Chapter Seven- Scheme

A crash, that shook the house. Followed by another that had everyone tumbling over each other but then they heard a voice.

"Trouver la 'Madeleine Modulator', il est un élément clé de mon plan." Everyone raced downstairs, two key things driving them on: testing Vlad's theory and figuring out who was raiding Fenton Works without getting blasted by lasers. They had two percent of a clue, their adversary spoke French but they stopped at the direct bottom of the stairs because... Everything was encased in ice. From the stations to the cages to the ceiling, everything encased in a sub-zero shell. Spikes stuck up here and there but the main attraction was the multiple Daniel's roaming the floor and freezing it in their wake. They tore open closets and flooring plus cases and cells looking for the object of their leader's desire. Speaking of... Danny had gotten an upgrade. His outfit now consisted of a piercing silver-blue coat with a furred collar, his usual outfit had survived the change but he now had a blue-black mask covering the lower part of his face covered in frost while his eyes glowed a pure electric blue. Ice shards floated up from his back in an angel wing- like design plus upon his snowy white hair rested a black crown made of ice spikes. He stood in the center of the lab, not really standing but floating staring blankly at the back wall.

"Um... Danny?" The ghost turned to her and locked eyes till finally he spoke... In French.

"Lady Jasmine, heureux de voir que vous êtes bien, tu me manques tellement. " Jazz was lost to what he said but was more amazed by his transformation. He was so calm and formal plus that trench coat kicked ass.

"GET OUT OUR LAB, YOU SPECTRAL ICE CUBE!" Maddie yelled and pulled out an ecto-gun, she shot at the icy spectre that she refused to believe was her son. She refused to truly acknowledge the possibility of her son being Phantom because that would mean accepting the fact she nearly hurt her own child for the sake of her science. Danny rolled his eyes as the shots fizzled upon contact with his power, he turned away but one sentence left his lips.

"S'il vous plaît ne me fais pas de vous blesser, mère." He claimed quietly. "Je ne veux pas me battre, un être cher. "

"NO ONE CAN UNDERSTAND YOU, GHOST! " She took another shot only to have her aim knocked off... By Vlad. Maddie had no clue who she was picking a fight with, Daniel was now a god, he could freeze her inside out if he so choose. His power was beyond any mediocre anti-ghost weaponry, and it was going to take an exponential amount more to defeat him.

"He said 'he doesn't want to fight,'! Those damn guns won't do a single thing but piss him off!" Vlad held back Maddie but gave Danny a level glare.

" Il a raison, mère, tu serais un fou pour ramasser un combat que vous perdez sur instantanée." At this comment a clone approached the prince and tugged gently on his coat.

" Seigneur Phantom, est-ce que vous vouliez? " He pointed to two more clones who held up the Maddie Modulator.

"What on earth would you want with THAT?! " Roared Jack as he pulled out the Fenton Nine-tails. No one could tell but underneath his mask, Danny had a smug smile on his face.

"Voilà pour moi de savoir et de connaître, au revoir." The Ice Prince made to take his leave but he was stopped by Vlad.

"What are you doing, Daniel?!" He snarled.

"Vivre dans la misère, se faire harceler par un jour vieux, même vieux Fruitloop. "

"You know good and dammit well, what I meant. " The billionaire shifted into Plasmius and floated up to him, yoking him up by his collar, the fourteen year old tyrant just glared back unimpressed.

"Souhaitez-vous pas savoir?" Vlad just took in that cold yet innocent glare remembering all his jealousy and love for the little snow demon, what had made him this way. "Si vous avez terminé, je vous suggère de sauvegarder sur moi."

"Since when do I listen to you?"

"Depuis que." At his retort a set of powerful and deadly jaws locked on to Vlad's sides and yanked him away from Danny who grinned darkly under his mask. Vlad looked up only to cringe in fear as he came face to face with a giant ice cobra, same went for the Fenton's who found themselves surrounded by clones. Jack and Maddie started shooting while Vlad fought off the snake. Danny watched the mayhem before FINALLY taking his leave.

"Nous avons ce que nous sommes venus, nous allons partir." Him and ice army marched off into the portal, Maddie Modulator in tow.

After thirty minutes of fighting with clones and a giant ice cobra, the creatures dissolved leaving Vlad and the Fenton's with ever churning thoughts of Phantom and his power but also his coldness— irony. Especially Masters, when he pulled that face near his own all he saw within those gorgeous aqua green eyes was emptiness like the boy had lost his entire soul. Not an ounce of humanity remained and the little that had possibly survived was locked away in his shattered yet frozen heart... The boy had had enough and now he was looking for revenge. As of now everyone sat in the living room musing over what they had just encountered while the blizzard continued to rage on outside but not as bad as it once was. They all sat in silence till...

"I killed him." Everyone looked to Vlad as the strange words left his lips. Jazz moved closer at the distraught confession.

"What are you talking about? "

"I. Killed. Your brother. " Jack and Maddie just scoffed but listened intently as Vlad went on his mild rant. "I looked into his eyes, they were... Soulless, just dead. He was half-dead to begin with but~ I just gave him a shove over the edge. I gave him incentive to just lose it. You should've seen his eyes, the brightness that they once held was gone plus his skin alone nearly gave me frostbite. Phantom is literally the embodiment of cold and now, the whole world is on his hit list."

