Chapter 9:
The next day…
Danny POV-
Today started out as a relatively normal day, I only had a few hours of school thanks to frequent ghost attacks, and then I had to wake up early for school. I was late to class, once again, because of ghost attacks. As a result, I didn't really get to have a conversation with either Tucker or Sam until we sat down together at lunch.
"Danny, I need to show you something that I found this morning," Tucker told me, reaching into his bag and pulling out a magazine. He laid the tabloids on the table and I glanced at the cover to see 'TONY STARK…' written in bold letters.
"Tuck, I'm too tired to care about what new tech Tony Stark released," I sighed.
"Wait, there's more to it than that," he told me, picking up the magazine and flipping through the pages. "Here," he stopped and pointed to the page, "Does she look familiar?" he asked. I glanced at the page and there was my younger female clone who disappeared after the last time we saw her.
"That's Danielle!" I exclaimed. Picking up the magazine and reading the article attached to her image.
'Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries has recently acquired a new responsibility: a daughter. Sources say that young Danielle Fenton, an orphan, was adopted by Stark's assistant Pepper Pots in Tony's name…' I blinked, a little surprised.
"Why would she take my last name?" was the only logical question that came to my mind.
"Well, she is your clone, also, it's better than Danielle Masters," Tucker shrugged.
"Speaking of, Danny you're missing the big picture. What if Vlad sees this, Danielle could be in big danger!" Sam exclaimed.
"Yeah, I know that," I told her, "But what am I supposed to do, steal the specter speeder and then take a trip to Las Angeles, California? Do you have any idea how much trouble we'd be in?" I asked.
"Well, it's not like we haven't done it before…" Tucker muttered.
"But Danny," Sam argued, "You have to make sure she's safe."
"I know…" I said, thinking of a way to be sure that I could warn her and keep her safe from her fruitloop father. Suddenly, I had an idea.
"Tucker, how hard would it be for you to hack Stark Industries so that I could get a message to Danielle?" I asked him.
"I don't know, with a security system like that, it could take a couple of hours," he shrugged in response.
"Great," I replied, "Then we'll do it after school."
…
After school…
"Okay, I already told my parents that I'm staying over here, so we should be good to go," I told Tucker and Sam as we sat in Tucker's bedroom around his computer.
"Alright, time to put my hacking skills to the test," Tucker grinned, before frantically typing on his keyboard.
Two and a half hours later, I was in and out of sleep in the chair beside the desk and Sam had already gone home for the night.
"Alright Danny!" Tucker announced, "I'm in." I shot up and realized that he was right, he had successfully hacked Stark Industries and had opened a page directed to Danielle.
"You're going to have to be quick, I have to remove the firewalls as quickly as they come up," he told me. I nodded and started typing in my message to Danielle as Tucker continued to disable firewalls.
'Danielle, Tucker hacked in so that I could tell you that since you're in magazines now, Vlad might try to come for you. Be on your guard, and try not to be alone at any time. We're going to try to get some supplies to you. –Danny' I pressed send just as Tucker disabled the last firewall.
"Okay now I just have to cover my tracks and…done," he said.
"Did you get an address?" I asked.
"I've got you covered man," Tucker replied, handing me a slip of paper with a California address written on it.
Dani POV-
The night of the following day, it was 8:30, Tony and Pepper were at a press conference and I was just hanging out in my room, listening to music. Suddenly, the music stopped. An error message flashed on the screen next to my closet that was used to control Jarvis.
"Jarvis," I called to the empty house. No reply. Confused as well as intrigued, I stood up and walked over to the screen. Suddenly a message came up.
'Danielle, Tucker hacked in so that I could tell you that since you're in magazines now, Vlad might try to come for you. Be on your guard, and try not to be alone at any time. We're going to try to get some supplies to you. –Danny'
A smiled recognizing that I had just received a message from Danny, but I also curse myself because, I suddenly realized that my new status as adopted daughter of a billionaire, might be dangerous. Suddenly, the empty house felt much more sinister, like my father might be waiting in any one of the shadows to take me back to his lab and melt me down into ectoplasm. I looked at Ghost, his floppy ears standing up in interest as he studied me.
I had once heard that dogs had a higher sensitivity to ghosts than most humans do, I just hoped that if Vlad does try to kidnap me, that Ghost would bark and wake me up so that I at least have a chance of fighting back.
Danny's message fizzled out on the screen and my music turned on.
"Jarvis?" I asked again.
"Yes miss Dani?" he replied.
"What was that?" I asked.
"What? Miss Dani," he asked sounding as confused as an artificial intelligence system can sound.
"Um…nothing, I just thought I heard thunder," I replied.
"There is a forty percent chance of storms miss Dani," Jarvis told me.
"Okay, thanks Jarvis," I said, walking towards the windows. The sky was dark and so was the rolling sea below. It was too dark to see anything other than the lighter sand on the shore. I took a deep breath and went to my bed.
Vlad POV-
"Ah, so daddy's little girl has gone and found herself a new father," I said to my empty house as I unfolded the magazine in front of myself, "A father, I might add, who made an enemy of me the day he refused my business offer the last time I was in California. Well, now, maybe I should just arrange a little business meeting with mister stark then."
"Come along, Maddie," I told my cat as the two of us wandered over to my computer. I entered the email address of Tony Stark's assistant in and sent her an email.
"It's funny, Pepper Potts, is almost as lovely as my Maddie," I mused, receiving an angry meow from my fluffy white cat.
"Not you my dear," I soothed the feline, giving her a scratch behind the ears.
'Dear Ms. Potts,
I feel like Tony and I did not really get to bargain as much the last time as I had hoped. I will be in California the last week of the month and I would love for you to set up a time for us to meet.
-Vlad Masters'
I clicked send on the email. The end of the month was nearly three weeks away, giving me plenty of time to perfect my plan. I laughed maniacally as the plan already began to take shape in my mind.
Bum Bum Buuummmm.
How do you think Tony will react to suddenly receiving an email from Vlad? I hope you liked it, please review if you did. I don't own Danny Phantom or Iron Man.