The Past is Present

Chapter 5: Unfortunate Mishaps


"Man, we gotta find some other way outta school if this keeps happening," Danny said, catching his breath.

"Uh huh," Tucker nodded, also panting for breath, leaning over. "How bout...we just go t...through the wall...next time..." he suggested.

"You're kidding right?" Sam scoffed, not at all out of breath after their long run from the school to escape from Danny new, adoring fans. "We'd be seen. Then he'd just be even more famous," she explained.

"Good...point," Danny agreed. "Y...y'sure the coast's clear now?" he asked her.

"Yep," Sam replied, "I checked, y'know, while you were both dying in the corner over there."

"Not funny, Sam."

"I think it is. I'm in better shape than both of you put together and I eat twice as much pizza as you do," she replied, smugly.

"So unfair," Tucker glared at her.

"You'd think ghost powers'd help," Danny grumbled.

"Nope," she said, just as smugly. "So, what now? Scope out Plasmius and find out what he's really up to?"

"Well..." Danny pursed his lip.

"Oh, come on Danny, you know he's up to no good!"

"Technically, all we know is he told the ghosts to lay off," Tucker pointed out.

"Who's side are you on?" she demanded.

"The side that's building a new mini mall and a huge new pizza place," he said.

"He's got a point...not about the pizza place, I mean. But all Frostbite said was that Vlad told the ghosts to leave me alone," Danny said.

"But you do think he's up to something?"

"...I...don't know," the young hybrid sighed, "I hope not."

"So, we're scoping Plasmius out?" Sam asked, "Right?"

"No...not yet," Danny said. "I don't think we should."

"Fine," she shrugged. "But when we find out his evil plan, I'm gonna say 'I told you so'," she said.

"Great."

"You can at least go visit the guy, right? I mean, you're his favourite godson and all and...well, if you happen to ask him if he's planning anything..." Tucker shrugged.

"Uh huh, that'll go down well. 'Oh, hey unkie Vlad, great to see you, oh and by the way, are you plotting anything lately?' Sure, right Tuck, great plan."

"Just to see the look on his face? Oh yeah, it'd be worth it," Sam snorted.

"Why can't you just give the guy a chance?" Danny all but begged his friends.

"Erm...hello?! Because all he's ever done is try to kill you!" Sam exclaimed.

"Or make you his creepy apprentice thing," Tucker said.

"And kill your dad," Sam added.

"And..."

"Okay, okay, just...stop..." Danny sighed. "Look...he's...trying, okay? That means something. It has to."

"Says who?" Sam asked, crossing her arms.

"Says me, the other other half ghost in the world!" he cried. "I know...Vlad's done a lot of bad stuff but he's really, really trying now, okay. Can you please just..."

"We're just looking out for you Danny. We're your friends," she told him.

"I know, Sam," Danny nodded. "And thanks. But when...if...it all blows up in my face then I promise you can say 'I told you so' a million times if you want. I just...really want this...truce or whatever it is...to work."

"Fine," Sam held up her arms in surrender. "But...y'know, Tucker's right. Y'can at least pay a visit to your friendly neighbourhood Plasmius to say 'hey' right? I mean, now that you're best pals and everything. Just to be sure, right?"

"Not like you can go out anywhere else without being mobbed anyway," Tucker said, "Might as well."

"Okay, okay," Danny grumbled, "Guess you're right."

"Great," Sam said, pulling a small ecto gun from her backpack. "Bout time I took this baby for a spin," she grinned.

"You err...always carry that thing round with you?" Tucker asked, nervously.

"Duh," Sam stared at them.


The building in town that Vlad was currently using as his business headquarters was colossal. It was the largest office skyscraper in the city and as of today, as had been shown on the news report, it now had the words 'Vlad Co' in giant letters emblazoned on it.

"Yup, that's Vlad," Danny declared, staring up at it in disbelief.

"Subtle as a floating, purple football in the Ghost Zone," Sam nodded.

"Better than X marks the spot, huh?" Tucker snorted.

"Makes our job easier," Sam shrugged, "Come on."


