Hey. I'm back.

Been a while, huh? Too long, in fact. I didn't even wait this long to update in the original. I should work on this more.

Alright, I'm not going to give any excuses, because I know I'm a piece of shit for not getting this in earlier. I've got nothing to say.

Have fun reading.

Getting all of her clothes together, Danielle rung her hair out from the shower and drew a smiley face into the foggy mirror, deciding against it and rubbing it away. She got a good look at her face.

She couldn't describe it. Telling someone what your own face looked like just wasn't made to be put into words. Maybe it was because every face is complex. Wow, Dani, way to get into it.

She unlocked the door and tries to walk out, also trying not to slam into whatever the hell was in the way. Oh right, intangibility. She pokes her head through to make sure no one was looking and phased through, picking up one of the many figurines. Most of them were about the size of her entire hand, lined up single file in front of the bathroom door - actually, every door. Many of them have little scuff marks, meaning that someone didn't take the time to delicately move around them.

Danielle guesses it was April's doing.

Dani smells cheap food, which in her mind, was great. Any food was great. Pastries were the best; especially the ones that would be filled with cream and then had little sprinkles on them. They were the greatest food of all time. Dani could probably eat them all day if she could. She'd get one hell of a stomach ache, but it would be worth it.

"Oh, hey Danielle!" Max says from the couch, turning off the TV. "We were just about to finish dinner. Anything else you'd like, other than burnt corn?" Nope, sounded delicious. Dani responds by shaking her head. Max seems puzzled but doesn't say anything about it. "How do you even burn corn," Dani hears Max mutter to herself.

"Hey, Dylan," Dani waves some vapor out of her face as she waltzes into the kitchen. Dylan seems to be boiling something and failing since half of the water is in the air. "Need any help?"

"I don't think so," he recoils as he drops something into the pot of water and is burned. He glares at his arm, turning to Dani. "Uh, can you get me an ice pack? It's behind the ice cream in the freezer." Which one is the freezer? Maybe it's the big part of the fridge. Dani opens it up to see no ice pack; instead, many items are haphazardly stored. Wrong guess. She pulls the smaller part away from the top, seeing the large, blue pack of gel or whatever. It's behind some ice cream (just as Dylan had predicted), so making sure no one is looking, Dani phases her hand through the container to get your prize. It feels colder than normal. "Here you go," Dani hands Dylan the pack. He thanks you, placing it on his arm and tending to whatever's in the pot.

"Hey, Max? How many packs of ramen do we have left?" What's ramen? Ah, you'll ask later.

"There's two chicken and four beef," Max replied from the other side of the kitchen. "We've got enough for everyone, if that's what you're wondering."

Dani walks from the kitchen to the connected dining room. The table is neatly set and Elisa and April and already sitting at the table. Elisa is doing something on her phone while swatting April away, who is excitedly but quietly chanting "Elisa has a boyfriend!" Dani laughs a little. What she wouldn't give for a sibling like that.

Elisa glances up and sneers at you. "What are you looking at, troll?" She's never been called a troll. Dani glares at Elisa. She glares back. Dani decides it would be in her best interest to look away.

Dylan pokes his head into the dining room. "Hey, Dani, what flavor of ramen do you want?" What flavors are there? "We've got chicken and beef,"

"Chicken sounds great," Dani smiles. Dylan scans the room one last time before shuffling back in. I guess he caught a glance at Elisa.

April pulls at Dani's sleeve. She looks down to a happy April. "Come on, I want you to sit next to me!" Somehow, even with April's small stature, she forcibly plops Dani into the end chair facing away from the kitchen.

Sitting next to Elisa. Dani know that Elisa's going to tear her apart if she even breathes in her direction.

April starts talking but Dani tunes her out, focusing on the window. Even though there's a house in the way, she can see the different colors of the sky. It was pretty, even if they were just different shades of blue. She really liked the clouds for some reason. I should go flying after lunch.

After a few minutes of looking at April, and then the sky, and then April again, the food was ready. Dylan and Max called to the children (Elisa complained about being called a child) that the ramen was slightly overcooked and that they'd have to put in their own flavor packets. What's a flavor packet?

Dylan points to an empty plastic bag. "Your flavor packet is in there, and it's chicken, like you asked." Dani looked at Danielle and then the bag, trying to process things. "Have you ever had ramen?"

