Ch. 7:
The landing of a plane is never a very comfortable experience. Your ears pop, your stomach feels like it's getting squeezed in, and there's the awful tension that comes from the delicate though surprisingly ordinary procedure passengers have to become accustomed to. In the average passenger flight on a jet, it is uncomfortable, in the belly of a plane without the benefit of seatbelts, seats, or even anything to hold onto, it's positively insane.
It was morning, and we found ourselves skidding down the length of the metal plate we'd been sitting on all night. Our only warning of the descent was the captain uselessly telling us as we did our best not to slide face first into the energy shield that we had begun our descent and to fasten our seatbelts and put our trays in upright positions. In the back of my mind, I could imagine Masters sitting up in some plush seat with a glass of overpriced alcohol laughing at us. The plane leveled out, and the plane making contact with the earth, then raising into the air, and hitting dirt once again bounced us all rudely about. I sorely missed seatbelts as the sudden deceleration of the plane slid us all forward, bringing us uncomfortably close to the shimmering green bubble again.
The plate beneath us gave a downward jolt and unlatched from the belly of the plane. At first I couldn't see where it was going, I could only feel it lowering to the ground. It didn't stop when it met the ground however, but kept going down. The curved metal walls rose around us as we sunk beneath the surface. Once the dome was completely below the ground, the opening above us closed, dousing us in darkness.
A line of light finally slid up from beneath the plate. The light grew about our feet until we were outside the tube, descending to the floor with a thunk,
Standing expectantly before us was Masters, arms folded behind his back.
"I trust your journey was comfortable?" he smirked.
"You can't hold us in here forever, Vlad." Danny growled.
"I don't plan on it, Daniel. But don't be concerned, I've made sure you won't be tempted to fly off." Masters revealed the same remote he'd used the night before. The green shield around us dissipated, and I was relieved to step off the plate.
Danny jumped off and squeezed his eyes closed, looking constipated. "Hey, I can't go ghost! …Again!" he groaned.
"You may notice that I improved on the Plasmius Maximus-"
"And I thought the Fentons had weird names for their inventions" I interjected.
"And installed it in my Capture Plate. I believe there's still another half hour until your powers will return." Masters rolled his eyes at me. "As for you two…" he turned to face Daisy and I.
"As for you two, it's been a pleasure…" Masters lifted up the remote and pressed another button. Menacing guns popped out of holes in the walls, leveling at Daisy and I.
"Now, farew-OW!" a green bolt of energy hit Master's hand, knocking the remote out of his hand.
Danny and I both turned to see where the blast had come from. Daisy smiled sweetly at us, the Fenton Utility weapon in her hand, smoking slightly.
"Daze, there are times I could kiss you…" I wagged a finger at her. She must have been keeping it secret until the opportune time.
"You two see about finding away out of here," Daisy exclaimed, summoning up her best action heroine voice, and aiming another shot at Masters, who was transforming once more into Plasmius, "I'll hold off ole Bela Lugosi here!"
Danny and I ran to a nearby control panel. The thing had more buttons and blinking lights on it than Carol's old Star Trek reruns.
"Umm… you do know how to use this, right?" I asked him.
He looked at me helplessly. "I thought you did!"
"Well, in the words of my generation, let's push a few buttons and see what happens!"
Vlad was surprised at how quick the small blonde was. She had managed to dodge most of his blasts, and though her aim wasn't the best, he found himself blocking far too many blasts.. mainly protecting the items in his lab.
One of his mounted guns went off, blasting a table up into the air, sending a few empty beakers flying.
"Stop that!" He yelled at Danny and the detective, who were frantically pushing buttons. The new ghost portal he'd had to install opened and closed randomly, screens blinked on and off, doors and panels slid open and closed, the plate lifted up and down from the floor. "That is not a toy!"
Chris grabbed a plasma gun that slid out of one of the panels. "How about this?" He raised leveled the gun at Vlad, but paused, confused for a moment as his cell phone started playing "We Are Family". Blushing, Chris pushed the gun into Danny's hands.
"You do know how to use one of these, right?" Danny nodded, shooting a blast at Vlad, who dodged it easily. A hole smoked in the background.