The ground floor of the building was busy with people walking quickly past them and taking, far too occupied to notice three teenagers walk in. Except for Vlad was who standing across the large open space talking to several other people. Vlad stopped when he saw them and he dismissed the well dressed business men and women to walk over to them.

"Daniel? What are you doing here?" Vlad asked them.

"Err...we err...came to say hi...err...hi," Danny stammered and gave a sheepish wave while his friends literally face palmed, behind him.

"At my office?" the older hybrid blinked.

"Uh huh."

"Without warning?"

"Err...d'you need a warning to say 'hi'?"

"I'm a very busy man, I'd have appreciated a phone call."

"Err..sorry."

"Did you need something?"

"Not really, no."

"You just...decided to...drop in?" Vlad raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you did," Danny retorted.

"Hmmm," Vlad hummed and turned his attention from Danny to the hostile looking Sam who had done nothing but glare at him. "And you brought your entourage," he drawled.

"My what?"

"Hey, we're nobody's entourage, Plasmius," Sam declared.

"Keep your voice down, girl," Vlad glared back at her.

"Why?" Sam asked. "Scared we're gonna embarrass you in front of your evil friends? Did we interrupt some top secret, evil meeting or something?"

"No, actually you're a little early, that's not scheduled until five thirty," Vlad replied, just as sarcastically. "Well, you're here now, we might as well be comfortable while you accuse me of plotting my next scheme, come along," he said, turning and walking away.

He led them to an elevator, then when they were all inside he pressed a button for the top floor and the doors closed behind them.

"Top floor?" Danny noticed.

"I own the building, the best views are mine," Vlad shrugged.

The elevator moved smoothly and the numbers on the screen showed that they were moving quite quickly until it began to falter and shake.

"What's up with that?" Danny asked, staring at the display right before the elevator began to shake even more violently. Danny fell hard against the wall and then he was thrown onto the floor, falling among his two friends who had fallen as well. After a moment it became still again but there was an eerie sounding screech from above.

"Get off'a me, dude!" Tucker exclaimed.

"Sorry, Tuck," Danny winced, moving his shoulder tentatively making sure that it wasn't too badly hurt from where he'd landed.

"Yeah, great, now how 'bout you get off'a me!" Sam grimaced. Tucker had fell over her right leg and he quickly pushed himself up. "You gotta lay off the pies, y'know," she remarked.

"Hey!"

Vlad was leaning with his back against the far wall, a hand at his head. He hissed and moved his hand away hand away hastily. He'd landed hard on the floor as the three teenagers had and unfortunately, he'd managed to hit his head in the process.

"What happened?" Danny asked, him noticing that Vlad was slumped on the floor, grumbling to himself. "You okay?"

"Fine," Vlad snapped.

The elevator shook again and the lights went out, throwing them into darkness, well, except for Vlad who could see in the dark without any light.

"You gotta be kidding me," Sam grumbled.

"Hey, who turned out the lights, man?" Tucker said.

"Vlad?" Danny said, looking around in vain as he, unlike Vlad, couldn't see in the dark.

"Just a sec...got it," Tucker mumbled and suddenly a light from his PDA illuminated the confined space.

Vlad stood up and then jabbed at the buttons for an emergency intercom with more force than was probably necessary.

"Hello?" a bored sounding voice answered.

"This is your CEO, now tell me why on Earth I'm trapped in a broken elevator when I ordered that they all be checked?!"

"Err...Mr. Masters, sir...we err...a broken elevator, sir? They were checked, sir...several times like you said sir..."

"Then check your systems and take a look at number three elevator from the ground floor!" Vlad snapped.

There was a few seconds of furious tying before the voice spoke again. "Oh...erm...well, sir...we'll send tech out...at once, sir."

"You do that. Or send someone to pry this door open!"

"Yes sir!"

"Why don't we just..." Danny asked quietly and waved his hand at the doors.

Vlad pointed up at a corner of the roof to a camera.

"Oh..."

"But it's dark, no one'd see, right?" Tucker typed on his PDA and turned to Vlad, away from the camera.

