Guess what? I'm back from Florida! You know what that means-more new chapters. In fact, I wrote this one and most of the next one while on the plane.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom

"WHAT! Of course I'll be there!" Danny Fenton hung up the phone and turned to his secretary.

"There's been a ghost attack at Casper High that I need to investigate. I'm not sure how long it'll take."

"But Mr. Fenton, you have a meeting in ten minutes-"

"Postpone it. The ghost supposedly kidnapped a student; that kind of takes precedence over the board of directors." He grabbed his coat and hat and made his way to his car.

Approximately five minutes later, the black car with painted green flames pulled into the parking lot of Casper High. Danny noticed that the entire school was standing outside. Lancer must have pulled the fire alarm, he thought. He jumped out of the car and approached his ex-teacher.

"I see you're driving the same car as ever, Mr. Fenton."

"No time for pleasantries, Mr. Lancer. What are the details of the kidnapping?"

"I'll take you to his friends; they were the last ones to see him and the ghost before the disappearance." Lancer led Danny over to Zach and Taylor.

"Hey, Mr. Fenton," they chorused.

"Hi, guys. Where's Har-oh no. Don't tell me."

"Yup. He was the one that was kidnapped by the ghost." Danny nervously ran a hand through his hair.

"The plot thickens," he muttered. Aloud, he said, "Could you take me to the room where this took place?"

"Sure, Mr. Fenton." The two of them led Danny into the auditorium and pointed out the spot on the ceiling through which Skulker had entered the room.

"What did the ghost look like?"

"It looked like a giant robot with flaming green hair."

"Skulker," Danny growled, his eyes narrowed.

"What was that?"

"I know the ghost who did this. He's been a real thorn in my side practically forever, ever since he made a habit of hunting me when I was in high school. Did he say anything when he kidnapped Harry?"

"He said something about his employer needing him, but he never elaborated." Danny thought for a minute.

"I have an idea as to who may be behind this, but it's just a speculation. It'll take time to investigate further, though." He led the two of them back to the entrance to the school.

"What are you going to do, Mr. Fenton?" Lancer asked as soon as they left the building.

"First I'm going home to tell my wife what happened. Then I'm going to get my son back."

"Do you have any leads as to where he might be?"

"I have one idea." Danny began walking towards his car.

"Where do you think Harry is being held?"

"In Wisconsin." Danny hopped into the car and drove away.

God, it's cramped in here, was Harry's first thought when he was sucked into the Fenton Thermos. That was Skulker who kidnapped me; I've seen him referenced to enough times in the news when they're talking about my dad. But who could he possibly be working for? And what do they want with me? I hope that this isn't some plot by a ghost to turn me against Dad. He heard a beeping noise and suddenly he was released from the cylindrical confines of the thermos. He frantically glanced around and noticed that he was in a floating blue cage. The room he was imprisoned in was bathed in darkness, so he couldn't determine its dimensions or location. The only light emanated from his cage, and this illuminated a chrome-paneled floor, which indicated that he was in a lab of some sort.

Suddenly, a series of overhead lights activated and bathed the room in a blinding white light. Harry blinked out the little dots that were swimming around his field of vision and looked around him. His previous guess had been correct; he was in a lab. There were beakers and test tubes caked with green and pink ectoplasm on the various lab tables, and on the opposite end of the room from his cage was a hexagon that contained a swirling green vortex. Harry looked up and saw a number of pipes interspersed within a layer of solid rock. I must be underground. And that has to be a Fenton Portal. But who arranged all of this?

As if in response to his question, a rather tall man exited the stairwell off to the left and entered the lab. His hair, which was slicked back in a ponytail, and his goatee were both white as snow. He was deathly pale, and his skin tone was contrasted further against his black Armani suit.

"Hello, Harry," he said in a deceptively silky voice.

"Who-who are you? Where am I? What do you want with me?"

"Shall I answer your questions in order? Very well. I am Vlad Masters, an old friend of your father and grandfather's. You are in my lab, which is located in the basement of my castle in Wisconsin. And you are here in order to take your father's place."

"Plasmius," Harry growled.

"I see your father has told you about me. In that case, there's no need for secrecy," He transformed into the blue-faced monster in a flash of black light.

