Chapter 27: Turning the Tables

"Ugh. This is so boring," Danielle groaned as she slouched in her seat. The hood of her jacket rested on top of her head as she rolled her eyes upwards. Looking over to her partner, Danielle wasn't surprised in the least to see him rolling his eyes at her. "Darren, how can you find any of this interesting? I mean, who cares about fractions anyway?"

"Because knowledge is the key to the world, Dani," Darren said as he turned back to his work. "The more you know, the more power you have. It keeps things in order, much like the group. And just because you have been promoted to Green Shield does not mean you can ignore the order of the world. In fact, you should be more focused on it, and-"

"Ok. I get it. Thank you for boring me even more so then I was before, lieutenant Brainiac," she said as she adjusted the band on her left arm that held a green shield instead of her usual blue one. It was true that after only a month and a half of being part of the Renegades, Ray had promoted her, giving her the third position as Captain. Much like the others, she was in charge of a specific group, which happened to be Marking. Ray had been so impressed with her work, especially how easily she was always able to dodge any and all authorities that he had decided that she would be put in charge of any and all Marking ventures from then on.

Most of the group was happy to have her as a captain, though some were not as they found her to be bossy and somewhat of a "bitch" because of how strict she could be. Danielle knew of these nicknames, and often dealt with the ones talking behind her back; a quick twist of the arm and they no longer had the nerve to call her out of her name other then the nickname "Captain Ghosty" that was given to her from Mandy. Though Danielle had to admit to herself that it was true that she was a bit strict when it came to the job, she had her reasons.

After her first job as Captain, Danielle always made sure that everyone who went did everything to the letter to prevent anyone from getting caught. She could still remember the way the Ray had laid into her about how stupid she was for not keeping up better with all of her subordinates and that it was her responsibility to rescue the kid who was in police custody. Danielle hadn't wanted to do it (she of course felt bad that he had gotten caught, but he hadn't followed her orders like he was supposed to), but after Ray had smacked her and then threatened more punishment, Danielle had flown over to the police station and used her powers to get him out of his cell quietly. The kid had been grateful, but Danielle was beyond pissed at him because he had gotten her in trouble. After chewing him out and giving him a swift punch to the gut, Danielle made a promise that she was going to keep things in order form now on.

That being said, she made a habit that whenever she organized a marking session, she had Darren, Cassie or Mandy there to help keep the others in line and to help her round the others up when necessary.

"I am just trying to help you to understand that you cannot just do things like you used to do before your promotion. Not to mention that your attendance record has dropped along with your grade point average."

"Yeah? What of it?" she asked, tipping her chair back and readjusting the red sleeves of her jacket on her elbows.

"I'm just concerned that it may affect your ability to move up to the next grade. How do your parents feel about this?"

"Please. Those two barely even notice anymore," she said with a slight smile on her face. "Ever since I've been getting my confidence back, they've been giving me my space, and-"

"Would you two mind shutting up?" Lin snapped from her seat next to Danielle as she glared at the two. "I'm trying to pay attention here."

"You'd better watch yourself, Otree," Danielle threatened, glaring back at her. "Don't think just because your mom's a teacher that you're immune from getting your butt kicked."

"Oh, I'm so scared. Especially since you can't do a thing with that belt around your waist."

Danielle's glare intensified at her former best friend as she weighed her options in this particular moment. As far as she and everyone else in the school knew, Danielle couldn't use any of her powers without getting shocked. But that wasn't completely true. The belt had been designed to prevent her from using her ecto-energy to a certain degree. Knowing this, Danielle knew that she could find a way to use some of her energy without getting shocked too badly. However, the nagging feeling in the back of her head kept her from doing anything stupid. Danielle knew it was the constant reminders and threats from her parents about getting punished for using her powers when she wasn't supposed to. Even though they had been off of her case as of lately, she knew that was probably the one thing that would definitely not go unnoticed by them.

"You are so damn lucky that my parents would end my existence, or else I'd shut you up real quick," Danielle said, forcing her eyes to glow green. Lin kept her gaze even with Danielle's though she could feel a bit of her nervousness build in her stomach but jumped back as Danielle groaned and her body shook slightly as a small amount of green electricity racked her body. Gasping, Lin looked around, but it didn't seem as though Danielle's mini spasm had caught anyone's attention, other than Darren, who had his hand on her shoulder as she slowly started to stop shaking. Against her better judgment, Lin leaned in toward Danielle.

