Chapter 34:
Dani POV-
"What do you mean you have to leave!?" I exclaimed on Tuesday morning after I had been informed that, as of 2:00 this afternoon, I would no longer be able to depend on Danny, Tucker, and Sam for help.
"Sorry, Dani, I really wish we could stay, but our parents will start to get suspicious if we are gone for too long," Danny sighed. I understood, of course, that they couldn't stay forever, but it did not make me feel any better.
"But Vlad is still here," I whined.
"Come on Dani," Tony tried to lighten my mood, "You will still have me to help you in case Vlad attacks."
"Yeah, then you can catch him in a thermos and ship him to me, and I'll take him to the observers so that he can be punished for his crimes," Danny added.
"Not helping," I grumbled, still slightly irritated.
Pepper wasn't saying anything, even though I knew it was almost time to go, she just stood by the door, tapping her foot impatiently like she sometimes did. I sighed deeply.
"I've got to go," I told them, hugging them all and saying my goodbyes before I left out the front door.
Pepper said nothing on the way to school, I mean, after all, what could she say? 'Danielle, I'm sorry that you just lost half of your protection, and the only half with tons of experience fighting ghosts, and especially Vlad, but I'm sure you'll be alright' yeah, no. So instead, she just looked at me with concern out of the corner of her eye.
School went no differently than yesterday. I still could not fight the stares, whether they be the visible human ones, or the invisible paranormal ones. The school day, at least, went quickly, which, I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, the school day ending would get me closer to being farther away from the stares, but it also got it closer to 2:00 when it would be much easier for Vlad to attack.
Finally, at around 1:50, I was twitching like a something someone had just run over with their car, and I wasn't feeling much better. I stuck a pair of Fenton Phones in my ears, just in case.
The bell rang, moving us to seventh period. I clung to the crowd, not even daring to take the much faster route to class through the back hallway behind the office.
I sat down in my chair right before the tardy bell rang.
Five minutes later, it was 2:00. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were now officially beyond help, because even if they hadn't left yet, they were on a plane where I could not reach them even if I needed to.
Crap.
I bit my lip, and drummed my pencil on the desk until it earned me a few angry looks from my classmates.
"Danielle?" my teacher asked, and I practically skyrocketed out of my seat before my mind comprehended that she wasn't a threat. She gave me the kind of look you would give to a crazy person before asking if I could take a note down to the office.
"I'll do it," Issa immediately offered. Now the teacher was, once again, confused. Issa never asks to do anything. Then, probably out of distrust of Issa, she turned back to me.
"No, that's alright, Danielle can do it," she handed me the note. I sighed, casting a pained look at Issa when the teacher had turned around as I walked slowly towards the door.
The halls were empty, but I still felt eyes on me. Which meant that Vlad now knew that I was alone. I gulped and continued down the stairs to the office, which was still on the other side of the school.
My ghost sense went off and I froze.
"Um…Tony," I said into the Fenton Phones. No answer, "Tony?"
Still no answer.
Shit.
'I guess I'm on my own,' I gritted my teeth and continued to the office hopefully to get to a more populated area.
Unfortunately, I never made it. My ghost sense went off again, this time with more urgency. I whipped around, only to be blasted with a freaking net, which was, of course, phase proof.
Vlad laughed, disembodied at first but then he materialized in front of my, lowering his face to be in mine.
"Well, well, Danielle," he chuckled, "It seems I have the upper hand now." I glared at him then spit in his eye.
He winced, cursing as he wiped the spit out of his eye.
"Now, Danielle, I know I didn't raise you to act like that," he scolded.
"You didn't raise me at all," I growled menacingly.
He ignored my comment, continuing with his cliché villainous monologue. "Now, you're all alone. There is no one left to save you. And, less who would even care that you have gone missing. Especially, Mr. Stark. He heard your cry for help, every word, I even watched as he pressed the mute button to drown out your pathetic pleas…"
He was wrong, of course, at least I hoped he was. But, either way, Vlad was so rapped up in his own ranting that he didn't even notice Issa crouched behind the trashcan. Her wristray was out and glowing. She pointed it, probably aiming at Vlad, but, with her aim, being as poor as it is, it hit the net that had me pinned down, and me, but just a little. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, I was still mostly pinned down and I doubted that Issa could make another shot like that. Fortunately though, Vlad had not noticed.
With a little motion with my hand, Issa edged the wrist ray to the left. Quickly figuring that she would be able to hit him from that angle, I gave her the okay, and she fired. The shot hit Vlad square in the back, and he cried out, whipping around to see where the shot had come from, giving me just enough time to rip through the already present hole in the net, and get out. With his back still turned, I transformed, flying up over Vlad and landing a ghost ray on the back of his head.
