Author's Notes:

So having finally finished a rather large, several month long challenge for another fandom this week, I should have a lot more time for this project. Sorry for the delay, and thank you for all the reviews! Just so you guys know, critiques are also greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm going to start making update posts on my tumblr art blog, so if you ever want to see how a chapter is going, check there!

I hope you guys enjoy this one; I'm revealing a few plot cards this chapter…

Danny slept rather soundly through the night after returning to his bed—in fact, it was well past noon when he finally stirred, scratching his head tiredly through the mess of dark hair. The nightmare hadn't returned, and in fact, the boy had for the most part completely forgotten about it.

After following through with his usual morning routine, Danny found himself downstairs in the dining room, waiting for a bowl of cereal he had asked for.

"Master Danny—" The boy jolted violently, having been so lost in his thoughts he hadn't noticed the butler enter the room. "Here is your cereal." Danny moved slightly to the side so the ghost could set the bowl down on the placemat. "May I inquire about something?"

"Uh... sure."

"Have you just awoken?"

"Yeah."

"Do you wish me to wake you up when Master Vladimir is not around? You seem to have slept quite late." Danny waved his hand.

"No, no. I'd like to sleep in when he's not here. I'm pretty sure I won't get the chance while he is here."

"Very well, Master Danny. Do you require anything else?" Danny eyed the rather bland looking cereal.

"Some sugar would be nice."

"Certainly." The butler disappeared through the door, returning with the sugar before Danny even had the time to watch him go. He set the small bowl down to Danny's left, curtly bowed, and left the boy to enjoy his breakfast.

Without even tasting it first, Danny dumped several large spoonfuls of sugar on top of the plain cereal, simply adding more as the deposited sugar sank to the bottom of the bowl. Finally satisfied that he had more sugar than cereal, he picked up his spoon and started shoveling, his etiquette even worse than it was in front of Vlad.

What am I even going to do today? I can't use the telescopes until it gets dark… maybe I'll go swimming. Danny swallowed his last huge bite of cereal and nodded to himself. Yeah, swimming sounds nice. I bet it's warm outside. Danny stood up, leaving the bowl for Christophe to clean (he had scolded Danny this morning for trying to enter the kitchen), and made the trek back to his room.

Maybe I should put my clothes in the dresser or something… Danny thought to himself, rifling through his duffle bag for his swim trunks. Finally finding them, he tossed the checkered shorts on the bed and returned to his suitcase. Knowing there were only clothes left inside, he turned it upside down and dumped the contents onto the floor of the closet.

He quickly separated his clothes, stashing the resulting piles into the drawers of the dresser without folding any of them. As he picked up his suitcase to stow it somewhere, he realized it felt too heavy to be empty.

Upon opening the front pocket, Danny groaned. Dad must've snuck this in here when I wasn't looking. He thought, carefully poking the specter deflector to see if it was activated. Satisfied it wouldn't shock him, he opened one of the empty drawers of the dresser and shoved it inside. It's not like I'll be needing it.

After changing into his swim trunks, he wandered down the stairs to one of the many back doors, hoping he had found the one closest to the pool. Happy to discover he had, he pulled off his shirt and threw it on one of the chairs, then ran and jumped into the pool without a second thought. As he resurfaced and wiped his hair from his eyes, he stared at the pair of polished shoes in front of his face.

"I brought you a towel, since seems you forgot." Danny looked up at Christophe, who was soaking wet and holding a similarly wet towel.

"Uh... sorry..." Danny said meekly.

"It's not a problem, Master Danny." The butler turned intangible for just moment, long enough for the water to land in a puddle at his feet. "I'll leave your towel here." He set it down on the chair next to Danny's shirt, bowed, and retreated back into the mansion.

Danny laughed awkwardly to himself, then went back to swimming, floating leisurely on his back in the cool water. It was extremely relaxing, and he even forgot his troubles for a few minutes.

However, he quickly tired of it, wishing his friends were here so they could enjoy the fancy pool with him. Suddenly feeling a bit dejected, he dried himself off with the towel and wandered back up to his room. After taking a quick shower to wash the chlorine off, he got dressed and pulled out his laptop.

The chat program started beeping almost immediately after he logged into it, both Tucker and Sam typing greetings and questions at their fastest speed. Instead of responding, he set up a video chat for the three of them so he wouldn't have to deal with typing.

"Danny!" His friends shouted in unison.

"Hey guys!" Danny smiled widely, happy to see his friends again.

"Where have you been, dude? We've been worried about you!"

"Yeah, you should have called us when you got there!" Sam added with a trace of annoyance.

"Heh, sorry you guys. I was a little busy."

"Well, don't leave us hanging, man! Tell us everything!"

