Chapter 3

Danny frowned as he finally reached the mansion. The place was mostly dark and it gave off an eery feel as the last dying rays of sunlight caught it. For a moment it reminded him of the facility and he felt chills running up his spine once more before he reluctantly admitted to himself that the place had mentally scarred him a bit more than he'd initially believed.

Movement from one of the windows had his body jerking in fright, but then a familiar pair of white paws made him laugh as Maddie the cat pulled herself up onto the windowsill. Somehow, just the knowledge that there was another living being in the mansion set him at ease, and he eagerly zeroed in on the place where Vlad's lab usually was, only to find that the lab hadn't really changed much from the last time he'd been at the mansion.

Vlad didn't seem to be working on anything new at the moment and Danny frowned. It wasn't like Vlad to suddenly stop scheming…then a thought hit him. What if Vlad had a secret lab as well? The man was rich, crazy, and cautious enough to think about it, so why not?

Vlad knew that Danny and his friends knew about the lab beneath the mansion, so why wouldn't he build a new secret lab to hide his latest schemes in?

Danny moved through the mansion and peeked through every door he found until he reached the library, but he found no clichéd hidden entrances hidden behind the bookcases.

The only place he hadn't checked yet, was Vlad's bedroom, and for some reason, he felt extremely apprehensive and jumpy at the thought of going into such a private room. He steeled himself, "Just a peek, nothing more. The creep probably has a giant photo of my mother taking up most of one bedroom wall…"

Danny shuddered at the thought then took a deep breath and floated through the door, only to freeze in place at the coldness of the room.

The room held the bare minimum of furniture and something in the back of Danny's mind fought against what he was seeing. The room reminded him more of a prison cell with a large bed than an actual bedroom and Danny wondered why the room looked so impersonal when the rest of the mansion had such a rich and grand feel to it.

Danny slowly moved forward and allowed his fingers to trail over the material of the covers, but a sound from behind a door shocked him out of his thoughts and he dived under the bed just as, what looked to be a bathroom door, opened and Vlad Masters stepped out with his hair hanging loose and a towel riding low on his hips.

Danny quickly closed his eyes as a blush worked its way up to his ears, but he couldn't resist opening them again at the sound of a wardrobe opening.

Sam had been the one to point out his attraction to boys instead of girls shortly before his 17th birthday, but that didn't mean that he'd thought much about it in between his schoolwork and his nightly activities.

Now the image of Vlad's body was seared into his mind and it couldn't help but compare the casual flashes he'd seen in the locker rooms to the toned man in front of him. Danny forced himself to close his eyes as Vlad's hands moved to remove the towel and he dropped his head onto his hands. This was so not happening to him…

Maybe sneaking into Vlad's mansion was a bad idea after all. He'd never be able to look the man straight in the eyes ever again so how the hell would he be able to fight him after what he'd seen?

He slowly peeked out from over his arms as he heard the wardrobe door close and then footsteps moved towards the fireplace in the room. Danny had to stifle a sound of surprise as the wall next to the fireplace slid open and he watched as Vlad placed something inside the hidden room before closing the secret wall again and then leaving the bedroom.

A few minutes later Danny heard a car drive off and he released a breath of relief as he slowly slid out from under the bed and walked closer to the wall.

He saw nothing out of the ordinary that could act as a mechanism or lever of some kind so he simply phased through the wall to the secret room behind it, only to find that it held a single table with a single piece of paper and a strange device on it.

He absentmindedly reached for the device as his eyes scanned the paper that seemed to hold information about the device, but he didn't have time to rip his hand away from the device as his mind registered the last few words that had been written on the page:

What have I told you about snooping around alone, Little Badger? Perhaps it's time I taught you a lesson…

He dropped the device on the table, but it was too late as an almost translucent film surrounded him, effectively trapping him in a strange bubble that sent small shocks into his system whenever he floated too close to one of the sides.

