Author's Notes:*bows profusely*
I did it again. I am sorry for those who had to wait three months for this chapter. I'm terribly sorry for making you wait and I hope you can find it in the goodness in your hearts not to beat me to a pulp too badly. That being said, I have some nice goodies for you at the end of the chapter for compensation.
Enjoy!
Lost and Found Chapter 18: Calm Morning
Valara Pyre was on a mission.
It had been days since she had awoken from her coma and she was no closer to finding out what had happened to her than when she had first gained consciousness. She suspected that the time she had lost probably had something to do with the dreams she had been having more and more frequently. Unfortunately she couldn't make heads or tails of the cryptic messages that they were being conveyed. None of the more recent ones were as intense as the first, though there was one element that tied them all together: the mysterious girl with fiery red hair who had an uncanny resemblance to herself.
Though her injuries were almost completely healed thanks to the doctor with the weird accent, Valara had been restricted to her room and the more time she spent there the more restless she became, despite the occasional visits from Julian. She had suspicions that his visits and the books that he would bring her were nothing more than ways to keep her appeased. Eventually, she felt that she couldn't take it anymore and in spite of his warnings to the contrary, Valara decided to do a little exploring outside of the confines of her room.
She found that some of the clothes that she had owned during her stay in Jump City had been neatly folded inside her nightstand. Choosing something simple (a baggy pair of pants and a matching hoodie) she carefully poked her head out of the room's entrance, turning left and right to make sure the coast was clear. Luckily for her, the staff of the facility had yet to arrive to their posts that morning, leaving the hallways relatively empty and giving her the opportunity she had needed.
Valara carefully took a step out of safety of her room, her eyes darting to and fro for any signs of danger. When she found none, she bravely crossed the threshold and began to walk the large, curved halls. As she adjusted her glasses, she could feel the adrenaline rush through her blood stream, making her almost giddy with excitement. Her moment of euphoria was cut short by a buzzing sound that that quickly increased in volume behind her. She turned just as a blur of yellow and black slammed into her, knocking her glasses clear off her face and leaving her in a disoriented and bruised heap on the ground. Fighting off the discombobulation, she opened her eyes to find her world blurry and by reflex began feeling out for her lost spectacles.
"Owie," she heard feminine voice say which stopped her from her fervent search. "Oh, my gosh, are you okay!?" the voice asked in panic.
Valara looked up at the figure that stood over her, not catching much detail from the blurriness except the fact that it was a girl much like herself. She squinted as she replied. "My… my glasses…"
The blurry figure moved, bending down to pick something up. "You mean these?"
The young Azarian graciously received the glasses and carefully returned them to their rightful place on the bridge of her nose. With her vision now clear, she took another look at the mystery person and found that her first assumptions were correct: it was a girl much the same age as her with wild blonde hair and wearing a peculiar black and yellow outfit.
A look of worry was firmly plastered on this girl's face. "I'm soooo sorry. No one's here in the morning and I normally do my morning run and I didn't see you and I'm soooo sorry. Are you alright?" She held out a hand to help her collision victim get up.
"I-I'm fine," Valara mumbled quietly, the years of practiced shyness that helped survive in her home of Azarath kicking in. She took a glance at the extended hand warily, unsure of whether to accept it's aid when the hand in question took the choice away from her, grabbing her arm and pulling her upright in one fluid and effortless motion.
"There we go!" the blonde said with a grin on her face. "Hey, you look familiar. Have we met before?"
"I, uh…" the brunette stuttered nervously, unable to vocalize her answer so she shook her head instead. "No, I don't think so…"
"Really? That's weird. I could have sworn I've seen you before. Oh well." The bright eyed girl extended her hand out once again. "Hi! I'm Caitlin, but you can call me Sparx if you want; everyone else does, though Cora does call me Sparkplug sometimes… or Goldie locks… or Blondie…"
"V-Valara," the sorceress managed to blurt out after gaining enough courage.
"Valara? That's a pretty name! Nice to meet you!"
