Vlad looked on with an amused smile as he saw me attempting to duplicate my body for the hundredth time in a row. "DAMN IT!" He heard me say twice. I say twice because there are two heads that are currently resting on my shoulders from my recent attempt at duplication. It had been only half a month since my parents were convinced by Vlad into letting me stay for an entire month at his mansion in Wisconsin. For some reason my mom and dad were both happy to see me spend time with Vlad, weird thing was when he asked they said yes automatically as if they were possessed...Anyways Vlad kept his word and began training me in his knowledge of ghosts, which results in me attempting his move, which was as I said before duplication.
I soon got tired and gave up with a large huff, pushing my two heads back together, and looked over to the older man where I saw he was grinning in my direction; I couldn't help but grin back. Ever since figuring out each other's secrets, we were able to bond sorta like father and son; or in this case half to halfa. I was a bit hesitant at first with the whole secret identity thing, the only other people knowing my secrets were other ghosts, and they themselves were not very nice for lack of words.
We were off to a rocky start, but when I told him all my fights up to this point, he told me exactly what I needed to know when attempting to use certain parts of my ghost powers. Vlad made sure to teach me how to use less energy when using my ecto-rays, showing me that there is a certain color corresponding to your ghost's nature.
Since he was a hateful ghost at first because of the accident in his college, he had red colored rays when he finally mastered them. He explained to me that my different colored rays represented what affiliation I was within the ghost community. Yellow was neutral, green positive, and red is malevolent. I assume since I'm so new this that I had no affiliation yet. He also explained that all ghosts had a nature or special power to them such as the Box Ghost's control over everything cube-like and Spectra's control ability to drain people of their essence in order to gain power. I asked what his was and he showed me that he could redirect a certain amount of energy if fired at, and could release an electric stinger from his hand, sadly I had to experience it, nearly being depowered by it.
Anyways, I got up from my sitting position and I walked over to Vlad who began looking at a magazine from the bench. I was about to say something when he beat me to it. "Hey Badger?"
Badger was such a weird nickname to give to someone, but I accepted it after awhile.
"Yeah?"
"Come with me, I got something to show you." Vlad said while standing up and heading to the mansion. I was a bit confused by the sudden action, but shrugged thinking that I can trust Vlad since he hasn't done anything to lose it.
I trailed behind him before I walked at the same pace as him. As we walked into the mansion, I was yet again amazed at how large the interior was. Vlad was a very conceited person, with a bunch of pictures of him hanging from the bottom to the ceiling. The mansion had the very scent of cheese, and had the design of a medieval castle. I then took notice of how fast Vlad was walking, I had to take a slight jog just to keep up with him, as he climbed the stairs where he took a right and unlocked a door.
As the door opened I saw a large library and in the middle was a desk, computer, and projector. Vlad took a seat as he pointed towards a seat right next to the desk, to which I grabbed and sat down in. He then proceeded to open something on a computer, if the clicks were anything to go by. He then turned on the projector as he simultaneously clicked a button which unveiled a projector screen.
Soon an image began to appear, resulting in only a play button, but the weird thing was that at the top it said watch with caution. I looked towards Vlad who had a face I couldn't quite read, he was essentially glaring at the computer screen, as if the file or video was going to change everything. I was soon in the way of the glare, as Vlad looked at me for what seemed like an eternity.
"What do you think of ghosts?" I just sat there kinda stupidly for about a good minute. 'What does he even mean by that?' After a few minutes passed he coughed into his hand and looked directly into my eyes once again.
"I said What do you think of ghosts?" Vlad said with a bit more sternness in his voice emphasizing the I said. I now had to answer.
"Uh…" I didn't really know what to say, sure most ghosts I've met had been malevolent and tried to hurt everything in this world, but should I really tie down the entire ghost populace by them? I know I haven't met any good ghosts as of yet, but like there's always a possibility...I had my answer. "They're not all bad." I said with slight confidence in my voice, only to see Vlad's eyes narrow at my answer.
"And why exactly do you think this?"
"Because...I mean you're a ghost right? And you don't seem evil." I said while pointing to him, only for him to chuckle a bit to himself. I couldn't tell if it was because of the naiveness of my response. "What?"
"You've much to learn Daniel..." He said with a tone that just seemed to be hiding something. He then motioned with his head to turn to the projector where it showed footage of ghosts he's documented.