Danielle scoffs. "Of course I have. I totally know how this works." Dylan gave her a skeptical look but didn't say anything about it. Dani waits for everyone to leave the room and go into the dining room to unsheath the small packet. She ripped it open and spilled half of it on the ground. Dani decided that from now on, when opening ramen, she would do it over the bowl. Dani proceeded to dump the rest into the ramen.

I'll clean it up later.

Dani carries her bowl into the dining room and sat in her chair, receiving some weird looks. Max was the first to speak up. "Aren't you going to get some silverware?"

"Where is it?" Max facepalms. Is she facepalming at me? Oh no, this is bad. I should leave—

"I forgot to show you. C'mon, it's in here." Max herds her into the kitchen, showing her a drawer filled to the brim with forks, spoons and knives. All of them had plastic handles that were either red, blue or green. "I know it's a bit of a mess—" a bit? It's completely clean, "but we'll get that sorted out soon. Someone decided that buying cheap silverware in bulk without my consent was a good idea."

"Hey, it was a good deal!" Dylan declares, throwing his fist in the air.

Max shoves a spoon into Dani's hand. It was blue. She assumed this is what you eat with. "Go ahead, eat." Max ushered her back into the dining table, where April had thought she wouldn't notice the fact she had put a figurine on the seat.

Danielle picks it up. "What's this?" She examined it, seeing it was the same size as the previous figurines blocking the doorway earlier.

"You're silly," April says, taking the doll. "It's of you!" She shoves it into Dani's face, letting her see that it was, in fact, her. "I made it while you were taking a shower." The hair was black and, for some reason, the eyes were green, green like her ghost form. "I've made action figures for all of my friends, even Elisa! She won't take it though," April pouted.

"You messed up my eyes," Elisa commented, looking up from her "soup." "You made me have red eyes. Everyone knows I have the prettiest camo-green in the school."

"I like making their eye colors different!" April protested, crossing her arms and standing up, getting into Elisa's face. "I make the colors of their eyes according to what color goes with them, and I thought you were red!"

Elisa slammed the table. "Dammit, April, I'm tired of you always getting things wrong!" Danielle turned to Dylan and Max, who had both paused and didn't move to do anything. I guess this is normal. "If you're going to give someone something, make sure it's right!"

"Says the person who doesn't know the difference between the two there's!"

"At least I know that there are three, not two, asshole!" Max finally steps in after "asshole," demanding that Elisa apologize to both April for swearing and Danielle for making a fool of herself. After refusing, Elisa put away her dishes and slunk into her room before a punishment could be dished out. April sat proudly next to Danielle.

"As you can see," April says triumphantly, "I have won." Danielle looked at her.

"I can see that," she replies, looking between Dylan and Max. Danielle decided to not say Pretty sure I can tell who the favorite is here since it would probably cause her some trouble.

Changing the subject, Danielle asked, "Why'd you make my eyes green? Why not purple or orange?" April beamed, a special little shine lighting up in her eyes.

"I'm glad you asked," Max and Dylan quickly left the room. Danielle thought that she should've been behind them.

What followed was a long-winded speech, closely resembling the monologues of such gems as Technus and the Box Ghost. Somehow, she lead Danielle into the TV room and put up a projector, showing how green was the best possible option and explaining what each color meant. Even though it was only about one-thirty when she started, it quickly devolved into two-forty-five. By the time that Max and Dylan had intervened and told April it was time for her to let Dani go out and explore the neighborhood, April had only just finished explaining what "Periwinkle" was, and what it showed about a person.

Dani had never experienced anything more traumatizing in her life.

"Alright, Dani, here's twenty dollars," Dylan hands Dani two bills, which she stuffed into the pockets of her shorts. "Go out and find a place and maybe get something to eat, but not too much, you have to save your appetite for some dinner." She was then shoved out the door by Max, who slammed it behind her. Wow, I feel so welcome.

The first thing Dani did was try to retrace her steps to the little antique shop she saw on the way to the Dwyer's house. When that proved to be a fruitless effort, she ran into a couple bushes and changed into her ghost form. She didn't bother going invisible, just hoping that she wouldn't be seen.

Danielle flew over the town, looking at the little shops. It was pretty similar to Amity in a lot of ways. There were only a few major corporations, since almost everything was made locally.