Vlad read it and replied, "It's a military grade piece of equipment. It can see in the dark just as well as I can. It doesn't record sound however, so thankfully we don't have to have a conversation on that thing."

"Overkill much?" Sam scoffed, looking up at the camera.

"I've found one can never be too careful," Vlad shrugged and leaned back against the wall.

"So...we're stuck in here?" Danny said, sighing.

"For the moment," Vlad replied.

"Great," the teenager mumbled. "Y'know, I did just come by to say 'hey'."

"Well, hello, Daniel, how lovely to see you," Vlad said, sarcastically.

"Uh huh."

"Does this count as spending quality time together, do you suppose?" Vlad drawled.

"Sure, it's right up there on the 'how to spend quality time with people' list. Get stuck in a tin can with my friends and my ex arch enemy slash godfather. Yup," Danny nodded.

"Somehow I doubt the validity of that list of yours," the older hybrid remarked.

"Wonder why," Sam commented and Vlad raised an eyebrow at her. "How do we know you didn't plan this?" she couldn't help but ask but to her surprise, Vlad smiled.

"Yes," he grinned. "I orchestrated an elevator malfunction and locked myself in here with the three of you as part of my evil scheme. What will I think of next?"

"Is it me or is he creepier when he smiles?" Sam muttered.

"You don't like me very much, do you, girl?" he remarked.

"First of all, my name is Sam, not girl. And secondly, no I don't," she replied.

"Well, then it will come as no surprise to you that I don't much like you either. I find you obnoxious and rude. Not to mention; garishly dressed. Your parents are just as bad you know, but at least they attempt civility."

"Hey! No one insults my parents, that's my job!" she yelled at him.

"Vlad, maybe...errr...wait, how'd you know Sam's parents?" Danny asked.

"Please," Vlad scoffed, "They're some of the wealthiest people in the area, of course I know them. The bottom line, Miss. Manson is that I don't enjoy speaking to you, I don't care for you in the slightest and I really don't want to have anything at all to do with you. I'd rather you move to Outer Mongolia so I'd be spared from speaking to you. Why on earth would I willingly trap myself here in an elevator with you in it?"

"Fair point," Tucker shrugged and Sam nudged him in the arm.

"The same goes for you too," Vlad told Tucker.

"Hey!"

"Though I suppose you occasionally have your uses."

"Errr...I do?"

"That stunt you pulled with Skulker a while ago," Vlad remarked. "The purple back gorilla," he reminded them when they looked at him, confused. "Skulker was begging me for months to fix that PDA of yours that he stole," he explained.

"Yeah, that was pretty funny," Danny scoffed.

"I left that little feature in it, you know," Vlad remarked. "He doesn't know. I was waiting until I was bored enough to use it. It's still in his suit."

"Seriously?!' Tucker exclaimed.

"Mr. Masters, sir?" the same timid, and now afraid voice spoke from the intercom suddenly.

"What?" Vlad snapped.

"Erm...well, sir..."

"Unless you're going to tell me you're fixing the issue as we speak, you might want to start looking for another job."

"Vlad," Danny scowled at him.

"I'm sorry, sir...but...the power's out, sir and we're trying to fix it...but it's gonna take time and..."

"How much time?" Vlad demanded.

"Well...we...erm..."

"You've no idea, do you?"

"No...sir."

"Splendid," Vlad groaned.

"I think we've fixed the lights though, sir, they should be back on any second."

Just as the man finished speaking the overhead lights did indeed come back on and Tucker put away his trusty PDA.

"Now, where's Elena?" Vlad demanded.

"She's on her way sir, she had to take the stairs, all the elevators are out, not just yours."

"Is anyone else trapped in them?" Vlad asked.

"No, sir."

"At least we won't have a lawsuit on our hands, then."

"All right, I'm here, now what's going on?" the confident voice of a young woman spoke.

"Finally, some sanity," Vlad muttered. "Elena, tell me you have some good news," he demanded of his long suffering assistant.

"Afraid not, sir. Looks like there's a power outage, half of the city is down. Luckily the intercom in the elevators runs on a generator."

