Disclaimer: I own nothing

The Master Plan

Uric Igi Shelps

Chapter 4

Convoy

"Where are we going, Sam?" Tucker asked for what had to be the tenth time since they'd left school, which had been nearly a half-hour ago, and Sam still had yet to let Tucker know what she was planning.

"We're going to Valerie's," Sam said shortly, quickening her pace down the nearly empty sidewalk.

"Are you planning on breaking in?" Tucker asked incredulously, adjusting his heavy bag and hurrying to keep up. "No one's gonna be home," he reminded her.

Sam rolled her eyes and looked up at the bright, blue sky as they walked. Suddenly, she stopped, causing Tucker, whose nose had been buried in his PDA to collide with her, knocking them both down. "Tucker!" Sam said, annoyed.

"Ow," Tucker said, rubbing his rear and picking up his PDA. "That's the second time you knocked me down today—what did I do to you?" He asked, as he held out a hand to pull her up.

Sam didn't take his hand though; she was still staring up over Tucker's shoulder and into the sky. Tucker turned around, and to his shock, found a group of ghosts floating high above the street.

Most of the half dozen or so ghosts were instantly recognizable as Walker's guards, then, predictably, there was Walker himself, floating along behind them. But the thing that had made Sam stand there and stare was the small ghost being restrained by two of Walker's guards.

Not that Danny seemed to need restraining, his head was hung and his shoulders were slouched. Neither Sam nor Tucker could see his face, but they both got the sense that Danny had given up.

Snapping out of her trance, Sam started to shout, "Da—" she never got it finished, as Tucker inexplicably put a hand over her mouth.

"Don't!" He hissed, "We can't do anything to help him if we're captured too," Sam pulled his hand from her mouth and stared at him.

"We can help him now!" She swung her bag around in front of her and dug through it for a moment before she pulled out a Fenton-ghost ray.

Tucker looked shocked, "Where'd you get that?" He asked incredulously.

"Danny gave it to me after the thing with Clockwork," Sam said as she turned off the safety and took careful aim. "Darn it!" She said a moment later, lowering the gun, "They're too far away — I might hit Danny,"

"Where do you think they're going?" Tucker asked, squinting as the ghostly procession moved into the distance. "Fentonworks?"

"We may as well head there," Sam agreed, "If Danny's not there, then we can talk to Jazz, she could probably help us,"

Sam put the ecto-gun back in her bag and took off in the direction of Danny's house, with Tucker following closely..

Although they didn't know it, both were thinking the same thing, what could have happened to make Danny so depressed?

Valerie walked into the still house, immediately throwing her bag onto the kitchen table and heading downstairs to her makeshift prison. She wanted to sprint down the stairs; desperate to make sure that Phantom was still locked in his cage, but she forced herself to slow to a casual stroll, appearing calm.

Nevertheless, she jumped the last two steps and stopped in her tracks, furious to see the cage empty, and Phantom gone. Before she could wonder how the heck he'd escapec, a voice spoke from behind her, "Calm down, Valerie," Spinning, Valerie came face to face with a ghost she knew to be one of Phantom's allies.

"You!" Valerie said, backing away from the hulking ghost slowly.

"Yes, me — you can call me Plasmius," the ghost said, bowing pompously. Valerie scowled.

"It doesn't matter what you're called," she said, reaching behind her, "You're still just…a…ghost…" Valerie trailed off as she realized something, she felt, rather than saw Plasmius roll his eyes and sigh loudly in annoyance.

"Oh please, Miss. Gray," he said in his condescending tone, "You and I both know that you're ghost hunting gear is upstairs on your kitchen table,"

With no other option, Valerie spun around to face the ghost, but found him gone, or more likely, invisible. With nothing else to do, she spun back towards the stairs and sprinted up them, knowing in the back of her mind that Plasmius would never let her get to her gear in time.

She slammed her shoulder into the door and stumbled through, in her haste, she slipped on the linoleum and fell on her face. Stumbling to her feet, she resumed sprinting to the bag, and was just in sight of the table when a hand shot up from underneath her and gripped her by the neck. Her feet soon left the ground and she was brought to look at the ghost in the eyes.

"You've served your purpose," he said mysteriously, "and you're coming with me,"

Sam and Tucker made it to Fentonworks just as Jazz made it home from school. She parked the car in the street and got out a moment later. Spotting Sam and Tucker, she looked behind them suspiciously. "Where's Danny?" She asked, moving up the front stoop and unlocking the door. "I haven't seen him since he went to the movies yesterday,"

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other nervously, "We think he's inside," Tucker said, quickly, pushing past Jazz and heading downstairs, with Sam and a bewildered Jazz following.

Tucker traipsed down the stairs and into the basement lab, looking at the still sealed portal and the untouched equipment. "Darn," he said, casting an eye at the empty room before him as Sam and Jazz followed.

