Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom copyrights. Written with love!
Nyaa!
=^n.n^=
Chapter 35
"So… You're one of Stitches' kids, huh?"
Thomas nodded silently, his nerves betrayed by his deep frown. There were tons of his brothers and sisters who hadn't fought with Danny, so why was he the one who had been appointed his new 'guardian'?! The young ghost sighed internally; this was obviously his mother's way of teaching him a lesson for accidentally hurting the boy. Why else would she make him relive the torment of being ten years old? He hadn't been great at it the first time…
"You kinda look like her." Danny noted. "Like your hair. It's black. You don't look a lot like a cat, though."
"She's not always a cat, you know." Thomas grumbled.
"I know." Danny shrugged. "Do you have stitch-seams in your ghost form, too? Or is this pretty much it?"
"Excuse me?" Thomas shot him a look.
"It's nothing to feel bad about. My ghost form looks pretty much just like me, but with different hair and eye colors. My dad's is way cooler… but he's also a bad guy, and they always look cooler…" Danny looked down at the sidewalk, sighing.
Thomas glanced at him, then cleared his throat awkwardly. "It's tough being a parent, though. I mean, at least he's not a bad guy to you, I guess. Then again, if a parent doesn't seem like a bad guy at some point, they're not really doing their job. Parents aren't supposed to be friends with their kids until after they grow up and live in a different house."
"Did your mom seem mean to you, sometimes?" Danny had trouble imagining the excitable Witch as being a disciplinarian.
"No way! Not to me. I'm totally her favorite." Thomas smirked, unaware that his 'Mama's Boy' nature was beginning to rear its ugly head. "I mean, don't get me wrong, my brothers and sisters definitely earned her wrath on more than one occasion. Mom's so expert at being a parent, she doesn't even need help, though. She's had partners here and there in the past, but they always end up being completely inferior as sentient beings."
Danny stared at his body guard for a silent minute. "…Do you have an Oedipus Complex, Tommy?"
"What?! No! That's disgusting!" Thomas cringed and made a face. "No, no, men with an Oedipus Complex want to marry their mothers. I want to marry someone like my mother. They're two very different things. You'll learn that as you get older."
"If you say so." Danny mused, waving to Sam and Tucker as they entered the schoolyard.
"Hey, Danny! Did your dad totally freak out over that ghost attack? Mine did, and I didn't even get scratched!" Tucker looked at Thomas. "Who's this?"
"This is Tommy. He's one of Miss Lily's grandchildren." Danny smiled at Thomas. "Tommy, this is Tucker and Sam! They're my best friends."
"Tucker. Samantha." Thomas nodded to them each in turn. "My proper name is Thomas Anubis Faust, second-born son of the renowned Ashley Zephyr Faust, the Stitch Witch, and grandson to the feared Pariah Dark and the beloved Lady Lily-of-the-Valley Rosewood Belladonna."
Tucker and Danny glanced at one another before shrugging. Sam, on the other hand, frowned and crossed her arms. "Look, all you had to say was 'don't call me Tommy'. We didn't ask about your family history, you know!"
"It's an introduction! It's like… like a resume of who you are as a person! I was just citing my most well-known and talented relatives." Thomas looked a little put out, however, slouching a bit. His nervous demeanor returned as well. "I guess people just don't talk like that anymore…"
"Not really. It's okay, though. The Victorian Era Goths will like you when we get to middle school." Sam patted him on the shoulder and smiled. Danny smiled, too; Sam was nice to outcasts. He was beginning to understand that.
"Hey, Masturd!" Danny yelped as Dash grabbed him from behind by his backpack. The bully lifted him into the air with ease. "My leg's feelin' better. Know what that means?!"
"Hands off, meatbag!" In a flash, Thomas had grabbed Dash's wrist and twisted it, forcing him to release Danny. He looked furious. "On your knees, peasant! Dogs have better manners than you!" He grabbed Dash by the shoulders and started to shove him to the ground.
By now, Danny was trying to pull him off his own tormentor. "No! Tommy, don't do that!" He looked at Sam and Tucker in distress. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but… Help me get him off Dash!"
"Aw… It was just getting good." Tucker muttered, before following Sam to pry the black-haired emo child off of the jock.
Thomas was stronger than them, in spite of his scrawny body. Luckily, he wasn't risking blowing his cover because his expression alone read 'rage-fueled bullheadedness' at the moment. "Spineless brat! Only cowards pick on others for being weaker!"
"Then what on earth do you call this behavior, Thomas?"
Surprised, Thomas let go of Dash, resulting in he, Danny, Sam and Tucker all falling over in a piled-up mess. Aaron smiled as he heard Thomas' colorful language. "Aaron! What the… Why are you here?!"