"Yes, I'm thanking my lucky stars as we speak. I suppose the security cameras are still working?"

"Of course, sir. You had us put those on back up too. Why?" she answered, confused.

"Just wondering," he said, pursing his lip and cursing his own forethought.

"Well, the generators won't be enough to get the elevator going again and you're stuck between floors so we can't get the doors open for you. We've got people trying to get it moving but I can't give you an exact time, sir."

"Wonderful," he rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, sir, I'll let you know if something happens," Elena replied.

"Mmmm," Vlad grumbled and the intercom went silent.

"Can't you just use your powers and get us out? Couldn't I?" Danny asked him.

"Do you want to risk being seen...and being filmed using those powers? Because I don't. I've already worked hard enough to keep my secret and I'm not prepared to risk being turned into a lab rat again simply to escape from this tin can. But if that's what you want, then by all means," Vlad waved a dismissive hand at him.

"Okay, fine, no ghost powers," Danny sighed.

"If you didn't have super sonic cameras we could've just phased through the door," Sam remarked.

"Ah, there we go. Of course it has to be my fault," Vlad said, haughtily.

"Well, it is your building," Tucker added.

"Didn't you just hear the fool on the other end of the line? There's a power outage in the city. I can hardly be blamed for that."

"He's got a point, guys," the young hybrid said.

Vlad glared at Sam and Tucker smugly for a moment, almost childishly before the expression vanished. "Sooo...what're we supposed to do now?" Danny pondered.

"If you suggest 'eye spy' I fear I'll revert to old ways and throttle you with your own shoe laces," Vlad snapped.

"Ooooookay, no 'eye spy'. Geez, y'play one game with a guy and you're hating on it for life," Danny said, dramatically.

"I dunno, Danny, you Fenton's play a weird game of 'eye spy' sometimes," Sam said, dryly.

"So, what'd you wanna do?!" Danny threw up his arms.

"Hey, how 'bout some tunes? I got the new Humpty Dumpty album on here," Tucker said. He took out his PDA again and played the music very loudly.

"All right!" Danny and Sam grinned, happily.

"Turn that off!" Vlad groaned.

"Why? Humpty Dumpty rules!" Danny said, playing along to the guitar solo.

Vlad growled in frustration and turned away from them as best he could. It was a fairly large elevator all things considered but it still didn't afford him much room with the three of them huddled in one corner and him sitting across from them.

"My hearing is far superior to yours. I realise that your friends still think this is somehow my fault, but I'd appreciate you not drilling a hole through my skull!" Vlad hissed at them. His head was still aching from the impact earlier and usually he'd be able to drown out the noise of their ridiculously loud music, but it was difficult when he was distracted by the headache and his own mounting frustration.

"You play loud music all the time," Danny noted, remembering from when he and his sister had stayed with Vlad at his castle recently.

"Not when I already have a headache, I don't," Vlad snapped, quietly.

"Oh...err...sorry, why didn't you say so. Guys...maybe turn it off a bit," he said to his friends.

"Seriously?" Sam and Tucker looked at him, surprised, but after a moment, they did actually turn off the music.

"You err...hit your head or something earlier?" Danny asked Vlad. "I mean, I saw you...just...didn't really think about it," he muttered, sheepishly.

"Yes, I hit my head, Daniel. And yes, now I have a headache," the man snapped.

"You hit it...like bad or...what?"

"I'll be fine. As long as you keep that racket down for a while," Vlad replied after a moment.

"Right...sorry."

"So no music, now what?" Tucker asked his friend.

From above the metal ceiling over their heads they could hear a quiet, metallic groaning sound again and it didn't sound at all reassuring.

"That can't be good," Danny muttered, looking up.

"Go take a look, Danny," Tucker told him.

"Wha...why me?"

"'Cause you're the kid with ghost powers."

"Didn't we just have the whole camera discussion?" Danny sighed.

"So...turn invisible..."

"Camera, Tuck!"

"So...make an invisible copy," Sam suggested.

"You guys know I can't do that yet. I still struggle with one duplicate. It only worked before 'cause I was using the Ecto-Skeleton! And I've never tried to make an invisible one before."

