Sorry for the long wait, guys, but you all are probably used to it by now, huh? -_- Anyway, sorry. I hope this chapter will make up for it :)
I was mostly trying to practice my Danny&Vlad interactions, and they're really hard to do (for me anyway), so I had a lot of trouble in the beginning. It was a lot easier near the end. I hope it wasn't too bad. Their relationship is really complicated T.T
Alright, I'm going to try this replying to reviews thing again. Turns out there's a special little button inside the review I'm supposed to push when I reply *Humms* I only got to a few of you last time. I'm VERY sorry, guys. If you take the time to review this story, I should take the time to reply. It's only fair (and I'm a stickler for Karma) I could go back and reply now...Hmms...Anyway! Thank you guys so much! I'm over 300 reviews! That's so amazing :D
Thanks to dragondancer123 for betaing! I don't own Danny Phantom or its characters.
Chapter 9
Treading Carefully
Danny's arms tightened around Cujo in an effort to keep himself from strangling Plasmius. Vlad, either oblivious or enjoying Danny's torture, walked right beside the boy. Occasionally he would put a hand on Danny's shoulder or smile warmly down at him as he answered all of Lance's questions with his honey-drenched voice.
Danny retaliated as best he could. He stomped on Vlad's foot whenever it came within range, made witty remarks about Vlad's pitifully lonely afterlife, and (when all else failed) plain out ignored him. Unfortunately, Vlad laughed off each stab at his social life, he shot a jolt of electricity through Danny's shoulder for each successful stomp, and kept directing attention towards Danny. Vlad would either force him to answer half of Lance's questions or ask for Danny's opinion on a subject.
At first Danny thought he was deliberately trying to make him miserable. He was doing a hell of a job at it, but then…
"How often do you visit the Ghost Zone?" Lance asked. He was walking backwards so he could film them more easily, and Danny was sure he was going to trip or run into a wall any second.
Vlad stroked his goatee with one finger—Danny and Dani snickered at his 'thinking' pose—before shrugging. "About twice a day, give or take. There is nothing quite like home, after all." He placed his hand on Danny's shoulder. "You visit the Ghost Zone often as well, don't you, my boy?"
Danny scowled at the hand on his shoulder. "No."
"Why is that?" Lance questioned.
"I don't usually have the time."
Vlad sighed forlornly. "Unfortunate, but true. Fighting off ghosts usually takes away most of his free time."
"No, it doesn't." Danny shook his hand off his shoulder. "And don't pretend as if you know what my life is like."
Vlad gave him a stern look, but before he could say anything, Lance asked, "If not ghost fighting, then what consumes your time?"
Danny stumbled right into that one. He frantically grasped for an answer, since schoolwork was out of the question. "Um, I, uh…"
"Being a teenager," Vlad said instead. "I check in on him from time to time—his well-being is very important to me, after all—and often times find him 'hanging' with his friends, attempting some foolish act to impress them. But there are times I'll find him studying from his friends' school notes." He smiled warmly down at Danny. "Shocking, I know, but to see him studying outside of school makes me very proud."
Danny ground his teeth together and muttered a quiet, "Stalker…"
Lance then went on to ask Dani about how she spends her day. Vlad took the opportunity to lean down and whisper in Danny's ear, "It's a great deal like chess, my boy. You must know what the reporter is likely to ask before you give him an answer, otherwise, you'll wind up with a question you would rather not answer."
Danny blew air through his clenched teeth and pulled away from the man. "I don't need lessons from a cheese-head."
Vlad hummed. "Oh yes, clearly, what was I thinking?" Vlad stood up straight and smiled eloquently at Lance, answering a question about his opinion of cats with ease.
Danny huffed and Cujo rumbled agreement. See? Even now Vlad was trying to mold him into his image of a perfect son. Frootloop.
Danielle didn't seem comfortable around Vlad either, though she seemed conflicted more than anything else. She stumbled every now and then, and when Lance asked her a question, Danny elbowed her to get her to pay attention to the reporter. If Danny's mind wasn't so focused on keeping himself relatively calm, he might have been more worried about her.
Lance placed a hand against his ear and scrunched his nose slightly. Danny had come to recognize it as the look the reporter got whenever he was asked to do something he didn't like—and that usually meant Danny wouldn't like it either.
"Mr. Phantom?"
Danny tried not to flinch. Here it comes…
"What is your opinion of Vlad?"
Danielle drew in a deep breath, but Vlad remained convincingly impassive.
Danny, however, raised an eyebrow. "That's it? I mean, isn't it obvious?"
Lance shook his head slowly. "Many eyewitnesses claim to have seen you two fighting above Amity Park on occasion, and in light of some new information, viewers are curious about your apparent animosity towards each other."
