AN:/ okay a couple of things today. 1) I will be heading off to band camp in four and a half hours. 2) this isn't really how i want to publish it but i felt really bad about not posting for a long time so you guys get this, which is sort of in a limbo between a final draft and a rough draft, untill I get back from Band Camp. 3) I'm going to do that major overhaul I've been talking about after Band Camp as well, and after that the whole story, including this chapter, should flow better. alright that's really all i have to say today.

Running to the Enemy's Arms

Chapter 14: Me and My Cat Like Reflexes

by: deadlydaisy8o8

Originally Uploaded: Monday, July 26, 2010, 2:59AM

IMPORTANT: Okay to understand this chapter you need to know some of my theories about how ghost powers work. Okay so let's say that something is intangible. I believe that if i become intangible also, I could touch that object. Mainly because that when you turn intangible, you really switch to an intangible plane. so you should, in theory, be able to touch things that are also on the same plane as you. Same goes for invisibility. If I'm invisible, i should be able to see other invisible things. it's kind of like a double negative. However things on the intangible and invisible planes can also see and touch things on the regular plane we exist in all the time. I don't know why, but it makes things easier. On with it!

Danny's POV

I meandered my way down the hallway not a hundred percent sure where I was going. I had to re-memorize the way to the dining room after Vlad had moved me to the room I had picked out. I was only guessing I was headed the right way. Yup, there's the ugly painting of the turtle; I was headed the right direction.

It was currently 5:23 in the morning. Now, the reason I was up at this ungodly hour was of course, because of Vlad. It had been six days now, that I had been at Vlad's house, and every morning since I had been here (except for the first one) he had insisted that I get up and have breakfast with him before he went to work.

At five forty-five in the morning.

The one time he had gotten me up at 8:30 was a fluke, apparently. He had been running late or something like that. Said he had a late night; whatever. I just didn't understand why there couldn't have been a late morning to match. He usually didn't have all of those people fussing over him either. That was another "running extremely late" thing.

Now, on a "usual" morning he would come into my room at 5:10, wake me up, tell me to be down to breakfast in twenty minutes, and leave me to get ready. After I got down to breakfast he would proceed to try to get some sort of conversation out of me; which really was a waste of time. If the sun wasn't up, and a ghost wasn't attacking, I wasn't going to be doing much of anything besides existing. Usually he laughed at me and how tired I was. Then after he left, I would go back up stairs and sleep until about 2:00PM. That was how things had been goin' down, and that's why I was wandering the halls with my eyes half open. I just had to stay awake through breakfast, and whatever Vlad was trying to get me to talk about; then I could go back up to that cloud of a bed and sleep like any sane person would.

I passed the third hallway, counted five doors and grabbed the doorknob of the sixth. Maybe if I was lucky today, I'd get the right door on the first try. I opened it up and internally cheered when I found a ridiculously long table with a forty-two year old man reading a paper at the other end. I dragged my feet and made my way to my chair. Tiredly, I pulled it out and sat down. I briefly glanced at what Vlad was having today. Looked like French toast with some sort of egg thing; whatever, as long as I didn't have to come up with what I was having. I heard a door open behind me.

"Same." I said without turning around to see whoever it was that had come out to see what I wanted. There was a moment before the door closed. Vlad wasn't saying anything and it was quiet, so I took the opportunity and closed my eyes; I was kind of sick of forcing them open. It's not like I was using them anyway.

"Tired this morning Daniel?" I exhaled heavily and let my head fall to my chest. There goes the rest my eyes had been looking forward to. I dragged my head up and gave Vlad a half lidded glare.

"Nope, no, I'm totally awake. Here, want to talk about Politics? I mean everyone does that sort of thing at 5:00 in the morning." Vlad opened his mouth to say something back when the door behind me opened again. The maid with the curly brown hair, her name started with a 'T' I think, brought a plate of food over to me and set it down on the spotless white lace table cloth.

"Here you are sir." I grinned a little at the plate of food in front of me. I love breakfast food, how you could get away with eating practically cake and call it a square meal, how you could…

"Daniel." I glanced up to Vlad and he was giving me an accusing stare. The maid looked apologetic beside him. I let out a small sigh.

"Thank you…" I squirmed slightly as I searched for the brunette's name. Vlad was there to 'help me out' in no time. His eyebrows lowered, clearly displeased.

