Pocket Watch
Breakthrough
About a week before…
A front page headline on the newspaper sometime in late April helped Tucker, Sam, and Jazz locate where Danny resided. The news with big, bold black letters that read, "Danny Phantom saves three in burning barn in Wisconsin". Immediately Tucker and Sam made plans to leave as soon as possible, though Jazz remained more adlib, remembering Skulker's words on how her only brother refuse to reveal his locations and whereabouts, so she spoke out…
"What? What do you mean we shouldn't go and visit him?" Sam cried out, "He's in WISCONSIN! And do you know who lives in Wisconsin? VLAD!"
"Man, leave it to Vlad to kidnap Danny. I bet he planted that fake "good-bye" letter to let us know Danny was leaving us for a while when in reality he kidnapped him somehow!" Tucker spat, "That sick man needs a less sicker hobby."
"Guys--"
"Yeah, and that's why we better pack some Fenton gears and get moving!"
"Sam! Tucker! Please!"
"WHAT?" The two shouted in unison.
"I don't think the letter's fake and I don't think Danny's in trouble." Jazz stated, "Why else would he have been able to rescue all those people if he was?"
"Maybe Vlad made a robot duplicate to fool us or something." Tucker pointed out, "…What? It's plausible, he made several clones of him, remember?"
"I have it in good conscience that Danny is doing fine and doesn't want to be bothered right now." Jazz sat down on the couch behind her, the two standing friends crouching down and glaring daggers.
"Are you nuts? What is wrong with you? Why aren't you concerned for Danny?" Sam screamed, "What proof do you have that he's okay?"
Jazz eyed the two with fear and concern. Should she really tell them Skulker, one of their enemies came just a short while ago to fetch something secret that only Danny and herself (through rummaging his room) knew?
"Well?" Sam placed her hands on her waists.
"…Skulker came to my house a bit while ago."
"WHAT?" Both of them cried out.
"Stop interrupting. Any who, yes, he came, no, he didn't attack me or anything. In fact, he came to take something that belonged to Danny. A piece of paper that he made when he was a small kid on the list of things he wanted to do before he would die."
"I don't remember Danny having that." Tucker shrugged.
"Even best friends keep secrets for their own personal reasons, Tucker." Jazz pointed out, "Any who, I knew Danny would be fine then. After all, he and I are the only ones who knows about that paper."
"So? Skulker could have figured it out, he's Danny's personal stalker right behind Vlad." Sam crossed her arms, "Hell, maybe Vlad told him to fetch it."
"Why in the world would Vlad want a piece of paper on a list of things he wanted to do before he bought the harp farm?" Jazz asked, raising up, now a bit irritated, "Skulker obviously had no clue what was on that paper either, I could see it in his face. Danny is fine, so take it easy."
"So then what? We don't visit him?" Tucker asked, "Danny doesn't want to see us, is that it? He's our friend."
"Someday he will, but right now, I think he still needs a few cogs to unscrew." Jazz placed each of her hands on both Sam and Tucker's shoulders.
"What if he doesn't though?" Sam asked, "Where the heck is Danny living in? Vlad's the only guy he knows in Wisconsin, there's no way he'd lived with him. NO freakin' WAY!"
"I don't know." Jazz shrugged, "…Okay, how's this? We'll give him until the start of the summer vacation, If he doesn't contact us, we'll go see him, alright? That gives him at least another month and a half, plenty of time."
"I guess." Tucker lowered his head.
"I don't think it's fine!" Sam screeched.
"SAM, PLEASE!" Jazz screeched back, silencing the Goth girl.
"…This is getting ridiculous. How long can Danny stay mad even when he's had a rough couple of months? It's not like him and it's pissing us off." Sam then grumbled, "He had BETTER have a good excuse or else!" She gripped her hands.
