Phantom: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Trainer: In case you can't tell, Phantom *points to sister* is excited that it's Halloween. Not that I'm not also excited, but I'm more excited about what I get to do later and the possibility of this chapter coming out.
Phantom: Yeah, again I am REALLY sorry about late updates but school is very demanding of my time. Besides, I also needed to get my ideas straight for my stories. It's been a while so even I – the author – need to review what I've done and get inspiration to keep writing and make the ideas make sense.
Trainer: However, as Phantom is only starting to write this chapter now, it is pretty uncertain when she'll actually be done it (which is sooner rather than later I hope).
Danny: Whoa, wait a minute.
Phantom: What is it now?
Danny: What do you mean by "uncertain when she'll actually finish"?
Trainer: Well, simply put, Phantom has only recently found a spare moment in time in which to write.
Phantom: Exactly. But unlike most people, I do have work to do for this weekend that needs to come first. I just don't usually write on Fridays as I just want to relax after a full week of work. Another reason as to why I haven't been writing.
Danny: …what makes now any different then?
*Phantom and Trainer stare at one another and then back at Danny*
Both: It's Halloween. Of course she'd/I'd write on one of her/my favorite holidays.
Phantom: Besides, my college knows how to have fun! People of all ages (mostly younger students between 18-20 ish) dressed up – me included.
Trainer: What were you?
Phantom: I was technically a ninja or an assassin.
Danny: But?...
Phantom: But I also had my fully finished Gastly doll and pokeball with me. Oh well, people liked my costume and doll/stuff anyway! ^w^
Trainer: What did you all do to celebrate Halloween?
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom and some ideas are owned by Pearl84 and Truephan, but the plot is mine!
Chapter 21: The Science of –GIMME THAT BACK
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
Danny screwed his eyes shut even tighter than they already were-
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
But the sound of his phone vibrating on the bedside table decided that he had had enough sleep and was-
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
Waking him with its' continued buzzing.
"Yo man, turn that thing off. Some of us are trying to sleep here," Tucker grumbled from the couch as he tossed onto his other side away from the offending phone as if he thought that it would make the – for once – offending technology shut up.
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
It didn't.
Danny – with eyes still closed – reached over to the area of the phone and after several attempts at trying to grasp it, brought it towards his face. Opening his eyes, Danny found that someone had sent him a text and his phone had been trying to tell him that.
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZ-ding*
Repeatedly.
Danny sighed but decided it was better to see what the text was about and –better yet – who sent it to him in the first place.
"If this is someone trying to sell me something, I'm gonna sic' Technus on them," Danny thought irritably.
Danny opened his phone – thus ending its annoying buzzing and earning a thumbs up from a sleepy Techno-Geek – and checked his message box. Surprised, the ghost-hybrid found he had two new messages, both from two different unknown numbers.
Clicking on the first message, he found that it was from none other than the king of fruitloops. Danny knew he should have been angry or at least slightly annoyed at Vlad but he couldn't help his first thought being "How did Vlad get my phone number?"
Daniel,
I've been called away to the office today.
I've already notified the staff.
Don't leave the grounds.
~VM
Danny rolled his eyes. Of course what the text really meant to say was:
Daniel,
I'm either off to the office or going and doing something sneaky behind your back, but I won't tell you which.
I've already notified the staff of my absence but they will tell me if you do something wrong (and you know what those things would be).
Don't leave the grounds since – as I've said –the staff will tell me, but also for your own safety.
~VM
"It's a good thing I know what he really means…" Danny mumbled to himself.
A shifting of sheets next to him brought his attention to the other resident of his bed. "Know what who means?" Jazz asked still slightly dazed from waking up.
Danny showed her the phone and watched as her lips frowned slightly and her eyebrows creased. Still looking somewhere between confused and annoyed (more at Vlad than anything else), Jazz looked to her brother. "So, what are we going to do then?"
"I have no idea. Maybe we can look into who this other message is from?"
"What other message?"
