It's 10:14 in the morning, Sunday. Every muscle in Danny's body aches from yesterday's exertion, and he's staring at a bag of chip sitting at the kitchen table.
Vlad had said in his letter that the only condition for his training was keeping up with other responsibilities as priority. "Do your homework and listen to your parents and I'll teach you everything." that's all Vlad had meant.
Staring at the bag of chips he think on how Uncle Vlad hadn't said he needed to change anything about himself, and that he could probably eat the bag of chips for breakfast like he'd been planning. But he also thinks about how he does not lead the life of a normal teenage boy who gets to lounge around playing video games and putting nothing but junk in his system- his already half dead system- and suffer no consequences. Surely with the amount of physical exertion he was constantly putting his body under-both his bodies- it was probably better he didn't eat the bag of chips for breakfast. And surely a healthier diet would help with his training, right?
Yeah, it would. Better habits, better health, better student.
With a resigned but determined sigh, at 10:15 on Sunday morning, Danny puts the chips he'd so thoughtlessly gotten out of the pantry back where it belonged and made himself scrambled eggs for the first of many times to come.
The change of diet wasn't the only change Danny force himself into that week.
After he'd eaten breakfast he started again on the homework he hadn't gotten to do yesterday. Focusing was so hard. His mind keeps finding things to distract him. It took a good thirty minutes getting nothing done, when the panic that he can't do this start to set in he, tries listening to music like his sister, and even though he doesn't think she listened to Dumpty Humpty, she has the right idea. The music doesn't help him understand any better, but certainly kept focus longer.
He'd missed enough of his classes fighting ghost however that in each subject there were a majority of each work sheets left blank. He'd settled for texting his friends for their answers, and Googling the ones they didn't have either. By the time he'd managed to rewrite every answer so it looked like his own, and packed everything away in his backpack, it was 3:41 and he had such a headache. No chores where done that day.
On Monday Danny wakes up 6:30 and almost fall back asleep as soon as he turns off alarm. There's another alarm that goes off at 7:30 and he can make it to school by then too. He forces himself out of bed, mind sluggish and body protesting. He remember only when the bathroom doesn't open for him that Jazz is used to getting up this early and happily beat him to bathroom. Right. Gonna have to readjust to this schedule.
Jazz takes him to school, promising to do it any day he needs and he's one of the first people into the class.
"Well, good morning Mr. Fenton." Mr. Lancer answers Danny's yawn as he enters class.
Classes run smoothly until last period. There's barely fifteen minutes left in the lesson when his ghost sense goes off. He has neither Sam nor Tucker in this period so they can't come for back up if he left now, beside, fifteen minutes until the end of class his teacher wasn't going to let him go. So he makes a discussion, and sits there, and finished up the summary of his notes, albite very distractedly. He packs up before the bell rings, and rushes out ahead of everyone, but there's not recorded of him skipping out early. He'd gotten the answer to the only question on his science homework he could find anywhere in the textbook or the Internet, it was too late as the homework was turned in, but he knew it now at least.
He runs past his friend at their locker, dropping his bag at their feet with nothing more then "there's a ghost, gotta go." Before running to find it. The ghost is one he'd never met and it's embarrassingly easy to beat him.
"I'm so glad I didn't leave class for that," Danny says later in their booth at Nasty Burger, tucking his Uncle's card back in his almost empty wallet. "Seriously I wish my Ghost Sense could tell me how weak a ghost was before I waste my time with it."
"Well maybe your Uncle can teach you that too," Tucker offers, then sees Danny's tray "Dude... that's a salad."
"I know... I'm just sick of junk, I guess."
"What did you do to him?!" Tucker round of Sam jokingly. "How have you corrupted his fragile mind with your evil ways?!"
"I didn't do anything, maybe Danny just realized you can't survive on crap." Sam says defensively, taking a bit of her own salad.
When Tucker gives him a look, Danny says "She's not wrong, you saw bad I was at all those excessive Markey had me doing. If I didn't fight ghost I wouldn't care, but... I don't want chips for breakfast, and Nasty Burger for an afternoon snack to be the reason I can keep up with an enemy one day and it all goes to Hell you know?"
"Yeah, I get," Tucker answers then turns to Sam again "but I am not joining your evil little bandwagon"
"Health is not evil!"
The week rolls by faster than Danny anticipated and the Ghost Boy's faced three ghost, two of which he managed to wait until between classes and one of which was Skulker who he spent nearly the entirety of Wednesday night fighting.
