Ghost in the Shell
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Madam Chaos Shadow
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Notes :
I was babysitting when Identity Crisis came on. I disguised my insane love for Danny Phantom (kindled, naturally, by The Ultimate Enemy) by putting Nick on about an hour too early. Thankfully, my plot worked – the end of Catscratch came on, and then the little kids came out about the time Avatar came on. We waited a half an hour, and naturally Avatar flowed into Danny Phantom.
I realized that they're as insane as I am.
When Danny tried (and rather badly failed) at multiplying himself, I mentioned that he could do it Reign Storm. Oliver (the elder of the two) countered that the suit multiplied his power; I countered that the suit had been drained considerably and would not have much of an affect on that. During the theme song, I mentioned that it was the most brilliant plan in the world to walk into a dangerous electronic machine while it was plugged in – he then began discussing with me the intangible nature of ghosts and how ghosts didn't have molecules or a DNA structure to fuse with humans.
And then we giggled a lot, because this was undeniably the weirdest, most giggle-worthy episode I've seen. Reminded me rather too much of what happened in the old Darkwing Duck episode Negaduck, though, when Darkwing's positrons and negatrons are separated and result in the darker half of his personality (Negaduck) rampaging while the nicer half of his personality (Drake Mallard) became infatuated with helping bunnies. It also didn't follow with either 'What you Want' or 'The Ultimate Enemy', both of which I'm using as a springboard for my own theory, which was disappointing. My final conclusion was that somehow, this episode was either out of canon (according to it was supposed to come after Reign Storm, but before The Ultimate Enemy by the nature of the next episode, The Fenton Menace, I assume that's meant to come after TUE, but Danny is unable to duplicate himself, and Technus was still trapped in the Doomed game here, whereas he was free during Reign Storm to... Um... Exist – I don't remember what he actually did during Reign Storm, but I've been assured he was there).
I'm going to wind up writing a fic in protest to it, just watch; I actually had a dream in protest to Identity Crisis last night (and... Um... Then it went into 'Grand Theft Auto: Danny Phantom', which was really bizarre), so writing a fic isn't beyond my scope (for clearly, my story prompts are always my sugar-high dreams).
I'm still not sure when any of the episodes of DP take place – apparently, there was one sometime in April, but after that there were references to September, and now it's summer... Ugh. My head hurts.
The fact that the little kids (Oliver, at least; his brother was asleep at the time) looked up the instant I pointed and yelled "LookitTheUltimateEnemy!" warms my heart. This makes five and a half times now for me. And they're showing it on TurboNick, which means I'll wind up watching it on my computer at, like, three in the morning later on. I'm such a dweeb.
End Stream of Consciousness Ranting.
Crystal Remnant : You don't get it? Neither do I. But it filled the 'angst' quota in Creative Writing (apparently, it also got me fans in that class, which is wonderful, except they don't know that I wrote it) and it works when I apply it to other things. Because literal ambiguity is good.
Lessien Sharpwind : You have no idea how happy that makes me. There is a Delaware, isn't there? Well, I feel okay making fun of other states: I live in the oldest city in Florida. By old, I mean eighty percent of the population is retired.
Faith's Melody : Ugh, I've seen some o' them fics. I have this compulsive need to be able to hear the character speaking. Of course, in this chapter, I think I utterly destroyed Vlad (inadvertently, but it's pretty sad when I can't even tell if I did) so I'm not one to talk...
purrbaby101 : Yeah, we all know who lives in Wisconsin. Few enough people live there that you can hazard a guess without much trouble. Of course I'm speaking of the Packers!
Zavier Starwood : It does make more sense if he's dead, but that's difficult to work with (I'd like to work with that concept one of these days, though... But I'll probably forget before I do). I do understand why the Ghost Zone is so very, very green, but ectoplasmic energy is also represented in several different colours throughout the show (green, red, and blue come to mind, but I know there's a fourth one I'm forgetting) so why not have it more colourful and not so very, very green? Hmm.
