Okay guys! Here's more FINALLY! Expect this to be finished by the end of the week...four or five more chapters, minimum!
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"I said a half hour!" Danny glared at Nora as he stood up and unsuccessfully tried to rub the fatigue from his eyes.
"I lost track of time," she said simply.
Danny sighed. "I'm going ghost," he muttered as the two rings appeared around his waist, and transformed him with a flash of light into the notorious Ghost-boy. He didn't really know why he kept the childish battle cry, although he suspected that it had something to do with the fact that Vlad didn't like it.
"Let's go," he said, trying to stifle a yawn as he leapt into the air.
Nora took a deep breath, and followed uncertainly. "You know," she shuddered as she watched the world drop away beneath them, "I'll never get used to that."
Danny laughed. "I thought that too, but after you do it for so long, it becomes second nature."
"You know," she glanced over at him, "I haven't heard you laugh before. It's a nice sound."
The smile immediately disappeared and he looked away. "I've grown up too quickly since I got my powers to laugh much anymore."
Nora cringed at the bitterness that laced his words. "How long have you been like this?" she asked, before adding almost as an afterthought, "...a half ghost, I mean?"
He blinked, still refusing to look at her. Alesha had asked him that question, and it unnerved him to have someone who looked so much like her ask him again. Pushing the thoughts aside, he gulped and answered. "A little over a year."
"You mean, you weren't born like that? You were turned into one just like that Vlad character?"
The look on her face amused him enough to coax a smile onto his lips. "What did you expect?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I guess I don't know. I'm not an expert on ghosts. Although I have to say that I would probably have found it a fascinating subject. Especially now." Her voice faded off before turning to throw a forced smile his direction. "Especially if everything about them looks as amazing your transformation. It has to be the most incredible thing I've ever seen."
"Thanks." Danny glanced at her, before looking down at his white-gloved hands. "I guess. I used to think so too."
She cocked her head. "Used to? What have you seen that's more amazing than that?"
He sighed and dropped his hands to his side. "Statues," he whispered, his voice barely audible. "None of them had any real shape or form, and they were all made from a material covering the entire room...and let me tell you, this room was gigantic." He spread his arms wide to emphasize the last word, and continued. "They hung from the ceiling, and looked like they actually grew from the floor. The substance they were made of looked like sea green glass, and it looked like they stretched on forever, as far as I could see. The only sharp edges in the entire room were on the statues. Everything else looked soft and round." He sighed and looked over at her again.
"I can't describe it very well, but it was amazing. After I get home and rest, I'll take you there...although," his voice took on a sad tone, "it's recently been destroyed."
"Who would do such a thing?" Nora asked softly.
Danny hesitated for several moments before he answered. "Someone...in a lot of pain," he finally answered in an equally soft voice.
They flew for several minutes in silence before Nora decided to break the silence again. "So, are you going to tell me your story, and not just the part that includes Alesha?" He cringed, and didn't answer. "Look," she said in a kinder tone. "Why don't you just start from the beginning...how you got your powers?"
Danny sighed and nodded. "Well, it all started when my parents decided to build a portal to hook to the ghost zone, similar to the one that changed Vlad...only bigger. Much, much bigger..."
- - -
Danny told her about his adventures as a new halfa, and about the many ghosts he had fought, thinking in his innocence that it would always continue like it had back then. He'd been so naive.
He went on to the incident with Vlad sending Marsha and Lars to overshadow his parents. As he spoke, Danny realized that was the only time he'd ever actually talked to Brian. Knowing what he knew now, he would have liked to get to know Alesha's brother better.
Then he told her about New York, and staying with Vlad, and finally getting to know her daughter, and about how Alesha had turned on his arch-enemy to help him get home. When he came to the point where Vlad had given him that horrible choice, that wasn't really a choice at all, he had to stop. A lump formed in his throat and he looked away.
"You have extremely loyal friends to keep coming back after all of that," she told him quietly. He nodded, still wondering how to continue. "So," she recognized his uncomfortable silence, and urged him on. "You had just decided to go home with your sister and friends...what happened after that? And where was Lars all this time?"
Well, that certainly didn't help the lump do anything but grow larger. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed before continuing with a weak voice. "Jazz gave me a hug...and then Vlad came, and overshadowed...er, overtook my best friend's body. Tucker. He told me if I wanted Tucker to live, that I should follow him. I did, after asking Ale–er, Marsha to take Jazz and Sam to get my parents. She agreed, and I went after Tucker. I found him in Vlad's office...standing next to a green tank filled with a thick, green liquid. Vlad was still inside him, and he told me about the tank.
"He told me it was filled with a substance that could knock ghosts out for a long time. Then he pointed out that if it could do that to a ghost, it would be lethal to a human. He had Lars inside it, and had been using him as blackmail to keep Alesha around. Apparently they were going to quit or something, and Plasmius didn't like that.
"Anyway, Vlad took Tucker and floated above the tank, saying that if I could get Brian out, he'd let everyone go, no questions asked. I didn't really believe him, but I had to try. When I put my arms through the glass, I lost all feeling in them. After only a few seconds, anything touching the stuff stopped working altogether. I couldn't feel my arms at all. He told me that he'd set the device to explode, and that anyone–ghost or human–left in the room would be obliterated. Then he gave me three seconds to choose, and flew out of Tucker."
"So your friend...?" Nora looked over, horror showing on her face.
"I was able to catch him in time," Danny muttered, "but I couldn't get to Lars too... Everything exploded just as I phased out of the room. I caught some of the blast, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital bed."
Yet again, he didn't dare look at her as this shock hit her.
"Lars...he--he's really dead, isn't he?" she asked. "Not even a ghost anymore..."
"I'm so sorry," Danny blurted out suddenly. "I tried to save him! Really I did–"
"Danny," she shook her head, "I can tell you're telling me the truth, and it wasn't your fault. I don't blame you...but Marsha didn't take it very well, did she?"
Danny shook his head, not realizing how good it felt to finally talk about all of this and get it off of his shoulders. "I think that Vlad got to her, and brainwashed her into thinking that I let him...er...die on purpose."
"Why would you do such a thing?" Nora asked in outrage and confusion.
"Like an exchange for ruining my life or something." He shook his head. "I never blamed her. If she hadn't helped me out...if she hadn't turned on Vlad, I'd still be at his house, and probably suicidal by now.
"Anyway, she came to my house, and started to help me fight ghosts. That's when the nightmares started, mostly due to all the fighting between my parents lately. It took a few weeks for her to reveal her plan...to kill me. Jazz saved me again, I think, because Alesha knocked me unconscious, and should have been able to take me out then and there. When I woke up, though, I saw her take Jazz outside, talking about how she was going to do to me what I did to her. When I followed, I couldn't find any trace of them, until I went into the basement. Mom had been knocked out, and the porthole was open, but by then there was no way to trace them. I've been looking for them ever since."
He knew she was still absorbing the shock of everything he'd told her, and frankly, he didn't know exactly how she'd react. It scared him. Would she freak out and turn on him like Alesha had? He didn't know if he could handle that, but what could he do except watch and wait?
To his relief, she only continued to fly beside him, with an emotionless face.
They flew like that for almost 20 minutes before a town began to come into view over the horizon.
"Um..." he cleared his throat. "There's Amity park. We're almost home."
"For you, perhaps," she whispered. Not only was he unsure if that was directed at him, but he didn't know how to respond, so he didn't.
They didn't speak for the rest of the trip.