"Daniel! Cease this! I just replaced this lab!"
I blocked out the yelling, poking a finger in my ear and answering the chirping phone.
"Chris Haunting, Haunting Detective Agencies… this isn't really the best of times."
"Well then why did did you send me this dumb package marked urgent?"
"Carol? That's you?" I was elated. At least something had gone right.
"Yeah. You know, that cell phone of yours has a caller ID. I told you that when I helped you set it up."
"You're a dear, now tell me what the papers say."
"What's all that screaming about?"
I turned to see Vlad had gotten a hold of Danny, and was shaking him mercilessly in midair.
"Hold on... Daisy! Aim high!" She did, hitting the light fixture above Plasmius's head. It snapped free, hitting him on the head. Danny fell free. Two bands of light appeared around his waist, revealing Danny Phantom, teen superhero.
"Hey Vlad! I think your clock is slow!" the kid shot a green blast at his nemesis.
I put my phone back to my ear. "Sorry, Carol. As I said, we're in the middle of something."
"What? I interrupt one of your dance classes?"
"Just…" I slapped my forehead, sighing, "Just tell me what the tests say?"
"Righto. Okay, I understood a little bit of it, you know, biology was never one of my strong points, but CSI reruns are."
"That's why I sent them to you. What do they say?"
"Nine out of eleven markers in common. Positive for relation between the two samples."
"So that means?"
"You're the detective. Of course, being that Jack and Danny Fenton have the same names, I DON'T see why you needed a DNA test to tell."
"Neither do I. I owe you big time Carol… Did you tape America's Next Top Model for me?"
"Yes. I always remember because my mom always calls me up to ask who I think will get eliminated. And you do owe me, hot chocolate, I started a ledger just to keep track of all the things you owe me."
"You're invaluable, Watson."
"I know, Sherlock. Good luck with the case."
"I'm gonna need it." I ended the conversation as a red ectoblast nearly knocked my cellphone out of my hand and almost took my fingers with it.
Plasmius pulled the splitting trick again, and I grabbed up the plasma gun danny had dropped when Vlad grabbed him. I took a pot shot at one of the heads. Instead of vaporizing a duplicate like I'd expected, Plasmius reeled as the blast sheered by his head, all three duplicates disappearing.
"Now that I've got your attention," I angled the weapon threateningly at Plasmius, "You'll excuse me as I indulge myself in something I've always wanted to do…"
"Danny, you wouldn't let him hurt your own flesh and blood?"
Danny looked confused for a moment. Though we'd discussed the whole thing that night, no doubt he was still reeling from the revelations.
"Danny, you were right in the first place, he ISN'T your dad!"
Danny lowered to the floor next to Daisy.
"But I think I finally know just what is going on." Danny's eyes raised as he realized where I was going, a little childish smile curling around his lips, mimicking Daisy's as she too caught onto the detective winding up to the famous whodunit monologue.
"You needed a couple of outsiders, didn't you? Someone who wouldn't know the Fentons well enough to realize Maddie Fenton would never touch you." I addressed Vlad, who while still cradling his head, was smirking at me. "So you called us. Out of thousands of Detective Agencies, you probably picked me out as a relatively unexperienced one."
"Actually it was the name. Haunting Detectives Agency. I couldn't resist."
"Still that was your plan all along. You'd get us to procure Danny and Jack's DNA for a paternity test. You sent in yours separate from the samples we collected. Whether it was actually your blood or someone else's didn't matter." Danny looked at me, slightly confused.
"You switched the labels," I continued. "You put your name on Jacks' sample, making it appear that you were the father instead of Jack."
Vlad's eyes narrowed. Danny's widened, and he smacked himself.
"You figured that if a DNA test showed you as his father, Danny would have to accept you as his father and give up on Jack. And if not that… well you'd confuse him enough to capture him and find a way to band him to your will. Half-ghost and half-ghost together." I growled the last bit. That sort of trickery was far below the belt. Especially against an innocent kid… even if he had superpowers.
"And did you figure this out all by yourself?" Plasmius taunted, rising into the air again. "Bravo! I underestimated you. I didn't think you had the brainpower to ever see through my charade."