There it is! Danielle points to it so she wouldn't lose it. It was a nice, quaint (What does that even mean? I've heard Vlad use it before) little place, fashioned with a living space on the top. Danielle dove invisibly into a nearby alley, turning back into her human form. She shivered a little, feeling the chill of the early January air.

"The Family of Three," Danielle reads out loud to herself. The sign was red, while the building itself was a light shade of yellow. The old structure really didn't fit well crammed between two modern buildings, made from something stark white and glass.

When Dani pushed open the door, she saw shelves of knick-knacks and trinkets (Am I using that right? Or is it "tricket?"). There was a cash register all the way in the back, hiding behind the mountain of stuff.

A boy came out from behind a wall of antiques, wearing some kind of black apron that read the title of the store on it. Dani couldn't tell his emotions. "Welcome to the Family of Three," he said in a monotone, "where there's actually five people in the family, but Dad thought they wouldn't have any more kids."

"I kinda like the name," Danielle states, wandering over to a shelf. Something small and wooden caught her eye. It was a little hand-made action figure of Danny Phantom that was unpainted. She picks it up, about to ask what it was before the boy answered it was ten dollars.

Danielle followed the boy to the counter, and when he turned around to charge her, she saw his nametag. "Hi, my name is Emo Kid" was scrawled onto it. What kind of name is 'Emo Kid?' Dani looked up to see that she was being stared down by Emo kid. Trying to get the eyes away from her (or at least be distracted by it), she asks, "Is your name really Emo Kid?"

Emo Kid snorts. "Yeah. What else would it be?" I'm pretty sure his name isn't Emo Kid. He scanned the item with the tag on the bottom.

"Do you go to school here?" she asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Yeah, Ride Junior High." he answered. "Didya just move here?"

The cash register dinged, and Emo Kid waited for Dani to hand over her money; she wanted to talk a little before she left, though. "Well, I might be going there. What grade are you in?"

Emo Kid's eye twitched. "I'm in the seventh grade." Emo Kid got on his tiptoes, leaning in like he was about to tell her a secret. "Listen, I want to get my job done today so I can go upstairs and watch anime while it's still winter break, so can you just give me the money?" What the hell's 'anime?'

"Uh, okay." Dani thought this was probably not the last time she would see him. She hands him the money, he got out the change and offers her a bag in a robotic tone. She said no, strolling out of the building. "Bye, Emo Kid," she said before walking back to the alley she came from. Clutching the doll, she turned back into her ghost form and tried to enjoy herself.

Diving between the now few-and-far-between clouds, she observed the landscape below her. The ground was a bit dusty-looking and the sun only enhanced this look. Buildings were stacked on top of each other, some modern-looking and others old and decrepit. Danielle flew until she came across the sign that she first passed. "Welcome to Ride City - Water gun capital of the world!" Still a pretty bad capital. Now that she looked closer, she could see that there were red poppies planted all over the place. They seemed to be planted in some kind of pattern, so she flew up and saw that they outlined the DP symbol. It was small, but for some reason, it meant a lot to Dani.

Dani follows some of the roads back to the Dwyer's house, flew into some bushes and turns human a couple blocks away. When she finds what was probably their house, she rang the doorbell and when Dylan answered, she showed him the Danny Phantom doll. "Wow, that's great! Where'd you get it?" He asked, stepping aside to let Danielle come in.

"An antique shop I passed on the way here," Dani answered, scanning the room for April. "I was hoping April could paint it."

"Okay, Dani," Dylan says, checking his non-existent watch before looking at the digital clock on the wall. "You've got about an hour before we go shopping for dinner, and you're coming. No excuses." Danielle groaned. She hated shopping more than she hated school. There was just something about going down the aisles and waiting and being disappointed when your favorite snacks aren't sold in that store. Dylan lounges the couch, grabs the remote to the TV, which was on. "Don't act so dramatic," he drawled. "We're thinking store-bought chicken, but that could change. Anything specific you want?" Dylan flipped through the channels, not taking his eyes off Dani.

"No, I'll go with anything," she replies. "Do you know where April is?"

"Probably in the backyard. I'd suggest checking there first." Dylan finally finds a channel he liked, kicking his feet back and putting his arms behind his head. Looks like he's having a fun time. "The backyard's through the living room, back that way," he points his thumb behind him. Just as expected, there were many windows and a single sliding-glass door, closed and locked. April was outside, sitting on the cold grass and drinking something hot from a mug. She didn't have a coat or anything on, just a t-shirt and some leggings. She was just staring at the sky. Dani thought it was a bit creepy.

