Chapter 14:

Dani POV-

Issa was not a natural at ghost hunting, at all. After three hours, the only thing she had managed to hit was sand, and almost Ghost, who managed to duck out of the way before she singed his left ear.

The closest she was able to get to the target was 2 and a half feet. Needless to say, I hope my life will never depend on Clarissa with a wrist ray. However, teaching her some Esperanto had been a little more successful.

I awoke the next morning, Saturday morning, in my bed. Issa was still passed out in my hammock chair as the sun started to pour in through the windows. I rubbed my eyes, looking at the high-tech clock on my nightstand which read 8:30 am.

'Weird,' I thought, 'I hardly ever wake up this early on weekends.' Deciding that I would not be able to fall back asleep, I got out of bed, floating a centimeter off of the ground, so that I wouldn't wake Issa, but still pretending to walk. On my desk I had a calendar laid out, with the 29th circled in red marker. As of today, I only had seventeen days until Vlad's arrival, and I had yet to think of a decent plan.

Ideally, I would be able to get away, far away so that Vlad wouldn't go after Tony or Pepper, but that doesn't change the fact that he still has a meeting with Tony on the 29th at Stark Industries. And it's not like I want to leave, this is the only home I've ever had, and Tony and Pepper actually care about me. And for that reason, if I were to get away, something tells me that Tony and Pepper would find a way to track me down. I could stay at Issa's while Vlad is here, but that puts her in danger too, and, judging by her aim, that is not a position I would want to put her in.

I opened my bedroom door, quietly, and walked down the hall to the kitchen. Ghost, who had head me leave the room, followed behind me, his nails clicking on the floor. I scooped a cup of food for him and dumped in his bowl which had recently been moved from my bedroom to the kitchen floor.

There was a fresh plate of cinnamon rolls on the counter, which, I made me guess that Pepper must have been here earlier, realized we were both asleep, and then left for the office without Tony. I plucked one off of the plate, licking the icing that had dripped onto my finger, before taking a bite of the still-warm pastry. I had just popped the last bite in my mouth, when my ghost sense went off. I cursed under my breath before quickly running down the hall, scribbling a note to Issa in Esperanto, before going into the bathroom and phasing out of the house.

Tony POV-

I was up most of the night following my discovery of that pistol in Danielle's care package. And one though kept racing through my thoughts.

'Why the hell would Dani need this dangerous weapon in the first place?' After an in depth analysis, I came to the conclusion that there was more to this weapon than just an ordinary gun. All kinds of checks and safeties had to be installed just to protect the user from the dangerous and unstable nature of ectoplasm.

Which only made a dangerous weapon, that much more dangerous.

I awoke the next morning, once again, in the lab.

'Is this what having kids is like? Always worrying and not ever getting a good night's sleep?' I wondered to myself for only a second before I realized what had woken me up.

The I-have-to-go-do-hero-business alarm, was going off. I sighed, before suiting up and flying out.

According to Jarvis, it was another ghost instance, so, I flew back to the house, quickly assembling the pistol and taking it with me.

By the time I got downtown, that ghost girl, Dani Phantom, was already there. She was in the process of battling two ghosts at once. She blasted one ghost and it tumbled to the ground, then she turned her attention to the other ghost, blasting it to. After a few seconds, she pulled out…a thermos, maybe, or maybe not, because that would be stupid unless you are having ghost soup. I decided it must be some kind of portable containment unit, and she sucked the ghost inside. What she didn't notice was that the ghost that she had knocked to the ground. She was too far away for her to hear me tell her to turn around, so I fired at the ghost.

The ghost girl whipped around, surprised to here a gun shot directly behind her, then she saw the ghost and promptly sucked him in too. Afterwards, she looked for the source of the shot, me.

She flew over to me, a look of confusion on her face.

"Is…is that a Fenton ectopistol?" she asked, cautiously.

'She knows what this is…' I thought, suspicious, because maybe she ties into the mystery too.

"Um…yeah," I replied.

"Where did you get it?" she asked, her tone had a slight hint of accusation to it, which I suppose is justified considering I now have a weapon that can harm her.

"Well, I did a little research since the last time we met, and I got one…" Um, wow, that sounded a lot better in my head.

She didn't look convinced as she studied me like a threat. I had time to look at her too, she seemed, for some reason, familiar, but I didn't know anyone who had recently died, especially not a young girl. In her hand was the containment unit, and upon further inspection, I realized it was actually a thermos. The exact same one that had been in Danielle's care package, right down the Fenton label that also graced her weapon.

Now, I was even more convinced that this ghost had something to do with everything that I had been trying to figure out lately.

"Um.." I cleared my throat, "Is this something you are familiar with?" I asked. She squinted at me, still obviously suspicious.

"You could say that, although with that particular weapon, I am more familiar, at least on the receiving end, with DALV weapons, which is basically just the same design because it was stolen from Fenton Works," she told me, sounding like it was personally offensive to her.

I nodded in understanding, "It makes sense, you can't make a great weapon without someone else trying to get their hands on it. Take my suit for example, people are trying to recreate it all over the world," I told her.

She looked at me thoughtfully, and once again, I had the nagging feeling that I should be recognizing her.

Shaking it off, I turned to leave. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around then."

"Electromagnetic fields," she called when I wasn't to far away.

"What?" I asked, coming a little closer to her.

"Ghosts give off electromagnetic fields, which you could use to help find them when they are in town," she informed me.

"Okay, why are you suddenly giving me this information now?" I wondered, the ghost girl bit her lip, like she was trying to figure out what to saw.

"Um…" she muttered, "Let's just say, that if a light blue-green vampire ghost with stupid hair comes into town, I could really use some help," she looked at me, like she was nervous.

"Why? What's so bad about this ghost?" I asked her.

"He's really powerful and dangerous and—" she was cut off by a phone suddenly ringing.

I recognized the first few notes as Fighter by Christina Aguilera, and suddenly Dani Phantom pulled a iPhone out of a pocket I hadn't seen. She pursed her lips.

"I've got to go," she said, "Thanks for the help!" she called as she quickly flew off.

Flying home, gave me time to wonder how Dani Phantom got a hold of that thermos.

'Maybe that was the whole point of Danielle getting the package,' so that she could give the ghost weapons to the ghost girl to…protect her? But from what? Ghosts? Why would Danielle need to be protected from ghosts?

Maybe it has something to d with that ghost Dani Phantom mentioned,' I thought, 'But what does that have to do with her father?'

Once again, there was another question that I didn't quite know the answer to, but I was going to find out.