Chapter Twelve: The Second Fight

BEGIN RECONNAISSANCE.

The HEXAPOD's lens flared to life right above the chandelier of Fenton Manor. It had been waiting for this moment. Its programming had stated that should any aberrant ecto-signatures be detected–other than that of Mr. Masters and the other operatives–that it should begin its recording immediately and track their progress throughout the planned combat session.

Its lens turned to one side, widening its view. There, rushing up a spiral staircase, were the two ecto-signatures it had seen on its first mission. Their quarry had come at last.

TARGETS FOUND. ALERT OPERATIVES.

In its crystal circuitry, a brisk metallic voice emanated.

"HEXAPOD to Mary. Repeat: HEXAPOD to Mary. Do you copy?"

In its circuitry, another voice answered.

"Yeah, I'm here. What is it?" The voice was distinctly irritable.

"The targets have been driven toward your post. Keep where you are. Tell Dragon to do the same."

"Fine. You happy now?"

"'Happy' is relative. HEXAPOD out."

Then, something happened that neither Father nor Mr. Masters had intended: two other life-forms entered the targets' vicinity.

This wasn't part of the plan. They had to be spied upon as well...

Jake and Ellie dashed through Fenton Manor, trying to find some place private where they could transform. Not an easy task: around the holidays, servants and decorators were everywhere, going about their business. From the living room to the arcade, there wasn't a single room left unoccupied.

About five minutes into the search, the twins came upon the arsenal. It held a variety of arms and armor from ages past and present: swords, cannons, muzzle loaders, automatic rifles, and ecto-guns. Nobody in the family came in here often; Danny was a pacifist with little if nothing to do with war. In fact, the only reason these relics were here was that the charities the Fentons had donated to gave them to the family as presents.

The children looked at one another and nodded. After taking all that time searching–saying to their parents that they'd forgotten to turn the computers off in their rooms–this room was perfect.

However, as they began to transform, they heard footfalls in the adjacent hallway. The twins prepared for whatever horror they had sensed might come through the doorway...

It simply turned out to be Gina and Tyler.

That wasn't much of an improvement.

Jake sighed irritably. "What do you want?"

"Wow..." Ty breathed, completely ignoring Jake. "You guys have an armory? I'm taking this down." He took a small handheld computer from a holster on his pocket and began typing.

Making a noise of complete irritation, Gina said, "We wanted to know were you two were going in such a hurry."

Ellie said, "We already told–"

"You said you were going to your rooms," Gina continued. "But here you are in a weapons display that apparently..." she wiped dust off a glass case, "...nobody's been in for yearsཀ"

"Most interesting..." Ty murmured. "This will make a great storyཀ" He chuckled evilly.

"Hey, waitཀ" Ellie said. "You can't–"

"Then why are you being so...strange?" Gina asked. "You seem like you're putting on some kind of Bruce Wayne act or something. What's your deal? You some kind of crime fighter with a cave below this mansion?"

Jake gulped. Gina was getting too close to the truth.

But the gulp was forced back out of his throat by his ghost sense, which spilled out of his mouth along with Ellie's.

The two others stared at them as though they had lobsters crawling out of their ears.

"Is it cold in here?" Ty asked, bundling his sport coat around him with his arms.

Jake's eyes darted about until they saw the source of the frigidness:

A blue, translucent head was protruding through the armory ceiling, staring down at them. It looked like the head of a young girl with dark eyes.

"Uh..." Ellie stammered, "...maybe we should go..."

"Why?" Gina asked. "What's the matter wi–"

A heavy thudཀ came from the other end of the armory.

Looking past the two nosy teens, Jake and Ellie saw a creature born of childhood's worst nightmares: a red, horned, lizard-like humanoid that was twice the size of a normal human. Its coal-black wings were three times the size of its height in span, and its tail was just as long. But–most disturbing of all–its ghostly aura was red, waving like flames.

Before anybody could act, the twins dove behind an obscure case that housed a variety of dueling swords. Both transformed, the halos of light spreading from behind the display. All along, they could hear the lizard-ghost roaring at Gina and Ty, the teens screaming and running in opposite directions.

Then, a voice came from behind: "Here you two are!" It was sickeningly feminine.

Jake turned his neck to see a little girl made entirely of beige-colored wood. Her wooden arms had glowing blue gossamer strands attached to cross-like puppet controls mounted on her back. Her hair looked artificial, as did her dark eyes and blue dress that looked like it had come from a Shirley Temple movie.

"Oh Draggy!" she called to the lizard-ghost. "I found them!"

