Balshumet: Happy mother's day everyone! Hope your Sunday has been going well. I would have had this posted yesterday, if the internet wasn't so plainly against me at the moment. Our power went out late last night, and with it, our internet. No worries, nothing serious happened, we just live in a more rural area, so the power's more spotty at times. We are coming to the grand finale of the confrontation with this arc's main antagonist, Dracul. For those of you who were wondering about the name, look it up. You'll find some fun and 'the more you know' type information on it, and why it fits. And after seeing the word count for this chapter, you'll know why I split this one off of the last one. In total, it would have been 24-25k words last update, and well...I did promise, but I'm probably going to have to set a new average for the next arc.
I'd also like to take this space to announce Beloved! It's my second fanfic for the Danny Phantom verse, though outside the realm of the 'If Series'. If you haven't had a chance to check it out do so. It'll be updated next week, on Sunday, along with this fic.
Disclaimer time!: I do not own Danny Phantom, all that belongs to me is my plot and the OC's within. The show belongs to the main man, Butch Hartman, and the...not so accommodating people at Nick and Viacom. In short, don't sue.
And now, for the battle scene of the century!(hopefully...) Much love, and cya at the bottom!
Phantom the Vampire Hunter
He floated just out of sight of the scurrying insects below. He was hidden in the deep shadows of the night above a roof, just opposite of the burning devastation of the broken remains of the human shop he had destroyed. He snorted when he heard the distant sirens of the fire engines rushing to the scene; the humans inside would long dead by the time they got to them. Speaking of dead and human, that reminds me of the reason for my little visit to the human shop. It seems my former associate and his new ally aren't entirely ghost or human. Some interesting combination of both. I didn't think it was possible for such a being to exist, but suddenly his irrational attachment to human creatures makes sense. Dracul sighed before teleporting over to the top of the debris of the diner. If I were him, I'd renounce all things to do with such weak beings as these humans, but then again, that is why he's weak. He waited, floating over the fires below. Vlad wasn't one to be defeated so easily, he was sure of it.
Vlad groaned from deep inside the wreckage of the diner. His head pounded badly, plus something was digging into his spine. Something hard, rough, and stone like. His eyes fluttered open and were met with the nearly pitch black scenery of the air pocket he was in. Vlad rolled onto his side, and began trying to get a better view of where he was. Despite the distinct lack of lights, his vision was much more acute than the average human, and he was somewhere near the top of the pile, light could still get inside the rubble. What happened? He wondered while rubbing a particularly sore spot on his head. Suddenly, the last few minutes came flooding back into his mind, and he was hyper aware of his surroundings. The distant rumble of debris settling, the sound of sirens from the rescue vehicles, the heat from the small fires burning in the building, all of it was assaulting his now too focused senses. "Daniel?" His call came out as a tired rasp. He coughed and crawled through the rumble until he reached a stone slab. "Daniel, can you hear me?" His voice echoed in the small space around him. Nothing.
Danny had been thrown deeper into the collapsed building than Vlad. He was pinned under a thick piece of the concrete ceiling, right next to a growing fire. He slowly drifted back into consciousness, ears ringing from the explosion. Danny tried to move from his prone position under the concrete, only to find himself unable. Snapping to full consciousness in a few moments, he began pressing his hands against the concrete pinning him. When the solution came to mind, he nearly hit his forehead with how obvious it was. He took a deep breath, and phased through the concrete. Now free from the slab, he began looking around the area. His legs were still sore from the concrete landing on them, and he silently thanked his half-ghost status for protecting him from further damage. Danny started when a familiar sound reached his ears. "Vlad?"
Vlad pressed himself against the other side of the rocky barrier keeping them apart. "Daniel is that you?"
"Yeah." Danny trailed off as he really took in his surroundings. "What happened?" Danny reached through the solid rock wall, feeling for Vlad on the other side.
"The kitchen exploded. You are alright aren't you?" Vlad's answer came in the form of Danny's arm reaching through to his side of the obstruction. "Hold on, I'll come to you. There's no room for you over here." Vlad shoved Danny's arm away, and phased through the wall before Danny could respond. He was met with the dirt smudged Danny on the other side.
Danny rubbed the back of his head. Not only did it hurt back there, but he was feeling awkward. Now more than convinced everything that was happening to Vlad was his fault, he was beginning to feel slightly guilty. "So, what do we do?"
"I'd suggest looking for survivors, but considering the mess in here, the fire, and the explosion, I doubt anyone else survived."
"But we sho-"
"We have more important things to worry about Daniel." Vlad pointed above him, cutting off Danny's objections. "Does that energy on the roof seem familiar to you?"
Danny closed his eyes, and ignored the heat itching down his back. The fumes from the fire and burning gas were distracting, but the cold tingle from the ghost on the roof was unmistakable. "Not him."
Vlad frowned and sent a heated glare into the roof, or what was left of it, above him. "Come on Daniel, let's reappear around the back. The fight from earlier has obviously restarted." Vlad quickly transformed in a flash of black light, and motioned for Danny to follow.
Danny followed suit, and the two of them were floating through the remains of the ceiling, up and towards the rear of the former building. They were inside the smoke from the fires at first, so everything was a blurry wavy swirl of colors and sound. He was suddenly glad he didn't have to breathe in ghost form, because all that smoke would make it impossible. He joined Vlad shoulder to shoulder in the air.
On the opposite side of where they were floating, just a few feet away, was Dracul in all of his wicked glory. He leveled an evil leer at Danny and Vlad, happy they had finally decided to join him in the air. From the looks on their faces, they were mostly unscathed from the collapsed building, but nowhere near as energized as him. Not for the first time, Dracul thanked his vampiric abilities. Even with his opponents' unusual bodies and cores, they were running on empty. "I was wondering when you two would stop lurking with the riff-raff and come and face me. Why is it I always have to come find you?" Dracul enjoyed the darkening of the younger ghosts' faces as he implied cowardice.
"And here I was left with the impression you were going to crawl into some hole and die the last time we fought. My mistake Dracul: I thought youwere the one who ran from our last battle." Vlad wasn't about to be baited into attacking so easily. They were still in the most densely populated part of the town, and since Dracul had no prohibition against collateral damage, he had to keep in mind their surroundings. They couldn't fight here if he wanted to avoid more casualties.
Dracul's face fell into a frown as he took in Vlad's words. He had been sure the hot headed younger ghost, at least one of them, would have rushed into the fight. It wasn't as if the insult was particularly stinging, but after killing some of those humans they liked so much, he had been sure they would be itching to throw punches. Now it seemed, they were more wary than anything else, and Dracul was left wondering where he had misjudged them. Perhaps they are more injured or low on energy than I thought." A tactful retreat is not running."