"I am enrolled in this school, the same as you. Grandmother's wishes." Aaron the eleven-year-old walked over and, feeling around for a moment, helped Sam to her feet. "Ladies first, of course. And you…?" He reached out before helping Tucker up as well.
"Sorry, Dash…" Danny attempted to apologize, helping Dash to his feet.
The blonde boy yanked his arm out of Danny's grip. "I don't need your pity." he growled.
"Trust me; coming from Danny, I seriously doubt it's pity that's leading him to help you." Aaron chuckled. "You shouldn't be so quick to prove your physical strength, Mr. Baxter… It'll make people think you lack in other areas."
"Are you saying I'm stupid?! Or are you just trying to sound like a dumb grown-up?!" Dash barked angrily, fists clenched.
Behind Aaron, Thomas got a wild look again. "Why you…!" Sam and Tucker had to hold him back.
"For Pete's sake!" Danny stepped between Aaron and Dash. "Look, Dash, no one's calling you stupid, okay? He's just trying to make a point about you living up to some 'dumb jock' stereotype, and we're not even in high school yet! So you'd better not get mad at him and start a fight over it, or I'll tell everyone you hit a blind kid!"
Dash scowled at Danny, his face turning a shade of red never seen before by his peers. "Fine! I'll kill you instead!" He balled up his fist and swung at Danny's face. Danny froze, afraid of reacting as he'd been trained again.
Aaron caught Dash's hand, stopping it instantly. His friendly smile faded into solemn serious. As he gently pushed Danny behind him, he was afraid this new child of Stitch Witch would start a fight as his brother had. Instead, he folded up his cane and put it in his backpack, which he handed to Thomas, and stood perfectly still.
"Hit me."
Dash eyed him warily. "…Uh… What?"
"I said 'hit me'. Don't worry, I'm not trying to get you into trouble. You won't be able to land a single hit, so no one will be able to call it a fight." Aaron pointed out.
"That's dumb! You're an idiot!" Dash snorted, straightening up. "What, are you trying to pull that crazy 'blind super-fighter' excuse?"
Aaron smiled pleasantly. "I don't fight, Dash."
Danny looked at Thomas with worry, but his feelings quickly changed. Thomas was staring ahead as if he watching something very boring. He also looked a little angry.
While Dash paced as if trying to literally see the situation from all angles, Sam stepped up again. "Knock it off, Dash. You're just making yourself look like a bigger jerk than you already are! I mean, look at yourself – you're prowling around someone who's blind, just because he's standing up for Danny and himself!"
"Shut up, Manson!" Dash snapped. The two of them glared at eachother in a silent battle of wills. Finally, the boy scoffed, "You're all a bunch of freaks!"
"Thank you, Sam." Aaron smiled as he turned, adjusting his sunglasses. "And thank you, Danny. It means a lot that you would stand up for me, especially since you don't even know me."
"Well, you're Tommy's brother, right? And besides, you seem nice." Danny muttered sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders and scratching the back of his head.
"Don't be like that, Danny." Sam grinned. "What you did was totally heroic!"
Danny turned a deep shade of red.
"Not as heroic as Aaron!" Tucker clapped the blind boy on the back. "You are so intense, man! The way you were all like 'hit me'… It was like you were Batman!"
"I appreciate that, Tucker." Aaron smiled. "But I'm with Sam. What Danny did took a lot of courage."
"Exactly. Who knows? Maybe you're like that 'Ghost Boy' Paulina won't shut up about." Sam laughed. "Except, you know… You're real."
Thomas glanced at Danny, then elbowed him harmlessly in the rib. "Thank the girl! She's complimenting you!"
"Ack…! Th-Thanks, Sam!" Danny fumbled.
Sam smiled and shook her head. Boys were weird, but they were definitely more fun than hanging out with girls.
"Why would you keep something like Daniel possibly becoming so evil, he would destroy the world?!" Vlad fumed, pacing back and forth in his mayoral office. The air was dry and alive with static as his lightning element threatened to spring forth. "That seems very important, don't you think, Stitch Witch?!"
The redhead crossed her arms, watching him as she leaned against his desk. "You wouldn't have believed me if I told you. Honestly, I'm surprised Aaron told you, but he has an unrealistic amount of trust in people." She sighed.
"Oh, yes – there was a lot that he told me. Very surprising stuff, I might add! I must say, your maniac behavior does an excellent job of disguising was a secretive little nit you can be!"
"Really, Vlad… Name-calling? If you're going to be like that, at least use big boy words. Nit makes me sound like a louse."