"Danielle, are you ok?" She asked quietly as the memories of when Danny demonstrated the belt in the principal's office flashed through mind.

Danielle huffed in and out as she tried to catch her breath while the pain subsided, and looked at Lin. Ok, so maybe that hadn't been the best idea and she had miss judged how much pain she was going to feel, but she couldn't take it back now. As much as Danielle wanted to believe that the girl really cared, she knew better then to trust Lin. She had put too much and lost all faith in her and wasn't about to let her see her being weak, especially after she had just threatened her. Danielle turned her head away from Lin, looking at Darren, who only nodded his head, and raised his hand.

"Mrs. Otree?" Darren called, gaining her attention.

"Yes, Darren?" she asked before noticing Danielle's head on her desk and her holding her arms around her waist. The shallow breaths and pale coloring to her face told the woman that she was in distress. Before she could question the young phantom, Danielle shot up, a blue wisp of smoke expelled from her mouth. Danielle's eyes grew wide as she hopped up and began to look around the room for what she knew was coming for her. "Danielle, are you alright?"

"Give me the key!" She said, startling everyone before running up to the front of the room. "I need that key right now!" The sounds of screaming caused everyone to turn toward the hallway which was filled with screaming children as they ran away from something. As her classmates began to whisper and shift in their seats, Danielle could feel her anxiousness growing with every beat of her heart as whatever it was continued to come closer and closer to her. "Mrs. Otree!"

The shouting of the young girl in front of her brought the teacher out of her confused daze as she moved to her desk quickly and began to dig around for the key to her Specter Deflector. After what felt like endless searching, she found the key and ran toward Danielle to unlock the device, only for the girl to scream as she was sent flying across the room. The impact she made with the wall caused everyone to cringe while Danielle could only groan as she slid down the wall, blood slipping down the side of her mouth as a bruise formed on her cheek. Danielle opened her eyes and wasn't surprised to see the creature she had sensed earlier, hovering in front of her as she knew that this confrontation was bound to happen sooner or later.

Her glassy cat like eyes took in the broken form before her, and the Cheshire style grin that she held frightened the observers around the room. Her long tail moved back and forth as it brushed against the ground while her shadowy coat and silver hair glowed even in the dim florescent light of the classroom. Her silver shorts were tight on her thighs, as was her sleeveless top that wrapped around her neck line. Her pristine white teeth gleamed along with her sharp claws, giving her the look of a predator ready to strike.

"Well, well, well. Looks like I finally caught up with you," the lioness ghost said as she licked her lips. "Did you really think that you could escape from me? The lioness always gets her gazelle."

Danielle looked at her with disgust as she began to stand up. Ignoring the fact that her favorite jacket, as well as her skirt, was now ripped, Danielle spit out the blood pooling in her mouth and smirked at her opponent.

"That's funny considering that you're technically not a lioness yet, Liana. If I remember correctly, lionesses don't still have their mommy's giving them tongue baths when they're thirteen. How is old Nya doing since I last saw her?"

Liana glared at Danielle as her cheeks flushed, which surprised everyone except Danielle. "She's still recovering. It's not exactly easy to come back from having almost an entire mountain dropped on you."

"True. I'm surprised that your sister would send such a weak cub like you after me."

"Mira is busy at the moment, trying to get the tribe into order thanks to the stunt that you pulled, you little bitch!" She yelled, her claws extending.

"Ah, does kitty wanna play?" Danielle taunted.

"Yes, she does. Allow me to sharpen my claws with your spine!" Liana lunged at Danielle who dodged at the last second, rolling out of the way and allowing her to hit the wall. Unfortunately, Danielle had not anticipated Liana to be slide across the floor before lunging at her back. Danielle cried out in pain as the lioness sank her teeth into her left shoulder.

All the children in the room screamed as they ran for the hallway and scurried like birds. Danielle gritted her teeth as the adrenaline in her body began pumping quickly, but smiled as she heard the sound of her deflector powering up. In a flash, hundreds of volts of green electricity flew around her and into her foe. Liana released a blood curdling scream as her jaws unlocked from Danielle's body. The pain was beyond intense for Liana, causing her to fall backwards on the ground and convulse as her fur slowly began to recede, leaving her in a humanoid form. Her skin was a pale blue color that was fairly common amongst ghosts while her hair and clothes remained the same.

