I knew that the last one was too short, so here's the next one. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Why do I bother? Everyone knows I don't own DP!
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Fenton Residence
"Dad, what do you mean I've created my own worst enemy?" Abby asked, baffled.
"Abby, all he wanted to do was help, but you kept accusing him of being evil. I stand behind what he said 100 percent. You thought he was evil because you didn't know him. That's why I did this in the first place, to get you two to stop fighting and show you that he was a good ghost. Abby, he could have been your best ally, but you chose to make him your worst enemy," Danny explained,
"Don't worry, Dad. I'll beat him," Abby assured.
"You obviously don't understand. He has powers that neither of us has ever experienced. He is strong, Abby. The only reason he didn't beat you before was because he was holding back and didn't want to cause you harm. If he gets complete control of his powers, he could wipe out the entire city and probably much, much more," Danny told her grimly.
"So what do I do?" Abby questioned.
"You should find him and apologize," Sam replied.
"How am I supposed to do that?!" she asked irritably.
"You got yourself into this mess, now you need to get yourself out," Danny responded sternly.
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Back in the Ghost Zone
"No, no, my boy. Try again," Vlad advised patiently.
Shadow was trying to accomplish the task of duplicating, but was failing just as horribly as his father had. He kept ending up with two heads or a few extra limbs.
"Mr. Plasmius, we've been at this for an hour. Is there some technique that can help me to duplicate myself?" Shadow whined.
"Try envisioning yourself as two people. Close your eyes and picture two of you in your mind," Vlad advised.
"Here it goes." Shadow shut his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth.
"Concentrate," Vlad directed.
Shadow tried as hard as he could and suddenly, his body split into two forms. He opened his eyes and both Shadows stared at each other.
"Yes!" they both cried happily.
"Spectacular! Well done, dear boy, well done," Vlad complemented.
Shadow then pulled himself together. "I did it!" he exclaimed proudly.
"Yes, it was quite amazing. You are learning quite quickly, I must say. Much more quickly than Daniel," Vlad said proudly. "Now why don't you go to sleep now, I think you deserve some rest and besides, you'll need it for tomorrow's training. Sleep tight," Vlad dismissed.
Shadow left with a happy expression on, not that you could see the grin or anything, but his eyes held pride. He soared up through the roof and landed on a soft red bed. He drifted to sleep.
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Fenton Residence
"Danny, where is Jake? He should be home by now," Sam asked worriedly.
"I'm not sure. I haven't heard from him all day. I'll go fly around and see if I can find him," Danny replied.
"I'll help!" Abby volunteered.
"I think you've helped enough already for now," Danny said harshly.
Abby frowned sadly as Danny turned into his ghost form, which had physically changed a lot as well as his human form. His jeans and red and white T-shirt changed into black HAZMAT suit with white gloves, collar, belt, boots, and DP symbol. His messy raven black hair turned into snow white and his bright blue eyes into a glowing green. He phased through the ceiling and flew off in search of Jake.
Almost an hour later, he returned with no signs of his son. "I can't find him anywhere!" Danny exclaimed with worry tinting his voice.
"I bet Shadow took him as revenge," Abby sneered.
"Let's not jump to conclusions," Sam advised. "We'll put up missing posters and file it in the newspaper. He's bound to be somewhere."
"Yeah, like the Ghost Zone," Abby muttered, earning a look from Danny that screamed, "not-right-now."
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Ghost Zone
"Mr. Plasmius, may I take a short trip to the human realm, there is a small detail I forgot to wrap up," Shadow remembered.
"Yes, you may, but keep it quick. I want you back here by noon," Vlad permitted.
"Thank you."
With that, Shadow flew his way through the Ghost Zone until he came across the bright vortex that was the ghost portal. He flew through it and became invisible. He phased though the wall and scanned outside. The city was covered in "Missing: Jake Fenton" posters. He smirked. A devious plan formed in his head. He could kill them on the inside too by turning their only son against them.
He flew in an alleyway and changed back into a human. His legs felt a little wobbly from the sudden weight, but he quickly adapted. He moved to a place where he was in plain sight.
