I know it's only been a day since my sister posted the last chapter for me but that's because I had planned out a lot of the story already before I actually started writing it. This chapter took quite a while to fully develop.
Before the writing process, I had done a script write of a certain part this whole story has now been built off. (I won't give any details until I actually get to that chapter but don't worry, it's not far behind this one.) I had originally planned out that part first though, but I could never think of how to make the story lead up to it until recently. I thank my sister Blackjay for helping me along with ideas for it.
Chapter 4: An Uninvited Guest…or rather, Ghost
Danielle woke up the next morning from feeling warm sunlight on her face. When she opened her eyes, she squinted from the sudden brightness. When her eyes were able to adjust however, she was able to see the beautiful sunrise just starting to peak over to tops of the trees of the woods outside. Golden rays came in through the cave mouth and bathed the girl in its comforting radiance.
"Now, there's a sight for sore eyes." Danielle commented out loud. She looked around, finding herself in the same spot where she first discovered Wulf. She remembered last feeling drowsy while looking at the archive he had shown her last night. She suspected she must have fallen asleep examining it, and Wulf must have brought her back to the fire.
The fire had burnt out during the night, but the girl-ghost-clone still had the blanket over her like last time, and the sun was out and warm enough that she didn't need the fire anyway.
In fact, now that she thought of it, she was feeling quite a bit different than she had last night. Her side now felt much better and she didn't feel as scrambled on the inside. Did she have her powers back now?
Danielle closed her eyes and tried to find the center of her power within, to bring it out and Go Ghost, but when she tried to focus, she couldn't find it. Feeling disappointed in the failure, she decided to test some of her individual powers. She channeled an ecto-charge in her hand and a green glow appeared. Just as she was getting excited, though, the charge faded out within a few seconds. Still feeling hopeful, the hybrid moved on to intangibility. But she couldn't thrust her hand into the rocky wall beside her, no matter how hard she pushed. She tried invisibility next and she was only able to flicker in and out of the transparent state.
"Aw, man." she said with a sigh. Her powers were still not working. Still, she remembered that last night, she wasn't even able to make a spark with her ecto ray. This time, she was able to get a decent glow before losing it. Even if her powers didn't work properly right now, she seemed to be getting them back. Whatever the ghost-hunters in white suits had done to her last night to make her lose her powers, it was only temporary like she had hoped. All she would have to do is wait until then, and she could be on her way to Amity Park again. In the meantime, she could stay here with Wulf, where she knew she was safe.
Where was Wulf anyway? Danielle threw the blanket off her and stood up, looking around the spaciouse cave. She looked in the archive room as well and she didn't see him there. Probably out hunting or something. She thought, with a shrug. Then she wondered if ghost dogs really needed to hunt.
The girl paced over to the cave opening and looked down the slope of the mountain face to see if she could see Wulf below. Not seeing him anywhere, she still took a bit of time to observe the cave's surroundings. She noticed a big waterfall a few feet from the cave mouth to her left. Looking down, just a few feet below the cave, there was a ledge sticking out far enough for even Wulf to walk along. It led behind the waterfall and beyond where she could see.
Danielle thought she could get down to the ledge and back by herself but until she could Go Ghost and fly again, it seemed that she didn't really have any other choice but to stay.
Well, she wasn't worried. She really wanted to get to Amity Park and see if she could find Danny, but she didn't mind staying with one of his friends.
The teenage ghost leaned against the inner-cave wall to watch the rest of the sunrise before going back in to have another look at the archive cavern for a while.
She went in with a torch she was able to light the old fashioned way. As she ran her fingers along the carvings, she still couldn't really understand what most of the pictures meant, but with a little bit of Wulf's help last night, she was able to at least understand that Danny had set him free of some kind of prison. It also looked like they had fought alongside each other in a few battles.
The young girl wished she could decipher more, and it would certainly help if she understood the strange language Wulf used. But even though the battle and freedom events were the only things Danielle was able to be completely sure of, the whole dome of historic pictures was still wondrous to look at.
It amazed the girl-hybrid that Wulf would have spent so much time getting all of this down when she knew that every other ghost she knew was usually another one of her cousin's mortal enemies. Wulf must have thought very highly of Danny if he would take the time to do all of this for the sake of the memory.
Danielle wondered if her ghostly cousin knew about this monumental dome his hairy friend had made. She also wondered how long it has been since Wulf saw Danny. She sure wished she could understand him better, then she could ask. Maybe Danny knew the language he spoke. He must if they were friends. Well, At least Wulf seemed to understand her well enough.