"Oh yeah? Because it looked an awful lot like you had your tail between your legs when you left." Danny was sick of this ghost. If showing up to threaten his family before had been bad, after attacking them earlier, burning down Vlad's apartment, and destroying the diner, this ghost had just jumped to number 1 on Danny's most hated list. He had even passed Vlad, and that took some serious skill.
"Perhaps to you, child, but to a more experienced fighter the difference is apparent. For example, it has allowed me to gain the strength needed to fight you once more. But energy is something you interesting creatures have in spades is it not?" Dracul's leer grew into a smirk at the surprise flitting across their faces. He floated away from the smoke of the diner fire; he wanted to see every fear filled line on their faces. "You aren't actually a ghost in disguise are you Plasmius? That human shell, it's real flesh and bones. Somehow, you have managed to be both living and dead at the same time. What an odd paradox." Dracul said the last sentence in a near mumble, more to himself than either Danny or Vlad.
Vlad resisted the urge to shift nervously floating across from the vampire ghost. He narrowed his eyes at the being floating across from him and started to gather his energy for the coming fight. He had taken serious pains to avoid his secret being discovered. Now, it seemed it was all for naught.
Dracul knew anyway, and worse, he was the kind of ghost to spread the information around if he thought it would be to his advantage. And this would be to his advantage, after all, how often did one find what amounted to a fatal weakness in someone seeking to become powerful as Vlad did?
"Whether my human form is a shell or not won't be any concern of yours in a few hours. Why would it be, when you'll be but an indistinguishable smear of ectoplasm on the sidewalk soon enough?"
"Such big talk from an inferior creature. Alright little ghost, I was going to keep you as an interesting pet for my lair back in the Ghost Zone, but I wouldn't want to deal with your mouth for the rest of eternity. This, and you, ends tonight." Dracul gathered a large dark green pool of spectral energy in his hand.
"Daniel," Vlad addressed the previously ignored teen floating beside him, "stay out of this."
"What? No way. I'm helping you fight, and more importantly, there's no way you can take him on alone. Between the two of us-" Danny was cut off when the large blast Dracul has been gathering was thrown their way.
"You will get yourself killed." Vlad said into the now much larger space between them after dodging Dracul's attack.
"I will not! Let me help, I fight ghosts all the time back home." Danny flew around another forest green blast from Dracul, and sent one back.
It hit its mark, slamming him into the rooftop of a building across the street. Several pedestrians began running away from the chunks of falling concrete. Between the suddenly-turned rubble diner and the flashes of green in the sky, they were more than ready to leave the immediate area. A couple police spot lights swiveled up towards where the two halfas were floating, searching the growing smoke filled sky for the source of the green light.
Dracul pulled himself from the crater on the roof, shaking his head with frustration. He could take either one of them individually, but together, they would be a problem. He had to find a way to separate them, or convince the stubborn individualistic ghosts to part ways willingly. Dracul dusted off his concrete powdered cape, and teleported back into the air in front of them. "Very cute Plasmius, you have your new ally attack for you. I did not know you were the kind to hide behind children."
"Hardly." Vlad hissed back at him. He flew in front of Danny and sent him a fierce glare. "Leave." He wouldn't take 'no' for an answer here, why couldn't the kid just disappear? He could turn invisible; why not make use of it for once?
He smirked at how easy it was to manipulate the younger ghost's pride. He had to admit though, not all of it was pride, Vlad was a protective being, and he likely didn't want to put the other hybrid creature in any danger. Still, the end result was the same, the two of them separated, where he could deal with them easily.
"I'm not going anywhere. If you want to get rid of me, you'll have two people to fight instead of one." There was no way he could let Vlad face this ghost by himself. Ordinarily, Danny was sure Vlad was more than capable of handling this fight. But he was tired from the last two fights with the evil specter, and worse, he had been injured, or at least Danny thought he had, in the last fight. Vlad was a good fighter, but he wasn't invincible, and the fight a few hours back had cinched it for him.
Vlad dropped into a fighting stance and sent a fiery glare over his shoulder at Danny. "Damn it, would you just listen to me? If we are both fighting him, who's going to make sure no one else gets hurt? Who's going to help get the people still trapped in that diner get out safely?"
"I don't know the fire fighters or something. Listen, you need my help and whether you want it or not, you're getting it." Danny crossed his arms and flew over to join Vlad in the face off with Dracul. He hadn't run from a fight as long as he had powers, and he wasn't going to be run off from this one.
"Enough talk, I have wasted enough of my time on you creatures. If you both are done trying to convince the other to be a coward, I would like to kill you both if you do not mind." Dracul held out two bright green glowing hands on either side of his body, and charged the ecto-blasts within to a dark green.
Before Vlad could get in another protest, he was dodging a blast that zipped and crackled right past his head. He sent a return attack Dracul's way, and watched as the vampire raised a shield with his mind, and fired the second blast at Danny.
Danny deftly avoided the attack, and charged directly at his opponent.
Dracul nearly laughed at the boldness of his adversary. It was almost as if the boy had forgotten he had a shield up, or that he could drain him of his powers if he touched him. No matter, his folly is my gain. Dracul reflected calmly as Danny started to whirl around him like an electron around an atomic nucleus.
Danny sent several small blasts into Dracul's shield to test its strength. When the first few seemed to have no effect, he realized Dracul was reinforcing it with his energy and smirked.
The energy vampire was very wasteful with his powers, likely stemming from the fact he could always steal more. The constant draw on his energy, when he couldn't just make more like the two halfas, combined with his very poor stamina to make him an easy target for being worn down.
Danny just had to stay out of reach and keep peppering him with blasts, and the shield would fall when Dracul ran out of energy. And if the last fight is any experience, it'll be sooner rather than later.
Vlad flew up next to Danny and got his attention with a wave. The two soundlessly broke off from flying around Dracul and floated a few yards away.
Dracul's shield was still up, though now he was more suspicious than ever. He had been expecting the two of them to be fighting each other by now, if they were even in the same area. However, it seemed the two hybrids were coordinating, and that spelled trouble for his 'divide and conquer' plan. He decided to end their little meeting immediately.
"That's an awful idea Daniel."
"No it'll totally-"
"No it won't." Vlad firmly interrupted. He had gotten Danny away to take up his offer to work together, though it seemed both of their fighting styles didn't really lend themselves to a partner.
"Well what do you suggest?" Danny was more than a little exasperated at the moment. His plan, basically punch Dracul till one of them got tired and then switching off, would work just fine.
Vlad opened his mouth to respond, when the dark smog of Dracul's teleportation surrounded them.
They quickly dived out of the area and regrouped a little ways off.