Valara curtly nodded, unsure how to handle Sparx's overly gregarious behavior. The young sorceress never had many friends, especially during her stay on Earth and the few that she did have were not as… lively… as this girl. Before she managed to utter a meager salutation, her stomach decided to speak up for her, growling loudly for both attention and food. One of her hands reached for her stomach and the other for her mouth as blood rushed to her cheeks and a mortified look adorned her face.
Looking curiously at her new friend for a moment, a grin suddenly appeared across Sparx's face as a thought came to her. "Hey, sounds like you're hungry!" She grabbed Valara by the wrist and began to drag her down the corridor.
"W-where are we going?" the sorceress timidly asked as she was easily pulled along against her will.
"Duh! We're going to go eat at the mess hall! Come on, slow poke!"
DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP
Morning in the Fenton kitchen was unusually quiet, which Jazz Fenton took full advantage of before the tranquility devolved into her family's normal chaos. With a hot mug of coffee in hand, the eldest Fenton sibling was determined to make today's outing to the mall as memorable and of course efficient as possibly could. Jotting into her notebook, she planned an itinerary of every shop that they would visit. She wanted today to be perfect; after all, this was the first she would be hanging out with her cousin- no, little sister.
Jazz smiled at the thought of having a little sister, someone who could look up to her and do things with that could be described as 'girly'. She was planning to spend as much time as she possibly could to bond with the newest member of the family that summer. She wanted to make the most of the time she had left before she left for college later that fall. Her new sister needed proper nurturing and she was more than ready to nurture. Her preparation was interrupted by the pattering of a small pair of feet as they quickly descended down the steps leading downstairs. Moments later, her target in question crossed the kitchen threshold.
"Morning!" Danielle Fenton greeted ecstatically as she entered the kitchen at breakneck speed with a bright smile firmly planted on her face and a twinkle in her eyes.
"Morning, Dani. Food's on the table," Jazz replied gregariously, noticing how excited the younger girl looked and that the argument from last night seemed all but forgotten. "Looks like someone is excited."
"Uh huh!" Dani said with a giggle as she sat down at the table once she noticed that breakfast had already been set before she began to attack the food with reckless abandon. "Where is Mrs. Fenton?" she asked with a mouth still full of food.
Jazz couldn't help but smile before she replied. "Mom and Dad are getting the RV ready for the trip to the mall. They're clearing out all of the extra gadgets to make room for all the things we're getting for you."
This seemed to stop Dani dead in her tracks as her eyes to get even wider than they had been before at the thought of all the stuff that could fit in the Fenton RV. "Really?"
"Mom and I want to make sure you have everything you need: clothes, shoes, furniture, a computer…" She continued for a good minute, rattling off items from the list she had compiled earlier. "We're also going to need to stop by the book store to get some books and a few testing materials."
"Testing?"
Jazz nodded. "We're going to need to know how much you know and fill in the rest before you start school in the fall. You look about fourteen, so you'll probably start off as a freshman at Casper High." Knowing how similar Dani was to Danny, she was expecting some sort of complaint about the talk of school but was quite surprised by Danielle's reaction, who seemed almost excited by the prospect of getting an education.
"Really?" she asked hopefully. "I get to go to school?" Her eyes dropped down to her feet. "I've never been to school before… or had my own room."
"Well, now you'll be able to do all the normal stuff a teenager does; well, as normal as you can get in a house full of ghost hunters, anyway."
"Not that Danny would let me do any ghost hunting," Dani grumbled under her breath as she continued her meal.
Jazz was about to give some sisterly encouragement to cheer up the now somber halfa when Danny came into the kitchen and made himself known.
"Morning," he greeted although a bit timidly as he entered and spotted his sister and his clone.
Jazz watched as he made his way to the table, noticing the caution in his gait as if he were maneuvering a minefield. She also saw the look that Dani had been giving her cousin the moment he had arrived; a cold hard stare that Jazz was quite surprised the girl could muster, given her brighter demeanor just moment before. She could tell that both Phantoms had something to say, though they were deathly silent for what she figured were not quite the same reasons.
