"Stay away from my cousin!" Danielle warned her now unconscious father.
'No,' Dani corrected herself. 'He may be my creator, but he's not my dad. Fathers love their children and help them grow. Vlad gave up the right to be my father. Danny and my friends will be my family.'
Danny seemed to be almost in shock. He had been sure Vlad had won. Danny had used up any and all his reserved energy in attempt to take down the lab. They was no stopping the bitter old fruit loop. Danielle couldn't stop him either. She had been considerably weakened. He was surprised she was still in her ghost form. They were both at Vlad's mercy. Danny had had some close calls, but this time, he really thought he had failed. He was going to die, and he let down Danielle. The young girl who barely got a chance to live. She deserved to make her own life. The fact Vlad was now beaten and unconscious on the floor was incredible in Danny's mind.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble we're in right now? And for what?"
Danny turned to his best friend breaking out of his shock. If they hadn't come after him, both he and Danielle wouldn't have made it. There was a hate in Vlad's eye Danny hadn't seen before. Vlad was ready to kill. Vlad was going to kill him.
The relief of just being alive and with his friends overwhelmed Danny. Before Tucker could even finish his sentence, Danny tackled him with a hug, repeatedly thanking both him and Sam. Reaching over to hug Sam as well, Tucker and Sam tried to calm Danny down while Danielle watched on. Tucker and Sam had always been there for Danny. Before the accident, dealing with his ghost powers, dealing with teenager stuff, and possibly being destroyed by arch nemeses. Danny always knew they'd be there, but this was the first time he realized, he couldn't have made it this far, or through this battle, without them.
Danielle watched the reunion and enjoyed the peacefulness of the moment. Danielle hadn't thought too much of his friends back at the school. She didn't even understand why Danny would keep two friends who seemed so put up with him. Now she knew why Vlad planned ahead to keep Danny's friends from getting involved with the fight, and directly left a false trail back towards the Wisconsin lab before transporting to Colorado. Even Vlad knew Danny's friends would do anything to help him.
Danielle gave a nod in Danny's direction. He would be fine. She needed to finish the job. Danny poured everything he had to stop Vlad's work, giving up even the energy to morph into his ghost half. Dani would have to destroy the labs in Wisconsin.
Danielle flew upstairs, leaving Danny with his friends, and after searching several rooms, found a computer. She would have to find her way to Wisconsin from this lab. She just needed to print directions to Wisconsin from the Colorado lab. She turned on the monitor but the computer brought her mission to a standstill.
'Password?' Danielle slumped in the chair below her. 'Great. Let's try…'
plasmius
The password didn't go through. A message popped up to warn the user she only had a few more tries before the computer would shut down. Concentrating, Danielle tried to think of something Vlad would try.
danielmasters
jacksanidiot
maddymasters
Only one more try… Danielle gave a sigh. She brought her fingers back to the keyboard and typed, 'perfectclone.' Danielle closed her eyes and waited for the computer to shut down. Peeking one eye open, she found the computer had merely turned off. Blinking Dani turned it back on and tried again.
…
"Danielle?" Danny searched around the building high and low, but couldn't find any sign of Danielle around Vlad's mansion. He didn't know where she went, or even if she had anywhere to go, but he wanted to thank her for saving him. She had fought and tried to protect him from Vlad. She was a twelve year old girl. She deserved to be taken care of. Why did she keep running away?
Danny searched around the wooded area for the ghost girl, but he couldn't keep searching forever. He had to go home. His parents had to be worried sick.
Turning back to the mansion, Danny thought about everything that had been thrown at him in the last few hours. Danny wanted answers. How did Vlad clone him? How did a clone turn out to be a girl? Were there any other clones out there?
Sighing, Danny gave up for the time being and joined his friends down in the basement. When he entered the Spector Speeder, Sam and Tucker both looked up acknowledging his presence and waited for Danny's decision. Shaking his head, Danny joined them inside. It would be a long ride home.
"Cheer up, Dude." Tucker said while trying to rewire the Spector Speeder. "You beat the bad guy and your cousin is back on your side. What else can you do?"
Danny's eyebrows furrowed. They didn't know Danielle wasn't really his cousin. He told Sam and Tucker everything. Danielle being his clone was a big part of his life. He should tell them the truth.
"Yeah Danny," Sam agreed. "That cousin of yours throws a mean punch."
Danny face melted to a smile at the memory of Danielle punching Vlad. It had helped Danny had already weakened him with his ghostly wail, but it was still funny to think of a little girl knocking out Vlad.
"Hey, about Danielle…" Danny started.
'Stay away from my cousin.'