"I suggest real team work, and no tag teaming isn't what I call real team work." Vlad made a sour face as the smog re-directed towards them again. "Do me a favor kid, and keep him busy for about ten seconds; I'll give you the signal when I'm ready."
Great it's back to the kid thing again. "Well hurry up." Danny said while squaring up against Dracul's quickly reforming body. "I don't want to do all the work." Danny ready himself into a mid-air crouch to fight Dracul as Vlad flew off.
He needed cordon off the area. It had the added bonus of allowing him to watch Danny's fighting style so he could avoid getting in his way when they fought together. But first, he had some local citizens to scare off…
Danny kept well out of Dracul's reach, remembering the feeling of his energy being drained from the last fight only a few hours back. He still hadn't recovered, despite the fact he hadn't used a lot of energy over the last nearly week he'd been here. The energy he'd lost to Dracul from the sudden hand holds he had gotten had, unusually, yet to return. He didn't typically have trouble making more energy, and quickly, but this time he seemed to be on the slow end of the scale. Danny distantly wondered if the vampire reaching into his still sore chest hours ago had something to do with it, as he dodged another grappling attempt by the other ghost.
Dracul hissed in annoyance, the fight already going how he remembered the last one did. That was completely unacceptable. He fired a green blast at the younger ghost, only this one was made of soft ectoplasm.
The attack crashed into Danny, and the green ectoplasm stuck to his body like glue. It had only gotten one arm, but the distraction it provided in his attempts to get it off, nearly got him captured. Danny turned intangible at the last second, and phased through Dracul's well aimed swipe. He flew out of reach and reset his position against Dracul. I can't fight him by myself, where the heck is-
"Daniel!"
A loud call cut off his thoughts and drew his attention downward.
Vlad was standing by a parked car, looking distinctly mischievous. "Do you remember that 'game' you told me about on the last drive over to the Fenton's?"
"I'm a little busy at the moment; I'll play something with you later." Danny griped and phased through another too close grab for a limb.
"Why don't we play now?" Vlad offered while lifting a vintage Volkswagen bug off of the pavement with a grunt.
Danny's eyes lit up when he caught Vlad's meaning and flew around to line up parallel to him. He watched as Dracul dove down to catch up to him, ready to make another swipe, before turning intangible. Dracul's angry swiped missed him by metaphorical miles, before he charged an ecto-blast in his left hand and fired it directly into the vampire ghost's gut.
Dracul hurled across the street, sailing from the blast, and lined up perfectly for what Vlad did next.
"Punch buggy." Vlad said while swinging the car straight into Dracul's flying body.
Dracul smacked into the top of the car and shot back towards Danny.
Danny shifted positions, floating parallel to the ground instead of upright, and shoved his feet into Dracul's unprotected gut.
Dracul once again changed directions, shooting up directly into the sky above the town.
To Danny's utter surprise, and a small amount of awe, Vlad teleported above Dracul, half-crushed car and all.
He repositioned his hold on the car's chassis, holding it by the middle instead of the front axels, before swinging it down into the still careening Dracul. Following the movement of his down-swing, he tossed the car on top of Dracul's body after the two connected. Vlad fired a cherry-bomb colored ecto-blast after the falling coupled objects, determined that the word 'overkill' didn't exist in this instance.
Danny quickly moved out from underneath of the falling pair and shot up to a safe distance. He dodged the bright pink ecto-blast also on its way down, and pivoted to a stop just before the whole thing hit the ground.
The car slammed nose first into the earth, Dracul pinned beneath it, when the searing heat from Vlad's supercharged ecto-blast hit the engine and gas tank in the back. It exploded into a confetti of metal parts and pluming smoke and gasoline fire.
"No punch backs." Danny condescendingly stated now floating only a few feet from Vlad after his escape from the collision course with the car. He grinned up at Vlad, more than a little excited with how well that had worked. If we keep this up, the fight will be over in seconds.
Dark smoke seeped from under the burning wreckage of the Volkswagen as Dracul teleported himself to safety. A dark chuckle rang through the air as Dracul recollected himself a few yards away from the smugly glowing halfas. "Not bad, so you two can coordinate attacks. I will have to keep that in mind." He fully rematerialized arms calmly crossed over his chest, ready for another round of attacks.
Danny had to focus to keep his face from scrunching up in anger. All of that, and Dracul still didn't have a scratch on him?
Worst of all, the vampire ghost even had the nerve to have a disturbingly calm smile on his slimy face.
Danny didn't know how at the moment, but he was going to wipe that evil grin off of Dracul if it took all night. Maybe if I rub his face against the concrete? Danny considered with frustration.
"I believe it is your turn for first attack, little hybrids." Dracul exuded an air of sickly sweet patience, like the kind one would use when dealing with a particularly hard to train puppy.
Vlad passed Danny a look of calm confidence before turning back to face Dracul in a fighting stance.
A feeling of déjà vu flitted through his mind, the fight where he had been Vlad's opponent only a week before coming to the fore of his thoughts. He's always calm. Danny echoed in thought from his memories, this time with ease to be allied with him instead of fighting him for once. He dropped into his own fighting stance, waiting for Vlad to make the first move. He didn't have to wait long, as Vlad tossed the opening ecto-blast Dracul's direction.
Dracul easily dodged, zipping to the right of the blast, before changing direction and angling towards the two of them in flight.
They dove apart, unwilling to chance being caught by the vampiric ghost, and regrouped on the retreating side of Dracul's dive.
Dracul pivoted and fired twin green blasts at Danny and Vlad.
Vlad placed a solid square shield between the two of them and Dracul's attack. The blasts harmlessly absorbed into the pink ecto-energy before the shield disappeared.
Danny zipped around the space where Vlad's shield had been, and fired a series of medium sized blasts at Dracul's dodging form.
Dracul hissed as a pair of blasts came perilously close to actually striking him. If the two of them kept this up, he'd be drained in a matter of minutes. A pink blast came from beneath him, nearly catching him off guard. He turned intangible to avoid it, only to become solid right when the other young ghost fired a green blast of his own. It burned his left leg, and sent him hurtling into another concrete roof. He was used to fighting one opponent at a time, or at the very least, several non-sentient animal ghosts at once. Trying to keep track of both of his crafty opponents was leaving him open to various attacks. This has to end immediately. For the third time that afternoon, he seriously attempted to separate the ghost hybrids.
Vlad was mostly trying to stay out of Danny's way at the moment. He had almost gotten Danny's fighting style down enough to interject synchronically with the younger half-ghost, but until then, Vlad was stuck snipping in ecto-blasts at their mutual opponent. Besides, Daniel is firing enough for the both of us. He noted in amusement.