Danny sat next to his wife, examining Vlad from across the table. He hadn't aged much, and didn't look any different save for the cane he used. All in all, he looked very much the sly, cunning archenemy he had come to loathe all these years.

However, there was something different now...

He couldn't pinpoint it exactly. It might have been that his wrinkles gave the appearance of that same old man ten years into an alternate future, or that his eyes had the slight squint of someone who had just seen someone he'd befriended long ago, or that his mood seemed to be genuinely kind...

The point was this: he was different now. And in a good way.

Maybe that little piece of advice was correct. Maybe all a person needed was a second chance.

"Oh, my treatment took quite the long time," Vlad said mournfully to Maddie, "but your son here saw to it that I got the best of care."

Inside, Danny commended himself. He had personally sponsored Vlad's psychological treatment for fifteen years. Now, he had living proof that a person's inner demons could indeed be defeated.

"Well, that's Danny for you..." Jazz paused to sip from her glass. "Ever the caring person."

"Thanks, Jazz," he replied quietly.

After a while, Vlad said, "So...Daniel, how have you and your lovely wife been doing? I heard you'd expanded Fentonworks production after Jack here gave it to you."

"Um–yes!" Danny replied. He didn't really like to talk about business. "Ghost-hunting doesn't turn up much money nowadays, and Sam thought we should do some good with our company."

"Mm-hm," Sam murmured. "I decided to handle public relations. You know, so I can keep it clean."

"Good for you, Sammy!" Jack said from next to Maddie.

Sam shot him a semi-harsh glare. Nobody called her 'Sammy.'

"And I trust that the rest of your time," Vlad interjected, "is spent with your children?"

"Yep. They can be a handful sometimes, but they're just like the man I married."

The lizard-ghost glided over the display cases to meet the Fenton twins. Somewhere, Jake could hear Gina and Ty whimpering about something. As it set down, he could feel that this ghost's aura was so cold that it burnt, and smelt vaguely of brimstone.

"So these are the new halfas!" the lizard exclaimed in a deep tone. His voice was strange, sounding like he was being choked while trying to gargle water at the same time.

"Halfa?" Ellie asked. "What's a 'halfa'?"

"It means 'half a ghost, and half a human,'" the puppet explained. "And your kind have been nothing but trouble for us."

"Our kind?" Jake asked. But he never received an answer. A tongue of red flame shot from the lizard-ghost's mouth, nearly engulfing the twins, who were able to dodge the attack by phasing through the floor.

When he and his sister emerged, Jake said, "What are you two supposed to be exactly?"

"I am the Great Red Dragon!" the lizard exclaimed. "The most powerful of the Eragon Amulet bloodline!"

"And I'm Mary Onette," the wooden girl added. "Puppet master of the Ghost Zone. And you two will make the perfect toys to play with!"

Dragon shot another blast of fire breath at the ghost children, and the battle was on.

"Vlad? If I could be so bold as to ask," Maddie said, "why exactly were you placed in a psychiatric hospital?"

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, my dear," Vlad replied. "I was overshadowed for an extended period of time by a very powerful ghost. I presume you know about him..."

"About who?" Jack asked.

Vlad whispered, "Vlad Plasmius."

The room fell silent. There wasn't a person in all Fenton Manor, let alone most of the world, who hadn't heard of the leader of the Ghost Zone War Council. The public image painted Plasmius as the evil genius who masterminded the entire war effort for over half a decade without a soul knowing about it.

"I'd rather not talk about any of that," Vlad said sadly. Then, he actually started to cry, bringing his head down onto the table.

"Oh...shh..." Maddie said, patting the man on the back. "It's alright."

"Yeah; if we'd known about that good-for-nothing spook using you as a human meat puppet, we'd have done everything we could, V-man," Jack said.

"...Yes..." Vlad choked. "I owe that to Miss Gray here."

Valerie nodded solemnly, simply saying, "Right."

"I mean it!" Vlad insisted. "Without that operation, I'd probably still be in thrall to that monster..." He began to cry again.

Danny, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Valerie knew better, of course. Vlad hadn't been possessed by Plasmius. He was Plasmius. But still, they thought the story was at least half-true. That ghost that had resided within Vlad Masters' mind had probably been responsible for the influence the man had answered to all his life.

The words of the other Vlad echoed in Danny's mind: All these years without ghost powers gave me the chance to realize what a fool I'd been...

"I...I have to go compose myself..." Vlad choked. He got up and walked away, leaving everyone else to eat the main course that had just come out.

CRASH!