He whipped around again, a little stunned that I had gotten out of the net, but he didn't let his surprise hold him back for long as he lunged for me, eyes blazing.
I turned intangible and he went right through me.
I put up a ghost shield just in time for him to blast me. The shield disintegrated after it was hit, but it had served it's purpose. I fired back at him, to which, he responded by becoming intangible. I fired again, but he was still intangible as he started to move toward me. Suddenly, I was grabbed from behind. Which one was the real Vlad, I didn't know, but that didn't matter much right now, because either way, he now had me, by the throat, I tried to wriggle free from his grasp but it was too tight. I couldn't even become intangible because he was much more powerful than I was and he was blocking my abilities.
Suddenly Issa jumped out from behind the trashcan, wristray aimed, poorly, but aimed.
Vlad laughed, "A friend of yours I presume. Well, this is interesting now isn't it."
"Leave her alone. Issa, go," I ordered, but my voice was weak because he was crushing my windpipe.
"I'm not leaving you Dani," Issa stood firm.
"Well, isn't this touching," Vlad laughed again.
"Issa, aim three feet to the right!" I shouted as loudly as I could.
"Are you crazy?" she asked not moving her gun. I seriously cannot believe she is arguing with me right now.
"Just do it," I gasped. Vlad laughed, amused at our exchange. After just another second of hesitation, Issa did as I asked and fired. The beam hit Vlad, directly in the hand that he had grasped around my throat.
"Ahhh!" Vlad exclaimed, dropping me. He turned to Issa, his eyes blazing once more and fired at her, just in time for me to dive in front of her and take the blow to my side.
Ouch, yeah, that hurt.
I winced, sucking in a sharp breath in pain. Issa, who I had knocked to the floor, stood up, and immediately asked if I was alright. I waved her off, partially because I was unable to answer through the pain at the moment. I was oozing with green out of my side, quickly, and I felt my energy draining with it. I turned back to Vlad, holding my side as I glared him down. I wasn't sure how much of a fight I would actually be able to put up right now but I knew I had to try.
Vlad laughed again, "You and Daniel never know when to give up, do you?"
I didn't reply, I just, meekly raised my hand that wasn't holding my side and blasted an ghost ray at him. I lurched to the side, with the amount of energy I had just used. And, although Vlad had been thrown back a little by the blast, he was looming over me again in a matter of seconds.
"You can't even fight me right now. Which will make it all the more painful, for you, to see your friends and family suffer. Starting with you!" he grabbed Issa off of the ground restraining her despite how hard she kicked and thrashed in his grasp.
"Let her go!" I shouted standing up a little straighter with adrenaline.
"Whose going to make me, you?" he asked with a laugh. By this time, a crowd had finally begun to form, shocked students assembled around us, as the teachers tried to shoo them away, while still managing to watch the fight.
"No, that would be my job!" I heard behind me I turned to see not just Tony, who had spoken, but also, Danny. And Tucker, Pepper, and Sam, came in through the back door at that moment too. The audience gasped at Iron Man.
Vlad was surprised and Tony used that to his advantage, blasting him into the wall behind him, causing Vlad to drop Issa, from the height of five feet, where she was caught by Danny. The audience clapped, like this was all some kind of show for them.
"I though you guys had left," I called to him, weakly.
Danny shrugged as he supplied his own volley of ecto blasts to Vlad, "We'll take the next flight."
I floated up, blasting Vlad too, with the combined firing force of me, Issa (kind of), Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Pepper, Vlad, was unable to get off of the ground where he was now in a large crater.
Vlad stumbled to his feet, weakly, one more time, only to be sucked into the thermos by Danny. The crowd cheered.
"Alright, nothing to see here," Tony told them, motioning for them to leave, 'Move along."
With the fight over, my adrenaline bottomed out and I collapsed to the floor, causing immediate concern from my friends who crowded around me. With them creating a barrier around me so that I could not be seen by the student body, I passed out, feeling the familiar transformation as the black covered my eyes.
I felt arms around me and I knew I was being carried. My eyes squinted open and I saw blue sky, and Tony, mask up, carrying me through the sky.
"Daddy," I mumbled, still slightly delirious.
"Yeah, Dani, it's me. And we're going to get you fixed up," I heard him say as he smiled, just before darkness covered me again.
I hope you enjoyed that, stay tuned for the final conclusion.