Chapter 07
"Stop looking at me like that," Danny grumbled, glaring at Ember when he caught her glancing his way again. "I know whatever just happened is something to worry about, but let's leave the worrying until after we talk to Vlad. Okay?" The little blackout had him more than a little freaked out. Danny couldn't remember ever suffering from a similar blackout.
"Sorry," Ember mumbled as she turned down one street. "I'm just concerned. Even Paulina was a little freaked out by that whole little scene."
"Where are you going?" Danny halted. "My house is the other way." He pointed the opposite way down the street that Ember turned.
"But Vlad's place is this way." Ember continued walking, missing the puzzled and shocked expression playing across Danny's face.
"Vlad's place?" Danny shouted as he hurried to catch up with the singer. "What do you mean Vlad's place? Why does he have a place? Here, to be exact. Why isn't he back in Wisconsin? You know, in his huge castle?"
"You do remember that he owns a company here, right?" Ember smirked at Danny's flustered embarrassment. Sometimes, he did forget that Vlad owned Axion Labs. "So he got a place here for whenever he has to come down here to check on it. Luckily, he's in the middle of evaluations on Axion Labs, so he's in town."
"So it's not just about keeping an eye on me?" Danny glowered as he folded his arms. He appreciated Vlad's help, but he still hated feeling like a child constantly under supervision. At least the fact that Vlad was in town meant that they wouldn't have to sneak down into his parents' laboratory to access the Ghost Portal. Or more importantly, they wouldn't have to find some excuse to get his parents out of the laboratory if they were busy on some project.
"He wouldn't have to keep an eye on you if you stopped getting yourself into trouble."
"Hey! I haven't gotten into trouble in more than a year now," Danny argued, frowning.
"And that's all thanks to Vlad." Ember reached over and threw an arm around his shoulders. "He kept the rogue ghosts from attacking you. You're the great hero of the Ghost Zone. Naturally, that puts a target on your back."
"Great. That makes me feel better." Danny rubbed tiredly at his face. Why couldn't he just have a normal life? He simply wanted to survive college, get a good job, and maybe find someone to spend his life with. All of which sounded like an impossible dream when he constantly got pulled into ghost trouble. He hoped the blackout would turn out of be nothing. Maybe he was simply exhausted and needed to rest.
"You know, you 're not alone in trying to keep peace within the human world and the Ghost Zone." Ember pressed the doorbell of the house before them. It was more like a mansion with its grand size, and Danny didn't know why Vlad needed such a large home for only himself when he didn't spend that much time in Amity Park.
"I know," Danny said with a sigh. "You all wouldn't have banded together to fight with me if you didn't want peace in the Ghost Zone. Or at least, you didn't want Warden Walker ruling over you."
"The guy was a nightmare." Ember shuddered at the mere mention of Walker.
"Hey, don't forget. I was trapped in that prison too." Danny hugged his arms around his body, remembering his time trapped within Walker's prison. It wasn't one of his most pleasant memories, and he was lucky that he could rally the support of the other prisoners to stage a prison break. He was also lucky that they fought to free him when he was captured by Walker during the war. That was a far less pleasant memory than simply being a prisoner. "Thanks," he mumbled, knowing that he could never say it enough to the ghosts that freed him.
Ember rolled her eyes as she punched him in the arm. "You would have risked your life to save us too." She frowned, a more serious expression flitting across her face as she glanced at him. "And you pretty much have on more than one occasion."
"Because I'm an idiot, as Vlad would tell you."
"If you're tell me that you've been an idiot again," Vlad said as he opened the door, "then I will be greatly disappointed in you." He took note of Ember's presence and lifted an eyebrow at her. "I thought you were performing tonight."
"Something came up," Ember explained, ushering Danny into the house. "We don't know how important this is, but we figured it best to come to you. Best not to ignore the signs and have it turn out to be something horrible later on." She shrugged, and Danny could see the worry was back in her eyes.
"What happened this time?" Vlad folded his arms as he looked Danny over. "I see no injuries. I assume, at least, there wasn't a fight of some sort."
Danny sighed and scratched a hand through his hair. "I don't really know. Things were going fine at the party. I was chatting with this one guy." He snapped a glare at Vlad when he caught a smirk on the older half ghost's face. "He started getting a little too friendly for my tastes so I walked away."
