My first Danny Phantom one-shot! (There has to be a first for everything.) Based off of one of my favorite episodes, Bitter Reunions (#7); read & review, please!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of its affiliates. However, I own the character Abigail Watts.
I made my way across the foyer of the mansion, occasionally letting my eyes shift from wall to wall; I paid no mind to the green and gold paint, the five or six dozen jerseys, or even the photographs. There would always be time to reminisce when I didn't have work to do.
"How's the program going?" he asked with his smooth voice; he easily kept up with my slow pace on my crutches.
"I've made several advancements from yesterday, actually. There was a minor bug in the system, but it's gone now."
"So no one will be coming in through the portal unless I contact you?" he mused, quite pleased with the arrangement. My eyes shot a glance at him before I executed a left turn: through the green door, up a mostly slanted walkway, and up to the second floor: he had installed the no-step stairwell just for me.
"Crystal clear," I affirmed. "There was something that I wanted to ask you though…about the reunion." My statement baffled him for a moment before he recovered. "How much electricity will you be using?"
His blue eyes met mine briefly. "It shouldn't be an issue, but we don't want to have problems, now do we? I think it would be best if you found something else to do for the day…perhaps getting a ride into town?"
In the back of my mind I knew that he had to be up to something. Whenever he got that look on his face, he made me edgy. That made the static in the carpet crackle under my feet. We entered his lab, and I made my way to the back of the room to the portal.
"I'll think about it," I spoke gloomily. Between the pain in my left leg and the idea of not knowing a lot about his past made me tenser. Considering what he was. "Here," I pointed at the small, hand-sized device that was rather simple in appearance. "Red keeps it closed; green to go with a four digit pin to enter or reset the password for security."
"Key it in then," he insisted roughly. "I don't have all day."
Startled, I keyed in the password and backed off. He turned slightly towards me with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Leave me to my work, child. Close the door behind you."
Displeased, I strode out of the lab and slammed the door shut with my crutch before receding into my room. The voice in the back of my head, the one that tended to be right, murmured something about being used, but I didn't want to believe it. Not again.
Roughly a week or so later, I found myself at the kitchen table with a giant bowl of Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms all mixed together with milk.
"You didn't practice last night, did you?" The voice startled me into dropping my spoon on the gold-colored table cloth. Dang it.
"I took some Advil last night; I was going to work on it today," I responded, coolly picking up my spoon to brush it off with a white napkin.
"Remember how the reunion is tomorrow?" his voice made my eyes find his on the other side of the table.
He was dressed in his black suit attire with a red tie and black boots to finish; his white hair was tied back in a pony tail with his face clean shaven except for his chin. His blue eyes had the precision of a laser. His name was Vlad Masters, also known as my adopted father for the past year and two months.
"What about it?" I responded, looking back down at my cereal.
"I told you all about…the Fentons, right?" he paused in his words, like even thinking the name was enough to condemn him to Hades. "I received a call from them last night; they were coming to the reunion and would be arriving here about noon."
I jerked my head towards the clock: it was only about seven forty-two now. I had heard a few, select, corrupt things due to his opinion of them. "You hate them but you're letting them come early?" I gathered while nodding. "I see."
"I don't despise all of them," he confessed before frowning at me. "It's been twenty years since I saw them last, and how could I forget?"
I didn't respond at first, swishing my cereal back and forth with my spoon and thinking. "What would you like me to do?"
"Whatever you feel like, Abby," he formed a demonic smile. "I've been waiting for a long time for this, so I'm sure you will find something worth doing. They have two children: Jasmine and Danny."
"I've got a few conditions to these next few days then," I put my spoon into the bowl. "First, I don't want you to tell them anything about my past. If they ask, make it short and simple. Second, I'd like to be left alone for the majority of today; I have a lot of work that needs to be done."
"Perfect," he answered smoothly. "Very reasonable of you…have you considered revoking your offer about your leg?"
"I'm fine," I grunted, getting out of my chair and adjusting my crutches. "I don't need any extras." I vacated the room swiftly. Even if he wouldn't tell me, I would find out what he was planning soon enough.
Abby Watts, you are nothing short of a genius, I thought to myself as I maneuvered down the hall with a white-hot electric current circling me like the moon round earth. It has taken you most of this year to summon electricity while you are still human; however, the side effects happen to be quite staggering. Our next skill is taking away the side effects, like causing minor black outs.
With the skill of a circus master I allowed the energy to revolve and rotate around me like electrons around an atom. For each step that I took I gathered more and more electricity in my body: it hummed and vibrated tentatively, eliminating all my pain, stress, and irritating thoughts about the reunion.
"The Fentons are here," Vlad's voice startled me from the end of the hall; the energy exploded outward from me before I could catch up to it. He nonchalantly waved his hand and formed a purple barrier that shielded him. "You've practiced enough."
He was dressed in all white with a cape to match, the inside of the cape decorated scarlet. Black hair styled unnaturally with a horseshoe curve and a pale, nearly greenish face with red eyes was the features of his head with his mouth holding vampire-like teeth. His gloves were black as were his belt and the lapel of his jacket: he called this form Vlad Plasmius, his ghost form.
"Are they inside the house now?" I demanded.
"No, but they will be shortly. Would you like to join me in greeting them?" he offered; his face was nothing short of a mask.
