All right. It took a bit longer than I thought, but we are finally at the chapter before the one that inspired this whole story. Hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter 7: Ghost Scene Investigation

Danielle had been to Fenton Works only once before. Back then, she had been on some business of deceit for Vlad. However, when Plasmius created her, he gave her pieces of the same knowledge that were had by his teenage foe. Some of which included where Danny lived and the places he most frequently went to, such as his school, the mall, and Tucker's and Sam's houses.

However, Amity Park looked different now with new and larger buildings and duller streets. In addition, the last time the clone, ghost-girl found Fenton Works, she had only recognized it from seeing the Emergency Op Center that was built on the top. The girl hybrid highly doubted that the Op Center would still be there, so she knew finding Danny's old house would be a little more difficult this time.

And this was disregarding the numerous amounts of ghosts that had invaded the whole city. Danielle and Wulf had to take care of quite a few specters that were wreaking havoc while on their search for Fenton Works. It was getting rather ridiculous how many ghosts were attacking at once. No wonder Valerie was getting discouraged. But it was reason enough to know that Danny had to be found and brought back as soon as possible.

Once he returned, Danielle was sure he would be able to take care of the problem like a charm. Most of the ghosts Danielle and Wulf ran into just disappeared as soon as they saw the ghost-girl's eyes glowing green: just like the first ghosts she defeated when she first arrived in town. In seeing this repeated action, the teenage girl came to the conclusion that most of the ghosts here probably usually stayed away from Amity Park because they were scared out of their spectral minds of Danny. If making eye-contact with a mirrored impersonation of the teenage, ghost-hero was enough to get the ghosts to head out, perhaps the mere sight of the original would really get them spooked, and they would go and haunt somewhere else. Better yet, just go back to the ghost-zone, willingly.

But she would first have to find him. And perhaps the last place he was sighted would hold some clue of where he went. Danielle really wished she had her ability to fly. Then, she would be able to see Fenton Works better from a bird's-eye-view. But, to her disappointment and irritation, she couldn't fly yet. However, the method of speedy transportation she did have was Wulf. And that was good enough for her until she could function properly as a ghost again. As for the bird's-eye-view, Wulf was able to just climb up on the taller buildings and overlook the city for Danny's old neighborhood. Sooner or later, they had found the general area where the house was, and Danielle was able to take care of the street directions well enough on her own from that point.

It took perhaps a little over an hour since leaving Valerie's house to find Danny's, but they finally arrived. The Emergency Op Center was gone, as expected, but the Fenton Works sign was still there, so Danielle knew they were definitely at the right place.

They stopped in front of the building and Danielle dismounted Wulf. She walked up the steps to the front door and tried turning the handle, but it was locked. Of course. The teen hybrid didn't know why she bothered trying it. She had already known that no one was living there anymore.

Just then, she remembered her intangibility power. It had been a while since she last tried it. Maybe she could tap into it now.

Looking at her hand, she searched within herself for the power she needed. When she found it, it was very faint and a bit difficult to bring it out. She focused on it until she was able to make her arm insubstantial. When she reached out with her hand to touch the door, it passed straight through.

It worked. Or, so she thought at first. When she tried to turn the rest of her body intangible to go through the door the rest of the way, she couldn't. She lost her grasp on the power she was trying to keep active and her arm turned back to its solid state. Her hand was still in the door when this happened.

"Oh great." She said, as her arm got stuck. She tried to turn it intangible again and get it out, but the faint source of power that she needed was now gone. She closed her eyes and searched inside herself to try and find it again, but it wasn't there. She couldn't locate it. Couldn't focus on it. She then attempted pulling her hand out herself, but she couldn't even get it to budge.

As she let out a heavy sigh, trying to calm down and think of how to get out of this inconvenient fix, Wulf came up behind her. Putting a giant front paw around her shoulder, and putting his other paw on her stuck arm, he turned it intangible himself and phased her hand free

"That's better." She said, opening and closing her now unstuck hand in relief and thanking Wulf with a smile.

Wulf then, scooped the teenage ghost up in his huge and somewhat humanoid front paws. He turned his whole self and the young girl intangible and carried her through the locked door. When they got inside, the dog-like creature returned to his solid state and set his friend down on her feet, gently. Danielle felt grateful that even though she couldn't use her powers, she had someone with her who could.

