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Chapter 273: Perception of Problems
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Damien hadn't really seen the… thing with Danny's human parents in action before, and he had to admit it was creepy. Really creepy. Danny didn't even notice them while they were right there. And they didn't see him there, either. They'd been looking for Damien, and whenever he was talking to one set of them, they didn't seem to even register his words. It was so weird.
But that was the way it was supposed to be, wasn't it? Danny wasn't supposed to have to deal with them anymore.
Which meant that Damien had to, which was greaaat. Just great. He really wanted to have to talk to his brother's insane, abusive, ghost-hating parents (who his brother still liked, for some reason).
Yeah. Damien didn't get that.
But they said they'd been researching aglaophotis and 'related plants' for their penance, and given that Libra was letting them wander around, Damien had decided it wouldn't hurt to look into it. Plus, it meant that Danny would stop giving himself a psychic nosebleed or whatever had been going on there, which had been very disturbing to look at.
What did hurt though, was the pair of them marveling that Damien looked 'so much like' someone whose name they couldn't say (probably Danny) and just generally not shutting up. Damien didn't want to hear them prattle on about 'scientific mysteries' or 'remarkable discoveries' or 'impact on ghostly cognition, totally unprecedented.' It all felt very… condescending.
And Damien was discovering that he didn't like being condescended to.
Which maybe shouldn't have been that much of a shock. He did dislike it when Vlad did it.
"-looking for ways to restore it, it's really rare, unfortunately," said Madeline Fenton.
"That won't help us very much, then," said Damien, cuttingly. "If it's endangered, and all."
"I'm sorry, Damien, I didn't quite catch that," said Danny, pausing in his flight to turn onto his back and face Damien.
"I said, I think it might be endangered. Aglaophotis."
"Well," said Danny, "I know that in the human world, they make artificial compounds based on natural substances, so maybe we can find someone to do that, if they really do help with mind control. Plus, sometimes plants like that have relatives that can do similar things, so I think it's still worth looking into."
Wow, Danny was definitely cool. But the sibling code meant that he definitely could not tell him that. Ever.
If he was interpreting the sibling code correctly. It seemed sort of contradictory at times.
Anyway.
The reached Libra's library.
"Oh," said Danny, "it's you."
"Yes, Daniel, it's me. I am allowed to exist in public places. Like this library," said Vlad, putting aside a book.
"Is this library public?" asked Danny.
"Public to people currently residing in Libra or visiting for trials and whatnot. My advocate has arranged everything. I am allowed to be here."
"Uh huh. I don't suppose you're one of the people researching aglaophotis."
"No," said Vlad, his eyes moving to the elder Fentons. "I did do a spot of research for it several days ago, but that is not my current subject of research."
"Then what is?" asked Damien.
Vlad glanced at Damien and a whole variety of emotions moved across his face, none of which Damien particularly cared to interpret. He looked away immediately thereafter.
"If you must know, I'm looking into what, exactly, I owe you and your siblings, as well as how I can provide it."
"You're researching your child support?" asked Danny. "You know that'll be in the instructions your advocate received after the ruling, right?"
"I know, Daniel, but I like knowing more. Knowing where the limits are, you understand. At least, I hope you understand, given that you're the ruler of the Infinite Realms, now, and all."
Danny sighed, and Damien could taste the disappointment. "You were doing better in the tower. Even right before and right after the tower. What happened?" Danny tilted his head and crossed his arms. "Are you really that selfish and greedy, or are you just afraid?"
"What, exactly, would I be afraid of?"
"I don't know. Making genuine connections to other people? Apologizing to the people you've wronged? Your own feelings? Therapy? I know you could use it. Jazz could probably make a more through list."
"Isn't my paying for all of your," Vlad waved a hand, "everything more than enough of an apology?"
"Uh, no. For one, you're being forced to do that, because you gambled and lost, and for two, you haven't actually apologized. You've barely even looked at Damien. I mean, you and Ellie were sort of figuring things out, weren't you? Can you maybe apply a little bit of that character development to this situation?"
"Um," said Damien, "I think we've maybe gotten a little bit off-topic here."
"Yes, Daniel. You came to learn about aglaophotis, didn't you? Well, don't let me stop you." Vlad paused. "When was the last time you slept, anyway, Daniel?"
"I just took a nap a couple of hours ago. Why do people keep asking me that?"
"Hm," said Vlad. "If you want my opinion, you might benefit from some time spent somewhere with something approaching a circadian rhythm. Both of you, actually," he said, with a practiced air of distraction. "You have horrible bags under your eyes."
Damien felt himself go stiff. He'd been willing to let things pass, but he wasn't going to take criticism from Vlad. Not after everything.