Danny frowned. "New information?"
Dani laughed, and her voice sounded a little strained. "They, uh, just…disagree about a few things. That's all!"
"It's more than just a few," Danny protested.
"What are these disagreements?" Lance questioned.
"There are a lot of them, but it really all adds up to the fact that Plasmius is a lonely psychotic crazy person—or a frootloop for short."
"Thank you, Daniel," Vlad said dryly. "You are most kind."
"But hey, ladies." Danny beamed at the camera. "He's single. Never would have guessed, right?"
"Daniel!"
Danny smiled innocently up at him. "I'm just trying to help you get over Mom." He turned back to Lance. "I suggested he get a lonely guy cat and try internet dating once. He yelled he would never get a cat—he has one now, by the way—and I'm pretty sure he ignored me about the internet dating."
Vlad glared at him.
Lance cleared his throat. "Can you get an internet connection in h-h-here?"
Danny tilted his head to the side, frowning. "There are no satellites, so I don't think so…"
Vlad grinned, displaying his fangs. "It's a little difficult, but not impossible for a ghost to hack into the internet from inside the Ghost Zone. Be careful about what you say or do on the World Wide Web, children, you never know who is on the other end."
Danny made a disgusted noise and rolled his eyes. "You're always looking for opportunities to make yourself look good, aren't you?" he whispered.
"It's survival, Daniel. The world is a cruel place, and to make it in that world, you must sacrifice a little truth to get what you want."
Danny scowled and put more space between them.
Lance tried to slow his pace so he could hear what the two were saying. "Do you illegally access the internet, Vlad?"
"What?" Vlad's expression made even Danny think the older ghost was offended. "Of course not."
"He lives in the human world like I do," Danny explained. "It's one of those disagreements we have."
"Yes," Lance said thoughtfully, a finger pressing his ear piece. "Mr. Phantom mentioned you two shared your…your territory."
Danny raised an eyebrow. "I did? I don't remember that…"
"Skulker was actually the one to mention it," Vlad said, and Danny had a feeling he was rolling his eyes. "As I recall, you were clinging to a tree at the time."
"Now that I remember."
Dani giggled. "You were clinging to a tree?"
Danny crossed his arms with a slight pout. "Skulker and the others cornered me against a tree when they were trying to drag me here." Dani giggled again. Danny stuck his tongue out at her.
Beside him, Vlad chuckled. "It was quite entertaining to watch. After all, it's not every day you see a 'hero' in such a position."
Danny wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes. "You recorded it?"
"Naturally."
"You realize that means I'll have to destroy your copy, right?"
"You're far too modest about your fame, my boy." Vlad smirked and Danny got a very bad feeling he was going to regret ever laying eyes on that tree. "By all means, you can destroy my copy—the internet, after all, is forever."
Danny's shoulders slumped. He weakly glared up at his archenemy. "I hate you."
"I'm well aware of your feelings." In fact, Vlad was grinning.
Danny snorted. "Frootloop."
Vlad was walking inside Danny's bubble space again, so Danny stepped on his foot. Plasmius flinched in surprise, and by the way his eyes narrowed, Danny knew he was already planning his revenge. The younger smirked in satisfaction. Bring it on, frootloop.
"How did the two of you come to exist in Amity Park together?" Lance asked.
Danny blushed, thinking of some of the embarrassing pranks he'd been put through—and had dished out. "A prank war."
Lance looked taken aback. "A…prank war?"
"Yup."
Lance turned to Vlad for confirmation.
Vlad's own cheeks were a suspicious purple color, but otherwise he didn't seem too embarrassed. "I'm afraid so, Lance. However—and forgive me for sounding like a child—he started the whole fiasco."
Danny jerked his head around. "Maybe so, but you were so asking for it, Plasmius!"
Vlad glanced at the camera and warned, "This is neither the time nor the place for that argument, Daniel."
Danny stepped between Lance and Vlad, forcing the older ghost to a stop. "I don't care. You deserved everything you got, Plasmius—times ten!"
"Oh?" Vlad questioned, finally allowing his polite mask to slip and a sneer to take its place. "I'm afraid I don't quite understand your reasoning, could you please explain it to me?"
Danny glared harshly at him. "You destroyed my room."
"Yes, but only after you destroyed my house." He chuckled mockingly. "If that's the best you can do—"
"I'm not done, Plasmius." Danny began listing things off his fingers. "You also kidnapped me, spied on me, gave my friends a deadly disease, stranded me and my mom in the middle of absolutely nowhere, placed a bounty on my head, and—and—urgh!" He threw one of his arms out, nearly hitting Dani in the head. "And a million other things I can't think of right now! You are just one seriously crazed-up frootloop, Plasmius!"
