BVQA: Ok, first of all I would like to apologize for missing an update- and an important one at that! I was in Iowa for Odyssey Of The Mind World Finals, and literally every second of my day was booked solid. Not to mention, no internet connection. . .

Dani: *fully recovered now* . . .I can't believe you and your team dressed up as superheros and ran through campus yelling 'fear not citizens, the area is safe'.

BVQA: . . .why, what's wrong with that?

Dani: . . .

BVQA: Did you like our spy costumes better? Because I bruised my shoulder throwing myself behind that dumpster and I'm pretty sure some of my teammates hands are permanently glued into gun shapes.

Dani: How about you just give these people the chapter?

BVQA: *waving finder gun wildly* THE AREA IS SECURE! COMMENCE FANGIRLING!

Dani: SAVE. . . ME. . .

Danielle had taken some hard journeys in her life, but the one from her seat to the stand was the hardest. She felt like her feet were moving through molasses, dragging slowly across the ground. It would also explain how her lungs were filling with the stuff, and her heart was thumping quickly in her chest in an attempt to get it out of her system. She shivered, feeling nervous energy play out like sparks through her body, and forced herself to take another step. . . and another. . . until she reached the stairs up to the podium. They were steep, and her feet banged against the upper edge of the step as she climbed, but a moment later she was standing behind the podium.

Emphasis on 'behind'.

"Um. . . can I have a chair to stand on or something?" Dani asked, embarrassed. Had she still had long hair, the upper edge of her high, bouncy ponytail might- might- have cleared the edge of the stand, but as it was Dani couldn't even see over it. "Uh. . . little help? Anyone?" Dani was blushing furiously, she could feel her hears heating up and knew they were a bright firetruck red. She thanked her lucky stars- Leo, Gemini, and Andromeda- that her new haircut covered them up.

She heard Vlad chuckling softly and realized he must have planned this. It would be difficult for even a fanboy to take her seriously when she couldn't even see over the stand, let alone a crowd of 'unbiased peers'. . . something Vlad would have realized and planned out. Dani scowled and, realizing that no one was going to help her out, decided to make her own plan. She kicked off her shoes and stacked them on top of each other using her toes. The platform boots formed a perfect booster and Dani soon found herself about two feet taller than she had been a few moments previously. She laced her fingers in a way she hoped was grown-up and turned to Sam and Tucker.

"Our first question is whether or not you ever left the television studio on the day of the alleged robbery." Tucker said formally, lacing his fingers to imitate Dani.

"No. I was there the whole time." Dani replied.

"Your honors, this is ridiculous!" Vlad's lawyer said to the judges in outrage that seemed a little too outrageous to Dani. "We have seen the tape and she clearly left in the middle of the broadcast! We have physical evidence." Sam and Tucker glanced at each other nervously, and Dani realized they must not have noticed that Katey had been overshadowed during that little bit of the show. This was their weak point. They could not actually prove that Dani was telling the truth.

But Dani could.

Time to change the rules a little bit. Dani thought with a smirk, and jumped down off her boots, picked them up, and walked barefoot to the lawyer's podium where Sam and tucker looked at her as if she was crazy. There were mixed gasps throughout the crowd as she did so and Vlad's lawyer began protesting.

"My honors, I must object! What is she doing? I demand she be restrained!" He shouted. Dani paused in midstep and lifted her hand in a gesture that. . . well, wasn't very nice. He paled and shut up and she continued her walk to the podium in relative peace.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Sam whispered to Dani.

"Trust me." She breathed back, smiling at both her and Tucker.

"We do. Just be careful." Tucker murmured back. Dani was about to stack her boots up so she could see when Sam stuck her right foot out and Tucker placed his left one on top of it, making a perfect space for Dani to stand. It was a simple gesture like this that made Dani choke up slightly as she stepped lightly on top of their feet and took a deep breath before beginning her fight for freedom.

"I don't know how many of you here today are familiar with ghostly abilities, but there is something a ghost can do called overshadowing." She began, and there was a scoff from the other podium.

"Am I supposed to believe this child is now acting as her own lawyer?" He said in a mocking tone. "She can't even see over the podium without assistance from her friends!"

One of the judges cleared their throat, a man with wild red hair and freckles. "I agree that it is. . . highly. . . irregular, but I believe that we should hear her out before condemning her."

Thank you. Dani silently beamed up to him, then continued. "Overshadowing is when a ghost takes over a human's body, using it for their own means. It is almost impossible to detect, because nothing about the person is altered at all. . . except for their eyes. Now, if my techie here will just pull up that clip where I supposedly vanished. . ." She looked meaningfully at Tucker and he sighed and pulled out a remote control, flicking the video up onto the screen directly behind them. ". . .you'll see that Miss Katey's eyes are glowing a rather violent shade of neon, an obvious display of not quite being herself at the moment. Thus, this clip was inserted into the video to create an anti-alibi for me." Dani found herself slipping into the proper speech that she'd heard Sam use so many times when kicking butt in the courtroom.

This argument is won, she thought happily.

But Vlad's lawyer wasn't done yet.

"And how do we know that it really was inserted afterwards?" He asked rhetorically. "You could have just had your older brother overshadow her while you zipped off to rob some important banks and museums. There's no proving this."

