Disclaimer: I own nothing from Danny Phantom

Note: That last chapter was quite the doozie huh guys? I was going to drag out the whole 'controlled and kidnapped by Freakshow' thing but since that's already been done I decided to try something else and this is what I came up with. And to answer "GiselleVera's" question, it was a dangerously close call but no Freakshow never actually sexually abused her. He seriously considered it though given how human she looks. Either way, poor Dani is at her wit's end and she's tired of always getting in trouble in one form or another then barely surviving an encounter like this on her only to be unjustly punished by her parents and or teachers anyway and reprimanded for being 'careless' when really they shouldn't be so hard on her. Honestly, if they knew the truth they should all just be glad she's alive. And this particular incident really shook Dani up despite not remembering much of what happened since it wasn't just about fighting ghosts, no, this time she nearly lost herself in the process when it's already hard living a double life. Still, she did the right thing by putting her pride aside and calling for help. It just needed to come from the right person, someone who is actually much more reliable in a pinch who actually gives a damn about the circumstances, or well, cares enough to actually do something about it to make sure this never happens again...

Chapter 25: Urgency

Vlad's POV

As tedious and menial as today's tasks were, while it tired me out substantially I was happy knowing that things were finally falling into place while I continued preparing to move to Amity Park to be closer to Danielle. It was hard letting her go the first time, but the second was even more difficult since I finally got to get know my little badger on a much deeper level and overall his plans for her went better in some ways than in other during their last encounter. And because she forgave me for what happened when my last attempt to surprise her went wrong in every possible way, whenever I found the time to do so on a more personal level speaking to Danielle after that was easier since she seemed much more open and felt at ease confiding more in me which warmed my heart.

I worried about her though because it didn't take long at all before she was trapped in that vicious cycle again as Danielle continued to struggle to keep her grades up while finding the time to deal with things at home with her parents and the bully problem at school, not to mention still fighting ghosts on top of all that. She was getting better at handling most threats to that blasted town from what I've heard, but all the non-stop ghost fighting was taking its took its toll on her. Some nights Danielle would often fell asleep in the middle of a conversation while we were going over math problems or I was helping her with her other homework.

The poor girl was being almost as hard on herself as her parents were trying to keep it together and push through the struggle. And I had a feeling I was adding pressure as well since Danielle longed to impress me with the one thing she felt she was truly any good at which was fighting ghosts. I hated seeing her do this to herself and I wished there was some way I could lift some of the burden off as far as how many ghosts she fought on a daily basis, but sadly at least one of her enemies that I knew was an occasional employee of mine and while I made my warnings to him perfectly clear, most of my other warnings were not taken as seriously since I was not there to personally make good on my threats.

I could always send my minions to take care of that of course, but most of them were spies and they weren't exactly built for combat. I needed to change that and I had a few ideas of how to do that but first I needed to find someone who wouldn't make an enemy of Danielle simply because she 'ruins' the fun for most ghosts by sending them back to where they came from. Like the pilot I hired who as it turns out held a grudge against her for capturing Technus before he could get a part he needed to repair some private plane he was building as a side project. Sadly, there wasn't much I could do from here without alerting Danielle to my presence and making her feel like I was being overbearing and overprotective like her brother...

It was a delicate balance between giving her room to grow and making sure I could be there when she needed me. The good news was I was one step closer to buying out Axion Labs and work was well underway building my new home there in the richer portion of Amity Park from the ground up since I had to employ most of my usual unofficial contractors who could build a new lab for me and implement many of my usual security measures into the building such as the anti-ghost and human shield which I finally finished developing. Now I could alter the energy through verbal commands or manually so it would only let registered ghosts or humans through while it would repel everyone else, and it wouldn't shock anyone unless their energy or vital readings suggested they were hostile. I did this mostly for Danielle's sake after the disaster that took place the first time I tested it when it ended up shocking her and I refused to allow such a thing to repeat itself. This time, if circumstances forced me to do so again, I could safely keep Danielle confined without causing any undue harm to her person whether in human form or ghost.

Regardless, today turned out to be a long, grueling, and monotonous day of business meetings and calls so I looked forward to turning in for the night once I checked in on Danielle. The last time we spoke she seemed excited about some circus or other with an unusual Gothic theme that was coming to Amity Park and her friend Samson bought tickets for all three of them. They were going to see the show during the weekend apparently.

I could see the appeal of visiting this circus to some extent given how even I was somewhat interested in the occult thanks to my love of ghostly relics and artifacts, but I was worried that her parents either wouldn't approve of her going or they might complicate things by tagging along to make sure there weren't any 'real' ghosts hidden among the men and women in skeleton costumes. But I never dreamed I would discover that BOTH of those things turned out to be involved in this circus after all that were of a ghostly nature...

