I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.

Doctor Franken Stein, the mad meister, sat behind the judge's panel at the scouting tournament for the DWMA, the winner would be permitted entry into the Academy as a meister. Normally he would never do such a thing, nor would anyone ever dream of asking him. But the DWMA was thrown into chaos after a spoiled princess decided to run away from home and sign up as a meister student. Half the senior staff was trying to figure out a security detail and dealing with all the red tape since Lord Death in all his fun loving wisdom chose not to just send the girl home. And being understaffed they called on all inactive meisters with connections to Lord Death in order to keep normal functionality. And the Mad Doctor was one of those meisters who was usually only called in from emergencies or to scare the pants off of students that needed to be reminded why fear was important.

The only reason that Doctor Stein agree to go was because of the location; Amity Park. The stories of the powerful bonded souls had reached his ears and the scientist in him wanted to see what the after effects of being exposed to the unique soul would have on the population.

The Doctor was looking at his clipboard as the first round was coming to an end. He sighed and reached up a hand to the screw that ran through his head. He twisted it around a bit until he felt a click, ignoring the cringes of the nearby applicants. He had seen sixty-two different applicants that day and none of them were anything special. Just the usual martial arts protégées and oversized brutes. Not a single powerful soul in the bunch and even if they were well schooled in their own form of martial art, it was clear that they were unwilling or unable to break the rules of their art in order to adapt. Stein felt such people to be unworthy of his time.

He looked up at the applicants, most were staring as his gray skin and hair and his stitched together face with a bit of horror. Not to mention the screw. With another sigh he looked back down at the roster. "Applicants 63 and 64 please come forward!" He shouted to the group. It was going to be the last fight of the day and the 32 remaining participants would return the next day to finish the tournament.

The first to come forward was a standard big guy wearing a badge with the number 63 on it. Stein looked over at the African American boy, he looked to be around eighteen was six foot eight without his afro and he had his hands bound in wraps and was throwing some warm up punches. 'A boxer.' Stein thought a little uninterestedly. The boy's soul didn't do it for the Doctor either, plenty of greed and self-confidents, but no pain or fear to give focus to the desires. 'Another useless one.'

But the second individual to come up onto the stage surprised him. He was not what you would expect from a meister. He was a small 14 year old boy, around five foot three with spiky black hair and a rather small build. He didn't walk with the same confidence as the others and seemed a little slouched as he came onto the stage.

The boy's soul was also not something you would expect to find with a meister. It was strong enough but most meisters' souls are filled with determination and confidence, this boy didn't have much of that. His soul spoke of acceptance and a want to help to find peace, with a well of painful history hidden behind it. It actually reminded Doctor Stein a lot of his old partner, Maria, and her purifying wavelength. He even had the same lack of confidence as she did even though she had proven herself time and time again.

"You got to be kidding me, this is going to be my opponent? This bite size punk ain't even going to be a warm up for me!" 63 boasted loudly. 64 backed away slightly as the older and larger kid laughed.

"Don't listen to him, Danny!" Shouted a girl from the side lines. Stein turned his attention to the girl. She was also fourteen and around the same height as the boy. She was dressed in a rebellious Goth outfit and cheering on number 64, Danny. Stein could instantly tell that the girl was a weapon. Her soul was one of rebellious determination and self-confident pride, a good contrast to the boy's timid soul.

Stein nodded to himself in understanding. The boy was trying to become a meister so that he could stay with his friend. The two of them did have complementing soul wavelengths, much like another weapon/meister pair that Stein had heard about from the DWMA, Black Star and Tsubaki. Only the roles were reversed with the weapon driving the otherwise timid meister.

Stein raised one hand and the two participants dropped into stance. "Began!" Stein said as he dropped his hand. The boxer rushed forward and three sharp punches to the other boy's face. Danny was knocked back and staggered but managed to right himself without falling to the ground.

"This is pathetic. You don't even know how to fight." 63 said laughing.

Stein nodded to spit himself. The boy's stance was strange. It was centered around dodging rather than blocking or deflecting his opponents attacks so that he himself could get into attack range. It was almost like he was used to not needing to be close up in order to attack.

Danny rushed forward and tried to throw a punch but it was sloppy and missed the target. The boxer delivered several more punches straight to be boy's face and knocked him to the ground.

Stein sighed think that it was over, but to his astonishment the boy quickly pushed himself back up. "Why don't you just stay down? It would be easier on you." 63 said mockingly though it was clear that he had also not expected the boy to get up, let alone so quickly. He brushed off the hits like they were nothing.

"No… I won't." The boy spoke for the first time as he got back into position.

The next eight minutes were a match between David and Goliath with Goliath kicking the snot out of his smaller opponent. Stein was being forced to remember his position as a neutral judge as he watched the smaller boy get decked again and again. The entire audience was cheering on the overwhelming underdog every time he got back up and booed the big bully every time he hit the poor boy back down.