"I'll pass if you don't mind. I have a little bit of studying to finish," I answered. "However, if you find that you need my services, you know where to find me." He smiled and, turning invisible, sunk down through the floor to the lower level.
I pivoted my good foot roughly and made way to my room: Vlad called it my study. My bed was pinned up against the left wall while my Toshiba laptop sat on my desk swamped with notebook papers, sticky notes, and several papers that had a confusing mix of calculations that I had taken in order to operate the portal security device as well as a cover that the ordinary human being would mistake for a section of wall. Sometimes it hurt to be intellectual.
I leaned my crutches up against the wall and limped over to my desk, trying to stretch my muscles. Leaning on the desk briefly, I turned on the laptop and began to rifle through the papers. Spring cleaning, here I come, I sucked in a deep breath before settling down in the computer chair.
As the system loaded, I stashed most of the papers into the same notebook to which it belonged before locking them in the safe that was beneath the desk. Not that I was trying to hide them, but so that if Vlad utilized other ghosts, then they wouldn't think twice about sending my papers back into the portal. Using others to do your work isn't very satisfying, I decided. It's much more efficient and gratifying when you complete a hard task that gave you a reasonable challenge. Especially when you ghost-proof a safe.
I didn't bother touching the keyboard or the mouse; I set my index finger on the mouse and let the currents do the rest of the work to direct the computer throughout the spreadsheet…until a vibration downstairs startled me. My finger twitched just enough that I put too much energy through the computer, busting every fuse that I had recently employed to protect it. Again. All of the light in my room dissipated too.
"Crap," I moaned, rubbing my eyes briefly before sitting back in the chair. That's all right; I suppose that is why they make several types of flash drives. Then my thoughts churned abruptly within my skull. Nothing ever crashes in this house loud enough for me to feel it on the second floor, at least nothing that Vlad ever does. Unless it is the Fentons…
I pushed away from the desk and slowly stood, limping back over to retrieve my crutches. How long would it take Vlad to notice that I had wiped out the electricity on the second floor? Maybe he wouldn't know if I went fast enough or used my own ghost form to descend to the lower level, but I couldn't take chances. Touching anything in that was like me sucking the power out of more than seven hundred fifty thousand computers (if Chicago has three million people with the average household including four humans; one computer per four people doesn't even include all those used by banks and other businesses that own several computers).
My thoughts rested briefly on something that I had not reflected on for the longest time: my past.
I had been born to an American family living in Brazil until a tsunami took my parents away from me; I had survived to go back to the United States to await my case…which the government resolved by putting me in an orphanage.
Several homes I visited, but the first house was the one that changed me. An older woman lived alone in a two hundred year old house just outside Wynne, Arkansas; she taught me more than the schools ever did and challenged me. She had me involved in martial arts, cross country, and even playing a little piano. Every fiber of her being wanted me to enjoy every aspect of life.
Yet vaguely I could recall what we had done in town the day that I remembered lying on the concrete with pain ricocheting through my leg up my spine, how when I woke in the hospital all the lights flickered while the nurses ran around like ants in a doused anthill, and how the police told me that the woman had died.
"No one saw what happened; we had several reports, but they agreed that you two passed a downed electrical line. It wasn't visible except when you got too close for comfort; it's a wonder that you survived," the police woman's blue eyes were all that I remembered of her appearance; her eyes looked at me with contempt, like I was a sickly child who ought to die right then.
Despite what they told me, I knew that there was more to the story. That wasn't why my mother had died. She had been so strong, so much more adept than me; I should have died then too.
The second, third, and fourth families couldn't stand me; I lasted only so long with them before they grew weary of my incessant electrical mishaps, my medical needs, and my solitary refuge away from the indoors on certain days. By the end of the third family, I had grown tired of trying to please people.
So when Vlad Masters came to inquire of me, I was so startled by the multi-million dollar man's appearance that I knocked the power out of a city the size of Green Bay for two and a half days. Why would someone like him be so interested in a being like me?
We're still figuring that out now, aren't we? I mused as I strode even faster down the hall; the downstairs lights appeared to be working. Before groaning down the stairs of the basement, I snapped on the flashlight.
I re-set all the settings, fixing the problem downstairs, and went back upstairs. This time I took a minute to get the oxygen flowing back smoothly into my lungs. I feel so old; even crossing my room without crutches is like going on a two mile run. Maybe I should look into something for my leg… I glanced down at my leg with a grimace on my face before ignoring the pain in my lungs.
I took up my crutches and passed through the kitchen, going through the main hall to the stairs. However, I did not anticipate a giant orange man to materialize in front of me, shouting, "It's a disguise! It's a ghost!"
Not only did we collide, but I landed flat on my back with all the blood having left my face.
On the other side of the hall I could spot Vlad as he stood with a woman in a green jumpsuit, a red haired girl who was frowning at the orange man, and a black haired boy who looked like he was having a stroke.
Vlad crossed the room swiftly and with the quietest snarl he could master, he reproached the giant man, "This happens to be my adopted daughter, Abigail. Now if you would mind, the hall on the right will take you to the stairs—you will find your rooms on the left side of the hall."
"Sounds great, Vladdie," the man answered enthusiasm, like he always knocked teenage girls to the ground and accused them of being ghosts. "Why didn't you tell us about…?"
"It's such a long story," he helped me up and spoke through gritted teeth with his back him. "I'll be sure to explain over dinner."