As the girl let out a sigh, a mist of cold air emitted from her mouth. A ghost was near. "Well, at least my ghost-sense works now." Danielle said aloud. Maybe Wulf was back.
She hurried through the passageway and out into the main cave, toward the cave mouth. When she got to the opening, she looked down over the edge, expecting to see Wulf climbing up the slope.
But, but to her slight shock, instead, she saw a figure in a blood-red, hooded cloak with big spikes that were going down the center of the back of the hood, gliding upward alongside the mountain slope, towards the cave.
Knowing it must have been the ghost she sensed just now, Danielle quickly dodged out of sight, taking cover behind a large rock that was a couple feet from where the fire was built. Carefully peaking over the top, she saw as the red-cloaked ghost floated into view of the cave and just continued its assent upward and out of sight again, barely sparing a glance inside the cave on the way.
Guess it just wasn't interested. But just after Danielle let out a sigh of relief, the ghost suddenly glided back down and took another peak inside the cave. Danielle quickly ducked behind the rock again. It didn't really look in her direction when it looked back in the cave so it must not have seen her in passing. Right at that moment though, the ghost-girl remembered how the ghost-hunters who were chasing her last night deceived her into thinking that they didn't know where she was, and shot her down. What if this ghost really did see her and it just wasn't showing it? If it was a threat, Wulf wasn't around, and Danielle didn't have her ghost powers back yet.
She looked cautiously back over the top to watch what the ghost was doing, and waited. The ghost seemed to be looking around more thoroughly as it slowly began gliding into the cave. Danielle felt her fear steadily rise, as the ghost continued nearer to where the teenage girl was hiding.
Danielle carefully maneuvered around the rock to keep herself concealed. She eventually got to a point where the space between the cave-wall and the rock was too small to squeeze through but she felt she was hidden well enough for now: Unless, like last time, this new, unknown enemy was playing with her.
The ghost made its way to where Danielle had slept the night before. It extended an arm out from under its cape and Danielle noticed that the figure it belonged to was definitely a woman. The arm was also green and covered in tattoos that looked like they resembled different animals. The hand picked up the blanket as if examining it…or wondering why a campsite was in a cave this far up a slope that would usually seem impossible for any human to climb without the proper equipment.
At this exact thought, the ghost-powered teen started getting nervous. Even if this cloaked ghost-woman didn't know Danielle was there, she was already suspecting something.
The ghost looked up in the direction the girl was hiding. Danielle quickly withdrew behind the rock but she was almost sure that she had been seen. The temporarily defective ghost felt her heart pounding and her breathing was getting heavier. She tried to calm herself and made another effort to turn invisible. Aside from her ghost-sense, it seemed to be the only power she was the closest to getting back. She doubted it would work now, but she still had to try. She looked to the cave wall and saw the cast shadow of the ghost coming towards her hiding place.
Come on. Come on. Please. Danielle thought desperately, trying to find that source inside her that triggered her power to become unseen. She focused as hard as she could and finally found that center of her power and used it. She turned invisible, just as the ghost was coming around to where Danielle was hidden. The teenage ghost-girl held her breath as the hooded head of the cloaked lady came to peak around the rock.
Now Danielle could see the ghost's menacingly, glowing red eyes looking out from the shadowed face that was hidden beneath the hood. When the ghost came around behind the rock Danielle was hiding behind, the eyes then looked confused. They shifted around the basic area where Danielle was sitting unseen.
The teenage girl stayed still but started feeling herself losing the invisibility again. She focused as hard as she could to maintain her transparent state. She couldn't hold it for much longer. She shut her eyes to try and help her focus on that center of the power she was desperately trying to keep active. But she continued to lose her grasp of it.
She squinted up at the ghost who was staring right at her to see the glowing-eyed ghost, shrug under her cape. Then she glided away.
Just in time too. Just as the blood-red cape floated out of sight behind its owner, Danielle had barely lost her ability to stay imperceptible. She let out a big, but quiet and controlled sigh of relief and peaked back around where she could still spy on the ghost. She appeared to be just glancing around until she faced the ghost-teen's basic direction again, but looking passed her hiding place this time…towards the passage to the archive.
Oh, no. Danielle couldn't let her go in there, even if there was no one to find. If this ghost was another enemy of Danny's and she recognized the pictures, she might do something to wreck it.
The cloaked woman began gliding in the direction of the passageway. As she passed the rock the teen was hiding behind, the girl made up her mind. Her ghost-powers may have been defused right now but she could at least keep this snoopy ghost out of Wulf's special room. But she couldn't just jump out and purposely look like she was leading her away from the cavern. She would have to think of something else. She looked around her, and when she spotted the pile of wood that was once a burning fire, she got an idea.
