Big chapter up in here! tell meh what you think ^_^

Chapter 30: The Divergent

Lyon had the same evil smirk as Aragon. Garth looked at the audience. They were chanting, "One! Two!" Garth knew that if they got to three, the battle was over.

Garth winced, sweat rolling down his brow, nose and cheeks. His face was getting hot, and all of his muscles were strained and bruised. He used to pride himself on his endurance, but this was the final test. For a millisecond, he thought he could hold on and become the hero he knew he needed to be.

But he just wasn't ready yet. And it was burning up inside of him like a fire. Garth prepared for total humiliation.

"Threeeee!" And then the audience imitated a buzzer noise.

Aragon picked up the loudspeaker once more. "Now, wait a minute everybody. You came to see a bloody show, right?"

"YEAH!" the audience boomed in stereo.

"So get up, Garth. It's time for round two!" Aragon said with a sneer.

Lyon released Garth and they both stood to their feet. Garth wondered what on earth Aragon was doing because in truth, there was no such thing as a round two in this kind of battle. Garth knew Aragon must have something dirty up his sleeve.

Lyon pounced at Garth in an unscrupulous manner and the crowd went wild. Garth used his own fire as his line of defense, but Lyon refused to back down. Lyon even resorted to scratching Garth with his claws. Garth tried to ignore the pain, but he was disgusted with the blue blood that leaked onto his scales. Garth roared.

Lyon only growled at Garth angrily. "Give up now before you're shame increases." Lyon sneered with a devilish voice.

"Give up now before you lose." Garth said proudly. He jumped onto Lyon and smashed Lyon's horns into his own horns. Then Garth clawed at Lyon's wings. Lyon moaned and roared furiously.

The crowd was pleased with the extreme violence between the two dragons.

However, Lyon bounced back impeccably quick. "You're dead, Garth!" Lyon screamed as he breathed fire onto his hands and threw fireballs at Garth.

Garth smiled confidently. He knew exactly what Lyon was about to do.

Just as Garth had predicted, Lyon prepared to ram into Garth with his horns. Lyon snorted like an angry bull. Garth, however, just stood still. Once Lyon was in close proximity, Garth grabbed his rivals by the horns and pushed the horns into the ground.

A surprised Aragon noticed his youthful nephew trapped in the ground. Reluctantly, Aragon picked up the loudspeaker. "Garth has won this round." Aragon said through his teeth. "This next and final round will determine the winner."

Garth grimaced.

In the meanwhile, Danielle, Tucker and Cecelia still searched the town for Danny. Tucker was bored, Danielle was aggravated, and Cecelia felt useless.

"Allright, we've searched the entire town for any suspicions. And so far there was no sign of the blond boy or Danny. "Does anybody have any suggestions?" Danielle asked her two friends.

"Well, if you spot some ghost vultures, they are the blond boy's minions." Cecelia remembered quickly. "They're not very bright, so it won't be too difficult to trick them."

Tucker snapped his fingers. Cecelia jumped, startled. "Vultures? Vlad! Vlad's minions are vultures! That means the blond boy works for him!" Tucker figured it out.

"That's a good theory, Tucker. There's only one problem: Vlad's in ghost prison and we're not allowed to go there."

"Why don't we check Vlad's house in Wisconsin just in case?" Tucker suggested.

Cecelia agreed. "It couldn't hurt to try."

Danielle steered the vehicle. "It'll take us about forty minutes to get there." Danielle calculated in her head. Cecelia and Tucker were both impressed. "If we encounter any bad guys, I'll try my best to swerve this thing. But mind you, I haven't even had drivers' ed yet…"

"That's okay." Tucker smiled at the girls reassuringly. "There's always an emergency thermos in the back, and Cecelia would fry and bad guy that crosses us." Danielle and Cecelia smiled confidently. "Right?"

Cecelia looked at her hands. She let a ball of electricity form in her right palm and watched it cackle, crackle, and snap. "You're absolutely correct, Tucker." Cecelia said.