The brother and sister quickly rushed their parents up the stairs before any more objections could be made; I would take better looks at them when I had time.
I secured my crutches firmly in my hands before looking into Vlad's fuming eyes. "Are they…?"
He simply nodded and took a moment to suck in a deep, yawning breath of oxygen. "Jack and Maddie Fenton with Jasmine and Danny; I full expect you to speak throughout the course of dinner with them before I end up taking out the power."
I blinked twice before changing the subject, mildly suspicious. "You're leaving something out; I'm supposed to connect the dots?"
A smirk formed on his face while he set his hand on my shoulder, leaning in to whisper. "They call themselves professional ghost hunters; they built their own portal and everything."
He stepped back and gave me a curt smile; he had recovered most of his placid nature, hiding the emotions that clashed inside of him. "Be on time for dinner."
I was uncomfortable when I sat beside Vlad before the Fentons could manage to get downstairs. As I set my crutches next to my chair, Vlad informed me of what I should do.
"First and foremost, I'd like you to not blow any fuses when…Jack begins to rant about his latest works. If he tries anything he may have stashed in his pocket, be creative. From there, keep me from sending a blast of plasma through his thick skull."
I fidgeted when the door opened: they came in just like they had entered the front door. Jack Fenton was wide-shouldered with black hair that kept tight to his head; his orange jumpsuit was as fluorescent as a traffic cone.
Maddie Fenton, his wife, was dressed in a teal jumpsuit that seemed to accent her strangely model-like face. She didn't look like a ghost hunter, but she did look mildly threatening. Yet at the same time, I sensed that she was just being protective. Jasmine had the same red hair, only her hair went past her shoulders; she was dressed in a black top and teal jeans. She was probably the most normal-looking one there.
Then there was the boy, Danny. He had black hair like his father but had the shoulders of his mother; he wore a white T-shirt with blue jeans and tennis shoes. He stayed dead silent at his sister's side and kept his eyes away from me even when the Fentons took their place on the opposite side of the rounded table. He was skinny, but it was almost…unnatural, not the same kind of thin that I would dub a runner. Alluring blue eyes lit up his whole face.
At first an awkward silence passed over us as the food made its way down the Fenton line; Vlad and I had already set food apart for ourselves.
"Abigail," Vlad said finally, like he was taking a step to cross a threatening glacier crevice. "This is Jack, Maddie, Jasmine, and Danny Fenton…"
"Known Vladdie since college," Jack put in with a giant mouthful of chicken.
Jasmine watched her father put another forkful of food into his mouth before sighing. "Are you sure having us isn't too much for you?"
"It's quite all right," Vlad insisted; he was an awfully good liar. I couldn't detect a hint of regret. "Not every day do we get to host guests…how was the trip?"
It was mostly small talk like this until Jack was sated; then it was ghosts, ghosts, and more ghosts. He was addicted to it; he probably talked ghosts in his sleep. All the while Jasmine cast 'I'm sorry' looks across the table at us.
"This is the latest work that we've conjured up, next to the…RV. Take a look!" Jack thrust a remote control with a giant green screen over between Vlad and me.
I picked it up, testing the weight. It weighed about five pounds and used a global positioning system; it looked crude, but did it work? There was a light bulb on the top right hand part of the machine that must've glowed when it worked.
"A little…rough, isn't it?" I hinted, sliding it back with the metal antennae pointed towards him; I felt embarrassed for having accepted it.
"The Fenton Ghost Finder happens to be extremely useful; what do you know of that sort of technology?" Jack hinted his prowess.
"Good point," I said as he stuffed it inside his jumpsuit; Jasmine raised a curious eyebrow.
"You're into this stuff?" I laughed off the anxiety in my chest.
"No, I'm taking classes at a tech center outside of Madison for electronics fundamentals. The whole, 'If you flip a switch, how does the light bulb turn on?' sort of thing. I don't believe in supernatural anything."
"I don't think I've ever met someone interested in something that people take for granted all the time," Jasmine admitted; she spoke like a professor in college, not a high school student. "That is really neat; how long have you been interested in it?"
"Years and years," I recalled, pausing as the anxiety tightened into pain. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the lights out in the hall flicker.
"I think that's wonderful," Maddie smiled at me, and for a half of a second, I felt the weirdest tension between Vlad and me. "As long as you're happy, it doesn't matter what other people think."
Vlad made his next move, speaking to Danny. "Is something troubling you, Daniel?" I felt all my muscles tighten up; while my skin was cold, my insides felt much too warm.
Danny's eyes flashed from Vlad to me. "No, I'm fine." When I stared into his eyes, I felt aggression sift through me as though this boy was challenging my authority.
I broke contact in irritation. Calm down, Watts. He's only human.
Later that night, I flipped uncaringly through the pages of The Green Mile by Stephen King while sprawled out on my bed, not really reading but not really skimming. My mother, the foster one from Arkansas, had given me this book; I had read it from cover to cover at least twenty times. Aroused by the memories, I turned to the front cover where she had written a message inside.
My dearest Abby, it is my sincerest hope and desire that you uncover your full potential on this earth. Wherever you will go, you will prosper, and that I know. Do not be afraid; within the greatest comes a cunning jaguar that knows what it needs to survive.
I stared at it until my tired eyes blurred the words in a mix of ink and faded paper. How had she known so much, yet known so little? Was it coincidence?
