~Sam's House, Later in the Afternoon

Sam slowly closed her cell phone and hung her head. "He's not answering his phone," she said gloomily.

"I doubt he would have that time. You called him thirteen times," Tucker sighed. "Not even his ectoplasmic signature is showing up on the radar."

"This doesn't even make sense," I thought out-loud. "Why would someone just randomly attack him at school? And why didn't he go ghost during the attack?"

"Well, we all know that the answer to the first question is pretty obvious," Tucker shrugged. "He's got plenty of enemies."

"Why would you say that he didn't go ghost? You can't tell whether he did or not from just looking at the evidence," Sam pointed out.

"Because there was-" I paused, slightly grimacing, "-red blood on the lockers... and on his backpack. If he was Danny Phantom his blood would've been green."

Sam turned and lightly picked up Danny's backpack from her bed. "That... still doesn't prove anything. Maybe the person who attacked him had red blood. And if they were human, that would've been why he didn't go ghost." I sat down on the floor and hugged my right knee. She had a point, but why did I have this strong feeling that a ghost had attacked him? I mean, in the show, whenever he went ghost, all of his belongings like his backpack just sort of disappeared. So if his backpack got destroyed, maybe he was still Danny Fenton when he was attacked. But then again, he could've just taken it off and let the backpack get shredded instead of him, THEN he went ghost. But... that still didn't explain why he was missing for six hours straight...

You know where he is.

I gasped and shivered horribly. You again?!

"Becky, are you... okay?" Sam asked. She and Tucker had stopped talking and turned to me.

My mind raced and I quickly folded my arms tightly. "Y-y-yeah. Sorry, sometimes I just get really cold easily," I told them and did a little half-smile. They shrugged and started talking again. I screwed up my face as my thoughts turned back to the voice.

What are you talking about? I have no IDEA where he is.

The voice didn't answer. I just wanted to scream out at demand what the person's problem was, why he only spoke conversationally once while I was sleeping. But instead I forced myself to stay still and look like nothing had happened. What did he mean, "I already knew where he was"? I only had one assumption that I knew was too crazy and self-centered. But at the same time... it sort of made sense.

All this time Sam and Tucker had been arguing over what could have happened to Danny. I quickly tuned into their conversation.

"That's ridiculous! Why would Ember just come in and attack him like that? She has a GUITAR. She doesn't need razor blades or rabid rats!" Sam said loudly.

"So? Maybe she lost her guitar and had to resolve to sharp metal and evil rodents!" Tucker retorted, folding his arms across his chest.

"I still think that it was someone else," Sam huffed.

"What about Vlad?"

The two turned and stared down at me. I think I blushed, because my face was starting to feel warm. I always feel silly when the attention is suddenly turned to me. I swallowed and continued.

"Think about it. Vlad is always after him for something, and he's the only person who could actually win a fight against him," I explained, remembering all the episodes where he and Danny were involved. Normally Vlad did kick Danny's butt, but on the big fights Danny won. I think what happened today was considered a surprise attack, so Vlad would have had a big advantage anyways.

"Maybe," Sam mused in deep thought. "But what if it was Skulker? He's probably had a big grudge against Danny ever since Monday."

I paused. I hadn't thought about that. It was very possible that that was the case. But, what the voice had said... he said that I already knew where he was. So was he really at Vlad's after all? "Listen, I know it's crazy, but I just have this strong feeling that Vlad's behind it. I don't know why, but maybe we should check with him first." In truth, I knew why I had the strong feeling, but that was the sort of self-centered part of my assumption that I didn't want to admit.

"Besides, Vlad is off on vacation somewhere," Tucker added. "He announced it on TV a few days ago. Somewhere off in Canada to visit family or whatever."

"Visit family?" I made a funny face. "I've never recalled him having family of any kind." Maybe my crazy idea wasn't that crazy after all. I mean, you would think that Vlad could come up with a better cover story. "He definitely sounds like he's up to something."

"Well, now that you mention it, it does sound pretty suspicious," Sam agreed. "We'll check with Vlad's mansion here in town first thing tomorrow."

Tucker unfolded his arms and sat up a little straighter. "But what if he's not there?"

I smiled and looked up at him slyly. "Then it looks like we'll have to go on a field trip."
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~5:00 a.m., the next morning

Getting inside a high-security mansion that belonged to a paranoid millionaire is not the easiest thing to do. It was even harder without Danny and his ghost powers. Although I did like the black suit with a tool belt loaded with special ghost weapons. I'd always wanted to be a spy, despite the fact that I'm not always the most coordinated or stealthy person in the world. Thank goodness Tucker and Sam were there to show me through the ropes. They had done stuff like this before. We scouted out the premises before advancing towards the building. It took us a few minutes to figure out how we were going to get in without being noticed. But as we went around the back we discovered a slightly open window. Tucker grabbed a grappler hook from his belt and prepared to swing it up onto the ledge.