"Tiffany." I nodded slightly and turned to Tiffany, mustering up an expression that looked somewhat appreciative. I really was thankful anyway, and it wasn't her who had me up this early.

"Tiffany… Thank you Tiffany. It looks really good." Tiffany curtseyed slightly before replying.

"My pleasure, I will inform Eduardo it was to your liking." She quickly bounced away to do what she had said. My attention went back to my food. I lazily picked up a fork and had at it. I didn't really pay attention to Vlad as he folded up his newspaper and set it on the table next to his half empty plate. This was one good thing about mornings. I loved the food, and I didn't even have to do the dishes. And breakfast dishes are the worst because you have to get all the syrup off of everything. I was about halfway through my second piece of French toast when I realized Vlad had been staring at me.

"What?" Vlad seemed to ponder lightly how to respond.

"What would you like to do today Daniel?" There was an obvious curiosity in his eyes, like he actually wanted to know. He'd never asked that question before and whenever somebody did ask that question it was because they wanted to do something with you. I paused in bringing the fork up to my mouth.

"What?" Vlad rolled his eyes.

"Daniel, it is not such an unorthodox question. I was just wondering what you were planning on doing with your time."

"Why do you care? Aren't you going to be at work?" Vlad sighed; a mix between amused and annoyed. I don't know how he managed that combination, but he did.

"Daniel today is Saturday." My fork was once again halted on its way up to my mouth. Saturday, but that meant that it was the weekend? My eyes flitted from my plate to Vlad and back. He wasn't going to work today?

"What the heck are you doing up at five in the morning on a Saturday!" Vlad's eyebrows shot up in surprise and amusement.

"Are you familiar with the phrase, 'The early bird get's the worm?' Besides I've been getting up at this time for so long I just naturally wake up. I like to get a head start on the day. It's a more productive use of your time and a good habit to get into." I just stared exasperated at the obviously insane man in front of me.

"Have you ever heard the phrase, 'I'm freaking exhausted you fruitloop; let me go back to bed?' God Vlad, aren't you tired? What is wrong with you?" Vlad sobered up slightly with my accusations.

"No, I'm not tired. I got a full eight hours of sleep and that is more than enough. Now I know for a fact you've been sleeping the day away, and I'm not here to let that continue. So I'll ask you once more, since you will be spending the day where I can see you so you will not fall asleep, what are your plans?" I just blinked and stared at the man in front of me. His face clearly declared that I would not be going back to sleep. I looked back down at my half finished breakfast. I was going to need a lot of caffeine today.

"Vlad do we really have to be out here? I'm being eaten alive." I swatted another bug away as it tried to suck my blood or whatever. The bugs that bit me never lived because my weirdo blood was toxic to them, but it was still annoying that they bit me in the first place.

"It's better than what you were going to do with your morning." Vlad scoffed as he continued to walk along the path in the forest. Yes we were in a forest. After Vlad had learned that I was planning on playing Line Rider all morning, he made me follow him to this big forest a couple of miles from his house. So now we were currently walking around in a forest full of who knows what, when the sun was barely above the horizon.

"Hey, I was staying out of your way wasn't I? Plus that was about all I could think to do at this time of day." I slapped another bug on my arm. Pulling my hand away, I grimaced at the bug guts. I quickly encased my hand in energy to burn it all off. "You could have at least let me put some bug spray on first."

"You seem to have the bug problem under control, and I was not going to let you rot your brain away by sitting in front of that screen all day." I rolled my eyes at the bug comment as I was quick to respond.

"I thought you would have liked that game Vlad. I mean the little stick guy plummets to his death no matter what, you just get to manipulate how he gets there." Vlad sent me a glare out of the corner of his eyes. I smiled knowing I had scored a point in our little game of wits.

There was silence after that. It was kind of weird. I didn't know where we were going and I didn't want to sound stupid and ask. I just tried to focus on not tripping. My eyes were practically glued to the ground avoiding sticks and stuff. Vlad just continued to walk like it was impossible for him to fall; his shoulders back and his hands clasped behind him.

"So what do you plan to be when you grow up Daniel?" I stumbled for a minute as my gaze was ripped from the ground and stuck to Vlad with the weird question. I jogged two or three steps to catch up with him. He of course hadn't stopped when I tripped. I hesitated a little bit, unsure how and if I should answer.