When the accident occurred down in Arkansas, I was no longer fully human. Vlad told me that I was just like him—half ghost, half human. Yet I did not think that was entirely true: while Vlad's powers were mostly limited to his ghost body, mine were shared equally between the two bodies. My powers could wipe the power from a whole city; his…not so much.
A knock resounded at the door. Snapping shut my book, I forced myself to my feet and limped to answer it.
Vlad stood with his arms behind his back; his eyes watched me with caution. A hint of a smile came over him.
"Did I disturb you?"
"No," I kept him in the dark and waited.
"I just thought that you would want to know that I spoke quite a bit with Jasmine and Daniel…quite curious, in fact."
The way he sewed the words together irritated me. What was he trying to imply about the Fenton family? I knew full well of his dislike for Jack, but of the others I could not comprehend the message he was sending me. So I didn't answer him.
"I think it would be good for you to…spend some time with them tomorrow, instead of going off by yourself."
I stared back into his eyes, confused. "What gave you that idea?"
"You have more control than you think, Abigail," he prompted. Upon hearing a noise, he turned his head slightly. "Keep it in mind. Good night."
"Night," I responded as he strode down the hall. I shut the door and limped over to my crutches. As I left the room, I paused and focused my eye on the light bulb until the circuit opened at my order. The room darkened.
I crutched to the end of the hall to the precarious flight of stairs and would have begun the long descent if I had not heard a hiss of moving air. Turning slightly, I surveyed the room.
The long hallway had many stone archways that led to different rooms: the library, guest rooms, my own room, and several miscellaneous ones that Vlad kept locked at all times (like that would keep me out). Four torches were lit to keep the inky blackness away.
Out of one of the rooms came Jack Fenton sporting his jumpsuit and a pink flannel shirt with a hat to match, half asleep as he lumbered down the hall.
I set my crutches down and waited to see what would happen. From the ceiling descended three green birds: large vultures with a kez, or a bowl-like hat, atop their head. Their sharp beaks were a shade of blue with undoubtedly scarlet eyes in the sockets. I had seen them before, but they posed no real threat to someone who could shock them into next month.
Yet there they were, following Jack Fenton. With a sigh in the back of my throat, I phased into a fighting form that would disguise my powers.
In the mirror I looked like a black jaguar with neon green eyes. When I summoned my power, I exploded into a thousand different shades of yellow, orange, and blue electricity that would dance across my hide. Black was for stealth.
I trotted after the birds and kept that pace just until they reached their long legs out to grab Jack. Before I could reach him, someone grabbed him and pulled him through the floor; I froze in place.
"Hey, vat gives?" one of the vultures demanded. They glared at the floor, trying to think of what to do. I turned invisible as the one with a red kez turned my way.
"Did you hear sum-thing funny?" he asked. No one answered him so he returned to stare at the floor too.
A hiss of air behind me alerted me, but I didn't move a muscle. Instead, I began channeling excess electricity through the house into the library. Just in case.
"Hi guys, remember me?" a new voice spoke and smacked his fists together. The birds looked up, screamed bloody-murder, and fled.
Turning ever so slightly, I knew exactly why.
A ghost boy dressed in black and white hovered in the middle of the air; his hair was white with his eyes glowing green not unlike mine. Yet behind him was Plasmius with the most devilish smirk that I had ever seen.
The boy relaxed, almost pleased at how swift his foes had bolted. "Okay, that was almost too easy."
He fights for pleasure? I thought with revulsion. Why does he enter so boldly? How did he get in, and why were the vultures after Jack Fenton? Vlad has a lot of explaining to do.
"Ah, right boy," Plasmius's voice caused the boy to turn in shock as he floated with his cape twitching. His arms were crossed as he watched the boy address him.
"Ah, whatever, I was aiming for the birds, but you'll do."
Plasmius raised his eyebrow in amusement. The boy swung his fist to hit him, but Plasmius simply caught the blow with no effort, throwing him into the stone wall.
Dazed, the boy surveyed his opponent closer. "Fast…all right, better stop fooling around," his words tried to give him hope. He charged once more, but Vlad simply caught him by the neck, casting him onto the floor once more.
"My vultures were supposed to bring the big idiot to me, but you'll do. Danny Phantom, right?" Plasmius toyed with him.
Keeping invisible, I side stepped to get a better view of what was going on. What was he hiding from me? He told me the story about how Jack Fenton ruined him in college, but he wouldn't actually try to kill him, would he?
"You…you know me?" the boy had stood up and cast his eyes nervously back and forth. He was hiding something equally as important.
"Of course I know you," Plasmius scoffed. He turned invisible and disappeared into the library. Danny followed him.
Is it coincidence that Fenton and Phantom are so alike? That the two 'Danny's are present now?
Worried that I was right, I leapt into the library.
The two lengths of the room were completely filled with books and had an upper level to access the ones that were really high on the shelves. Two old-fashioned medieval tables stretched along part of the room parallel to the shelves. Torches were also lit here to allow minimal light to penetrate here as well.
Plasmius pointed at Danny Phantom. "You're the ghost boy who uses his powers for good. How quaint," he hissed. "Aren't you going to try and shove me into your ridiculous thermos?" Plasmius got right up in his face, menacing.
"I…I don't want to fight you," Phantom insisted, clenching his fists.