"Where are your parents?" Sam asked, noticing that Mr. and Mrs. Fenton weren't in the lab or the kitchen, which were really the only places she'd ever seen them.

"They went to a weekend long ghost-hunting convention," Jazz said distractedly, still looking suspicious, "they should be back pretty soon," she looked at her watch, then shook her head to clear her thoughts, "Now where is Danny?"

"Well," Tucker started, "We're not totally sure…" he trailed off as Sam stepped in.

"Did he ever come home last night?"

Jazz hesitated before she shook her head, "I'm…not sure?" She smiled weakly.

"You're not sure?" Sam asked.

"Well — I figured he was gonna be out late and I wanted to stay up but I fell asleep reading," she said very quickly, then she took a breath and went on, "then I woke up late today and I didn't see him so I thought he'd already gone…"

"Well we saw him this afternoon," Sam said, trying to assuage the older girl's fears, "But he was being held by Walker," she said quietly, in a rush.

Jazz looked puzzled. She pulled out her laptop and clicked around for a minute before she mumbled something under her breath and looked up at them. "Walker the ghost warden?" She asked, finding what she was looking for.

"That's him," Tucker said, smiling at Sam slightly. "He's had it out for Danny ever since they met,"

"Why —" before any of them had time to react, two of Walker's guards swooped into the lab. Without pausing, they grabbed hold of both Sam and Tucker, covered their mouths and disappeared, invisible, Jazz hoped.

"Tucker! Sam!" Jazz yelled, spotting the Fenton Bazooka and lunging for it. She grabbed it and spun, just as three more guards swooped in, pointing their glowing nightsticks at Jazz.

Jazz beat them to the trigger, and fired two quick shots. One blast connected, and the unfortunate ghost was sucked into himself, disappearing with an audible pop to the ghost-zone.

The other shot missed a guard's head by a hair, and the ghost, thinking he was clear, was quickly sucked into the portal. "Yes!" Jazz yelled, momentarily forgetting about the third ghost in her happiness.

A moment later, the bazooka was blasted from her hand and sent skidding across the lab, where it slid into the suddenly open portal and disappeared. Jazz spun around and shrunk away from the advancing ghost, who smiled wickedly as he shot a blast of ecto-goo into her mouth, gagging her. He reached to her, grabbed her shoulder

Knowing what was coming next, Jazz sighed as she felt her body become invisible.

Danny wasn't paying attention to anything anymore. He was hardly aware of the glowing green chains on his wrists, and he was completely oblivious to the innumerable ghosts flying around him. He didn't notice that Vlad was nowhere to be seen, and took no interest in Walker's radio conversations.

He did notice when the ghosts on either side of him dragged him down, as the whole ghastly procession began to descend. Not surprised to find himself floating through the basement of his own house, Danny allowed himself to drift along towards the Fenton Portal, with no way of knowing that Tucker, Sam and Jazz were being held invisible across the room.

He sighed as they approached the portal. Taking one last look at his basement, he didn't protest as he was roughly shoved across the threshold. One thought managed to penetrate the fog that was his confused mind, I'll never see any of them again, with that, he disappeared into the green of Ghost-Zone.

Sam wasn't aware of the tears flowing down her face as Danny was brought through the lab. She got the same sense of hopelessness that she had felt when she'd seen him from the street, but this time she was close enough to see more, and what she saw terrified her. She'd never seen anyone so dead looking.

He was almost unrecognizable, his normally pale skin was tainted a sickly blue, his eyes were a dull, lifeless green, unlike their normal brilliant and glowing emerald. What was worse was his demeanor. He looked utterly unconcerned with his current predicament, and didn't struggle at all as he was dragged along, he merely glanced back at his basement at the last second, wearing an expression of utter indiffernce.

Once he'd disappeared through the portal, with Walker following, Sam felt the slight tingle in her skin that she had come to associate with changing from invisible to visible. Tucker and Jazz soon phased into sight, and Sam saw the same emotions that she felt playing across Jazz's face. Tucker looked upset as well, but more than upset, he looked angry.

As if on cue, all three ghosts released their charges and shoved them roughly into the corner. Unarmed, and cornered, the three teens looked at each other hopelessly as they watched the armed ghosts raise their nightsticks.

The tips had just started to glow their terrifying green, when three red ectoblasts shot from across the room and hit the near executioners. The ghosts, conveniently enough, shot across the room and into the still open portal, where they disappeared.

Sam, Jazz and Tucker looked at their rescuers just in time to see two duplicates of Vlad Plasmius dissolve back into the center one. "Hello, children," he said calmly, floating back to the ground as two jet black rings appeared at his midsection and moved away from each other, turning him back into Vlad Masters.

No one saw the third, invisible duplicate fly into the portal with an unconscious Valerie Gray held tight.

A/N: The updates will probably be something like once a week from now on. Between work and school I can really only write on the weekends.

Sorry for the lack of length...