Chapter 4 is a bit shorter chapter - I was struggling with writing more in this chapter, but it would've left the next 2 chapters a little complete if I didn't end it where it does now. You've also probably realized (if you came here straight from the end of EfFI) that there's been some changes in the direction of how I wanted some of the scenes written. Hopefully they work out well. Enjoy! Feel free to story alert or review if you feel like it! - MATW

The first thing Danny realized once he started to come back to consciousness was that he had a headache. The second was that someone was poking him. He groaned in protest. "Go away," he mumbled. Two more pokes, harder this time, were his response. Sighing, Danny opened his eyes, coming face to face with his half ghost cousin. Danny's eyes grew wide and jumped into a sitting position. "Danielle!"

"About time you woke up," she replied, a ghost of a smile on her face. She turned her head back, "Hey everybody, Danny's up!" Danny looked behind her and saw the concerned faces of his parents and friends rushing towards him.

"Danny! Are you alright?" His mother asked when she got to him. Danny let his mother fuss over him as he looked over his parents. Even after going toe to toe with Vlad, they only had minor bruises.

"I'm fine," Danny replied, turning to his friends. "How long was I out?"

"A couple or hours," Sam replied. She raised her left arm, showing him a large, black mechanical bracelet attached to it. "Plasmius was kind enough to give us accessories too."

Danny frowned and looked away from his loved ones to finally survey his surroundings. They were in a very large cell, covered with bars and crackling ecto shield. It was part of Vlad's lab that he hadn't been before, but somehow made his lab look a lot more spacious. The cell alone looked like the standard Casper High classroom. Danny then took a look at his own wrist to see a gold coloured bracelet instead of the black ones everyone else was wearing. Well… everyone except…

"Danielle, you're not wearing one," Danny said, frowning more.

The girl in question scowled. "Yeah, well why would he waste one on me? I'd probably melt long before he would need to," she said darkly.

Jack and Maddie looked over sharply.

"Melt!? Why would a human ever melt!?" Jack exclaimed.

Danny's eyes grew wide Oh Crud. He thought. How are we ever going to get around this? Danny saw Danielle opening her mouth to respond, but beat her to it. "That doesn't matter right now," he said sharply. "What happened? Last thing I remember is getting blasted by the -uh - ghost."

"Well, Plasmius' duplicates blasted you into a wall, grabbed us from behind and used you as a pawn to convince your parents they needed to come with us," Sam replied bitterly.

"He really loves his chess metaphors," Tucker added in with a scowl.

"Okay, hold on a second," Jack raised his arm to cut into the conversation. "What gets me is why this ghost wanted you in the first place Danny. Why would a ghost willingly go into the house of two well-known ghost hunters to kidnap their fifteen year old son?"

All four teens looked at each other hesitantly. The Fenton parents noted how rigid their son got as they stared at him, his eyes darting in every direction to try and come up with an excuse.

"Well… you see…" Danny started, hand going to the back of his neck, "The thing is…."

Maddie sighed, gearing up for another lie. Have you ever wondered why he struggles with gym but can throw a ghost across a room with barely a sweat? She remembered. "You fight ghosts." It was more of a statement than a question. Danny's eyes widened a bit, about to deny it, before catching his mother's stern glare and sighed.

"Sort of," he said finally.

"Why didn't you tell us!?" Jack boomed proudly. "My son! The ghost hunter! It's-"

"Dangerous," Maddie finished sharply. "Danny, is that what you've been doing in your spare time?"

Danny, for his part, sighed and looked to the ground. He hated lying to them but still couldn't quite tell them the truth. Sam and Tucker looked at him sympathetically, before being interrupted by Danielle.

"Wait, they still-" she started to ask.

"No," Sam answered, cutting her off.

"But they'd accept-"

"Yep," Tucker answered this time.

"Do they know about V-"

"Nope," both teens replied.

"Oh," Danielle answered, frowning. "'Well, this might get interesting."

"Why?" Tucker asked. Danielle never had the chance to answer – Plasmius appeared through the ceiling, a victorious grin plastered on his face.

"Ah Daniel," he said smoothly, "I'm glad you're up. Did you have a chance to catch up? Come clean about anything?" Plasmius' grin widened when Danny's eyes narrowed. "No? Too bad, I thought this time together might reveal some mysteries in your teenage life."

Maddie watched her son's face change from the sheepish, chastised teenager to a very reserved and calculating ghost hunter. She watched as his eyes looked over the opponent, sizing him up – probably deciding what weapons to use- as the ghost in front of them floated towards the cell.

"What do you want," Danny asked. His mind was racing as he calculated every move he made, the words he said to both figure out what Plasmius was trying to while keeping his secret intact. He was very aware of his parents watching his every move.

Plasmius' eyes narrowed slightly. "You destroyed my research the last time we met. The least you could do is help me regain what I want."

Danielle made a disgusted sound behind him as Danny moved to stand. "And if I refuse?" He asked carefully.

Plasmius took out a small remote from behind him. "I'm so glad you asked," he said, turning the remote over in his hand. "You see, I figured that you would be less than enthusiastic to help me, so your friends and family are here to keep you in line. You refuse; I press a button that sends a wave of ecto-energy through those bracelets on their wrists. Oh, and don't even think about trying to escape or using any of your special skills. Yours will do the same to you if you even try it."

The occupants in the cell gasped in shock. Danielle took a step forward. "You'd really go through with that again?" she asked, distraught and angry. "You'd really create a bunch of clones and use them until you got the one you wanted?"

Maddie gagged at that. "Clones!" she exclaimed. "You cloned my son!"

