I do not own Danny Phantom.

Vlad's Got a New Plan

Vlad studied the weapon he held in his hands. It was red and black and styled like a ray gun. Except the red ray that it emitted could suck up those element powers from the snot-nosed teens that foiled him on a daily basis.

He had been shocked and more than annoyed when he discovered Daniel's friends also bared elemental powers thanks to one of his spy cameras. But no matter. He would have those powers soon enough. All he had to do was find those teens.

And take them down.

...

Danny folded his arms behind his back and bit his lip nervously. This was the second time he'd been in the hospital and he didn't like it. Sam and Tucker told his parents he'd been in a biking accident. Maddie and Jack rushed their kid to the hospital (Jazz had finally woken up that morning and was extremely confused) only to find out that Danny would have to spend the night.

Sam and Tucker were giving Jazz the rundown on what's been happening. It was close to ten at night and his parents were raiding the vending machine. Danny frowned at the ceiling as sat up in his small cot. A familiar moaning came from the section beside him.

"Sam! Tucker!" Danny hissed.

They ran into the room. Jazz glared at Danny, no doubt sending him a 'we'll talk later' vibe and storming down the hallway, obviously ticked that she missed out on the elemental action.

"What?" Sam whispered. Danny motioned for her to pull the curtain aside. She glanced at him oddly but went over and reluctantly pulled the white plastic curtain to the side.

"Mr. Lancer?" Tucker exclaimed.

The middle-aged teacher moaned once more and sat up in his cot. He frowned at the teens in puzzlement. "What are you doing here?"

"Danny got injured by the fire and we brought him here," Sam answered. "What about you?"

Please don't remember, please don't remember.

"I suppose I got injured as well. I can't really remember anything. Everything's all fuzzy. The last thing I remember is this jolt of electricity going through my body and everything going black. Strange, isn't it?"

Sam and Tucker grinned at each other. Danny let out a soft sigh. "Well, I'm glad you're okay Mr. Lancer. Will you be out soon?"

"Tomorrow I hope. I still have essays to mark and homework to assign-"

Tucker marched over and slid the curtain back, blocking Lancer. "That's enough school talk for one day."

Sam rolled her eyes and sat down on the edge of Danny's bed. "One crisis averted. How are you feeling?"

"Good. Thanks a lot you guys." Danny smiled.

"No problem." Tucker smiled and walked over to the window. He peered out into the dusk sky and stiffened. He narrowed his blue-green eyes and could see a small reddish-pink glow drifting for Fenton Works.

"Hey Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"I gotta get going. Sam promised me she would help with my science and it's getting late. Ready to go Sam?"

Sam furrowed her brow in confusion but nodded. She waved goodbye to Danny and followed Tucker out of the room and out of the hospital. When they were walking down the sidewalk Sam spoke up. "I know you hate hospitals and all, but you were doing pretty well!"

Tucker pointed to glow that was fading. "Does the colour look familiar to you?"

The Goth squinted a bit. "It kind of looks like Vlad."

"Bingo. We can't get Danny involved. He's weak enough as it is. He's covered in scrapes and cuts and bruises and all that. So whatever Vlad's doing, we need to take care of it."

"Remember the last time you jumped to foil Vlad? It ended up with Vortex putting us in his version of a blender."

"Danny told us Vlad might catch on to the whole element thing. And he's going to Fenton Works in the evening. It sounds suspicious to me."

Sam sighed. "I guess we can go check it out."

...

Tucker and Sam crawled along the side of Fenton Works. They peered through the darkened windows but couldn't see anything. Sam brushed some dirt off of her skirt and scowled. "No one's here, Tuck."

"I know Vlad is up to something!"

He tried rubbing the dirt off of the glass of the basement windows and frowned when he heard a beeping noise that seemed to be getting closer. "Do you hear that?"

Tucker turned around right in time to see a flash of red light shooting towards him. He quickly froze it with his ice breath and it shattered on the ground. Vlad Plasmius scowled and floated above them, a strange weapon clutched in his hands. "Fast reflexes."

"I'm guessing that thing will take away our powers," Sam guessed as she let the fire flow through her hands.

"Correct dear girl. It seems wrong to trust such extraordinary powers to mere children." Vlad held up the ray and fired again.

Sam dodged and created a ball of fire. "It also seems wrong to give them to a Fruitloop like you." She shot the projectile. Plasmius went intangible and avoided the attack. He went to fire again but Tucker shot the gun out of his hand with a well-aimed projectile.

Tucker threw up an ice shield to block the ghost rays. He quickly ran for the gun that lay in the grass. He grunted with pain as he was blasted to the side by a ghost disk.

"Tucker!" Sam cried. She scowled at Plasmius and created a wall of fire. It slammed into Plasmius and knocked him to the ground. Tucker struggled to his feet and managed to make an ice prison for Vlad. Sam hurried for the ray and yelped as pink energy ropes shot out of the ground and wrapped around her.

Plasmius growled and burst from his prison. Tucker raised his hands in the air and summoned up an ice storm. Sam stopped thrashing and watched in awe as hail and snow swirled around the older halfa. "Nice!"

"I thought I'd experiment." Tucker grinned and bolted for the gun. He picked it up and shot some icicles at the rope binding Sam. She blasted the ray with her fire power and smiled.

"This is so much easier with elemental powers."

Vlad stumbled out of the storm, ice crackling in his black hair and white costume. Sam flicked fireballs at him and frowned when he threw up a ghost shield. She strengthened her power and slammed right through the ecto-shield, knocking Vlad to the ground.

Tucker dug around his backpack and pulled out a Light Belt. He snapped it around Vlad's waist. "Just in case."

Sam picked up the thermos and sighed. "We need to keep this thing safe. When Danny is well enough we'll bring it to Clockwork."

"What about Vlad? He won't stop until he gets the power. And he's one distraction we don't need." Tucker frowned at the moaning Plasmius.

Sam reached into her spider bag. "I might have one in here." She triumphantly pulled out another thermos. "Yes!"

"I would love to keep you in here forever, but Amity Park is going to get suspicious when its mayor doesn't show up. So I'll just hack into your office system and say you took an unexpected vacation. Someone will take your place for a bit." Tucker grinned and sucked the older halfa in the thermos. He noted Sam's surprised stare. "What?"

"You can hack into the mayor's office?"

"Of course. Who do you think made International Meat Day?"

Sam rolled her violet eyes. "Come on. We better go home before our parents freak out."

"Excuse me human sidekicks."

Tucker jumped and whirled around. He held a hand to his pounding heart and scowled. "Don't scare us like that!"

"I am Technus, the Master of Technology! I am very scary and therefore-"

"Get on with it please," Sam snapped and stuffed the two thermoses in her backpack. She slung it over one shoulder and the two teens arched an eyebrow and waited for Technus to continue.

"The Darkness is about to unleash his power on the world, correct?" Technus asked, fingers adjusting the Light Belt around his waist self-consciously.

"Yeah. Why? Are more ghosts under his control?"

"Not yet. But I thought up a way to completely wipe out the darkness from anyone that is corrupted, and slapping a belt on every one of them is not needed."

Tucker was immediately interested. "Will your idea work?"

"I am Technus! Master of all Technology! My ideas always work before they are brutally beaten down by that ghost child!"

"Sorry I asked," Tucker muttered. "All right Technus. I'm all ears. But if you try to blow me up, I'll sic my awesome ice power on you and freeze your system."

Sam rolled her eyes as both techgeeks walked away. She decided to go back and tell Danny what really happened. He wouldn't be happy, but he had a right to know. They were all in this together.

And apparently Technus too at the moment.

Master of Long-Winded-Speeches and all that.