Danny fired another volley of green ecto-blasts at the vampire ghost. More than satisfied at the various grunts and cries the burning energy brought to the evil ghost's lips. He wanted this battle to be over and done with. It may have only been late afternoon, but he was tired in more ways than one.
Vlad flew next to Danny after the next set of ecto-blasts slammed into a blind-sided Dracul. "Daniel, while I'm sure you could do this all day, how about we finish this ghost off? You take the lead attack, and I'll follow." Vlad offered.
Danny fired one more angry bright green attack into a recovering Dracul, before skittering to a stop next to Vlad. "Alright, just don't get in my way." He glared down at Dracul, suddenly getting an idea. Danny flew down towards him, ready to enact his hastily made plan.
Dracul gripped his sore left side. It had taken a significant portion of the pummeling the last few minutes, and was leaking ectoplasm in a slow pulse with his core. He consciously focused some of his waning energy into his aching side, willing it to heal faster. He didn't have time to be bleeding and losing more energy during this fight. The youngest ghost had proven to be a formidable adversary on his own, especially since he seemed more than willing to be aggressive now. His body had just finished healing, when he felt a vicious tug at the hem of his cape.
Danny bunched the material in his hands as he wrenched the vampire ghost into a slow circle. He followed the movement, turning the both of them in ever speeding circles. After a few more seconds to gain, what he felt was, adequate speed, Danny tossed Dracul up towards the last place he saw Vlad.
Vlad smirked as the wildly sailing ghost came right towards him. He moved at the last second, catching Dracul across the throat with a 'clothes line'.
Dracul began flipping head over heel, his previously straight flight now spinning completely out of control.
Danny caught up with and surpassed the speeding Dracul before he hit the opposite building. He shot ahead of him, charging an ecto-blast as he went. Finally, he stopped a few seconds' flight away powering up his attack until it was nearly neon green in color. He let the powerful attack loose directly into the path of Dracul's quickly falling body.
Dracul screamed in agony as the hyper-charged energy burned and tossed him away from the younger ghost. Just when he had recovered enough sense to stop his flight, another nearly equally as powerful pink blast caught him in the gut, sending him well out of the area.
Vlad blew the smoke from his hand as Danny joined him in the sky. "I think that might have hurt him little badger. What do you think?" He sent Danny a co-conspiratal smirk.
"Oh definitely, but I don't think he's finished yet." Danny glanced back towards the slightly smoking area where the blasts had sent Dracul.
"I agree, so let's finish him off and go get dinner." Vlad nearly laughed at the silliness of the sentiment, but Dracul had downgraded in his mind from a serious threat to something easily taken care of with Daniel's help. Plus, neither of us got a solid lunch. He reasoned and took off into the sky after Danny.
Dracul was seething. Here he was, one of the most powerful ghosts in the Zone, and two mere children were treating this fight like it was a game. He was nothing to joke about, he was basically the 'boogie man' of the Ghost Zone, but these two freak hybrids acted like he was some non-threat. Dracul groaned and hissed as he pulled himself from the self-made crater in the asphalt. His sudden arrival had sent the human insects, the few of them in the industrial park, scuttling in fear. Now he could hear the two younger ghosts practically gloating as they neared his position, and it was driving his ire to new heights. If those little ghostlings think that's the best I can do, they are sorely mistaken. Time to remind them why I am one of the most feared ghosts in the Zone. Dracul turned invisible just as Vlad and Danny arrived. He could wait.
Danny glanced around the slightly ruined area of the small industrial section of the town.
The town industry used to be in steel production, it wasn't uncommon in this part of the state, but now the majority of the area was barren, the focus of the production having moved to goods instead of raw materials like steel. It still left the area with a brick and burnt out feel, the warehouses and furnaces used to house and make the steel, completely empty.
Danny scrunched his eyebrows in concern. Dracul was nowhere to be found, and he was sure if that large hole in the street was any indication, that the vampire ghost had fallen around here somewhere. "Where'd he go?" Danny muttered into the empty space in front of him.
Vlad was wondering the same exact thing, only with much more concern. It was obvious the ghost had fallen here, so if they couldn't see him that made Dracul invisible. And if he's invisible that makes him conscious, and still a threat. Vlad was about to voice as much to Danny when the hot tingle he got when a ghost was near went down his spine. He spun around and gasped as he sensed Dracul appear right behind him.
Dracul used the pairs' over-confidence to his advantage. He was sure they would assume he was unconscious, and to his enjoyment they were finally behaving as he predicted. He regained visibility just behind the older of his opponents, prepared to grab and suck the energy right out of him. What happened next left him surprised and more frustrated than ever before.
Vlad sensed the attack at the last moment, and teleported away in a cloud of pink smoke. He had done it nearly on instinct to avoid the attack, but he wasn't about to complain now. He rematerialized next to Danny, and squared off against the vampire ghost.
"When did you learn to do that?" Dracul asked between gritted teeth. The technique took some practice to learn, and it seemed as if the younger ghost had learned how to do it in minutes instead of months.
"Just today actually. Funny, it looks a lot harder than it actually is." Vlad gloated into Dracul's increasingly enraged face.
It was Danny's turn to look annoyed. He'd been trying to figure out how to teleport, among other things he'd seen Vlad do, for months. He was beginning to assume it was something only Vlad and a few others could do naturally, like his ghostly wail, but it seemed it was actually just another normal average ghost power. The fact he was having so much trouble when Vlad had just picked it up seemingly easily grated on his pride. "Can't be that easy…" Danny muttered under his breath.
Vlad flashed him a winning smile, fit for television, before turning back to Dracul. "If you like Daniel, I can teach you after we waste this pathetic concentration of ecto-goo."
Danny made a sour face at Vlad for his obvious gloating, before turning to face Dracul again. "I'd rather have dinner like you suggested. Shall we?" Danny offered Vlad the first shot again and waited.
Still not taking the fight seriously, Vlad smiled and said, "Oh no after you my boy," hands out in a gesture of polite suggestion.
Taking this as his cue, Danny turned invisible and flew below Dracul, waiting for a chance for another coordinated double team with Vlad.
Dracul watched his youngest opponent disappear, and returned his attention back to Vlad. He was his serious opponent. Despite the youngest ghost's spunk, he was a poor tactician and an even poorer physical fighter, so it left Dracul at a distinct advantage as long as he could overcome the speed differential. His teleporting ability made up for that easily, which only left the older and better fighting hybrid to worry about. If he wasn't a problem before, Vlad's newly found teleporting ability was going to cause him trouble. Still, Dracul considered calmly, I have a few more tricks up my sleeve. He watched impassively as Vlad readied himself for attack.
Vlad charged twin ecto-blasts in his hands and narrowed his eyes at Dracul. If he and Danny timed this right, he'd be able to end this fight in the next minute. He took a deep breath and fired the attack growing in his left hand.