The Halfa Wannabe : I finally noticed Kwan up there the... Fifth time I saw the opening. Didn't register the other four. Made me laugh hysterically and point it out to the little kids. They stared at me and wondered what was wrong with me. They'll never know. I don't even know. I think it's because I take Latin that I'm insane. Or I'm insane and therefore I take Latin, which only made it worse... Bah, I don't know.
Krin : Ah, I did take the Vital Information out of my bio, didn't I? Go me. For the record, I'm sixteen (just a month over, actually, my birthday is August 15th), and I always refer to myself as a sad little person/monkey. My friends are all sad little monkeys, too. And we have fun being sad little monkeys. And throwing paper airplanes at people (it's really sad when you're knocked down by those). Yay for being pathetic!
dArkliTe-sPirit : I'm setting up my smoke alarms, I'm just waiting for them to go off... I can't keep up this pace and still be decent. Especially when I get around to introducing the plot. (Plot? Woah, what a concept).
So said (for far too long), welcome to Wisconsin.
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C H A P T E R : T W O
: T H E - W I S C O N S I N - G H O S T :
Vlad Masters was very upset.
He didn't seem the kind of man to have anything to be particularly upset about – he was a multi-billionaire, a tall and well-kept and attractive man who had everything in life going for him – yet he seemed quite beside himself with fury by the time he got down to his basement that day. Any spectator of his great mansion would not understand why; his wealth had brought him everything he could hope for barring the acquisition of his favourite football team, the Green Bay Packers, and the greatest love of his life, a woman now known as Maddie Fenton. It was understandable, of course, that he was always bitter with the knowledge that his greatest love had married the greatest oaf of a man that Vlad had ever had the misfortune of knowing, a horrid buffoon named Jack Fenton, but even with that fact constantly living beside him he was a most gracious host, very rarely letting this old rivalry get to him.
Those who knew Vlad extremely well, however, would understand the source of his rage on that fine, early Saturday afternoon in Wisconsin.
"GET BACK!"
The Plasma Whip came down hard on the amorphous head of the ecto-puss, and with a screech the ectoplasmic entity skittered back from whenceit came, a whimper seeming to emanate from its throat. Vlad's cold, medium blue eyes scanned the area around him, the whip crackling with energy and emitting the occasional smart snap as he cracked it, trying to force any other ghost still hiding within his laboratory out of his house and back into the stupid, shiny green portal.
"I have no desire to come after you," Vlad murmured slowly, his eyes settling finally upon the form of a small puppy-like ghost cowering under a table. "I merely wish you"- he took a step forward -"to go back through the Portal"- another step -"and leave me BE!"
The whip came down next to the dog, and with a yelp the puppy leapt from under the table, coming to Vlad's feet and snarling. All at once, he grew enormous, a ravening hound with teeth about the side of the mans' upper arm. Vlad cast aside the whip, allowing the weapon to skitter across the floor before coming to a stop against the far wall, and he stared down the dog immediately.
"Please. Back in the Portal."
A sharp snapping bite just short of his nose greeted his kind suggestion.
"Very well. I was rather hoping we could do this the easy way, but apparently you won't cooperate." A flash of black light formed from the man's waist, encompassing him in the negative glow and replacing his stately, dignified form with a curious ghostly manifestation of himself; much more muscular in comparison to Vlad's slight frame, calculating red eyes replacing his almost inviting blue, skin of a surreal blue-tinted glow, vampiric fangs revealed in a dark smile.
The dog pulled back, blinking a few times, and allowed another growl to escape him. Vlad Plasmius looked levelly at the canine, and, hardly moving, swept his hand to the side. A thin strip of green followed his path, climaxing as it slammed into the enlarged dog. The dog reverted to his puppy form and when flying through the open portal at the opposite side of the room.
"Bad dog," Vlad scolded sharply. "Very bad... Hello?"