But as the match went on the boy was learning how to fight. His guard had changed completely and his sharp fakes and movement helped him avoid much of the damage. But even so, his reach was much too short and his attack patterns too predictable, so at the end of the eighth minute of the ten minute time limit match the boy was clearly losing. His had a prominent black eye and a cut lip, every inch of skin on his arms and much of his face were covered in bruises and he was panting heavily as he pulled himself back up off the ground for the fourteenth time. The boy didn't even seem to finch from his injuries, like the pain was nothing to him. But Stein could see it in the boy's soul, the injuries did hurt him, he just ignored the pain.

"Why… why won't you just stay down?" 63 said angrily as he himself was starting to run out of breath.

"Danny!" The girl shouted from the side line as everyone cheered for the boy.

"Don't worry Sam. I… I can still win." Danny said raising his arms. "I promised you that we would go together…" He panted. Stein personally was rooting for the kid at this point. He might lack experience but he was quick to adapt and refused to give up, good qualities for a meister if honed properly. But the simple truth was that he would not win, not without a miracle.

63 started to laugh at the absurdity. "You promised? What are you some kind of baby?"

Danny seemed to grind his teeth. "Yes… I promised." He said coldly. Stein shot up in his chair as the boy's soul began to grow stronger. It passed the level of the EAT class students at the DWMA and moved on to the strength of a two star meister, then that of a strong witch and quickly moved towards the strength of a three star meister. His lack of self-confidence seemed to melt away into resolve as his soul grew. His shoulders straightened, his head held higher and his eyes which had been blue up until that moment began to shine green.

"Stop!" Stein had seen everything he need to.

The boy looked at Stein in horror. "No, please, I still have a minute left." The boy begged. The boxer gave a look of triumph having been completely unable to sense the boy's soul.

"I've seen enough. This match is over." Stein said getting up and walking towards the stage. He reached up and started the twist the screw in his head and was pleased to see that the boy didn't shrink away. Stein stopped in front of the boy he stuck out his hand to the boy and smiled. "Welcome to the DWMA." Danny was momentarily shocked before he shook the mad doctor's hand. "Everyone else, go home and don't bother showing up tomorrow, you aren't DWMA material." Shouts of protest came from other assembled. But Stein was never one to care. He dropped a foot on the stage and the shock wave from his soul scared off any who might have been foolish enough to challenge one of the DWMA's most powerful meisters.

The boy looked up at Stein blinking though his eye that wasn't swollen shut as he tried to understand what was going on. "What's your name, kid?" Stein asked as he pulled out a cigarette.

"Danny… Danny Fenton." The boy said.

Stein looked at the boy with some surprise. "Fenton? As in the ghost hunters?" The boy nodded a little embarrassed. Stein smiled a bit. "I have read your parents' research documentation on the connection between the soul egg membranes and both repetitive and non-repetitive brain waves and external stimulus, as well as their documentation of a ghost's anatomy. They do good work." He said taking a puff on his cigarette. Danny looked shocked at the man's knowledge of his parents' work.

"Maybe I will see you and your friend around once you get to Death City." He said with a noncommittal shrug as he walked away waving back at the boy over his shoulder. 'An interesting specimen was standing right in front of me, and I didn't have the urge to tear him limb from limb to find out how he works.' Stein thought personally amazed.

Danny's knees gave way and he collapsed to the ground after the mad doctor left the room. "Danny!" Sam shouted coming up next to him. "Danny, are you ok?" She asked.

Danny looked up and smiled at her. It was amazing he didn't lose any teeth in the course of that fight. "I told you I would get in."

Sam chuckled softly. "I never doubted you for a second."

Doctor Stein had returned to Death City and was frantically at work on his computer when his visitor showed up. "Lord Death wants to know why you ended the tournament on the first day and gave the spot to a boy with no history in martial arts." Spirit asked his former partner from a safe distance from the mad doctor.

Stein paused and straightened up in his swivel chair. He reached his hand up and adjusted his screw. "I understand. But that boy wasn't normal. He is the son of the infamous ghost hunters, Jack and Maddie Fenton."

Spirit groaned. "More dissection crazed mad scientists." Death's personal weapon ran one hand through his blood red hair as he shuddered.

Stein chuckled. "No, the boy is nothing like that. His soul waves would suggest that his personality is closer to Maria's than mine. But I believe that long term exposure to his parents' research materials has affected the boy's soul." Stein turned around in his wheelie chair to face the Deathscythe. "He is untrained and it took a while for him to get angry and show his real power, but his soul wave was strong, nearly as powerful as my own." Spirit's eyes widened. Stein was the most power meister the DWMA had ever produced for a reason, no one knew that better than Spirit. So an untrained boy having a soul that was near as strong as his own was a surprise.

"On top of that he was only trying to get into the academy because his friend was recently shown to be a weapon, and the girl has a wavelength that would complement his." Stein said with certainty. "They will make a good pair for the DWMA. So I called off the rest of the tournament…" Then a grin shot across his face that scared the Deathscythe. "I couldn't risk having him lose and not coming to Death City. He is a valuable research material."

"Stein!" Spirit shouted at his gray haired colleague. "You can't dissect students!"

Stein laughed light heartedly. "Don't worry, dissecting him would be a waste anyways. I need to observe his development, his soul waves and his blood of course. Then I have to question him. If he died I wouldn't be able to do that, so I won't dissect him… yet."