Chapter 5

Danny sat on the edge of the cot Damon had been using, his hand clasped in his lap. Sam and Tucker had gone with Damon to try and see if they could find the girl, though Sam already looked like it was a lost cause when she left. Danny looked up at Valerie still confined to her bed and asked, "You… you know about Dani's condition, don't you?"

"Condition?" Valerie echoed as if taken out of her own thoughts. She turned her head towards Danny's voice as she nodded her head. "I guess so. I mean, I've seen it with my own eyes but I still don't think I understand it."

"If she had been in your place, it would've killed her," Danny admitted. "As much as I wish she was fully stable, she never will be. Not without proper help and she refuses that, I don't blame her. Proper help would just make an experiment out of her. And if that whatever had reacted to your ecto-weapons like it looks to have, it would've reacted to her ecto-plasm."

"So even when she looks human she's got ecot-plasm in her…" Valerie sounded more like she was taking in the information than asking anything so Danny didn't add anymore. "How do you know about her?"

"Something about seeing my parents in some pictures and hoping they could help," Danny offered with a shrug. "Though with how much my parents talk about taking apart Phantom molecule by molecule, I stopped her. If they found someone even stranger than him, I'd hate to see what they'd do."

"But she's human too!" Valerie exclaimed.

"She's an oddity, half ghost, half human. Scientist would kill to have the change to…" Danny's voice trailed off as his eyes widened at the horrors his own mind brought up. "And so would the GIW," he added in a small voice.

"But your parents aren't like that," Valerie said, confused. "Sure they're a little over the top-"

"A little?" Danny interrupted.

Valerie let out a small snort of a laugh. "Okay, maybe a lot, but they're decent people in the end."

Danny kept his mouth shut as the only defense he could think of was his own fears of his parents, and not wishing for Dani to go through any of that.

After the silence grew to fill the room, Valerie asked, "Do you know what happened to her before she found you?"

"Not much," Danny admitted. He paused for a second before adding, "I know she was one of five."

"FIVE!" Valerie exclaimed, her EKG beating faster as her adrenaline pumped her heart faster. "Masters made five!"

"Whoa, take a second," Danny started, jumping to his feet as he noticed how worked up she was getting. When he had said it, he had hoped she would take it as one of five siblings. He rested a hand on her arm, hoping to help her calm down.

The monitor's beeps sounded slower as Valerie did what she could, annoyance on her face at how the stupid contraption had to show off her emotions like it did. She let a puff out of the side of her mouth, the last of her annoyance being release as Danny left her arm.

"And you said Masters? As in Vlad?" Danny asked, noticing the name.

"Yeah…" Valerie nodded, turning her head down to her lap as she messed with the bed sheet covering her as if she could see it. "I know your family's friends with him and all but…"

"Dad's the only one friends with that fruitloop," Danny admitted, crossing his arms over his chest. "He's always hitting on Mom, always trying to get me and Jazz to call him Uncle. I only do it when it messes with him." A smile appeared on his face when he remember the whole incident when he had the power to control the weather.

"He's the one who made her," Valerie said, sounding like she wasn't sure how Danny would take it.

Danny's smile dropped as he stared at the girl in bed. "You know?" was all he managed to say.

"He's like Dani, but… evil," Valerie said. "I didn't know she was one of five clones."

"How much else did she tell you?" Danny asked, already thinking the younger girl had a big mouth.

"Oh I found most of it out on my own," Valerie admitted. "What happened to the others?"

Danny took a moment, his mind replaying when he had had to fight three of them. "They died," Danny admitted, his voice small. "They were unstable and incomplete. One was even just a ghost matrix and another was just a skeleton. I don't know if he's tried to make any more but I hope not." He let out a forced laugh, "It's not like she wants to go back and visit her Dad."

"So do you know why she's back in town, 'cause I know it wasn't just to see me," Valerie said.

Danny looked her over, knowing they both knew what happened to her but had to keep playing the part of the human. "Phantom told me she had been kidnapped, and I gave him my dad's experiment to try and help stabilize her. It looks like it worked, for once."