Danny paused. He Danielle truly thought of him as a cousin, not just her original. Probably because she was 'Uncle Vlad's daughter.' Vlad didn't deserve Danielle to be his daughter. She had a spirit of her own, and all Vlad did was manipulate her. Then when she wasn't useful anymore, he simply decided to get rid of her.
Danielle was definitely family. She was more than just a cousin. She was more like another sister or even a twin, but it was her life. If she wanted to be Danny's cousin, he would respect her choice. Hopefully she would come back someday, but she had to be pretty confused. She would have to come to that decision on her own.
Tucker and Sam waited for Danny to continue. Danny knew Danielle was a big part of his life, but Danielle's origins wasn't really his secret to tell. It was her secret. Sam and Tucker kept his secret. He would keep Danielle's.
"Yeah," Danny said looking at his friends in the eye, "I think she'll be just fine." Although she still would have to maintain her powers until she could control them, she had a fighting spirit and a good heart. If she was anything like himself, she would make it through. She was stronger than Vlad knew.
"Now we'll make sure you'll be 'just fine.'" Sam said gesturing to the bathroom. Danny raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Danny, your arms are bleeding ectoplasm through your uniform."
Danny looked down to see green ectoplasm filtering through his hazmat suit. Danny shrugged it off. He'd had worse. "It's nothing, Sam. It will be gone in a few hours anyway."
Every time Danny got hurt, Sam and him went through the same routine. Danny didn't see any point in fixing wounds that would heal on their own within a couple hours, but Sam couldn't stand to see Danny hurt. Anything she could do to help the process along would happen.
Sam crossed her arms and waited for Danny to submit. He used to fight her against unnecessary first aid and when she put herself in danger to help him. Eventually he adapted to her insistence to help him. Danny resisted for less than a minute before Sam grabbed Danny's shoulder and lead him to the first aid kit hidden in the bathroom. Danny allowed her to remove his uniform top and begin wrapping his cut wrists and bruised arms. Danny fake sulked as she worked to halt the bleeding.
Tucker continued working on the Spector Speeder listening as Danny grunted as Sam applied fresh bandages to his wrists and forearms. Thank goodness Sam could do all that medical stuff. Tucker couldn't stand doctors, hospitals, or first aid, although he did have a soft spot for nurses.
Tucker needed to get the Spector Speeder back in shape, at least enough to get them back home. Danny was in bad shape. He wouldn't be able to take both him and Sam home for a while. Their best shot at getting home was to rewire the engine removing any unnecessary power wasters until it could get them home. That meant no ghost shield and no ghost detector, but they had Danny. He could sense ghosts and keep them away.
He was almost finished when Danny and Sam rejoined him in the cockpit. Glancing over, he was surprised to see Danny's arms completely covered with bandages, and all of the previously white cloths ghostly green.
"Dude, what happened back there?" The bandages were already leaking his ectoplasm. The hazmat suit must have held the pressure keeping his arms together. Luckily for Danny, Sam insisted she patch him up.
"Eh, Vlad hooked me up to some machine and tried to discover the 'secret of my stability.'" It was mostly true. Vlad wanted to collect his DNA to stabilize his clone son.
"Secret of your stability?" Tucker asked.
"Apparently becoming half ghost isn't a regular occurrence. Vlad, me, and Danielle are one of a kind."
"So he ripped open your arms?" asked Sam. Tucker noticeably flinched.
"Not exactly." Danny glanced down at his wrapped wrists resting in his lap. "He cuffed my wrists to make me stay put. When I tried to break free from the cuffs... They dug into the skin pretty deep."
Danny's friends shared a look. They knew Danny would always fight to do the right thing but did he really have to almost cut through his arm. If Vlad was involved, Danny would rather kill himself trying to stop Vlad than allow him to succeed. Although they were proud of their mutual best friend, it truly scared them to know what he was willing to do. All to protect others.
"When Danielle realized Vlad's intentions, she helped me get out of the pod." Danny said softly, choosing his words carefully. He didn't want Sam and Tucker getting too curious about his cousin like he originally had. "We wrecked the lab before you guys came in and knocked out Vlad… Thank you for that, by the way."
Tucker and Sam were listening wholeheartedly to Danny's explanation, but rolled their eyes at Danny once again thanking them for coming and helping him. They were just being a good friend. If they hadn't shown up, Danny would have fought his way out like he always did, especially with his cousin's help. He was being way too dramatic.
Their conversation was interrupted by the engine beginning to purr. "Boo Ya! Let's go home!" Tucker cheered.
"Yeah," Sam rolled her eyes and slouched down in her seat, "I don't think we'll be leaving home for a while."
….