The house was empty as the girl looked around its interior. There were very few pieces of furniture and they were all covered in dust. Some were even toppled over. The Fentons apparently didn't take all of it with them when they moved out. There were several big holes in the walls where the teenage hybrid remembered some control panels to ghost-defense-systems used to be. No one seemed to have bothered to patch up the holes the removal of the panels had left behind. Judging from this empty, and yet untidy appearance, the ghostly teenager thought that the Fentons must have been in a bit of a hurry to get out of the house.

Danielle walked through the front room and proceeded to the kitchen, which was also in the same state. Wulf sniffed around as they continued to the doorway to the basement where the lab was.

As Danielle went through the doorway, she felt a bit of a tingle that she couldn't understand. She was halfway down the stairs when she suddenly heard Wulf let out a dog-like yelp. Thinking he may have hurt himself, the young girl spun around in concern.

He seemed all right. But for some reason, he had stopped at the doorway to the basement. He tried stepping onto the staircase again but something made him stumble back. When he attempted to phase through whatever was stopping him from following his friend downstairs, he got the same result.

"Must be a ghost-shield." Danielle said, in remembering the tingle she felt when she had passed through the doorway. "Sorry Wulf, looks like you're gonna have to just stay up here." She called up to Wulf. "You won't be able to get through that." after the ghost-beast tried a few more times to get through the doorway, he reluctantly backed away from the stairs, giving in. "I'll just take a look around down here and I'll be right back, okay?" She said to him and after she saw Wulf nod, she preceded the rest of the way down the stairs. (Author's note: I know in Public Enemies, Wulf is able to cut through that ghos- shield. But let me point out that in that episode, the shield was actually visible and huge. In addition, it was already limited on power and Wulf was able to start the drilling from a good vantage point. In this story, the ghost-shield is just blocking an entryway and is a more advanced kind. And this is the house that his friend once lived in, and trying to break through this one would not only cause permanent damage to the shield, but also to the house. I don't think he'd want that and I'm not saying it in the actual dialogue of the story because this is supposed to be Danielle's point of view right now.)

There wasn't much to see in the lab. The Fentons had taken practically everything in this room except a few small and incomplete gadgets scattered on the floor and on a table. There were burnt places in the metal walls that must have been the results of weapons tests or experiments that had gone wrong. In observing the old beakers and test tubes that were lying around on the nearby table, her mind began to wander to unpleasant thoughts. The metallic walls and the remains of the Fenton-Ghost-Portal reminded her very much of Plasmius's lab where the young clone's existence had nearly ended.

The young girl shivered as the unforgettable memory haunted her. She turned for the stairs to leave the lab and desert the disturbing recollections. But then she stopped and thought, why would the Fentons bother to put up a ghost-shield around the room if there was nothing special in there? Danielle couldn't just leave without searching the lab more thoroughly, just because she was getting scared. What if she missed something that could help her find out where Danny went? Considering the ghost-shield, Wulf certainly couldn't look for her. So the girl turned around, facing the lab again. She took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind of any unpleasant memoirs and started her search.

At first, there didn't seem to be anything significant, until she came across a strange, gun-shaped gadget that was on the far side of the old table. It seemed to be the only complete piece of technology in the lab, and it had a sticky-note attached to it. She picked up the gadget to read the note, which said,

Note to self: fix the special ghost-ability-stopping problem in the Portable Ecto Stop-o Power-o Fire.

-Jack

Then further down, in different handwriting, it said,

P.S. rename it, too.

-Jazz

That was for sure. What kind of a long-winded, tongue-twisting name was Portable Ecto Stop-o Power-o Fire?

Looking the gadget over, Danielle thought that the Fentons probably didn't bother bringing it with them because the problem it was undergoing was too complicated. Or perhaps they left it simply because of the incredibly stupid name. Danielle scoffed at the thought.

Yet, from the dumb name, the teen hybrid was still able to get a good idea of what the invention was supposed to do: Stop ghosts from using their powers. Judging from the note, it apparently wouldn't stop the different special abilities that individual ghosts had, but Danielle thought the gadget might still prove useful.