Somethingpurplehad just emerged from the portal. It shook its enormous head and roared, and Vlad could see that a huge ghost dragon of some sort was attempting to push its way through the portal. Feeling somewhat perturbed, he acted to make sure that it would neither manage to push all the way through or, heaven forbid, get itself stuck in the portal tunnel! That would be quite the embarrassment.
The Plasma Brand – a long, thing cattle brand marked with an intricate 'VP' on the end, channeled with ghost energy to ignite the letters and allow them to brand into the ectoplasmic skin of the ghost – came to his hand, and with a single thrust it slammed against the forehead of the dragon. The beast roared and fell back, and Vlad glowered darkly at the portal, summoning the whip to his other hand and standing before the entrance, both weapons at the ready for the next entity that would slip out of the Plasmius Portal.
Vlad, awaiting the next spectral limb to emerge from the ghostly portal and preparing himself to sever said limb from its owner's body, had to admit to himself that he had no clue what was going on.
A Saturday was usually spent in the den, surrounded by the gold and green of the Packers memorabilia that littered the walls, all of it kept behind thick glass casings so that the sanctity of his massive collection would not be interrupted by the common guest; interrupted, nay, defiled by the merest glancing touch, lost forever if so much breathed upon by those unworthy to bask in the glory of his team.
The team that should have literally been his, anyhow.
It mattered not. Saturday was spent in the den, surrounded by these vicarious trophies, reading whatever literature came to him (usually starting with the paper, as he did every day, and moving on to the more interesting books) or, sometimes, taking himself to his lesser known hobby of knitting. On occasion, he would take it upon himself to procure a sheaf of paper and a fine ballpoint pen and begin crafting elaborate schemes or doing mathematical work on the machine he had been attempting to construct the prior day. Of late, his occupation had turned more to plotting than anything else; ever since he had personally met Daniel on the rogue trip that the insipid fool Jack had taken to visit Vlad's mansion for a high-school reunion, Vlad had known that young Daniel Fenton – known at first from the reports of his ghosts by the name of young master Daniel Phantom (although the crude manner of his reconnaissance ghosts tended to leave a large part of the boy's proper title behind, and instead shortened his proper praenomen to Danny) – must come under his control, must be given his instruction, his tutelage in order to fully realize the powers the young phantom had at his disposal.
And so Vlad set himself to try and find ways to force Daniel over to him, to come under his wing. Thus far, his attempt had failed; his first and most direct approach had failed when he had merely requested of the boy to join him, and his subsequent attempts – ranging from hiring ghosts from the Ghost Zone itself toputting a high price on the boy's head to outfitting a young girl who knew his human incarnation from his high school – had been no better. Vlad's other plans, all drawn up during his free time on a quiet Saturday afternoon after he had finished reading the paper (and possibly accomplished a small bit of knitting), were all doomed to failure, he could see that immediately.
No sense not to try, however.
After all, Vlad Masters was the original hybrid, the first ghost-human mistake to be born from Jack Fenton's idiocy. He had learned to appreciate the gift just as it was – a gift. A gift to be used to the fullest, to be used as he saw fit, to be used for profit and gain and power. Using this mistake to his advantage was how he had become a successful man, and he longed for an apprentice; an apprentice who was very close to Jack, particularly, an apprentice that Jack would be none the wiser to, an apprentice that would ultimately be able to deliver a single crushing blow to his nemesis and leave the great oaf utterly destroyed, distraught, more useless than the insufferable fool already was. All Vlad wanted was revenge, for in revenge he would be able to advance on Maddie, and ultimately that was all he longed for: his true love.
He could be so much better for her than Jack, he knew it; he had the money, the charms. And the children would come under his guardianship as well; his particular interest, of course, stayed with Daniel, whose powers mirrored his own freak abilities, but Jasmine, the girl, had an intelligence about her the likes of which he had not seen since college, since Maddie..