"Umm… there's not much to tell yet." Danny lied. It's probably better not to worry them about the scoreboard...

"What do you mean 'there's not much to tell?' You've been staying at the house of a billionaire half-ghost for three days now, and you're telling me nothing interesting has happened?" Sam asked disbelievingly.

"Well, uh…" Danny started.

"C'mon, Danny, something must have happened. You can tell us anything, you know." Tucker said seriously. Danny was quiet for a moment, staring down at his keyboard to avoid the stares of his two friends from his screen.

"Well, I found out Vlad has ghost servants." Both of his friends looked shocked.

"Whoa, really?" Tucker asked. "How does he keep them a secret?"

"Well, I don't think anyone really comes here, and they mostly hid during the reunion. There's a butler named Christophe, and Vlad's driver—uh, I forgot his name. There's also a chef that I haven't met."

"He has his own chef? Sounds like you're living the rich life over there, Danny!"

"Why are you so impressed, Sam? You live the rich life every day!" Tucker said.

"Hey, we may be rich but we're not that rich. Vlad's on a whole different level of money."

"Anyway," Danny interrupted. "I've only been here a few days, so not much has happened. The fruit loop has weird taste in food though." Both friends raised their eyebrows at the nickname.

"Didn't you go there so he could teach you?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, but I've just been trying to get settled in, so we haven't done much actual training yet."

"Do you feel okay, Danny? You look a little down." Sam asked.

"I'm fine. I'm just not really used to living in this huge mansion yet."

"You mean you're not used to living with another half-ghost yet." Tucker corrected. Danny just smiled sheepishly and nodded.

"Actually Tucker, would you help me with something?"

"Sure, dude, what do you need?"

"There's a, umm… thing." Tucker just stared at him. "It's an electronic thing."

"And it's not working?" Tucker guessed.

"Yeah. Would you take a look if I take my laptop over to it?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Alright, hang on just a second. It's outside of the house so I'll have to carry you a little ways." Danny grabbed his shoes from where he had left them near the bed, shoving his feet in without bothering with socks. He then picked up the laptop, balancing it on his left arm, and exited the room.
"Hasn't Vlad ever heard of electricity? He still uses candles!" Sam said suddenly. Glancing behind him, Danny realized she had seen one of the candelabras mounted in the hallway.

"Yeah, I did kinda wonder about that. Maybe they are electric?"

"They don't look like it." Danny shrugged and continued down the hall, eventually finding the stairs.

"Why don't you fly? Wouldn't that be faster?" Tucker asked.

"I don't want to drop my laptop. And I kinda just feel like walking."

"Are you going out somewhere, Master Danny?" Danny jolted, the voice from behind startling him.

"You almost made me drop my laptop!" He exclaimed, carefully repositioning the computer on his arm. "I'm just going out to the arena."

"Very well, Master Danny. Please inform me when you wish to have lunch. Master Vladimir will be home at approximately three PM." Danny nodded and the butler retreated to wherever it was that he had come from.

"'Master' Danny?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow when she was sure the butler was gone. Danny sighed loudly.

"I keep telling him to cut it out but he won't listen." Danny said, finally reaching the large back door.

"So I take it that was the butler then." Tucker said.

"Yeah. He's always popping up out of nowhere."

"So what's this 'arena' we're going to?"

"It's a training area Vlad built. Kind of like a stadium." Danny explained. "We're almost there." He opted to enter through the door instead of risking trying to phase his computer through the wall. He walked over to one set of bleachers and set the computer down, quickly changing into Phantom. Danny then grabbed the computer and flew up to the scoreboard, turning so the webcam would show the board in the background. "So this thing has been uh… displaying wrong numbers."

"You were playing football?" Tucker asked incredulously.

"Not really…" Tucker raised his eyebrow but didn't say anything at the obvious dodge.

"Fly me up behind it and I'll take a look." Danny nodded, quickly looping around to the back of the board. The covers on the back were already taken off; Vlad must have been working on it recently. Danny turned the computer away from him, holding it steady with both hands. All was quiet for a minute as Tucker examined it.

"At a glance, it looks just fine." Tucker's voice echoed from the speakers.

"That's what I was afraid you'd say." Danny mumbled.

"What?"

"Uh, nothing." He turned the computer back around. "Thanks for looking anyway, Tuck."

"No problem. If you send me some more information about the thing I might be able to figure out what's wrong."

"Okay, I'll see if I can get some to you." He lowered himself back to the ground, changing back and walking slowly out of the arena. "I think I'm going to go have lunch, so I won't make you walk all the way back with me." Both friends looked a little concerned.

"Alright, but if you need anything, make sure you call, okay?" Sam said, Danny nodding quickly in response.