Dracul quickly turned intangible and teleported a ways away.
Vlad fired the second shot, and teleported behind Dracul. He reappeared behind the ghost, and sent another shot at his back.
Dracul raised a shield and deflected both shots back off of it, instead of absorbing it.
One of the bounced shots slammed into an attacking Danny, catching him completely off guard.
Dracul used the change in momentum of the fight to teleport to over to a dazed Danny. He grabbed one of Danny's arms and pulled some of his energy, just as Vlad caught up. He teleported out of reach of Vlad, and watched them slam into each other from Vlad over-reaching. He teleported right above the two recovering ghosts, and turned intangible as the two sent blasts in his direction and separated.
Vlad grimaced at the change in direction of the fight. A few seconds ago, it had looked like he and Danny had the upper hand. Now, Dracul was easily out-maneuvering them and stealing energy at the same time. Something told him Dracul hadn't considered them serious opponents before, and was now treating them as a single threat instead of separate enemies he could fight individually or later.
That was a problem for them both.
Before he could warn Danny to be more mindful of his positions in the fight, Dracul attacked.
He boldly teleported right between the two of them and sent two blasts, one from each hand, into both of his younger opponents' unprotected chests. He resisted the urge to smile at the sight of their bodies flying out of control away from him. He still had some work to do defeating them; it was no time for self-congratulatory gloating. He hadn't attempted this power in a long time, and even if he knew it would work, he needed to concentrate. He gathered the needed energy, and focused his thoughts on needing to fight both his opponents at once.
Vlad was the first to recover, being larger; he had less momentum from the attack. He shook his head, and worked out the cobwebs clogging up his thoughts. Ok, that was rather unexpected. He looked back at Dracul in time to see his aura brighten and thicken around him. It left an unsettled pit in his stomach. This isn't going to end well.
Danny caught himself, pulling out of the uncontrolled spin from Dracul's attack. He leaned against one of the walls of the numerous buildings in the area, trying to get his bearings. Falling spinning through the air like that always left him disoriented. He glanced back in Dracul's direction when he saw a bright flash. What he saw left him more annoyed than before.
The crafty vampire ghost had split himself into two forms, one a duplicate of the real ghost. He hated using the technique, because it used a lot of power, something he was very poor at conserving on a good day. But, in this case, he needed the extra fighter, and seeing more than one of him always befuddled his opponents.
Vlad gaped openly at the sight of the newly duplicated Dracul. Unlike Danny, he had never seen a ghost make a copy of themselves. It was an awe-inspiring and interesting technique, if only he had time to study it further…His nearly scientific musings were cut short when one of the two Draculs flew at him. He quickly recovered, jumping to the defense against the suddenly highly aggressive Dracul.
He had to end the fight quickly now, or get plenty of energy from the well like hybrids, or the duplication would drain him completely. It was a rare brash move on his part, considering he preferred to keep the battle on his terms of physical combat, but he needed to keep the hybrids separated. More than that, he knew staying in one form wouldn't shorten the battle any and that was the real problem. Dracul managed to get a hold on Danny with his duplicate, while he fought Vlad. He relished in the newly delivered power as he powered through a couple blasts meant to pin the older ghost to the ground.
Danny struggled in the duplicate Dracul's hold. While he was used to the idea of duplication, having seen Vlad perform the move several times in the future, he still wasn't used to fighting such a physical ghost. Vlad, and most of his enemies, preferred energy attacks to brute physical force, even if he liked physical fights, Dracul's energy draining powers made a real fist fight impossible. He was also surprised Dracul hadn't just surrounded him with a few more duplicates to finish him off, but he had more important things to worry about at the moment, like getting out of this steely hold for example. Danny twisted hard to the right and snapped his left elbow back into Dracul.
The vampire ghost let go of Danny to rub his sore gut. He had to admit the young ghost had moxie, but after that last energy drain, his aura was looking significantly dimmer. He smirked internally, and concentrated on getting another solid hand hold on the ghost hybrid.
Danny phased through another swipe, and zipped away to put distance between him and Dracul. The fight was getting more and more desperate as his energy supply dwindled, and it didn't help that Dracul was stealing it from him. He hoped Vlad was having more luck.
Vlad swept his hand out in an arc, creating a solid wave of ecto-energy.
The trailing half connected with the edge of Dracul's foot, and wrapped around his limb. Dracul grunted as the pink thick energy snaked up his leg and settled onto the center of his body. He quickly tried to turn intangible to lose the binding, only to find the move completely ineffective. The energy stuck to his body like glue, and followed him through the phase shifts. With him using so much energy on holding the duplicate, he doubted he had the concentration necessary to teleport and hold the duplicate at once. Still, it was the only way to free himself, and with Vlad dive bombing his position, it was his only option. With a deep breath, Dracul began to teleport, hoping his duplicate stayed solid.
Danny jumped as the duplicate flashed into and onto of existence rapidly. It finally settled back into a solid form and began attacking him again. He was wondering what the disappearing act was about when he heard Vlad let out a set of vivid curses. He was just distracted enough to miss the Dracul clone heading straight for him.
Vlad watched with blood curdling anger as Dracul teleported out of his ecto-bindings. He had hoped the ghost didn't have the energy to both hold the duplicate and teleport, but it appeared as if he was very wrong. He let out an impressive string of expletives as Dracul reformed himself a few feet away. He was about to start fighting his opponent when a shocked cry from Danny got his attention.
Danny had gotten distracted again, and he was quickly finding that was a deadly mistake when fighting this ghost. The clone currently had him in a hold with both of his arms pinned behind him. It was rapidly drawing off his diminished reserves, and he was now struggling to stay in ghost form. Things were about as bad as he could think of when a nearly neon pink cloud gathered in front of him.
Vlad saw Danny's quickly dropping aura and Dracul's hold and knew he had to act fast. He spared a glance for the original Dracul, before closing his eyes and teleporting to where Danny was floating struggling in the clone's grasp. He reappeared a few feet in front of the fighting duo, though, he noted with dismay, Dracul's doing a lot more fighting than Daniel, and fired a shot at Dracul's side.
The clone pulled them both out of the way of the attack, and continued draining the younger halfa.
Vlad stepped back in front of them and tried something spontaneous. Knowing he couldn't get them separated with doing something drastic, he phased his arm through Danny's middle and fired an ecto-blast directly into the Dracul clone on the other side.
The clone cried out and let go of Danny as it recoiled away from Vlad's blast. He hadn't expected the attack, and the only thing keeping him together at the moment was the extra energy it had stolen from Danny.