………………
And now, back to the present time period…
Danny would be damned if Vlad would continue shielding him from the outside world and achieving his goals. Starting today, he would set out and work on his list of things to do, whether he liked it or not, so after he left for work, Danny, desperate at this point got out a ladder and a screwdriver from the storage shed fore Vlad placed a security camera in his own room. Undoing the lock without using his ghost powers was simply the matter of undoing it by crowbar which he found after scurrying through all the closets, then the upstairs attic. Danny made a mental note to revisit that place in the near future fore it held a treasure trove of old junk from Vlad's childhood raging from photo albums to magazines from the 70's and 80's to--bingo--Vlad's old journals. Right now, he needed to rush to make this day as full as he could make it.
"Don't give me privacy my ass." Danny mumbled to himself as he now climbed up the ladder and unscrewed the camera off. Afterwards, he quickly dumped it in the trash can, pocketed his list and some money, took Vlad's cowboy hat, and raced downstairs, heading for the front doors.
"Ooh, now where are you off to in a hurry, my boy?"
"I'm off to Clark's general store, Dairy King." Danny stated. Usually whenever Vlad left for work and Danny remained indoors for whatever reason, he fortunately had the Dairy King's ghost to keep him company, although his constant long hours of dairy product monologues became tiresome in given time. That said, the Dairy King made it his business to famously haunt the manor, passing through hallways to and fro in random times. At one point, he poked from below the bathtub from behind while Danny took a shower. Naturally that caused such a scream from the boy that Vlad raced in, kicking the door down causing Danny to scream louder and longer.
"And why are you going there? I thought Vladdie told you to stay put."
"Hey, he's not the boss of me." Danny spoke casually, "I have to complete my list before I die."
"How will you be getting there? Vlad took the only car doncha ya?" Dairy King further probed as he floated behind Danny who had already left the front door, aiming now for the storage shed. Opening the wooden double doors, he fished out a shiny red bicycle.
"This." Danny winked, "Found it when I visited the shed for the first time a while back. Never thought Vlad much of a bicycle person, but I suppose for a forty something man constantly fighting and stuff, he has to keep in shape or something...or maybe it's something he had for years, it was all dusty when I spotted it earlier."
"So, what's the first thing on your list that you're gonna do?"
"If you're so curious, why don't you just follow?" Danny asked, "Just…stay invisible and don't scare anyone." Wearing Vlad's cowboy hat, he left.
……………………
"A galleon bucket of chocolate ice cream?" Clark eyed Danny who just dump the bucket of cold cream on the counter by the time he finished speaking.
"Yep…do you mind if I eat if here? I notice you got a table near the window." Danny asked, pointing to the plain slightly dusted table with matching set of chairs before handing him money.
"Nope, I don't, but don't tell me you're going to eat this whole thing yourself." Clark gasped, accepting a five dollar bill.
"YOU GUYS ARE JERKS! I'M RUNNING AWAY!"
Danny saw the youngest of Clark's three children run out from the back door and out to the front, leaving the store carrying nothing but her straw hat in her hand, the other used to wipe the tears off her eyes. Danny stared as she ran off down the street, then faced the back door when he heard the laughter of Roger and Dash.
"Oh-No." Clark lowered his head, balancing it with his hand before it could hit the counter.
"What happen?"
"Just sibling rivalry." Clark urged a small smile, "Poor Sasha, must be hard to grow up without a strong female figure in her life." Danny merely eyed him with the same shocked look he gave when he saw Sasha leave in a huff.
"Oh, the missus isn't around this world anymore."
"Oh, I-I'm so sorry. I'm sure she must be in…Heaven." The last Danny whispered, "She's…running off though, shouldn't you do something about it?"
"Aww, that's what Sasha does, she's running away like some big drama queen." Roger came from back, Dash following behind him like his trained pup, "We told her she's not allow to come with me and Dash to catch some frogs in the woods later."
"Yeah, she's such a crybaby wimp." Dash snickered. Danny eyed the two and gave off a rather annoyed look, "Girls don't catch frogs anyways." Dash concluded.
"Don't worry none, this is common." Clark said, "I'm gonna go over and give those boys a talking."
"Okay." Danny nodded, taking the ice cream bucket to the table, "Hey, if it's not so much trouble, can I have a spoon to borrow?"
"Sure." Then he watched as Clark dragged the two inside.