"Uagh! Danny, Jazz, will you two shut up? Some of us are trying to sleep over here!" Tucker said exasperatedly while glaring holes at them. Seeing that they weren't about to speak any further, the Techno-Geek settled back into a position to sleep. That is until he realized that it wasn't just him and Danny in the room.
"GAH!" Tucker cried as he turned too quickly and fell off the couch. Coming back up to rest on the back of the piece of furniture Tucker exclaimed, "JAZZ?! What are you doing in here? This was the boys' room!"
Jazz rolled her eyes, but didn't move from her position of lying on the bed. "Honestly Tucker, there's nothing that you need to hide from me as I've pretty much seen it all with Danny."
At this, Danny turned bright red and whined "JA~ZZ!" while Tucker turned equally red.
Tucker then opted to just stay hidden on the other side of the couch wrapped in a blanket until Jazz left the room. Danny brought the phone back to his face and clicked on the next message. It had no name for the sender, only a small message:
S. Lab
Woleb reward ni selif, elbat no somreht.
ScrANSWERSoll
Danny read the message. And again. And again. And again. It made no sense to him. "Hey Jazz, do you get what this means?" he asked as he handed the phone over to the red-head. "I can't make heads or tails of it. You think it's just a prank text?"
Jazz glanced over the message and the crease of the brows and small frown returned. "I think I get part of it. See this line here?" she pointed to the last line "the word 'ANSWERS' is in the middle of another word that if you remove the first word becomes 'Scroll'." Danny nodded but didn't seem any closer to an answer. Jazz sighed. "They're word plays, Danny. Riddles that play with the way you might read or think about a sentence of phrase."
"Oh!" Danny said. "So then the last line could mean something like 'answers in the scroll'!"
"Exactly," Jazz confirmed.
Scratching his chin, Danny asked, "So what is that supposed to mean?"
"No idea. But it's a start, right?"
Danny nodded and they both turned their attention back to the screen. "What about the first one?" Jazz asked. "What does a 'slab' have to do with anything?"
"No…not 'slab'…'S. LAB'!" Danny cried in victory before he jumped out of bed and grabbed his computer.
"Danny, what are you doing? What so important about this 'S. Lab'?" Jazz cried out as she tried to keep herself from falling out of the bed at her brother's sudden movement.
"S. Lab?!" Tucker asked, finally pulling his head out from the blanket to join the conversation. "Why are you talking about that? It's not a real thing."
"What is it?" Jazz asked him as Danny was still typing frantically on his computer.
"It's a feature you can use for the updated version of DOOM! It's like a character creator program but it allows you to experiment and fuse abilities or items to your avatar. It's called S. Lab because-"
"It's a short form for 'Secret Lab' since not many players can get access to this feature." Danny finished.
Jazz nodded in understanding. "Ok, so, the first part likely means 'Secret Lab' and the last is 'answers in the scroll'…but I still don't get it. What does that mean?"
"Better yet, what is the middle saying? It just looks like gibberish," Danny commented.
Just then, Sam came down from upstairs and grabbed the phone from Jazz without a second thought. Glancing over the message quickly, she tossed the phone back to Jazz – who barely caught it – and said "The phrase is backwards."
"What?"
"The middle phrase," Sam pointed to the phone. "The message is backwards. It reads as 'Thermos on table, files in drawer below'."
Tucker sat up and placed his glasses on. "So, you got a text that says 'Secret lab. Thermos on table, files in drawer below. Answers in the scroll.' And you don't know who sent it?"
Danny nodded. "Pretty much."
"Who do you think sent it? Can we even trust them?" Jazz asked warily.
Danny shrugged. "I have no idea, but I think I know what they're talking about," he said while pacing the room.
The other three teens shared a look before Tucker asked the question on all their minds. "What's it about"
"Something to do with Vlad and we're most likely going to be doing something he won't want us to do," Danny replied.
"I'm in," Sam said as she went off to get dressed.
Danny quickly turned to her, "What? Really? I haven't even said what it is yet."