The cloaked ghost continued her route to the passageway when Danielle suddenly bolted as noisily as possible from behind the rock and disturbed the burnt wood as if she had accidentally stepped in it in her rush.
The ghost suddenly spun around and spotted her. The glowing eyes under the hood looked startled at first from the sudden noise, but then they became sinister and evil as she turned to face the girl.
It was this look that made Danielle realize that this ghost really was bad news. But the worst was yet to come. The floating ghost-woman threw her cape back and revealed the rest of her body. It was covered in tattoos wherever her green skin was exposed. The animal shaped tattoos were disturbing enough to look at, but then they suddenly seemed to just float off her skin, slowly circling around their master. Then they suddenly stopped and zoomed right at the teenage ghost-girl with individual malevolent cries and ghastly wails.
Danielle tried to dodge them, but they joined together into one force and came at her at bullet speed, hittingt the girl right off her feet and against the cave wall.
Well, this was definitely a ghost-power she had never seen before. The young hybrid rubbed the back of her head where it had hit the wall and looked up to see the united force coming around for another attack. This time though, she was able to dodged-roll out of the way.
Danielle noticed how the cloaked woman was moving her hands with gestures as if directing where her animal-shaped tattoos went. So the female hybrid came to the conclusion that if she could defeat the ghost who led the army of mobile animal marks, they would withdraw. But as the teenager dodged some more unified attempts to strike her, the teen-ghost wondered how she was supposed to do that without the full use of her own ghost powers. She didn't want to let the cloaked ghost know she had them, especially since they couldn't function properly at the moment. That would only make the situation worse.
While Danielle tried to think of a different way to do this, the tattoos split into their individual animal shapes and started to come at the ghostly girl from all angles. She cried out in surprise of the sudden change of tactics but she continued dodging. Her ghost powers may have been gone for now, but her reflexes were still just as sharp. Whichever flying fiends she couldn't dodge in time, she was able to beat back herself with some martial arts maneuvers, enhanced with small and concealed enough, ecto-charges to help make her strikes more effective against the ectoplasmic entities.
Consequently though, in directing her full attention on the little specters, she forgot her focus on the thing that sent them after her. The ghost-woman flew at the girl while she was busy with her little minions.
The green skinned woman hit her with a solid, karate-kick. Danielle fell to the floor of the cave, losing her focus, and the tattoos suddenly swarmed around her again with the distant sounding cries of horror that they kept releasing.
They began flying in a circle around the defective hybrid on the ground, going faster and faster, trapping her in a sort of twister that began to shrink and close in around the girl. She covered her ears as the terrible screams from the flying green masses got louder and more dreadful.
If Danielle could fly, she would be able to just float up and out from the top of her prison, or if she could go intangible, she could phase through the ground and escape. But though she tried both powers right then, she couldn't use either one at all. She couldn't do anything. She was trapped and the whirlwind of fiendish servants of the cloaked ghost as the confinement they made around her continued to reduce in diameter, their malevolent sounds rising still.
Soon after, they began sweeping in for individual attacks from unexpected places in the wall of moving specters. They came in faster and more frequently, hurting the girl who was unable to defend herself from the oncoming blows from an incredibly short distance. They continued to swarm around her like hornets, making the teen have no choice but to recoil from the stings she was starting to feel all over her young figure.
She started crying out as the pain the attacks resulted in began to overwhelm her and the sounds the individual animal shapes made became completely unbearable. She rolled onto her side, cringing and trying to block out the terrible noise by holding her hands to her ears even harder, but it didn't stop them from coming at her even faster and more consistently from all angles.
The incessant stings covering the clone girl's body reminded her of being melted down, back in Plasmius's lab. She really never liked to visit that memory and now she was practically reliving it.
The ghost responsible for the nonstop agony had touched down on the ground, standing over her fallen foe with an evil look of victory in her glowing, red eyes.
Suddenly, above the sound of the horrible cries the green pests were emitting, came a very clear and long howl, coming from outside that echoed throughout the whole cave. Both of the ghosts looked up at the same time to see Wulf suddenly spring into the cave and pounce on the red-cloaked woman who screamed like a banshee in fright at the surprise attack.
Danielle could barely see this happening through the thick swarm she was still ensnared in but Wulf, having his friend's ghostly enemy pinned now, raised one of his front paws and his emerald claws unexpectedly grew to at least three or four times their starting length.
