Chapter 13

Danny looked at Vlad with wide eyes, "How?"

The man shrugged, a smug smile clearly revealing that he was happy that he'd managed to surprise the younger halfa to the extent that he'd lost the ability to communicate with more than one word, "Being a rich politician has its perks but in this case, an old acquaintance of mine owed me for getting him out of a jam, and I decided to cash in."

As if the words were meant to be some kind of dramatic reveal, a wisp of breath escaped from both of them before they turned to the door just as a floating spacesuit phased through it.

Danny stayed frozen, trying to comprehend what he was seeing even as the glow immediately informed him that he was dealing with a ghost.

A ghost that seemed to have a flair for drama as it suddenly pushed open its visor and Danny saw a young man with a wide grin on his face, "Welcome! So you're the one that Plasmius was talking about! I have so much to show you-!"

The ghost tried to move forward to grab Danny's hand in greeting, but a low growl from Vlad, even in his human form, had the ghost backing up with his hands raised, though the smile on his face clearly showed that he wasn't taking it personally.

Danny looked between the two, "So-uh, how did the two of you actually meet? Forgive me, but I can't think of any scenario, except within the Ghost Zone."

The ghost in the spacesuit grinned, but before he could say something, Vlad interrupted, "Walker took an exception to spacesuits and what they represented because of his past life, I simply decided that it was an amazing way to annoy the man after your own run-in."

Danny's eyes widened in surprise, "You decided to get revenge? For me?"

Vlad rolled his eyes, though the faint coloring on his cheeks was a dead giveaway as he fake-coughed, "I just said that I did it to annoy the guy, didn't I? Don't get any ideas."

Danny's smile widened but he decided not to tease Vlad about it…for now at least.

The ghost, whose name was Patrick, showed them all around the facility after they'd gone ghost and turned invisible and Phantom was in awe at the way the place worked.

He could see how smug Plasmius was at having thought of this, and when Patrick flew toward the rocket, Phantom was sure that he was going to die from excitement.

The sound of the rocket starting up startled both halfas, but Patrick merely grinned, "This rocket is on its way to the moon. The launch sequence takes quite a while though, seeing as they have a crew on board this time and they need to ensure that all safety checks are met. You still have a bit of time to explore. I'm going to go check on the engines to make sure everything is good to go. No rocket leaves this station until it gets my approval. Just be sure to leave in about ten minutes or so."

Phantom waved at the ghost before he disappeared, finally leaving him alone with Plasmius as the elder halfa took the chance to grab him by the hips to draw him close, "So? Enjoying yourself?"

Phantom laughed and nodded, "You know I am!"

He gave the older man a grin, "Thank you for this. When you said that there was more to this evening, I never thought it would be something like this!"

He suddenly froze and looked at the man in deep contemplation, which caused Plasmius to lightly grip his jaw and tilt his head toward him in worry, "Is something wrong, Little Badger?"

Phantom didn't want Plasmius to get angry at him, but he needed to ask nonetheless, so he took a deep breath, "I love the planetarium, and how you built it at home, but please tell me you didn't-um, well, that you didn't end up buying this spaceport as well?"

$$$$Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters$$$$

Plasmius' expression turned confused for a moment as he tried to determine why he would ask something like that, but then his mind got stuck on the idea that Phantom, and consequently Danny, actually thought of the mansion as his home as well.

A sense of elation went through him at the thought, and he couldn't help but smile, only to let out a small chuckle as Phantom impatiently gave his waist a tight squeeze from where the younger halfa's arms were wrapped around him and his mind went back to Phantom's previous question, "As flattering as it is for you to think that I have that much money laying around, I'm afraid I must disappoint you this time Daniel."

He chuckled again as he felt Phantom slightly sag against him in relief. Even though he loved the idea of spoiling his counterpart rotten now that he had the unspoken permission as his partner, he knew that something as large as that would only serve to drive Phantom away.

The younger halfa gave him a relieved grin before he leaned in for a kiss, and Plasmius was only too happy to oblige, though he kept it brief, "We should leave before this thing decides to take us to the moon with it."

Phantom let out a laugh, "Wouldn't that be something? Just imagine! We leave all those pesky ghosts and scientists here and I get to have you all to myself. It's just too bad that I haven't gotten around to getting myself used to eating space-paste since I doubt they have a Nasty Burger on the moon."

Plasmius rolled his eyes, "Unfortunately, I am quite sure that even the 'space-paste' as you call it, would be preferable over that poison you and your friends happen to call food."

Phantom's affronted, "Hey!", echoed through the room, and Plasmius finally realized that, while they had been talking, the rocket had started to shake even more. His eyes widened and he pulled Phantom tightly against him so that both of them could become intangible, but they never got the chance as G-force pushed them flat against the floor, though Plasmius managed to hold onto Phantom and cushion his fall by using his own body.

He gritted his teeth and forced them to go intangible as he felt the rocket speed up, causing it to rapidly move through them and leaving them floating in the open air before Phantom shifted to turn them invisible.

Neither of them spoke for a moment as Plasmius felt Phantom's body shake in shock, and he tightened his grip on the younger halfa, who seemed to calm down even as he gripped Plasmius' suit in a tight hold.

Plasmius slowly lowered them toward the ground and the younger halfa gave a forced chuckle, "Yeah…I'm definitely not ready to go into space just yet."

Plasmius decided to distract him from their ordeal by lightly nipping at the joint between Phantom's neck and shoulder, causing the younger halfa to give a startled moan before losing control and turning them visible once more.