"I dunno, I mean before I got ghost powers I was going to try to be an astronaut, but I mean it's not like that's possible now. All of my grades are in the toilet and I probably wouldn't pass half of the blood tests you need to even be eligible. I haven't really thought about it much. I didn't even really know what I was going to do after I graduated high school, if I graduated high school." I mumbled the last part to myself, thinking that Vlad wouldn't be able to hear me. I was reminded, when he replied, that I wasn't the only one with ghost hearing anymore.

"What do you mean 'if'?" Vlad looked at me, almost scolding, as he continued to walk. I still had no clue how he could do that without falling flat on his face. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously.

"Uh well, I just told you, my grades suck. I'm lucky if I get a D. I was probably going to have to repeat junior year before I left. I never had the time to study, always too busy with ghosts…. Plus I mean it's not like I can even go to school now. My parents would find me, and I'm not sure I want that happening." I kept my eyes focused on the ground. My parents were dangerous territory.

"You'll be finishing school Daniel. Did you think I was going to let you waste away in the mansion the rest of your life? Education is important, and I will not let it be subjected to sabotage because of your unfortunate circumstance. Especially when I can remedy it otherwise." I stumbled a little bit as Vlad once again demanded my gaze be torn from the ground with his response. Did the fruitloop know what he was saying?
"Vlad, really, how is that going to work? I mean, my parents aren't stupid, they've probably got a missing persons case on me started. I can't just show up in another school and expect nothing to happen. They'll come and find me." Vlad only rolled his eyes.

"Daniel, you won't register as Daniel Fenton. Do you really think me that naive? All you have to do to avoid detection is create a new identity for yourself, and you will be free to go where ever you please." That made sense, but I was still seeing some gapping loopholes.

"Okay so I call myself something different, big whop. I'll still look like me, and I mean don't you need like a birth certificate and stuff to register for school? Where are you going to get all of that? I don't even have my real ones with me. It's not as easy as changing my last name, Vlad." He only smirked in that way that always put me on edge.

"I do believe you are underestimating me Daniel. I have many means of which to procure all of what would be necessary to forge you a new identity. As far as changing the way you look, it is amazing what a simple wardrobe change can do to throw a person off." So that was the reason for the creepy smirk, he was most likely going to do something illegal. I didn't say anything though. If Vlad was going to do something illegal it's not like I could stop him, I never have been able to before. Plus, it had only been six days at Vlad's, but I was already bored out of my mind. Ghosts that I could take my frustration out on were nowhere to be found and school would be a nice distraction, especially from my depressing life.

I thought a little more on the subject. School would be cool. I did want to graduate high school, even if that's as far as I went. I had not forced myself to get up a 6:00 for the past eleven years of my life so that I could have nothing to show for it. I did want a diploma. Still, the whole thing seemed too good to be true.

"Okay but I mean I can't just show up one day and sign myself up. It doesn't work like that." Vlad sighed indignantly.

"Daniel, I will be signing you up. I can pose as your father and you will assume my last name. It will not be as difficult as you make it out to be dear boy, really. I have already taken care of most of the details." I came to a complete stop with the man's words. And when I say complete, I mean complete stop. My brain didn't really do anything. My heart slowed down. I held my breath for a minute, and my muscles refused to move. Vlad got a bout fifteen yards ahead of me before he stopped. I could see his shoulders slump slightly before he turned to look at me. Seeing the man's face made me sputter to life.

"Y-you're not my father." Vlad keep his face carefully blank. He didn't show any emotion as he responded.

"That is not what I said Daniel. I said I would pose as your father. It only makes sense if you plan on staying at my mansion. What other name were you planning on adopting exactly? Did you have any other adults who would let you barrow their last name and let you be their son?" I only stood with my mouth open staring at the man. He didn't seriously think I was going to take his last name did he? Just because I was living here didn't mean I was going to suddenly forget who I was.

The thing was though, he was right. I really couldn't think of what else I was going to do. The truth was if I wanted to go to school, I would need an alias, and that included a person who was willing to pose as my 'father'. My mouth snapped shut as a nat flying by got a little too curious.

"Come Daniel, I think it is time we head back to the mansion." Vlad's voice was as carefully blank as his face. He transformed into his ghostly counterpart. I was still kind of in a numb shock as I mindlessly followed suit and took off after him when he started heading back.