"I will. Talk to you guys later."

"Later, Danny."

"Call us soon!" Danny smiled and ended the call, closing the laptop and tucking it under his arm.

"Great, if even Tucker can't find anything wrong with it…"

"Okay, is it just me, or was he acting really strange?" Sam asked, still connected to Tucker through the video chat.

"Definitely. Something's up with him."

"We need to figure out what it is then!"

"Well, it could just be he's homesick… but I wonder what was up with that scoreboard. If he wasn't playing football, what does he care about a scoreboard on a football field?"

"Well, he did say it was a training arena. Maybe the board does something else too?

"That's true… if he sends me some info about it, I can probably figure it out. But for now, maybe it's best if we just leave him be. He'll tell us when he's ready." Sam look worried, but she nodded.

"Yeah, maybe. But if he doesn't tell us soon, we're gonna plan a surprise visit, alright?"

"Yeah, just to make sure he's okay. We don't know much about Vlad, except that he's rich and half ghost. He could be up to something." Both friends nodded in mutual agreement with their plan, both worried about their friend who was now so far away from them.

"Daniel?" Vlad called, sorting through some papers in the entrance hall. "…Daniel?" He called again after not getting a response. He set his papers and briefcase down on a table and climbed the stairs to Danny's room. He knocked on the door softly, letting himself in after a respectful pause.

Daniel is sleeping again? Vlad rubbed his chin in thought. He seems to be awfully tired, since he came here, even for a teenage boy… The man moved over to where Danny was carelessly strewn across his bed, and shook the boy gently.

"Hrmm…?" Danny questioned.

"Daniel, it's the middle of the afternoon; no time to be taking a nap." The boy's eyes opened lazily, looking around. He slowly sat up, rubbing an eye with the palm of his hand.

"What time is it?" He asked.

"Nearly three thirty."

"When did I fall asleep…?" Danny wondered to himself, following the question with a loud yawn. "Oh, I forgot to plug my laptop in." He got up and fumbled around for the cord, seemingly unconcerned or unnoticing of Vlad, who was watching him with a close eye.

"Have you eaten lunch yet?" Danny finally found the cord and plugged the laptop in, turning back around on his heel.

"Yeah, I ate before I, uh, fell asleep." Vlad stared at him with an unreadable expression.

"Why don't you join me in the dining room? Perhaps you can have a snack of some sort." Danny nodded.

"Sure." Vlad led him out of his room and down the hall to the dining room. They settled into their chairs, Christophe having already laid out Vlad's lunch and a small slice of cake for Danny.

"So, Daniel." Danny looked up at him. "You've been napping quite a bit; are you feeling tired?"

"Maybe a little bit…" Danny said slowly, taking a bite of his cake. Vlad watched him for a moment, the boy avoiding his gaze.

"Is there something wrong?" Vlad continued eating in the silence, waiting patiently for a response. Danny chewed the inside of his cheek, not wanting to mention the nightmare he'd had last night.

"No, not really." He lied, taking another large bite of cake so he wouldn't have to talk.

"You know you can tell me if you need something, right?" Vlad said seriously. Danny just nodded. "Look at me." The boy reluctantly did so. "I care about your wellbeing, and I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong." Danny just nodded again, turning back to his half-eaten cake.

He's rather… despondent. There's obviously something wrong, but he won't tell me what it is! Vlad pondered the situation, watching Danny poke the cake with his fork. He wasn't even eating it anymore. This is ridiculous! What does he expect me to do? I can't push him anymore or he will never tell me, but if it's something serious, things might take a turn for the worse before he feels like talking…

"So, are we going to run the test again today?"

"No, I think not. It's obviously not working at the moment, so we'll just have to wait until I can find out what's wrong with it." I'll definitely not be telling him it really is working while he's in this state, since it seems to scare him so much. But it obviously is working correctly; it measured my power level correctly all the times I tested it yesterday. It is strange that his power level is so high, though… I must figure out what it is that is causing that score. He's obviously got power, but enough to outmatch even the most powerful ghost that exists? It seems highly unlikely. Vlad watched the boy in front of him finally return to actually eating the cake, wondering how such a scrawny boy could ever be that strong, ghost powers or no. Perhaps more important though, is why he's so afraid to be powerful. He should be happy that he has that power to protect himself and his family and friends, so it must be some memory that he doesn't want to share that is causing his unease. But I must know what it is if I'll ever get him to stay at my side!

Vlad was suddenly aware that he was grinding his teeth, having finished the salad he had been eating. Danny himself was probably the biggest obstacle to his plan, and he was no longer sure he had the patience to earn the boy's trust. Just keep calm, Vladimir. The chess board is already set in your favor. All you have to do is keep playing.

