Hello, and thank you for your reviews. I always enjoy reading them.

Anyone have any guesses as to who the rooms were for? I think most of them are kind of obvious, but I'd like your take on them.

Also: I posted a one-shot late last night. It's short, but if you like this, you'll probably like it as well.

Shameless self-promotion over. On with the story!

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Chapter 30: Authority

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Maddie yanked the knife out of Phantom's shoulder, and started to bring it down for another blow, but he seized her wrist, and held it up in the air. Then he smiled, revealing a double row of razor sharp, white teeth, his eyes crinkling into luminous slits.

Maddie knew then, as a viscous green drop slid of the tip of the knife, and Phantom grinned up at her, that she had made a terrible mistake.

Then her feet were swept out from under her, and Phantom had her pinned on the floor. He slammed her hand against the floor, hard, and the knife slipped from her grasp, as she cried out.

"That wasn't very nice," said Phantom, his voice echoing, amusement underlying every syllable.

"What do you want, Phantom?" hissed Maddie.

Phantom blinked, the smiled slipping off his face. "You really can't tell, can you?" he said, words dripping with disdain. "You can't tell at all." He leaned in, so that his lips were almost touching her ear. "And you call yourself a mother."

Maddie braced herself for what she knew must be coming.

But her shout had been more than loud enough to draw attention. Mr Lancer was up and leaning over the counter, gaping at the scene.

"Phantom?" whispered Mr Lancer. "But-"

Phantom looked up at Mr Lancer, and Maddie could see the edge of an angelic smile. "No," he said. "But I understand your confusion." He released Maddie and stood up, smoothly, all in one motion. "I would say to call me Shadow, but that name has been taken for a while." He looked back down at Maddie. "Ah, yes," he cooed. "You're starting to understand now. This is your fault."

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There hadn't been anything wrong with Danny that Sam and Tucker could directly see, so they had simply opted for making him as comfortable as possible. They had just finished tucking him in when they heard Maddie shout. They exchanged a look, shoved the first-aid kit under the bed before rushing out.

They reached the large, common room, and stopped dead. Standing in the kitchen, was someone who looked an awful lot like Danny.

Like- But not quite.

The person had white hair, and ghost-green eyes, and his facial features were the same as Danny's, but there were a number of small differences. He was just a little too tall. His mouth was just a bit too wide, the teeth a little too long, too sharp. His hair was a touch too long, too wild, brushed up at odd angles. His ears were longer, more pointed, than Danny's ever were. More expressive, too, if the way they pricked when Sam and Tucker entered the room was any indication. His weren't Danny's eyes either. His iris were flat, uniform in both color and shade, unlike Danny's, which, despite being perpetually obscured by a moving swirl of ectoplasm, retained the variety and depth of his human eyes. More tellingly, his eyes were not shadowed by lack of sleep, as Danny's always were.

This was not to mention his clothes.

They weren't entirely dissimilar to what Danny was wearing. But that was the point. Danny Fenton was the one who wore hoodies and jeans. Not Phantom. But this person, he was wearing a black zip-up hoodie, a pair of faded black jeans, a white t-shirt, and finger-less black gloves.

Nevertheless, he smiled as soon as he saw them, and, despite the teeth, his smile was so like Danny's that Sam had to stop and reassess the situation.

Of course, she didn't have time for that. Maddie's shout had attracted more than the two of them, and she, as always, shot first. The white-haired boy dodged Valerie's shot easily, his eye-roll visible even from across the room. The blast hit the shelves behind him, scattering plates and bowls in every direction. The boy half turned to look at the mess, and sighed heavily before vanishing from sight.

Valerie had started to lower her gun, when the boy reappeared in front of her. He swept the gun from her hands, disappeared, and then became visible once again behind her, kicking the back of her leg and grabbing her hair, forcing her to her knees and to look up at him.

"I don't understand you, Valerie Grey," he said. Leaning down to look into her eyes directly. "You were offered such a simple bargain, and he gave you as much as he could. He would help you get home, he gave you back your weapon," he twirled the blaster around in his hand for emphasis, "and all you had to do was not tell the Fentons about the relationship between him and their child, and not shoot people for no reason. For the first part, you went back on your word as soon as it was possible to do so, for the second, curse you, it hasn't even been a day yet. Why? Was his word not good enough for you, when he has always kept it before?"

"You-" said Valerie, gasping. "You aren't Phanto- ouch!"

"Faster than her." He jerked his head towards Maddie dismissively, even as he twisted Valerie's hair. "Answer me."

"You hurt Mrs Fenton, that's not no reason, Phantom."

"She stabbed me. What was I supposed to do? Shake her hand? When it still holds the knife? Even Phantom would not be so quick to forgive. You certainly aren't. The real reason if you would."

"As if I would keep a promise with someone who was possessing my friend!"

The boy laughed coldly. "Your friend. You haven't been much of a friend to to him, now have you? Abandoning him, for what? So that you could hunt ghosts?" Valerie opened her mouth to protest, but the boy yanked her hair, viciously. "Don't try to tell me it was to protect him from the ghosts, Red. His parents," the boy spat the word like it was poison, "are hunters. Don't be so conceited, so arrogant, as to say that your choice made any difference, except that after it you could say that you weren't responsible for what happened to him."