Silently we went back to the mansion. Vlad went his separate way after he knew I was back safely. He said lunch would be a 12:00 and that he expected me to be there. Still a little weirded out over the fact that he wanted me to take his last name; I nodded and was secretly grateful he left me alone after dropping a bomb shell like that. It was only 10:23 when we got back so I got on the computer and decided to play Line Rider until I went down to lunch. It was a game I could play while the rest of my mind was elsewhere.

Daniel Masters?

Vlad only rolled his eyes when I told him what I had done with the rest of my time before lunch. I really didn't understand what he thought was so horrible about playing a couple of computer games.

"Well fine then. What did you do, discover warp speed?" Vlad seemed slightly annoyed with my jab, I could tell he wanted to roll his eyes again, but that would be repetitive.

"Actually, Little Badger, I managed to get a good deal of paperwork done, and I read a few more chapters of a novel I've been working on." It sounded legit, like something Vlad would do. Jazz was always reading, and just really out of habit other than anything I asked the standard question.

"What book are you reading?" Vlad paused in his eating for a moment to give me a curious look.

"John Adams, the Man History Forgot" I had a vague idea of who John Adams was. I remember learning about him around the same time we learned about the revolutionary war. Still following the usual pattern of conversation that I used with Jazz, I asked yet another question.

"Is it any good?" Vlad just flat out put his fork down on the table with that one. I just gave him a weird look and continued to eat my grilled cheese. After Vlad realized that I wasn't going to say anything he continued our conversation.

"Daniel, are you alright? You aren't up to anything are you? Because if you are I will not tolerate it." It was my turn to sigh. God the fruitloop was so paranoid.

"No, Vlad I'm not up to-

"Daniel." And there was that flat tone of voice again that meant I'd better tell the truth. I put my half a sandwich down and threw my arms up in the air.

"Vlad, I'm not planning anything, honest! God I was just asking you about your stupid book. I lived with a bookworm the first fifteen years of my life, I thought that was how you were supposed to have that sort of conversation, but if it's making you this suspicious then I'll lay off. Keep your weird book stuff to yourself. It's not like I was going to pay attention to what you said anyway." I shook my head a little bit and went back to eating my lunch. Vlad didn't move after that, he simply stared at me while I tried my best to ignore him.

"It's decent." I stopped again and looked at Vlad who was now back to eating his gourmet pita thing.

"What?" Vlad only spared me a glance as he continued to eat.

"The book Daniel, it's a decent book. A little dry at times but otherwise it's held my attention." I just shook my head and went back to my grilled cheese. Vlad could be such a fruitloop. I muttered under my breath, heavy with sarcasm.

"Well that's a relief." I caught Vlad shoot a quick glare at me before he was back to pretending like he hadn't done anything of the sort. I just sighed and finished off my sandwich, taking the last swig of my glass of milk to wash it down.

Well here I was at the end of my lunch and Vlad still hadn't asked me to do anything with him yet. I was still kind of waiting for it though. Sure he had dragged me outside for his little nature hike this morning but I was sure he had more up his sleeve. He always did. And if he was staying home all day there was no way he was leaving me alone.

I could tell there was something he wanted to say, but he wasn't going to say it. I'd bet you a million dollars that he wanted to ask me to do something with him after lunch. I wondered why the heck he wouldn't just force me to do something with him like he always had in the past. The fact never crossed his mind before that I might not have wanted to spend time with him…. Unless he was waiting for me to ask him?

I blinked a couple of times at that thought. Could he really be waiting for me to ask him? That was just so not Vlad though, I mean all of the other times he had just kinda threatened someone's life and tried to get me to participate. Vlad just really wasn't the waiting type for this kind of thing. What the heck was so different about today that he had to go and be all nice about it? I mentally berated myself, everything was different you moron.

I glanced back at Vlad who seemed to be eating as slowly as possible, as if he didn't want to leave the table. Really he couldn't be making it any more obvious that he wanted me to say something. That really sucked, because I had already figured out exactly what he wanted me to say.

To tell the truth I had pretty much met my quota for fruitloop interaction for the day. Things never turned out like I expected them to when I was around him. It got annoying after a while. What the heck was I supposed to do with him anyway? I didn't know what he liked to do, besides his weird Packers football obsession; and I was not playing catch with Vlad. Besides picturing Vlad throwing anything for fun being near impossible, that was way too normal an activity to do with your arch enemy. That was something you did with your dad.

