perk up, and she listens intently when the name of Vlad comes out of Jazz's lips.
"Here, let me put you on speaker. I'm trying to clean up around here." Jazz says as she puts her phone on speaker.
"As I was saying," Danny replies. "I found some info on who hurt Ember. She was telling the truth. It wasn't Vlad, and she hasn't worked with him since she first showed up here."
"Wow, you were right for the first time in your life." Jazz says sarcastically.
'Thank you, babypop, for believing me.' Ember thought to herself with a smile.
"What about the guy who left her out there?" Jazz says as she cleans some equipment.
"No name or face. Just some Mercenary that no one, even Skulker, didn't want to talk about him. Must be a bad guy, an evil guy." Danny replies as Jazz cleans. "We found Johnny's bike. When Ember is better, we'll grab it and give it back to Johnny. Speaking of her, how is she?"
"She's alright." Jazz replies. "Mostly sleeping. She's better than before, but not 100%. Danny, what are you going to do with her now that you found this out? You going to go forward with the plan?"
'Plan?' Ember asks herself with concern.
"I don't know," Danny replies, unsure of himself. "I'm having mixed feelings about it. It doesn't feel right to use her condition to make a friend."
"Would you rather have her trying to hurt you? I wouldn't." Jazz replies flatly. "The Damsel in distress card won't come up again."
"True. I don't know." Danny says with a sigh. "I'll talk with her when I get there."
'Damsel in distress? Plan?' Ember thinks to herself, with her angry slowly building.
"I'm just a pawn, right?" Ember says out loud as she reappears in front of Jazz.
Jazz screams and falls to the ground. "Is that right, PHANTOM?! Is that right, RED?" Ember shouts at her and the phone.
"Ember, wait!" Danny shouts over the phone. Ember shoots the phone with her energy beams. Jazz reached behind her back, but there wasn't anything there. She left the Ecto pistol in her room. She curses herself as Ember closes in on her.
"What was the plan?!" Ember demands, powering up her energy blasts and her hair turning into a furious firestorm. "You going to make me into a pawn like Plasimius tried to do? Are you going to put me in that box of his and torture me till I break? TOUGH LUCK!"
"No! It's not what you think!" Jazz shouts as she tries to crawl away.
"I'm just some kind of loser that you can build up just to break down, huh?" Ember shouts as tears begin to bubble on her face. "Huh!? ANSWER ME!"
"Ember, no! It's not like that! We're trying to help you! We're your friends!" Jazz shouts back. But Ember doesn't listen.
Jazz crawls until she bumps into a control panel and knocks a calendar into her lap. Ember looks down at it to see the date, September 1st. The pop star stops, and her energy beams dissipate.
Tears begin to stream down her face, and her hair returns to normal. Jazz sits frozen with shock as Ember cries in front of her. "Ember?" She asks her in a whisper.
"Ember? Are you?..."
"I'm going home..." Ember replies as she slowly levitates out of the Command Center.
Danny returns an hour later with an expression of fear at the fate of his sister. He finds her in the same spot she was when Ember flew away. She explains everything to him and the others quickly. When he asked where she went, he simply told her what Ember had told her.
"She's going home." Jazz says quietly with some confusion. "The ghost zone, I guess. Shouldn't be hard to find her then."
Sam looks over at the calendar at its date and month, then turns to Danny. "You know her song, Remember, right?" Sam asks him.
"How could I forget it?" He replies, remembering Tucker's awful singing.
"What was the first line after the intro?" She asks him.
" "It was; it was September," I think." Danny recites from memory. "What does that have to do with this?"
"It's September 1st, the beginning of Autumn. Her song is odiously a breakup song and today has to be something important for her to just storm off like that." Sam explains. "She isn't like Nocturne or any of those other ghosts. She's used to be us, flesh and blood human. So she used to have a home, now where is home?"
"Centralia..." Danny says as the realization hits him like an oncoming train. "We have to get her back..."