Hey guys… Let me start off with an apology that this took so long (I won't blather on with excuses on that). But, it's finally up and school is finally done. (Everyone saw the new movie right? Awesome.) So, now that school's done (I finished my two years of Spanish… WITH A'S… that's not going to ruin my GPA! YES!) you should be seeing more of me. Late nights writing is my specialty.
So, let's get this chapter brewing!
676
"Y-You! What did you DO!" The millionaire's voice was full of bewilderment as the circle of people grew tighter around him.
"Game's up Uncle Vlad." Jazz smirked at her triumph.
"It was up a long time ago." Her brother agreed.
"Oh yes… you've stopped me from using my ghost powers… You think that makes this over?" Vlad's protests were broken off by the sound of sirens in the background.
"No, I believe that makes it over." Tucker snapped his cell shut, putting it safely away in his pocket.
All the beat man could do was narrow his eyes in anger as an officer, his gun held at the ready, slowly entered the warehouse. Surveying the scene as his partner entered behind him, the man's hold on his gun loosened slightly.
"What happened here?" He asked, blinking.
Maddie took the command, passing the beaten and bruised Danny softly off to her husband, "I believe I can answer your questions officers."
676
The clock chimed the top of the hour as the Fentons, having dropped Sam and Tucker off at their respective homes, entered their house. Jack continued to half carry his son, taking him to the sofa as Maddie continued upstairs in a search for their first-aid kit. Jazz practically fell into the seat next to her sibling, both of their eyes watching Jack as he sat in the chair opposite of them.
"I guess your mother and I have been pretty dumb, haven't we?" He asked, his face full of shame, just as Maddie walked down the stairs, first-aid kit (with the Fenton-Works logo stamped across its packaging) in hand.
"Yes." Jazz muttered, her eyes half open.
On the other hand, Danny simply shrugged, "It's not as if I didn't deserve it. I've been lying to you since the accident. I should have trusted you more in the first place."
Maddie, kneeling next to the couch began inspecting Danny's most injured arm, as carefully as any doctor would, before she began to pull out some supplies from the kit to bandage it. "We haven't been the most understanding of this Daniel." She met her son's eyes, "But," she felt a hand on her shoulder, Jack's, and paused before she continued, "We love you, with our entire beings, no matter what."
"Know that." Jack concluded.
Danny nodded, closing his eyes, "I should have known that from the beginning. I've been pretty stupid as well."
Maddie shook her head, now beginning to inspect the rest of her son's injuries gathered that day, "No Danny, you did what you thought right at the time. Got it?"
Danny nodded. "I'm sorry."
Jack ruffled his son's hair lightly, "You don't need to be son. That's what we should be saying."
The black haired teen smiled slightly, already running a hand through his hair before he caught sight of his sister out of the corner of his blue eyes, her own turquoise ones solidly shut in sleep. He stifled his own yawn, suddenly realizing how late it was.
"Maybe it's time for bed." Maddie mused, Jack already lightly picking up his daughter, being careful to not wake her. "I'll help you up the stairs Danny."
All the tired teen could do was nod in compliance.
676
The headlines were blazing the next morning, Millionaire Sent to Prison: The Story Behind the Bars, Vlad Masters: The Man You Thought You Knew, sprawled across the newspapers and tabloids.
The fans of the business icon, none could be called friends, were shocked, 'what would happen to send a man of his status behind bars?' But soon, the outlook on the court hearing and soon imprisonment of Vlad Masters became nothing more than a slow drizzle, with little information behind the case hitting the papers. Though, the true secrets of the case would always stay among six people, a strong case was made against the white haired man as many secrets of his business activities came to the surface and it was thoroughly considered one of the strangest cases in Amity history. A case that only became stranger when the man disappeared from jail in the middle of the day a week after his imprisonment.
This story was also stifled by the papers, though coverage did leak through in the local tabloid, Ghost Watch: Are They Among Us?
In the article that made her career in the tabloid business, a news reporter, Harriet Chin, happened to be visiting her old college friend the day he disappeared.
Having been utterly embarrassed out of the serious news report business, the woman's luck had suddenly changed that blistery autumn day.
Just as she left the jail, a strong gale came from behind her, catching her hat from off her head. The shim, black haired woman cured her luck, as that was her favorite hat, before, determined not to loose it, she took off after it.