After a moment of staring, Dani once again focused on her breakfast, though not with the same fervor as she had before.
Jazz felt sympathetic as she watched her brother bite his lip and endure the icy treatment he was receiving from his cousin. The disagreement from last night had not extinguished as it had first seemed, though she had gotten the impression that Danny was being far less defensive than he had been at the peak of the argument and he almost seemed remorseful. She observed as Danny began to poke his breakfast with a fork, indicating that his appetite was nonexistent that morning and confirming her suspicions of his regret.
"So, Danny," Jazz began, hoping to interrupt the upsurge of silence that threatened to engulf the morning. "What were your plans for today?"
Her question seemed to catch him off guard, interrupting the examination and dissection of his meal. "No, nothing really planned for today. Why do you ask?"
"You should come with us," Jazz suggested with a devious glint in her eyes as she gave her brother a chance to redeem himself with Danielle. "We probably going to get a little crazy with the shopping and we're going to need all the arms we can get."
Danny had a genuinely thoughtful look on his face as he pondered on whether or not to come with them on their trip when the choice was unceremoniously taken from him.
"He's not coming," Dani declared, speaking up for the first time since Danny entered the room.
"Danielle?" Jazz questioned the girl's sudden declaration. "We're going to need some extra hands today, so I thought…"
"He's not coming!" the younger halfa repeated, though this time much more forcibly as she pointed an accusing finger at Danny. "The only reason he would want to come is to keep an eye on me! I already told him I can take care of myself!"
Danny seemed like he had something to say in reply, but the ghost boy held back his tongue, continuing his more passive stance against his cousin.
"Am I interrupting anything?" a voice coming from the doorway interrupted, cutting through the mounting tension and attracting the attention of Jazz and the others in the room. From the nature of the voice, they had anticipated seeing the family's guest, Raven, standing at the entrance of the kitchen, though none of them were expecting the noticeable change in her appearance: her face and hands had a more healthier tint of pink than their usually grayish hue. Brown hair now replaced her unnaturally violet mane and the jewel that normally adorned her forehead was now missing. The only things that were familiar were her signature leotard and cloak and her violet eyes which looked apprehensively at the group in the kitchen.
"Wow." Danny was the first to speak, vocalizing what was everyone else's mind. "I didn't even know you could do that…"
Raven's face evolved into her trademark half-smirk at her boyfriend's reaction and held up her arm, pointing to the bracelet that now adorned her wrist. "You can thank Cyborg for that." She pressed the bracelet onto the matching one on her other arm and the air around her distorted and shimmered for a few moments before revealing her familiar complexion. "The bracelets have holographic emitters embedded in them," she explained.
"Oh," Danny simply stated, still in a small stupor over this recent turn of events. "Wow."
The sorceress gave a small grin before she began to speak again. "I'm probably going to need some clothes since all I brought was my uniform. Mind if I join you on your little trip?"
It took a few moments for Jazz to realize that Raven's question was addressed to her. "Of course! The more, the merrier… that is, if Danielle agrees…" she said, putting the spotlight the ghost girl, who agreed with a nod. "Now that it's settled, let's see if I can find something that can fit you for the trip, Raven. It won't be much of a disguise if you walk around in a leotard."
The eldest Fenton sibling got up from the table, beckoning for Raven to follow her upstairs to find a temporary outfit to wear for the day. As they left the room, Jazz silently took in a number of details, such the words 'thank you' that were mouthed by her brother to his girlfriend or the look that Raven gave in reply; one that stated that he owed her a great debt. The silent exchange confirmed Jazz's suspicions that Raven partially agreed to come to keep an eye of Danielle while she was out in the open. Jazz's anticipation for the day increased even more with the prospect of bonding with not only her new little sister but with her brother's girlfriend as well.
VPVPVPVPVPVPVPVPVPVPVP
"Here we are!"