Danny waited some couple of minutes. He could hear the boys shouting and Clark, bless his heart calmly speaking to them over the mistreatment of their littlest sibling. The boys reaction as they ran up the stairway to their room, stomping on each step with such force indicated their little trip to the woods got cancelled. Afterwards, he returned with a silver spoon, smiling and mumbling, "boys will be boys." Danny eyed his ice cream bucket, assuming the kids merely insulted or picked on Sasha like any typical boys their age and of course, if anyone could relate to that, it would be Danny who had done his fair shares throughout his childhood.
"Are you seriously going to eat all that?" Clark again gasped.
"In under fifteen minutes." Danny grinned, "Watch and be amazed."
Thirteen minutes and twenty six seconds later, Danny finished every last content of the ice cream, then smacked his head on the table, suffering from a terrible case of brain freeze. Clark immediately at this point ran inside and returned with freshly brewed coffee which slightly helped Danny, but it took several minutes before Danny could mutter sentences properly.
"Boy, are you crazy?" Clark slightly raised his voice, a rather rare occurrence for him.
"Nope, I'm just risky." Danny pulled a weak thumbs-up.
He crossed a sentence from his list afterwards "Eat galleon of ice cream in under fifteen minutes" off his list, something he wrote back at age twelve.
………………
Another visit to the Masters farm showed Abe yelling at someone on the phone upon entering the front door of his house.
"IF YOU THINK I'M GONNA GIVE UP MY LAND WITHOUT A FIGHT, THEN YOU'RE DEAD WRONG, YOU RICH SACK OF CRAP!" Slamming the phone down, his heated face immediately melted upon eyeing Danny whom he hugged, "I thought your father grounded you."
"Err…I was let off for good behavior." Danny casually lied, now becoming something of a regular occurrence for him.
"Great then, let's get you intimate with the farm life again, boy."
"Who the hell were you yelling at it, grandpa?"
"Nothing you need to be concerned about, now come on."
"…Nobody tells me anything…just like home." Danny sighed.
Again, Danny fed the cows and cleaned the house. This time he also searched for any laid eggs in the small chicken coop located right of the house and afterwards, went into their vegetable patch to take out any fresh vegetables there. The patch widely held a variety of fresh grown edible plants; tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, and the likes. Abe stated he desire to grow corn in given time, but for reasons unknown, never bothered to get on with it just yet. And be it his own list of things to do before he died, Abe vowed to somehow get Danny to ride a horse. Danny failed once again, lasting on the horse's back for at least some seven minutes before falling off or telling Lila to stop out of fear.
Other then another set of bandages (which fortunately for Danny remained located where Vlad couldn't see it visibly) from that incident, the sun started to set and Danny, putting on a sincere face, declared his time to go home. However, by the time he and Abe walked off to his bike near the entrance to the Masters Farm, a fellow farmer came dashing in, completely out of breath by the time he reached his destination.
"Umm…can I help you?" Danny asked.
"Pete, what the hell's the matter? Snake got inside your pants again? Damn it, Pete, I told you not--"
"NO!" The farmer named Pete wheezed, "Clark's kid's missing. Ya know, the little one…the girl…her name…damn it, I can't--I can't remember for some reason."
"Sasha?" Danny answered.
"YES! She's missing. She's been gone for hours." Pete stated, "The whole town is going nuts looking for her. I came here to ask for anyone's help."
"So the girl finally decided to run away for good? Good Lord." Abe shook his head.
"We're going to go find her, aren't we, grandpa?" Danny asked, giving a sort of innocent, hopeful stare a five year old would give in hopes they'd get a cookie before dinner.
"Well, of course!" Abe cried out, "HANK! KEVIN! Get your asses out here, we got some rescuin' to do!"
……………
Rescue
The majority of the citizens searched the town, thinking a small eight year old girl wouldn't run off any further which narrowed it down to two sets of roads, one that lead to Vlad's manor and beyond and the other, the woods. Going ghost would have helped so much in this daring mission. Having managed to go some 180 miles now, Danny could have done a much better job eyeing from the sky then he could on foot. Dairy King didn't seem to be around to do it for him, indicating the chubby ghost didn't follow him after all. Everybody got insanely desperate, even mischievous Roger and Dash plastered worried looks all over their faces, the younger brother trying in vain to shove back any tears that came down his face.