The green hat, which matched so nicely with her favorite green suit, caught itself precariously on a limb of a tree located just on the jail's boundaries just as the ex-reporter came upon it. The woman reached carefully up, grabbing onto a branch and trying to shake the hat loose.
"Come on," She muttered, frustrated. Her frustrated mutterings soon turned into a cry of anger of the branch broke, sending her falling to her backside on the ground.
The woman slowly stood up, her back cracking, glaring up at the tree. Just as she was about to give the hat another try, another gust of wind came along, this one sending the hat to the ground, which she was easily able to grab before it flew too far.
But, her attention was soon taken away from her hat, and her hand send sprawling to her pocket for her camera as she viewed the jail, a floating specter, looking much like a pirate located above it. She snapped a picture, her face brightening with happiness at her surprising luck.
Just then, another ghost appeared next to the second. This one, his skull-like face encrusted with pure rage, cared with him one of the human prisoners, garbed in the orange prison jumpsuit.
"One thousand years, Masters!" The white ghost screamed, his rage filled voice echoing throughout the air.
Harriet Chin snapped another picture gleefully, her eyes wide, and one last one as the ghosts disappeared in a puff of red smoke.
"Vlad Masters is Captured by Ghosts." Harriet grinned, "They may have called my last story a 'crack-pot' but someone will listen now." She placed her camera in her pocket and her green hat securely on her head as she raced off to her car and then her home, an outline to an article already forming in her head.
676
Though her article was called the work of a 'crack-pot' in many circles, and others wondered what had happened to that young, jump start news reporter, it did catch the attention of some eyes.
Jazz walked into the Fenton home, carrying a bundle of mail. Walking into the kitchen, she threw the pile carelessly on the kitchen table, only taking with her three letters, addressed to her, from several highly ranked colleges.
The sound of the mail being thrown on the table caught the ears of the youngest Fenton, who, after quite a while of, in his opinion, too slow healing, was still not quite up to par. Having been digging around in the fridge for something to drink, he closed the door, a soda in hand, and began to shift through the mail.
Nothing caught his eyes until he spotted the last item. His eyes widened in shock, "Mom! Dad!" He shouted.
The two adults appeared instantly up from the lab. "What is it?" Jack asked, an ecto-foamer in hand.
Danny eyed the weapon wearily, "Nothing like that." He said to start off with. "But, didn't you go to college with a Harriet Chin?"
Jazz peaked her head into the kitchen, "Isn't she the one who tried to file that report on the incident at the reunion."
Maddie nodded, "But what's that got to do with anything?"
"This." Danny held up the article, a large picture of Vlad Masters plastered on the front, Harriet's three pictures from the day at the jail below them.
Maddie took the newspaper, "What does it mean?"
Danny shook his head, "Well, for one, it means Vlad isn't at the Amity Jail anymore."
His mother's face filled with confusion, "Then where is he?"
"In the ghost zone. That ghost is Walker, the prison warden."
"And how would you know that?" Jazz raised an eyebrow.
Danny's face filled with a sheepish look, "Long story?" He shrugged, only causing his sister's eyebrow to rise higher in suspicion.
"Well, does this mean anything?" Jack asked, reading over the article.
Danny shook his head, "I doubt it, but Vlad has a lot of ghost allies, he might plan something."
Jazz spoke a voice of reason, "But he's still wearing the wristbands, he can't really do anything."
Danny nodded this time, "Probably." But his voice was unsure.
"If something happens, then it'll happen. Just remember, he's gone for now, and for this moment, he's this… Walker's… problem." Maddie's tone was one of reassurance and finality as she turned, grabbing the ecto-foamer from Jack and beginning her way down to the lab, her husband on her heels.
"Just don't worry about it let ghost problems stick with the full ghosts for now, you still need to heal." Jazz said over her letters.
"I guess," Danny grabbed his soda, sitting on the couch, though his tone was not all that sure.
676
I believe this is the last chapter. Yes. Well… no… There's a sequel… If that wasn't totally obvious. (Can't leave those last few strings untied!)
And if you notice that there seems to not be an exact "this took three weeks" in the end (when referring to Vlad's court and then jailing) this is cause it would have taken a while and I didn't want to give an EXACT date to date time line.
So now I'm going to plan the sequel… Along with a few new story ideas you might see pop up this summer.
So, usual questions apply, please comment and suggest away!
Last few hints for the sequel. It's going to be along the same lines as this one, a secret exposed. But, to whom? That's the question. So, please review this! I'll be back sooner than I was this time!
Ghost-Wolf676