The gun-like device had a belt attachment mechanism, which she used to clip it to her side.

The teenage girl was starting to feel uncomfortable again from the appearance of the lab, but she took just one last look around in case she missed anything else. The haunting recollections were starting to enter her mind again when she thought that there probably wasn't anything else here. She turned and quickly went up the stairs and out of the lab to escape the horrible memories she had always tried so hard not to think about.

Wulf was waiting for her at the top of the stairs and after passing through the ghost-shield, the young, ghostly teen let out a big sigh of relief, happy to be out of the basement. Then she and her ghost-dog companion continued their exploration of the rest of the house.

Their search led them up the stairs and Danielle looked in each room as she passed the doors to them in the hall. Wulf followed, sniffing around for anything hidden.

There was one door that she opened to look inside, and in recognizing an astronaut poster that was still on the wall and the models of rockets and solar systems that were dangling from the ceiling, the teenage ghost realized that this was Danny's old bedroom.

She remembered that he liked collecting practically anything that had to do with NASA and outer space. Some of these models he had even built himself. Aside from the space related stuff, the room was just as empty and the walls were beaten up the same way the other rooms were. The ghost-girl wondered if Danny still had his sights on becoming an astronaut, even after becoming the world's ghost-hero.

The memories Danielle had in this room weren't exactly the best ones, considering she had been working for Vlad at the time. Nevertheless, it gave her a much better feeling than the lab did. This was the room that she and Danny had met for the first time.

She thought through how Danny had phased through the ceiling of this room in returning from a fight with a ghost Vlad had sent after him. She remembered his expression in finding a, back then, twelve-year-old girl in his bedroom, reading his comic books. That first meeting didn't exactly end on the best terms. Danielle thought that he was also already suspecting something fishy was going on by the end of that day. Especially after finding out that she was half-ghost too.

At that moment, realizing that she had forgotten why she was even in the house, Danielle began to look around the bedroom for any clues that might lead to where Danny was now. When she only got the same result as in all the other rooms, Danielle started to think that maybe coming here wasn't a great idea after all. Now that she thought of it in fact, she wondered why there would be anything here that led them in the right direction of finding Danny if the Fenton's hadn't even lived here for two years.

Perhaps Danny was only seen around here because he was just visiting for memory's sake. With his parents and friends captured, the place probably gave him a comforting feeling of reassurance that the young girl duplication of him knew she probably wouldn't understand.

Come to think of it, Danielle realized that she had been traveling around, mostly because she felt like she never really belonged anywhere. She had no place of residence of her own, like Danny did. No place that she ever really felt at home.

Unlike Danny, she also never had any real family. The only family the young ghost-girl really knew or had was Vlad Plasmius. Even though she was his creation, he was far from being any kind of truly loving father.

Danny may have considered the girl-hybrid to be family to him, but they didn't have any real relation. As far as Danielle knew, his parents didn't even know about her. Sam and Tucker did, but they probably didn't know that Danielle was actually the result of an experiment of their best friend's archenemy.

The young girl was glad that Danny was able to see through that, but she wondered how his family would feel about the fact that she used to be under Vlad's command.

The thought of possible rejection saddened her, but she snapped out of these thoughts and redirected her mind on her current goal.

But after another minute or two of finding nothing of importance, it seemed useless to remain. Maybe she could just ask around town and find a lead elsewhere. The teenage girl perhaps would find something at Casper High or the Manson or Foley residences.

"Come on, Wulf." She said to the big dog, who was sniffing around the room. He didn't seem to be having any luck in finding anything either. "Let's go." And she disappointedly walked out of the room.

As she made her way down the hall to the stairs, she put her hand on the device at her side that she found in the lab. Well, at least coming here wasn't entirely a waist of time, she thought.

As the ghost-teen descended the stairs, she looked over the railing, glancing around the front room from this higher vantage point. Her eyes ran over the torn up walls and dusty pieces of furniture. It was still nice to be in the old house of her cousin's even if her hopes of finding a lead here seemed in vain.

Suddenly, she spotted a yellow piece of paper that was on the floor near the entryway of the house. Danielle didn't remember seeing that there. But then she recalled that she didn't really look at the floor behind her after Wulf phased them through the door.

