Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is not mine, and never will be.

Metanoia

Chapter 2

The sky was already light by the time Danny returned to Wisconsin Castle. Turning intangible, he phased through the building itself, bypassing all security measures. Arriving inside his own room, he levitated onto his bed, burying himself under the sheets as he surrendered to the huge yawn that had been threatening to emerge all night.

He rolled over and pressed the intercom button at his bedside table.

"Hey Smithers."

"Good morning, Master Daniel. I assume the operation was a success." The Wisconsin Castle butler greeted.

"Uh huh. Val's got the thermos. I'm sure she's already checked it in with Vlad. When you see him at breakfast, would you mind telling him I'm still alive?"

"Very good, Master Daniel."

"I'm gonna turn in for a while, but I'll be up by lunch. I feel like meatloaf."

"I shall inform the catering service accordingly."

"Thanks Smithers."

"You're welcome, Master Daniel."

Danny smiled as he hung up on intercom. Good old Smithers. Danny didn't know what he would do without him.

As much as Danny would like to just spend the entire day sleeping, Vlad was home for the weekend, a rare occurrence that Danny wanted to take advantage of to further his training. Sighing at the sheer luxury of rest, the protégé of Dalv Enterprises ceded himself to the blissful calm of sleep.

It was late in the afternoon by the time Danny finally made his way down to the training room.

The training room wasn't much more than a large, empty room constructed simply from concrete and white tiles, its stark emptiness contrasting with the grandeur of the rest of Wisconsin castle. Vlad had first built the room a few months after his adoption of Danny, and it was in this very room that Danny had achieved mastery of his paranormal abilities.

Flipping a switch, Danny began running a basic training simulation programmed by Vlad years ago to help him gain control of one of his very first powers, intangibility. The objective was simple- turn intangible whenever one of Vlad's hologram projections tried to "attack" him.

It was a fairly mundane task, but Danny didn't feel like attempting anything too strenuous. After all, Vlad would probably join him shortly. Duels with his benefactor never failed to leave him exhausted, and Danny was certain today would be no different. He needed to conserve as much energy as possible if he even wanted a shot at beating his mentor.

"Hey Vlad." He greeted, his back facing his mentor. His ghost sense had alerted him to the presence of the older halfa before he even entered the room.

He felt his hair stand on end as he sensed his guardian transform behind him, the familiar surge of energy bombarding his senses, resonating into the air around them like charged static electricity. He could feel the raw power that Vlad Plasmius radiated.

"Come Daniel, let us see how much you have bettered yourself since our last encounter." His benefactor challenged, thrusting two blasts of ectoplasmic energy in Danny's direction.

Danny yelped as he barely dodged the attacks, a bright halo of light encircling his body as he transformed into Phantom. Danny felt the familiar jolt of energy course through him as his body altered its plane of existence, invoking the presence his more powerful ghost half.

"You didn't even wait for me to transform!" He yelled accusingly.

"Your foe will hardly fight fair in a real battle, Daniel." Vlad proclaimed, already charging twin ectoplasmic blasts for his next assault.

Letting out a fierce growl, Danny quickly teleported, swiftly reappearing behind Plasmius and flinging a ray of ectoplasmic energy into his direction. One of the advantages Phantom held over Plasmius was his teleportation abilities, Phantom was faster, more agile.

Unfortunately, the older halfa had anticipated this and shielded himself from the attack, the supernatural energy harmlessly absorbed by his ghost shield. Danny fired several more ectoplasmic blasts in rapid succession, only for Vlad to turn intangible, evading the attacks with ease.

Through recent months, Danny was beginning to come closer and closer to beating Vlad. Although Vlad had much more experience with his powers, Danny was discovering new abilities at an astonishing rate, most of them powerful offensive attacks. Danny hoped that one day he would be able to better his mentor in combat.

Vlad was tough. In order to gain the upper hand, Danny knew he needed to launch a powerful attack early in the duel to tire his benefactor, if he hoped for a chance of beating Vlad today.

Setting his feet firmly on the floor, Danny prepared to stand his ground as he released his ghostly wail. Even though he had braced himself, Danny still felt the backlash of his tremendous attack threatening to thrust him in the opposite direction of the blast.

Vlad was flung backwards, colliding against a wall with a loud thud. The sheer force of the sonic waves kept Vlad pinned to the wall a few feet above the ground, as Danny's assault continued to shatter tiles on the training room floor, causing the entire room to shake as the ceiling began to crack. Just as it seemed the ceiling was about to give way, Danny ceased his attack. Vlad would kill him if he destroyed the training room.

"Got you!" Danny yelled triumphantly. "There's no way you're getting out of this one, Vlad!"

A battered and disorientated Plasmius dropped to the floor, narrowly recovering fast enough to roll out of the way in time to avoid Danny's rapid sequence of ectoplasmic charged punches.

"Have I taught you nothing, Daniel? No fight is over until the loser declares it so!"

Growling in frustration, Danny lunged at Plasmius, attempting a swift uppercut to his jaw, only to be blocked with ease by his mentor and flung against a wall. The teenager deftly recovered and continued his hand to hand assault on the older ghost, attacking and parrying as the pair alternated between offensive and defensive in a deadly dance.