Plasmius did it again and Phantom moaned even as a chuckle worked its way up his throat, "Well, if you intended that to be a distraction, it worked. Do those fangs really work or-"

Phantom's words were cut off as Plasmius saw something hit him in the back and he felt a painful zap course through them, causing both of them to revert back to their human forms in shock.

Vlad immediately recognized the sensation as it coming from a device similar to the one he'd smashed under his heel and he pushed Danny behind him even as he realized that they were surrounded.

A group of men in white military-styled suits held them at gunpoint as Vlad's enhanced hearing easily picked up their shocked mutterings of 'Mayor' and 'half-ghost', but his only instinct was to protect Danny as he waited for them to deploy their usual tactics.

An angry shout sounded from their left, "You forgot the dart guns! You idiotic-!" The sound of a fist hitting flesh echoed but despite his relief at them not having something to tranquilize them with, Vlad didn't drop his guard.

He knew they would try to subdue them in a different way as he tried to access his core once more. The last device's effects had only lasted two minutes and so far five minutes had already passed, leading him to believe that they had enhanced it and he knew that it would have an effect on Danny for a lot longer.

He cursed silently as he tried to figure out a way to get them out of their current predicament when a shot ran out and he waited for the pain to hit.

He was a larger threat than Danny after all.

But when no pain hit his eyes widened in fear and he turned toward Danny, who luckily didn't seem to be injured at all, until he removed the hand he had placed on his side and it came away red.

The world seemed to freeze around them as Danny slowly looked up at him with a scared expression on his face, "Vlad? What-?"

Vlad felt his core suddenly ignite and he knew that he was going to be dragged into that dark place again. His anger was too great not to as a deep voice ROARED in his ears, "They dare lay a hand on what's OURS?!"

Vlad knew that it was a risk to let the voice take control, but he knew that even if it set the world ablaze, Danny would be safe.

$$$$Danny Fenton & Vlad Masters$$$$

Danny hissed as he pressed a hand to his side, knowing immediately that he'd been shot and hoping that it hadn't fatally wounded him.

Vlad turned to him and Danny could see the relief in his eyes until he gently lowered his hand to try and take a look at the damage, but the expression on Vlad's face stopped him from looking down as he saw relief give way to fear even as Vlad's eyes became red, "Vlad? What-?"

He didn't get any further than that as Vlad's hair darkened to black and two horns faded into view as if they had merely been hidden from sight the entire time.

His ears became pointed and Danny took a slight step back as he recognized the form he'd seen in the ghost zone.

He also recalled that he still didn't know whether this side of Vlad would hurt him and his eyes widened in fear as two clawed hands abruptly reached out, one holding him around the waist as the other moved underneath his shirt before covering his wound and suddenly he was screaming as a white-hot, searing pain speared through his body.

He didn't even realize that he'd blacked out for a few moments, but when he came to, he found that he was lying on the ground and something soft was cushioning his head.

A shout rang out and he turned onto his uninjured side with difficulty, only to freeze as he saw one of the men being held off the ground by his neck.

The hybrid version of Vlad and Plamius gave a chilling smile before he leaned forward and ripped the guy's throat out with his teeth before the man caught fire, 'Well, I guess I got the answer to my question on whether those fangs really worked or not.'

He glanced around him and noticed that piles of ash were the only thing that remained of the people that had attacked them before he dragged his attention back to the older halfa, who was once again making his way toward him, just like he had in the ghost zone, but the soft reminder of Vlad's cloak under his cheek stopped him from trying to move away in fear.

The hybrid suddenly disappeared and Danny yelped in shock as his back collided with a tree, though he barely felt the impact as he was picked up and his legs instinctively curled around the hybrid's waist before he could stop them.

A strange growly purr sounded out from the hybrid and he leaned in, but before Danny could protest, given that it both was and was not Vlad at the same time, he noticed that the hybrid was merely trying to lift his shirt to take a look at the wound on his side.

The reminder of the wound sent a twinge of pain through him and he looked down to assess the damage, only to find that the hybrid had seared the wound shut to ensure that he wouldn't bleed out, leaving a handprint-shaped burn. Luckily it seemed that the bullet had gone straight through and the burn had covered both wounds.

Danny winced, it still hurt like no tomorrow though.

An apologetic sound left the hybrid's lips and Danny shook his head, "It's fine, I would've probably bled out since I can't access my core at the moment, so thank you."

The hybrid finally seemed to relax and Danny was surprised when the form faded away, leaving behind a worried-looking Vlad, who immediately caged Danny in against the tree with his arms as his body shifted forward at the feeling of Danny's legs around his waist.

He lifted a worried brow as he took in their positions and Danny rolled his eyes, "It turns out the other you likes to touch."

The man's answer to his statement was to possessively move forward, completely pinning him against the tree and Danny chuckled before hissing slightly in pain, "I'm kidding. As much as I like you getting all possessive, I think I need to get some treatment for the burn first."

Vlad froze before he reached one hand down to lift Danny's shirt, and Danny suddenly felt fury running off of him in waves as he tried to pull back, but Danny would have nothing of that as he gripped the man's collar and briefly kissed him, "He, well you, did it so that I wouldn't bleed out. It wasn't done with the intention to harm."

Vlad froze for a moment before he let his body slump slightly in relief as he nodded. Familiar rings swept over him and he shifted Danny in his hold to ensure that nothing would brush up against the wound.

Though Danny couldn't help but feel as if not everything was the way it had been before the change as they made their way home.