Just outside of Aragon's arena, Sam had her ear pressed against the door. She could hear clearly every wince, every cry of pain, and every victory. It's so pointless the way they decide who will become the new ruler, Sam thought. Someone's going to get killed. I just hope it's that scumbag and not Garth. What would I do without Garth? He's faithful…and strong…and brooding and clever and serious…yep, I couldn't live without him. He's the best friend I ever had, besides, well, Danny, but, ohh…Danny. I need to get over Danny and focus on…

A yelp came from inside the arena and Sam knew it had come from Garth. Poor unfortunate hero. He doesn't deserve this. He deserves to be loved and well-cared for, instead of the tragic path that life had in store for him. Come on, Garth, hold on a little longer…If I had powers, I'd save him. Regardless of the cost, Sam thought.

Sam didn't go inside the arena because she was scared of what ghosts would do to her if they saw her. She felt so helpless against a ghost's powers. In an instant, they could splatter her with ectobeams or throw her through the wall or freeze her. She felt so small. Sometimes, she wished she had powers like them.

Gosh, Danny, Cecelia, Danielle and Garth sure are lucky, Sam thought.

Sam cringed when she heard Garth moaning in agony. The crowd went wild. "I have to know what's going on in there!" Sam said through clenched teeth. She pulled hard on the door but it was so large, and so heavy. Eventually she managed to slide it open just wide enough to get through. She just barely made it onto the other side before the door closed. If it had closed on her, her tiny body would have been crushed for sure.

Sam looked upward. All the ghosts in the arena were floating lightly above the ground. Sam would stand out no matter what because she could not fly. Many of the ghosts in the surrounding room were dragons. They came in various colors and sizes. They all looked so scaly and tough with their strange eyes and their wings and the two curly brown horns on top of their head.

Sam tried to slip through the crowd anonymously in the hopes of blending in. Sam pushed past attendants if she needed to. All she wanted was to see Garth. And Sam could hear from that inhuman moaning that Garth was most definitely not okay.

He had to be okay, Sam thought.

Sam looked over the rail that separated the attendants from the rest of the arena. Sam's jaw hung open. There were no words for the sight she beheld.

"And we have a winner!" boomed Aragon over the loudspeaker.

Danielle, Cecelia and Tucker were driving through Wisconsin. "I don't get it. This is where Vlad's mansion was. I would know. He brought me here several times back when he first created me." Danielle was puzzled. There was a little village of townhouses where Vlad's mansion should be. Danielle looked around.

"I've never seen townhouses like these before. They're all black and skinny and they're all like five floors tall and built close together." Tucker said. "Weird style, huh?"

"Maybe we should stop and ask someone for directions." Cecelia suggested softly.

"That's actually not a bad idea." Danielle took the speeder down into an alley just outside of the little town. "I'll do it. Tucker you wait here and keep Cecelia safe." Danielle started to walk away.

Tucker watched Cecelia. "Sooo…" He said, trying to sound casually aloof.

Cecelia half-smiled.

"You single?"

Cecelia chuckled awkwardly.

"That wasn't a come-on. I'm just making conversation." Said Tucker seriously.

"Sure…" Cecelia laughed.

"No, really!" Tucker argued with a smile.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Yes. I'm single. And I intend to stay single."

Tucker relaxed in his seat, satisfied with that answer. He let his eyelids drop out of tiredness and put one of his feet on the steering wheel.

"Sooo…"

"So what?"

"I'm just making conversation here." Cecelia chuckled. "So, you and Danielle…

"Danielle's a good leader, isn't she?" Tucker stated.

"Totally."

"Yeah."

"But you still like her."

"…"

"Why don't you make a move?"

"Eh…I, well, I think if I, well no—"

"Tucker?"

"It's because of Danny. I just don't think he could handle his best friend dating his little sister."

"Yeah, I never understood that sort of thing. You're his best friend. Out of all the other guys in the world, he knows you best, and he knows that you could take care of her better than anyone else."

"I've known that for a while now. I'm glad you're beginning to see it."

"You're welcome."

"I miss my best friend."

"I miss him too."

"Danny! I want my best friend back!" Tucker whined loudly.

Cecelia rolled her eyes and gave him a loose hug.

Outside, Danielle walked down the street. This place almost looked too deserted to be a real town. There were only a few cars and only two or three people outside. However, those people were all too far away from Danielle for her to ask directions without being awkward.

Danielle decided she would have to ask directions at a house. She picked one with a vehicle out front and she knocked upon the sleek black door. There was no answer. She knocked again and hoped she was not being rude.

But nobody answered. Danielle began to make her way back to where she had landed the Specter Speeder.