"What we need to do is~ Gather up everybody and come up with a plan to get Danny back and stop whatever he's planning." She claimed while patting his leg. "Because if he stole from his own family, he's willing to do anything to accomplish his goal that includes—!" Her lecture was cut by a news report.

"This just in. We have received word that in the midst of this great storm several disappearances have been reported. Not just any disappearances, famous deejays have been kidnapped from all over the globe. The electronic-rock deejay, Skrillex, the French-house and Electronic Disco duo, Daft Punk, the Russian star behind Foxes'music video 'Clarity', Zedd plus the notorious Tiesto, 'Bass Cannon' maker, Flux Pavilion and Canadian Electronic-rock deejay Deadmau5. " Everyone gasped but Jazz started a series of calculations in her head along with Vlad, the next part of what the reporter said sealed the deal. "The most recent kidnapping, Deadmau5 was luckily enough caught on camera." At this a video appeared on screen, showing a man who looked similar to Vlad at the end of a hallway while Deadmau5 walked slowly towards him then... BAM! Two of his soldiers appeared, grabbed the deejay's shoulders and then they disappeared in a gust of ice. "No ransom has been demanded but the police request all assistance. " All at once the door was banged on and then everyone heard:

"YO! MR. FENTON, WE GOTTA TALK TO YOU, MANE! OPEN UP! " Tucker. Vlad moved and answered it only to be hit with two teenage glares as Sam and Tucker bulldozed pass him to enter the house.

"What is HE doing here?! " Sam demanded. "You guys know this whole thing is his fault, right? " Jack and Maddie were silent as the Goth went on with her rant about Plasmius, who pretended like he didn't hear and watched the storm. All his thoughts were focused on what he would do if Daniel was possibly stopped... He'd hug him. Rant sweet nothings in his ear while letting him shed years worth of tears, even if the cold that would accompany the tears left him crippled and frostbitten, he wouldn't let go. He would apologize over and over for his petty schemes and hatred that had caused his downfall till the boy was dizzy with forgiveness and elation. Finally Vlad tuned back in on Sam who was in the midst of running down to Jack and Maddie every heinous crime he had committed against Danny.

"JUST SHUT UP WILL YOU?! " He hollered, eyes smoldering a dark mahgony at the child. "I get it! I've done unspeakable things unto you and Daniel, okay?! The word 'forgiveness' shouldn't even exist when it comes to the things I've done to you all! But right now, we're in this together whether we like it or not! It's on us to help each other survive and stop Daniel before the boy does something horrific! Now are you done belittling me or do you want to WASTE what precious little time we have left on past wrongs instead of stopping your transcended- god- best friend? " At that everyone realized how truly guilty, Vlad was for his sins as he meandered toward the lab— the snake had done a number on his side—plus the fact he was right. Instead of focusing on hating him they should be putting their energy into defeating Danny, who was to blame for the ruinous blizzard outside. As everyone else mused over Vlad's words, Tucker had a enough conniption to follow Vlad down into the lab.

"What's a transcended? " Tucker asked. Vlad turned to the geek as he looked over the Fenton's ghost files which didn't contain much.

"A transcended. Is a ghost who has given up their humanity and physical form to go into a higher state of power. "

"What like super saiyan or somethin?" The geek asked as he took a tentative seat beside Plasmius. "Like King status?"

"God, more like. Daniel's psychotic break triggered his latent cryokinetic abilities and his emotions just unleashed his transcendence. According to what I've found it's never happened before in the Ghost Zone." Vlad mused while working on finding other cases of transcendence. "Everything, Daniel now touches is sacred and-or cursed. His power increases with each passing minute, no known ghost has ever achieved such a state of pure omniscience. No rules, no morals, no emotion just~!"

"Evil. "

"Blunt but fair. Considering the fact that once transcendence had been activated, a ghost can't revert to back to their original form."

"So Danny's stuck like this? "

"Morbidly so..." Vlad confirmed, he typed in 'Danny Phantom'in the Fenton ghost-files only to find two files, one created by Maddie the other by Jack... He picked Maddie's, she won by default for several reasons other than his old love for her. Her file on the elusive Ghost-child was extensive yet blind, she had tracked the ghoul to his top three haunts: Casper High, Nasty Burger and the Fenton household. She even had a record of his powers– ghostly basics: intangibility/invisibility , ghost ray, spectral resonance, over- shadowing, teleporting plus his secondary skills: ghostly wail, the cryokinesis. But her log entries on the Ghost-child were what pulled it all together.

[Log Entry #161:

What is it with Phantom? He's so ~so ~ HUMAN! It's makes no logical sense in all information I've gathered about ghosts plus... He reminds me of Danny but to be honest... Lately I've been thinking... He might just be Danny.] Vlad was appalled at the confession but read on:

[ I reviewed my facts and crossed all my t's, he's got to be Phantom. There's no way he can't be him. Danny comes home each and every day with new injures or scratches. I've asked around and have come to learn that Phantom favors only those who Danny favors plus the fact he disappears everytime there's a ghost attack. I need the perfect trap one where I could use an innocent and get Phantom to expose his guard, the perfect shot.]