The hidden wall slid open again and Danny watched with wide eyes as Vlad entered the little room with an evil grin on his face, "You know, just because I didn't simply capture you last night does not mean that you can suddenly come and go as you please. And you even disregarded my warning…tsk tsk…so what should I do with you now that I have you at my mercy?"

Danny yelped as a particularly sharp shock traveled through his shoulder as it connected with the side of the bubble and he glared at the man in front of him, only to find that the man was glancing at his watch instead.

Vlad shook his head with a sigh and removed a remote from his pocket before pressing the button, which caused the bubble to simply disappear and Danny found himself sprawled out on the floor as he suddenly lost the ability to fly, "Unfortunately, I will have to cut our little meeting short today, clones only last for so long and I am sure that your little friends will be up in arms once the one at the gala disappears. Truly, those events can be so tedious at times, but one must keep up appearances as you know."

With that, the man left the room after picking up the device and Danny quickly dived out of it just in case Vlad tried to lock him inside, much to the clear amusement of the man as he leaned back against the wall.

Danny gritted his teeth as he tried to summon a ghost ray, but nothing happened and a sharp sense of fear traveled through him as he realized that he'd been cut off from most of his powers.

Vlad stepped forward and Danny forced himself up to his full height, which, despite his age, still only seemed to reach the man's shoulder, "What did you do to me?!"

The older man paused, his face revealing nothing, but then something changed and the man sighed before turning to look out the window instead, leaving his back completely open, but Danny didn't even think to make a break for it because, as the man turned, he'd seen a glimpse of weariness so deep it looked completely foreign on the face of his nemesis that it froze him in place.

"It should wear off in a few moments. The device was but one of many that had been created in those facilities that would allow them to catch and contain a ghost. While practically harmless, it does numb the connection between a ghost and its core for a few moments, leaving the ghost unable to fight back as they capture it." Vlad removed the device from his pocket as he spoke, and Danny watched with wide eyes as the man dropped it to the floor before crushing it with the heel of his shoe.

The older man then turned toward him and Danny watched apprehensively as a sheen of red covered the man's eyes for a moment before it subsided once more as Vlad seemed to shake himself free from his thoughts, "Now come along, as amusing as it was, this game of cat and mouse of ours would have to wait until after the gala has ended."

Danny started to protest but Vlad gave him a sharp grin, "Do come quietly, otherwise Plasmius may be forced to crash the party just to ensure that Phantom makes his appearance."

Danny glared at him, "You planned all this?!"

Vlad simply rolled his eyes, "Not really, if you had waited a few moments longer I would have been on my way to the gala already. It is just my luck that I happened to be running a tad late and that I also just happen to have this nifty little ability to sense when there is a ghost nearby. If anything, you should be glad that I was still here, otherwise, you'd have been stuck there for hours if I hadn't been."

Danny paled at the thought, but he still couldn't use his powers so he had no choice but to change into the suit that Vlad had pointed out to him in one of the guest bedrooms that had been suspiciously decorated to suit his tastes. He also decided to say nothing about the fact that it was in his exact size, probably because it didn't really surprise him despite the whole creep factor.

Danny tried to use his powers again as soon as he put the shoes on, but they still didn't work so he called out to the older man, "Hey Fruitloop, how long is this going to last?"

The man in question entered the room and shrugged, but Danny noticed that he froze for a moment as his gaze fell on him and Vlad's eyes widened a bit before he quickly turned around and stopped just inside the door after pushing his hands into the pockets of his pants, "It depends on how well your core can fight against the numbing effect, but from what I have determined so far, your core is uncharacteristically weak against the device while my own took mere moments to get rid of the effect. I would have loved to study it further, but such technologies are better off destroyed and forgotten."

Danny nodded, not even realizing that he was actually agreeing with his arch-nemesis as he was led to the car. He wondered how his friends were going to react when Vlad makes an appearance with Danny at his side and sighed, they were never letting him go solo ever again.