"Told me who you are, yes. But he never mentioned how ugly your ghost form is!" Harry retorted. Vlad shot a pink energy blast at him, and he had to duck out of the way.

"That should teach you to hold your tongue, boy, unless you want it seared off." He cleared his throat. "Now, as I was saying, your father was supposed to join me and become my apprentice many years ago. However, he spurned my offers of power and greatness. You, on the other hand, are young and impressionable. I give you the same deal that I gave him. I can train you, teach you everything I know, and all you have to do is renounce your worthless father."

"Dude," Harry replied, "you are one seriously crazed-up fruit loop. That is never going to happen."

"You're more like Daniel than I had hoped. Very well, if you won't join me by choice, I'm sure that I can 'coerce' you." He picked up a remote control that had been laying on one of the lab tables, one that had a red button and a blue button. He pressed the red one and the cage delivered Harry a painful electric shock. Harry screamed, fell to the floor of the cage, and changed back to his human form.

"You will be given the same offer once every hour, on the hour. Consequently, you will receive a shock similar to this one should you refuse. I will have you join me, whether you want to or not." He put down the remote and flew up through the ceiling, leaving Harry alone to his thoughts.

I knew that he couldn't be trusted! He was evil all along, and all these years he's been tricking Dad into thinking that he's good. How on earth am I gonna get out of this one? I can't just phase out of this cage; knowing Plasmius, it would probably shock me if I even tried. I'm not able to transfigure into a cloud of smoke and slip in-between the bars just yet, and I can't teleport out of it. Ugh, if only I was more powerful! Wait a minute, that's it! I need more power to escape, and that's exactly what dear old Uncle Vlad is offering me. I'll pretend to accept his offer, and then try to escape once he lets me out. It's foolproof! Harry sat down in the center of his cage and waited for Vlad to come back in an hour.

"WHAT! Harry's been kidnapped by Skulker?" Sam shouted as soon as Danny told her the news. She began running around the house searching for various pieces of ghost hunting equipment and at the same time ranting about how much she would enjoy tearing apart Skulker's exo-skeleton wire by wire.

"Sam! Relax!" Danny ran over to her, grabbed her shoulders, and turned her to face him. "You don't have to go to DEFCON 5. I'm going to get Harry back, don't you worry."

"But you have no idea where to begin looking for him! He could be anywhere! For all you know, he's floating somewhere in the depths of the Ghost Zone!"

"That's not like Skulker and you know it. If anything, he would have taken Harry to his island so that he could hunt him. But I don't think that's likely."

"Why not?"

"Because Zach and Taylor were there when Skulker kidnapped him and both of them said that he was talking about how much his employer needed Harry. His employer, Sam."

"Who do you think he's working for?"

"Vlad." Sam stared at him open-mouthed.

"But I thought you decided that Vlad was good now. Why would you suspect him?"

"Several reasons. First, who else in the Ghost Zone is powerful enough to employ someone like Skulker? Second, Skulker's worked for Vlad before now. Remember when he stole those nanobots and the ecto-converter? Vlad needed those things to finish the work that he had done to the Fenton Ecto-Skeleton. I believe that Skulker is working for him again. Third, I never took Vlad up on his offer to become his apprentice. He probably thinks that I'm out of his reach by now, and so he's recruiting the next-best candidate-Harry."

"You think he thinks you're out of his reach by now?"

"Yeah. I'm too old to align myself with him by now, and I'm settled in at Axion. Wait a minute; that explains the vultures! Vlad sent them in order to test my skill at defending the labs. Based on how I did, he must have decided that I was too skilled to ever have any need to join him."

"Danny, Vlad sent those vultures about fifteen years ago, before Harry was even born. What do you think Vlad's been doing all this time?"

"I don't know, probably either biding his time until Harry's powers manifested or enjoying life with Saphira."

"That's right, they can't have children together without her disappearing! Remember what happened to the Lunch Lady?"

"Exactly. Either he's still desperate for a family or they both are. Either way, I guess cloning me isn't an option, so he wanted one of my children."

"Do you have any idea why he chose Harry and not Jaime?"

"I guess he thought that Harry resembles me more. But that's beside the point. Right now the main objective is to get Harry back!"

"Good luck, Danny." Sam gave him a quick kiss goodbye.

"I'll be back soon, Sammy." He transformed in a brilliant flash of light and zoomed out of the house.