"No," Plasmius sneered. "No, you don't." To prove himself, he shot Danny with a purple beam of energy that sent him flying all the way to the corner of the room.
"Get away!" the ghost boy shot two beams of green energy, which Plasmius easily blocked with a shield of purple energy.
"An ectoplasmic energy blast…how pathetic," Plasmius scoffed. He was goading the boy into losing energy; how much more would he stand? Phantom shot five or six more times, getting closer and closer to him; Plasmius yawned.
In frustration, Danny Phantom stopped and looked at the energy sizzling on his palms. "So year one," Plasmius chided him. "Tell me child, can you do this yet?"
He split into three copies, surrounding him until he retreated. "No…how are you doing all this?"
"Years of practice," the replicas answered in unison. "Which you, unfortunately, have no time for." Sensing the worst, I exploded out of hiding and let go all the energy that had been groaning in the ceiling.
Plasmius released eight blasts of energy my direction before he understood what was going on. I brought all the electricity down in a sheet of blue to block the purple plasma from reaching me or the ghost boy.
Pure shock spread across Plasmius's face as he relinquished his copies, and pure rage followed it up.
"You dare to interrupt me? I gave you everything, and you throw it back in my face?"
"Don't hurt him," I pleaded. In the time it took me to speak those three words, he created four new copies.
"Stay out of the way before you get hurt," the ghost boy dismissed me. Was he stupid or something?
"He's strong enough to kill you," I warned, summoning power once more. The boy hesitated, and in that moment, I knew exactly who he was.
Pain screamed through me like a dagger, slamming me into the concrete wall. By trying to help him, I had no doubt that I had doomed what remained of his life. The darkness wrapped around me, and all the light dancing in the corner of my eyes… that died away into nothingness.
When I woke up, I was in my bed as though nothing had happened last night. Bruises pricked my skin as I sat up; it had happened all right. Vlad wasn't going to be happy about that.
It took all my strength to get me on my feet; my crutches were by the stupid stairwell, an incredibly far distance for a debilitated cripple. The clock read nine-thirty a.m. already; the party would start at one p.m.
I dressed and brushed my hair before limping to the door. Opening it slow, I glanced around just in case Vlad was waiting to ambush me about last night. Maybe he wouldn't even say anything to me about it. Dismissing the matter was easy enough.
I hadn't even gotten a quarter of the way down the hall before Jasmine noticed me as she came out of her room.
"Abby? What are you doing?" she asked, probably wondering what the heck I was doing without crutches.
"Morning," I casually greeted her. "I can handle a short walk in the morning once or twice a week, but my leg isn't digging it today. No worries."
"Where are your crutches? I could go get them for you if it hurts," she offered. I smiled at her generosity. No one had ever asked to do that for me before, not ever.
"Thanks, they're by the stairwell." She retrieved them for me, and I thanked her again. "Enjoying your vacation?"
"Vlad is…different," she admitted as we headed downstairs. "He seems like such a recluse; what is it like to live with him?"
"He's not a people person," I told her. "He likes to be by himself a lot…and I don't really know anymore. Some of the places I've lived in, the parents would worry about me all the time, but Vlad doesn't really seem to care. I…" I bit my lip, feeling like I was pulling her into something that she ought to stay away from.
"If I were you," Jazz suggested, pausing in one of the hallways that headed towards the kitchen to lower her voice. "Talk to him about it. If there are still problems, you're a free agent. Move out, or even come to Amity Park with us. That's what I would do."
I smiled at her. "Thanks for the advice."
"I'm gonna take another look around. Chances are that we won't be invited back," she took a left and vanished through a set of doors.
I maneuvered into the kitchen where Danny Fenton sat at the table eating a bowl of cereal. It was an airy room with about fifty different cupboards and a fridge that stretched across seven or eight feet of wall space; the air smelled like bread and fruit.
Danny didn't look up at me as I set my crutches up against the counter and limped to search the cupboard for something modestly edible. Maybe we both got knocked out about the same time; maybe he doesn't know who I am.
I settled with some off-brand cereal and started to limp out into the dining room as to not face the boy.
"You can stay," his voice reached out to me. I paused before turning to face him. He didn't seem all that bad; his blue eyes were almost inviting.
I came back and sat at the table; I didn't look at him, afraid that I was going to give something away. Then words formed.
"Usually people have tons of questions that they throw at me when they get to know me. You don't?"
He pretended to be interested in the little pieces of cereal left in the bowl. "I have them, but I think they're safer where you can't reach them."
I chewed that one over for a moment. "Do you do that to your friends too, make them guess and check?"
"They're too smart for that," he shook his head. "They know me better than I know myself…I don't know what I would do without them. How about yours?"
"No one's gotten past the crutches yet," I took in some more air while keeping my emotions safely locked away.
He gave me the strangest look. "You're joking."
"My best friend," I continued, "was the mom in Arkansas who adopted me first." I let the questions fall into place like a puzzle; he didn't know the pain, the anguish, and the power that had come from the accident.
"Then why are you here?" his eyes narrowed, not seeing.
"What took my leg from me also took her from me; it was an accident, a live wire that hadn't grounded itself."
"I'm sorry to hear that," he apologized. Then a thought crossed his mind. "Is that why you're into the electricity and all?"
"Yeah," I kept my eyes down as I finished my cereal.
