This chapter was a little difficult to write and Blackjay has been working on her story The Other Prophecy and I act as her editor for that. She wanted me to look over her stuff before doing anything else with my fanfic.
Chapter 10: Ghost Recovery
After traveling long and hard through the ground while intangible, Wulf finally phased back up to the surface in the Woods of Lake Eerie. As soon as the green clad dog had become solid again, he slumped down to the ground from complete exhaustion. Danielle had to stop Danny from sliding off of the great dog's back from the sudden collapse.
She felt for the beast, patting him on his back in comfort. She was so astounded at how far he was able to carry both herself and Danny's still motionless body, even after fighting Lydia and getting Danny out of the Blood Blossom laced fire.
She slid off of the ghost-dog's back and knelt next to where his head was resting on the ground. After stroking his head in a gesture of "well done" she wrapped her arms around his furry neck, giving him a warm hug. "Thank you, Wulf. So much." She whispered to her canine friend. Wulf, although completely worn out, smiled and wagged his tail in appreciation.
When the young girl let go of him, she looked around to see where exactly in the woods they had landed. They had phased back up through the ground next to a lake, in a deserted campsite whose cabins were extremely old and dull looking. Most of the roofs of the cabins had holes in them and the windows were broken. A fire-pit could be seen nearby, circled by fallen logs that would have been used to sit on if anyone else was there. There was an old wooden sign that Danielle could see that said Camp Skull and Crossbones on beautiful Lake Eerie.
After reading this sign, Danielle looked at the gray water of the lake. There was fog around it, giving it a look that was far from 'beautiful.' In fact, the overall appearance of the whole campsite with Lake Eerie, ironically made her think it was haunted.
Still, the camp may not have looked like much, but they couldn't take Danny back to Wulf's cave. Not with Lydia already knowing where it was, and with a battle with her had taken place there last time. At least here, they were now out of reach of Freakshow and could attend to Danny.
Danielle pulled her unconscious cousin off of Wulf's back as carefully as she could. Wulf pulled himself up after the weight of his burden was removed. Being careful of his burns, the ghost-girl then raised one of Danny's limp arms up and around her shoulders and wrapped her spare arm around the back of his waist. She then hoisted him up and started to carry him to one of the cabins that had a sign that said First Aid on it with red letters and the red medical cross. Her ghost-enhanced strength made it easier to carry the injured boy's flaccid body.
When she got to the door, seeing it would be difficult to try and open the door while trying to support Danny at the same time, she thought it would be a good idea to test how well her intangibility was coming along. Focusing, she strained herself slightly to turn the both them intangible. She managed to spread the insubstantial state all through both of their bodies and she stepped through the door.
It worked this time. And not just for her, but also for someone she was sharing the power with. Her intangibility was now fully recovered along with her invisibility. The ghost teen had no doubt that if her plasma ray wasn't yet fully returned as well, it certainly would be soon: Along with her ability to Go Ghost and fly.
The cabin she just phased into was made up of one room, with a table set in the center. Along one of the walls were some medicine cabinets and drawers. Next to the broken window on the opposite side of the room was a lopsided bed with a gray blanket that was folded and placed at the foot of the bed that looked rather familiar. It only took a second for Danielle to remember the blanket she had woken up with that morning, back in Wulf's cave. This campsite must have been where he had found it, as well as the pillowcase he had used to carry the fruit in.
After looking around the room, she said out loud, "well, it's not much. But it should do until you recover." She then carried Danny across the room and over to the bed where she laid him gently on top of it.
Danielle hoped the effects that the Blood Blossoms had done on his body would eventually wear off, now that they were destroyed and he was far away from them, but she would still have to do something about his burns.
She started browsing through the cabinets, trying to find something that would be helpful as an ointment. However, as she started to discover that the majority of the cabinets were empty, she started to lose hope.
She eventually came across some bandages that she could use, but she still couldn't find any kind of medicine that would help with burns as severe as Danny's. Even if she could find something, she doubted there would be enough, seeing that most of the cabinets she had already searched were mostly vacant of any such thing.