When the ghost-powered girl got to the bottom of the stairs, she noticed that the paper looked quite new. It wasn't dust-covered like the rest of the house was and there was writing on it. On the top edge of the paper was a piece of tape that must have held the paper to the door at one time. Thinking it might be another written reminder of some kind, the girl knelt down on one knee and picked it up. When she started reading the words on the paper though, her heedless thoughts of the note suddenly dispersed.

-Danny Phantom

I have taken your sister hostage along

with the rest of your family. If you

want to see them and your friends

again, come to the Amity Park Train

Station and follow the tracks my old

Circus Gothica train had taken when

departing your precious town those

three years ago. (I assume you

remember which ones those are). And

make sure you come alone if you want

your loved ones to remain unharmed.

For the sake of drama you have until

sunset tonight.

"Signed, Freakshow?" Danielle said out load, reading the signature at the end of the note. But Lydia was the one who took Danny's family. Who was this Freakshow person?

After a moment of thought, the teen ghost recalled reading that name in the newspaper at Valerie's house. Remembering that she had the newspaper with her, the girl quickly pulled it out of her shirt pocket and unfolded it, looking for the page that had the report of the jailbreak. When she found it, she began to read the article posted underneath the title, trying to ignore the creepy looking picture of the broken-out fugitive.

Three years ago, former ringmaster of Circus Gothica, Freakshow

was arrested for robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder. This

week on February 4th, a jailbreak took place and Freakshow escaped.

Witnesses confirm that the breakout became possible with the help

of his red-cloaked, female ghost-counterpart, known as Lydia.

Danny Phantom, who has had prior experience with this same

criminal, informs us that during the time that he was considered a

ghostly fugitive to the public, the old ringmaster had once had the

ability to control specters to act as his slaves in entertaining in his

Circus Gothica performances that he once hosted, with a ghost,

mind-controlling staff. He also used his control over the ghosts to

commit outside crimes of thievery on his behalf.

"Freakshow even brainwashed Danny himself into doing evil deeds

for him, but Lydia is the only ghost who's willingly working for him."

Says the Mayor of Amity Park who is also an acquaintance of our own

ghost-hero.

When asked how he managed to escape this fix, Danny Phantom

reports, "It was my friends that helped me to fight the control

Freakshow had on me. After breaking out of it, I was also able to

get him turned over to the police."

After Freakshow was taken into custody, he was discovered to have

committed other crimes that were previously unknown since he was

never at the scene of the crimes that he had his ghost minions

commit for him.

Word has it that Freakshow has escaped from the city asylum,

seeking revenge on Phantom with the assistance of his ghostly friend.

This is reason enough to believe that Freakshow is the man behind

Mayor Foley's kidnapping, soon after he broke out of jail, and the

disappearances of…

Danielle didn't have to read anymore of the article. She already had the pieces she needed to complete the puzzle. "Well this is something Valerie forgot to mention." She said out load, looking at the picture of the escaped convict. "That Lydia's working for someone else."

She refolded the newspaper and tucked it back into her pocket. She then looked back to the threatening, handwritten note Freakshow had left.

How long ago was this written? How long has it been since Danny had seen it and taken off after reading it? If he's been gone for over nearly a week, either it takes that long to get to where Freakshow was planning to meet him…but it couldn't take that long, because according to the note, Danny had to be there by sunset the day the note was written. But if the length of time to get to this place wasn't the reason Danny hadn't returned yet…then Freakshow must be holding Danny now as well. Even worse, he's already done something to him to satisfy his vengeance for turning him in.

No. That couldn't be. But if Danny was still alive, he was still in danger. However, if Danielle acted now, there may still be time. "Wulf. We have to go." She said urgently, folding up the note and putting it in her pocket with the newspaper.

Knowing she couldn't phase through the door, the ghost-girl unlocked it herself and ran outside. She stopped in the middle of the street when she remembered that she had no idea where the train station was. Grabbing her black hair in angered frustration, she cried out, "How am I supposed follow any train tracks if I don't even know where the train station is?"

