Danielle let out a sigh. "Uhhh, I'm so bored. There's nothing to do here."
Dani had been watching the video footage of Daniel silently replay over and over as she waited in her father's chair. Giving her father's desk a kick, she watched the laboratory spin around her. She had been waiting for her father's return for hours, days? She had never spent so much time in the lab at once, but she didn't dare go back to her chamber until she knew Daniel, or what was left of Daniel, was taken care of. She turned her gaze back to the computer screen.
The monitor was still full of video clips analyzing Daniel, comparing the data with Daniel's stats with the other ghost's. Finally the program decided it finished its calculations and moved on to new footage. She looked back away from her cousin's image.
"I don't get it." Her eyes flickered to the screen once again. "If you can fight like this, why did you destabilize."
'And what does that mean about me?'
Resting her head in her hands, she focused her gaze down at the keyboard. The manual controls stared back at her. Her father never used the manual controls. He had his computer program to do his bidding. Danielle noticed a volume switch sitting just in reach. She looked back up at the video clips silently playing on screen. "Hmm, what if I take this off mute?"
'Crash! "Ahhh!" Bam!'
Putting her hand over her head, she requited, "Ah, okay not so loud…" Danielle turned the volume switch down until it was at an acceptably loud volume. "Whoa, much better."
Danielle watched the screen as the video clip played. Vlad's analyzations running at the bottom of the screen.
"On screen, Daniel had been blasted straight into a water tower. The soaked teenager looked up into the camera.
"Thought I forgot about you, Ghost," a woman's voice taunted.
'Who is that speaking,' Danielle thought. The voice seemed to be coming from whomever was controlling the camera.
"A large plasma gun appeared on the right side of the screen pointed right at her cousin. Danielle watched as Daniel stood up and prepared himself to dodge the blast. A powerful purple ray blew towards her cousin, but he jumped out of the way right in time.
"Nope," her cousin retorted, "but I'll bet you forgot about that,' gesturing behind the camera. The ray had hit the water tower's legs causing it to fall right toward the screen.
Danielle blinked. "Wow, smooth."
'I guess this is what Daddy means when he says to be aware of your surroundings,' Danielle thought, 'He not only dodged the blast, but caused the ray to hit the water tower.'
'Force the opponent into defense.'
Danielle wasn't fond of offensive moves. They took up too much energy and weakened her. It was easier to dodge and defend herself rather than full on attacks. If she could use her surroundings to attack for her, like her cousin just did, she could both save her energy and make her father happy.
"Daniel's opponent wasn't on the defense very long. After escaping the falling tower, she righted herself and began chasing the ghost boy.
"Bummer," said Danielle. Daniel had missed the perfect advantage. Vlad would never had let Danielle get away with a screw up like that.
"As Daniel sped away from the huntress behind him, he looped down, up, and around. As she tried to catch up to him, he looped back around to face her. Before she could right herself up, he hit what looked to Danielle like some sort of hoverboard, pushing her back toward the fallen water tower. Daniel followed her descent ready to finish what she started.
Danielle gave a cheer as she pumped her fists in the air. "Whoo, alright Daniel!" Watching the video analysis was proving to be far more entertaining with sound.
"The huntress hit Danny with another blast of her plasma ray. Danielle's eyes followed her cousin fall back.
"He continued flying away from his opponent turning only to throw a plasma blast back at the huntress successfully blasting the gun out of her hands. Danielle widened her eyes. This was going to end it for sure.
"Look, I don't want to hurt you," Daniel declared. He raised his palms up to convey his goodwill.
Danielle furrowed her brows. He wasn't going to defeat her? If Daddy put him against that red...board ghost, he would want Daniel to finish the job. Why wasn't he following orders?
"The huntress retorted, "What makes you think you can?" She then pulled out another gun that morphed into a multi-barrel blaster. The gun charged up and blasted straight toward Daniel.
"Instead of running and dodging, Daniel did something Daniel had never seen before. Daniel changed his shape. He caused a hole to form right through his midsection, spreading the rest of his form out, and completely missed the locked blast.