"I could make hundreds of duplicates if I wanted to. Invisible ones, too," Vlad said, in a quiet, smug voice.

"Great, why don't you go up there and see what's going on?" Danny grumbled.

"I've no interest in elevators. As such, I have no idea how they function. I wouldn't know what I was looking at even if I did. I could make things worse if I tried to fix anything up there."

"Huh, right, never thought of that," the teenager replied.

"How can things be worse?" Tucker bemoaned.

"We could be at the top floor for all we know," Vlad answered. "If we fall with enough distance we could break every done in our bodies...well, in your bodies, at any rate. I'd likely survive intact."

"Oookay...sorry I asked."

"Yeah...we'd rather not break all our bones," Sam snorted.

"Agreed," Danny muttered. "You could still just look, right? I mean...if something like on fire or something, that'd be bad even if we don't know how they work."

"Fine," Vlad rolled his eyes.

Reluctantly, he sent an invisible duplicate through the ceiling to hover above the elevator. It looked as though they were stuck about half way up the building with the tall, empty elevator shaft stretching out above them. The cables he saw were all intact and nothing seemed to be wrong with the gear system, although as he'd said, he knew nothing about how elevators worked. Nothing seemed obviously wrong, at least. What was causing the ominous sounding creaks and groans, Vlad couldn't say.

The duplicate returned and Vlad turned his attention back to Danny. "I didn't see any fire," he remarked, dryly. "We appear to be stuck half way up the building. None of the cables appear to be damaged. We'll simply have to wait for the power to be restored."

"You went up there already?" Danny asked, "I didn't see anything."

"I was invisible," Vlad told him as though he were talking to a simpleton.

"I mean my Ghost sense didn't go off or anything...jerk," Danny grumbled back.

"If your little Ghost sense went off every time you were around me, people would think you had hypothermia."

"It always goes off when ghosts are round."

"Perhaps subconsciously, you don't view me as a threat that you need to be warned against any longer," Vlad shrugged.

"You try'na be Jazz now? All the psychology stuff?" Danny said.

"You never thought to ask why you weren't constantly breathing out blue vapours for the fortnight you spent at my castle?"

"Not really," he admitted. "Hey, d'you have a ghost sense?" he asked.

"No."

"Really?"

"I'd be rather inconvenient. How would I explain it if during a business meeting I suddenly started breathing blue mist?"

"Yeah, and it shows up on camera," Danny said, pursing his lip.

"I did actually think about it even if you didn't. Yours only seems to work if I'm transformed. Although, why exactly, I've no idea. I have access to all of my powers even in my human state, so I'm as much of a threat to you as either a human or a ghost."

"That's reassuring," Sam muttered to Tucker.

"Huh, weird," Danny shrugged. "Probably for the best anyway, I guess. Someone'd notice it eventually," he pondered aloud. "Frostbite said it had something to with my ice powers, y'know. Guess that explains why it's blue."

"And perhaps why I don't have it," Vlad said, "My powers are based on heat, not ice."

"Hmmm," Danny hummed.

"Since were having question time and all, Danny was gonna ask you ' out something, weren't you, Danny?" Sam nudged her friend.

"I was?" the hybrid stared at her, confused.

"Yeah, you were...y'know...the thing we talked about," she said, emphasising each word carefully.

"Errr...oh...right, I don't think err...Vlad won't be interested in that," Danny muttered back to her.

"I think he would be, and I think..."

"I am still here, you know," Vlad rolled his eyes at them.

"Trust me, we know," Sam replied.

"So, Daniel, what's this question that you're so sure I won't be interested in?" Vlad asked.

"It's not important...really."

"Well, we've got the time, you might as well ask. And since it's either stare at the wall, or give you my undivided attention, you've not got much competition."

"Err...right, well...I was gonna ask...errr...y'know it's been really quiet here, no ghost attacks at all...for ages and...well, did you really tell the ghosts to leave me alone?" Danny ask, nervously.

"You asked me that before," Vlad stated.

"Yeah, great evasion tactic, by the way, Plasmius. 'A behemoth ghost is attacking, bye'," Sam said.

