Welcome to the sequel!
I warn you now, Dani will be sixteen and in a MATURE relationship with Dan. This story is not a lemon, but such situations will be implied.
If you feel Dani is too young, or you dislike this pairing for any such reason, you are free to leave now. I take legitimate flames, not ones saying 'this pairing sucks'. If you don't like this pairing, why did you even click on the story?
It says 'Dani' and 'Dan' and the genre is 'romance'. I hope that gives you a hint, otherwise we are going to have a serious problem.
Another thing, this story takes place when everyone is graduating from high school. Some characters may seem OC-ish, but you have to keep in mind that people change. 4 years is a long time, and it can completely turn a person around.
Trust me, I know.
That aside, I give you the first chapter to Part two of our saga.
"Frozen Air"
Chapter One: Graduation Part One; Keeping Up With The Ghost Hunters
"Daniel Fenton." Mr. Lancer called his name, signaling Danny to walk out of his seat and receive his diploma.
Danny was so happy, he could have cried. He hadn't been able to pull his grades out of the gutter, resulting in a GPA too low for him to be able to walk on stage, but Vlad stepped in on his behalf.
The school had mysteriously received a substantial 'donation' from an 'unknown' beneficiary under the conditions that they would allow Daniel Fenton to graduate on stage.
How could the broke school system resist?
Danny took his diploma with a huge smile on his face. The nightmare they call high school was finally over!
He returned to his seat with a contented sigh. He would have to thank Vlad for this later.
Now that he thought about it, it seemed like he was spending a lot of time with Vlad lately.
Danny remembered it beginning with Vlad becoming cleverer in his manipulative techniques shortly after they defeated Pariah.
"Maddie, Jack, why don't I take Daniel off your hands for awhile?" Vlad set his coffee mug down on the table with a smile on his face.
Danny spit out the mouthful of cereal he was chewing.
Jack's face lit up at the suggestion. "Why, that's a great idea! Danny would get to spend some real quality time with his Uncle Vlad!"
Danny cringed. "Actually, Dad, I already made plans with Sam and Tucker-"
"Nonsense! It's summer break, you can always go out with them tomorrow!"
"So, it's settled then!" Vlad said excitedly.
And so, Danny spent the entire day following Vlad around in City Hall. Under the normal circumstances, he would have been bored out of his mind, but thanks to a little resourcefulness, Danny had a blast.
Danny rapped his fingers against the table top as he waited for someone to pick up the other line. After a few rings, he finally got a response.
"Hello?" Dan's voice came from the other line.
"Dan, can you put Dani on the line?"
"Sure, hold on a second." Dan's distant voice called out to Dani.
Danny heard small footsteps approach the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Dani, you have to help me!"
"What's wrong?"
"I'm stuck spending the day with the Fruitloop, and I'm bored out of my mind!" Danny pulled at his own hair to emphasize the point to himself, not that the female halfa could see it anyways.
"I'll be right there! Where are you?"
"City Hall."
Just as she said, Dani phased into the office minutes later. "Here I am!" She threw her hands in the air as if expecting a round of applause. "What should we do first?"
After thinking it over for a bit, the two ended up office-chair jousting.
The pushed two office chairs to the far ends of the room. Using brooms, which the stole from the janitor's closet, they would push themselves from the wall and use the brooms to try and knock the other person off their chair.
The first match had been a dud; with the halfas underestimating the distances between each other, but the second time around was a success.
Dani had gotten the smart idea of knocking over the entire chair, rather than just Danny. As his chair came closer to her, she flipped her broom and lodged it in the wheels of his chair.
The wheels locked in place, sending Danny and the chair crashing to the ground.
"That's cheating!" he cried from his heap on the floor.
"You said I had to knock you over, you never said how I had to do it." Dani spun her chair around to face Danny.
"Fine, if you want to play that way."
The continued their little game until Danny lost his grip on his broom and watched it fly through the air, right through Vlad's computer monitor.
The two stood completely motionless for a minute, mouths gaping as they stared at the shattered screen.
Danny walked over and picked up the broken pieces of glass. "Okay, it's time we played a new game. It's called 'Hide the broken screen from Vlad.'"