'How did he do that,' Danielle thought. She was able to stretch her limbs some, but she has never been able to manipulate her form like that.
"Resuming his regular ghost shape, Daniel released a plasma blast more powerful than Daniel had previously ever seen. He didn't even have to charge the blast.
The plasma blast hit the red huntress back, with Daniel in close pursuit. They continued their fight until they came across a high school. A loud bell shocked the ghost boy from giving a final blow to the huntress. Shocked, Danielle's cousin looked down in surprise to see the school.
The red huntress stopped and shouted, "Later for you, punk!"
"I'll be waiting, creep!" Both ghosts turned away from each other and flew in their separate directions.
"Huh, hey what happened?" Danielle plopped down in a huff. "It was just getting good."
Danielle watched as the huntress flew to behind some bleachers and retracted the suit around her. The computer reset the video to continue taking its different calculations, but not before Danielle saw the Red Huntress's face. "She's human?"
"Why did Daddy set Daniel up against a human girl," Danielle pondered, "even if she does have kick butt fighting gear."
As more time passed, Daniel continued watching different clips. Daniel, or Danny as he referred to himself, sure was good at fighting, but he managed never to hurt the ghost or hunters he was up against.
That was different. Daddy didn't seem to care about her opponents as long as she thoroughly defeated them.
He also had a lot of cool moves. Daddy never showed her anything as advanced as the moves she saw Danny perform.
Watching Danny perform on the video for the third time, Danielle jumped up determined. Taking a few step back, Danielle centered herself from her father's equipment.
She watched the video clips play until she saw Danny send a disk of plasmic energy toward the Red Huntress knocking her board down and forcing her to lose balance.
'Now that's cool!'
Glancing toward some old target dummies dumped on the other side of the lab, Danielle gave a few practice swipes of her wrist like she saw her cousin do on screen. A few plasma blasts came out but none were disked-shaped. Looking again at the monitor, Danielle tried again, this time going all out, aiming for the targets. Giving a deep breath she allowed her flow of energy follow her arm out toward the test dummies. The plasma blast left her arm, but caused her to fall back into the spinning chair and roll across the room.
"I don't think that was right," she sarcastically stated. The blast was obviously not disk shaped, and it shouldn't have ricocheted the way it did.
Ending up on the other side of the room, she turned towards the target dummies where her face dropped.
"Oops..."
The plasma blast not only hit the dummies, but her father's desk and monitor as well. When she swiped her arm, the blast formed a loose wave that covered a much larger target area than she had intended.
"Oh no, what'll I do?"
She raced across the lab to try to fix the dummies and machines.
"How do I fix the computer?" She tried looking around for some cleaning supplies. "Maybe there's something in the upper area."
Turning invisible, she flew up, around the chamber and arena level, into the house above. Flying room to room, she looked for any cleaning supplies. She traveled through numerous levels, but couldn't find any sort of cleaning supplies anywhere.
"This isn't a house, it's a castle." The entire house was made up of gray brick and green furniture, hardly inviting.
Danielle passed by a window, looking through the various rooms, but paused when she realize what what was outside. She turned back and slowly peered out the window to see the night sky filled with stars.
"Wow, I've never seen those before." She knew about stars. The cloning process gave her a basic fundamental intelligence, but she had never seen stars with her own eyes. They were incredible, and there were so many.
Glancing around to see if the coast was clear, Danielle allowed herself to float the window. Now visible, she made her way up to the top of one of the castle towers. Then she laid back, looking at the night sky. The stars twinkled for their new audience, and Danielle felt herself relax.
Forgetting her worries, she searched the sky. "I wonder where the moon is tonight." Although the sky was clear, the moon was nowhere to be seen.
Resting her head on her arm, she continued gazing up at the night sky. "Maybe after Daddy fixes me and we become the ultimate ghosts, he'll let me visit a star," she mused, "I could travel to another planet even." The bright sky was mesmerizing. If only she could go now.
...