"It was," he replied, "And no, I had nothing to do with the lack of ghost attacks on you or this town."

"Really?" Danny asked.

"Maybe they're just bored of you," Vlad shrugged.

"Yeah, right," the teenage hybrid snorted.

"The Ghost Zone doesn't revolve around you, Daniel."

"Duh, I know that. But there's no way Skulker decided to stop hunting me. Or..."

"And you say I have an ego," Vlad said, sarcastically.

"You put your name on top of a skyscraper, dude," Tucker remarked.

"Well, it is mine," the older hybrid snapped.

"Guess it's no different from my parents writing 'Fenton' on top of our house," Danny said.

"I'm fairly certain Maddie put that there so your brainless father wouldn't get lost," Vlad said, cruelly.

"Okay, ignoring that," Danny grit his teeth, "Frostbite said..."

"Your friend Frostbite is a ghost yeti who probably has snow and ice for brains, boy. I'd hardly call him a reliable source of information."

"He knows about ice powers," Danny defended.

"Besides, he like, worships Danny," Tucker scoffed, "Why would he lie?"

"Why would I?!"

"'Cause that's what you do," Sam couldn't help but remark.

"Well, he said all the ghosts went to Dorothea's castle, maybe we should just go ask her, y'know when we get outta here," Danny suggested.

"You do that," Vlad said, crossing his arms. Before he could say anything further his phone rang in his jacket pocket and he sighed. "What now?" he grumbled as he answered it. "What?!" Vlad yelled at whoever was on the phone. "Ah, I thought, well...No, now is really not a good time, mother," he said, suddenly sounding apologetic. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you...alright, I'm stranded in an elevator with Daniel...and his friends. Are you laughing at me? It's not funny!"

Despite their best efforts, Danny and his friends burst out laughing at the indignant look on Vlad's face.

"Hi, Mrs. M!" Danny chuckled and waved unnecessarily.

Vlad dragged a hand down his face and sighed in frustration. "Yes, we really are stuck in here, of course I wasn't making it up," he told his mother over the phone. "No, I've no idea when I'll be back. I'm a little old for a curfew, don't you think?" he asked, dryly and then listen for a minute while she replied.

It wasn't quite loud enough for Danny and his friends to hear even in the confined elevator, so Danny figured he must've turned down the volume on his phone specifically so they wouldn't be able to hear it. "Well, fine, provided I get out of here before the new year rolls in, if it's that important, I'll leave straight after...What on earth is wrong? I'm not going to sit here guessing, just tell me...Fine. Yes, I'll call you," he said, and then put away his phone.

"Is your mom okay?" Danny asked.

"She wouldn't tell me what's wrong. Only that she wanted to know when I'll be returning to hotel because she wants to talk to me about something important. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I like her...she's cool," the teenager said, unabashedly. After seeing just how courageous Rosalyn Masters had been in standing up to her brutish husband, and even Vlad when he was angry, he couldn't help but respect the woman.

"I'll be sure to tell her that she has a fan club," he replied and began strumming the fingers of one hand against the metal floor of the elevator. It wasn't something he usually did and when other people did it, he found it irritating. It had been years since he'd worried about his mother like this and he wasn't quite sure how to cope with it.

"You worried?" Danny asked.

"Why would I be worried?"

"Why else would you be denting the floor," Sam replied, gesturing a little with her chin at the spot where Vlad had been tapping his finger tips rhythmically into the floor.

His fingers had indeed been leaving small dents in the hard metal and he'd not even realised it. Vlad stopped and looked at it, "Oh," he muttered. He shifted a little so that one of his legs covered the dents.

Danny turned to the buttons that Vlad had pressed before and pressed the one to contact Vlad's security team.

"Hi, erm...any chance we can get outta here soon?" he asked.

"We're working on it and...hey, who is this?" the same voice that had spoken the last few times asked.

"I'm err...Danny Fenton, I'm kinda stuck here with Vlad, I mean, your boss Vlad and he's gettin' kinda cranky, y'know..."