He didn't know for sure if she did go out beyond or into the woods, but he remembered the boys refusing to let their sister in on their once planned trip to catch frogs there. Perhaps she had gone herself, all alone to prove them wrong. Not saying a word, he took his bike and pedaled the trail leading to the wide masses of trees seen far ahead.
…………………
When Vlad opened the front doors to see the entire manor's lights off, he immediately started to boil up.
"He didn't…" He mumbled to himself. Turning on every light of the rooms and hallways he passed to get upstairs to Danny's room, he gripped the doorknob tightly and just stood there.
"Please be in your room, please be in your room, please." Opening the doors, he's suspicion turned true, his wishes flattened and stomped. Eyeing the ladder and screwdriver Danny carelessly left and the corner of the upper wall where the security camera should be. He quickly ran to the storage shed outside to find it equally carelessly opened, the crowbar resting on the side so casually. Vlad put two and two together and let off a violent tantrum.
"I'M GONNA KILL HIM!"
……………………
The sky already turned a brilliant shade of blue by the time he reached it. Stars adorned it until they were quickly covered by storm clouds. Trees rustled as the wind started to pick up. Danny hoped to find her before rain started to fall, having fail to bring an umbrella. Unfortunately, such hasty decisions, the breezy winds, and the darkened sky caused Danny to revert off the wrong course and stumble down a small, yet steep cliff, the bike crash landing nearby a thick path of bushes.
"Oh, criminy!" Danny muttered. Try as he might, Danny couldn't pull the bike out, heavily entangled by the bushes' branches, refusing to let go as if they finally found an object to play with. Danny let off a frustrated groan, kicked the stuck bike, and climbed his way back off the cliff. He ran along the given trail until he found a crossroad with two paths. Perfect. To make matters more hell to him, Danny's ghost sense let off.
"Oh-No, no, please." Danny shuddered, "Please…don't be a bad ghost. I don't need this right now." The so-called ghost he sensed seem to draw closer to him, but it couldn't be spotted. Invisible, it might be. It passed Danny disguised as a huge gust of winds and leaves combined, causing Danny to clutch onto his hat as it flew passed him for the next minute or so. The wind it surrounded itself apparently blew so violently, Danny toppled and fell, still clutching onto his hat. The trees frayed too and fro and the wind itself sounded very much like a roar then a whoosh. It's like a jet just took off right above him. After that fiansco, he clumsily stood up, his expressions were no less then awe. Whatever that ghost looked like, it didn't take long to know it felt huge. VERY huge. Danny finally snap long enough to take the right trail, away from the ghost which took the left, making his way to a lone stone bridge where he found Sasha…
………………
"Abe, we got bad news." Hank ran towards his boss, "We got another kid missing now."
"Oh, GEEZ, WHO?" Abe screeched.
"Danny. He's gone, too."
"…Shit." Abe stomped his foot around and flailed his arm, "What the hell? Did that boy get lost trying to find Sasha?"
"I don't know."
"This CANNOT get possibly worse!"
"I think it's about to." Hank pointed. Abe faced his direction and his eyes widen. Vlad. He immediately spotted him and ran in his direction.
"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?"
"Boy, if I knew, he'd probably be right besides me." Abe crossed his arms.
"DAMN IT, OLD MAN! JUST TELL ME WHERE THE HELL DANIEL IS!"
"He's missing." Hank stepped in.
"…WHAT?"
"Damn it, Hank!" Abe hissed.
"What? I thought he'd like to know." Hank shrugged.
"H-He's missing? What do you MEAN he's missing? How the HELL can he be missing?"
"Hell if I know, he must've gotten lost while we were looking for Sasha."
"SASHA? WHO THE HELL IS SASHA? WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING FOR DANIEL? OH, MY GOD! DANIEL!" Vlad immediately started searching the entire town.
…………………
"SASHA!"
"Danny?" Came the voice of the small eight year old girl with the straw hat. From the looks of her face, she'd been crying.