Danielle opened her eyes to see a bright blue sky bringing forth the new day. Danielle groaned and stretched. Looking around, she tried to remember why she was lounging on a roof.
It wasn't like it was less comfortable than her cold metal chamber, but she really wasn't supposed to leave the holding room without her father's permission. If he caught her, she would be in serious trouble.
"I was looking for something..." she reminded herself.
Glancing up, she saw the moon high in the sky. "Oh, there it is." Satisfied she found what she was looking for, she studied the late satellite. After considering for a second, she speculated, "I thought the moon came out at night, not in the morning."
Her thoughts were interrupted by an unfamiliar sound outside the house's perimeter. Alarmed, Danielle stood up and looked over the edge of the tower wall. She could see everything. The grass, trees, the clouds, and... people. A group of kids were playing on her father's property just behind the tree line.
Ducking down, Danielle watched the kids play from over the edge of the tower wall. She had never seen any other people before. She felt a smile form on her lips.
The children were laughing as they explored the wooded area. Music was playing from one kid's phone. Another child was mock dancing while his friend laughed.
Intrigued, Danielle continued watching the children until they were out of view once again. She could still hear the music playing and the squeals of the children as they traveled out of the wooded area.
Her fascination was interrupted when her father appeared coming out from above the treeline. He had a triumphant air about him. Danielle hadn't seen him look this happy in a long time.
'He's back.'
Turning back to her ghost form, Danielle quickly turned herself invisible and phased down into her chamber. Looking around the holding room, she gave a sigh. The chamber Daniel was assigned had been removed. Danielle slumped herself against the cold metal wall and observed her home. This dark room was terrible compared to the beauty and warmth of the outside world. Why wasn't she allowed to leave this place? She brooded and waited for her next orders.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt her chamber shift and the door creak closed. Steadying herself, she looked out the small window on her door to see her chamber was moving toward her father's laboratory.
Danielle blinked, confused. 'Usually he just calls me when he needs me. Why did he call my chamber instead?'
Arriving at the lab, Danielle phased her head out of the tube to see what was going on.
"My mission was a complete success. Not only am I free from that accursed ecto acne, but I have attained a new sample of Daniel's DNA."
Danielle sighed. 'Is he seriously monologuing?'
"When morphing the sample DNA with the analysis from Valerie's equipment, I should be able to finally form the perfect clone."
Danielle cocked her head. Morphing hair DNA with his research was how she was made. Did he finally figure out why she was unstable?
"Computer, analyze Danielle for changes in stability." Danielle jerked her head back into the chamber.
'Analyze me?'
The hologram appeared before her father. "Yes, dear," it answered. The computer began a full analysis on the ghost girl floating within her chamber. "Stability is at 72.3%."
Vlad nodded. "The highest stability of any clone so far. If I could only figure out how to finish the process." Moving to his computer monitor, he paused at the state of his equipment.
"Danielle, come out here."
Hearing her father call her, Danielle morphed through her holding tube, head high, and floated over to her father waiting for instruction.
He slowly turned back toward her. "How did my computer get damaged," he asked.
Danielle's eyes widened in realization. That's why she ended up on the roof. "Oh, I, uh, wanted to practice my powers and get better for you," she stuttered, "but then my plasma blast lost focus, and... I hit a wider range than I intended."
She watched Vlad sigh and bow his head.
"But I tried to clean everything up for you. I couldn't find anything to clean the blast off the computer..." Danielle tried to think of something to make it better. If only she hadn't gotten distracted. She could have fixed this before her father had gotten home.
"You are not to use your powers without my supervision. I need to have on record any change in your abilities," he stated.
Danielle bowed her head and lost eye contact. "Of course, I'm sorry Daddy."
Taking a deep breath, Vlad relaxed and began making preparations. "Without a functioning equipment, I can not complete my research." Danielle felt her stomach plop. "We will simply have to move our research to my cabin further outside civilization."
As Vlad made preparations to transfer his research to his second lab, Danielle was trying to wrap her mind around the fact they were leaving this dreary place for a quaint little cabin secluded in the woods.