The constant stings Danielle was feeling suddenly ceased. The girl looked up to see the green animal shapes fly at Wulf and force him off of their owner. Now they started swarming around the giant dog's massive form, but Wulf just growled, and letting out a loud and vicious roar, he began lashing out at the annoying things, swatting them off him, like flies and snapping his powerful jaws at the rest. Danielle stared wide-eyed as he fought the diminutive irritations with carnivorous rage. Whichever ones that got powerful slashes through them with his claws, or got trapped in his teeth when he clamped his mouth shut again, instantly vanished. Danielle noticed that the tattoos started reappearing on the ghost-woman's green skin as they disappeared from around Wulf.
The cloaked woman seemed to get nervous after the ferocious dog beat down the majority of her little pets. There were only a few left now and Wulf turned his attention to the cloaked ghost who took a few steps back in fear.
Danielle quickly snapped out of her shock of seeing Wulf's fierceness in seeing her own opportunity. Springing quickly from the ground, she shouldered the red-cloaked ghost from the back. The ghost stumbled forward a few steps and just as she turned around to see behind her, where the unexpected attack came from, the ghost girl ran up to her again, making her stumble back further with a push-kick to the stomach. The tattooed ghost, holding her stomach, did as Danielle had predicted and while the cloaked woman was nearly off balance, The teenage hybrid rushed at her yet again. She grabbed the woman's green, tattooed arm as she passed to the other side of her and used the momentum to swing the ghost around and throw with all the strength her human form could muster, right her over her own head, straight at Wulf.
As the green, tattooed woman uncontrollably flew passed the scruffy animal-ghost, he caught her by her blood-red cape at the collar and shook her wildly, as if she was some puppy's chew toy. With a final swing, the huge doglike ghost released the blood-red cloth from his teeth, causing the ghost it belonged to, to go flying far out of the cave.
It wasn't until she was some distance away from the cave mouth that the cloaked woman was able to make a midair recovery but still looked quite alarmed by the black creature, who hurried to the cave mouth and growled ferociously at her, bearing his enormous teeth.
After he let out another howl, this time as if in warning, the woman recalled the remainder of her little flying minions, which clung back onto her green body. As soon as they returned, the red-cloaked woman bolted off at a surprisingly high speed.
"Boy am I glad you're on my side" Danielle said, still a bit surprised by Wulf's display of sudden ferocity during the fight.
Still growling after the fleeing ghost, Wulf retracted his claws and walked back into the cave. Despite the shock from the great dog's vicious battle with the tattooed ghost, he looked back at the teenage girl with the eyes of concern that he had shown her the night before. Danielle doubts faded away, in seeing this expression. "That was so cool!" She said with a laugh, as Wulf came over to where she stood. "You and Danny must have made a pretty good team in the battles you had together." Wulf smiled as if flattered.
Then, he began sniffing her from the top. Danielle ducked her head in her hands when he sniffed her hair, messing it up and making it go in different directions. She laughed a bit as the sniffing sort of tickled her. As his muzzle made its way down to her hands. For some reason, when he reached this point he made a sad whimpering noise and licked the top of on of the hands. Wondering what was wrong, the teen looked at the one he just licked and was surprised to see that it had a few small cuts on it. She looked at her other hand and it was in the same state. She then felt her face and when she withdrew her hands from it, she saw some blood that came from another cut on her cheek.
With a sigh, the girl then remembered the 'tattoo torture chamber' she had been trapped in before Wulf showed up. As she looked down at the rest of her body she found that her cloths were quite untidy but they didn't seem to be damaged. None of the cuts seemed to be that bad either. Some of the individual pests probably just got lucky enough to make a few red marks on her human flesh. She was sure that they wouldn't even leave a mark.
"Oh, don't worry. I'm okay," She told Wulf, when he looked up at her with those same concerned eyes. "Thanks." She added, and then Wulf gave her a smile and another friendly lick on her face.
He then turned around, walking back towards the cave entrance. The massive dog bent his head over the edge of the rocky face as if picking something up from the ledge below that Danielle had noticed was there before. His head came back up with a small bundle in his teeth. The cloth, whatever was inside, was being carried in, looked like it could have been a pillowcase.
Confused, Danielle looked over where the blanket was and then back at the pillowcase. Where did he get those anyway? She wondered in her head.
Wulf made his way to where the pile of wood was with the pillowcase and set it down in the place Danielle had slept. "What's in that, Wulf?" She inquired as she walked over to where he put the bundle. Wulf backed away a few steps as she knelt down by the bundle and opened up the pillowcase wrapping. There was some fruit inside. "So you had been out hunting." She said with a laugh and reaching in for an apple, now realizing how hungry she was. "Thanks," Wulf smiled with glee, in response.