A suit of 13th century armor toppled over in pieces as Mary Onette let loose a buzz-saw style attack with her puppet control cross. Ellie had barely been able to dodge the attack, cartwheeling sideways only to partially pass through a glass case of muskets. Mary lashed the crosses out once again, entrapping Ellie in their gossamer threads. As she was swung around in a wide arc, the ghost-girl realized she wasn't able to phase through the strings, leaving the puppet-ghost to slam her through a suit of wicker armor.

Jake, meanwhile, was preoccupied with the Red Dragon, who was demonstrating the ability to shoot ecto-fire out of his fingertips in addition to his mouth. The ghost-boy was trying his best to dodge every blast his adversary threw.

"Listen, I don't want to tell you your business," he managed to get out, "but this is kind of a fire hazard!"

This wasn't exactly true, of course. No piece of material in the armory–save for those few made of wood–were flammable.

However, as Jake threw his witty banter about, the Dragon lashed his whip-like tail at the boy, catching his thigh and flinging him towards a case of cannons. The display buckled upon impact, and Jake heard a scream. A girl's scream.

Looking to his right, he realized that Gina Gray was about to be crushed. Jake grabbed onto her shoulder, transferring his intangibility powers to her body as the cannons passed through them like solids through liquid.

Ellie had managed to free herself from Mary's grip, tossing the wooden ghost into a suit of kabuto armor. Looking livid, Mary lashed her puppet control at the ghost-girl at what appeared to be terminal velocity.

Wanting only to avoid the oncoming attack, Ellie didn't realize that her midriff had taken on a lengthy form, curving around Mary's attack, which stuck into the wall behind her. As her enemy struggled to free herself, Ellie could only think, Cool!

She then proceeded to tug on the ecto-gossamer, pulling Mary's wooden form towards her fist. Ellie heard a sharp crack! as Mary's wooden nose bit into her fist. Privately, Ellie compared the strike to a paddleball: Mary being the small rubber ball, and Ellie's fist being the wooden surface it impacted off of.

Jake, in the meantime, had found that he wasn't able to get close to Red Dragon, due to the lizard's burning aura. However, the creature's deep laugh and sneering grin bore a deep resemblance to that of Thor Stapleton, which served to strengthen Jake's resolve. Looking around for a suitable weapon, he saw a fire extinguisher laying by his feet, and promptly hurled the device at Dragon.

As the lizard countered the throw with a sharp swipe of claws, the extinguisher exploded in a burst of pressurized foam. The fire-retardant substance covered the Dragon, who roared in pain. When he'd finally managed to get back up, Jake saw that the lizard's aura had receded to a normal ghost level. Taking the opportunity, Jake delivered a powerful kick to the Red Dragon's chin, which brought the lizard to the ground with a mighty thud!

"Mary!" the Dragon called. "Let's get out of here!"

Gliding over to the puppet-girl, the lizard enclosed himself and his accomplice withing his enormous wings, disappearing in a flash of red flame.

Jake looked around the room: it was wasted. Many of the weapons were badly damaged, if not destroyed. Glass, charred wood, and pieces of metallined the floor in a chaotic lack of pattern. Gina and Ty were still hiding behind a pair of cases that had miraculously survived the fight.

The twins landed behind another such display, transforming back into their original forms. As they walked out, the two teens who had followed them here crawled from their hiding places like survivors of a recent war.

"That...was...incredible..." Ty said in a shocked tone. "Pulitzer Prize material! Why didn't I bring my camera?"

"Yeah..." Gina agreed. "Incredible..."

Jake decided to say something. "You two alright?"

"Pretty much," Ty replied.

"Then let's go back to the dinner, alright?"

Leaving the room behind, the twins closed the door as the other two teens walked away.

Man, Jake thought. I really hope they don't notice all this...

Vlad went into a nearby lavatory to achieve some privacy from the many houseworkers in the manor. Bringing his watch to level with his mouth, he said, "Report."

"The targets are performing well, Mr. Masters," came the voice of HEXAPOD. "Dragon and Mary are retreating as we speak."

"Very good," Vlad murmured. "Your mission is done. Report to Bertrand outside, and get back in the trunk of the limo."

"Understood, Sir. HEXAPOD out."

Vlad looked into the mirror, but Masters didn't appear in the reflection. Instead, Plasmius grinned from the tempered glass, eyes burning with red fire.

Was it a success?

When are our plans never?

Good. Phase Two is complete. We'd better get back to the dinner, shan't we?

Of course.

And Vlad walked out, back towards the dining hall, gears grinding in his binary mind...