He swept at me suddenly, lifting me up by my jacket. He turned so that I was between him and Danny, blocking any shots they'd have at him.
He pressed his face forward into mine. "You should of left when I told you to. Now you'll find why most of my dealings are with ghosts." He pressed a palm into my midsection. The burning of an ectoblast caused me to recoil and cry out. Daisy and Danny were calling out, trying to get a clear shot at Vlad, but he kept on the defensive, shoving me in front of him, backing up.
"Meddler." He growled at me.
"That's what you hired me for." I grinned weakly. I then threw the hardest uppercut I think I've ever managed at his jaw. The billionaire's neck snapped back, he dropped me, and I hit the ground hard.
Vlad also fell a bit, having been taken so offguard. Daisy ran forward to grab me up. Danny hit a button on the control panel.
"Get behind me!" the door of the portal opened. Daisy dragged me away from Plasmius, who was approaching us menacingly, wiping a bit of blood from his lower lip. He growled, andI could see more blood around his teeth. I'd hit him good. Danny darted in front of us, and Plasmius's eyes widened as he realized that he was between Danny and the Portal. He snarled, leaping at the kid.
Danny screamed, but it came out as a low, loud howl, breaking beakers, crushing cabinets, and blasting Plasmius backwards into the Ghost Zone, changing back into Masters.
The portal crumpled under the sonic power, and the green window into the afterworld blinked out as the portal collapsed. Danny collapsed to his knees, the white bands reappearing and turning him back into Fenton.
Daisy and I stared awestruck at the worn teen.
"Okay, I know my puberty was strange, but my voice never did that!" I laughed, rasping a bit.
Danny turned to look at me, giving me a lopsided grin. "That joke's already been made."
"How about you may have a career as an air raid siren, kid?" daisy laughed.
He shook his head. He was tired, and I couldn't blame him.
"So is he gone?" Daisy asked Danny as we booked a flight back to Amity Park. None of us knew exactly how to fly a plane, even though Danny said he'd once flown the Space shuttle. Daisy had retorted that she'd bought the whole ghost power thing, and she wasn't in the mood to buy anymore.
"Vlad? Naw, his portal was hardly the only one out there, and ghosts have been getting out of the ghost zone without ghost portals before. He'll be back. He always comes back." Danny sighed wearily.
"This time was tough?" I asked him.
"Duh."
Sorry, standard-"
"Standard question, I know."
Daisy and I shared a grin.
"But thanks. You didn't have to fight Vlad for me like that."
"Well, we did get you into this mess." I apologized.
"He would of figured out a way to get around it if you had turned him down."
"Real Ego boost, Thanks Kid." I gave his shoulder a slight slug as our lanes were called for boarding.
"Naw, I mean, it's kinda lucky for me you were in this. Anyone else would of just left me, and I may of never found out Vlad's trick." Danny squeezed past the grinning flight stewardess.
"Yeah right. You would of found out. You had us pegged from the start. You're just trying to make me feel better."
"No, I'm not. I mean," Danny sat down into the plane seat. We were in the far back. It wasn't as nice as the private jet, but at least it had actual seats unlike the belly of the plane we'd spent the night. I was quickly learning to associate plane rides with bad. "I really believed him for a while."
"He's a good liar, I'll give Masters that. He knows how to string you along. Whether you like him or not."
"Okay, but how did you find out he'd switched the samples?"
I leaned back, savoring the moment where I could finally explain how I'd figured it out.
"I sent a second test. I told the lab to send the results to an associative of mine that Masters wouldn't know of. I'd suspected him of pulling something, though I didn't know what that would be."
"So that's what that phone call from Carol was about!" Daisy exclaimed.
"Yup. That and to tell me that we owe her big."
"I'll bet. She says that every time I enter the door." Daisy laughed.
Danny rolled his eyes, getting lost as we two adults started going off on references to someone he'd never met.
"Okay, one last question," Danny interrupted Daisy and my litany on the things we owed Carol for, "What do I tell my parents?"
I looked at Daisy, who just shrugged her shoulders. The plane started its engines, rolling away from the station, the captain welcoming us and telling us to fasten our seatbelts.
"That, Kid," I said, shrugging, "Is the real mystery."