"We will be on our way within the hour."
...
Gasping, Danielle fell to her knees. Vlad had transported her to the cabin they were to resume his experiments. Danielle could feel a tingling running up and down her body. Direct transporting took up a lot of energy, even if she was only along for the ride.
Danielle attempted to catch her breath as her father hovered purposefully around the lab. Pressing a large red power button, he allowed the laboratory to power up before calling the computer. "Computer, receive all recent data from the main database."
Danielle watched the same hologram from home appear. The blue ecto suit and red goggles hid the woman's face from Danielle's view. She had seen the hologram with and without the goggles on. Her design had short auburn hair and lavender eyes. Danielle always had liked the hologram.
"Yes, darling. The data will be uploaded at once."
Danielle looked around her new home. It wasn't a castle, but that was fine with her. She liked the cabin-like home better than the basement of that lonely manor.
She noticed her father watching her curiously. Once she straightened up and returned his gaze, he instructed, "Danielle, I need you to go into the chamber tube in the corner there." Her eyes left his to glance over at the accursed object. "Once the data is uploaded, I will test your ecto level."
Danielle cocked her head. "My ecto level?"
"Yes, it is imperative I check your ecto level before we begin with my latest attempt to perfect you."
"Oh, o-okay." She obeyed and hovered into the chamber waiting in the corner of the laboratory. She nervously waited for the results of her ecto plasmic level. She didn't remember being tested on this before, but maybe it was the same as testing for her stability. Even though Vlad had checked her stability only an hour ago.
Finally, Vlad called the computer program to scan Danielle's chamber.
"Ecto level is at a 4. Stability is at 48%."
Danielle's eyes widened. She had been at 70% only an hour ago. How did she lose that much energy?
"Interesting, Daniel has been tested to have an entity of scale 7 ectoplasmic power. It seems Danielle's power has been compromised during the cloning process. Her power should potentially match Daniel's. Perhaps by the faulty DNA sample..."
Pulling out a black hair from his pocket, Vlad put the hair into the computer to be analyzed. "Begin analysis." he commanded.
"Analyzation has begun," the hologram reported.
"Prepare a new tube," Vlad replied, smirking to himself.
As the cloning process began, Vlad busied himself checking over every calculation. Danielle watched her father work. Unsure whether she was allowed to leave the chamber, she hovered to right outside the open doors.
"So...Daddy," Danielle began. She didn't want her father to send her away from the lab again, but she desperately wanted to know what he had discovered when he disappeared yesterday. "Did you find out how to fix me now?"
Vlad looked over to where Danielle was floating just outside the chamber he put her in before. Considering a moment, Vlad huffed, "I believe so. I have been collecting DNA samples based on research collected by an employee of mine, so to speak. When combined with physical DNA samples such as hair, the process seems to be far more stable. I believe with a sample of DNA during the morphing process, the DNA stability will be far more powerful than ever before."
Danielle listened as her father's speech grew more and more grandiose in volume and dramatics. Once he began his blabbering about the biological science, she stopped listening. All she wanted to know is he knew how to stabilize her, and he seemed to have a pretty good idea. He just needed this morph DNA. Then he can make the perfect clone.
Danielle absentmindedly nodded to her father as needed as she allowed her mind to wander. Once she was stabilized, she could perfect her powers out in the wooded area around her new home without fear of damaging her father's equipment again. She didn't want to have to move away again. She didn't like that transportation power her father used to get them here. She was feeling far more exhausted after that experience. Even if it was much nicer here than the dark basement, Danielle wasn't sure she'd want to make the trip again.
"It sure would be nice to fly though," Danielle mused. For a second she was afraid her father would question her statement, but he was far too deep in his own thoughts and experimentations.
Not sure what to do and out of excess energy, Danielle leaned against one of the desks and watched her father as he continued his experiment.
A/N: For anyone interested in visually seeing the fight scene Danielle watched on screen. I took it from Season 1 episode 18: Life Lessons.