This particular Saturday had rather abruptly been interrupted by a loud tinkling of glass from down in his laboratory, followed by a powerful thunk. Vlad, believing that the ecto-filtrator was warning him rather furiously that changing it out would be a good idea, went down to the laboratory to investigate, and found that, rather than seeing the small filtration gauge next to the portal quiver with suppressed energy as it often did when the Portal was about to overload with ghost energy, the basement was merely infested with ghosts.
Much shouting followed, and in a most undignified manner Vlad had decided to act immediately, and set about shunting off the ghosts by slamming them over the head repeatedly with a small broom. Certainly his lordliness was affected by this peculiar display – showing himself to be so common that it was not below him to utilize the power of a broom's alternative cleaning ability! – but there was some medieval charm to using the old standby weapon, and being able to beat a ghost over the head with nothing more than a broom filled him with a sense of power that left him feeling far superior to the ghouls swimming in his basement. If they were so easily vanquished by a typical cleaning utensil they had no reason to be out of the Portal and in his house!
Besides, he took quite a while longer to locate the Whip than he had wanted.
Which brought Vlad Masters – who, in his ghost incarnation, much preferred to be known as Vlad Plasmius – to the situation he was in now. Crimson eyes were fixed upon the swirling green mass that was the portal to the Ghost Zone, his grip tightened upon the shaft of the prod.
Why were ghosts streaming from his Portal?
He could have sworn that the ghosts much preferred to exit from Amity Park, which was quite a long way away from Wisconsin. Amity Park was where the first Portal had been opened (somewhat ironically, as Jack should not have had the intelligence to activate it), allowing ghosts to become accustomed to its presence; Amity Park was also where the infamous Daniel Phantom resided, and ghosts the Zone over were determined to be the one, the celebrity, the great hunter to bring him down. The fact that Plasmius had hired a good number of them for this job only aided matters – on Vlad's end, anyhow – and gave ghosts a reason to leave their domain and walk the human world once again.
But Amity Park was a four-day drive with Jack Fenton controlling the four-wheel drive of an RV the size of a small town; effectively, the fastest mode of land travel known to man (a comment which could hardly be construed as complimentary). Why, then, were these ghosts exiting from the Plasmius Portal rather than the Fenton Portal? What had prompted them to leave their general space of residence to come here instead?
"I am the Box Ghost!"
Vlad could do nothing but sigh and snap the whip again, thrusting the Plasma Prod forward. "Just stay in there," he said wearily. "I have no boxes for you. Get back! GET BACK! I hired you in the first place, you miserable... GO!"
A blast of blue energy came from the end of the prod, and the Box Ghost, emerging from the confines of the Portal, took the blow and was shot backwards, deep into swirling vortext of the Ghost Zone, disappearing entirely from view. Vlad turned away for a moment and quickly appraised a lab to make sure nothing was hiding from him and, satisfied, he turned to close the Portal. His cleaning duty was over, so why not–
A great, silver hoof suddenly appeared in the doorway as the Portal's doors began to shut, forcing the two sides apart. Vlad, who was in no mood to play games with the ghost, pulled them apart and then shut them, full speed, towards each other. The hoof remained in place, and with a terrible squealing sound Vlad realized that the great silver hoof had managed to not only stop the doors, but dent them very deeply. They closed most of the way, but clearly the creature on the other side was not about to give up – with a tremendous strain on the doors, they suddenly buckled, collapsed inward, and a blast of cold air shot into the laboratory, dropping the temperature so drastically that even Vlad, already accustomed to the frigidity of his ghost form, felt the cold wave sweep across him.
He looked up and stared.
Emerging from the portal was an enormous, jet black horse; it must have stood at least six feet at the shoulder, its long neck adding another foot to its height. Silver tipped the horse's hooves and coloured the thin feathered fur off the back of its ankles, this same fine thread reflected in the ashen gray of its mane. With a toss of its head, Vlad happened to notice something peculiar about the horse's structure; it seemed thin and skeletal overall, and its features seemed almost to suggest something more reptilian than equine, and as though to validate his thoughts to huge wings, the membranes thin but apparently strong, unfurled from its back.