Plasmius scoffed. "Please Maddie, spare me the look of disgust. You and your husband have done much more to the world than myself."

As the adults bickered, Danny was lost in his thoughts. What do I do? He asked himself. Plasmius has me cornered – I can't reveal myself without questions, I can't give him my mid-morph DNA, I can't let him electrocute my family. He felt his anger flow through him and his powers awaken. What do I do? What do I-

His thoughts cut off abruptly as electricity exploded through the bracelet in his hand. Danny let out a yell in surprise as he dropped on his hands and knees, eyes scrunched as he battled through the pain.

"Danny!" he heard through the crackle of electricity. As quickly as it appeared, the electricity stopped, leaving Danny panting on all fours.

"Sweetheart! Are you alright!?" his mom asked from his left. She was the closest to him. Wearily, he nodded. "What did you do to my son?!"

Plasmius chuckled. "I warned you Daniel, any of your skills set off that bracelet." The ghost turned his red eyes towards Maddie and Jack. "Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like it you both knew. However, ignorance does have its bliss."

"Enough," Danny said, bringing the attention back to him. He was still on the ground, his face covered by his messy black hair. He looked up into the face of Plasmius betraying no emotion. "I'm not helping you create your projects."

Plasmius' eyebrows raised slightly in surprise, while the remote in his hand stopped twirling around. His thumb moved towards one of the buttons. "Have it your way."

:-=-:

Ethelwulf, now fully engulfed in the images he had been observing over the past hours, stared in awe and horror as he watched Plasmius press the button set to electrocute the humans in the cell. What no one noticed was the young halfa's left eye turning green before a powerful wave of ecto-energy blasted through the lab. Plasmius was thrown a few feet back before he put up a shield, while the humans were all lying scattered around the ghost boy, winded. Their bracelets made a clank as they fell to the floor.

Ripples of electricity, blue this time, shot through the child as he fought back a scream. All Ethelwulf could do was watch.

"Great one…" he heard Frostbite whisper in awe and sorrow. Ethelwulf had to agree.

The beast set his paws firmly on the ground, shaking his wings slightly as he did so. "How can this child not know his potential? He has raw energy in his veins, and is already using it without knowing." His yellow eyes turned to the Far Frozen's ruler. "How can he be so quick to destroy himself for others?"

"I doubt he knows the danger he's in," Frostbite said, frowning. "From what I gather, he has some control of the basic powers. The deeper powers? Not so much. He needed a human contraption to beat Pariah Dark – I suspect it was to help draw out the powers he already had."

Both ghosts turned back to the large watch shaped glass. The humans were all scrambling forward towards the boy in question. His eyes were scrunched tightly, fingers curled up into fists and biting back his screams.

"I thought at first Phantom was doing this for fun," Ethelwulf started, frowning. "The amount of raw energy in his core is astounding; for him to manipulate it into attack even more so. But being able to use core energy outside of his ghost form? While being attacked? He is different."

Ethelwulf and Frostbite continued to watch as time carried on.

:-=-:

The shockwaves raced through Danny's veins as he fought to regain consciousness. Faintly, he heard footsteps echoing across the lab and his parents' pleading for something. Probably for the fruitloop to stop this he thought.

Doubtful. At least we got rid of the bracelets. Phantom chimed in.

Ah. That's why we're getting electrocuted. Thanks 'ghost me.'

Funny. Can we figure a way out of this? Last thing we want is Mom and Dad to find out about our ghost powers from Vlad.

I have an idea. It might be reckless.

Don't tell Jazz?

The sudden stop of electricity caused Danny to lose his train of thought as he collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. Concerned voices reached his ears as he felt them all come closer.

"You okay?" Sam questioned. Danny opened one eye to the blurry outline of his friend and glared. "Hey, standard question."

"That was foolish." All six occupants of the cell turned their eyes to Plasmius. He stood a foot away from the cell with no emotion on his face. Danny, breathing recovered, started to push himself up into a kneeling position. Tucker steadied him as Sam and Danielle moved closer. Jack and Maddie moved in front of the children, shielding them from view. "Though, I'm not surprised. You're still as clueless as ever." Plasmius floated into the air gracefully. Both Fenton parents bristled as they eyed the ghost warily.

Danny's eyes turned green out of frustration, only to be shocked again by the gold bracelet on his wrist. Tucker let him go in surprise as Danny put a hand out in front of him to steady himself. Now on all fours, he pushed his ghost powers back down and the electricity stopped.

Sam knelt beside him and asked "Are you okay?" Tiredly, he nodded.

"Then I advise you to look up!" Tucker exclaimed fearfully.

Noting the panic in his best friend's voice, Danny's head shot up. Plasmius had taken advantage of the situation by entering the cell and had his hand outstretched with a pink ecto-blast at the ready. Panic shot through his core when he realized that Vlad was aiming for his Father.

"No!" Danny cried out, scrambling to get up. Sam grabbed his torso while Tucker grabbed his arms to both restrain and steady him. "Leave him alone!"

"Danny, you can't," Sam hissed. Danny continued to struggle.

No one noticed Danielle move away from the teens, eyes narrowed in anger.

Jack moved in front of Maddie, protecting as many occupants as possible.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to do this," Plasmius sneered. The older Fentons glared in response, ignoring the outbursts from their teenage son. "You will give me what I want Daniel, else you will watch as they all suffer. I am very persuasive when I want to be." Plasmius launched an ecto-blast towards Jack, only for it to collide with a green ball of ecto-energy.

The entire group turned to see an angry Danielle, hand outstretched and glowing green eyes. "You," she started angrily, another ecto-blast charging in her human hand, "Will not hurt them."