Generally speaking, one's heartrate pounding in their ears is not the most pleasant feeling- especially when it came connected to stress, anxiety, or any other manner of negative emotion. Half-ghosts didn't tend to have that problem most of the time. High blood pressure and a reduced heartrate meant it was hard for a half-ghost's pulse to get high enough to hear it, even to their own extra-sensitive ears.
That was all Danny could properly hear as he darted in the straightest line he could towards Sam's room. It was only a small relief when he arrived in half a second and confirmed he was the only ghost there. Vlad was in the hospital, though. Somewhere nearby. And his ghost sense didn't work on a half-ghost in human form.
Sparing no time, Danny dove back out of the room towards the waiting room up the hall- regrettably missing the entertaining sight of Pamela Manson shuddering overdramatically from the cold chill he left behind him.
Valerie and Danielle sat just where they'd been all night, but it brought no real relief. He needed to know where the hell Vlad was and make sure he didn't even think of coming near any of them. He barely let Dani's ghost sense go off before he started speaking, low and fast and knowing they'd obviously recognize his voice. "Dani, go stay in Sam's room and keep watch until I get back." He left no room for questions or arguments. Not that there would be any of the latter, but there was just no time. Vlad could find out they were there at any moment-
Kyle had mentioned the ER, so that was where Danny immediately went first. Remaining invisible and intangible (he at least knew not to set off the alarm bells of the staff- the last thing he needed was to get kicked out now), he swept through every room in the wing and turned up short. No Vlad. He didn't have the time for this.
Or at least not the patience.
He didn't bother to try and think of more places Vlad could be. He'd just been in the main waiting room and passed the lobby, so he knew Vlad wasn't in the middle of checking himself out or anything. So instead, he flew straight up and out of the top, front corner of the hospital before he promptly went right back in with only a passing thought to the news station van parked out front.
Amity Park Regional Hospital was a fair bit larger than its abandoned predecessor, but it was built in a pretty simple manner of minimal turns, large open hallways, and square rooms in rectangular wings. The best way to search was just to check every room.
The more rooms Danny flew through- invisible, intangible, and just fast enough he could make out the people in their beds- the more anxious he got. Where was he? Was he already on the move? What were his plans? Would he try again right after what he'd just done? Then again, he'd done something so unhinged-
Danny found him because of another waiting room. He didn't catch sight of Vlad himself but instead backtracked into the very small room he'd just flown through after he registered the same vivid red hair he'd caught downstairs. Walter Weston. The man was tapping impatiently on his cell phone and looked some mix of irritated and stressed. Finally.
Danny spun around, scanning the walls for any sign of what unit this was, but there was none in the room. However, there was a microwave, a fridge, a few chairs, and a couch that looked more like a bed. Huh. That was weird for a hospital to have, right?
Nevermind. He'd found Mr. Weston which meant Vlad had to be nearby.
Danny took a right through the neighboring wall and found himself in a big room he'd only seen once before in person- when he was small and scared and having death explained to him the first time.
The layout of the Intensive Care Unit was unsettling even back then. The half-glass walls, the overpowering smell of disinfectant, the pristine presentation of everyone who worked there.
Danny started to turn back, thinking there was no way Vlad was in the ICU, but he froze as he caught sight of the papers clipped up by one of the far rooms of the ward.
Masters.
He wasn't sure when he'd dropped from the air and stopped floating, but Danny walked across the room with growing unease. That surely wasn't right- Vlad was half-ghost, the number of things that could damage him badly enough to land in the hospital- let alone the ICU- for more than twelve hours were minimal. And it had been even longer than that, even-
All of his own injuries from the day before were healed aside from the couple broken ribs that felt like they were almost there. What sort of plan did Vlad have-
Danielle was on high alert- dutifully standing invisibly inside the door to Sam's room and keeping her eyes and ears focused both inside the room and just outside of it. She hadn't bothered to change forms- it would've taken too much time to run to the restroom to do so- but now she'd need to know when something was coming early enough to morph. And when she heard Danny shouting up the hall a few minutes later, she balanced herself out- ready to jump in-
But no fight ever came her way and aside from one more, panicked but indistinguishable shout, she heard no more from up the hall. The temptation to check on her brother was more than a little strong, but she wouldn't leave Sam. Valerie would've surely heard what was going on and stepped in instead. Dani was just. Well, she wasn't a patient person. Like at all. Her phone started to buzz in her pocket, but she ignored it for now- unable to answer without being caught by Sam's parents. She did turn around so her phone was outside of the room, though, after noticing their confused looks towards the door.
It felt like she stood there forever (okay so it was maybe a few minutes but it feels so much longer when you're anxious) before she heard footsteps coming up the hallway and whirled around- somewhat surprised to see Val in her normal clothes rather than her suit. Finally some sort of update, though. "Nell?" Dani fought the blush that threatened to rise at the damn-cute nickname Val had given her.
After a quick glance to make sure she wasn't just outright in front of a camera, Dani stepped entirely out into the hallway and faded into view. "I heard Danny- what's going on? Who's attacking? Did you guys catch 'em?"
"Shh, they'll hear you-" Val tugged her farther away from Sam's door though they were still more than close enough to it to protect their friend. Oops. She had been a little loud- "Danny's freaking out and needs you more than me right now- I'll stay here to keep eyes on Sam. Tucker took him to a room up the hall so they didn't attract attention. Go quick, before we have another incident."
