Danny nervously watched as Horrick continued to keep his hand on the switch. The room they were in was a large, circular one with the large metal table in the center of the room. It looked more like Danny was about to have surgery done on him. He was beginning to sweat from nervousness, and his white hair looked like it was getting pretty greasy from it.
Finally, the time came. Horrick pushed the switch upwards, and the large machine around Danny jolted into action. (literally) Sparks started flaying everywhere, and long beams of electricity shot themselves inside Danny and started traveling up and down his veins.
Danny began screaming in agonizing pain as the electricity currents sailed through his body. The process went on for a very long time, and Horrick would not stop grinning as Danny screamed for him to turn the machine off.
After what seemed like the longest time, Danny felt like something inside of him snapped. At the same time, Horrick shut the machine off and looked at Aria.
"Aria!" Horrick yelled to his daughter, "get the metal pole over in the corner and hit this child on the leg with it."
"Why?" Aria questioned.
"If he gets hit by the pole and I don't feel any pain, then the link is officially severed and we will be able to destroy him anyway we want to."
"Yes, father," Aria quietly said. She passed a look down to Danny that shoved the fact that he was going to die soon right in his face.
Danny's eyes widened and his teeth mashed together as he saw Aria walk away and come back with a long, metal pole in her hands. She raised it above her head and was prepared to whack him in the leg with it. (the point being that just in case the link between Danny and Horrick wasn't severed, Horrick wouldn't feel too much pain)
Danny's eyes squeezed shut as the pole smashed his kneecap with much more force than he expected. Once again, he yelped out with agony in his voice. It was soon taken over by the sound of Horrick chuckling.
"That's it," Horrick said with a smile on his face. "The link has officially been severed. Now, we can kill that ghost child for everything he's put me through, and we won't have to worry about it killing me in the process!"
"Dude, I think you have it backwards," Danny said, lifting his head up from the table.
Horrick looked at the floor and continued to quietly laugh. He walked around the room as he laughed, but continued staring down at the floor. Aria was watching with a smile on her face as her father walked around the room. After a moment or two, Horrick stopped and pulled something out from a corner of the room. When it was out of the shadows, Danny saw that it was the knife Horrick had used to slice his arm open just a few minutes before to prove to Danny that they were indeed connected. (Danny had a hard time taking his eyes off the huge gash that was in Horrick's arm, considering the fact that the wound seemed so deep that it seemed anything could just get right in the injury)
Horrick kept the evil look on his face, and now he was right in front of Danny as he held the knife right over Danny's heart.
"Now, Ghost Child, you will die," Horrick said heartlessly.
He raised the blade high into the air, and was ready to thrust it into Danny's body with as much force as he could. But at the last minute, Danny screamed so loudly it made Horrick and Aria jump. As soon as he let out the loudest yell he had ever made, Danny used all his inner body strength to break free of the binds on the metal table. He was now floating in the air, just a few feet below the ceiling.
Horrick looked clearly upset that Danny escaped, but he didn't think it was a big deal that Danny got away. After all, he could just capture him again.
"Such a pity all of your strength won't matter in a little while," Horrick said to Danny. He then walked towards the door and quickly opened it, as if he were in a hurry to get somewhere. Just as he walked out, he yelled to Aria, "Aria! Stay here and fight him! You should know all his moves from your little 'training session', anyway."
Aria smiled and nodded her head, and then Horrick slammed the door. Now Aria and Danny had been engaged in a fight, and neither one of them showed any sign of backing down.
"Try and surprise me!" Aria challenged. "I know your every move!"
Danny was pretty angry now, due to the fact that her "training" was really just a way to figure out Danny's moves and to alert Horrick of how they were used in case he ever had to battle.
Danny launched up into the air and started forming two balls of energy, one in both of his hands. He threw both of them like a baseball, but Aria put up a ghostly shield and deflected them all.
"Ha!" she yelled. She then countered by flying up into the air with Danny and giving him fast, and surprisingly strong kicks to the jaw. After just a few kicks, Danny was knocked to the ground.
When he was still trying to get up after hitting the solid floor, Aria jumped down right in front of him and ran to a corner of the room. She picked up a giant mace and started walking towards Danny with it.
Danny actually screamed as he saw Aria charge towards him with the mace in her hand. The sharp spikes sticking out from the heavy head of the mace was enough to strike fear in his heart, but he had to ignore it the best he could. Just as Aria took a swing at him, he rolled out of the way.
