Apart of Dani had hoped Danny would've left after dark, like he'd always done. It would've spared her having to introduce Danny to her "botched-wish father," currently sitting next to a campfire. Something in his Phantom-green eyes told her her cousin wasn't in a good mood, even if he pretended otherwise.
It made her nervous.
The fire was nice and warm, at least.
"I wasn't sure if you were coming back."
Vlad had been greedily roasting marshmallows, devouring fat globules of gelatin by the fistful – roasting em' not over the campfire by a branch, but ate by crushing them between his crackling fingertips, like a savage.
Dani observed in mounting horror, counting six empty, open bags of marshmallows, with but a half-eaten seventh bag left for her and Danny to share.
So when Danny saw him, Vlad looked like a harmless yet creepy mummy with teeth consisting of harsh glue.
Dani had taken to the offered marshmallows with gusto, chewing a handful without hesitation. Vlad handed her a trio of marshmallows on a sizeable stick, and she in turn, tried to hand it to Danny, patting the earth besides her for him to sit down.
But he didn't feel safe doing so and he waved off the outstretched stick, the ghost-mummy's scalding blue eyes stared through him, as if he'd somehow done something wrong.
'Just my luck,' It wouldn't be the first time he got in trouble for nothing, 'I don't know this ghost, do I?'
"I'd shake your hand boy, but something tells me you wouldn't appreciate it."
Danny nervously chuckled, clasping hands behind his back. The mummy's hands looked raw and bloody as well as disgustingly sticky.
'You'd be right, marshmallow-man, I'm not shaking your hand.' Especially if this was the weird "wish-dad" that was going to be taking care of Dani, his Dani – Danny couldn't stop a surge of jealously from souring on his tongue, his hands dug into the dirt besides him to distract from his growing collection of harsh words, his fingers caked in uprooted strands of grass.
Vlad observed the boy closely, not at all liking how he was pulling up what little grass there was. It was springtime, but it'd be a while before fresh grass grew…
Danny felt as if those tired, soot-dried eyes were accusing him of something – but for what, Danny couldn't gather. The bandaged man looked like he should've been in a hospital – the fact he was not made him horribly suspicious. Nothing human could pass off replacing his skin with bandages so casually – he was a very powerful ghost if he could look so alive – like Spectra, Kitty, and Johnny 13 – each with their seamless human facades.
Vlad compared the new boy to the little girl – obviously they were related going off of their black and white jumpsuits, if not by blood, by hobby. The boy was glaring at him with scathing lime-fire eyes – why? The boy cast an unhealthy glow on his pale, crawling skin. He looked a lot less tolerable than the little girl who helped build his campfire, and Vlad preferred if he left his sight.
But first…
"What's your name, boy?" Vlad's voice was hoarse, raw from the untold amounts of fire he'd had to channel just last night; through his weak flesh body.
"Oh sorry, manners got away from me for the moment," Danny said and Dani gave the boy a pointed look, patting the ground besides her more urgently. Reluctantly, slowly, Danny sat down cross-legged, but did not relax his posture, even when a stick of marshmellows was wrestled into his hand.
He was not hungry, and the stick went unroasted. Dani seemed to regret handing it to him, eyeing him curiously as she ate marshmellows directly from the bag – roasting a few along her fingertips. Vlad said nothing, knowing it was easier to get answers from an uneasy participant if there was a stretch of silence – something he was comfortable with, but not everyone was. He tried to keep his searching eyes to a minimum, trying his best to looked casual and discreet, but it was impossible when he'd never gotten comfortable in the first place.
"You can call me Danny, Danny Phantom."
The only thing Vlad heard was 'Danny.' He leaned back dramatically as if insulted, and turned away from the two to cover a growing sneer. He already had a "Danny," and he wasn't about to replace her, there was only room for one Danny in his head. He wasn't calling them "Danny," that's for sure.
Who where these two?
What was going on?
He could only conclude he was inching closer to bait in a trap. Did the GIW think he wouldn't kill their agents if they looked like Danny? What sorcery was toying with him? Ridiculous, simply ridiculous. He hated this entire situation. It was driving him to lose what little sanity he cobbled together. And he was tired, bitter, and pent up with venomous rudeness.
"You both can't be Danny, that's ridiculous," he muttered. If the boy and girl found the claim offensive, he didn't see, pointedly looking off into the woods as he contemplated his reality.
'Two Danny's' was just absurd.