Ah shit. What now? Dani wordlessly stretched up and pecked Val's cheek and hurried up the hallway with a nod. Even without advanced hearing, it wouldn't have been hard to figure out where Danny and Tucker were once she made it back to the waiting room. She let herself into the room, stepping through the door and trying to figure out what the hell was happening.
Danny was still in Phantom form, pacing rapidly and quickly building a layer of ice under his feet as he talked so fast that even she couldn't understand him. Just outside of the range of ice, Tucker was trying to get his attention back since Danny was clearly spiraling.
"Yo, what's going on? Danny, what happened?" Dani was fully expecting for him not to hear her or pay attention to her, but to her surprise, he froze in his spot and turned his focus directly on her.
"What did I do?" ... What? The hell was he talking about? She wasn't even sure what sort of emotions were going across his face, but it was definitely a lot.
"Okay, gonna need a little bit more than that. Take a deep breath and-"
"To Vlad. What did I do to Vlad?" Huh? What did he- Oh. Oh. What the hell? Why was he asking her?
Tucker jumped in as Danny started to open his mouth. "He saw Vlad in the ICU and asked how it happened and I told him-"
"I don't remember doing that, you guys." Sheesh, no wonder Val hadn't wanted to try and handle this if none of them could even get a sentence in. Not that Dani could actually blame him for it, though.
"It's fine, Danny-"
"I don't remember what I did, Danielle, and that's never gone well for me before. What if I was being mind controlled again? What is Freak Show is back out? Or some other ghost we don't even know about? Or what if it's some- I don't know, some fuckin'-"
Dani took her brother's loss for words as a chance to interrupt him this time. "Danny, I saw you. I watched what you were doing the entire time, and I would've noticed if there was another ghost nearby. I would've known if you were being controlled. I don't know why you don't remember, but I was making sure you wouldn't-" Nope. Not the right word choice at the moment. "That you would stop."
He'd clearly had the thought on his own, though. "I almost killed him, Dani! It's half a day later and he's still got internal bleeding and looks like he got his by ten busses and I did that and I can't remember it!"
"Dude, you had to protect us. You had to protect Sam." Thank Clockwork for Tucker Foley. Danny visibly deflated though he was clearly no less anxious or worked up.
Dani practically jumped on her chance to save the conversation- she'd seriously have to thank Tuck later for pointing that out when she was obviously getting nowhere. "Vlad became a whole damn fruit-loop factory in a split second. There was no telling what else he might've done if you hadn't stopped him, and you didn't kill him so what does it matter now? I was watching, like I said. I knew you were handling it."
"Sure because handling it is risking all of our secrets by landing him in a hospital. Should've just shoved him in a thermos," he shot back at her after a moment, but she was pretty sure they were out of the woods. He seemed so tired. A tired Danny, she could work with.
"I've been keeping an eye on things and an eye on him. I've checked every time I've gotten up. He'll be fine and apparently there's not as much ectoplasm in his blood compared to yours, and it's not much more than he had after his accident so that's already on his medical history." Tucker gave her a raised eyebrow, seeming impressed. But Dani was nothing if not self-preserving. She didn't know a lot about medical shit, but she knew enough.
Danny seemed to be just as irritated, but he wasn't halfway-skating around on a floor of ice anymore at least. Just pacing normally. Dani gave him a few to continue to cool down and actually use his head for once instead of just freaking out on them. But of course that just meant he started planning instead. "One of his employees is here- one of the only people who knows who and what we both are. We need a patrol on him to make sure he doesn't try to say anything to the doctors. The last thing we need is someone saying that Phantom beat the shit out of the former mayor. Not with that stupid crusade against ghosts front he always puts up."
"Danny, c'mon, you're already keeping an eye on Sam all the time so you know she's safe. It's not like Vlad or whoever works for him has any proof anyways- I got that covered last night. And if things get bad enough, we expose Plasmius and show our side of the story that he's the one who hurt Sam. Self-defense, right?" Tucker reasoned. Good ole' Tuck. If Dani wanted to, she'd bet actually money that he already had the only copies of Vlad's security tapes from the night before. Sure, Vlad had money and brains and experience. But they had gradually stolen enough of his shit (okay, so she and Valerie had done most of the nabbing since Danny didn't approve of it) and had just enough from the Manson bank accounts that their team of five teenagers could handle themselves pretty damn well against one of the richest dudes on Earth. It admittedly also helped that Vlad wasn't mayor anymore and therefore didn't have as much direct power as he wanted.
Her brother still seemed pretty damn keyed up, but she didn't figure there was much more she and Tuck could do in this instance. "Look, it'll be fine, Danny. We'll get a ghost shield set up around Sam's room once she's awake and I'll keep checking on the nutcase. We're not watching him or whoever it is with him constantly. There aren't enough of us and we're all tired as fuck. You don't need me to tell you that." He tried to interrupt her again, but she pushed through. No one matched his stubbornness better than her. It was literally in her biology. "Val and I will keep eyes on Sam. Take some time to chill out before she wakes up. Nothing. Is going. To happen. Alright?" He looked like he wanted to go on, meeting her stare-down as the challenge it was... but eventually he slumped his shoulders and morphed back to Fenton form finally.
"You're telling me later what exactly happened so I can try and remember it."
"I can deal with that if you can. Tuck, if he tries to run off, shove 'im in a thermos," Dani called behind herself as she phased through the door and back into the hallway, ignoring the indignant protests behind her. She loved her brother but his hero complex got to be downright exhausting sometimes.
And why, oh why did it have to feel like this was only the beginning?