"So why doesn't she stay with him?" Valerie asked.

"Who, Phantom? I thought you hated him?" Danny asked, eyeing the girl.

"I do, probably always will, but she looks up to him," Valerie said. "Hopefully hanging around me will give her a better role model, but with her being his clone, I'm not surprised."

"From what I've heard, Phantom doesn't really have a place to call home," Danny offered. "Most in the Ghost Zone hate him 'cause he stops them here in the human world, and if he stays out here too long he could have issues. Anyway, ghosts don't need sleep, right?"

"I guess." She took a moment before asking, "How did you find out about Plamsius, Masters, whatever you wanna call the creep?"

Danny opened his mouth, not sure how to answer that only to let out a sigh of relief as Damon walked back into the room.

"That girl is fast," Damon said, sounding a bit out of breath as Sam and Tucker walked in shortly after him.

Danny moved away from the cot so the man could sit down.

"She'll come back when she's ready," Tucker offered.

"Hopefully before that kid leaves Amity," Damon said, letting out a sigh as he sat down. "She didn't even say who he was."

"Well, if he was after her instead of Valerie, wouldn't he stay?" Sam asked. "I mean, he didn't get done what he had wanted to do."

"But then Dani's in danger," Danny pointed out. He turned to the door and started to walk out as he threw over his shoulder, "She can't be too far, I wanna find her before he does."

"We'll call if she shows back up here," Valerie offered as the three's footsteps disappeared around the doorway.

-.-.-.-

"Hey, just finished going through the hos-"

"Sam!" Tucker's voice interrupted.

"Okay! Either way, she's not inside," Sam said, her voice and Tucker's coming from the Fenton Phone hanging on Danny's ear.

"I haven't sensed her, so she's gotta be human still," Danny informed as he flew around the exterior.

"She doesn't seem to be in the parking lot either," Tucker said.

Danny slowed and put his hand on his forehead for a moment, wishing he could find this girl. He glanced downwards to see the hospital in its entirety only to notice a red headed teen walking towards the entryway. "Get to the door! I think I just saw him," Danny said, dropping down as fast as he could to get to the teen before he went inside.

Danny curved upwards as the pavement came rushing at him and managed to pull up just so he was skimming the ground, heading straight for the teen in question. "Stop!" Danny ordered, getting the teen to turn towards him as Danny grabbed the chest of his blue hoodie and lifted him off the ground.

The teen let out a scream as Danny stopped just a story up. "Ghost! Put me down!" the teen cried out, his green eyes wide as he stared at Danny.

"Not until you tell me what you have against the ghost girl," Danny said.

"Phantom! That's Wes!" Tucker's voice called up, getting Danny to look down and see his friends with surprise on their faces. "He goes to Casper High, not the guy you're looking for!"

"There's someone named Wes at Casper?" Danny asked, looking back at the teen in his grip.

"Can you put me down?" Wes asked.

Danny floated back to the ground, letting Wes' feet touch the ground before letting go of his hoodie. "Sorry."

"You're looking for a human?" Wes asked, trying to straighten his hoodie back out.

"Yeah, the police are trying to find out who attacked Valerie Gray and you…" Danny felt his face heat up as he tried to find the best way to say it. "You kinda fit the description."

"Yeah, I heard what happened to Valerie. Just don't go attacking every red-head you see, 'kay?" Wes said, eyeing the ghost standing before him. He turned back to the doors and headed inside as the automatic doors opened for him.

"We've gotta find that girl," Sam said.

"Yeah, you almost killed him!" Tucker pointed out.

Danny motioned with his head towards a camera he noticed pointing away from the doorway before flying upwards. As soon as he was sure the security camera though he was heading away he put a finger against the Fenton Phone still in his ear and said, "I'll keep making a wider circle around the hos- place. Tuck, try to see if she might've gone to the park. Sam, maybe Main Street?"

"We're heading out," Sam said.