"Daniel!" Vlad snapped, clearly not as amused as the other two teenagers who were now giggling quietly.

"And, y'know, when he gets cranky, he kinda fires people...an' y'know I asked him not to but..."

"Ah, that won't be necessary, I swear. Honestly, I just spoke to the engineers, they're going to get the elevator working off of some generators they rigged up maybe enough to move it so we can pry the doors open and get you out."

"Oh, well cool, 'cause y'know we're kinda related and he's not to happy that on my first visit here I get stuck in an elevator and now I might never come back and he's really, reeeeeally angry that we're still stuck in here and..."

"That's enough, Daniel!"

"Y'see, dude!"

"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't realise you were related to Mr. Masters. We're doing everything we can, sir, I promise."

"Okay then...errr..carry on err, I guess," Danny said, and turned back round to his friends who laughed even more loudly now.

"Did that guy call you 'sir'?" Tucker chortled.

"What are you playing at?" Vlad demanded.

"Hey, I'm jut try'na get us outta here," Danny held up his hands.

"By terrorising my employee? Aren't you usually against that sort of thing?"

"Well...yeah but..."

"We'll make a villain of you yet, my boy," Vlad remarked.

"Don't bet on it, V-man," Danny smiled back. Although he didn't feel a little guilty about threatening Vlad's employee at least it for a moment it had distracted the man for a moment. "Hey," Danny exclaimed after a moment, "You can make electricity right?"

"In a manner of speaking."

"Can't you just, yknow, zap this thing and get it moving?"

"I'm not a battery, Daniel."

"Y'kinda are," Danny replied, "You said you can store your electricity right, so just zap the stupid thing already."

"How do I explain this to a simpleton," Vlad muttered and Danny growled at him. "If I 'zap' this elevator we'd all die. This is a perfect conductor. My electrical powers are about ten times stronger than man made electrical contraptions can handle. I still haven't made a generator powerful enough to store my power and this no can't."

"But mom and dad have stuff that we can charge up with ghost powers."

"Something would need to be specifically designed for the purpose. This elevator wasn't."

"Y'mean like the Ecto-Generator?"

"Yes. That runs off ghost ectoplasm, not ghost electricity."

"There's a difference?" Danny asked.

"Around several million volts of difference."

"Oh," Danny grumbled, "Couldn't y'just, y'know, be careful or something."

"Do you want to risk death by electrocution?" Vlad asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well...no, but I don't wanna be stuck in here all day either."

"Neither do I, but you can't always have what you want."

"Ah, come on, Vlad, just try. You wanna get outta here, don't you?"

"I just told you..."

"Well, I guess we could go back to talking about how you told all the ghosts to stop attacking..."

"Fine, I'll try," Vlad sighed, dramatically. He shoved Danny away from the section by the door with the buttons and knelt down. "Stand behind me," he told them.

"Why?" Danny asked.

"So I'm not caught on camera generating electricity," Vlad replied.

"Oh, right," the teenager blushed, embarrassed. He and his friends obscured Vlad from view of the camera and Vlad tore off a panel from the wall with one hand. It revealed a cluster of different coloured wires and cables.

"That...looks pretty complicated," Tucker remarked.

Vlad just rolled his eyes and raised his right hand. It began to crackle with purple electricity and he stared at it for a moment before the light emanating from his hand dimmed so that it was barely visible.

"Should we really be doing this? I thought you said we could get electrocuted?" Sam asked.

"You could," Vlad replied without turning to look at her.

"Not helping," Danny grumbled.

"This was your idea," the older hybrid snapped.

"Yeah but..."

Vlad tentatively moved his glowing purple hand towards the cables and then, they too began to glow ominously. At the same time, the elevator shook a little and Vlad pulled his hand away from the cables quickly.

"That's it?" Danny asked.

"I don't know, I've never done this before. Try one of the buttons, any floor," Vlad snapped.

"Right," the teenager nodded and pressed a button at random. They waited for a moment in silence but nothing happened.

"Maybe it needs more juice," Tucker shrugged.

Danny turned to Vlad expectantly and gestured back to the exposed cabling. The older hybrid sighed and when Danny and his friends moved to stand at Vlad's back again, he repeated the process.