Danny panted in Vlad's arms. That last attack from Dracul had really taken it out of him. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up, but he had a feeling it wasn't as long as Dracul could now with his newly acquired energy. "Ok…so…new plan. You get drained. I…get to watch." He pushed away from Vlad and floated along side of him.
"How about this little ghostling," the Dracul clone said suddenly only feet away from them both, "I drain Plasmius, and you die." The clone fired a large blast into Danny's chest and watched with glee as he sailed into the roof of the building behind him.
Danny crashed into the building top and immediately transformed. The last of his energy used to protect his body from serious injury from the fall. He looked up wearily at where Vlad and Dracul were floating. He was totally drained. He hadn't felt this tired since he first got his powers, maybe not since the first time he got into a fight way over his head. He glared weakly at the fight taking place above him. I have to get back out there. Come on powers, start being useful and work. Danny struggled back onto his feet as the fight above him took a turn for the worse.
Vlad had been holding his own against Dracul and his duplicate the last few minutes, but it was quickly overwhelming him. He wasn't used to fighting two opponents for one, and for another, even with Dracul's power split between the two forms; he had more than enough energy, provided by Danny, to keep Vlad on his toes. Vlad phased through another determined swipe and teleported out of reach again. He silently thanked whatever god had blessed him with the sudden ability to teleport, because it was keeping him alive at the moment. He knew Danny was too out of energy to fight with him at the moment, and likely for the foreseeable future, but his own reserves were coming up empty from all of the fighting the last few hours. Worse, when Dracul had gripped his core earlier, it had left it damaged. The result was not only was he low on energy overall, but he wasn't making much more of it at the moment. He was going to be a sitting duck soon if he didn't think of something.
Danny concentrated on transforming again. He could feel something pulling inside of him, and that was never a good sign. He only got that sensation when he was extremely low on energy, and shouldn't be transforming, but he didn't really have a choice at the moment. Either he found a way to summon up the energy and help Vlad, or they both would be monster chow for that crazy vampire ghost. Danny had almost gathered up enough worryingly thin tendrils of energy when he heard Vlad scream in pain. He opened his eyes to a frightening sight and decided. Now or never. He thought as he forced his transformation and dove off of the roof.
Vlad was pinned beneath the original Dracul, his former clone quickly reabsorbed from a large blow Vlad had managed to land. The nasty vampire had its clawed hand back around his core, and from the look of manic glee in its eyes, it wasn't just planning on draining energy this time. Vlad reached down for the energy to force Dracul off, only to find it quickly dissipating into the form above him. The pain radiating from his chest nearly tripled as he lost the minimum energy to keep his ghost form, but couldn't transform with the vampire's hand clamped around his core.
A very cold jag of terror shot up his spine as he felt the crazed ghost yank at his core, determined to kill him on the spot. Vlad grit his teeth and reached for the strength that just didn't seem to be there anymore. If he didn't get him off now, he was going to die. Strands of desperation pooled in his stomach as the edges of his vision began to gray out. His vision blackened, and he was just about to reach for the ball of warmth, he sensed more than anything else, at the edges of his perception when the pulling at his center stopped.
Danny zipped down from his vantage point on the roof, skidding to a stop scant feet from the entangled pair. When he saw Dracul was too engaged with whatever sick attack he was trying on Vlad to notice his arrival, Danny focused some spectral energy into his hand. The extra draw on his power left him gasping, but with a grunt of determination, Danny fired the weak attack into Dracul's body.
The blow threw the ghost several feet into a small dent in the building across the street.
Danny panted as he tried to hold onto his ghost form next to a nearly unconscious Vlad. He leaned against his knees, sweat sliding down his face, as Dracul stepped away from the dented building, glowing brighter than the fading sun in the west. Danny took a deep breath and reached for more energy, only to feel his transformation involuntarily start. He literally only had the energy to be in ghost form at the moment, and if Vlad's writhing and groaning were any indication, he wasn't in fighting shape either.
They were both basically sitting ducks to a now supercharged vampire ghost, glowing with their combined energies.
In spite of everything, Danny wasn't going to give up. There was no way he was dying here, in the freaking past; to an enemy a younger weaker Vlad had been able to take care of. It just wasn't happening. He focused his efforts on drawing up more energy, and nearly smiled when he felt enough for a few weak ecto-blasts pool inside his body. It wasn't a lot, but he was going to go down fighting if he was going down at all.
Dracul's face split into a wild wide eyed grin. He was nearly high with the concentrated energies of his opponents, and both of them were basically lambs for the slaughter at this point. He calmly started walking away from the dent in the wall and watched with delight as the younger of the two hybrids winced with every step. He reveled in the unabashed look of fear shining in the young ghost's eyes before raising a hand. He was done with this fight, and would finish the younger ghost in a single blast. He had already gotten enough of his energy, so he didn't mind wasting him now. He charged a nearly swirling green ball of spectral energy and fired…directly at Vlad's prone body.
Danny's eyes widened as he watched Dracul's hand changed directions slightly to point to the still reeling very human Vlad next to him. Before he had really thought about it, he was in front of the attack. He realized with slight regret he didn't have the energy for even the weakest of shields and was going to take this directly. The attack looked nasty, and Danny had just a second to consider that maybe just maybehe had a chance of dying.
Vlad was drawn out of his personal world built of pain and shock when he felt a strong blast of energy head towards him. He had transformed nearly directly after Dracul had let go of his core, the little energy he had left spurring him to change back into his significantly weaker human half. The next few seconds went in slow motion for him, and even afterward he wasn't sure exactly what happened. All of a sudden, Danny was in front of him. He felt the boy make a paltry effort to create a shield before giving into the fact he was completely out of energy and bracing for the attack.
Danny cried out as the green spectral blast threw him from in front of Vlad, through a light pole and across the street, buried into the side of a building.
Vlad turned from the sight of Danny smashing into the building diagonal from him just in time to see Dracul leap at him.
He was an imposing sight. Cape flaring, fangs bared, claws at the ready to turn Vlad into chunks of human flesh. Dracul smiled at the naked fear in Vlad's eyes as he closed in on his position, knowing he was the last thing the hybrid would ever see.
Vlad gasped and reached down for energy. His body transformed on instinct, and in the heartbeats between life and death, summoned up the energy for a proper defense. He felt the energy leaving his hands before he had really registered he had the power to defend himself.
Dracul was inches away now; he could almost feel the warm hum of the blood of the defenseless Vlad under his fingers, washing over his hands. He was close, so close…
Vlad's energy solidified into a single strong pole of light. It sailed from his palms and completely uninhibited into Dracul's chest. In a flash of hot energy, it appeared barely slowed out of the other side, Dracul's still pulsating core skewered on the end.
Danny's head shot up just in time to see the end of the fight. From his position he thought he saw Dracul's hand disappear through Vlad, and gasped when a thick pink piece of solid ectoplasm appeared on the other side of Dracul.