"I didn't-"

"He thought you were changing, you know," interrupted the boy. "After Danielle. He would have gone through with it. He was going through with it. He thought you were starting to understand, when you let him go. I guess he was wrong," concluded the boy sadly. He vanished again, and this time he didn't reappear.

Valerie got to her feet, unsteadily.

"Ohmigosh," said Star into the silence. "Val, are you alright? Did he hurt you? That was scary!"

"No," said Valerie slowly. "No, I'm fine. Mrs Fenton-"

"I'm alright," said Mrs Fenton.

"Thank God," said Mr Lancer, his legs apparently giving out, as he slid down the side of the counters.

"Mom? Where's Dad? Shouldn't he have come out?" That was Jazz.

Maddie waved a hand. "He sleeps with earplugs in. You know that."

Sam stared at Maddie in disbelief. This was the wrong place to be doing that in.

Maddie frowned. "Where's Danny?"

"Dead asleep," said Tucker. Sam elbowed him. "Hey!"

"Like father like son, I suppose," said Maddie, rubbing her face tiredly.

"Hey," said Nathan, "Valerie-"

"I'm not going to the prom with you, Lester."

"Hey!" said Lester.

"I'm Nathan," said the other red-haired, bespectacled twin. "But that... guy. He called you 'Red.' Red, as in 'Red Huntress?'"

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The GIW propagandists worked fast. It hadn't even been a whole twenty-four hours yet, and already they had all the funding they needed, and the support of politicians from coast to coast.

What they had yet to gain: Access to the Fenton household and portal, and the approval of Mayor Vlad Masters.

Still, there was a limit to what even billionaire tech executive businessmen with political aspirations could do to block an operation meant to rescue American Children. Already, there was significant pressure on the man from all sectors. Beyond the normal political posturing that came with an event like this, many civilians were agitating for a boycott of MasterSoft and all its subsidiaries. Vlad Masters' grudge against the GIW, his anger over how they had destroyed his castle home in Wisconsin, could only go so far, surely.

Well, that's what they thought. They didn't know Vlad Masters.

(Nor did they know Vlad Plasmius.)

As content as Vlad was to make use of the rather ineffectual enforcement arm of the GIW, letting them into the Ghost Zone unsupervised would be a recipe for disaster. Besides, Daniel had disappeared with the rest of his infuriating class. Vlad had no doubt that, given enough time, the young hybrid would return all the children to Amity Park safely.

Vlad sighed deeply, examining the papers on his desk. Normally, he would try to use the incident as a way to (at long last) get Maddie and Daniel on his side, Jasmine, too, if possible, and get rid of that bumbling oaf, Jack Fenton. Normally. But with the GIW's more competent members crawling over the town, Vlad had elected to keep ecto-activity at a minimum. Especially after he saw what they had done to that animal ghost they had caught early that morning. Vlad might be a villain, he might even embrace that title in his fights with Daniel, but he had standards. Standards the GIW did not live up to.

He was beginning to seriously regret that donation he had given them. Honestly, what had he been thinking, engaging in that ridiculous prank war with Daniel? Yes, Daniel had gotten the GIW to destroy his home, but considering what their previous encounter had entailed (namely the cloning and the death threats), it was a fairly reasonable reaction, and, in hindsight, Vlad had to admit that it was a rather brilliant one. Vlad hadn't lost all of his cloning research, but he had lost most of it.

The phone on his desk rang. Vlad frowned. Not many people had this number, and usually his secretary would say something on the intercom if she was putting someone through. He picked up the phone, and said, "Vlad Masters speaking."

Then, "Governor! How lovely to hear from you. May I ask the reason for your call?"

A moment passed, and Vlad replied, "Why, that wasn't my intention at all. Of course I want all the children to be safely returned to their homes. I just don't think that the agents of the Group for Inter-dimensional Warfare are the people to do it."

Another moment. "Governor, you haven't seen these people in action. They cause more damage to property and to citizens than the ghosts they are supposedly catching."

Vlad sighed. "Yes, I did give them funding, but that was before I knew. Please, don't make the same mistake I did."

This was not enough. "As I said, I do want all affected persons back in Amity Park." With the exception of Jack Fenton, but the governor didn't need to know that. "I would just be more comfortable if, say, the members of the army, or the National Guard were being sent."

A sigh. "Yes, teaching them how to use the equipment would take time, but-"

Vlad clenched his jaw. "No. I understand perfectly, governor. I will take all appropriate actions to accelerate the process."

The wood at the edge of Vlad's desk creaked ominously under his fingers. "Yes. I will tell the police to remove themselves from the Fenton residence."

More creaking. "Yes. Thank you, governor. I wish you all the luck you deserve in the upcoming election. Good day."

Vlad carefully placed the receiver back into its cradle, and unwrapped the fingers of his other hand from around the edge of the desk. He breathed out heavily through his nose. The governor would get what was coming to him. No one crossed Vlad Masters.