OKAY! HERE'S CHAPTER 8! THIS ONE IS SHORT, TOO, BUT I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING TONIGHT, AND WITH WHAT'S COMING NEXT, THE CHAPTER HAD TO END WHERE IT ENDS.

OH, YES, AND I DO NOT OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS CONTAINED THEREIN. THEY ALL BELONG TO BUTCH HARTMAN, AS DOES THE EPISODE "KINDRED SPIRITS." HOWEVER, THE IDEAS BEHIND THIS TWIST BELONG TO ME.

CHAPTER 8

Danielle grunted as Danny pulled away from her, and then lit up her hands with ectoplasm. Danny, however, had already stopped rolling; he was on his back for only a second more before he kicked his feet up and over his head, rolling backward this time and somehow performing a backwards somersault to his feet. Not half a second later, green energy splashed the floor where he had been, blackening and heating the concrete.

Everything froze for a single forever-second as Danny stared at Vlad, then turned and looked at Danielle, whose raised fists were enveloped in green fire. Then Danny jumped into action again. He darted toward Danielle, ducking under two blasts from her hands, then performing a floor-slide past her as she attempted to roundhouse him. He popped up from the floor and grabbed Danni in a choke-hold; his bleeding left arm was wrapped around her neck and his right hand gripped his left, securing it in place at her throat. She started to shift her weight, but Danny whispered in her ear.

"Wait!"

She paused.

Danny spoke almost too quietly for even Danielle to hear. "Just let me prove it to you."

Danielle allowed the energy around her hands to dissipate. She even shifted from her ghost form to her human one, which elicited a raised eyebrow from Plasmius, but her hands remained fixed to the boy's arm.

Danny yelled at Vlad, who simply stood where he had stopped, seemingly content with watching things play out. "Okay, Plasmius! Why don't you prove that Danielle means something to you? If you don't want me to suffocate her right here and now, come over here and help her. Try and stop me."

Vlad's expression of mild curiosity turned to one of irritation. "Are you still trying to convince my own daughter that I would allow her to come to harm? Please. If I thought she were in any real danger, I would have been next to you before you had even issued your challenge. But as it stands, I'm certain the girl can protect herself. Especially against you."

Danny tightened his grip on Daniel's throat. "Nice try, Vlad. That ploy won't work with me. I know you're just playing chicken! Now come here and-"

"Chicken, huh? Fine. If you want to challenge me so badly," Vlad vanished into thin air, reappearing a microsecond later next to Danny's right arm, his face a mere inch-and-a-half from Danny's. "I'll acquiesce."

With no further warning, Vlad laid his right hand on one of Danielle's wrists and his left on Danny's shoulder. He turned Danielle intangible and pulled her from Danny's grasp, then gently pushed her away.

Without thinking, Danny shifted his now-empty arms into a cross-block position in a futile attempt to protect his face.

As soon as he and Danielle were no longer touching, Vlad lit his hands with ectoplasm and grabbed Danny's wrists, simultaneously pressing his thumbs into the palms of Danny's hands and forcing the boy's hands backward in a cruel imitation of the child's game 'mercy.' He continued to apply pressure until Danny dropped to his knees to alleviate the pain.

Vlad was about to send a wave of ectoplasmic energy through Danny's body when he was interrupted.

"Daddy, wait!"

"I told you to kill him, Danielle. You hesitated. Why?"

"I wanted to-"

"Nevermind. Next time I ask you to do something, I expect it done. Immediately and correctly. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, but-"

"No excuses."

This time Danny spoke. "See, Danielle? All he wants from you is obedience. Nothing more."

Vlad applied more pressure to Danny's hands. "I suggest you keep your peace, Daniel."

"Daddy?"

"Yes, Danielle?"

"He's right, isn't he? You always did treat me and the original clones differently. You spent all of your time down here in the lab checking on that last clone, and you never wanted me around. Even when all I wanted to do was help."

Vlad was silent for several moments before he finally answered. "You're letting him get inside your head, Dearest."

"No, I'm not." Danielle replied. A ring of white light appeared around her waist, and she shifted into her ghost form. "You lied to me!"

"I lie to a lot of people, Danielle. You're no different. You simply learned the truth. Unfortunately for you, this means you are now my enemy. My enemies do not exist for very long." Vlad pulled Danny to his feet and spun him around so that his arms were pinned behind his back. "If you wish to fight me, so be it, but I promise you that without a genetic sample of your own to stabilize your form, you will dissolve like the other clones before you. Even now, you are likely degrading."

"I don't care!" Danni yelled, fisting her hands and summoning her power. "Now let go of my cousin and fight me!"

Vlad chuckled. "My dear, I do not need to release Daniel to lay waste to you."

Danny felt a strange tugging sensation as Vlad duplicated his form and sent the copy forward. The copy stopped halfway between the two parties and snapped the fingers of his right hand, calling forth the pink-colored ectoplasm unique to Plasmius's ghost form. It aimed the hand at Danielle and released a blast of energy.

Danni summoned a shield, but as Vlad had predicted, her power was insufficient, and the barrier gave away as the senior ghost's attack broke through and struck Danielle in the left shoulder. She cried out in pain as she was knocked off-balance. The force of Vlad's blast spun Danielle in a quick half-circle, and she used the momentum to take flight. As she floated upward, she turned herself invisible, vanishing as Vlad's duplicate threw another energy blast in her direction. He missed.

Danny saw droplets of ectoplasm on the floor where Danielle had been standing and knew that her wound was serious. "Danielle, run! Vlad will kill you if you stay here!"

"But Danny! He'll-"

"I'll be fine! I've dealt with this goon before. I can do it again! Just go!"

"I'll go get help!"

"Fine, just as long as you get away from here! Now go!"

Danny heard nothing more from her after that, and he only knew the girl had left when he found himself staring once again into Vlad's eyes. Or rather, those of his duplicate.

Danny contemplated his current situation. He was powerless at the moment; Vlad could create as many copies as he wanted just to beat the living daylights out of him; and he was already in a fair amount of pain.'This should be fun.' He thought.

Vlad's copy grinned, ignited its right hand, and clenched it into a fist. "This should be fun." He said.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Okay, then! Let me know what you think, if you are so inclined! I hope to write again soon, but I may not get to it for a couple more days. We'll see. Don't forget to check out some of my other stuff on DeviantArt! Just go to the website and type in my pen name! My writing is better than my drawing for now, so that's what you want to look at if you've got the time! Thanks for all the views and the interest you've been showing!

Keep it Surreal!

-Oreochema