"Jake?!" a woman screamed. Perfect.
His Mom and Dad along with Abby rushed over to him as soon as they saw him.
"Jake Fenton, where the heck were you?!" Danny shouted.
"Getting away from you! I hate you and I never want to see you again!" he screamed abruptly, running off. He turned invisible as soon as he was out of sight.
A smug smile crossed his face as he changed back into his ghost form. He made his way back to the portal and back to Vlad. His plan had worked. Jake Fenton was gone, he found the ultimate way to hurt the people he wanted revenge on, and his payback on Abby was drawing closer and closer as his powers grew and grew.
He arrived back at the floating castle, his new home. He entered once again and found his teacher waiting for him.
"Did you accomplish your mission?" Vlad asked calmly.
"Yes. They now believe that Jake Fenton hates them and has run off. Therefore they have no way of linking him to me," Shadow menacingly explained.
"Ahhh, very good, my child. You are learning how to play this game very well," Vlad told the teen.
"Thank you Mr. Plasmius."
"You know, Mr. Plasmius is so formal, from now on, you can call me Father," Vlad suggested. This was something he still craved. Even if Danny was a hopeless task, his son certainly wasn't.
"Thank you, Father," Shadow corrected.
"Now, come along, son, we have much to work on," Vlad led.
"Yes, Father," Shadow responded. This caused Vlad to grin.
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"Dad, what are we going to do about Jake?" Abby asked impatiently.
"I wouldn't worry about Jake right now," Danny stated.
"What are you talking about?! He's our son!" Sam exclaimed.
"I don't think that that was really Jake. I think that Shadow overshadowed him to get revenge on Abby," Danny explained.
"So you admit that Shadow is evil?!" Abby asked with a hint of that told-you tone.
"No, Abby. I still think he is good. A thirst for revenge can make people do crazy things, Abby. Things that we'll regret. My old arch-enemy could tell you about that. He ended up floating aimlessly through space," Danny informed his daughter.
"Really? Who was he?" Abby inquired curiously.
"Enough dwelling on the past, let's just think about how we are going to do this." Sam suggested quickly, making it obvious that she wanted to avoid the subject.
"I'm pretty sure that we'll find Jake with Shadow, so we should focus on him. We saw him go in the Ghost Zone, that's our first hint. Abby and I will look for him," Danny planned.
"What about me?" Sam asked.
"Sam, it's too dangerous and…"
"Danny, I was with you when we were kids and I'm with you now," Sam interrupted.
"Fine, but now we're missing just one person." Danny smiled mischievously and Sam gave back the same smile.
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"Now the team is complete," Danny declared contently.
Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Abby were sitting in the old Specter Speeder.
"Okay, I've tweaked the Speeder's real world item detector to give us the general location of Jake. Now all we have to do is follow the little red signal," Tucker clarified.
"You're the best, Tuck!" Danny complemented.
"I know," Tucker replied jokingly.
"Here we go," Danny announced as the Speeder zoomed off into the Ghost Zone.
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"So, young Shadow, care to tell me the rest of the story?" Vlad questioned, trying to get all of the info on Shadow.
"My sister was always the special one. She had the ghost powers. I eventually got tired and decided to get my own powers through the portal. When I came out, I found that I didn't look like my ex-Dad and sister, so I became Shadow and they don't know. I came here after I got sick of Abby treating me like a villain, so I decided that if she wants me to be evil so badly, then I'd become her worst nightmare," Shadow explained.
"Interesting. Do you, by any chance, have any powers that Danny and Abby Phantom do not?" Vlad inquired curiously.
"Yes. I have the ghost zapper," Shadow responded.
"Can you show me?" the older ghost asked.
"Gladly," the teen replied simply. He moved his arms into the X position. They began to glow red and he released the attack. It headed for Plasmius, who put up his shield. The lightning-like X took hold of the shield. It zapped the pink force field, turning it red and eventually, obliterating it and setting off to attack Vlad again. Vlad quickly flew out of the way and fired up a few ecto-beams, shooting them at the moving attack. Eventually, the X faded after exhausting Vlad of a good amount of his energy. Vlad had evaded it by ducking behind an object that wasn't made of ghostly material. It seemed that the attack fed off of ghost energy, but it was useless on things that do not run on ghost power.