Danny was faster, but physically, Vlad was the stronger of the two. The two were evenly matched in physical combat. Danny knew that if he didn't do something soon, both their strengths would slowly be whittled away until they were both left exhausted. However, he did not have as much faith in his own endurance capabilities as he did in Vlad's. If he wanted to win, he was going to have to change tactics.

'I could pin him to the wall with a ghost shield to keep him in one place long enough to hit him.'

Danny bit his lip in concentration as he executed a flawless roundhouse kick to Vlad's head, only to have his foot caught by his mentor barely a second before impact. Danny rapidly performed an awkward backspring, forcing Vlad to release his foot for fear of dislocating his arm, putting a couple of feet of distance between the two.

'No good, he would just phase through the walls.'

Panting, Danny eyed Vlad warily as he ran his hand through his messy white hair. His mentor raised an elegant eyebrow in challenge.

'But what if the walls are ghost proof?'

Suddenly, it clicked. Just because the older halfa couldn't be physically restrained, didn't mean he couldn't be caged.

Grinning, Danny decided it was time to implement his new strategy, surprising Vlad by crouching into a seemingly defensive combat stance. Slamming his palm on the floor, he released the surging ectoplasmic energy from his fingertips, creating a huge shield which covered the walls, floor and ceiling, rendering the entire practice room ghost proof.

With his other hand, he swiftly created another ectoplasmic shield, a large screen that reached from wall to wall, and from floor to ceiling. Grunting from the effort, he smashed the second shield into his mentor, leaving Plasmius pinned against a ghost proof wall with no means of escape.

The halfa stood back to admire his actions in disbelief. He had done it. He had finally beat Vlad. At last his abilities were on par with the man that had been the superior fighter for three years.

It sucked that he couldn't think of a witty line to further his victory.

Plasmius chuckled, holding up his palms in a conceding gesture. "I am impressed, Daniel. Had I realised sooner that sending you on field missions is a far superior alternative to my training, you'd be unstoppable by now."

"Nah, you're the best teacher I could've hoped for." Danny said, shrugging. He dispersed the energy in the ectoplasmic shields with a wave of his hand, before returning to human form. "I would've found it way more difficult to control my powers without you around."

Plasmius picked himself off the floor, brushing imaginary lint off his suit before following Danny's example, reverting back to Vlad Masters.

"Yes, but perhaps if you felt that you were under threat more often, more abilities would have revealed themselves to you. I've sent you on no more than three missions, and already you have acquired a new power. Cryokinetics, was it?"

"Yeah, it's totally awesome."

"I must admit, I do fancy having the ability to freeze objects. It would be so useful, in or out of battle. Imagine that perfect glass of lemonade. Smithers' ice cubes tend to have those infernal little air bubbles trapped in them. I believe his years are finally catching up with him."

"You've got cool powers that I don't have. Like those pink ectoplasmic blasts and shields. I still don't get how you make those. They pack way more of a punch than green blasts."

"Your ectoplasmic blasts possess so much raw power that they're unnecessary in your case, Daniel."

"Still, it'll be cool to know."

Vlad Masters chuckled affectionately. Danny's honest humility and enthusiasm to master his gifts were qualities that made him the ideal apprentice.

"It's all about altering the frequency of the energy you release. The higher the frequency, the more damaging. But higher frequencies are only good for short range attacks. The energy dissipates before reaching the target otherwise."

Vlad's protégé scratched the back of his head thoughtfully. "Right... and how exactly do you alter the frequency of the energy you release?"

"By practice and experience. It took me the better part of half a decade to figure it out. Given your remarkable progress, I estimate you'll achieve this by next summer. You will surpass me soon, my apprentice."

Vlad smiled, ruffling Danny's perpetually messy raven hair.

Danny returned the smile. It meant a lot, coming from Vlad.

"Hey Vlad, since you've started sending me and Val on missions, sometimes we don't get to see you for a couple of weeks at a time, and we uh, kind of missed you." His apprentice confessed. "It's gonna suck even more when summer ends and Val goes back to Amity Park for school. I'll be stuck here by myself while you're jetting around on business and stuff."

"I missed you too, Daniel." Vlad smiled, once again ruffling Danny's hair affectionately. A true smile, far from the smirk he normally reserved for subordinates and those he deemed unworthy or inferior.

Danny returned the smile, and promptly began sprinting up the training room stairs, three at a time. Inhuman speed or not, he had barely made it up a dozen steps when Vlad roared.

"Daniel Fenton! Do you take me for a fool? When will you realise that buttering me up never works! Get back down here and complete your training simulations!"

Groaning, the halfa turned around and trudged back down to the destroyed training room, cursing under his breath.

'At least it was worth a try.'

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Please feel free to give me your honest opinion:) It helps me write better so that you will enjoy the story more.

Thanks to: kia, cariadiorarua and the wonderful Straying Life, who actually cares enough to leave constructive criticism for a dumb newbie. You're awesome. Thank you so much for your advice.