Chapter 5
"How do I get rid of the Purists? Stupid ghosts, stupid ghost powers, stupid everything! Why can't I just be a normal kid?" Danny asked in frustration later that day as he kicked a rock along the concrete pavement. Sam and Tucker walked alongside him. Sam had been released from the hospital about an hour earlier.
"I don't know." Sam said casually. "But I wonder why they're so set on killing you and you alone. I mean, we know there are other halfas in the world. Do they?" Danny shrugged.
"Who cares if they know? I'm not going to tell them." Then Danny stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk, the cool fall breeze ruffling his jet black hair and revealing his electric blue eyes, which had a look of dawning comprehension in them.
"Uh, Danny?" Tucker asked, raising an eyebrow. "Any particular reason why you just stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk?" Danny shook his head slowly, as if coming out of a trance.
"Other halfas! Sam, you're a genius!" Without thinking what he was doing, Danny grabbed his friend in a tight hug and kissed her full on the lips. When he finally let of Sam, she looked somewhat dazed. Tucker just looked shocked.
"Danny..." she started slowly, blushing and putting her fingers to her lips where Danny had just kissed her. But she soon realized that Danny wasn't listening to her. In fact, he was running down the street.
"No time!" he called over his shoulder. "Got to get to Wisconsin!" His two best friends stared after him.
"Wisconsin..." Sam started. "You don't think..." Tucker nodded seriously. Sam looked troubled. "I sure hope he's careful."
"Why should I help you, Daniel?" Vlad Masters questioned Danny. They were in Vlad's spacious Wisconsin mansion. They were sitting on the green and gold couch...Packers colors. Vlad was a Packers fanatic. Now Danny avoided looking at him, and instead stared determinedly at the autographed football behind Vlad. Danny couldn't believe he had sunk this low, to ask his archenemy for help.
"Well, because...if the Purists are out to kill all humans and half ghosts, that means they're after you, too. You don't want to lose your life, do you?" How ironic, Danny thought. I'm asking him if he wants to die, when I've tried to kill him more than once.
"Of course not! But that still doesn't mean I'm going to help you...without a favor in return." Vlad started pacing up and down on the green and gold carpet. Danny watched him warily. Suddenly a ring of light appeared at Vlad's waist, split in two, and traveled in opposite directions, one up, one down. Vlad's ghost side, a vampire with a red cape and malicious smile, turned around and grinned evilly at Danny.
"Come on, Daniel. You know what I want." Danny did know.
"I'm not going to join you!" Danny's eyes flashed green for a moment as he glared at his archenemy.
Vlad's evil smile widened in amusement. "My dear boy, I don't think you have much of a choice. It's either join me, or get killed by Purists. And my boy, you don't want to lose your life, do you?" Danny cringed at Vlad's cruel mockery of his earlier words. But he knew Vlad was right.
"All right." Danny said through clenched teeth, fighting the rage that was boiling inside him.
"What was that?" Vlad said, pretending he hadn't heard him.
"All right!" Danny shouted. "I'll join you!" He turned away, and instead of firing an ectoplasmic blast at Vlad, as he so wanted to do, he fired the blast at a nearby chair, which exploded.
"Daniel, do try and control that temper of yours. All right. Then it's settled. I'll fight with you against the Purists...and in return, you will join me."
Danny nodded shortly before going ghost himself and flying through the solid wall of the mansion. They would need a lot more than two people to defeat the Purists. It was time to recruit the next member of his army.