Where was 'his' Danny? Where was she? It was clear after the Nasty Burger rejection that he'd woken up in the wrong Amity Park. His memory wasn't always the most reliable thing, but he was confident dear Valerie wouldn't've shot him over just a bad day. They had been good friends, and the Valerie from last night had acted possessed, summoning red metal all over her body in the manner only a ghost could.
Vlad didn't appreciate the uncomfortable picture his mind was crafting. What strange alter-world did he wake up in?
He needed more answers. These two other "Dannys" where making him nervous.
Two children couldn't have been agents of the GIW, he reasoned.
But looks could be deceiving. They could've been luring him into a false sense of security.
What other purpose could they serve? The two children flew, without a care in the world, which he found very odd.
"Tell me, why the black and white rubber outfits?"
The weird get up was just the sort of thing anti-ecto agents resorted to.
Dani fiddled with one of her gloves, as if in agreement – she looked at Danny. "Hey yeah, why a hazmat suit?"
Danny looked lost for a moment, he mouthed words but said nothing.
"What?" He sounded strangled.
A silence lingered, and the boy rubbed his hands together, holding them closer to the fire.
"Well, because it's what I died in. I won't say more, but Dani," he enthusiastically tapped her shoulder, "If you wanna change your outfit, you can easy!" he paused, stroking a nonexistent beard, "I just need to get into contact with Amorpho to show you how, that's one of the things I haven't learned yet."
Dani was delighted, her cheeks brimming with marshmellow goo.
"I'd love that! I could get my own hero theme and everything!" She reached into her travel bag, taking out a crumpled scrap of paper, and smoothed it against a rock. "Not that Team Phantom will never not be cool." To Danny's surprise and horror, she casually reached into the campfire, skin not burning, and proceeded to draw with a lump of charcoal. "I just need to get some ideas down."
Vlad huffed, amused. The two Dannys chatted and played together, all while he watched them carefully with tired, blue-grey eyes and fed the campfire scraps of wood.
'Because it's what I died in,' was no answer to his question. Died? How ridiculous, the boy looked perfectly alive.
And what on earth was an "Amorpho?"
If the two were GIW agents, they were incredible actors, Vlad concluded.
"So…you're the new dad Dani wished for, huh? Not what I expected." Danny said, out of the blue.
Silence cracked over the good mood like a whip. Dani stopped breathing, stomping midchew with her branch of marshmallows, freezing like a trapped rabbit. Terrified eyes flickered over to Vlad, begging silently for leeway, understanding, mercy, or anything of the sort that could keep her together; Vlad looked back with a startling fury.
Vlad's train of thought crashed and burned, all notions of the GIW tossed aside. He had no words for what he had just heard. He wanted to ask for clarification, but with one look over at the guilt-ridden little girl "Dani," and he knew he had heard right.
'You're the new dad Dani had wished for?' The boy had said that, and Vlad was struck with a terrible lucidity.
'I wish for 'real' parents: a mom and dad, ghosts close to me.'
He remembered hearing those words…when, where, how? No idea…but he would find out. He looked over the two Dannys, his temper flared with newfound animosity.
He would find out.
Then his attention drifted over to the uncomfortable pair of Dannys – neither of which said a word – his ire palpable from across the fire.
'Oh my god, I forgot to tell him,' Dani wanted to curl up into a hole and to die, but it was too late for such escape. She held off so long, talking to Vlad about her uncomfortable and awkward wish, that her cousin had spilled the beans without knowing. If he was anything like the Vlad who created her, he was so angry he just might kill her. Suddenly, she was happy Danny was there besides her – perhaps she had a chance to escape with her limbs intact if they fought him off together.
Dani scrunched closed her eyes, waiting for punches to fly.
Silence.
Slowly, she saw that Danny and Vlad where both starting at her. She opened her mouth to talk…to explain…but she couldn't…there was too much…it hurt, too much…
Vlad held up a scorched, dirtied hand, intense eyes flickered back and forth between Dani and Danny. He hummed, gathering a marshmallow between his fingertips, palming it oddly between his hands as if it were a hot pebble.
Vlad decided he needed some space. GIW involved or not, he didn't want to be around these strange, imposture Dannys any longer.
He said the first thing that came to mind that would be polite.
"That's private business between her and I, boy." He snarled, flicking the hot gelatin piece into the campfire.
It exploded into an impossible cloud of white steam, soot, and wood ash.
Danny and Dani screamed. "Dani, where are you!? Are you okay?!"
Dani coughed, waving away the suffocating smoke. "I'm fine," she sniffed, her eyes stinging from the hot cloud.
"But what was that, a smoke grenade?"
Danny coughed alongside her. "Guess so."
When the cloud cleared, Vlad was nowhere to be seen.