Valara struggled to catch her breath and her composure as she and her new acquaintance, the gregarious girl known as Sparx, finally arrived at their destination. The Azarian sorceress had been dragged through an indeterminate portion of the underground facility at such a breakneck speed that she became quite disoriented as a result. "W-we're where?" she asked in between gasps as her vision and wit finally caught up with her.
"The mess hall, silly. I thought I said that already." The blonde girl grinned before grabbing her newly-made friend by the wrist once again and dragging her through the entrance of said mess hall.
Valara took in the room visually, noting it looked like the typical cafeteria complete with a self serving area and a row of tables that were arranged at the center. Sparx continued to lead the girl towards one of these tables which was currently occupied by three people that were unfamiliar to the young sorceress, but seemed to be acquaintances her blonde companion.
"Hey, guys!" Sparx greeted as they neared the table, which garnered a number of not-so-positive replies from the group, ranging from apathy to hostility, though she didn't seem to notice.
"Well, well, if it isn't the sparkplug herself," a young pre-adolescent girl with aquamarine hair replied in a sneering tone.
The obvious insult was met with a giggle from the blonde girl. "Sparkplug… good one, Cora!"
Having been on the receiving end of such snarky comments from fellow mages during her time at Azarath, Valara was quite surprised by how Sparx reacted. She either was too oblivious to notice she was being insulted or just didn't care, both cases of which confused the young sorceress. Her usual strategy was to make herself as unnoticeable as possible to under everyone's radar: they couldn't make fun of someone they didn't know exist.
Having not received the reaction she was hoping for, Cora gave an annoyed sneer before noticing that they had an outsider in their midst. "Hey, who the hell is that?"
"Oh! This is my new friend… umm, what was your name again?"
Wary of the attention now sent her way, the sorceress took a step behind Sparx. "V-Valara," she stuttered in the quietest of whispers.
"Huh? What was that?" Cora asked belligerently. "Quit whispering already!"
"Her name is Valara Pyre," a new voice spoke, one of the other occupants at the table. Its owner was a girl close to Valara and Sparx's age. Her pale skin contrasted with her long mane of jet black hair, which hung down her back in a loose braid. She wore a Gothic Lolita styled dress almost as white as her skin and covered in a design that looked like an intricate pattern of black vines. She crossed her booted legs, which also matched the design of her dress, and took a long sip of a cup of tea before she continued. "She was in the report a few weeks ago; she was the girl they recovered from Jump City." Her black eyes gave Cora a stare filled with irritation. "Don't you ever read any of the reports?"
"And waste my time reading that boring crap?" Cora replied, scoffing at the notion.
The new girl shook her head disappointedly. "Typical youth. I guess keeping informed is a concept foreign to your immature mind."
"Hey, watch it, you bitch!" The bluenette shot out of her seat pointing her finger. "I'm the oldest one around here, Nerissa, so show some respect!"
Nerissa narrowed her eyes and gave a small smirk. "There is a difference between age and maturity. I guess you can't help but act the way you look. It isn't your fault some of us are more… well-developed than you." As she spoke, she crossed her arms under her chest, emphasizing her bosom.
Cora's eyes widened before narrowing as she let out an almost feral growl. "You bitch! You're asking for it, you know that? Any time, any place, I'll kick your sorry snake ass all over the cafeteria…"
"There you go, resorting to childish threats whenever you feel threatened: how utterly juvenile. I'd say to act your age, but you doing that quite well right now, aren't you?"
"Why you little…" Before Cora could launch herself across the table to attack her sharp tongued tormenter, the final occupant of the table made himself known by standing up and staring down the fuming girl through his long, black bangs, causing her stop in her tracks. She narrowed her eyes and gave a low growl, but her new opponent stood firm and unwavering.
A gasp escaped from Valera's lips when she realized that he was wearing a black straight jacket, whose arms were strapped around his torso, making his limbs immobile. Despite this, he had an aura about him that sent a shiver down her spine and a wild glint in his eye that screamed for blood.