The ghost floated inches from Vlad, held aloft on the solid energy from his palms.
Then Dracul suddenly went opaque, his body rapidly dissolving into the charged air around him. Dracul's form shriveled up starting from his limbs and working back towards his chest. With a low moan, his entire body disappeared into the growing gloom of the evening in a final poof of dark smoke.
Danny gaped from his position across the street. He had been sure the two of them were toast, now he was safe, and the craziest ghost he had ever met was definitely dead instead of him. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the brick wall, suddenly more tired than he'd been in his entire life.
The energy shaft Vlad had created blinked out of existence leaving him panting on his hands and knees. His arms quickly gave out and he found himself laying flat on the damp and craggy ground. Vlad sighed on the cold wet concrete in the alley. It was finally over. Admittedly, it had taken a lot more effort than he had ever supposed it would, but he was grateful Danny had fought with him. Even if he does fight like he has a death wish. He worked himself back onto his legs with a grunt, already sore from the battle. Danny was a few yards away, similarly lounging about, but they couldn't stay here much longer. He walked over to Danny and poked him in the side. "Come on little badger, if we don't get out of here soon, they'll haul us off to jail for property damage and trespassing or something."
Danny groaned as the wail from the sirens got louder in the distance. "But I'm tired." That was one of the hardest fights he'd ever been in, and he had had help. He watched as Vlad shuffled stiffly closer to his position against the building's wall.
"Me too. But unless you want to sleep this off in the county jail, I'd suggest getting onto your feet."
"Where are we even going? Your apartment is slag remember." Danny wobbled his way to his feet, and crossed the street to keep up with an already walking Vlad. And your car is ruined, and there's no way I have the strength to transform and fly anymore.
"Maybe so, but it's not the only place we can stay for the night, and luckily, the Fenton's have a car too, because there's no chance I could fly another second tonight. Come on," Vlad pointed around the corner a few feet away, "let's put a few blocks between us and here before we call for a pick up."
Danny huffed and dragged his tired feet, scuffling across the pavement. "Alright. But you owe me big time for even being conscious right now." He silently slipped around the corner, and made the few blocks journey to a safe distance, as defined by Vlad. Danny leaned against a wall in exhaustion before saying, "Hey guess what?"
Vlad held his hand over the speaker of the pay phone. "What Daniel?" It was the early evening, and it would take the Fenton's at least an hour and a half to get to them. He didn't feel like being conscious to wait that long.
"We did it. We kicked that ghost's ass." Danny was actually pretty proud of that. For a couple seconds near the end, he had thought they were both toast. He might not have liked the way the battle ended, he wasn't one to condone killing for any reason, but at least it was over.
Vlad smiled as Jack picked up on the other line, already agreeing to help, having seen the destruction of his apartment on the local evening news. Vlad hung up the phone, and turned to Danny, their ride already on the way. "You're right we did do it." He walked over to Danny and ruffled his hair. "I couldn't have done it without you, Daniel, thanks." He hooked Danny around the shoulders, giving him a noogie for good measure.
"No problem." Danny said struggling against Vlad's hold.
"Oh and Daniel?" Vlad held Danny out at arm's length. He had suddenly adopted a very serious tone and look.
"Huh?"
"Don't you ever even think about jumping in front of an attack like that again! What do you have a death wish or something?" He started in on a worried rant which Danny shrugged off with a fit of giggles, much to Vlad's chagrin.
The ride back with the Fentons' went much quieter than Danny thought it would. His dad had assumed the call was about Vlad's burnt out apartment, and didn't bother to question their tired beat-up shapes when he arrived in the RV.
Vlad had quickly lied, explaining their singed clothes and tired demeanor away with a harrowing and completely bullshit tale of a dual escape from the apartment fire. When he had Jack and Maddie more than sympathetic and riveted with his impromptu tale, he asked to stay at their place a few days.
For once, Danny was glad his arch-enemy, who really wasn't in this time, was such an expert liar. He had his parents eating from the palm of his hand by the end of his completely fake tale, and the two of them a place to stay indefinitely.
The Fenton's had insisted, Vlad didn't have anywhere to stay at the moment and no car to get him anywhere either. There was just no way Vlad could stay in a hotel with Danny, they reasoned, because he needed every cent he owned to get back on his feet. "Your whole apartment went up in smoke along with your car. What kind of friend would I be, if you couldn't stay at my place until you got some money saved for a new place?" Jack had plainly stated with not a single objection from his wife.
That surprised Danny most of all. Back in his own time, his mother couldn't stand Vlad, not that he blamed her. Here though, it seemed she was a close friend of his and more than welcoming, something that was throwing Danny off. He admitted it was a long time between his time and this one, but the thought of no longer being friends with someone she was obviously so close to was confusing. He couldn't imagine not being friends with his own best buds back home, and the idea that it was a possibility in the future left a nasty taste in his mouth.
He couldn't even put it off as Vlad just being a bad person, poor friend, or just a plain creep. He hadn't spent basically the last week in Vlad's life to revert to thinking so black and white about his arch-enemy. He wasn't a cut out villain or caricature, he was a person, and that's what bothered Danny the most. He wasn't sure how many other people he had misjudged in his life, but with the possibility that even Vlad was a nice guy, at least once, it made him less sure about his world view about good and evil. Unfortunately, thoughts of evil left him seriously uneasy. There was only one place it always led, and he didn't want anything to do with that ghost. He was so introspective at the moment, he missed Jack's question.
"Daniel?"
He heard the only female voice in the RV call out to him from the front part of the car. "Huh?"
"Jack asked how you were, you've been awfully quiet." Maddie turned back around to look at Danny. She was worried about the young teen, being in a fire, especially one as serious as Vlad described, was stressful. And after all of that, Vlad had said something about the two of them running into a ghost. Of course, that had her husband going on in a separate conversation with Vlad about it, but she was still more concerned about the basically family-less young man behind her.
"Oh, uh, I'm fine, just really tired." It wasn't a lie. That last fight had taken the wind out of his sails, and when he realized they had no apartment to go back to on top of the destroyed car, Danny's dwindling energy supply had bottomed out on him.
"Ok. I just wanted to make sure you weren't hurt from the fire, or that awful ghost."
Danny hadn't really been listening to the conversation, lost in his own mind. Now, however, he was paying close attention. "Ghost?"
"Yeah you know Daniel, the one you and Vladdie scared off!" Jack boomed from the driver's seat. He swerved off the highway and began down the packed dirt road towards Amity Park.
"Oh well," Danny stalled, "Vlad did most of the work."