"Geez, kid, everybody's been looking for you!" Danny ran over to her, "Nobody's bother to look here, so I just took a shot in the dark and some vague clues and manage to find you here…luckily."
"You look hurt." Sasha squeaked.
"Oh, I fell down a cliff and got my bike destroyed…it's alright, don't worry about it." Danny reassured, "Now come on, we better go before the rain starts and--" Danny didn't finish speaking seeing as the small girl now locked her arms around his waist, crying into his shirt.
"…I…I never had a boy rescue me before." She whimpered.
"…Oh…I see." He lowered his head to see her's which once again filled with tears, her cheeks now rosy, "Come on, let's go home."
"Do I have, too? Can't you live with me in the woods? I hate my brothers." Sasha pulled his hand.
"Look, I know they can be jerks, but that's normal." Danny said.
"But they keep doing it." Sash puffed, "I hate them. I hate them all! If mom was here, she'd never stand for this!"
"Well, she isn't and you have to do your best to not let your brother's words get the best of you." Danny, seeing Sasha stifling beneath her cries and trying to make a response prompt him to kneel to her level, "Look, it happens. I should know, I have a sister and we used to fight ALL the time when we were about your age."
"Really?"
"Yeah, but we also had a great time together and we got along much better as we got older." Danny nodded, "Don't tell me Roger and Dash always ruins your life."
"…No, not always. Sometimes they invite me when we go the beach or exploring for lost treasures and stuff." Sasha mumbled.
"See?"
"…Okay, I'll come home." Sasha muttered, gripping Danny's hand, something she took a rather good glee from.
Danny's experience with small children dated as far back as his he can remember, but Dani however served somewhat as a little sister to him from the few times he's stuck with her, before she disappeared for good. He realized then at that moment how much he could relate to Jazz and why she often doted on him. Taking the experiences he knew, he held onto Sasha's hand tight, vowing to bring this little child home, giving her as much comfort as possible in between. Somehow, at this moment, he felt actually what Jazz felt at his age: like an adult. Unfortunately by this point, a loud clap of thunder and lightning occurred and rain quickly poured over the two.
"Fantastic." Danny sighed. Again, to make matters even more complicated, the wind started to pick up and again his ghost sense let loose. With a quick gasp, he gripped Sasha's hand tighter and eyed his surroundings, the little girl curiously eyeing the older individual and why he seems dead set on moving his head in all possible angles while standing.
"Danny, why aren't we going?"
"DUCK!" Danny pushed Sasha to the ground as the strong burst of wind and leaves bypassed them again, Sasha letting off a huge scream that largely went drowned. When the wind calmed a bit, Danny and Sasha got up and eyed the direction the huge gust of wind passed.
"Danny, what was that? It was so strong."
"…I don't know." Danny mumbled, "Come on, we better go."
Indeed, what WAS that? This creature, this supposed ghost…no, some sort of super ghost. It felt so strong, completely different from any encounters he ever faced. It's like all the ghosts he's fought since he gained his powers somehow decided to all merge together into one colossal being. Some sort of forest spirit who thought Danny and Sasha disturbed? Something more maybe..?
………………
Sasha ran into her father's arms the minute she caught sight of him, crying and apologizing for running off. Much to her surprise, even Roger and Dash expressed their worries over their little sister. The rest of the town members smothered Danny and praised him as a hero. Danny tried his best to give off a surprised expression, but having been "Danny Phantom" for two years, the word "hero" bounced off him casually. He didn't expect coughs and a loud sneeze coming afterwards from his mouth though. The rain, still pouring obviously started to take it's affect on him.
"That doesn't sound good, better take you back to the house." Abe suggested, "Alright everyone, go on home before you end up like my grandson here! Hank, Kevin, come on!"
"Shouldn't we wait for your son, he's still looking for Danny." Hank asked.
"He knows where to find us, Danny's health is more important right now."
"I-I'm fine, really." Danny struggled.
"Save your energy, kid. Let's go!"
…………………
Breakthrough
Danny didn't make much of an effort arguing back later on against Abe that he needed to return back to the manor. The rain took it's toll on him, rendering him cold.