"Calm down, Jacque," Nerissa commanded, placing a hand on his shoulder.
He replied with a low hiss in his voice, "But sister…"
"It's alright, little brother. We were just having some fun, that's all. You big sister can take care of herself."
He paused for a moment to give Cora one last glare before obeying his sister. He sat back down, effectively lifting the air bloodlust that had suddenly overtaken the room. "Yes, sister."
"Yeah, whatever," Cora huffed as she sat back down with her arms crossed. "You're lucky I haven't eaten yet, cause then I would have given you both an ass whopping."
Nerissa raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure." Her tone indicated that thought Cora's boast was highly unlikely.
At that moment Valara's body decided that it was okay for her to breathe again and she let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding. She eyed the raven haired brother and sister warily, unsure of what to make of them. Jacque's mere presence made her tremble and his sister's sharp tongue was even more venomous that the mages who tormented her back in Azarath. She hoped never to catch their attention any time soon. Unfortunately attention is exactly what her stomach wanted as the sound it emitted reverberated inside the room. She blushed profusely, moving even further behind Sparx.
"Looks like you're not the only one who is hungry, Cora," Nerissa teased with a demure smile.
"Oh, right! Now I remember. Lari was hungry, so we came to get breakfast!" Sparx explained in her usual bubbly way.
At the mention of food, Cora grunted. "Speaking of breakfast," she commented as one of the cafeteria workers finally made an appearance, bringing over a tray of food and depositing it in front of the girl before hurrying away with a fearful expression on their face.
Valara's stomach turned slightly when she realized what the blue-haired girl's meal was: stacked on top of the tray were a number of slabs of meat, all of which were very much raw. "Are… are you going to eat that??" she asked in awe.
"No duh. I haven't eaten anything since last night and I'm freaking starving!" She gave the girl a large grin, displaying rows of saw-like teeth lining her gums, which she promptly used to tear into one of the raw pieces of flesh. "Mmm, there's still some blood."
Valara's eyes were morbidly transfixed on the younger girl as she made short work of her meal and engorged it all in the span of a few minutes. As a former citizen of both Azarath and Jump City, she had seen her fair share of things normal people would call unusual but this scene caused her knees to begin to buckle and her skin to be drained of its color.
"There you are."
The voice of Julian Marcus brought her out of stupor unexpectedly, causing her to jump in surprise. "Ju-Julian!"
"Heya, Mr. M!" Sparx greeted when she spotted the Englishman. "You know Lari?"
"L-Lari??" Valara stammered, not used to the unusual nickname.
There were varying degrees of responses from the others in the group to the new arrival, varying from Nerissa's indifference to Cora beginning to sputter and looking away nervously.
"Ladies and…" Julian stopped as his eyes rested on Jacque, "… others. If you would excuse us please." Gripping her shoulder firmly, the sorcerer guided his charge out of the cafeteria and into the empty hallway. "Now, would you mind telling me what you were doing…?" Her sudden embrace interrupted his interrogation.
"Oh, thank you Julian," she cried into his chest in a relief-filled tone.
He gave her a concerned look before he replied, "Love, are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine," she replied unconvincingly as she detangled herself. "I just never met anyone like… them before."
"That's why I said staying in your room would be best, Lara. Some of the people here are a bit different, as you can see."
Valara lowered her head down disgracefully. "I'm sorry, Julian. It's just that… I've been in there for days and it felt so stuffy in there."
"Catching a little cabin fever, aren't you, lass? Well, then, I'll see what I can do about getting you some fresh air, though I can't make any…" The next hug nearly sent him sprawling as she showed her gratitude.
DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP
"Danny owes me after this," Raven grumbled under her breath darkly as she followed the Fenton Bargain Hunting Party, as Jazz so aptly named it, though the jungle that was the Amity Park Mall. It was an hour into their expedition and already Raven was feeling the fatigue of following the group, led by Jazz and Maddie, from store to store in the pursuit of the best deals they could find. She never thought that anything could be as bad as shopping with Starfire, but apparently the Fenton ladies could give her Tamaranian teammate a run for her money.
