Vundeter dragged Danny into a dungeon, and Danny thought that he would spend the next few hours, possibly days in pure torment as the Raschenda and Vundeter tried to get him to say whatever the heck they wanted to hear him say. The dungeon was dark, and it looked like a small box with black bricks as the walls. The room felt cold enough to make someone feel like they needed a sweatshirt and a thick blanket.
"So, Ghost Child," Vundeter said, throwing Danny in the cell and closing the door behind them, sealing off Danny's only escape route, "why do you insist on not lending us your powers?"
"Look, it's not like I trust the other guys, either," Danny said, giving a cold glare to Vundeter, their eyes seemingly connecting as they were staring. "If I had my way, I'd find someway to get rid you both. That would solve my problem!"
Vundeter seemed to get very annoyed with this remark, but then he suddenly asked Danny a question. It was so abrupt it nearly made Danny jump.
"Why did you decide to lend your power to the Maldums anyway?" Vundeter demanded, reaching into his pocket.
"I didn't!" Danny insisted. "I just tried using my powers, and they wouldn't work!"
"Then how do you explain they had a vat of your powers in their base?" Vundeter said coldly, pulling something out of his pocket. It looked like a small needle, but Danny was sure it was for something more dangerous.
"I…I don't know," Danny said. His eyes widened in terror as he saw Vundeter approaching him with the needle. "Hey, look man, don't you even think about touching me with that thing! I'll hit you so hard you'll…"
"Save your strength, kid," Vundeter said, cuffing his hand over Danny's mouth. He pushed his hand down on Danny and apparently kept him from getting up. "I don't want to…actually, I do want to use this," he said, showing Danny the needle, "but I don't think you want me to use it, so I'll stow it away…for now!"
Vundeter slowly lifted his hand off of Danny's mouth and crossed his arms. "Now, if you didn't give your powers to the Maldums, then how could they have obtained them?"
"I don't know!" Danny yelled. "I didn't give them my powers! I didn't even know they existed until you came into my life!"
Without warning, Vundeter jabbed the needle into Danny's arm violently. Danny screeched in pain as he felt the needle pierce through his skin and into his blood. Vundeter then yelled, "Fire touch!" and all the pain Danny was in suddenly felt like a raging fire. After listening to Danny moan in pain, Vundeter pulled the needle out of Danny's arm, leaving what looked like a small burnt patch on his arm where he punctured Danny.
"I can also use a cold setting on that needle if you'd like," Vundeter said, crossing his arms with the needle still in his hand. "Now, I know with things like your ghost sense, you can detect ghosts, even when they're taking the form of someone. So, we can't say you had your powers stolen from you, otherwise your ghost sense would have gone off, telling you that a ghost was present. Do you understand me?"
"I have no clue," Danny said. "If that's what you want to think, then great! But listen here, my powers stopped working and that's all I know! The next time I saw them was in that vat. Oh, and I also know that you and Raschenda are fighting those Myrus and Cobarrk dudes. There! That's all I know. Ya happy?"
Vundeter continued to glare at Danny, and just when he was ready to stab Danny's arm again, Raschenda opened the door.
"Vundeter! Let him go!" Raschenda commanded.
Vundeter had a look of confusion on his face, then reluctantly let Danny walk out. Danny wanted nothing more than to drop the subject, but he couldn't help but ask Raschenda as he was leaving the dungeon "Yo, what's up? What's going on here?"
"We have received information from our spies. It seems as though everything you had to go through over those few weeks was planned. They were able to hack into the Maldum computer and retrieve this information." Raschenda said in her creepy, seductive voice. She never took her eyes off Danny as she was saying this.
"What are you talking about?" Danny asked in excitement. "What have I been through, other than getting way too many visits from you guys?"
"You are unaware of what I am talking about?" Raschenda said. "That is good, you're better off not knowing."
"What?" Danny said. "Why!"
"I need not explain," Raschenda said. "You are free to go, but be sure to join our side if you really want to hear what information we have brought back."