Danielle placed a hand on her shoulder, checking the damage that the bite had caused, and was relieved to see that it was no worse than a flesh wound. For once in her life, she was actually glad to be wearing the stupid belt for without it she would probably have lost the use of her arm in this fight.

'Though if I wasn't wearing the stupid thing, this wouldn't be happening' she thought bitterly as she looked around the room to see that everyone had run out the door. Getting to her feet, she quickly ran up to the entrance way which was now crowded with spectators.

"Get out of here, you morons!" She yelled. "Do you want to get yourselves killed?"

"Danielle, what is going on?" Lin asked from her spot near her mother as the young phantom came up to the women and took the key.

"None of damn business, Lindsey, that's what!" She snapped as she fumbled with the key, desperately trying to get the tumblers in the lock to turn. A growling noise caught her attention as she turned her head to see that Liana had not only regained consciousness, but was now down on all fours. "Oh shit!" Turning her head, she continued to turn the key in her belt, but her only response was sound of the belt as it beeped in protest like an engine that just refused to start.

Liana growl as her blue eyes began to change into long golden slits. Opening her mouth fully, her long canine fangs grew and elongated as a monstrous roar ripped from her throat, causing everyone around to scream in fear. Liana could feel the familiar electrical tingle as her nerve endings fired from her transformation, and she embraced it, ready to kill the little witch that hurt her mother so badly and crippled her tribe. Her cool skin tickled as her fur extended from her body and covered her, leaving her in her lioness form. Her eyes instantly set on Danielle like a sweet treat, waiting to be devoured as she slowly crept closer to her. Her breathing paused before she launched her power into her legs and pounced.

Danielle quickly spun around, belt in hand, and used it like a bat to hit Liana. As she slid back, Liana could feel the burn on her cheek from where the front of the belt had hit her, and this angered her as Danielle grinned at her and dropped the belt. Everyone watched in stunned amazement as the bite mark on her shoulder started to fade, leaving the skin in the same perfect condition as if it hadn't just been bleeding, as well as the bruise on her cheek that seemed to pop out of existence.

"Now that that annoying little fashion statement is gone," Danielle said as the two white rings appeared around her waist, changing her into her ghost form, "let's dance."

Liana, getting tired of all the girls talking, only roared at her as her eyes and claws began to glow red. Danielle's smile fell as she glared at her and allowed her own ecto-energy to encase her hands. Danielle wasted no time, dashing toward the lioness and created a copy of herself. Liana, though surprised, made no move to strike as the two came closer to her.

Balling her hand into a fist, Danielle attempted to slam her fist into Liana, but missed as she dodge, causing the blast to quake and destroy a few desk. Liana bounced off of her hind legs and sprang at Danielle, but she simply turned intangible and slipped through the floor. Liana landed, only to have the duplicate Danielle land a swift kick into her back, before the real Danielle came back up from under her, punching her in the stomach. Liana rolled over, wincing at the pain while the two Danielle's merged back into one. Danielle's hands began to glow again before she let loose a hailstorm of ecto-disc. Liana jumped, using anything she could to help her get away from the attack. Danielle paid little attention as she demolished desk, created holes in the walls and left scorch marks on the floor.

Danielle slowly started to let up on her attack seeing that it was getting her nowhere and that she was only wasting more and more of her own energy. She knew she had to find a way to end this, and since she couldn't fight all out without destroying the school, she would have to use mind tactics.

"So, tell me, Liana. How's that little boyfriend of yours?" She said with a smile as the girl growled at her. "He still oblivious that you want to "mate" with him like the nasty like slut that you really are?" Liana roared at the young Phantom as her eyes grew dark with hatred and pain from her words. "Oh, wait, that's right! He ISN'T your boyfriend. If I remember correctly, he was more interested in me."

Liana lunged at Danielle, but clearly missed her, signaling to Danielle that she was starting to break her focus. Danielle floated behind her as the young lion ghost turned around, breathing deeply to try to control her anger.

"And now that I think about it, he was kinda cute. Definitely out of the league of a girl like you, regardless of the fact that you're family is the head of the tribe. Remind me, what was it that he said when we were hanging out? I believe it was "Wow. I can't believe that the cousin of the famous savior of the Ghost Zone is here. Any guy would be privileged to date you"." Danielle slowly lowered herself closer to Liana, being cautious in case she decided to lash out at her. "That's right, me. Not some insecure little wench like you who apparently needs to seek the approval of others because she's nothing more than a runt."