Danielle gritted her teeth. Not now. Not when she was so close to proving herself innocent. She closed her eyes and mentally rewound back to that day.

She'd been having trouble sitting comfortably because of the pencil in her pocket that was poking her no matter where she sat. She couldn't exactly remember why she had a pencil in her pocket, but she had some other things to think about right then as she sat in a big, cushy, blue armchair and stared at the big, cushy, green armchair directly opposite. . . some stuff had happened, Katey told a joke, and Dani giggled, then saw bright lights switching on. She looked around wildly and was almost blinded.

"Oops, you gotta go." Katey said. "I'm supposed to introduce you first, then you come in."

Dani nodded hurriedly and stood to go. The pencil in her pocket was driving her insane, so as she stood she dropped it on a side table she passed on the way out.

Dani stood up straighter. The pencil. . !

She leaned over and murmured what she wanted Tucker to do in his ear before clearing her throat and interrupting Vlad's lawyer.

"If you'll look at the screens for a moment, I believe you'll see quite clearly that in the screen where Katey is overshadowed there is no pencil on the side table. In the shot before, you'll see that there is, as well as the one after." She said as Tucker pulled up photos on the screen behind her to illustrate her point. She smiled at the jury. "Meaning that it was put in in the middle of the broadcast and had been recorded before I got there."

"Which doesn't prove anything." Vlad's lawyer argued. "Here is the footage of Danielle robbing a museum at the time of the blackout footage, which is quite conclusive. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Danielle herself put in that clip."

Vlad's techie team pulled up the footage. Danielle hadn't seen it before, but now she gasped at the video clip. It was in black and white, obviously from a security camera, but she could still see a little ghost girl flitting through the medieval section of the museum, pulling on an expensive-looking green, white, and black dress and a priceless-looking tiara from the displays before tossing on handfuls of historic jewelry. If Danielle hadn't known for sure that she hadn't been there, she would have believed it. The resemblance between her and the ghost onscreen was erie. That same dimpled smile, boyish figure, and bouncing white pigtail.

In an unconscious motion, Dani slipped her hand around her pendant. . .

. . .and her salvation came to her with the memory of Clockwork's words.

Protect it, and it will protect you.

She grinned so wide she was certain that every tooth was showing. She'd thought she knew what that meant, that the little ghost charm had somehow been enhancing her abilities. After all, her powers had been coming much easier since she'd gotten it. But you know what? She also wasn't sleeping on the streets and constantly running from Vlad, so that could have helped just as much.

No, this was what he had meant.

"Thank you, Clockwork." She whispered, knowing that he could hear her. Then, as an afterthought, and much less sweetly, "And you too, Danny." She loved Danny so much, but her feelings of distrust for him sat in the pit of her stomach like a nasty parasite, tainting every thought she had about him.

She shook her head to clear her now dark mood from around it. Clear name first, duke it out with Danny second. Then, I have got to talk to mom about these mood swings.

"I'm wondering if anyone's noticed my necklace?" She asked at length. When all attention had been turned to her, she held it out for everyone to see. "It's a favorite birthday gift of mine, given to me by my brother. I haven't taken it off since. The pendant is a little ghost girl with one blue eye and one green one. It's one-of-a-kind."

Vlad's lawyer snorted. "If you're trying to prove something by telling us how unique it is, you're way off base. You're still wearing it in the video, see?" He played it again in case Dani had missed the point. "It's as plain as day."

"Yes, about that. . ." Dani said calmly. "I can see that the ghost in that footage does indeed have a silver pendant, but I doubt that it's anything like mine."

"Of corse it's like yours. It is yours." The lawyer said, no bravado missing from his facade. The picture of 'Dani' zoomed in, displaying the tiny, curled-up figure on a slim silver chain. "There's no difference."

"Actually, there is." Dani said happily. "Because, while the person who copied my necklace got the metalwork absolutely perfect. . . they forgot about the eyes." She once again held up the pendant for inspection. "The blue eye is ghost ice made by my brother, but it's the green one you should be paying attention to. It's made from stable ectoplasm, and, well. . . let's just say it leaves a very. . . distinctive. . . trail behind it."

Dani nudged Tucker and he got the message instantly, pulling up a map of Amity and overlaying it with a green line where he caught traces of the same signature on Dani's pendant. Some places, like Fentonworks and the Nastyburger, were practically glowing off the screen with hits. Others, like the school, had a few trails but not very many. . . Dani hadn't gone there very long.

And some, like the museum, were completely barren of any green at all.

"To take your own words from you," She said smugly to Vlad's lawyer, "It's as plain as day."

He tried to protest of corse, but no one bought into what he said after that. A few minutes later the jury declared Dani innocent of all charges and she and her family piled into the GAV. . . er, the RV along with Youngblood and Poindexter, racing down the streets to get ice creams bigger than their heads.

Vlad was left sitting alone in the silent courthouse, vowing quiet revenge.

He would not have to wait long.

BVQA: Well, whaddia think?

Dani: Thank God it's over!

BVQA: Wait a second, you thought that was it?

Dani: WHAT? THERE'S MORE?

BVQA: That wasn't even the climax! We didn't resolve the conflict with Danny yet! See you in the next chapter, folks! *whispers* Dani, say bye.

Dani: *is gone*

BVQA: *notices open window* Uh. . . reviews will help me track down Danielle.