Returning home one o'clock in the morning results in him being grounded "until further notice" and while he was tempted to simply sneak out as soon as he shut his bedroom door Thursday afternoon, he resigned himself to his punishment and takes the afternoon to drudge through his remaining homework. He finds it easier now with his solid week of class attendance and a voice in his head faintly reminds him he'd never had trouble with grades until he'd started ghost hunting.
Friday afternoon is spent doing chores and texting Sam and Tucker (his parents have no clue how to properly ground a child, for which Danny was grateful).
So how's being grounded working out for you? Sam texts him while he's cleaning his room
You're so lucky your parents don't know how to ground you. If it were mine I'd have total lockdown. No tech, no friends, and doing every chore they could think of. Tucker adds to their group chat.
Well, me and Jazz never got grounded when we were little, she still hasn't technically, so they wouldn't have any clue how it works. Danny reply's before finishing reorganizing his desk draws.
Well at least you know you're getting grounded for the greater good dude. I mean someone has to fight all the ghost are coming though. Right? Tucker supplies
Speaking of ghosts-as if we ever aren't- how's being grounded gonna work when your uncle comes by? Sam asks.
Danny pauses. He hadn't thought of that. Unlike Dr. Markey who had made plans for her visit, his uncle had simple said he'd be over Saturday via ghost portal.
I don't know! God I completely forgot! I don't even have a way of contacting him!
There's a long pause- during which Danny abandons his cleaning efforts in favor of fretting- when Sam texts Well don't worry about it. Just explain it to him tomorrow. You were probably gonna have to sneak off anyway, so it's not like it changes anything.
But what if he gets upset I'm grounded and doesn't teach me because he came all the way for nothing?
Dude your Uncle's way too cool for that. I haven't even met the guy and I know that. Tucker interjected.
Yeah, beside if that's the case then he'll have learned his lesson, and give you an email or something. Sam adds.
Danny wakes up early the next morning to finish any chore he thinks aren't done the best they could be, tries and fails to make an omelet, and heads down to the basement with a microwave-made bowl of oatmeal and a copy of Romeo and Juliet he was supposed to have started reading on Tuesday.
At 10:30ish he heard his parents bustling about the house and panickingly wonders if he was supposed to get them out of the house today too?
It's too late now, but he's hoping to catch Uncle Vlad down here before anything can happen up there.
His mom comes to check on him about the time Romeo and Tybalt are sword fighting, and he claims his room was getting a bit suffocating and he just needed somewhere else to read. She buys the excuse but Danny's focus is broken, and he waits with impatience until finally, finally, the figure of the only other half-ghost in existence appears through the Ghost Portal.
He was followed by another ghost in a long black coat with nothing for a face but two red eyes.
"Hey!" Danny calls, rising to meet the Ghosts.
"It's good to see you Daniel," Vlad says, wrapping one arm around Danny's shoulders in a half hug, and turning them both to introduce the younger half ghost to the grey blob.
"I'd like you to meet Amorpho," Vlad says. "He's going to be helping us today."
"Helping us with what?" Danny asks turning to the ghost in question holding out his hand in polite greeting "Hi, I'm Dann-"
A perfect replica of himself stands in front of Danny. He watches shocked as the ghost-and it must be the ghost- smiles, holding back laughter, and grabs his hand before he can snatch is away. "Hi Danny, so am I!"
"With you sneaking out, seeing as you being grounded." Uncle Vlad says, admonishment coloring his voice. "He's agreed to take your place for the day while we start your training."
"That's really cool- Wait!" Danny exclaimed in realization. "How do you know I'm grounded? I had no way to tell you!"
Vlad rolled his eyes, and scoffed "Of course. She did tell you, that biology obsessed nut! Can't remember anything!" under his breath then turned again to Danny "The Vultures were sent to watch over you, to tell me if anything happened, or to assist you if you needed My Boy. Dr. Markey was meant to tell you this, but evidently she forgot in the wake of studying your data." Danny thought his Uncle sound very resigned to what he'd just said. Like it happen too often to care anymore.
"Oh, okay. Well that's better then, like, tiny spy cameras all over my house-wait are they in my house!?"
"No no, they've been told to stay out of your home unless personally invited in." Vlad reassure Daniel quickly. "I do hope she at least remembered the gift?"
"Oh, yeah she remembered that. Thanks by the way, I'm gonna put that thing to good use, I swear."
"Not that this isn't interesting, but I can't fulfill my half of the deal, Victor, unless you leave with the boy," Amorpho interrupted.
"Uh, his name's Vlad?" Danny corrects, confused.