Cujo growled at Vlad, his puppy body beginning to glow.
"Oh wow…" Lance murmured.
"You haven't exactly been a saint either, Daniel," Vlad growled. Where Danny's voice had been loud and angry, Vlad's was quiet and dangerous. He stepped towards Danny, looming over him by six inches. Danny, not wanting to appear weak and back down, stood in place and craned his head back to glare into Plasmius's red eyes. "My actions may have been extreme, but my intentions were pure."
"Pure?" Danny scoffed. "You want to kill my dad!"
Vlad's eyes flashed. "That buffoon doesn't deserve you or your mother!"
"Oh and you think you do?"
"Yes!"
Danny rolled his eyes and snorted softly through his nose.
Vlad growled low in his throat. "All I have ever wanted from you and your mother was love, but all I have received from you is derision and loathing. You mock me, you humiliate me, you do everything within your power to show your absolute disdain for me." He took another step forward and Danny stumbled backwards in surprise. "Yet I keep trying. Isn't that love?"
Danny bared his teeth, and in his arms, Cujo mirrored him. "No, that's obsession. If you truly loved us, Plasmius, you would want us to be happy."
Vlad scoffed, his pupil-less eyes rolling up towards the ceiling. "Oh please. Tell me, little badger, what would you do if the people you loved hated you with every fiber of their being?"
An image of Valerie flashed through Danny's mind. His mouth snapped shut and his eyes lowered so he was no longer looking at the man's face. "I do love someone who hates me, Plasmius, and I do want her to be happy. Even if it means I'm out of the picture."
Vlad faltered. He considered Danny's bowed head, fisted palms, and the bittersweet smile that trembled only slightly. A minute passed before his sighed and bowed his own head. "Perhaps you do, little badger."
Danielle walked over to Lance and tapped his shoulder. The weatherman looked down, his jaw still hanging and his eyes the size of golf balls. Dani grinned and said brightly, "No worries, Mr. Thunder. This is normal for them."
If possible, Lance looked even more stunned.
Tucker tossed a piece of popcorn into the air. It came back down, not into his waiting mouth, but onto his glasses. Tucker pursed his lips and tossed another piece into the air. Sam reached out a hand and snagged it inches from Tucker's mouth.
"Hey!" Tucker gave his friend a dark look. "I almost caught that!"
Sam returned his dark look with one of her own. "How can you be so casual about this? Vlad just told everyone that he was Danny's father! And Danielle's going along with it!"
Tucker shrugged. "Well, what do you expect me to do? It's not like we can warn him or anything." He returned his attention to the television, occasionally stuffing popcorn into his mouth. On the screen, Danny stepped on Vlad's foot and Plasmius flinched before shocking Danny's shoulder. Tucker smirked.
Sam jumped off the couch and began pacing in front of the TV. "But there has to be something we can do." She walked to the left and Tucker dove to the right, trying to keep the TV in view. "Cell phones don't work inside the Zone, but the Fenton Phones do!" She spun around and walked in front of the TV again.
Tucker quickly leaned to the left.
"Urgh, but Danny didn't think to grab one." She paused right in Tucker's way.
Tucker grumbled and sat up straight.
"We can't go in after him, because, even if we found some way to travel inside there, we might blow his secret." She began pacing again. "Maybe we could—"
"Sam!" Tucker finally shouted. "There is nothing we can do, alright? It's up to Danny to figure Vlad out, keep his secret a secret, and—"
Riiiiiiing!
"Dang it!" Tucker hit the couch. "Why can't I ever rant?"
Sam rolled her eyes and reached for the hotel phone. "Hello?"
"There is a phone call for Samantha Manson," the hotel secretary said.
"Just Sam, please."
"Uh, yes, ma'am. A Jasmine Fenton is calling—she says it's important. I know your parents said no calls, but she sounded so urge—"
"It's alright. Just put her through."
The phone clicked and then Jazz's voice flowed through the speaker. "Hello? Sam?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "No, it's the Grim Reaper. Seriously, Jazz, you called me, remember?"
Tucker drank from his soda. "She was probably afraid you were your mom."
Sam glared at him. "I do not sound like that happy hippy."
"Actually, over the phone, you do."
Sam muttered darkly to herself.
"Anyway, Danny is on TV right now!"
"I know, Jazz," Sam said with a quiet sigh. "I'm watching him yell at Vlad…Wait! How do you know about it? I thought you were at the ghost convention with your parents?"
