Chapter Sixty-Seven: Like a Ghost
It had been Dark's idea, the phone calls. Calling their captor and abuser and saying just the right things to freak him out before not calling again, and then finish with Danny taking the phone for the last call. He laughed when they reported his reactions, pleased with the results.
"Just keep him on edge, freak him out, and then stop. Let him relax. After all, surely you would be calling or attack him by now if you were still around." Dark told Dan. Danny was in the other room, talking to Plasmius. "Then strike just when they think it's safe. Strike hard and fast and sure, because if you give them a chance to fight back it could all fall apart."
Dan nodded. "I contact the Guys in White next, right?"
"Right, but wait until next year to do it." Dark grinned. "Alright, next time we're going to try to pull off the Ghostly Wail without collapsing. And don't use ice to break your fall again, that was kind of stupid last time."
"Yeah." Dan cringed, remembering how badly he hurt his leg when he slipped on the ice when trying to land.
Dark patted his shoulder. "Alright, you're dismissed, so shoo."
"Shooing!" Dan flew out of the room, passing Daniel on the way in.
"Ready to go?" Danny asked, turning to him.
Dan smiled, nodding. It was a lot easier to see what Danny looked like now; he just looked like he was perpetually in the shadows. It looked like Danny was wearing his clothes from the Arena, which explained the bandages. He noticed the bandages under his shirt at his shoulder as well from when Jack the Ripper the 58th had hit his shoulder.
"Phantom?" Danny asked. "You alright?"
"Yeah." Dan nodded. "Just thinking how much better you look."
Danny smiled.
"We better to get to library or you two will be late." Plasmius said, walking away from talking to Clockwork. "Come on, let's go. Grab your bags."
"We should get backpacks." Danny said as he picked up his book-bag and flew out with the other two.
"We'll worry about that when you have a proper form and can be given a bracelet like Dan's." Plasmius said calmly. "Right now, the cloak would get in the way of the backpack."
"I guess you're right." Danny nodded, giving a wave as they passed by Ember's place.
"You two friends now?" Dan asked him.
"Well, we hang out." Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "She's actually really nice when you're not trying to stop her performance."
"Heh." Dan chuckled. "That's the case with a lot of them. Long as you don't piss them off, they're pretty pleasant."
"Kind of like humans." Danny remarked. Plasmius and Dan laughed at that, and then they all landed at the library for their classes.
"Study hard." Plasmius encouraged as they went in. Then he went to pick out a book to read while waiting.
"Well, you seem to have gained some more form since last week." Ghostwriter remarked. "Good, it was hard to tell if you were making mocking expressions at me with the shadow ghost features."
"I don't make mocking expressions." Danny shook his head. "That's Phantom."
"Yes, and he knows what I do when he does." Ghostwriter held up the ruler. "Still, I couldn't see your face properly. Now that I can, I better not seeing any mocking expressions from you." He then started the lesson, picking up from where they left off in history.
Danny spotted Dan preparing to throw a paper airplane and chucked his eraser at him. 'Knock it off!' He thought. 'That could come from either of us, and you KNOW I'm the prime target if people want a punching bag!'
'Sorry.' Dan set it down and paid attention.
Ghostwriter started calling on them to give answers to questions and when they struggled he gave a groan and said what page the answer was on and to look it up.
"Hey, what's this book here?" Dan asked, picking up another history book. "Uh…?"
"If you can't read it, then don't mess with it." Ghostwriter explained. "And it's the history of the Ghost Zone, written in Latin."
"The history of the Ghost Zone?" Dan looked intrigued. "I think I wanna learn Latin now."
"Then learn how to speak proper English, first! It's 'want to', not 'wanna'!" The ruler came down on Dan's head and then Ghostwriter moved away.
"Right. I want to learn Latin now." Dan rubbed where the ruler struck him.
"Then we can add that to the list of your courses, after you have finished your English studies." Ghostwriter sighed. "However, if you just want to learn the history of the Ghost Zone, I have already translated it in all other languages and it's in the library. You may check it out after class."
"When is it due back?" Dan asked.
"I trust Plasmius to ensure it comes back intact." Ghostwriter glanced at him. "Therefore, whenever you are finished reading it is when you will bring it back." He then continued on about Earth history.
After class was over, they headed out and Dan went straight to the history section of the library.
"What's got him so interested?" Plasmius asked Dan.
"The history of the Ghost Zone." Danny said, nodding. "I got assigned an essay. Can you help?"
"I'll proofread it and tell you if it doesn't look good at all, but I'm not writing it for you." Plasmius raised an eyebrow in an amused way.
"Darn, you saw through my cleverly-disguised scheme." Dan said, mock-pouting. Plasmius laughed and he soon joined in, the two still laughing when Dan came back with a book.
