Vlad Masters, dressed in a crisp pristine white lab coat and surgical mask, bustles around his secret laboratory in his castle's basement checking various dials and gages. His ghost portal, looking like nothing so much as the worlds largest metric nut sitting on end, remains tightly shut, and a familiar figure with upswept bright red hair lies strapped down to a table. Penelope Spectra fidgets impatiently underneath her bonds, randomly shifting between her human-appearing form and her black spectral form and back again, without any apparent thought, or control, on her part. Vlad turns to regard her with an impassively curious glance.
"You know, this will most likely be quite painful," he remarks matter-of-factly to her.
Spectra grimaces, and shoots back "I don't care. It will be well worth it! Let's get this over with."
A slightly malevolent grin spreads across Vlad's narrow features, "Ahhh, that's the spirit!" Vlad turns to face his instruments again, and begins to flip switches and turn dials. Machinery and electronics begin to hum as they power up. Just as Vlad throws the final switch, the doors to his ghost portal pop open unexpectedly, and a familiar blue figure pokes his head through.
"I am the Box Ghost!..." shouts the new arrival. An electrical crackle from the control panel next to Spectra's bed interrupts his signature cry, then the whole assembly seems to explode in a soundless fury of colors, bathing the room and everyone in it temporarily with a kaleidoscopic glow. As the glow fades, each person's reaction is different: Spectra finally seems to be cemented into reality, no longer shifting away from a human form, Vlad looks as if he had suddenly had a thousand different emotions hit him all at once, and the Box Ghost stares apathetically at the once again dim room, "...who cares?"
An unseen observer watched the whole scene unfold, and having satisfied himself that everything happened the way it should turns his attention to more pressing matters. Clockwork turned away from his time-view portal just as the image of the Box Ghost's head disappearing back into the ghost zone fades away and gazes down contemplatively at the much dented white and green thermos in his hands. As many dents as the thermos already had, Clockwork knew it wouldn't be able to restrain its contents for too much longer.
"Everything is proceeding according to plan." he remarks, partly to himself, partly directed at the thermos. "You needn't wait much longer." Almost as if in response, another dent appears in the abused thermos' side. Clockwork turns to gaze at the now dark portal, "Yes, not much longer at all."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two days later finds the Fenton RV making its way up the long driveway to the elegant castle owned by Vlad (former home of the legendary Dairy King, don'tcha know!). Danny and Jazz sit together in the back, quietly discussing what they might expect from this most dangerous of Danny's foes.
Danny smiles semi-confidently at Jazz as he tucks a Fenton thermos away into his backpack, "Ok, we have everything we could possibly need, and we're ready for anything." he remarks quietly to her as they climb out. His grin fades to confusion, however, at the sudden shout "HEADS UP!"
A football drops neatly into a startled Jack's hands, and moments later he's bowled clean off his feet...by Vlad!
"Anything..." Danny stammers to an equally shocked Jazz, "but that."