"Wait. No," Sam shook her head and grabbed the hook out of his hands. "If you do it we'll be here all day." She swung the rope around and threw the hook. It landed perfectly on the ledge and dug successfully into the wood. "Let's go."

Tucker grumbled to himself furiously, but didn't argue.

We grabbed onto the rope one by one and slowly climbed our way up to the window. I'm not really afraid of heights, but I was afraid that my foot was going to slip or my hands were going to suddenly let go of the rope and I'd blow our cover. But somehow I managed to hang on and pull myself through the window. I almost yelled out when the edge of the ledge pressed into the cuts on my side. But I just inhaled sharply and pulled the rest of me through.

"Are you okay?" Sam whispered when she heard me.

I set both of my feet on the ground and brushed off the dirt from the windowsill. "Cuts," I answered, pointing to my left side. "I'm okay though." I turned around and helped Tucker through the window (all of the extra gadgets he had packed on his belt kept getting caught on the ledge).

"Are all of those really necessary?" Sam whispered in annoyance as she wound up the grappler hook and attached it to her belt.

Tucker jumped off the windowsill and shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. You never know." Sam rolled her eyes and led us down the hall. I took in all the décor and other furniture of the house. The place wouldn't really look all that bad if there weren't so many things that glorified Vlad. We passed door after door until we reached the main intersection. I looked through all the doors and peered into the rooms, making sure that no one was there.

Tucker pulled out his PDA and brought up a map of the mansion. "I managed to find the blueprints of the house after I shut down the security system. Maybe they'll tell us where the lab is." He, Sam and I looked through the floor plans, making sure not to overlook anything. But no dice. But that's pretty much what we expected. Vlad probably built it in secret and destroyed the blueprints after he was done.

"Hmm... maybe we should do a quick walkthrough. If there's a lab here, it'll have a door that isn't in here." I pointed to the blueprints.

"But couldn't he have just built it without a door? All he'd have to do is phase through the floor and that way no one could find it," Sam said.

"It HAS to have a door. Valerie can't phase and she was able to get in there when she and Danny came to rescue Danielle," I explained.

"Wait, Danny and Valerie worked together?? To save DANIELLE???" Sam exclaimed in surprise.

I suddenly realized that I had said more than I was supposed to. "I-I thought you knew..."

"We know he disappeared and came back the next day from Vlad's mansion a couple of weeks ago, but he never told us that part." Tucker looked quite peeved.

I shifted my eyes back to the blueprints and smirked nervously. "Well, this is awkward.... anyways, let's start looking. There's a small gap down on the first floor next to the kitchen. Let's look there first." I started to climb down the stairs and after a few seconds I heard them stepping down behind me. They were grumbling to each other, but I didn't pay attention. I was too focused on where I was going and making sure my feet didn't slip off the rather small steps. I jumped the last few steps and ran as quietly as I could towards the kitchen. Sam and Tucker appeared next to me after a few moments.

"Okay, here's the kitchen," Sam stated. "Where now?"

Tucker brought out his PDA again and took a few seconds to get to the ground floor plans. "Take a left. The gap is about twenty feet that way." He pointed to the hall on the left with his little PDA touch pen. We immediately turned and walked down the hall exactly twenty feet, according to Tucker. We looked around. There was nothing there; no door, no opening or anything. Only a vase on a stand. And that was all the hint I needed. I went up to it and starting looking around it, trying to find a secret switch or something. I put my hand on the handle of the vase, which promptly broke off. I jumped back and gasped.

"What?" Tucker and Sam yelled at the same time and turned to me. I didn't say anything; I just stared at the vase. They quickly caught on and their jaws dropped. The handle hadn't broken off. There was a metal pulley thing that connected to the top part of the handle and the vase. I grabbed the handle and pulled it. A hidden door opened slowly out of the wall. I looked back at Sam and Tucker. They smiled back at me. I pulled the handle the rest of the way down and we eagerly clambered through the secret doorway.
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Gasp! What will happen next? I'm not telling you hahaha.
Sorry, couldn't help being sinister. But I'm really excited for the next few parts. I almost want to spoil it for all of you, but i don't really wanna be attacked or anything, so I'm remaining silent.
Tune in for "The Ultimate Power Part 3", the first climax of An Endless Division!
And now for an oversaid, yet meaningful all the same, quote:
"Please review and thanks for continuing to read :)"
Blah.

-Silver Sleet