She started searching the drawers below the medicine cabinets. In one of them, she found an old book called 101 Uses for Nature's Plants that she carelessly tossed aside, to dig deeper into the drawers. "Come on. This is a First Aid cabin. There has to be something here." She said aloud, with her desperation growing.
When she could find nothing else but the bandages and a few bottles of pills for colds and other minor illnesses, Wulf soon phased through the wall of the cabin, carrying something in his front paws. "What's that, Wulf?" Danielle asked him.
Wulf remained silent as he approached the table and deposited a very large handful of a variety of berries on it. "Oh, I'm not hungry right now." She said to him. "And I don't think Danny's really in any condition to…" But Wulf shook his head and pointed a clawed finger at Danielle's side where she had been hurt the night before after being attacked by the men in white suits. Rubbing where her wound was, she remembered the dark stuff that had been put on it. "Wait, is this the same healing stuff you used for me?" She asked, indicating the berries. Wulf smiled, nodding.
He must have gotten these for Danny this time. But how was she supposed to use them? Just mash them together? Wait. Danielle remembered the book she had found in the drawer that she had thrown aside. She picked it up off the dusty floor and started searching through the pages trying to see if it said anything about berries. She found one. A healing recipe made up of a mixture of certain kinds of berries. As she read off the list of ingredients needed, she saw that Wulf had gotten the exact ones the recipe called for, in addition to a few other kinds.
"You're brilliant, Wulf." She said happily, setting the old book on the table at the page where the berry recipe was. "But how did you learn about this?" She asked, wondering how he had put together the berry mixture for her in the cave without the book. Wulf responded by taking out the photo of Danny and his friends that was given to him and pointed out Sam in it. From this, Danielle came to the conclusion that Sam must have taught him. Or at least used it on him once, judging that Wulf had brought back more of a variety of the berries than was needed for the recipe. Maybe he just remembered a lot of what the berries looked like. Well, either way, there may not be any ointment for Danny's burns in the medicine cabinets, but now Danielle had what she needed to make her own. This recipe may or may not be the same thing Sam used, but Sam wasn't here at the moment. The book was. And right now, it would do.
Danielle went to work in making the healing ointment. She found a small pot in the kitchen of the Mess Hall and a tap outside that seemed to be newly installed, which she used to wash the berries under. Then after rigging a stand to hang the pot above the fire pit, she gathered together some dry wood and lit a small fire underneath the hanging cauldron that was now filled with water.
Following the recipe in the book, she then started dropping the specified berries into the pot, allowing them to boil in the water until they were soft. With the stirring spoon she had also found in the kitchen, she mashed the berries until they had mixed together into a consistent, dark-purple paste. Then she removed the pot from the fire to cool off. The recipe was quite simple to follow, considering the only thing it needed were the berries. Now all she had to do was wait for the mixture to cool down and then she could put it on Danny's wounds.
While the paste cooled, Danielle felt it would be a good time to check her powers.
She stood up after setting the pot down, away from the fire pit, and closed her eyes to find the center of her power. The search inside herself didn't take nearly as long this time. The spark that triggered her powers was right there as if she had never lost track of it in the first place.
Her hope still rising, she took that little spark and harnessed it. A white ring of light expanded from her waist, split in into two rings, which moved across her slender figure in their own directions.
She opened her eyes as the quick transformation completed and looked down at herself. To her great delight, she found that her modern-day outfit was replaced with her black-and-white Phantom suit. Her hair had turned to the snow-white, and even though she couldn't see her own eyes, she had no doubt that they had also changed from the blue human ones to the glowing green.
"Yes!" She said, happily. "I can Go Ghost again."
Getting excited, she proceeded to test the rest of her powers. She already knew invisibility was fully operational a while ago because she was able to use it properly to approach the circus train and sneak up on Freakshow before sending Wulf after him. She tried it anyway, though, just for the joy of being able to fully use it again.
She also knew that intangibility was fully functional because she was able to get both herself and Danny through the door of the cabin without getting stuck. It may have come back a bit late, but at least she was able to use it to an extent that still helped during the fight against Freakshow and Lydia: like slipping Freakshow's keys right out of his coat, completely unnoticed. She wondered if he knew they were missing yet. If he even figured out that she had stolen them. She giggled at the thought of his reaction if he did.