Silence fell down again, and I stood stiffly to put the bowl in the sink. "Maybe, when you don't have stuff going on with Vlad up here…you could come and hang with Sam, Tucker, and I," Danny offered. "I think you'd like Amity Park."
"Sam and Tucker?" I repeated, curious.
Danny took his wallet out of his pocket and produced a picture of him with his two friends.
The girl was noticeably Goth upon first look with a portion of her shiny black hair tucked up in a ponytail while the rest lay flat. She wore a blank tank top that exposed her midriff, a black skirt with a green crosshatch design, and military combat boots. The boy had black skin and had to be a techy; he wore a red cap, a yellow shirt, green military-style pants, and brown boots.
I handed the photo back. "I don't want to burden anyone, thanks for the offer."
Taking hold of my crutches, I left the room. No reaction on his face tipped me off that he knew of my other identity. I'm still safe. Till Vlad…oh crap. I had almost gotten completely out of the kitchen when Vlad found me.
He came right up to me, and I took a few steps backwards.
"How nice to see you so happy and peachy this morning," I commented thoughtlessly. "Did you get a haircut or something?"
"Come with me, Abigail," he said in his regular, slick tone while his eyes were coated in venom. "There's something we need to talk about."
He took me upstairs to his lab, and when the door clicked shut behind me, I knew that I was going to be in for some serious pain. Maybe if I explained my actions he would understand where I was coming from.
"I apologize for what happened last night," I said. "There was something about the boy..."
"You thought he was human?" his voice sounded impressed, but inwardly he nursed his wound. I was intelligent for my age; I could beat him if I wanted to. Yet I did not want him to know that. Not yet.
"Almost, yeah," I admitted. "I mean, ghosts have the properties and chemical make-up of humans, but this one…he acted kind of like you and me. Your action against me was justified; say, what happened to him?"
"I don't think he will be returning without a little more caution on his part," he answered, pleased. "I must admit, Abigail; you have done quite a lot of thinking on your part. I'm proud of you."
"It won't happen again," I promised while internally crossing my fingers. He's still got something under wire, doesn't he? He didn't even apologize for hurting me. "But I am curious about the vultures."
"Oh, those things," he dismissed them with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about them; they're completely harmless. Did they startle you?"
"They were screaming bloody-murder when they phased through my room," I lied thoughtfully. "A little bit, yeah."
"Completely harmless ghosts," he repeated with finality. Then he turned towards the clock hung upon the wall. "I must be off to make final adjustments for the reunion before the early arrivals show up. Keep out of trouble, Abigail."
"Not a problem," I followed him out of the room before heading downstairs. I needed some time alone, time to think.
I went down to the next lowest floor in the building, my favorite room. Coming down the stairs, the floor turned to cold stone beneath my bare feet. A four foot high wall made of the same quality of stone rose up ten feet inside of the room; cold water plants stretched onto the rock while sheltering koi fish in the gigantic tank. Large stone pillars with a square foot of space on their top were positioned two feet apart from each other all the way to the other end of the tank, but due to them being mostly submerged in water, it was a hazardous path.
Setting my crutches up against the concrete wall, I slowly made my way so that I was sitting cross-legged on the wall, facing the open water. Meditation was not something that I was big into, but if it gave me the opportunity to make the right decision, I was all for it.
For an hour I sat without movement, not thinking. After the time had passed, I allowed the flood gates to creak open.
Vlad adopted me for a reason; everything he does, he does for a reason. For what purpose did he bring me into his house? He has an eternal grudge against Jack Fenton, summons ghosts out of the portal that I installed a password on, and never tells me what's going on. He never told me what the vultures were doing after Jack; he never told me why he was having the reunion, and he certainly wouldn't tell me why he asked Fenton to come.
Which leaves me the choice: should I stay or go? Would Jack and Maddie allow me to go back with them? I would never stay long if I had to enter their house of course. If they are ghost hunters, then it would be difficult for me to blend in…especially if I was right in the idea that Danny Fenton too was part ghost.
Staying would mean staying with Vlad: staying with his mood swings, his solitude, and his preference to brood in his laboratory. Could I live with myself if I chose to stay? Can I admit right now that he's been using me all this time, and that he still isn't done using me?
"Yes," I breathed out. I have to get out. Face it, Watts; you're on your own. That's the way it should be.
Then there remained the problem: Vlad had something big planned for this reunion. If things got ugly, Danny would need all the help he could get. That I could manage even if the house was crawling with people. Staying low and intangible was something that I was good at, but it would mean leaving my crutches behind. If I needed to be human, I would be vulnerable.
I'm just going to have to take the risk as it comes, I decided with finality. If it means keeping other people safe, I'm all for it. Let's go, Watts, we got an evil Masters plot to foil.
I crutched up the stairs to the meeting room where some of the first arrivals had gathered: Maddie and Jack were talking to a lady in a pale green outfit with her long black hair tied back in a ponytail.
"Mrs. Fenton, could I speak to you for a moment?" I approached her. She turned towards me, smiling.
"Of course."
I led her off to the side before addressing her. "I…I spoke to Jasmine and Danny about this earlier, and I thought I should talk to you about this too. Vlad, as my father…it's not working out. I was hoping, maybe…"
"You wanted to go back with us?" she read my face like a book. "What made you think that?"