The horse trailed from the portal, its tail swishing behind it, more silver accenting the onyx of its body. It stood there before him for a long moment, almost as if posing, its body outlined in a thin white light – ghost energy. And suddenly it turned to face him, its eyes brilliantly white, blank orbs of ghost fire staring back at him. The horse turned entirely to face him, flaring its wings for effect, and stared at him for a very long moment.
Vlad could not take his mind off the fact that it – this... this creature, this beast – had just torn down the door to the Plasmius Portal. This could only mean more ghosts would come through after it, and that would mean more shoving them back in, which was not how he wanted to spend his Saturday.
'Plasmius.'
An echoing call in the confines of his mind. Vlad regarded the horse carefully, but its dead eyes told him nothing, and, almost curiously, he began: "Yes...?"
There was a moment of silence, and the horse reared back slightly, stamping her – it was a her, he was sure of that – feet against the floor, the sound of hooves against tile echoing in the confines of the basement laboratory. I knew it! she raged indignantly, tossing her mane and sending a glare into the green swirl of the portal. 'It's the wrong portal!'
Vlad, who once again had the errant thought run through his mind that he still had no idea what was happening, arched an eyebrow and regarded the horse carefully. "And whom do I have the pleasure of addressing...?"
'The blank white eyes turned back to him, and the horse-creature snorted, a thin red mist coming from her nostrils. Vlad Plasmius,' the voice said sharply, 'I come here looking for one of your own. You know the half-breed Danny Phantom.'
Not a question, a definite statement. Vlad, however, found no reason to answer the ghost horse's question.
"Please tell me why you and you're compatriots are flooding out of my Portal," he said cooly. "Maybe then I will answer your questions."
'I know not of them,' the horse growled, 'but I have been searching for the Portal that will lead me to Danny Phantom. It seems, however, that I have come through the wrong entranceway, and I would very much appreciate knowing where the half-breed truly resides.'
"I can assure you that he isn't here."
'But you know where he is.'
"That is true."
'Then you will tell me where he is.'
Vlad's eyes narrowed as he took in everything he could about the jet black, skeletal ghost horse. "To whom do I owe this pleasure?" he repeated, although this time his voice carried an air of demand rather than subtle prompt.
The spectral horse decided to humour him this time.
'I am known as the Nytemare,' she purred. 'I am here to-'
"Don't tell me you're the ghost that makes people have bad dreams," Vlad said with a sigh. So many of these infernal ghosts had such horrid puns for names...
'Why does every last person I speak with assume that!'
Vlad didn't even bother.
"What do you want?"
'I am here for Danny Phantom,' the horse said again, her voice calming once more after the burst of anger that had resonated from her. 'You should well understand the grief that his presence causes within the Ghost Zone.'
"I'm very well aware," Vlad responded cooly. Of course he was well aware – part of the animosity towards the ghost-kid was, after all, his fault.
'I had decided to attend to this matter personally, but unfortunately it seems I have accidentally stepped out into the wrong Portal.' She turned her head entirely to look toward the portal. 'I assume that the Portal leading to 'Amity Park' would also have the ability to close its doors. It seems we have made a miscalculation.'
The Fenton Portal is closed? Jack must be out doing something else insufferable today...
That would explain why the overflow of ghosts had decided to come out from his Portal rather than the one stationed in Amity Park. After all, the only ghosts that were supposed to originate from the Plasmius Portal were the ones he was doing business with...
Perhaps he could maintain that tradition.
"You are called the Nytemare?"
'Yes.'
What an atrocious pun.
"And you are of the many who want revenge on young master Daniel?"
'Of course. You are aware of his status in the Ghost Zone?'
A thin smile crossed Vlad's lips.