Continuing on, she ignited her hands with the green energy of the plasma ray, building it up, not feeling anything holding her back this time. Now that she could Go Ghost again, the girl could finally fully charge and shoot the spectral energy from her palm that she aimed at a nearby tree. The focused ray shot a hole right through the trunk. "Plasma-ray: check." She said to herself, feeling the energy within her flow without getting scrambled up.
Now, for a flight test. She jumped into the air and successfully hovered above the ground for a few seconds. She then bolted off at full speed away from the fire pit and zoomed all around the campsite. She felt the fresh, cool air flow past her face and through her long hair as she sped above the lake. She was no longer grounded either, and boy, did it feel wonderful. Riding on Wulf's back was fun, but she just had to say that being able to fly again felt much better. She had her own speedy means of travel back. Not having to depend on anyone else to get somewhere fast.
She rose into the air until she floated a few yards above the surface of the lake and spotted a big boulder on the shore. She flew to the shore, touched down next to the rock that was much bigger than she was, and with her now fully usable ghost-strength, she lifted the heavy boulder above her head and tossed it far out into the lake where it hit the water with a huge splash. "Super-strength: check." She said with a smile, rubbing her hands together, congratulating herself.
Then she saw a deer coming out of the woods on the other side of the lake. At that moment, Danielle remembered that there was one more power she still hadn't tested out yet. She hardly ever used her ability to overshadow, but it still wouldn't hurt to just be sure it was working properly, along with the rest of her powers.
Turning invisible, she flew across the lake towards the deer that was quietly making its way to the gray lake, probably to get a drink. Danielle reached the deer and phased right into its body just before it lowered its head to the water, taking complete control of the animal. "I wouldn't drink that, if I were you," Danielle said, through the deer's own mouth.
Now in full command of the deer's body, she used its own feet to walk the animal back into the woods where she soon found a stream that was much clearer than the lake was. Not to mention looked safer to drink from. "Here you go. You'll like this much better." She said, using the deer's mouth to speak again and stopping it right in front of the stream. The ghost-girl flew out of the deer's body, still invisible, and watched it as it looked confused for a second at where it now was. But when it discovered the clear stream in front of it, it didn't seem to mind the fact that it had remembered being by a different body of water just a minute ago. It lowered its head down and started drinking from the stream.
"Overshadowing: check." Danielle said to herself, as she flew back to the camp.
She landed next to the fire pit again and changed back into her human form.
Her powers were now fully recovered. But as she looked back to at the First Aid cabin where Danny was, she still wished she had gotten them back sooner. Better yet, if she hadn't lost them at all.
Looking up at the sky, she noticed that it was starting to get dark. Getting some water from the lake, she poured it over the fire she had lit to heat the berries, putting it out. She didn't want the light of the fire attracting unfriendly eyes like those ghost-hunters in white suits…or Freakshow. Though, now that she thought about it, keeping the fire going might actually help Danny's family to find them. In the note she left with the keys, she didn't really have time to specify where in the woods they would be.
Still, in the condition Danny was in right now, she couldn't take that risk of unwanted kinds of people finding him. The Fentons and Danny's friends would have to find him on their own, once they arrived at the edge of the woods.
Danielle checked the berry mixture and after finding that it had cooled to a soothingly warm temperature, she decided it was time to use it. She picked up the pot, and walked back to the First Aid cabin with it.
In entering the cabin, she found that Wulf had curled up in a corner near the bed and had fallen asleep. Danielle smiled at the way he reminded her of the tamed, pet dog that anyone could keep in a household.
After what Wulf had done for both her and her ghostly cousin, Danielle felt that he definitely deserved nothing less than a good long rest. "Danny must be really lucky to have made a friend like you, Wulf." She said softly.
She walked across the room over to Danny's bedside and gently started rubbing the warm mixture on his injuries. As she applied the berries to the burns, the girl hybrid started to notice that Danny was wincing a bit. Apparently, it must have stung every time she touched his wounds with the wet substance, but it was a sign that he was slowly coming to.