When Vlad returned an hour later, he was not at all surprised to see Dani there. He had heard the shouting and crashing from the meeting room downstairs. Looking throughout the rest of the room, he couldn't help but notice something missing. "What happened to my computer?"
"What computer? There was never any computer in here, right Dani?"
"Right."
The two had nervous smiles on their faces as Vlad continued to look about the room.
The oldest halfa was slightly annoyed, but teenagers would be teenagers. What could he do? "Alright you two, let's go get something for lunch."
Little by little, Vlad continued requesting both of the halfas' presence.
He wouldn't just leave them in a room; rather, he would teach them how to run his businesses, how to make a stock portfolio, judging good and bad investments, handling foolish business partners (without wasting them), and how to keep floating in tough economic times.
Neither of the teen halfas wanted to tag along with Vlad, but Danny's parents forced him to go and Danielle couldn't very well abandon her brother in the evil, boring clutches of the fruitloop.
The teens thought Vlad was only doing this so he could have the two of them for himself, but they soon learned his true intentions.
"This is where the computer chips are programmed." Vlad was showing the two halfas the inner workings of Axion Labs. The group was standing in the glass-covered walkway, overlooking the production line of ghostly weapons.
"There are computer chips in ecto-guns?" Dani had her face pressed up against the glass, trying to get a better look.
"Yes, they maintain the levels of ectoplasm release." Vlad ushered the two to continue moving. "Now as we…" He stopped for a moment and grabbed a hold of the railing. The room seemed to go in and out of focus for a moment.
"Vlad, are you okay?" Dani saw the man's knees shake a little.
"I'm fine, dear. Just feeling a little tired. Shall we carry on?" Vlad walked a few more steps ahead of the teens before collapsing.
"Vlad!" They both rushed to his side.
The two halfas were seated next to each other in the hospital's waiting room. Danny's parents were seated across from them.
Danny's eyes nervously wafted throughout the room, mostly stopping on the light above the intensive care unit. He tried to convince himself that he wasn't worried about the psychotic man, but his sense of guilt over rode the idea.
Damn his superhero persona!
After what seemed like ages, the light above the unit finally went out as a doctor walked out the door.
Jack was the first person to react. "How is he?" He jumped up in front of the doctor.
"Mr. Masters had a stroke, but it looks like he will be just fine, giving he doesn't have a relapse. In the meantime, Mr. Masters' lawyer has arrived. He wants to speak to you in private." The doctor removed his disposable gloves, tossed them in the garbage, and left the group with the lawyer.
"Hello. I am Joshua Masson; I presume you are the Fentons?"
"Yes, that would be us." Maddie closed the magazine she had been reading.
"In the circumstance that Mr. Masters does not make it, I have been instructed to distribute his property as written in his will." Joshua fished around in his briefcase for a moment until he found the slip of paper he was looking for. "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton are to continue receiving funding for their ghost research. All other funds, accounts, bonds, business stocks, and estates are to be split between Danielle and Danielle Fenton. That is all; you can reach me here if necessary." He handed them his business card and left.
"You're last name is Fenton?" Maddie raised her eyebrow at Dani.
Neither of the halfas responded. They were both too deep in shock.
Vlad left everything to them?
Was this the reason he was showing them how to run and manage all his business affairs? Did he know he was going to die soon? Maybe this was just another evil scheme of his.
Regardless of his motives, the two were going to have to ask him when he woke up.
As soon as they entered Vlad's hospital ward, Danny spit out the question nagging at the back of his mind. "Vlad, are you going to die?"
"Heavens no!" The billionaire was shocked to hear them ask something like that. "At least, not anytime soon I hope."
The two teens continued staring at him in silence.
Vlad sighed. "I suppose you heard from Joshua?"
They nodded.
"Have a seat." Vlad gestured for them to sit down on the nearby chairs. He propped himself up. "I've been dragging the two of you along with me at work because I'm trying to teach you the in's and out's of my companies. I'm not doing this to force you two into becoming my apprentices, I'm doing this because I'm trying to secure your futures. Daniel, I know you strive to be an astronaut, but reality dictates that you cannot become one. It's not just your grades holding you down, but your physical body. Part of being an astronaut means getting health check-ups. Do you know what that means?"