I sighed. Well there was one thing that I could think of to do with Vlad. I was just really uncomfortable asking about it because I knew he wanted to do it too. I know that sounds like it should make asking easier, but it didn't. Things are never what they seem around the fruitloop, remember? I mean yeah I really wanted the help and the guidance, but at what cost was I going to get it? If he was going to humiliate me and stuff I wasn't going to ask.

Vlad had taken five minutes to eat two bites. He wasn't going to quit acting all weird until I did something. More specifically, I asked him to do something with him. God this was screwed up. I really wanted the fruitloop to stop acting all weird though. It was making me uncomfortable. It wasn't making it any less awkward to ask either.

I toyed with the idea a little bit in my head. If Vlad could help me with my powers that would so cool. There are a ton of questions that I have to ask him, a million things I want to know how to do; I just really didn't want him to laugh at me. I had worked hard to even get as far as I had without his help.

Then there was the fact that he might not laugh at me that made me really consider asking him. He was acting different somehow, well nicer anyway. It was possible that he might not laugh, or at least keep his laughter to himself. I glanced again at the man sitting next to me. He had gotten through another bite. Somehow I don't think he was going to mock me. He had wanted this too; he had wanted to train me, so he wouldn't make it so that I didn't like it, right? I had so much to gain from him, and it wasn't like I hadn't had him laugh at me before. Plus if I asked him he would stop being all weird, which was really starting to get on my nerves.

I sighed and let my head fall to my chest. I guess it was decided then. Working up as much determination as I could before I could change my mind I keep my eyes on my empty plate and asked the million dollar question.

"So Vlad, what are you doing after lunch?" The effect was immediate, but it wasn't totally obvious. He didn't smile or move in any way to indicate that he was absolutely thrilled with what I had just said, but somehow the change was huge. I could see it in his eyes. More life than I had ever seen in them was suddenly there. They glowed in a way that was anything but ghostly.

"Nothing much really, I was going to call a few of my business associates and work in my lab. Why do you ask?" His voice was the same, but after he spoke there was no hiding that with the eight words I had just asked, I had made Vlad incredibly happy. It was honestly something I thought I would ever see.

"Um I dunno, I was just wondering, you know… if you wanted to do something? I still don't really know my way around, and I've won minesweeper like fifty times now. I can't really think of anything to do." It was a load of bull, but I wasn't just going to come out and ask him. I might have made him happy but that didn't mean this was any less awkward for me.

There was now a small grin that Vlad could not seem to keep off of his face. It was a nice change really. I had never seen Vlad smile. Well not genuinely smile; I had seen him smile evil plenty of times. It was kind of cool, it made him seem more human, more approachable. It wasn't so hard to talk to him when he was like that.

"I'd be more than happy to provide a little entertainment. What were you thinking of exactly?" It was easy to grin back at the genuine smile on his face. It was strange, but it was nice. I could get used to it. It made me feel good too. I was making the famous grouch Vlad Masters, happy. I really didn't know I could do that. It was kind of fun, and made me feel kind of important too. That made it really easy to say what I did next.

"Well, I haven't used my powers in a while." At that Vlad lost any control he had had before then. Immediately a giant smile broke over his face, he whipped his head around the room to check to see if anyone was present before he transformed into his ghost half, walked through the table picked me up and phased through several walls.

"It's just going to take practice Daniel; it's not going to happen overnight." I sighed before I wiped the sweat from my forehead. I still couldn't make my energy solid like Vlad was trying to teach me. I sat down on the white floor of the training room while I gained some of my energy back.

Yeah we were in the training room that I had previously destroyed. Like Vlad said, it had taken less than a week to get it back up and running. It was kind of a weird room. No matter how many blasts you threw at the walls, it didn't show any signs of wear, not even a scorch mark. It was kinda creepy.

I'd already been through a sort of diagnostic thing. I showed Vlad all of my powers and what I could do with them. He was really good at listening and telling me things that I could do better without making me feel bad. It was almost funny that a few hours ago I had been worried about him laughing at me. He never laughed, well he did but that was only when I told him stories about how I had come up with some of the uses for my powers when he had asked. He had actually seemed impressed a couple of times. I know it's going to sound weird to you but that made me feel awesome. If he was impressed with me when he had had his ghost powers for twenty years, I was obviously doing something right.

