Chapter 10: Talking and Training

It was now Monday, and Danny did his normal school routine, just in a different house. The only difference was that he actually ate breakfast for once, considering the food actually smelled and looked amazing. It was a nice change form his mom's overcooked eggs and burnt waffles.

He also got up a little earlier than normal, considering he had to walk to his house to meet Tucker. Despite Tucker being Danny's only friend, he wasn't quite sure if he was ready to tell him everything yet. How would you react if you realized your best friend was keeping a huge secret from you that they themselves didn't even know until recently.

Then again, he seemed to take the whole "accidental change" thing quite well the other day. So why was Danny hesitating in telling him all he had learned?

Danny sighed as he arrived at his house only to find Tucker not there. He looked at the time and discovered he was a little early, so kept walking in the direction of Tucker's own home.

The two boys met minutes later, and Danny couldn't help but laugh at his friend shocked look.

"Usually when I arrive at your house I find you still asleep," he chuckled.

"Well, I had a bit of an early start this morning." Tucker just nodded, and didn't question, so Danny took a deep breath and continued. "Actually, I'm staying with Vlad for a while." Tucker gave him a questioning gaze, and reading it immediately, Danny continued. "He had a house built here, and is going to be running for mayor, don't ask me why."

"So, did your parents kick you out or something? You have to go live with your weird, rich godfather for a while?" He asked.

"No, actually..." Danny trailed off, trying to find the right words. "Remember when I told you about my dream that turned out not to be a dream." Tucker nodded slowly. "Well after we went to the nasty burger that day, I went home and talked to Vlad. He told me he had a ghost friend that could help me learn about my... abilities. And I didn't just get these powers one day Tuck, I've had them, for a really long time. I don't know how or when I got them but I need to learn how to control them. I don't want to be sinking through floors the rest of my life. So, if living with him is the only way to learn, then so be it."

Tucker didn't say anything for a really long time, Danny didn't know what to think. Did he make him mad? Why would he be mad though? Because he hadn't told him about this for three weeks? It didn't really seem like Tucker to get mad that easily though.

For ages, it felt like, Tucker didn't talk. The whole walk there, the brown-skinned boy had been debating on how much he should tell Danny, considering the boy didn't know so much. Which was strange, when the bracelet was taken off, he should have regained his memories all at once, causing severe amount of pain. He should remember his childhood, accident, everything, but he didn't. His ghostly powers also should have come to the surface all at once, also causing extreme discomfort - which they did to some extent - but that long with his powers being dorment... Danny should be dead - fully.

Then again he was speculating, he didn't know much about ghosts or the brain for that matter, he was a techno geek for goodness sake! But it all made sense for that to happen, but, again, they didn't. Unless there was something controlling - for lake of a better word - when he got his powers; his memories.

It was very strange.

So after the long silence and debating on what to say, he decided on this. "Seven."

"What?" Danny asked thoroughly confused.

"Seven years you've been this way, you were seven when it happened. No one told you, not your mom, dad, Vlad, Jazz, or even me."

"You knew?" he asked aghast.

"I didn't know what actually happened until three weeks ago, no one would tell me," Tucker said.

"How did it happen?" Danny asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

"It was all my fault..." Tucker whispered.

"Tuck-"

"No, if you remembered you would agree," he said sadly.

"Well, if you won't tell me then help me remember!" Danny yelled, getting annoyed at Tuckers evasiveness

"Sorry Danny, but you have to remember on your own. I can't help you." Tucker replied sadly.

"Well then I guess your not much of a friend are you?" Danny asked.

Tucker stopped, and was going to reply but Danny was already ahead of him, hands shoved into his jean pockets, his head staring at his feet. Tucker sighed and walked the remainder of the way to school alone.

They didn't talk the rest of the day.

It was Danny's first day of training and he threw himself whole-heartedly into it. Granted, it was just the basics but he was doing fine for his first day. It first started with Danny learning how to transform at will.

"Close your eyes Daniel," Danny did just that. "Good, now, focus on your heartbeat. Once your focused on the steady beat, shift your focus over to your core. It feels like it shouldn't be there, yet is. Once you feel it, reach toward it, and pull it forward."

Seconds after the instructions, a blinding white halo formed across the boy's torso and split in two, one moving up and one moving down. Soon Danny Phantom was standing before a floating Vlad Plasmius.

"Good Daniel, now let's work on invisibility. It's a basic power that every ghost has. Most ghosts are "born" with the knowledge of how to use it. But, considering how you are different, you need to be taught. Now, it really isn't that hard, you just need to learn how to do it correctly. Lucky for you, you have me, and it will become like a second nature to you."