"I may be willing to help you," he murmured, his voice dropping to a soft, inviting purr, "if you will in turn help me. I also wish for a hand in Daniel's future, although I don't want him killed. I want him as mine."
The great horse flared her wings, in the action shadowing half of the laboratory, and brought her head down to look Vlad Plasmius straight in the eye. 'And what good will this do for me?'
"My tactics have yet to bring him to me. I believe I have been too focused on pure force up until this point. You're speaking to somebody through the Portal, if I'm not mistaken."
'You are correct, half-breed.'
"You have scouts. You have a small army under your command."
'You're very astute.'
"I will give your army free passage through the Plasmius Portal," he offered congenially. "I will allow you to exit the Ghost Zone without any trouble on my part. I imagine you can travel quickly, and your army should be able to reach Amity Park in only a few days. You may mount your offenses here. I am giving you the opportunity to do whatever you want to Daniel, anything short of destroying. I want you to tear him down, weaken him."
A smile actually spread across the horse's face, a draconic, toothy smile, and clearly she was pleased by the sound of this plan. 'And to be given this opportunity, what do I owe you?'
"All I want," Vlad hissed, "is Daniel."
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Chapter Notes :
1 : About the time I had written Vlad saying "Hello?" I decided to walk out of the room and get something to drink. The TV was still on after the second showing of Identity Crisis (Danny with half a California surfer dude accent makes me laugh way too much) and, as it happened, the tenth showing of The Ultimate Enemy was on. I came up just as Box Lunch (who makes me laugh way too much) was speaking of her Empty Calories of Doom. I am proud to say that I stopped, stared, and just kept walking. That took self control.
2 : Tch, I can't even remember if it's officially called the Plasmius Portal. Ah well.
3 : I swear that I don't care what else happens in the series; if they make an episode showing Vlad beating off ghosts with a broom, I will officially name Danny Phantom as the greatest cartoon ever made.
4 : They had to make him a Packers fan. I don't know anything about the football, and the only thing I know about Packers is that I relate them to Wisconsin, tea, and giant spiders ever since I saw that one MST; I can't remember the name of it, but it was the first episode I ever saw. Involved Wisconsin, tea, and giant spiders, and whenever there was a hoard of people (Wisconsin natives, I assume) Crow, Tom, and Mike would all lean in and whisper 'Packers, mutter, mutter, Packers!' And that's what I know about football.
5 : If Nytemare sounds like a bad Pokemon name (rather than a Xanth-based pun), you guessed correctly. Nytemare here was modeled after a Pokemon I created for a text-based Pokemon RPG. The Pokemon was a genetic experiment done by Team Rocket, known as the Nytemare, which was simply a dark/electric horse. It would evolve into the Nytekrawler, however, which was more ore less meant to be modeled after J.K. Rowling's Thestrals. Because Thestrals are cool. Nytemare herself is a Thestral rather than a Pokemon... For obvious reasons.
6 : And as I went on, I kept screaming to myself that Vlad was being improperly written. And if he is, I apologize; Vlad obviously hasn't appeared with a speaking role in too many episodes, we get no idea of his personal life during these episodes, and the two episode I saw where he played a major role – Bitter Reunions and Reign Storm (I missed Maternal Instinct, which I believe was the only other episode he played a really decent speaking role in) – I saw maybe twice in the case of Bitter Reunions, and once in the case of Reign Storm (and I don't think he did much in Reign Storm). And I don't trust other fics to properly characterize him, so... I'm sorry. But I'm pretty sure I've mangled Vlad.
7 : I can't use typical telepathic... Um... Whatever those greater than-less than signs are actually called. So I had to resort to the British Columbia method of speaking for telepathic communication (that is, use of single quotes instead of double). Did you know that in Canada their dialogue quotions marks are reversed? It's true. My copy of Half-Blood Prince is from British Columbia and it's like this.
7 : Ooh! Suspense! Plot! Wow! That took long enough.