It was so weird, there was a part of me that said that it was wrong to be having a good time around Vlad and then there was another part that said 'Hey, why not?' As he spent more time teaching me, and I spent more time learning from him, I saw a side of Vlad I thought didn't exist. It was a non-evil side. A side that was easy to get along with. The side I think my dad was friends with in college. There was no ulterior motive to what he was doing, and it was refreshing.

Right now we were working on turning ectoplasmic energy into solid stuff. He said we should work on this because it was developing an ability with a power I already had. In other words, we would be starting small. He could make swords and VERY strong shields with his solid ecto-energy. I could only make mine into a sort of thick fog. I could make shield with my regular energy sure, but they weren't as strong as solid ones. I huffed and complained at Vlad's previous reassurance.

"Yeah but you can do it! I can already do it with my ice powers; it shouldn't be this hard to get it with my ecto-energy!" I concentrated again and ecto-energy collected between my hands. I focused and tried to get it to solidify. It only took on a foggy sort of appearance before it slipped through my fingers and onto the floor where it dissolved. I exhaled and let my head drop. I felt a hand on my shoulder and my head snapped up to meet Vlad's gaze. It was, believe it or not, concerned.

"Daniel, you aren't going to get any further today without hurting yourself. I already explained how this type of thing works. It's like building muscle; you have to take it a little at a time. Here, why don't we work on your sparing hm?" I furrowed my eyebrows a little.

"What's wrong with my hand to hand combat?" I really didn't think anything was wrong with it. It was honestly one of the things I was better at. I had learned some martial arts form my mom and I was pretty good at getting in a few solid punches. Vlad sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Daniel, there's nothing 'wrong' with your hand to hand. I'm simply looking to see if you can't improve slightly." I still didn't understand what he thought was so off about my fighting style but whatever. I guess I could roll with it; I was kind of getting sick of doing this energy thing anyway. I huffed before I got back up on my own two feet and replied.

"Okay whatever. Let's do that." Vlad nodded and had grabbed my shoulders positioning me so that I was directly facing him and not three feet away. He got into an obvious fighting stance and gestured for me to do the same. As soon as he saw that I had complied he said.

"Alright now Daniel I want you to take the first swing." I laughed a little in shock.

"What you want me to just start hitting you?" Vlad furrowed his eyebrows, wondering why what he had said was so hard to comprehend.

"Yes that would be the intention." I stuttered a little and fell out of my fight ready stance.

"B-but I can't just start hitting you!" Vlad sighed and stood up fully as well.

"Why not? I fail to see what is so difficult about the task." I gestured urgently as I replied, trying to get across what exactly, the problem was.

"Because! That's not how it works! I don't ever make the first move. I'm not supposed to. You don't see Superheroes going around and just starting fights; even with the bad guys! They have to wait until someone else starts one and then they go and kick the bad guys butt. I'm not supposed start it!" Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Daniel, this is for training, it isn't real life. You're not going to start anything or break any superhero code, or some such nonsense." I only grew more exasperated.

"I know it's not real, but I just-" In my peripheral vision I saw a black fist coming at me. My pupils dilated as my brain quickly processed the threat. My brain flat lined and locked down. Every thought that had previously occupied my head was gone. I stopped breathing and my vision was unfocused as I was sent straight into 'battle mode'. Nothing but fighting and survival was important now. I was being attacked and I had a job to do. Only three thoughts dominated my mindscape as my vision came back into a sharp focus.

Protect.

Defend.

Fight back.

I dodged out of the way in barely enough time. I could feel the air displaced by the blow move silently by my ear. Now on full alert I blocked the next fist and started moving.

"Very good Daniel, you already know how to be on your toes. Your reaction time could use a bit of improvement though." I didn't register what he had said, only that my enemy had spoken. I silently evaluated which enemy was in front of me. I internally swore when I realized it was Plamius. I really had no chance of winning any fight against him. What I had to do was work on distracting him until I could figure a way out. Even to just do that much I was going to have to fight…and fight hard. I was barely going to get out of here conscious at best.