"He's not the kind of person I thought he was," I shrugged. "When I saw how you all acted at dinner last night…it made me realize how far from family that I had. I want to start over again."
"I think that would be wonderful," she put her hand on my shoulder. "After the reunion, you can say good-bye to Vlad. Make sure that you have everything together…have you spoken to him about this?"
"Yeah," I lied. "I mentioned it."
"All right, I'd better get back to Jack then," she smiled thoughtfully at me. "I think you'll like Amity Park."
"Thank you, Mrs. Fenton," I told her before making my way out of the room.
Pack up and check back up on the reunion downstairs…My thoughts faltered when I passed by Vlad's lab. Strange…no one ever turns the lights off in there. Who would be in there?
I packed up my things, set the suitcase outside my door, and hurried to the lab. Setting my crutches outside the door, I limped inside.
"Hello, Abigail Watts," a growling, ghostly voice greeted me.
"I know that voice," I tightened my hands into fists while drawing all the electricity on the second floor to the lab. Clicking my tongue, the lights turned on.
A tiny ghost wielding a bulky metal armor suit stared me down. He wore a black cut off shirt with black pants; his arms were all metal with ectoplasmic energy sizzling in the circuits that powered all his gadgets. With combat boots and gloves to match, he was a formidable opponent with ghostly fire for hair and a goatee.
Behind him was a large, black box with neon green lines cut deep into it. Inside the box, with only his head sticking out, was Danny Fenton. So he is the ghost boy after all.
"Let him go, Skulker," I warned; one of the 'lessons' that Vlad had given me involved hand-to-hand-human-ghost combat with this guy. He was one tough customer.
"You know him? You know her?" the boy gazed at me stupidly. "How?"
"This isn't your business, Watts. Stand down," Skulker raised one of the lasers on his wrist up at me.
"Last chance." I felt the electricity rippling through the wires that dwelled in the ceiling; this was my fight.
He shot the attack as I brought down three, large bolts of electricity down from the ceiling down right on top of him while blocking the attack with a barrier of white hot electric current. Thrown back against one of the lab tables, he glowered at me.
"Enough! I didn't free you to kill the boy, Skulker. And I certainly did not employ of your services, Abigail, for you to ruin my plans," Vlad seemed to materialize behind me.
Feeling cornered, I drew the electricity about me to form a shield between me and my mentor. Skulker was not one of my concerns.
"Yes, well…" Skulker cupped the back of his metal neck with his palm before examining his wrist. Glaring at me, he flew up out of the room, becoming intangible.
"Now as for you…explain yourself," he ordered from me.
"You're making the wrong choice, Plasmius," I growled, retreating towards Danny. "The first wrong choice was thinking that you could use me for your own purposes. No one, absolutely no one, screws with me without getting ten thousand volts of pain running through them. Sure, you taught me and gave me a place to stay, but you're not my family."
"You have no family, child," Vlad folded his arms against his chest. "I only used you because of your powers: if you exposed yourself in front of the world, imagine the people and ghosts alike who would be demanding that you fight for them. You're pathetic and alone because you're too dangerous; a person like you doesn't deserve anyone."
The confession…he was using me.
"What's going on?" Danny demanded of us. "Why did you hire Skulker to capture me?"
Vlad turned towards him, ignoring me while he paced between the door and the barrier that I had put up. "Of course, you're what? Fourteen? Too young to drive and yet not in college yet? I sent those ghosts and others to test your father's skills; imagine my surprise when I found you, the second ghost hybrid his foolishness created."
"Second?" Danny repeated, still not getting the hint until Vlad turned into Plasmius with an evil grin. "You! I'm going ghost! Why can't I go ghost?"
"You have a battle cry, hilarious," Plasmius taunted. Battle cry? I glanced over at the human. "Your turn, Abigail."
With a relenting sigh, I too turned into my ghost persona. Rearing onto my hind legs, my spine straightened out like a human. A white band of electricity hissed around my waist, neck, wrists, and ankles. My feet and hands were human-like with sharp claws.
"Y-You too?" he gasped. "You're the one…from last night…"
"Yes, now pay attention, Danny Phantom," Plasmius snapped his fingers in front of the boy's face before patting the black box with his palm. "A spectral energy neutralizer: designed by Skulker, paid for by me, and as long as you're contained within that box, you're as human as your idiot father."
"Let me out of here!" he shouted. Just give me time…I want to have a shot at this guy myself.
"Why?" Plasmius turned his back on him. "So that you can go back to stumbling through your adolescence, desperately trying to get control of yours powers. Powers, by the way, which I've had for twenty years. I have experience, my child," he began to do a series of demonstrations. "And the money and power obtained through using those powers for personal gain. I could train you, teach you everything I know, and all that you'd have to do it renounce your idiot father."
"Dude, you're one seriously crazed-up Fruit Loop," Danny said, and if I hadn't been so angry, I probably would have burst into spontaneous laughter. "That is never going to happen."
"Then it's settled," I hissed through my long, white fangs.
With my skin lighting up with the electric currents powering down the walls up my feet, I was ready. Raising my arm, the bands of white energy around my wrist revealed a shrunken lightning rod; when I clicked the small button in its center, it expanded to a five foot length.
Plasmius fired a purple blast of energy to break my weakened shield before creating three copies of himself, readying the energy blasts again.