Dani unlocks the door (why was it locked?) and stepped outside, immediately regretting it – somehow she had forgotten how cold it had been – but she was determined.

The entire backyard had been in shade for most of the day, so the grass was still a bit dewy. Dani liked the way it reflected back at her.

April turns around and looks at Dani when Dani's shoes contacted the grass. Dani didn't know what to do, so she just pushed herself forwards. "Hey, April," she says. April puts her drink down – is that coffee? – and steps up.

"Hi, Dani!" April looked straight into Dani's eyes, then into whatever was in her hand. "Whatcha' got there?"

"Oh, this?" Dani said nonchalantly, unravelling her fist to show April. Her eyes widened visibly with excitement. "I got it at a shop. I was actually wondering if –" April took the Danny Phantom doll from her hand. "Or just take it," she muttered. April examined it closely, putting her fingers to certain places.

"Do you want me to paint it?" How does she read my mind?

"Yeah, thanks! That'd be great." April took her drink and escorted Dani back inside with her.

"It'll be a few hours," April announced, before chugging the contents of her drink and putting it on one of the end tables. April suddenly smirked. "Hey Dani," she said, motioning for her to follow, "Come over here, so you can see Elisa's room." April knocked before cracking open the door.

Everything was covered in Danny Phantom merchandise. The walls were engulfed in posters, she had a white and green bedspread and she had even somehow gotten a rug in the shape of his face. Weird, Dani thought. Well, I'm definitely not telling this one about my ghost half. She might go crazy. April nudged Danielle, pointing to the night stand. It was covered in used Danny Phantom cups and glasses. "She's got, like, the entire collection of them," she said. "I think she's actually out shopping for more stuff now."

"This is..." Dani searched for the right wording, "a bit insane."

"I know, right?!" April agreed, leading Dani back out of the room. "She's even got her own blog where she writes everything she finds out about Danny Phantom," April started to go into her own room, but left it cracked just enough to say "Oh, and don't tell her I let you in her room. She'll kill us both." The door then slammed shut.

Dani decided that watching April paint Danny Phantom wasn't going to be an option, since she had kind of slammed the door in her face. Elisa was out, so she can't find out more about her. Maybe Dylan has something to do.

Far away, in a cliché dark castle that housed but one (well, two if you count the cat), it was raining. The dark figure that lived in the huge abode sat at his desk, staring through the cameras. He had planted them all over Amity Park, but still, there was no sign of Danielle. He knew she had already skipped town, but he didn't expect her to be anyplace so far from Amity.

The figure, with slicked gray hair and an evil grin to match, presses the button under his desk. Within seconds, a bulky robot appeared in the doorway, knocking it down. The darken figure rolled his eyes.

"You have intangibility for a reason, you know," he stated, staring the robot down. "There's no reason to break down my door. That'll be coming out of your paycheck."

"What paycheck?" he asks, flying over the broken wooden pieces. "Besides, you're rich and you know I looked so cool when I did that."

"If by 'cool,' you mean 'looking like a complete idiot,' then yes, Skulker, you were very cool."

Skulker scoffs. "Whatever, Vlad. What do you need me to do this time?"

Vlad turns one of his many monitors to face Skulker. "Remember this girl?" he asked.

"Of course I remember the girl," Skulker spat, standing his ground. "The first day she came out of her cloning tube, she destroyed my suit and called me – me! – a metal face." He stalked up to Vlad, staring at the monitor before switching to Vlad. "What about her?"

"I need you to find her for me."

Skulker narrowed his eyes. "Why? Do I get to keep her?"

"Once I'm done studying her, yes, you can keep the ectoplasmic remains of what used to be Danielle Phantom."

Spooky.

Let's respond to the reviews now!

pixelberry101: Fuck you, I'll do what I want.

16: Thank you for reviewing!

BeanBag343: Vlad will play a part eventually (see chapter), but he won't be the driving force of evil. There won't exactly be a main plot like most stories. I'm not exactly a plot-driven person and I really want that to reflect in my writing.

CHEESEPUFF: I thought that everything in the house should be a certain color, and after experimenting a little, I found that it's more fun to color code everything than to keep it one color.