While I was expecting one more important call today, because it was already rather late now I assumed they decided to call me at a more reasonable hour in the morning instead. Therefore I decided it was about time I got ready for bed before calling Danielle. However, when my phone suddenly rang a moment later just as I was about to leave my office I begrudgingly answered it without thinking or checking the caller ID.

After making so many business calls today it was almost an automatic reaction.

"Vlad Master's speaking..." I began in a blunt but courteous tone of voice, cursing my bad luck that someone would call now when what all I really wanted to do was talk to Danielle as usual to see how their first day visiting the circus went.

Needless to say I was stunned when instead of receiving a formal greeting from the person I was expecting a call from, I heard a choked sob on the other end of the line as Danielle's voice just barely registered on the speaker, "Oh my god, Vlad...I...it's really you this time..."

Alarmed by how weak and exhausted she sounded I rushed to my feet and demanded, "Danielle, what's wrong?"

Danielle tried to respond but the only word, or name rather, that made it past her lips was 'Freakshow' and after that I heard a muffled clatter when the phone slipped from her hand and it fell uselessly to the ground. After that, all I could hear was the sound of waves and trees swaying in the wind which suggested she was somewhere outside.

"Danielle! Can you hear me? Please say something! DANIELLE!" I shouted, my hand visibly shaking as I gripped the phone tightly to my ear because I feared that she was injured or worse, she might be dying and I needed to reach her, NOW.

After that I dropped the phone, transformed, and flew straight to my ghost portal.

I knew there was no way I could teleport to Amity Park fast enough even in bursts since even my power had limits so my best chance to reach her quickly was to enter the Ghost Zone and go through her parent's portal instead. Knowing them, they didn't even know how to lock down the damn thing so that meant opening it from the other side would be all too easy. I mean if almost every ghost who happened upon it could get through undetected by a pair of hack ghost hunters, then I could too. True, I already had minions there that I could order to go find Danielle but I didn't want to waste valuable time so I decided to rely on no one but myself and the tracking device I had installed in her new phone for emergencies such as this.

Normally I could stay calm and collected and I would take the time to plan these things out more carefully, but this was different, this was my beloved Danielle we were talking about and she was either in terrible danger or deeply distraught and she needed me by her side. I was taking no chances and my fingers shook as I strapped on the watch-like device onto my wrist which I used to communicate with my minions, to gather or search for information stored on my personal supercomputer system here in the castle, or to track down specific energy signatures which I was going to do now to reach the Fenton Portal as quickly as possible.

I memorized the location of the enterance just in case, but since the Ghost Zone was constantly shifting and changing there was no surefire method of reaching it through memory alone. I'd have to rely on my senses and this tracking device to make sure I got there quickly. And while in the Ghost Zone, I could easily teleport most of the way there in bursts just like here on Earth only without worrying as much about wasting valuable time since time didn't work like that in the Ghost Zone because in some places, it didn't exist at all.

The point is, I wouldn't let anything get between me and my destination.

I dropped absolutely everything to find her since I knew it had to be serious if she gave in and called me for help. Danielle's pride usually stopped her from admitting to anything even when I could tell Danielle was suffering some discomfort in silence due to an injury she didn't want me to know about. I didn't scold her about it persay, however, I did ask her to be more careful for her own sake and because I cared about her well-being. Danielle would usually give in after that and would go take care of the problem so I wouldn't worry even if it took time away from our calls. This time was different though since she just barely managed to call me before passing out and I realized that Danielle could be anywhere right now.

My only clue to work with was this Freakshow who as it turned out was the ringleader of the circus they were going to visit, Circus Gothica. Something must have happened between the two of them if his name was the first thing she mentioned before collapsing. But if he's the one who did this to her, Freakshow was not going live long enough to regret his actions. Anyone who so much as scratched my little badger was as good as dead or doomed to slow torture, and if they were a ghost and dead already then total annihilation was their inevitable fate at my hands.

In a blinding blur of green and purple I teleported several times directly through the Ghost Zone to get at least within a mile of the Fenton Portal, but strangely enough I could almost sense it's power humming for myself since it was so familiar and I almost didn't need the energy reading feature on my device. Relieved that I made it there without incident, I opened it as I assume most other ghosts have figured out how to from this side and poked my head in, scanning the lab of Fenton Works for any signs of life. I literally checked the heart monitor feature on the device on my wrist too and when detected nothing I wasted no time flying out of the portal and phasing through the roof to get my bearings.