The group had already collected a number of spoils, most of which were for the wide eyed Danielle, though Raven managed to find a few things that she had liked. Anything was better than her current attire, which she had borrowed from Jazz for the trip, since her costume wouldn't be as conspicuous. It had taken her quite a bit of time to find something that hadn't made her look like a complete clone of the eldest Fenton sibling, though Dani wasn't as lucky in that aspect as she now looked like a near mirror image of Jazz, hair band and all. Though the ghost girl was less than thrilled to go on the trip looking as she was, her displeasure disappeared the moment she saw the size of the mall and the shops inside.
Raven looked down and absentmindedly played with one of the bracelets on her wrist, making sure that her skin was the same pinkish tint that is was when they had left the house. Though she was sure of Cyborg's technological prowess, the last thing she needed was for her guise to disappear suddenly. She had to admit that it had felt a little weird looking in the bathroom mirror that morning and seeing a face that was so familiar to her yet so different, especially with the new hairstyle she went with. She had decided to tie her short hair back into a small ponytail to further differentiate herself from usual super heroine persona. Raven was glad for the bit of anonymity that the holo-projectors were giving and could only imagine what kind of stares she would have been receiving if she came in full Titan garb.
"Oh, don't these look nice," Maddie uttered for the umpteenth time that day as she held up another brightly colored article of clothing for Danielle to look at. "Wouldn't this look good on you, Dani?"
Struggling to hold back a groan, Raven looked sympathetically at Danielle, who had another choice in mind.
"What about these?" she asked, holding up a hooded sweat shirt similar to the one they had found her wearing in Jump City. "Since my old one was old and raggedy."
"But you'd look so cute in it, sweetie!"
Mom, we need to let Danielle choose her own identity in order for her to grow up to be a confident young woman," Jazz stated as if she were reciting something from one of her textbooks.
"How about this, then?" Maddie asked, this time holding a sundress.
A look of dislike flashed upon Dani's face for a moment. "But that's too… girlie…" she mumbled under her breath.
"Hey, Raven," Jazz called out, "I think this would look good on y…"
"No," the sorceress replied with a cold stare.
"Or not."
This went on for another twenty minutes or so before they finally left the store and Raven wondered if she would be able to leave this ordeal with her sanity intact. "He definitely owes me," she murmured under her breath once again as watched Jazz, who took it upon herself to be the planner for their trip, consult her itinerary for their next destination.
"We still have a lot of ground to cover," the red-head commented while scribbling something into her notepad. "There are still a couple of places we need to hit, including the book store before lunch."
"Hey, do you think we get something to eat now?" Dani asked innocently as she pointed to the food court across the mall. Her stomach grumbled in agreement.
"I think that's a great idea!" Maddie concurred. "I think a break would do us some good."
"I guess we could have lunch early. But I'm going to have to redo our whole schedule…"
"Alright!" Dani whooped happily over the news and made a beeline straight for the food court.
"Hey, slow down!" Jazz called out as she followed the girl through the crowd.
Thankful for the break in pace, Raven went after the Fenton women and began to focus her thoughts on the youngest of the group. So far it seemed that the trip was doing a good job of getting Dani's mind off the quarrel with her cousin, though Raven knew that it was only a matter of time before things came to a head. The young halfa seemed to share some of the same qualities as her older counterpart, namely their stubbornness. Just as Danny wouldn't budge when it came to protecting his cousin, Dani was equally firm in proving she was capable of taking care of herself.
Raven didn't necessarily favor one side over the other. She knew that Danny was always overprotective when it came to his family and friends, though he seemed even more so when it came to Danielle, which could probably be attributed to the fact that Vlad was involved. She knew that he would do anything in his power to protect his clone to the point of risking his own life without hesitation, though she hoped it would never come to that.