Although this cheered Danielle up, she was still filled with sorrow by her older cousin's frail appearance. She couldn't even imagine the pain he must have gone through before she and Wulf had arrived. His family and friends being kidnapped, being held hostage himself while Amity Park was being invaded by hundreds of ghosts and then nearly killed by a most effective anti-ghost remedy that fire was later added to.
Had she gotten there sooner, she probably would have been able to prevent Danny from having to go through such torture. In fact, now she really wished she had decided to go to Amity Park earlier. Had she, she would have been able to help before Sam was even taken from the school. Or perhaps helped to track down Freakshow as soon as he broke out of jail. Then maybe none of this would have happened.
Danielle finished applying the healing mixture to Danny's burns and used the bandages she had found earlier to wrap them in. As she did this, she started to think that it must have been equally painful for his family and friends to watch as Danny was suffering through so much pain in so little time.
Speaking of his family, she wondered how they were doing. Night had fallen by now and they were still not here. How long has it been since escaping from Freakshow? Had it really already been hours since that time? Maybe Danny's relatives had already made it to the woods and were on their way here. Then again, what if their escape with the keys didn't work? What if the effects of the device Danielle used on Lydia only lasted a short time? She and Wulf didn't stay to see if it really was as effective as she had hoped.
She finished patching up her cousin's burns and then walked over to the window that was by the door. Sitting down in the chair that was next to it, the ghost-hybrid took out the gun-like gadget, twirling it around in her hands. She remembered the note that had been stuck to it, saying that the only problem was the special ability of the targeted ghost being stopped…unless it was just the number one concern about it. What if there were other problems besides? What if it was left behind because it wasn't just that one glitch, but too many others to have to deal with?
The very thought started to scare her. If the device only worked for long enough for her and Wulf to get away with Danny, then what if his family had been recaptured? If that was the case, even if Danny was feeling well enough soon, he would have to go back for them and risk getting caught again.
Wait. No. There was still hope that Danny's peers had gotten away. She was just assuming too much with the possibility of the device not working. Besides. It was probably just taking a bit long for them to get here because they didn't know where to find them in the woods that stretched the rest of the way to the mountains.
Propping her elbows on the windowsill, Danielle stared out into the darkness of the trees. Watching. Waiting. Any time they would probably come out from the giant cluster of trees to finally find Danny.
After a while of gazing out into the dark night, seeing nothing, she heard a soft moan from behind her and turned in Danny's direction to see him shift to a different position on the bed.
Danielle's spirits rose in seeing this happen. She noticed that he was breathing differently now, too. He must simply be sleeping now. He wouldn't have shifted on his own otherwise.
Danielle recalled how it had just taken overnight for her own wound to stop hurting so much because of the berries Wulf had brought her. Maybe it was working wonders with Danny as well, despite the severity of his many injuries.
The teenage hybrid made her way back to the bed, took the blanket that was folded at its foot and draped it over her healing cousin. Then, kneeling on the floor next to the bed, she propped her elbows on the mattress. Resting her chin on top of her hands, she looked into her older cousin's patched up face. Even though Danny had just gone through an experience he would probably never want to repeat, he now looked much more at peace.
Back at the train, when he had been tied to the wooden post with the flames surrounding him, Danielle had been so afraid that she was about to lose him. Thank goodness Wulf was with her while her powers were still defective.
Danny was safe now. Far out of harms reach, among friends, and now sleeping peacefully as he recovered. At the rate the berries were working, Danny would probably be on his feet again by morning. In addition, if all went well, his family and friends would soon be joining them.
Yay! Dani has her powers back! Finally! I'm sorry if this chapter was boring for you guys in comparison with some others that I've written. But to make up for the dullness of this chapter, I'll give you some additional information that you may find interesting.
I've tried putting hyperlinks on here that would lead to a web page I have on livevideo(dot)com but it never seemed to work. But if you want to see my design of the older Dani that practically inspired this whole story, you can go to my prophile and click on the livevideo link I have put there. Click on the "photos" tab and you'll find some pictures of my older Dani design that I've made.
If you want to, you can also check out a trailer I have posted for this story in the "Videos" section of my webpage.
Anyway. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. The action with Freakshow isn't over yet. I promise.