Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. But here you go.

Chapter 26:

Later that same night…

Dani POV-

"Aww…how cute," Issa grinned sarcastically as we went down into the lab. The reason? Ghost was asleep on Tony's lap in front of the computer. Annoyed, Tony woke the dog and pushed him back onto the floor where Ghost immediately went into the corner and curled up.

A little while later, I got bored. So, I decided to toss a ball of ectoplasm between my hands. I formed one, about the size of a tennis-ball and began to play with it.

"Would you stop doing that! You're making me anxious," Sam exclaimed in exasperation after a few minutes. From across the room, I saw Danny grin.

"Hey Dani!" he called, "Toss it over here." I made a point of smirking at Sam before I tossed it to Danny, who caught it and tossed it back. Our little game of catch soon became a game of keep away, as Sam picked up a tennis racket (yes, for some reason there was a tennis racket lying on the floor of the lab, I think that they had intended to make it a ghost weapon but never got around to it) and attempted to dissolve the ball with a swing. She missed. I changed into my ghost form to get higher up, and out of range of her swing, and Danny did the same. By this point, Issa, Tucker, and Tony were all fixated on what was going on.

Also, by this point, Sam was…pissed, and she was no longer fooling around. She picked up a thermos off of the table and Danny and I froze. Before either one of us even had a chance to change back, Sam sucked Danny into the thermos. With her focus momentarily off of me, I changed back, dropping the full four feet to the floor and landing in a squat. Then, when she turned the focus of the thermos on me, it was too late.

"Sam, let me out," Danny mumbled from inside of the thermos, and I couldn't help but giggle. Sam ignored him and set the thermos on the table, upside-down.

Tony seemed to be having fun because he couldn't stop laughing.

"Does this happen a lot?" he asked between chuckles. Tucker shrugged.

"Yeah, kind of, but usually for different things," he informed Tony.

That's when Pepper came downstairs.

"Okay, who wanted hot chocolate?" she asked.

After she had dished out the steaming cups, she realized that one of us was missing.

"Where's Danny?" she asked.

"He went to bed early," Sam lied, shoving the thermos off of the table and onto the nearby chair, and causing Danny to groan from inside of the thermos.

"What was that?" she asked in regards to the seemingly disembodied groan, looking around the room.

"Nothing," the rest of us exclaimed at once. Pepper let out a deep sigh, rolling her eyes slightly.

"Fine. I'll be upstairs if you need anything else," she told us before going up the stairs and out of the lab.

"Can I come out now?" Danny whined, and after a few moments of wrestling the thermos out of Sam's grasp, Tucker finally pressed the release button.

The next morning, Friday, the 29th…

Tony POV-

This morning, everyone was awake, congregating on the couch when Pepper got there to take Dani, albeit reluctantly, to school again.

"Pepper? What time is his appointment?" I asked so that Tucker could enter all of the information into his PDA.

"He was very specific, he told me he wanted to schedule the meeting at 11:30 this morning," she told me.

"Oh, right!" Danny remembered something, and then pulled out the specter deflector, "Tucker managed to make them a little less tacky when we were in the lab last night, but you guys still need to wear them. Sorry, Issa, I don't have one for you…" Danny apologized handing Pepper and I the, now black leather belts, one, slightly more feminine than the other.

"That's okay," Sam said, "She can have mine," she pulled off a black and purple plaid belt I hadn't realized she was wearing. Danny didn't seem to like this idea, just judging by the look on his face, but, Sam, it seemed, was able to reassure him with only a smile and a slight nod.

"I still don't understand the reason that we have to wear these," Pepper wanted to know, as I put mine on.

"We told you—" Dani started, but Pepper held up a hand, shaking her head.

"Yes, I know, Vlad might use ghosts to overshadow us or something…like that. But I still have a very hard time making sense of that," she told Dani.

"You're just going to have to trust us," Dani told her, using a little of her puppy-dog-eyed charm.

Pepper sighed, "Okay. But we better get going if you don't want to be late for school."

Dani nodded, she and Issa, standing up and following Pepper out the front door with their backpacks slung over their shoulders.

"Knowing Vlad," Sam said. Every time one of these kids mentioned something else about him, it almost seemed hard to believe that they could have faced him enough to know his habits, but they did, "He will have his vulture minions sifting the rest of your stuff at the office during your meeting, so make sure not to leave any…incriminating evidence lying around."

"In other words, don't even bring the Iron Man suit to work, in a briefcase or otherwise," Tucker finished.

"Are you serious?" I asked, slightly confused and slightly ticked off.

"Yeah, sorry. But don't worry, you won't need it during the meeting. He won't try anything, and even if he does, you and Pepper will be fine," Danny said.

"Okay, but what if they come here during the meeting," I asked.

"They won't at least not with the finishing touches I just added to the ghost proof security system," Tucker said, "The only two ghosts going in or out of here will be Danny and Danielle."

I sighed, feeling like they had everything covered, "Alright, let's do this."