"Yeah, but if it's something that'll bug Vlad, then I'm in," Sam replied with a shrug. "Be down in a minute."
Jazz followed her up to change as well while Danny and Tucker did the same on the main floor. Once all four of them were dressed, they returned to the small sitting area in the room.
"Ok, so what were you suggesting we do Danny?" Jazz asked as she took a seat.
"We're going into Vlad's secret lab. For whatever reason, someone else seems to know about it and knows about something that they think we should know too," Danny replied while taking time to glance at the other three.
Sam leaned back into the cushions and said, "Well, you already know my answer. I'm in."
"Ditto, dude. You never know when my skills will be needed."
"Me too."
"So we're all in?" Danny asked and received nods from everyone. "Alright, here's what we're going to do. Sam, Tucker, you two take the regular lab. It's just by the main stairs. You saw it before…I think." Sam and Tucker nodded. Turning to Jazz, Danny continued, "Meanwhile, you and I will go to the private lab in his study."
Sam got up and dusted off her skirt. "What are we looking for?"
Danny held up his phone for all to see. "We're looking for a thermos – most likely mine since Vlad took it earlier in my stay here before you all came here the first time. If you do find it, bring it back here. If it's on a table with drawers, check them for any relevant files pertaining to us or this thing with the books. This seems like something that would be right up Vlad's alley and he's obviously hiding something from us."
"And the scroll?" Jazz asked.
"With any luck it will be with the files," Danny replied and made his way to the door. "Oh, and one more thing. Vlad sent a text earlier. He's not in at the moment and pretty much told his staff to keep an eye on us, so we have to be sneaky and avoid them at all cost. We'll make a trip down to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast and we'll even tell George and anyone else in there that we'll be in my room for a while."
"That way they're less likely to bother us," Jazz summarized and Danny nodded.
The four quickly made their way down the stairs and to the kitchen where George and Niane were in the room and only paused in their conversation to see who was entering.
"Ah, young halfa – and his friends! What can I do for ya?" George asked enthusiastically as he flipped some eggs in the pan he was holding.
"We'd like to have some breakfast, if you wouldn't mind," Jazz replied and took a seat on one of the stools.
George nodded and took their orders. Before they knew it he was off whistling a joyful tune as he prepared their breakfast.
Danny turned to Niane and asked, "Where are the others? I thought they'd either be in here or the lounge."
"Oh, they went to do their jobs," Niane replied as she picked up her personal feather duster. "You're not likely to see them unless in their usual work area or in the halls. But this place is quite large so even then…" she trailed off. With one final smile she floated out of the room to begin her duties.
Everyone was quiet for a moment before Tucker asked, "Did she just tell us what I think she told us?"
Danny nodded slightly – a dumbfounded expression on his face.
"Well…that makes things easier," Jazz commented.
Just then, George came back in with their food and told them to dig in. Once they were finished, Danny explained to George that they would be up in Danny's room for some time. George said he'd pass the message along and the teens left.
Once far enough from the kitchen, Danny turned to the rest of them. "Ok, Niane basically told us that no one will really get in our way, we just have to avoid their usual areas. That means we have to stay out of most of the main public rooms, the staff's usual lounge, kitchen, garden/greenhouse (Sam pouted), and outside areas. Sam, Tucker, you two need to just go over to that hallway and it should be one of the first doors near the main stairs. Jazz and I need to head up to the second floor to get to Vlad's study. If anything happens, send a text – I've got my phone."
As they split ways, Jazz asked quietly, "Are there any sort of alarms in the labs? You know, for when someone like US enters without permission?"
"Not in the regular lab since Vlad's maid enter from time to time to do just basic cleaning. He does all the cleaning in his private lab so no one but him usually enters the private lab unless it's his allies or a welcomed guest like me…at times," Danny explained. "I don't usually phase into that lab because I thought it had a ghost shield on it – which it does – so I had to walk through the front door. His allies enter that lab mostly through the ghost portal."
Jazz raised an eyebrow, prompting him to continue his explanation.