I had moved out from within striking distance and shifted my weight to my center. My muscles rippled and tightened on high alert. The ectoplasm that made up my ghost form started to gain power. It was the ghost equivalent of adrenaline. Energy was sent en mass to every corner of my body, tightening all of my muscles, sharpening all of my reflexes.

From the last time I had been in here I remembered that the walls were ghost proof. Strategically, that was very bad news for me. I secretly hoped though, that now that Vlad was in here, the walls would let me out. I just had to keep him busy long enough to test my theory. I prepared my body to better take punches as I dove back towards Vlad, hoping to send him to the floor with a punch to the gut.

He easily caught my fist and tossed it aside. I knew it was hopeless to try to fight him, but I had to try. I had to find some way to get him down, even for just a few seconds. I swung at his upper chest and he, once again, only blocked my efforts. It was obvious I wasn't going to get at his front. On an impulse I quickly sprung over Vlad's head, tucking myself into a neat ball in the air before I landed. I threw a fist quickly forward intended for the soft spot between his shoulder blades, only to see that he had turned around and caught my fist once again.

"You aren't going to find any undefended spots on me Daniel, you have to create one." I didn't really hear what he was saying. It was all background noise to my own heavy breathing. The encouraging grin on Vlad's face only looked to me, to be an evil smirk. My eyes flared briefly in anger. He thought he was so much better than me. I knew what he was thinking, that I had no chance of beating him, that I was doomed. I would show him, he wouldn't have me today.

With a flash of icy blue light I had his legs, from the knees down, incased in ice on the floor. I pulled the same trick to get to his back side again and nailed the back of his skull. Jumping away once more in anticipation, I watched as a millisecond later Vlad shattered the ice and turned to face me.

"Daniel, we're just sparing that means that you don't use your powers. It's purely hand to hand." He might as well have been talking to a brick wall. Vlad took a step forward, and I took it as a move in attack. I knew that the ice was going to make him angry. He wasn't just going to take my attacks anymore he was going to send some back. That was if I gave him the chance.

I let my legs dissolve as I propelled myself slightly into the air so that I had the high ground. I fired a round of ecto-blasts to halt his approach. He only snapped up a shield and blocked every one of my blasts with ease. Vlad let down his shield to speak, now looking irritated.

"Daniel, stop acting like a child and stop attacking me." I only registered that his shield was down and he was leaving himself open. He was going to get an attack in if I didn't send one his way first. I sent another hail of ecto-blasts down at the man on the floor. I prayed to god that at least one of my blasts made it to its intended target. If it didn't I was just making him more pissed off and that was not good for me, especially if he got me pinned down.

The room flashed green under my assault. I stopped and saw that Vlad had once again brought a shield up to block my attack. I had to think fast, this obviously wasn't going to work. My eyes glowed a chilling blue as I gathered ice energy in my hands, and I sent icicles the size of tree branches down at the red shield. Cracks started to appear in the red dome until a section finally crumbled. I zoomed forward to attack with the opening; my hands ablaze a toxic green. I was there in a millisecond as I shot forward at over two hundred miles an hour. However, instead of landing a punch and zooming past to decelerate in a loop, like I should have, a tight grasp pinned my elbows to my sides.

"Daniel stop this nonsense! Snap out of it!" I squirmed in his grip, totally oblivious to the fact that he looked worried out of his mind. I had to get out of his grip. If I didn't he would probably kill me, or capture me, or something very very unpleasant. Seeing I was getting nowhere with just wiggling, I reformed my legs and tried to land a kick somewhere on Vlad's lower half. He only went intangible to avoid me and forced me to my knees so that I couldn't use my legs.

"Daniel, listen to me!" I squirmed as much as I could to get free but his huge hands held me in place no matter what I tried. If I went intangible he only went intangible also so that I couldn't escape. My eyes glowed an icy blue once more as I prepared to shoot ice beams out of my eyes to freeze him in place. I had to get away, he was going to hurt me, and do something horrifying if I didn't get back up and fight.

"DANIEL I AM NOT ATTACKING YOU!" I blinked several times at what the man had screamed in my face; breaking me from my concentration. My eyes went back to their regular green as I realized Vlad was looking at me with worry apparent on his face. The white room we were in suddenly came into focus; what we had been doing finally registered in my head.