Danny thought about it for a second. "No."
"It means blood tests! Do you know what's in your bloodstream?"
"Uh…blood?"
"Ectoplasm, Daniel! As soon as they have a look at your blood sample, you would be shipped off to the Guys-in-White facility for experimentation. I'm sorry, Daniel, but it's the truth."
Daniel was so angry, he could have punched Vlad right then and there, hospitalized and all. Everything he said was true, but did he really have to crush his dreams like that? That idea had been eating away at him, but Danny had chosen to ignore it all these years.
Before he could respond, Vlad spoke again. "As for you, Danielle, you may have forged legal documents, but you still do not exist in the eyes of the government. If you decide to go and work in the real world, you would be found and forced into a life of constant travel, but before all of that, this is my way of apologizing."
Danny's anger was cut short at those words. "Apologizing? You're not trying to bribe us, are you?"
"No! Listen, both of you, I have come to terms with the fact that I cannot force either of you into being my children, but that doesn't mean I want you out of my life completely. Besides, now I have a handsome nephew and a beautiful niece."
The two continued to stare at him in silence as he placed a hand on each of their heads.
"I know I've caused the two of you a lot of pain, and that you may never forgive me for what I've done, but by doing this I can forgive myself."
"That bastard! How dare he get us in his moment of weakness like that!" Dani shouted as soon as the two halfas were in the air.
After Vlad's apology they had phased out of the hospital for a little flight in hopes of clearing their heads a bit.
"Yeah, it was a cheap shot, but what do you think? Should we forgive him?"
Dani scoffed. "Just like that? Not only did he use me, but he's also tried to kill me, TWICE! Heck, he's even tried to kill you! He says sorry and everything is suddenly candy and gumdrops? I don't think so!"
"Dan tried to kill me, but I forgave him." Danny nudged her with his elbow.
"Yeah? Well…this is different." Dani moved away from his nudging.
"How so?"
"Why are willing to forgive him?" Dani quickly changed the subject.
"Well, Vlad has kind of toned it down on the evil plot stuff this past year. I think we should give him a chance. Besides, if he goes against us we can always beat him up again."
Dani grumbled to herself. Danny was right. "I'm still not sure."
Danny had a small smile on his face. He waggled his eyebrows at Dani.
The female halfa's face fell again as she ran her hand over his face. "Fine, I'll forgive him, but you have to swear to me you will never do that gain. Seriously, that's creepy."
"It got the job done."
As they forgave Vlad, Vlad himself began trying to set things straight with the other ghost hunters, starting with Valerie.
Knowing her 'Shoot first, Ask never' personality, he figured it wouldn't be in his best interest to approach her personally.
First, he sent her a long letter apologizing for what he had done, and offering her a position in Axion Labs.
Valerie knew how to bear a grudge, but had to relent and accept the elder man's apology.
With the pay Vlad was offering her, she would finally be able to move her and her father out of their rundown apartment and into a real house somewhere in the suburbian sprawl of Amity Park.
The health benefits only sweetened the deal.
Reluctantly, she went to see Vlad in his office to accept the position.
Vlad had been more than happy to have another extremely skilled ghost hunter on his side. He assured her than he would not repeat his previous mistake nor would he hide anything from her.
To emphasize that point, Valerie was granted access to all databases under the DALV Corporation.
Her job was the same as before, mostly hunting down ghost specimens for Vlad, but this time around, she used more precaution. She would study her targets closely, learning about their strengths and possible weaknesses, and whether they were actually good or evil before going in for the capture.
Tucker and Sam did not hold as much against Vlad.
Their only real quarrel was his constant attempts to hurt their best friends, but they were willing to forgive Vlad if everyone else was.
Tucker had received his own letter from Vlad, but not under the apologetic terms.
As it turned out, Vlad would hire Technus to do most of his software programming and maintenance, but with him gone, Vlad could not find a single competent worker to fill his place. He knew of Tucker's advanced computer skills, leading him to request his help.
Tucker would help with basic software engineering and even some electrical problems the building might be having.
