Chapter 2

Danny had fully expected to find himself in one of Vlad's labs when he woke, but instead, he found himself in his own bed and the only thing that stopped him from thinking that the previous night had simply been a nightmare, was the expensive-looking envelope with his name written in a neat scrawl that he found on the pillow next to his head as he tried to turn to sleep in a bit more.

He slowly sat up and carefully opened it, not knowing what he would find:

The sedative shouldn't take too long to leave your system so rest for the day and do not approach the facility again. Phantom almost erased himself to escape the lingering despair of that place.

I suggest you heed my words of wisdom about snooping next time, but I doubt you'd truly listen so be sure to simply take some backup in the future…

V.P.

Danny stared at the note in shock. Why didn't Vlad just leave him there then? Surely Phantom was as much a pain in the behind for Plasmius as Plasmius was for Phantom? Surely he wanted Phantom gone so that he would stop ruining his plans?

Danny frowned and stuffed the note back into the letter before glancing at the clock, which showed that he'd slept until 2 PM. Luckily it was still the weekend. He needed to get Sam and Tucker's take on this. He winced as he imagined his friends' reaction to his solo stakeout, but steeled himself. They had been the ones to go on a date and they knew he was out on patrol most nights so they couldn't really be mad at him for it.

…Or so he'd thought…

Danny grimaced as he tried to shake out the ringing in his ears from Sam's lecture as he informed them about his stakeout of the warehouse. Tucker had given him the 'Bro, so not cool' glare from behind her as she verbally tore into Danny, but instead of feeling angry or irritated, Danny merely hid his amused smile behind a blank face.

Honestly, it was nice having friends that cared and with Vlad's words also still playing through his mind, it didn't take long for him to cave and explain the rest of what happened.

As he finished his recount of the night, he simply expected another lecture and readied himself for it, but instead, he felt a shiver up his spine as both his friends paled and Sam even reached blindly for the bed before she collapsed down onto it.

Tucker stood on wobbly legs and dragged a file out from underneath Sam's bed. He seemed hesitant as he held it out to Danny, but he didn't yank it back as Danny moved to take it, "We had a hunch that something was going to happen when we saw some strange people watching the places we usually frequented. Further snooping revealed that it was a government organization, but whenever a new one popped up it would suddenly disappear again since about a year ago. I managed to hack into some of their systems and…well…see for yourself."

Danny opened the file and then immediately snapped it closed again as he caught a glimpse of familiar-looking rooms, although each photo contained a different 'test subject'.

He looked up and saw that both Sam and Tucker also looked nauseous and they made a point of not looking at the contents of the file as Tucker frowned, "Are you saying that Plasmius was the one that kept destroying the labs? Why would he do that if he didn't gain anything from it? It's not like they had discovered his secret as well."

Danny shrugged and pushed the file under the bed once more, "I don't know, but I suggest we find out."

Sam's eyes widened, "You mean you want to sneak into Vlad's place again? Must I remind you that the last time you tried that, you just barely managed to escape?"

Danny nodded grimly, "I know, but he had a chance to catch me again last night and he didn't and I can't shake the feeling that something else is going on. He's the only ghost I've been fighting for the past few weeks and even though most of his plans seem foolproof, I somehow always manage to get away with little to no injuries at all. I didn't notice it as it was happening, but after listening in on his conversation with Box Ghost, I think he may be the reason why there haven't been any more ghost appearances lately."

His friends looked skeptical, but neither moved to stop him as they also started packing and an amused grin crossed over Danny's lips, "You know when he asked me to take backup when I snoop around, I doubt he thought that it applied to his mansion as well."

Sam and Tucker snickered as they pictured the expression that Vlad would make once he found out, but then Tucker's expression became serious, "Maybe this is a bad idea? I mean, sure, you and Plasmius have this weird friendly nemesis thing going on since a while ago, but what if this is a trap to lure you back?"

Danny raised a brow, "Again, he had the perfect opportunity to do whatever he wanted with me last night, but he didn't." Sam frowned, "I don't know…this isn't like him so maybe someone was impersonating him?

Danny adamantly shook his head, "It was really him. A ghost wouldn't be able to copy another ghost's core signature to that extent and I could recognize him anywhere."

Sam and Tucker looked at each other and sighed before they loaded the last things in their backpacks. Danny glanced at the time but then shrugged, it's not like Sam's parents would notice if they were gone for a while.

Danny was just about to go ghost when there was a knock on the door and the two boys wisely stayed where they were as Sam left the room and closed the door behind her. An exchange of heated words rang out a few moments later before Sam stormed into the room and closed the door behind her.

In her hands, she clutched a sparkly blue dress, which she threw onto the floor as soon as she reached the bed before falling down onto it with a groan. A tense silence followed before she sighed and turned her head toward them, "They played the 'if you don't go you will never see your friends again' card. It seems there's a shitty gala on tonight and they need me there to complete the 'happy family' image."

Danny and Tucker sank down on the bed next to her and Danny saw Tucker grasping her hand in his. A thought occurred to him and he abruptly sat up, "There is only one event going on tonight, right? That big art gala that everyone's been raving about?"

Sam and Tucker nodded, but both of them frowned because they couldn't see where he was going with all this. Danny grinned, "I know for a fact that Vlad will be attending that gala tonight, I heard my mom raving about it a few days ago, so if the two of you can keep an eye on Vlad, then I can enter his labs to look for information."

Tucker nodded eagerly, but Sam grimaced in thought, "What if he has countermeasures in place?"

Danny shook his head, "I haven't been to his mansion in months, and even before then it was only even him fighting me in most cases. And he'd expect me to try and snoop around the facility again, not his mansion."

Neither of them looked convinced but they weren't able to change his mind and Danny booked it out of there before Tucker could realize that he would have to wear a suit. He grinned as a panicked "Daaannnnnyyyy!" rang out, but didn't turn around as he made his escape.

He loved his friends but for some reason, his ghost half didn't really like it when they entered Vlad's mansion. At first, he thought that it was because they would be in danger, but the feeling only seemed to appear when it somehow involved Vlad and not around any other threats so that didn't make sense at all.

Danny sighed, but then quickly forced himself to focus. Vlad was planning something and he needed to get to the bottom of it and stop it before the man realized that they were onto him.