"What'd I miss?" Dan blinked. "Wait, nevermind, I heard."
"Let's go home." Danny smiled, picking up his book-bag.
"Let me check this book out real quick." Dan went to the desk.
Danny and Plasmius waited for him to check it out and then he shoved it into his bag as they all headed out.
"You're actually going to read that?" Danny asked as they got back home and Dan nodded. "All of it?"
"It'd be great to know this stuff." Dan replied. "Y'know, in case of any possible surprises? Like, if we had known about the Ghost King before…"
"I get what you mean." Danny nodded, then set down his book-bag and turned to Plasmius. "Can we go train?"
Plasmius smiled. "Sure, it'll keep you out of your brother's hair." He offered him a hand, which Danny took before they flew off together. The cloak, watch and bracelet were left by the portal.
Dan chuckled, heading for the den. "I'm glad that they're getting along so well."
Vlad met him in the hall and smiled. "They're off to spar again?"
"Yep. Which means it's just you and me." Dan grinned, holding up the book. "Would you like to read with me, Vlad?"
"If you're willing to sit on my lap for it." Vlad smirked a bit, leading him up to the den.
"You've gotten faster!" Plasmius said, firing at the black-haired teen as he darted around the room, an ecto-ball in the teen's hands. The tricky thing about when he pulled that thing out was he couldn't tell if he was recovering or about to attack, so he kept his guard up.
"Thanks, but are you sure you're not just getting slower?" Danny teased back. His voice was louder now, stronger, and it made their battles so much more enjoyable when they had the playful banter to throw at each other like old times.
Phantom had his quips, but they just didn't feel the same as before. When Danny said it, though, it felt just like when Plasmius was pursuing his mother and trying to kill his father. Oh, how he wanted to rip the man apart for not seeing the truth of the beautiful gem he had destroyed, but he knew that Phantom wanted to be the one to punish him.
"What are you implying?" Plasmius laughed as he moved to dodge the incoming blast. It damaged his tunic sleeve and he looked at it. "Now look at this, you've ruined my favorite tunic."
"Good thing you removed the cape, eh?" Danny grinned. "I'm saying that you're getting on in years, Plasmius!"
"I'm a ghost, Danny. I'm immortal!" Plasmius laughed. "I don't have to worry about 'getting on in years'." He fired at the boy again, summoning clones, and Danny weaved through blasts from him and his clones.
"Yeah? What about Vlad?" Danny asked.
"Well, it's hard to say. He IS aging." Plasmius remarked. "Perhaps we could find a way to reduce his age and save his life?"
"You mean with ghost energy?" Danny asked, jerking back to avoid a well-aimed blast.
"If we could find something, wouldn't it be revolutionary?" Plasmius smiled.
"Well, we do have Ghostwriter, and our share of other scientists. Technus might know something." Danny said thoughtfully. "I could ask Ember, see who she knows."
Plasmius smiled. The good thing about Danny befriending and explaining the situation to Ember McLain was that a) everyone knew who Danny was and b) they didn't dare lay a hand on him. Not unless they wanted to suffer her wrath. And Plasmius'. It was well-known by now that Plasmius would rip apart anyone who messed with the young halfa twins, and Plasmius had gained quite a bit of reputation in the twenty years before that fateful day he fought Danny in the hallways of his mansion after his vultures failed to capture and/or kill Danny's father.
He had to admit, he had been horrified when he first looked into Phantom's memories and saw the cruelty that the bungling fool he'd gone to college with was capable of. In fact, he could hardly believe it was the same person until he saw Phantom's memories of when Jack took phones calls from home. Two-faced monster…and he had the nerve to call his son a monster? When he had done nothing so obscene?
"Plasmius, focus!" He heard Danny say, and then he was hit by a powerful ecto-blast.
"Oof!" Plasmius flew back and stopped himself just before he hit the wall. "Forgive me, my boy, I was just thinking."
"Well, can you try to think while paying attention?" Danny raised an eyebrow, crossing his bandaged arms over his chest. "You're easy enough for me without the handicap, and I want to have fun."
"Oh, 'easy', am I?" Plasmius laughed and then he and the clones flew towards him. Danny saw them coming and put his hands up like he was trying to create a shield. As they got closer, though, he realized what the boy was doing and pulled back quickly. His clones weren't so lucky, and got caught in the green blast that came from the boy's body when he spread his arms out.
"Yeah." Danny said matter-of-factly, lowering to the ground as he formed another ecto-ball – this one to recover, no doubt. He couldn't do much more than heal after using that ability, which was still a big improvement from when he first started to use it and nearly passed out each time.
He had to admit, he had expected Danny's powers to be an exact clone of Phantom's. But, Plasmius had detected a heat core in him instead of a cold core, which meant he might have fire powers that could develop soon. How soon, he didn't know, but he recalled that Phantom had a Danny horrible time when he was gaining his ice abilities. He supposed he would know when his little Danny started having raging fevers without any known cause.
