Danny Phantom in: Spectre Rejecters

Part 3

Almost a week had passed, and Danny had remained isolated in the room Vlad had allowed him to stay in. Various news paper articles featured tragic events such as fires and ghost attacks, and if that wasn't bad enough, a couple also had headlines such as "Where is Phantom?" which made him feel even more guilty. The media was a confusing thing. One minute, the tabloids would be cursing the ghost boy for causing trouble, despite the fact that most of the time he was just doing what was right. Then no sooner had they done this, they would be praising him for "saving Amity Park from destruction" or similar situations. It was pretty clear that all the authors of said articles cared about was their next paycheque.

Vlad slouched in his chair, twirling his glass of red wine and watching the liquid splash around. Young Daniel was still in his room, and the only connection he'd had with the outside world for the past week was by reading news paper articles, which were more or less based on various accidents that usually Danny would have put a stop to. He found himself asking the very question, 'What would a father do in this situation?'

Danny opened the newspaper and started to read an article about a ghost attack in which three people had lost their lives; a young mother, her little girl along with a young baby.

"…the malevolent ghost attacked the household of a young single mother and her two beloved children. The house was deemed too dangerous to enter until Jack and Maddie Fenton, professional ghost hunters, arrived at the scene and banished the heartless ghost for good. The bodies of the family were later discovered at the scene. Many people say that this wouldn't have happened if not for a certain ghost child's absence. Danny Phantom, where are you?" Just as he had finished reading the report, he heard a knock on the door. Vlad waited for a reply, but after a while having not received one, entered the room. "Daniel, you've been in this room for a week now. I know it's been hard, but perhaps if you trained a little, it would take our mind off things for a while?" Danny stayed silent.

"Well, if you decide you're interested, the training room is just down the hall from here, the end right door, okay?"

Vlad had guessed that he wouldn't be answered, and turned to leave.

"Um… Vlad…?" The boy muttered. "Thanks."

"No problem, little badger." Vlad replied smugly.

The training sessions were hard and tiring. Young Danny was sure that they were too much for him to handle. Vlad had told him that he was to spend at minimum two hours per day training if he wanted to continue staying in his home, most likely because he wanted to keep the boy strong for if or whenever he decided to somehow get the boy to join him. After only a few short days, Danny was sick of this training. It was draining most of the little energy he had and he suffered many painful injuries all over his body. Taking a punch was almost unbearable due to said wounds. He stormed out of his training after only half an hour. Vlad immediately approached him.

"Why aren't you still training?" The older man angrily questioned.

"I don't want to train any longer…"

"You remember our deal, right?"

"Of course I do… and I can't take this crap anymore…" Danny replied in a somewhat defeated manner.

"Daniel, get back in that training room before I get angry!"
"NO!! Have you listened to a god damn word I have said? I'm fourteen for heavens sake!"

"And your point is?"

"I'm covered in cuts and bruises like that of a warrior, I'm tired all the time and I hate training…"

"So what you're trying to say is that you're too lazy to keep up with-"

"SHUT UP!! You know what? I don't care if I die somewhere cold and alone in the ghost zone, I don't care if my own parents kill me, I'm outta here!!" Danny angrily interrupted and stormed off.

"Daniel!"
Just as Danny approached the main front doors, He felt himself get hit by the body of another ghost. He slowly opened his eyes to see Vlad rushing towards him; he sat up dazed and saw none other than his female clone, Danielle, lying on the ground next to him. Just what he needed.

"What on Earth are you doing here?" Vlad exclaimed to Dani, "We are in the middle of something here!"

"It's my DNA… I think… It's becoming more and more unstable." Dani stuttered weakly.

"Well, as you most likely know, there's only one way I can make your DNA stable again." Both Vlad and Dani stared at the ghost boy holding an icepack to his head.

"You have got to be kidding me… You kick me out because I want to stop the insane training sessions, and you think I'd trust you with my morph DNA?!" Danny yelled in disbelief.

"I hardly kicked you out…" Vlad began; "and besides, you wouldn't be doing it for me, it's for your cousin."

Danny sighed, he already had a pretty much pathetic life, how much worse could it get?

"Fine, she can have my DNA. But if you do anything that you know I won't like with my DNA, I will leave and never trust you again." Danny said nervously, not sure whether trusting Vlad was the right thing to do. Vlad gently placed his hand over the boy's hand. "I promise."