"Whatever," Danny said. Saying this, he turned ghost and flew out of the fortress as fast as he could. He flew back to the portal that led to his house. This was becoming way too confusing for him. What information did Raschenda mean?
It didn't matter to Danny. Soon enough, he brought Sam and Tucker over his house and told them everything that just happened.
"So, let me get this straight," Sam said in her flat, almost non-caring voice. "Four different ghosts have been following you, and they're all enemies to each other?"
"Not quite," Danny said. "Myrus and Cobaark are friends, and Raschenda and Vundeter are friends. There's a war going on between them, and both sides demand I join forces with them and try to beat the other down."
"Well, which one are you going to side with?" Sam asked.
"I don't know," Danny said. "I don't like any of them. I'd just like to beat them all to a pulp so I won't have to worry about this anymore."
"Then why don't you?" Sam said. "You've fought so many ghosts and gained so many new abilities. Why can't you just fight them?"
"Because, as luck would have it, my powers just disappeared!" Danny yelled, throwing his arms up in the air. "The very same week those ghosts showed up, my powers stopped working!"
"Well, it may seem pretty obvious to me," Sam said, a small smile slowly forming on her face, "but don't you think there's a connection between the two? I mean, think about it: your powers start disappearing, and then some random ghosts you've never even met come up to you and tell you to help them."
"Well, my powers were in the Maldum base," Danny said, his eyes drifting off and starting to stare at the floor. "But how could the Maldums have taken my power? If they came too close to me, then my ghost sense would have gone off! There's no way they could have taken my powers!"
"If you ask me," Tucker said, picking up the Fenton Thermos, "I think the answer to your problems may be this thermos."
"What, you think my powers are locked away in there?" Danny said.
"No," Tucker said. "Why don't you just suck those four ghosts into this thermos? No ghosts, no war, no problems!"
Danny stared at Tucker for a second, then slapped his hand on his forehead and pulled his hand down his face forcefully.
"I'm such an idiot!" Danny yelled, grabbing the Fenton Thermos from Tucker. "If I wasn't so stressed out lately, I would have figured out I could just trap those ghosts and I could just forget about this whole incident."
Danny started walking up the stairs with the Fenton Thermos clutched in his hand, saying "Those ghosts are gonna pay!"
As he said this, he heard his dad yell "Did somebody say 'ghost'!" After hearing this, Danny saw his dad charging down the stairs. In fact, his dad was coming down so fast he didn't see Danny standing at the foot of the stairs. In a painful blow, Danny's dad rammed into Danny on the stairs, sending the Fenton Thermos in Danny's hands flying into the air.
Danny was knocked to the ground by the blow, and when he finally got up, he saw the Fenton Thermos smash into the wall and break into tiny pieces.
"Oh…that's not good," Danny's dad said, towering over Danny as Danny got up. "But, that's okay! I can just make another one!"
"Uh, great," Danny said. "When will it be ready?"
"Oh, probably about two weeks," Danny's dad said calmly.
"Two weeks!" Danny yelled. "I can't wait that long! I've got to fight two gh…"
Danny's dad immediately caught interested and turned around, cradling the remains of the Fenton Thermos in his arms.
"I'm, uh…going to be fighting…gophers!" Danny said. "It's for, uh…school? Yeah, it's for school and I need the Fenton Thermos to do it!"
Danny was hoping his dad would buy it, and being the complete maniac he is, his dad believed it. He walked up the stairs and thought about how he could repair the thermos or make a new one. Danny was pretty helpless now, without most of his powers and now without the one thing he could use to stop all four ghosts from whatever they were plotting.
Just as Danny was ready to start complaining, Sam softly said, "Your powers in a vial…four ghosts, two sides…trying to get you to join them…that's it!"
"Hmmm?" Danny said through closed lips as he looked at Sam, curious as to what she was getting at.
"I think I know what those ghosts are up to!" Sam said. "I think I know what they're all planning!"