"Take your shots slowly, Daniel. That's the best way to improve your accuracy."

"I am taking them slow!" Danny protested, flying forward to shoot two more targets.

"Slower, then! The most stable shot is one that is taken slowly and with great care. The better you get at shooting slowly, the better you will get at shooting quickly."

"Yeah, I get it, I get it! I'll shoot slower." He paused in front of a target, purposefully going extremely slow in gathering energy and aiming it.

"I said slow, not catatonic, Daniel." Danny glared at him from above, Vlad smirking in response. He released the shot, hitting the target perfectly in the center for the first time. "See? That was perhaps too slow, but your aim was much better." Danny didn't say anything, taking another slow shot at a different target. "Alright, that's probably enough for now. You can come out here tomorrow while I'm gone and practice some more."

"So what now?" Danny asked, floating down to stand next to Vlad.

"Do you have any powers that don't directly employ ectoplasm?" Danny's eyebrows scrunched down low over his eyes.

"What do you mean? Don't all powers use ectoplasm?"

"Yes, of course they do. But every power uses it in different ways. Certain powers don't directly use ectoplasm, but use it more as a catalyst. For example:" Vlad extended one hand, electricity crackling in it before shooting out and completely obliterating one of the targets. Danny covered his ears from the loud bang, eyes wide in disbelief.

"How did you— I've never seen you do that before!"

"Of course you haven't, my boy. This is a special power that I possess. The ectoplasm in this attack is used as a spark to start the electricity, and then continues to feed a small amount to keep it going. If not for the natural unpredictability of the power, I could probably hold onto it indefinitely, since only the initial spark uses a noticeable amount of energy."

"Will I be able to do that too?"

"I don't know. It seems most ghosts possess a special power, except those in the lowest level of the hierarchy."

"...Hierarchy?" Vlad stared at the boy in mute shock.

"You don't know anything about the ghost hierarchy? Nothing at all?" Danny shook his head. "Well, it looks like I have more to teach you than I thought."

"Hey!"

"It's not your fault, my boy, but you really have a lot to learn. However, I think perhaps this is a lesson for another day. For now, I'll simply say that ghosts generally have a special ability of some sort. I have one, so I suspect you must have one as well."

"And how do I figure out what it is?"

"It will manifest itself in one way or another. I was getting static shocks from everything in my house for weeks before I realized what was happening." Danny laughed, trying to cover it up with one hand. "Anyway," Vlad said firmly. "All special powers are based on the makeup of your core."

"Core?"

"You don't know about cores, either?" Vlad asked in disbelief. Danny shrugged. "All ghosts have cores; it's located in the center of the chest, to the lower right of where your heart is." Vlad said, indicating the place on his own chest. "When you change into your ghost form, you are activating your core. Now, each ghost's core is slightly different, but they all follow a basic structure; even ours do. The core is the center of all powers, and will fall under either a hot or cold type, as well as under a specific elemental type. As half-ghosts, we can also have abilities from several elemental types besides just our base type, though we will always be either hot or cold."

"So your core...?"

"I have a hot core, electric element."

"How is electric an element?"

"Please Daniel, it's not just the basic four like in the movies; there are many elemental types."

"Okay, so what's mine?"

"I don't know, of course. Only you can discover it. I would guess, based on your visible ghost sense, that you have a cold core. At any rate, there's no telling when a special ability might manifest itself, so please tell me if anything unusual happens."

"Uh, sure." Vlad took a breath.

"Well, if you do not have any special abilities to hone at the moment, perhaps you could give teleportation a try. It's too early for you to actually attempt it, but I can teach you the basics at least…"

Clockwork frowned deeply, the familiar feeling of apprehension building in his chest signaling that something had gone wrong. However, the problem the time ghost found himself faced with was not that something was wrong per se; it was more that he couldn't see what it was. Generally, when he got that feeling, he needed to only look at the current timestream and the problem would present itself. Most of the time it was something small—a misplaced book causing a straight-A student to be late to an important exam, setting off a chain reaction that leads to a rather dark future for them; it was a problem which could be easily fixed by simply moving the book—however, in this particular case, as Clockwork gazed at the timestream, everything seemed to be at peace.

Nothing in particular jumped out at him as being off, but something definitely was. Perhaps it has something to do with those two halfas? Certainly they will clash at some point; it is quite inevitable, given their natures; however, though it seems potentially volatile, the odds of maintaining a peaceful relationship are in their favor, so I see no problem there…

The ghost continued to carefully watch the timestream through his viewing pane, his constantly shifting form somehow not distracting him in the least. Yes, something is definitely wrong here. I must find out what it is before it is too late...