He wasn't an employee like Valerie, but was paid for each job he did instead. His parents would get too suspicious if he was suddenly hired out of the blue by a multi-billion dollar corporation.
Vlad could have hired better, more educated people, but he chose not to. It's not that he was sentimental by hiring those closest to him, but his need to keep people's eyes from watching his companies and his need to keep an eye out on those who knew of his secret. If they wandered too far, things might begin slipping out, and Vlad could not have that.
The Paranormal business was a little shady as is; Vlad didn't need someone outside the halfa circle finding about his strong connection to the Ghost Zone then blabbing about it to the government. He was already having enough trouble with the GiW.
"Samantha Manson."
Danny looked up from his diploma to see his girlfriend walk up to the podium and accept her diploma.
He smiled to himself.
Their relationship had managed to last this long. Not that they were having any problems, it just made Danny realize how much he treasured Sam.
When they first started, the two of them were so shy. They had no problem exchanging affection in private, but it was a little embarrassing to hold hands in public. Gradually they lost their timid demeanor and became more open.
When their two year anniversary rolled around, he and Sam went all the way. (If you know what he means.)
It had to be the most pleasurable moment in their life.
Never had they experienced euphoria like that, never had they felt such a longing for each other so strong.
At this point, if something were to ever happen to Sam, Danny wouldn't know what to do with himself.
Sam didn't really fit into Vlad's companies anywhere.
She mostly hung around with Danny, keeping his office tidy or just keeping him company.
The billionaire had tried again and again to find some place for the Goth girl, but she didn't poses anything remarkable.
Of course, he had never spoken to her directly about this (It would be too awkward a conversation), but he kept his eyes peeled for anything that might come up, and sure enough it came.
The door burst open as the two government officials rolled into the room.
Sam and Danny stopped in their tracks as
"Daniel Fenton, you are under arrest for tax evasion!" Operative O put his ecto-gun up straight for the halfa.
"What? I don't pay taxes!" Danny stared up from the laptop he was working on in disbelief. Were these guys serious?
"Exactly. By order of the government we are to seize all property containing possible information about your fraudulent behavior." They were about to start taking apart the file cabinet when Sam intervened.
"Excuse me boys." Sam slammed her hand down on the top of the filing cabinet. "Exactly what part of the government do you work for?"
"The ministry of paranormal activities." Operative M replied.
"Well I do believe that tax evasion is beyond your jurisdiction." She calmly shut the drawer to the cabinet.
The two agents were so angry they could have fired their guns at Sam. They had chosen this opportunity to strike because they knew Vlad wouldn't be there, but unbeknownst to them, Vlad was there.
He had been standing invisibly outside the room to see how Daniel would have handed such a situation, but was shocked when Sam resolved the conflict.
The two white-clad men stormed out the door right past Vlad.
That evening, Vlad summoned Sam to his office and discussed the possibility of having her as a lawyer. After all, Joshua was starting to get a little suspicious of Vlad's ability to make people hand over their companies to him.
Now, Sam had zero experience or formal education with law, but after some negotiating, they settled on a path.
After a good three hours of arguing, they were able to reach a conclusion.
Vlad had wanted to ship Sam straight to Harvard for a law degree, but she refused.
She did not even have an interest in law (she wanted to be a veterinarian), but Vlad played the 'you'll get to be working with Daniel' card, successfully winning her over.
Sam agreed on eventually becoming a lawyer, but did not want to attend Harvard. She got her wish of starting off at community college for the first two years, but had to settle with finishing her degree in Harvard.
Boy would her parents be happy.
Sam winked to Danny on her way back to her seat.
Danny returned it with a wink of his own.
"Please, spare us, lover-boy." Dani pulled Danny's cap down over his eyes.
And we conclude the first part of the second chapter!
I hate it! I'm actually kind of embarrassed to be posting this up…
You can thank Lani's Tamer-chi for convincing me to write a sequel. The story was supposed to end where it did in 'Second Chance'.
As you can tell, I enjoy swapping time periods without informing you as to where we are. It's half the fun of being an author.
So once again, people will be in mature relationships, but there will be no lemon. This story is rated T and I plan to keep it that way.
Tell me if you guys like what you see.
Review Please!