As soon as she said this, she felt the air at the back of her head shifting her hair around. She turned to see what it was and jumped in seeing Wulf's enormously large nose right by her face. He was sniffing her again. Wondering what he could possibly be doing this time, she just stood there as he took in her scent. The furry beast soon started sniffing around the street as if trying to track something. Danielle watched him, puzzled, as the ghost-dog's sniffing took him to the side of the Fenton Works building. He started climbing up its walls, his nose running along them as he went up to the roof.

Danielle scratched her head, completely lost now, as Wulf set himself on the rooftop where the Op Center used to be. After smelling the roof for a second, Danielle saw his ears perk up and he raised his head. Leaning on the roof's edge, he started sniffing the air.

After another second, Wulf beamed down at the befuddled teenager, and pointed ahead, speaking in his weird language and sounding very sure of something.

Trying to think over what had just happened, Danielle figured that the giant dog might have just gone completely mad. His sense of smell must have gone wrong too, because if he was trying to track where the ghost-powered girl had been, he had gotten the direction they had come from right, but she had never even been on the roof. Accept for three years ago, when she stayed in the guest-bedroom of the Op Center for a night. Still, that was years ago and the Op Center was gone now. She wouldn't have any trail up there anymore.

Then the thought struck her. What if Danny had been up there recently? After reading the note from Freakshow, he must have phased through the roof and flown off in the direction of the train station. But if Wulf was searching for Danny's scent, what did he smell Danielle for.

She pondered this for a moment when another thought occurred. She looked down at her hands.

She was Danny's clone. She may have been a faulty one that Vlad had made, but she was still a clone. What if, despite their difference in genders, Vlad's attempts to make them as identical as possible made her take on the same ecto-plasmic signature as Danny? If not, one that was incredibly similar. If that was the case, they probably also had a similar scent to giant ghost-dogs, like Wulf.

At this contemplation, Danielle slapped her head. How could she not have thought of it before? That was why Wulf had come to her rescue back in the woods. The two Phantoms must smell about the same to him. The ghost-dog probably thought that she was Danny at first and that he was in trouble, so Wulf came running. That explained a lot. And since the two ghost-hybrids did have pretty much the same scent, in smelling Danielle, Wulf was able to match her scent with Danny's. Now Wulf had found his trail and was pointing in the direction Danielle's ghostly cousin had flown off in, to get to the train station.

"Way to go, Wulf!" She congratulated, as Wulf jumped down from the roof, looking quite proud of himself. When he bent down on his front paws, Danielle climbed onto his back.

Now, with a very strong lead on Danny's trail, Wulf followed it.

Even with a few ghost detours on the way, before long, they had found the Amity Park Train Station. Wulf slid to a halt in the rail yard, which had several pairs of train tracks leading in different directions, away from the city.

He began sniffing around at the rails for Danny's scent, with the teenage girl still on his back. Whichever tracks this Circus Gothica train had been on before leaving the city, her furry ghost-friend would know.

It was only a short time before Wulf stopped at a one of the pairs of train tracks and he raised his head up, looking out to where the tracks led. Danielle followed his gaze up to where the tracks went out over a long, wooden bridge and beyond some distant hills.

That was it. These were the tracks that Danny had followed. The tracks that Danny lay beyond, and possibly also his missing friends and family.

"All right, Wulf." Danielle said, bracing herself, with new fortitude. "Fetch." And they were off.

Wulf ran with a series of giant leaps as he followed the ghost-boy's scent, onward. As they crossed over the bridge at an alarming speed, Danielle didn't know what else they would find at the end of the trail. She doubted that her powers would be fully functional by the time they got there, but she didn't care either. All she did know was that, with Wulf's help, she would find her older ghost-cousin and bring him home, whether she had her own ghost-powers or not.

You know, I've just noticed that in just about every chapter I've done, Dani's been "flying off dramatically." (In this case she's been riding off dramatically on Wulf, but you get the point.) I guess, even though it's "hard to fly off dramatically," (according to D-stabilized), Dani's getting pretty good at it.

All right. In the next chapter, we'll be introducing the boy Danny Phantom into the story and seeing what situation he's in. And I'll tell you right now, even though you probably already figured this out, that it won't be good. I'll see if I can work on that chapter this weekend. But as I said before I can't promise that I'll have it up as soon as I've been getting these other ones.