"Yeah, the ghost convention. As soon as the ghost fanatics heard about the show, their unhealthy obsessions took over and they somehow managed to build a TV projector out of a tarp, a laptop, and my cell phone." Jazz sounded exasperated. "I still can't believe I was the only one to bring a cell phone…How are you watching it?"
Sam shrugged. "We're only a few hours out of Amity Park, so we're still receiving their broadcast. My parents get car sick easily, so we're taking a 'brief rest' at an expensive hotel." She shook her head. "Mom and Dad are relaxing by the pool so Tucker and I have the TV to ourselves."
"We might have a bit of a problem once they come back up, though," Tucker pointed out, still eating his popcorn. "I don't think they'd approve of that—" Tucker pointed a buttery finger at the screen where Danny was practically spitting in Vlad's face.
Sam sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Danny is so going to break the truce…"
"We shouldn't count him out just yet," Jazz said, trying to sound optimistic. "His self-control has gotten a lot better over the years. I wish there was some way we could help him, though…"
Sam stood up and began pacing in front of the TV again. She and Jazz began bouncing ideas and plans off each other with little actual success. Tucker grumbled, wishing the phone wasn't cordless.
He tuned them out and focused on the TV instead. Danny had just mentioned he loved someone who hated him, and Tucker was sure that someone was Valerie. He had assumed Danny was over her, but apparently that wasn't completely true.
Good thing Sam wasn't paying attention, he thought, throwing a glance at Sam.
"I could use my parent's ecto-bazooka thing to create a portal and then send the boooomerang through with a message."
"Your parents might see it hit him, though. And as far as they know, it only targets Danny Fenton. We'd be blowing his secret for him. What if we…"
Tucker rolled his eyes.
"No worries, Mr. Thunder," Danielle said, smiling brightly. "This is normal for them."
Tucker chuckled. I knew I liked her.
Sam suddenly fell back into the couch. "I just feel so useless! I don't like it."
"I don't either, Sam, but I don't think there's anything we can do for Danny. Not directly, anyway."
Sam sat forward. "What about indirectly?"
"Well, with all these half answers Danny is giving everyone, wild ideas and theories are bound to start coming out—my parents are already going crazy! What wecan do is lead them off the trail. We can make wild assumptions of our own, or maybe even tell the truth—but make it sound so preposterous, no one would believe it!"
Sam frowned. "Is that really all we can do?"
"For now."
Sam sighed. "Yeah, alright. Talk to you later, Jazz." She placed the phone back into its cradle before leaning back into the couch, looking put out with her arms crossed.
Tucker grinned at her. "I told you so," he said.
Sam glared at him. "Don't talk with your mouth full, Tucker."
"Yes, happy hippy mommy—Ow!" He rubbed his sore shoulder and glared at her.
"You deserved it," she said simply.
Lance carefully placed one foot behind the other, walking steadily backwards. The Hall of the Ghost King was silent. The torches and armored knights set the scene squarely in the middle ages and resurrected all of Lance's old nightmares. He consistently kept himself at least five paces away from the four ghosts following him down that unsettling hallway.
It wasn't that he was terrified of them. Danny Phantom, after all, was a proven hero. He protected humans and had even assured Lance right to his face that he wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. Danielle Phantom was merely a child and appeared to be sweet and innocent—though she was just as quick with the quips as her cousin. Vlad Plasmius, though certainly scary-looking, spoke the language of the reporters-spoke Lance's language. He was Danny's father, Danielle's uncle, and didn't seem inclined to hurt Lance. The…dog, Cujo, was terrifying, but Danny had him under control at the moment, so Lance had no reason to be so scared.
But scared he was. Scared that his boss was going to make him ask that one question that would set these ghosts over the edge and get him killed.
Just look at what his last question had done! Father and son had started arguing out of practically no where! When they had finished not two minutes later, the whole group had sunk into a kind of silent bubble that Lance was afraid to pop for fear of unleashing these ghosts' fury.
For five minutes or so, no one said anything. Vlad glanced at Danny once and a while and Danny stared at his feet where Cujo scampered. Danielle quietly walked between the two older ghosts and Lance stubbornly ignored his boss.
"Lance!" she shouted right into the microphone. "What are you doing? Ask questions! Get them talking! This is boring—and no one likes boring! Especially me!"
Lance wondered how much trouble he would get in if he made a break for the Specter Speeder.
"Lance, come on! Phantom mentioned he likes someone who hates him—get on it! Ask more about this girl! Is she human? How old is she? Why does she hate him? What does she look like? Lance!"
Lance sighed. Dani heard and flashed him a quick smile, apparently trying to cheer him up.