After that, I checked the local news and papers for any information regarding the location of this Circus Gothica and I quickly discovered that recently there has been a string of ghostly robberies that started just before the circus rolled into town by the station. And to my growing shock I saw that there was even a news clip of Danielle taking part in one such robbery, but I could tell there was something off about her. For one thing, her eyes were glowing blood red and not their green, and the wicked smile on her face was unsettling and felt very much unlike her...

Putting two and two together I had a horrible feeling that Freakshow had something to do with these robberies somehow since those other ghosts accompanying did, in fact, look like circus performers. It almost reminded me of the bank robberies I pulled off years ago to speed up my rise to power so I could use all the new power only raw wealth could offer that was now at my disposal to destroy Jack Fenton either literally or figuratively. But if this Freakshow managed to control Danielle and these other ghosts somehow so easily he had to have some sort of literal power over them, such as a spell or maybe an object that was controlling their minds. Aside from that though, his circus was not all that acclaimed so this Freakshow character didn't hold much power over the masses, not like I did, except for maybe a small cult following of goths and rebellious teenagers such as Danielle's friend Samson.

Speaking of which, while searching for answers I found a short video clip that some teenager posted online talking about the new act they saw that wasn't advertised on the Circus Gothica pamphlets with this beautiful fallen angel walking the tightrope wearing a tattered hooded robe. I didn't need to see her face to know it was Danielle hidden under the hood, I could feel it somehow, but either way I was also troubled to see that some poor bystander had been dragged into the 'act' as well. But sadly, the danger they were currently in was very much real since there was no net down below the high wire and only Danielle could literally fly despite supposedly being a 'fallen' angel since she was half-ghost...

Therefore, the fact that Danielle was willing putting him in said danger herself and looking like she was reveling in it quickly told me all I needed to know about this Freakshow fellow. Whoever this evil ringleader was, he was greedy, dangerous, and all too willing to kill in front of people and cover up the fact that it was real by making it seem like part of the show. Thankfully, Danielle managed to snap out of the hypnotic daze she was in just long enough to save his latest victim from falling to his death and I was relieved about this only because I knew she would have never forgiven herself if someone died because of her or she killed them herself even while under someone else's control.

Unfortunately, the person taking this video on their phone was too far away to record what was being said after the young man who I could only assume was Danielle's friend Samson was safely lowered to the ground. And it wasn't long before she seemed to have slipped back under their control again as Freakshow approached the pair of them menacingly down near the edge of the center ring. I could tell that whatever he said to Samson was a warning of some kind, and once that was seemingly taken care of Freakshow strolled off back outside with Danielle in tow who was lazily floating behind him as if being pulled along by invisible chains like some kind of animal bound to a leash.

After that my quickly eyes fell on the unusual blood-red staff I noticed Freakshow was holding rather closely to him and just seeing it made me feel a bit strange like there was a slightly pleasant hum in the back of my mind, but the odd feeling was easy to resist and that's when I realized that object was probably what was controlling Danielle! In fact, I faintly remembered seeing something just like it once in a book of ancient ghost artifacts I had back home. But if it was the same staff I was thinking of then I couldn't believe it was real, let alone understand how on earth a lowlife such as Freakshow obtained something so powerful...

Still, the fact that he could use it to control so many ghosts with that staff alone without them being in direct contact with the red light coming from the orb disturbed me deeply. It did explain how the robberies couldn't be traced back to him through those ghosts I saw in the news footage earlier. Unofficially, I believed it was simply called The Crystal Ball Staff, but according to the entry in the tome I read it went by another name and had something to do with blood magic that was used to create a special type of energy capable of controlling almost any ghost by entrancing them and making them addicted to it as if the red glow was some kind of a euphoric drug to them, making them complacent and eager to serve whoever controlled the staff.

And judging from all the recently clips I saw of Freakshow himself, it looked like he never put it down which suggested he was afraid of what would happen if he lost control over his underlings who were clearly not there by choice. And unfortunately Danielle was one of them since I knew for a fact that she would never do anything so evil such as put innocent lives in danger or rob banks.

According to the most recent news report I listened to as I flew towards the fairgrounds near the train station, they were informing the town that Freakshow had just been arrested and was being charged with theft, assault, and possible kidnapping because according to Danielle's other friend Trish who was found on the train and told the police her version of what happened, it appeared that Samson And Danielle herself were both still missing and they were last seen somewhere by the river on the opposite side of town. Since this was all ghost related though I knew I needed to find Danielle before the police did just in case she was still in ghost form even while unconscious as a defense mechanism since she'd been through such a horrific ordeal. I could leave the search for her other friend to the police though.

My only priority now was finding Danielle before anything else happened to her.