"There will likely be some sort of silent alarm at least that will tell Vlad that someone has entered his private lab, but he's off doing who-knows-what right now and won't be able to send a duplicate, even if he wanted to."
"And at worst?"
"Likely something to shoot a ghost since no one other than ghosts supposedly know about this lab," Danny finished as they rounded a corner and saw the great wooden doors that lead to Vlad's private study.
Making sure no one was around they made a final dash towards the doors. Just before they could run face first into the door, Danny grabbed his sister's arm and phased them inside.
As they got their balance back Jazz asked, "And why couldn't we just open the door?"
"One – Phasing through the door is easier and pretty much noiseless. Two – Vlad can probably tell when someone else enters his quarters based on how the door is opened/closed and didn't want to risk it. Three – There's a motion sensor at the base of the door there" Danny pointed at a small blinking red light just at the base of the door "that tracks when it's been opened and closed which Vlad can then check. Had we opened the door, he would have known that we entered at some point."
Jazz blinked in surprise. "Who did you know about the motion sensor on the doors?"
"When I was last here at the castle, I noticed them after about the fifth time that I had been brought into the room. It wasn't till a while after that that I realized that one of the things Vlad checked on his computer was if I had entered any rooms I shouldn't have while he was out of the castle." Danny started to snicker. "He should have realized I'm not as stupid as he thinks I am. I learned to just phase through the doors and walls to get into rooms like this."
Jazz gave a small snort of agreement before shaking her head. "My brother, the thief."
"HEY! I only took information that he would withhold from me, and only the stuff I could get my hands on. I never took anything else," Danny said with a fake affronted look.
This time both Fenton kids cracked up and it took a few minutes to get a hold of themselves.
"Ok, ok, I think we'll have about 30-40 minutes before Vlad shows up to confront us once we enter so keep an eye on the clock," Danny stated as they stood before the fake fireplace.
Jazz nodded and tilted one of the golden footballs. Stepping back, they watched as the fireplace removed itself from the room and revealed the staircase leading to the lab. Giving a shaky nod to her brother, Jazz entered the stairwell with Danny coming up close behind her.
"Tucker!" Sam hissed as she saw him picking up another glass jar with something floating in it – most likely a couple electric blue eyes if she was seeing things correctly.
Tucker, not expecting the Goth to practically hiss at him, fumbled the jar and barely managed to catch it again. "What? I was curious?" he tried to defend himself.
Sam rolled her eyes and crossed her arms prepared to tell off her friend. "Tucker, we're here to find one of our thermoses and whatever documents or scrolls or WHATEVER that text was talking about."
"So?" he asked, replacing the jar of eyes on the table so that he could examine another container that looked like it held several ghost thumbs. He shivered wondering if he really wanted to know what Vlad did with these things or not.
"SO, we don't want don't want Vlad knowing we were in here which means we can't move so much stuff like you are every time you pick up a new jar. You're not even looking for the thermos!" she threw her arms in the air.
Tucker sighed and put the latest jar back before he turned to his friend. "Sam, I don't know if you've actually looked around you, but this is the smaller of the two labs. You can see the whole room simply by standing in the doorway and even I didn't see any signs of our thermos on a desk or table space. Just lots of half-finished experiments and paper. Lots and lots of paper…"
Sam took another sweep of the room and realized Tucker was right. Despite the place being in a sort of organized chaos, there were no signs of a Fenton Thermos. "Ok, well even if it isn't here, we don't want to leave any evidence that we were here- TUCKER!" she yelled as said boy started riffling through the cabinets and desks.
"Oh, come on Sam. He's bound to keep some of his work in this lab instead of the one Danny and Jazz went to. We might as well see if we can find anything of use and take it with us!" Tucker explained.
Sam rolled her eyes again. "What part of 'don't want to leave any evidence that we were here' don't you understand?"
When Tucker didn't respond she look back over to where he was and frowned. "Tucker?"
"Sam, you might want to see this…" Tucker said shakily as he looked through a thick folder.