Danielle had been trying various passwords for at least an hour now. How is she supposed to get back without some sort of map? Dani dropped her head onto the keyboard in frustration. After a few minutes she heard the computer hum back to life, but Danielle hadn't turned the computer back on. She looked up to see a dark screen.
Following the humming noise, she was lead to outside the window where Danny's ship was hovering out the window turning into the required angle for its destination. Widening her eyes, Danielle phased out of the room and into the ship hopefully heading back to Danny's home.
Danielle didn't know how to get back to Wisconsin from here, wherever here was, but she could get back for sure from Danny's place. Once she completed her mission, she could see Max and Tim again. She had never felt such acceptance and caring love from anyone else. Although she had loved her father, he hadn't shown near the same dedication to her as Max and Tim had, and Danny had been suspicious and tried to turn her in to his parents. Dani had felt a bond with the two kids. She couldn't wait to see them again.
Dani entered the ship into a back room. Feeling woozy from the sudden burst of energy to catch the ship, Danielle searched for somewhere to lie down. She was seriously wiped. She had never felt this weak before. During battle with her emotions souring, she could only focus on saving Danny from Vlad's wrath. Danny's safety seemed to temporarily fuel her body with reserved power. Now she was depleted. Searching the area, she found a cot in the back. Laying down on the itchy material, Danielle almost immediately fell asleep.
…
"So is this death trap going to make it home, or should we start hiking?" asked Sam.
The Spector Speeder jerked forward rattling the teenagers inside. Tucker lead the ship forward back toward Amity Park. Sam held a death grip on the seat, thankful for the seat belts Mrs. Fenton installed. Tucker and Sam had already wrecked through a building once today. Sam didn't want to wreck the Spector Speeder again anytime soon.
Tucker looked back at Sam with a sense of confidence. "Don't worry, Sam. I hooked the engine through my PDA, I will get a notification if anything happens."
"Great," Sam glared back, "If anything happens while we're speeding a hundred feet above the ground, I'm sure we'll be thankful for a notification of our doom."
"I put faith in my tech. There's no way I'm going to rely on nature when my trusty PDA will lead us the way home."
"At least we'll be on the ground instead of a dangerous distance above the ground. Besides nature isn't your enemy, Tuck. Even if people have become the earth's enemy."
Danny half listened to his friends argue over the safety of driving the Spector Speeder back to Fenton Works. It would probably be safer to abandon the ship and fly back home, but Danny honestly was still weak from destroying Vlad's labs. If the ship did drop, he could save Tucker and Sam, but the Speeder will be toast.
Danny didn't want his friends to know how wiped out he was, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to fly all the way back to Amity from Colorado. Just searching for Danielle outside Vlad's mansion stressed his ghost form enough to make his arms start bleeding at a ridiculous rate. He didn't want to turn back until the bleeding stopped. Losing blood as a human was much more dangerous than losing a little ectoplasm.
The Spector Speeder jumped forward making Danny use his feet to wedge himself into the seat. Danny didn't know how much more jerking he could stomach. The trip should have only taken a few hours, but with the Speeder trashed, it might take a day or two. They would have to stop somewhere to spend the night. Where is Danielle staying?
Danny tried to clear his head. Thoughts about his clone kept floating in his head. He knew he shouldn't worry about Danielle. Despite being a clone, she was her own person. She chose to go without him. Despite this, Danny couldn't help but feel responsible for her. Did she even have anywhere to go? How could she disappear on him without any explanation? Danielle may not be his responsibility, but she was a part of him. She came to him, or was that all a part of Vlad's plan…
Sam studied Danny as he stared off into space. Tucker hadn't noticed because he was driving and still arguing one sided, but Sam could see something was off about Danny. He hadn't said anything for over an hour, ever since she finished wrapping his arms, and he explained why Vlad kidnapped him. Danny's usual wit to shrug off danger had temporarily disappeared while Danny brooded to himself. It was unusual to see Danny this deep in thought. He normally made decisions, then discussed them with Sam and Tucker. He had no secrets.
A particularly rough pull from the Spector Speeder broke both Sam and Danny's thoughts as it thrust Sam across the seat next to her into Danny's arms.
"Tucker!" Sam accused, righting herself.
"Hey, I'm doing the best I can here."
Danny broke the argument. "Maybe we should land for a while, Tuck. I could use a break myself." He said clutching his stomach.
"If we land now, we might not get back in the air. We should go as far as possible, or at least get to civilization for lunch."
"There are reserves in the back," Sam reminded.
"Bet there isn't any sirloin back there, Sam. I need real food."
"Of course, because real food consists of dead creatures." Sam accused, crossing her arms.