I closed my eyes and exhaled heavily, my head dropped. I tried to get myself to calm down as I realized, that because of me things had gone horribly wrong. I-it was just an exercise. I had to stop. He wasn't going to hurt me. I forced my muscles to relax. In response I felt Vlad's grip on me loosen slightly. I moved my head to look up at him only for the movement to cause him to retighten his hold on me. I winced slightly at his piercing fingers as I stuttered to life.

"I'll s-stop Vlad you can let me go." He only gave me a skeptical look.

"Are you sure you are quite done?" a blush of embarrassment and shame rose to my cheeks and I only sheepishly replied.

"Yeah, I'm done." Vlad slowly released the pressure from his hands until they were just hovering over my arms. Finally he was satisfied that I wasn't going to try anything and he dropped his arms completely.

"Daniel, what has happened to you?" I could tell the comment wasn't directed at me, as he muttered it under his breath. I responded anyway, feeling a lot like I needed to explain myself.

"Ghost's happened Vlad." He only looked up at me before shaking his head.

"Daniel, I know that ghosts 'happened'. I'm only having trouble understanding how you've survived thus far without outside help, and what the blazes could have caused you to be pushed to this extreme without anyone else noticing." Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose seeming to try to keep his emotions to himself. I looked to Vlad's side not really wanting to look directly at him.

"It's a reflex Vlad and it's saved me more than once. There are a lot of ghosts that attack me from behind and stuff. I have to be able to snap into that mind set if I want to keep the other half of my life. Plus, it's only when things take me by surprise. It's not that b-

"Not that bad? Daniel this is not the first time something like this has happened. Might I remind you of when you leapt out of bed your first day here, or how you reacted to the use of ghost powers at the table? Reflexes like that are only grown out of fear Daniel; fear and experience. You cannot deny from me that you are always on alert, that you never put your guard down. I have yet to see you completely relaxed, even though there are no ghosts here to attack you, and no school work to worry you. Even in your sleep Daniel, your muscles tense and react to their surroundings so much; someone would think you were awake. This is no way for a young man to behave. There is no reason for you to have developed such self defense mechanisms. This has to stop Daniel. You can't go on like this." I really didn't know what to think about what Vlad had said. He honestly truly was upset about this. I mean yeah I knew that I was pretty bad but I didn't think Vlad would have had this much of problem with it. Mostly I was worried about how he would react to me attacking him. But here he was making a fuss over how paranoid and skittish I was, like any one of my family or friends would have before I left. The way Vlad was talking just now, it was raw, and it was real. Instead of being upset over the fact that I pretty much blindly attacked him he was worried about me. After Vlad said that stuff it really finally hit me for the first time.

Vlad actually cared about me.

Wow. That was… I don't know what it was. It was new. It was a good change I guess. I watched as Vlad continued to mumble incoherently to himself while pinching the bridge of his nose, slightly hunched over. Well, I really didn't know what to do now. What do you do when someone you thought didn't give two shits about you, actually ends up caring enough to accept you into their home and want to call you 'son'? I guess, I had to start...caring back.

Vlad got my attention when he lifted his head form his hands.

"Daniel, you're going to school on Monday. What you need is people. You have obviously been isolated, though I don't know how you managed it, for quite some time. The sooner we can get you back to regularly anticipating interactions without explosive consequences the better." Vlad held out a hand to me so that he could help me up. I only hesitated slightly before I took it and hoisted myself up. "Here, I believe we are done training for today. I'll get Eduardo to make us and early dinner." Vlad phased through the floor prompting me to follow. We emerged into the darkly lit gym and flew to the metal doors that lead to the hallway. We turned invisible before we went through the doors. We could still see each other though. When you turn invisible you can see other things that are invisible, it's a nice little loophole that has won me a lot of fights. Vlad sighed before he turned to me once more.

"I suppose you're rather tired, you should head back to your room while I arrange for dinner to be made. I'll let you know when it's ready." I grinned a little. Vlad could be pretty good at this whole 'caring' thing when he worked at it. He waited for me to nod or tell him that I had heard him. I did, and he started to fly towards the kitchen. Just before Vlad made it out of earshot I decided to start my 'caring back'.

"Thanks Uncle Vlad." A smile the size of Russia spread over my face as Vlad thudded into the wall instead of phasing through it like he had intended. I immediately took off at full speed towards my bedroom. Nope, this whole caring thing wasn't going to be too bad.