"I'm in Skulker's system," Tucker declared. "And it looks like they have everything except the two relics we've got. They're keeping them in Plasmius's lab in Wisconsin."
"Is anyone there right now?" Danny asked.
"It doesn't say," Tucker said as he shut off his PDA. "That's all he had about it."
"Great. We have to storm Plasmius's castle," Danny sighed, massaging his temples. Couldn't just one part of this be easy?
"We don't have to do anything," Katou said. "I'll go for the relics."
The trio all turned towards him in unison, staring at the samurai as if he had lost his mind.
"What are you, nuts?" Tucker stated what they all thought.
"Plasmius probably has that stuff guarded like the gold at Fort Knox," Danny said.
"And do you even know where his portal is?" Sam asked.
Danny looked over at his female friend. Her tone had been odd, and her gaze towards Katou carried a strange glint. Had they been arguing earlier when he and Tucker arrived? Sam's eyes were not all that suggested that. Katou looked flustered by the question.
"I…" he said, his voice shaking slightly. "In what he showed me, Clockwork…I know where it is, yes."
"OK…" Danny said, though he felt his eyebrow arch. Why was that so hard to say?
"Even if you know where it is, you're probably going to need help getting around whatever security Plasmius would have set up," Tucker said. "Right, Danny?"
"Yeah…" Danny said, though reluctantly. It was true. Katou probably would need help…but did it have to be him? In Vlad's house?
"I wouldn't want to force you to go into your greatest enemy's household," Katou said with a shake of his head. "I'll go alone."
"Weren't you just saying Danny needed 'experience?'" Tucker asked.
"Yes…" Katou said, his tone bothered. Danny could hear his teeth grinding.
"What do you think, Danny?" Sam asked.
"I…" Danny gulped – why? He wondered. "I'll go with Katou."
"Good," Sam smiled. "Then we'll come too."
"What?" Danny and Katou said together.
"Relax," Tucker said with a grin. "We'll just stay by the portal in the Spectre Speeder in case you need us."
Danny sighed again. "Guys, how is this any different from the last time Pariah was out?"
"Pariah's not out yet, if we wait outside we're not a distraction, and this is Plasmius," Sam said simply, ticking off the points one by one on her fingers.
"…Fine," Danny groaned. "But stay in the Spectre Speeder!"
Sam smiled again and nodded before turning to Katou. "That OK with you?" she asked.
Katou still looked grim at the notion. He was gripping the handle of his katana so tightly that it was shaking in its scabbard. Yet he sighed, shut his eyes, and bowed.
---
"Yep," Danny sighed. "That's Vlad's portal."
He and Katou floated side by side. Behind them hovered the Spectre Speeder. And before them was an oversized football, which failed to completely hide the octagonal frame that led to the castle of Vlad Plasmius.
Danny had to put up a slight effort to breathe easily, and he could almost sense Katou's concerns beside him. The fact that his teacher seemed at such unease bothered him immensely, chiefly because he couldn't understand why. Concern for safety couldn't shake a samurai so badly; could it?
Nevertheless, Katou had a vaguely amused expression at the pigskin before him.
"What?" Danny said towards his mentor's look.
"Nothing," the samurai shook his head, though a slight grin remained. "I just don't remember that –" he coughed – though the cough came several moments after a pause, "that being in Clockwork's visions, is all. A bit odd, isn't it?"
"Yeah…" Danny said with a shrug and an arch of the brow. What was wrong with Katou today? "Let's just get this over with."
"Yeah, hurry up," Tucker's voice called through the Fenton Phone in Danny's ear. "Skulker's computer says he's on his way here. And I've missed my four o' clock feeding!"
Great, Danny thought. He released a heavy breath as Katou pushed aside the football and pried the doors of the portal open with his blade. Together they stepped past the swirl of energy and onto the marble floor of Plasmius' laboratory.
All lights were down in the lair. Glows from mentor and pupil's hands revealed how tables and chairs, equipment and weapons had been pushed aside and some, evidently, removed. So little remained that echoes sounded out from their footprints across the room in ominous tones. Slowly Danny and Katou increased their lights, and with a squint, Danny saw a glimmer of gold off in the left-hand corner. Moving towards it, the light revealed four objects – a throne, a chest, a balance, and a bow. All were marked somewhere with a flaming crown. Under ghostly light, the thin beams of ecto-lasers surrounding the relics could be seen.
Katou set a hand on Danny's shoulder as their lights combined to fully reveal the artefacts. "All four," the samurai whispered, slight awe in his voice.
"The PDA never lies!" Tucker chirped, causing both the samurai and the ghost-boy to jump and turn their glows into ecto-charges.
"Do you need help moving anything?" Sam asked in a more controlled – and somewhat annoyed – tone.
Danny sighed. This was bad enough without those two arguing. "No," he said softly. "We've got it. You might want to move over, though. One of these is kind of big."
Katou slowly extended his index finger on his other hand, letting the smallest beam of spectral power shoot out towards the beginning point of one of the lasers. All four shut down. "Hurry," the samurai muttered. "I can't hold this forever."
Danny nodded. Taking hold of the balance and bow, he dashed back through the portal. Without saying a word, he phased the objects through the Spectre Speeder and set them on the floor near Sam's feet. Back into the lab he came and seized the chest, and soon after pushed it through the window onto the floor. He leapt back through the portal and laid hands on the throne – and found he could barely move it an inch.
"Oh no," he grunted, trying to pull the chair along. "Katou, can you help me move this thing?"
"Danny, I can't let go of this," Katou said.
"But I can't move it by myself," Danny muttered. As if to illustrate the point, he slipped under the throne while attempting to tug it along.
"Alright," the samurai sighed. Keeping his finger beam directed at the laser, he moved his foot to rest on the opposite side of the throne from Danny.