"Oh don't be so modest Daniel, you did an admirable job. I'm sure you've never seen a ghost up close before, it's not like you 'fight ghosts all the time back home' or something." Vlad said with air quotes mirroring Danny's words from earlier. He sent Danny a knowing look, daring him to disagree. Honestly, he wanted more information out of the younger teen, but teasing him, as counter to that goal as it was, was much more fun at the moment. He had all the time to pry later, after they got to the Fentons' house. Vlad shifted the blabbing infant in his lap as Jack took a turn a little too wildly. Honestly, sometimes the man drives like a bat out of hell.
"Oh…heh yeah right. Well, you know, I'm just glad I could help you out. That vampire ghost wasn't so tough." Danny tried not to roll his eyes at his own lie. Dracul had been tougher than he had ever thought possible.
"Yes, you'd make an excellent ghost hunter one day." Vlad agreed immediately. "Maybe as good as you." He cooed down to the smiling Jasmine.
Jack perked up at the thought of another ghost hunter. "You think so Vladdie? Well I'd be happy to teach you the ropes Daniel, any time. Hey! What about tomorrow?" Jack offered overly enthusiastic at the thought of training another fighter against ghost scum.
"Well let's just let out little hero recover Jack. He's had a long day, the fire, the ghost and the exploding diner; he has to be worn out." Maddie sent Danny a sympathetic look from the front seat.
"Oh don't worry about me, I can handle anything. Just call me Buffy." Danny said while leaning further back into the seat.
"Who?" The three adults said almost simultaneously. Even the little Jasmine looked utterly confused.
"Uh you know the vampire slayer? Er…" Danny trailed off when he remembered he first saw the show at ten. Chances are the TV show hasn't even been invented yet. I need to go home, where my pop references make sense again. "Nothing." He finished. He looked out the window as the country dark world around him melded into the small city of Amity. Suddenly, he remembered that he and Vlad were supposed to be staying at Fentonworks. When he first heard it, Danny had been relieved just to have a place to sleep with a bed. Now though, he was dreading it with every closing mile. He was exhausted, but staying in the house with his 'not parents' was going to drive him nuts. If not because of their weird behavior, well weirder than usual for them, then because it all reminded him how far he was from home, while actually being there. How can I be living in my house, but not actually home? Danny pondered miserably.
The RV pulled onto the street with Fentonworks, and Jack slammed on brakes in front of the building. "Alright! We're here, and just in time for too, it's nearly 7pm. Who's up for pizza?" Jack stepped out of the car, making it shake with his departure.
"I am." Maddie balanced the baby bag with her daughter as Vlad handed her back. At first, she thought it was silly to bring Jasmine along what amount to a glorified pick-up trip, but then she remembered neither her nor her daughter had gotten out in the last two weeks. Other than trips to the grocery, she had been holed up with her new child the last six months or so. As ridiculous as the sentiment would have been only half a year ago, dragging her infant daughter along on a short car trip was the only way she was getting out of the house at the moment.
"I second that motion. I'm starving." Vlad opened the side of the RV and stepped out a few paces in front of Danny. "Something with mushrooms and pepperoni."
"Yeah! And black olives and anchovies." Jack added excitedly.
"Ew. I'm not eating that, you boys are on your own. Whatever happened to something sweet like pineapple or tomatoes?" Maddie stepped around the front of the RV carrying Jasmine in her arms, complaining on her friend's food tastes.
The three adults had nearly reached the front door of Fentonworks when they noticed Danny wasn't with them.
Vlad chuckled and bounded down the stairs to the RV. "Fall asleep in here little badger?" Vlad leaned back inside the vehicle and startled at the sight inside.
Danny stared forlornly at imposing building before him. If he thought living with Vlad had been hell, living with his arch-enemy, who wasn't at the moment, inside his 'not' house was going to be unbearable. Just thinking about all the addendums he needed to make it make sense was hurting his head. He didn't want to get out of the car, to acknowledge he had no choice but put up with the living arrangement that was quickly becoming a new nightmarish hell.
He groaned and closed his eyes. He leaned down and placed his face into his hands, elbows resting on his knees. If he had felt tired before now, he was struggling to find the energy to even wiggle his pink finger now. Why me? Why couldn't I have just taken Clockwork's advice? He had completely forgotten why he was here in the first place. What difference did it make when he was this miserable at the moment? He didn't look up when he felt a strong hand on his shoulder.
"Daniel?" Vlad wasn't sure exactly what was wrong. He had a few theories that centered around the Fentons, their lab, the ghost hunting, the location itself in Amity, but nothing concrete. He squeezed Danny shoulder when he didn't respond. "I know you're tired, but I'm sure you don't want me carrying you inside." He decided to go for humor; maybe he could prod the tired teen into action without having to annoy him, even if that seemed to work best.
"I…" What could he really say? That he didn't want to go inside to live with his future parents? Truth or not, that would only cause more problems for him. Unluckily, it was really his only solid objection.
Vlad smiled wanly at the obviously troubled teen in front of him and took a seat on his right side. "I'm not sure why you don't like the Fentons. Maybe you don't like being in ghost hunting central, not that I blame you. Maybe their personalities drive you nuts, not that I don't agree with that assessment myself, with some exceptions of course." Vlad leaned over and whispered, "or maybe they remind you of your own science minded parents," he paused when he saw Danny tense up, "but whatever the reason, if you can't stay here, hotels really aren't that bad." He moved back and waited for Danny's response.
Danny frowned into his hands. He wasn't letting this get to him, especially since he didn't really have the money to stay anywhere else, and at this point, neither did Vlad. He had to suck it up. There was just no way Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom; the teen with freaking superpowers was upset about living in a house. It was just ridiculous! "No I'm fine." He spoke tersely. "I'm just a little tired; I'll be inside in a second." He waved off another one of Vlad's attempts to pry out the problem before standing and striding out of the RV.
He had made it up to the stairs before where he was really going, doing, caught up with him. He stared at the threshold of the doorway before him and took a deep breath. No matter what, he wasn't going to back out now. He'd get done with what he planned to do, and get out of there. If I can survive living with the Fruitloop alone for a week, I can survive this. Danny thought shakily and stepped inside. Somehow, he felt this was going to be a lot more difficult than just living with Vlad.
Balshumet: Ding Dong, the devil is dead! Oh wait, you all didn't think Vlad was the devil did you? Well maybe from Danny's point of view, but if you re-read the titles, it's really from both Vlad and Danny's point of view, about different characters. So now, we only have two more chapters to go in this arc. Well one and a half or so, after that this fic that's supposed to be set in an AU future will actually get there. YAY! Also, I finally broke with my habit of naming the chapters with an 'I', but don't worry if you missed it, we'll be back to the norm in no time. So ta ta for now my lovlies, and as always, R&R.