Danny nodded, and Plasmius started to explain.

"This time when you close you eyes you won't your main focus won't be your heartbeat, it'll be your core. Listen again to the steady pulse of it supplying ectoplasm to your body." He paused, giving Phantom time to do just that. "Now, cradle that energy, and project it away from you, throw it like you would a ball."

Plasmius waited, and waited... and waited so more. Until finally Danny's body flickered from view, but just as suddenly as he vanished, he reappeared.

The boy opened his eyes and looked down at himself. "Did it work?" he asked, voice hopeful, eyes pleading.

"Yes, but only momentarily." At Danny's disappointed gaze, Plasmius amended. "But don't despair, if you keep working on it tonight, and can stay invisible for at least a minute, we'll work on intangibility tomorrow. Hmmm?"

"Okay, but when can I learn to float, like your doing? Or to fly!"

"It takes time, Daniel. Be patient, you'll get there."

Danny sighed, and looked down at his arms as if to reassure himself that they really weren't invisible. Seconds passed and the doorbell rang, knocking him out of his stupor and into reality. He looked back up to where his ghostly mentor was floating only to find that Plasmius had vanished. Shaking his head, the teen closed his eyes and reached for his heartbeat. It wasn't as hard turning back into his human form. It was familiar, comfortable.

He turned to the door and left the training room, only in the hallway to run into the butler.

"Dinner is ready, Mr. Masters wishes you to accompany him immediately. After you change attire, first, however," he added once he looked down at Danny's raggedy old t-shirt, faded and ripping jeans, and scuffed up sneakers.

The teen nodded and the butler went on his way. Danny made his way up to his room only to find a blue button down dress shirt, khaki dress pants, and dress shoes all lain out for him. Danny rolled his eyes and suppressed a "fruitloop" that wanted so desperately to roll off his tongue.

Wanting to put off changing into his dinner wear, he fished his phone out of his pocket and turned it on. Only to discover he had 8 missed calls from Tucker and 20 text messages from the same boy. Danny sighed, not really knowing if he was ready to talk to Tucker. True, he shouldn't be mad at him. Nobody else told him either, its just that so much has been going on in the half ghost's mind that he didn't even know what to feel anymore.

He'll just make amends tomorrow, he decided. But for now... he had a stupid dinner to attend to.

He put on his designated clothes and trudged downstairs. As Danny walked into the dinning room we saw multiple people that he had never met before in his life. He was just about to say something to Vlad who was standing in the corner but the older man beat him to it.

"Ah, gentleman, this is my godson, Daniel. He is staying with me for a while to learn about business and hopefully follow in my footsteps." Vlad said as he turned around to face him. Before Danny could even think about all the weird happenings such as: How did he know I was here? Why on earth would I ever want to be a business man? Who are all these men -and some women. What are they doing here?

He was whisked away to the table and some of the many questions in his cluttered brain were answered.

He found out that these people were some of Vlad's "friends" if you could even call them that. They were basically just not his enemies, and some pretty powerful people - who could ruin him if he didn't stay on their good side.

But couldn't he ruin them just as easily? And where were his parents? Did they not matter since they were already the best of pals?

Danny was starting to get a headache, from all the thinking and the boring talk around the table. Not to mention the daggers Vlad kept sending his way, as if to say, "You better play along because I could make your time here a living hell."

Eventually he made up an excuse about having unfinished homework and his he didn't do it he wouldn't get into a good school, and become as successful as Vlad. Or something like that.

Back upstairs, he changed into his cozy pajamas and slipped under the covers. Once he was settled he shut off the lamp and closed his eyes. He tried to let his mind wander but his thoughts were being plagued by his fight with Tucker. Wanting to see Sam again - why wasn't she in school today? And pretty much every strange thing that had happened since school started.

Yet, he never really thought about how Plasmius knew about half ghost half human hybrids enough to be able to teach him how to change forms.

AN: Bleh, this definitely isn't great - it feels rushed, and I feel like this story is going nowhere fast, and not going exactly like I planned. Oh well, what can you do? I know my author notes are mainly apologies for updating late, soo here's another one! I truly am sorry guys! Over a month! Where does time go? Seriously my summer is almost over and I've had no time to write. Ugh real life sucks sometimes -.-

Okay! I don't know when exactly the next update will be (hopefully soon *crosses fingers*) but I've decided that I'm going to finish and post the last two chapters of Confining Chaos and then my focus will be on this story (hopefully)

Review I guess, whatever, I'm to tired to care right now xD