"Might have something to do with having been a weird fleshless mutant skeleton for the first few weeks of my life. You know, before you sent me off on a suicide mission because I was disposable to you."
"I—" Vlad faltered, speechless.
Damien… Somehow, he didn't feel satisfied. He should. Damien disliked him. Resented him. He knew his siblings did, too, but…
But.
There shouldn't be a but. There was, though.
"Vladdie," said Jack Fenton. "What did you get into?"
"Shut up, Jack, this doesn't have anything to do with you," snapped Vlad.
"You know why we did what you said?" asked Damien, flatly and loudly, pulling attention back to himself. "It wasn't because we were mindless, or because you had us trained." He laughed, humorously. "I mean, you did, and I'm not going to pretend we had all that much presence of mind, but that wasn't why we did what you said."
Vlad paused for a long moment. "Then what was?"
"Well, for some reason, we loved you."
Dead silence.
"Well," said Vlad, he smoothed the papers in front of him with an almost compulsive motion. "Well. I don't – I don't exactly know what you want from me here."
To be fair, Damien didn't know what he wanted from this exchange either.
"You could start with telling us what you know about aglaophotis," said Damien, as if he didn't care. He examined the tips of his gauntlets as if they were his fingernails.
… Actually, wow, every time he looked at the armor Fright Knight had made him it was just so cool. Armor was great. He loved being a… Well, technically not a knight yet, but given everything, he had to be getting close.
"That," said Danny, "sounds like a great idea."
"That- No, that's a terrible idea. Don't you have those two idiots to help you out?"
"Danny can't exactly see them," said Damien, "so no, they can't help us out. Me translating everything will get weird, and you know what you're talking about, so you get to do it."
"Oh, alright, alright," said Vlad.
And then Danny and the Fentons both asked what they were talking about.
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Dan's clone in the air had caught a scent. Not literally. Dan's sense of smell just wasn't quite that good. But it had seen something.
With a groan of frustration, Dan recalled his clones and shot into the sky. Of course he'd been wrong about Freakshow traveling by ground. Of course.
Dan grunted, cutting off the thought. He wasn't Danny, with his compulsive need to blame himself for everything. Dan had been operating logically. It wasn't his fault Freakshow was such a weirdo. That was all on him.
Besides, he had found him, eventually.
Dan could, of course, fly much faster than most ghosts, and that extended to flying faster than a few dozen ghosts carrying a military Jeep. Keeping sight of the car while it was going in and out of cloud cover was another thing, but Dan managed. He had experience in tracking down and getting rid of enemies.
Now, here was his problem: While none of the ghosts carrying the car was a threat, them dropping the car was. He could carry it himself, of course, any of his duplicates could, and he could carry Sam and Pamela, but it had been a long time since he had defended such a soft target from attackers.
Not that he'd call Sam a soft target to her face. That was suicidal.
He could phase through the car, grab the two of them, and then fly away as fast as possible. But, like with Jazz and the president, he couldn't risk his top speed. There were reasons planes were enclosed and pressurized, and he didn't know how much a human could take anymore. It had been a decade since it mattered to him.
He wasn't stupid enough to think he could just waltz through out of practice and on guesswork without any problems. Regardless of what Vlad might have thought (and Dan's unique perspective meant that he knew Vlad had opinions on the matter and exactly what they were), Danny's heroics took a lot of knowledge and practice.
Plus gravity, physics, yadda, yadda, Dan wasn't terribly in practice with those, either. Being trapped in the thermos for years tended to do that to a ghost, although he had been acclimatizing and thought he was more or less up to his usual standards.
He didn't want to test that by playing catch with Sam (or her mother, he supposed) a hundred stories above the ground.
Caring was overrated and it sucked. It really, really did.
Safest thing to do would be to follow at a distance until Freakshow had the ghosts put the car down.
Or… could he snag the car in a portal? If he did that, he wouldn't have to worry about it falling… But he would have to worry about giving Freakshow an army. Because he had no idea how many ghosts Freakshow could control at once right now, or how powerful a ghost would have to be to resist him.
Dan hoped it would be low. Freakshow and 'Ms. Forest' had done a lot of prep work at the facility with all those lines. Many of which Dan had destroyed. Honestly, at this point, it felt like a bit of a toss up as to what had happened.
Oh, screw it. Dan wasn't a goody-goody, and he didn't really care about all that many people. One of them was in that car. He was going to do what he had to, to make sure she survived this.
Besides, it wasn't like ghosts could die from a spot of mind control. Once they got a hold of Freakshow, they could break his hold.
(Right?)
He reached out, ectoplasm sparking at the tips of his fingers.
(A shadow twitched under the car.)
