(I've been gone so long, you could say I went… *ghost* ;)

"He really screwed you over this time, huh."

Danny and his friends sat in his living room, all three fully informed about the ghost child's severe lack of freedom. Not even the bright sunshine streaming through the window could brighten their mood- after all, Amity Park had just lost its most important savior, and no one had a clue. At least, no one would- not until everything was decimated by rogue ghosts who took the boy's absence as a green light to terrorize.

Tucker leaned against the wall and stared at the ceiling, nearly at a loss for words. "How long does the dye last?"

"A few months," Danny responded, his eyes flashing green in anger. "He might as well have put me in remission for a few years! It's not fair!"

Sam sat on top of the bed overlooking her friends, equally distraught. "Payback needs to happen fast. First things first- we need to get that dye off. Do we have any way of knowing how?"

"Already went that route," Tucker informed her. "Ran through a ton of info on the Fenton databases. There is a way to get it right off, but the problem is that we don't have access to it."

Danny raised a brow. "Wait. You know the cure?"

"Yeah. I transferred a few files from your parents tech into my own about it. It's called a Periberry. They grow on these super thorny trees found on the GhostZone. Apparently you're supposed to rub them on the dye, and even though it's gonna sting a bit, it comes right off."

Sam grinned. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get some!"

"It's not that easy," the boy continued, shaking his head. "Most people involved with ghosts in Amity Park are ghost hunters, and Periberry is a cure for ghosts who lost access to their powers. What kind of a hunter would have equipment to help their prey?"

"Vlad probably would," Danny muttered. "Ugh, this is so messed up. The one ingredient we can't get in Amity because of him."

"We can't raid a psycho ghost's berry stash anytime soon," Sam groaned. "Taking on someone like Vlad without even one person with powers is too risky to even think about."

"Yeah, but why not go into the GhostZone and get it ourselves?" the halfa asked. "It's not like we haven't done it before, or that we know Vlad has it for sure."

Tucker sighed. "If we could, don't you think I would have said so? Periberry trees are found in dangerous parts of the GhostZone, and again, we don't have any ghost powers on our side to help us."

Sam snapped her fingers. "But what if we hire someone with ghost powers to get it for us?"

The boys glanced up at her, confused.

"I know that there's no spook in town who wants to work for us," she continued. "But that's under the usual circumstances. Our best bet is to put heavy pressure on one of them to get them to do the job."

Danny averted his eyes in thought. "With what army, Sam? I can't force anyone to do anything."

"We don't have to force anyone. We can just make it seem like we are."

Tucker tapped his foot against the edge of the bed-frame in thought. "You mean like... trick them?"

Sam nodded. "Exactly. Follow me."

"I don't know about this, Sam," Danny groaned, seeing the familiar pillars of his enemy's new home. "We don't have much time- my parents aren't going to be gone all day, and I'm lucky we even managed to sneak out the house!"

"Relax, Danny," the goth girl replied, shaking her head. "They think that us being at your house is enough to keep you from going out and being bored. Or at least I hope they do."

"Ghost activity is going off the charts," Tucker announced, walking slightly slower than his friends due to being glued to his tech. "It can't be just Plasmius setting these levels this high."

The trio stood in front of the mayor's home at town square, mildly wounded from making such a quick run from Danny's house to town center. Of course, no time was to be wasted in gaining his powers back. Who knows what might happen in such a short while? Insane ghosts were a dime a dozen in Amity Park, and although the boys didn't quite know what their lady friend had planned, they were willing to trust her- even if they had doubts about her sudden moves.

It's not as if anyone else had any ideas.

"Plasmius has ghost guards," the young halfa muttered to his geeky companion, wiping the sweat from his brow. "That's what's setting off your gear. Which is bad for us, considering how vulnerable we are."

Sam laughed. "Exactly. You're soft, vulnerable, weak, and easily snatched up by a ghost. When it comes to competition with other ghosts, you're worthless!"

Tucked frowned. "Um, Sam. Are you okay?"

The girl turned for a moment, then faced the mayor's residence again. "Yeah. I know how mean that sounded, but believe me, all of that is a good thing right now."

"How-"

"You'll see. Right now, we're going to go inside and wreak havoc. Smash things, pull apart furniture, anything you can. Be a menace, Danny."

Although he was becoming more and more uneasy with his crush's strange tone of speech and suggestions, he complied. After Tucker disabled some of the security cameras, the three snuck into the building and began to demolish what they could. Tucker smashed any devices and security installations, Samantha tore apart decor and pushed down tables and chairs, and Danny resorted to punching holes in the wall as best as he could, as well as flinging debris and scattering any papers he could find.

To no one's surprise, they had alerted ghost guards during the commotion. Though they attempted a chase, it didn't take long at all for them to eventually be pinned to the wall, side by side. Their capture was so easy that some of the guards snickered as they forced them down.

"What was the point of that, Phantom?" the brightest glowing ghost asked, thoroughly humored. "Or should I even call you that anymore? You're not much of a phantom, really."

Danny, though afraid, mustered up any defiance he could. "Word travels fast, huh? What, did you and Vlad discuss it over tea?"