Sam made her way over to the technology loving boy and peered over his shoulder. "What is it?" she asked, still not understanding the big deal.
Tucker continued to flip through the pages and soon Sam saw reoccurring images and words that she and her friends had discussed recently – ever since this whole book-thing started. It was all their encounters and apparently a few that Vlad had also had. There was also a lot of information that they didn't have.
"We have got to take this with us," Tucker said. "Not only does this have some serious info that we could need and use, but leaving this in Vlad's hand is too dangerous!" Tucker was starting to take the related pages out of the cabinet when Sam grabbed his wrist.
"No way," she stated simply.
Tucker gave her the 'are-you-crazy?' look and voiced "WHAT?!"
"Think about it. Vlad obviously knows a lot about this already and isn't likely to just 'misplace' and important file like this. He'll know immediately that it's missing and that we've likely taken it. As much as I agree with you that Vlad shouldn't have it and that we need it more, we can't take that big a risk." Sam explained.
Tucker looked like he was now sitting on the fence on what to do. On one hand, they needed this more than Vlad did and the man really shouldn't have it in the first place. On the other hand, if they do take it, they'll have a seriously pissed adult halfa on them by the end of the day should he discover it gone. That's when it came to him: Why couldn't they have the folder while Vlad still had it?
He voiced this to Sam who immediately said it was impossible to have that and that he was crazy. Tucker pouted and said, "No, let me explain. You're a witch, right?"
"In training, Captain Obvious," Was he instant reply.
"Yeah, well, what if you…I don't know…used your powers to duplicate the book? You know some sort of spell or something?" He continued, completely used to Sam's way of thinking by now.
Sam blinked in surprise. "You know, that's actually not such a bad idea Tucker. There was one in the book I was reading-"
"-You mean Harry Potter?! It's Fiction!"
"Well we're going to see if it isn't just fiction," Sam said as she raised her hand and focused on wanting to duplicate the entire folder. She knew it wouldn't be easy as there was a lot in that folder alone, but if she didn't do it then they would lose out on a huge opportunity. And she really didn't want to leave any more evidence that they were in there for Vlad to find. Taking a deep breathe, Sam closed her eyes before opening them to reveal slightly glowing violet ones and her hand ignited in an aura of similar colour. She opened her mouth a said firmly, "Geminio!"
Ten minutes and counting…
"Found anything?"
"Not yet." Danny glanced around the spacious lab. There were tons of work tables and even more machines all about the room. They hadn't even searched half of it yet and their race against the clock was going badly – and that was putting it mildly.
"Come on! Why can't things ever just go the way we want them to?" Danny asked no one in general. "Just once would be a nice change."
Jazz shook her head fondly as she moved on to the next table. It had several nuts and bolts strewn about but the newly mad weapons were clearly meant for Valerie. "Three guesses who these are for," she said as she moved on to the next table.
"If you didn't guess Valerie from the first guess then you totally deserve being dumped in ecto-goo," Danny replied as he moved over to an area with Vlad's main computer. Just at the edge of his vision he caught a glimpse of something shiny and light green. Turning his head in that direction he couldn't help but whoop in joy and zoom of to the table that held his precious thermos – nothing Vlad owned in terms of ghost-gear would ever be made from the bright metal his parents own let alone be green. That man preferred his inventions to have a pink or red ghostly glow to them.
"Jazz, I found it!" he called out.
His was answered with the sound of a waste bin being knocked over followed by his sister falling to the ground. "What? Where? Where are you?" she asked as she got up and returned the bin to how it was before she had knocked it over.
"By Vlad's computer…uh, the main one," he corrected when she started to walk to a different one.
When she finally made it to his side he pointed to the thermos sitting harmlessly on a table that had several drawers – the one beneath the thermos glowing slightly. Jazz and Danny turned to one another and nodded. He reached out slowly with one hand toward the thermos while the other made a never-melt-ice in its' exact shape. Danny tossed his ice-thermos in the air to test the weight and satisfied with it made a quick swap between it and the real thermos.