"You ain't leaving until you feel better or you'll risk pneumonia or something." Abe said, trying to drag the boy into his house. Inside, while Hank, on Abe's order, went off to set up a room for Danny, Kevin busied himself in the kitchen preparing him hot tea. Abe took this time to push Danny onto the couch and wrap a blanket around him, then running out and back with a first aid kit to mend his wounds.
"You are really something, you know that?" Abe said as he started to rub iodine on Danny's arms.
"T-Thanks."
"Seems like you've done this hero gig before or something." Danny's response to that merely came out as nervous laughter.
"Well, once I get you healed, then you're going straight to bed or that cough'll get worse."
"But what about dad?"
"Oh, well, he should come here pretty soon." Abe answered, "He was here earlier looking for you while you were off looking for Sasha."
"H-He was?" Danny gulped, "…He wasn't mad, was he?"
"Please, mad would be an understatement."
"O-Oh." Danny gripped the back of his neck. He knew the risks involved when leaving Vlad's manor without his permission, but an angry Vlad equaled an unpleasant Vlad. He expects their latest meeting will once again deteriorate into another argument.
"DANIEL!"
"There he comes." Kevin mumbled from the kitchen. Danny halted Abe and stood up, slowly walking outside.
"Daniel, it's still raining, get back here before your cold gets worse!" Abe screamed, "Vladimir can come inside himself!" Drowning out his words, Danny ignored Abe and walked out the front door as if in a trance where he could see Vlad running towards him, even more so now that he eyed Danny walking out into the rain. He ran so fast however that he tripped and fell, landing in newly created mud from the rain, ruining his dark business suit and neatly groomed hair, letting him curse off a stream of dirty words. Danny let off a small gasp and ran up to him, trying to help him up, getting mud on him as well. Now wet AND dirty, Danny and Vlad both eyed each other. To the young boy's shock, Vlad slapped him clear across the face.
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? RUNNING OFF…AGAIN! YOU DIDN'T EVEN HIDE THE FACT THAT YOU TORE OF THE DAMN VIDEO CAMERA!"
"I had to, you were basically making me a prisoner in your own home!"
"I wanted to PROTECT YOU!"
I don't NEED protection! I need to you stop treating me like I'm helpless!"
"DON'T sass at me like that! You should have stayed home!" Danny coughed as his next response.
"And you have a COLD! A COLD! Boy, are you looking for a death wish?"
"I-I'm…cough…FINE…cough!"
"NO! No, you are not fine!"
"WHY DO YOU HAVE TO TREAT ME LIKE A BABY?"
"BECAUSE YOU'RE DYING!"
The tears Vlad tried to hold finally let loose. Danny merely watched in typical anger, sick and tired of all these arguments, all these disagreements, all this crap. Maybe he should just die out here in the rain just to get away from Vlad's constant overprotection. You're not my dad! It's funny how he thought that at that very moment, right here, in the rain next to a house where Abe and his workers watched from afar, because after that very precise moment of thought, Vlad did something he never expected. He hugged him. No, scratch that, he hugged him and cried. Naturally, the boy was speechless.
"Daniel…I was devastated when I found out you were missing. You didn't know how scared I was. I looked everywhere and just slowly lost hope when I couldn't find you. I just…I didn't know what to do then. I couldn't think straight. All I kept thinking about was if you were hurt or worse. I don't care how many times I hurt you or you hurt me. I don't care how many times we throw ourselves into battle over even the most pettiest reasons. I don't care anymore. All I care about is YOU!
…I thought I lost you, my little badger."
Danny's first reaction after that big speech didn't involve yelling or punching him in frustration. It didn't seem to matter anymore; the battles, Vlad's constant flirts over Maddie, his desire to kill Jack, his urge to force Danny into his world, Dani's existence and lose, his future evil self, it didn't matter, it just didn't…because right then and there, Danny burst into tears and cried.
To Be Continued…
Author's Note: Hmmm, I think I updated a little earlier then I usually do with this chapter. That's like a first for me, heh. That said, the breakthrough has happened, a possible powerful superghost might be on the loose, and the story is taking a new, different turning point. Now we get the heart of the matter, so prepare yourselves.