"I'm good with faces, not names Billy." Amorpho says, rolling his perfect copy of Danny's eyes.
"It's "Danny"," Vlad corrects again, "but you're rights, so go up the boy's room and quietly sit there for the rest of the day. If he tells me later his parents were at all suspicious the deal's off."
Amorpho looks a little miffed as he turns to walk up the stairs, and Danny calls "There a book over on the counter-yeah that one. Just pretended to read that when they come check on you. Thank you!"
Vlad had Danny show his to the thick woods of Amity Park Central Park, and as they're flying through the sky Danny asks "So what kinda deal did you make with that guy?"
"Ah, we've had a long standing agreement. He used to go about both the human World and the Ghost Zone masquerading as myself, and it was driving me insane until I finally caught him. I will tell you now Daniel, I am not always the kindest person, and I persuaded him with more than words not to do so without my consent again. So now if ever I need his talents, he is granted a day in my shoes so-to-speak for every time he helps me."
Vlad can see it in Daniels face less than half an hour after the training officially starts. He's making an effort not to show it but Daniel is disappointed. The boy had clearly been expecting something more, certainly not running more drills, much the same as he'd done with Dr. Markey and Vlad regretted this. The truth was he'd never trained anyone in this before subject, in the subject of ghost powers, and he was stalling, trying to find what Daniel needed work on that Vlad could help him with. At the very least something had to get done today.
The boy truly was a prodigy though. Less than three months with his ghost powers and honestly he was capable of so much more than Vlad had been.
But he's bored, because of course ectoplasmic blasts, and invisibility were nothing new. What the boy needed was stimulation. Vlad hopes he knows what he'd doing.
He watches Daniel from above for another second more as he attacks one immobile clone after another before Vlad charges his own pink ectoplasm around his hand and firing it at the boy. He narrowly misses the boys shoulder, as was his intent, and Daniel dodged on instinct, a perfect mid-air role to the side. He looks up at Vlad with confusion written all over his face, but before his can question the billionaire, Vlad says "fight me" and fires at Daniel again.
Daniel takes this demand in stride and flies straight up at Vlad, who decides it will be easier for the both of them, to take the fight into the clear autumn sky. This keeps them out of range of any unsuspecting civilians and makes it easy for Vlad to study Daniel's abilities in a much more practical setting.
At the same time, because they need not focus on anything but each other, no civilians to protect, no buildings to dodge, and now were to hide the fight becomes very straightforward. Daniel attacks aggressively, Vlad dodges, Vlad attacks sneakily, Daniel sees it coming and dodges. Vlad attacks with clones, and Daniel turns intangible or invisible to avoid the duel attacks, Daniel attacks, Vlad uses a shield. It becomes all too boring for Vlad very quickly, because there's no thought behind it, no strategy. But Daniel's having fun, and Vlad is understanding better from here where Daniel needs help then he could ever hope to from just watching the boy.
Late in the afternoon Daniel avoids another direct punch from Vlad via his intangibility, but rather than resume his form and continue fighting he say "Can we take a break?" in an exhausted tone of voice that only confirmed what Vlad had suspected.
"Of course Dear Boy." Vlad says lowering his fists and relaxing into more comfortable hovering position. "Really I think that's enough for the day, we've been out nearly-" he looks down at the town below, at the clock tower "-dear me, three hours. Yes, we're definitely done for the day."
"What?! No we don't have to quit. I just need a break." and there's that look of disappointment on Daniel's face again.
"It's not like I'm leave just yet Daniel, I only thinks we've done enough physical training for the day." He starts to float lower, and Daniel followed, "I've still got plenty to teach you."
"Aw, is this gonna turn into school?" Daniel's shoulders droop.
"You didn't really think it was all going to be physical training, did you Daniel?"
"Welllll... maybe?" He says smiling guiltily.
Vlad stops when they hit the ground, standing to watch Daniel, who hovers in front of him at eye level.
"Surely you have questions about, about things Daniel. About what types of ghosts there are. What type of ghost you are?"
"I didn't know there were different types..." Daniel says, looking almost ashamed.
"Well that's precisely my point Little Badger. I'm going to teach you everything. Now where's the nearest book store? There' a wonderful collection by a man named Arthur Carter. He's about as accurate as they get when it comes to ghost behavior and in the later volumes his theories on the form and qualities of the Ghost Zone are eerily on point."
Instead of the complaint that almost forms on the tip of Danny's tongue he nods and follows his Uncle's example of reverting back to his human half, as they leave to woods and head for the bookstore.