She also couldn't blame Danielle for her frustration with her cousin. The ghost girl was obviously grateful for Danny's part in saving her life and the subsequent hospitality that the Fenton family had given her. Now that she was in good health, all she wanted to do was repay her cousin by helping him, so it was understandable for her to feel aggravated by her cousin's coddling. Dani was not one to stand still and let someone do the fighting for her when she was more than capable of doing it herself. The young Halfa definitely had something to prove to her cousin, though Raven hoped that she didn't go too far to do so.
Raven hoped this state of affairs would eventually work themselves out. Regrettably knowing how similar the two Phantoms were, she was sure that she would eventually have to intervene, probably involving a few swift kicks of 'enlightenment' for both parties. With the threat of Vlad making a move soon looming, they would all need to work together to stop whatever plan he had for Danielle for coming into fruition.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"This better be good," Vlad said as he answered his cell phone from the comfort of his hotel room. Although the accommodations weren't as extravagant as his home or Colorado hideaway, but it would do for his hopefully short stay at Amity Park.
""It's me," the voice on the other side replied. "And I have some good news for you, Vlad, baby."
The millionaire held back his tongue at her casual tone before he continued. "Well, lets have it, then."
The voice snickered in reply. "Aren't we impatient?" Her grin was almost audible over the line. "Well, your prediction was right on the money, Vlad. The little twirp finally came out of hiding and from the looks of it she's in perfect health."
A sinister smile spread across his face. "Excellent. I knew that Maddie could do it. Where are you now?"
"Amity Park Mall. Looks like they are taking her shopping. How cute."
Vlad's smile quickly turned into a frown. "I hope you're keeping your distance…"
"Oh, you worry too much," she dismissed. "The belt that you had Technus cook up works like a charm. I could be right next to them and I still wouldn't set off that ghost sense of theirs."
"I hope you aren't thinking of doing anything foolish. You know the rules. You're there only to observe. The last thing we want is for the badger to identify you."
"Oh, but that's the beauty of it, Vlad my dear," she cooed. "The ghost boy isn't here. He never left the house."
The half ghost rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Could it be that Daniel is underestimating me? Or does he have something up his sleeve?" Vlad knew to never underestimate the young halfa since he always seemed to find a way to foil even his most fool proof plans. "Well if that's the case I think that you can have a little fun then. But remember that the moment Daniel appears…"
"We'll get out of here in a hurry, I know," she finished. "Trust me, I'll be good. There will be plenty of misery later on."
AN: Who could the mysterious voice on the line be? What kind of plan does Vlad have in store for the Fenton household? Will Raven and Dani be ready for the oncoming onslaught? Stay tuned.
As a way to apologize for the late arrival of this chapter, I'll give you a hint of the villains revealed.
As you may have noticed with Sparx and Vector, each of the new baddies have two names they go by: a given name and their code name, which also doubles as sort of a last name. Vector is also known as Isaac and Sparx's given name is Caitlin. Their code names are a hint of what their abilities entail.
Cora, who was introduced last chapter, also follows the two name rule. Her code name is Aquaria. Not going to tell you what her full powers are, but the name is a pretty good hint. Nerissa's code name is SnakeVine and her brother's, Jacque, codename is "the Viper". If you notice, his full name (Jacque the Viper) is a play on the name Jack the Ripper, which is highly intentional. This brother/sister duo are the twins Cora were referring two before. As you can tell, Nerissa has a pretty sharp tongue and likes to tease Cora about her size. Jacque is the silent but deadly type, who always stands by his sister. A very creepy pair.
I also have a nice little surprise. A while ago, I commissioned someone to do a picture of my OC Valara Pyre from "Haunted Destiny". The artist, =morganagod, did quite an excellent job, as you can see here(get rid of spaces in URL):
http :/ / morganagod . deviantart . com/art/Valara-Pyre-126686223
Any who, I hope that was enough to appease you all. I promise that the next chapter shall be in at least the next few weeks instead of months away like the last one.