"You pull," Katou said. "I'll kick."
Danny nodded. He pulled himself up, gripped the back of the chair tightly, and pulled. He felt Katou give a sharp push at the other end, and the throne slid back, though slightly.
"Again," the ghost-boy directed in a loud whisper. They repeated the action, and along the throne moved. But Katou's foot slipped as his kick ended, and he just managed to avoid losing his control over the laser grid.
The sage recovered his ground and put his foot back on the throne. "I've got a better idea," he said. "You keep pulling."
Danny did so, tightening his grip and yanking with all the force he could muster. The marble tiles made it difficult to keep his feet completely still, but he rooted himself to the ground as best he could.
The effort mattered little, however, for he soon saw that Katou had charged spectral power into his kick. Said energy was enough to propel the throne back a ways, and as it travelled, it took Danny with it. He felt the wind knocked from his chest as the chair hit him, and he once again fell under it, and he saw the thing pass over his head, stopping just behind him.
"Are you alright?" Katou asked, running over.
"Swell," Danny coughed. Better not to hurt Katou's feelings than to be honest.
The two looked over towards the lasers. They had managed to clear the throne before Katou's grip was lost. Both let out their relieved sighs, and Katou rested a warm hand on Danny's shoulder. The ghost-boy in turn gave his teacher a slight smile. While neither of them wished to be there, some company was better than none.
The samurai helped the ghost-boy to his feet, and together they managed to lift the throne.
"Well done," Katou said softly. Though Danny said nothing, he intended to return the compliment once they were clear.
"This wasn't too hard," he said, laughing slightly. The two began towards the portal when Tucker's voice began to come through over the Fenton Phones.
"What is that?" he was asking.
"It's a copy of Tá eagla orm," Sam said.
"You got a copy of Tá eagla orm?" Danny said, stopping. He looked up at Katou, whose face had tightened.
"I thought you said the library was robbed," Tucker noted.
"This was one of the only things left. Plasmius must have his own copy."
"It's not even in English, though!" Tuck complained. "It's more Chinese!"
"This is katakana, Tucker," Sam sighed. "And I can read it."
"Oh."
"What's it say?" Danny asked.
Katou coughed. "Is now really the best time to –"
"Katou, what's this verse mean?" Sam asked. "'Tragic pasts of mentors 'round…?'"
Danny looked over at the samurai. Whatever that line meant, it seemed like a detail that would best be said. And, now that he thought about it, for all the time they'd spent discussing Tá eagla orm and Danny's role in it, neither he nor his friends had heard the prophecy – not from Clockwork, from Katou, from anyone.
The samurai released a heavy breath. "I will explain," he said, "when we get back to Amity Park. Now hurry, before –"
Macabre violet lights flashed out from the ceiling, sending the throne to the floor with a crash. Red and amethyst flames ignited on the floor in front of master and pupil, and up shot an armoured form and a devil's shadow.
"Ah…hello, Daniel," Plasmius cooed as his figure solidified.
On instinct Danny readied an ecto-ball and threw it forward, but a red dome encased Plasmius and absorbed the attack.
"So," the nosferatu sneered. "You've invaded my castle, eluded my security, and made off with valuable possessions. Very good, my dear boy. But it seems you've chosen to rob me of four very…" he stepped forward, "peculiar artefacts, hmm?"
"…Yeah," Danny stammered, slipping into a fighting stance as Katou beside him drew his sword. "I…Clockwork asked me to –"
"Oh!" Plasmius cried. "But Clockwork is going through his cycle of death and rebirth, isn't he? And those relics don't deal with him. It's someone else…oh, yes! Those are Lord Pariah Dark's relics, aren't they?"
"I…" Danny gulped. He knew they'd just forfeited one of their few advantages in this quest.
"And what a strange fighting stance you've taken," the elder half-ghost observed. "It looks as though you've been training in more than ghost powers, Daniel. In fact, I'd say it looks as though you had been trained by our friend Katou here."
"Yeah, I – what?"
Danny stepped out of his stance and turned towards Katou. Since when did he and Plasmius know each other?
He waited for a contradiction from the warrior; some proof that Plasmius was lying, that they weren't so familiar.
Instead Katou – quite brazenly – swung his katana at the side of Plasmius's head. The half-ghost merely waved his hand to raise a defensive barrier and refused to lower the shield.
"So you've not told him?" Plasmius said to the samurai, his grin laced with delight. "Oh, come now, Daniel," he chuckled, turning towards the ghost-boy. "Twenty years of experience alone does not create skill. I was taught how to control my powers. And my teacher was none other than yours."
None other than yours
None other than yours
None other than yours.
Nothing Danny could think of drowned the echo of those words.
They continued to sound, pushing aside all senses and thoughts and all but the feeling of betrayal. And that feeling left him disgusted as he felt Katou seize his arm and teleport he and the throne out of the lab and into the Spectre Speeder, and more disgust as the samurai took them out of The Ghost Zone.
---
Plasmius could scarcely pretend not to be overjoyed. The look in Daniel's eyes was just too much. And the way Katou had glared at him; no samurai would ever be proud of such a show of rage. The display from both was delightful.
His own ends were being served quite nicely by this gambit.
"Should we signal Skulker?" he heard the Knight beside him say.
"Yes, thank you," Plasmius sighed, still beaming. "Skulker?" he said into his watch. "Activate the tracking device – but do not follow it yet. Plasmius out."
He could sense the Knight's glare. "Your gambit has me nervous, Plasmius," the warrior bluntly said.
"We need wait but a moment for this stage," Plasmius said. "For now, wait in patience and silence your thoughts."
Easier said than done for him, his unmasking of Katou having gone so well. But for this, he could manage.