Liana physically flinched at the word as Danielle landed on the ground. Danielle knew that that was a touchy subject for the girl and a few months ago, she never would have used such an underhanded method as using something that she had been told in confidentiality as a weapon against someone. But that was the old Danielle. The weak Danielle that got bullied and had her secrets spilled. Besides, all's fair in war, right?

"And then what happened? You took me to the middle of the forest, and tried to ambush me which led to your mother betting hurt. That's right, Liana. You know it, I know it and if you want to be outcast and thrown from your home, then your entire tribe will know it soon enough," Danielle said, crossing her arms. Liana's eyes grew wide as shock consumed her. It was true that no one other than her in the tribe knew what had happened on the night that her mother had gotten hurt. Only she and Danielle knew that it wasn't completely Danielle's fault that her mother had been injured. She was the one who had chased Danielle up the side of that mountain, and if it hadn't been for their fighting or her mother coming to search for her, none this would have happened.

Liana cried for days after the incident. Danielle had tried to comfort her after it, but Liana only lashed out at her and blamed her for it before vowing to hunt her down and get back at her. Liana had thought to go to her sister who had been put in charge during her mother's absence, but she already had enough on her plate, not to mention she knew that Liana had taken Danielle out there to fight her in the first place. Though she doubted her sister would have blamed her, Liana couldn't look her in the eyes without feeling guilty or without vowing revenge on the white haired pre-teen she once considered her friend. She blamed it all on Danielle, feeling that she was betrayed by her for not only stealing the interests of the boy she liked, but hurting her mother, eventually convincing herself it was true and living in denial.

Liana backed up as tears began to spill down her face while Danielle walked closer to her before stopping in front of her.

"That's right. You're nothing but a pathetic, worthless little runt of a lion cub who only gets herself into more and more trouble with everything she tries to do," Danielle said, cruelty burning in the bright green pools in her eyes. "So here's how it's gonna go. You're going to surrender to me, and swear that you're never going to come back here because if I ever see your disgusting face around here again, not only will I ruin your world, I'll end it and you. Understood?"

Liana bowed her head as her body shook. Slowly, her fur receded, her claws and teeth retracted, her tail vanished and her eye returned to their original blue, though Danielle couldn't see this as Liana kept her eyes closed. The tears continued to pour down her face as she shook her head in desperation. Her voice came as a pained roar before it changed octaves into a strangle cry. Liana looked up at Danielle with fearful eyes as her hair hung wildly around her face, making the thirteen year old look like nothing more than the frightened animal she really was on the inside.

"Please…" she begged. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Just…please…don't do this."

Danielle sneered at Liana as she brought her hand up, powering it with energy and smacking her, knocking her out instantly. "You really are pathetic. You'll never be worth anything if all you can do is snivel and cry." Pulling out a Fenton Thermos, Danielle activated it and sucked Liana in. As she capped the lid back on, she turned toward the room, shrugging her shoulders at the mess she had created and made her way to the door.

Stepping out into the hallway, everyone looked on in shock at her. Everyone except Darren, who looked almost unaffected, and Mrs. Otree who had a saddened look on her face. Lin looked on at Danielle in disgust as she shook her head, and it was beginning to bug Danielle.

"What?" she said, looking at the blonde.

"You're disgusting, you know that?" Lin said as she stepped in front of her. "What you did, what you said, that was just horrible and cruel."

"Yeah, well the truth hurts and the world is cruel. I'm sure you would know all about that, wouldn't you, Lindsey?" Danielle said as she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"Is that really what this is all about, Danielle? Do you need to bully and belittle people so much just to feel good about yourself? Because if so, that you're no better than Tammy was to you."

"Oh, so you're going to lecture me about how I act now, are you? That's pretty damn funny considering that you wanna act like some kind of Saint, when you were so pathetic and so worried about your social status, you left your so called friend, high and dry when she needed you the most," Danielle yelled, eye glowing green. Mrs. Otree gasped, looking at her daughter whose mouth hung open in surprise that Danielle had just said that. Danielle let a smile cross her face as she looked from her teacher and back to Lin. "Oh, so you didn't tell your mother that you walked away from me when I needed you all because you were scared about what others were saying about you?"

"Regardless…what you said to her, what you did to her…that's low, especially for you," Lin said, trying to recover and still seem like she was doing something right.