However, somebody across the street was just exiting a house. She looked over. The boy was very unusual looking. His hair was particularly light and his clothes were strange because they were of a new design Danielle had never seen before. The boy just walked along casually, until he saw Danielle, that is. Then he began to book it down the street. Danielle knew he knew.

Danielle transformed into her other half. There was nobody looking, so why not? Then she flew after the boy. She quickly caught up to him and blocked his way.

He just looked at her with a scowl. "Who are you supposed to be?" he asked with a nonchalant tone.

"I'm Danni Phantom."

"You've got to be kidding me." the blond boy said under his breath. "What do you want?" he barked.

"I want Danny Phantom back."

The blond boy passed her with a smirk on his face. "Well then just look in a mirror." He said with heavy sarcasm.

"Wait! I know you have my brother and I know you're working for Vlad."

The blond boy turned around slowly and sighed as if Danielle was absolutely no threat to him whatsoever. "And I know that you're Danny's clone. You're a halfa just like he is."

"Just…give him back to us."

"Uh…no." He started to walk away again but Danielle followed him. "I'd love to tell you I'm sorry, but, then again I'm really not."

"If you don't tell me what you're doing to him or where he is, then I'll just have to phase into each and every one of these houses until I find him."

"You really don't want to do that." The blond boy almost laughed. "And you wouldn't like what I would tell you anyways."

"What have you done to him?" Danielle bellowed.

"Yeesh. Calm down." The boy faced her. "And just for the record, I didn't do anything to him; I only captured him. It's Vlad who's going to do the real work. And I know now that you and Vlad know each other."

"He created me."

"But you hate him. Why? The people in my town respect him."

"Why?" Danielle asked.

"He—I can't tell you. But I can tell you that we're all growing impatient waiting for Vlad to do away with that ghastly ghost brother of yours."

"Don't you talk about Danny like that, you fiend!"

"How am I a fiend? I couldn't do anything at all to physically harm you. At best, I could read your mind and embarrass you. But all thing's considered, you have the real power."

"Why are you answering all my questions? The bad guy never answers questions unless he's got something planned!"

"Oh, I'm too bored for that. I'm just a minion. I work for Vlad. I do what I'm told. I'm not really important and I don't know Vlad's big plan."

"Take me to Danny." Danielle demanded.

"Follow me." the blond boy led the girl to one of the houses. It looked just like the rest of the houses but that must be a disguise. On the inside, instead of furniture, there was lab equipment. Lucky for the both of them, there were no lab workers inside.

"Ugh, what is this place?" Danielle asked with disgust and terror.

"What? You've never seen a lab before?" The boy took Danielle down three stair flights underground and then opened a door to another creepy lab. There in the corner was a ghost boy hanging from the ceiling. His hands and feet were encased by large, glowing metal shackles. His head hung in defeat

"Danny!" Danielle ran over to him.

"Stop right there and don't even think about setting him free!" A ghost vulture appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Danielle's arms with his talons.

Danielle screamed.

"It's no use. Nobody will be able to hear you. Your brother is a little tied up right now." The blond boy chuckled evilly.

"Wait just a minute! I thought you were helping me!" Danielle was still trying to squirm away from the vultures.

"Are you kidding?"

Danielle looked down, ashamed and embarrassed. "Maybe next time, I won't be so trusting."

"What makes you think you're going to live long enough to have a "next time"?" The blond boy looked at the vulture. "Tie her up just like Danny Phantom." He commanded.

"But Wenn, Vlad didn't tell us to capture her." The vulture argued.

"But just think how proud he will be of me when he sees her."

That's all that the vulture needed to obey his master.

"Vlad won't be coming, so you'll be waiting here a long time." Danielle said calmly.

Wenn whipped around and his bowl-cut hair moved with him. "On the contrary, Vlad told me that he would meet me here."

"When did he say that? When, Wenn?"

"He told me that about a month ago. That was when I was assigned to catch Danny Phantom."

"Vlad's in jail. The twelve ghosts of Christmas put him there. He won't be coming out until he's served his time. And neither will Cirth."

Wenn just stared at Danielle for a few moments. He was deciding whether or not to believe her. He could see into her mind. He knew that she wasn't lying because she believed what she was saying.

It can't be true, Wenn thought.