Vlad's gaze turned dark as he glanced between Danny and Ember. "He didn't try-"
"No!" Danny snapped, flushing a bright red. "I mean, he did try putting his hands all over me, but that's when I left him. He didn't follow after me, but," he frowned, dropping his gaze as he replayed his memories. "I was making my way through the crowd, but then there's this blank until I found myself outside with Paulina and Ember." He glanced at the singer, hoping for more of an explanation.
"You blacked out for a while?" Vlad frowned severely at that news.
"It wasn't for very long," Ember offered weakly. "I noticed something off with him and followed him immediately outside. He changed into a ghost." Her worried eyes met Danny's blue eyes, and it didn't send any comfort to him. "It wasn't like normal though. There were no rings of light, and his clothes didn't change. Then he was shouting at the sky."
"Yeah, that whole part is still kind of scary to me," Danny mumbled, arms hugging about his body.
The news only served to make Vlad's concern worse. "What sort of things was he yelling?"
"Something about this wasn't how things were supposed to go." Ember frowned as she tried to recall all of what she heard. "Something about someone not taking the hint. That they could summon him all they want but he wasn't listening. He said he was done with their shit."
"I have no idea about any of that," Danny added quickly. He didn't have any clue what any of that might mean, or who he was supposedly yelling at. Why would have even blackout like that? Paulina and Sam didn't serve anything alcoholic at the party, and he was fairly certain he didn't drink anything that someone could have drugged. The whole thing confused him.
"I can't think of an explanation for this," Vlad admitted with a hand to his chin and an expression of deep thought on his face. "He didn't mention any names while he was shouting?"
Ember shook his head. "It was all fairly vague."
Vlad nodded, but that answer wasn't what he hoped to hear. "I think it best if we ran some tests on you. I just want to make certain that there hasn't been any," his mouth pursed for a moment, "changes since last year. It's possible that using such raw power in your attacks against ghosts like Pariah, Walker, and Daeva, has had some effect on you. It may have even put you in an unstable condition that we couldn't predict. This blackout you suffered may simply be the first warning step to something worse. Have you had any blackouts prior to this one?"
Danny shook his head. "This is the first one I've experienced."
"Can we be certain of that?" Ember frowned when both half ghosts turned to look at her. "If he doesn't have any idea what happened during this blackout, how do we know he didn't have one before? He could have blacked out, gone off to do something, and returned without any idea that it happened. You did mention something about being summoned."
"Yeah, see, that just makes this whole thing even more terrifying for me." Danny swallowed thickly, not wanting to think about the possibility of prior blackouts. One blackout was worrisome enough already without there being several more that he wasn't even aware of having.
"All the more reason to run tests," Vlad said as he placed his hands on Danny's shoulders. "If we find out what's causing the blackouts, maybe we can stop them before something worse happens." He guided Danny through his house toward his laboratory. Ember followed after them.
When they reached the laboratory, Danny striped off his shirt. "I really hate doing this," he muttered as he lay back on the examining table. The metal was cold against his skin, and staring up at the bright light above him only served to give him a mild panic attack when he thought of all the horrible things that certain people might do if they ever had him strapped down to a table like this.
"I know this isn't very comfortable for you, Daniel." Vlad's head appeared above him, blocking out some of the light. His face was darker, almost silhouetted by the light, but Danny could still see the concern in his eyes. "But I'm doing this to help."
Danny winced, feeling pressure against his side. "Yeah, help," he grumbled as he closed his eyes. He knew Vlad only wanted to make sure that he wasn't about to dissolve like some poorly created clone. But he still hated all the poking and prodding and monitoring that went into checking his condition.
"I'm aware how much you hate this," Vlad said as he drew some of Danny's blood. "But just remember that I'm not going to cut you open to see how you tick like some other people that might strap you down." There was that look in Vlad's eyes that told Danny he didn't simply mean the Guys in White. Danny knew exactly what Vlad meant with his statement, but it was always something that he tried not think about.
"What if all these tests tell us nothing?" Ember asked, drawing both half ghosts' attentions to her. She twisted Danny's shirt in her hands as she frowned at them. "What if all the tests tell you is that there's nothing wrong with Danny physically? What if they don't explain why he had that blackout?"