"I'll show you 'easy'." Plasmius smirked, and then he put his hands behind his back and moved closer to Danny. He gasped and darted back, unable to fight back and unwilling to lose the ecto-blast. He went invisible and reappeared behind the teen, wrapping his arms around him. "How's THIS for 'easy'?" Plasmius grinned, his fingers wriggling over the boy's body. He squirmed, laughed, and pleaded for him to stop, but never let go of the ecto-ball. "Well? Am I still 'easy', boy?" He grinned.
"Okay, I-I take it back! I'm sorry!" Danny laughed, squirming in the older ghost's hold. "Stoppit, Plasmius!"
"And are you sorry for implying I'm 'getting on in years'?" Plasmius smirked.
"Aw, you know I didn't just IMPLY that!" Danny said, grinning at him over his shoulder as he absorbed the ecto-ball.
"You brat!" Plasmius laughed, restarting the tickle in full-force.
"Nooo, stop it!" Danny laughed. "Please, no more! Uncle! Uncle!"
"Oh, are you saying I'm an 'old Uncle' now?" Plasmius asked, enjoying the boy's laughter. He had missed it, even if he only heard it rarely before.
"No, I mean I give! I giiiiive!" Danny cried, trying to squirm out of his grip. Then he seemed to finally remember he had just replenished his energy and went intangible, slipping through his arms. "Hah! I'm free!"
"Not for long!" Plasmius came after him, fingers wriggling. "I'm not letting you get away, Daniel!"
"You're not getting me!" Danny said, flying down and going into the console room. Plasmius raised an eyebrow and chuckled as the higher-level challenges came out, Danny coming back out to join him. "How about we call a truce, since these guys are ugly and annoying?" He grinned at him.
"Very well, a truce." Plasmius smirked. They fired on the artificially-created ghosts, working well together. Then he decided to mess with Danny and fired on him without warning.
"Whoa!" Danny dodged and gasped. "I knew it! I can't trust you, Plasmius!"
Plasmius raised an eyebrow. "You know, that would be more believable an act if you weren't grinning like that, Daniel."
Danny laughed. "Whoops?" He weaved away, going invisible so Plasmius wouldn't know where he was.
Plasmius sighed happily. While he knew he would never replace Jack Fenton's place in Danny's heart, he at least made for a fun uncle that the boy felt at ease around. He flew down and de-activated the challenges, the ghosts retreating into the different doors that opened up. "Daniel, how about some food?"
"Sounds great! I'm starved!" Danny flew down to join him, hovering a few feet above the ground.
"Let's walk, remember?" Plasmius gently tugged him down. "All the way down, Daniel."
"Alright. Oh, I forgot my cloak in the portal room!" Danny opened the door, looking around, then walked out. Plasmius followed, and soon they were back in the lab and Danny was absorbing more ecto-energy before he put the cloak on.
"Not much longer." Plasmius smiled. "We can start on a bracelet for you anytime now."
Danny nodded, looking at his James form after fastening the cloak. The bandages were no longer blood-stained, and he was wearing a white shirt, black pants and white boots instead of the all-black ensemble he had been wearing before. "Not much longer." He smiled.
They headed up, Danny pausing to look at a calendar. "…One week." He murmured.
"Hm?" Plasmius blinked.
"Until…Spring Break." Danny said, looking at him.
Plasmius sighed softly and pulled him close. He knew the boy really meant 'until the anniversary of the time my father tricked me into thinking he accepted me' and didn't like how he was keeping track of such things. He unfastened the cloak and pulled it off, stroking his cheek as his appearance back into that of Danny Fenton. "Daniel…if I could do anything to undo what he did…"
Danny shook his head. "I've moved past it. Besides, now that I'm no longer Danny Phantom, I've made a few more ghost friends and seen them and you as more than just troublemakers." He took Plasmius' hand in his and smiling up at him. "I'm really grateful you and Vlad took us in, Plasmius."
Plasmius smiled and then held him in a tight embrace. "My dear little badger...how could I not? You know how much I care for you."
"Well, I do now. But let's not forget the time that you literally threw me to the Guys in White and my parents and any other ghost hunter." Danny raised an eyebrow. "Remember? The 'Million-Dollar Ghost' incident?"
"Ah, yes." Plasmius scratched his cheek nervously. "You're still upset about that, I see."
"Eh, I've put it behind me." Danny shrugged.
"If you keep bringing it up, it's not behind you." Plasmius raised an eyebrow.
Danny grinned. "I guess you're right. Wow, I really hold grudges like a ghost, huh?"
Plasmius laughed, hugging him tightly. "Yes, yes you do!"