"Sorry, I forgot that it tracks whatever ghost I aim it at," Shadow apologized.
"No, don't be sorry. That was a very interesting and unique attack," Vlad said exasperatedly. "Just see to it that it doesn't happen again."
"I will," Shadow assured.
"Now that that it out of the way, why don't we practice ecto-shields?" Vlad suggested.
"Of course," agreed Shadow as he nodded.
"Now, concentrate your energy. Envision something coming at you and you have to protect yourself from it. Think defensive," Vlad advised.
Shadow did as he was told and was able to form the shield.
"Excellent!" Vlad exclaimed. The boy was becoming quite good at this. He was learning the powers at an almost unnatural rate. Vlad supposed that it was from watching his Dad all the time. He was everything that Daniel would have failed at. He was loyal, cunning, and most of all; motivated.
"Thank you, Father," Shadow said politely as he nodded.
"You are most certainly welcome, son. Now…" Vlad didn't get to finish his sentence.
A huge metal contraption flew through the wall. It contained three figures that Vlad recognized after all of these years and one figure that Vlad knew must be Danny's daughter.
"So, finally come to visit your old enemy after all of these years?" Vlad mocked.
Danny jumped out of the Specter Speeder with Abby by his side. "Vlad?!"
"Yes, Vlad, you fool!" the elder ghost snapped.
"Why are you here? I thought you went to wander space," Danny inquired rudely.
"I would worry less about me and more about yourselves," Danny's old arch-enemy warned.
"Why would we need to worry? It's two against one," Abby pointed out.
The two were then hit in the back and sent falling to the floor at Vlad's feet.
"Actually, it's two against two. Meet my new apprentice, although, you should already be familiar with him." Vlad smirked evilly as Shadow stepped out of the dark to reveal himself to the two knocked down half-ghosts.
"Shadow?" Danny asked. "Why would you join him?"
"I should not have to explain my reasons to you, but since you are so interested, I will tell you," he snapped darkly. "After I left, I came to the Ghost Zone to find somewhere to get away from her." He pointed angrily toward Abby. "I was wandering when I came across this place and I met Father. He was the only one who understood my pain and he helped me train so that one day, I could make little Miss Perfect pay."
"Shadow, you can't trust Vlad. I should know. He'll pretend that he cares and make you feel like he understands, but he's just using you," Danny informed.
"Liar!" Shadow shouted. "He's never done anything to hurt me and hasn't let me down. Not as much can be said for you two, though." He casted a hateful glance down at the fallen figures. If looks could kill, he'd have created a massacre.
"Vlad, I knew you were low, but this is even below your level," Danny growled, rising up off the floor, only to be knocked back down again by a powerful ghost ray from Shadow.
"Low is merely a matter of perspective," Vlad stated in that same calmness that made Danny want to rip him to shreds.
"You convinced a kid to overshadow Jake so you could use him in your game of revenge!" Danny spat accusingly.
"Actually, I cannot take credit for that. It was Shadow's idea. He is getting quite good at this." Vlad smirked.
"Shadow thought of that?" Abby hoarsely whispered.
"Yes, I thought of it. It was the ultimate way to crush you on the inside," Shadow sneered.
"Shadow, I'm sorry! I never should have judged you like that," Abby apologized frantically.
"Now you're sorry because you finally realize the power I have and you're scared. Admit it; you deserved this," Shadow remarked evilly as he charged his hands with red energy.
"Shadow, you don't want to do this!" Danny exclaimed. "I know that somewhere deep down, you are still the Shadow that wanted to help. You're only thinking this way because Vlad made you! He's manipulating you into one of his pawns!"
Shadow showed some signs that he was considering letting them go and forgiving them. His eyes softened a bit and the beams began to fade.
"It's too late, Daniel. The boy has made up his mind," Vlad sneered.
"Yes, I have," Shadow agreed venomously.
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Ha ha! Attack of the killer cliffie! Please review. They are much appreciated.