"Coming from someone who doesn't even know what happened. She had this coming. She was hunting me down for something that was her own damn fault. It's not my fault that she can't take responsibility for something that she knows is her fault, nor is it any problem of mine if she wants to screw up her life. But when she decides that she wants to fight me, I'm not going to pull punches just because it may hurt her feelings." Danielle turned on her heels and began to take off, pausing to look back at Lin. "When she lost a friend, she decided to try to kill her. You and she should count yourselves lucky that I'm not like that."

Lin swallowed hard at that thought. It was true that she was lucky that Danielle hadn't tried to get back at her for the way she had abandoned her. It was also true that Lin had left her because she was scared of being bullied herself. Ok, so Lin was a bad person, but she couldn't be that bad right? Lin tried to convince herself that she wasn't but deep down, she knew that she was. And if that weren't bad enough, the whispers she heard from behind her confirmed that she was as people talked about her, telling her that she was horrible and questioning what was her problem. Lin couldn't bring herself to look at any of them; especially her mother whom she knew was looking at her in both shock and extreme disappointment.

"If you'll excuse me, I think I've earned the rest of the day off," Danielle said as she took off, not waiting for anyone to okay her to leave.

As she disappeared, flying into the ceiling, Linda Otree looked down on her daughter who kept her gaze away. "Lindsey Miranda Otree, what did you do!?" she cried out angrily.

As Danielle landed on her front porch, she turned intangible, walking through the door and transforming back to normal as Cujo came running out of her room and up to her. Danielle smiled as she opened her arms and caught her puppy in them. After rubbing his soft fur, she placed him on the ground and headed down to the lab where her grandparents where hard at work. At the site of their granddaughter, both Maddie and Jack stopped working to talk to her.

"Danielle? What are you doing home at-" Maddie paused to check her watch, "11:24!? Young lady, are you ditching school?"

"Maybe. Not like it matters." Danielle said as she walked past them toward the portal.

"Now you hold on right there, missy," Jack said, not liking her attitude. "You better have a good explanation or else you're gonna be in a world of trouble."

"God, are you guys always this nosey?" she said, looking at them before putting her thermos into the dumping unit. "If you must know, a ghost attacked me at school, and after I beat her, I decided to give myself the rest of the day off as a reward."

"Oh did you now?" Maddie said, crossing her arms. "And who gave you the authority to decide that you could just leave school like that?"

"Um, I believe I did, and you'd know that if you were listening."

"You'd better watch that mouth of yours, Danielle Lilith Fenton, before you say something that gets you into more trouble."

"Whatever," Danielle said. As the meter beep, notifying her that the thermos was empty, she smiled and turned around to head upstairs. "Later."

"And just where do you think you're going?" Jack said.

"Upstairs to mind my own business. You guys should try it sometime."

Jack and Maddie watched as Danielle ascended the stairs where Cujo was sitting waiting for her before she slammed the door behind her.

"What has gotten into that girl?" Jack asked, looking at his wife.

"I don't know, Jack. Rebelliousness is one thing, but she's just being downright disrespectful. We're going to have to talk to Danny and Sam about this." Jack could only nod his head before the two went back to work while Danielle went about her own business of goofing off and relax in front of the TV with her ghostly companion by her side.

To Be Continued…

Ok, so as you can see, Danielle has obviously lost her mind and all sense of decency for other people (or Ghost in this case). And before anyone says anything or questions anything, I know this isn't like how the story was in the beginning, but that the point. The summary said help her grow up, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that not all kids are perfect little angels growing up. Besides, how often do you get to see Danielle be bad? Lol

Though on another note, we can see that Lin had finally been busted for ditching Danielle (I know some of you were hoping for that to happen). Liana was just a character that I came up with on the spot for this chapter. Let me know what you think of her. I am considering using her later in other stories. Maybe even the next one. What do you think Danny and Sam are going to say or think about how Danielle is acting? Before you answer, go back to the beginning of the chapter and look carefully, you will see clues.

Another note, the nickname "Ghosty" I actually got from The-Amazing-Gracie, an amazing writer who is also a fan of this story. You all need to go check out her stories, especially "Realization". It is another awesome family fic with Danny, Sam and Danielle, and I can personally say, you will not be disappointed. So…go read it!

Last note, I want any and all Young Justice/Danny Phantom Crossover fans to go check out my Polar Opposites story (Or don't. It's your choice, and I can make your do it). Anyway, see you later people.