"You are a louse! A little flea doing its darnedest to pester the dog you claim sanctuary with!" Vlad said with exasperated gusto. He threw up his arms in her direction. "And what if things had gone wrong with your plan, hm?! What would you have done if Daniel had become this 'evil' embodiment?"
"He would be dead."
A chilling silence dropped through the air, which returned to normal as Vlad's mood drastically changed. He stared at Ashley, who was glaring at the floor as though she were in pain. "I… I beg your pardon?"
"The 'evil' Danny isn't really, completely Danny. It's his ghost half, stripped of his human half. It will still be him, of course, but… If evil, it will have killed the human Danny. Maddie's son will have died." She lifted her eyes to his, a hard look on her face. "Dan Phantom poses a threat to all life on this planet. I won't be able to defeat him because of my curse; you won't be able to defeat him because he's still your son. The only person – human or ghost – who could stop him is my father, and he'll be defenseless because Dan will attack him in his sleep. Do you see why it's so important that he turn out good? That he stay that way? I've seen two futures where he kills you. It's not pretty in either case."
"Two futures!" Vlad balked, shaking his head. He refused to believe that there was even the one. "And why on earth would he ever want to kill me?!"
"He doesn't." she snapped moodily. "You're not thinking very clearly, are you? In one scenario, you strip him of his ghost half to disempower him from getting in your way for world domination. In the other, he has to strip you of those same powers because of your threats to global freedom. In both cases, you both end up human and Danny ends up dead because of it! With nothing but that… that… sham of Phantom to ruin a hero's good name!" She placed a hand over her eyes. "…Again, Vlad, I'm sorry I kept this from you, but you have to understand what it's like carrying that knowledge around." She lowered the hand. Her eyes were blotchy and red. "I once let a more powerful evil get strong enough, one who also wanted to destroy mankind, and I almost lost my boy to it because Aaron was the only thing powerful enough to kill it. I love you and Danny, but I am not risking my kids like that again. Not for you, not for Danny, not for anyone."
Vlad scowled at her. He could empathize with her position as a parent, but Daniel was his son. No one threatened his son. "Ashley, you have my deepest condolences for things that have happened in your past, and I honestly do respect your strategy fortitude in this instance, but I want to make something perfectly clear."
Stitch Witch watched him cautiously as he walked over, until he was standing nose-to-nose with her. She hated him for being taller.
"If you harm a single hair on my son's head, I will destroy everything that you hold dear." He said it in a very quiet voice, but that made it much more intimidating. They both knew that Vlad would lose all semblance of humanity if anything bad happened to Danny.
Stitches was sincerely afraid of just how petty Vlad Masters could be. "I understand you." she replied softly.
"Good." Vlad straightened up. "Now, leave. I have work to do to keep this shoddy city afloat… You wouldn't believe how many problems there are to fix…"
The Witch turned into a cat, who turned into a wispy shadow as she disappeared through a wall. He heard yelps and cries from the next room, which he paid no mind to. As Vlad sat down and went through the documents he'd pulled to look over, his mind was busy at work on something else entirely.
He had to keep his son safe from powers both without and within his employ.
Vlad studied the mental chessboard carefully. Stitch Witch had his most important thing – Daniel – in a position where she could do serious damage if she needed to. She also had more pieces on the board, so to speak; her children were beginning to make themselves at home in his territory, and she'd placed her mother at his side.
That bothered him a great deal. Lily was quickly becoming very important to him, so he certainly didn't want to think that she was a witting threat to him. After all, Stitches had seemed genuinely agitated when she'd told him what Lily felt for him, and the elder Witch was so very, very kind… Even if she could fool Vlad, he decided that Lily couldn't fool Stitch Witch at the same time. Their personalities were too different.
Vlad growled as he studied the players that Stitch Witch had swiped from the board. Ember, thanks to her strong obsession with teenage rebellion, hated adults, and had slowly phased herself out of Danny's life as he started to mentally mature. Fright Knight and Skulker were still loyal to Plasmius, luckily, although he couldn't imagine how they would do in a battle against Stitch Witch and her kin. Vlad had read up extensively in trying to anticipate fighting Fright Knight, but there were no such tales that gave him similar information on Stitches.
Rising from his seat, the billionaire walked over to the chess table he kept in his office. He kept it as a reminder of how triumphant he was in the Ghost Zone. Vlad pursed his lips and rearranged the pieces, adding a few to the board.
If he wanted to dominate, he would have to take care of his Witchkin problem.
=^o.o^=
And the wrath of Vlad comes dooowwwnnn cccrrraaashingsouuund! Well, maybe we're not at that point yet. Then again, honestly, how long can Vlad keep away from conflict? He enjoys it – that's what I think. It gets his mind working. I know that's why I love conflict.
Nyaa.
More on this as it unfolds!
Nyaa!