I pointed the lightning rod at the ceiling; all the fur on my body was turning red hot as the currents crackled incessantly. Directing the energy out of the light socket while causing the bulb to explode in the process, I stabbed my left arm towards Plasmius with my index finger, middle finger, and slightly off center thumb directed towards him.
A bolt of lightning arched out of my body to take out the real Plasmius. The copies disappeared without a sound.
In a quick response, he fired three shots of the purple energy at me. The first one caught my wrist, the second my shoulder, and the third burned like acid when it threw me against the wall.
All the energy knocked out of me like the air in my lungs. Moaning, I struggled to my feet as Vlad came to stand over me.
"You're pathetic," he sneered. "All that power with no way to control it; you're as bad as the boy."
"You're wrong," I told him. Trembling, I rose up onto my feet.
He aimed a punch at me, but that was easily blocked. Conducting electricity, I gave him a taste of it. Slicing my claws across his cheek with as much force as I could manage, he yowled when the electricity dug in further.
Slamming my fist into his chest, I knocked him to the floor.
He turned intangible; the panic that had been at a minimal at the start of the fight became the only thing pounding in my ear drums. I can't do it…not by myself.
The next time I blinked, I was lying on the ground as a human while pain hissed through my nerves.
"Good-bye, Abigail, Daniel," Plasmius's voice sounded far away as he spoke. The darkness was coming quickly to swallow me again. You win this round, but you lost me.
When I woke up, somebody was talking super loud to someone else in the room…maybe it was Danny. Everything hurt as I tried to move.
"Well, not all ghosts are evil, right? Some of us just want to be left alone don't 'cha know?" Whoever he is, he's right.
"Hey, will you help me fight Plasmius?" Danny asked him.
"I'm the Dairy King, kiddo! Kings don't fight; they send other people to fight f'r 'em. Royalty wasn't a wonder, don't 'cha know?" Then with a hiss, the voice vanished.
Danny rushed over to me, helping me to sit up. A groan of pain escaped through my mouth.
"Plasmius went after my dad," he informed me. "Are you all right?"
"No…" I found myself staring at my crutches that were on the far side of the room. "Please, get me my crutches. Then go help your dad. Don't worry about me; there's nothing more that I can do right now."
He ran to retrieve them before hesitating in front of me once again.
"Go," I insisted again. "There's something I have to finish up here." Danny relented to my command, turning ghost and vanishing through the floor.
It took all my strength plus some left over to stand on my feet with my crutches shaking under my arms. Come on, Watts. You can do this one little step at a time, baby. Every step brought me closer and closer to tears. I had been used for personal gain…and I was left homeless once more. I was all alone.
By the time I had gotten into the hallway, I couldn't breathe. The longer I stayed still, the worse it would get. Between the agony brought up from my sheer sadness and the trembling rage that made my teeth ache, I didn't know how I was supposed to feel.
I work alone, the thoughts accenting between breaths made me feel tougher. Take the stuff to the front of the mansion, by the bushes next to the door.
Every step that I descended down to the lower level, I felt the electricity thumping up against my foot as it ran throughout the house, answering my movements. However, it was not until I had stashed my suitcase that I felt a sudden will to summon that power to me. 'Do not be afraid; within the greatest comes a cunning jaguar that knows what it needs to survive…' This was why I was put on this earth: to put a stop to Vlad Masters and his will to dominate those around him, to use them as pawns.
I crutched into the reunion room where a giant, tank-like RV was parked just to the side of a stone balcony. Jack Fenton was holding Plasmius up in the air by the front of his shirt, talking in a low tone of voice. The ghost boy must have overshadowed his father…I guess he's not so weak after all.
Plasmius coughed into his fist before levitating in the air. "Curse you, Jack Fenton! Your world-renowned expertise of all things ghost has defeated me…until next time." He gave a cry of despair as part of the act before his particles seemed to rip apart.
Next time we meet, Vlad Masters, you're going to be in for a world of pain. Just you wait.
Danny returned to his human form behind some rubble to not attract attention to himself, walking over to his parents and listening to the lady in the light green talk.
As the Fenton RV (Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle, I was later told) sped away from Vlad's castle, I slept comfortably on a bench with my legs propped up on top of my suitcase. In front of me were Jack and Danny while in the sleeping compartment Maddie and Jazz were resting on the bunks. Admittedly, this was a pretty sweet all-terrain vehicle.
"I can't believe they fired Harry," Danny spoke to his dad.
"Of course they fired her," Jazz told him. "She tried to file some crackpot story about ghosts. It's the Milwaukee Journal, not the National Inquirer." She had been learning about the Packers in the screening room the entire time.
"I can't believe Harry blames me," Jack continued. "And Vlad was so mad that he didn't even say good-bye. We are such great chums in college..." I bet you'd be ticked too if your power wouldn't work and all your light bulbs were shattered in a million pieces, not to mention that your enemy had escaped your clutches unscathed.
"Eh, whatever," Danny dismissed the matter. "Who cares what you were when you were younger? It's who you grew into that makes you who you are."
"You think?" his father brooded upon the matter.
"Hey, if you could cause that much damage in college and still turn out to be this cool, ghost-butt-kicking adult, well…maybe there's still hope for me yet."
"Thanks son," Jack beamed. "But your curfew is still ten."
Danny groaned, and inwardly, I knew that there was some side of the story that I had yet to hear. There'd be another time in another city for me to hear it.