Darkness Snow and Red

Syringes and Nasty Burger

Danny showered quickly, making sure to scrub any dried ectoplasm from the testing off of himself, wash his thick hair, and his face. He shut the water off and grabbed his towel, stepping out after drying off.

"Heroes always get remembered but you know legends never die..." He hummed to himself quietly, finally turning intangible to remove the rest of the water from his hair. He wrapped the towel around his waist and walked out to his room, dressing in sweat pants and a plain white, loose t-shirt. Then he headed downstairs to the living room, and sat down to watch TV. As soon as he turned the television on, a news alert came up saying that the Fentons were following a lead to the location of their son. Danny's eyes widened when he realized that they were on his trail, and listened carefully. They had found video footage from their cameras that were facing the backyard, and had seen a familiar figure "kidnap" him. They were working on finding this ghost now, and would know his location in the next day or so.

"I've got to warn Vlad." Danny said, fumbling for the landline that was on the table next to him, then shakily typed in Vlad's number. He bit his lip and dialed again when he got Vlad's voicemail, only to receive the voicemail once again. Danny then stood up and transformed, flying into the lab and grabbing a syringe with the last dose of the cure in it. He pocketed it, wrote a quick note saying he was out for a flight in case he was just being paranoid, and Vlad came home while he was gone, and then took off for Amity Park.

/DP/

Vlad was just about to leave the Nasty Burger when Maddie and Jack pulled in. He groaned inwardly, but put a false smile up when the two exited the RV. "Maddie, Jack. How nice it is to see you." He said pleasantly.

"What are you doing here, Vlad?" Maddie asked, aware of how the man wasn't the biggest fan of fast food.

"Oh, just picking up dinner for a friend and I." He shrugged. Maddie furrowed her eyebrows, clearly not certain if she believed him ore not. "So I better go." He said, starting to leave when his phone went off. Danny's ringtone, the same Stayin' Alive ringtone the boy had set for his biological parents, ringing loudly from within his pocket. Vlad winced slightly but didn't turn around as he walked to his car.

"Vlad." Maddie called after him. He turned after a moment, to find himself looking down the barrel of an ecto-gun. "Where is Danny? We know you're Plasmius. We did our research." She said, tone biting.

"I don't-" He started, but Maddie cut him off.

"Don't lie." She said, before noticing that a crowd was starting to form. She pushed him into the RV, not wanting to make a scene and possibly be arrested. Jack wasn't quite sure that Vlad was for sure Plasmius, but went along with it. They drove back to Fenton Works, where Maddie took his cell phone and turned it off after it went off a second time in the car. She knocked him out when he wasn't paying attention by hitting him over the head with the butt of the gun. They brought him down to their lab and secured him to a table.

/DP/

Danny flew intangibly and invisibly into Fenton Works and immediately went down to the lab, finding an unconscious Vlad lying on an operating table. Maddie and Jack were standing beside him; Maddie was injecting him with something. Danny watched in horror as whatever his mother injected him with forced him to transform.

"See, Jack. He is the ghost that saved Phantom." She said, looking up at him. Danny pushed the sting from being referred to as Phantom instead of Danny to the back of his mind, focusing on getting Vlad out of there unharmed. When he thought the two ghost fighters weren't paying attention to Vlad, he flew down and unlocked his restraints. He was wrong though, because suddenly he was aware of a short blinding pain in his side where an ectoblast had grazed him, causing him to drop his invisibility. He looked up at the two people he used to call his parents; pain and desperation clear in his eyes. The two merely glared at him.

"We thought you might show up." Maddie said, reaching for another syringe. This one held a different liquid in it, which Danny realized was pure ectoranium. A dose like that could possibly kill him if it wasn't diluted. "That's why we had this prepared." She said, starting towards him. He backed himself into a corner, not wanting to hurt her but also not wanting to leave Vlad.

"Don't. Please." He said half-heartedly, already aware that pleading wouldn't help. He had learned that through experience. Maddie simply ignored his plea before shoving the needle into his arm and injecting the ectoranium into his bloodstream. Danny let out a scream as his blood seemed to turn to fire, and collapsed to the ground. His whole body was on fire it felt like, and he watched helplessly as Maddie approached Vlad with another syringe with the same dose.

Suddenly, he felt a rush of energy come over him that dulled the fire just enough for him to reach a empty syringe that was on the counter he was collapsed against. He filled it clumsily with water from a half empty water bottle that was laying nearby, and injected it into himself, hoping it would help flush the ectoranium from his system. He felt the need to protect Vlad, the same way the man had felt for him all those months ago. He stumbled to his feet and grabbed onto Vlad's wrist, using what little energy he had to teleport him back home. He collapsed after seeing that Vlad was no longer there, the last thing he heard was Maddie's slightly startled yell when Vlad was no longer there. "You didn't save him. We'll find him."