"This is ridiculous. I keep telling you; I'm not a battery," the man grumbled while the wires began to take on the ghostly, purple glow again, this time a little brighter.

"I'll try a button again," Danny said, "Maybe keep it glowing this time."

"You're in charge now, are you?" Vlad grumbled to himself again.

Danny ignored him and stretched his arm over to once again, press one of the buttons indications one of the floors of the large building. As it had before, the elevator jostled and overhead, they could hear something whirring. Then, miraculously, they could see the numbers on the small screen start to blink to life again and then they changed as they moved between floors.

"Hey, it worked!" Danny exclaimed. "Sorry, dude, you're totally a battery," he said to Vlad.

"Fantastic," the man said and stood up. He checked to make sure that the purple glow had faded from the wires and then jabbed at the buttons again. The elevator stopped and the doors finally opened.

"Freedom!" Tucker cried, dramatically as they stepped out. "I'm never taking the elevator again. From now on, it's stairs all the way," he said.

"We're on the twentieth floor," Vlad told him.

"Oh boy," the techno geek blanched.

Vlad took out his phone and quickly dialled a number. "Elena, you can call of the inefficient rescue attempt, I fixed it myself. Yes, we're out...the twentieth floor...make it quick," he said and hung up.

Within a minute, his long suffering assistant Elena, along with a half dozen other people, mostly in workman's overalls carrying tools, all out of breath, appeared from down the corridor.

"You're late," Vlad told them.

"Sir, the powers still out, how did..." Danny recognised the voice of the man speaking. It was the voice of the man who'd spoken to them while they had been trapped in the elevator.

"I build computers for a living, of course I can fix an elevator," Vlad snapped while the three teenagers beside him snorted, laughing quietly. "Since you're here, you may as well take a look at it anyway," he told the workmen who nodded and shuffled away quickly to do their work.

"You jimmy-rigged the elevator?" Elena stared at him.

"I was bored," Vlad shrugged and she sighed.

"Okay," she began, "Well, the power's still out to about half the city and they have no idea how long it'll take to fix. Apparently this happens a lot around here. We might have to look into getting some bigger backup generators."

"Fine, order them," Vlad waved his hand dismissively, "I don't want that to happen again."

"Right," she nodded.

"I'm going home. Let me know if...or when...the powers come back on. Hopefully we didn't loose any data. Did we?"

"No, sir, that's impossible. We installed all of the data saving programs first thing when he took control of the building. The ones you designed, sir," she told him.

"Good," he replied and walked away.

"Err...sorry 'bout that," Danny muttered, sheepishly.

"It's, Danny, right?" Elena smiled at him, "I remember." *1

"Yeah, that's me...we'd better err..." he pointed in the direction that Vlad had just stormed off in. "Bye," he called over his shoulder as he and his friends ran off after Vlad.

"I think she likes you," Tucker noted.

"Dude, seriously?" Danny rolled his eyes, "She's Vlad's assistant. I met her at Vlad's office place in Wisconsin."

When they got to a stairwell they all let out a simultaneous moan of disappointment. It was a very long way down to the ground floor and Vlad was nowhere in sight.

"Oh right," Danny sighed, "Twenty floors up...oh boy."

"Think of it as training for the next fitness test at school," Sam said, cheerily.

"Urgh," Danny and Tucker groaned.


By the time they made it to the ground floor, Danny and Tucker were both out of breath and complaining loudly while Sam grinned at them.

"So...where's...where's Vlad at?" Danny wondered as he looked around.

"Gone home, probably," Tucker shrugged, "Like he said. I'm going home too. Two floors is enough for me."

"Wanna play Doomed?" Sam asked them.

"Sweet," Tucker nodded.

"Sure, why not," Danny said after a moment.


*1 Danny, Jazz and Vikki met Elena in my other story, 'Different Effects of the Past.'


A.N. Hello, everyone, I'm back! I've had some serious writer's block with this and honestly I've got no idea why I came up with the whole stick them in an elevator thing it just seemed like a funny idea.