"Then we'll figure out something else to help us understand why Daniel would have a blackout like that," Vlad answered, determination in his voice. It only served to offer a very small amount of comfort to Danny. Ember's questions filled his mind with bad thoughts about what could be happening to him. When he was finished with all the usual tests, Vlad walked over to one of the computers in his laboratory to analyze the data.
"So," Ember said as she leaned against the table, "you seemed like you were sort of into that guy at the start."
Danny sighed, turning his head to stare at her. "He was all right. I mean, we kind of clicked until he thought he could just grab at me." With a frown, he sat up, drawing his knees to his chest. "I'm pathetic, aren't I? Some guy is interested in me, but I'm still stuck on the guy that pretty much hates me now."
"I was hung up on a guy like that too." Ember reached over and ruffled Danny's hair. "It's only natural that it's difficult to move on when you fall so hard for a guy. Just don't let it drive to doing something completely stupid." She sighed at the miserable look on Danny's face. "I know you think rushing into a relationship with someone else will somehow help you get over him. But you just have to give yourself the time to move on. Rushing yourself will only hurt yourself more in the long run."
"I just hate feeling like there's this gaping hole in my heart," Danny mumbled with his chin resting on his knees.
"If you two are to continue with this girl talk, I would ask that you leave my lab," Vlad stated grumpily with his gaze trained upon the computer screen.
"Maybe we should try to find someone for him," Ember said in a not very quiet whisper as she pointed a thumb at Vlad. A wicked grin spread onto her face.
"If he wasn't so obsessed with my mom," Danny pointed out, shaking his head.
"I'm not obsessed with Maddie," Vlad snapped. This time, he turned to glare at the other two. "When exactly was the last time I made some scheme to steal your mother?"
Danny opened his mouth to answer when he blinked. "Actually, it has been a while," he mumbled thoughtfully. Even a little before the whole war broke out in the Ghost Zone, Vlad didn't make a play for Maddie or plot to kill of Jack. Danny stared at Vlad with a bit of wonder in his bright blue eyes. "What happened?"
Vlad shrugged as he turned back to the computer. "I came to the realization that I should put foolish obsessions behind me. There were more important matters to take up my time, like finding out about Walker's plot and gathering allies to fight against him."
Danny nodded in understanding. They both put aside parts of their lives to fight in that war. He took his shirt back from Ember then pulled it on again. "So what's the verdict on the tests?"
"It takes more time than that to analyze everything, Daniel," Vlad replied in a strained tone, like he was resisting the urge to yell at the young half ghost for his impatience. "But so far, I'm not seeing anything life threatening. Give me a few days to run through all the data."
"Right." Danny climbed off the examination table. "Well, you have my number. If it's anything serious, you can call me." He turned to Ember. "Maybe you can make it back before the party ends."
"I think the band can manage the rest of the night without me." Ember walked with Danny out of the laboratory.
"I don't think you need to keep watch over me anymore." Danny hoped anyway. There was that tickling fear that he might have another blackout. What if it happened in front of his parents and he revealed his identity as a half ghost? The thought made him shiver with fear.
Ember gave him a little shove. "You're not all that bad to hang out with, dipstick." She wore a teasing smile.
Danny rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Hey!" He grinned widely as an idea came to him. "If you're still free, you should join us when we take a trip to the beach."
"I'll think about it." Ember opened the door when they reached the front hall of the house. "I can't even remember the last time I went to the beach. You know, being dead and all doesn't give me much reason to think about going to the beach."
"Well, let us know." Danny grinned. "I'm sure Paulina would be ecstatic to know that her favorite singer will be coming along." With a wave, he turned to walk away from Vlad's home. Five years ago, he never would have imagined wanting to invite a ghost along to the beach. He also wouldn't have thought that he would be going to the beach with Paulina or that he wouldn't care all that much about seeing her in a bikini. Danny shook his head as he walked home. So much changed for him ever since the accident that caused him to have ghost powers. Sighing, he stared up at the night sky. He wished he could at least talk to Dash, explain things to the other man, even if they didn't get back together. But that was impossible while Dash remained unreachable.