Click Click
The mouse clicked as the first video appeared on the projector labeled as Undergrowth. It was sorta like a found footage movie where the guy seemed to be walking with a GoPro only for everything that could go wrong does. "What exactly are trying to-" Only for my eyes to widen as I saw a building to come collapsing and out from the debris came human like zombies covered in vines with glowing green eyes. The man went running the other way only for a massive vine to come crashing down. The man looked over up to see a massive monster with a green beak and red eyes. The camera then was dropped before running could be heard from far away only for a scream to be heard. I shook my head with a look of disbelief, and looked towards Vlad who had a calculative look on his face.
"What the hell was that?"
"That Daniel was Undergrowth...a monster ghost that feeds on living organisms, and progressively grows until it conquers both the human and ghost world." He explained as he looked at me intently, as if trying to get a reaction from me.
"How was he defeated!" I asked trying to get an explanation as to how that monster was defeated. I don't even think my strongest attack could do anything to him! Vlad looked at me with a sad look and a slight angered look.
"My friend used himself as a conduit for opening a ghost portal, where he was split open so that Undergrowth could be sucked into it, resulting his control to be released from the populace. The Government questioned everybody who was under his control, and they couldn't remember one thing. They managed to recover this footage, which resulted in the creation of the Guys in White."
Vlad then pulled up another video labeled as Vortex. "Are you ready for the next one?" I looked hesitant at first, but before I could say anything, the video began to play. This time we were at what seemed to be the middle of the ocean.
"Where are-"
"The Atlantic Ocean, August of 2005." Vlad said solemnly as I began to see clouds begin to form and a ghost portal to appear. From the portal came a ghost who wore what appeared to be black armor that had a tornado like emblem that had a lightning streak run across it. He had a tornado circling his waist that he seemed to use as both transport and his ghostly tail.
"What's he gonna-" I saw him begin to form a storm from the clouds, and saw the winds begin to go faster and faster. I finally realized why Vlad was showing me, at 2005 a horrible hurricane incident ran through the US. The video began to speed up, showing the hurricane hitting the states, killing people in the thousands. Some of them couldn't even yell as the breath was yanked from their lungs, because of the velocity of the wind.
I couldn't watch anymore, and decided to cover the projector light only to find myself in a situation worse. I only now heard the noises of babies and kids crying as the wind roared. "MOM!" I heard as a woman screamed only for it to be deafened shortly afterwards.
I now had tears falling from my eyes as I imagined what happened. I then picked the projector up and threw it across the room into the screen where it made a massive hole. Vlad decided to then pause the video, where he then touched my shoulder.
I was still rubbing my eyes which were still leaking before I was quickly forced to turn around. I now was face to face with Vlad's ghost eyes. "What were ghosts like again?" Out of instinct I punched Vlad in the face sending him flying into a bookshelf where he laid nursing his face. I ran out the room, not knowing what else to do.
I jumped down the mighty staircase, floating to break my fall, and headed to the guest room where I locked myself in and threw myself on the bed. I then began to let out all the tears I had, I don't know why I was crying; was it because of how scary the situation was? Or was it because I just I hit the one person I trusted at the moment?
I cried for a couple more minutes before fatigueness soon overcame me, the events of today finally catching up to me, I don't know what to think of ghosts right now...are any of them good? 'Why did Vortex do that...why did Undergrowth…' I shedded one more tear, before succumbing to the abyss.
However in my outburst, I didn't see the wisp escape me and felt something at the back of head warning me of a presence. From my walls came Vlad Masters in his ghost form also known as Vlad Plasmius. He looked satisfied if the smirk was any indication. His left cheek now sporting a bruise due to my hook that I threw at him earlier.
'Just one more push Daniel...and then you'll be the perfect child…' Vlad thought as his red eyes glowed malevolently. He soon phased out of my room, leaving the atmosphere filled with dread and despair as a slight whimper escaped from my mouth.
Things were about to change drastically, and I'm not sure if I'm ready to take on what was coming...I just know that I have to be.
And Chapter 10 The Mentorship concludes. Hopefully you all enjoyed this Chapter, if you did you should comment what you like. If you didn't? Well leave a review telling me what could be fixed. You could also leave suggestions, so I could improve in my writing skills and get new ideas for future chapters. Alright love yall Phantom of the Future outtie.