Aria ended up sticking the mace into the floor, but she only had to give it a bit of a tug before she pulled it out again. When Aria had a firm grip on the mace, she again tried to crush Danny with it. And also like last time, Danny rolled out of the way.
But instead of continuing to stay on the ground, Danny got up this time. He kicked himself off the ground and was back on his feet. But he did it quickly so Aria wouldn't have any time to react to it. He shot a blast of ectoplasmic energy at her head, and she dropped the mace only an inch or two away from her foot.
As Aria was recovering from the surprise blast, Danny jumped over and grabbed the mace. He put it on the highest shelf in the entire room, saying "This thing is just an accident waiting to happen".
Now that he and Aria were back to fighting with just powers and their fists, the fight seemed to be getting much rougher.
After fighting for a while, Danny and Aria were relatively out of breath and were floating a few feet apart.
"You know, you're the worst daddy's girl I've ever seen," Danny remarked, trying his best to make her angry.
Aria responded to this by firing a blast of energy at Danny. Danny did a somersault in mid air and just barely missed it.
"Okay, whatever," Danny mumbled. He tried firing a blast at her, but she fired one at exactly the same time and collided in mid air, completely destroying both of them.
"You don't seem to be giving in," Aria said. "I guess I'll have to try a few more drastic things."
Aria put out her hands and pointed them at the ground. Instantly a mini-earthquake erupted through the tile flooring and traveled until it hit another wall. The process involved it hitting Danny, and he fell backwards as if someone had tripped him from behind.
Danny collapsed on the ground, and once again Aria got ready to create another small earthquake. But just as she created one, Danny jumped up into the air and started floating, and landed right in front of one of the shelves in the room.
"You're dead!" Aria yelled. As she was making a third earthquake, Danny fired a blast at her leg and she got knocked to the ground. She fell back-flat, but not before she completed the move that would create an earthquake.
Danny made sure he stayed up in the air as the third earthquake happened. But, Aria was in such a close proximity to the shelf she was standing in front of, the waves started shaking the shelf very quickly.
Then, a rattling sound was heard. It sounded like something metal was bouncing on the top of the shelf. Then Danny remembered that was where he put the mace.
The rumbling got louder, and Danny looked at the top of the shelf. It was indeed the same shelf where he put the mace. Eventually, the vibrations caused the mace to get knocked off the shelf and come tumbling towards the ground below.
The only problem was that Aria was at the foot of the shelf. When the mace came off the top ledge of the shelf, her face was right under it.
Danny's eyes widened in disbelief, unable to think about what was about to happen. Aria let out one last loud, bloodcurdling scream before the mace landed on top of her head. Ghostly green liquid burst from Aria's head as the mace came into contact with her. She didn't move at all after that.
Danny just stared, awestruck about actually seeing something that looked human just die. He didn't move at all for a few seconds, almost looking like a statue. Finally, he made a break for it and ran towards the door out of the room and tried to find the massive doors leading out of the house.
"I am SO outta here!" Danny yelled as he ran out of the room and slammed the door behind him.
He bolted down the long hallways and looked for a way out, looking more frantic than if a bomb was placed in the mansion. After running for a while and hearing nothing except the thudding of his footsteps as he ran through the carpeted, empty halls, he finally found someone.
"Mr. Compton!" Danny yelled.
Compton looked shocked to see Danny was alive. Danny landed right next to him and put his hands on his hips, trying to give Compton the most intimidating glare he could put on.
"But…but Horrick told me he gave Aria the strictest orders to kill you!" Compton yelled, his voice beginning to sound very desperate. He sounded like he was a criminal who was just caught on America's Most Wanted.
"Why don't you go find her and ask her to give you all the gory details of the fight?" Danny suggested. He then grabbed Compton by the back of his shirt and pulled him back to the room Danny was just in. (not without having to look for the room for a few minutes)
After Danny found the room he was held hostage in a few minutes earlier, he took some of the rope from the room and tied Compton up with it. After tying Compton's hands and feet up, he flew him back to the front entrance to the mansion.
"What are you going to do to me?" Compton asked. "I'm your neighbor. Surely you wouldn't kill me?"
"Nah, I'm not like you," Danny retorted. "But don't think I won't just drop you into some jail cell or padded-white cell, because I think you need some time alone, away from ghosts."
But instead of actually flying out, Danny put the tied up Compton down onto the ground and started running away.
"All right," Danny said when Compton was out of his sight. "Aria's dead, and I just forced Compton to surrender. All I need to do is find Horrick and finish him off!"
