Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
Drabble #6: Envy
When Vlad Masters first met Jack Fenton in elementary school, they were both inseparable. Jack wore a bright orange shirt, and Vlad always wore that weird lab coat. Both of them were social outcasts who had a strange interest in ghosts. Other children used to make fun of them by going "Boo! It's a ghost!", dumping ectoplasmic green jello on their heads, leaving puddles of water for them to slip on, trashing their lockers, and other hurtful pranks. But both Vlad and Jack were oblivious to the other children. Neither of them cared that they were made fun of. They had each other, and that was all that counted.
Vlad and Jack were so inseparable; they both went to the same college: the University of Wisconsin. There, they were still made fun of for their unusual obsession with ghosts. Jack started wearing a bright orange jumpsuit, equipped with a ghostly weapon or two. That didn't help boost their popularity. Once at a party, a guy even dumped punch on their heads! Still, they didn't care yet. They still had each other.
Then, midway through freshman year, they met Maddie.
Maddie was an intelligent woman who shared Jack and Vlad's odd obsession with ghosts. She was accepted into their little circle immediately. Together they started to construct a prototype of a portal into the Ghost Zone.
All three of them were laughed at now; especially for believing in the outrageous tales about a zone where all of the ghosts dwelled. None of them cared yet.
Then, one day things changed. Vlad slowly began to fall in love with Maddie. Unbeknownst to him, Jack was also developing feelings for Maddie. Maddie, in turn, was falling for Jack.
A wedge was slowly being driven between the once inseparable friends.
Vlad began to act different around Maddie. He became more aware of the other students' behavior around him and Jack. Vlad slowly became more and more self conscious of himself; while he also noticed that Jack was just as oblivious as before.
He noticed that Maddie was falling in love with someone else.She seemed to be getting closer to Jack. Vlad wrote it off as two friends getting closer together. They were probably working on the portal some more.
Vlad was going to tell Maddie he was in love with her the day they tested the portal in junior year. He never got around to it- an accident changed his life forever on that day.
A notice had been posted on the bulliten board that day. No one else came but him, Jack and Maddie.
They had almost gotten the portal to work. It would have been perfect. Then Jack dumped in diet cola instead of the Ecto-Filtrator. Vlad was inspecting the portal, as he had doubts about it working. Jack just had to press that cursed "On" button at that moment, so the ghost energy hit Vlad right in the face; leaving a horrible case of ecto-acne. It also turned his hair from jet black to snow white.
Vlad was hospitalized for years. His social life went downhill- he had nobody. While he was in the hospital, he developed a grudge against his once-friend Jack Fenton. Worst of all, he heard that Jack had married Maddie. It should have been him who married her. Not Jack Fenton. Life was unfair.
He realized that he gained ghost powers in the accident. Vlad used them to his own gain- stealing his first million, overshadowing business giants to make them sell him their companies, and building his own portal to the Ghost Zone. He was going to rule the Ghost Zone, master his powers, and then come back and kill the bumbling idiot named Jack Fenton.
Jack still thought that he and Vlad were "old college buddies." That could make his revenge a bit easier.
Years later, during the college reunion, Vlad had the perfect revenge plan. He was going to overshadow Jack and control his behavior. He would make him leave Maddie. Life for Vlad would be perfect.
Vlad never expected to see the "ghost boy who uses his powers for good" at the reunion. He never in a million years would have guessed that the ghost boy was in reality Daniel Fenton, son of Maddie and Jack Fenton. He was another half-ghost half-human hybid created by his foolishness.
Young Daniel would have been the perfect apprentice. If only he would renounce his idiot father! But no, he stuck with his family. He would have to try to get Daniel to work with him. Vlad's hatred for Jack deepened.
Jack Fenton seemed to have everything going for him. He had a beautiful and intelligent wife, a brilliant daughter, and a half-ghost son. Jack was happy being a ghost hunter in Amity Park. Vlad was also a half ghost, but he lived in a lonely castle in Wisconsin. The love of his life had married Jack. He had no family or friends; instead ghostly allies.
Daniel had suggested that he should get a cat a few times. It was starting to get annoying- he didn't want a cat skulking around his Wisconsin castle!
After all of the years of musing on his hatred for Jack Fenton, he always thought it was because of the ghost portal incident and stealing his true love away. Yet he hated that big oaf even more when he found out that he had a half-ghost son. Vlad had never dwelled on that before.
Now, he wondered if it was envy. He doubted it for a minute. He, Vlad Masters, being jealous of that bumbling idiot? Never in a million years!
But Jack had everything Vlad did not. Money could not buy happiness. Deep down inside, Vlad Masters was the unhappiest millionaire a person could know.
Vlad guessed it was envy after all.
He just wouldn't tell anyone that little detail. Especially not Daniel.
A/N: I wanted to write a drabble about Vlad and his jealousy of Jack. Really, if the Ghost Portal incident had never happened, and Vlad had fallen in love with someone who loved him back, would he hate Jack half as much as he did today? Well, R&R and tell me what you think! Constructive criticism is accepted.