Danny sighed. 'Back to the same argument.'
"Look," Danny interrupted, "We should go somewhere to spend the night. We're not going to get back tonight at this speed. We'll keep going until we find civilization. Then we can try to get the Spector Speeder back in shape."
"Fine." Sam and Tucker groaned.
…
Danielle clutched her knees to her chest and tried to relax while floating within Danny's ship. It was disconcerting floating along within the ship. It jerked forward and constantly veering one way or the other. Danielle was beginning to get sick. She really needed to rest to get some of her strength back, but she was spending more energy keeping up with the ship. She hadn't fallen asleep for five minutes before she was tossed out of the cot, across the room. How Danny's friends got all the way to Vlad's without incident was a miracle.
Not able to stand the irregular motions any longer, Dani allowed the ship to move forward without her in it, phasing through the walls as it passed onward. Dani took a breath as the ship slowly moved forward without her. It wasn't moving very fast. Dani could beat it home at the rate it was moving, and she was still incredibly weak from fighting Vlad. Danielle followed the ship a ways until she saw smoke coming from the woods a little ways away. Curious, Dani stopped. Watching Danny and his friends fly away, Dani noted which way Danny was going before investigating the smoke drifting above the trees.
Danny was heading away from the mountains towards the river ahead. If she needed to catch up, she could probably find him pretty quickly. The cabin the smoke drifted from was pretty small, not far from the path towards Amity Park. Danielle landed and walked up to the cabin door.
Pausing, she considered her plan. Okay, if she could get directions towards Wisconsin, she could destroy Vlad's labs before he had a chance to find her. Flying didn't seem to take up too much energy. She wouldn't be able to fly as fast as Danny or Vlad, but she would manage. Once Vlad's lab was taken care of, she could check on Danny. He saved Danielle from Vlad's control. She was determined to return the favor someday.
Taking a breath, she knocked on the cabin door and waited for someone to answer. After a couple minutes, Danielle tried knocking again. It didn't seem like anyone was home. Backing away from under the porch, Danielle inspected the chimney spewing smoke into the air. Dani, a little confused, turned intangible and walked through the door into the cabin. It didn't seem like anyone was home at the moment.
Passing through the small one room cabin, Danielle found a pile of books on a book shelf. Taking a closer look, Dani found a large red book that said Atlas, at the bottom of the stack. Brightening up, Danielle pulled out the atlas and sat down on the bed next to the bookcase.
Danielle turned through the pages of the book. The Atlas had maps from all over the world. The first section had the world map with information separating the world into hemispheres and continents. Danielle flipped to find the next section over the North Americas. The maps were very broad and had history written around the maps.
Dani flipped through the section reading and trying to find some clue to get her back home… or to Vlad's castle anyway. The map shown showed several major cities, but not Amity Park or Spring Grove, where Max's home was.
Finally Danielle found a section specifically on the United States. Within the Wisconsin border, she found a city called Green Bay. She knew her father…Vlad was a fan of Green Bay. It would be a good place to head toward, but she still wasn't sure which direction to go.
Danielle left the book on the bed and searched through the cabin for a compass, or something to help her figure out which direction to go. Danielle tried to hurry. She didn't know whose cabin this belonged to, and she didn't plan on finding out. She needed to be on her way.
Unable to find a compass, Danielle plopped down by the book. Studying the map of the United States, Danielle found her approximate location between the Colorado Rockies and about where Amity Park was on the computer. Then Dani looked outside the cabin to where Danny and his friends were headed. Apparently she would need to catch up with them after all. She couldn't find her way by herself without anything to guide her. Dani phased out the door and looked towards where Amity Park is supposed to be and began flying towards her cousin's hometown.
After a couple minutes, Danielle stopped and bolted back to the cabin. Flying in the door and taking the Atlas, she set the book on the ground outside and lined the map up, setting her approximate location in the middle and turning the map so that Amity Park was facing the correct direction. From there, Danielle used her finger to follow the path from Colorado to Green Bay. Her finger followed the path off the book and into the dirt.
"If I follow this line, it should get me to Wisconsin," Danielle exclaimed.
Focusing on flying in a straight line, Danielle left the cabin and Atlas behind and towards her destination.
A/N: Yea! We've officially entered the second story arc. I've spent so much time planning and rewriting the arc outline. I still have a lot to decide and plan out, but I feel like I'm far enough along to start writing again. This chapter did take a while to write because it felt boring for a long time, but I finally got it to where it was somewhat interesting for a setting the scene type chapter.
Thank you to all my new followers. I'm so excited you all like my story enough to follow it! I always encourage positive criticism. I would love to hear what you like and don't like or think I need to work on more.