After pulling a few other choice fruits from the pillowcase, Danielle went out on the ledge to wash them in the spray of the waterfall. When she hoisted herself back into the cave, she saw Wulf with his snout buried in the pillowcase and covering his eyesight. He must have been trying to get at the rest of the fruit that was inside it. Danielle couldn't help but laugh as he shook his head around trying to get it off. It made her think of a curious puppy that had accidentally gotten its nose into something it shouldn't have.
Setting her own fruit aside, the young ghost teen went over to help her new animal-friend get the pillowcase off. She only had to tug a little for it to slip off his muzzle. He was chewing on what he was able to get out of the small bag by the time it was removed. Danielle noticed from the weight of it, that it was actually empty now. "Wow, and I thought I was hungry." She chuckled and tossed the pillowcase aside towards her sleeping place.
She then walked back to the cave mouth where she left her own fruit and sat down on the edge of the floor of it. Looking out at the thick mass of trees that made up the wood, she took a bite out of the apple. Wulf soon came over and sat down beside her. "You've got a great view here, Wulf." She said to him.
As she looked out over the treetops, eating the apple, she started to think back on the battle with the tattooed ghost. Well, Wulf lived in these woods. Were there others that did too? Were these woods haunted? The ghost-hybrid didn't think so. She was sure she would have run into a few ghosts last night while she was flying over the woods if they were haunted. So then what was the cloaked ghost doing there. What business would it have in woods that had ghost-hunters hiding in them? If that ghost also lived in the woods, she would have fled downward towards the trees.
The girl finished her apple and was about to set the core down next to her when she noticed Wulf staring at it. Thinking he may be wanting it, Danielle had a little thought.
She threw the core up high in the air in his direction and Wulf caught it in his mouth like a normal, trained dog would for a biscuit. It was quite intriguing to see this fearsome looking beast, who could also fight so viciously, could also have the same playful behavior of a house pup. Not to mention also have some human resemblances like being able to stand on two legs and speak a native language as well as a small bit of English.
Danielle looked back out at the view, redirecting her ponderings to the battle with the ghost, when she noticed, a distance beyond the woods, there was a town a little to the right, "Hey you can see Amity Park from here." She commented.
After the comment Danielle's thoughts wandered back to the battle. She was just thinking of the look of terror on the ghosts face when she flew off…when suddenly the notion struck her. "Wait a minute. Amity Park." She stood up, as she starting fitting the rest of the pieces together in her head. "That was the direction that ghost flew off in." Wulf looked down at her. Even if he didn't understand all of what she was saying, it looked like he still understood well enough that something might be wrong.
Danielle may not have known where Danny was living now but she did know that Amity Park was the place he was still going to most frequently to fight ghosts. Why would any ghost speed off to seek refuge there when Danny Phantom would more than likely be there as well? That couldn't be right at all. What if something happened to Danny to make the ghosts think that Amity Park, of all places, could be a safe haven for them now.
"Wulf, we have to get over there and check it out." She said turning to him. "Danny may need our help." Wulf stood up looking out towards the city.
"Oh, but I still can't fly!" Danielle said, slapping her hands on her head in frustration. "How am I supposed to get there fast enough if I can't even…Whoa!" Danielle was stopped from finishing her sentence in suddenly getting scooped up and raised above the ground. Wulf had picked her up with one of his massive clawed paws and raised her up for her to get onto his back. "Or…that'll work too."
She climbed up on the dog who had crouched down on all fours for her. After straddling herself behind his shoulders she wrapped her arms around the furry neck of the ghost, giving him a hug. "You're the best, Wulf." After saying this, she looked behind her to see Wulf's tail wagging.
She then bent down over the great dog's back, clinging to his green, hood. With that, Wulf jumped from the cave mouth and slid the rest of the way down the rocky face of the mountain with the young girl holding on as tight as she could. Wulf soon made contact with the forest floor and started running on all fours through the woods towards Amity Park.
Danielle knew full well that she probably wouldn't be able to do much without her ghost-powers fully functional, but she at least had to see what the problem might be. Still, if something was terribly wrong, she would be able to figure it out with the help of her cousin's old, and her new, friend.
(I know I'm usually a bit better in describing the look of the characters, but trying to describe Lydia's outfit kind of gave me the creeps. Sorry.)
Okay so that's the first part leading up to the chapter I had thought of first before beginning the writing of this story. My next chapter may take a bit longer, but I do already have some of the basic ideas. Once I start writing it, I'm sure it will start coming together. It did for this one.