"Alright, how about this, Lance. If you don't start asking questions this second, I'll make you the official ghost reporter and give your weather job to Tiffany Snow."
Lance gasped and almost dropped the camera. She wouldn't…
"Don't test me, Lance. This story is huge, and if you ruin it for the company, you will regret it."
"Mr. Phantom!"
Lance's shout echoed off the walls and Danny's head shot up. His eyes darted around quickly, but when no hostile ghost appeared, they focused on Lance, his expression confused. "What's the matter?" His family was also giving him strange looks.
Lance wheezed out a laugh. "I, uh, you—" He took a deep breath. "Y-you mentioned you loved someone who h-hated you." Danny's cheeks began to take on a rosy hue. "W-who is this girl?"
Danny sputtered. "Th-that was a private conversation!"
Danielle laughed openly. "The ghosts back in the dressing room heard it, cuz."
Danny flinched. "Oh…" He shook his head. "Well, I can't say who she is."
Sweat began to break out upon Lance's forehead. "What? Why not?"
The ghost glanced at the camera in his hands and then quickly looked away. "Because she is most likely watching at this very moment, and I don't want her to know."
"She doesn't know that you like her?"
"No, and I plan to keep it that way."
"Find out more about this girl, Lance!"
But—but!
"Ladies and gentlemen, our new ghost reporter: Lance—"
"Is she human?" Lance shouted.
Danny frowned. "I—"
"Of course she's human, she's watching the show! Why does she hate you?"
Danny crossed his arms. "Are you even—"
"How old is she?"
"Mr. Thunder, I—"
"She's sixteen, Mr. Thunder!"
"Danielle!" Danny yelled in dismay.
Dani grinned at him. "Yes, cousin?"
"Does she live in Amity Park?"
"Look I'm not—'
"Yes."
"Dani! Shut up!"
"Does she go to Casper High?"
"Yup."
"Vlad, do something!"
Vlad held up his hands, an amused smirk on his face. "I would rather stay out of it, if you don't mind."
"Does your friend-not-girlfriend know about this other girl?"
"Yes, and she used to get very jealous."
Danny groaned and dropped his head into his hands.
"Used to?"
"Well, Danny is steadily getting over her because, like he said, she hates him."
"Why does she hate him?"
Danny quickly pulled Dani against his chest and clamped a hand over her mouth. "Oh no you don't, blabbermouth!" Dani looked up at him, her eyes crinkled around the edges in a smile.
"What does she look like?" Lance continued, determined not to lose his preferred job.
Danny looked at Lance with an annoyed expression, but then his eyes suddenly widened. "Mr. Thunder, stop—"
"Is she—" Lance, unaware of the wall coming at the end of the hallway, nearly had a heart attack when his momentum carried him straight through it. The ghosts who had sworn to protect him were cut off by the not-so-solid wall and Lance was left gaping and trembling, alone, on the other side.
"W-wh-what?" Lance stuttered. His breathing became erratic, but there was no ghost hero to hand him a paper bag.
"What just happened, Lance?" his boss questioned, somewhere between upset and confused.
"I-I-I don't kn-know!" Lance shouted, inching away from the deceitful wall.
"Wait, wait! Didn't Phantom say that as a human, you could pass through walls here in the Ghost Zone?"
Lance's breathing slowed as he recalled that conversation.
"Well then what are you waiting for? I'm not paying you to film a brick wall! Get back to Danny Phantom!"
Lance nodded—she didn't have to tell him twice.
A cold, large hand suddenly grasped Lance's shoulder, and Lance's heart almost literally froze. Lance, trembling uncontrollably, slowly turned his head and looked down at the hand on his shoulder. He saw the ice, the naked bone, and heard a gruff voice ask, "What is a puny human doing here?"
Lance Thunder, Amity Park's weatherman, screamed and promptly fainted.
I love the ending. Though I suppose you guys don't appreciate the cliffhanger XD
Whew! Done! And very excited about the next chapter, which hasn't happened since three or so chapters back O.o
Sorry if the fight between Vlad and Danny seemed a little off. It sounded a lot better when I wrote than when I read over it. But that is probably because I changed it so often-and trust me, guys, it's a lot better than the first draft! And for the record, I love Vlad as a character, but I hate writing him! Urgh! *Bangs head on desk*
Sorry if you're a DxS fan and the DxV hints annoyed you, but variety is healthy for a teenage boy ;D
If you have questions you want Lance to ask, just let me know! I'm running out...
Another pic! This one is of Ember, Spectra, and Dora, but you'll have to go onto my profile to get the link. Rules are rules, even if you don't understand them.
Hope to see you guys again soon!
Thanks for reading! Leave a review if it doth please thee.