Danny and Jazz cringed – expecting the worst to happen or at least a un-ghost-friendly booby trap to spring. When nothing happened they both let out a sigh of relief.
"You know, I was expecting some sort of trap," Danny chuckled.
Jazz giggle, "I know! Either we are really paranoid or we watch way too many movies."
Both siblings paused to stare at each other before the both said, "Paranoid," and cracked up laughing again.
Meanwhile, outside the castle at his company, Vlad's watch flashed red for the briefest of seconds – and Vlad noticed it, his own eyes flashing the same way in his anger as he tried to sort out his current problem with much greater vigor than he had moments ago.
"Oh, Daniel. You are in so much trouble when I get home," he muttered under his breathe, his glare making some of the new interns flinch and run back the way they came.
Twenty minutes and counting…
Both same and Tucker tried to wipe the purple smoke away as they coughed.
"Man, Sam, I though you wanted to duplicate them, not make smoke appear!" Tucker cried as more of the odd smoke got in his mouth. "Gah, tastes like nature!"
Sam, still coughing and waving an arm out in front of her said, "And how would you know what that tastes like. You prefer meat and indoors."
"Well I-"Tucker cut himself off as he finally got the smoke out of his face and found not one folder, but two. "Whoa."
Sam stared just like her friend but immediately started smiling and doing a victory dance claiming 'she was right' as Tucker looked through the two files and compared the information. They were identical right down to the ink smudges and odd creatures they knew the magician ghost owned.
"This is incredible!" Tucker exclaimed. "This-This-THIS DEFIES ALL LAWS OF SCIENCE!"
"I KNOW!" Sam said happily thinking of all the possibilities should could try. If one supposedly fake spell worked, what else would?
"Well, we didn't find what we were initially looking for, but, this works too. Just so you know, you'll likely have to train your abilities just like Danny. We don't need either of you blowing your secret…or a building up for that matter," Tucker said as he put the original file away and grabbed the copied one.
Sam was about to say something when she was interrupted by big doors banging open, echoing all around the castle.
Twenty minutes and counting…
Danny and Jazz slowly calmed down and looked back at the slightly glowing drawer that the text had mention. Jazz turned to her bother and asked, "How do we open it? It needs some sort of special key."
Indeed, just as Jazz had said, the drawer had a special lock which Vlad likely had the key to on him at all times. Danny started pacing and muttering different methods of opening the drawer that didn't show sighs of breaking in to, but none of them were good enough to fool Vlad's eyes.
"Damnit!" Danny thought. "Why does he have to be so god damn observant?!"
Amidst her brother's mutterings, Jazz started looking around for any chance of another secret lever or something that would open the drawer instead. Hey, the man was a fruitloop; he was likely to make everything super complex just so only he could use his things.
Crouching down to look under the table she caught a glint of gold on the underside of the table and pulled a little golden key from it. Looking from the lock to the key, she tried it and the drawer clicked open. Smiling in victory, she looked over to her brother who was still pacing in though.
"Danny…"
"I could forge a key from ice…but Vlad might notice the change in the temperature of the lock…"
"Danny."
"Maybe a well-aimed ecto-blast? No, too obvious. Has my name all over it…"
"Danny!"
"What about-? No, I have no control over exploding things yet…"
"DANNY!"
"WHAT?!"
"I found a spare key to open the drawer," she said monotone while pointing at the clearly open drawer.
Danny blinked sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Right, I knew that."
"Look! All the files are in here…EVEN THE SCROLL!" Jazz said in excitement.
Danny looked over everything. Clearly these had been looked at often, even if Vlad probably had them on his computer as well. "Well, we might as well take a look inside these things. We can't take them though."
"I know, Vlad will more than likely notice them missing otherwise," Jazz replied.
They had read the entire file before they heard the resounding boom of the front doors banging open. Both teens looked at each other in shock as Danny hastily pulled back his glove and sleeve to show his watch; Vlad was back early.