"I don't see why you're being so snarky," the ghost pinning down Tucker sneered. "We could kill you instantly."

"You wouldn't," the teen shot back. "Vlad wants me alive. He'd murder you if anything happened to me!"

"Are you trying to convince us or yourself?"

Sam rolled her eyes, then yawned. "This is boring. I wanted to see some *cool ghosts after doing this, but all we got was three generic guards. Lame."

The boys looked at her in horror.

"Sam," Tucker shakily interjected, "Do you have a death wish? I'm trying not to die here!"

"Yeah dude, this isn't making sense," Danny agreed. "Did you snap or something? None of your plan is making sense! I'm trying to trust you but this is seriously messed up! What-"

"Oh please," the girl interrupted, glancing at the guards. "I just wanted some excitement instead of the boring days we get because you lost your powers! To see some cool ghosts like Skulker or something. But all we got were these three duds who are just Vlad's background noise."

The ghost holding her down let out a cruel laugh. "I don't know what kind of drugs you kids are on these days, but she definitely isn't in her mind right now. You can tell from her eyes."

"Skulker, eh?" another specter piped up. "It just so happens that he's finished with Plasmius's errands and is in the area. You were lucky you ended up with us- we weren't actually going to hurt you. But if you want the ghost who wanted to tear you into pieces since day one, be our guest."

The boys screamed as they were picked up and dragged towards an empty room somewhere in the back of the building, then tied down with rope of the ghostly variety. Sam, however, appeared to remain calm. She seemed so self assured of everything she'd done, despite the fact that they'd done from being safe in Danny's bedroom to soon being trapped with an infamously homicidal spook that had full liberty to do with them as he wished.

And by now, her friends had lost all trust in her.

"This is insane!" Tucker yelled, thrashing in his restraints. "He's going to kill us! Sometimes even Vlad can't control him!"

"Yeah, Sam, what the hell!" Danny added, just as terrified. "Why do you look so happy about this? Why aren't you freaking out? What happened to you?"

Sam sighed. "We'll be fine. I'm not on drugs. He was just messing with you."

"We're about to be ki-"

"Greetings, whelp."

Danny's head snapped up as he faced his dreaded enemy that had just floated through the room, his already pale face turning even whiter. Tucker clenched his jaws and began to shake in fear.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" the young halfa shouted, before a large metal hand was clasped over his mouth. His friend beside him was too afraid to even speak at all.

"I'm the one who gives commands to the prey," Skulker retorted, a sinister grin spreading across his face. "And besides- you aren't in any position to give commands anyway, seeing as how you're so powerless."

Sam nodded. "He's got you there, you know. We're done for. But most of all, you're done for. Even he knows about how Vlad took away any chance you had of fighting him."

The teens stared at her in silent bewilderment.

Skulker laughed menacingly. "The dark one knows when her end has come. I don't often see someone accept their death so easily, but it's a good dose of power for me!"

"It's too bad that, you know, you were easy to capture," she continued, shrugging. "Skulker could probably catch a toddler just as easily. It's not really anything to brag about."

The metallic ghost paused his laugh, then raised a brow. "What do you mean? Do you realize how hard it has been to capture the whelp? Not that my skills are subpar by any measure, but he's not easy to fight!"

The goth scoffed. "That was before. Right now, he has literally no way to defend himself, and you're acting like it's some big victory that you managed to force down a weak human. Get real."

Tucker inhaled slowly, trying to understand where this was going. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath until that moment.

"I mean, sure, you won, if that makes you feel any better," Sam continued, her tone condescending. "But everyone's going to laugh at you if you try to show it off. Besides, you're not even the one who took his powers... so it's almost as if Plasmius did all the work, and you just took the extremely easy bit. How pathetic is that?"

Skulker stuttered for a moment, letting go of Danny's face. The raven haired boy took in a loud breath of fresh air, the memory of Vlad choking him fresh in his mind.

"What would you know about the values of hunting?" the large ghost snapped. "Or how hard it is to do this job?"

"This is your hobby, not a job," the girl pointed out. "I'm sorry, but no one at this year's Hunter's Exhibition is going to take you seriously if you display Danny's head on a wall. They'll know you just took advantage of extreme weakness instead of fighting for it like a real man- er, ghost."

By now, Skulker was even more confused. "Exhibition? What are you even talking about, child? If there was any event like that, I'd be the first to know!"

"It's brand new," the goth explained. "I'm not surprised you don't know. All the best ghost hunters are displaying their catches, whether dead or alive. Obviously, the harder your catch was to get, the more fame comes with it."

He turned his head to stare at Danny, his small eyes narrowing. "He'd be the perfect exhibit. There's a whole dimension of ghosts angry with you three, but specifically him."

"Then if you want to chop his head off and put it on a pike- good luck dealing with Plasmius after that, by the way- then you've got to make it a fair fight."

"How? His abilities are gone. Like you said, the whelp is nothing anymore."

"I don't know what you've heard, but they're not permanently gone. Help him get back his powers and crush him in a fight fairly, or risk becoming the biggest laughingstock of the ghost zone. Sound fair?"

Danny and Tucker stared at her, never feeling more dumb than they did in that moment.