As they shoved everything back into the drawer, Danny tossed the thermos to Jazz and was about to race them out of the lab when he glanced back at the scroll they hadn't read. Conflicted, he pushed his sister towards the door with a call of, '"I'll follow after. I need to see what's in that scroll!"
Jazz nodded and sprinted from the room. She had managed to get back to the study just as the doors were thrust open violently. Thinking quickly, she ducked under Vlad's desk and held her breathe. Vlad didn't seem to pay her any mind and went straight to the fireplace. Watching his legs disappear from view, Jazz quickly got up and raced back to Danny's room – and she privately thought that it was odd to think let alone say – with the thermos clutched close to her chest.
She ran into – quite literally – Sam and Tucker who were also sprinting to Danny's room after they heard Vlad's dramatic entrance. They said they hadn't found anything other than the folder that Tucker was clutching like one of his PDA's.
As they got back to the room, they hid the file and thermos in one of their own bags and waited for the young hybrid to return. The fact that it was eerily quiet didn't ease their anxiety.
Time's UP…
"I'll follow after. I need to see what's in that scroll!" Danny yelled to his worried sister as he transformed. Flying back to the scroll, he guessed that he probably didn't have a lot of time before Vlad would barged into the room.
Danny quickly – but carefully – spread the scroll out had to make a double take at the golden writing. It was in Esperanto. Danny only read the first few phrases before he muttered to himself, "Why would Vlad have something like this? He can't read Esperanto…can he?"
Danny shook his head, white locks of hair falling even more into his face forcing him to blow them out of the way. No, last he had checked, the older halfa couldn't read or understand Esperanto as it was still a very much alive language and Vlad wouldn't have seen a use for learning it as the only people who truly used it were Geeks, himself and his friends/sister – who was still learning – and Wulf. So why would the billionaire have this?
Danny continued reading but became so lost in thought that he really didn't notice anything wrong until the light source coming from behind him was cut off by a giant shadow.
"You've been quite busy…Little Badger," said a baritone voice from right behind him.
Phantom: And scene.
Trainer: Wait…THAT'S IT?!
Phantom: Yep, for now at least. Sorry about the cliffhanger. I know, I'm terrible…
Trainer: Then why are you smiling?
Phantom: I'm smiling?
Trainer: YES! RIGHT NOW! YOU! SMILING!
Phantom: Maybe I'm happy to have finally been able to write a chapter after so long. Anyway, this wasn't finished on Halloween unfortunately, and for that I AM sorry. But my excuse is legit as I have a huge building project that has been keeping me occupied and up late. I'm exhausted!
Trainer: yeah, she's designing a child's balance bike for a school project.
Phantom: Yeah. For those of you who seem to doubt me about not putting my stories on HIATUS, I just want to remind you that I am in school – college to be exact – so I don't see myself finding a lot of time to simple write. I have a personal life outside of writing and I tend to do other things like draw for people or doing side projects along with my schooling. So please don't say things like "So when will you continue?" or "Are you abandoning this story?" because my answer is firm in that I don't give up on my projects. Not to mention I also have a second story to work on as well.
Trainer: We love hearing from you guys on what you think and Phantom just goes over the moon when she gets a review and hears how much you like the story. Seriously, it makes her day sometimes just to have that.
Phantom: It's true, I love hearing from you guys (or gals if you prefer that). Also, I made a reference to a fandom I recently got into. If you can see it, mention it in a review or comment and you get a cookie!
Trainer: MY COOKIE! Please review and no flaming (that's not nice!). Comments in general are also welcome.
Both: See you next time!
Extra AN...
Phantom: hey, guys. What's up? Ok, now before I get hundreds of messages asking why I haven't updated, I promise that it's because I am really REALLY busy with school. I have not and will not abandon this or any story. The reason some of you might read this (or not, I never really know) is for me to tell you that I realised that an important part of this chapter (a single element/word) was blanked from it when I first uploaded the chapter, and now I've gone back to put it in. So hopefully this works! I also plan to have a chapter out by tomorrow! If that doesn't work, than the day after will have to work for you all. Until then!